The wording is pretty simple:

When you’re out and about, Madrid shows itself.

Cabify wasn’t born in a West Coast garage. We were born in 2011 right here, in the Tetuán neighborhood. And that makes a big difference: because if you’re around Madrid, you know that Lavapiés is Lavapi, and Fuenlabrada is Fuenla.

We’re from a city with a unique way of being and speaking. We are “made in Madrid”.

With the way things are right now this is a nice move. It’s subtle and the video is nicely executed, but the underlying message is pretty clear – they’re not an import. They’re local and that matters:

What do you think?

Cabify Stress Their Local Roots is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

Last year I got to some absolutely wonderful performances of music and other forms of entertainment. I got to see some of the best comedians in the world and was also lucky enough to see some amazing musical performances in some really great venues. I wrapped up 2025 with Matt Rife in Boston and started 2026 strong with Nikki Glaser and some other hilarious comedians at the Hollywood Improv.

2026 is going to be a great year for music in Europe with a lot of impressive acts touring. As of right now my “dance card” is filling up really nicely with a nice combination of acts spanning theatre, musicals, music and comedy.

So far this year I’ve been lucky enough to see:

• Nikki Glaser in LA. She was testing her content for the Golden Globes which was fun. The rest of the lineup that evening was really good even if Nikki was the name that caught my attention.
• Death Becomes Her on Broadway. Lavish production beautifully staged. Broadway shows are always a treat.
• Jarlath Regan in Dublin. Very clever comedy.
• Nach in Seville. Spanish rapper. Found him via Residente and I really like the style. He was doing a tour of Spain and it was a great excuse to head to Seville for th weekend.
• Patrick Doyle in Vienna. Scottish composer who has worked extensively in film and television for the last 40 plus years. The concert in Vienna was his first performance of that kind and was really excellent.

What do I have planned?

• Dan Pulzello. Hopefully he’s good live! I came across his videos on Instagram and TikTok and they were hilarious. He’s currently touring Europe.
• Celtas Cortos. Spanish rock group. I’ve seen them live a couple of times before and they’re great live.
• Louis CK. He’s back touring again.
• Neil Delamere. Love his stuff. So so fast and so so funny
• Ardal O’Hanlon. Another comedian I’ve liked for some time but have never seen live.
• London Soundtrack Festival. I really enjoyed it last year. This year the main thing for me is the concert on the Thursday evening.
• Janine Harouni. Saw her live in a very small venue a few months ago but now she’s playing Vicar Street. She is very funny.
• Wankernomics – not sure if I’ll get to this now as it’s up against a work event I cannot avoid.
• Bad Bunny in Madrid. This should be fun!
• LigaBue in Milan. Italian rocker. Big stadium show.
• Teddy Swims. What a voice! I saw him live before Christmas at another thing and he was really good.
• The Cure. One on my bucket list.
• Foo Fighters. Another bucket list one
• Moby in Seville. He’s excellent live.
• Jamiroquai
• Sting
• Bon Jovi. Definitely a blast from the past
• Eric Serra. It’ll be interesting to see how this is. I saw him previously doing the Le Grand Bleu soundtrack live and most of his better known work has been film related. However he also has non-film work which is a bit hit or miss. I’d assume he’d do a mixture in his set, but it’s impossible to know.
• Brad Williams. Hilarious comic.

Looking at that entire list it’s a busy year! And I know that I’ll end up adding to it..

Filling my 2026 Music and Performance Dance Card is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

Here’s the promo video they’ve put out for the tour:

Apart from his work with Besson he also did the soundtrack to Golden Eye, which was the first outing for Irish actor Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.

Full details of the tour here.

Eric Serra Live in 2026 is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

How it’s going:

How good, or bad my “mo” might look isn’t that important.

What is important, however, is how much money I’ve managed to raise for charity.

So far I’ve raised €1750, so I’m only €250 short of my current target of €2k.

Should I be going for €2.5k or €3k or more? With 8 days left to go what do you think?

Let me know in the comments!

Want to help me hit my Movember target? You can donate here.

If you want to know more about Movember and what they do there’s plenty of info on their site here.

Movember Status Update is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

Movember has been around for years (since 2003!) and a lot of my friends have raised money during “Movember” in the past. Personally I have donated, but I haven’t ever really made a proper go of raising money.

So this year that’s what I’m doing.

I’ve started growing a “mo”.

And I’ll also try to do the entire “movement” thing as well.

So if you donate you’re not only helping men’s health you’re also encouraging me to grow a moustache and to walk more. I haven’t had a moustache in a very very long time, so I’ve no idea what I’ll end up looking like.

