Gone to America

I’m back in New York. Hi, everybody! Flight was fine, just a little turbulence to keep things interesting. It’s cold here and there’s lots of snow, but I don’t have a problem with that. I haven’t done much since I arrived on Monday evening, what with jet lag. I have completely rearranged my bedroom, which was strenuous, so I haven’t been completely idle. This afternoon I will venture into the city and meet people and perhaps drink a little.

My last weekend in Dublin was really great. I ended up in the Voodoo lounge on both Friday and Saturday nights, which I wasn’t expecting. Much dancing. It occurs to me that while I did bring my camera to Dublin I actually didn’t take any pictures at all. None whatsoever. Sorry. Also, I was quite hungover on Saturday and I realised as the night wore on that there were a few people I completely failed to contact and invite to see me off. If you were expecting me to call and I didn’t, I’m really really sorry – you weren’t the only one. But I probably saw you at some anyway. I was there for five weeks, so I pretty much saw almost everybody. not quite, which is odd when you think about it, but near enough.

I was quite pleased when I arrived back in Dublin that I was able to keep my old cellphone – sorry, mobile – number as I though this would make it easier for people to get inn touch with me. In fact, I had been paying my bill all year just so I could keep this number. Of course, everybody had assumed that I had dumped it and deleted it from their phones so I might just as well not have bothered. Unnecessary expense! Aauuugghh! Actually that wasn’t the only reason I had kept it going – when I first got here I was only definitely staying for three months, so it was worthwhile keeping it alive.

But no longer. I’ll miss that number. Always an early adopter when I can afford it, I was one of the first people I knew to get a mobile. It was a brick, manufactured by BT. In 1996 they were starting to really push them in Ireland, so you’d get one free if you signed a contract. I was handed a flyer telling me this one morning on the way to college, and I left early that evening so I could get to the shop before it closed. That was with Eircell, part of Eircom now owned by Vodafone. They were the only game in town at the time. It was an analogue phone, so the number started with 088. 088 2708010. You’d charge it for twelve hours and it would run for eight. You could store about fifty numbers in the memory. No one had heard of text messaging. The first person I called was my friend Ivan, who was on the air as a DJ for the pirate radio station DLR. He played me a request, but I can’t remember what it was.

I didn’t receive my first call for quite a while. I wasn’t ready for it at all. I was browsing CDs in Tower Records on Wicklow street when my trousers started bleeping loudly. Everybody looked at me – they were still pretty rare. Panicked, I found it in my pocket and pressed the button. I couldn’t hear who it was over the music! I ran outside. Unfortunately, I was still holding a few CDs. The alarm went off. I ran back in… Ah, the memories. These days I’m much more relaxed – suave, even. “Hello?” I ask, a hint of a wink in my voice.

That first caller was an actor asking about a part in my student film. Matt. Mobile phones are incredibly useful for filmmaking. I started offering to rent out my phone to my classmates (there were about 15 of us making films that year). At first, they were sceptical. They soon came around. I think everybody took it in the end. One reason I’ll be sorry to lose this number is that it has incredibly high recognition amongst my friends – for most of them it was the first mobile number they ever learned.

Eircell went digital a little later, and I upgraded my phone. Now my number started with 087. A year after that I switched to new-service-provider-on-the-block Esat Digifone (now O2) because I wanted a fancy new phone with infra red capabilities. My number became 086 2708010. A third company, Meteor, started offering service a while back so I could have gone to 085, but I didn’t. And now I never will.

Ah, two seventy eighty ten. Will there ever be another like it?

Almost certainly.

I notice that today Julian has linked to a blog by one of his co-workers, Rebecca. I’m assuming that this is a Rebecca that I met in Vegas, but I suppose it’s possible that there are more Rebeccas in the Museum than I had hitherto suspected. This is I believe the first blog that was in some way grandfathered by me. I suggested a blog to Julian, he suggested it to Rebecca… It’s like a virus. I am responsible for everything!

Vanessa wants me to redesign the site. I don’t really see how it’s any business of hers, but she’s always had a problem with this current look. I’m thinking about it, but I’ll wait until the next stable version of WordPress comes out. That’ll probably break everything anyway. Anything you believe I should take into account?