Work

December So Far…

| Richard

Well November ended on a high: whilst up in Norfolk for the weekend, I took Amy – Jack baled out at the last moment – to see London Grammar play the Open in Norwich and very good they were too (as expected).

Hannah Reid of London Grammar at the Open, Norwich
Hannah Reid of London Grammar at the Open, Norwich
London Grammar at the Open, Norwich
London Grammar at the Open, Norwich

I was also impressed in particular by one of the support acts: Josh Record, who may or may not use my suggestion of “Geoff” for the title of their presently unnamed track. Or not.

Josh Record at the Open, Norwich
Josh Record at the Open, Norwich

Tuesday of the following week and I was back off to Canada; Toronto this time to speak at a major exhibition (people actually had to pay to see me speaking). This time, it was a morning flight so I arrived at lunchtime EDT . Straight from the Airport via our offices to check the venue out for the following day, then off to the hotel to do a quick shower and change and back out for the evening: dinner at the Toronto Maple Leafs where their top player, Phil Kessel, celebrated his career 200th goal after scoring against the San Jose Sharks. Very enjoyable evening.

Toronto Maple Leafs v San Jose Sharks
Toronto Maple Leafs v San Jose Sharks

Wednesday and it was up early for breakfast and meeting colleagues before heading down to the convention centre to do my thing. A quick drink afterwards – bought for me by an ex-pat British lawyer (I didn’t have time to get her name) – then off to the airport for the red-eye to Heathrow.

Friday I had the day off: I was heading down to Gloucester for the PurplePort social. Great fun with lots of drink and chat: Katra was memorable for touching my face all evening looking for (non-existent) plastic surgery scars and Ali was memorable for not falling out of her corset despite all odds!

After breakfast, I headed back to London … via Bourton-on-the-Water where I lived when I was a little boy and we’d come back to the UK from Malta. I’d been taught our address parrot-fashion as we all do with our kids, so I popped it in to Waze on my iPhone and headed there. It was still as I remembered it, bar the houses that had been built behind the bungalow. Off into the village centre which was as I remembered it for a coffee and a walk around.

Fosse View
Fosse View
Selfie in Bourton
Selfie in Bourton

More of the same the following week – another seminar to give in London – and then the following week was fabulous, starting with the Placebo gig at Brixton on Monday 16th with GT. Really, really good they were too and it was nice to see GT after a few weeks.

Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton
Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton
Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton
Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton

Later that week, in Crawley at a Client’s, I dropped the RX-8 off at the nearby dealer to see if they could sort out the headlight washers: hitting a pheasant at {cough} MPH had split and lost the thick hose that feeds the headlight washers. They have had to order-in the hose which will be a massive £380 fitted! Expensive car, this one. Then back on Thursday evening for the company Christmas Dinner Cruise along the Thames, during which I gave a younger colleague a pep-talk about his forthcoming new baby and how he shouldn’t envy my lifestyle. He didn’t go home that night, apparently. So much for mentoring…

Friday I had the afternoon off as a friend, NT, was coming to stay at mine for the weekend. I picked her up from the railway station and we stopped off at London Bridge to pick up my car from the office where I’d left it overnight. As it was a lovely day, I took her up the Shard – fnarr! – before heading home. A lovely steak at Gaucho that evening. Saturday she wanted to do some shopping for her kids so we went up to Camden; tapas and t-shirts. Saturday and it was off to Le Pont de la Tour for dinner from their tasting menu. Excellent nosh.

NT at Tower Bridge
NT at Tower Bridge

Then into the Christmas Week: Christmas Eve was peculiar as due to the storms that hit the UK, I was one of the first into the office and it remained that way until mid-morning when just a few made it in. Drinks and snacks at the pub and then home. Christmas Day and I’d been invited to GT’s for what was a lovely Christmas Dinner including her fabulous Cheesy Chestnut Roast. Feeling bloated, I headed home to an early night before heading up to Norfolk for Boxing Day and the first of two defeats this week for Norwich City.

New Year’s Eve beckons now – after a shoot I have planned tomorrow with Marlyn Lindsay – and my plans include a possible NYE at Slimelight. I did wonder about grabbing a last-minute flight to Moscow to see the New Year in with Manuel and Angelo (friends from Route 66) but flights are stupidly expensive for what would be a one-night stay!

Movember

| Richard

Well, November has been an interesting month…

I decided to join in with Movember again this year: fundraising for men’s mental health. A good cause. But yes, I end up looking more ridiculous than usual and hating the annoying slug festering under my nose! At least tomorrow I can shave the bastard off or at least trim it right back!

