Vacation

It's that time of the year again... going on vacation as of tomorrow. Will be back in 1 week's time or so.

Child-like

Yesterday, I was having a drink at the hotel bar - quite cool, by the way - and without really realizing got immersed in what I call my "child-like" perspective: starting too look at everything like a kid, smiling by seeing something out of the ordinary, not questioning too much, just finding it all very interesting...very new.

I don't know how this perspective first came about in my life and I'm sure others feel it once in a while, but I can't help but to feel so free when I do go into this "mode".

Being like a "child" has three huge advantages:
1) You don't think too much and even if you do something not very smart, you really don't care.
2) You step back on everything and gain a naive like perspective, which is quite liberating.
3) It gets you closer to something that is quite unique... the illusion of purity.

You see, on the latter one, I actually have the theory that most of us spend all of our lives trying to reach this "pure state of mind". The thing is, we actually had it once, when we were kids, but a lot of us forget that.

I guess that's why I like kids so much (not a very politically correct phrase these days, but I genuinely don't care)... they remind me of what life is really about... about being surprised, finding it funny and exciting even if it's dull and finally about being happy, strangely happy... uniquely happy.

I know not all kids have the chance to be happy, but having worked with those that were called by adulthood several years before they were supposed to, I still find that deep down most of them still keep that genuine purity nonetheless.

After all, maybe all of us do.

Yet another post of a Thoughts text
----------------------------------------------------
Almada, September 14th 1998 (Almada, Portugal)

Scent and touch

The light is hurting me.
I can’t quite figure out where I am at.
I have the feeling that there’s someone else in the room. Someone watching me.
And the scent… the sweet smell… it must be a woman.
All of a sudden, I lose my sight… I can’t see.
She is touching me on the face.
First with the palm of her hand, gently caressing my cheeks.
Then with the back of her hand, touching my forehead.
Is she feeling my temperature, is she just touching me?
She just wants my thoughts, she wants to know how I feel about her… How I feel around her.
She starts talking to me, saying something.
It really isn’t important but her voice sounds familiar.
I’ve been around her.
I start to get a glimpse of her figure.
I’m starting to recognize her…
I wake up.

MUSIC I WOULD BE (AM) LISTENING TO: “The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty”, Sophie B. Hawkins
FILM I WOULD BE (AM) WATCHING: “Splendor in the grass”

Pillows

Well, I was just looking at the pillows on my hotel bed and wondering: "What is the right configuration so I can have a good night's sleep? I mean, should the fat large one be below or the thin one that looks almost like a square. What is the best way to put them so I can actually fall asleep quickly?"

"You're a weird geek." - you would say.

I would probably agree, but add "that really, really wants to get a good night's sleep".

The Good Old Days

Well, back to the good old days. Since I went back to my "advisory" life, I had still not worked this late. It's now almost midnight and here I am close to going back to the hotel... where "close" seems to be the key word.

The team is closing the current draft version and I'm meditating... meditating on this thing called "good old days".

On the one hand, I can't say I didn't miss this. There's surely a buzz around working late and thinking you are changing the world in some way that nobody really understands except you and your colleagues (and some enlightened others as well).

On the other hand, that's plain bullshit and I think deep down we all know it.

This effort I was not in charge of, but still I need to think about how to change these dynamics... definitely this is ok once in a while, but I don't want to make a habit of it... nor should anyone else.

Demented

I looked up Dementia in the dictionary and it says:

1. Deterioration of intellectual faculties, such as memory, concentration, and judgment, resulting from an organic disease or a disorder of the brain. It is sometimes accompanied by emotional disturbance and personality changes.

2. Madness; insanity. See Synonyms at insanity.

Ok, so I looked at Insanity and it says:

1. Persistent mental disorder or derangement. No longer in scientific use.

2. Law
a. Unsoundness of mind sufficient in the judgment of a civil court to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual or other legal relationship or to warrant commitment to a mental health facility.
b. In most criminal jurisdictions, a degree of mental malfunctioning sufficient to relieve the accused of legal responsibility for the act committed.

