Houston - Day 4

Started the return journey home today...we had (another) meeting, but this time in the US offices (they happen to be next door to the hotel). We had breakfast at Denny's - another mountain of pancakes, eggs and general cholesterol...we were supposed to have lunch at another diner before we left but to be honest, we couldn't face more food! We headed back to the airport around midday for our flight at 3:45. I did think I'd be able to buy SJ a present in the airport but no such luck unless you counted NASA spacemen keyring's as presents! we had a burger in the airport and then boarded our plane (we flew Continental by the way). The flight back is actually an hour or so shorter than the flight out as they take a different route via Greenland.

We landed back in Gatwick at 6:55 in the morning...

Houston - Day 3

Another early start, although we did manage to get breakfast in the hotel so had an extra 30 minutes or so. Actually the breakfast was pretty good. the meeting started at 7:30 again so no time for looking around again. Lunch was again at the hotel...was OK...nothing special. The meeting finshed early today though - around 3:30 so N decided to use the opportunity to hold an impromptu UK Sales Meeting. We walked down the hotel drive (dual carriageway) in the 36 degree heat...it was boiling! Eventually we found a restaurant to get some drinks from and had our meeting there.

On the night we went to an Italian (can't remember the name) but it was very nice food (and wine). Back to the hotel afterwards for one drink then the bar closed again. I was really tired tonight though so wasn't entirely upset about that!

Houston - Day 2

Up early for breakfast at iHop - International House of Pancakes, where we had...pancakes! Of course, as we're in Houston, this was preceded by Ham & Eggs, Hash Brown & Toast. I've never seen so much food! Still, it set us up for our meeting which started at 7:30!

We met all the US Sales Team and had our meeting. Lunch was in the hotel and was OK. The hotel itself is a bit tired and it only had 7% occupancy so they wouldn't open the bars! Anyway, we had about another 5 minutes after the meeting finished before we were whizzed off to what the Americans called "mini Formula 1"...Go-karts to you and me...

This Go Karting lasted six and a half hours though! I was knackered by the end of it with a seriously aching right arm (there were only left turns on the track). We had dinner there (fajitas) and got taken back to the hotel about 1:00 am...of course, the bars were shut...

Houston...Day 1

So this weekend I went to Houston. Arrived on the Sunday quite late after a pretty early start on Saturday morning from Gatwick. The flight was OK...a bit long (nearly 10 hours) but I caught up with some reading and some videos. I went with N & D fro work but we hadn't got seats together. Funnily enough we saw another of our work colleagues on the plane! He was going to Monterray in Mexico...small world.

We got picked up by M S, the US Sales Manager who took us back to our hotel. After a stop to drop our bags off (about 3 minutes), we were whisked off to an Italian restaurant called Carrabba's. I had a Steak which couldn't be faulted really. It was just a shame we were all so tired...Houston is six hours behind so we'd been up ages! He took us back to the hotel where we had a quick drink and then bed..