Marseilles - Part 1

Does it ever happen to you, you're most definitely heading someplace, but for your life you can't imagine why anymore? OK, so it has happened to me, more than once and some situations more embarrassing than others.

I like to call these situations deja-knowns.... which really indicates, well, an "I have deja ( French for already) known what I was supposed to be doing at some point, but really, beat me to a frazzle, I really, really can not recall what that thing just was right now" kinda thing.

And these things can manifest themselves in many different ways and situations. For example, and here we go.... once upon a time I had to fly to Marseilles in France for a meeting with our newest distributor. I was working for an American Multinational dealing in plastics. Actually plastic granules which are then moulded or blown into anything plastic you would use in daily life. We had distributors all over Europe, one being our newest point of sale, Marseilles in southern France.

My mother had taught me a neat little trick for when traveling. She is Swedish speaking and taught me three words to remember when traveling, and if you repeat these just before you leave home, then most of the possibly biggest troubles on your trip are immediately avoided, and those words were "Passport, Pengar och Piljet".

The three "P"'s of preparation for a trip meaning "Passport" (travel documents), "Pengar" (which is Money in Swedish) and "Piljet". This last one is a squeeze already, by those Swedes, as it should actually be "Biljet" (which means Ticket), but that word obviously starts with a B...and doesn't work within the three P's again...so just for that they wrote it with a P, those brave rascals!

Oh geez....this is getting complicated you might think...but it really isn't... Just think in English of Passport, Pennies and Picket ...hey it's not only the Swedish who are allowed some Creative Writing!!!.... Ticket doesn't start with a P, so we adapt as well!

Now, if you repeat those three words before leaving the house, you'll just have avoided the three biggest possible problems when traveling as without those three you're in trouble before even having decently started your trip.

And you know what, it mostly works.... like I said, me, the business man, multi million deals on the table, had to fly to Marseille in France.... and just before I stepped into my car I did my mother's little thing by thinking to myself: Passport, Pennies and Picket ! Yep, got everything with me, so off I went.

Is the system waterproof? Well, no, it is still possible to forget to pack socks or underwear or even your whole suit, but all of those are "relatively" easy to replace when forgotten on a trip. Most of us have been there, right?

Now that I am starting to go towards my 45th year of existence on my island here, I even came up with a FOURTH "P" that one should check before leaving home.... Pills !!! Another harder one to replace when in a foreign country if you forget them at home.

But back to the story here, I am ready to go.... I have my Passport, my Pennies and "Picket" with me, so off to the airport, reasonably confident that I will be OK and reach my new distributor fairly easy in Marseille !

Airport, no problem, check-in...well, uhm...check!.... the flight itself, a breeze...Marseille airport, well, I know my French, Passport control..no sweat, got that one down! Customs...nothing to declare...and yes, I had my "Pennies" to pay for the taxi to get me to my distributor. Well, did not really need to go to the distributor for business the day that I arrived as it was Sunday, but he had invited me to come over to his house for dinner that same afternoon, after dropping my luggage at the hotel.

Right, so we'll just tell the taxi driver to first go, uhm, to the uhm...hotel? What hotel? I actually had no clue what hotel to go to, and was already sitting in the taxi... ok, so there was a first problem, and uhm, coming to think of it.... where on earth does my distributor live, where is his home? I had no clue! So here I was with my freaking Passport, my stupid Pennies and Oh Gee... my Picket, in a foreign country, sitting in a taxi and no clue where to go. So you say, well, call the distributor....but it's Sunday, isn't it, so nobody in the office.... and this story is almost from before the cell phone era... so now what?

Well, finally I made that expensive telephone booth international call, got my mother on the phone who knew the brother of the aunt of my secretary, who in turn knew the phone number of one of the secretaries of my new distributor and that is how I finally found out what hotel to go to and where my distributor would be picking me up for evening dinner.

So, Passport, Pennies and Picket will save you from some big embarrassments, but can not save you from just natural stupidity as I found out myself. When I returned back home I told my mother to write the Swedish papers to revisit those three Swedish P's of traveling by first of all adding a fourth for "Pills" and to please come up with another P for people so stupid they don't even know where they are going!