Code ‘n’ stuff…

Just got back from Hong Kong and another flying visit into China to meet with my friends in Xiamen.

More about that in the next post. For this one, I thought I should just let the many who have complained about the buggy code that prevented the blog from being viewed in non IE browsers know – I’ve fixed it.

No, it wasn’t a road to Damascus type thing. It was a forced into to it by Microsoft type thing. I had an issue with IE 6 and after a zillion attempts to rid myself of the problem, I was virtually frogmarched by Microsoft into installing IE 7.

Of course, it solved the browser issue, but the blog had that very buggy Firefox render to it. So after relentlessly ignoring all of the issues (my mother, who is the number one visitor to the blog never noticed any issues with IE 6) I pulled the template down, did a little editing and republished the entire blog.

I’ve had a quick peek at it in Firefox and it looks fine on this machine. And it’s fine in both IE 6 and 7 now. As for the rest of the browser world, which has to be such a tiny percentage after IE and Firefox combined – sorry if it’s not working for you.

But like I’ve said many times before, this is not a business blog, it’s a personal thing purely for my family and close friends. And that being the case, I’m not even going to attempt to look at it in Opera or any other browser as it’s just not worth it.

I spent most of last week in Hong Kong/China with my head stuck in UltraEdit trying to debug some perl scripts I’d cannibalised and hacked from others years ago. My ISP crashed and the back up servers went too. So I had to dig out my own file backups (cobwebs and all) and try and remember how I’d put them together in the first place.

Y’know, back in the day, I used to find the odd bit of coding quite therapeutic. But after last week and today, I realise it just puts me to sleep now (imagine ‘thud of body landing on desk’ sound effect).

What I need is access to a team of highly qualified Russian coders… and I think I know exactly where to find one 😉

ad-tech, New York.

Went to ad-tech, New York last week. Did my solo session again. This time I was introduced by Barbara Coll, no less. Very nice!

I left my camera on my office desk in Newcastle, so no pics. The one above is a shot I took of the Chrysler Building from the top of the Empire State Building when I was in Noo Yawk last year with Tatiana. I just felt I had to put something there.

Met up with my great buddies Jim Sterne and Larry Chase. Hung around a lot with my long time pal Barry Lloyd…and had dinner three record breaking nights in a row with the one and only, the inimitable, Kevin Ryan.

Had dinner with my great friend and boss at ClickZ, Rebecca Lieb. And joined the permanently effervescent Susan Bratton (whom I absolutely adore) as she whisked me off to a couple of show parties for the odd free glass of vino.

Later that night, Barry Lloyd and I went to the gentlemen’s repair known as the Carnegie Club. Here in the swish surroundings, waitresses in little black cocktail numbers, reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn, pour drinks and serve cigars the size of bananas. Jazz is in the air… and smoke is everywhere. The following day, I took the clothes I was wearing the night before and burned them. No washing powder would ever get rid of the deep, dark cigar smoke embedded in them forever.

Still, all-in-all, it was smashing!

Actually, I thought I’d spend a little time sitting in my Newcastle office as there was a break in my travel schedule. But, instead, I’m heading off to Hong Kong and Xiamen in China again. So, looks like I’ll miss Webmasterworld Conference, unfortunately.

Best of luck to Brett. I hope you have a fantastic show. And best to all the speakers…I hope you all have gallons to drink… nothing usually stops you 🙂

Oh, and thank you to my dear friends, Inway, RQ and Jon in Xiamen, for giving me my Chinese name.
I’m most honoured. See you soon.

A quick trip to Amsterdam.

I stopped over in Amsterdam on my way back from Shanghai. Actually, it was a beautiful little place called Loosdrecht, which is just outside of Amsterdam, in fact.

I was invited to speak at a private seminar held by European web analytics company Moniforce. They very kindly put me up at the delightful Golden Tulip Hotel which sits right on the lake.

