Friday, February 11, 2005

Business Trip to Leeds Today I was on a business trip to Leeds (Northern England). I started very early (getting up at 03:30 local time) in Berlin. Flew from Berlin to Manchester with Air Berlin (Boeing 737-800), arriving at around 07:00 local time. I then took the TransPennine Express train from Manchester Airport to Leeds. The train had a buffet trolly which enabled me to breakfast on coffee and an "all day breakfast" sandwich. Lovely hilly scenary, which I could have seen better if the windows had been cleaned recently. Hills speckled with many small towns, with plenty of evidence of the industrial revolution still visible. Cotton mill buildings were very prominent, surrounded by rows of terraced houses. I had a good set of meetings with a prospective client (initially with a consultancy firm and subsequently with their client). On the way back to the airport on the train I got a call to say that they would like to engage me. This should be an interesting assignment with plenty of scope for me to make a difference by helping them to introduce appropriate process into their software development effort and to move towards a more agile approach. I took the train back to Manchester Airport in the afternoon, returning to Berlin on a British Airways flight (Embraer ERJ 145) at 17:10. The Embraer is a very narrow but rather charming aircraft. Quite cramped but not too noisy. I was spoilt by flying business class on the return flight (at the client's expense!). Really excellent service and food. Recently I've been flying a lot with EasyJet (which is budget, no-frills and friendly). It was nice to be pampered for a change. It's going to be difficult commuting between Berlin and Leeds for this assignment - the outward flights are early (take off at 06:00) which means getting up far too early. The return flights are in the early evening (17:10) which is going to mean leaving very early on Friday afternoons. I need to investigate alternative routes. 8:05:26 PM    comment []  trackback []