Birmingham to Geneva, Malaga?, Michaela Strachan & Coffee

I went to Geneva to work on behalf of a leading luxury car producer at the Geneva MotorShow. At first I feared another vast industrial exhibition space full of cars like any other MotorShow but then it hit me that my old Greek friend George, an internationally leading architect, was based in Geneva. Turns out he lived just around the corner from where I was staying. This was great news as he was able to show my colleague and I a few local sights over the next two evenings. My excitement at being in George's company led to some unusually high expenditure on fine wine and beer - resulting in my first ever case of flight sickness. Amusingly a lady who traveled close to me on that EasyJet flight saw me not looking my best on the Gatwick Shuttle train, "I take it you don't like flying dear? you didn't look too well on the place" - barely able to muster a smile I hadn't the heart to point out the true reason for feeling a tad jaded - it began with a bottle of Chardonnay and I think it ending with a bottle of Sparkling Chardonny with some local beer and a hoeggarden in the mix.

Thankfully I wasn't working the morning after... although I did have some interesting memories including a) being hustled by a women claiming to have a cancer stricken father - sadly for her telling me she was Greek didn't work out too well for her once my actual Greek friend returned from the toilet. Another interesting memory was the man who thought it appropriate to put his hands into my trouser pocket at 5 in the morning. He managed to find my wallet but I managed to find it back!

I'd landed in Geneva a little late in the day as had previously been working for the Vodafone Foundation in sunny Birmingham. Mr Gok Wan was tasked to deliver some lines to camera and we were to hoover up much else, Lighting Camera Operator to the stars Jonas Abbott was with me so all was smooth and straight forward. Some days later I found myself again with Mr Abbott on a plane via St Reatham to Malaga, Spain - well somewhere close by not precisely sure on local names. It was soooo hot and barely past March. Lots of 1960s/1970s style hotels and many cashed up Brit pensioners walking the streets. We had a great time, I discovered that I wasn't the worst at Golf (my first ever 9 hole course), I also discovered that the oranges on trees may appear ripe but they actually taste vile.

An interesting side affect of trying a taurine drink entitled JOSS was that I didn't really feel normal for about a week. Epic temperature, poor ability to sleep, mild panic and a couple of unspeakables. Thankfully I managed to recover in time to be on form to work with Michaela Strachan. We were producing an online editorial video for a car insurance firm with Michaela Strachan encouraging parents to be more active with their kids over the weekends. I wrote the script and managed to ensure reference to enjoying woodlands, the beach and open spaces were included. Consequently our day filming was only just down the road from me near Chelmsford which meant for a lovely working day, albeit somewhat unusual to speak to an entire school assembly about working in 'film' LOL.

With the need for a filling to be replaced I booked a Thursday and Friday work out of my diary and traveled to one of the country's greatest cities: Lincoln. Amusingly I found myself sat on a table with a bunch of dental students who were on a party weekend of somesort, we hit it off and before I knew it my breakfast burger king XL with cheese and bacon was being washed down with some white wine - quite a lot in fact as I thought it would ensure getting through the dental work with ease - which it did.

Before hitting the dentist tho I went into one of my fav. coffee shops in Lincoln to seek out some nice medium bodied, chocolately smooth arabica. They were out of stock and the only way I was going to be able to get some would be to visit the warehouse - I couldn't believe my luck, I was being escorted to a coffee warehouse. The good people at Stokes (coffee producers of Lincoln) gave me a delicious flat white and we spent some time chatting through all things coffee. My trip to Lincoln was marked by sophistication and moderate consumption of fine uphill based food options/general explorations and antique browsing. I left Lincoln via the slowest train in the East Midlands to Peterborough where I changed to head to Ipswich to go and meet with some old school chums.