May 2002

1 May

Got up bright and early and flew to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for the Atlantic Coast Exposition, a vending expo.

Jim picked me up from the airport and we had breakfast at the All American House of Pancakes and Omelettes. Then we headed to the convention center to get our stuff sorted out.

We had dinner at Sea Captain. The food was excellent. I had salmon.

We played mini-golf. I got a hole in one.

The to the Parrot Bar for a few more drinks. Learned why SC has miniatures of liquor only.

2 May

Up for breakfast at IHOP

Show was slow.

Conference call

Pepsi do after the show. At acquarium. Very cool.

THen back to the condo. Watched Return of the Jedi.

3 May

Breakfast at another pancake place. Show is slow again. Jim took off at lunchtime.

Went to Joliday Inn afterwards to meet with client. Watched band and had a few drinks on the deck at the beach. Large-breasted women dared to remove clothing.

Returned to hotel to get changed, and then back to Holiday In nto meet the people.

Off to hunt down Coke event. Not very good. Off to BOardwalk on the beach. Checked out a couple of places and then back to Holiday Inn.

Greg hittin gon old women. Scary. One flashes tits. Eeek. Then dragged to Studebakers - old people. Nasty stuff forces me to drink to dull the pain.

4 May

Feeling a bit rough at the show. It's busier than last two days but not exceptional.

Go have a nap after the show closes and get everything packed up.

Go to sponsored dinner. It sucks so we end up going to Sea Captain again. Rick does phone call saying he's the mayor. Rather intersting evening.

5 May

Breakfast with Rick and Chris. Then airport. The home. Yippee!!

Beautiful day in Atlanta, so I sit on the deck and read. Lauren came over and we had several vodkas, chatted, then watched Wunday night TV, ordered pizza. Very cool time.

6 May

Came home from work. Packed. Went to Nick Cave at the Tabernacle. Awesome. Then went to Riviera - free drinks because Lauren and I helped Rick flyer after the show.

7 May

Philly. Yeungling. Shephard's Pie

8 May

Philly. Yeungling. Cheesesteak.

9 May

Philly. Airport.

I had called Bria to see if she was willing and able to catch up for a drink before I returned to the South. She indicated that she could meet me at the airport at 4pm, so we did indeed catch up and have a drink or two in the Crown Room. Rock on.

Lauren was supposed to pick up Matt from the airport, but she was a little bit drunk by the time she was supposed to go pick him up (his flight had been delayed), so I did the honours - what a good friend am I :-)

10 May

Got to work and got to catching up on things. Had lunch with the crew at Ryan's, a buffet that really isn't particularly healthy.

Later in the afternoon I took off to the doctor's to get my physical for my change of status application. Doctor wasn't there, so I was only able to do my bloodwork and get my tuberculosis test.

Oh my god. Where the hell did this thunder and lightning and rain come from? It was really nice only twenty minutes ago. Crazy. I think I should buy a UPS.

Oh crap. My phone line is now out. My DSL is still working but the phone is off. Crap crap crap.

11 May

Once de Mayo!

The evidence is on the pictures page.

12 May

13 May

14 May

15 May

Up early to fly to Jacksonville, Florida, to meet with Coke people. Then flew home.

16 May

Up early to meet George and drive to Charlotte, North Carolina, the meet different Coke people.

17 May

Finished the Coke meetings and drove back to Atlanta.

Had dinner and hung out at the Local with John, Lauren and Pete. We played darts. It was fun. Then we all went home.

18 May

Did some chores and played CivIII.

Went over to Lauren's and watched DVDs - The Others and From Hell. Pete came over during From Hell and later Sherrod and Austin turned up just as we were about to watch Legally Blonde. Lauren and I actually missed the latter as we spent the time on the balcony talking. When the others left we crashed out.

19 May

Woke up and watched Legally Blonde. Then we went for brunch at Virginia's, and then trooped up to the Honda dealership in Cobb County to testdrive the Civic hybrid electric vehicle. That was pretty fun. The car was a little smaller than I would have liked (not a lot of luggage space) and is currently only available in automatic transmission, but nice enough.

I dropped Lauren home and then went home to prepare for Sunday TV, including the final of . A bit of a nonevent that, but oh well.

20 May

21 May

22 May

Up early and fly to Washington, DC. Greg picked me up from Baltimore Washington International (BWI) Airport and we drove into DC. This is a specialised customer, with money to spend and with knowledge of how to have fun when business is finished.

Lunch was taken at Morton's Steakhouse. Then we went to his IT consultant's office to sort out the project details. Then, since business was complete, we went to Camelot, our customer's afternoon haunt - a strip bar - where the drinks were on him. Greg and I decided that we need to get to the hotel to drop off the car and freshen up before dinner.

We caught a cab to the restaurant, Galileo's, where we had a sumptuous Italian dinner. Absolutely incredible meal, actually.

After dinner we went back to Camelot. I have no idea what time I got back to the hotel.

23 May

The day started with an 8:30 meeting. Ouch. But we survived it in good shape and everyone was happy, so it was back off to the airport to attempt to get on an earlier flight than my 5:40 flight. We did take a bit of a detour so I could get some photos of Washington landmarks.

We got to the airport around 12:15 and Greg continued his drive back to Philadelphia. I wandered up to the check-in counter, and there was a huge line. This did give me some concern. When I got up the front I asked about getting on standby and was told that all the flights to Atlanta had been seriously overbooked and that there would be no standby list opened. Ugh! That meant I had a five hour wait in the airport. Oh joy, O bliss...

My wait at the airport wasn't a total waste - I bought a book of George Carlin's humour and a biography of Marcel Pruost.

