Playing Catchup

Phew nearly a year since the last update. Oh my
So first of I am writing this on a Samsung NC10. Its a lovely beast bar the position of the right hand shift key. I keep typing "\" its so anoying but. As with the new iPhone I will get used to it and it will become part of my life.

So on this short post I thought I would list out some of the things I am liking from a consumeriste point of view.

Online
1. Gmail/google calendar - Never ceases to amaze me. The calendar is coming on in leaps and bounds and is extremely flexible. I have 2 other calendars plugged into the main one by ical feeds from Remember the Milk and Tripit
2. Google Calendar - Is just plain cool and flexible and very transportable. I use it natively, as an active backdrop on the home main PC and pushed to my iphone via nuevasync.com
3. Mindmeister.com - Online mindmapping app which has helped me in numerous areas of my life for jotting down and expanding ideas through to planning sales presentations
4. Rememberthemilk.com - Extremely flexible online todo app. I have a pro account and have it on my iphone as well so what ever i do there gets replicated to the online version seamlessly. Its the bollocks. Todo app is being polite, its more of a multidimensional hierachical todo app.


ahhhh wife is demanding the netbook. will post more later.

Back in SF

I am sitting here. Here being my room in the spanking new Intercontinental San Francisco hotel in........

I am sitting here in my luxury fluffy robe with my iPOD docked in the clock radio next to the bed belting out some Brit tunage. The Massive HD flat panel on the wall with zillions of channels currently tuned to MSNBC HD. Me chomping on a tube of large cashews slurping a Diet Coke looking at the Nortel IP phone wondering what to do this evening.

Yes its Kick Off time again in SF.

Flight was ok. The new Virgin check-in area in Terminal 3 Heathrow is all very nice, and easy with minimal queues. However the take off was delayed due to a technical issue and a spare part being ordered and fitted. Oh well another bottle of beer to consume. Nursed a headache on the way over and watched Juno. Cool. Like it, it was not what I thought it was going to be. Worth a watch. Its a amusing. Tried to watch The Seeker and The Golden Compass, but stopped half way through both.

Was hemed in on the plane as my preferences on my Virgin are set to window seat. Nice views but you do get hemmed in. I did my numerous under chair leg stretches and tried to get some kip. But ended up playing God of War on my PSP. A Dammed fine game.

The views of Canada on the way over are amazing. Just plain spectacular. Shame I did not have my camera on me.

Arrived at the airport just over an hour late. Passed through customs/immigration again a breeze and then caught the BART to town instead of a taxi. Then walked 2 blocks trying not to look like a tourist. I wondered why all the enterprising homeless people were pouncing on me, but then I realised I was dragging a suitcase. Dammmmmmned what a give away
Damm I am out of Cashews..... Roooooooomm Service!!!!!!!! Lobster please!!!!

Now I just need to work out how I can stay awake for the next 8 hours. uurrggghhh.

I feel a trip the Clift Hotel for cocktails is in order.
R

Work

Monday - Up at 4am do some emails and stuff and then hit the hotel restaurant for breakfast.

Now in the evening the whole hotel restaurant and bar (Asia De Cuba and the Redwood room) are one of the town's coolest locations to hang out in, but at breakfast time it is all quiet. Very weird. The food though is excellent. Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon is a top choice and very filling. I can see why there is a lot of over weight Americans.

Boss had rented a Nissan 4x4 thing to take us to the office which out of SF across the bay so like tourists we were snapping away at anything that resembled Americana.

At lunch the CEO took us all out to a brew pub (micro brewery) for some more deep fried crap to clog up the arteries with. I tried to be healthy and have a TBA (Chicken, Bacon, Avocado type sandwich) with fries. ;-)

Then at 4pm we all jumped back in the car and drove off to the Golden Gate Bridge for some more tourist action. It was at this point I was kicking myself that I did not have the big camera, but I managed to fire off some shots on a colleagues camera. It was an amazing view and thankfully amazing weather, very clear.

Driving around in SF seemed all too familiar and then I realised that I too had driven these streets in Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas and almost felt compelled to start doing driveby shootings and going to the club by the GGB to do some missions. It was so familiar that I was actually able to give directions and remember and see the real locations. Was very spooky.

