Oh, the hardship!

Travelling            

I have previously mentioned that I work for myself as a medical writer/communications provider, which means I have to find my own work and can not always be choosey.  I have been really lucky and managed to become a preferred freelancer for one med comms agency and they provide me with enough work per month to keep us going.

Back in April they asked me to attend a conference out in Paris which is a place I have always wanted to visit.  I was put in hotel right in the centre, literally 10 minutes walk from the Eiffel Tower, and Arc d’Triump and managed to get in most of the sites in the 3 days I was there, including The Louvre and the Church of Notre Dame.

From this conference I had to do the scientific write up for the client showing what had been discussed in their sessions and also the competitive intelligence.  This was the first big thing I had done for this company so I obviously put a hell of a lot of effort into it which involved working through the night twice, something I haven’t done since Uni days (however that was due to beer and dancing being more important than assignments!).  Both the agency I had represented and the client were very pleased with the results. I was very chuffed!

Downside is I have now become the preferred writer for conferences and June has proved a very busy month. Last week I was attending a 4 day conference in London, and was home for 2 days and have then had to fly out to Switzerland for 5 days which I hate as I am missing my boys more than anything and have never done anything like this before and been away from them for longer than a few nights.  They are having a ball though and each call home I am told they had pizza with Daddy or Daddy let them stay up late or has taken them somewhere, or tea at Grannie and Grandad’s so I needn’t worry about them missing me obviously!!

However, oh my god how beautiful  is Lugano in Switzerland!. The client decided that I was going at the last minute so most hotels were booked and I have ended up in a junior suite with a massive balcony in a 5* hotel. It is amazing and I have never (and probably never will) stayed in a place like it.  It is also sitting right on the shore side of Lake Lugano and the views are out of this world, as is the weather.  I am currently sat in the restaurant at the congress centre making one coffee last as long as is humanly possible (it is also amazingly expensive out here – even though I will claim all my costs back, my room for 4 nights will cost nearly £1800 and a sandwich in the hotel is about £15.00!!!!). Anyhow I am thinking I need to go inside as it is so hot I can feel my skin beginning to tingle and being at a Lymphoma/Cancer meeting, I recon sun burn would look very, very bad.

Here a few pictures of the view from my room- I guess this is the perk of agreeing to do some travel for work, along with the money side obviously.