Work trip to Stockholm, Sweden - 14th to 15th November 2006

A work trip for a night to a very cold Stockholm. I arrived at about 3pm, by which time it was already starting to get dark - and by around 3:30, it was pretty much completely dark. Everybody seems to take this as a cue to do everything else very early as well - we sat down to dinner in a restaurant at 6pm, and room service in my hotel gave up for the night at 9pm. There is pretty little to do apart from go to bed and try to keep warm!

In the morning, the "early" theme continued - it got light earlier than in the UK, and I was woken up by builders hammering in the room above me, at about 7am. All very strange, and not being a "morning" person, most unwelcome.

On the way back home, we were the subject of an interesting breach of airport security. We were sat on the plane, about to puch back, when the captain told us that 2 people had managed to walk into the departure lounge, through the baggage reclaim and arrivals areas. They were seen on CCTV, but not caught in time, so they managed to walk onto my plane without clearing security.

The plane was evacuated, everybody had to go back landside and clear security again, then the plane was thoroughly searched before we were all allowed back on. Somewhat worrying, but I'm glad they noticed before we set off! So, a 2-hour delay meant leaving a meeting in central Stockholm at 2:30, and arriving home at midnight! Who says that international travel is great fun?!