3.
a. Extreme foolishness; folly.
b. Something that is extremely foolish.

Ok, so what? I was just trying to understand if the "lands" around me are demented or if I'm demented. Not really sure, just more confused after looking at the definitions.

Am I demented? Am I insane?

I don't know. I just remember this one quote that I really like: "I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it"

Well, let's just be positive about it. Even if I am, at least I should enjoy it.

I have decided to republish my "Thoughts" texts. Perhaps to remind me of how silly I was. Perhaps to remind me of how pure I was. Or just because I want to piss off a friend who said I would take these texts off the Internet when I got to a certain age... YOU WERE WRONG!

-------------------------------------------
Laranjeiras, October 9th 1997 (Lisbon, Portugal)

The “One”

Well, today I’ll be talking a little bit about the “one” (no, not the U2 song or Elton John’s “One”). Forgive me, you girls out there (even assuming that it might interest you) but I’ll be talking about the girl of one’s life (The One).
Basically, when do you know you have come face to face with the person you want to share the rest of your life with? Moreover, how can you be certain that she (or he [sorry girls]) has any kind of feelings for you?
After 2 years being taken over by these same thoughts, and when I say taken over, I mean really getting obsessed by it, I can only take one conclusion out of it all: you never know the answer to those two questions; at least, you never know for sure.

Talking from personal experience (actually not that good), I have only fallen deeply in love for one girl and now have mixed feelings for another one. The first one was a girl that I never expected to fall in love with, in the first place. I mean, we got along so well that at first it didn’t make sense to have such feelings. In reality (reality does “bite”) it wasn’t meant to happen, some would say, but still having spent some time with her and having felt that way for such a long time (a year or so) you can never really get over it (not in an absolute way). The second one really attracted (attracts) me, not only physically but mainly in a strange “déjà vu” feeling, from day one. More than one year has passed since the day I first saw her and strangely enough I feel strongly for her, albeit not knowing the first thing about her life.

It’s really interesting to notice all the metaphors in our “pseudo-shot at a relation thing”: she “lives” high up, really much higher than me, having almost the image of an immaculate angel or someone that is supposed to save you from falling into disgrace. When I get these feelings, I feel I’m entering shaky grounds, mainly because I’m putting the existence of someone that I really don’t know, on such a pedestal. Sometimes I feel I can’t even put the one I should believe the most in (God, as a catholic) on such high grounds.
It’s strange when you spend days of your existence thinking about the “one”, trying to have an image of her. But what does it all mean?

Is it supposed to make sense?
I sincerely think so. I have to. It has to make sense, but it sometimes fails to do so and it makes you wonder if it’s all worth it.
Nah, then again, maybe it’s just me getting sentimental again, but on the other hand that’s who I am, that is what makes Nuno be Nuno (if you catch my drift ☺).
I really don’t have much more to say today, except that tomorrow I’ll wake up again and she will wake up again too.



MUSIC I WOULD BE (AM) LISTENING TO: “Love is blindness”, U2
FILM I WOULD BE (AM) WATCHING: “While you were sleeping”

Series: Seinfeld

What can one say about the best comedy series ever? Well, it's the best comedy series ever... duh!!!

It's not about the acting... "Kramer" is the man and "George" just gets the whole Larry David persona ("Curb your Enthusiasm" is frightening in that sense). Seinfeld is not a brilliant actor, but he makes it work... it just works. The writing is exceptional... Larry Charles, all the guys and obviously the uber-writers, the main men: Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. The situation makes itself, no real need for brilliant acting. The theme of "nothing" is exceptional and you can only laugh. It is self-fulfilling comedy.

Then it withstood the two biggest tests of any TV series:
- After series 4, it continued to improve. To have the "Soup Nazi" episode on series 7 is an incredible example of that. It went up, it sustained quality. That is quite unique in comedy series.
- It still makes sense today although it's a "90's series".

Sheer brilliance and the end made it all worthwhile. The nihilism that has to pay. All of a sudden, all makes sense. And Seinfled, Elaine, George and Kramer do pay... they had to, there were just too good(bad)!

