Valentine's weekend, my first return trip TO London.

12/02 - I got in early for my meeting, (having scoffed the last of Wednesday's chilli for breakfast) managed to fix my code and got it all working before I remembered that last week we decided not to bother with it, as too many people couldn't make it. Oh well, my mild panic made me do a bit more work, so no bad came of it. I went for lunch at restaurant 2 with Max, Kostye and Dan, where I ended up having a lamb kebab and couscous - the kebab was just a doner eaten with cutlery, not that delicious but very moreish. The afternoon dragged as I was waiting for 3 o'clock to arrive, when I fled to get the shuttle bus to the airport. My flight was at 1620, and I was already at the airport and waiting at the gate by 1540, incredibly fast really. The flight was unremarkable, and as I was speeding through the gates at Gatwick I was accosted by Kelly, who had lied to me and dashed off to Gatwick while I was waiting to board - it takes the same time to get to Gatwick from East Acton as it does from Geneva, it would appear. It felt great to be back in the UK, it was 10 degrees warmer than when I got on the plane, and I felt back at home immediately.

I will keep the account of the weekend brief, but suffice to say I enjoyed being back, I really like the new house (although it's not that new as Bob has lived there for 2 years and I've been round quite a lot), although there are a few things about it that need fixing.

When I got to our new house, I was allowed to do one job, which was fixing the bed - we have inherited Bob's single-and-a-half size bed, which he had been using like a cot since the slats fell through. This ended up taking ages, as a bracket or two were missing, and so I had to add some new ones, improvise a lot of bits and rely on nails and cable ties rather more heavily than I would have liked. Eventually it was fixed and sturdy, just in time for dinner. Kelly had bought Prosecco & smoked salmon, which we had before cooking the steaks - we had some amazing ones from Moen's, some prizewinning Scottish fillets that we rubbed in olive oil and peppercorns before serving with home-made garlicky chips. I was very pleased with all this, especially when the strawberry jelly dessert was served.

13/02 - Had a great day with Kelly, starting with a trip down to Northcote Road for breakfast en route to Portobello Road market, to see if there was anything we could get for the house. As it turns out there wasn't, we just had a good wander, ended up in a pub then went home for a nap before dinner. Dinner was at a place called Terroirs, a wine bar/restaurant just off the Strand. We had various delicious little courses, including duck rillettes, snails on garlic toast with parsley, massive prawns and tiny clams. The main reason to be there was the wine - they specialise in so-called 'natural' wines, of which I have heard mixed reviews. The one we had was nice, but had a slight aftertaste of cheap cider. The normal ones (a Jurançon, a Chenin Blanc and three others I can't remember the details of) were all great, and reasonable too - we ended up paying £2 less for the wine than we did on food.

14/02 - Having had our Valentine's day yesterday, today we spent most of the day eating or preparing to eat. Pancakes for breakfast were followed by a trip to ASDA to get stuff for dinner - a pork, beef and butternut squash lasagne. Clare and Simon came over for dinner, which was delicious with a ton of salad & followed by Vienetta, courtesy of Simon. During the cooking and eating process we must have got through 5 or 6 bottles of wine, after which we settled down to watch a film - due to some technical problems we couldn't get either the PS3 or DVD player to work, so we settled for X-men on TV, which none of us made it all the way through. I packed and we were in bed quite early, although I couldn't really sleep due to the rubbish heating - I could either swelter under two duvets or lie out in the cold and shiver.

15/02 - I had to be up at half five anyway, and I was at Clapham junction by 6, and at Gatwick by 0705. I was a little blasé about time, and after titting around on the internet for a bit I realised I wasn't quite so early as I thought, and I made it to the gates just as they opened for my flight. It was incredibly uncomfortable and I was in the aisle and unable to recline, so I only got about 10 minutes sleep on my way back to Geneva. I had some leftover lasagne which I ate with an inadequate fork, which was probably the only reason I had the energy to make it through the day. By the time I got to my desk it was 1145, meaning it took me 5 hours door-to-door this time, whereas it only took 4 and a half on the way out. I reckon that with slightly better planning and more confidence in my ability to sprint through airports I can cut that down to 4 hours - less if I didn't have to change terminals on that crappy bus at Gatwick. Also I am taking a pillow next time, easyjet hand baggage regulations be damned.

I did some mild coding in the morning, and I had a meeting at 3 which lasted until half four, but I spent most of the day blearily wandering round CERN either on my way to, or returning from, coffee. I left at half five, stunned that I made it until then, and had a chat about wind chill on the bus back with Arlo and Alex - I had heard them talking about "increased rate" and "cooling below ambient temperature" and I had assumed that they were talking about physics, but when I heard Arlo saying "try getting a wet towel..." I realised this wasn't the case. Dinner was a decidely less hearty affair than the past four nights (fondue, steak, lasagne) consisting as it did of a Gruyére toastie and some terrine de foie on brioche. OK, maybe it was quite fancy, but it was just what I had in the fridge/cupboard. I watched some winter olympics and had a chat with my Dad & I was wiped out and in bed by about half 9 (although, of course, I was messing around on the internet playing games until about 11).