Got back to the hotel and decided to have a quick teatime cocktail on the roof terrace of Macys in Union Square. Shame so did loads of other people. Shame that the bar is actually a chain of Cheese Cake Factory and shame they dont know how to make a Mojito and shame that they decide it decadent to put blobs of squirty cream on an already over sweet cheese cake (mine was White Chocolate and peanut butter). I managed to eat half before realising that this was not good.

The rest of the evening was spent at the hotel meeting other fellow colleagues as they flew in from various US locations.

Bed at midnight.
Up at 5:30am deal with some calls to the UK
Ready to go!!!
Perhaps I might just go downstairs for some breakfast.

Any Given Sunday

Burrrrp
Its not big nor clever.
So I woke up on Sunday at 4am and then at at 6/8am.
Did some stuff on the laptop and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
You will be surprised to know I order eggs benedict on a bagel. Nice.
The rest of the day was spent showing a colleague around SF.
First beer was at 11:30am. Lunch was a serious mexican at place which served over 250 types of teckila.
Sorry pissed atm.
Need sleep and its only 10:30pm.
Photos to follow and congrats to Andy and Hazel on their new arrival.
Sorry cutting short this blog as I have just found myself sleeping upright at the laptop in my bedroom. Time for bed
Blimey
L8r

Downtown SF

Taxi pulls up at the Hotel. The entrance is very minimalist, in fact you would not recognise it apart for the topiary outside the windows, get into the "dark" low lit lobby and are hit with the fact that this a cool, trendy hotel. Darkwood floors, funky art sculptures in the lobby a huge giants chair sits off centre.

Check in was a little slow, a bit of a queue. This is certainly a not a secret hotel and I certainly cannot work out the clientèle. It seemed to be a mix of the middle class young, the older couple, and the completely out of place holiday inn couple. I was basing this on how people were dressed, their luggage and their body language. But then again I had stumbled in pulling my own baggage wearing knee length shorts and a stripy tee, having traveled across the world sitting next to a nutter to get here. So nothing special in the check in. No Four Seasons personal service of taking you to your room by the person who checks you in, nor any funky present or recommendation for a refreshing cocktail or "do you want reservations to Aqua de cuba?"

The Room
Its ok. I walked in with no pre-conceived perceptions, and that helped. Its a small room don't get me wrong its larger than your standard UK Travelodge and larger than most other standard rooms, but just a little cramped in the main room and in the bathroom. What I did like was the huge mirrors behind and in front of the bed that create the optical illusion of a tunnel, plus I imagine it is good for bedroom antics.

Pro/Cons List
Pros:- Mirrors, the purple smarties the turndown maids provide, the cool orange perspex bedside tables, the designer tap in the bathroom, the bathroom goodies, the minibar, the decor on the whole.
Cons:- The fag burn in the carpet next to the bed in a non-smoking room, $10/day WiFi charge, not enough table space to spreadout all of my stuff (gadgets mainly), I forgot my USB cable to plugin a external HD for music.

The Bar (Redwood Room) http://www.clifthotel.com/clift_hotel_redwood_room.asp
Man it was like we had arrived. Again all low lit, full wood panelling bar down one side, funky furniture, maitre d service to tables. Huge selection of booze from floor to ceiling all with backlighting. Huge 6ft tall electronic picture frames with cool art range from art to slow moving portrait photos (like out of Harry Potter but less animated). Started on the Blackberry Margarittas and then moved to the Clift Bellini's. It was lively at 7pm. Come 10:30 when we arrived back it was a hive of beautiful people just having a great time people buying bottles of champagne and vodka and just chilling. There were no ego's on show, no Fareham Chav, no fights just happy people. By 11pm I was boxed and ready to hit the sack. Subtle issue, perhaps its the £/$ thing but the rounds were costing a lot. The last round a double Remy and a Belinni cost $48. Gulp

Dinner
We met up with my work colleagues 2 friends from Rome who were over on a 3 week holiday of doing the west coast. We had reservations at Aqua De Cuba but canceled and went to Little Italy and a fine traditional restaurant that immediately gave us the VIP treatment as 3/4 of the party were Italian and we ate some fine simple Italian food. I follow the lead and had this seafood soup which was killer. Big pile of shellfish in a lovely

24hr party people!!!!!

