Off to London

Tower bridge
Originally uploaded by brunoat.

I'm off to London for 10 days or so.

My hand luggage is EXACTLY the right size to be allowed on board, is a half pound under my maximum allowance and contains no liquids, gels, pastes, pasties or items given to me by nice Arabian men.

I have packed my own suitcase and said goodbye to my toiletries.

I am ready to fly.

Of course Jude just spent 10 days in Sweden and the idea was to have the two trips match up so that we could meet up and minimize time spent alone in New York. But, like so many Liverpudlians, it didn't work.

Never mind. My Sunday will be filled with powerpoint. My Moday with rehearsal of the powerpoint. My Tuesday with the presentation of the powerpoint and the rest of my week with the repercussions of the presentation.

I'm going to head up to Redcar at the weekend - despite the fact that the parents are away. Hoping that I can still stay at home, failing which I quite fancy a room at what used to be 'The Sexcroft' - Redcar's Swinging B&B where forty quid got you bed, breakfast, chicken in a basket, access to the rubber lined orgy room and use of Dave - the well-hung barman.

Alas it's no longer the Sexcroft, business went south faster than the Canadian pensioners in Winter but I'm sure that the stains remain. And what could be more appealing? Or appalling?

Missed a friend's wedding today. I wanted to be there but all manner of work things got in the way; not least of which was a two day 'search, support and steal' mission that saw me in the dreary offices of two less than dreary ad / design agencies. Both agencies had good ideas. One underdeveloped, one overdeveloped to the point of grotesque and irrelevant. We on the other hand have a sound idea in need of fairy dust. And fairy dust is currency in the presentation game.

Oh and is it just me or do 90% of men in New York ad agencies sound 'sitcom gay'?

The end of summer

Tonight I finally admitted defeat, climbed out onto the fire escape and took the aircon out of our window. One less pimple on the acned faced of Williamsburg. One more admission that the summer is over.

I've enjoyed this summer, at home, with the dog - going for long walks, watching people in the park, realizing that whilst I used to spend hours in an office with no outside views of the world others were out living life. Feeling the sun on their faces. The grass under their feet. No doubt my face will pay the price of too many hours outside but a few lines and patches of leather are a small price to pay for a summer that was glorious and unexpected.

Had I died, as well I might, back in the bleak days of February I would never experienced the feeling of work punctuating life - only of life occasionally being allowed to peak around the long shadow that work cast over my every thought.

Jude got it far earlier than I did. With Africa and her PhD. Blur were right - modern life is rubbish. And the secret is that you can opt out. Choose not to be the monkey. Choose to define yourself by what you do - not who you work for. I think that I might, just might, do exactly that and pretty soon

A good day

915chainsawbw
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

talk ideas and taking dictation from a client today. It was so good to be in a room with somebody - rather than on the phone to them. Made me realize that more than anything I'm lonely at work.

Guy I now sit next to finally realized that my 'bald sick looking phase' was more circumstance than fashion choice and looked suitably embarrassed.

Have meeting with la grande toupee de la creative global tomorrow at 9am - I have no idea why but I guess we'll see.

Sorry that these have been infrequent, short and crap. We'll see what happens tomorrow - and make up stuff if the meetings are as mundane as ever

Don't mess with blurry but beefy biker babes

915bfgang
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

One last pic from my 'biker excursion.' I've been trying to keep to the 'real photographer' ethos and attempting not to use zoom when taking candid street pics. It sounds easy - but it's not. Whilst it's perfectly legal to take pictures of people on the street (unless they're going to be used commercially) most people don't know that little fact and proceed to get very blousey.

Still thes chicks gave me no trouble - mainly because I was hiding behind the tall bloke whose shoulder is visible bottom right.

Got quite a lot of work done this morning. Jude will be home in about an hour and a half (she just landed at Newark), fresh direct are coming and I've promised to take a bunch of Aussies for Dinner, Smut and Burlesque (which sounds like a SandDancer act, but isn't)

Jeez

Jude's Away

915what
Originally uploaded by stevenjude.

And everywhere I go there are near naked women tying themselves up in knots (see pic) or twirking their glittery nipple tassles (see the Slipper room last night) It's all very odd and I'm blaming the suddenly hot weather (27c today, 29c tomorrow)... it's like a second spring, a last chance to throw off the clothes and feel some heat before the winter comes crashing in on us.

I'd forgotten all about winter until yesterday - when I went back and looked at the first few posts on this blog. It seemed to be a time of constant icy winds, snow, slush, drenching rains and almost constant darkness. Weird to think that it's all just weeks away. Still who'd have thought that I'd be here to throw snowballs at passing trucks and moan about how ugly my coat is? Not me. Not my doctors. Not anyone objective.

Jude home tomorrow (for some reason I'd thoughtTuesday) so now I'm looking for places to stash all of my crap and easy ways to dust without having to pic up a duster (trying a pigeon to the cat's tail was working until the pigeon kinda exploded)