Series: Entourage

I finished watching series 2 a couple of days ago. Series 3 is halfway through in the US from what I know, but I will wait to get it on DVD.

This is one of those series that you start watching and you can't stop... you could probably watch it all in one day... around 25 minutes an episode, 14 episodes... perfectly feasible. How addictive is this series? A LOT.

The acting isn't fabulous, with the exception of Jeremy Piven, Kevin Connolly and Jerry Ferrara - aka Turtle or the new "Kramer" of American TV". Well, actually the acting is reasonably good; I guess I just don't like Adrian Grenier - the pretty boy. He is just too convincing which probably means he's just playing himself. Not really the stuff that would make him a great actor, but the girls probably like it. Oh, by the way, the girls on this series ROCK!!! Simply ROCK. From the stars to the not so stars, it is extremely enjoyable.

The screenplays are... how can I put it? Simple. Very, very, very simple, but they work so well. The series conquers us through form rather than substance. We are taken by the rhythm of the action and the acting and manipulated by the cameo appearances into believing "this is really a great series". It probably isn't, but we are convinced it really is when watching and isn't that makes a great TV series after all: momentum week after week, very close to inducing addictive behaviours on the spectators.

Finally, it does for LA what Las Vegas does for LV... you just want to visit it after watching. LA I know quite well and this series definitely "gets it" when it comes to the atmosphere, the pretentiousness, the absolute idolizing of people's personas/images. You gotta hate it and love it at the same time. You just have to.

Series: Las Vegas

Ok, it's one of those guilty pleasures. It doesn't have brilliant screenplays, it's not believable, but it sure is fun. A couple of things that I would say I really like:
- James Caan. What an actor. Very much THE actor of the series. The rest of the cast has a lot of ups and downs, but not this guy. Always in character.
- The girls. Oh so cute... and ... that's about it. I'm on series 3 and Flynn Boyle doesn't work for me at all.
- The action scenes are cool. They are over-the-top, but cool.
- The overall "look and feel" of the series is quite good.

And that's about it. A guilty pleasure. I will keep buying the DVDs, but it won't change the world. It just makes the rest of us that haven't been to Vegas yet, want to go to the real "sin city"... desperately.

MomCo.

A new theory I thought about today while picking up some water from the fridge in my office. I had just asked my assistant to organize my personal flights (personally settled I might add) since I couldn't do it online - needed paper tickets, etc... what if companies became full service providers to their employes on their professional but also personal needs - vacation planning, bookings, simple accounting, etc? All this while actually making some money out of it.

Granted, not all employees would be willing to pay for these services, but some would and the firm could maximize the usage of its resources - they do have downtime and ultimately arranging vacations and other employee services might well be less urgent and easily scheduled within all the diverse activities of the company.

Ok, ok... the business case might not be logic, efficiencies in the company might already be there and all that "non core business" stuff, but why not... sell services that are backoffice in nature, but would indeed become front-office when done internally for personal purposes. Who knows... heck ... it was just a 1 minute walk to the water anyway.

Relaxation

I haven't taken my relaxation moments too seriously lately. Mind you, I haven't worked too much, but on the other hand I don't do much apart from watching DVDs , reading and going out during the day.

Anyway, I've decided to be a bit more proactive. I do go for the cool, swanky vacations in some nice resort on in a while... but have to do something more.

Hey, how about I write more in my blog? That sounds about right.

Success (?)

Ok, so there I am on a Sunday: a World Economic Forum event. Attended a couple of things, got into an interesting conversation with the International Editor of a publication and ultimately felt good about myself and life in general.

Then I stopped... everyone kept going, but I stopped. "What the hell am I doing here? It's a Sunday. I must be the youngest guy here by five years, even ten. Is this it? Is this what success looks like?"

Just some context: I'm 29, but have worked since I was in college at 19 - full-time kind of work, not part-time. Some would say my career is meteoric, fast-track written everywhere. I somewhat don't feel reassured. On the one hand, I feel I lost part of my life... hell, I only got my weekends back at 23 ... 4 years... yes, 4 years of no real weekends. A couple of vacations, yes... but now real weekends while working. On the other hand, I go back to my initial question: "It this what success looks like? What is success?"

