Jan 22
It’s my turn to witness some minus temperatures today when I fly to New York with work. Winter is upon us in Bermuda, but the temperature remains in the late 60’s (18°C), but you’ll be pleased to hear that it did rain on Sunday!
New York has a low of -9°C today and I have had to grab some gloves and a scarf from the pile of clothes we have ready for skiing next week when we are off to Colorado.
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Another week flies by. Work is manic but if I could crack a couple of 10 hours days my desk would look a lot more rosy and my mind a lot more lucid. Mind you, the pub has been calling pretty loudly this week, which hasn’t helped with my time management.
9 more shopping days, I need to spend some time on Amazon this weekend to make sure that I don’t end up paying through the nose for delivery. I hear the weather back in the UK is a little frigid, it is strangely still very warm here, which throws me out of balance as I walk down Front Street with the sun blazing and the lights wrapped around Christmas trees and lamposts fighting against the bright sky to twinkle.
I expect to be in front of the radio tomorrow listening to the Addicks at Bolton. Wanderers are in the exact same league position under Dougie Freedman than they were when they sacked Owen Coyle. Mind you neighbours Blackburn are 10 places lower since they booted out Steve Kean.
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The last sequential date of the century and I suppose my life time, so a very appropriate day to go and have a few drinks.
I’m taking the team out for Christmas lunch today for a few pops and the first turkey of the season. We always back our lunch into a particular cocktail party that we get invited to. They hate us turning up a bit worse for wear, but if they didn’t make it so obvious then it wouldn’t be half as much the fun!
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I enjoyed my little saunter to Boston this past weekend. The weather was glorious despite snow being on the ground from the Nor’easter storm earlier last week, though why they insist on spelling this kind of weather pattern wrong is beyond me. Anyway sat outside for four hours watching the New England Patriots beat Buffalo Bills on Sunday could have and should have been a very cold experience but instead the stadium was basked in beautiful sunshine.
Boston is one of that small band of American cities that relies on people walking it, supplemented by an excellent underground train network. The city is a cluster of neighbourhoods stretching south-west from the airport and we stayed in the North End, which is only a spit away from the airport across the Boston Harbour.
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As I anticipated we never made it back to Bermuda tonight as our flight was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy passing Bermuda at it’s closest point around about our expected arrival time and American Airlines unsurprisingly were not prepared to run the gauntlet.
The good bad news is that the solitary daily flight from Miami to Bermuda tomorrow (if it goes) and Tuesday are fully booked, so we will have to slum it here in Palm Beach for another 3 days. I am having great difficulty convincing my 3-year old daughter that not every birthday entails a week in Florida!
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Despite being stranded in the Atlantic Ocean little ol’ Bermuda is pretty easy to get in and out off. There is a daily Gatwick flight, three flights in and out of New York, two to Boston and each day Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami and Toronto are all 90 to 120 minutes away. Plus there are seasonally a handful of other flights to North American east coast cities such as DC, Charlotte and even Nova Scotia.
The most recent daily service to Bermuda is airTran’s to Baltimore, which I am getting this afternoon just to go to a dinner. Then tomorrow morning after waking up I will re-pack my pyjamas and then fly back to Bermuda arriving here around 2pm. Simples.
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I’m in Chicago the whole of this week and in true Charlton traditions I am attending a Rail Conference, which will include a visit to America’s largest inland intermodal in Joliet, south-west of the city. Oh, I see that you have logged off….
Anyways, I will also have the opportunity to catch up with some old friends and work colleagues, and plan to be as near as I can to updates as the Addicks attempt to redeem themselves at Derby on Tuesday night.
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Remembering today the thousands that tragically and needlessly lost their lives 11 years ago including 176 of my work colleagues. RIP.
US auto maker Chevrolet blew away all the competition, which I understand was pretty significant, to offer Manchester United a 7-year shirt sponsorship deal including signing up fees and inflation worth around £50m a year. My company Aon currently pays £20m, and I understand were more than willing to negotiate a higher rate, but along with other interested parties were massively outbid by Chevy owner General Motors.
Within hours of the deal becoming public the man that negotiated the deal at Chevrolet, Joel Ewanick was fired.
