The Reluctant Traveller
On Sunday night I have to get on a train to begin a five hour journey to the other end of the country with work. I will stay in a hotel for 4 nights, a short walk from the office where I will stand in front of a room full of business people, pretending to be wise, knowledgeable, clever, cheerful, and nurturing.
I will wander back to my hotel room at the close of each day, hang my clothes up for the next day, and perhaps wander down to the hotel bar. I will sit on my own and drink one drink in silence, pretending to read a book, or pretending to watch the world go by while gazingstraight through people.
Finally I will returnto my room each night, and pour the contents of my head into the blog. If you've never witnessed my travels in the past, be prepared for some mind numbingly mundane streams of consciousness. The thoughts and ideas that occur to you while staring blankly at a hotel room wall are a wonder of the modern age.
I will repeat the entire adventure the next week, and potentially the week after that.
I've played the hotel game once too often. The George Clooney movie “Up in the Air” was a bit too close to the bone for me. When I first saw it, I was sitting in a hotel room in Birmingham, during a three month stint working away from home. It stuns me in these days of a so-called smaller world brought about by the internet that I still find myself facingthe hotel gold card wielding lunacy that eventually caught up with George.
I'm relying on you guys you know – you're going to help me get through this – you just don't know it yet.