The nice thing about my current project is that all day I’m telling people they have to do less work than last year. When I add that we’ll be doing most of the work for them they look like they’ve just won the lotto. It’s truly fab.

I flew into Paris this morning. The trip to the office was uneventful. There was a time when a taxi ride in a foreign city was an adventure. Battling against language barriers, dodgy drivers and trying to pretend I knew exactly where we were heading was all part of the fun. Now I just flash the address and they type it in, mumble a cursory oui, si or ja and we cruise silently to my destination. I’ve stared at enough hotel ceilings to last a life time and it takes me a good minute every morning to work out what country I’m in. Thankfully this is the last trip for a few months.

 I was back in Holland last weekend for the famed holiday Queen’s Day or as the Dutch call it “Koninginnedag”. It’s such a tongue twister and sounds something like cone-ing-in-a-daaahh-insert hacking up spit sound.  Try is some time for a laugh. The basic idea is to wear head to toe orange, walk the streets drinking beer from plastic cups and buy lots of crap you don’t need from the street markets. It’s more fun than it sounds. We wandered around in the sea of orange for a few hours marveling at the things people dared to try and sell. Every time we walked past a band Jarno broke out into one of his spontaneous little jigs that involves a lot arm waving and jumping up and down. It’s a Dutch thing. Their lack of inhibition often results in people dancing in the streets, in broad daylight, sometimes even without music. I just stand around waiting for it to pass. Part of me wants to join in but my reticence runs deep and my feet remain firm on the pavement. After a bit of eye-rolling I dragged him off to have dinner with Lora Borderliner and Klaas Spineless. It’s only 4 weeks until the wedding…..