When 'in between' was Actually Last, and Far, Far Away

How are you coping with the heat?  I don't suppose I'm the first to ask you that question this summer.  You've probably asked it a number of times yourself, to family, friends, or those who might be in need.  Many have compared it to our experiences in 1976 and the water companies have just said that there will be no stand-pipes in the street this time around.  We await the proven truth of that undertaking.

For me, just toward the end of that long summer spell in '76, came I enjoyed my very first business trip away from home.  The company I worked for had just been taken over by an American firm and, as part of the deal, their UK subsidiary in Southampton was to be closed, and their operation there was to be brought up to Norfolk and 'lodged' with our factory.  I was one of two employees who were sent to Southampton for ... I think it was a week, possibly less ... during which time we were supposed to absorb, by note-taking and memorising, all their administrative processes so that, along with just one member of their staff who was going to spend a short while after the move 'bedding it in', we could reproduce the operation in its new home.

It was an exciting time for me but, like so many well-made plans, it didn't all work out as it should have.  The details have by now evaporated in the mists of the last forty-six years, but - in the strange way that memory works - thinking of that project has moved me to recall another business trip, roughly at the halfway point between then and now, which was possibly my last one.  At the very least it was as part of my last employment before I turned to driving for a living, which was a long period of nothing but business travel, but in a completely different dimension.

In a way, these two trips bookend a career that involved many instances of a business moving from one location to another.  

Granada Inn, Santa Clara, CA
where I stayed for 2 weeks

My employer had engineered an investment in a company involved in the 'dot-com bubble', so where else would my journey be but to California.  

The Seattle office on10th Ave, East

The firm's vice-presi-dent and principal investor wanted to move the company to his own home town of Seattle.
My job was to liaise with the bookkeeper at the California office, absorb as much as I could of their administration (is this beginning to sound familiar?) and act as their accountant once the business moved, until a CFO could be recruited in Seattle.

North Bend, WA

Elliott Bay, WA

In the event, my sojourn in the US, planned for up to three months, was only for four weeks, because the recruiting process was far more effective than had been anticipated, and I spent the second fortnight actually handing over what I'd learned to the lady who would be doing the job 'for real'.  Even so, I still had plenty of time for sightseeing!

I started this off by thinking about the heat.  One of the YouTube videos I watch regularly is put out by a man who lives in California, not all that far from where I'd been.  

In this week's episode, he was bemoaning the fact that it was too hot to work outside at 96°F (that's almost 36°C).  He said he'd recently been somewhere where it was 'quite cool at 72°F' (a rather pleasant 22°C) "I like the heat," he said, "but you have to work up to it."  His comment reminded me of my experience 22 years ago.  When I arrived - it was to have been on 4th July, but someone realised in time that that was a holiday, so I was sent a week later - I was almost afraid to go beyond the extent of the shadow outside the building.  A few days later I was happily walking around the town, and on one afternoon I willingly stood on a street corner after work, in full sunlight, waiting for a lift.

I'm not saying I particularly want to get used to this level of heat but, if needs must, it's good to have that memory to fall back on, and know that - within limits, and with sensible precautions - the body can cope with the odd extreme, if taken gently.