How to keep in touch, occasionally

Wait, what?

2010-04-20T11:26:00.001+12:00

I was reading an immigration newsletter, when I came across this:

A Canadian Travel visa is for tourists, organ donors and business people who wish to travel to Canada for a short stay.

Really?

Somebody buy my car!

2010-02-18T21:09:00.004+13:00

FOR SALE
1998 Ford Escort Wagon
1.8L Turbo Diesel
Reliable and economical transportation for travel or utility use.
Well maintained. Full maintenance history back to 2005.

Answers to the name of ‘Daisy’

Kilometres:
212,211km

Body:
Green, 5 door, Station Wagon

Engine:
4 cylinder, 1800cc, Manual

Registration expires:
Nov 2010

WOF expires:
Apr 2010

Stereo description:
Factory cassette/radio

Features:
Alarm
Central locking
Driver airbag
Power steering
Towbar

NZ$4500 ono

(I'm not included)

2009-11-05T23:51:00.001+13:00

Finally got my New Zealand driving license in the post this morning. Promptly smashed a headlight in celebration.

At least the fireworks down on the harbour front were good.

Yarr!

2009-09-18T17:13:00.003+12:00

It be Talk Like A Pirate Day on Saturday.

You are The Cap'n!

Some men and women are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any scalawag who stands between them and unlimited power. You never met a man - or woman - you couldn't eviscerate. You are the definitive Man of Action, the CEO of the Seven Seas, Lee Iacocca in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. You're mission-oriented, and if anyone gets in the way, that's his problem, now isn't? Your buckle was swashed long ago and you have never been so sure of anything as your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off his head if he shows any sign of taking you on or backing down. If one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones' locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed - a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.

What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

Oh noes!

2009-09-07T21:21:00.001+12:00

Apparently Terry Wogan is stepping down as breakfast show host on Radio 2. He kept me entertained on the drive into work. Funny man.

From here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8241101.stm

Even more new photos!

2009-09-07T21:10:00.003+12:00

I've been getting some use out of my camera!

This Sunday R and I headed out to Ferrymead Heritage Village. It's very similar to the one we went to in Nelson (where we wrote our Christmas cards in the sun), but sadly lacks an on-site brewery. However, it did have steam trains! On the first Sunday of every month they get the steam trains, trams and electric trolleybuses out and you can ride around on them as much as you like. This Sunday also happened to be Fathers' Day, so we were a little out of place (being the only ones there without kids). But that's never stopped us before, and I don't think it ever will.

The actual village has the usual things like old shops, a church, a schoolroom (which we didn't venture into - wasn't feeling that brave!), but also serves as a home for a substantial array of local societies. We found model railways, with blokes busy making trains run around large models (the ground level of which were usually at my eye-height, making me feel like a child again and really annoying all the actual children who couldn't see a thing), historic aircraft restoration hangars, Christchurch Hansom Cab Society (I love those things - they should be brought back), even an amateur radio station which appeared to be set in 1977 (the DJ was happily reading out news of Elvis' death). All great fun to look around, and a good chance for the societies to recruit new members, I imagine.

Photos are, as ever, on Picasaweb.

New photos

2009-08-30T22:46:00.005+12:00

I've put some new photos up on the Picasaweb site. Some are older than others...

It's nice that the weather is picking up again. Yesterday I discovered that maybe sunscreen should have been on my list of things to do before going out. Nothing serious, I just discovered I had changed colour by the time I got home from walking on the Banks Peninsula. Summer is here again?

Time for an update

2009-07-20T19:56:00.002+12:00

Which I shall do in bullet-point form, for brevity. I'm tired.

Christchurch has a strange mix of weather, from the really very cold to the sitting outside in t-shirt warmth. This often happens on the same day. I feel like I'm experiencing both hemispheres at the same time.
Job-hunting during a recession is a stupid idea. Especially when on a working holiday visa and competing with laid-off Kiwis.
Luckily R's old company needed researchers in NZ, so yay for proper work! Paid in US$ even, so we'll be rich. Comparatively.
I'm not sure why they don't pay in pounds, when it's a British company. Never mind.
With work sorted, we turned our attention to other fun things. Like snowboarding!
Pictures are on Picasa. Look to the little link on the left for photo and video action.
Or go here.
Kea are fantastic.
My coccyx hurts.
I'm not in hospital! This is an improvement.

That's all for now. Consider yourselves caught up.

Also want

2009-07-11T17:19:00.002+12:00

Who in the UK would like to buy me this? It's a collection of 100 classic books on a DS cartridge. Certainly would save R and I a lot of money on reading material!

The problem with NZ is that games and books and things here are really expensive. Take the above item. On Amazon.co.uk, ten quid. To buy here, getting on for $60. Even with the exchange rate, that's a lot more! Silly NZ and its being far away from... well, everything.

WANT!

2009-07-09T22:59:00.001+12:00

It's ridiculous how much I enjoy these games. Sadly, R's laptop won't play them, so I've sent a "hint hint" kind of email to his brother in Chicago. There's a Wii there, just waiting for some Guybrush Threepwood...

Rugby

2009-06-24T12:16:00.002+12:00

I'M GOING TO SEE THE ALL-BLACKS PLAY ITALY ON SATURDAY!

(And am excited enough to use caps to tell you so.)

It's going to be cold. But great.

*Dances*

As for the job hunt, it's going slowly. I keep applying for things, though, so that's a start. I was going to apply to be the Hagglund driver at the Antarctic Centre, but the place filled too fast. Probably just as well - I'm not amazingly confident driving Daisy at times, let alone an Antarctic ATV with passengers.

Ooh, here's another exciting job I found:

Scott Base - Winter Science Technician
Listing #: 224045238
Advertisement
Company: Antarctica New Zealand
Location: Christchurch City, Canterbury
Listed: Fri, 12 Jun
Type: Full time, Contract/Temp
The Winter Science Technician provides technical support to science events operating in Antarctica, and reports to the Scott Base Coordinator.

Key tasks include the operation and maintenance of scientific equipment; collection, recording, and updating data associated with experiments or operations; computer administration and support for Scott Base personnel and science staff; biological monitoring of the waste water treatment plant; serving on the Scott Base Fire Crew; serving on the HAZMAT response team; and assisting in other areas when required.

The successful applicant will have relevant qualifications in electronics and/or computing; extensive post-qualification experience; experience in a science/laboratory environment; diagnostic and repair skills; network and computer support skills; strong time management skills; possess the personal attributes to be able to relate well with others from diverse professional backgrounds; demonstrate that they value safety, caring for the environment, teamwork, and delivering quality customer service; hold a full NZ motor vehicle drivers licence; a current work place first aid certificate and be certified as medically fit for Antarctic employment by Antarctica New Zealand's Medical Assessor.

This is a thirteen month role from September 2009 ? October 2010. We will also be selecting a "standby" position from the applications, to be available on call for the duration of the 2009/10 season.

Alas, I am woefully underqualified. Don't even think I can blag my way through the application form. Knew I should have learned to speak Penguin.

Anyway, back to it. Wish me luck!

Time stamp

2009-06-11T15:02:00.003+12:00

Hopefully I've just set up the time stamp properly, so it recognises that I'm not posting at 4am.

Hopefully.

EDIT: Success! At least on my end.

Christchurch!

2009-06-11T14:50:00.002+12:00

It's very cold here. For all their green-ness, Kiwis seem to have completely missed the revolution that is insulation. Or central heating.

Anyway, that aside things are going pretty well. R and I made our way down here from Hopewell, where we've spent May being super-cleaners. Not a hard task when the place is nearly empty most of the time, so that meant we got to spend a lot of time in front of the log fire. Oh yes indeedy. And baking (see previous post).

We came down via Hamner Springs, which is a thermal resort. There's something wonderful about going for a walk in the crisp coldness and then spending the afternoon/early evening soaking in hot pools. Top it off with a tasty dinner and some lovely wine, and you've got a perfect weekend.

Now, though, it's time to get job hunting and looking for a place to live. Currently we're at R's cousin's place, which is cool but we're thinking that a bit more independence would be good. However, flat-shares are much cheaper, so who knows. Depends on what kind of jobs we get, I suppose.

In other news, today was the day of blood tests and things to decide whether I actually have developed lactose intolerance. Crippling stomach pains at the orchard (when we were eating a lot of yoghurt, milk and cheese) would suggest so, as would the fact that the pains have stopped since I've cut down on those foods. In any case, I'll find out early next week whether I'll have to give up cheese for good (sniff).

And that's that, for now. Off to get CVs updated (our apple-picking credentials might land us that perfect job) and then get them sent to temp agencies, so that they can ignore us in favour of actual Kiwis... I'm so optimistic!

Domestic goddess

2009-06-01T20:50:00.004+12:00

Today I made bacon and egg pie with peppers and mushrooms, and Mexican chicken soup, and some tasty oaty biscuits, all from scratch. And they all worked! \o/

To be fair, the biscuits should have had raisins in them and instead gained chocolate chips and dried apple, and some of the oats were replaced by berry muesli, but still. Yum. Even managed to poach eggs without making a terrible mess or a bland version of egg-drop soup, so that's something.

Only problem now is eating everything. Need more volunteers...

Oh, and R has been occasionally posting photos from his fancy phone to his blog. Have a look if you haven't recently.

Briefly...

