This dragon or griffin (I can never remember what sets them apart) is on guard outside the New Hall Hotel where I had the great pleasure of spending last night. I wish I could say I had the pleasure of waking up there this morning but unfortunately I did, as usual when I’m away, have very little sleep so I’m a bit of a ‘grumpy old Hector’ tonight from lack of sleep and travel exhaustion.

Once again I reiterate my point that it’s a splendid location coupled with a high quality (but not too highly priced) hotel. There is a ton of history in there. I said yesterday that I find myself worried about personal safety in the hotels in which I stay for business. It stems back to a bad experience over 25 years ago, when a colleague of mine was in an hotel in Oxford and she’d been put in a room in an annex with no phone. One of the other hotel guests had seen her in the restaurant and followed her back to her room, whereupon he spent several hours banging on her door pleading to be let in. My poor pal was so frightened but couldn’t call for help because she wasn’t in the main building and her phone didn’t work. She just had to put up with it until he eventually got bored and went away. So I like the feeling of being ‘guarded’ or protected from harm by the moat and these scary beasts….I also love this one’s moss eyebrows!!!

I posted my pic for yesterday so late (I was working until very late, entertaining a client until gone midnight) that even DM didn’t spot that I’d posted (around about 1.30 or 2am UK time). It’s funny how I find being at home so soporific that I can’t keep my eyes open after 10.30pm yet when I’m away, it’s as if I’ve had my switch hard-wired to ‘on’. Just like last week, at Pennyhill Park, I was pacing my room and feeling distinctly miserable in the wee dark hours of the night so I posted my pic then to give me something to do!!! Well, that was in addition to communicating with my colleagues in our China office about a project that one of my nicest clients wants to do there.

I’m back home now and feeling very pleased to be here even though my new work regime has gone completely to pot since I officially started my three-day week.

The journey back contained a lovely surprise – I met an elderly lady who I got chatting to (as you do). She was on her way home from a trip to Africa and I, along with a young chap who’d been sitting opposite me helped her with her luggage and I got her a coffee. Anyway, I spent an hour or more with this delightful lady and we chatted about all sorts of stuff. Interestingly she first came to Cornwall many years ago, but her first home was in the same village as our first home here. That meant we started on the right foot if you know what I mean – I was inwardly congratulating her about her fine choice of location and I think she felt an empathy with me too.

She made an observation that made my stomach churn – because it’s one I’ve used myself many times. She said ‘the people in Cornwall are so much more real than in London. They’re not all obsessed by money.’ I laughed and related my tale of the £400 handbag. We were definitely ‘of a like mind’. I enjoyed my journey and I was pleased to make this woman’s acquaintance. It’s been a good day.

Last year, I was unceremoniously informed by my beloved that my pic was completely cack!!!