Matthew's News and Gossip

So it's really happening, I'm really going away for a long time (well until 2003). So none of you have to put up with me till then other than reading this thing. No chance of it actually being updated before I get to the UK.

So to say goodbye THIS MONDAY SEPT 2 I'm buying tapas and a beer or two at the Thirsty Bear, 661 Howard Street San Francisco, B/W 2nd and 3rdstreet. I'll be there from 6 pm (prob till about 10pm) as I know it's a school night for most of the locals. So I look forward to seeing you there. If not, I'll see you in 2003. (If you're really keen I'll be in the Mad Dog at 8 am Sunday to see Chelsea play Arsenal).

After Weds I'll be updating www.matthewholt.com with perhaps more than my usual wit and wisdom from the Internet cafes all over the world and hopefully will have some good photos to upload too. Of course if you want to come join me for any part of my trip let me know!

Suddenly I'm leaving in 10 days and there appears to be no time to do everything I need to get done, done. Of course that means, finish off insurance negotiations for the knee (ongoing,-- will write that essay sometime), for car (form got sent to the wrong place by the claims guy), deal with getting stuff into storage, out of storage, getting my phone switched off, trying to figure out why the California unemployment people will NOT answer their phone yet still havent sent me my money, packing, getting something to pack into, figuring out where to go, trying to see all the people I wont see for 6 months in the next 10 days, etc, etc ,etc. Then there's getting stuff for the trip, getting vaccinations, getting visas, and generally figuring out something about the mass of countries I'm visiting. So instead of getting it done, of course, I'm lying in bed at 1 pm writing this!

I did two unusual fun things this week. Last weekend I went sailing on the bay. Simon Kelton and his LA friends all showed up to meet more of their LA friends living here. There was a great party for Heather (Simon's girlfriend, unlucky for her) at Dhana Rivera's on Saturday night. Then on sunday we went sailing on the bay in a 45ft yacht. I took lots of beautiful photos of sailing and some from the night before. The Cap'n (Ben) looked like a Backstreet Boy and was about the same age. Then on Weds I went to have dinner in Danville with Laura Locke and her mum Josephine. They run a comedy act, albeit unintentional. In addition to the entertainment, Laura and I went to the BlackHawk Classic Auto Museum, which is quite fabulous. More photos here.

On Friday Chelsea salvaged a 2-2 draw with Man Utd. My main concern was that the new owners of the Mad Dog in the Fog have taken the Chicken and Veg Pie off the menu.

Otherwise my gym at UCSF has closed for repairs, so I need to beg/borrow/steal guest memebership somewhere!

Quickie update. I had an article published on my eHealth dotcom experience on California Healthcare Foundation's iHealthBeat site. It went up sometime late on Friday and I only found out because I had 5 emails about it this morning.

I'm also readying plans to be in England, which mostly means watching the Chelsea v Newcastle game on September 14. Chelsea won their first game this season at Charlton 3-2, here's the BBC report If you want to come to the game please email me

I've also started accupuncture for my long running bicycling-related problem (if you don't know what it is you can guess). So far I've been told to give up sugar and alchohol (as if!) but despite a vigorous "organ" massage and six needles being stuck in me, the affected "area" still hurts. I'll try a few more sessions to see if it helps!

Alrighty then. Last night I booked the ticket on American. I've used all of my frequent flyer miles. The route is fixed-ish but the dates are flexible. I go to the UK on Sept 4-5, off to Delhi (India) on Sept 16, then to Singapore on Sept 29. After that I get lost in SE Asia, hoping to do Malaysia, bit of Thailand, Burma, more Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, or some variant of that. Then off to Bali, Australia, New Zealand, and home via Hawaii. I should be in Bali around Xmas and home to SF by end of Feb. At least that's the plan for now! So if you live in any of those places, watch out! If you want to come along, let me know .

My fight with Fortis continues. They are refusing to pay for one of the procedures on my knee or to pay for the tissues. This is nearly a $10,000 fight, so watch things get nasty. Some day soon I'll write a little essay about what's wrong with health care in the US.

I'm trying a new approach. I'm moving the News and Gossip part of the personal site to Blogger. So this should make it easier for me to post regular updates and also to save me some time. So you might want to set your bookmark to to http://matthewholt.blogspot.com/ Thanks!

August 3, 2002: I survived my birthday. It was quite a serious affair and very arty. Or more accurately, I managed to get in the DMV and out with a new licence, a new disabled sticker and registered to vote in under an hour -- even though I left to go home and missed my spot in line. I then made it to Hang gallery and (thanks to the lovely Michele who runs it) arranged for several of my friends and various other hangers on to pretend they were buying art while guzzling down the wine. The party was going off on both sides of Sutter street with Carter and her scores of relatives continuing it IN the street. Some remnants of that crew made it across to Foleys Irish House pub. Eventually about 40 odd (and some normal) people showed up. Thanks for the cake Heidi! No thanks for the unblowable-outable candles, though!

For some reason people seem to think I have a mullet, although I havent had one for about 5 years--cool as they are! At Foleys, Megan Maurer took over the singer's mike and guitar, and actually sang me a song about mullet guy; the lyrics will be up here soon! The devine and lovely Miss Carter gave me a digital camera (a really cool one), and so several of the party photos are accesible if you (right mouse) click here


In other "news" The knee is recovering from its setback. (For those of you just catching up try the archive about the ACL, PCL MCL et al). Star therapists Nicki and Laura now tell me thatI can go travelling, so I'm very likely off in September to go to the UK for my stepsister's wedding, and then off to Asia to get lost for a few months. If you want to join me and/or have suggestions for where I should go please email me.

Update: My beautiful 1969 Cheverolet Camaro convertible was stolen a few weeks back. It's probably on a boat to China or somewhere. Grump, grump.

Separately, the pictures of the Utah trip are back and I'm putting together a little travelogue, which is getting more and more complete every day.......click here to take a look

For the previous update and other context look in the News Archive/Diary click here