Tag: alcohol

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Weekly Wrap 182: Christmas begins on Sydney Harbour

My week Monday 25 November to Sunday 1 December 2013 was ages ago — so to catch up on all the missing Weekly Wrap posts, I’ll just list the basics and skip giving them photos.

Once I’ve posted all four, I’ll do some sort of more detailed post explaining the state of the world — or at least my little bit of it.

Articles

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Wednesday I went to the Internet Industry Association (IIA) Nautical Policy event, which is of course code for a couple hours of eating and drinking on Sydney Harbour aboard Matilda III sponsored by Enex Testlab. Afterwards we continued on for more drinks, and I know that at least one bottle of wine was paid for by iiNet.
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Weekly Wrap 177: Fire, travel, hacking and alcohol

The view from 29A: click to embiggenMy week Monday 21 to Sunday 27 October 2013 was just insanely busy, including everything from bushfires to fine food to hacking, little sleep and far, far too much alcohol.

In the one week, I felt guilty for leaving the Blue Mountains when the locals were about to face what looked like a severe bushfire threat, especially when the very next day I enjoyed a luxury lunch, and spent four solid days absorbing deep, deep information security information and, in the evenings, alcohol.

I survived.

Articles

Podcasts

None.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Wednesday I went to a lunchtime media briefing by Amazon Web Services at the O-Bar, the restaurant at the top of Australia Square tower. The food and wine was delightful.
  • On Thursday I had dinner with Michael McKinnon from AVG Technologies AU and a chap from a government agency at Syracuse Restaurant and Wine Bar in Melbourne. AVG paid for that one.
  • On Sunday I had dinner with Michael McKinnon from AVG Technologies AU at Ishiya Japanese Stonegrill. I can thoroughly recommend the “sake degustation” options. But McKinnon again? I know. He even acted as my driver for an errand on Saturday afternoon. People are starting to talk…

The Week Ahead

Well, it’d almost over now. All I’ll say is that tonight is Thursday night and I’ll be returning to the Blue Mountains tomorrow. The weekend is unplanned, at least in detail, but I’ll be producing some media objects between now and the end of Sunday. Stay tuned.

[Map: The view from 29A, taken at Sydney Airport on 23 October 2013.

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Weekly Wrap 171: Writing to a realistic schedule

Screenshot of email, reading: "Hi mate, There will be drinks. Cheers."“They say, it’s all in content. I say, it’s all in the pitch,” said the PR operative — who shall remain nameless — who sent me the email you may see in the screenshot.

“Hi mate, There will be drinks. Cheers,” was all they needed to add to the generic invitation to grab my attention — though in my defence, the invitation was to an event that was well within my realms of interest, and I probably would’ve gone anyway.

I’m more than happy to attend relevant events even when there aren’t drinks. I also go to events that I’m not necessarily personally interested in, but which I know I’ll be able to turn into saleable media objects.

But it was that little personal touch that caused me to spend that extra moment to read the whole thing and agree, yes, this was something I wanted to go to.

That personal touch wasn’t really about a shared like of alcohol, though the unnamed PR operative and I agree that when we meet for drinks we’re just two people sharing a drink and confidences stay confidential.

It’s more that they knew my work, and knew that I’d get value out of this event — and because they do this sparingly, it stands out from the dozens and dozens of of PR emails I receive every day.

So here’s my week Monday 9 to Sunday 15 September 2013. I may or may not explain why this post is so late tomorrow.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

We’re already well into it, obviously. But to catch up quickly, the Tokyo trip was scratched and instead I’m now in Sydney Wednesday through Friday. On Wednesday I’ve got errands, a lunchtime briefing by IBM and then a meeting over at Randwick, and the rest is still being mapped out.

I’ll pick up the Twitter feed tomorrow.

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Weekly Wrap 162: A dog, a pause, and an invisible cat

Sunday night in the village: click to embiggenMy week Monday 8 to Sunday 14 July 2013 was a continuation of my distinct slow-down, for reasons explained previously.

I still haven’t decided whether I’ll write about that any further. For now, I’ll just say that there’s been suitable initial progress on that front. Many thanks to the people — friends, colleagues and strangers alike — who’ve been in touch.

