Big Improvement Day (2) (by len @ www.pomtidom.com)

Wow. This is quite possibly the most insane trip I’ve made in my life so far. We’ve gotten close to a hundred calls, over 200 emails, did several interviews already and my Twitter followers have doubled and well, I’m still not really getting it.

Start at the beginning. When we arrived in Washington we were chucked in a van after having thanked Mr. Branson several times and said goodbye to him. Then we were brought to the Sheraton where we decided to let everything sink in a bit and than go for some food. As it was 3 at night for us already (in our heads), we were slightly (not too long of course) doubtful about what to do, but after that got into a cab and headed out for D.C. nightlife.

After having driven around a bit in a ‘yellow cab’ (go for the full experience right? ) we decided to taste the feeling on the streets and walk around a bit to end up in a bar called Tattoo Bar. A bit of a rockish kind of place, we had a laugh and a couple of drinks and did a radio interview with Giel Beelen, who (I think) is the coolest radio DJ in Holland. I think I was a bit tipsy but well, I don’t think I said too many weird things (so I hope).

At some point there was a flower salesman, and Omar decided to give the good man some flowers, as we were sure he deserved them. You should have seen the look on his face, priceless.

Once we got home I fell over and slept, thinking over and over, what a day, what a day….

When we woke up we went out into the area where we were staying. We had to ’sniff’ some of the American lifestyle and decided to go to one of these mall things. Must say I quite looked like Australia, which made me feel quite at home, despite the -7 degrees temperature.

We were picked up at the hotel around 5 together with the Virgin staff who were staying in the same hotel and brought to the airport. The staff, who were rather startled to see us asked us about the story and started laughing to be followed by all sorts of stories that supported the image we already had of Mr. Branson being a very generous and kind man.

Once arrived at the airport we walked over to the Virgin desk where we were looked at a bit funny when we started talking about Mr. Branson the faces changed when we said we had two tickets waiting for us, reservations made by Mr. Branson, within 5 minutes we were at the security check, no waiting in line (how nice is that!) and than I was asked about the bicycle-pump and hydraulic pump grip I had on me because of my bike (that was still in Amsterdam), which was looked at funny, but I was ‘allowed’ to pass after a couple of strange looks.

Once in the plane I turned on my phone and got a message from Mr. Branson (dance dance dance!) and we decided to call him to thank him one more time for all his effort and spontaneity to our silly question.

We flew back to London where we were picked up by a private chauffeur by the name of Anthony, who was incredibly nice and helpful (thanks loads!) and brought us to another airport where another private jet was waiting for us, arranged by an anonymous new friend of ours haha, (it doesn’t stop does it?) to ship us back to Amsterdam.

I even got a really cool offer for Mankind is no Island from Rashej Patel (CEO Exact Software) to host the first event for the network. This will happen at the point where there are a hundred members on the platform, so please join.

The ‘coming back’ party was insane, and I’ll tell you all about it, later on when I’ve got the pictures!

Peace & Love,

Len