Contact info.

So we were in Helsinki for the weekend. On Sunday night we had dinner with one of Steven's clients, and naturally I took advantage of the opportunity to complain about my phone (you know, the disappearing pictures, ringtones I paid £££s for dematerializing into the ether, etc.). She said that Steven should bring it in with him when he went to their HQ the following day. They'd flash it or something, installing the latest firmware, and the was supposedly going to solve all my problems. Turns out they flashed it, allright, and I hear that they erased everything on the phone: pictures, ringtones, contacts, everything. So the consolation prize is that I got a fancy-pants new phone—an N80—but they were supposed to fix that old phone on Monday and now it's Thursday (they said they'd DHL it to London) and I don't even have my own SIM card back.
What this all means is that until I get the SIM card back (whenever that may be), I can be reached on our "guest" number: +44 7914 224 282. It also means that if you are someone whose number I might have had stored in my cell (and possibly nowhere else), I need your contact info. again, thanks! You can either text or email.
Cheerio!

Dissociating

Mmm-kay. I've got two more weeks here. Then two more weeks there. Then that's it. What the hell were we thinking? Moving to London??? ARGH! Dear readers, we may require your assistance. We've got stuff we're not taking with us (Haji, dining table & chairs, kitchen table & chairs, dishwasher, microwave, who knows what else?) that need to be dealt with. We've got a bit more GROS (getting rid of shit) to do at 25 Landers. I have to get an IATA-approved cat carrier (poor Alice!). Figure out what the heck you do with mail & stuff (legal address for voting, tax, driver's license, etc.) when moving overseas (anybody have a clue?)... Back in SF I've got appointments with doctors, dentists, shrinks, my final Life's Work Center presentation (supposedly on the 12th if any of you were interested in watching me squirm)... I thought LSE started on the 29th but apparently there's some kind of thing on the 20th (the day LB lands in London)... Steven's only going to be in SF from the 2nd 'til the 12th - and will be working his a** off, since there are "major deliverables" for Nokia that week... And then he's going to be in New York, Helsinki, Barcelona, Helsinki, New York, and Helsinki through November... I'm freaking O-U-T!

Live8

Steven wound up with 2 VIP passes to Live8 in Hyde Park courtesy of his client at Nokia. He tried to get a number of colleagues to go with him, but when they all declined I was his date of last resort. We started out at the Park Lane Hilton with a coffee and champagne reception followed by brunch. The room had a glass wall overlooking Park Lane, so we got a good view of the gay pride parade. Then we walked over to the Live8 VIP tent (a special elite section of the "Golden Circle," but we won't get into how they named that). In the tent area was even more free food and booze, brought to us by our (Nokia's) personal ambassador of hospitality, Pedro. Also in the VIP area: Faye Dunaway and Vince Vaughn (who cruised me -- I swear!), each looking not so good. Probably lots of other British and Euro celebs we didn't recognize. The opening number was U2 singing Sargent Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band with Paul McCartney. Strange. Then Paul left (Bono's comment: "did that really just happen?") & they did 3 more songs. Can I just say "The Edge"? Thank you! Also saw Elton John, REM, Coldplay, Annie Lennox, Razorlight (? but adorable), Snoop Dog (actually a good performer -- who knew?), and... Madonna! Fabulous, as ever, but she did kidnap a formerly starving Ethiopian woman who had to be rescued from the stage half way through "Like a Prayer." We skipped out on Sting, Pink Floyd, Scissor Sisters, Mariah Carey, George Michael, Mick Jagger, and a few others. I think it's probably still going on. Anyhow, I took pics of gay pride, The Edge, Elton, Annie, Madge, et. al. which I was planning to share with you. Took 'em on my fancy Nokia camera phone. Remember Nokia, Steven's client and sponsor of the event? Manufacturer and purveyor of fancy camera phones? Yeah, well the pics just mysteriously disappeared off the phone. Zap. Poof. Gone. B-bye.