2009-02-24T16:27:00.002+13:00

Well, it's been a long time. Oops. In short, we've driven around a lot, crossed the country in just about every conceivable direction (at least the North Island), and run out of money. But fear not, intrepid reader! Jobs have been found, and you're reading the words of Hawke's Bay's newest apple picker extraordinaire.

However, this tease of a post will have to suffice for now, since the car probably has been checked over (Warrant of Fitness time - every six months here, boo) and so it is time to rescue Daisy from the garage.

Must just say congrats to F and G (your initials sound like I'm just writing the alphabet) on the birth of their beautiful daughter, also called Daisy.

Lots of driving to be done!

2009-01-07T23:06:00.006+13:00

R's sister has come to visit, so we're taking her the length and breadth of the country. We're nice like that.

View Larger Map

... yeah. (For some reason it won't let me zoom out very far. Oh well, I'm sure you can manage it yourselves.)

Anyway, Christmas was good, if a little odd. Summer is not the appropriate time to be dealing with Christmas trees and stuffs. Salmon makes a nice change from turkey though.

After Christmas we headed up to Lake Heron for New Year with R's family, including four small children. We camped outside as the cottage was full, and got quite used to our wake-up call being "Helloooooo... I'm heeeeere!" Ah, three-year-olds. Do you ever sleep? But there were lambs to be fed, and calves to be kept out of the way of lambs while they were feeding, so that was all very exciting. Think I enjoyed feeding the lambs more than the kids did, but hey ho.

Now we're back in Christchurch with a big day of seeing people and places planned for tomorrow. Today we went to Akaroa, which is the French enclave (well, sort of). Swimming in the sea is great when it's 32C plus. In any case, I'd better go to bed so that we can go to the Antarctic Centre tomorrow and see penguins!

It was like something from the Twilight Zone

2008-12-13T23:49:00.004+13:00

So there we were, propping up the bar downstairs from where we've been staying for the past two weeks, chatting away with the staff and generally being good little backpackers, when in walk four Santas. Good, we thought, this will be entertaining. Nothing like a few Santas to liven the place up on a Saturday night.

Then in came some more.

And then some more.

And then even more.

Apparently they'd started at 2.30pm somewhere about 13km away, and were bar-crawling to the best of their ability. Except someone had decided that they weren't allowed to use public transport or taxis to get around, so they were hitching from bar to bar. All very well, but apparently people don't really like stopping to pick up drunken Santas, so when some people made it they then had a rather long wait for the rest to turn up.

And then there was pole dancing.

I love this country.

December?

2008-12-01T23:09:00.003+13:00

I still can't get used to the fact that December is sunny. I keep thinking that it's going to get much colder by Christmas.

Currently we're in Nelson, which is the sunniest place in NZ. Just to prove it, it's raining. Oh well.

I'm sure I had lots to write about, but I've largely forgotten it all. Luckily this place has free internet, which is nice, so I can come back tomorrow and write lots. You have been warned...

Also there are a couple of photos up on Picasaweb. Unfortunately I have to upload them in batches of five, which takes a very long time, so there aren't many for now.

Shiny new things

2008-11-21T09:49:00.003+13:00

The observant amongst you will have noticed a little slideshow of photos just to the left. If you click on it, it will take you to R's online album. When I get my photos online, I'll change the slideshow, but until then you'll have to make do.

A brief summary

2008-11-20T22:45:00.003+13:00

We've made it to Wellington, where we're staying with R's family. It's been a busy couple of weeks - we've camped on the Coromandel Peninsula and walked up tracks with steps as high as my waist (well, nearly); visited the hot springs in Rotorua and relished in the smell of sulphur; adopted a kiwi at Rainbow Springs (by kiwi I mean the comical flightless bird, not a stray New Zealander); seen the crazy colours of geo-thermal pools and caves at Wai-O-Tapu ("Sacred Springs"); seen what looked like Mordor while on the Tongariro Crossing, apparently the best one-day walk in New Zealand if not the world, and more that I can't think of at the moment.

Tomorrow we take the ferry across to Picton, and our South Island adventure will begin. We've got a hostel booked in the Marlborough Sounds where we'll spend a week about a three hour drive from - well - anything, and then we'll be camping our way down to Christchurch via whatever looks interesting on the way. Oh the life of a carefree traveller!

Aotearoa photos!

2008-11-05T18:31:00.002+13:00

Rob put some up here.

We just found out that his sister is in Grant Park at the celebration. I'm so jealous! But there's celebratory salad and big glasses of wine. We know how to live.

(We're also going to be staying in Auckland for a few more days than planned. Daisy needs new brake pads, and given how twisty the roads are here - think rally tracks on gravel roads - we might appreciate her having them.)

Obama did it!

2008-11-05T18:16:00.001+13:00

And I dance around awestruck at the amount of people in Grant Park, wishing that I could be there too. Chicago will be having one hell of a party tonight.

This is history. Let's hope it lives up to expectation.

Back in Auckland

2008-11-04T15:14:00.004+13:00

As the title says, we're back in Auckland for a few days being fattened up by Stephanie and Yid-Ee, getting a new road user charge (since diesel here doesn't have tax added at the pump, there's a separate charge) and generally working out what to do and where to go next.

Still having massive bank trouble - Natwest blocked my debit card the other day, which was exciting. They did leave four messages for me on my UK number, which was nice, but that also meant that I've just spent lots of money calling voicemail. Oh well. Got to keep Richard Branson happy somehow. After talking to a rather tired-sounding Scottish man, my debit card should now work again. Huzzah, access to money! I hope. The other thing is that the BNZ won't take a Sterling cheque, so my new plan is to take out $600 at a time and pay it into my NZ account in cash. If I'm lucky, I won't get mugged between the cash machine and the bank counter... I'll just have to act nonchalant.

We went up to Waitangi the other day, which is where the treaty between Maori and Pakeha (generally "European", but more specifically the English in this case) was signed. The treaty was the official establishment of New Zealand as a realm of Her Majesty, drawn up with the usual colonial arrogance of the time and then debated and changed by the Maori to better suit them. Good for them, really. There's still an awful lot of debate about it too, especially as it's almost election time here.

It's a very interesting place, especially as there's not a comparable place in the UK. There's a meeting house (marae) which is unusual in that it's for all the people of the country and you don't have to be invited in, unlike a tribal marae. We saw another cultural performance, which was much more powerful than the one in Auckland Museum - the performers seemed to take much more pride in welcoming visitors to the "birthplace of the nation". R and I were the only two there for the first part, so we had the full force of the traditional welcome. R was designated the chief; this meant that he was greeted by a young Maori man doing the threatening posturing thing, tongue out, eyes bulging, lots of yelling and gesticulating with a stick. I'll tell you now, the Pakeha explorers were very brave. If I'd come across this country and been greeted by angry Maori, I'd have said they could keep it. This guy was being welcoming and was still terrifying! Eventually he gave R a fern leaf as a symbol of peace and welcome, and then all was ok. They sang us a song thanking God and the ancestors, theirs and ours, and formally welcoming us into their whare (house); then it was time for hand shaking and the hongi, which is gently pressing noses together. By doing this you share breath with the other person, showing that you've been accepted by them as a brother or sister.

There were a few more songs, talking about Kupe (the first Maori to set foot on New Zealand) and another legend which I can't remember at this point, and then it was audience participation time. Uh-oh. Poi looks simple, but is really not. Luckily another couple had come in, so it wasn't me by myself (poi is a women's game). I think I may need practice; fortunately there are no photos. I'll just have to make a set.

After being shown how to do it properly by the Maori women, it was the men's turn. Haka is also not simple, although good to watch. R and the other man didn't look as fierce as the Maori though - it's hard to stick your tongue out and get the good staring eyes when you're concentrating too hard on what you're supposed to be doing.

Aaaanyway, there's baking happening and that sounds exciting. I'll try to get some photos up soon, and perhaps a more ordered post of what we've been up to. I need to get back in the habit of keeping the blog up to date - it's been a while since Russia.

2008-10-31T14:21:00.002+13:00

Our car is now called Daisy. She's fantastic.

Spent the past few days out on the Karikari peninsula at a fantastic backpacker's called The Rusty Anchor. Staying there felt more like crashing at a friend's house than staying in a hostel, which was great. One night Shane (one of the owners) took us out on a glow-worm tour on his private land, which was really cool. There's something magical about sitting listening to a stream and the calls of the morepork (NZ owl) while watching the glow-worms come out and light up the rock overhangs like earthbound constellations. Gorgeous.

Anywy, today might be caving shortly. Yay, underground exploration! or it might just be sitting drinking coffee and chasing the hostel's dog around. Who knows.

At some point I need to get to a bank, too. Then I can pay myself a cheque and finally have access to my own money! Take THAT, Natwest! (Still very annoyed about that.)

Oh, and I snorkelled for the first time the other day too. That was a lot of fun, although I kept having to remind myself that yes, I can breathe underwater. I kept holding my breath, which really doesn't work. Anyway, saw loads of little tiny fish, masses of sea urchins and a big crab. Not sure who was more scared, it or me. I quickly left it alone and went back to looking at the less pinchy things.

What else? I can't really think of things of interest. Lots of the past few days has been spent just enjoying the spring weather and relaxing in pretty scenery. Oh, and driving. Almost ran over some wild turkeys, which was exciting. Why do they run along the road? You can't outrun Daisy!

