Back from my travels

Yes, it has been a while…

September shaped up as the busiest travel month of the year for me.  After returning from Maastricht, I made a wide circle through Birmingham (UK), Vence (France), and Tokyo (Japan).  The visits were all good and I’m turning optimistic about our prospects again.

For most of the year, my business wrestled with financial and legal issues.  In August, we laid them to rest, freeing money that could be used for people, services, and tooling.  We paid back salaries; we reorganized the executive team.

Gratifyingly, w.We began ticking off milestones  again: meetings with commercial partners, appointment of our regulator (the Notified Body), qualification of suppliers and manufacturers. 

With work and a little luck, we’ll be in-market next summer.

I landed at Heathrow after a 16 hour flight from Narita through Amsterdam.  The sun chased us, I watched American Sniper and The Graduate and held off sleeping in anticipation of landing at 7 pm. 

Someone nicked my tablet in the executive lounge in Japan, both annoying and uncharacteristic.  I used Google’s Device Manager to post a contact number and reward on screen if anyone should turn it on (and to erase it if anyone logged in). 

Fortunately, it was replacement-insured: I always take the protection on phones and computers.

Heathrow was, unfortunately, a mess. The lines for Border Control wound from concourse to concourse.  It took over two hours to reach the front of the queue.  The fellow just ahead of me got pulled out of line for taking pictures of the line, and was made to delete his photographs.  I laid low. 

How long have  you been out of the country, asked the agent.  “Ten days”  Two weeks if you count time in line? 

Quite.  We speculated about whether my upcoming dual citizenship would help?  He thought it would slow me at the US border, although the British wouldn’t care.

It will take a few days for me to catch up: on sleep, emails, jet lag, photos, and follow-ups.  The house has turned over in my absence: we now have myself, a seldom-seen German couple, a pair of young Portuguese nurses, two mismatched Hungarians, and a sweet Indian IT guy.  If I stay long enough, the whole world will rotate past me.

I’ll back-fill the blog as I get pictures processed, working ahead and back from this point.  A week, ten days, and it will be like I was never gone.

Still, I’ve missed the writing and conversations.  It’s good to be back.