24 May

Yay for work. And yay for periodontistry. Yep, a trip to see Dr Jones, where she opened up my gums and screwed the plug onto my grafted titanium screw. Then she stitched up my mouth and the pretend tooth was bonded back on. When I go back in six weeks (it would have been sooner but I'm going to be out of town and then she's going to be out of town) for my brand new tooth to be attached. Woohoo!!

After work, I headed home to grab my bag. Pete came by to pick me up and drop me at the MARTA station and I was off to the airport for my weekend of techno and. um, other fun things, in Detroit. I had a couple of drinks while waiting in the Crown Room, followed by an uneventful plane ride, where I finished my George Carlin book and started in on the Proust biography. The taxi from the airport to the hotel was just shy of $40 - ouch - but Amy was there waiting for me with a beer and so the weekend began well.

25 May

We awoke and wandered on down to the others' room. There was John, David and Magnus, a friend of David's from London. He turned out to be a fun chap. When the boys were all sorted out we went looking for breakfast. We found an Irish pub and decided to eat there. They had a very good shepards pie, but I had a roast beef open faced sandwich which was awesome, in fact it might have been just about the best roast beef I've had in the US. Frightening, really. All washed down with a Guiness or three.

Then it was time to check out DEMF: the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. We started by checking out Mad Professor, where we met up with Tristan. The set reminded me a lot of On-U Sound System. Then we went and checked out the main DEMF stage and hung out there for a while before heading back to Mad Professor.

We made our way around the stages, but the best was the Ministry of Sound stage.

Late in the afternoon a huge downpour came and we ran back to the hotel, absolutely soaked. We got changed and the rain had stopped so we headed back to the festival.

26 May

Breakfast at a greasy spoon in Greektown. Then back to the hotel. Amy and I went off to meet up with an ex- of Amy's, Derek, at his room in the Marriott. He had a very cool suite, with a large deck right up the building. Very nice. Derek reminded me of someone, but I couldn't place who.

The others in our group joined us and after an hour or so, we headed down to the festival and sat out in the sun on the banks of the Detroit River, with a view of Canada on the far shore.

Went and caught a couple of DJs. Got in the huge throng of people to see George Clinton. He was about 45 minutes late to come on stage, and Amy had to go to the toilet. So we ended up heading back to the hotel where we could have a drink, use the bathroom and listen to the concert in comfort. It was very cool - the entire park was packed with people, and I don't think I was in the mood for dealing with a crowd of that size.

Overall, it was a fun day, the temperature was into the 70s and 80s (20s Celsius).

27 May

Memorial Day

Got up, wandered down to the other room for a while. Then John, Amy and I had food in Greektown. After eating, we caught the people mover to Grand Circle to check out where the Pet Shop Boys were going to be playing. Then off to the festival. I bought a couple of shirts and took those back to the room and met with the others again at the Ministry of Sound stage.

Amy and I went for a bit of a wander and then returned to the MOS stage again. At 6:30, Amy and I cuaght the People Mover again back to the PSB venue. The Detroit Red Wings had a playoff game that night, so the People Mover become very full. Anyway, we got back to the venue and discovered tickets were $37.50. Unfortunately, neither of us could really justify the price considering our upcoming trip to NZ. So it was back to the DEMF.

We called John along the way and decided to meet back at the hotel; Amy and I would stop to pick up some beer. We did - $40 for three six-packs. Outrageous. John ordered pizza and we had a relaxing evening. Amy went to catch a DJ she wanted to see while the rest of us just hung out and chatted.

Downtown Detroit is a very depressed area. Loads of buildings were boarded up and for sale, including some of quite significant size. There were a lot of people asking for money, too. By far the nicest building was the GM World HQ building, on the Detroit River, next the Hart Park, where the festival was being held. Windsor, the Canadian town across the river looked much nicer. Bizarro-world really.

28 May

Up and goodbye to Amy and it's off to the airport to return home to Atlanta. I get to the airport and see that there is a flight in 45 minutes, so I ask if I can get on the standby list and there's no problems. On my way through security, the guard decides he'd like to molest me, so there I am getting wanded, explaining why the detector goes off around my nipples, having to remove my belt. Excessiveness really. But when I get to the gate I find that I have a seat assigned and I am on my way home. Woohoo!!

Pete was going to pick me up from the airport, but since I'm early and it's a beautiful day I decide to catch MARTA and walk home from 3rd Street. Very nice. The temperature is currently 84°F (29°C). That I can deal with.

Just got an email from Uncle Martin, with a flier for the 10th anniversary party for the Alternative Washing Machine. And I'm going to miss it by one week! Life can be so cruel sometimes.

29 May

Long day at work, and I went straight to triva afterwards. Where we (me, John, Jenny, George) lost. Oh well. We also met John's new friend, Jenny. I think she has a crush on him. How cute.

30 May

Big day at work, started slightly later with a sleep-in, since I had a 9:30 meeting at Coke on North Avenue, which is just up the road from home. Woohoo.

After work it was a night of chores and other fun things. Laundry was the key order of the evening, and I also starting making some new mix CDs for the upcoming trip.

31 May

A busy day at work, which finished at about 5:00pm when George and Brad followed me down to the Local. We had a good old chat out on the patio there, with good beer, and excellent barbecue. Both Brad and George were impressed with the food (both being big BBQ fans and harsh critics of poor examples).

After they let, I caught up with all the regulars and a had a merry old time. When John arrived I transferred my bag to his car, as I knew I was in no state to be driving anywhere. But I didn't go home with John. He was busy being chatted to by this girl, Jenny, who he met last weekend and who has taken quite a fancy to him. Instead, I wandered down to Lauren's, where I arrived just in time to take a swim with her and Clair. Loads of fun. After the swim, I crashed out on the futon.