An Intense 11 Days

June 09, 2013

An Intense 11 Days

It’s finally time to go home and see my three boys, after my longest trip away from them since they were both born – 11 days. In fact, it’s the longest away from my big boy too I think. But it’s the little boys that haven’t coped too well with Mum being away, and Steve’s had to deal with a whole host of emotions (and aggression) around that. Also Lex has now been waiting for five days to build a train track with me, believing every day I was coming home. No one else would do, only Mum. It’s heart wrenching stuff this motherhood malarkey, and for now, I need to keep these big trips to a minimum. It just doesn’t feel fair on them.

My work adventures kicked off in New Orleans 11 days ago and the last time I was in this fantastic city was during Mardi Gras in the year 2000. It was phenomenal then, but this time I discovered that even without Mardi Gras, New Orleans is a phenomenal city. It draws you in, makes you smile and everyone has a superb time – all races and ages. You’ll never see a quirkier bunch of characters in your life and it’s all seriously fantastic. The squarest of square pants couldn’t resist the loving embrace of New Orleans.

One of the American guys I was with said there are two rules in New Orleans:

Have a lot of fun
Don’t interfere with anyone else’s fun

It is so true. A lot of booze is consumed and yet it never seems to get ugly. It gets messy for sure (you’ll notice that as you trip over the vomit in the wee hours of the morning), but never nasty – just great music, lots of booze, lots of characters. lots of harmless sleaze, and lots of fun. I’ve added some photos below if you’d like to get a sense of life in New Orleans, although this isn’t the work bit of my time there – just the fun bit.

Promise me one thing – if you haven't done it yet, make it a goal to go there at least once in your life?

The next part of my trip to Seattle was completely different, back-to-back meetings with colleagues in HQ all day, every day. I’d leave early in the morning, coming home early evening and by that point be completely obliterated by all I’d learnt and shared. It was definitely inspiring, and equally fantastic to meet the global team I work with, but boy it was intense as well.

During this time I also caught up with four old pals – all from different chapters in my life, and one thing really stood out. When you meet up with the great people you’ve met throughout your life and share memories of the times you’ve had together, it’s actually really beautiful when you both realize what you meant to each other at that time when you were connected day-to-day. Sometimes you don’t realize until after the fact how cool the friendships were. It was a nice addition to the week.

Right time to fly my last leg home. My blogging has been impacted with all of this intensity and I miss it. I’m constantly jotting down blog thoughts, but just no time of late to write them up. I’m committed though, because it’s something I must do.

Yours, without the bollocks

Andrea