My colleague Ben Elliss responded to my last travel posting by saying “I’m looking forward to reading your upcoming posts about beautiful Slough, Geoff”. So what should I say?
I’m staying at a hotel about a mile and a half from the office, 
and the weather’s been nice, so yesterday and today I left the car at the hotel and walked. The route takes me from a relatively leafy area, through slightly run-down suburbia, along a major artery, and then through a pedestrianised shopping district. My first impression was that I could have been anywhere in the south-east of England, from Windsor to Basildon, from Watford to Croydon. Lots of traffic, lots of construction activity in the shopping district ((just in time for consumer spending to take a nose-dive as people tighten their belts and unemployment jumps)), lots of young mothers with push chairs and preschool children. Fewer pubs than I expected – but apparently that’s another trend: lots of pubs are closing across the country.
The hotel is good, the restaurant is excellent, and all of the wait-staff have impenetrable Eastern European accents. A “glass of wine” is 250mL, which is huge – over half a (US) pint. (And that reminds me: I need to find an opportunity to enjoy a pint of bitter before I leave the country. Maybe this evening.)
Meanwhile, I’m enjoying my meetings with my colleagues here in Slough. (And no door desks….!)