Tonight, I’m supposed to be going to their Gala Parté at the Roundhouse Camden, but I came down with a heavy cold this week which is on its way out – thankfully – but is on my chest right now, so I can’t really be arsed. And I’m a little bit down at the moment, if I’m honest, but shh! That’s our secret, right?

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The 6th was the Bring Me The Horizon gig at Brixton. A good one, if I’m honest, although the band’s lead singer was a knob trying to look big in front of the predominantly young, female, screaming audience. More noise from them than from the stage.

That Friday it was the PurplePort London Social: it was good to meet up with some photographers and some models, including Sakura Star who’d previously said she was keen to work with me on a somewhat noir bondage and fetish project going forward: she has some excellent work on her portfolio already.

The next day it was off up to Norwich to see Norwich City beat West Ham United and thereby save Chris Hughton from the dole queue for a little longer…

The following week was fun at work: I was put forward for a major commission in Canada without my knowledge so I had a meeting planned with my boss – the owner of the business I work for – which never happened as we’d heard that I was needed in Chicago for a meeting which was then cancelled at short notice as they’d gone with a local company instead of ours. So that’s parked for another day…

I had a couple of days off that week to recharge and the Wednesday was a good opportunity to have one last thrash on the Sprint before winter sets in. I headed off down to Sussex, for a “Bigboy Breakfast” at Wesson’s Cafe, stopping off en route to get a warning for a dodgy numberplate as it’s too small, apparently. Oops! Must order a legal one: the bike never came with one because the vanity plate came later. The that night it was off to the O2 to see Vampire Weekend and Noah and the Whale in concert. GT and I stayed for three songs, it was that rubbish…

At the weekend, GT and I were off to an 80s party in the evening: her goth’d up (more so than usual thanks to crimping her hair) and me with a poodle perm wig, Frankie Say Relax t-shirt, white linen trousers and some horrendous white canvas shoes. A late one at that, DJ-ing from my iPhone with some 80s tracks. And then there was the Sunday…

GT had a race first thing in the morning, so while she was gone I got up, bathed and had a coffee. When she got back I made more coffee and joined her in the bathroom whilst she had a post-race bath. I told her there was something wrong: I felt she wasn’t that in to me any more – we’ve been seeing each other for nearly 3 years now on an irregular, regular basis – and that it’s become more pronounced since she was promoted, working longer hours with shifts, etc. GT agreed that she seemed to have no time to put in to a relationship these days to make one work, so we agreed to split up rather than just going through the motions. We then spent the afternoon shopping in Kingston and had dinner before I left.

The following weekend was all about gigs and bikes: on Saturday it was off to the NEC for Motorcycle Live. A chance for me to buy some new Goretex Alpinestars SMX Plus bike boots in black for next summer’s Austrian Eurothrash. It was also great to bump into Emma Kate Dawson for a chat and a catch-up.

Then on the Saturday night I saw Queens of the Stone Age at the Wembley Arena and as I had a spare ticket – I always buy two out of habit – I invited Sakura Star along as I knew she was at a loose end having just split up from her bloke. She showed me some great photos that another photographer had taken of her in a fab leather and feather dress which are now on her profiles having got clearance from the designers and we had a few drinks before the gig. QOTSA were excellent and SS was good company.

Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Ages

Then on the Sunday night it was off to the Hammersmith Apollo with GT to see the Pixies who were also absolutely superb.

The Pixies

 

The Pixies

Last week was busy: London, Birmingham and Manchester with lots of different hotels and lots of travelling. And there’s more to come soon when I pop over to Toronto to speak at a major event.

At least that should keep me busy and my mind off relationships past, present and future. In the meantime, I’ve booked next year’s holidays to Fuerteventura with my ‘kids’ to go with the Austrian Eurothrash.

Busy, eh?

| Richard

Well that was a week and a half!

Or actually just a week! It started with a visit the week before from one of our Non-Execs to have dinner with a bunch of us to tell us about the Canadian market that he’s helping us get introduced into. I found out that a colleague and I had been included in a proposal for a Client that we were hoping we’d win. It was useful too for me to meet him as I was heading out to Vancouver to do a seminar to some potential Clients the last week of October…

…and so it transpired: I was out – economy class – after work on the Tuesday. The plan was to do the 9.5 hour flight, ‘regain’ 7 hours due to the time difference, meet our Americas President and the Non-Exec for drinks, etc. Sadly, a four hour delay on the tarmac at Heathrow put paid to that. At one point, the pilot told us that we might miss the last flight slot. That would have caused serious problems for us as I was the only one with the virtual reality/augmented reality stuff loaded onto an iPad. We were on the tarmac long enough for me to watch the first two films from the decent selection of recent titles that I enjoyed:

  • Alan Partridge – Alpha Papa
  • Fast and Furious 6
  • Iron Man 3
  • Now You See Me
  • World War Z

So after the long flight, I landed at Vancouver, went through customs and out the other end to get a courtesy bus to the Hilton … which took a little while. By the time I checked in it was 1.30am local time, so a quick decaff and then it was bedtime. Up at 7.00am to get ready for breakfast with my colleagues and it was off to downtown Vancouver for a meet and greet and then do my thing, which went down very well with lots of interest.

