Holiday

So Jude and I just spent a painful hour deciding when and where to go in Vegas before deciding on direct flights, five star hotels. front row tickets to shows and private helicopter tours, boat rides and guided walks through the Grand Canyon. Throw in a couple of pneumatic lap dances and we're looking a weekend that will cost $100 an hour.

Still the way that I look at it is that it's cheaper than a divorce lawyer, affords you more opportunity for photos and it's a great chance to watch middle America grazing at the trough of over indulgence. Happy Happy. Fun Fun.

Musing

It's very weird to have the pressure off a little today. Oh there's lots to do and there's very little time to do it but the pressure of uncertainty has been lifted. I have a couple of ideas that I love on the project that I'm doing, a few graphic treatments that are just sensational and I'm getting ready for research. It's all rather lovely.

Why the car above? Well all of this free time has me thinking about a road trip. I've wanted to jam a couple of friends into one of those station wagons that you used to see on National Lampoon's Vacation movies for the longest time. Just to plug in the i-pod, crank up the volume and take off coast to coast before the cost of gas ($3.19 this morning) becomes prohibitive and America turns into the UK, blasting anyone who drives, flies or farts as an environmental terrorist with the moral standing of Idi Amin.

I quite fancy a photographic tour. Load up the friends, the cameras and as many batteries as possible and just take off, looking for the road less driven, the big vegetable signs most often spotted and people with faces beaten by the sun and hopes crushed by the falling price of corn.

So if you're up for it (wrote he spitting coffee down his cream pants) drop me a line. The car's gorgeous, it has a fridge, a DVD player, reclining leather seats in the back and seats for four more. Anyone?

Ah the good old days

spice21.JPG
Originally uploaded by stevenjude

Yesterday felt like a proper advertising day. We got three ideas in late, cranked them through the studio even later - viewing them through a haze of Chinese takeaway fumes and weary cynicism. We watched the lunar eclipse. We watched midnight slip by. We ate more. We gained weight (5lbs!) and we jammed our way towards something that we loved.

Home at 1am. In bed by 1.15. And up at 5am - ready for the drive in and for our 7am meeting. Which went well, despite being hampered by the thickness of our fatigue.

I love this business

I hate waiting

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Originally uploaded by stevenjude

and today is a waiting game.

I've briefed the teams.
I've talked with the client
I've had side conversations.
I've encouraged.
I've cajoled.

I've pretty much done all that I can to send things down the path that we think is signposted 'right and interesting' but now all that I can do is wait. Everyone needs time to work and I have to be prepared to blend into the background while they do that. I'm bad at this bit of the job. I want to be down having ideas, helping people out, sharpening the pencils, taking an eraser to missed steps. But of course you can't. Ideas need time and space as much as they need energy and sharing. And we're at that stage today.

So I'll sit on my hands and wait. And hope. And look forward to the moment that I get to see things. It'll be a LONG day.

Itchy Feet

Konol Footcare Powder 70g
Originally uploaded by konol

It's been a couple of days since I last wrote anything here. I blame The Spice Girls (we saw them in a BIG old Detroit venue), a trip to New York to see family and catch up on blood work and a case of 'do or die' at work.

Maybe 'die' isn't such a bad option. It seems that everyone I know is blowing it all up and doing something more interesting instead. Maybe it's winter. Maybe it's a quarter life crisis thing but it seems that everyone I know is packing in their jobs and heading off for Asia or Africa or South America. Three this weekend.

And it's giving me a severe case of itchy feet. Sure I love this job (for now, work is a love - hate - love - quit cycle that lasts about 4 years usually) but it's -15c outside and my idea of adventure is going out in socks that aren't thermal. Time for a change? Well no, not yet. Time for the idea of change at some point in the near future? Absolutely.