whatleydude

Moleskine entry: September 18th, 2009

Six hours ago I was landing at London Gatwick, fresh from the Lucozade Challenge of Yacht Racing around the Caribbean. Now, as I write, I’m on a flight back out to New York (from London Heathrow mind, that was interesting) with my darling girlfriend and I am happy. Tired. Exhausted. Travel weary. But ultimately, for the first time in such a long time, truly happy.

You might scoff if I were to tell you “it’s been a long, hard summer” given the adventures I’ve been on, the places I’ve seen and the things that I’ve done but really, as much as all that that has been awesome, it’s the bits inbetween that have been hardest.

Being away from home every other week for just shy of ten weeks creates a strange instability around things. Plans are harder to make, promises harder to keep. A constant state flux one might say.

Not counting the stress and strains that places on any kind of loving relationship, there was the whole work mess to deal with too. Halfway through the challenges, all that additional…. worry was not helping the situation at all. The time I was actually at home, I was spending the whole time working. Leaving me tired. So so tired.

Rest soon. And sleep. Sleep, beckoning so sweetly.

Sleeeeeep.

Molekskine entry: September 16th, 2009

I’ve not written here for a while. Most places we’ve been to this past summer have involved a lot of travelling. From one bed to the next, driving through Africa, riding across Wyoming or simply scaling mountains deep within the Alps. Believe it or not, these kinds of activities gave me a lot of free time to write and keep my journal.

However, for this trip – the fifth and final Lucozade Challenge of 2009 – we’ve been staying on ONE resort the WHOLE time. If I’m not up and at the Mac updating the Lucozade blog, then I’m out completing challenges with the winners. Every second I have here on my own, I’m uploading photos, editing videos etc etc… constantly online. No downtime with no connection, which means no journals in my moleskine

And so it is, we go home tomorrow and I’ve hardly written a thing.

Time flies huh?

On thing I must put down – Today. Has. Been. Epic.

Every Hollywood starlet, every film I see…

The lead she smiles, she blushes, she laughs, she cries and in every single move, move and twitch I see Victoria staring back at me.

My darling Victoria, she is everywhere. On the sunrise, on the gentle breeze…

I am in love.

I travel with a good head. Be it underground or overground, I always aim to have a smile on my face. There are many things in life that will get us down throughout our years, but travelling with fellow members of our species should not be one of them.

A modern day miracle, travel. The Globe, this planet of ours, Earth, is as wide as it is tall and at first, seems gargantuan to understand.

Driven by the endless curiosity of what is a core component of the human condition slowly, the world has shrunk. Lands of far away with their mystic tales of food, wine and weather are now at the beck and call to anyone who may have the time and the inclination. The Earth, is open.

So why would it be, deep within this modern day miracle, that you would find miserable men (or women)? Why? I am yet to understand. I dare to think that I will never understand. For I, above all else, enjoy travel.

With a smile on my face, I face the world. With a smile on my face, the world faces me and, it is with this sentence I declare my love for The Perfect Flight.

Flying home from the US of A after a week of riding horseback across mountains, knowing you have over six hundred emails to respond to, discovering that your row of four seats has only one occupant; you. That is the perfect flight.

Spending the entire Summer taking plane journeys, one after the other after the other after the other, each time with new members to your gang. 30 plane rides, each time yearning for the one you love to be with you. Flight 31, she’s there. With you. Next to you. You wake up halfway across the Atlantic and you can’t believe she’s there with you. You sleep and you smile. That is the perfect flight.

Leaving London, walking. At your own pace. Traversing the underground, picking up packages en route. Travelling. Working. Train-ing to the airport. Relaxing. Resting. Focusing. Terminal 5. You arrive. There’s no queue for check-in. The man behind the counter takes your bags, makes a phone call. You smile. Make a joke. Say thank you. Later, when boarding, your pass buzzes. “That’s not good.” I half-joke, the attendant looks at me again “Sometimes it is.” – we wait. He nods, knowingly. “It’s your lucky day” he says, “Enjoy your flight sir”. Checking my ticket my seat number has changed. 17A is now 3G. First class. That is the perfect flight.