Currently we're staying at the Little Earth Lodge, which is rather cool. There are ponies, which took a liking to R and decided to try and eat him, a rather fantastic shaggy dog who we spent a while chasing round and round, and lots of farmland. It's so peaceful - I can hear a tui and a pheasant at the moment and nothing else. Lurvely.

2008-10-28T19:16:00.002+13:00

We are officially surf bums, but withoout the surfing. We shall learn though, and then the Tasman Sea had better watch out!

Lots of other things to write about too, will do that when I'm not supposed to be cooking...

We bought a car!

2008-10-20T15:41:00.002+13:00

Or, more accurately, R bought a car. I was present though, so that counts for something.

It's a 1998 Ford Escort estate, with a 1.8 diesel engine. It's a workhorse! And I imagine is really heavy to drive. I have to keep up my climbing strength somehow. And it's green! Which is an important factor, obviously. Green is good. Apparently it's R's third green car, which is good?

We went to Waiheke Island recently (last Tuesday or so) and hired scooters for the day, which was a lot of fun. Did mean that we couldn't do the vineyard tour, but that's probably just as well. Carrying lots of bottles of wine, while tasty, would be hard work. We both survived pretty well, although R did try driving off the road a couple of times. I claim no responsibility for that. Just because I meeped my horn at him to tell him to drive on the left is no reason to drive on the left-hand verge, in my opinion.

The scooters were a little scary on the roads though. Suddenly there was an 80kph road, and our little speedos only went up to 60... but we survived, I was nearly overtaken by a bus, and all is well. We were very glad when we dropped them off though, and had a local bottle of wine to celebrate. With a delicious meal, I should add, not on the street with it wrapped in brown paper.

Waiheke itself is absolutely beautiful - golden beaches, turquoise sea, green hills... all the stuff you see on the brochures and think they've Photoshopped is actually how it looks. Unless someone Photoshopped my eyes, which would be weird.

Journey time again

2008-10-09T13:22:00.008+13:00

Ok, been in NZ for over a week now. Starting to feel a bit like a local - I can use words like "kumara" (sweet potato) and I can even pronounce Aotearoa! For reference,it's "Ow-teer-owa". Go me.

... oh yes, and we met the Prime Minister Helen Clarke at a flea market in the south of the city:

Let's start at the beginning. 32 hours is a long plan journey! First part (to Frankfurt) was easy, as was getting through Frankfurt airport to wherever I needed to be. I did enjoy the "smoker's boxes" - glass boxes in the corridors in which the smokers stood looking a little like vertical goldfish, and where people walking past could feel very smug about not smoking. Good stuff.

The next flight was to Hong Kong, which was long. Luckily my medication knocked me out, much to the chagrin of the man sitting next to me who wanted to talk. Sorry.There were also noodles for breakfast, which was odd but appreciated. Yum, noodles.

Then I was in Hong Kong! I decided to venture into the city itself on a sleek fast train. It sounds silly, but I didn't realise HK was so mountainous! Very pretty, with all the sea and mountains and big tall buildings.I wandered for a while, went to the pier and saw boats (surprisingly enough), took photos, got lunch (which was a strange experience in itself, but successfully negotiated without too many faux pas, I think), discovered I'd lost my train ticket, bought another and headed back to the airport.

Then there was another 10 hour flight down to New Zealand. Slept some more, which was good, ate more noodles for breakfast (what is it with noodles for breakfast on long flights?) and watched as we flew into the dawn with the long beaches of North Island below us. Such a beautiful introduction to the country. Seems I was lucky, as R had landed a few hours earlier in the dark and rain. Heh.

I was met by R and S (his cousin), who took us back to her house for an early lunch. After that we headed out to the Waitakere mountains for a bit of a wander and some pictures (which are on facebook, but nowhere else at the moment). There was a giant picture frame framing the view, and a totem (for which I don't know the Maori word) featuring various ancestors with huge penises.Such is the way of things.

So far our time here has been eating, sleeping and doing touristy things in almost equal measure. Since we're so close to the sea wherever we are, green mussels are incredibly cheap (NZ$2.25/kg!) which means we're eating them fairly often. Yay seafood!

The Auckland Museum was fairly fun. We went to see a "cultural performance" which was a Maori troupe performing songs and dances with poi and sticks, culminating in (of course) the war haka. Quite a sight, even when done purely for tourist purposes. One of the dancers reckoned himself to be a bit of an NZ Idol star, which was quite amusing. Hard to be fierce when you're trying to pose.

We've also been over to Devonport, which is a village just north of Auckland reached by ferry. All very picturesque and "English", down to the prevalence of fish and chips (or "fush and chups") and little tea houses. Really is a bit like stepping back in time.

Other than that, we've been organising ourselves (ha!) - getting bank accounts sorted, SIM cards for phones, car hunting etc. Turns out that I can't transfer money from my UK account to my NZ one without calling them, which is a pain, but I'll need to do that at some point soon. What's the point of internet banking when you can't use it to do the things you want to? Grr.

But, all in all, we're fairly settled in. S has been taking us to various places (mostly foody places), we've found good places for beer, like here:

Oh yeah, and we met the Prime Minister Helen Clarke at a market:

So we're doing quite well.

Hopefully we'll set off for the Northland next week at some point, when we have a car.

Will write more when there's more to tell, and internet to tell it from.I do have a phone number down here now; email me if you want it.

Safely in Auckland

2008-10-05T13:03:00.003+13:00

And R did a decent blog about the first couple of days here. I'm too lazy to duplicate it, so if you're interested, head over there. There'll be more updates here when I/we feel like it (and have internets).

Yay travelling!

EDIT: Also, the Earth has now been destroyed (see the indicative badge on the left). This is unfortunate. Details here.

Pastures new

2008-09-29T10:44:00.002+13:00

Tomorrow I set off for New Zealand. I can't quite believe it's happening; I've been planning for so long that it felt that's all I'd ever do.

Too tired to write more. Still trying to persuade either OS I use to recognise my iPod. Pfft, computers. Overrated.

I'll update as often as I can. Love to you all (that's right, all three of you who actually read this).

August is over?

2008-08-27T21:45:00.001+12:00

So the Bank Holiday weekend is over and once more I come crashing back to reality.

I spent my time visiting H and C at H's house down in Essex. This necessitates a train journey which would have been more bearable had the coffee machine on the train been working. Ah well; I kept myself entertained with M&S picnic food (artichoke hearts are delicious, and also a little harder to eat on the train than you'd imagine; their stuffed vine leaves are too salty).

The theme of the weekend was, once again, the consumption of much food and wine. This was great; I haven't needed to eat yet today because I'm still so full of barbecued meat and delicious chocolate cookies. Oh yes.

J came over from Geneva, which was wonderful! We went to see the new Mummy film, which is terrible, but that's what makes it good. The amusement value was infinitely raised by C eating about seven pounds of ice cream and therefore having the biggest sugar rush I've seen for a long time. He was slightly blurry round the edges, he was moving so fast.

After the film we went to meet H's brother in town for a quick drink. This did mean we were exposed to some of the nightlife, which was unfortunate. Of particular interest (in a kind of car-crash way) was the rather corpulent lady who seemed to be dressed only in underwear. Her bra strap was doing a sterling job of staying together, possibly in defiance of several laws of physics. Gods forgive me, but I could not stop looking. Then there was the guy on his stag night who had a collar of hair around his neck, on a level with his adam's apple. I don't know whether he'd shaved above and below it, or simply picked a line and not shaved below it, but either way the effect was... striking.

Other highlights of the weekend include playing Portal for the first time. So. Much. Fun. I particularly enjoyed some of GLaDOS' lines: "Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an "unsatisfactory" mark on your official testing record... followed by death." Oh dear. Interestingly, you only die in the acid if you try to move. Not sure how that could be used, but still.

Now, however, it's back to work. Luckily it's only a 3.5 day week - wedding to go to on Friday afternoon \o/

Brum-brum

2008-08-15T01:24:00.001+12:00

I have just passed my driving test! I can now legally be a menace on the roads.

A few almost-related things

2008-08-07T00:25:00.003+12:00

- I have Lollapalooza'd and it was fantastic, although I need another holiday to recover.

- Airport designers know the secret of bending time and space; they're just not sharing all that timey-wimey stuff with the rest of us, hence my 25-hour waking day last Wednesday.

- Terminal 5 at Heathrow is as big as Hyde Park.

- Marker pens are great at festivals.

- Offering Budweiser, Bud Light and Bud Select does not mean you're offering a choice.

- Music is good.

- Factor 50 sunscreen is also good.

- Next time I see R. will be in Auckland. That's dizzying.

- I must get back to work.

London to Brighton, at last

2008-07-15T23:18:00.004+12:00

So very overdue! Never mind.

Sunday 15th June was the annual London to Brighton bike ride in support of the British Heart Foundation. Simply put, this is 27,000 people on bikes riding 54 miles and causing general chaos. Yay! This is a really long post.

The weekend started with a bit of trouble. D, the work colleague who had actually organised for us to take part, ended up backing out because his wife couldn't find her driving glasses and therefore couldn't get the car from London to Brighton to collect him at the end. This shouldn't have actually been a problem - although the train operators won't let participants take cycles on their services any more (which is, in itself, ridiculous) they will still carry people. We could have taken his bike and he could have quite easily caught the train. Never mind.

Fortunately my very good friend C had already decided that she wanted to come and see us arrive in Brighton, largely because she'd never been. The previous plan had been for her to drive down with R and Mum and I would go with D. Change of plan! She ended up with two bikes on the back of her car, which made her nervous for a little while before she got used to it.

