Except for the lucky ones amongst you who live under warmer climates many of you will have been battling the elements in this new year as snow and ice hits most of Europe. Whilst some countries seem to contend extremely well with harsh winters I recently experienced the joys of an airport seemingly unable to clear 10cm of snow from its runaways. A three hour wait in the airport followed by a two an half hour wait inside the plane allowed me to get on with my work thanks to those fantastic laptop batteries our IT department issue to our road warriors. Gone are the days where you would work for an hour and then dash off to the bar because the battery was flat. And as my laptop battery level reached dangerously the zero minute mark we were promptly disembarked and told to fend for ourselves, ah the joys of low cost airlines. With all airport hotels overflowing found a train into town and then trudged through the snow to the nearest hotel arriving shivering, wet and disheartened. And then hospitality took over- a warm welcome at reception, some genuine sympathy, a great room with a comfortable bed, a good meal with an excellent smiling service and a life saving beer. Followed by a fuzzy TV picture, an extremely limited number of TV channels and a few out of date movies. Interesting how that fantastic experience and great work by the staff can be marred by a lackluster in-room experience.