Hotel evenings

Friday, 10 Aug 2007 | Journal

Last Sunday I flew from Bangkok to Delhi and I spent the week in our Indian office. Those visits to India usually are something along the lines of “arrive at the airport, go to the hotel, sleep, go to the office, hotel, office, hotel, office, airport, welcome back to Thailand”. Remember that scene in that movie with Brad Pitt as a boxer, where the guy who sits in New York gets on a plane for something and you see the taxi pulling up to the airport, his passport being stamped, an animation of an airplane flying accross the ocean, etc. and then he does what he needs to do and goes back to New York? Thats exactly how it feels. I forget the name of that movie. Anway, I’m flying back as I write this.

Every time I go somewhere for work, I write down a few things I can do during the evenings so that I don’t get bored. These are typically things like “do my accounting”, “write that email I’ve been meaning to write”, “research something on the web” and things like that. I even pack things for it. But I never do any of them. Its not like I don’t have time, but for whatever reason I simply don’t do them.

In a way its really weird, because you’re away from home and have a lot of time on your hands when back at the hotel. You would think the ideal time to do these things, with no phonecalls coming in or other things to be done. I tend to work quite late and then go back to the hotel, where I have a quick bite. The rest of the evening will usually be spent either working or vegging out in front of the tv. I never, ever do the things I set out to do in the evenings.

It used to be the same when I travelled in my previous job. I wonder why that is. Maybe I’m just lazy.