Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out: February 24, 2006

everybody loves the sunshine

it's easy to forget that there's continuous sunshine above the solid grey that covers england.
breaking though the clouds on take off, on route to frankfurt this afternoon, felt like i was leaving some kind of heavy, oppression behind.

(this was undoubtedly compounded by me almost having an asthma attack on the plane after running half a mile for the closing gate: we were late due to endless, slow moving queues at security clearance).

the sun is always shining: we just don't get to see it unless we're 8 miles high.
as soon as the sunlight hit my face i felt relief.
amazing how important sunlight is to me/us.
not so surprised finland and norway have such high suicide rates.

das high security hotel

we're in frankfurt to photograph the 'arctic monkeys' (again).
on arrival, we (me and frances) were met by our german fixer, sebastian.
he asked me where i'd like to go after dinner.
i said 'well frances really loves sleazy strip clubs: the really gnarly ones...do you know any? perhaps we could combine dinner and a dance'
which is my stock answer on arrival in a foreign country when i'm asked this question.
to cut a long story short (my friend), sebastian mentioned that really if we were in frankfurt, we should go to one of the very best clubs in the world: 'cocoon' which is co-owned by the dj sven vath.
then i remembered that he co-owns it with a friend of mine and mrs.perou's: mateus, who i haven't seen for years and who i had forgotten lived in frankfurt.

met kristen (my client from NY) who was jet lagged and ailing.
downed about 4 tequilla sunrises and went for dinner with sebastian, his girlfriend juliana and sandra (sebastian's assistant) at a traditional german restaurant which was fantastic.
drank apfel vine and ate schnizel(?), potaoes in an amazing sauce and other local specialities: super delicious.

then relocated to 'cocoon' and met mateus for a drink and a show round his amazing club.
sven was playing and the party was just getting going when we had to drag ourselves away.
the temptation to forget we were in frankfurt for a job was hideous.
would happily have danced till 9am (when cocoon closes).

back to our incredible hotel suites (i'm on the 28th floor with a panoramic view of frankfurt...the huge windows open inwards and you can lean forwards looking straight down before you touch some secondary glazing to stop you falling out...and there's those blade runner style automatic blinds too, and a freestanding round shower cubicle in the middle of the room...coooool) for 1.30am (just after midnight GMT) feeling well behaved and incredibly NOT drunk from the many tequilas.

a good evening.
the highlight of which might have been being driven through frankfurt towards 'cocoon' by sebastian in his nice audi listening to chris rea's 'road to hell': can't knock the 80's soft rock.

i do have to say though, i think it's really weird how big 'robbie williams' is out here...