As the Wind Blows

Before I left I read an article about how stressful it is to plan a holiday. ‘Stressful?’ I thought ‘All you need to do is book the flights and the accommodation. How on earth can that be stressful?’ Naive and inexperienced traveller that I was; the person went to one place, stayed there for however many nights and then happily plodded back home. In the last two weeks I learnt how stressful booking travel really is. Booking accommodation in multiple locations was thankfully were left up to other parties, but booking transportation has become my speciality. Now, not only do I book transportation from the hometown to the destination and back again, I have to book transport to the hometown airport, and in order to get to the place where I catch the transport to the hometown airport, I need to be mindful of what time of day or night it is to know whether I can catch the tube or a night bus. Then I need to consider the transportation at the visiting destination, which isn’t as stressful, unless you’re renting a car and making sure you get it back on time and coordinate which days you’ll be needing it and which days you’ll just be meandering at your own pace. And of course once that’s all sorted out you need to book the return journey. *sigh* I miss living in a small city!

The solution to all this stress is to just figure it all out along the way and play it by ear, which is a fantastic option for people with bottomless pockets or people who have sold up their life back home and are going on a great adventure.(I met an Aussie couple in Amsterdam who did this and were cycling all the way from the UK back to Australia via Europe and Asia - WOW!) However for everyone else (especially the risk adverse), this is just not an option and we do really need a break from all this planning, organising and co-ordination.

For me this break came in the form of going on a Harry Potter tour in London. (Booking tours are a piece of cake compared to co-ordinating transport! And everything is organised for you. Hmm I should consider going on more tours.) Not having been on a tour of any sort in London, I thought this was a fantastic way to see the sites as well as indulge my youthful obsession with the Harry Potter books and movies. It was definitely worth it, especially the boat ride down the Thames which is one of those ‘must do’ things in London.

Aside from booking transport and stressing about transport (and coming very close to becoming an insomniac), I went to work. Most of the week was spent being a hostess at Andaz, and I realise that I don’t mind being a hostess for conferences. It puts me in a unique position of attending conferences without having to report back to anyone and I can also learn a lot about how businesses work in the real world. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I ever run my own multinational company, I will need to hire the best people in the business and who know their markets well, otherwise I will fail miserably because I don’t know enough about running a business as a whole.

All in all this week has been stressful which, in a way, makes up for the uneventfulness of the previous week. Next week I’m off to explore the UK and here’s hoping that it won’t be as stressful and booking the transport to get there!