Swiss chocolate and Sushi 2-7.02.09S

Today it is snowing, hard. This means it will soon be pretty outside but it scuppers my plans for the day which included a run. Instead I have some time to catch up on neglected friends and admin.

I have actually had a really eventful week (meaning I am hideously behind on my blog). This week I went on my first proper business trip, to Lausanne, French-speaking Switzerland. It was awesome. For the past couple of weeks one of the things I’ve been doing at work is organising a press conference for the occasion of the beginning of a cooperation between one of our clients and the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne. Someone else was meant to be going but because I speak French, in the end it was decided that I would go. SO exciting! In prepararation for it I bought the most fabulous turquoise rollalong suitcase. I desperately needed a small case of some sort as all I have otherwise are big bags or my flowery rucksack, which doesn’t really cut it with black skirt suit and heels.

I headed out Wednesday afternoon, all suited up, feeling properly business-like (with my turquoise case trundling along behind me). There was atrocious fog all across Europe but I got lucky and unlike the Lufthansa flight to Bern, my flight to Geneva wasn’t cancelled and was only 30 mins late. I then had to make my way by train to Lausanne and then by taxi to the hotel. On arrival I rang our client and went to his hotel to go over his presentation for the next day. His hotel was VERY nice. I was excited just to be in a hotel as my experience up to now has mainly been youth hostels and it was luxury for me to have a double bed and a room to myself! He, however, works in the hotel industry. The company is a telecommunications company and one of the areas they work in is the hotel industry. This guy is used to good hotels, he used to be the IT director of Burj al Arab and also installed all the IT in the Atlantis hotel in Dubai. You know, the whopping 7* hotels in Dubai. So a 5* hotel in Lausanne was practically obligatory. We went over his presentation and then went for sushi in the hotel restaurant.

There were 3 of us as he also had a old friend along who was studying in Lausanne. The sushi was VERY good and there was a lot. Soup, followed by sushi, followed by main course, accompanied by rosé wine, followed by sorbet, followed by saki. Needless to say, I wasn’t paying. I sneaked a look at the bill, 402CHF, ie about 270 EUROS, for 3 people. Was V glad not to be paying, even though as this was a business trip I would get reimbursed.  I then had to head back to the hotel and finish preparing for the next day. Needless to day I was knackered and didn’t manage to get it all done so I went to bed and got up at 6.

I was at the hotel school by 9 to meet the director of communications who I had been in contact with. My part of the event was from 10:30 till 12:30 and went very well I am relieved to be able to say! After it we went to the hotel school restaurant for lunch. The school is very impressive. All the students wear suits all the time. They are being trained to work in the hotel industry at a high level and therefore have to get used to wearing suits and looking smart.

The restaurant itself was extremely impressive. I don’t thing I have ever been served so nicely. I was wearing my whitest shirt and of course had to act as if I was perfectly used to this sort of thing. I think I pulled it off. I didn’t get anything on my shirt, or spill anything, or knock anything over, or cause any awkward long silences so I think I was ok. We had 6 courses planned, the menu du jour. Unfortunately as time was pressing we didn’t get all the way through it and had to miss out on pudding, cheese, coffee and digestif (dammit). We started off with an ‘amuse geule’ of shrimps on a little pastry base with a light sauce, followed by little melting pieces of battered chicken on a bed of salad with a passion fruit sauce. Accompanying this I had ‘poulet fumé’, a nice light white wine. The main course was beef with vegetables and fried potatoes in a red wine sauce (danger zone for the white shirt!), accompanied by a Hess red wine. The service was impeccable. They had one person going round with a trolly of wines, whose task it was to make sure we had enough of the right wine at all times. The waiters brought our food in covered plates, whipped off the covers simultaneously and informed us of what we were about to eat. There was yet another person who toured the room with a basket full of little rolls for us. It was a real shame to have missed out on the other courses but… ah well.

I didn’t stay for all of the rest of the day because my bit was over and I really wanted to see something of the town before I got on the train back to the airport. Luckily for me Lausanne is pretty small. So off I headed, still in my suit and kitten heels, with my laptop bag with my laptop in it. Probably a little impractical for sightseeing but I was in a hurry. I managed to see most of the centre and it was very pretty, all with the alps in the background.

I was pretty tired by the time I got back on the train and shattered when I arrived at the airport. From then on everything ran on painlessly, luckily as I was running on reserves like a robot. I was VERY glad not to be going back to England as the easyjet flight back to Luton was delayed by 21/2 hours at least due to the snow. I eventually got home after midnight.

Olydisco

Friday got a little extreme. I was at work till 7 because I had so much to do and all I wanted to do when I got home was go home and eat and sleep forever. As I was cooking my friend Philippe came round and said that a group of them were eating in the all you can eat Chinese round the corner and then going on to a party afterwards. A big end-of-semester for ERASMUS students. As I said, all I wanted to do was eat and sleep. So I refused the restaurant but said that I would go down and see them during the meal. And then go to bed. As I ate I thought about it and thought well…it’s Friday night, probably going to be fun, maybe I’ll go with, but I’ll come back at midnight, or at latest 2am with the last Ubahn… cos I need to sleep…

So I dressed up and went to meet them, and went to the party. This is where things started to get interesting. Good party, 8 euros entry for girls then open bar. Danced with friends, talked to people and generally had a really good time. I kinda forgot to get the 2am train home. The next one was 4:19 so I HAD to stay until then at least…in the end we stayed dancing the night away until 5:30. VERY good party. Then, 5 of us walked about 40 minutes to Romain’s flat and had spagetti for breakfast. We had planned to get the Ubahn home or something but mine and Romain’s tickets were only valid till 6am and suddenly it was 6am. So rather than being bothered to buy another ticket or get a fine, we walked to Romain’s flat, stopping off for the most delicious redcurrent pastry I have ever tasted (hunger really is the best sauce ). When we got in we decided spagetti with tomato sauce made a suitable breakfast, also delicious .

We spent the rest of the morning playing around on Romain’s computer and then went for lunch; we returned to the all you can eat sushi. Alex insisted because I had been taunting him with descriptions of my delicious sushi dinner in Lausanne all evening. Sushi after a night of no sleep seems to be the beginning of a tradition…

Then I walked home.

So, my plan to have an early night and relax and recover from my business trip kinda failed. Instead, I went to a party, didn’t go to bed ate more sushi. The walk of shame home was made particularly interesting as during the dancing I had fallen over. The floor of the party was much like the floor in Filth in Oxford, if not worse. Add shattered plastic glasses and snowmelt and it was great! So there I was spinning round and I slipped, I fell over, my dancing partner fell on me and I had muck ALL up my side. I had to throw the tights away and I was absolutely filthy all night. It was a fun night. That’s all my news for now I think. I came back yesterday and went to bed early and slept 13 hours straight. As I said, I wanted to go running this morning but gutted by the snow, instead I have written a MONSTER of a blog entry…