Yesterday we went for a random day in London and decided to check out Inamo, a restaurant which has an ordering process with a difference.  Rather than having paper based menus, and a waitress to take your oral order, the restaurant users interactive tables which project a digital menu of food, drinks and some other options directly on to the table service in front of you!

There is a large selection of Asian food to choose from, and an image of each menu choice is projected on to the plate in front of you as you navigate the options.

Despite appearing to be very similar to Microsoft Surface, the tables are way less sophisticated and in fact are merely a projector above each table, which displays a clever menu system to be navigated using a cursor controlled by a touch pad in the corner of the table.  It’s still VERY cool though!

As well as selecting food and drink, you can also use the menus to change the background, find out about local attractions and play games!  We started to play 2 player battle ships, however it’s a little silly because each player is shown a small display with their configuration on it – which is very easy for the person opposite to see and cheat.  Again – still very cool though

The food was amazing! There were four of us, so we ended up ordering a combination of things including fish, beef salad, cinnamon chicken (one of my favourites), duck pancakes and more.  We also all ordered dessert, and ended up coincidentally ordering exactly the same thing – Macaroon and white chocolate moose – mmmm

We also managed to get through 2 bottles of champagne, although I must admit that 2 glasses were knocked over – one by Ilona, and I forget who did it the second time The staff were very insistent on cleaning up the spill thoroughly – but were not too worried that we smashed a glass.

Our ‘lunch’ ended up lasting over 2 hours, and we were all STUFFED after the three courses of food which arrived in a random order (whenever it was ordered/cooked), but at a steady pace.

Will definitely be going back there again! Great experience and lovely food – would like to try it at night next time.

After our great ski trip to Courchevel last month, I am totally hooked on skiing (for now at least ).  I have been on 4 weeks of business trips to Seattle over the past 5 weeks (was home for 1 week in between), so decided to take advantage of this second one to get in a ski trip in to Crystal mountain, which is about 1 hours drive from Redmond.

We started the day early, I met Karen and Gavin in a park and ride car park at 7am.  The day didn’t quite start as planned, since when I stepped out of the car and felt how cold it was, I realised that I had left my ski jacket in the hotel! Luckily we were only 10 mins from the hotel at this point, so there was plenty of time to turn back. 

Once we had picked up my jacket, the picturesque journey to Crystal began.  Karen had a big 4×4 Infiniti car which was spec’d out with every gadget and comfort item I can imagine – it even beeped at her if she got too close to the edge of the freeway lane!  Here is a little clip of the comfortable journey…

Since we were running a little late, Karen was in a hurry, so decided to overtake some slow (ish) moving vehicles, which attracted the attention of a local law enforcement officer who decided to pull us over with a blast of his siren and some pretty red and blue flashing lights.  Karen spectacularly talked her way out of a traffic ticket, although I did have to drive the car for the rest of the day (being the only one who had a driving license).  Quite the journey…

We did eventually arrive, with all of our stuff, and with no traffic fines.  The lifts opened at 8:45 and we turned up at 9am, so not too bad considering

The snow at the bottom of the mountain was a little icy and slushy, however further up and on faces exposed to the sun, the conditions were great!  I had both layers of my jacket on, so I was actually too hot at some points.  I cooled down by waiting for some of the ski lifts in my t-shirt.  There were actually a bunch of guys skiing and snowboarding in just t-shirts or vest tops!  I’m not quite confident enough to do that – it would be very painful if they fell over!

We started off with a few easy runs, but progressively took on more challenging slopes, until we eventually headed for the double black diamonds!…

Double Black Diamonds

These are sections of the mountain which are off piste, and considered to be fairly advanced (as you can tell from the warning sign).  We successfully managed to get down the slope.  I started off a little cautious, but after I made a few turns and built up my confidence I managed to get down the slope at a reasonable speed (relative to the speed I started at least).  Gavin had a little tumble on the way down, and then struggled for 5 minutes to retrieve his skis on the very steep slope.  The rest of us were too far down to go up and help him, so we had planted out ‘butts’ on the snow and waited patiently.

