Granite City

It might be gray - but I thought it was beautiful:

Castle and countryside

Aberdeen

With two meetings up in Edinburgh, I decided it wasn't worth flying back to London in between and instead I went up to Aberdeen. And while most people were giving me questioning looks: I'm really glad I went! I was very lucky with the weather, which was absolutely beautiful. S was a fabulous tour guide and it was so nice to catch up. I can't even remember when I last saw her!

Plus: nothing ever beats being close to the sea!

Outstanding mezze at Rendezvous @ Nargile (T, you would have LOVED it! :-))

The Burgh

Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities. And in the beautiful spring weather, with blue skies and sunshine, it seemed even more gorgeous.

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Hilton Grosvenor and Roxburghe (bottom right): an amazing king size bed!

Say it with art

Having attended a number of 'gala' dinners I have become a bit of a venue snob (in addition to already being a hotel snob). While the Caledonian Waldorf Astoria in Edinburgh is of course a nice venue, I have to admit that it didn't blow me away either. Maybe it wasn't helped by the fact that I was really tired and just wanted to get to bed... And the dinner didn't finish until 23:00.

haggis starter, salmon main and apple crumble

After dinner, it was time for short thank you speeches. And lo and behold - I was the first person to be thanked! Which was very nice. The thank you card is a rather weird choice though:

Michael Sowa: Schoene Allee mit Frau

Men and one woman pissing against trees???

Anyway, it also came with a theatre voucher which is greatly appreciated. Following from the President's thank you, NR then also did a little speech, thanking me for keeping him sane throughout the last year. Too bad, that it came at the expense of me going bonkers...

It doesn't happen often: but I actually feel proud. It's been a difficult and very challenging project, that's for sure. But I also learned a lot. And for once I agree with everyone: I did an awesome job! :-)

London, baby!

I'm back! Always so nice to see the lights of London town when flying into City Airport. And yes, it makes me emotional - nowadays even more than otherwise.

It's been a busy and eventful 1.5 weeks. And with all the loveliness and fabulous feedback, I think my head has grown a tiny bit bigger...

I usually look forward to sleeping in my own bed again but the last hotel had such a comfy king sized bed, that I'll probably miss that a little bit tonight.

Three days off work await me. And then of course the weekend. Good times!

post = pre

After having worked on an event with 1,600 delegates, the next meeting with just 75 attendees is in a slightly different class. Having said that, it's always the events that I expect to go smoothly that cause the most issues. It's probably the acute lack of sleep that means that I am not (yet) worried anyway...

Happy

Three days down, two more to go. The advantage of being busy is of course that time goes by quickly. And while it's been rather stressful today, I've also had some nice interactions.

I met Matt probably three or four years ago at an event in Spain. I'm not sure I ever saw him again, but we occasionally were in touch over email re work. So, it's been nice catching up. He seems very happy in his new(ish) job and I was telling him about my plans. At one point he said he was really happy for me. People - including him - have congratulated me, but I somehow didn't expect the happy thing from somebody I don't know very well. I can't really explain it but it really touched me.

Besides, the venue team have been lovely to deal with.