A Hague Kitchen

I've not travelled with work for years. I got as far as Brechin in my short private practice stint before the current job; and had two trips to London with Scottish Widows before that. That lack of travel came after the (far from perfect, but with its moments) in-house position in a little Energy Consultancy, which got hit by the financial crisis, and limped through various boardroom battles thereafter, before finally shutting down the (head) Edinburgh office, and running instead from London with a tiny permanent staff.

With that job I'd had quick document drop trips to Athens (saw the inside of offices), Sarajevo (brilliant Turkish coffee), and Beirut (2 nights, lovely people, taxi driver tour that included buildings blown up about a month before); slightly longer trips to Mauritius (5 days, attending a tribunal, but with one free day and a hire car), and Tbilisi (carrying thousands of euros to pay for office rent in cash...); and a superb three weeks in Kosovo's capital, Pristina (which included a trip in a UN marked 4x4 outside the city, a walk in the countryside with a farmer taking us into his home to feed us homegrown peppers and cheese, and an excellent arrival taxi ride with no common language save for football).

So the chance to go to the Hague for 2 days, to attend the intimate European Legal Conference of our parent group, was welcome. I like seeing new places, even if they're close to home. I didn't get much time to wander the streets after we arrived today, roughly 45 minutes before we were met at the hotel to be taken to our dinner venue, a cook school where we would dine on our efforts. But what I saw was a very well-kept and pretty little city, with bikes everywhere (ah, love it, I'm such a bike geek that anywhere I go I'm checking out the infrastructure), and a relaxed charm.

The Cook School was great fun, the shot for the day looking posed, but not in the slightest, rather the head chef demonstrating how to whisk to make the perfect bearnaise sauce. All of the fun and laughter is going to help immeasurably with all sitting in a room tomorrow listening to presentations (and giving them).

The evening is rounded off nicely when two of the local contingent offer to walk me to the hotel (the rest frmo Edinburgh taking a taxi back), and one then takes me to a bar near the hotel where we drink into the night, beyond closing time (as the barmaid is quite happily chatting with some of her friends and having a drink herself).

Yep. I like travelling.