So besides Gavin’s little adventure, the run in the photo above did not actually turn out to be too bad, however it got worse!  We took a lift up to the top of the mountain and were faced with a choice of icy moguls or a VERY steep drop (check it out in the first pic below!!!)…

Here is Karen waving from above as we attempted to ski down…

Gavin and I attempted to get down the slope gracefully in our skis, but failed miserably.  We ended up cutting through some trees on to a more powdery (although just as steep) slope.  Eventually we managed to get ourselves down to the piste and picked up the pace.  Here is a little video clip of Gavin and Tom emerging from the trees…

It is an amazing feeling to be on the side of the mountain in snow that no one yet skied! I want to do it again!! Here is Karen sitting on some of the fresh powder…

Lunch and Apres Ski…

Whilst the variety of bars and restaurants did not match larger ski resorts, the atmosphere of eating and drinking outside was not lost. 

We had lunch and after ski wine/beer at the Bullwheel, which is right at the bottom of mountain in the same place where cars are parked to get on the first ski lift.  We happened to be there on the same day as ‘Brew Fest’, which was essentially a beer festival and bar-b-q on the decking area.

There was a good selection of food, although typically American (I had a chicken burger and fries).  The only downside was that the place was PACKED, so it was a little tricky to find a good place to sit outside (plenty of room inside).

At the end of the day, Gavin and I finished the day off with a glass of beer/wine whilst we waited for Karen and Tom to do one more suicide run of the double black diamond! (they survived).

The drive home seemed to take longer than the journey there – most likely because Karen was driving at a ‘little’ above the speed limit on the way there, and I was driving with a accurately configured cruise control speed on the way back. 

The season will be way over by the time I am next in the U.S., so all there is to say is…”Crystal Mountain, thanks for the ride, see you next season!”…

Huge thanks to Karen and Tom for guiding me and Gavin on the mountain, and an extra thanks to everyone for great company and an awesome day out! Can’t wait for next year’s ski season – roll on November!

We went to the Tap House in Bellevue a couple of nights ago for St. Paddy’s day.  Since our hotel is only a couple of blocks away, I decided to walk.  Bellevue can be a beautiful city as the sun starts to set, the street lights come on and the modern office buildings glimmer with the reflection of passing cars…

I wrote this blog post on the coach on the way back from Courchevel, but completely forgot about it until now (fell asleep after I had typed it)…

It’s 6am (EST), –12 degrees Celsius and pitch black outside.  We are on a very quiet coach dotting around Courchevel, La Tania and other parts of the 3 Vallies ski resort to pick up various Crystal holiday makers, for the journey to Chambery airport which marks the end of a fantastic week of skiing.

I have not been skiing on snow for about 15 years, and not even on a dry slope in about 7 or 8 years, so I was really please to discover that I was still able to ski and more importantly, that I was able to keep up with my group of friends on green, blue, red and even a couple of black runs!

I have been very lucky to spend the week with a fantastic group of friends!  The chalet which Ed found for us provided a great social hub to get to know the other guests, a cosy lounge for chilled Top Gun evenings, a party zone with a constant supply of free wine and food and a collection of cosy bedrooms to get a good nights sleep before hitting the slopes every morning.  Despite loosing a game of 21s very badly, a couple of drinking sessions starting at midday, late night conversations over wine, après ski and a lot more partying, we managed to hit the slopes at around 9am every day and make the most of the beautiful snow conditions…

I have not been skiing on snow for about 15 years, so I had forgotten the difference between good and bad conditions.  Whilst it is reasonable to assume that lots of snow = good skiing, I now realise that heavy snow is only good for skiing if it happens BEFORE you want to ski.  Cloudy and snowy conditions mean that the bumps in the slopes are practically impossible to see, and if the conditions are really bad it can be hard to see the pistes, or even the people skiing in front…

The day was we arrived it was snowing fairly heavily, and had been for at least two days.  This meant that there was lots of lovely powder snow waiting to be carved up by eager skiers.  Thankfully, the day after we arrived (which was the first day of skiing), the sun was shining beautifully, so conditions were absolutely perfect!

