Good moooooorning, Hollywooooooooood!

Although it's not quite morning yet. Let me explain.

Yesterday evening my (very cold*) plane touched down on time after a (super long) flight and out we walked into the (blistering*) heat of Miami airport. The notoriously famous immigration procedure which mothers tell their kids about when they don't want to sleep at night (the kids, not the mothers) actually only lasted 10 minutes and even made me chuckle to myself. See, when the nice lady at the desk found out I was attending an IBM Conference she said she in her heart of hearts much preferred "Apples" to "IBM's Microsoft", to which I nodded compassionately and even gave her a little sigh of sympathy, but didn't correct her out of fear that she might send me to Guantanamo Bay, which would have been bad. But she didn't, which was a relief.

(*) - whingeing about temperature, done!

Sadly that was the last good thing to happen in Miami airport. The luggage was 1 hour late, and of course, when the 10 000 suitcases started coming mine was the 10 000th to come out. Funny was how many guys they had working around the conveyor belts randomly lifting off some suitcases (but not others) and putting them on the floor all round the conveyor belts while the passengers drove themselves nuts dashing like headless chickens between the conveyor belts and the stack of suitcases and then back to the conveyor belts to look for their luggage. Maybe it's the american touch to the art of luggage claim.

Anyhow, by the time I left the airport it was already dark so didn't get to see any beaches or the sea or even any sunshine, sob sob, which leaves me very disappointed but looking forward to tomorrow. My Colombian driver pointed out in his delightful accent that the temperature was 32 C and the humidity, oh my god the humidity, at a seasonal 90%! Shopping tomorrow will feel like shopping in a sauna, should be a new experience.

Finally arrived at the (massive, 1500-room, on the beach) hotel at 08 30 and after some artful flashing of smiles at reception I was shown a very nice room, with a balcony, high high up in the skies, with a gorgeous city view. I'm going to be really gutted if Brian gets a room either 1) higher up or 2) with an ocean view. If he gets a room higher up AND with an ocean view I'll go on strike.

I can't though, because of course I forgot my camera and will need his.

So, dinner was in the uber romantically lit (ie not very lit) Japanase fusion resto downstairs with live flamenco music played by 2 fiery Spanish stallions. They were so good (at the music, I hasten to add) I stayed there until midnight and then came back and managed 2 hours of sleep before my body started thinking of Slough and how it needed to be there in a couple of hours and woke up.

It's now 5 40 and I've been up for nearly 2 hours doing strategy work. Sigh. Maybe I'll go for a swim and watch the sun rise.

And maybe tomorrow I'll blog something that actually has to do with IBM and Messaging, and maybe even Collaboration! And Mat will then not use his God admin rights to overrule as he says my minuscule author rights and delete my blog because it says nothing about EUT or the conference (yet).

But may I object beforehand, it does have to do with EUT and I certainly am on tour. Well, like my objection will count anyway ; )

I'll post the conference agenda later on today when I'm not in way-too-early-in-the-morning-crazy mood. Stay tuned!