Just another catch-up – don’t seem to have time to update this these days so I apologise to my non-Geordie readers (the locals know what I’m up to! :P). But then I see that non of my fellow bloggers seem to do so, anymore either. Has the novelty worn off? There’s been a surge in facebook usage throughout the university in the last month and I have no idea why. I’ve been a FaceBook member since about March (?) and not much happened on it – all of a sudden it seems to have exploded and I cannot account for the change. If any staff are interested, Roy has set up a Profile for Newcastle University staff past and present.

Anyway, what have I been up to? I haven’t a clue – all the weeks seem to have melded into one cos I’ve been so busy. I attended the ‘Last Chicken Show’ (final Slice of Life conference) in Utah. The conference was great, I reconnected with a lot of people and got some fabulous photos – it was my first visit to the States; I just wish I’d taken the opportunity to take holiday out there afterwards. It was especially exciting to be in the US for the launch of the iPhone. The country went nuts for them and one of our group came up with the idea of queueing at the AT&T store in Salt Lake City, rather than the Apple store. Excellent idea – there was only about 30-35 people in front of us and they were letting about 6 people into the store at a time.

After deliberating whether or not to buy one for $499, myself and Kim (the only other UK participant on the conference) decided we would.. IF ..we could replace the SIM card, as our own mobiles were automatically connecting to AT&T. Well, of course, the SIM card is embedded and you needed to register the phone from a US address….which we could’ve done but Kim worked out that the phone would cost us $2000 over 1 year and then $1 per minute for calls. Not really practical – so we decided we’d wait for the UK release and hope v.2.0 comes out here 😉
However, Brian (Stanford) and Sebastian (UCLA) bought iPhones so we spent the rest of the conference playing with them – it was an exciting time to be in the US!

This was Sebastian BEFORE with his old phone.

..and then AFTER with his brand new iPhone.

(More Slice and iPhone foolery photos!)

Well since then (I still haven’t caught up on sleep), my roof is leaking with all this horrible weather, been working in York, London and Edinburgh and today bought myself a pair of Chung Shi’s in a desperate attempt to get some exercise. Jools’ Hen Party tonight then it’s their wedding next Thursday at Langley Castle – really looking forward to it 😀

Oo…just booked up or a few days in Prague in September but before that I’m helping out at a conference in Poland. Phew – it’s all go – no wonder the blog is falling by the wayside, I must try to do better!