E.12. Watch your slides

I was traveling to FOSDEM in February 2006 on the Eurostar from London. I was due to give the opening presentation in the Mozilla room on the state of the Mozilla Foundation. The Foundation/Corporation split had happened in mid-2005, so people were eager to hear what the future held.

I arrived at Brussels Midi and decided to save a quid or two of the Foundation’s money by taking the subway rather than a taxi. I went down into the subway station and tried to buy a ticket. The ticket machine utterly baffled me. After five minutes of trying, I turned round in frustration to find that my wheeled luggage had been stolen. I had lost everything except, praise God, my passport, wallet, and return ticket, which were in my jacket pockets. But my suitcase, clothes, and laptop—with my presentation for Saturday—were all gone.