Friday, November 13, 2009

Anonymous lobby slumming

I could be anywhere in the world since I've not left the lobby of the Marriott all day. It's a classic non-place. I could be in any Marriott anywhere on the planet given its generic nature. So far I've seen next to nothing of Yerevan (I've not been more than 400 metres from the hotel). Writing this between meetings, which have gone on all day again. Tomorrow, I'm making a presentation to the Armenian Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister for Diaspora, Minister of Economy, Minister for Finance, the Chief Economic Advisor to the President, and the Chairperson of the Armenian Central Bank. So no pressure there then! Blumming heck. I don't remember that being in the job description. All it asked for was a presentation to the board of the National Competitiveness Foundation. My hope is to try and keep my feet out of my mouth, try and say something sensible and useful, and not crumble under cross-questioning. I suspect I'll be wandering back out shell-shocked with my shoe laces dangling down my chin.

2 comments:

Uriah Robinson said...

In crime fiction this is where you would get mistaken for the Taoiseach, a World Bank official or Russian mobster and asked for a huge loan. Good luck.

Bernadette said...

Maybe you're not in Yerevan at all. Perhaps you didn't fly all the way to Armenia but were merely stuck inside a giant tube that some people wobbled around a bit, plied you with alchohol and then transported you back to Dublin's Marriott. Either way, good luck