Month: July 2007

Categories
nostalgia

Oxford traffic locks down


Oxford traffic locks down
Originally uploaded by mgharris

Why did my rare, one day away from my desk have to turn into a battle with the elements? From aquaplaning all over country roads this morning to being stuck in one of Oxford’s legendary total gridlocks…I’m 2 minutes from home but doubt I’m going to be there for 30.

On the bright side, it brings back happy memories of rainy summer afternoons stuck for hours on Mexico City’s Periferico.

I wish I’d gone to the loo. How true it is that ladies should never miss an opportunity to pop into the ladies.

Yes I’m driving as I blog this. It’s okay…it’s an automatic.

Crumbs.

Emailed from my BlackBerry®

Categories
raves

Dropped by the office…


Dropped by the office…
Originally uploaded by mgharris

Decided to spend the day out of the house so that I don’t have to find excuses not to write. I even dropped by the office to see how the guys are doing. This is a photo of me with our senior technology consultant, Matt Banks, a guy so good-looking that when we had our company photos done, the photographer reckoned that he could get Matt work as a model. Matt is making a rude gesture with his fingers, in the general direction of the MD, Mark Salisbury.

I am going to look at a snazzy new, freebie content management system. Woo.

More photos on Flickr…

Emailed from my BlackBerry®

Categories
nostalgia raves

Der Echt Nutella

It’s okay, I wondered too. Der Nutella, die Nutella, das Nutella? I didn’t want to get it wrong after all. Luckily, the InterWeb provides answers to these questions and more.

http://www.wer-weiss-was.de/theme143/article1542260.html#1542260

According to a Nutella FAQ, it can be any one of the three articles.

So…Der Echt Nutella.

Nutella is actually made by an Italian family company, Ferrero, whose skills with hazelnut and chocolate know no bounds. They also make the Ambassador’s favourite sweets, those exclusive Ferrero Rocher.

But the Germans embraced Nutella with a passion back in the 1970s (or even earlier), which is where I first encountered the yummy treat, living there for 6 months as a four year old. When we left to live in Manchester, England, Nutella was the pain thing I missed, for years and years, until it started to be available in the UK, sometime in the late 1980s.

I remember going with school to Germany and coming back laden with 8 bottles of Nutella.

I wasn’t being greedy. You couldn’t get it in England then!

I remember staying with my German exchange penfriend, the lovely Erik, and being super impressed when one morning at breakfast the Nutella ran out. And his Mum simply went to the larder and pulled out another! Who stores more than one jar of Nutella at a time??? The Germans, that’s who. They love it.

I have always strongly suspected that Ferrero make a special formulation for the German market. Their Nutella is the echt Nutella as far as I am concerned. It is more chocolately and nougaty.

My good friend DB bought me a jar from the German deli in London, to help me with my writer’s block. I ate a few spoons before going to bed last night. God it’s good.

I couldn’t be sure this early, but I think I sensed a flicker in the old story brain. Maybe it was the combined effect of the Nutella and having seen Harry Potter 5. I’ll have to eat some more, to see if it really works…

Categories
getting published writing

Wheels begin to turn…

Well my dear blog readers, it’s all kicking off round our way!

My publisher – Scholastic Children’s Books – announced the aquisition of “THE JOSHUA FILES” series title on Tuesday. And the news is that it seems to have grabbed some attention, which is great, which is wonderful, because it will hopefully help build awareness of the book.

My agent called me on Tuesday morning and told me that the Arts Editor of the Evening Standard wanted to interview me, which she did…and sure enough, they ran a little story in the late edition – on the same page as a big article about Harry Potter, next to one about the Arctic Monkeys.

It’s not my first time in the press. But before it tended to be things like “Information World Review”, on a page about Knowledge Management software and the like…

This is different and pretty, pretty, pretty cool.

I’m really looking forward to Harry Potter 7. And the huge bar of chocolate I plan to eat while reading it. The day will be sandwiched between two salsa events (Friday night and a Sunday matinee performance of the terrific UK-based son band, Soneando), so I should be able to burn the calories off…

It’s my turn to see the latest Harry Potter movie tonight…

Oh…I am currently hugely enjoying watching “The New Adventures of Old Christine” a new sitcom starring my favourite of the Seinfeld four, Julie Louis-Dreyfus. So much that I think I’ll give it it’s own blog entry…more soon.

Still got writer’s block, by the way. I have put a Recovery Plan in place. Luckily for me, it calls for things like going to the movies and reading.

Categories
cuba salsa

"Too Much Salsa and You Could Die"

That’s what Cuban salsa dance teacher Osbanis Tejedo said at breakfast on Sunday morning to the DJ. He was asking him to stir up the music a bit, some bachata, some merengue, some reggaeton.

Well, despite those words, I remember last night being mostly salsa…and the night before and the night before. I think I may in fact be dying from too much salsa. I feel as though I’ve been out on a drinking bender, absolutely shattered. And in the past three days I’ve had no more than one glass of wine.

It must be dehydration. Let me weigh myself…nope, no change there.

Salsa is definitely like a drug. It makes you feel amazing, you forget all your troubles while it lasts. Then you come back down to earth and realise that your problems haven’t gone away, for goodness sakes. They’re right there waiting to be dealt with, how dare they! And what do you turn to for a solution…?

More salsa.

It was great to be with a hundred or so like-minded addicts. How we sweated to get our rumba moves right, to move like the African spirits, the Orishas, how we strove to follow the tiny-but-fiery Damarys in her energetic and outrageously sexy reggaeton routine, how we concentrated on Kerry Ribchester’s wonderful body-movement techniques to move ribcages for Cuban son, and laughed at Leo and Osbanis’s flirty rueda moves.

Last night, you saw it all pouring out on the dance floor. Salsa with rumba, orishas, reggaeton, son, all mixed up. Okay, most people there were Northern European (and I was raised here, so I too started off stiff-as-a-board), but we were beginning to get there.

But man, am I exhausted.

Now, when’s the next salsa thing…?