Al arrives and I leave for London and Cambridge

By Sunday 18^th I had the boat ready for Al Reid’s arrival. For newcomers to this blog, Al is Canadian and has sailed with us for part of each of the three seasons past. So the boat was clean and setup but still on the hard so we had till Friday the 21^st before I had to flit off to the UK to do some work. Yes, yes I said work, but a four letter word none-the-less..

We hired scooters, made a shopping list of provisions and parts for the boat but had a ton of time on our hands so we visited Split, Primosten and the Krka National Park. We have noticed that Croatian is short on vowels.

Split is a big city with a very attractive waterfront and the now familiar ancient walled town with marble slabbed roads and alleyways and beautiful buildings hundreds of years old coping with the requirements of the 21^st century. 

Getting to that waterfront however was the same saga as when Sal and I did it 10 years ago. The roads got so narrow we needed to fold the mirrors. Much easier on a scooter but we had, once again failed to find the proper way in.

Krka National Park is a must see. A spring at its source, beautiful clean fresh water with dissolved lime stone which has been deposited along the river to form travertine walls which dam the water forming peaceful shaded ponds and waterfalls as you go down toward a grand waterfall which is where you can swim. Hot walk, cool swim, cold beer. Perfect.

Primosten was almost the last place we visited at the end of last season. A really neat little place on a promontory which I thought Al would appreciate as a lunch venue. He did.

And then there was the Boat Owners Party thrown by the owner of the Marina, who, in three different languages explained to everybody just how he made his money?? Must be a cultural thing. 

It was however a lavish affair, the theme was Miami Vice and the wine and cocktails went all night and the food was sumptuous and endless. The barmen put on a bottle juggling event with what looked like Molitov cocktails, in that they were alight. We hooked up with a boat load of poms and ended up on their boat till the wee hours.

Friday came and I flew to London where I caught up with Kate Scott and Steve McQuillan, old friends from my Astor days in London in the 80’s. Lunch at a pub in West Kensington ended at Steve’s apartment at 3:00am. Thank s Uber.

Lunch with Carrey-Leigh at Le Relais de Venise in Marylebone Lane in the West End. It’s French. They serve a delicious plate of salad, then steak, perfectly cooked, thinly sliced with fries. You can have as many servings of this as you’d like. Sounds pretty simple, but it was really good. I ordered a bottle of wine which Carrey declared I’d probably be drinking most of because she really doesn't drink much at all these days….. and she would need to get away to be home by five-ish.

After lunch we moved to an outdoor seat in the sun to a perfect little wine bar and ordered a glass of red each… we’d not have time for a bottle. The waitress swung by and as I was about to ask for the bill, Carrey ordered another glass, and another, and another. Always buy a bottle I say! One of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon, shooting the breeze with my beautiful daughter.

FaceBook took care of the following evening. Here was I hoping to catch up on some sleep when a message from Ant Gilbert, a motorcycling friend from home, changed all that. It did mean a schlepp all the way down to Clapham somewhere but it was great to catch up at the Eagle Ale House for way too many beers and nothing to eat. Had to get the Uber to find me a kabab shop on the way home.

Sunday was a family lunch at Alan River’s place in Notting Hill. It is in mid construction and true to form, it is a massive undertaking where he had to have the whole house held in the air while he dug an enormous basement taking up the full extent of the property and includes a lap pool about nine meters down! It was a great lunch.

Alan lives two blocks from Tony Blair, ex British PM and two blocks from the site of the Grenfell Tower blaze. There was a benefit concert happening so we went around for a look. Well nothing had prepared me for the sight of that building. It literally brought me to tears. The original fire was contained and residents were advised to stay in their apartments. It then smouldered through a wall onto the cladding on the outside of the building and up she went. 

Emergency callers were still being advised to stay in the building because they had not been updated on the inferno that left the building looking like the burnt out carcus it had become.

Uber to Kings Cross, train to Cambridge. If you’ve not been to Cambridge, put it on the list. It is beautiful and steeped in 800 years of academic history. This is where our Offices are, albeit in an industrial park. I dragged the occupants out into the sunshine for a group photo because the next time I see them they won’t be part of Reckon, they’ll be part of GetBusy, a separate entity we are about to list on AIM, a sub board for tech stocks on the London Stock Exchange.

Then off to PA Consulting, a brains trust working on a little idea I have brewed since I was 16 and first got on a motorbike. During the meeting I mentioned how nice it would be to be taken on a bit of a tour of old Cambridge. Ian Dunkley, my contact there said he had one more meeting, would meet me at my hotel and take me on said tour.

It was fascinating even though at this time of the year all the colleges are closed to the public. However, the pubs, inextricably connected to the academic history of this place, were not. So the tour became an historic pub crawl and that folks, is the way to do it! Thank you Ian.

Dinner with the senior staff on the roof of my hotel and a 6:00am board meeting saw me on a train to Stansted Airport and back to see what Al had achieved in my absence.