[ 10:10 friday 6 october 2006 – luxembourg airport ]

sitting in the airport cafe with a sour and expensive capuccino, looking out at the windwsept tarmac whilst “delayed” signs creep flickeringly across the information board. thus my first visit to luxembourg draws to a close.

i arrived twenty-four hours ago to the minute, one of fifteen technology entrepreneurs from across europe invited to the european investment bank to discuss innovation finance with policy bigwigs from the bank, the european commission and the european investment fund. it was an intriguing experience, if mildly depressing.

luxembourg itself seemed like an amalgam of middle-european cliches, constructed from film set architecture and populated by central casting. even my voracious photographic appetite was thwarted. i wandered about with my camera in increasing desperation, taking precisely one photo. by the end i felt quite shaken. the two high points were a shop with lighting made from upturned cement buckets and the taxi ride to the airport, during which the driver babbled away incomprehensibly about sherlock holmes and napoleon in a freeform mix of french, german, italian and heaven knows what heathen tongues.

: c :