And so ends two days in Southampton or thereabouts. Aside from being so laissez faire about trains times which nearly meant I spent another night down here, everything worked out pretty great.
I got in before 9am yesterday and was met by DDS in the Peugatti (part Peugeot, part Bugatti) and was whisked back to Chateau Currin for a bacon breakfast and morning meeting. After getting that work out of the way, we spent a while seeing the Beaulieu sights including some classic cars, part of the New Forest and the marina where the sail boat is kept.
The real reason for coming down was the meeting yesterday evening with Lorna, who had come back from London that evening. After some fevered idea-thrashing and date planning over a pint, we came away pretty satisfied and with a list of things to do of the coming days. It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks.
Being Cowes week, we couldn’t resist the lure of Solent, and so early this morning we picked up the floodtide and took the boat down river. We got as far as seeing the Isle of Wight before the wind gave up, so we moored up briefly and went for a swim. It wasn’t as bracing as it could have been, but great fun to be back on the water. The last time I was sailing a craft that size was well over eight years ago, and I’ve been dying to get back out on the water ever since. We called it a corporate event, as strictly, this was a business trip.
The rest of the day has been strategising and the rest, once again in the slightly unusual setting of a back garden in glorious sunshine. If only every day at work was quite so refreshing and holiday-like…