Lon-done

Here I am, trip wrapped up, waiting for my flight in the Holideck. No, really. It appears that a bunch of airline business lounges just banded together to make a single massive 3-floor lounge. There was no signage specifically for my airline, so I was wandering the terminal shops for a bit first - feeling a bit dumb for walking up and down Regent Street today shopping at the same stores that are right here in the airport. Granted, even 'duty free', I'm sure the airport versions are pretty marked up, but that's still a few extra hours, streets, and tube rides that I was carrying everything around.

Incidentally, that earlier central London shopping trip led to a pretty funny scenario - I was walking out of Fortnum and Mason after purchasing Meh's favourite chocolates and our favourite teas (you simply must add the 'u' when talking about proper British tea), and my phone started ringing. The caller ID showed a Seattle area code, and I figured it was someone from home who I could just call back when I got back to the US, where it wouldn't be $1/minute. Then again, it was 11 am at the time, so 3 am at home - more likely a coworker also in the UK. Whoops, yup, a question had come up at a meeting, and they were wondering if I could do a conference call. So a few minutes later, I took the call at the most unlikely location: on the third floor of Hamleys (London’s answer to FAO Schwartz) toy store in Regent Street. Nothing like discussing technical audio topics while winding through displays of stuffed animals, dodging silly magic-trick-performing employees, and checking out an impressive life-size Lego Indy display.

The conference went very well - we ended up having more than four hundred people attend! As one final challenge thrown my way, I was asked on the morning of the event if I could introduce the keynote speaker. So I got to take that treacherous two-step walk up onto the stage, with giant video screens behind me projecting, um, me, welcome everyone to the event, and introduce the speaker. It seemed to go okay, though I felt a little odd that everyone was welcomed to the conference by someone they didn't see again throughout the day unless they happened to attend the audio talks.

Well, my flight will be boarding soon, so time to wrap this up. Seattle may still be twelve hours off, but very much looking forward to being back with my wife and son later tonight, and celebrating Zachary's first birthday tomorrow!