Working hard at web 2.0

In the Nokia room, which I think was the best place to be at the Palace Hotel. Unlike the main conference room (the grand ballroom), here there was power for your laptop, room to move about and drinks and snacks on tap.

It was also a good way to get to know your fellow-outcasts (this was meant to be the overflow room) who ranged from impossibly-young CEOs of Palo Alto start-ups, senior folk from Microsoft and French product developers from Nokia. I picked the right spot.

Drumming

I took a wander along Market Street at lunchtime today and came upon this brilliant drummer, using only a plastic bucket and lamppost. The chap on the mobile phone is a pal of his and I think he was rapping along, which was quite cool, too.

He got faster later on, but I clipped the beginning of it, sadly.

Cafe de la Presse

Cafe de la Presse
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket

By luck or by design, I ended up in the French quarter of San Francisco. Actually 'quarter' might be overstating it, more like one block - but a hundred yards or so which house the French consulate, the French school and church and great eating places like this, the Cafe de la Presse. And, joy of joys, they also own the wine bar a couple of doors down - the Rouge et Blanc - where you get a fine glass of Muscadet. Although I did balk slightly at paying $5 for a small plate of smoked nuts.

Rivers of air?

If you are slightly fearful of flying, let my wee brother, Captain (yes!) Colin Adair, tell you about turbulence and why Mr Boeing made his planes so sturdily.

He never told me he'd made this little film - go ten titles down to find him. Possibly because his hair needed fixed by a professional and whoever built the website couldn't spell 'safety'...

Oh, and it's his birthday today so call this a sardonic 'homage' to a great brother. Happy birthday, Cokey!!

Gay penguins in adoption shocker

While wandering through the Christmas section (yes!) in Macy's last night, I came upon these two penguins. And they reminded me of the current furore here over a lovely new children's picture book called 'And Tango Makes Three'

It features the heart-warming story of two male penguins who, after unsuccessfully trying to hatch a stone, are given a baby penguin to look after. As you might imagine, it has caused something of a ruckus in the US and appears to be up there with Harry Potter and 'Heather has two Mommies' as the topic of choice of the chattering classes.

Duck and cover

Yikes. You forget when you come to the Bay Area that Nature's perils are everywhere. And not just in the fiendishly steep hills or kamikaze cab drivers. No, earthquakes. Luckily, I checked out this useful guide to how to survive the next big one - which apparently could come along anytime now.

Only in California, though, would you get more advice from the newspaper on how to save your pets than how to rescue old people or children. But then, where else would you see endless ads for a hotel for your dog or cat? Just put them in a kennel with 15 other small animals and let them get on with it, I say...

Breakfast in America

An early start this morning in San Francisco - I woke at 4 am. Damn jet lag.

I was well ready for hash browns, bacon and poached egg at Lori's Diner by 7.30. Great atmosphere with 50s Juke Boxes playing Elvis, Chuck Berry and Sam Cooke. Set me up for the day nicely.

Grape-picking dummy

Grape-picking dummy
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket

Folk in Pierrefeu wear this kind of outfit most days - even the men. But at this time of year the vendange is all finished and this get-up is restricted to peasant-dancing and other frivolity.

Meanwhile, back at PQ...

Meanwhile, back at PQ...
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket

Gordon Brown opened the new BBC Scotland building at Pacific Quay yesterday.

The staff came out in droves to hang over the balconies and listen. One radio producer seemed unimpressed though... While simultaneously blending into the decor.

Pierrefeu, late September

Pierrefeu view
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket.

There'll be a break from my random and very erratic postings for a week while I go here! Warm weather, rosé on tap and a dial-up web connection. God, that modem squeal...

And, if the sun stays out, you might spot me staked out here.

A new entrant to the Blogosphere!

My best friend has decided to give this blogging lark a go. A big round of applause for Rainy Day Dog Blog! Not sure what it'll be called when/if the sun comes out...

