Way out West (incorporating Way up North)

Travels with a roll of felt, tenerife part 1

Felt brings you smiles, makes friends and is guaranteed to break the ice at parties, even my humble bolt of Audi corporate mushroom colour brought me an introduction to a lonely accountant, an invitation to bring jesus into my life and a smile from an obvious foreigner. All this before I even got onto the Gatwick express.

That in itself was a strange experience, not especially busy, but there was a line of attendants ushering us along the platform and as far away from the first class carriages as possible. Was it so obvious that we were all pondscum, or was my roll of felt a dead giveaway to the cognoscenti?
Many moons ago there was a Morecambe and Wise show which reduced me to helpless giggles, the guest star (Glenda Jackson I think) announced, deadpan; 'I have a long felt want,' and Eric did a doubletake. I feel as though I've been travelling with a long felt unwant, but hey, that's all behind me now.

Leaving London by train, the city looked particularly dreary for a February morning, grey and dirty, even the graffitti is monochrome. The only splashes of colour are the garish liveries of the various train companies, it's too early for crocus or daffodils, except for my neighbours garden, where his daffs have been out for about ten days. Mine have barely poked their heads above the parapet yet.

Tabula rasa; it's quite exciting to have a blank page in front of you (this blog is being written longhand on the train), it could be a metaphor for this weekend, I'm off to a country I know little or nothing about, to do a show that I know nothing about, and ultimately it's not a problem. I'm working for a company that once sent me to drive a truck to an unknown destination in Northern Ireland with 37p in cash and a company bank card with no pin number, so, no need to worry then.

Flight was dull, I was wedged into a section of blokey blokes who were determined to party, inflight food was apricot themed and pretty unidentifiable. I suspect the flight back might be more of an adventure, we are all on the same flight, and it doesn't get in until past midnight. I didn't watch the film, but a couple of credits caught my eye at the end; one for 'inflatable crowds' and another for 'inflatable crowds co-ordinator', nice work if you can get it.

that's all for now, I might actually have to do some work soon, if our kit makes it through customs.

posted by Lampy @ 2/03/2006 01:01:00 pm