Aug 3
Day 140 working from home (not that I’m counting 😩).
Like most others I’d imagine, I left the office on that Monday in March pretty unprepared for a long working stint at home, I walked out of the office re-assuring the team that I’d see them soon and was armed with my trusted laptop and notepad.
I was temporarily perched on the couch those first two weeks with laptop on lap, but with the TV news on a loop it became apparent how deep and bad the pandemic was.
A national holiday in Bermuda today and tomorrow, as the island celebrate’s Cup Match, a cricket game between sides from the two ends of the island battling it out over two days to win de Cup.
For 118 years this battle of wits has occurred at this time of the year, never stopping for war or strife, but sadly like all the world’s major sporting events Bermuda Cup Match 2020 was cancelled.
A Bermuda national holiday today. Once the Queen’s Birthday holiday, in recent times the island took to celebrating local historical figures, and renamed it National Heroes Day. Although from what I can make out very few heroes have ever been named, which seems very strange to me. I have long given up by being bewildered by Bermuda’s idiosyncrasies though.
In recent years this weekend became the focal point of a growing Carnival scene, attempting to emulate those in other Caribbean countries. Bermuda’s efforts have been rewarded as numbers have grown consistently helped by more and more tourists. From memory the number of visitors for last last year’s carnival weekend topped 1,500.
What an extraordinary week, unprecedented since the war years, or possibly 9/11 and 7/7, in my lifetime. The week moved quickly didn’t it. The Coronavirus moving across the world like a tidal wave, changing the way we live our lives almost instantly.
Then we just shake our heads at the farcical but possibly ruinous saga going on at Charlton. From whispers to chaos to realization in the space of a week.
The world’s markets crashed taking savings and pensions with them. Then this week I had my own personal work development, which will be transformational and unsettling at the same time.
Brexit…. All is forgiven.
Colorado bound and I will be as high as 5,500 feet tonight in the arty district of downtown Denver. Sunday dinner with a client, then a little bit of a lie in before a couple hours drive up the Rocky Mountains to Beaver Creek, which sits at 11,000 feet to embark on a week of skiing work.
It’s hard to even fathom that 20 years ago today we were at work unsure as to whether the computers would even come back on after we came back from the new Millennia celebration. Millennials can look up that near calamity here.
2019 has flown by, work has been the busiest I have known it since I’ve been in Bermuda, the results have been bloody good though, but absolutely exhausting and it didn’t surprise me to just be told I have almost 4 weeks holiday left for the year.
My predilection for travelling has thus taken a backward seat this year, for which I’m very disappointed with myself. Good news though is that after years of attempting to renovate a house in Sarasota, Florida, which has veered from the tortuous to the exorbitant, it may finally become liveable so that is an exciting development and will be a home from home.
I woke up far too early in Las Vegas this morning (I did plan to be here) as body clock and eyes were completely out of sync. After a little bit of tossing and turning, my brain kept replaying Matt Smith’s goal, which wasn’t good for the soul, so I went for a walk. Las Vegas in the early hours is a sight to behold I can tell you. Give’s south Bermondsey a run for its money.
I’m out here on a work trip, today was a chill day, but from this evening onwards we have a very busy schedule as we venture all over south and north California. Sleep will be a distant ambition by the time I return home from San Francisco next Saturday.
A much needed day off tomorrow. Work has been intense and ceaseless all year and not having a proper holiday has bitten me on my waning arse. On Monday Bermuda closes for one of it’s more fanciful national holidays, but a very worthwhile one as it chooses to honour the Portuguese on the island celebrating 170 years of Portuguese culture.
The timing is, in typical Bermuda government fashion, a little random, but the Portuguese have given a lot to this little island, including making regular naval visits in the 1500’s before it was settled by the English in 1612.
I forgot how beautiful Sedona is. The 23-mile drive along Highway 89A from Flagstaff around and down the Oak Creek Canyon dropping a couple of thousand feet into Sedona rivals many of the best drives in the United States.
Towering trees line the beds of the Canyon’s mountainsides, whose natural springs are said to have healing powers. There are plenty of stop-off’s to get closer to the beautiful rock formations, and Midgely Bridge, is one. The steel bridge that arches gracefully over the canyon is a proper Kodak moment, or a less fussy iPhone moment if you will.
Mr popular at home this morning as I crashed and banged out of the house at dusk lugging a suitcase for a work trip. I leave behind a family and an island that is bracing it for its first major hurricane in three years.
Hurricane Humberto is moving east-northeast at 7mph and then is due to take a sharp right turn as it finds Bermuda’s warm waters and will roll very close to us as a Cat 2 storm on late Wednesday night.
Leaving early this morning for my companies annual Symposium in Orlando, which is nowhere near as much fun as it used to be when it was in South Beach, Miami. But, with only Mickey as a distraction, it’s also nowhere near as alcohol infused.
It is however a whirlwind of non-stop half hour meetings, break-out sessions, key note speakers, panel discussions, one of which I’m presenting and moderating and early starts and late finishes.
After a journey that took 19 hours I made it to the city of Denver late last night. The steps of the State Capitol building are a mile above sea level giving the town its nickname.
The journey from Bermuda is already a hike, and then I got stuck at Miami airport as our plane was taken out of service due to mechanical reasons and we had to wait for another one, give the crew a break etc, and missed a connection in Dallas, blah blah..
It’s late morning here in Orlando and ahead of a big night, which is all relative these days, I find myself yawning like a lion. Life would not be the same unless I wasn’t tired, although one horrible habit I’ve picked up as I’ve reached half a century is that of waking up in the middle of night, and not always to pee. Then the old noggin bursts into life and that’s that.
We celebrated our 10th year in Bermuda this past summer, which scares me more than anything, but there are still plenty of things to keep us here. Some more appreciated than others. Possibly the realization of how idyllic and halcyon this island is only hits home when I’m sat watching the world news which follows on from our own unremarkable village-type chronicles and see what kind of crazy shit happens elsewhere in the world.
63 years ago Walt Disney had a vision. After mastering the animated movie, Disney wanted to bring the ultimate family theme parks to America. He bought a 160-acre site in Anaheim, California and after just a year of construction Disneyland’s grand opening, featuring twenty attractions, was televised live on ABC and watched by 70 million viewers, whilst 28,000 people, most of which managed to gate crash, were in the park.
Today a much larger Disneyland Park gets around 100,000 daily visitors, and I was one of them earlier this week, but was very fortunate to do what 100,000 people are unable to, and got a behind the scenes ticket.
A couple of days in the crazy place that is Las Vegas. I was last here just 6 weeks ago, and other than the temperature literally being half of what it was in August, nothing much else has changed.
I’m up early mostly due to the time difference but also because of the throb of the bass outside my hotel window as the Sunday night revellers party until the time when most normal people are on their commute to work.
Which is what I’m doing today, but yesterday was the laziest of days, which was a rare weekend treat, although it took a fair while to shake a hangover collected after a larger than anticipated Saturday night.
Chicago Addick 