Thoughts from Dhaka airport

I'm back in Dhaka airport waiting for my flight home via Dubai. The week has been the usual rollercoaster of emotions. More ups and downs, frustrations but some memorable meetings with lovely, kind and generous folk. It's around ten years now since my first overseas business trip and I love the way of life but sometimes hate it. However, I don't think I'd do anything different; I'm a lifer I guess

Bobby 'Blue' Bland

Chicken tikka

A trip to South Asia wouldn't be complete for me without sampling chicken tikka. I ordered it last night in the hotel restaurant and was told, 'it takes a bit of time; maybe 40minutes'. Anyway about three-quarters of an hour later I noticed a waiter walk past with a tell-tale brown paper carrier bag. The chicken tikka was bought in from a local take-away, or at least another restaurant! Anyway it was quite good; the meat was moist and the portion a decent size, albeit a bit spicy for me. The daal I had with it was extremely fiery too. My only problem was the restaurant does not serve alcohol so there was no rum and coke to go with it 

One for Daddy-O

A few years ago I worked with a guy called Keith Cockett who loves jazz and who pointed me in the right direction when I wanted to learn a bit more about it. This is from one of the classic Blue Note recordings made in 1958 and featuring Miles Davis on trumpet. Many of these Blue Note albums are available to buy on-line for a few quid and I ought to get round to buying some more

Fleet Foxes

Home from home

It always amazes me how soon you can get used to being away from home. Two nights ago I didn't like this hotel at all and now my room feels kind of like home

We've had two long (14 hour) days but our meetings with prospective customers have been very amicable (Bengalis are noted for their warm nature and hospitality) and we've made some real progress with business. The weather has been mostly great in spite of it being the rainy season and it's been lovely to get out into the countryside in the car on  the way to customers and see parts of the country I haven't seen before

Cabaret Voltaire

Saturday night in Dhaka

After setting off from home to Manchester airport before 4pm on Friday I got to my hotel in Dhaka around 10pm last night. The first room I was given was small and dark but thankfully I managed to get a move to a slightly better one. The bar in the hotel is very basic, there's no kettle in the room and I'm still to see what breakfast is like (it's 7-30am here now) but I think I can about manage for a week

Radisson has a great hotel here, but it's now around 300 US dollars per night, which is prohibitively expensive. The Regency, where I stayed recently, is decent and much cheaper but at the wrong end of town for seeing customers. I'm going to have to find a reasonable alternative because business trips to Bangladesh will be ongoing and I need somewhere where I'm happy to stay

Amy Winehouse R.I.P.

Shocked but maybe not surprised. What terrible news

Damaged