Apple’s new tablet device will be called the Slate.

In conversation, someone thought this quote came from Winston Churchill:

I got more from drinking than drinking ever got from me.

But he wasn’t sure if it came from Churchill or someone else. Googling it revealed nothing. But it did remind me of a quote from Vivian Stanshall, from Sir Henry at Rawlinson End:

If I had every nickel I ever spent on drink, I’d take it and spend it … on drink.

I’m tired, so no links provided where they otherwise might be.

After years of global travel, I still don’t handle jet lag well. So I was concerned that with just one day to do everything in L.A., would I manage? The answer is yes.

I got about 6 hours of sleep last night, and puttered around in the hotel for another six hours till it was time to go out and meet an old friend for lunch. Greenblatt’s, a deli on Sunset in West Hollywood, where I had a real pastrami sandwich and a Dr. Brown’s Black Cherry. Was gonna go for a potato knish too but realized that would be too much food for me. The pastrami was great – maybe not the best in the world but so much better than what you can find in HK. The lunch conversation not so great – I realized that my old friend and I were talking at each other, not with each other. That’s what happens with relationships sometimes.

Whenever I go out in L.A., I always think that everyone around me is a celeb and I just don’t recognize them. Today, ditto, if I saw or was near any celebs, no idea.

After lunch, over to Amoeba. I was going to take some photos inside but got caught up in the fever of being in a real record store again for the first time in a very long time. So did my shopping – I’d “budgeted” an hour but spent closer to two.

Then off to a sporting goods shop. Looking for Vibram Fivefingers but they were out of my size. But they did have some Chaco’s in stock – and while they didn’t have the color I had in mind, they did have my size and at 50% off so I said, “I can deal with black instead of blue.” Extremely comfortable, very different feel from Teva’s and the other similar items you can find in HK.

Then back to the hotel, time to suit up.

An hour talking at the office. Followed by dinner at what seemed to be a very popular Italian restaurant, Toscano’s in Brentwood. They have their own cookbook coming out soon, something about simple, classic Italian recipes. Had some really nice beef carpaccio with excellent cheese on top, they had some great flat breads accompanied by excellent balsamic, and then I went right to the veal chop, minimal seasoning, thick, bone in, perfectly cooked, serious char on the outside but tender like butter. And a glass of really nice red wine, never caught the name. Followed by an espresso – my first ever, believe it or not, but I needed a shot of something to keep me going. Then another hour sitting outdoors at a Peet’s Coffee, talking some more. Getting close to 10 and the temp was below 15 and I realized I was shivering and sniffling at that point.

Anyway, my meeting got the positive reaction I wanted. The deal is far from done, nothing was signed or delivered, but if the moon should go into the seventh house and if Jupiter aligns with Mars, I will have a new job by February. Doing something different and challenging. And still based in Hong Kong.

Back to the hotel by 11. Tired as hell. Ready for bed soon. Tomorrow afternoon flying to NYC. My work here is done.

Oh … in advance of the trip, I’d loaded City Search, Urban Spoon and Yelp on my iPhone. All three are amazing and it’s a damned shame there’s no HK equivalent, at least not in English. Urban Spoon concentrates on restaurants only. City Search and Yelp each look at your current location via GPS and then tell you what’s nearby – restaurants, shopping, banks, attractions, etc. Yelp wins by virtue of having what seems to be a more active community behind it – it had far more reviews per location than City Search. And within mere seconds, I’d found listings for several shops right near the hotel that I might go and check out in the morning before I head to the airport.

But I gotta say, AT&T is as bad as everyone says. Their network coverage in L.A. sucks and apparently famously sucks. People said they were surprised I was able to get any signal at all in the airport. And I’m here in a busy area, Century City, sometimes just getting a single bar on my iPhone, which also means low reception on my Huawei pocket WiFi. At Greenblatt’s, I didn’t have my friend’s mobile number, so I tried to send him an email (I know he’s got a Blackberry) and after typing the message (short, two sentences) and hitting send, it took almost 5 minutes to send the message.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with white chocolate, what will they think of next?

Nighty night, y’all!