The conference venue was excellent and also sat right on the lake. One of the other speakers, Rogier Croes, whom I’d met briefly at SES in Stockholm last year thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of me wearing a suit for the blog, as it’s not something you see very often. Of course, I’m sure he was just looking for a link back to Checkit 😉 Always happy to oblige.
And here’s my happy audience getting ready to… go to the bar for free beer 🙂

That night I flew to London to meet my buddy Barry Lloyd. He and I were presenting a training day for NMA (I did a short interview with Barry for my ClickZ column this week). It was a great day with an excellent group. No pictures, I’m afraid as I’d forgotten to charge the battery in my camera.

Okay, time for a quick catch-up of breath. Next week ad:tech, New York.

ad:tech, Shanghai.

I’m rapidly developing a huge love for China and its people. Chinese people are very friendly and very funny too. They have a quite unique sense of humor and very much able to laugh at themselves at the drop of a hat.

So I was delighted to find myself back in the great city of Shanghai, for ad:tech, last week. It’s been almost a year since I was last there. Not a lot has changed. Pudong grows more Manhattenesque all the time. The traffic is the same nightmare. And Shanghai cab drivers should have the word Kamikaze on the roof, not taxi. Apart from that, it’s noticeably quieter downtown since Shak moved out 🙂 Although, I don’t think he’s gone for good.

This was the first ad:tech show with Drew Ianni, the new chair of the conference. Drew’s a good guy and a brilliant public speaker. This probably eased him into the job. The Shanghai show is much smaller than the American shows (for the record, the Shanghai show is in Beijing, next year. If you know what I mean).

I moderated one panel and did my solo show, also. The panel had a fantastic line up of luminaries in the Chinese internet marketing space. Shuhong Ye represented DianPing, a leading restaurant guide which benefits from a directory type structure and user generated content for recommendations. Zcom has a staggering 30 million registered users and is headed by internet entrepreneur Ming Ming Huang. His presentation showed the power of audio visual presentations for advertising in the many ezines they publish online And last but not least, Alvin Wang Graylin of Minfo. Here’s a guy who really understands just how big the whole mobile/local market place is going to be in China. A very cool guy and a great speaker too.

The only problem I had with the session, is that these guys had so much fantastic content, but because the session before ran over, I had to get them to do their presentations at the double. Of course, they were wonderfully professional about it (plus, I was waving a large wooden shoe horn around to make sure they stuck to their time limit).

I then had to dash form that session up to the next floor to do my solo session in the China Hall. The solo presentation is an hour long thing I do at the American ad:tech shows and this is the first time I’ve done it outside of the States. And true to form… I was told when I got to the main hall that the last session had run over by, wait for it… 20 minutes. So I was asked if I could cut the session down to 35 minutes to get back on track. So yes, I did my solo at double speed also.

The show had changed location this year. It was help in the sumptuously luxurious Shangri-La Hotel, Pudong. I was very lucky and was allocated an executive suite. Now, I stay in a lot of hotels. But I have t say, out of them all, I have never slept in a more comfortable bed than the one I had at the Shangri-La. The luxurious and wonderful Valencia Hotel on Santana Row, San Jose has held the record for me for the longest when it comes to most comfortable bed. But Shangri-La wins hands down.

And I couldn’t have a more iconic view from my window.

I hooked up with my great friend Inway Ni. He and I have been hanging out a lot lately around the planet. He had never been to the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower, so we decided to sneak off for an hour and be tourists. It’s strange, the tower is the third largest of its type in the world. But it’s not the tallest building in Shanghai. The Jin Mao Tower is . Now this is me sitting at the very top observatory of the Oriental Pearl Tower, with the Jin Mao Tower out of the window. Doesn’t it look smaller than the Oriental Pearl Tower?

Maybe it’s aspect ratio or something. I took another shot from the ground, and the building to the left looks taller also.
The Jin Mao Tower, is, I believe, the tallest building in China and also houses the Hyatt Regency Hotel . The lobby for the hotel is on the 62nd floor!