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Back in Bermuda, but not back at work as I had designated today as my team’s first annual Sports Day. Seven of us met for breakfast at 8am at the Fairmont Southampton near to my home. We then went out and played 9 holes of golf at the hotel’s par 3 course.
We started out in the rain but came back to the club house in the sunshine. We then played tennis for an hour and a half. This was the first time I’ve played tennis since my knee operation almost 2-years ago. It felt good and not unexpectedly I enjoyed the tennis more than the golf.
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A hop, skip and jump back to London tonight. This trip was originally planned for a couple of weeks with family to get ourselves fully absorbed into the Olympics. Not so.
Copious (more than three) attempts to purchase a range of tickets for a range of sports over a few week period ended up with zilch. No, I lie, I did get some Women’s Preliminary Round (non beach) Volleyball tickets for Earls Court. No disrespect to Earls Court but all of us slogging across London to watch Algeria v Japan just didn’t do it for me, so those tickets went back.
Thus I came incredibly frustrated with the whole Olympic ticket process and called it off as a bad job especially after a couple of very early mornings/late nights tapping away on the computer with millions of others. Don’t get me started on the 250,000 tickets unsold, including athletics, opening and closing ceremonies. LOCOG couldn’t have got the ticketing procedure more wrong.
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Chicago, my kind of town.
My third day here and sadly I have to leave tomorrow, although happily I will be back in a few weeks. Fortunately the 100 degree heatwave is over and the weather has been beautiful these last couple of days encouraging late night strolling around familiar streets and sights.
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The beginning of July represents an interlude in work stresses as our business flow is predominately backed into the first half of the year. There are always things to do of course, but the foot is lifted of the accelerator a bit until the last quarter.
I have also taken the opportunity to book a few trips off island this month. Next week I go to Chicago, predominately to do some continued education stuff for work, but also catch up with my mate, who is getting married at the end of the month in the Windy City.
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This afternoon was a day to give back to the community as we cleared the office and 50 of us headed to four different locations on the island to give a helping hand to a number of worthy causes.
Most of us were at the Bermuda National Trust owned Tivoli Estate in Warwick Parish, which is a 11-acre area nature reserve. The estate also includes Tivoli Pond and Tivoli House, a typically built early 19th century house that is a fine example of local architecture.
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Bit of a rubbish weekend really. Our little girl was struck down with gastroenteritis at the end of last week and didn’t eat for 4 days and could hardly keep anything down. A dinner we had planned with some friends Saturday we blew out and basically we just camped out in our bedroom watching a couple of films (Albert Nobbs and My Week With Marilyn) and of course the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant.
I had to laugh because I would get embroiled in so many arguments with Americans who used to say to me “I love London, but it always rains.”
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A couple of days travelling with work beginning this morning. I’m on a flight to Miami in an hour or so then I go to Atlanta tomorrow and back to the rock on Wednesday on the same flight as a friend of mine who is staying with us Thursday night.
I am then desperate for a quiet weekend because next week we fly back to the UK for my best mate’s wedding. That is in Kent on the Friday but we are in Oxfordshire and Essex prior to that. I have the role of deputy best man for the day, or some such, which unenviably includes giving a speech, which I’ve yet to write. Maybe the next few days stuck on a few planes will give me some time and inspiration.
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An early start tomorrow as I’m off to New York for a couple of days with work. NYC saw its first real snow of the winter on Saturday (photo) but fortunately for me it has rapidly cleared as the temperatures warmed with it supposedly set for 50°F (11°C) tomorrow.
The trip will be typical of many, i.e. airport, office, bar, restaurant, hotel, office, airport but I’m looking forward to being away from my desk which has been a bit mental since the new year.
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As Santa prepares his sleigh ready for his journey I have become a little bit Christmased out to be honest. I was out last night for the 3rd Monday in a row and I ‘have to’ swerve by some drinks after work this evening before I go home and help with the packing. We are heading home tomorrow night and I wish I could just fast forward to being at my other half’s sisters in front of the log fire with a big glass of red.
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Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers. Remember if you’re deep frying a turkey today, to do it outside.
Bermuda doesn’t like to miss out on a holiday of course and we are shut tomorrow but working today, albeit it is as quiet as a church full of mice.
