Lessons in

... How to destroy a brand....

- Have a bunch of 50 year old people with no experience in branding, or feelings or idea about the definition of "alignment" get together in a room and do a dance I like to call the "political hot shoe shuffle", while simulataneously waving their dicks in the air at any chance they get.


... How to lose career confidence....

- Sit in a room with people of above nature and realise that whoever screams louder and for longer will get what they want. End of story.


... How to blow off some steam....

- Go to Karnivale in Cologne and just pretend for 30 hours that none of this matters when it really really grates on you.

New Years Eve Road trip

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Germany!

Cologne never disappoints!

Fire crackers and fireworks on the street, Kölsch, super cute German boys, the Ronettes, Knudels and Beef!

Retrospective #6: Home, Work, and Play

Christmas Markets, Berlin : sweets that say sweet things

I went on a Gluhwein frenzy in Berlin.

Another Christmas Market in an old brewery, Berlin.

WTF? Raw meat on bread that Tom told me to eat for breakfast.

Tom taught me how to play Backgammon again.

Vietnamese food in Berlin. At Long last, decent asian food!!

Scandic Hotel, Berlin: Conference location

German Soul food: Potatoe dumplings and pork in a raisin and beetroot jus

Curryworst + Gluhwein, Berlin.

B2B Marketing Awards, London: Victory will be mine. Oh yes. It will be.

Busaba Thai, London: Two of my UK based besties...

New bike suffers in the snow - dodgy turquoise spray job executed by me so I can recognise it when drunk, I mean, dark...

"What is simple in the moonlight by the morning never is."

Snow in the park opposite my apartment

The calling

Berlin. Ich liebe dich. Something pulling me to you. Don't deny we have something.

Make friends with a Nerd.

Hello. I'm a strate-geek.

I actually spent my whole time in Berlin talking about advertising. And strategy. And execution. And markets.

I learnt stuff. I talked to people. I talked about trends and "paradigm shifts". I googled ads to prove a point (or three).

5 days.

Even with friends. Or rather, especially with friends. Over wine. On a friday night.

We geeked out about ads.

Concerned? Rightly so.

I'm in Siberia

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Actually, I'm in Berlin, for a conference.

But I'm pretty sure the plane landed in the wrong airport, and I am in the wrong city.

-10 deg Celcius.

There are not enough profanities in the urban dictionary to exercise my complete incomprehension of how this side of the world can live like this.

In fact, I've pre-packed an esky...

German guy: So, What do you do?
Me: I work in Advertising, sort of.
German guy: Oh. Have you prepared yourself for hell?

Suddenly Cologne ain't smelling so good.

Laugh. Out. Loud.

Dutch tanker carrying pig manure explodes in Germany
Wednesday 08 September 2010

A Dutch tanker with 20 tonnes of pig manure on board has exploded in the German city of Cologne splattering a number of houses and cars, news agency ANP reports, quoting a German news site.

According to local fire officials, the manure had become too warm, creating too much pressure in the tank and eventually bursting a glass panel. The manure was sprayed over a large area.

´I was in the kitchen and suddenly there was no more light coming through the window,´ one resident told the site.

Some 30 fire officers were involved in the clean up operation and some houses will have to be repainted.

According to the Telegraaf, the Netherlands exported some 700,000 tonnes of manure last year of which 80% went to Germany.

For photographs of the manure-sprayed street, click here


© DutchNews.nl

Top 10 list w/c September 6th 2010

What's Hot

1. Dry September - 3 weeks of sobriety. You read correctly the first time. Not a drop to drink from 6th September until 24th September.

2. Commitment - Mattress Shopping on Saturday. Big bucks spent means more long term comfort for moi. Previous hesitation to spend up on household items went out the window since I slept for the first time in comfort on a FUTON in Hamburg in a little while. It's just not right.

3. Vegetables - I had delicious homemade carrot and sesame seed soup tonight, with a rice, carrot, beetroot and apple salad, a la Laura. Bellissimo!

4. Reading - It's the quiet life for me, for a little while. And that's A-OK with me.

5. Hamburg - This city has got it going on. What's not to love? Cosmopolitan, with a bit of a gritty edge, it's where media and shipping moguls wheel and deal, and it's flat. Also the city where I found an original Russian produced 1994 Lomo LC-A camera (discontinued, limited edition!!) at a Flea Market for 5 EU in prima working condition. A restored one made in PRC costs 200 EU online!! OMFG!! Lomographer's HOLY GRAIL! Check out more here.

6. Reunions with old friends and making new ones - Italy and Germany was good for seeing them and meeting new folks.

7. Nice guys - Love it when friends find a good one.

8. Having nice colleagues - Surprise Tim Tams from one that came back from Australia, cheery and helpful colleagues, and lovely colleagues you don't often work with that notice you were out of the office for a while.

9. Random 16 piece brass bands killing time in German Railway stations.

10. Scandinavian clothing labels

What's Not

1. Trains - No more travel by rail. For a long, long, long time.

2. Restlessness - Need to find a cure from within.

3. Faux-mance over Romance - Not playing anymore.

4. Carbohydrates - Overloaded in Italy and Germany.

5. Rain - It returns tomorrow for a week and may stay for a while. Like 8 months.

6. Aching - It hurts. Everywhere.

7. Overthinking mortality - Good time or a long time?

8. Indecision - It plagues me.

9. Facebook politics - U.G.H.... I just DON'T want to fret for another nanosecond about this.

10. Wanting a holiday after your holiday, and realising your next holiday is going to be just as frantic.

Automatic reply

I am currently out of the office. Kindly give your outrageous, irritating and dispicable requests to some other sucker for the next two weeks.

don't be afraid - I came to make party

Köln ...

Love it.

It loves me.

My body, on the other hand, does not.