Phil Gyford

I’m now back in chilly and grey London. I can’t come up with a summary of Etcon better than Fiona’s NTK’s, but my session highlights included illuminating talk on how kids use social software; Danny’s entertaining thoughts on how geeks keep organised; David Sifry’s talk on new things to do with Technorati; and Matt Webb’s presentation, which filled my brain in double-quick time. I only endured a couple of really tedious sessions, and there were a lot of slightly disappointing presentations that had nothing new to say. But good, all in all. The other highlight was just hanging out with friends I don’t see nearly enough of in London (even if I did do my best to escape the crowds at times).

Then it was the train up to Los Angeles where “Flambingo” and I spent a fun and sunny couple of days hosted by Nicole and Abbie, who went out of their way to show us a good time. I even found myself liking the city far more than I expected, helped by the weather, the food, walking around Los Feliz, catching up with Genny, and views from the hills.

And in case my previous post left you worrying I’d gone native, there are some things — like TV news, certain over-enthusiastic restaurant staff, insane levels of airport security — that make me glad to be back in grumpy old cynical Britain. Tough call though.