21/02/25 21:07

This is plush.  And strange. I’m sat in a posh carriage on the 9063 train, departing at 21:12, carriage 15, seat 25.  It’s classed (since the rebranding and updating) as Eurostar Plus.  I should be getting a meal with this ticket which was a welcomed gift from Nev for my birthday.  Not every seat here has a table.  I mean, they all do, but mine isn’t a pull-down table.  It’s a little two-seater.  My travelling companion for the journey is a French lady and she’s going to be seeing where we’ve been.  She’s got a packet of Tyrell’s mature cheddar and chive crisps that she’s picking out of the bag delicately, whilst wiping her hands on her jeans before hitting the keyboard of her Lenovo ThinkPad.  She asked me, in French, if I was okay after I attempted to unknot my right shoulder; an injury acquired from my Season 3 bag and the weight of the equipment contained within it.  This is one reason for having compiled a list of things take for next week.  I know I have bigger bags.  I also know I have bags that can create an equal balance across my body.  Finding them and using them is a timely effort that I will probably avoid.  I have 5 days until I catch the bus.  Tomorrow is with the boys.  Sunday will be a late return and the requirement to get Episode 3.4 completed rules out any non-podcast work.  Monday evening, I should be at the in-laws and Tuesday is taken up with rugby and the boys.  With my departure for Victoria Coach Station on Wednesday, I have no time.

I’ve been impressed by myself on this trip.  The conversation in the church and the following moments are real boosts for me.  Not in the ‘interview for the podcast’ kind of way, but in the ‘I really fit in Paris’ kind of way.

The evening receptionist at the hotel commented on my French accent.  The tea lady in Midoré paid me a compliment on my French once she discovered I was from London.  And then 3 different Eurostar staff all acted as if I was famous, French or a regular.  This is how I enjoy the reputation that I wish to gain.  I need to properly graft to my French language skills to even slightly better than they are.  But that costs and takes money.  And time.  I still have three or four ways I can attempt to self-learn and yet, motivation is shared across different topics.  Whilst I’m in no rush, I want it to happen. And we all know what happens when I want something to happen.  Especially if it creates more stress and takes up more time, money and energy.

Even just sitting here and writing is giving me pain.  It’s a pain similar to a few years back when I had to have proper treatment to the same shoulder after doing a similar thing with a bag.  That’s why I moved onto backpacks.  The problem I have is the amount of equipment I carry.  No backpack is sufficient in size.  That requires a rucksack.  And they’re a little too big.  I’ll see what the boys want to do tomorrow and if it’s an option, I’ll either pop to the garage and look through my bags or we’ll take a trip to Stratford and pop to the old shopping centre to look for a new bag if the old bag shop is still there.

Regardless, I’m going to attempt to put heat on my shoulder once I’m home tonight.  It should probably be an ice-pack for the next three days but nobody’s perfect.

I think tomorrow I should move the files off my SD card and up onto pCloud in preparation for Thursday in Paris.  And also Rory’s rugby.  In theory, I could upload all the videos to YouTube, review them and then download or at least locate them by file name.  I remember when things were so easy.  I just used to write a blog page and job done.