After our little touristy escapade, Inway and I went to dinner. Inway is actually a very good chef himself. So when we’re out eating traditional Chinese food, I always let him order. We went to a restaurant which served food in the north western style of China. At one point, I picked up some meat with my chopsticks and then asked Inway what type of meat it was. He seemed to say in Chinese, what sounded like “don key” so I immediately asked him what it meant in English. He said “don key”, oh dear, there’s one less ride at the seaside.

Having already mentioned how the Chinese can laugh at themselves sometimes, Inway told me that they have a particular saying in China. They say: In China we eat anything with four legs… except the table”. And then followed up by saying: “And if it flies in the sky, we’ll eat it. Except for an aeroplane.”

Of course, I then had to go and ask if they really do still eat dog in China. You don’t want to know…

My big pal Kevin Ryan flew into town for the show and also brought his Dad with him. Eating with Kevin is a different thing altogether. None of your traditional Chinese for him, when he and could eat at that classy brand imported all the way from the good ole USA:

He and I had a sedate dinner where we discussed Chinese politics, global warming and… Nah! We ordered burgers, Kev did a quick reccie around the room looking at the waiting staff, and opened the conversation with “do all Chinese women have the same ass?” Hehe! My kind of guy.

I stayed over the weekend so that I could hang with my great pall from Hong Kong, Eddie Choi. He’s a very smart guy and very funny too. My favourite style of eating in China is simply known as “HotPot” and that’s exactly what it is. A hot pot of stock on the table and you simply order the food and cook there and then at the table, It’s delicious. Once again I left it to the expert and Ediie ordered a superb banquet for Sunday lunch in really traditional restaurant.

I was staying just off Nanjing Road which is the main shopping area in downtown Shanghai. Plaza 66 is simply breathtaking and you can crick your neck just trying to look to the top. Inside is the most upmarket range of brands you’ll find under one roof. Paris, eat your heart out!

Nanjing Road is in the French Concession area of the city. With its tree lined avenues, it really does have a European feel about it.

And lit up at night it’s very pretty

However, my new favourite place is just off Nanjing Road. It’s called Big Bamboo and it serves great food, great beer and great wine. It also has some very hospitable clientele. I met my new friend Mimi, in Big Bamboo.

Yes, I like China very much.

Cheers!

Castles and coast.

Two weekends ago, I did something completely different. Something I haven’t done for a long time. I stayed at home for the weekend with my wife!

I declared the weekend at home a child-free zone and told the hoards of kids that I have, to find somewhere else to go. No, I didn’t arrange anything for them. I just told them to go… anywhere!

And Tatiana and I spent all day that Saturday just driving around our own neck of the woods. Travelling as much as I do, I sometimes forget just how beautiful the area I live in really is.

I live north of Newcastle, quite close to the airport, so it’s only a matter of minutes in my car before I’m on the Borderland. This is the glorious area which separates England and Scotland.

There’s a wonderful route for tourists to follow just known as the “Coast and Castles” route. I decided to drive it again, as I hadn’t driven that route for more than 20 years. It was beautiful!

I took my wife to see a castle that I visited quite a few times when I was a kid. It’s called Warkworth Castle, it’s a ruin which dates back to the 12th Century.

The surrounding countryside in this area is quite simply breathtaking.

Then we moved on to the historical market town of Alnwick.

Alnwick also has a famous castle. And yes, it’s known locally as Alnwick Castle. As you might expect. But to millions and millions worldwide, it has a completely different name: Hogwarts.

Yep, this is one of the many locations used in this area for the blockbusting Harry Potter movies.

The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland still have apartments in the castle. But I think they spend more time at their London home. Alnwick, is a really nice little town. But if were a Duke or a Duchess, I wouldn’t want to be hanging around there too much either. Having said that, Northumberland has just been voted the most tranquil place in England to live. And Alnwick was voted as the best town.

I like the Duchess of Northumberland very much. I met her once, in fact. She’s so cool, on a normal day she’s blue jeans and sneakers and very down to earth. She’s spent the past few years working on the latest attraction to Alnwick castle. The magnificent gardens. And what a splendid job she did. There’s a real touch of Versaille going on.

