Pizzey family strikes

I genuinely love giving gifts, and if giving the gift is a surprise then some how it makes the entire experience even more exciting.  So why is it a shock if the tables are turned?  That is what just happened to me.

I would never deny someone the opportunity to surprise someone with a gift, but tonight I was on the receiving end of the experience and it just shocked me so much because it was so generous that I did not quite know how to react. Am I that provincial?  I'm not one to kiss and tell so I don't want to get into specifics, but suffice it to say, the Pizzey family is quite sneaky and they've not only surprised me (well Sergio and me to be precise), but they have really made me a bit emotional by their gesture.  I'm quite excited to get to Melbourne to meet this amazing family - that is for certain.

Australia: 1 week and counting

One week from tonight I will be stepping on a plane to start my vacation in Australia.  It seems so far away even though the reality is quite the opposite.  Last night we booked our stay in Victoria where we will spend 3-nights in Melbourne and 1-night in Hepburn Springs. 

The Intercontinental in Melbourne (a.k.a. The Rialto) looks absolutely beautiful (see above photographs). TripAdvisor comments lead me to believe this will be a very enjoyable and comfortable stay since the hotel is in the city center and looks like it oozes sophisticated luxury.  After three brief nights we are off to spa country (about a 90-minute drive north of Melbourne) to stay at the Peppers Springs Resort and Spa.  According to Wikipedia, Hepburn Springs is a resort town located in the middle of the largest concentration of mineral springs in Australia.

From the looks of this place I think we will regret only spending one night. The first photo is the main building and the second appears to be the grounds and the spa house.  A bit of pampering might be in order, but I think I'll probably defer and want to check out the area.

Now all that is left to do is to settle on where to stay when we fly up to Cairns.  We were hoping to change our flights to stay on Hamilton Island but flights are full so we are back to looking at properties near Port Douglas and Cairns.  Any suggestions?

Veteran's Day

I wish we could learn to co-exist and not resort so quickly to violence, but sadly that world only appears to exist in dreams, songs and poems.  So until that day can come to pass, I'll tip my hat to the men and women here and abroad who have made sacrifices to thwart aggression and war. 

Thanks to my Dad and all the other veterans out there.

1929: The great crash

The Baker Library at HBS has a very interesting exhibit which I was able to view this past Saturday.  Focusing on the unique historical materials in the HBS archives the exhibit tries to throw light on the role regional exhanges in the stock market played in the crash of 1929 and the regulation of the securities industry that resulted in the New Deal. The exhibit is entitled, "Bubbles, Panics and Crashes" of particular interest were the cartoons HBS library has from their archives showing a satyrical take on one of the worst banking crashes in our history.

I thought I would share a couple of cartoons which are on display that I liked. You will see some interesting paralells from the great crash and I'm sure you will probably ask yourself the question I did when I was there, "Why do we allow this to continue?"  Although it may sound like a loaded political question, it is really much more sincere.  Even though many might find history boring - we ignore it at our own peril.

Our weekend with Jo

Last night I said good bye to a friend I first met eight years ago.  When we first met, Jo was a student traveling from Melbourne Australia to attend a summer program at Harvard University.  Because her flight was delayed she arrived in Boston too late to check-in at Harvard and she was in a bit of a panic trying to figure out where she might spend the night.  My other half offered our place as well as a drive the next day to Harvard to help her get checked-in.  Since that time we've remained excellent friends and stayed in touch via e-mail and the occassional call.

When we booked our trip to Australia, we immediately called Jo to let her know we would be stopping in Melbourne to see her again and to meet her family.  However, Jo surprised us both when she told us she would be finishing her MBA program at Duke University and would be in N.C. when we were in Melbourne.  Fortunately, she was able to come up and visit us this weekend.  We had a wonderful time showing her Boston and bringing her back to the Harvard campus to see her old dorm and other places which she remembered so fondly.  Fortunately, the weather cooperated and we spent all day Sunday walking Newbury and Boylston Street.  We ate well too with dinners at Rocca and Mistral, which made each evening quite special.

Jo has provided us with some excellent tips for our upcoming trip so we will spend the next day or two revising our itinerary by adding an extra night in Melbourne - we now have been invited to dinner at her grandparents house. She has also helped us identify the perfect place to stay for an overnight in Daylesford which is approximately 1 hours drive from Melbourne called, Peppers Hepburn Springs Retreat. They have some lovely photographs of the spa / resort here.

Top destinations for GLBT travelers

The Boston Globe article I referenced in my entry below was expanded by Boston.com later today.  According to the posting on Boston.com at a time when overall travel is down, tourism in the state is benefitting from one growing segment: gay vacationers. You can peruse the article and the photos by linking to the article, Top destinations for gays and lesbians.

I think the state could reap the rewards of a demographic. GLBT travelers are reported to vacation with more frequency and spend more money on cultural events than other segments of society.  Why this is I haven't a clue and could only speculate.  After a quick review of my travel profile this year, I realized I've gone away (near and far) quite a bit. I've gone to the Cape 4 times this year, Maine 2 times, Puerto Rico, Austin, TX and later this month I leave for a 3-week vacation to Australia.  All told that equals 9 trips in 2009 and that does not count my weekends up at my parent's lake house.

Photograph above from Boston.com.

