The Original Mobile Phone

April 30, 2014June 16, 2014 / ludlumdrive / Leave a comment

It talks back to you. It talks back at you. It takes pictures. It takes notes. It wakes you up. It plays music. It plays video.

You might teach it a song. You may talk to it. You may play games on it.

It tells you what time it is. It tells you where to go. It makes you smile. It makes you laugh. It makes you feel good.

It is like a bandage attached to your hips, a cord that never sleeps, your carrying card to a membership that thousands are members but only you ride it.

It comes with its own color, dress code and its own lipstick. It is annoying to some and savior to others. Some even breathe, sleep and eat it.

It tells you stories. It bears your soul. It pays your bill.

Soon it will be serving you a meal at your favorite restaurant, open your favorite beer, turn off the light at the office. Yes, it is the cellphone, mobile, extra terrestrial, whatever you want to call it and it is here to stay.

Gone are the pay phones, the mobile phones of yesterday, the germ infested stations of the world, the boom box of all mother cellphones that resembles a glass window rain station then anything else.

Yes, I miss looking for a coin. I miss asking a passerby if they had twenty five cents to spear. I miss the sound of the coin falling in the box. I miss “please add ten cents”. I miss calling the operator to please make a collect call.

I miss tons of things but at least the conversation was private, the world did not know what restaurant I was going to and who I was meeting with for lunch, when I entered that room and closed that door, the world was my oyster. I could jump, scream, fart, tap and no one would care. At least I did not interrupt anyone’s meal or the quietness of the train ride whenever the phone rang. At least, there were many at least’s but nothing like coming across a phone booth. Yes, a public phone, a phone booth, a treasure.

I was engulfed with a tremendous sense of awe, an indiscernible astonishment when I saw them. They are not lost after all, they have not vanished, they are not today’s museum, they still exist. I just have to thank whoever is keeping them alive, I guess they are needed after all, they can come in handy!

And here they are. Enjoy some interesting phone stations I found while cruising Italy, Switzerland, Portugal and the US. Have fun and delight yourselves!

Photo Of The Day

April 24, 2014April 26, 2014 / ludlumdrive / Leave a comment

Yes, it is a rock but look closer, yes a little bit more, click on the picture, almost.. there! Doesn’t it resemble a crocodile’s head?

On Our Way To Venice

April 23, 2014June 14, 2014 / ludlumdrive / Leave a comment

We arrived at the hotel to learn that it was too early to check in, the rooms were not yet ready. Huh, c’mon?! I mean, after an overnight flight I was ready to rock and roll, zoom up to the main stage like in rest a bit, shower, put my feet up before adventuring out into the world but nope, we had to wait somewhere in no men’s land, with not enough couches for all thirty plus individuals to crush at once and I was about to eat red pepper. That was not part of the menu and it made me growl like a Chihuahua.

After careful negotiations with the hotel folks, they allowed us to stash our luggages in a corner room and because we did not come to play or waist any time, went searching for food. While we were there, we decided to check the area, humm the stores, I mean the bargains. I wish there was something to say in that department but I am afraid there isn’t, nothing exciting to report other than it is a town and people live in it, some Moms N Paps, a supermarket, some car dealerships and that’s all folks.

We broke up into groups going from door to door feeling the menus around Mestre but in the end, in some odd reason, all thirty plus of us ended up at the same place. I felt sorry for the waiters at the restaurant as they were not expecting that many people, scrambled at first but managed to sit us all plus others who also invaded the restaurant for lunch. Trust me, we left happy, our bellies were full, the food was to die for.

We returned to the hotel, checked into our rooms, given sufficient time to powder our nose and hopped on the bus straight to the main stage, Venice.
It was a gray, rainy day out but we didn’t care. We were on a mission. Everything was sunny out. Perhaps, I should have researched Venice better, learn about it’s surroundings, history, products, what to see, where to go, be a tourist. I knew about the arts, gondolas, the islands but my mission on the trip was to enjoy as much I could, experience the trip the joy of traveling as a tourist in a tour bus, go wherever the peeps were going. Yes, basically I let someone else do the ground work for me, Amber, our beautiful tour guide and why not? So, it did come as a surprise to me, I was not aware of and yes, I should have informed myself a bit, that the area is big in seafood, particularly oysters.

I was in awe while driving towards the islands. It did not escape me as I came across a sea of oyster reefs propagating the landscape, looking like a wave of choreographed lines in the bay. It was ridiculously cool even though the day was more conducive for a funeral then a delicious trip.

Almost there….