Life on the Road

You can be fairly sure that management consulting includes travelling, regardless of who you work for. If you’re a consultant, you can expect to become familiar with hotels, Bed and Breakfast and airports, not to mention hire cars and miles on the road.

The glamour of being a consultant travelling the world is not all what it seems to be you know, and here’s  why travelling can be stressful.

This week I set off for a journey to Mexico:

1. Left home 5am
2. Possible speeding fine M4
3. Snow, ice and fog on journey up to Heathrow
4. 25 minute traffic jam to get into Heathrow carpark
5. Car hit crash barrier in carpark
6. 55min delay leaving Heathrow
7. Crazy dash across Paris airport with gammy knee(only had it fixed two days before – gentle stretching and ice packs)
8. 11 and half hour flight to Mexico- 2 screaming babies, bizzare Air France cheese based refreshments and sat next to a woman who sounded like a grasshopper
9. 65 minute queue to get through customs- only had immigration forms in Spanish- so didn’t know how to fill them in- guessed what I had to complete- probably here for next 2 years!
10. Crazy journey across Mexico city- cross between whacky races and death race 2000
11. Taken out to dinner and given “typical Mexican food” at 9pm Mexico time -3am UK time!
12. Couldn’t sleep because of knee sore after crazy dash(see point 7 above), indigestion(points 8 and 11 above), jet lag, knocked phone off hook, toilet trip at 1.15, 3.45, mobile went off at 4.15 and guy in next room up at 5am-singing Enrique in the shower
13. Wrote this email 1pm following day!
14. Over 7,000 miles car, train, plane, train, run, plane, car in 30 hours with about 4 hours sleep.
15. 5 hours of queuing and waiting

Still shouldn’t grumble – 4 day workshop coming up and then we get to do points 1-15 above in reverse with the added bonus of landing in Heathrow slap bang in the middle of Friday rush hour!

And what of the view for this glamorous lifestyle?

As you can see, well worth the long long journey!