In any case, we eventually had everything sorted, the bikes all loaded up and maps ready, and off we went. The drive to London was uneventful - motorway driving isn't hugely exciting. We even found the hotel without too much trouble, bagged ourselves a space in the car park, checked in and took bikes to our rooms with no problems. Huzzah - it's nice when things just work.

That night we wandered into Putney and found a lovely little Greek restaurant. We decided on sharing platters, because those things are just good; stuffing yourself with spiced houmous, lamb kofta, stuffed vine leaves and various other dips with flatbread is something that should be shared. Add a tasty Cretan wine, a dessert platter of cake, Greek yoghurt with honey and nuts and baklava and you have yourself a mighty fine meal that wasn't even particularly expensive. Oh, and a free drink of ouzo because Greece scored in the Euro 2008 match that was happening at the time. Bonus.

After this it was off to the pub to sample some London Pride, which was delicious as ever. There was a chalk drawing of Darth Vader on a board behind the bar, for a reason that was never explained. Finally we decided that in actual fact bed was quite appealing, since our setting-off time was 7.30am and the start line was two miles away.
Far too early next morning my alarm decided it was time to get up. I was all for ignoring it, but fortunately R got up which meant I had to as well. After a quick shower and sorting out gear it was time to leave. Oh wait, we didn't know where we were going. Cue Mum and C trying to work out where we were going on maps with different scales. Once it was eventually worked out, we discovered that it was actually quite simple to get to Clapham Common, it was just that the route took us over about 4 pages of the A-Z map. Urk. Eventually, however, Mum and I left the other two in the chill of the London morning with the agreement to meet at the start before we left for Brighton.

When we got to the Common (which was easier than expected - we just followed the stream of cyclists and cars carrying bikes), that plan went straight out of the window. A phone call confirmed that due to the joys of public transport C and R were still waiting for a bus, so we opted to just get started and that we'd see them at the end.

Crossing the park to the starting point was the first time we realised just how many people might be doing this. There were people everywhere.
It was all very well set up, though: there were four big archways, each with a start time written on it. We duly joined the back of one of the 7.30 ones to munch on muesli bars and get our cards stamped. We didn't have to wait very long before we were through the archway (picking up route planners and safety pins for our numbers) and funnelled off into one of three large holding areas in front of the start line. I now know how cattle feel.

While we were waiting for the off, there was entertainment! Giant lobsters on stilts: and some bloke playing the organ beneath a plastic palm tree:

All very entertaining. I decided that I really wanted my camera somewhere more handy than my bag, and so my windproof became a convenient camera holder. Marvellous. (I was actually very impressed that I didn't drop it at any point. Success!)

There was enough time to pin on our numbers, adjust our helmets and generally get ourselves prepared for the journey ahead. Then we watched the other holding pens open up, and off people went to much clapping and cheering from all spectators.

Finally, it was our turn. Away went the ribbon, and we set off in a mass of whirring metal and cheerful voices.
Through the London streets we went, causing chaos as we tried to avoid traffic and each other. Sensibly, there were ride stewards and police at every set of traffic lights to stop bad things happening, such as cyclists jumping red lights or white van drivers expending their wrath on cyclists. (No, they don't need a reason. There is just wrath that must be expended.)

Unfortunately there were so many sets of lights, and so many cyclists trying to get through them that it took us an hour and a half to get to the first refreshment stop, a village hall eleven miles away. This is not a good pace! We stopped there anyway, for toilets and water refills (it was warm). Again, the organisation of the event stood out. Loads of toilets, so no huge queues, free water refills and a mass of old ladies making sandwiches and selling them along with tea, coffee, fruit juice and bananas. It was wonderful.

I sent a quick message to R+C telling them where we were and how things were going. They sent one back saying that they were in Brighton and there were people finishing already. Depressing! That's what happens when a) you start at 6am, the earliest slot and b) you're treating it as some serious training.

Spurred on by that, we were soon back on our bikes and on our way. It must be said, it was a really pretty route through plenty of small southern English villages. You know the type, they're on postcards - little cottages with roses growing in the gardens, ponds, pubs and village greens.

We couldn't spend too long looking, though - with so many people it was all too easy to fall over someone.

We'd not gone too much further when my brakes were put to good use, as a mass of stationary people was just round a corner on a downhill stretch of a country lane. It transpired that there had been an accident, and judging by the amount of emergency vehicles a fairly serious one. Incidentally, hats off to the emergency services - I'm sure trying to get a First Response Land Rover, a full-sized ambulance, two police patrol cars and a police motorbike through a crowd of cyclists on a narrow country lane was less than fun, even if we did all move to the sides. I'd also like to call down bad karma on those idiots who followed the ambulance through in order to get to the front of the stoppage - seriously, you gave a whole new meaning to the term 'ambulance chasing'.

It took about half an hour for the stewards to start letting us through in dribs and drabs, but once we got going again the crowd soon spread out. Cue more wonderful scenery of rolling hills, woods and fields interspersed with scenic villages where the residents were standing outside spraying us with water as we passed. That wasn't as mean as it sounded - we provided target practice for the kids with water guns, and the water cooled us down. Fair trade, I thought.

More cycling. I think my bum was getting sore at this point, despite the gel seat and horribly attractive padded shorts. In any case, I was relieved when we stopped for lunch. This rest stop (a Scout hut) had a barbecue going! And it smelled delicious. However, we were desperate to make up some time (since it was now... I don't know what time. Late) so we stuck to our previously purchased sandwiches, bananas and muesli bars. Oh, and a piece of Kendal Mint Cake for that sugar buzz. Yum. All too soon it was time to put on more sunscreen, fill up the water bottles and head off again.

R+C were a little concerned that since it had taken us so long to do the first half, we wouldn't get to Brighton before about 8pm - which meant a long and late drive home. However, the second half seemed to fly by - more villages, more countryside, more rest stops at pubs (none of which we stopped at - we were the height of restraint, I tell you) and more people on bikes getting in everyone's way. We kept up a fairly decent pace, having decided not to stop again until the rest area just before Ditchling Beacon. This was another great one - it seemed to be a care home of some kind, which had kindly opened their garden so that lots of sweaty bikers could crash out on the lawn for a while. Which we did. Time for another banana and two pieces of Mint Cake, because we could now see the hill and it was a little bit terrifying.

There it was: Ditchling Beacon. Notice in that link where it says "a particularly challenging northern face" - oh London, why must you be north of Brighton? You can see the relative size and gradient of it from the copy of the route planner below (or you will be able to when I add the photo).

Mum and I had done a fair bit of training, and although I didn't feel particularly super-fit it soon became apparent that actually, I was better than I thought. As soon as we hit the slightest incline all that could be heard was the clanking of gears and the huffing of people. I'll freely admit that I was huffing and puffing too - this was one of those hills that just had no levelling off at all, which (coupled with the people) made it so much harder to actually ride up.

As for the people! They were everywhere, stopping in front of me and (most annoying) walking their bikes up the middle of the road, three abreast. Move! Fortunately the ever-present stewards told people in no uncertain terms to walk on the left, so unpleasantness was largely avoided. There were a couple of occasions where I was damn near taken off my bike by someone trying to go too fast and having to swerve, but they were so apologetic I didn't really mind. And when they didn't apologise (or just didn't realise) a good shout of "I'm on your left/right!" made them take notice. And no swearing!

I'm very proud to say that I managed to get up the hill without walking. I'm less proud to admit that it was mostly ego and stubbornness that got me there. D had confessed that he'd never been able to ride up the hill, which of course made both Mum and I determined to beat him. I did point out that we could tell him we had even if we hadn't, since he had no way of checking, but that did feel a bit like cheating.

In any case, I agreed to meet Mum at the top (she's much better at hills than me - fancy light road bike, and actually being fit) and joined the throng. It didn't take long before my hands were dripping with sweat - I'd never appreciated how useful cycling gloves may have been - and I was sounding about as good as an asthmatic badger, but slowly and steadily I made my way up. So. Very. Slowly. However, I was passing some of the more professional-looking guys - young fit men all dressed in Lycra, with the super-lightweight bikes and the cycling shoes with cleats - which cheered me up rather more than I should admit to. Not the Lycra, I should point out, but the fact that I was passing people.

Anyway, the Beacon is one of those hills that just never seems to end. Every time I got round a corner I thought I must be at the top, and then... oh wait, that's just more hill. Boo. There were a couple of times when I seriously considered getting off and walking, but I didn't see how that would make much of a difference. I'd still be going up a steep hill, but with the slow pace of walkers to annoy me. Besides, every time I thought this I was in the middle of the road and couldn't have got off my bike without causing an accident, so I carried on.

After what seemed like a very very long time, but was probably only about 20 minutes or so, I could hear megaphones. The stewards at the top were being incredibly encouraging as well as giving instructions on what to do when we got to the top and the final rest stop before Brighton. Doing a good impression of the Big Bad Wolf I finally made it to the top and into the car park of the rest stop, where there were three (three!) ice cream vans all making a wonderful profit. But I had no time for ice cream. I had to find my mother (who was not in the car park, and was instead further along the road), so after a brief flop, a lot of water and a short "Where are you?" phone call I was back in the stream of people.

