HAPPENING!!!

So after a tough start DIAL-A-DIVA is in full flow! We have been through Australasia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and now having leaped the Atlantic we are in the Americas.... WOW. The picture is from our half way celebration here in Stavanger. Cat and Chris from the DIAL-A-DIVA team took to the stage, as did Camilla & Elsebeth and the wonderful Helga. ONWARDS. happy listening.

Illinois is my Bermuda

Painting two layers of bright shiney colour onto the unit and making calls to some of the performers have been todays activities for me. Illinois has turned into my timezone Bermuda triangle... why is it so hard? amazing... thankfully Sid and one of his bandmates who are performing from Evanston, has spotted the mixups and sorted us out with politic use of an online meeting planner. phew.

Thanks to all those patient souls today who put up with my attempts at French communication... Frenchifying English and Spanish words, pretty dire. Thankfully on Saturday we are being joined by both French and Russian speakers.

Today Cat, Chris and Greg all arrived in Stavanger. Tomorrow Bert arrives and the crew is complete. Tomorrow is a very busy day for us. Greg will be up at the crack of dawn to get this show technically on the road - telecoms, streaming and webcam all up and running. The rest of us will be working on the installation of the unit in the venue and more performer liaison.

Here are two message boards I spotted today (a rainy day indeed). One at the bus station and the other at the airport. They are advertising the DIAL-A-DIVA freephone number here in Norway.

progress

Two images from the day... a wonderful flyer from Sé Que No (Argentina) who are on at 4am CEST on Saturday (11pm local time) and the office unit as it looks today - that's the undercoat... colour begins tomorrow.

Arriving in Stavanger

Javel (as they say here in Norway)
I have arrived in Stavanger and as the bus stop poster below shows the Nu-Music Festival (which DIAL-A-DIVA is part of) is about to get underway.

The performer schedule is now closed. It is looking amazing I have to say. An incredible range. Diverse and wonderful talent from literally every corner of the globe. YAY!
Although most of my time & remaining mind power is still focused on the changes and additions to the performer schedule and the wonders of spreadsheet management, being here is a refreshing step into the physical. The picture below shows the office unit which is currently under construction. Petite and perfect. Tomorrow will see us applying undercoat and Wednesday will be painting day - shiny diva green, diva yellow and diva pink of course.



Yes, things seem to be going pretty smoothly. The Stavanger2008 team seem to be really on the case. No major stresses or problems thus far (I am firmly touching the wooden desk as I write that!). Today I have seen Greg's wonder computer for the first time which Trond picked up from London last week. It is now in the hands of Lars from the Stavanger City Council, who is setting it up to work with council network. Greg will arrive on Wednesday and tech testing will happen on Thursday.