Back to the airport to do some catching up on work e-mails using the work presentation MacBook Pro Retina rather than my shite work laptop before an evening flight home … overnight, landing at around midday. Films on the way home were:

  • A Good Day to Die Hard
  • Pain & Gain
  • Zero Dark Thirty (though I didn’t get to see the last half hour, so looking forward to that on Sky next week)

I stayed up until late Thursday night to try to get back into the swing of things. 6 hours’ sleep in 3 days.

Friday and it was in to the office for a catch up and to be told that yes, I’m back out to Toronto in December … and in the meantime, there’s that proposal I was included in which seems to be coming our way. So next week it’s Chicago (and possibly Toronto).

Friday night and it was off to the Roundhouse at Camden with friends to see the Cult who were really, really good.

The Cult Electric 13 Tour
The Cult Electric 13 Tour

Saturday evening there was a party in Epsom to go to, so another late night.

A lay-in on Sunday was much-needed before lunch and shopping and then heading back to the Roundhouse in Camden again to see Lacuna Coil who were excellent!

Lacuna Coil Paradise Lost Tour
Lacuna Coil Paradise Lost Tour

Phew!

Reflective

| Richard

Work’s been quite hectic of late, as has my social life (which is no bad thing, of course).

Friday and I was off up to Soho and the Jazz After Dark to catch up with a mate, the excellent James Gillespie, who was over in the UK from Fuerteventura to play a few gigs on a whirlwind visit. Really good to catch up with him and his partner Jess plus a few other people I’d met at the Rock Island Bar as well as a few of James’ family members. Lots of drinks as always – ciders, spirits and shots! It was a great night out and even being grabbed in the bits by a friendly transvestite on my way home didn’t faze me!

Saturday and I was up bright and early to go and look at a house in the next block from mine in the same Crescent: a fair sized house for me with an even nicer garage which has the potential to double as a photographic studio due to its size and the high ceiling height for backdrops, lighting rigs, etc. We’ll see.

The it was off to see GT for lunch and an afternoon watching three hours of “Django Unchained” – spaghetti westerns reinvented for the 21st Century. Then it was off for another excellent curry at Cinnamon Spice.

A nice lay-in on Sunday before heading to Covent Garden for more retail therapy at Dr Martens with GT before I made my way home to pack and change to get to Paris by Eurostar and my hideously expensive but comfortable hotel.

A long day Monday in meetings and giving presentations to the MD of one of our larger Clients, made more difficult by a streaming cold {sigh}. Drinks in the Eurostar Business Lounge obviously help you care less.

Finally back home; my cabbie is also riding down to the Pyrenees this summer, apparently…

Working from home today so that I didn’t spread the sniffles; I took the opportunity to cancel a couple of remaining credit cards having cleared all the balances over the past few months. There’s something cathartic about doing this and cutting up the old ones. They were a safety blanket for me at times over the past years but with the potential to bite back, so it was good to cut them up and cut off more past times. More ties with the past severed for good.

If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be…

| Richard

So after spending a great few days on Corralejo chilling out in my hotel and spending the evenings drinking and listening to live acoustic rock music with friends in the Rock Island Bar, it was back to normality with work for a couple of days before I headed up to Cleethorpes on the Sunday.

The view from my balcony
The view from my balcony
Coffee time
Coffee time

The plan had been to head up to Cleethorpes to drop off some old Court papers and some crap the ex-girlfriend had sent me with her parents but the ex found out about my plans – she reads my Tweets and this blog to stalk keep up to date with what I’m doing – and threatened to stop them from seeing the one remaining daughter she hasn’t thrown out if they saw me. Nice, eh? Mind you, as it turned out, that was just as well because an accident on the A17 delayed my getting there until later and I had plans to meet up with some old friends for a lovely meal out in town as their treat. Great to catch up with them and to have a load of laughs about Stuff.

Monday saw an impromptu diversion to Covent Garden on my way home for more Christmas Shopping for GT and my daughter (some killer heels for GT that were a leeetle more expensive than I thought but hey, she’s worth it) and then home.

