We had a fabulous time at the Vienna Christmas Markets a couple of weeks ago.
One of the city’s other highlights though, is the food!
Travel
Winter Wonderland in Richmond London
OK, so us Brits are always told we’re obsessed with the weather, but this is ridiculous….
Shopping in the Vienna Christmas Markets
Had a great time last week in Vienna. We’d gone to visit the Christmas markets, and I’d collared a couple of tickets to see Don Giovanni at the opera house, so it was brass monkeys and culture all round!
New Blog & New Life
RIP Old Blog
They say “a change is as good as a rest” and, although I’ve always wondered who “they” are, I have to agree in a couple of ways.
Firstly with my writing this blog post.
My blog has always tended to slant towards internet marketing because that’s what I do.
Me writing about digital has always made perfect sense to most people and I’ve had a lot of contact regarding speaking opportunities etc as a result of me being out there in a personal way.
Well recently I’ve been writing more and more about my experiences on my travels, on the way to or at conferences around the world, and finding folks taking a lot more interest in those because there’s been more of an everyday insight element to some of the entries.
This got me thinking about how I could combine my love for my work with my love for wine, food, hopping on planes, gadgets, photography, messing about in boats and general all-round globetrotting.
After a bit of noodling and a lot of generous help from Jon, Dave and the very talented Kean………….Technology – Taste – Travel was born.
Welcome New Blog
We hope the design speaks for itself. As it give me more scope to talk about other things, you’ll being see a lot more entries from me, even if it’s just the odd photo or location update. 
Rest assured it’ll have everything the previous incarnation had, but it’ll be enhanced with travel tips, restaurant reviews and a lot more video/photography from wherever I am in the world.
I hope you enjoy it and please let me know if you have any thoughts or observations on what you’d like to see……
So that’s the new blog!
What about the new life?
Well, after 20 years working in the UK and 5.5 at Microsoft in London, I’m moving to Seattle, Washington.
Ashley and I will be upping sticks from Richmond in SW London and rolling up in Redmond to work for Microsoft over there in March 2011.
My role will be much of the same and more, evangelising Microsoft Advertising, and doing my best to help marketers deliver their dreams.
Burley Lagoon – Gig Harbor – Washington
We’re looking forward to a fantastic life on the other side of the pond, and although it’s a change, I’m not sure our feet will touch the ground long enough to call it a rest!
For those of you too sad for words (and I know there are at the most two of you) we’ll be back often as my job has always been global.
So despite moving lock stock and barrel, you’ll find me propping up the bar in some conference venue somewhere in the world very soon!
Come Again?
Spotted this helpful observation in an international relocator’s guide to the US of A.
“Language – American English is spoken throughout the States, although
you will find it very different from other forms of English
used in other countries.”
Really?
Dr Wilkinson’s Hot Springs Resort in Calistoga Napa
During our wine tasting trip to Napa in California, we stayed in a couple of really great places.
The first stop for 2 nights was Dr Wilkinson’s Motel which boasts hot springs and a mud bath spa!
You can get some really good deals on a room if you take up one of their spa packages.
Ashley had booked us on a two hour jolly where we got to sit in a bath of hot mud for 15 minutes – bit weird, especially as you’re totally naked – but nevertheless an authentic and box-ticking experience.
Then we had a 10 minute whirlpool bath followed by a blanket wrap, which is essentially a “lie down” with a sheet covering your modesty.
The highlight was the massage, which was a welcome antidote to the long flight there, coupled with “post-wine imbibing twisted sleeping position” aches and pains!
It was a totally grey few days, so these photos don’t give it true justice, but the motel was seriously 1950’s Americana in style which was excellent for an out of towner like me and really added to ambiance.
There were two swimming pools, one heated and one fffffreezing cold, but I imagine on a nice Spring/Summer’s day (we went late October) they’d be gorgeous to lounge out by.
There are plenty of restaurants a few minutes walk away, but if you’re wine tasting, be aware you’ll get nobbled with a minimum $10 bill for each one, so I’d recommend popping to the fabulous supermarket next door and stocking up breakfast provisions and “to go” coffee, and scoffing them in your room before heading out for the day…….with a designated driver of course!
Best Halloween Costumes Ever!
Halloween has more of a “cult” following over here in the US where I’ve been for the last 3 weeks. Just jotting this down before we’re on our way back this afternoon to Blighty!
Trick or treating, dressing up and copious amounts of “candy” must have contributed huge amounts of well needed revenue to the teetering US economy this year.
Invited to my sister-in-law’s Halloween party last night, I was amazed at the creativity of our American cousins in what they turned up in.
