Sithee Yorkshire

Well… you can put the Yorkshire into the girl, even if she’s a blow-in from Aus. I headed out very early to walk to the train station to buy the Christmas Toastie (more about that later). As I walked around the corner, I saw a girl with her head down looking at her phone, about to step onto the road into the path of a bus. Startled, I yelled “Watch out Love”. Clearly I need to go home soon. As well as Luv, there are a number of barnyard animal names that people call ladies here. The Scottish crew use “hen” and the Sheffield guys use “duck”. A lot of others call me “Hanna” but I’m not sure if that’s the accent or a wrong name. 

So- on to the sandwich. Very disappointing actually. Too dry and dominated by the cranberry sauce. I’m quite inclined to try my own version at home with some improvements, because the concept is fun. 

Thursday night  I packed up my things ready to leave the apartment tomorrow morning. I’ve really enjoyed being here and am sorry to go back to hotels for the last week. I’ve posted a photo of the view out my window. The building two blocks over is all windows on the side facing me and they never have blinds down. It’s like a live dollhouse or a theatre that’s there whenever I turn my head to look out my window. I’m pretty sure all three floors are one apartment. 

The work crew here all made a huge effort (hour+ travel) to come to dinner on our last night. We tried a Spanish Tappas place that was good not great. We may not have given them the best chance to showcase their wares as we needed to order “safe” options. Let’s just say heavy on the patatas bravas and jamon and cheese croquettes, and light (invisible) on anything like octopus or artichoke. 

Just to make sure that we remember how friendly they are up here, there was a parade of well wishers coming to say goodbye, and a few final questions about the likelihood of encountering a spider if they come to visit (arachnophobia central here). My favourite comment was from one of the ten Marks (I never did figure out what last name matched with what person) who said “who would have known five weeks ago that I would have made two new wonderful friends”. 

I’ve taken a few photos of the boxes that we build - it’s hard to get an idea of the scale without standing next to them but they are huge. I tried to get one of the team to pose, but she was reluctant. She’s been with the business for about 15 years and was originally one of the cleaners, but now works in the “snagging team” cleaning up the boxes and checking for flaws. Her co-snagger, “Nobby” wanted to try out some Australian on me…. He was hopelessly wrong, with efforts like “How’s your wife Sheila” and “How you goin blue”. God knows where those phrases came from. He trotted them out again in the lunchroom where I tried to explain that “blue” was for redheads. They were a bit perplexed so I suggested that another example was that Nobby, who is huge, would be called “Tiny”. They roared with laughter and I think he might now have a new nickname. 

In the last week, I’ve been under a bit of pressure- it was looking like we would lose the warehouse we want to lease. It’s the only property of the right size available right now and the loss would tank the whole project. Another tenant was making increasingly attractive offers to the landlord and we didn’t have a lot of extra to play with. Thankfully we won the property, so it’s all systems go. Very relieving to get that settled before we headed off for the SOUTH.  The drive to our London hotel took just over four hours and I’m exhausted (and hungry!). More tomorrow.