As you may know – I was recently briefly in the UK. I took my sister neice and mother to Legoland one day. I think we all had fun but the best bit for me was the giant baby bouncers. Essentially you are strapped to a harness on bungy ropes over a trampoline so you can bounce and do somersaults to your heart’s content.

Just before jetting off to Rome I went to the Hard Rock music festival in Hyde Park. The music was great – went to see the Police (hilarious rumours about how they hate each other), Clapped Out Eric (bloody good set actually), the Stranglers and Sheryl Crow. Actually we really lucked out for Sheryl Crow – got artists passes so watched it all from the side of the stage. Not bloody bad at all. She was great but what struck me more than anything else is that she is tiny – absolutely pocket sized. No clue where all that voice comes from.

Just spent the weekend in Austin – what a great place. My only other experience of Texas has been Houston and the two towns couldn’t be any more different. Austin is cool for a start. Not temperature wise (over 100 degrees every day – eek) but cool in terms of the great vibe, the outdoorsy lifestyle, the music and nightlife. The biggest surprise was how green it is – some of the surrounding area looks almost English with picturesque farms and villages. Also the town itself is packed with lively bars and restaurants.

My visit coincided with the Ralley of Texas. Not quite in the same league as Sturgis – but every biker in the area came to 6th street to *erm* cruise around, rev engines, pose and drink beer. Outside the 90% penetration of Harleys there were some impressive custom jobs and some of the really crazy machines like the Boss Hoss (Putting a Chevy 350 V8 engine on a BIKE has to be crazy).

Actually the biggest shock was at the HD dealer. I’ve never seen so many middle aged men (or even a single one for that matter) in a shopping frenzy before. *The genius of HD is tapping into this affluent market and making them want to shop until they drop – not just clothing but also stuff they can put onto their bikes (hilariously some of the sales guys call themselves chrome consultants). I swear not one of them left the shop empty handed. Some of these franchises must be licences to print money.

*just idly wondering what the collective noun for MA men in shopping frenzy is. Was thinking maybe a paunch but perhaps a ker-ching is more fitting or possibly a male menopause. Any better ideas?

I heard about the ghost tours and had to go – so I convinced a number of people to join me. I was a little concerned that this was going to be another one of my hair brained schemes… but it turned out great.

The two hour started at Reverend Zombie’s House of Voodoo and took in a good chunk of New Orleans’ French Quarter. It was actually really pleasant just to wander around, taking in the quaint houses with their stunning balconies. The ghost tour bit was a bonus really. We stopped regularly to hear tales of murder, revenge and mysterious happenings, and to sample the drinks in genuine smugglers bars that maybe over ONE HUNDRED YEARS old. Thinking about it, I can’t remember the details of a single story. This might be due to the tedious conversations of the couple behind me, however I DO remember hearing that New Orleans has a drive through Daquiri stall. Definitely somewhere to visit next time.

Surprisingly I don’t even mean the current drawn out and painful election saga (although that’s another whole story – is it nearly over?) . I want to draw your attention to a brave soul who is completely honest about his sanity: the new mayor of Philadelphia.

I made it to New Orleans late on Friday night – so when I woke up on Saturday morning my first thought was: “Why do I say yes to this stuff?”. I’d agreed to participate in a CableCares initiative to support New Orleans schools affected by the hurricane. After much grumbling and lashings of Starbucks (extra shot) I headed over to the Fannie C Williams school where I was to help build a playground. Several years on the teaching was still taking place in portacabins and there was nothing at all for the kids to do outside.

I was allocated the mulch team. That all sounded great until I saw the pile of mulch – it was ENORMOUS. Apparently 280sq feet of the stuff. So after liberal slatherings of suncream I got to work with a shovel. We worked for hours without any apparent dent in the pile – the plan was to fill the whole playground area with 12″ of mulch. This is pretty tough work but the team spirit was great and we kept telling ourselved that it was for the children 😉

I was absolutely amazed how much we managed to achieve. (Look at the video here). While my team shovelled, others put up fantastic payground equipment, made planters, painted etc. I even got a break from shovelling to help paint a cyclepath much to the fascination of the kids. When we left the playground looked AMAZING. The biggest disappointment is that we weren’t allowed to play on it until the concrete had set – boo.  I am really pleased I took part in this initiative to help this deserving area in a small way. That said I may never use mulch ever again.

It has been an insanely crazy week at the Cable Show. I know that doesn’t sound particularly exciting but actually it was cool. The industry has moved on from boxes – now it is all about content. And from a show perspective, the content made for some entertaining exhibits. There was a charming lady who spent the whole time reclined in a giant martini glass, some bull riding and crazy online auctions as well as the various different channels all vying for attention (Discovery got my vote). I’ll share with you some of what I got up to but in the meantime, my all time favourite was this yellow chap.

Now I don’t spend that much time at home and don’t create masses of rubbish yet I am forever looking to get rid of bags of rubbish. Why? Because I get vast forests worth of restaurant details, local rags and other random stuff through my door on a regular basis. I haven’t even signed up for anything much, it just arrives. Not only do I get all this unsolicited junk through – most of it refers to me a valued customer. Urgh. As soon as one of them sends me a reply paid envelope – I’ll send some back.

I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago recently. I rather like the hotel – the rooms are nice, the smellies in the bathroom are pretty good and it has a reasonably spacious gym (ie not a broom closet for a change) that’s open 24 hours. The best thing of all is that it has wonderful sheets (shame I had to get up crazy early to catch the train out of town).

Anyway, this time I was in a great corner room with views all the way down Michigan avenue. Wih so many windows you could see anyone in the buildings around and they could see you. (It was like that awful film with Sharen Stone where everyone has a telescope to spy on everyone else). Most disconcerting of all was the large plate glass window next to the shower. Turns out it is the perfect place for exhibitionists too. Before you wonder – the bathroom blinds remained firmly down.