Horses, Ghoulash and Home from Home

Since my last post the main news has been that Capucine and Gaston continue to progress well. They have their little ups and downs with threats of infections, nights when they breathe less well than others, and problems with mini catheters, but overall they seem to be on the right track. Sandie is also managing to spend lots of time with Maxime so that’s brightened her up no end.

This week has also seen me get back to work in terms of travelling. I had a very productive two days in Budapest speaking to a couple of different clients. One of the visits was 24 hours before an RFP submission and I managed to get some great insights which meant I ended up re-writing an executive summary until midnight. I did however manage to eat well in Hungary (yes it is possible) – traditional Hungarian fare at lunch time in Buda and then a wonderful Japanese restaurant in Pest in the evening. My adventurous spirit got the better of me after a positive first meeting in the back of beyond, and so I simply asked the taxi driver to take me to a good traditional restaurant in the middle of Budapest and leave me there. I then decided to navigate my way back to my hotel via trains, metros, buses, hitch-hiking etc. I managed pretty well, although I did end up taking a taxi for the last 1km because I got a bit lost after a couple of hours! I don’t think I’m ready for my first jungle trek yet.

I left Eastern Europe this afternoon and headed to my home from home in Zurich. I have a meeting in Basel tomorrow but I decided I wanted to stay in my favourite hotel in Zurich, so I’ll get an early train in the morning. Hopefully I’ll be doing quite a bit of travelling on my birthday tomorrow. With a bit of luck it will be Zurich Basel by train first thing, return to Zurich airport in the afternoon before a flight to petrol starved Paris, and then a second flight to Pau before an hour’s drive to Biarritz and my own bed. If I manage to do all of that tomorrow without crossing a picket line or stumble into a street protest, then I’ll be happy.

The other big news is that I managed to ride a horse at the weekend, Pich de Touleven, and whilst I didn’t bring home any silverware, things went pretty well. With a bit of luck I’ll ride him again on Saturday and then I can confirm with his owner that I’ll take a half-livery which basically means I will have scored myself a super jumping horse without having to splash out a large amount of money to buy my own beast. The horse will still belong to its owner, but I’ll be able to ride him in competitions at the weekend, so all in all it seems a good compromise. Sandie even seems to be heartily supportive, so strike while the iron is hot is what I say....finally an upside to all of those hormones flying around her system!