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October, 2007

  1. Day Four – No more STEAK – please….

    October 16, 2007 by Darren Cornwell

    Utter Madness at the Hard Rock Cafe!Up real early this morning, out of the Hilton by 7am and in the car you shoot down i395 on route to Baltimore, MD. Really got to grips with the card today and even though the sat nav is utter rubbish we got to Baltimore eventually. Decided to skip breakfast in DC and wait until we hit Baltimore – so we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe and I had the what can only be described as heaven – a hickory smoked bbq pork centre cut steak – divine. Washed down with a few buds and a brisk walk back to our new hotel – The Hyatt, very nice indeed, it’s only just gone 12.

    Did a bit of work and then onto some quality time with the Touch – still no working Wifi, what’s up with that?

    Traffic - you betcha

    Decided to heed to Dennies in the afternoon, an awesome Magic Shop in Essex, MD, about 20 minutes from our hotel, and when we got there met this escentric capstan smoking, pig loving magician who simply blew my mind with his assortment of tricks and magical charades, so I brought quite a few tricks and instructional booklets off of him – looking forward to trying them out in the UK.

    Toll Booth - $1 and axel!

    Evening wise, we went to a restaurant near the Radisson, and had an even better meal than we had for breakfast. – A bottle of red, and 12 oz of Prime Fillet Mignon, butterflied and served with a yorkshire pud and hash potatoes – so stuffed I think my stomach is literally about to explode causing me a premature death. Back to the Hyatt and totally knackered, ad I have a big meeting tomorrow so this is nighty night from me.


  2. Day Three – eDirectory, More Driving and a Slap up Meal

    October 15, 2007 by Darren Cornwell

    So up early again this morning, 5:30am to be precise, no brekkie, just straight to the car for a cruise down to Annandale  (I love driving this car). It took us like an hour to find Annandale when we got here on Saturday, today it took us 3 mins to arrive – so we parked the Mustang and were going to go for breakfast at wendy’s – closed! So we headed up to the ‘Jukebox Diner’ which was like something out of a 1920′s American movie, I was expecting to see John Travolta walk in any second and erupt into a ballad of song! More eggs, bacon, syrup, toast, hash browns and pancakes – result, stuffed!

    Another picture of the Mustang

    Grabbed a few more pics of the car, the weather was beautiful (it’s early October and there’s been no rain since Sept 14th, and the sun has been shining non stop since we got here) and decided to head off to our Meeting.

    The meeting in a nutshell, was a resounding success in every possible way, a great company with a great team, big things will be happening from here on in.

    Back to the hotel now and I’m getting set for the drive to Baltimore tomorrow, probably head off to dinner in a bit (steak no doubt!), what a country.


  3. Day Two – The Whitehouse, Metro and Walking….

    October 14, 2007 by Darren Cornwell

    Up early this morning (6am), my body clock is still working on UK time. It’s Sunday, so nothing opens until like 11/12 ‘o’ clock, so I went off and had a strange breakfast. Everyone is obsessed with coffee, so no fresh earl grey for me this morning – coffee and OJ and a breakfast buffet – basically a bagel, scrambled eggs, bacon and a shit-load of maple syrup, yummy! Caught a shuttle bus into Pentagon City and wandered around a closed shopping mall – and then saw my own personal mecca – an apple store. Decided to visit it later and went off on walkabout to find the Pentagon.

    Look at me, I’m the Whitehouse

    Walking around I found this road sweeper and asked where the Pentagon was – gibberish was what I relieved and we were both soon to walking through a car park in search of this elusive building! Ended up wandering under a freeway to these 3 strange spikes (the air service memorial), over some more roads, grass, more roads, more grass until the grass ran out and we were about to cross a freeeway on foot! Wasn’t until we turned around that the Pentagon was staring us smack in the face (it is huge!), wandered around it checking out all of photography prohibited signs – grabbed a few pics :) No Photos PleaseSaw the needle, congress and even managed to get down tp the Abraham Lincoln Memorial (the statue is huge). Went to see theWhithouse (as you have to see it when your here) and then caught the Metro back to Pentagon City to visit the Apple Store – whahhey!

    Back to the Mal, had a McD’s, it was digusting, nothing like the McD’s in the UK, undercooked and tasted like a bit of rubber – won’t be going there again – EVER! The Apple store was like my own personal heaven, I had spent $1000′s of dollars before I had even got in the door. Played with the iPhone – WOW, what a fantastic piece of kit, saw the new iMacs, the touch and a couple of Apple geniuses. Got an iPod touch (these things are so sexy) and that was that. Went into Radio shack and brought a new camera for peanuts, some memory cards for peanuts and a couple of tops in Footlocker or something like that! Back to the Hilton and then a drive in the Mustang to Outback Steakhouse where my poor stomach managed to ingest a 14oz sirloin steak – I’m stuffed, tomorrow we’re off the Annandale to see eDirectory, so must get the mind in work mode and make sure everything runs along smoothly.


  4. Day One – Bristol – New York – Washington DC

    October 13, 2007 by Darren Cornwell

    Whew! Well day one is nearly over and what a crazy day it has been! Up at 6am then off to Bristol airport to catch our flight – 7h and 22mins in the air (in our larg-ish 757) and we hit New York (looks great from the air), New York airport was crazy busy, the airtrain (like an airport monorail type thing) broke down and by the time we got our bags, passed through immigration, transfered our stuff and got to the departure gate we had less than 5 minutes to board! Caught a minature jet to DC which was a welcome break after the long squashed conditions of the previous flight, only took us 48Minutes of flight and we hit DC. Grabbed a shuttle bus to the car rental place as picked up:

    Ford Mustang and Darren

    That’s right – a Ford Mustang Convertable and it’s absolutely beautiful! I can’t wait to drive this beauty down the freeway! Decided to drive on down to Annandale to see where we have to meet the folks from eDirectory, brilliant! Wide roads, a top speed of 55mph, relaxed drivers and a beautiful city to see. The sat nav is rubbish, tried to ask it to find us a hotel and it took us to a school. After much flying, driving and walking we finally ended up at the Hilton so things worked out pretty well. Onto Day 2!