Tuesday, October 24, 2006

My company business trip!!

It has finally happened, all my hard work has come to fruition. Like those elite of the fashion world that jetset around europe and the world I was today sent on a business trip.




(Swoon over the exotic curves of the superbly crafted intercity train)







To Cork.


Now I have nothing against Cork in itself but, well, wouldn't it be much better if I was writing about adventures in Paris or Milan, about exotic women and strange sights?

So anyway, my train to Cork leaves Heuston Station at 7:00am, which meant a stupid o'clock start to the morning. Secondly the train fare is a magnificentely overpriced €59 for a return ticket. I am reckoning I could probably fly down for a similar price and will post a brief comment if that is the case at a later date (when I can be arsed checking).

So I am knackered tired, out of pocket and dieing for a cup of coffee. It is at this point that I realise that out of all the inumerable cafes in Heuston Station only Supermacs had bothered thier arses to open for business in line with station opening times. Bravo Supermacs this will not go unrewarded by me, as a fast food connoisseur. The only issue with this state of affairs is that of course they were packed and my train was due to leave in a few minutes and the last thing I wanted was to be left standing for a 3 hour train journey.

I got a nice window seat and sat patiently waiting for 7:00am to arrive and was actually looking forward to seeing some of the countryside etc during the trip. At 7:10 a voice comes over the tannoy. "We apologise for the delay but we are having difficulties closing the doors of the train. Please bear with us for a few more minutes while we look into this". I laid my head against the window and fell asleep. Thankfully.

My day in Cork was uneventful, just work stuff. My return train was at 17:30 which was grand and I got in at 20:10. So all in all not a bad days journey. The weirdest thing about it is this. I basically spent less time working than I normally do everyday, was seated and relaxed for a longer period than I ever get and yet I am absolutely exhausted...

So the moral of the story is this, when you see these high fliers going off all over the place and you think it sounds exciting and suave, I am damn sure it is as tireing for them as my little trip to Cork was, so dont begrudge them. At the same time, when you are offered a similar trip tell your boss to feck off.

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