Tatiana really enjoyed the gardens. But there’s more. Not only did the Duchess create this wonderful tourist attraction, last year she added to it. She built the world’s biggest tree house!

It’s huge and complete with rope bridges too.

I had a great time. I like my wife very much. I think I’ll try and see her more often. Yes, life is sweet.

And even more so when your wife treats you to a pint of your favourite beer in your local pub.

Cheers!

In Munich stands a Royal drinking house… (Bavarian beer drinking tune)

I ended up in Germany again at the weekend. Back to wonderful Munchen town. Home city of my good friend Thomas Bindl. We got together and had dinner and a catch-up on Friday night. After all, we hadn’t seen each other for almost 48 hours, when we had dinner together in London!

One of the main reasons (other than a little business) I was in Munich, was to make up for the fact that I forgot to take my son to Oktoberfest. I had promised him some time ago that I’d take him to the beer festival in Munich, because I’d been away most of his summer vacation and had hardly seen him at all.

So the weekend before last, I was in Germany with my buddy Ralph Tegtmeier. And at dinner, when I told him I’d be coming back to Germany soon for Oktoberfest, he told me: “No you won’t.” And then went on to explain that I’d missed it!

What could I do? I just had to tell my son straight: “Blue (his nickname) your Dad’s a complete asshole. I got the dates wrong for Oktoberfest.” He didn’t as much as bat an eyelid. Nor did he disagree about me being an asshole, either, I should add.

So, there was nothing else for it. I just had to take him to Munich for our own little beerfest at the weekend. And so it was that we met Thomas, who took us to one of his favourite eateries, where we were served Wiener Schnitzel of gigantic proportions.

Thomas, being the SEM international man of mystery he is, prefers not to have his picture taken (probably doesn’t want the spam cops at the search engines to recognize him 🙂

So, we’ll concentrate on the food, and look with complete disbelief at the size of the Wiener Schnitzel on my son’s plate.

Next day we hit the famous English Garden. It was cloudy, grey and raining. That being the case. It was a pretty empty English Garden (unlike when I first visited it earlier this year). I took a pic of Blue standing in front of the Pagoda style tower which is the central feature in that part of the garden. I have no idea whatsoever, what that beam of light is pointing to his head from the tower. Could be aliens looking for some sort of brain activity… It’s possible they may have chosen the wrong person for this experiment 🙂

So, anyway, in the pouring rain, Blue and I headed for the wonderful Seehaus beer garden on the lake (which Thomas had recommended). Here, Blue was able to practice posing for his own blog (in typical Dad style 🙂

The English Garden is very pretty and has some wonderful inhabitants.

Joe (Blue, that is) is a big football fan. In fact, a huge supporter of our local team, Newcastle United. But, he’s also a fan of Bayern Munich. The city is full of multi coloured Lions this year (I don’t know why?) and this one certainly caught Joe’s attention.

He got quite attached to another when we hit downtown and headed for… yes, that’s right, the Ratskellar!

There’s some fine architecture in Munich. It really is a wonderful city.

There’s one building Joe really wanted to see (the world cup stadium)… But we could only catch glimpse of it on the airport bus as we were leaving.

Not quite Oktoberfest. But we had a great time just hanging together. Okay, I’m off to China next for ad:tech, Shanghai.

RedEye and a new agent…

One of the events I look forward to most of all on my speaking schedule is the strictly exclusive annual RedEye workshop in London. This is an invitation only event and involves a small audience of first-class online UK marketers.

It takes place in the wonderful Oracle building in London town. This is my third year in a row. And once again, today was great. We start with a seminar and then breakout into work groups. It’s amazing just how much data about search you can release into one room by just having the right minds there.

Of course, as they were the most beautiful audience in the room… at that time… 🙂 So I had to take the pic

Well done guys, it was a real pleasure working with you today.

