One of the things hanging over me from last year was some work in Scandinavia and so I headed up to Buckinghamshire to meet with the country manager and find out what it was all about.

The weather seemed colder here then further North at Christmas. I’d remembered to raid the jar in the kitchen for coins to feed the parking meter and even found a free office to work in (albeit a frozen portaloo sized one).

Something I have always admired as I travelled in Europe was the general sense of style and standard of dress of the European. Certainly Stockholm had it’s fair share of well dressed couples walking and window shopping. I guess I was expecting that from this meeting so the pink leather jacket was a little surprising and put me on my back foot a little.

I should have tried for the very cool and trendy “Tja !” as an opening line but instead went old and stuffy with “God mórgon” which didn’t fit at all well with the jacket.

As usual the whole meeting was more bluster than fact and when things were investigated it turned out that the whole matter could have been discussed on the phone with the same cautious conclusion. I tried to recover a little linguistic grace with a nonchalent goodbye of “Vis ses” or “we’ll be in touch” and headed back to the car trying to remember not to throw the ticket but to add it to the pile of expenses I have to do.