Well, that was a surprise. Amazing what a dealership can get done when they want your business.

After the cagey approach I had from the Mini dealer I spoke to in Mountain View, I was quite disheartened about the prospect of easily buying a car in America with no US credit history.

Enter the Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge dealership in Sunnyvale. I was out and about flathunting on Sunday when I drove past it, and thought I’d just drop in for a quick look at what they had on offer.

Three hours, one test-drive and a damn good salesman with the voice of Samuel L Jackson, the approximate demeanour of an ex-Navy SEAL (which he claimed to be), the gangster name “Tony B” and the real, strong desire to win my business, and I was signed up. (more…)

There are new years, and then there are New Years. For my money, you don’t get much Newer than moving to another continent the day after the year starts.

On January 1st, I’d arranged to meet up with all my friends at a pub in Islington, for a final goodbye before disappearing. Well, I hadn’t arranged it so much as scattered an email around and wondered whether people would bother showing.

I’m still shocked that what must have been 30 of you did. I was touched. I even had to wipe a tear from my eye when I left. No, really. It wasn’t at all easy to say goodbye. I’m gonna miss you guys… (more…)

So, it’s a shade unders six months since someone first asked me “how would you feel about coming to work in the US?”, and after a lot of to-and-froing, and a fair amount of organisational meanderings, I’m now a few days away from boarding a flight to San Francisco - the only one-way long-haul flight I’ve ever held tickets for.

Let me take a moment to say “uhhh… wow.” (more…)

This really came out of left-field, whichever way you look at it.

Six years ago, I was studying for a degree in English Literature.

Five years ago, I was working on a cottage-industry startup website.

Three years ago, I was running my own (albeit cottage-industry scale) website company.

And a year ago, I started work for a large multinational web company in London.

It’s been a strange roller-coaster so far, particularly as I entered the whole web industry thang about a year before everything done went boom and most of us were left riding out the storm clinging to small pieces of e-Wreckage. (more…)