Winners by far in my eyes were Chrissie, Matt and the adorable Miles. They looked like they’d just walked off the set of an Asterix movie, although I’m not sure what to make of Chrissie’s pose!
[Side note: Chrissie’s brother, Eric Cozens, runs the Mission Mexican Restaurant in West Seattle. Awesome eatery with equally impressive beer and tequila list.]
Below is a video of my other sister-in-law Aubrey and her husband, Chasen, who wowed us all the night before at a party with their glow-in-the-dark stickmen fancy dress.
Just glad I’ve got another 364 days to think of how to out-do them all next year…..
Grape Picking and Crushing for Making Wine in Napa
Just back from a fabulous birthday trip to the Napa Valley in California.
More of what we ate and drank in later posts, but I wanted to show you some photos of why October is the best time to travel there.
October is harvest time for the grapes, and there’s plenty to see before your start stumbling in and out of the wineries.
Here are some snaps – kicking myself for not having my video camera on me – of the picking and crushing process…….
Grapes, ripe and juicy and about to be picked!
Pickers start making their way down the vines – in all weathers
Paid by the weight of their quarry, they move very fast until they’ve filled a basket
The grapes are then loaded onto pallets and towed by tractor to the winery
Stacked and awaiting crushing!
They’re then helped into a massive machine and sorted – no feet in sight!
The stalks are then removed by the machine….
….and the grapes fall down a crusher while the stalks….
…..end up being recycled as compost
As someone who’s drunk a LOT of wine in my life, it was real joy to see the actual picking/crushing process in action.
Now I know the work that goes into preparing the grapes, I’ll try not to drink the end result quite so quickly in future!
Review: Howard Jones in Concert at Epcot Orlando
As part of their International Food and Wine Festival, those folks from Disney hosted Howard Jones in concert at the Epcot Center last night.
Through a bizarre set of connections, all to do with social media, I got wind he was playing. As I was in Orlando for the ANA Masters of Marketing and a HUGE fan, I duly coughed up the $80 odd entrance fee, bought a bud and plonked myself near the front of their outside theatre.
Howard would play three sets of 30 minutes between 5.15pm (I thought that’s when pop stars got out of bed!) and 7.45pm.
On Twitter he had promised “Hits Baby, Hits!” and we weren’t disappointed.
My earliest memory of his music was at school. Way back in 1984, albums like Human Lib and then Dream into Action were the ones that got the most scratches because they were played so much on our common room record player – yes I can remember vinyl!
I guess his popularity was about the great songs, the fact he was solo with banks of synths and drum machines to accompany him which all us boys (I’d have been about 12 then!) found super-cool, but for me it was his vulnerability and positivity that shined through.
He obviously thought about what he was writing, wrote from personal experience and didn’t particularly care who thought he was cool or not. It was all about the music!
He was an ordinary guy from High Wycombe who wrote about life and love in a more approachable way than many of the songwriters of his generation.
After the second set I overheard a guy telling a friend he’d left his wife in the mid-80s and went back to her after listening to one of Howard’s songs…..and they’re still married.
Coupling those lyrics with great melodies made those two albums sell millions and helped make him an international star.
Everyone I asked in the US knew who he was!
Anyway the gigs obviously took a bit of time to get going, in that the 1st was in the early evening and the crowd hadn’t quite warmed up.
Kicking off with Pearl in the Shell, a heart-stopping moment came at the start of the second song when his pedals malfunctioned. A low battery was blamed and Howard laughed it off as a techy was getting fixed saying, “I’ve been beset with technological problems the whole of my career!”
But that’s the thing, he didn’t have a paddy, got it fixed and carried on, winning over the crowd even more as he stormed through the night with hit after hit – No One is to Blame, Everlasting Love, Conditioning, Like to Get to Know You Well, What is Love, Things Can Only Get Better and New Song.
Guessing there’d be some die-hards in the audience that’d come to all three sets – we had to leave the theatre and queue up again to get in! – he mixed up the running order and had new surprises in each one.
With a back catalogue like his, 30 minutes isn’t really enough to do history justice and the glaring omission was by far my favourite song – Hide and Seek – the song he sang at Live Aid.
Guess I’ll have to wait until 6th of November when he’s performing Human Lib and Dream into Action in their entirety at London’s O2.
It’s set to be a very special night, and if anyone’s in any doubt whether he’s up to the job, last night’s note/pitch perfect performance showed HoJo’s got it more than ever!
X-Factor wannabes – if Howard Jones ever learns how to bottle his talent, you’d better be first in line when he sets up his stall, or come on the 6th, soak it all up, listen and learn!
Enjoy the slideshow above!
