Ups and downs of travelling

This week's trip to Helsinki has certainly highlighted some of the ups and downs of regular international travel. I'll let you decide which is an "up" and which is a "down".

• Getting up at 5:00 on a Monday morning for a flight at 7:30
• Arriving in Helsinki without your luggage
• Going straight from the plane into a meeting, missing lunch in the process
• Eating al fresco at a Spanish restaurant by the harbour
• Having to stay over for another night but finding your current hotel full on the extra day
• Dashing to the shops before they close to buy some clothes for the next day
• Taking the opportunity to buy a couple of nice shirts in the sale (pink is in this year!)
• Failing to connect to the hotel WLAN so unable to contact anybody by email/Facebook/etc.
• Having a morning call at 6:30am, which is 4:30am in the UK
• Eating out with a group of colleagues in a restaurant on a small island accessed by ferry
• Exploring part of the city you've not been to before and finding a new park with a nice fountain
• CNN and BBC World are the only English language channels on the hotel TV