Random Walks in the Low Countries: Packing out across the Channel

With keys missing and no assurance that the apartment was secure, moving day itself had to move, advancing a full week. Fortunately many of the arrangements were already in place and I had the boxes ready, so it was a day of dragging and packing and loading the car with everything it would hold, then heading south.

Ik hou niet te verhuizen.

First stop is Southampton, one of two likely sites for our first-in-man clinical trials of our antimicrobial catheter coating. The group being assembled looks very strong, and since they just reported dismal results for currently available antimicrobial devices, they are eager to look for alternatives. Protocol development, IRAS forms, MHRA Notification, and Ethics review lie ahead but, with luck, we’ll be enrolling in a few months.

“What business generates cash flow fast"?” was the question in Sandhaven, kicking off a lively dinner conversation of the relative merits of real estate, product sales, storefront marketing, and service businesses. I always like to have capital sitting in hard assets rather than operations or inventory, so I’ll generally favor the first two. And there didn’t seem to be a firm idea of the product or customer, so was there really a business here at all?

Arguments and ideas lasted well past dessert: the winner was a proposal to renovate a local coastal property into a 5-star spa.

5 am and I’m striking out for Dover, picking my way through the pre-dawn moors. Not quite alone, though: I’m engaged with a spirited live debate of Glasser’s “Choice Theories” for company (He recently passed away and I just finished his book on building relationships).

It’s less dangerous than it sounds. I’ve set up the Nexus with Google’s Voice Recognition hooked to Facebook messenger, connected to the car for hands-free and to the Internet via 3G. So, incoming messages are read aloud (with suitable gender and accent), and replies are transcribed and transmitted from my haltingly enunciated thoughts.

It actually works passably well (except that “choice” comes out “Joyce” too often).

We started with Glasser’s 10 axioms: We ALWAYS have some choice about how to perceive and behave. We don’t have unlimited choices, nor is outside information irrelevant. But we always do have more control than some people might believe.

“Still,” I argue, waving a finger in the air,

I have to move samples from Nottingham to Portsmouth, 220 miles away within 8 hours on Monday. Otherwise, testing won’t be completed before the Board meets to start our fundraising. Given the significance and the constraints, do I have any real choice?

I locked the door on the way out of my apartment this morning. Ordinarily, this would be a good choice, but since the thieves have a key, the action seems pointless. Is my choice meaningless?

“Do we, in fact, accept and endure, more than we choose?” Derision flows from the speakers. Go, not go, go and engage, go and not engage… The miles flow by, without resolution.

I pull into Kesselskade at mid-afternoon. A couple of hours of carrying up, sorting, repacking, and carrying down follows, yielding reconstituted "’Brit Boxes’ that are ready for the new residence.