Fa fa faaaahh
I was in the States last week. Had a conference to attend at my work HQ near Detroit - the conference was great. However, I am still dragging my tired bum around after a 4-day trip over there. Seems I didn't get enough time to acclimate to the time over there and worked very hard (and partied) - so - not enough sleep - and then came right back. My bod' is still wondering why it's not lunch time at 3 am.The travel back to Europe was a nightmare. I hate when corporate does my bookings - it always comes out terribly.
Starting with the 100% heat and the 'mini-van' that took a small group of us European employees to the airport for the transatlantic flights which leave for Europe in the evening. The 'mini-van' was actually a party bus. You know, like something a group of Essex girls would hire for a hen night to go pub crawling. It had pleather (plastic leather) booth seats wrapped around the interior with little bar areas in between each banquette area. Strobe lights, dvd player, radio, coolers, arm rests - but no seat belts and no air con. A miserable hot, sticky and uncomfortably topsy-turvy hour-ride later - we arrived at the airport.
4 of us had to stand in line for over an hour and half to check in! All of us routed through Frankfurt. Colleagues going to Istanbul, Munich, Zurich and myself to Brussels. There were only 3 Lufthansa agents - 1 of them was for business class and slower than molasses so she never took on any economy check-ins to help out. The agent who finally served me smelled of liquor and moved like a slug. We barely made it through security and to our gate before boarding time was to start. The British Airways gang of colleagues had checked-in and gone to the bar at the Westin hotel 5 minutes after we got to the airport. Snots. Panting and hungry because we hadn't time for dinner, we rushed down the long departure halls and got to the gate in time for boarding - which of course was delayed in 5 minute intervals over a period of 30 minutes with requests to stay close by. Dang. (looking for the linty mints stashed in my purse at this point)...
My flight back was torture. My seat in row 42 - the airplane equivalent of nose bleed seats at a ball park - was so tiny and cramped it was practically folded in to itself. I had an end seat on the group in the middle row of 4 - except our row only had 3 seats and instead of directly facing the passenger in front, we faced between the two seats in front. We were to look at the monitors to the left seat in front - slightly uncomfortable - and awkward. Mine didn't work anyway....of course. I couldn't raise and or open/close my tray unless I politely requested the person in front to put their seat-backs up. I pinched my index finger in the folding contraption to store the trays and boy did it smart. Some steward named Rolf or Ilmar or Ludwig dropped a salad on my head while serving. You know - torture. After a long night with only 25 minutes of sleep and a severely bumpy flight - we arrived in Frankfurt and parted ways.
I spent a good half hour going around in circles looking for Terminal A - and bumping in to colleagues doing the same - looking for their own terminals in the poorly signed airport. Finally by the time I made it to my gate I was in a daze. I didn't care that the flight from Frankfurt to Brussels went through a thunderstorm and shook the small plane to it's core. I laughed wickedly at the businessman next to me hanging on to his arm rests with white-knuckled grips. Nothing can save you now!!! ha ha ha ha aha aha aha aha - going crazy.
Home late Friday evening and everything was normal again. Bunny dog had been delivered from his camp on time and he was happy to see me. Saturday I managed a cardio work out to try to sort out my jet-lag. Sunday I took Bunny dog to the woods for a run - I twisted my ankle quite badly - it hurts more a few days later than it did then.
Anyway - am back at work - catching up on the whirlwind of customer problems that blew threw my office last week. Thousands of e-mails - OK - a slight exaggeration. Lots and lots of e-mails!!
And I need something to look forward to - and guess what - THERE's loads to look forward to. Aside from friends coming to visit and trips to take. There's a fun party for a friend's 40th birthday - this Saturday. To be held at Havana - a Cuban (obviously) club near the Palais du Justice Downtown. Invitations and all. Date sorted and the only thing left to do is get a great party frock!
So Fa Fa Faaaa dahling!
posted by Brussels Confidential @ 4:25 PM
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