9/11 - 5 years on

I haven't blogged for ages but with tomorrow's anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers, I wanted to publish something I wrote the day after 9/11 five years ago. And I wanted to attach this picture specifically as it was, more or less, the view downtown I had from my appartment on West 14th St when I lived in NYC in 1990. 11 years later that view was changed forever.

Anyway, here's what I wrote in 2001...

I woke early on the morning of 12 September. Anna and I were staying in an old farmhouse in the South of France, a couple of miles from Cotignac, one of those picture-book villages you think about if you’ve read A Year in Provence – all plane trees, fountains and chiming church bells.

Only the previous afternoon, we’d heard the awful news about what was happening in New York City and had spent the evening with friends trying to make sense of what we were hearing from the BBC’s World Service radio. The short wave signal came and went, almost in time with the gusts of the mistral rattling the windows and rustling fitfully through the olive trees.

I didn’t sleep well. We had only had phone calls from friends at home and the BBC correspondents to describe the scenes in the US and, when I woke at 6 or so, my first thought was to drive down to the village to get papers so I could see what I had only imagined so far.

It was chilly at 06.30 but shops were open and the cafes were already doing a brisk trade in early morning coffees for folk like me, heading for the boulangerie and paper shop. The mood in the newsagents was sombre though. I was stunned at the images I saw – orange flames blooming from the sky-scrapers and people in suits, clutching briefcases and mobile phones, but white with a covering of ash, looking like extras in some weird B-movie. Then, on every page, the picture of the jet-liner – the same type my brother flies – heading, nightmarishly, inevitably, for one of the Twin Towers.

The young man behind the counter in the paper shop seemed as shocked as I was. But there, in this tiny village, tucked under the cliffs of the Bessillon hills, he had created his own tribute to what we were seeing thousands of miles away. He told me he’d visted Manhattan some years before and had taken one of those long, panoramic-style photos of the downtown area. And there, right in the middle, was the World Trade Centre, the twin tours dominating the centre of his picture. ‘Voila’, he said, pointing out the photo sitting squarely on his till, ‘That’s a bit of history now. But that’s how I’ll remember New York.’

So, as I walked round the corner to the gloomy warmth of the village church to say a prayer for those around the world who would be affected by all that happened on Tuesday 11^th September, I realised that that his words and that small gesture of remembrance would form my abiding memory of those few days. And, for once I didn’t need the internet, wall-to-wall TV and the addiction of following a big news story hour-by-hour. It was enough to have shared a few words with a stranger in the chill of a provencal morning, had a coffee with my papers, bought my bread and gone home.

Merry Blogging Christmas!

The tree
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket.

Happy Christmas from Glasgow! Fun and games over the Festive season included these highlights:-

• A tree which was over four feet tall this year (see right)
• Cooking a Christmas lunch for seven with the world's largest turkey, and getting it (almost) right
• Watching the kids' faces when they opened their presents - especially Emma's 'Visual Encyclopedia'
• JP's amazing Christmas Eve meal and Magnus helpless with giggles trying to tell a long, rather naughty and actually not very funny joke
• Flying to London after Christmas and seeing Holly and Jamie run towards me in their wee red jumpers
• Snow on Christmas Day!
• Emma and I winning Disney Trivial Pursuit on DVD. (How sad is that?)

It was a great time with all the family - on both sides. However, even as we put leftovers in tupperware and took our bottles to the recycling area, the awful events in South East Asia were unfolding. I'm about to go to the Disasters Emergency Committee to donate money and help bring aid to the area. If your Christmas was as good as mine, go there too and give what you can.

It's Official - nearly 50% of Americans say sorry

One of the nicest sites I've seen a long time. Americans - or at least 49% of them - say 'Sorry Everybody' for the events of the 2nd of November. We appreciate your sentiments.

What are you doing?

It's Bloggercon today! Go here now to read all about it.

Move along now. Nothing to see here...

Culture Clash

University Avenue, Palo Alto
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket.