Well, at least my definition of success - from what I remember - included some professional success, not too much, not a lot of riches, not a lot of money, not too much glamour... just enough of everything. It did include some white picket fences, well at least a wife or a reasonably "sustainable" girlfriend, some kids maybe - I'm good with kids. Yet, nothing there... professionally meteoric? Not sure, but even if I was, none of the rest. None of the "real life" that I wanted for myself. No real safe harbour. No real home. Just very nice apartments in some exciting cities, nice hotel rooms which are more common than not. Just the life of a so-called successful professional.

So today, while everyone was going around and I had stopped, I thought about the future. What do I want to do next with my life? Professionally I'm ok for now, but my life ... the rest of it... the whole of it? What about that? Is there anything I can do, even if I wanted to?

Not sure. Really not sure. I have more questions than answers and all my pseudo-philosophy of life is really nothing more than a couple of dreams: some vivid, some not.

I feel I need to re-invent myself, do the ultimate transformation, become an agent of change for myself: people say I'm good professionally as an agent of change, for crying out loud I've been doing it for 7 years, so why not for myself?

Yet, I've been here before and the result wasn't too good. Probably the worst time of my life. "You think too much" - people used to tell me and so with time I stopped thinking. I became happier.

Well, therein lies the dilemma: to think or not to think; to change or not to change.

One day a good friend asked me as one normally does: "What do you give the man who has everything?". In a moment of true genius (or I might say so myself) I answered to my own shock: "You give him the ability to appreciate all that he already has". My friend was shocked as well.

That's it: I need to appreciate what I have and stop whining. Is that it? I sure hope it is.

Travel ranking: Flying
Well, I travel too much... actually way too much. Therefore, I decided I'm entitled as anyone else to elect the best airlines I've travelled in. I'll keep it simple and just divide it into First/Business and Economy Plus/Economy. I've also decided to talk about airports.

So here we go:

First/Business
1. Virgin Atlantic (Upper Class) - I thought a lot about who should be on top and ultimately went for the only airline that I really look forward to travelling in. Best lounge I've ever been in at Heathrow with Spa, Hairdresser, Delicatessen counter, Dining area, Games room and everything is very, very cool... courtesy of the SoHo House crowd. The overall service outside the flight is indeed completed by the limo service which is absolutely great and extremely useful. When onboard the product is great: great swanky seats, nice pjs, massage on board, great inflight entertainment (VOD, etc) and last but definitely not the least lovely flight attendants - very nice (unlike the "matron style" British Airways in-flight service), informal yet professional and yes, cute. Overall, and for the London-bound traveller, the price of BA's Business for a clear First class product. It's a shame they don't fly to more places.

2. Singapore Airlines (First and Business) - Ok, they almost came first right? An extremely good product - seat, great inflight entertainment (VOD, fabulous choice of movies) with some of the nicest flight attendants - really professional, beautiful and nice (maybe too nice sometimes). The rest is vintage Singaporean: good service at good rates with extreme efficiency and a smiley face (albeit a bit artificial at times). Not particularly overwhelmed by the quality of the lounges, but then again nothing compares to Virgin's lounges in Heathrow and in New York... ok, ok, BA's Concorde lounge in New York is quite impressive. Well, back to Singapore Airlines... very good, but not the best. Just not sufficiently exciting.

3. British Airways (First and Business) - I hesitated a lot on this one. Really a lot. Cathay is very good, Asiana is surprisingly good and Qantas is cool. BA is the "devil you know". Always very proficient, always good, extremely good product onboard - the inflight entertainment is not that good in Business... in First they sort of make up for it, but the seats really compensate for it - and ok on the ground - the lounges can be some of the best around, which doesn't say much given the current low quality of almost all lounges, and the lack of the limo service as fellow VA provides is indeed a bit embarrassing. Flight attendants are rarely nice, but always professional. All and all, it's still the great BA... very expensive, but the quality is always there... and you always know what you are getting.

