the alchemist Aaron’s blog

Here's my one... Not packing enough clothes.

I was in Europe, I thought I could get away with one pair of jeans for two weeks - I thought I could survive Glastonbury, Europe would be a breeze!  I was wrong.. With-in an hour a bird shit on them, then the next two hostels I stayed at had broken washing facilities... Yes, I wasn’t a very pretty picture for a while there!!!

What's yours???

My horror story absolutely has to be getting lost in a Norwegian forest in Jotunheim

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I didn’t have a compass with me (I know, forest, compass of course you'll be lost) but that was the way it was.  After 3 hours sightseeing toad stools and all sorts of life i decided it was time to leave and make my camp in the valleys.. only I had no idea which direction i was going and found myself immersed in orange dust while every footstep i took was lost in a bog. 

I was not happy.

The panic took over for 30 mins as I pulsed stupidly in any direction I could pass though.  Thoughts of my life back in the city passed me by.  I missed traffic lights telling you when it was safe to walk, i missed my sofa and cornflakes and strange silly things I don’t take a second look at.  And then i heard the noise.   the Noise that meant my time in the this forest was coming to an end.  Running water.  I found a stream, looked at the map.  Took a best guess and traced the river for 3.5 hours until finally i saw mountains again. 

Long day.  Rather Horrific.  But utterly absorbing.

Well this afternoon has been a busy one at the office.... well busy measuring 'who tall we all' are on the second floor!

Our Media had always been the tallest till I arrived, and today the mini wars and debates of how tall everyone was came to a shattering conclusion when we put up the Who Tall Are You .. instead of height measurements you have people!

Turns out our boss who I’ll call Miss B was as tall as Adolf Hitler.. she wasn’t pleased, but with her heels on she reached the heights of Mark Chapman.. so again not too great!

I was Geogre W. Bush Heather who sits opposite me with her zoo , was as tall as Mussolini and Angela who sits with us was a little shorter than Putin!  Happy days, the biggest shock was that one of our beautiful marketing ladies was actually Prince Charles in disguise!

Oh yes, we also did a lot of work when our HR manager came up... he's Jackie Chans height!

The second floor of the office was buzzing this morning.

Mondays are never normally a pretty time, but anticipation of the worlds biggest sugar rush was stoked up when it was revealed that a PR agency were trying to coerce us by sending some doughnuts.

The Export team kept an eye out of over there shoulder, marketing took a slower  Meerkats approach occasionally popping there heads up.  It all came down to Media though.  The pressure was on.  In times of crisis the human body reacts, panther like to a situation, adrenalin floods the system and you’re launched into a full scale alert.

Of course we were too busy talking about Jade getting kicked out for rehab anger management for being.. too angry… (it doesn’t make sense to me either!) when swiftly and suddenly 3 boxes of doughnuts appear on our managers desk!!

She was in a meeting.

We circled like eagles, eyeing up the sugary possibilities.

Well it’s 5 hours later and there are still two doughnuts left.  An edge hangs with us on the second floor, buzzing with sugar but full on dough.  I’m not too sure if I want to go dancing or go to bed.  Oh and we should all probably do some work!

Have you eyes ever been bigger than your stomach?

Located in central Italy Siena is surrounded by glamorous neighbors like Florence and Umbria,  Siena actually has a lot going for it the Terzo di Catta is beautiful and the town opens up to it's ancient roots.  Allegedly founded by the sons of Remus and historically engaged in creative battles with the arts of Florence Siena pounds you with it’s past

It does get crowded in the summer months, but if you are passing though and want to go somewhere smaller than the main sites but still get a taste of the past, then is a perfect stop off.

Ahhh Paris, Moulin Rouge, gastro food and lots of wine and cheese.  I love that city, and so i wanted to start a story in her honour.  Add 6 words in you're post and let’s see if we can tell a story of Paris in a whole new way...

Strolling through Le Marais i saw....

Ever have those mornings where you know you shouldn’t be doing what you are doing?

Well after a very long weekend (which included a vintage tea dance and jumping on a bed at 3 am with a bottle of Champaign with Regina Spektor blasting out) I had to be at the Lonely Planet office for 7.30am to get a bright orange coat and samplers for a new book we are releasing.  At least we didn’t have to ware a sandwich board!  Fair enough?  Well then we had to stand in the rain getting ignored by hundreds of people who wanted to escape the rain for the tube!  And then.. it kicked in.  the silliness of the situation.

you know how it get to a stage of a situation where you just can't help but laugh at the madness you've found yourself in?  Well i well and truly got the giggles and suddenly people started taking the samples from me!!!

The nice polite smile got me know where but the cheek to cheek laughter almost made my a celebrity!!

The moral of the story?

It's never as bad as you think it is.  There's always something around the corner, just depends how long the street is!