As far as music is concerned. I would get a set of custom ear molds with speakers in them. http://www.earplugco.com You get the benefit of noise reduction and music without having to blast your ear drums. Hook them up to whatever you want as a source. I use an MP3 player but if you want weather info you might want to consider just a simple weather radio.
The phone. I think Verizon or Voicestream have agreements with UK providers and the phone you already have might work. Voicestream uses GSM in the US but it is not as good as AT&T for coverage IMHO.
If you don't want to carry your nice Canon, I recommend one of the little Olympus point and shoot with zoom. They are compact and I think they have a water resistant one that is great for a bike. I've gone digital and use a simple Kodak DC240 that uses AA's. No film to carry and I get to see my shots right away. I can upload to a web site or put them on a CD so they don't disappear.
Hope this helps.
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Safe Travels
Jay Kaminsky
Happily Homeless
http://jkam.home.att.net
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Safe Travels
Jay
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