Here we go again!

Now don’t get this wrong, Captain Clarke and I are away on our travels again, but this time it is work! Ok, that’s not strictly true. We are currently in a lodging nestled in the mountains that are known as the Alps. We arrived, eventually, on Thursday evening and the idea was that we were going to have a long weekend in a quiet location before we head down to Juan-Les-Pins for the big annual data centre conference that is anything but quiet. It is a hectic tiring, three days of conference where I will be speaking as usual and, since I also chair the global panel of judges, I shall be dishing out awards at the ‘Celebration of Peers’ on the first evening. Now, don’t misunderstand, we do enjoy the atmosphere and the camaraderie in Juan-Les-Pins, but it really is a full on three days. Hence our sojourn to this lovely apartment high up in the mountains above Nice.

So, on Thursday we trotted off to Gatwick Airport to get our flight to Nice. All went well. The Lounge was busy as usual but we had a drink and something to eat and when the time came, we toddled off to our plane. I had booked Business Class flights because the new Entry Exit Scheme is an absolute nightmare and, at least if you are in Business Class you are at the front of the queue. I have had the displeasure of encountering the Entry Exit System in both Switzerland and Austria this year and on both occasions it was a nightmare experience – 2 hours (more in Zurich) just to get into the country and at least an hour to get out in Austria! You are supposed to do it just once and then it is valid for 3 years but, unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work like that. I did the whole fingerprints, photograph thing in Zurich (can you imagine how long it takes to process a large flight!) but when I got to Vienna and had to do it again, I asked why as I had only done it two weeks previously and the answer was that the systems don’t talk to each other yet! Anyway, I digress, we boarded the aircraft slightly early and were told by the Captain that we were likely to depart early.

Things are never that easy! The time for departure came … and went. The Captain came over on the tannoy and told us that they had a bit of a problem with one of the computers on board. An engineer was on his way and it should all be fixed in about 15 minutes. 15 minutes passed and then another 15 minutes, then the Captain announced that we had a new slot for departure so we would be pushing back very soon. Then he announced that the engineer hadn’t fixed the problem and they were waiting for two more engineers to arrive. We eventually took off over 2 hours late for a 2 hour flight but by the time we arrived in Nice we had been on the aircraft for 4½ hours! Anyway, we arrived which was good. We then went to pick up the hire car I had arranged. It was a good service, I had paid for everything in advance and submitted my documents for approval, so I just had to go to a machine, pop in my reservation number, confirm my date of birth and out popped the keys and a slip of paper telling me where the car was parked. All very smooth. We located our car and loaded our cases into the boot. I sat in the driving seat and started the car … everything, and I mean everything, came up in Polish!

So, back we went to the reservations desk, queued up (exactly what I had paid not to do) and eventually explained our situation. A very helpful chap came back to the car with us and looked and then said “it is in Polish”, “yes”, we explained, “we know that”. We can’t understand Polish. “Oh, you want it in another language?”. “Yes, please. We are happy with French, Spanish or English”. “I don’t know how to change the language, I will have to get one of my colleagues!” So, eventually a colleague arrived who apparently not only knew how to change the language but also understood enough Polish to be able to do it. Problem solved. We left the airport 2 hours after we had landed in the dark. We had planned to stop at a supermarket on the way to the apartment to procure supplies. Not a chance! The supermarkets were all closed by now. So, we made our way to the apartment with no supplies.

The meal on the plane was, frankly, disgusting, so we were both hungry but so be it, nothing we could do. Did I mention this apartment is in the Alps? There were a lot of very tight, and I mean very tight, hairpin bends to navigate in the dark. To describe it as a fun drive would be lying! So, we arrived at our apartment with nothing to eat and nothing to drink. We went to bed and got up early on Friday morning to go to the local supermarket for supplies. It turns out that the local supermarket, we discovered, is 41 kilometres away!! Off we went and eventually found the said Intermarché and procured supplies for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We returned to the apartment somewhat later than planned and somewhat hungrier than we had hoped. But we some breakfast and all was well. Well almost …

As I explained, the idea was that we were having a long weekend here (Villars-sur-Var for those who are interested) and then down to Juan-Les-Pins for the conference. That didn’t quite work out. I am currently engaged in projects in Jakarta, Seoul and Cairo, all have agressive delivery dates and I am pretty much out for most of next week. So, I had to work all day on Friday and I will be working all day on Monday! Today is Saturday, so we had a trip to a different supermarket this morning a bit further north from here that our landlady Cécile had told us was bigger and better than the Intermarché we had previously been to. It wasn’t, but hey ho! We came back and had some lunch (beef heart tomatoes simply in extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and basil – truly delicious and exactly what we had yesterday it is just so good!) and then decided to make the trip back to Nice to Carrefour to pick up some supplies for tonight and tomorrow when the supermarkets are closed.

There is one other small matter to impart. The mosquitos!!! We saw nothing of mosquitos the first night we were here and never even thought about them. On Friday I was sitting on yet another video conference call and I felt myself getting bitten. Not once, not twice, but dozens of times! All over my feet, ankles, under my feet, on my arms, everywhere. They had certainly come visiting! Since I was on the call I could do nothing but wince. As soon as I got off the call I applied some after bite, which did nothing, so I resorted to the old garlic trick. Mosquitos don’t like garlic. I got a clove, smashed it and then rubbed it all over my legs and arms. After two minutes you can’t smell it but the mozzies hate it and won’t come near you! It works every time. Today I have only been bitten a few times and I have applied the garlic preemptively. So, tomorrow is Sunday, hopefully a day of proper rest before it all starts with a full day of work on Monday and then straight into the conference on Tuesday morning. I somehow doubt I will have time to report again during this trip, but I hope I’ve given you a short introduction to our travels once more!