The company has also setup a “team” for Movember, so hopefully there’ll be a few more of us getting involved!

Want to donate a few euro? Head on over to my “mo space” and donate some of your hard earned money! It’s for a good cause!

Doing Movember is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

Full details of the screening here.

Excalibur on a big Screen is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

Yesterday I wanted a steak sandwich or something along those lines. I wasn’t 100% sure what exactly I wanted, but I knew it needed to have melted cheese and some kind of bread that would be similar to sourdough.

This was the end result:

That’s steak with caramelised onion, cheddar and some chilli sauce. It was really really good, but it was far from perfect.

Taste was great and it really “hit the spot”.

But it wasn’t anywhere near “perfect”.

First off I should have been more careful how I cut the steak – it was a little bit too thick. The onion was good, but I probably did a little bit too much. And the cheese didn’t melt properly because I couldn’t find the thing to cover it.

But it was perfectly edible and I was quite proud of my creation even if it was flawed.

The next time I make it I know it will be better. I’ll tweak how I do things and I’ll try something slightly different. Maybe the bread will be thinner and maybe I’ll finish it in the oven instead of in the cast iron skillet. Iterating on my cooking is part of the fun of it!

Like doing smashed avocado with poached eggs:

Not absolutely perfect, but the avocado has the “right” colour.

Compare it to the one I did a week or so back with overly ripe fruit and when I burnt the toast:

The funny thing is that both versions tasted absolutely fine. Sure, the burnt one wasn’t exactly “ideal” and nobody really enjoys burnt toast, but it was still fine.

I just needed to keep a slightly closer eye on the toast and use slightly less ripe avocado…

Learning From Mistakes When Cooking is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

However I have ended up watching quite a few of their videos over the last couple of years and mostly by accident.

This video is an excerpt from a much longer deep dive interview with the founders or Fallow and focuses on their use of social media – it’s an eye opener:

I love the transparency!

How Fallow Use Social to Fill Their Dining Room is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

As a child I used to enjoy walking up and down country lanes near where I lived foraging blackberries from the hedgerows. My grandmother used to make classic blackberry jam and the entire process was a part of the autumn feel. More than 40 years later it still is, though now I get to do the foraging close to my own house.

Blackberry jam is lovely and I’ve made blackberry plus other fruit jams in the past, but this weekend I wanted to do something that was a little different. I’d been looking for “spicy” options for jams and chutneys and came across an interesting Spanish recipe for “mermelada de mora y manzana” which had a nice combination of common spices. I had to go out and do a bit of foraging to get enough blackberries to make the jam viable – making two tiny pots of jam would be a bit mad!

I’ve been purging my kitchen cupboards of old and out of date herbs and spices, so I only had the dregs of some old cloves and star anise – essentially everything was shattered, so the end result includes the spices, as I couldn’t remove them. I really need to use some kind of spice bag for that kind of seasoning in the future, so that’s yet another lesson learnt.

Getting the blackberry to soften was easy, but the apple proved a little awkward. In the end I had to use a potato masher to try and get it to break down and the result was then pretty good:

The end result doesn’t have much visual trace of the apple:

Apparently this kind of jam should gain flavour as it ages in the jar, so hopefully the star anise and cloves will improve the flavour and not overpower it. I tasted it last night and it had a lovely dark and rich depth to it.

At the top of this post there’s an AI generated image. Why? I shot a bit of video of the jam cooking:

For some reason there’s an option on youtube to create other video content “inspired” by the videos you have uploaded and of course some of it is AI generated. And that’s where the image came from. I am playing with AI for helping me to “run” my meal planning and I am curious with the various aspects that AI and content have.

I’ll be making some more jams and possibly some chutney over the next few days and weeks depending on what fruits I can get. It’s a fun way to spend the evening, though you then have to find some way of getting rid of all the produce, but that’s a fun issue to have!

Spiced Apple & Blackberry Jam is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

However when I wanted to make jam using both fruits the total amount I was able to collect was … well not exactly generous. But it was enough to make a small batch of jam:

The end result was 2 full jars and the bottom of another one.

So what can I make next?

So far this year I haven’t made any chutneys or pickles and I absolutely adore them. Being able to make my own means I can make things with the kind of flavours that I like personally, rather than being dependent on the much more middle of the road stuff you can find in a supermarket. One of the team gave me some pears, so I might do a pear and apple chutney or maybe just apple.

Which fruits do you like using and for what?

Raspberry & Blackberry Jam is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts