[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=920751]A question for Martyn though. Your routine is aligned to a fitness regime. Do you ever get “stressed” or maybe a better word would be agitated if your routine is compromised?[/quote]

The only part of my routine that stresses me is if I do not get to feel fresh air on my face. On a bad day when I have had to work in the morning, I can find myself being stuck in the hotel from breakfast till 5pm, without having been outside. This does stress me.

On a travel day, if I have gone straight from home to Heathrow, I get dropped at the furthest end of the drop off zone and do a couple of circuits, just to feel air on my face..

We all have our quirks, these are ‘some’ of mine….

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No Name

[travelsforfun]

Thought I’d offer an alternative perspective – in line with Sally’s second paragraph.

My work, which I enjoy dearly, doesn’t entail much travel. So (as my profile name suggests) the travelling is something I do in my own time – for several years now, I promise myself to leave the country at least once a month (which sometimes works out two, three or four times…). Much of that is weekend trips within Europe but I give myself a fair few far flung forays too.

For me, being able to escape on a regular basis keeps me sane. You know the saying, “a change is as good as a rest” – well, for me, a change is better than a rest (which is also why I don’t like long holidays – at a certain point, I need a holiday from my holiday!).

In short, I see my travel as an absolutely essential part of my mental health and well-being.

[capetonianm]

I quite agree with Martyn. I crave fresh air and I loathe air conditioned offices and hotels where you can’t open windows. This has caused me a few problems over the years but other people have had to deal with it!

When I was working I always chose a hotel about half an hour’s walk from the client site, so that I could enjoy the walk before and after work, which set me up for the day. A component of that was finding somewhere en route for a refreshment of some kind. If the weather was too bad to walk, and it had to be really bad, I would use public transport or a taxi. People I worked with thought I was mad. Perhaps I am, but my fresh air is not negotiable.

Now, I travel purely for fun and it’s a blessing to be able be 100% in control of my travel arrangements and not have other people trying to impose their wishes or choices on me.

[LuganoPirate]

Sorry if I’m a bit late to this Sally, but here’s my way of managing stress and burnout by not worrying.

Go back 35 years, and taking after my mother who’d worry about a pin dropping, I was the same. I was running a very successful business exporting consumer goods to Africa, Middle and Far East, and we had the agencies for several large brand names. I was in the air at least twice a week both long and short haul. Weekends were often spent in the air and taking advantage of the fact Saturday and Sunday were working days in the Middle East. I’d worry about missing flights, losing baggage, not getting orders, customers not paying, hotel reservations and so on. Not forgetting this was in the days of no online bookings etc.

One day, having shipped 10 containers of Gin to one of our West African customers, one of our largest clients and part of his weekly order, worth about £150,000, and this in 1983, he called me to a meeting and lunch in Paris where he kept a home. After a very good lunch and over desert he informed me he was having cashflow problems and could not pay me, though it would be resolved but he needed a month or two. Being an independent company with close to 20 employees and relying very much on bank finance, I was dreadfully worried. His total debt was around £1,000,000 and now he was asking me to hand him the documents to release the latest shipment.

I did as I trusted him and he’d helped me a lot in the past, but that night I couldn’t sleep as I thought over the ramifications and what i would say to the bank and our suppliers, who delivered on strict 20 days credit. As I tossed and turned I had an epiphany moment. Worrying would solve nothing, and actually, if he didn’t pay it was the bank’s problem as it was their money, so we would have to work together to solve the problem. At that I fell asleep till midday. I then had a five day trip to the Middle East and on my return called the bank to inform them. As I spoke to my account manager, and before I could speak, he told they’d just received £1.1m from the client and did I want to keep it sterling or put into Dollars and Guilders?

I was speechless, and to this day I wonder if it was a test of my loyalty, as after that his business doubled and he dropped quite a few suppliers buying through us instead.
The point being though, it was the moment I gave up worrying and Doris Day’s Que Sera, Sera plays in my head every time a problem looks like it’s on the horizon.

[capetonianm]

That’s a lovely tale and restores one’s faith in the human race.

I have adopted the philosophy that there is no point stressing about what might go wrong. I tend to make sure there’s a Plan B, and I can then relax. I book trips with plenty of time between connections as I’d rather spend a few hours at an airport than miss a flight if it’s a critical part of the trip. I tend to research quite thoroughly too, and I’ve learnt that as they say in ZA ‘local is lekker’. Local people tend to know best and in general, other than touts, can be trusted.

[Inthesandpit]

I am not sure with me whether it is Stress, Travel burnout or just plain homesickness (something I thought only affected youngsters).

My travel for business has always been sporadic and not near as much as some of my hero’s on here, however for the last 8 years I have had to lead a long distance life from home but I find now the strain of coming back each time to the sandpit, leaving my partner, house and dog, fresh air, greenery just gets harder. I count the days until my next trip home which I make about 6 times a year, during my partners visits out here we try to get away from the madness of this place for a few days. I now find myself stressing about the most mundane things leading to sleepless nights – most of which I have no control over, I wish someone had a ‘brain turn off’ switch. I get very tetchy about simple things (driving standards here, lack of respect to others, not saying thank you to shop assistants, queue jumping, talking over people etc.) maybe it is me getting older and trying to live to the standards I was brought up with.

