Business travel

Well, my second post isnt even WoW related, but I dont really care, I want to get this off my chest !


The company I work for is a big multinational organisation, with offices in many countries, as well as suppliers/customers/associates/sub-contracted companies all over the world….because of this my job involves the occasional bit of travelling…..some of it within the UK, some of it abroad…..

If you don’t do this in your job, you probably think business travel is brilliant, and are a little envious…

I remember the first time I travelled on business, it was exciting, going to a foreign country without spending a single penny of my own money…..but after a while it gets old….and the more I do it, the more I dislike doing it…..
It’s not so bad if I go with other people, sometimes if 2-3 of us go together, it can be quite fun, and its true I’ve been to some places I’d probably never have gone otherwise, and on the odd occasion, I’ve actually had a few hours to be a tourist in these places….but most of the time its just dull….if you’ve seen one airport, one conference centre, one meeting room, one restaurant, one factory interior etc, you’ve seen them all !!

Take today for instance, I had set up a visit to one of our suppliers….now the actual time I am there at their place will be both interesting and useful, on both a personal and a professional level, I don’t doubt that (and nor does my boss otherwise he wouldn’t pay for me to go !)

But….what will I ACTUALLY do for these 2 days…
Well, due to the policy of keeping air miles down, in conjunction with the amount of time sat still involved in air travel these days, I’ve done the whole journey by train…I got the train from my home town at 8am, and after a 3 hour trip just to get to London I then went Channel Tunnel to Paris, Across Paris on the Metro to a different station, 1 hour on the train to somewhere else and then a further 1 hour taxi ride to my final destination, I finally arrive at my destination at about 7pm local time…that’s 10 hours sat on various trains (still less time that it would have been if I took the option to fly)

Now, this evening, I am in a village in France….its quite a nice place, I’ve had time to walk around a bit since I arrived….but the thing is, except for bars and restaurants, everywhere is closed, and even if they were open, everyone around here speaks English about as well as I speak French, which pretty much means I can ask for a table for one, a large beer and a pizza, and I can say say thank you afterwards….hardly enough to keep me entertained for an evening !

Tomorrow, a taxi will pick me up from the hotel at 8:30am and take me to the place I’ve actually come to visit…and then I will actually do some work, until around 2pm, when another taxi will come to get me to take me back to le Mans so I can do the whole journey from today, only in reverse….Assuming all the trains are on time, I will arrive back at my home town at 11:30pm
That’s 2 whole days “at work” with only probably 5 hours of actual work…but actually if wont even be that much, because I don’t doubt there’ll be the standard long lunch courtesy of the company I am visiting….it just doesn’t seem efficient to me !

Why am I sounding so negative about this whole thing ? Well I’m missing a raid tonight, that’s why !
Actually that makes me sound like an addict, and actually that’s not why I’m less than enthusiastic about these trips…basically its just boring, sat still doing nothing for pretty much 2 days….with nobody to talk to, and in this case, as the hotel is one of the more traditional style ones, rather than a “business centre”, no internet access

On the up side, I said in my first post that I started the blog because I had nothing better to do…well now you know why….right now this second I am writing this post (and also I have written and intend to write a few more) sat in the rather pleasant surroundings of the hotels garden, with my mp3 player, my laptop, and a (free) bottle of beer….its not all bad I guess