Meanwhile, as usual, here’s the media-related things I’ve done this week. Not that there were many.

Podcasts

None.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None. Well, there was some on offer, but I declined. I have heard rumour which suggest that I made the wrong decision.

The Week Ahead

The theme for the coming week is “assessment”. I’ll be be running through the various areas of my life to see where I’m up to, what issues I should perhaps address, and what the possibilities for the future might be. Personal stuff, including my health. Work, both media-related and otherwise. All sorts of stuff. I haven’t done that for a while. I’ve just been cruising along.

In between, I’ll be writing for Technology Spectator and ZDNet Australia, and perhaps some others. I’ll also post another episode of the Corrupted Nerds podcast, fix some problems with the website, and sketch out my ideas for making that a sustainable project.

On Thursday I’ll be down in Sydney for a medical appointment and lunch with a friend. Whether I’ll be staying in Sydney longer than that remains to be decided.

[Photo: Sunday night in the village, being the near-deserted Station Street, Wentworth Falls, earlier this evening.]

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Weekly Wrap 156: An excess of Sydney, with smog

Night falls over Sydney: click to embiggenMy week Monday 27 May to Sunday 2 June 2013 was rather different from how I first imagined it.

I ended up spending much of it in Sydney, covering the CeBit Cyber Security conference and recording all manner of conversations — the results of the latter to appear over the coming weeks.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Tuesday I covered the CeBit Cyber Security conference, so as usual with such things there was food and drink.
  • On Wednesday I had lunch at the Customs House Bar with some folks from Sourcefire, and they paid.
  • On Wednesday night I was a guest of Kaspersky Lab at their dinner with Eugene Kaspersky at Aqua at Milsons Point. There was fine food and drink, a water taxi there and a Cabcharge voucher for the ride back.

The Week Ahead

Since it’s already quite late on Wednesday afternoon, all I’ll say is that I plan to head down to Sydney tomorrow, Thursday, for an interview recording — at least once I’ve got my ZDNet Australia column out of the way — and what happens for the rest of the week and the annoyingly-positioned long weekend will then depend upon circumstances.

And that’s not all I’m annoyed about.

[Photo: Night falls over Sydney, looking towards the CBD from Camperdown on 29 May 2013.]

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Weekly Wrap 154: California, with wine and Bloody Marys

Vesuvio's $8 Bloody Mark: click to embiggenMy week Monday 13 to Sunday 19 May 2013 was spent in San Francisco and San Jose which, I am reliably informed, are cities in The America.

It also finished nearly a week ago, so I’ll just list the things for now. Should I be in the mood, I’ll reflect upon the week tomorrow.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • I travelled to the US as a guest of NetSuite Inc. Their largesse consisted of: return flights Sydney to San Francisco with United Airlines; limousine airport transfers (well, one way at least, ‘cos the return journey was buggered up); two nights accommodation at the St Regis Hotel, San Francisco, plus USD 100 in American Express gift cards to cover meals; dinner and drinks at Colibri Mexican Bistro; private bus to San Jose; three nights accommodation at the Hilton San Jose; dinner and drinks at ARCADIA by Michael Mina, San Jose; dinner and drinks at Testarossa Winery, Los Gatos, followed by moar drinks at ARCADIA; an iPad Mini 16GB Wi-Fi, engraved with the NetSuite logo; a 3.5-ounce tin of Wine Lover’s Chocolate by Bridge Brands Chocolate; a NetSuite-branded HydroFlask thermos; a NetSuite-branded North End Sport windbreaker (that is, a kind of polyester jacket); a NetSuite-branded ball-point pen and notebook; a re-usable shopping back by RuMe; the usual conference satchel full of never-to-be-read pieces of paper and cardboard, and endless food and drink in the press lounge.

The Week Ahead

Since it’s already Saturday afternoon, there’s not really much point, is there? There’ll be a new Weekly Wrap tomorrow.

[Photo: Vesuvio’s $8 Bloody Mary. At Vesuvio in San Francisco, the bar where Jack Kerouac used to drink, you can get one of these fine Bloody Marys for just $8. Plenty of vodka, spiced as you require, with a huge stuffed Spanish olive, white pickled onion, lemon and lime.]