Mr Grumpy

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By Mr Grumpy - Sun 5th May 2013

 

Since having a couple of ankle-biters, I get the opportunity to travel - for pleasure at least – about as often as a French Soldier sees front-line action.

So earlier this week when I was summonsed to visit a couple of clients in Scotland I decided to plan my trip accordingly and take my time to see a little bit of the country.

At least I might as well do my sight-seeing on company time.

I have always been a great advocate of not planning anything, and just “winging it”, and as I hurtled up the M74 from Carlisle I had an urge to get all creative and go cross-country to see my first client in Dalry.

Thank god I had plenty of time to spare.

I used to think that Spain was cursed with lawnmower-Engined tractors that were contractually obliged to travel slower than walking pace, but it seems I was wrong. They have them in Scotland as well.

And every village that I travelled through seemed to bear a plaque boasting that somebody who had been dead for around 200 years “was born there”... James Watt, Alexander Fleming.... it was a like driving through a who’s who book.

The Journey up through sunny Largs to Greenock and from then across to Livingston was perhaps a little less desirable, but hey – this was supposed to be business, not pleasure after all.

But My 2 days and 400 or so Miles in Scotland reminded me just how badly travelled I am throughout Spain – and the UK for that matter.

Aside from a couple of weekends in Barcelona (thumbs up), and a weekend in Madrid (thumbs down) there has really only been the odd day spent in Valencia.

And I fell into the same trap when I lived in the UK – I was more inclined to travel, the further away that the point of destination actually was, rarely venturing more than 30 mins away from home.

Then again, maybe with me travelling so much for business it is the last thing I want to do with my spare time.