In passing, in London town, I happened to bump into international SEO man of mystery, Thomas Bindl. He was in the company of, perhaps, the most beautiful woman who ever ventured out of California. I was in the company of leading marketing big brain (and not to be outdone, Danish beauty) Nicholine Hayward, who’s on the verge of HUGE success with her new venture.

Little more can be said about this private meeting of minds.

However, at dinner, Thomas presented me with… She that will forever be known as… Madame Fifi le Blogdog.

Explanation?

Over to you Thomas…

ad:tech, London… and then hospitality Fantomaster style!

I thought that being unemployed I’d spend a lot more time at home and a lot of time in the unemployment benefits office. The truth of the matter is, I’m a complete stranger to the “dole office” as Ralph Tegtmeier (AKA Fantomaster) reminded me it was called in the UK (I don’t even know where it is 🙂 And just about the same applies to home, I’m a complete stranger there still. But at least I do know where that is!

Since I returned from my last trip to Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been in London most of the time. Although, last weekend I ushered myself up to steel town (Sheffield) for a huge family get together. Both my younger and elder brothers were there with their kids. And for the first time in months and months I had my own two boys to prop me up at the bar. A great time was had by all.

And then, it was back to London. My buddy Gerry Jacobs was also in town on business, so once again, we had an opportunity to hook up. While he had his various meetings to attend in the city, I had ad:tech.

The London conference is a much smaller event than the US shows (much like SES) but it’s a great opportunity for the little UK SEM community to have a second annual get together.

I was very much looking forward to the “Ten pillars of SEO” session I was moderating. It was an all star line up with Lyndsay Menzies from Big Mouth Media and her client, Tesco. And Bob Price from Your Amigo with his client, Sony.

Unfortunately, at the last minute, Sony had to pull out due to their guy suffering from tonsillitis. So we padded it out a little bit, with Lyndsay getting extra time to demonstrate the great work she’s been doing with Tesco. And then Bob morphed himself into his Sony client and did a splendid job of covering for him.

I’ll just throw in a quick and very special thanks to all those who hooked up with me for dinner, lunch, beers and general whispering in corridors at times. You all know who you are, so I won’t bother mentioning here. Cheers!

Big time hospitality on the river Rhine.

Gerry and I flew to Cologne, Germany on Friday evening where we teamed up with my long time SEO buddy, the legendary Ralph Tegtmeier (Fantomaster). He and his business partner Dirk travelled over the border from Belgium, and the four of us checked into the most wonderful riverside hotel in a pretty place called Konigswinter, for a most splendid late dinner.

The Maritim Hotel literally sits right on the river edge. It’s a wonderful location and Ralph had ensured that both Gerry and I had river facing suites. The view of the riverboat from my bedroom window, first thing Saturday morning was an excellent sign of a great day ahead.

The day began with a hearty breakfast. I have this strange pursuit, in that, everywhere I travel in the world I try to create the full English breakfast, no matter what ingredients are available. And the Maritim even had baked beans on the menu… (hehe! I hear the sound of many Americans going “ughhh! baked beans for breakfast!” 🙂

The town of Koenigswinter is located on the Rhine in a beautiful landscape. And so it was, after breakfast, that we met in this beautiful little town… Outside a pub, where else!

Ralph has lived in this extremely pretty town before, and was able to give us a lot of history. In particular about Drachenfels mountain. According to the legend, it is right here where Siegfried’s fight with the dragon took place. Ralph took us all on a ride on Germany’s oldest rack railway, the Drachenfelsbahn, which went into operation in 1883.

Yes, after Lake Como and Hong Kong already this year, I was on another tram heading up a another glorious mountain.

The views from the mountain down to the river Rhine and surrounding countryside were spectacular.

And at the top of the mountain, I captured Gerry and Ralph together in a picture which just generated its own caption: Investment Banker meets Cloaking Ranker.

The countryside is beautiful, but we were all stumped for an answer to what the large golf ball was doing in there.

