Another week has raced past. I've kind of tripped myself up writing about week 4 close to the end of week 5, so I have to do it all in the past tense and am coming dangerously close to using the 3rd person. What a crazy risk.

Anyway, by the end of week 4, David and I had largely organised the field test to take place in week 6. As with most projects, 90% of the work has been done in the first 50% of the time. We aren't going to sit back and twiddle our thumbs though, oh no. A boxer, when aiming to punch, doesn't aim for the nose. He aims six inches behind the nose. So, carrying forward that analogy, David and I will be spending the next week leading up to the field test honing our deliverables - our presentation and our report. In our spare time we've booked the conference rooms to run through our slideshows (which amount to a crazily large number of slides), which got an enthusiastic thumbs up from our President/Global Scot on the way past - he'll see the presentation to its full extent in week 7. We work in opposite ends of the office, so we don't see him often, but seemingly off the back of that encounter we've been set up to go out with dinner for him! The moral of the tale, if you're seen to be applying yourself, then people will notice.

On Tuesday of week 4, Veolia let us use their season tickets at Fenway park to go and see baseball. Baseball is largely just cricket in a circle, but I'm really glad I got the chance to go - the atmosphere was great and the stadium experience was so different to back home. Box ticked.

Throughout the rest of the week, I had man-flu (a cold) - see last Blog, I blame Codzilla - so I was a tad anti-social.  Suffice to say, the spending on orange juice reached double figures and I was in danger of sneezing so hard that my chair would've gone backwards through the window at work.

Moving on.

On Saturday, we headed to the Gillette Stadium to watch some football (soccer). From getting on the right train to surviving one of the most sinister train stations in human history (there was nothing untoward other than the fact that it was really quiet), we made it to the stadium in perfect time, grabbed a snack and then took our seats. Something I've yet to work out: why do the hawkers advertise their wares in a Victorian English accent? (Hawkers being the people who wander up and down the aisles selling food/drink, their job doesn't involve spitting in any capacity). The fellow selling bud lite sounded like the Artful Dodger.

On Sunday evening, we met for dinner with Colin and Camilla at an interesting venue where the waiters tapped us on the 'wrong shoulder' while walking past. That was an odd experience, and didn't exactly improve their chances of earning tips in my eyes! But a decent burger nonetheless.

So week 5 beckons (well it beckoned about 5 days ago - see what I mean about the tenses?). Read again next time for tales of heroic cheesecake acquisition, dealing with last minute red-tape at work and all-round fantastic tourism! Oh and NYC, that too.

Chris