How to Go Sightseeing – Finance Style

Step One: Work for a major global investment bank. Get sent on a one-month overseas assignment.
Step Two: Recall that you work for a major global investment bank. This means that your one-month assignment will come complete with 3 months worth of work.
Step Three: Begin the Sisyphean task of trying to finish all that work. Resist the urge to slap well-meaning coworkers who, willfully ignoring the ankle bracelet binding you to the desk, continue to suggest that you “get outta here! Go sightseeing or something!"
Step Four: Come to the realization that the only sights you are going to see are those on the way to and from your office. Sigh deeply.

It did not take long for me to figure out that the only way I’m going to actually see London is if I start multi-tasking. Last week I started walking home from work, and this weekend I began taking my workouts outdoors too. So no more 5:00am pleasure-reading on the Elliptical machine—from now on it’s running in Hyde Park, down Kensington High Street, and on through Knightsbridge or wherever else my feet carry me. And since Londoners are all still sound asleep at that hour, I have the city all to myself. Brilliant!

*N.B. This picture is of the Royal Courts of Justice, which apparently decided to switch places with the Royal Opera House this morning. Sightseeing-on-the-run is a great time-saver, but you can' t read a map and jog at the same time. So if you are very fussy about which landmarks you see, I do not recommend this approach.