The top of the hill was very level, which made a nice change. The men with megaphones were announcing that it was only five and a half miles into Brighton now, and it was downhill all the way. Thanks very much, that'll do nicely! I feel the downhill was well deserved. My legs were wibbling in relief that there was no more Beacon to climb, so we pootled along for a little way before picking up the pace. Not that it was hard to go faster; gravity has a way of pulling you down. Funny that.

The final five miles were amazing. As steep as the Beacon was to climb, I'm very glad we didn't go down that way as the twisty road would have been far too dangerous. The wide, sweeping turns of the southern descent were bad enough - I was braking fairly firmly all the way down, and my speedo still told me I was doing over 30mph. There were stewards with megaphones all the way down telling cyclists to slow down - even at 30mph I was being overtaken on a regular basis. The reason for the caution soon became clear - another accident was further down the hill. It looked like someone had been going too fast and not made a turn very well. This meant we were stopped again, although since this section was on a cordoned-off part of a wide main road the ambulance was soon there and we were allowed to trickle past. The injured man seemed to be ok - he was conscious, at least, albeit with an oxygen mask, and the paramedics didn't have him strapped to a board or anything. I was just very glad I'd heeded the warnings to slow down. A helmet is all very well, but the road rash you'd get from coming off a bike at 30mph is fairly serious - and there was no way I was wearing leathers!

At last, we were at the bottom of the hill. Phew! Much further and I think my brakes may have worn out. This would not have been a Good Thing. All that was left was a couple of miles along the roads of Brighton, and then the last few hundred yards along the Promenade. Everyone was very cheerful by now, since the end was in sight.

Turning the corner onto the Prom, we were greeted by hordes of people, all cheering and clapping and waving. The crowd was honestly about twelve people deep on either side of the road, and the noise was incredible. It put a big grin on all our faces - we've never felt so special! The hard bit was going to be finding C and R, or so we thought. Not far from the finish line we heard an almighty yell - guess who that was! I didn't know two people could make so much noise over and above the crowd. Made me laugh. I nearly fell off my bike.

Ahead of us we could see the finish line, which was definitely a sight for sore eyes. Mum suggested we should speed up to "finish with style", which suggestion I treated with the scorn it deserved. Let the groups of lads speed past to race each other - I could see that there was only fifty metres or so after the finish line before you needed to dismount to go through the exit gates, and that's not a good stopping distance. That's my excuse, anyway, and I'm sticking to it.

The feeling when we swept across the finish line was just brilliant; a mixture of relief and accomplishment, garnished with "How are we going to find anyone in this crowd?" Grinning, we dismounted to get our cards stamped and collect our shiny gold medals (everyone's a winner, baby) and a much deserved bottle of water.

You know that feeling when you've been on a bike for too long and your legs don't want to walk ever again? Yeah. That's how I felt. Trying to control my limbs, which felt like the bones had melted, we got ourselves out of the way and waited for people to find us. C and R were first there to reluctantly give us hugs. A short while later, J appeared with H and the other C, bearing gifts of cookies and cake! Yum. Unfortunately, none of us were hungry. I find that happens - exercise fills me up until much later. In any case, I was too excited to be hungry, which was a shame because everything was delicious.

Someone decided that since we were at the sea-side we should go and paddle. Good idea, I thought, my feet are decidedly warm. Unfortunately, Brighton beach is all stones and not so good for tender tootsies. The cold water was nice though, but only for a few minutes. Then there was time to sit on the pebbles for a little while and look at the big menacing cloud that was looming towards us before we decided we should make a move. Back to the Prom we went, lugging bikes and biscuits. We managed to fight our way through the crowds (who takes dogs to an event like that, seriously?) and back towards where the car was. All too soon it was time to say goodbye to the Southerners, since they had to be getting back, and so did we. Thanks for coming down, guys! Sorry it was such a brief visit.

Back to the car, then. And just in time! That menacing cloud had decided it was time for action, and the heavens opened. Fortunately C and R had had the foresight to park in a multi-storey. Success! We were dry. The bikes were once again loaded onto the car, and we piled inside to join the throng of cars carrying bikes that were now trying to get out of Brighton. Oh well. We sat in queues for a while, but that's to be expected.

We decided that it would probably be a good idea to make a loo stop somewhere, not least so Mum and I could change out of sweaty clothes and be marginally more pleasant to have in the car. Dingy petrol station toilets, here we come! The less said about that, the better. Then it was back on the road.

Eventually we decided that stopping for food would be good - this also allowed us to feed C coffee (which she doesn't usually drink any more) so that she'd stay awake for the drive home. The soup we had was too heavily salted, which didn't really help with the dehydration but never mind.

I don't really remember much about the journey after the services. R sat in the front so he could talk to C and keep her awake, which left Mum and I to sleep. And sleep we did! Then we were home, as if by magic. There was enough time to unload our stuff and say a quick hello to my sister before collapsing into bed, ready for work the next morning.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience and I'd do it again. The atmosphere was phenomenal, with all the stewards cheering us on, along with people lining the route and the other cyclists themselves being generally friendly. I didn't even feel too physically tired after it; the next day (when I expected to be punished by my muscles for my foolishness) I was fine. If anyone's thinking about doing it, all I can say is "Go". You'll have a great time.

There are more photos to come - half of mine didn't want to upload to Picasa. Boo. Here are mine, and here are R's.

42 Day Detention Without Charge

2008-06-12T00:57:00.000+12:00

As you may have heard, the British government is trying to pass a bill allowing the extension of pre-charge detention time from 28 days to 42. The idea is that since terrorist plots are getting more and more complicated, having more time will allow police to pass a better case on to the Crown Prosecution Service (responsible for deciding which cases are actually taken to court).

This makes me furious!

The time allowed before charge in terrorism cases has already recently risen from 14 days to 28. That's an increase of 100%, and in no case has the 28 day limit been insufficient. Not one. There have been some that came close. Bizarrely, the Home Office page dealing with this states that the limit is still 7 days in terrorism cases, and 96 hours (only with the authority of a magistrate) in other cases. Someone needs to update that page.

I believe that there are already emergency powers available which would allow the police to hold someone for more than 28 days without charge, although I can't check this as the main website detailing these powers keeps returning a "layout not found" error. I've never had one of those before.

My problem is this. Given how pre-charge detention limits have already crept up, and the Government's history of insidiousness in other areas (for example the extension of the London congestion charge zone - not the same scale, but you see what I mean) I simply do not trust the leaders of my country to use these proposed powers in the way they say they will. I'm trying to be calm and rational, and not immediately draw comparisons to 1984, but I'm finding it difficult.

I do believe, however, that even if the Government wins the vote it will find it difficult to put these powers into practice. The BBC has a decent overview of the proposed procedure - as you can see, the Chief Constable would need to make a joint request to the Home Secretary with the Director of Public Prosecutions. The DPP has already said that he feels these measures are unnecessary

The Government knows it faces a tough challenge on this, as its latest concession shows. Up to £3000 per day (according to some stories) for someone held but not charged? Right. It seems that this is a better use of funds than to actually get the case right in the first place. I'd suggest the police are given that money to have forensic evidence put through at high priority, or pay for more officers to investigate, or... really anything. I understand the police are in a difficult position, but I don't think this is the right way to help them.

And what about those people - and there are some - who would deliberately try to stay in custody for longer than 28 days in order to get the payment?

I'm not against reform; the existing system is confusing. I'm against extending how long people can be held for without charge. It's that simple. So I'm keeping an eye on this page to see how things are progressing. I've signed the petition on the 10 Downing St website and I've written to my MP (although as a Liberal Democrat she should be voting against the Government anyway). Hopefully this silly measure will be defeated.

Stuff, and more stuff

2008-06-06T02:41:00.002+12:00

Ugh, it's been a while again. Never mind.

Here's a lovely write-up by J of her visit on Bank Holiday weekend. So much fun!

This Saturday just gone was a girly pampering day with the Mother and the Sister. For Mum's birthday (which was back in April, but never mind - we were waiting for sister to come home) we decided to take her for a relaxing day out in Chester. First we went for a facial with the Origins people at the Boots there, which was wonderful. I've been to one before, but neither of the other two had, so that was good. It's a fairly detailed process, this facial thing. First there's a skin consultation, which asks things like what kind of skin you have and any particular concerns that should be addressed. Then the girl picks out the products she thinks will be good for your skin, and explains what they all do and what they contain, and then it's on with the show. I don't remember what order she did things in but I recall her using cleanser, toner, moisturiser, a skin guardian, an eye serum, a face mask and a separate eye mask as well as having my neck and shoulders and arms and hands massaged. Pure decadence. Even sitting and reading a magazine while the others had their turn was really relaxing, since it's not something we generally do and the room is soothing, with classical music and lovely smells from all the products.

After we'd all been thoroughly cleansed, toned and moisturised in a multitude of ways Mum had make-up put on (from the same range) and we went out for afternoon tea in the Library of the Chester Grosvenor. More decadence! This is a five-star hotel and spa with its various restaurants and bars open to non-residents too. We opted for the "Grosvenor Tea", which consisted of finger sandwiches filled with salmon, tuna, beef and cheese, fruit and plain scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, and "French pastries and fancies" all served on a beautiful three-tiered platter. There was a choice of tea - I had Darjeeling, Mum had Earl Grey and we got the sister some Assam since it's the closest thing to PG Tips they'd have - and these came in silver teapots with velvet covers for the handles so as not to burn ourselves. We were sat tucked away in a corner, but the waiters were attentive and came over to offer us more of anything we wanted. We decided to have more scones, since they were delicious and that meant we could eat more of the clotted cream! Despite everything being quite small we were all stuffed by the end of it, and reluctant to leave the peace and quiet for the bustle of Chester on a sunny Saturday.

