Biarritz the Tour Pt 1
By St Marlowe
March 31 2007
It’s Friday, seven am,and I’m waiting outside Northampton Station for Mr Gleadell. The previous 24 hours have been a nightmare.
Good new always brings bad, and having to book a large order on Thursday, which of course was late, my day was in tatters. At 4:30 I get a phone call. – “Congratulations, you’ve made the shortlist of two – we need best and finals by next Thursday” After a 2 ½ year campaign, I find the short timescale a bit rich. Especially as the news was delivered by a Saracens supporter! Cue extra work Thursday, cancel the week off, rearrange flights from Biarritz, late for a meeting, get home at 10pm, and pack get to bed. Four hours later I’m at the top of this paragraph.
We set off for Stansted Airpit. How can such a well designed airport get to be a toilet in 10 years? The journey was amazing 1hr 25 mins, into the car park, onto the shuttle; hit the terminal at 8:40. “Your gate now opens only 2 hrs before departure” The fry-up I have premising myself rapidly recedes, as we wait 1 ½ hrs for the gate to open. I am 1st through – my ticket shows sequence #19 (?). Through security (grumpy old man moment. Why are the illiterati allowed to fly. People holding up the queue while they search in their bags for the stuff they were told had to go in a clear bag should be sent back to checkin)Finally get to Full English Breakfast. We will pass over this moment, as any relationship between the words Full, English and Breakfast are purely co-incidental. Board flight which is by now 40 mins late. Fly to Biarritz. Taxi to Hotel Marbella – “did you have a good trip?” “Oh yes thank you” I lie.
Biarritz Friday PM – Ondart's Bar – It may be cold outside, it may be wet, but the Leffe is reducing any concerns as to that. After a convivial time with Connect (en Famille, and the St Dicks) we depart in search of food. Oh look – the Newcastle game is on here, let’s have a quick look. A Newcastle defeat and the first half of a Munster rollover later, Mr & Mrs Big Rich arrive and we have to drink some more. Eventually I flee the party in search of food, and partake of a rather nice Fish soup and black pudding at the restaurant attached to the hotel. Bliss. I collapse into bed. Chris in the meantime rolls in at 3 am, having had an adventurous time involving gendarmerie, tales of the Welsh under 18’s having kicked off in the town centre (wonderful ambassadors these Celts), and a Munster fan from Banbury.
Saturday – a really busy day starts with a light breakfast at 10am, a stroll up the road for firestarters (Coffee and Cognac). After 2 of these, we move on for a little light shopping at the BO shop, followed by a light lunch at the Kirola, where we watched the last match against BO here last year, and Munster roll over again. We return to the hotel in order to gather strength for tonight’s assault on Ondart’s bar and the Kirola. It’s hard, but I am sure you will agree that we are giving it our best shot.