h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm away most of the week on a bit of a jolly. Midsummer in Paris, no less. Tough life, but someone's got do it.

It's a steel rolling conference. Correction : it's THE Steel Rolling Conference. The biggest in the world till 2009. That next one in the series, moreover, will be held in the UK. It'll be under the auspices of the IoM3, the professional organisation of which I'm proud to be counted a member.

In amongst all of this time's glitz and tech, then, there's a promo-job on our bash to kick off. And for obvious reasons, 'kick off' is going to be quite a theme of this week's international gathering.

Our 2009 welcome poster is discreetly red with a hint of navy on a pure white ground. A colleague has (possibly unwisely?) offered a small inducement if I can get a few hundred delegates singing "Rolling's Coming Home" at some point in the proceedings.

Now that sounds like my kind of challenge. Watch this Space...

Roll the Eiffel Tower home for us, would you?

It'd fit in to Trafalgar, alongside Nelson, quite nicely.

Midsummer in Paris, no less. Tough life, but someone's got do it.



I wish you'd given me some notice - I could've fitted this in my diary

I remember my "clash" with Jeremy Irons the day the opium war reached its ultimate conclusion.