Wallet, check. Phone, check. Keys, check. Laptop, check. Chargers, check. I take one last glance at the note on the kitchen table left for my cleaning lady and grab my suit bag. I jump into the taxi waiting out the front and we’re off.

I’ve managed to get these last minute trips to Melbourne down to a fine art. I haven’t had much choice. We’ve got a long way to go before we reach the critical mass necessary to open an office down in Melbourne, even though our one client down there is pretty big.

Even though it’s 8.30am I haven’t had a coffee yet. It was a late night getting everything together for this trip so I’m not feeling particularly responsive when my driver decides he want s a bit of a chat. It’s not a problem, as it turns out. He’s one of those guys who could happily conduct a one-sided conversation until Armageddon.  He’s chuckling and shaking his head.

‘You watch that program Sex and the City, mate? No? I swear to god I thought I had one of the stars of that show in my cab just now. Dropped her off round the corner just before I came to get you. Coming from the States is a long trip, right? I mean, I’ve never done it myself, but it’d have to be fifteen hours or so, yeah? This woman, I kid you not, launches into my taxi with stiletto heels and this short skirt…great pair of legs, I have to say…great pair of everything actually, and she’s lookin’ as fresh as a daisy. And from the minute she gets in the car to the minute she gets out, she talks. She kept askin’ me stuff about Sydney, but every time I opened my mouth to answer her, she’d already moved on to somethin’ else! I mean, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer when I’m half way through a 3am shift, but I would challenge anyone to get a word in edgeways with this woman. But get this: we’re drivin’ over the Cahill and she’s virtually leanin’ over me to get a look at the Opera House, when she says, “Aw, it’s not very big is it?” Not very big she says! Talk about hard to please…and I bet it’s not the first time she’s said that before…’

I manage to smile and nod enough to keep him going, while my mind is already running through the email of queries and problems that I spent half the night answering. I know I can call Aiden if anything out of the ordinary comes up, but I need to anticipate as much as I can. I rest my head back on the seat and close my eyes and I pray for my first coffee of the day to be a good one…if it’s shite, it will be a bad day. I just know it.