So very early this past Thursday morning, I flew to Los Angeles on behalf of the fine folks at womworld for a Nokia NSeries party in the Hollywood Hills that night. I was part of a group of twentysome odd bloggers from all parts — mostly the U.S., but a few from England. The trip out was blissfully uneventful and I even got in about half an hour early into LAX. I took a shuttle bus to the Crown Plaza Beverly Hills and was in my room by 12:30 p.m.
Donna from womworld gave me a ring soon after and we met up in the lobby to have a drink. One by one, various other guests arrived and soon enough we had pushed four tables together to have lunch. All sorts of high-tech wireless gadgets were whipped out in a frenzy: Nokia N95s, iPhones, bluetooth keyboards, temporal displacement phasers (well maybe not that). Alas, I seemed to be the only Nokialess one in the group, with my coy Motorola Pebl (“It’s smooth and green!”, would be a good motto).
We “broke” at about 4:30 for a couple of hours of quiet time. I closed my eyes for a bit, but mostly flipped through the channels of the TV before showering for the evening’s main event.
At 6:30 we all assembled into a bus (or “coach” as Donna called it) and made our way up Beverly Drive. Shops soon gave way to well manicured bungalows and chic properties. At some point we turned onto Mulholland Drive and began snaking up through the hills. Our collective ears were popping. The lush hills, fading daylight and winding roads reminded me of similar precarious bus adventures in Greece a few summers ago.
After not too long, we pulled over to the side of the road at what appeared to be a long private road. There was a gaggle of people standing around and some semi-official looking folks brandishing clipboards. We stepped out of the bus and noticed a small fleet of electric buggies emblazoned with Nokia NSeries logos. The buggies ferried us up the small road in small groups for what must have been about a 90 second ride to a very attractive home at the end of the road. Two smiling folks invited us into “their home” as we stepped into the big party.
(Continued…)