I appreciate this may be off track of the post but I think it is relevant for those that have to travel overseas to work.

Thankfully for me though the end is nigh, my exit from this sandpit is planned for later in the year, not to retire just yet but to consult on airspace change.

[nevereconomy]

MartynSinclair you were fortunate. My travel was predominantly Asia but I never had the “mytime” and with home at that time being the US, a good part of the night was often working with them. However I was lucky to always travel in First, so that took a bit of stress away.

I preferred to do several month long trips instead of many shorter ones and my stamina level did allow this for many years and even for holidays I always jumped on a plane quite happily – I found travel very invigorating.

I have a had few years away from it now and I still enjoy the occasional trip but have other greater responsibilities, albeit temporarily.

Looking forward to the experience being for pleasure on my terms in the future.

[basslines66]

Perhaps I am extremely weird. 25 years ago, when working as a peripatetic investment banker in Hong Kong for a well known big US firm which I was trying to leave, my very wise mother asked me to write a list of everything i loved about my job and everything I hated, to help me decide. I came back with the list. Quite a lot of Hates. Top of my very short list of Loves was “ability to travel business and first class around the world, preferably without colleagues”. It took me 2 more years to leave the firm and the big pay cheques.

I am now 52, run my own company which still flies me around the world and Europe a lot 9mostly my choice), but 50/50 in the front of the plane or at the rump of an LCC. I have BAEC Gold and my Flight Club orange EZ card, both of which I cherish. I still love the travel, whether a 0620 EZ from EDI to PRG or an overnight BA from T5 to Jo’Burg. I am as happy getting upgraded on BA as I am sitting on the floor of a corrugated iron shed in Lisbon next to a power socket for my laptop and my delayed flight. As I said, I may be weird…

So I am with Falcon7x and Martyn in treating the experience as overwhelmingly positive. I get excited for each new trip I go on, and I get excited immediately about coming back home to my domestic cocoon in Edinburgh. The ONLY thing not specifically mentioned in this patch is the importance of…noise cancelling wireless headphones. A game changer in terms of snuffing out babies crying, whingeing middle-seaters and…aircraft noise. So, add to the exercise regime of Martyn, the noise-abatement regime of my own suggestion, and enjoy the ride.

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No Name

[PerthWA]

I’m definitely done! It’s no longer the exciting or fun thing to do that it was in my 30/40/50s, its now just tedious.

Goodbye Platinum Goodbye Packing Goodbye Ridiculous Immigration queues Goodbye savage Airbus pressurization that plays havoc with my ears!

Cranky old bag that I am, my greatest delight is now in being asked where I’m holidaying, replying “At Home!”

That said, am in the process of planning my Grand Tour of Scotland and England – by boat 🙂

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No Name, LuganoPirate

[stevescoots]

[quote quote=921782]I am not sure with me whether it is Stress, Travel burnout or just plain homesickness (something I thought only affected youngsters).

My travel for business has always been sporadic and not near as much as some of my hero’s on here, however for the last 8 years I have had to lead a long distance life from home but I find now the strain of coming back each time to the sandpit, leaving my partner, house and dog, fresh air, greenery just gets harder. I count the days until my next trip home which I make about 6 times a year, during my partners visits out here we try to get away from the madness of this place for a few days. I now find myself stressing about the most mundane things leading to sleepless nights – most of which I have no control over, I wish someone had a ‘brain turn off’ switch. I get very tetchy about simple things (driving standards here, lack of respect to others, not saying thank you to shop assistants, queue jumping, talking over people etc.) maybe it is me getting older and trying to live to the standards I was brought up with.

I appreciate this may be off track of the post but I think it is relevant for those that have to travel overseas to work.

Thankfully for me though the end is nigh, my exit from this sandpit is planned for later in the year, not to retire just yet but to consult on airspace change.[/quote]

Part of getting older, but i think also its when you tend to settle in the same place a lot. when i first started this malarky i would be all over the world and shrugged off almost all the local practices as just that, local custom. Over recent years however i have found myself “tutting” far more often because i am in effect visting the same places all the time, UK-HK-CN-VN, homes in 3 of them and the same hotel in one. UK is “home” but i find myself despairing of my fellow human beings there just as much as other places. I m putting it down to age lol

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LuganoPirate

[IanFromHKG]

[quote quote=920185]I have found though, that over the last few years I have picked up increasingly more cold/flu illnesses from either the travel itself (i.e. unclean aircraft atmospheres) or from becoming run down after a week of jet lagged sleep (4am wake up anyone?). An ex cabin crew colleague of mine suggested using a ‘first defence’ nasal spray before and after flying and it has been a game changer for me. I’ve managed to largely steer clear of anything for the last 4-6 months.[/quote]

I stumbled across another strategy during SARS, when research showed that just about everyone who contracted it on a flight was (if memory serves) sitting within about four rows (might have been five) in front of an infected person. I immediately started booking seats at the back of the cabin, with a bulkhead behind me, and hey presto, no after-travel colds!

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PeterCoultas, alanred13, Ahmad

[K1ngston]

And where do the copious amounts of alcohol we have shared numerous times in BKK and elsewhere fit into this travel nirvana of yours?? Just saying ……

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MartynSinclair

[Author]

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