Its been a week, lots of travel and catching up with people from work. Its been great, its been tough, its been fun and at times it sucked.

Dublin

Good to see folks in the office - last time I was there was before the bump turned out to be cancer. There was lots of “how’s Julia?” which was a double edged sword, describing what has happening in the last few months again and again took its toll but equally it was good as showed that people care. I wasn’t overly in a drinking mood so I ducked out of the big drinks.

On tuesday it was the european company meeting, which was both fun and informative. In the afternoon there was a Casino Royale social - brilliantly cheesy and fun. I played blackjack for hours, made and lost millions and somehow I still managed to sneak onto the final winners table and ended up coming third.

There was some chance that a snow storm would disrupt travel to New York, it did but only by an hour. Julia and I were secretly hoping that my flight would be cancelled and I could come home…

New York

New York was cold, a snow storm had hit earlier in the week it was still snowy. I enjoyed a walk round central park Thursday morning before a day of meetings. Time went quickly and it was soon time to head on home!

In the taxi to the airport, I suddenly realised I had left my passport in the hotel safe. PANIC. I’m such an idiot. Luckily, I always leave loads of time to get to the airport and we had time to turn round and head back to the hotel. Friday evening in Manhattan isn’t the best time for traffic, so it took what felt like an age. At one point I left the taxi with all my bags in it and ran a couple of blocks to the hotel to get my passport. By the time I got it, the taxi was out front of the hotel and we headed off to the airport. All in all it cost me an extra hour but I made it to the airport with time to spare and once through security I had a beer!

Saturday morning and I finally made it back home! Thanks to Mike for looking after Julia.