In recent weeks we have been back working with our friends at Theater Bonn. You may have seen in the news that Bonn is hosting a big United Nations Climate Change conference. More correctly they are co-hosting it with Fiji whose infrastructure wasn’t well suited to accommodating the thousands of delegates and attendant media, activists Etc. Anyway, there is a big Climate Change conference in Bonn, we were asked if we had an idea to contribute, we did, they liked it, we made it, it’s called What When and it’s currently sat in a park that forms the campus for the conference.

I acknowledge that it is possible that history won’t come to see What when as the point at which humanity recognised its peril and stepped back from the precipice of Eco-disaster – it’s not a piece of propaganda so that’s not it’s job – but every journey starts with a single step and continues with many steps and working on this project has changed my attitudes and behavior by one step.

This blog regularly does product placement and advertising but normally only for arty things we think you’ll like, now I’m going to promote an entire mode of transport and once service in particular – Eurostar.

My prior thinking was so luddite “we live on an island, to get off an island you must get over the water, to get over water need a boat or an airplane”. WRONG it turns out it’s possible to get a train UNDER THE WATER!

So here we go, five reasons I think getting a train under the water is better than getting an airplane over the water.

1: It’s more comfortable – you’re on a bloody great train not squeezed into a tiny airplane.

2: It’s quicker (sort of) – presuming you don’t have a private jet, considered door to door and factoring in the far greater regularity of trains over planes Birmingham – Bonn is way more convenient by train than plane.

3: It’s more flexible – you don’t have to comply with weight restrictions, or limits to the number of bags you carry, your liquids don’t have to be less than 100ml and held in a zip up transparent bag.

4: It’s more fun – admittedly the train doesn’t have a take-off and landing thrill, or a ‘real world as model’ perspective or a ‘riding as the gods above the clouds’ drama, but you get captivating landscape rolling by, countryside, suburbs and city flow all through the journey and you stop at exotic towns along the way.

5: It’s more relaxing – for all the reasons set out above, plus your smaller carbon footprint eases its pressure on your larynx throughout.

For all future European gigs my first thought from now on will be ‘train’ not ‘plane’. I’ve caught up – at last. Let’s start working on the tunnel to Fiji.