Your perfect flight may come in any shape or size, you just need to know where to look.

My advice? Be nice to people.

Say please and say thank you. After all, a wink and a smile can go a very long way.

I’m in Canada, writing from my second hotel of about four I think for this trip. The first night, in the Wyndhams, my body clock was still adjusting. At 4am my eyes opened like it was 9am and kicked me up into the day. Damn. “Best start work then…”

First, coffee….  and this is what I’m faced with -

There isn’t much tech in the world that I don’t get on with, however coffee machines (along with most fax machines) would be on the very short list if I ever made one. In fact, I just did and look – they’re at the top.

Were there any instructions for the machine anywhere in the room? No.
Any tips or pointers on the actual machine itself? No.
Brilliant.

Tweet tweet -

About 90mins later, this appeared -

What’s the twitpic behind the link?

Well… THIS:

How freaking amazing is that? My tweet, illustrated.

To give you some background, I stumbled across Irkafirka sometime ago now, back when they randomly sketched one of Benny’s tweets. I thought it was amazing and started following them. Both on Twitter and on RSS. Irkafirka illustrate tweets. Randomly. And they’re awesome.

Yesterday they did one of mine and I’m grinning form ear to ear.

Thanks to both of you, Chris and Nick. I’m made up.

Cheers.

T-minus 2hrs until take off. I’ve never been to Canada before, this time last year I was just packing my bags to head of to Wyoming and still a little bit unsure of my future. Amazing to think how far and how much things can change in a year.

Why Canada? Work, naturally.

1000heads have been signed on to do some work for Nokia Canada and since the start of July we’ve been executing our first kick off activity; the N97minitour.

Driving from Vancouver to Toronto (with stops along the way) and timed with the Canadian N97mini launch, our team on the ground over there have been organising meet ups, competitions and generally blogging and tweeting their little hearts out.

I’m flying over for leg two; Montreal to Toronto. What with Mobile Geeks this coming Friday and a whole host of other events lined up for the ten days following, it should be pretty awesome.

As I type, the team are en route to Montreal and I’m already grinning at the thought of the RV pictured above pulling up at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International and my team waiting to greet me. Amazing.

Like I said, I’ve never been to Canada before. What a way to see it first hand?

Today I fly to Texas, 1000heads are sending a small team out to the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival to provide support to Nokia and a group competition winners who found out on Monday (!) that they’d won a rather sweet all expenses trip to join us.

It’s going to be awesome.

If you’ve never heard of SXSW before then don’t worry, I hadn’t until a couple of years ago. It’s a ten day event that’s broken up across three (relatively independent) parts; film, interactive and music. The second one is the bit we’re headed out for for – the interactive aka – SXSWi.

Although, it must be said; if I ever return on my own dime then it’d be amazing to attend all three.

I’ve always loved film and a few influences in my life of late have also helped me rediscover a healthy taste in music.

At the time of writing I’m somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, about halfway between London and Chicago (our first port of call en route to Austin, Texas). This is my first time at SXSWi. A bunch of my friends have been several times before however I am still a Texas virgin. I literally cannot wait.

Did I mention that it’s going to be awesome?

BRING. IT. ON.

Moleskine entry: August 10th, 2009

Cruisin’ through the Zimbabwe highways (strips of tarmac laid through bare and dry surroundings), Chemical Brothers on the radio (thanks Nokia), the African outback goes pretty well with The Salmon Dance, who knew?

Today we’ve been out rafting on the Zambezi.

Hungover like you wouldn’t believe (we got in at 4am), we left the hotel at nine to traverse the gorge back down to The Mighty Zambezi (to give it its rightful name) which as well as being some 2500k long, also doubles up as the border between several countries, including this one that we’re driving on, Zimbabwe and that one over there – Zambia.

We start our descent 750ft up…

August 10th was a pretty special day for lots of reasons. But bizarrely I haven’t mentioned it anywhere in my Moleskine. Maybe I’ll put it together for another post. Yeah. That’s what I’ll do…

For the record, Zimbabwe is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever been to and I would go again in a heartbeat.

No need to be afraid. No need at all.