America's No. 1 Accessory and one of the seven deadly sins

American business can be ego-central. Therefore if you don't have a business card you are a nobody. Well today I became a somebody. Wicked! 250 or so business cards and no one to give them to. As I see it, what a cool momento of my time here.

Onto my second point - one of the deadly sins...glutony.

I really am starting to see why America has the weight problem everyone associates with it. To be fair in LA you don't see a 'large' proportion of portly fellows walking around...however all the food over here really is supersized, both in quantity and calorie. Not that I particularly eat that badly (2 burritos a week is enough for me) but I'm starting to get down by the quality and quantity of food over here. I'm very much starting to miss UK food. Never again will I complain about not feeling full.

A Very Merry Christmas...

Flew home business class the Friday before Christmas...was a really good experience and even though I've only had a couple of experiences in the premium and now business classes, going back to economy is going to be a real drag! There were lots and lots of little things about being in business class which I really liked, including:

1. Being welcomed as 'Mr Durston' as I walked on the plane

2. The dinner and snacks being served on proper (not plastic) plates

3. My bags coming off first on the carousel

(oh and I liked the big things too - namely the bed seats)

I was brought right back down to earth however as soon as I left the airport as I had to get the train across London and then up to Hertfordshire - with three bags that was a big pain and made me remember that I'm not a real business class passenger...yet.

The big news over Christmas and what made it plenty merry was that Sarah and I got engaged.

Maybe a "how to plan a wedding when you don't know how to" blog might start soon....

Home Time....

Excited to be coming home now on Friday...flying business class for the first time with Air New Zealand - thinking few beers/cocktails and then sleeping all the way home on my bed/chair thing. Doubt it will happen....but it would be nice.

Excited to be coming home as I miss Sarah, Crumble, Family, Friends, Cold Weather (Its very hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it is 20 degrees!), British Food, Curry, the countryside, work (seems a bit wierd but I do) watching football on a Sunday, having my weekends back, having a lie in and lots more.

I'm pretty sure when I get home I'll instantly miss the weather and mexican food but very much looking forward to coming home...

Lost Cat

A poor little kitten was found in the office car park last Friday, after being caught up in someone's car. Suzy, my manager, does volunteer work at a local rescue centre so took it on to see the vet and then he arrived back triumphant on Monday, sporting the name Archie. He was the fluffiest cat you're ever likely to meet and his paws were wicked! I was gearing myself up to looking after it for a bit until he found his 'forever home' but rubbish for me someone came and said "I'll have him" and we haven't seen him since. Boo!

Wicked youtube video

Just found this video and thought I should share it - most people won't find it amazing but for the few who know bioshock for the xbox 360 its brilliant! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEqZkglTVYE

On a work related note, working v hard at the moment (and long hours) trying to set up daily reports and useful system things for when I eventually leave. Its refreshing to be able to do things that I think are right and useful and not be too constrained by 'whats gone before'.

Christmas Party

After missing the company Christmas Party last weekend it was the turn of the real estate party on Thursday. I was invited as our director looks after site research (who have links to real estate) and insight (my dept).

Took a taxi with the insight manager Suzy and we happened to get ourselves a taxi driver who:

a. Had been a taxi driver for 16 months but didn't know where anywhere was

b. Had his glasses on but turns out he can't see that well.

Luckily I had prepared for this as my experience of taxi drivers so far over here hasn't been favourable...so map in hand we tried to direct him to where we needed to go. This was going ok but as I said he didn't see that well so we had to try and read the road signs for him as we went.

Turns out neither Suzy nor I have particularly good eye sight either so it was definately a case of the blind and the blind leading the blind.

Got to the restaurant 45 mins late. Restaurant was in Beverly Hills (I was most amused by the fact that the zip code of the restaurant was 90210) and it was a fancy steak house. After missing the starters the steak I had was v good and ridculously big. Drank $17 latin cocktails which were good (and paid for).

Was well tired by 12 o clock so took a taxi home with my manager Nick and then when back at my apartment building found out they lock the doors after 12 (keycard I needed was in the car) so stood around with some pizza delivery guys in the rain (third time it has rained since I've been here) until security arrived. Then slipped on the wet stairs looking like a foolish drunk...pizza guys didn't seem that concerned.

Good night overall but stupidly tired today....plus spent about 3-4 hours fiddling round with excel trying to make a spreadsheet look good when sent to a mobile phone....painful, painful work

Big Fat Lazy

So it didn't take me long until I stopped writing this....and the longer I left it the harder it was to bring myself to write something as I thought I'm going to have to try and write up all that has happened in the last month...and to be honest that sounds like hard work. Instead I think I'll write a few bullets on some of the things I've done and then try my best to do a better job in future.

So, in as best a chronological order as I can remember:

1. Flew to Vegas to see the first stores that opened there and then met up with my parents for a couple of nights....went to see Jerry Seinfeld Live at Caesar's Palace.

2. Sarah came over and visited for 10 days....we did the tourist things: went to the Getty Centre, Hollywood, Universal Studios, Santa Monica, Long Beach and a few other shopping areas.

3. Discovered fast food...amazing. From my previous entries you will have discovered my dislike for all things supermarket over here. I find I can only really shop at Fresh+Easy and my nearest one is 30-40 mins away at least. Therefore it was with great delight that I've finally started to eat out more, with Mexican and Thai takeout being at the top of my list. I've put a quota of 3 times a week max on myself to stop myself becoming large.

4. Had to produce my trade report on a Sunday...rubbish!

5. Discovered American banking is a bit rubbish and they want to charge you for everything...they charged me $12 for a load of cheques I'm never going to use.

Can't remember what else I've done....been working pretty hard so that takes up a lot of my time. Hopefully now I'll start putting better posts on more regularly

Cheers