The first day of skiing was fairly chilled, giving everyone a chance to get their ski legs back, but with a few red runs to get the adrenaline going.  The girls and Ed decided to get ski lessons, so Mark and i spent half of the afternoon messing around and filming each other skiing, and the other half chilling on top of the mountain listening to house music.

Après Ski

This is the first time I have been skiing as an adult, so is the first time I have experienced ‘Après ski’.  The term literally translates to ‘after ski’, so I had assumed it just referred to the evening activities after skiing…this really is not the case, après ski really is a unique experience which deserves it’s own term in the dictionary.

Après ski is the opportunity for all of the skiers and snowboarders to relax in their ski clothes and boots, have a drink, talk about their day’s adventure on the slopes and take some time to reflect on the truly breathtaking higher than cloud location they are lucky enough to be in.  Après ski is a chance to drink cheap beer, vin chaud (mulled wine) and cocktails.  Après ski is a theme which most of the bars in a mountain resort use to encourage laid back socialising, encourage you to let your hair down and have inhibition free conversations with members of the opposite sex.  Après ski is the student union, the warm country pub in the middle of winter, the trendy wine bar, the noisy rock club, the energetic dance club, the sports club with no dress code and the open minded travellers hostel all in one.  I LOVE it!

Mountain huts

One of the things I love about skiing are the mountain huts which vary in quality and price enormously, but consistently provide both a cosy indoor drinking and eating section, along with an outdoor terrace to sunbathe at 2000 metres and –10 degrees Celsius.  If a restaurant in the UK placed a bunch of deck chairs and a DJ in their garden whilst it was snowing, they would probably make the local news for being slightly crazy.  In the mountains however, people (including us) want to sip cocktails, lie back in a chair, enjoy the sun and be entertained whilst they watch the direction of the snow clouds moving over the mountains.

Ski lessons

Despite the fact that I have not skied in a long time, I decided not to take lessons.  I remember my first lessons at the age of 11, and I remember constantly being told to bend my knees and lean forward more.  Whilst I didn’t have an instructor to correct me, I did still have the same problem with leaning forward.  During the first half a day, I could feel the backs of my ankles rubbing against my ski boots as I went downhill.  As Ed put it, you can never lean forward to much when skiing, so if you feel like you are leaning back too much – you probably are.

I was fairly confident on the first day (even if I was leaning back to much), but then had a couple of falls on the second day which made me loose my nerve.  I really stopped enjoying the skiing during this phase, as I was at the back of the group and finding it really difficult to ‘attack the mountain’ (another of Ed’s phrases).  I was scared to make turns whilst the memories of landing face down in the snow, and tumbling down the slope were still in my head.  I decided that I had to just push myself to get over it, so I ended up taking on the slope by bending my legs, heading parallel down the slope to pick up speed, so that I had not choice but to turn efficiently (or fall over again).  It’s amazing how heading down a slope at 30 or 40 mph and seeing a big mound of snow in front of you, makes you forget about what may go wrong and simply get on with making the turn!   After that I had no problems, and took on each slope in a similar fashion.  

Seasonaires

When I was in Phi Phi island in Thailand, one of the things I was loved was the way that travellers, island locals and 2 week holiday makers all integrated harmoniously, shared drinks and engaged in open minded, non-judgemental discussions all day and night.  Ski resorts have a similar mix of people in the resorts…holiday makers, the locales and seasonaires (no idea how that should be spelt).  Seasonaires refer to the people who have come to the ski resort to work for the whole seasons (which is usually December to March in France.  The jobs they do usually revolve around the tourist industry, but can be any number of things including bar workers, hotel shuttle drivers, chalet hosts, ski/snowboard instructors, tour reps, etc…

The one thing that all the seasonaires have in common is that they are there to ski and socialise.  Whilst there are certainly a lot of business owners making a lot of money in the ski resorts, the seasonaires get paid minimum wage, but normally get their accommodation, ski pass and other provisions paid for.  They are not going to walk away from the season with any extra money in their bank account, but they will have a head full of amazing memories and a group of like minded friends.  Whilst I love my job, I sometimes can’t help but wonder what it would be like to spend a year like these guys, only thinking about each day at a time, focussing on having fun, meeting new people and making the most of the amazing surroundings. 

