Thoughts on early morning flights

(Thanks to funonthenet.in for the photo.)

On the perimeter road of Heathrow there is a stretch where you look straight into the lights of six approaching aircraft coming in to land. In the dawn sky, the hovering white lights look like alien craft amassing for attack. This week I have three 5.00 am starts, and this is the second. Is this what beauty queens mean when they say they want to travel and be happy?

The key to a good business day trip is to travel light. Take one Blackberry, one memory stick, one lipstick, and ditch the rest. The man in the grey suit climbing the steps to the aircraft next to me is carrying just a newspaper. How cool is that?

On early morning flights, every seat is taken. I skim the free FT for news of oil, chemicals or any update on the sell-off of my own company, Reed Business Information (RBI). But really I am looking for the Lucy Kellaway column which is the best thing about an early morning Monday flight. In one small piece she manages to wrap up the very topical issues that we have been talking about in the workplace - the fact that companies are intruding into our private lives and that by working on 29 February we have given one day of our labour for free.