Lost In Translation.

Not a romance. Maybe a love story.

Have you ever travelled on business? Have you ever experienced the feeling of dislocation from the world that business travel will provoke?

You’re not on holiday. You’re not there to see the sights and sounds. You’re there to work. You see the inside of airports, taxis, hotels, and little else. You are in an entirely foreign country, and yet in their efforts to make you as comfortable as possible, the hotel will merely conspire to make you feel like you could be anywhere. You could be everywhere. Familiar. Unfamiliar. All at once.

Always travelling, but never quite anywhere.

Always somewhere in between.

I have travelled all over the world on business, and the only time I ever felt like I was really anywhere, my flight was cancelled and I was stuck in a run down hotel near JFK airport, looking out over a grey industrial estate, on my birthday.

I sang the song to myself, and went to bed.

Lost in Translation is a 2003 film directed by Sofia Coppola, that follows a week in the life of two Americans in Tokyo. Bob, a fading movie star played by Bill Murray, and Charlotte, a young college graduate played by Scarlett Johansson.