So You Think Flying For Business Is Fun? %page

So You Think Flying For Business Is Fun?

Posted by Sophie Egge on June 21, 2011 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

Business trips can be hell; all you want is to get back home I know what they say in the office: He’s got a dame stashed away in LA; He eats only in the most expensive restaurants; He flies first class; He works maybe an hour a day; He has an unlimited expense account, take a look at that suit he’s wearing; He drives around in a limo, etc.

How is it? On this trip I lodged in Beverly Hills in a grotty old apartment hotel. I had to attend court hearings in Sacramento every Monday. You leave home at 5.30am and tear off to the Los Angeles airport praying that there is no traffic hold-up on the freeway. At the airport you frantically drive around looking for parking and then race into the terminal building. There you find other company guys going to the same hearing. Check in at the ticket counter and then off to the coffee shop for your first cup of airport coffee of the day.

The flight You finally board the plane and take off and once in the air you get your second cup of airport coffee. At Sacramento airport, all those attending the workshop gather in the coffee-shop. A third cup of airport coffee while planning strategy and psychology for the coming day. There are now about eight people and soon the conversation drifts into technical jargon, which to the uninitiated, like me, is pretty boring stuff. You start thinking about the effects of airport coffee on the human plumbing system. As soon as everyone one who is supposed to be coming is accounted for, the trek to downtown Sacramento begins in a variety of rental cars and cabs.

Coffee shop On arrival at the courthouse building we meet up with our environmental lawyers who have driven up from San Francisco – in the coffee shop. Another quick cup while final strategies are planned and you grab a spare cup to take in with you to see you through the first hour or so.

Courtroom Inside the hearing room, the workshop is opened by the project manager and before the environmental effects of the project can be discussed, the pressure effects of the coffee become evident. I’m not sure if the courthouse people have ever discovered the cause of the enormous amount of pedestrian traffic during the workshops – it mystified me until I became part of it.

Lunch At about noon, a one hour recess is called and all the visitors flow across the street to another government building which has a good self-service restaurant. Lunch is a post-mortem on what transpired in the morning session, a guess at what will happen after lunch and whether we will finish in time to catch our flights home.

End of the session At the end of the session, there is a mad rush to the car-parks and then to the airport. There are enough rental cars to take everyone and the pace is frantic. Into the rental car drop-off, into a shuttle car and then tearing through the terminal to one’s plane.