Hi Margaret

So yes I'm back and I had an interesting trip,
although there were too many Americans. Oh well, I
guess it was to be expected!

I arrived in San Fran after a horrid flight on United
- the seats were just too close with too little leg
room. A chick who had found me online while looking
for people to hang out with in Sydney later this year,
and who I'd got to know and who had offered for me to
stay at her place, picked me up. This had gone from a
probable romantic liaison to just friends. But from
the moment I arrived it seemed obvious it was going to
be romantic! So for the 3 days it was great! While in
San Fran I ran into an American bloke I know from
Sydney, and who I regularly swim with, who had been
back in New York for some months. I knew he was in San
Fran for a swim, but we hadn't arranged to meet, and
we bumped into each other on the street.

I then went to Washington DC for 3 days to stay with a
lesbian and her partner who I'd met outside San Fran 2
years ago and who had just moved there. We had a great
time, well in the evenings. I saw the sights during
the day, hung out with the babes at night! DC was warm
and humid - too much to be a tourist! And a friend and
her hubby drove to DC from Philadelphia to catch up
with me for the afternoon on the Friday. Workwise I
caught up with the Executive Director at the Center
for Democracy and Technology. No work came out of it,
but I'm hoping they will use me as a contact for Asia
and the western Pacific.

I then went back to San Fran. Again the chick and I
got on great for the next day or so. Then we went on a
picnic with her son. But that evening when we got back
to her place she went bizarrely on the attack claiming
I was elitist, snobbish and only mixed with people
with university degrees! It was all so weird.

Anyway, after this it all fell in a heap, and on the
Wednesday I moved out and checked in with a couple I
know through the lesbians, who had also been in Sydney
in February. The woman in the couple is Daniel Pearl's
sister.

I also went to see ICANN and they're interested in
using my news for a blog that I would operate,
possibly/probably with their support. They want to
engage the wider public on issues, and not through
blogs that only seek to discredit them. I'm interested
in this as long as I didn't have to be pro-ICANN,
which is what they don't want either. On my way back
from seeing ICANN I got a bus to LAX. Getting off the
bus, who do I run into - none other than the bloke I
ran into on the streets of San Fran who was waiting
for a friend to pick him up!

This week I've finally got a list of issues the chick
in San Fran had with me including I'm gay but I don't
know it because I have lots of gay friends! I don't
mind discussing these issues, but she wouldn't discuss
them when I was there.

So there ya go! It was good seeing friends, including
a bloke I've known for years who I found out now works
for Google. I checked out some museums, wandered
streets and checked out life and an amazing park in
San Fran - the Golden Gate Park that has gardens of
all descriptions, bison, flycasting ponds, soccer
fields and on and on!!! I found the funniest thing
I've seen on TV, apart from Deadringers, in over 2
years. It was a pseudo current affairs program on
American politics called the Daily Show. Unbelievable!

So how's that for news? :)

Ciao
David

=====
David Goldstein
 address: 2/4 Dundas Street
             COOGEE NSW 2034
             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David§yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 0015 - home

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