My stay in Paris has been somewhat strange, mind you, so have all of these whirly trips around the globe on my training sessions. Everything seems so contrary….

It’s glorious sunshine……but as cold as ice

Life as a vegetarian has been mostly very difficult – lunch yesterday had one option – an apple! Yet the veggie restaurant last night was wonderful.

The traffic has been diabolical – except for the journey to the office this morning, when we were told to allow an hour and a half from the hotel and it took forty minutes! (That meant we sat in the reception area of our French building for nearly an hour before our meeting began.)

The team has been charming – yet their questions were consistently the most difficult to answer of all those we’ve faced all over the world.

It’s been impossible today to pick up emails, yet yesterday it was easy.

We finished our meeting very early so leaped into a taxi to get to Gare du Nord for the Eurostar hoping for much earlier train…..but got stuck in appalling traffic so the one I’m typing this on was the only option, a mere half an hour earlier than planned.
I’ve been sitting in the back of a taxi in crawling traffic, camera at the ready for a snapshot of something typically Parisienne but every time I had a clear, uninterrupted view anywhere we were either moving too fast or the only thing to see was er, well, nothing! This shot of the Paris Metro entrance at Gare du Nord was spotted by me when we pulled up at the station and I didn’t have my camera out because I was preparing to pay and get out, ready for a dash for the train. Only when I’d changed my ticket did I dash back out of the station, wheelie suitcase flying along behind, to snap it before flying back into the station with only five minutes to go to last boarding for the train!

By the way, I have something of a passion for Parisienne architecture and style – this Metro sign is just my thing….stained glass, really OTT and kind of scary – do the red things on the posts look like dragons to everyone or is it just me?

As work trips go it’s been a pleasure – no planes for a start. It’s not that I’m scared of flying, more that its boring tediousness and cramped conditions just rankle with me. I’m a 100 miles an hour girl who hates waiting around for stuff so Eurostar’s fast check in and spacious accommodation are so much less painful than flying. It also doesn’t feel so far away from home although in a sense, it might as well be Timbuktu if I can’t actually be in my own bed.

I’m now whizzing through the French countryside very fast (just right for a 100 miles an hour girl), I’m in First Class so there is even more space as well as power for my laptop, food and drink included in the service, there is much to see (just right for someone who needs to be thinking about stuff all the time) and I’ll be in London in another two hours (just right for a homesick girl). To complete this happy scenario, I reckon there will be a train to Farnborough (where DM will pick me up and take me home) within minutes of arriving at Waterloo. How cool is all of that?

There is only one more of these trips to do so that’s fantastic BUT it is to the Far East, Korea to be precise. Now I wonder if you can get a train there? Having said that, it’s sixteen hours flight in a Jumbo so on a train may take several months. I am a bit ‘bothered’ about that trip – I have never done any work in the Far East before, nor have I even been there really (other than a stop-over in Singapore on the way home from Australia many years ago) and I am deeply concerned that my unique style of presenting may not be such a storming success there as it is in Europe and the USA. Plus, I’ve discovered I’ve been ‘duped’ (in the nicest of senses) by my colleague who asked me casually if I could stay an extra night and sit in on a client meeting….then I got the agenda and found myself to have a half-hour slot to tell the Korean Pharma industry about our new thing. Oh boy….why do I get myself into these scrapes?

After that, I invoke the Freddy Ljundberg (even though it galls me to liken myself to a Gooner) rule – I will do everything I can for my ‘team’ but I’m not getting on any more planes!!! Well, not till the next time anyway. They can all come to see me if they want me. I think I’ve earned a break from travelling.

Last year I was creating stars for my friend's friend......I so hope she is well now! The year before, I was full of woe for my team!