Didn't we have a lovely time....

IMG_4901
Originally uploaded by stevenjude

So today was one of those cold winter days that begged to be allowed to drive you inside. It was bitterly cold in the wind and yet, on a whim, I decided to drive to the Detroit zoo for some pics. The drive was good, the zoo freezing and most of the animals had been replaced by signs that said "too cold for me"... all in all rather an abortive attempt at tweaking the black nose of jack Frost.

Tomorrow it's out at 4am and to the airport (30 mins away) for another week in Mexico. I'd been hoping that Jude would be able to join me for the week and work on the roof as I went off into the streets to sell peanuts - but of course she sometmes needs to be in the office and so has elected to stay (close to the fire I hope)

Why I'm being asked to give up all of Sunday for a meeting that doesn't start until Monday and all of next Saturday to get home is another question entirely and one that can be easily answered with the word of the week 'fuckwittery'

Still I'm packed for the trip, the Touch is loaded with CSI Miami and some new Glenn Close thing and the TomTom is promising to guide me to airport parking. Here's hoping that all goes right with the flights and that I don't get stuck in Atlanta with nothing to eat but Turkey (which they seem to think is a vegetable)

Okay back downstairs and to Jude, who I can hear is typing too.

Black Friday

October Moon and Amethyst Rayne Day 25 of 365 Days
Originally uploaded by Pink Sherbet Photography

It's Black Friday today. The day after thanksgiving all of the stores have a huge sale and tend to generate lines longer than those in communist Russia around the time of bread delivery. It's insane. Earsly bird specials start at 4am. Stores offer free wake up calls. People go mad. The roads are blocked. Just madness; a perfect storm of boredom, consumerism and the need to fill 'family time'.

It's cold here too. The sun may well be shining down from a sky of brilliant blue but the temperature gauge is saying minus 9 centigrade and having taken the dog down already I have no reason to disbelieve the digital mercury. In fact there was a warning last night on the weather that went something like this...

"Well Friday may be black tomorrow - but your toes shouldn't be, so if you're going out remember to wear...."

Yup early frostbite warnings and yet I don't care. Thanksgiving dinner last night was full of geneticists, architects, economists and sustainable strategists. Arguments ranged from the biophilic through to the usefulness of happiness as a metric for anything and I have to say that I enjoyed it all tremendously. The temptation of course is to be Neanderthal and claim that you're to busy making things to actually think about things but it's something that I avoided. After all I'm in the business of creating desire - so when people start talking about how desire is a learned construct you really do have to listen or I do anyway.

Right, enough of this - Jude is out of the shower and we have some Black Friday wandering of our own to be doing. Happy post Thanksgiving all.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's shaping up to be a perfect day. We woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow, with flakes still gently wafting in the chill air and every house suddenly a potential cover for Victorian confection. A walk with the dog brought many cries of admiration and a few sweet conversations - the dog was beside herself with excitement at the perfection of it all, the people with th esweetness of the dog. Home and there's Judith wrapped in bed with a coffee and a good book (and a banana, worryingly?) Today we have no plans other than to join some people for dinner tonight and hit th egym in preparation for excess tonight. Like a perfect Pinot I am chilled to zen like perfection. I could get used to this.

Our first couples thing...

Vinology.
Originally uploaded by vinni ♥♥

... last night we 'entertained' for the first time... well we opened a bottle of wine for a couple of new friends then walked into town for more wine and the best food I've had here so far.

The big difference between Jude and I (I think) is that she knows interesting people while I tend to know interested people. The former are people out doing things in the world that are new and pushing boundaries (one of our guests last night had recently headed up the digital lab at Harvard) the latter are people who have read about, attended and studied things that are interesting, The former gave stories, the latter have annecdotes.

What they have in common is an interest in the world and a determination to see patterns. Last night's people were both interested and interesting. Which was great. And once again I was the most stupid person in the room (Including all of the staff in the restaurant) which was even better.

Hoping to get my plates and registration today from Ford (my new license wasn't in the system yesterday)

vroom vroom vroom

well it took forever and I still don't have valid plates but I am now the 'proud' owner of a Mustang. 4.0L of rumbling V6 muscle car that's pretty much as American as it's possible to be without actually attending a rodeo.

It's a guilty pleasure. It looks great, it feels great and it sounds amazing but as you floor it and watch the fuel economy drop and drop you start to wonder whether a Honda Fit wasn't a better idea after all. But as Jude would say 'screw it' - I work on a car brand I should drive a car - rather than a shopping trolley.

Anyway the 'Stang is already nicknamed Death Star (black exterior, black interior, the low rumble of Darth Vader somewhere at its heart) and is turning heads wherever we go. Very cool - and at about GBP12k rather a bargain.

Of course I wanted to buy satellite navigation for the Death Star (there's nothing worse than accidentally destroying the wrong planet) but (and this is true) I couldn't find the store that sells them. Must have driven past it. Which could make a decent campaign - the last time you'll ever be lost is on the way to buy one.

Also went to a dentist yesterday in a bid to sort out and exploding (or rather imploding) tooth. While I was there the dentist took a drill to my uneven front teeth and in a matter of minutes had me looking more American and less Dickensian.

5 years in - saying too-na without even thinking about it, straighter, whiter teeth and now a muscle car. I think that this place is finally getting to me

Mistico

So Mexico was a welcome respite - despite the fact that I was up at the crack of dawn each morning, get lagged to hell from the previous week and generally in need of sleep. The clients were lovely, the weather great, the sessions not bad at all and the Mexican wrestling all that you would imagine.

Yes they got us corporate tickets to tegh wrestling - where we saw kids ripping off their shirts to celebrate the victory of the good guys, a lot of grown men in masks and even the obligatory angry granny. But the highlight was Mistico. He's the #1 wrestler in Mexico, his white mask was by far the most common in the crowd and as the time for him to enter the ring neared he was the one that had the already over-wrought kids in tears with excitement.

We asked the guys in front of us what made Mistico so special. "oh" they said "he is the best. He can fly."

And he could, sort of. He was certainly limber enough - right up to the point where he got pinned by a bad guy and lost the fight. Shock from the kids, despair for the 100s of Mistico rip off merchandise sellers outside (paper belts with his crudely cut out head scotch taped my favorite) and for me in the crowd - cause I'd fallen for the myth of Mistico rather hard.

Still there's always next week... and the week after that.

Good to be home. Have topick up driver's license, test drive Mustang and do some work tomorrow.