Had quite a busy week last week, that is for sure. I was off on business, see, bit of a business trip I believe. I now firmly believe that I am Business Man of the Year 2008. The whole shebang took place in the Amsterdam office and involved contingents from UK, Germany and Netherlands. What happened was relatively simple, each of us got up and did a presentation about how we handle things in our respective countries and then we had a good old chinwag about it. Proper chewed the cud.

I found the Dutch to be very nice indeed, they listened attentively and conveyed a friendly atmosphere. Their presentation, though, was below par and had clearly not been thought through. The Germans were defensive about their procedures, opposed to change and just plain rude. Whilst I was doing my second presentation two of them were working on their laptops, idiots.

Here is another example of how unbecoming the Germans were: we went to the canteen for lunch and sat down with our ham and cheese samuals, the Germans then went and sat on their own away from us and the Dutch then came and sat down with us. We openly conversed regarding matters business. As for the German's presentation, well I have to say I couldn't really understand it. Their procedure is so insanely ridiculous that is easy to see how they have unprocessed deals running back to 2006 at a value of over 3.5 million Euros. The silly fools

So I went off on Tuesday at 4.30pm, taxi from outside work. The flight was at 7.00pm and we checked in and had something to eat. I had a fillet steak from Garfunkles, doesn't matter- expenses take care of it. We went out on Easy Jet, it's just a free for all. You don't get a seat number, you just get let on in batches and you sit wherever you fancy; it's strange. Eventually got to the Hotel in Amsterdam about 10.00pm. Gain an hour, see.

Flight back was on Thursday at 3.40pm. British Airways this time, much better. There was no Delay and I was sitting in my living room at 4.45pm. Got that hour back lovely. I felt tired from the business trip and it felt later than it actually was. That bloody hour made me jet lagged, unreal. It didn't stop me going to the pub quiz in the evening though, we called our team 'Feral Magical Monkey Flippancy Chequers'. When our score was read out at the end the woman had to read it out.

This weekend I have booked another trip, this time pleasure. I've booked a night in the 'Webbington Hotel' in Somerset, near Cheddar Gorge, for Tash and me. It's a kind of Valentine's Day gift, that's all it is. We'll have a good look round the caves and maybe visit the cheese factory. Should be good, I like the caves and the stalagmites and stalactites. Indeed I would go as far as to say that my favourite episode of 'Planet Earth' is the episode on caves.

As for the hotel, here's a couple of pics and a link:

Webby Hotel