Arrived at the office yesterday and gave a 2hr slot in the morning. I then had lunch (not the most healthy) after walking back (yes, it is possible in San Jose to walk) I started to feel ill. By 2PM I was feeling at deaths door, walked into a meeting room, tried to start presenting only to realise it wasn’t going to be possible. Rushed back to my hotel room to have an afternoon and evening of being very ill.

I hate being ill whilst travelling, but in the US it’s much worse than Asia as finding healthy food is really bad. For example, bread has a visible taste of sugar in it as does pretty much everything. I went into the hotel store to try and buy some healthy drinks. The options: water (okay I guess) or gator-aid (which looks horrid). Of course no sensible snacking options. I’m not the healthiest of eaters, but there is this natural instinct when you are sick to try and eat healthy food. I once had a similar experience at a Marriott hotel in Cairo where I caught the cold and the food was really lousy.

This morning I felt pretty bad also, but realised I did need to pull myself into the office for some meetings. After all the purpose of coming over this week was to do a set of handover meetings.

Lunch Incompatibility

I have a reputation at work for my food habits. I love simplicity in things- not lots of different foods and sauces all mixed together. When I order food I usually have to go through the motions of exactly what should be on the plate when the food arrives. So a colleague suggested a popular Silicon Valley sandwich store called ‘Specialtys’. He logged me into their website to order, but I discovered that I wanted too many things removed from the sandwich so we had to go personally and order. I loved the place, great service and a very good simple sandwich (one of my favourites, Roast Beef and Red Onion).