Sunday morning pick up from home.
Tom's in the Taxi, his face still flushed from the previous nights wine tasting.
It's always a moment of excitement & anxiety, the thoughts of adventure, travel and the concerns of leaving your family behind.

Arrive at Terminal 3 to the usual Hubris of security checks, etc. Although you always think you have enough leeway you never seem to get time for a coffee.

Phew, sat on the A380, glass of wine (the best plane in the world in my opinion) top deck & the seats we requested!

Twelve hours later, eyes like gravel & sand, we arrive in Singapore airport .We both say our good bye's. Tom's off south on another flight visiting our factories and QC'ing product. I'm off north investigating new opportunities.

Later in the week I'm off again!
A 6 am wake up call, a rush through the horrendous traffic.At the back of your mind is always missing the flight.

Flights later and a 4 hour dusty road journey I finally meet up again with Tom. Pleased to see him, we share a well received beer.

A hitch has erupted!

A very important customer has asked for design changes on new product development.
This was unplanned, as the point of the trip was final inspection of new designs for the NEC Spring Furniture Fair. All our plans are thrown into crisis management (not of our choice). Within hours of long distance discussions, new designs are emailed across the world along with an already tight schedule. Time is shoehorned to accommodate the new brief. Unfortunately an extra week is needed to supervise the changes.

In the meantime Tom & I stumble over an old Dutch Colonial area of Town I just love the original architecture, slap board buildings, plantation sun bleached painted shutters Also the back streets were full of street vendors selling Sat ays of smoking hand trolleys, cages of exotic looking chickens.

Well after this short well deserved break, it's back into the melee! Answering emails at the other end of the day to the UK. Sometimes you just want to sit down and have a beer! But, if you don't clear your in tray it mounts up. You just end up having a restless night worrying!

The weekend approaches. Saturday night starts the weekend in Asia. It finishes 24hrs later. I tell you they certainly work hard out here!

Monday I fly back to Singapore with Tom.

I never expected to stay more than a week and my visa had to be renewed in Singapore to get back into the country. I wave my goodbyes to Tom. I get a Deja Vue feeling like I'd just done this before!

A week later I'm off home too! Hooray.

I reflected on my way home - 10 flights in 12 days (don't tell Mr Brown).