Martins Blog

So another trip to Audresselles to get wine and have fine food.  English beer was sampled at the Hare and Hounds (Shepherd-Neame) before we departed English shores, and at the Royal Oak in Pirbright on the way back. In addition we played Boule on the village pitch. The order of merit in that contest was Pete, Phil, Martin and Tony. We went to the Majestic warehouse and the Carrefour in Calais, and to Auchan in Boulogne. If you want French wine the Carrefour/Auchan are better with more help from the staff at Auchan. Majestic caters for the tourist looking for cheap wine and has more non-French wine, including some excellent German wine recommended by Rick.

The major eating opportunities were are two excellent restaurants:

1. La Buissoniere, 10 rue Neuve, Calais 62100, France. Excellent food about £30/person. Right in the centre of Calais.

2. Hotel du Centre, 78 Rue Carnot, 62930 Wimereux. Excellent food and slightly cheaper (176€ for four).

Pictures can be found at:

http://www.martinferrier.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=303

Not strictly related to retirement as this started when most of us were still working and was instigated as a zSeries Planning meeting. Most, though not all are now retired.

Some comments from Phil “Yesterday’s lunch was a great success as normal, with excellent food enjoyed by 10 of us (welcome Andy who was curry club christened). There were a number of no shows due to pressure of work whatever that is! Alan and Parwez being those that need to develop a sense of priority. We congratulate Rick once again for the superb selection of beers he brought along, with 7 of us serious drinkers demolishing 27 bottles of some very strong beer (min 5%ABV) and for his wine tasting when we got back to his house.”

Some photos can be found at:

http://www.martinferrier.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=213

Once again this is out of order. I have now put on on the web site selected photos from my retirement lunch in 2006. This was at the really excellent restaurant called the Ancient Raj in Frimley High Street. Link to pictures.

It is amazing to me how easily you get settled down into the relaxed routine. One year has flown by. Time for a celebration. Celebrating reducing blood pressure from 150/95 to 118/68 and getting rid of 10kg, what better way than having a curry at a really excellent restaurant called the Ancient Raj in Frimley High Street. Some of the original attendees from my retirement dinner were there, my wife, Les (with wife Jenny) , Rod and Maurice. In addition were Phil (retired July 2005) and his wife Jenny, and Phil J now retired from Hitachi and ex of Basingstoke. It was good to see them all. Naturally I plan a 2nd year of retirement do. Maybe even Maurice might have stopped working by then. Link to pictures.

(This post is out of order). Obviously when you are retired you have the opportunity to plan things and get them right! So we plan to have a trip for two nights to a small village near Boulogne in late March. Needless to say we needed a planning meeting in the Zetland Arms (suggested because of the quality of the beer). At said meeting was Phil, Pete and myself. Derek who works just down the road also joined us for a quick pint. Of course the planning involved scheduling pubs, restaurants and buying of French Wine. Follow link for pictures.

The round of drinks and meals never stops. On my way North to Aberdeen (researching family history) my wife and I stopped off in Warwick for lunch with Tony, Phil, Pete and our ex supreme manager Jack. He used to be in charge of the Warwick Centre. We used the Zetland Arms, as it serves good beer and is well recommended. Follow link for pictures. The food is reasonable. From Warwick we went to an overnight stay in Buxton.

East London Tour: So one of the things you can do is meet up (frequently) with your ex colleagues and remember the good old days. This I did on Friday (16/02/2007) for a tour of pubs in the east end (of London). Starting at the Mayflower pub in Rotherhithe. The pub originally called “the Shippe” was where The Mayflower set sail from to go to America. I remember going to Rotherhithe with my dad (many years ago). In those days it was a dirty miserable place. Now it is bright, clean and amazingly quiet.

We had lunch at an excellent large Indian restaurant called the Mala in St Katherines dock. Excellent because for lunch (12:00 to 15:00) they served a 3 course meal for £13, including Popadoms and Nann.

We ended up in Canary Wharf, via the Prospect of Whitby.

Link to pictures.

So having retired from a computer company almost a year ago, this is my first entry in my blog.

What I do now is buy and sell used books on the internet. This is via Amazon, Biblio.com, Greenmetropolis and eBay. You can see more about this at www.majesticmole.com.