Economy/Economy Plus
1. Singapore Airlines - service much brisker than in First or Business, but quite exceptional on everything else - food, inflight entertainment, in-flight service. For me the best in Economy hands down. The only one that doesn't make you feel that you are loser just because you are in the back of the plane.

2. Virgin Atlantic - good service, good in-flight entertainment. Overall, a good experience, just not tremendously special and you do feel strong "Upper Class envy" in the back... maybe because Upper Class is so damn good.

3. Southwest Airlines - if you are going in Economy, go in style. Southwest is just tremendously fun and that's about it. All the rest is low-cost carrier at its best (worst?), but it's fun, fun, fun.

THE BAD (for every class): Not one comes to mind has being totally impossible to travel in, but some are genuinely not very good. The ones that come to mind: Iberia - it's a pet hate... I admit it, but you can have one of two experiences - great or really bad - and that simply doesn't work when you need to choose an airline to travel with; America West - they are now merged with some other airline, but really, really bad... low cost at its worse... only good thing was the Brazilian flight attendant based in Phoenix (long story... 6 hours of flight to be more accurate). Air China - ok, it's not that bad, but the service is so all over the shop... could definitely learn from DrangonAir or even China Eastern;

Airports
1. Singapore International Airport, Singapore - great stores, a lot of nice spaces that actually make you feel alright, hiper-efficient security and immigration; all this makes a great airport. I never hesitate to go through it if it makes sense. The lounges are good: Singapore Airlines lounges are not exceptional, but very good nonetheless; the BA / Qantas lounges are quite exceptional; the Air France, etc, etc lounges are cool... a lesson in how to do something with high quality that is really not that expensive or overwhelming... minimalism at its best. A shame other airports are simply not that good.

2. Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia - everything is upper-spec - stores, open spaces, it actually makes you feel good. The Malaysia Airlines lounges are great, really great. It is a very efficient place that works really well. Finally, the idea of having an hotel literally in the airport is fantastic. Really enjoy it.

3. Carlsbad Airport, USA - Ok, I'm kidding... it's a shed. If you want to go to the toilet, you have to leave the "airport" and go to the shed next door. Anyway, it's very cool: a VCR (an old one) with videos on and you see the whole ground crew from check-in to security to going on-board... how cool is that. In America, I feel uncomfortable going through airports these days... a clear sign of lost freedom that I believe most people feel over there... a sign of the times we live in. Carlsbad rocks... it is small-time, sub-scale, but works. If I hadn't gone with Carlsbad and had gone with a more "scalable" Airport, it would have been Oslo... absolutely great. Munich would get a special mention for sheer efficiency and for "the airport I have spent most time in, where I've had my best on the ground and my worst on the ground experiences - summer 2005 rings a bell? - I would have to go with Heathrow, the airport I love to hate.

THE BAD: Bangalore airport... it's chaos, absolute chaos. Avoid it if you can; Atlanta - big, big and awful experiences. Difficult to leave from... but strangely enough, difficult to arrive at as well; Mumbai also comes to mind.

SAMPLE AIRLINES: Air France, Sabena, Swiss, TAP Air Portugal, Iberia, Czech Airlines, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic, Delta Airlines, America West, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Continental Airlines, American Airlines, PGA Portugalia, SAS, Lufthansa, Asiana Airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, DragonAir, Cathay Pacific, ANA, Qantas, Finnair, Air Volare, Alitalia, El Al, BMI, TWA (now extinct).

SAMPLE AIRPORTS: Lisbon, Porto, Bonn, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Barcelona, Ibiza, Madrid, Palma Mallorca, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly, Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Shanghai PuDong, Hong Kong, Manila, Denpasar-Bali, Rome, Venice, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Prague, Zurich, London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Copenhagen, Newark, New York La Guardia, New York JFK, LAX, San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, Seattle, San Diego, Carlsbad, San Jose, Tokyo Narita, Seoul, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Lima, Tel Aviv, Antigua, Barbados, Bangkok, Mumbai, Bangalore, Cape Town, Dublin, Miami.