What would you rather have? Borders or a 1930s cinema? And what, indeed, does this say about how we entertain ourselves in 21st Century?

But enough musings... Here I am in Palo Alto, wrestling with the inconsistencies of my BBC laptop and its on/off relationship with my log-in account.

Today was spent emailing, printing out masses of documents from work so that I can read and comment by Sunday night (I actually bought a pack of paper for the hotel printer at reception, I felt so embarassed at hogging it for 45 minutes in order to print out 25 documents) and doing the odd bit of shopping. Went a bit mad buying things for my nieces and nephew. Nothing too expensive - Spongebob toothbrushes, Hello Kitty plasters, weirdly-flavoured lipsalve - stuff they can't get at home.

And tomorrow is Bloggercon and an early start. Need to go and power up my multiple gadgets so that I can capture as much as I can without resorting to analogue paper and pen.

Oh, and eat... Now, I’m as open to new food experiences as the next person. I’ve tried grits and wee tomatoes in jelly and stuff like that (that’s what living in Atlanta does for you) but here’s a taste sensation in crisps I never thought I’d try – and, frankly, don’t intend to again. Lime flavour??? I suppose it’s a fatty, crunchy version of the salt-on-back-of-the-hand and suck-of-lime tequila experience. But I think you should know it doesn’t go with French white wine…

Here I am at 35,000 feet...

Flying over California
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket.

…on a relatively quiet flight to San Francisco, with the Well Being radio channel in my ear, playing a mixture of Irish flute and whale noise.

I have managed to commandeer a whole middle row to myself and have decided to hammer away on the laptop for a bit – at least until the battery begins to falter – instead of watching the array of movies on offer in the seatback screen in front of me.

Awake at 04.00 – isn’t that always the way when the alarm is actually set for 5.15? –for the first BA flight down to Heathrow and now awaiting my no-doubt delicious gluten-free lunch. The cocktail trolley has been and gone (gin and tonic, since you ask…) and now the wine trolley is here (white Bordeaux).

Talking of which, how’s this for pretention gone badly, badly wrong? Years ago I made a film about wine, shooting in Bordeaux and the Corbieres region of France . Having travelled through the country with wine expert, Oz Clarke, tasting merrily and learning lots, I flew home with Air France from Bordeaux. The drinks trolley came round and I asked for a glass of red. Following the tradition of the previous few weeks’ filming, I lifted the small plastic tumbler to my nose to give it a good sniff and managed to inhale a large nose-ful causing me to choke, expel a significant amount onto my shirt and generally look a complete fool. Now, I bypass the nose malarkey and go straight to the mouth…

Gluten-free lunch was basically a fish-fest. Salmon salad (x 2, oddly) as starter(s) followed by baked cod. As my second fishy starter arrived, I asked – innocently – what the gluten-free pudding was. It appears that us weirdo, dietary freaks don’t get a dessert. But, two salmon starters were a bonus. And I had bought a packet of Cadbury’s Chocolate Buttons and they certainly did the trick, sugar-wise.

PS Actually, this picture probably wasn't taken at 35,000 feet as I THINK it's the Cascades and we're well into our descent over Northern California. Anyone recognise it??

The People have Spoken

And no one in this country can quite believe what they've said. In voting Bush back in, I have to ask myself if the American people are HAPPY to be lied to? They're content to let this happen for four more years?

We're trying to understand it - but it's hard...

And you have to figure the country will be even more divided than it already is. And even more isolated from the rest of the World. A sad day for what used to be a great Nation.

Sex for Votes scandal

I know it's often hard to get folk to go out and vote in the US but surely this is taking incentives to extremes?No sex unless you vote, darling ...

Morning in St Clair.

Morning in St Clair.
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket.

This is where I was a month ago today, at about this time. St Clair beach, near Le Lavandou in the South of France.

Weather in Glasgow today - dull, damp, autumnal.

Mmm. Where would I rather be?