Trip Back to the UK – Re-Acclimatising

I had a home-leave trip back to the UK, and I wanted to leverage this to sort out a few things at home (including signing for a new home-boiler!), as well as catch-up with my usual crew (family, friends and UK work colleagues).

So I booked the flight and decided to work from the UK office that week.  Getting to Singapore Airport wasn’t too bad, the Airport didn’t seem that busy, and in fact the Singapore SilverFlyer business lounge was not busy at all…so I had time to relax and enjoy the food and drinks – ahead of the long 14 hour flight!

The flight was pretty interesting to say the least, firstly the Business Class was pretty sparse, the back part on the A380 top level was empty, and the front and middle part was only half full – maybe there was little business travel as we approach the Christmas period now?  Either way, they still had quite a few Air Steward/ess on board, so they could take it quite easy and be more attentive – whilst we could also relax with less people around 🙂

I had a few meetings planned to support my work placement with the UK teams, but also wanted to speak with my new VP.  It was a good opportunity to see everyone following the slight changes within the team – the new and old faces, as well as celebrating people who are leaving Amex at the end of the year!

I was told that November had been pretty mild and dry, with little rain.  However, as always the case, the week I returned the weather had turned and it was the usual cold and wet weather – Icy in the morning on the car, and dark skies galore!  It felt different but nice – although I had to wear my winter suit, coat, gloves and scarf everywhere I went – all and carry the brolly too (that last bit is the only bit that’s similar to Singapore!) Ha!  🙂

It was a pretty good trip seeing everyone, and I managed to have something planned on every lunch and evening I was there 🙂

• Monday – lunch at Pizza 500 down from the office with a few work colleagues.  This is a relatively new place that opened up since I’ve been in Singapore.  It’s owned by an Ex-Amex employee who previously had a place in Hove.  It was a nice place, the pizza was pretty good and quite reasonable indeed – and it was great seeing him after soooo long (not sure how business is though, as Famous Moes and Dominos opened up earlier this year down the road).  I never managed to visit his previous Hove place, but at least this one is very local for me (well okay not from Singapore!).  In the evening, I popped in to see my mother, who cooked me a nice home-cook meal – fusilli with tomato and chillies – yum!  It was a good catch-up to go through my mail and generally chat about things.

• Tuesday – lunch involved a nice Thai Lunch with a nice work colleague down Circus Circus – my classic Thai haunt.  Missed the place!  It was great to chat, catch-up with the local office gossip and simply enjoy the gorgeous company!  dinner involved visiting my dad, to chat and catch-up with all things local, we decided to go out as well, and so we went for the “Buon Appetito” Italian restaurant in town – for another pizza!  Ha!

• Wednesday – lunch with a couple of team colleagues, we tried to visit the Italian pizza place again, but didn’t realise Pizza 500 only offers pizza on Monday lunches – mainly due to limited demand over lunch.  Hey-ho, so we decided to go to a local deli place for a sandwich – where I got a nice Baguette with Italian Salami and Salad – it was actually very nice indeed actually.  In the evening, I caught up with friends who were also baby-sitting my house and driving the car around.  We went to the Dolphin Pub down the road, where I had the classic Fish and Chips (with Guinness of course!) – nice indeedy!

• Thursday – lunch was with a few of my Tech work colleagues, to really celebrate somethings retirement, as she is leaving at the end of the year.  It was great to catch-up with them all, and it was also good to speak with them about the recent org changes in the Tech organisation (the good, bad and indifferent).  We decided to go to the Engineer Pub – where we got out low-carbs cheesy chilli chips (with Guinness) – yummy!  For dinner, we had a team build mainly to mark my return to the UK, but also to generally socialise with all of the new and old people from the team.  It was meant to have been a Ghost Walk of the Brighton Lanes, but it had been raining ALL day, and through the evening, so we decided to just go to the Druid Pub where we just relaxed with a few(!!) pints.  Must have had about 4-5 pints there by the end of the drinking marathon!  One of my Indian work colleagues had invited us around to his place, so we went there for a nice Curry dinner – absolutely fabulous and it was good just chatting and chilling with everyone.  I then took the last train home back to Haywards Heath!

• Friday – well lunch was back for another Thai Curry outing with a couple more work colleagues (twice in a week – ha!) – it was really tiring this re-socialising malarkey!  I then was invited for a drink at Brighton Rocks with a colleague of mine, but this involved gatecrashing someone’s 25th Amex anniversary, whilst I waited for the mate to arrive – lol!  But it was cool, the host didn’t mind, and it was actually good chatting to some new faces, but no fear I actually knew a couple of faces who also attended this session – so it was good to chat with them too!  Ha!  I then headed off, just as my mate turned up (okay he was running quite late!), and so I had a quick catch-up chat with him, before I took the taxi to the Train Station, as I had another social event down in Lewes.  I met up my Lewes College friends, and it was great to see them after 5 months.  We went to our usual haunt, the Pelham Arms where we would grab some drinks, food and play some pool – but the pool table had been removed 🙁  Must be because they needed the space – hey-ho!  So we went to our number two place, Black Lion where we played some Bar Billiards for the evening!  A nice chilled and relaxing evening.

As you can see a whistle-stop tour of many places and lots of catch-ups with family, friends and colleagues (the word pub and pizza seems to have been a common theme throughout!).  I needed the Saturday morning just to recover – lol, before I was picked-up for my return journey back to Singapore in the evening.