Heading home

The conference is done, my stories filed and it’s time to head home. I couldn’t wait. LA is a pimple of Satan’s backside and I was desperate to come home to SF’s cool climate and sensible layout.

Had a wonderful moment in the bar at the airport. Was hammering out a last piece about the show when a chap sat down next to me and we got chatting. Turns out he’s a senior Microsoft type who’d popped over for BUILD, so we got talking about the industry, the vagaries of business travel and (since he clocked my accent and had stayed in the UK) the improvements in British food.

It took a while before we got to talking about what we did, and after he told me his profession I waited until he’d swallowed his drink before telling him mine – covering his company for one of the more blunt titles in the business. Microsoft doesn’t particularly like my current employer, and with good reason since we hold its feet to the fire when necessary. As RJ used to say “Journalism is what someone doesn’t want to read in the morning, everything else is advertising.”

To his credit this chap took it in his stride and we carried on talking – off the record of course. Bar conversations in my book are almost always off the record, and it would be a cold-hearted shit who took advantage of such a situation - especially since he didn’t know what I did. Instead we had a refreshingly honest conversation and I came away from it with a better appreciation of how Redmond is thinking and some interesting views on Microsoft’s plans in the application field, as well as some useful travel tips for dealing with Asian airports.

The flight was delayed and it was past 10pm when I finally got home. M had prepared a lentil soup for me on my return, but I was too tired to eat and just happy to snuggle up with my sweetie and have a cat resting against my head. It’s good to be home.