30 June 2005

Return from Paris 29/06/2005

My trip to Paris was painful!!! As soon as I stepped on the plane in Cairo heading to Paris I felt that I was not OK physically, there is something wrong but I wasn't sure what. Suddenly my nose started running and I got a sore throat.

I arrived to Paris Sunday around 14:00 it was cloudy and rainy, and it was clear that I had a strong flu. I was supposed to see a friend and go out with her for dinner instead I went to bed at 6:00 PM to wake up the next day at6:30 AM. Nose blocked, barely being able to talk. Monday, Tuesday I had to go to the office from 9:00 till 19:00 I was almost dead. The temperature in Paris was 33 or 34 C no AC functioning in the offices, I was sweating like hell and probably had fever.

On the plane on Wednesday I was really suffering I could not breath and the dryness of the plane was not helping. As we were landing in Cairo as soon as the plane dropped to 3000 meters I felt that my inner ear is going to burst, terrible pain, it was so painful that I felt my cheek bones are being crushed. To make things even worse the captain said that we will have to wait for another 20 minutes before landing as there are 6 planes queuing to land before us. (It is the first time ever that I saw the Cairo airport so busy!!!) What a luck!!!

On my way to Paris I was reading an article in Fortune magazine about making decisions and how can we predict that we make the right ones. I liked this paragraph below and thought of sharing it with you, as this is something you can apply not just for business but in personal life as well: "Fundamentally, the world is uncertain. Decisions are about thefuture and your place in the future when that future is uncertain. So what is the key thing you can do to prepare for that uncertainty? You can have the right people with you."