The Campbell Academy Blog (91)

Rhine Time

All the meetings, stuff, and nonsense were over by the time we got to Tuesday evening, but this week and on this trip, I looked after myself better than I have on previous ones.

I promised myself I wouldn't drink on Tuesday evening, but Martin and I sat together, and it was hard not to share a glass of wine with friends you're getting on with and having fun with.

So, I had a couple of glasses of wine but managed to stop no more than that (very difficult for a Scotsman) and then drank plenty of water, went back to bed and woke up in the morning ready to get my stuff together to go back to the airport.

I went down for breakfast at the Hilton, and I realised there was an outdoor patio that I hadn't sat on and wondered if it was open at breakfast time.

I managed to get my breakfast and sit outdoors with one or two other people right on the edge of the river, watching the joggers go by, the people on their bikes and the guys in their triathlon trainers (he must have been a triathlete because only triathletes wear those trainers).

I then realised that I had planned to be away by 8:45 to be in plenty of time for my flight and to give myself more than two hours at the airport.

Then I stopped for a minute and thought, "Why don't I spend more of my time on the patio and less of my time in the airport?" this is a little bit of a sea change for me over the past few weeks, I think.

I think, for the past 18 months, looking back to the Left Turn blog, I've been carrying a degree of anxiety just because I haven't been at my best.

And so, I knew while I was sat there at 8.45 beside the Rhine, eating my muesli breakfast and drinking my coffee that I could sit there for another 15 or 20 minutes and I would catch up with whatever it was I would have missed out on.

I took a little bit longer to sit in the most beautiful place and spent a little less time sitting in the concrete jungle of Frankfurt airport.

In the end, by the time I got to the airport, there was a 30-minute queue for passport control, and I had about 20 minutes in the lounge where I thought I would have had about 90 minutes.

I wouldn't have had the time to do the thing I did anyway, so I was grateful that I took the time to have my breakfast on the side of the Rhine in a place that I'm unlikely to ever go to again.