At one point, I couldn’t find Ralph. And then I noticed he’d sneaked off for a quiet smoke 🙂

There’s a story about a guy who wanted to build a fairytale castle on the mountain. Which, in fact, he did. However it was very much a Gothic, Disney… er… bottom of a bottle of Asbach inspired creation. I really wanted to capture its entire tastelessness… But it was being renovated!

Next we delved into some real German folklore and mythology by visiting a Gothic style temple.

Inside we were treated to the dark imagery of Siegfried killing the dragon, accompanied by the “not at all whistle along to” music of Wagner (at his most demented, by the sound of it).

And then, something completely out of the ordinary happened… I found myself sitting on the romantic Rhine… drinking beer!

We rounded off our day with a late lunch watching the river flow and eating the most wonderful local dishes.

I can’t thank Ralph and Dirk enough for such fabulous hospitality.

And now, from the top of one mountain, it’s time for me to make my way to the top of another. Metaphorically speaking, that is ; -)

Hong Kong, live it love it. Xiamen, live it love it.

Soooo, after taking a well deserved break, I decided it was time to get off my rear-end and start weighing up some options.

And I’m very lucky that there have been many. But one thing I wanted to do immediately was tie up some stuff in Hong Kong and China before ad:tech, Shanghai comes around. I’m on the advisory board with ad:tech and I’ve been helping new conference chair, Drew Ianni to program the search track.

And to be honest, I don’t need much of an excuse to hop on a plane and head to Hong Kong, a city I’ve fallen in love with. And same applies to Xiamen, China which is rapidly becoming a bit of a second home for me as well.

I met with my friend and colleague Gerard M Jacobs (leading American businessman and former CEO with Think Partnership Inc.) also travelling on business in Hong Kong and he tagged along with me into China.

This was a great opportunity for me to catch up with him. Gerry is a very highly regarded businessman who has funded and headed up billion dollar companies. I have a huge amount of respect for him. And he’s a great sounding board when it comes to new business ideas.

Apart from the fact that I suffered a very severe bout of food poisoning whilst in Xiamen, it was great to be back. This is a great and rapidly developing city which has a very “happening” feel about it. I have to say, the food poisoning had nothing to do with the excellent dishes served in that wonderful city. I believe it was down to some sandwiches served to us on the plane at Hong Kong airport. The flight was delayed by one hour when we arrived. I kind of expected that because the hotel had slipped a cyclone warning note under everyone’s door the night before.

However, after boarding, we were then held on the runway for another threes hours as a typhoon hit the south of Hong Kong. Boy, we were in the middle of real dramatic, movie style storm. At one point, the cabin crew suddenly arrived with some finger style sandwiches to try and keep us occupied. They were wrapped in cling film, so they had obviously been prepared somewhere else, not on the plane. I wasn’t even hungry, just bored stiff with waiting to get off the ground. So… yes, I ate them.

Eventually the plane got off the ground into huge amounts of turbulence as we bounced up and down in the sky over the south China sea on the way to Xiamen, arriving many hours later than expected.

That night, in the wonderful super-posh bathroom of my room at the Sheraton Hotel, in downtown Xiamen… all that could be heard was the aching and echoing sound of my head down the toilet calling very loudly for… Huey and Duey…

Inway to the rescue.

My great friend and colleague in China is Inway Ni, a very admirable guy who I love very much. He heads up one of the fastest growing internet marketing companies in China and is also JV partner for SES China.

Not only is he a very smart businessman, he’s also been schooled in the ancient art of Chinese herbal medicine. So just when the last of the Immodium Plus I always carry with me ran out, he arrived with something so magical, if I hadn’t tried it I wouldn’t have believed it.

After a night of sheer hell, he came to my room (after discovering how ill I actually was) and dispensed five small round balls of what looked like rabbit droppings. I washed them down with a cup of hot water (which he insisted on) and 30 minutes later… BINGO, sorted!

I’ve always been a little sceptical of this whole herbal/alternative thing. But this was really something else. And I have never heard of anything like it in the west. Needless to say, from now on, these foul tasting, but magic pills will replace Immodium forever. And not only that, Inway is very big on Feng Shui, so he can certainly design my new office 🙂

Due to my being ill, I missed a lot of conversation for one whole day. That being the case, Inway decided to come join us in Hong Kong and spend a little time hanging out there.

