Tuesday 20th February 2018

And here I am at the Radisson Blu again, awake before the alarm, listening to the builders outside, prearing to start some building. There is a huge crane just outside my window, which I watched when I arrived yesterday, but it is silent and in darkness now, even the aviation lights are off. Is that right?

I go down for breakfast, meeting up with colleagues as usual, swapping news as they look at their mobile phones for messages. I have fruit and for a change, pancakes, syrup and bacon. Not maple though, but good enough.

I am out of the hotel at just gone seven, driving out of the carpark and onto the main road with no mad cyclists around, so I hit none.

Which was nice.

Down the hill past the art museum, over the canal and up the other side through what I guess is the university and onto the the main road to the office. All without drama and not hitting anyone. And it wasn’t snowing.

Yet.

I have an hour to get work done before another round of training begins. I wish I could explain why I have at least six lots of training before the end of March, but I can’t. Quite when we’re expected to actually do our real work is another matter. Training is all about the legal ramifications of the contracts we work with, and is due to last until midday Wednesday.

But before the course, I met up with Mariska from the Luchterduinen Project. She is now working for the same customer, and was in Aarhus to conduct an audit. She had messaged me hoping that I would be there. I know she loves our hot lemon drinks that we have in Britain; nowhere else in Europe has them, so as it had been a few years, I picked up three packs in the airport and waited outside their meeting room to say hello and give there the packs. Mariska was overjoyed to see me, hugged me like a long lost friend, which I suppose I am. She is looking well, and enjoying working again. Sadly, not enough time to really catch up, but better than nothing.

I won’t bore you, but I also won’t lie. I struggled to stay awake, even after eight hours or more of sleep. There seemed to be no end to it.

But it did end, so back down to the office to try to catch up on the mails before giving up at five and driving back to the hotel. Again no drama, even if it was getting dark and plenty of mad cyclists about, but I don’t hit any, and at the junction before the hotel, there is a green filter arrow so I can turn right before the cyclists are set free.

I go to the gym again, but a sore back cuts the session back after 20 minutes. And again, I won’t lie, it wasn’t much fun either.

After a shower, I get dressed and go to the café in the hotel again; its easy and it means not going outside. I have tagliatelle with shrimp, but the sauce is just tomatoes. And is none too good, but I eat the rest and follow up with some stinky Danish cheeses.

At the bar, Manu is there, and he pressures me to have a beer with him and a colleague, which I go. He had been drinking halves, but upped it to pints, in my honour I guess.

But after one, everyone has had enough, and we bid each other goodnight and we take ourselves in a convoy of three lifts to our floors.