I’m not sure now why I once thought travelling for business was fun. The idea of it is great but sometimes the reality is very different. The early morning starts; the rushed transits from the plane to the taxi to the worksite and back again; then the inevitable flight delays and hours in terminal buildings. I’ve eventually worked out ways to make the most of it and use dead time to best advantage. I now travel with some food (I always manage to be delayed on the return flights); some work to do (nothing too demanding over a cup of coffee and a tiny table) and contact details of the key people being visited, in several locations (in diary; in documents, in briefcase) to avoid the great surprise – having left them under a bundle of documents on the office desk. I still struggle with those crack of dawn flights and knowing that by the time I finally get to the domestic destination to begin the working day I’ve been on the go for about three and a half to four hours – no, there’s nothing glam about business travel.