Saturday 15 March 2008

NY wrapup

The last few days of the conference are a blur. Listening do a dozen leading Canadian energy concerns touting their merits each day, Henry Groppe at lunch, dining at some ancient steakhouse (with huge meats and great wines that the maffioso made famous), drinking until 1am at the Whiskey Blue, a dozen more energy company presentations, Brad Wall thep Premier of Saskachewan at lunch, tour and dinner at the United Nations, then running up a massive bar tab at the Four Seasons hotel lounge all went by in a flash. Funny what several dozen people and $15 drinks can do. Visa didn't decline so I guess we're good.

What I do remember is the clients that listed close to some financing strategies for a tough market, a few M&A idea pitches that seemed to have traction, Brad Wall's speech and a subsequent conversation we had after (I'm not much of a politico, but I can say I'm a fan of him and his approach), and of course after the 40 corporate presentations, which ones stood out in my mind as the investment ideas to hone in on. I'm obviously rather cruddy as this part as I decided 5-6 years ago to part with my Petrobank shares in the $1.50-ish range... now that it's in the $50 range I'm officially a dumbass. Doesn't take too many "30-baggers" to help the bottom line out!

The Waldorf=Astoria is very polite to me with my bike. Almost surprising. "Let me get that door for you sir/nice day for a ride/where are you going/wonderful way to see the city/etc."

The UN building is neat in terms of history. It's also about the quality of an underfunded inner city public school that was built in the 70's. I guess they have more pressing budget issues than renovations at a Manhattan cost, but it was surprising.

The first 3 days of riding saw me lose a pound or two, and now I've layered back on. Spain will undoubtedly peel it back, I just need to survive London first. My legs feel good after the three hard days of riding, the sitting around has been killing me.

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