We did eventually drag ourselves home, however, taking the country roads with the roof down for pure posing power. Once home we opted to continue the theme of the day by drinking champagne in the sun in the front garden. Also delicious, and a lovely end to an unusual day.

On a completely different note, I came into work early today to avoid the fuel protest. That was successful! We did see it all later, as it came right past the window of the office. So many bikes! Fun to watch, although I'm not sure it will achieve anything. I'm also not entirely sure why it was bikers who were protesting, since they use less fuel than cars anyway (confirmed by the bikers in the office). Oh well.

Seriously good

2008-05-16T20:40:00.001+12:00

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Cry me a river

2008-05-09T01:17:00.000+12:00

Locution zine issue one is now out!

2008-05-07T23:16:00.001+12:00

Just a quick Public Service Announcement; as it says in the title, the first ever Locution e-zine is now out and available for download here!

I'm so excited that this has finally happened. For a group of random people who only know each other through the internet, to get something like this out is fantastic.

The above is a clickable image that will take you to the Locution home page. Gogogo~

It goes by so fast

2008-05-06T22:40:00.000+12:00

This weekend was a Bank Holiday, the first of the summer. There's something delicious about three-day weekends, when whatever the weather (and lets face it, in the UK it's usually damp) people are out and about doing things simply because it is Summer. All the DIY shops are full of people deliberating over wallpaper and paint, garden centres are heaving as the realisation dawns that it is light late enough to warrant having a few flowers about the place, and family attractions are bustling with families spending Quality Time Together.

My family was of course no exception. Mum had decided that this was a perfect time to sand and re-varnish the floor, with all the fun that entails. I have discovered I am completely inept at sanding and should leave it to people who don't get dragged over the floor by the sander in a bizarre parody of a terrier with a rag doll. A fine and useful lesson, I thought.

I did, however, enjoy the "grouting" of the floorboards. Since the house is Victorian, the floorboards don't always meet where they should, resulting in draughty gaps where the air comes up from the cellar. The solution is to fill these gaps with a combination of wallpaper paste and sawdust saved from the sanding phase. Recycling at its best, I feel. This worked rather well, or so we thought until the next morning when it was revealed that some of the gaps were simply too big and the paste is now in the cellar. Ho hum. We'll try again.

Monday was much more fun. I love these days, when not being in work feels wonderfully decadent and slightly naughty. In order to make the most of it, we went to the zoo with an aunt, her partner and his little boy. And my camera. So many photos of animals.

The zoo with kids is a very different experience to the zoo with adults. It takes on a much more urgent feel - a tick list of Things To See
at a frenetic pace. Luckily most other people there had children with them too and so the cluster of people around an enclosure was constantly changing, meaning I could get in with my camera if I was willing to stand there for more than about three minutes.

By about five, young boy was bored and tired so they left while my mum and I stayed on. The difference in the amount of people was staggering! By six the zoo had emptied and we could see whatever we liked simply by walking up. Possibly my favourite part was seeing the elusive red pandas. Usually they're high up in the trees sleeping through the noise of the day, but in the early evening when we went over they were both down from the trees and munching on food from their bowls. They're incredibly cute, with their oversized paws and little grinning faces. Yes, I have photos.

Now, however, it's back to work. The sun is bright outside my window, as if to mock those inside, but for once I don't care. I'm leaving soon and that's what is important.

Photos of London can be found here.

I'm actually going!

2008-04-18T20:24:00.001+12:00

This morning I opened my inbox to find that my application for a working holiday visa to New Zealand has been approved! That means I'm actually going. I have the electronic visa printed out and everything. Makes me want to shout, like this: AAAAAAAAAAAAH!

In other news, it's my Mum's birthday so we're off out to a nice Indian restaurant tonight. Yum.

Workplace rantings

2008-04-17T22:51:00.000+12:00

Is there any particular reason why my workplace has decided that database checking for a large and important customer should be done by the two people in the office who know nothing about said databases?

Granted, it should be simple enough - follow these handy step-by-step instructions. Oh wait, they assume knowledge of the software. Hmm. Never mind, it can be explained by the people who are running the software upgrade. Ah, but they don't know what the instructions really want. Useful. Until they work it out and create a whole new set of documents we're on some downtime. Ah well, not like these databases need to go out soon, is it? Oh, Friday's tomorrow. Sorry, customer, we're late again.

It's not like I mind sitting around and doing nothing - I'm naturally quite lazy. However, when there's a job for me to do, I'd quite like to get on and do it, thanks very much. When I'm prevented from doing that by the very people who I'm supposed to be helping, I get annoyed. Grr.

Things are happening!

2008-04-15T01:16:00.000+12:00

I really need to get better at keeping this up to date. Ah well.

I spent Saturday hunting for my birth certificate. It was the last piece of paper I needed to get hold of before I could send off my visa application for New Zealand, but could I find it? I didn't even need to send them a copy; all I needed was the date of issue (presumably so they could check up on whether a certificate in that name was issued on that date. Clever).

Why is it that when you're searching for something, it becomes the dearest thing to you?

It wasn't all bad, though. I finally sorted through lots of papers, so now I just need a shredder to get rid of them properly. After all, there's a lot of fuss about identity theft and I really don't fancy dealing with that hassle. I decided that I didn't need my UCAS stuff any more, or my "Welcome to Durham!" papers. That part of my life, while fun, is now over and there's no point in hanging on to it. I have kept my graduation stuff, of course.

Anyway, I was halfway through sorting papers when my mum decided that an Ikea trip was a good idea. That shop is evil, in the nicest possible way. I do have organisational boxes now though - including a little chest of drawers for papers, which I can put the damn birth certificate in! So yay for organisation.

I was resigned to doing more of the same on Sunday, and despairing of ever actually finding my birth certificate. Then I went to one of my Boxes O'Stuff and found my National Record of Achievement (does anyone actually use those?) - guess what was tucked inside? Yes, that's right - BOTH copies of my birth certificate, long and short. Huzzah! I now had the last piece of information needed to turn the little red x on the application into a nice green tick. I filled in the required date, and voila! Everything was good to go, including the NZ$120 application fee. Boo. (Although having just worked it out, that comes to £47.95. Huh.)

TL;DR - found certificate, sent off digital application form. Joyfulness ensues.

Now I just need to send off the medical certificates to London, which should be done this lunchtime. Fingers crossed that Eccles post office hasn't been closed down! EDIT: done now, recorded delivery and everything. Good stuff.

As for other things that happened this weekend, there weren't many of note. I drove a different car in my driving lesson than usual, since the normal one was in the garage. It was a Citroen C3, I think, and felt a lot bigger than the little Corsa! I had to reach quite far over to find the gear stick, and the brakes were sharper, and the steering was lighter. I quite enjoyed it though, nice car. Still can't bay park - I seem to be able to get it in the bay, but WHICH bay I'm never quite sure of. Ho hum; I only need to do it once on my test, and then I can park nose-first like the rest of the world.

The rest of the weekend was taken up with more sorting of shelves and boxes. This means that most of the stuff from my Boxes O'Stuff is now on my shelves, which is exciting (not least for my mother, who has been complaining about them being on the landing since I put them there eight months ago.

Now it's Monday again, as happens all too often. The difference today is that I'm being "trained" on some software. The reason that "trained" is in inverted commas is because this training takes the form of one person giving me a copy of a database and the user guide, and saying "Learn how to do this". Well, I'll certainly try, but don't blame me when the (rather big and powerful) customer can't get anything to work. Proper training? We do offer that, and indeed A is on the Basic User Course this week (she says it's boring) but because this needs to be rolled out to the customer yesterday I don't get that. Ah well.

TL;DR - room is tidied (ish), different cars are fun, work is as disorganised as ever.

That's all for now, I think. Long post for me!

Dinner in the Sky

2008-03-28T23:39:00.002+13:00

If anyone has a spare few thousand pounds, this doesn't seem like a bad way to spend it.

Yes please.

DIY and technical stuffs

2008-03-06T23:07:00.004+13:00

There's an article in Wired magazine about the decline of technical knowledge amongst average people. It's an interesting read, although I don't necessarily agree with all the points raised.

My dad and I were talking about this phenomenon recently. He's had to take the car to the shop because the power steering light comes on intermittently, and he can't take a look at it because it's all sealed off in a block. The garage just said they'd plug it in for a diagnostics test but if nothing showed up they couldn't do anything. When even the Fiat garage can't take a look inside their cars, something is wrong.

The main problem is that products today aren't designed to be user serviceable, which makes it nigh impossible to do anything because a) there's not the information available since it comes under trade copyright and b) you void the warranty.

I still want to take a basic mechanic course - changing a tyre, fan belt etc. Or I might just get my dad to teach me in the summer. He's always been good at stuff like that - his workshop in the loft is full of bits and pieces of electronics.

However, with regards DIY and stuff, my Mum and I are willing to try most things rather than getting someone in. We've always done the painting and decorating, we've polished up the floorboards, we've laid carpet, lino and vinyl floor tiles. The latest thing is tiling the kitchen, which neither of us have done before but which is coming out pretty well. It just needs grouting now, which we have done before and which is fairly simple. The only thing we've not done is plastering, because that's a skill we simply don't have. The old plaster was terrible, so we needed a professional to make it look good.

