The Indignities of Business Travel

I'll admit things looked pretty glum at first. I had just travelled for 20 hours to find that I have somehow misplaced my return tickets - 1st time in many years of extensive traveling. This led to a few hours of anxious wrangling with the Luftansa, SAS and Singapore Airlines counter staff at the airport and even long distance to the call centre in Singapore.

The short of it is that if you lose your tickets in a city where Singapore Airlines flies to but does not have a ticketing office, there is pretty much nothing they can do for you. I eventually found my way to the local representative office for Singapore Airlines and the lone staff (thank you Hanna-Leena) there was kind enough to offer to help me sort it all out.
And so it was, more than 24 hours after I left home, I found myself in a European style hotel - see the small and bare amenities - not the most inviting place in the world at my (then) state of mind. This is one of the rare moments when I regret being spoilt by the luxrious and relatively cheap hotels in Asia. "The silence is opressive!" I remember myself thinking once I closed the door to the small room and decided to head out for some fresh air. The surroundings were pretty enough (the pictures here don't do it enough justice), but all I wanted was to take a hot shower, have a hot drink/scoff, hit the sack and head to the gym for a run the next morning.


Strike one - there is no kettle in the room, no room service and no dinner for quite a few hours yet. "Okay, might as well check out the gym" I thought.



Strike two - there is a gym, but I can't figure out the treadmill - spent a few minutes fussing with it and decided to give up. Looks like my training plans this week is down the toilet - it's 5 degrees celsius outside and I did not bring my cold weather trainers (in fact, I am not sure if I even still have them after so many years in sunny Singapore).

Strike three - called home and head that my lil one had a bad fall and may have fractured his finger.

That was quite a low point for me. Must admit I kinda suspected that the devil would pull one on me after all the posts about being happy, but he still took me by surprise when he did. :) Funny thing is, once I opened up the Bible for my Quiet Time, it started to occur to me that I have so much to be thankful for - (1) I have been chosen to attend this management workshop in Europe, in a beautiful country where many in Asia may never have a chance to visit; (2) Praise God that He was watching over my son - that he did not hurt himself in a worse way or bump his head; (3) I will take this week without the means to train as a "retreat" for my personal development and for spending quality time with the Lord.



As it turns out, I had a terrific workshop - learnt loads and made some important friends in the global organisation. We also had great evening programs (dinners and team building) which took up just about all the time, so I didn't really miss the gym at all. And the missing return tickets? Not only were they re-issued on time, I even managed to get on the earlier (totally full) flight as I was back in Singapore one whole day earlier than planned!



I guess this is indeed a case in point of living what I preach - to choose to be happy regardless of how the situation looks, simply because we trust our God to His word...

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

The beauty in our Lord's kingdom is not that there will never be trouble, but that His grace is more than sufficient for us to bear up, and even to triumph over whatever life brings us. Praise God!