monday 1 to wednesday 3 – home office working with early starts typically 8am to 6 or 7pm
jogging to burn off some stress, when i can get respite from the umpteen calls it seems are going on

thursday 4 – working from the office and meeting up with valerio, another minor escalation to deal with, but was ok and resolved ok in the end

friday 5 – home office working to complete the week and then music practice in the evening, although few there, katie turned up a bit late after a difficult afternoon shopping with sabs

saturday 6 – catching up on some admin and preparing for tomorrow’s journey and the week away

sunday 7, london and riyadh – start of the longest and most stressful week of my working life i think up at 7am to get train out for early flight to gatwick and only just making the flight to riyadh from heathrow – had missed a bus from LGW to LHR and had to wait 40 minutes for next bus then massive delays on M25 – went from security check-in (getting knocked back twice, due to manual check needed) to the B gates via the transit shuttle in 15 minutes flat, just as they were closing the gate!

arrived at riyadh after long flight, trying to stay up and watching half of “queen of the desert” as preparation!

long delays at passport control, got behind long line of philipinos, in for work presumably, poor beggars, got out to taxis at about 1am where get many offers to take into town. fortunately got speaking on the flight about it and to use licensed cabs which should cost around 100 ruan, one tried it on as i was sitting in his cab to charge 450, so got out and found one more amenable and rolled into bed at going on for 2am.

monday 8, riyadh – woken by the texts coming through as had slept in, so skipped breakfast and got hotel taxi to take me for supposed meeting at 9am which started at 10am, allowed some acclimitisation, spoke with thierry and swapped experiences, as he’d also been held up and came in on the direct flight from frankfurt

long day of meetings and discussions but making progress, ate 2 subway sandwiches which were nice and spicy, then took couple home for evening meal since had conference call to attend from the hotel and more work until around 8pm

tuesday 9, riyadh – early start and buffet brekafast and just as well as there was no more food until leaving the hotel at 10pm

this time a key meeting which did start at 9am on-site, followed by other meetings, leaving for the office at about 4pm to head into another escalation call, leaving the office around 8pm, for quick turnaround with late checkout and just time for an evening meal of soup and salad, before taxi to airport and awful 2 hours of sleep, finishing “queen of the desert” this time, nicole kidman is an acquired taste, but still a lovely film putting things in an historical context better, if a little over-acted (the churchill character for instance)

interesting quote and focus
http://www.stc.com.sa/wps/wcm/connect/english/stc/aboutSTC/Overview

wednesday 10, london and twickenham – arrival at heathrow around 5am so slow going through to office to wash there, quite productive day with jorge finishing off the document and preparing the presentation for friday

swapped accomodation to twickenham and gave a chance to try the “barmy arms” on the river, with battered halloumi, chips and mushy, a vegetarian fish ’n’ chips, waiter/manager from slowakia was over-friendly but pleasant

thursday 11, reading – travelodge near the station at twickenham was ok and enabled an early start with buffet breakfast before catching the train to feltham to meet jorge who took me to reading

all day fraught, difficult meetings, a bit spun in the air and thrown off course by some input which i should not have taken too seriously and simply let go to let folks get on with it and for me to get on with getting my stuff ready!

staying over at hilton at gatwick with lift over with stuart

friday 12, gatwick – good meeting at gatwick and stayed on to chat and prioritise things in more detail with the customer

saturday 13 – really tired and get up at 9.30am which is unheard of for me, have breakfast and then play card games with eve and friend lissie, happy families and then memory, was good fun and not too embarassing

later on drop off kebabs for them as they were relaxing on the banks of the beck in westpark near the bridge from upper to lower lakes, join for lunch then come back and rest before heading off to the concert downstairs at church

sunday 14 – walking to get breakfast at tiro round the corner and passing the church nearby which some interesting advice for slowing down:
Atemholen – in einer Welt, die niemals schweigt.
Atemholen – Herr, ich bin für dich bereit.
Atemholen – in deiner guten Gegenwart.
Atemholen – Herr, füll du mich ganz.

lovely all age service telling the story of miriam with eve playing the helper to the princess, in the case lily, who is given miriam’s baby, miriam being played by franci

got back and relaxing again.

monday 15 – working although it was a day off in bayern due to maria himmelfahrt, but there was too much to do so I did a day’s work on the next document which needed completing

tuesday 16, eschborn – early start at 4.45am to get 5.30am train to main station and from there to frankfurt

good day of meetings and synergy with akini and martin now back

meal at hotel outside with akini, with walnuts

wednesday 17, eschborn – went for run through the arboretum near the hotel

took train at 6.15pm to arrive home at 10.30pm and got some work done in a quiet row of the train near the front, getting an S7 without having to wait at munich station so long

thursday 18 – good day’s clearing up stuff and completing my side of the document to handover to colleagues, lots to get through but managed it slowly and carefully as ever

got finished with work at 9pm and with packing and into bed just before midnight

said bye to sabs just a day after she had returned from Croatia, this time as she left for the train to Cologne at 11pm, and slotting into the role of independent student, headphones attached and cooly dressed – she was heading for Cologne, then changing for a train to Brussels, then the Eurostar train to London where katie is planning to meet her and they travel together to Henley, that’s the plan at least