The après ski bars are the place where the holiday makers can mingle with the seasonaires, share stories and get advice on the best venues and events to look out for.  Whilst I am sure that the seasonaires must have a different opinion on holiday makers to ‘their own’, most give the impression of a welcoming inclusive culture, and a desire to socialise at every opportunity.

I’m totally hooked on skiing and the mountain atmosphere now! Expect more snow related posts from now on

WLast week I was in Washington state, for my 2nd summit in as many weeks (the first being the MVP Summit).  Rather than hosting it on campus, our wonderful leadership team decided to hold the event at the Tulalip Casino resort. 

I must admit that I was a little sceptical about the quality of the hotel, since I had previously been to the casino which is situated next to a shopping centre, with little else around and is frequented by people who I would not consider typical to the affluent population of Seattle, Bellevue and other areas around Redmond which have an established above average middle class due to the size of Microsoft and other high tech companies.  My expectations of the quality and service at the resort were FAR from the reality. 

As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by super friendly and eager staff (OK, that’s not exactly unusual in the U.S. service industry) and were handed card keys to BEAUTIFUL and luxurious rooms!  I have stayed in a fair number of nice hotels in the past 10 years (including the amazing Bellagio in Las Vegas), however I consider the room I had at Tulalip to be one of the most luxurious I have stayed in…

Considering I was in a standard room, I would rate the quality as superb and way above my expectations.  As a person who is currently going through the process of renovating his ensuite, I really appreciated the spec of that beautiful bathroom (which was a little elongated, so is not represented well in this photo), which included a three head shower to make sure you truly do get a full body wash every morning.  I couldn’t resist a cheesy pose…

So, I was totally impressed by the room! And then there was the event itself!  With 400 people, we had practically the whole hotel to ourselves and exclusive use of the 4 enormous ballrooms for our meetings.  As with most offsite meetings, we are fed generously, with a variety of buffet style meals with food to suite all tastes (pretty essential considering the 40+ countries represented at the event).  We even had a ‘special’ meal on the Wednesday evening where we served a preset menu of deliciously  petite sized courses, at set table places along with some smart thought leaders from Microsoft…

Our Microsoft admins along with the hotel staff organised an incredibly motivating and original event, with lots of activities to keep everyone amused day and night.  An artist was hired to draw cartoons portraits of anyone who was patient enough to wait in queue for their turn (I was not).  Some clever person had the idea of also pointing a video camera at the artists work area so that everyone could watch their colleagues being sketched whilst they ate dinner.  I’m going to copy this idea at my wedding (need to fall in love first)…

Whilst we spent most of the day time in the ballrooms, we also had one event hosted in the cabaret rooms.  Whilst the ability to plug in a laptop was lacking (we ended up watching a video from a camera which aimed at a laptop screen for demos), it was a nice change to be sitting in a night spot venue with a band playing random songs in between presenters.

The band was even made up of Microsoft PQO employees! Great stuff…

Bjorn Rettig, our General Manager delivered an inspirational talk about work culture for the first 30 mins of the cabaret session.  We then were treated to Bjorn interviewing his direct reports to discuss business, and have a bit of fun at the same  time.  Here is a video of Jaydeep (one of our Product Unit Managers) demonstrating how to wrap Bjorn in a turban, just after he explained to the regionally diverse audience the meaning and history behind his head piece…

I have many more great memories from the offsite, but do not want to make this blog post too long (not even sure if anyone will read this far! Congratulations if you did!).  Since we work in a global team, the opportunity to get everyone in a relaxed environment, face to face, where they can discuss work, have fun and engage in random conversations which are not structured around a meeting or goal, is for me invaluable!  I lost count of the number of people I met/saw again and the variety of topics which I discussed or overheard.  I certainly walked away feeling energised, motivated and keen to expand on the connections made and the ideas discussed.  The sessions delivered by the management team were informational, motivational and perhaps most importantly during a full week’s worth of conference (including the 2 day leadership meetings) – FUN!