I'm not sure I have a point with this one. Never mind.

Unexpected Beauty

2008-03-05T05:14:00.001+13:00

Earlier I was in the kitchen, and the sun was in just the right position to turn the water from the tap into gleaming liquid crystal. When this sparkling river fell into the little silver teapot-shaped infuser I was rinsing the sun caught everything and made it shine like the crowns in the Tower of London. It was incredibly beautiful, for an office moment.

Opacity

2008-03-01T04:34:00.002+13:00

I was browsing the Internet, as I very often do, when I came across a site dedicated to documenting abandoned buildings (mostly psychiatric hospitals and asylums [asylae?]) through photographs and text. The site is called Opacity and it's honestly beautiful.

I think we are that used to seeing buildings whole, being in them and having them fade into the background, that seeing abandoned ones is almost like seeing a corpse. Something that was once living, if only vicariously, is dead. The very words we use to describe them - abandoned, derelict - tell us that the building has lost something and wants our love, like an abandoned puppy. The eerie atmosphere of a derelict building, of something being not quite as we expect is something that you never forget; it's not for nothing that many horror films are set in them.

What intrigue me almost more than the photographs, however, are the comments made on them. There are some who are simply idiots (following the Greater Internet Dickwad Theory), but there are also mental healthcare professionals who comment on why things are the way they are in those photos. Given my own interest in the profession, it's good to hear these people giving some insight on what it's really like. (As opposed to, for example, spidergirl's comments. After you read a couple, it sounds like she's looking for evidence of abuse where there is none, and actually seems quite excited to get it. See, for example, this comment from this photo.)

Remembering

2008-02-14T01:36:00.001+13:00

Today's a beautifully sunny day, and sitting here in the office I'm reminded of walking through Hyde and Regents Parks last November with a certain someone. It was a day much like today, crisp and cold, and the sun turned the leaves into a coppery mass. The Canada gate by Buckingham Palace seemed to glow, with its gold leaf caught in the light, and the Horse Guards were a spectacular sight, buckles gleaming and the horses' coats shining.

We stopped for coffee by the Serpentine, and watched the dog walkers and horse riders go by. Later, we saw a parrot, looking as at home amongst the English oaks as I imagine it would in the rainforest. It may have been a little chilly though - do birds feel the cold? I think so.

I hope that we'll have many more memories like this. What's the Kiwi equivalent of Hyde Park? I want to have coffee there, on a sharp sunny morning, and watch the world go by.

The Secret History of Revolving Doors, and other stories

2008-01-15T03:56:00.000+13:00

I found this article while browsing The Nonist. I enjoy reading that blog - the prose is wonderful, and the articles interesting and varied in their topics. Where else would have a post about revolving doors that wasn't along the lines of "I hate them" or "I got stuck in one once"? Go and read it, and be drawn in.

In other news, research for New Zealand continues apace. The plan is to spend two years there on a working holiday visa, so lots of paperwork to be done and hoops to be jumped through. I feel like a circus animal, although one that hasn't been put down due to animal cruelty fears.

A shiny camera has been bought! Look at it, and drool with me:

So very pretty. I'm excited to pick it up in March, when I go to visit my boy in Chicago. Oh yes, I get to go back to the Windy City, and I'm looking forward to it. How can I resist this city? It has beautiful lakefront and towering buildings, green spaces and bustle, and most of all great people , some of whom I'm proud to call friends. Oh yes, I'm looking forward to it, and maybe my shiny new toy will be broken in on the varied and beautiful images that Chicago holds.

Dear Windows...

2007-12-21T05:40:00.001+13:00

I would really appreciate it if you didn't lie to me. You know, when you say you're saving something, I think you're saving it. Maybe I was too naive, since in fact, you were eating it. Like a cat with a mouse, you've played with my work, ultimately destroying it. Unlike a cat, I can't tap you on the nose and tell you that you've been bad.

I know you have a habit of tidying up for me, but honestly I can do that myself. I've looked in all your usual hiding places, but to no avail. An old version appears every now and then, taunting me with its representation of eight hours lost.

(Later)

You've well and truly lost it, haven't you? If you were a naughty child I'd make you redo it all. As you're not, I'll just have to do it myself. Marvellous.

Poor work.

2007-11-17T04:17:00.001+13:00

It's suffering, because I'm addicted to this game: http://www.aliciaramirez.com/crypto/index.html

Simple, yet addictive.

2007-10-30T04:52:00.001+13:00

I'm not dead! \o/

Instead I am incredibly busy with no rest in the foreseeable future. Don't you hate it when real life gets in the way of other, more appealing things? Between work, getting fit at the gym (which is working, huzzah!), climbing and trying to have some kind of social life, I have virtually no time left for other things I'd like to do, like browse certain websites, get outside more, and writing. Such is the way of life.

I've been getting involved with a website and e-zine called 'Locution', which can be found here: http://www.locution-zine.com/forums/index.php . Good people and very good writers, they've inspired me to try getting back into scribbling things, which I used to enjoy. I'm not very used to writing straight on to a computer though - sounds odd but it's hard for me to think properly when faced with a blank Word document compared to a blank piece of paper I can soon make marks on with a pen. Funny how that works. I'm trying hard to write a short story for this competition ( http://forums.megatokyo.com/index.php?showtopic=1726987&st=0), but I'm already into the extended deadline with no real ideas and certainly nothing resembling a finished piece.

My new plan is to spend two hours a week while I'm at home browsing the internets, so I can catch up with those sites I've been neglecting. I have shiny new Ubuntu dual-booting goodness on my laptop, which I've not been spending nearly enough time loving, and it'll enable me to go to sites I can't see at work. I will catch up with my internet friends!

So anyway, how are you? Regale me with tales of passion and horror, because vicarious living is the way to go~

--
Fight slavery! www.stopthetraffik.org

Is it really that hard?

2007-09-13T20:38:00.001+12:00

I tried to make a doctor's appointment. Simple, you might say. I thought so too. I phoned the surgery, and after a few redials got the receptionist on the phone, only to be told that since I'm not actually registered there at the moment (what with having been up in Durham for the past four years) I can't have an appointment. That's ok, I understand that. Can I register? No, she says, we're not taking on patients. Not a problem, should have checked, whatever whatever.

I phone another doctor and ask whether they're taking on patients. Yes, she says after finding out my address, not a problem. I just need to go in to fill the forms in, and then again for a 'new patient medical', and finally I can have an appointment. Um, ok, but I work in Manchester and you don't open till after I've left, and you're closed before I get home again. You want me to effectively take three mornings off work for one appointment. "Oh, well," she says, "I can post the forms out to you, but you still have to come in for a new patient medical before you can have an appointment." So now it's down to two mornings off work. Can I do the two things together, and take just the one morning off? No.

Can't they just, I don't know, read my fucking medical records which will tell them whatever they need to know in more precise terms than I can? I've just started this job, I earn two days off per month, and I really don't want to spend what is in effect one of them sitting in a doctor's waiting room. Lots of GPs earn over £100k - surely having staggered starting times to cover from, say, 7am to 7pm isn't too outlandish a suggestion? Angry angry angry.

Anyway, Zen-like calm. Zen-like calm. Zen-like calm...

Hahahaha!

2007-09-04T01:25:00.000+12:00

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse than those damn Heely things...

http://www.bbyhds.com/index.html

--
More people are sold per year nowadays than during the entire 400 years of legalised slavery. It's illegal, but it hasn't stopped. www.stopthetraffik.org

Just testing

2007-08-24T02:57:00.000+12:00

Another long gap!

2007-08-15T21:36:00.000+12:00

Oh dear, it's been a while. What have I been doing? Well...

I graduated, which was lots of fun and involved swanning round in a fancy gown with a fur-trimmed hood (oh, I love that Durham has Traditions!). I met Bill Bryson, who is our Chancellor, a couple of times - once for the Stop the Traffik campaign stuff, which meant that we got to handcuff him! Heh, he was very sporting and really interested in what we were doing. And he recognised me later on too! After the graduation ceremony, when we were getting photos with him, he was chatting to me about STT. Lovely man.

So I'm officially a graduate. And where has it got me? To an office in Manchester, doing data entry! Although I'm not actually doing anything at the moment (there's no work), and I'm only here to save up monies and run away to New Zealand for a couple of years. biggrin It'll be fun, the boy is coming too and we're just going to do back-packery type jobs and lots of travelling and climbing and other outdoorsy stuff. Yay for Master Plans!

Ginormicon

2007-05-26T02:29:00.000+12:00

How very appropriate.

2007-05-23T08:14:00.000+12:00

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

I don't do this at all.

2007-05-19T02:54:00.000+12:00

So we've got to fill in info for our profile page in the yearbook (which I'm not a fan of, but I'll do it anyway). It's really hard to write one for yourself, so I open it up to you good people! I do maintain the right of veto though. If you'd like to help, I need answers to the following questions:
* Most likely to be in ten years time
* What I did? (No, I have no idea what they mean either)
* Will be remembered for
* Most embarrassing moment (since I don't easily get embarrassed, help me think of a good story)

I've been reading the BBC News website, as I often do, and I came across this story. It makes me sick.

