It get's harder each year, I swear...

[Nick]

Right then, this is my first day h'officially back on the job since arriving back in the UK from CeBIT last Thursday... so, as I wait the expected 40 minutes for my lappy to transfer over all my CeBIT content, I thought I'd knock up a quick blog entry to get myself back in the mood for some more CeBIT editorial.

SO let's have a whirlwind tour through the 10 days we were away...

Monday before we leave, my car gets hit as I reverse off my drive... the goit in the Discovery that hit me said, and I quote "Sorry mate, I just didn't see you..." Fair enough and entirely understandable seeing as the arse hadn't bothered to clear the frost off his windscreen and was driving using the tiny tiny gap at the bottom that his heater had cleared... Well, that's one impatient twat getting a £140 bill for the respray on my bumper... Git.

Monday night we all gather in Harrow at the HEXUS labs, a good focal point for the taxi to then ferry us all up to Stansted for the early morning flight. Seeing as I've played the role of HEXUS.fashionconsultant, I have all the logo'd jumpers and jackets for everyone, so I'm over my luggage allowance by some 35 kilos and properly bricking it about how I'm going to expense it when airlines charge an ab-ser-lute PREMIUM for excess luggage.

I was hoping it could be shared with the guys and my heart was lightened when Tarinder arrived with just a rucksack (an obvious thong wearer there then...) but my hopeful spirits were crushed when James announced that although his suitcase had more compartments than a James Bond special, the damn thing weighed 6 kilos on its own… We eventually managed to persuade him to leave his Cambodian manservant behind, saving us more weight but even that left us with two bulky boxes of kit to truck over.

Check in was a breeze with Air Berlin very kindly allowing us to check our baggage as one and we came in just 2 kilos under weight from our total allowance of 100 kilos… phew.

As per last year, we were staying in apartments right on the edge of the massive Messe complex. A ten minute walk saw you at the door of the show itself. Taxis were all over the place, which was a blessing as it was roughly minus 8 with the windchill factor and for most of the show it snowed in varying degrees from light to damn blizzard.

The first day saw us just stroll straight in unchallenged to mooch around the halls as everyone was setting up. We saw ASUS and FOXCONN setting up AM2 boards and running 7900’s in SLI, all well before the 3pm NDA lift the following day. I was busy getting shots of FOXCONN’s digital power management board and got told by a feisty NVIDIA rep that I was absolutely NOT allowed to take pictures… but FOXCONN stepped in and explained what I was actually taking pics of and he abated a little… he did bridle a little when I told him we had a 7900 GTX board back at our apartment and would he like to come and see it?

I kinda enjoyed showing the show virgins around the halls and giving them an idea of just how stupidly huge this place is. We hit the Press Center to find it already rammed full of hacks, though what they were writing about since the damn show wasn’t even open and exhibitors were still building their stands, I don’t know. We did the usual thing of sweeping the trays and trays of racks of press releases for anything interesting then retired for coffee at the bar. Walking back through the still assembling halls I was heartened to see the same NVIDIA rep now pass out on the floor having had a fit over all the NVIDIA partners sticking their 79’s up on display and every snapper that happened to walk by was grabbing a shot. The poor man… hope he’s not judged on his performance at enforcing NDAs…

So, we hoy back to the flat to re-group and then hit a steak house for a spot of dinner where poor, poor James is subjected to an absolutely merciless 3 hour verbal pummelling. That said, the man grew himself some stones and started to give as good as he got, but the practical jokes still caught him out when we paid the bill while he was in the bog and then made him pay it again when he came out…. The fragrant and beautiful frau understood totally and refunded him his money in cash, so at least James was set for a 125 Euro drinkies sesh sometime…

So now you’ve got an idea of the flavour of the show, make sure you check the CeBIT 2006 channel regularly as I’ll eventually post up the full diary… and other stuff from the show of course…

[jonny4288]

Sounds like all in all a good time was had whilst giving us some good headlines to read