Massachusetts courting gay travelers

The Boston Globe is reporting in today's paper that Massachusetts tourism agencies are directing more efforts to entice Gay & Lesbian travelers to our very gay friendly state. According to Community Marketing 14th annual LGBT tourism study of 2009, Massachusetts was ranked the 11th most visited US destination. 

According to the Globe article, Massachusetts and Florida are the only states whose tourism offices have started marketing to gay and lesbian travelers. Frankly, I find that hard to believe but apparently most GLBT Tourism money to date has been spent by cities rather than state agencies.

The effort in MA started last year with a $50,000 budget to appeal to GLBT travelers. Part of that investment went to build the gay-oriented site, http://www.massvacation.com/.

If you would like to read the article in today's Globe you can link here.

Halloween with Jack and Austin

I just received this picture of my two nephews dressed as a transformer and spiderman for Halloween and I wanted to post it here to remember how cute they looked in their costumes.

Here are a couple more pictures (for posterity).

Boners R Us

In the past I've mentioned that I work as a marketing professional in the health industry for a large consulting firm.  However, what I'm not so certain is if people who are not marketing professionals have any idea what that means in terms of a daily grind.  I think most people assume working in marketing means I spend my day identifying pretty colors for logos and talking about abstract things like 'brand awareness'. 

The reality is actually quite different. One such task that has dominated much of my time lately is reviewing the logs of all our registrations for the many programs we are currently hosting.  This is quite monotonous for sure. However, the entry I included above made me laugh out loud when I read it today.  It certainly brings new meaning to the term "bad data".   My apologies if you can not read the image above, but the entry reads as follows:
First name: Boner      Last name: Man
Title: Head Boner      Company: Boners R Us

The next time you are filling out a form - if you have no intention of providing your real contact information think about the poor schmuck who has to go through the rolls of data and see if you can make that person smile by getting creative with your response.

Ladybug Bug

I have a tendency to photograph what I'll refer to as tiny cars with personality.  Opportunities seem to abound when I travel abroad.  For example, this picture from The Hague in The Netherlands.

However, earlier this week I saw the cutest car parked across the street from my home in the South End. I've dubbed this car the "Ladybug Bug". 

Happy Halloween

Tomorrow I am off to Ogunquit, ME to celebrate halloween with friends.  It will be a fun evening for sure and probably our last visit there for awhile. Normally I spend the evening with Sergio, walking around the neighborhood watching the hoardes of children in an assortment of costumes and photographing some of the more creative Jack O'Lanterns. You can see some of the best pumpkin carvings from last year by linking here.

The weather forecast is for the highs in the low 70s in Boston but I'm sure it will get cooler at night and Ogunquit is certain to be a tad chillier than Boston. 

Hotel rooms for Sydney booked

Tonight we booked our hotel room when we arrive in Sydney, Australia next month.  We first arrive in Sydney on Friday, November 20th and spend a quick two nights at the Marriott-Sydney before we dash off to the Great Barrier Reef (Cairns) on Sunday, November 22nd.  After nearly a week and a half of travelling through eastern Australia, we return to Sydney for our last 7 days. After reviewing what my Amex Rewards points could get us, we decided to book a room at the Swissotel-Sydney.

This large hotel in the center of town provides us with a central location and appears (in pictures anyway) to be very comfortable.  Travelling some place you've never been before can be quite a gamble and for that reason I did not want to book a boutique hotel or stand alone property that we have no way to judge until we arrive. 

Fortunately, TripAdvisor rates both hotels quite favorably so we are keeping our fingers crossed and finally starting to get excited about heading to Australia as the trip becomes more of a reality....next step is booking our hotels for the Great Barrier Reef and Melbourne.

Weekend in Austin

I got back from Austin late on Sunday night and had a great time visiting friends that moved there from San Francisco a couple of years ago. Fortunately, the weather was beautiful so we were able to spend nearly all our time outside; relaxing on our friend's beautiful back deck; walking through the city; and dining alfresco. 

Boston has many excellent restaurants but very few of those make what I would consider even okay Mexican cuisine so we really made the most of our time in Austin eating Mexican almost exclusively.  One exception to that was our dinner on Friday night at Vespaio Ristorante on S. Congress (SoCo). This was a cute Italian restaurant in what appeared to be a section of town in transition.  There were several other intersting restaurants along S. Congress and I look forward to returning to this neighborhood on future visits.

However, in my opinion my best meal was on Saturday night in North Austin at Fonda San Miguel. The restaurant claims to provide "distinctive Mexican cuisine" and I have to agree.  I can still taste the delicious relleno de picadillo which was stuffed with shredded pork, almonds and raisins. The jitomate sauce was a delicious compliment and if you happen to find yourself at this restaurant - it would be the plate I would recommend.

I've also included photos from our recent trip since images always do a better job telling a story.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Funny photo of the day

A good example of The Law of Unintended Consequences.

Tweet tweet

Do you tweet or rather are you on twitter? You can read my most recent tweets in the right margin of this blog. However, I also have two twitter accounts you can follow.

twitter.com/BosGuy - Provides individual updates about my life and things that have caught my attention. 

twitter.com/BosMktgGuy - I'm a marketing professional by day and this account points to interesting B2B marketing trends I find online with a heavy emphasis on healthcare and technology.

If you tweet too - feel free to share your twitter acount in the commnets section and let me know what you like to tweet about.