Sunday 23rd October 2011, 10.15pm (day 59)
Looking out over the Moscow River (unseen in this shot) – this is the Hotel Ukrainia, one of the ‘Seven Sisters’, gothic skyscrapers built by Stalin (well, not personally) in the 40s and 50s. I’m in the Hotel Belgrad.
I always wanted a job where I could travel, right from being 16 or so. And now I have one, I’m glad enough, even if sometimes it seems a little excessive – I have 7 work trips abroad planned between now and mid-February (plus one personal one), and that does not even include trips within the UK.
But I think the chance to see how other cultures live, and realise that – unlike what the Daily Mail says, in its xenophobic little hate-fuelled way – Britain is not the centre of the world, are good things and has made me a better person, though others should be the real judge of that. Do I worry about the environmental impact? Yes… but I don’t own a car, so feel at least that I compensate in one way. Again, let others judge.
Being 42 