Five and Lime

The first major Carsonified event of the year is “The Future of Web Apps” which takes place in Miami Florida and I am lucky enough to be going.

The team rendez-vous’d at the office at 4.30 ready to catch the mini-bus to Heathrow. After a short detour to pick up Jo we were sipping a coffee in the departure lounge ready to catch the Virgin tin bird to Miami International. 10 hours later we touched down and were greeted by the fresh smelling heat of Miami. After a short ride to Ocean Drive we arrived and checked in at The Strand Hotel, a white art deco hotel right on the beach front. It’s always the little things that set hotels apart and for the Strand it’s Betty, the “Manager of Desires”. Seemingly it’s her job to keep us up to date on what’s going on and keep us happy with a supply of free cola, which is nice. If nothing else it’s a great job title.

I am sharing with EJS, my room mate for the duration. Our “suite” is great and comes complete with hurricane strength air conditioning, a full kitchen and two televisions and one bed! More on that later.

Ocean Drive is clearly a place for beautiful people to be and be seen. Tanned bodies on roller skates are two a penny as are the number of low riding cars and bass busting trucks slowly cruising along checking everyone out. The atmosphere is extremely relaxed and reminds me more of the south of France than anywhere I have ever been in the US. The Latin influence is very evident with ladies selling cigars at most restaurants and south American rhythms emanating from the bars. Despite being up for almost 24 hours the team got stuck into a couple of “Ultimate” margaritas, highly alcoholic, hugely enjoyable and naturally soporific.

Ocean Drive doesn’t seem to sleep. The bass rhythms got louder as the night go older and if it wasn’t for my earplugs I think i would have struggled getting off to sleep. Due to a screwed body clock I am up watching CBS news at 5am. Apparently there was an earthquake in the UK yesterday! Looks like breakfast will be taken at the “News Cafe“, a restaurant with a fantastic supply of newspapers and magazines and apparently the place of Versaci’s last espresso.

Next up it’s off to check out the venue for the workshops tomorrow and conference on Friday.