Beaune to Calais in the snow

Dark and snowing. Who’s stupid idea was it to get up at 6am to continue our journey from Beaune to Calais? I blame Sprog 1 who talked me into it. It did not get light until about 7.30.

Light snow of no consequence steadily worsened as we trekked north, with snow ploughs and salt gritters doing their best to keep the motorways passable,  we got to Calais at lunchtime, due mainly to most of the French making the entirely sensible decision not to venture out in their cars. I took this picture en route. It was like Yorkshire in mid summer.

Beaune to Calais on the motorway.

Arriving at the tunnel we were able to get an early departure, and after a tedious half hour in the worst terminal in the western world, we boarded and Sprog 1 immediately gave me some food for this column by saying, as the train departed, “I think I am going to get out and look through the window”. Then “oh, it’s gone dark”. I don’t know which part of the concept of a tunnel he did not understand.

Getting back to Arundel earlier that expected, and the holiday not over until tomorrow, we did what any right thinking people would do,  go to the pub next door for a pint.

I just managed to catch the climax of the Scotland versus Ireland 6 nations rugby clash in the TV, where Scotland somehow engineered a win against hot favourites Ireland, further to upset John “800 years of repression” O Sullivan. I texted him after the game to see if he had received my earlier (and entirely mythical) wager on Scotland doubling up on my winnings recently on the England Ireland game, but he did not respond immediately.

The diet starts tomorrow and beer may be a fleeting concept in the week to come, with the notable exception of Wednesday when the Arundel Wednesday Luncheon Club will reconvene, this time at the George and Dragon at Houghton.

Instead of looking out of the window this morning and looking at the magisterial snow-covered alpine mountains sparkling and glistening in the bright sunshine under azure skies, I looked out at Arundel, hazy in the drizzle and under grey skies, an unpleasant reminder that we are still in the grip of the dreariest English winter in living memory. But will I be downhearted? Well, yes, if it does not brighten up by tomorrow. The only brightness in my day today will be in the happy smiling faces of the new Currencies Direct customers who’s a lives will be transformed when they find out exactly what they could save by using this service for their foreign exchange needs.

I also need to complete some other very important music business matters, such as ordering a platinum disc for my tiny interest in a major rap artist No 1 record in USA. I know that Kanye West and Jay Z “No Church In The Wild” is unlikely to be on the play lists of any of my contemporaries, but in Sprog credibility terms I have arrived.

I am also in the process if setting up a new venture based in the rap world in which I hope to define the word “delegation”. It will involve me in a little work to begin with, after which I intend to sit at home, delegate all the work that is needed and live off the profits, much as I have through my whole music business career.  Some, less informed than I, might say that my chosen path in the commercial music world was made in order to avoid having to get a proper job. I could not possibly comment.

Chris France
@Valbonne_News