Spain

Wenge and I went to Madrid for a long weekend to celebrate her birthday. It's one of the places that's been on our list for a while and in the end it was a choice between there and Seville with the lure of the capital proving too strong.

I won't bore you with the details, but highlights were a couple of excellent meals in the Teatro and Latina areas, some glorious weather for Thursday and Friday at least, and the chance to see Picasso's amazing Guernica, created in response to the Nazi bombing of the town in support of Franco. It's made me want to read up on the Spanish civil war.

A walk in the Retiro park was also a treat.

In truth, both Wendy and I were a little disappointed in Madrid. We had a good time, and enjoyed it, but not as much as either Barcelona or Bilbao (sorry Ana). Maybe it's just the scale that means everything is spread out; maybe it's because it's a big, working city; maybe it's just too far from the coast...

Anyway, it's back to work now with a vengeance. We're in UAT for the relaunch of the ministry of sound site next week, and although things have been going pretty well so far, a major panic is only ever just over the hill. For a number of reasons it's critical that I get the site successfully launched next week.

A new acquisition marketing person has joined the ecommerce team, which has unfortunately meant I've had to move to a new desk space away from the team. Shame but I decided to hot-desk up in the dev area today, coinciding with another casting session just below me once again, the glass filleth...

The week that was

This is the first post on my new MacBook.  I'm in Leek , in Staffordshire, visiting Wenge's family. I watched the Old Firm game in a pub nearby - I'll take 0-0 although we could have won it in the 2nd half - and now I'm sitting at Wenge's mum's house with the MacBook on my lap, hacked into the next door neighbour's unsecured wireless network.

First thoughts on the MacBook...  The hardware, of course, is stunningly beautiful, built from one piece of solid aluminium and with an illuminated keyboard that is a real joy.  The display is sharp and bright, and it's fast. It's just a gorgeous piece of kit.

I haven't got to grips yet with the differences between Mac and Windows.  For example, as I write this browser seems to zoom in and out without me knowing what I'm doing to cause it.  I can't find a delete key, nor any 'home' or 'end' keys, and when you click on a url in the browser window to copy it, it doesn't select the whole thing so you have to manually select it.  And where are the 'page up' and 'page down' keys?  Basically, after the first few hours I haven't a clue how Macs work.  But I'm prepared to believe that I'll love it in a few months, and I have enough friends with Macs that I can go to for help if I need it.

The more serious issue is that the trackpad isn't responding as it should - it sticks sometimes when I move the cursor.  For the money I've spent I want it to work perfectly, so it's definitely a call to Apple Customer Services next week. 

On Wednesday I went to an interview for a Head of eCommerce position at Ann Summers.  For anyone who doesn't know Ann Summers - for example my new Scandinavian follower(s), they provide goods, mainly for women, of a risque nature (assuming you consider Rampant rabbits risque of course).  I've heard good things about them as an employer; the interview went reasonably well, and there is so much wrong with their web presence that it would be a great opportunity to make an impact.  However, two hours each way by bus, tube and train to a warehouse on a dual carriageway in a small town near Redhill isn't my dream job. I'd like to be asked back before I tell them though...

Then on Friday a sadly familiar story at Ministry of Sound, where I'm doing some consultancy. At around 5.00 we got a call from our eCommerce partner to say they'd gone into administration - just a day after trying to sell us a new platform they were building. So, website down, redirects up to an external site to continue selling tickets for the weekend, and my job here looks like it could be bigger than it was supposed to be.  Glass half full.

If you saw my twitter feed earlier in the week, you'd have seen that I tweaked a muscle in my side after football on Saturday.  It was a stupid thing, caused by leaning over awkwardly to lift up my bag.  Since then I've been amazed at how many things can aggravate it - picking up a cold midweek added a couple to the list.  Anyway, here's a list of things that hurt when you pull a muscle in your side:

• Taking a casserole dish out of the cupboard
• Reaching for anything on my right
• Opening the bathroom window (which requires reaching over the bath)
• Getting up from lying on the sofa
• Turning off the bedside lamp
• Coughing
• Sneezing
• Running

Thankfully it seems to be settling down now so I should get back to footie this week.

It's good to see visitor numbers reach an all time high over the last couple of days, and followers increasing to a massive 15 signed up - but remember we're aiming for 25 by the end of the month. Welcome one and all. And finally, congratulations to Ana, who is joining blinkbox as Managing Editor - exciting stuff and well deserved.

Project for this week: watch more of The Wire - it's been a week since I last had a fix...

A long week

So, in the last 24 hours I've had a couple of knock backs, but there's still a lot going on. I met with Ana this morning - her passive approach to jobhunting seems to be working wonders - and had a very enjoyable chat and catchup. Then I signed on, taking all of 30 seconds with barely a word spoken. Sent my cv out again and then frankly, after the first really intensive week of jobhunting and two interviews, I'm done. So I'm taking the rest of the afternoon off. Please, nobody tell on me...

Have a great weekend melvtopians.

Need a fix, man

It's been two days without a post, and just as in my new favourite thing The Wire, two days is too long to go without a hit. Last night I finished Series 1 so looking forward to starting Series 2, which Ana is very kindly letting me borrow. We live no more than a couple of miles from each other so we're catching up at Starbucks in Crouch End tomorrow morning.

Today was the big interview day, not just for me but, it seems, for half of zavvi. I had a decent interview with the large US retailer I mentioned (OK, you all know it's Best Buy, who are building an eCommerce team from scratch), caught up with Marc (who's already there) for a coffee and then bumped into Lee, Suzanne and Glenville in reception - and we're not the only zavs (I just coined a new term) speaking with Best Buy. So, interesting times - it would be fun to get the old team together for another go...

So what else has been happening since Tuesday? More of the same; phone conversations and meetings, but with more research and specific preparation needed now. Yesterday I met with a startup digital entertainment company - I'd worked with the people while at zavvi - that may be an opportunity, and a recruitment agency specialising in the digital entertainment space. I met Stevo briefly at Chancery Lane afterwards.

I also had a call from an old colleague about some possible project management work, which could be fun. And I've been trying to schedule a call with someone from New Zealand about a possible opportunity, but the time difference has proved challenging to date. So the quality of conversations seems good although I suspect I may need to up the quantity to keep the momentum going.

In the meantime, I'm grateful to all the friends and colleagues who have been in touch, recommended me or passed on opportunities and contacts.

I'm pleased to say that there have been a few new additions to the melvtopia family this week - good to see The Arch, Allison ( now there's a blast from the proverbial past...) and Ana on board. For anyone who has just joined, here's what this is all about.

Job Centre tomorrow - damn, I forgot to check the Muswell Hill Journal for senior management posts in eCommerce or internet related businesses... how will I explain that to my 'employment consultant'?

The office

Weird, going into the office this morning. Suddenly the place I worked in every day was a strange, empty place.

And a horrible place. They've started to clear out our side of the building so there was hardly anyone there. It was good to bump into a few friendly faces but frankly, I couldn't wait to clear the rest of my stuff and be out of there for good.

Had a nice lunch at Frank's with Lee, Suzanne and Steve, bumped into Ana on the way to the tube, and made my weighed-down way home...

I'm due to speak to a couple of recruiters this afternoon so Project Melvin starts in earnest now.