Flying into SF

Phew I made it!!!
Taxi picks me up @ 6:30. It arrives early, Great!!!
Arrive at Heathrow Terminal 3 - Not a nice terminal especially as they are rebuilding it, the car drop off area is a mess.

Check in to Virgin Atlantic was a breeze, it was as easy as BA used to be and a delight (I had checked in online the day before which changed which area I dropped my bags off) They even now have check in kiosks. Mate these small details are there to take the stress out of getting you to your location.

Security - Wierd it was not too busy, I was through in 10minutes, but they do now have a separate area for you to take your shoes off and have them x-rayed (Guess its necessary). And then get a full Irish breakfast!!! Then head for the private lounge that I had booked to relax in. (not really private its Servisair lounges which you book and pay for, worth it I think. It gets you away from all the families going to Benedorm etc) Of course I would hit the V-Club lounge if I was traveling Upperclass or had my Virgin Gold card (only a red card holder atm), but I was not so there!!!!!! You do what you gotta do to relax.....

Get on the plane - Tip and this is a gamble and depends if you have roll on. If there is a huge queue and you are not flying posh class then let everyone else get on board then you can stroll in and not get stressed with queues and people being idiots sitting in their seats. Virgin staff fab, great, amazing, love em to bits.

Sit next to my colleague and also a lady (approx 38) called Beanie (not short for Sabine I hasten to add) who seemed friendly and pleasant at first but at the end of the 12hrs I was throughly tired of. Watched a few films, Shooter (good liked that, Mark Walberg, excellent), 28 Weeks Later (nearly shit my pants in the first 10 mins of the film) wow this is a great gritty nasty editing take on zombie movies. Although strictly speaking the zombies are not zombies because they are not dead they are merely infected with "Rage".

Food onboard was so so. I was not impressed, but then it is rare that airlines on economy get it right.

So I took to my seat the following items:- Laptop, Book, iPod, earphones, phone, Blackberry. So what did I end up using? ipod and earphones. Could not open the laptop as the seats were terrible, never got the nerve to read the book, oh and I left the Blackberry on all through the flight with no crashing of the plane, and the juggling act that happens every time you need to put your table down or you need to get out of your seat. Note to self, cut it down and keep it simple.

Arrive at SF - Yessssssssssssssssssssssssss. Thank god for getting off the plane at the end of it I was feeling quite queezy, sick and had a headache on the Harvey headache scale of 5/10

Dunno what is going on but this is the 3rd time where clearing US customs has been fairly fast and easy!!! This time queued at the the "And all others" queue to then be told to shift to "US Citizens" as the queues were less. RESULT YESS big up for US Customs!!!!

Done!!!

My New Crackberry

So here is the skinny. Just arrived at my 12 months with O2 on my Blackberry 8700. It has given 12 months of pleasure using it. The device just works. Not only does it work, it does not crash. Not only does it not crash but it lasts approx 5 days if not longer!! So what do I do. Go get another.
Yep that's right. After reading rumours, release dates of other models and seeing a colleague's 8800 I decide to plum for the Blackberry 8800.
I talk to:-
Carphone Warehouse (My fave mobile retailer) - Well we will be doing that model soon but our shops are not trained yet.
O2 Shop - Sorry mate, can do you Pearl but not the 8800 you will have to call O2 to get that.
Orange - Great help upfront and honest. Had the model in stock and were keen for me to sign up.
T-Mobile - I could not find a contact number on their website to call them.

So I call Orange and see what they can offer, based on what the colleague did after I advised him to call Orange asking for his PAC number (they offered a lot to him to stay). Lady was helpful and I was on the verge of going for it.

Called O2 just to give em a chance. Asked to have my PAC number get transferred to the retentions dept and get asked why I want to leave. Tell the guy that I had seen a great offer on Orange and hey presto he betters the deal.
So I get my 8800 - Unlimited Data/email (cough is that BS or what 75meg fair usage) and a relatively small voice plan. All very easy.

So 8800 awesome. Lovely slimline device, glossy. I set up my emails very quickly. The sync app on my laptop had an easy 2 use transfer wizard to transfer my info from the 8700 to 8800. The web front end that does all the pushing of emails to your Blackberry had been upgraded so that it would reconcile my GMail & Yahoo & even my work email. Brilliant. I can even look at my Flickr account.

Blackberry Love it.