I have so many great memories from the week including the buffet and bar next to the hotel swimming pool on the first night, the Microsoft illuminated posters in the hotel lifts, the team building activity on the first day which had us running around the hotel completing mini missions (may do a blog post about that on it’s own), Bjorn’s dinner with private bar and delicious food, familiar faces dotted around the casino black jack and poker tables at every hour of the day, relaxed light night conversations in the hotel lobby next to the beautiful Indian artwork, fireplaces and waterfall and the challenge of getting all 400+ PQO employees in to a group photo in the hotel lobby!

When an even such as this goes as smoothly as it did, it’s SO easy to take for granted the incredibly hard work of our Microsoft teams, along with that of the hotel.  We even had our own Microsoft branded rooms keys!…

Great job to everyone involved! I hope you are reading this blog post

Whilst we had lots of sunshine during our week skiing in Courchevel, we also had a day where visibility was less than perfect (to say the least).  Whilst it is not very easy to ski in a grey (cloud) or white (snow) out, it’s certainly an interesting experience!  At one point we were skiing along a thin path, next to a steep drop off piste and we were unable to tell the difference between the sky and the snow! Very weird experience – it felt a bit like we were floating in a dream surrounded by clouds!  Very cool   Here is a bit of video Mark took when we stopped to try to figure out where we were (at which point the visibility was actually a little bit better!)

The new Microsoft Commons campus is one of my favourite places to work.  I spent the afternoon in the Mixer, listening to music and working on my slide deck for the SEO presentation tomorrow at the Microsoft MVP summit.

I left just as the sun was about to disappear and managed to catch the lovely light to dark blue sky, with the moon shining down over the empty campus…

We’ve all been drinking way to much for me to do a proper blog post, but here are a couple of video clips from the lift experience tonight, one from the outside (on Chris’s iPhone) and one from the cramped inside (on Mark’s iphone)…

From outside the lift…

From inside the lift…

Today we found our favourite mountain bar/restaurant of the trip so far! La Folie Douce appears to be quite a new place, with very trendy decor, an amazing outdoor terrace with chill out chairs and a delicious buffet style restaurant with a great selection of food.

We were actually trying to find another bar which has an outdoor champagne serving area made of ice, however our navigation of the slopes was a little off and we had to ‘settle’ for the nearest hut we could find….we were very pleased to find this place

Whilst dinners in the chalet have been amazing all week (thanks to Matt and Christie), our lunchtime meals have been a little more basic, usually consisting of burgers, crepes or sandwiches.  A few of us have been craving a spaghetti bolognaise all week, so were very pleased to see it on the menu at this restaurant.  We were even more surprised when our lunch turned up in a glass jar!  The (fresh) pasta was on the bottom, the sauce next and then some parmesan cheese.  Take a look for yourself in this video…

Very tasty! Although next time I will make sure I mix the sauce and pasta up right at the start, as the pasta in the bottom of the jar was a little dry.

Here are a few shots of the interior and exterior of the bar (click for larger images)…

Last night we decided to wonder down to the sledge run which is walking distance from our hotel.

Before we could start we had to find a place to hire sledges, which we did relatively quickly for a mere 3.50 Euros.  Due to the fact that kids were allowed to the use the sledge circuit, I had assumed that it was going to be easy and perhaps a little boring…I was VERY wrong…

The first couple of turns do start off very slowly, giving you chance to get used to the steering mechanism on the sledges.  However, as you pass the 2nd or 3rd corner, the drop becomes a lot steeper and the whole experience changes from a leisurely slide down the snow, in to a scary out of control rollercoaster ride down the winding bends of the track.

Whilst we were not going as fast as we were when skiing, it feels a LOT faster when you are sitting on a plastic tray only a few centimetres above the snow.  The handles on the side of the sledges provided a means of steering, however they were SO sensitive that they could only be used in short correcting bursts.  Every time we encountered a sharp corner, or an unexpected obstacle (i.e. some kid who had fallen of their sledge), we had to improvise a method of steering using feet, hands or anything else which was available to change direction quickly.

Of course Mark decided to strap his Flipcam HD to his goggles and film the whole thing, so here is the footage complete with Ed flipping his sledge upside down, Mark crashing in to the back of random French people and me falling off the edge of the circuit in to fresh powder snow…