Something wrong with the picture.

Even cloudy weather can have an effect here.

I had a great night on Friday.

First I was given a wake up call by a friend - Not the kind you get when you stay in a hotel, more the "Mate, what were you thinking?" kind of thing.  I know that doesn't sound lovely, but it was.  I think if someone cares enough to say you're making a mistake, when it would've been easier to just agree, then you should sit up and listen.

I was thinking I should start setting up a simple business to help small companies start to use social media.  When in actual fact I was merely falling into that trap that grabs us all from time to time.  Just because you can, doesn't mean you should and just because there's money to be made, doesn't mean your life would be made any better.  For example, I quite like maths and I can understand double entry accounting, and accountants can make good money...  Not that there's anything at all wrong with being an accountant just, if I'm honest with myself, I'd be miserable.

I was having a drink with my friend, in order to remove him from his home whilst his partner readied a surprise birthday party.  It was a tough job drinking great beer, in the company of a good friend, in a lovely warm bar on a rainy Friday night.  Keeping the party secret was surprisingly easy and the effect on my friend was suitably impressive.  He was still babbling and confused at the number of friends in his home by the time I left at 11:30'ish.

Now for a piece of advice if you're ever in Los Angeles in the winter time.  Avoid driving in the rain if you can.  Especially at night and particularly on a Friday / Saturday night.  It doesn't matter how good a driver you are, you will soon see so many accidents that it becomes obvious that an incident free journey is totally outside your area of control.

I drove 10 miles and luckily only saw 3 accidents.  One minor shunt before I got to the 405 freeway, one spinner temporarily closing the opposite carriageway and then just after I joined the 101 freeway all the cars around me suddenly slowed.  I couldn't see anything wrong, but slowed too.  I was looking for debris or just something that would have caused the sudden caution, but I saw nothing.

Then I realized that the car leaving by the Van Nuys Blvd exit didn't look right.  As I stared at it I thought, why are it's lights white?  That'll be because it's reversing.  Then I thought, why are there so many sparks?  That'll be because a lot of the car has been smashed off and is being dragged along the pavement.  The car was now distinctly second-hand and was reversing at about 40mph down the exit ramp.  Somehow the driver seemed to be more in control in reverse and so the car hadn't initially looked out of place...

So I had a great night.  There was fun and then I got home without anyone crashing their car into mine.