Looking forward to a 10 hour flight??

Yesterday when I left the office I forgot to put my "out of office" on for when I'm in China. Today I was switching it on, and it dawned on me that I won't be back in the office in Felling properly until the 31st March! That's a whole month away! It seemed too long, so I put that I'll be back in the office next Friday. I imagine that I will pop into the office for a couple of hours that day in between recovering from jet lag and unpacking!

I do feel like I am almost sorted with everything now though, which is quite a relief. Because I've been so busy running around doing things I've not felt as though I had been achieving very much. But now that I have most of my equipment, I feel as though I can breathe a little bit easier. I'm almost looking forward to the 10 hour flight to Shanghai so that I can have some time when I don't actually have to do anything. I can sleep, read or watch a film and not feel like I need to be running here there and everywhere!

I'm only going away for 5 days, but when you travel long haul, it always feels as though you are going away for ages. I'm looking forward to this trip. I'll only have 3 days in the office, but the work that I'll be doing when I'm out there I really enjoy. Plus I get to meet up with some colleagues who I haven't seen for a while. I'll be back on Thursday and then the real countdown will start!

Google me!

I've made it into Google!!! Yesterday a friend mentioned that he'd found my blog by searching on my name and Akzo Nobel. So I wondered if I could find it with just my name. And there I was!! Ok, it was on page 2, but even so, I was still just a little bit chuffed!!

Yesterday when I arrived home there was a card behind my door to say that a courier had tried to deliver a parcel. Today, after a number of phone calls I managed to track down the parcel - it had been delivered to my next door neighbour. It was really exciting, because this was the parcel I had been waiting for! When I opened it, it was full of socks, gloves, thermals, trousers and lots of other bits and pieces that will serve me well in the cold continent! I think I am finally ready with all the equipment I need.

Tomorrow I'm off work to get myself ready for China, and also try and get myself a bit more organised for Antarctica - after all, it's only 11 more sleeps!!

Hitting the ground running

I can finally sit back and relax after 2 hectic days in The Netherlands. But I sit back knowing that the past 2 days have gone better than I could have ever imagined. Before I set out I wasn't sure how the conference was going to go. I guess there's always a risk associated with putting together such a diverse group, but it really worked! And I know that this project will be a success because of their diversity and the enthusiasm that they bring with them. It's an enthusiasm that the whole project team share for making a difference both within our business, and in their every day lives. One of the critical success factors for this project was getting the right team together and I am 100% confident that we have achieved this.

So now I'm back in the UK, but not for long. I have 2 full days at home before I head off to China! I sometimes wonder how I manage to fit everything in! In the next 2 days I want to get as much sorted for Antarctica as I can, even if it's just a case of making lists of things to do. That way, when I get back from China next Thursday, I can hit the ground running - I'll only have 4 days at home in between China and Antarctica!!

When I arrived home this evening, there was a card behind my door to let me know that a courier had tried to deliver a parcel. I'm hoping that this is the big parcel I've been waiting for with the majority of the things I need for the expedition. I'll collect the parcel tomorrow, and it'll be like Christmas again!!

The beginning of a successful project...

13 sleeps to go and this one I'm really ready for! It has been a fantastic day. All the project team met in reception this morning and I knew straight away that it was going to be a good day. Once we were settled into our meeting room, we started the program with some words from Andre Veneman, Akzo Nobel CSR Director, delivered by Jaap van den Akker our BU CSR Manager. This was followed by introductions by each of the project team members and also our consultants from T&E. Next was the start of the program that was to take most of the day. It was a series of presentations and group exercises delivered by Kjerstin Ludvig and Karin Sanne from T&E. The program went really well. Our project team really engaged in the subject and during the group exercises it was difficult to limit our discussions to the 20 minutes allowed. Everyone has a lot to say on the issues of sustainability and this project will benefit from the enthusiasm that was displayed during these discussion exercises. We completed the program today with a short presentation about Robert Swan and his organisation, and a couple of film clips about Antarctica.

To continue the theme of sustainability, we visited a restaurant this evening in Amsterdam called De Kas. It is an organic restaurant and grows its own produce locally. The restaurant offers only 2 menus per day - a meat / fish menu and a vegetarian menu. Jaap had arranged the evening a few weeks earlier and we had decided that a vegetarian menu fit perfectly with the theme of the day as it takes significantly less natural resources to support a vegetarian diet as opposed to a carniverous diet. The meal was fantastic. We even had local Dutch wine to complement the local flavour! Overall it has been a very successful day, and I am very much looking forward to tomorrow.

Sympathy vote

Lots of things have happened today that are worthy of note. The photographer for the North East Journal came to the offices to take some photos. So, I got dressed up in jacket, trousers, boots and rucksack for the occasion. I even borrowed some walking poles so that I really looked the part. He got some great shots of me in different poses. It's a shame there wasn't snow on the ground, but the grounds of our site are quite nice in parts, so the pictures will be good.

This afternoon, I flew over to The Netherlands for the start of our 2 day conference to kick off my project on sustainability. When I arrived in the hotel with my colleagues from the UK, our colleague from China, Jason Cheng, was already in reception about to go for dinner. So, we quickly checked in so that we could all go to dinner together. Then, as we were half way through our main courses, Guillem Torner from Spain came into the restaurant to join us. It made me realise what an incredibly diverse project team we have got. That can only benefit this project as sustainability is a global issue and together we can look at the issue of sustainability not just from a western perspective, but from the perspective of different nations and cultures.

The other thing that happened today was that I woke up with a streaming cold. Not what I wanted when I have to host a 2 day meeting. I have to say that I'm notoriously pathetic when I'm ill, so any sympathy that you'd like to send my way would be gratefully received!! The real downside though, is that it's unlikely now that I'll get much excercise done between now and departure, so I just hope that the hours I've already spent at the gym, and walking up mountains, will be sufficient. But, it's better that I got this now, than in 2 weeks time when I'm heading off to Argentina!

Photo shoot

For me this is when the countdown really starts. It is 2 weeks tomorrow until I set off and the next 2 weeks I know will just fly by as there is just so much to do between now and then.

Tomorrow I am meeting with a photographer from the local press who will take some photos to accompany the article that will appear in a local Newcastle paper. I've had to gather some of my "expedition gear" to take in to work tomorrow, as the photographer wants me to look like I'm just about to head off into the great white wilderness.

Then tomorrow afternoon I head over to Sassenheim for the start of the 2 day meeting which kicks off my project. I'm really looking forward to meeting the project team, and making a start on the project. I had a message this week from one of the other expedition participants, Frank Bakkeren, saying that he will be in the offices in Sassenheim next week and will pop into our meeting to say hello. I hope he does as it would be good to see him. Also, one of the consultants from the Akzo Nobel Sustainable Development department, who will be presenting at our meeting is also going on the expedition, so it will be like a mini reunion.

But before I can do any of that, I have to make another visit to the dentist chair tomorrow morning. Hopefully it won't be quite as traumatic this time, as I am just having the stitches taken out and a check to make sure the treatment has worked. Well, fingers crossed!!

This is going to be a short one....

.....it's late and I've only just got in after a night out. I've been out with some friends who I've not seen properly in quite a while, so it was good to catch up with them. We talked about my impending trip to Antarctica which just heightened my excitement about the expedition even more! The whole thing seems to catch everyone's imagination. It's also remarkable that in most people's minds, Antarctica is inextricably linked to questions on the environment. The more I talk about it, the more privileged I feel that I will experience the continent first hand.

Well, 16 sleeps to go, and I'm about to fall into one of them!