The Tuesday night found GT and I going to KOKO Camden to watch Fear Factory‘s gig. Sadly this was disappointing. They mentioned they were 7 weeks into their tour and it had clearly taken its toll on the lead singer’s vocal chords as he was unable to sing in tune or make much noise for higher notes.

KOKO London
KOKO London
Fear Factory at KOKO Camden
Fear Factory at KOKO Camden

Wednesday and it was another gig: this time it was the Prodigy at the O2 Brixton Academy. We hadn’t realised when we booked the tickets that this was a late show, with the Prodigy not coming on until after midnight and finishing at 1.30am! On a school night! Oops! So GT and I had a meal and a mooch around and then went in to watch the support artists around 11.30pm and then waited for the Prodigy to come on and do a blinding set. They can still definitely do their thing.

We left shortly after and I got home around 3.00am which was just as well as a taxi was booked to collect me at 6.45am to take me to St. Pancras International for a trip over to Paris to see a Client. Back that evening, arriving around 8.45pm which was just as well as I needed to be nearby at our works Christmas do at a Comedy Club. Lots of laughs – why do I always get picked on by the headliners? Same as the Burlesque Shows – and they’d saved me my dinner which was nice.  We got thrown out around 1.30am and we grabbed some taxis to get us home.

Friday and it was time for dinner in Epsom with GT and some friends and to see Indian Elvis in action!

Indian Elvis
Indian Elvis

The food at the Cinnamon Spice is really excellent and we enjoyed a couple of bottles of wine with a great meal before heading home.

More shopping over the weekend and a lovely lunch out in Kingston at Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant. Recommended.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day saw drinks with friends at their pub and a lovely meal cooked by GT – part carnivorous for me and part vegetarian (and delicious) – with some of the contents of the Fortnum & Mason hamper I’d been given.

Boxing Day and I was off to Norfolk to see my kids and to watch Norwich City (mainly in the rain and doing OK against a strong Chelsea team).

Today was mainly spent driving: back from Norfolk via Diss to buy Amy a replacement Ka after hers got written off; then on to my Mum’s for lunch and presents; then to Egham to get Amy home and off to work.

Phew!

Paris in the Spring

| Richard

Time for another update, I think.

September ended with the French Client I’d gone to do seminars for deciding to make a request for me to join them for the next three months … based 100% in Paris. This I wasn’t prepared to do, so we managed to suggest a colleague every bit as capable as me to do this instead. The best laid plans…

The first week in October found me heading for a day visit to two French Clients again in Paris, to have a strategy meeting with the first (and to introduce my colleague) and to be put forward for the a key role with the second. The second suggested I would be 50/50 in Paris and London but later changed their mind so that didn’t go ahead, which is just as well as my colleague is going back on a placement with another Client with whom he has a lengthy track record. So now I’m going to split my time between the UK and Paris up until the end of the year … at least.

Back in London, I did another breakfast seminar which the company wanted to video to add to our showreel. Tricky, as I was quoting from a court case which quotes the witnesses complete with swearing…

In other news, I’ve been to the cinema quite a lot recently as well: “Taken 2“, “Sinister“, “Killing Them Softly” and “Looper“. Enjoyed all of them!

And finally, I’m really looking forward to next week…

Paris In The Spring

| Richard

…or the summer, as it turns out.

Well my travelling continues. This time to Paris by Eurostar for what turns out was some well-received training for a French Client about the contract on a project they’re bidding on. So late afternoon on Monday, I wandered off in the rain to Euston and a couple of hours later I arrived in sunny and warm Paris, heading to my hotel for the evening, the Hilton Paris La Défense which looked a bit like something from Austin Powers!

Eat your heart out, Austin Powers!
Plenty of room

An early breakfast and a wander past La Défense itself to grab a coffee in a café with a colleague before spending the day with the Clients, who were all really attentive and friendly which helps.

 

 

And then on to the Gare Du Nord to catch my train back. As I had plenty of time and it was warm, I decided it must be beer o’clock…

Gare Du Nord
Beer O’Clock
Meant To Be!

Back home around 10.30pm; long day!

Oh and I get to do it all again next month 🙂

Who Am I? Where Am I?

| Richard

Well life’s a tad hectic just now. Let’s have a quick recap on the last week or so, shall we?

Wednesday 27th.

After work, I headed to the Southbank to meet up with GT for House of Burlesque’s show at the Priceless London Wonderground. We had front row tickets as usual, and, also as usual, I got dragged up on stage for one of the acts. Enough said…

Once I’d escorted GT to Waterloo, I headed back to the car – passing people being overheard saying “Wasn’t that Richard?” from the show – and drove off to Slough. Tricky when the M4 is closed. So a late arrival at the Holiday Inn then.

