I have been quiet for the last couple of weeks. The plan was to have a couple of weekends away, get out of London and relax. After spending so much time away last year shooting Unforgettable Islands to Escape to Before You Die (where I flew the equivalent of 7.5 times around the world) I have been taking things a lot easier this year. I guess I had forgotten just how stressful leaving home can be.

First weekend away, driving down to Bristol to see my parents. Less than 150 miles, motorways most of the way. We left on a quiet day, sailed out of London without seeing a traffic jam or a red traffic light. Things seemed to be going well until with just twenty miles to go the engine blew up. Ever seen a Formula 1 race when an engine blows? That was what it looked like. Clouds of smoke, no gear box, cruising in to the hard shoulder. Waiting with a baby at the side of the motorway for a tow truck!

Last weekend, a train down to Cornwall. Five hours passed well. It was a modern train and even had electricity points, so I could catch up with some work on my laptop. That is when little Amber Sashi wasn’t thrashing the keyboard. I knew that downloading Alpha Baby was a mistake.

St Ives in Cornwall is a beautiful Cornish town with a traditional fishing harbour, three very different beaches (including a surf beach) and a number of galleries. At the tail end of the season, the weather was good, and the summer crowds had gone. All was perfect until I got a phone call from the neighbour who was looking after my aged, arthritic, diabetic cat saying that he had disappeared. To cut a long story short he had been rescued/kidnapped by the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) with a suspected broken leg.

I say suspected as they had him for three days, didn’t bother x-raying him and would have only kept him on their kitty-death-row for a week (still with an untreated broken leg) before killing him! It says a lot that after three days at an RSPCA hospital he had to spend three days on a drip at my vets until he was well enough for a x-ray. His broken leg now pinned, he is in a confinement cage at my house, lucky to be alive. The RSPCA is of course one of those phenomenally rich organisations who encourage old grannies to leave money to them in their wills and make all those reality tv shows about how they rescue sick animals. It’s a shame that Rolf Harris wasn’t there when Simba was picked up, they might have just treated him if a tv camera was there!

After two relaxing weekends away, I now need a holiday. My fear now is that if I do have a holiday, I will need another one just to recover! Travel is stressful. If only I had read this New York Times article, before I left, I might have opted for a quiet weekend at home!

© Steve Davey 2007

No related posts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 4:58 am and is filed under bad trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.