Time and flying
My new year resolution was to try to be a lot more disciplined about writing my blog. So first entry for 2008 is March. Excellent result. 
I am in the middle of new product development and helping to plan a stand for us at the Natural Products Europe show in April at Olympia and since we haven’t been to a trade show in 4 years, I’m trying to get back into the trade show mindset. I think I remember hours of standing around, with the occasional passer-by wandering in to pick up a piece of free soap before getting back to buying the thing they really want - plates with animal pictures on them, or candles shaped like bananas or whatever, but certainly not soap. Fortunately this one is only two days - not some NEC Spring Fair five day marathon, so even I should be able to keep awake that long. And of course there is almost bound to be nice coffee to drink lots of, never mind the occasional wander round the food stands offering samples of delicious little titbits.
I think our favourite all time show was Cosmoprof in Bologna. One year we stayed just inside the city walls to the east (the show ground is in the north). Every day we would leave the hotel, go to the tiny dark bar next door for our due cappucine and danish pastries, which we drank and ate standing up at a shelf, like the local business types, and then go for a brisk 40 minute walk across town to the show. After 4 days of this I felt quite fit. We found some wonderful bars. One we went to provided huge platters of Friday night food for the happy customers ready to kick of the weekend in style. It was all good fun
So, anyway, the blogs will be flowing from my keyboard with the monotonous regularity of a metronome from now on.
Alistair