But at the end of it – and despite the release of some grim manufacturing output figures earlier in the day – Cable is on sprightly form and the atmosphere is utterly relaxed.
The SoHo pioneers, like the artists of Buckwick today, rolled up their shirt sleeves, sheet-rocked walls, gerry-rigged plumbing, and transformed grim manufacturing spaces.
His portrait of life in a grim, northern manufacturing town is vivid and memorable.
1 Lean Times in Syracuse The decision by the Carrier Corporation to shut down its manufacturing operations in Syracuse and lay off 1,200 workers was a blow to central New York State and part of a grim trend decades in the making.
Grim news from the manufacturing and construction industries fuelled fears that the UK would slide into a triple-dip recession this quarter, but Britain's dominant services sector picked up last month, which could bring the economy back from the brink.
When the box business left the U.S. for China in the nineties, that was a sure sign that the larger fish in the American ecosystem were migrating as well, and now that the Chinese box business is retrenching, it's a grim sign for the manufacturing hubs in southern China.
The news capped a grim day for Australian manufacturing, with Philip Morris announcing earlier in the day that it would close its Victorian production plant and sack all 180 workers, and BP deciding to close its Bulwer Island refinery in Brisbane, with the loss of up to 380 jobs.
"The young and hip" are drawn to Brooklyn's grim Bushwick, with its decaying manufacturing sites and dilapidated housing, by low rents and people of similar tastes.
Since April, when the death toll of a Bangladesh clothing factory fire exceeded a thousand people, there have been dozens of articles urging consumers to understand the grim reality of modern day manufacturing.
So declares Karsten Engel, chief executive of BMW China, as he greets visitors to his firm's newish manufacturing facility in the grim north-eastern city of Shenyang.
On the slow train out of Porto to Guimaraes, once the centre of the country's thriving textile, clothing and footwear manufacturing industry, there are some grim faces.