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Funny place Houston. Not an oil refinery or stetson in sight. In fact the Galleria area where I spent the whole time could have been lifted from most other places in the States.
It was a quick fire but worthwhile work trip although our three hour delay in getting there on Tuesday evening made me realise that we should have planned to stay an extra day to squeeze a little more out of the trip.
Meals were generally restricted to grabbing a glass of wine and some bar food but we did eat lunch at what was described to me as an ‘interior Mexican’ restaurant. The menu was interesting and took a bit if studying without a nacho to be seen.
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Right three weeks on this here rock and I’m off again, this time to Houston, Texas on a work trip until Thursday night. I visited Houston once before in 2008 to visit some friends who were living there at the time. As I alluded to then, Houston is such a huge sprawling city it is hard to get any sense for the place unless you spent a lot of time there, so a three-day work trip (including two days of travel) will not give me a lot more insight into the 600 sq. mile metropolis.
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Only because it’s the hugely fun Rugby Classic Week in Bermuda and we are overrun with visiting clients, so my attendance and interest won’t be what it should be. Although it’s not all bad in that I will be able to get to The National Sports Centre on Thursday for the semi-finals, which precludes a day off on Friday.
Friday is of course 11/11/11 and Remembrance Day which is uniquely honoured with a National Holiday in Bermuda and this week I will wear my poppy with pride.
Back to the rugby then and this is the 24th year of the Classic and the tournament has moved from an excuse for a early winter break piss up for old pros to a highly competitive tournament involving some of the world’s best players, some of whom have played professionally until very recently, such as Josh Lewsey, who was playing for the Wasps this season.
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My body doesn’t like me too much at the moment. After a weekend on the toot in Magaluf pretending to be 25-years younger than I really am, I then flew myself 9 hours back in time to Sin City, Las Vegas which included a sprint through Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 to make my final connection.
When my alarm went off on Monday night when I was in a cab taking me from the airport in Las Vegas to the hotel, it signalled that I had been up for 24 hours.
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Well we made it through. The 25-year Magaluf reunion was a real laugh although it might take my sense of smell a while to lose the constant odour of puke, which Magaluf gratefully bestows!
There were two very late nights, each followed by an unfamiliar early afternoon wake up, sandwiched between two nights of two hours sleep each. Last night my room mate beating me to a deep sleep for the first time this weekend so I had to listen to his cacophonous snoring. Once I piece it all together I’ll write more on our weekend amongst the teenagers and geriatrics that mingle, mostly in a very northern accent, in this little corner of Majorca.
Because I try to make my life as complicated as possible, this trip doesn’t stop there. The Magaluf weekend had been in the diary for long time and so had a friends wedding in Chicago next Saturday. All fine so far. I had even pencilled in a little trip to Milton Keynes tomorrow night after the fixtures came out in the summer.
Today I have a light blue chequered shirt on, a pair of dark blue trousers and black shoes. Why am I telling you this? Well if you were sat where I’m sat now you’d look out across my office and see almost everyone else wearing the red shirt of Manchester United!
Very kindly this week we and employees in over 500 offices worldwide were offered the opportunity to wear to work today our Man Utd shirts as “a way to demonstrate support for the Reds before their big game away at Blackburn tomorrow” when they are expected to win their 19th league title.
Following my companies 4-year sponsorship of United we were each given an Aon sponsored Man United shirt, mine I believe is still in it’s polythene bag in a drawer in my wardrobe at home, others I suspect may have got more use out of theirs.
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Tomorrow I am off to British Columbia, Canada’s western most province and it’s largest city Vancouver. Although I am still hoping to be a tourist, my schedule has been engulfed with work meetings. I am there with work, so there isn’t much I can complain about there.
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My work involves understanding and protecting our clients from all kinds of risk, both those created by man and mother nature. Our office is always awash with talk of natural catastrophes. Fault lines, hurricane forecasting, flood plains, tsunami models, tornado radar detection, volcano activity…. all pretty scary stuff.
There are many ways to anticipate and diminish risk, but no way to eradicate events like Friday’s. Earthquake’s don’t give any warnings like say hurricanes do and one can only imagine what it must feel like to survive a huge quake and realise the tsunami warning sirens are piercing the dusty sky.
Like always, I’ve been glued to the coverage from Japan, a country I have visited and loved for all of it’s quirkiness, history and it’s gracious people.
The ongoing nuclear crisis is somewhat overshadowing the human tragedy caused by Friday’s double disaster, which pulverized Japan’s northeastern coastline. More than 10,000 people are estimated dead. Some of the footage is horrific and my heart sinks when I watch it. Japan is a proud and sagacious nation used to disaster and my heart goes out to those poor people.
I found myself back in the UK today as I attempt to sort some unexpected family stuff out this weekend. By rights I should be in Nashville at a Superbowl weekend with some mates but my hand was forced into bagging that because on the back of being out of the office at a conference in Fort Lauderdale most of this week, I then had a client coming to Bermuda on Monday to specifically see me. Now I won’t be there as I don’t fly back to Bermuda until Tuesday. That was tricky phone call let me tell you.
Valley.
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Off to Fort Lauderdale in Florida this morning for a work conference. I was there 3 years ago but didn’t get a lot of time to stray outside mostly though because the weather was a shocker. Looking at my itinerary I don’t reckon on much exploring time this week and if I’m honest any free-time I think will be used for sleeping because that has become a scarce commodity.
After Saturday’s Rochdale postponement Chris Powell’s second game as the gaffer will be back at The Valley tomorrow night with Colchester the visitors.
The away game on New Year’s Day in hindsight was probably a nail in Parky’s coffin but to the present and the U’s have top scorer David Mooney in their ranks still on loan from Reading.
The Irishman got the U’s winner on Friday night inflicting defeat on Peterborough to put them on level points with us. Mooney has 10 goals, 3 less than our top scorer Bradley Wright-Phillips!
Do people still have massive company Christmas parties? I remember donkeys years ago when I was in London working for the same company I do now, although probably a takeover or merger removed, we used to host huge outside tented Christmas ‘do’s’ at great expense at locations like Spitalfields or themed inside ones at places such as The Brewery at Chiswell Street. Bloody brilliant they were. Do companies in London still do that?
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Happy Turkey Day to all of my American friends and readers. As my old boss used to say Thanksgiving is like a four-day Sunday. You just eat, drink and watch sport on the telly for four days without any of hassle of having to buy presents for each other.
In honour, apologies honor, of my American friends I took today off work to do some bits and bobs around the house and flop in front of the television. The famous Macy’s Parade starts in a minute.
As someone pointed out to me the other day Bermuda observes almost every UK and USA holiday and just for good measure throw in another fair few themselves. Our office is shut tomorrow so I have myself my very own four day weekend. Nice.
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Back to work tomorrow, at least back to work properly although I might still go on a client boat cruise in the afternoon. I showed my face twice last week, but that was to go on er, a couple of boat cruises and after dropping my Mum at the airport this evening, I then have to join a client dinner. As my Dad used to say when he studied the palms of my hands when I was in the early throes of my career “it’s not real work is it son?”
My knee is still sore as is my hamstring from where they took the graft to construct the new ligament but it appears to be doing well. It is still a fortnight before I can use a static bike and my physio was insisting I use my crutches or at least a cane until then. A cane I ask you.
My first morning back at work has been spent packing my belongings into a few boxes. If it is not enough to keep moving house we are now moving office. An office move always presents an opportunity to lose a few things of course, I just hope it’s not my Charlton mug, which appallingly a bloke down the corridor has recently taken to use for his coffee.
Why would you use someone else’s coffee mug? There must be 50 mugs in the bloody kitchen. Worse is that I just give him a stare when I see him with it and don’t say anything? What should I say?
Some people I have noticed put a name sticker on their coffee mugs. I could do that but it reminds me of school. I’ll have the other half putting my name in the back of my shirt next.
I made it back to Bermuda last night but in line with my recent travel exploits, my luggage didn’t. Pain in the arse but less so coming home than going, except I couldn’t have a shave today so I hope my new client likes the George Michael look!
Just 18 hours in Tampa but it was certainly worth the effort. Good meetings and a great dinner in a place called Ocean Prime. Later in a bar called something Martini I was bewildered to see so many people out on a Tuesday night. I had an excuse as I was drowning a lot of sorrow, but I wondered what the good looking folk of Tampa were all going to do when they got up the next day.
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Tampa, Florida
