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.

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?

Matt Singley, James Whatley, Jeb Brilliant and Brad Fidler @ MGoLA
- via the very talented Rachael Depp

The last time we took the Mobile Geeks of London on Tour was back in September last year when we descended on the Big Apple itself, New York. Before that, Los Angeles (where the above awesome photo was taken – thanking you @Rachael).

But what about 2010? Where in the world should we host Mobile Geeks of London ‘On Tour’ this time ’round?

Well, I’ll you right now – we’re headed to Canada!

Since the start of the year I’ve had a couple of trusted friends run their own ‘franchise’ events of the Mobile Geeks vein, a couple of which have actually already appeared within the Canadian borders; covering both Vancouver and Toronto. Good work Tom Hall.

However, this is Canada’s very first Mobile Geeks ‘On Tour’ event and what an event it’s set out to be.

Mobile Geeks of London ‘On Tour’ in Montreal – aka #MGoM – kicks of Friday 16th July at The Daylight Factory on 1030 Rue Saint Alexandre, Montreal.

If you’re coming, please add yourself to the facebook event page and – all flights and connections pending – I’ll see you there!

_______________

Date: 16th July 2010
Time: 18:30ish – 23:00ish
Location: The Daylight Factory
Street: 1030 Rue Saint Alexandre
Town/City: Montreal

I know most of the Mobile Geeks of London are, by definition, NOT based in Montreal but, some of you reading this might be, or you may someone who knows someone…
You get the idea.

.

PS. If you’re wondering what I’m doing in Canada in the first place, then look no further than the #N97MiniTour, I’ll be joining the WOMWorld/Nokia team for the second leg of the trip from Montreal to Toronto it’s literally going to be amazing…

Bring. It. On.

Shot this on Saturday on the way back from the Plan9 shenanigans.

Two different shots, cut together to make something quite lovely and quite seamless.. Ha!

The first person who can tell what the two main differences are between shot one and shot two wins a prize.

Ready, steady… GO!

PS. This kind of serves as a nice introduction to the post I have lined up for later in the week. Good times.

Moleskine entry: August 6th, 2009

Plane: England -> South Africa
Plane: South Africa -> Zambia
Bus: Zambia -> Chobe River
Boat: Chobe River -> Botswana (for 45mins)
4×4: Botswana -> Chobe River
Boat: Chobe River -> Namibia

When we were told this challenge was to ride the Zambezi, all of the information we had been given (before our itineraries arrived), implied that we were to be staying in Zambia.

As it turned out, we were actually to spend the majority of our time in Zimbabwe. Not before however, we returned to Namibia for one night of relaxation at the Ichingo Chobe River Lodge, situated right on the banks of the Chobe River itself.

Tonight’s treat? Speedboat Safari.
I’ll hopefully get some good photos… I can’t believe how much I’m really enjoying this camera.

Moleskine entry: July 25th, 2009

It’s been kind of invigorating. Refreshing.

Healthy.

I’ve been up in the Big Horns trekking, riding and herding as part of challenge two of the Lucozade Energy Challenges, although (I’m certain now), this much you know. What you probably don’t know however is that the powers that be have gone ahead and equipped me with some rather spiffy kit.

Including, amongst others, a sat-phone.

This thing worked FINE in Namibia. In fact, the photo above was taken and uploaded on the spot in the middle of the Namibian desert, this place in fact.

However, for some unknown reason, in the good ol’ US of A, it failed. Nothing. Nada. My glorious sock-rockin’ sat-phone, was… useless.

Which meant in turn, I was non-contactable for four days.
Say it again. Four days.
Say it one more time, and this time say it with me – out loud: Four. Days.

‘Liberating’ doesn’t quite do it justice.

At one point, we were sat by a lake some 10,000ft up, the air was thin, the horses were thirsty and the winners were discussing going for a swim. The sky was clear, the water freezing and the surrounding landscape, breathtaking.

Just pausing – for a moment – to take in what I was experiencing.

Four days with no signal. Four days in the mountains. Riding horseback every day, we rode down from 8500ft on the last day, Friday, and it took five hours.

I couldn’t tell you the total of how far we travelled or for how long. All I know is every day we were saddled up by 10am and we only got out again for lunch and then again at the end of the day for dinner and rest. I never thought I’d enjoy it so much.

Incredible really, incredible.

I wrote every day, trying to keep a personal journal as well as an official, Lucozade one is no easy task. But when there’s nothing to distract you except maybe the odd passing moose, you’d be amazed how one can focus the mind.

Perspective is a wonderful thing… and the view from here, is amazing. I know what things are important to me now. Not that I didn’t know before I guess.

But as I said, being up here sure does focus the mind.

While it’s easy to give We Are Social (WAS) a right good pasting over their handling of the Eurostar debacle over the weekend – let’s put things into perspective.

For starters: less than 24hrs after the whole thing started playing out, there was a video response from the Eurostar CEO himself, Richard Brown. This is not something to be sniffed at kids.

A video apology, delivered via YouTube, to the LittleBreak website in the form of a blog post. In this day, that is a feat in itself.

How many other CEOs of train operators could you name who would consider doing that (outside of a BBC interview)?  Seriously?

Please do not think for one second that I’m making light of all those people trapped on the train/in the tunnel/in folkestone for God knows how many hours – I’m not.

But look at it like this – if the CEO had put that video up within, say four hours of the incident taking place, how easy would it have been to cry:

“OMG! What is he doing wasting time posting on a blog? He should be out there dedicating his time to getting those people out!”

WAS were originally (I assume), hired to create sales and conversation around ‘little breaks’ – facilitated, naturally, by Eurostar. Note: This would mean working with Eurostar’s Marketing and PR team, not their Customer Care dept. Whether or not the addition of a reactive care stream to We Are Social’s (now ongoing?) brief is the mark of a bad agency remains to be seen.

What isn’t necessary – in my opinion at least – is playing the blame game when it comes to addressing ‘twitter concerns’.

Remember – this happened on a Friday night and played out over the midnight hours. Come Saturday morning, the problem was still going on. I know I (at least try to) take weekends off sometimes, I’m pretty sure others do too. But, when the call came in, the WAS guys got themselves over to Eurostar HQ pronto and were camped out there from midday onwards.

By the end of play, they had that video up.

If care was part of the package then someone SHOULD have been online.
It wasn’t, so there wasn’t.

The end.

Yesterday we went to see the Eiffel Tower…

Aside from being reminded of Superman II all day, we also managed to take some video!