Thursday 28th

Up bright and early for a day spent training a group of project managers at a Client’s office. Good fun, but hard work. Then a rush to Heathrow for my flight to Vienna, getting in quite late by the time I’d grabbed a cab to the Hotel de France.

Friday 29th

After breakfast, it was off to the University to listen to a talk on Chinese Law from a Beijing-based lawyer, who then sat patiently whilst I delivered a talk on the use of visualisations to explain claims, prefaced by my saying that this was the history module as I incorporated Charles Minard’s “Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l’Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812-1813” into it…

It was low 30s and the lecture room had no air conditioning so a tad uncomfortable. Then back to the hotel to work until midnight on something for a Client.

Saturday 30th

After breakfast it was back to the University for a whole morning lecturing.

I’d checked out of my hotel, but couldn’t fly home, so after lunch I headed on to check into my favourite hotel in Vienna, the Steigenberger Hotel Herrenhof: a really luxurious hotel whose staff can’t do enough to help you. GT then flew out from Gatwick to meet me for an afternoon’s exploration and meal, as well as guided tour of Vienna in a horse-drawn open cart.

Hofburg Palace
Orson Carte

Sunday 1st

After a leisurely breakfast, it was time for more shopping, sightseeing and a bit of culture: the Albertina where they had some expressionist work plus a great photographic exhibition of work by Joel Sternfeld which really put me in the mood for the Route 66 trip later this month. After lunch, we headed off to the airport and tea in the lounge there before boarding our evening flights to Gatwick and Heathrow.  Due to a change of plan as I was flying out on the Thursday, I then headed straight up to Manchester and the Holiday Inn MediaCityUK.  Just in time to catch the last half hour of the Euro2012 final with a club sandwich and cider! Slightly embarrassing, though, as they’d checked me into a room that was already occupied by a couple … who were fortunately not there when I walked on in!

Monday 2nd

I drove to my home-from-home in Manchester, the Mercure Manchester Piccadilly where they take very good care of me. A long day at our Manchester office followed but a nice meal was the pay-off later.

Tuesday 3rd

A very long day at the office, finishing at 7.30pm before heading back down to London, popping into the office at midnight to drop off my laptop and some papers.

Wednesday 4th

A day off, so I headed over to GT’s to pick her up en route to Everyman Racing in Leicestershire for a few soggy laps at the wheel of a Ferrari and an Ariel Atom before driving back home.

 

Thursday 5th

A day in the office, and confirmation that I’ll be going to Paris in July and August to train some more clients on their contractual obligations and how to best cover themselves. Finished quite late and changed at the office, because I was meeting GT at the O2 Brixton Academy for the Lacuna Coil/Marilyn Manson gig which was superb! Good to see future-wife Cristina Scabbia rocking it. 🙂

Phew!

Happiness

| Richard

A beautiful, sunny day today! I left Manchester this morning and drove through the Peak District to do a presentation at an immensely impressive off-site fabrication park near to Worksop. Due to the amount of traffic, my speed was forced lower which meant I could actually sight-see as I was driving along and made my journey so much more enjoyable.

The middle of the afternoon found me heading back down to London and I chose my preferred route, via the A1 and M11. What this meant was that I ended up driving back down the route I used to travel twice a week when I was living in Cleethorpes and hence was very familiar. As it was still hot and sunny and with the music playing loudly, my mood was its usual positive one, genuinely happy. I did find myself reminiscing about the times I’d done this same journey as I passed Grantham, my former turn-off onto the A46.

I thought about the good times I’d had as a result of those journeys and how ignorance had been bliss; ignorance of my being conned, betrayed, deceived and then blatantly lied to before I left forever. And then I was reminded about how much I’m enjoying life these days without all of that baggage and how I’m at peace with what happened. I’ve already forgiven but not forgotten. It appears that what doesn’t kill you does indeed make you stronger: in my case it taught me that I could still be generous whilst suffering fools and con-artists graciously and to value family and friends more. And it meant that I could have true happiness without hassle and heartache. And that’s got to be good.

It's better to have loved and lost than to live with a psycho for the rest of your life
This was on my Facebook Newsfeed recently!

So I’m back in London tonight but heading back up to Manchester in the morning, this time by train so I can have a leisurely breakfast and a snooze in First Class. Work hard, play hard, love lots and live life to the full: looking forward to seeing more stunning European Cities (like Vienna, again in June) and then my Big Trip in the summer.