The weekend visit of my visitor, a lady, had been very brief. Given that I was due to take a trip to the States at the weekend (I was visiting my friend there, along with his heavily pregnant wife), the brevity of the weekend's visit, coupled with the inability to visit again soon, meant that I had hit upon a master plan. I arranged to take Wednesday off work and organised a two-night visit to Southampton (the location of the lady in question) which started on the Tuesday night and ended on the Thursday morning. Two nights. Admittedly, one of the nights started quite late - my arrival being near 10pm. Admittedly, the last morning started quite early - I think it was 3am - but this was the plan.

Ah... lovely female company. A man smitten is a man prepared to lose sleep and travel 700 miles in a short period of time.

So, memories of this period are appropriately hazy. I worked on the Tuesday until I had to scoot off. I drove many many miles, ate rather a lot of chocolate, and arrived in good time - faster than the directions suggested. There was sleep. There was a following day, which was quite restful all in. There was food in a pub and more rest and relaxation. There was much company and much laughter. Then early to bed, early to rise and suddenly it was Thursday and a very early version of Thursday at that.