He and I and Gerry had a wonderful lunch at the Peak. This is a great touristy place in Hong Kong which provides the most breathtaking views over the city. We took some pics just before lunch. Here’s myself with Inway to the left and Gerry to the right.

And later that night, we headed downtown for a wonderful dinner at Ruth Chris restaurant with my other big pal from Hong Kong, Eddie Choi (leading Expo and event management specialist). It became a bit of a long night, with us all ending up in a late, late bar in the ex-pat party area of Hong Kong, Lan Kwai Fong.

Saturday was a good day to do some touristy things. Neither Gerry, nor Inway, had been out into the country to see what’s known simply as the “Big Buddah.” This statue is the world’s largest Buddha statue, made from bronze, it’s 34 metres tall and weighs 250 tonnes.

It’s set in the most wonderful countryside and is breathtaking. It looks over the most peaceful and serene Buddhist Monastery. Po Lin Monastery was initially a small temple constructed by three Buddhists in 1924. Over the years, more structures have been added, such as the big temple and the world’s largest Buddha statue. It’s situated in the mountainous area of Lantau Island.

The whole feeling of the place is like sweeping back in time. Or into the intro of a Kung Fu movie…

The temple is open to tourists. Your ticket for the Buddah visit also includes a Buddhist monk vegetarian lunch inside the temple.

The Buddha statue itself is so big it can take parties on a three level tour inside.

And so, we headed back to the city. Gerry, feeling a little tired decided on an early night. But by this time we had been joined by Yehoo (that’s right, Yehoo), Inway’s sworn brother who lives in Hong Kong. And so the three of us headed downtown again. And once again, many Mojitos were downed by the three of us. And because Yehoo hadn’t had a night out with Inway for a while, I thought we should continue after dinner in Lan Kwai Fong and head off to a few more bars.

At one bar, we bumped into a crowd of ladies who told me they were sisters from the Philippines. I have to say, they didn’t look much like nuns at all. I mentioned this and they told me that they were on leave for the weekend and so didn’t need to wear their nuns outfits. It seemed fairly plausible to me!

I asked one of the nuns if it was a religious icon on the chain around her neck. She was extremely kind and offered me a closer look.

I’ll be very honest here… I’m sure I can’t think why… but I still have no idea what was on the chain.

That’s it. As you read this, I’m on 747 heading back to the UK for ad:tech, London. And then it’s back to the US to really get some wheels in motion.

San Francisco, San Jose, New York and then… Corfu!

Here we go with another retrospective entry to my blog. I think I’m coming to terms with the fact that, even though I’ve had a little extra time on my hands over the past few weeks, I’ll never be a ‘blog a day’ person like my buddy Andy Beal and others.

Anyway, I was in one of my favourite places on the entire planet a few weeks back. I had a weekend in San Francisco before heading down to San Jose for SES. So, I looked up some old friends. Most of whom were interested in my current employment situation (or lack of it, should I say).

The show in San Jose is usually one of the biggest of the year. It certainly had all of the hallmarks of previous huge and successful shows. But I have no idea of the total figures.

Things I did do this year included everything I usually do. I did panels, I met and interviewed a number of people. And I met a lot of people that I stayed up late with and we all got very drunk. The usual sort of show.

Things I didn’t so this year included the Google dance and not a single other sponsor/vendor party. I think going somewhere to stand in line for a free drink… to have to go back and stand in line for another one is not my idea of big-fun anymore.

Nope, not a party pooper at all. The shows are so big and therefore so are the lines. That’s about it. Having said that, I did pull together quite a few little intimate groups and sneak out for some outstanding Indian food on a few of nights, so I thoroughly enjoyed the social side as usual.

And did I have more than one person ask me if I was forming a company with my pal Andy Beal (who coincidentally resigned the day after me). Not only are Andy and I not forming a company together, we didn’t even get a chance to meet each other in San Jose let alone anything else. A little disappointing as I love Andy very much and we never miss getting together at the conferences usually.

Danny moved the organic session from its usual early morning slot to the last session on the last day. I know that we on “team organic” complain a lot that its murder getting up so early after a late night. But I think that actually added a lot to the session. The fact that everyone was always still a little drunk from the night before. I didn’t really cross swords with my sparring partner Dave Naylor at this session. Usually we have a proper pop at each other which always leads to some of Dave’s funniest one liners. However, I think we were being very civil with each other at this particular session.

I think I’ll sneak a bottle of my wife’s favourite *real* Russian vodka into the Chicago session and fill the water jug with it. That should set Dave and I off with a few verbal fireworks 🙂

I didn’t get a picture of the audience at any of the sessions because I’d forgotten to charge the battery for my camera. I did manage to get one shot of the panel (thanks to Thomas Bindl for taking it for me) but the flash was off so it’s not a very good shot (from the left, Bruce Clay, Todd Friesen, Dave Naylor and you know who).

We were all having a big laugh at Danny having to fulfil a bet he had with Thomas on the world cup. I’m sure there must have been many pictures circulating of Danny attending the session wearing Thomas’ Lederhosen. It was a little tight in certain places, judging by the fact that Danny’s vocal moved up about on octave for that session 🙂

I moved on to New York with my wife to meet up with some friends for a celebratory wedding drink. We took a long weekend so that I could catch up with a number of people in and around Noo Yaawwk.

My wife’s favourite part of Manhattan is South Street Seaport. I used to hang around there a lot with my pal Larry Chase, until he moved into the country. It’s just behind the financial district and virtually right underneath the Brooklyn Bridge . There are some great cafes and bars. As well as Pier 17 Mall and the tall ships, of course.

I spent the better part of the last day with a friend sitting outside a cafe drinking Mojitos. After I paid the huge bill, we both headed out to the airport to catch our respective flights. He dropped me a note the following day saying that he made the flight but missed dinner because he fell asleep. I couldn’t help laughing… because I did exactly the same thing on my flight!

I swept into the UK for one day and then my wife and I headed off on a little surprise trip for her birthday, to the beautiful Greek island of Corfu.

This was my first time in Corfu, although I have visited a number of other Greek islands (in fact, my wife and I were married on the island of Cyprus).

I really needed some time to think about the future and generally just take a chill pill. We stayed in a magnificent little place half way up a small mountain on the north west side of the island. It’s an idyllic place with the most wonderful bay and beach just a short walk down the hill (although, I did have a small car for the duration).

The view from where we stayed was fabulous, looking over the bay on one side and the olive groves on the other.

And so it was that I lay on the beach admiring the view there…

And enjoying the company of a relative of San Miguel, uncle Amstel.

We became very close friends, having lunch together every day.

One evening we attended a traditional Greek night. Here, the men wear short skirts and tights and fling each other around on the dance floor (a bit like some friends of mine in San Francisco, actually!)

We visited the old part of Corfu town a few times. The streets are very small and atmospheric and send you reeling back in time.

There’s also a very old fort by the port area.

We didn’t have a chance to visit it unfortunately. We were in and out of town as my wife was having a special necklace created by a local jeweller as a birthday present. It took a few fittings before it was exactly right.

On her birthday, we went for a special lunch.

It lasted until late in the day when we got back from the town at sunset.

And the following day we had the pool just to ourselves and just hung around playing music and having the odd dip. It was so laid back and relaxing. The pool is actually above the building and looks out over the mountains and olive groves. Very nice.

All in all, a spectacularly relaxing time… for my wife. Personally I had my laptop and Blackberry and spent most of my time on the beach or around the pool online. I know, I’m addicted.

So, what else is new? Well you’d have to have been on the moon for the past week not to know that Danny Sullivan had resigned. And yes, of course, he and I and Andy Beal are forming a company together… Yeah, right!