My French translation exam went well. It was invigilated by one of my Russian friends, oddly enough! Next one is tomorrow morning, French language. That shouldn't be a problem either, since we've been trained how to do it all year. The only problem I might have is boredom, since it'll be the same kind of exercises as we've done over and over and over... as you might be able to tell, I'm not impressed with that module. And what kind of time is 9.30 on a Saturday morning for an exam? Bastards. Especially when Hounds is free again tonight... wonder if the crazy people will be in again. It'd almost be worth going just to find out.

Stepmum's not doing very well. That's all I have to say about that.

Off to see if I can learn the past historic tense... haven't ever used it, so who knows!

Orals are finished!

2007-05-13T10:16:00.000+12:00

Orals are done! This makes me a happy girl. I actually enjoyed my French one, in a strange sort of way. I was talking about human trafficking, which some of you will know that I'm rather passionate about (the extermination of, not the act itself). This lead on to why people are trafficked, and all the usual questions - the examiners seemed actually interested, which is good. Then came the rather surprising question, "So why do you think men visit prostitutes?" I didn't really have an answer for that! Talking to my friend later, she told me that I should have said "Have you seen their wives?" Alas, I am not so witty.

Last night was the customary post-oral Hounds (club night at the Union, officially called 'Planet of Sound'). It was free! Which was probably a good job, considering that when we walked in we doubled the number of people there. It did fill up later, although mostly with fourth-years. There's something wrong with this picture - why are the finalists getting drunk and the freshers staying in? I clearly am not the right kind of person for this academia thing.

Anyway, Hounds was fun as ever, especially when I got talking to a couple of guys. One of them, a 28 year old with bleached hair, Matrix-style coat and 'anarchy' tattoos (I don't think he realised that it was, in fact, a hexagram and not an anarchy symbol) told me that I should dye my hair, become a witch and "express my personality so that people can't ignore it". Given that my hair is currently purple and he was proclaiming his 'difference' and 'individuality' to everyone near him, I laughed. Hard. Something about the irony of being told that if I was a more individual person by the guy who looked like every other goth anarchist wannabe I've ever seen made me feel this was the appropriate response.

It was made better later when his friend decided I was a lesbian. He could "tell by the way I was standing", and the fact that I'm in a relationship that's been going for almost four years was "just me lying to myself". is the best way for me to deal with that.

And this is why I think drunk people are funny.

In other news, my stepmum has contracted another infection, so she's back on antibiotics. She should be ok, it's just a setback that isn't really wanted.

My exams finish in 17 days. This is a Good Thing, for then I shall go climbing in Wales!

Golden Compass/Northern Lights

2007-05-09T21:39:00.000+12:00

I'm very excited about this film!

But is it really me? Scroll over the image to get a mini-questionnaire about me and see whether my daemon is a match.

http://www.goldencompassmovie.com

Sunday, 6th May

2007-05-07T01:28:00.000+12:00

I had my Russian speaking exam yesterday. I think it went ok, but mostly I'm just really glad it's over.

As a reward I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Student's Union drinking Pimms on the balcony overlooking the river. That was a convoluted sentence. It was good, sitting in the sun and relaxing for an afternoon. Then later a bunch of us went out for dinner, and then I was extraordinarily tired so I went to bed while the rest went out for more drinks. Must be getting old.

Today I need to stop idly wandering the interweb and get on with essays and things, but that sounds like it requires intellectual effort and that's just not good. I have a 2500 word essay on translation theory, and the rest of the lesbian sex essay to get done for Friday, as well as a presentation in French on human trafficking for the other oral exam which is also on Friday. I'd like to be organised one day, I hear it's really useful!

But, only 23 days to go and my degree is done.

I'm really bad at this!

2007-05-05T04:15:00.000+12:00

Well, it's been a long while since my last post. Oops. I have no idea what I've done since then, so lets just start again from now.

Right now is exam time. This frightens me somewhat, given that it's my final year and actually counts for something. Bah. As a result, all of us finalists are locked in our rooms going slowly (or rapidly) crazy. My first exam is the Russian speaking, which I'm quite convinced that I'm going to do badly in - 20 minutes of talking is hard enough anyway, and my Russian really isn't up to scratch with that.

So I'm stressed, and that makes me depressed, and that means that the doctor has put up my medication again, and that means I sleep a lot. I mean it. This in turn doesn't help with actually getting any work done, and so it's all one big merry circle. Whee!

Anyway, 25 days and it's all over. Yay!

For those that don't know, my step-mum is in the hospital. She's doing much better though, so that's all I'm going to say about it at the moment.

Here's a silly YouTube video, just because someone pointed it out to me. Thing is, I don't know the original words, so now I can't hear it without singing these words... Heh.

Places I've been to

2007-02-27T07:10:00.000+13:00

Ah, the joys of the internet! Got a way to go before I've been everywhere, but this is a good guide to where I've been.

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Lots of big photos!

2007-02-16T09:51:00.001+13:00

Well, after a few days spent not very happily (which is an understatement), I'm back.

Went out and took photos today. It was really warm, and the light was great (until I went down to the river, where the sun was too low for most of it). It helped me feel better.

Pictures then! Beware, there are a lot. I got carried away, and I haven't even posted them all... Oh, and they're BIG, so probs not a good idea for 56k.

Gravestones in St Oswald's churchyard.

St Oswald's church itself.

Wall and path by the river (those kids looked at me so mistrustfully... then when I'd passed, they were crowding round their mum telling her about my purple hair )

Path and little kissing gate thing.

Cathedral from one side of the peninsula.

A tree I liked the silhouette of.

I need to figure out the exposure on this so that you can see the cathedral in the background too - the "grey towers of Durham", which are actually more golden.

Cathedral and archaeological museum.

Archaeological museum from right next to the water.

One of the college boathouses (St Mary's, I think) and people putting their boat away.

Cathedral again. It's so pretty!

Cathedral from under the arch of Milburngate bridge. At least I think it's Milburngate bridge... there are too many in this city!

The castle, and that bridge again.

The same photo, in black and white because I'd just found out how to make my camera do that and I was excited

Also, to add to the media-heaviness that's already here, I've had a song called "I'm Not Okay" going through my head, by these guys, Luther Wright and the Wrongs. Couldn't find that song on YouTube (gasp) so here's a different one from the same album.

Overdue update...

2007-01-31T09:38:00.000+13:00

I seem to be leaving far too long between updates. Ah well.

All is well at the moment. Plenty of work to be doing, but then that's what the final year is (apparently) about. I feel mislead. It's all good though - translation is just fun in a geeky kind of way, and one of my modules involves reading French books that are highly explicit. The one I'm currently reading ("Therese et Isabelle" by Violette Leduc) is basically a full-on naughty schoolgirl story. Fun.

Been spending far too much time out and drinking though. Two weeks ago I took a bunch of friends to Formal, which is essentially a formal dinner with gowns and stuff, but with a lot of quite bizarre rules. For example, you're not allowed to stand up once High Table have entered except for Grace or to get water, stealing other people's place settings is quite normal, and in order to signal to High Table that we're ready for food we spend half an hour (usually) banging our spoons on the tables in various rhythms, just like four-year-olds. It's all highly amusing, especially since consuming a bottle of wine each in about an hour is the norm.

After formal we went to Planet of Sound, the union's club night, more often (and accurately) called Hounds. I'll let you work out why. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably right. In there I threatened to punch someone in the nose if he groped me again - he [i]almost[/i] came back, but then apparently realised that I was serious and walked away. I hate when people think that because I'm wearing a skirt they can put their hands underneath it. Just no! Le sigh.

Last weekend (the one just gone) was my friend's birthday, so that involved more drunkenness, a really good home-made Italian meal (he made the pasta from scratch and everything, very impressive) and then another Hounds trip. This time I didn't threaten to punch anyone, because I was wearing jeans and looked more Goth and therefore harder to get? I don't know, but it was nice.

Yesterday we continued his celebrations by having his friend over to cook us a meal. Now this other friend is head chef or something similar in a pretty decent Indian restaurant in Durham, so you can imagine how excited we all were. It was truly amazing, really spicy but with flavour as well as heat. I love Indian food and spice in general, and had been complaining about how boring our catered meals are (they used oregano the other day and I got really excited, so that gives you an idea) so I was particularly enjoying it. Mmmm good food...

This weekend coming up, I have some friends visiting! They're both graduates from Durham, so we're going to have a nostalgic weekend (despite the fact I'm still here), and probably end up in Hounds again on Friday... after which I will be Hounded out for the term!

This is long now, so I'll stop. Back to the translations for me! xx

Christmas and stuff

2007-01-16T06:59:00.000+13:00

I'm updating a little later than planned, oops.

So Christmas and all that was good. Rob came over from the States, which was really cool. I don't get to see him nearly enough, so having a whole three weeks with him was great :D We spent a lot of time making mince pies ('cos they're just so good) and walking my nan's dog. Crazy puppy. We also got climbing, which was cool, and of course Rob did the (re)meeting of the family since it had been a while.

New Year was... interesting! We were heading into Manchester for a house party, which was hampered by the fact that BOTH of my home town's train stations were closed. On New Year's Eve. Without any replacement buses (or indeed any buses into Manchester at all). So that involved an expensive taxi to a neighbouring town to catch the train from there. Bastards. But we got there eventually, and had fun (although Rob did drink too much whisky, not helped by the fact that when he asked for water he got given a rather strong gin and tonic instead... not my fault, I hasten to add!)

So yes, good holidays. Now I'm back in Durham and am supposed to be writing an essay, as you can tell by the fact that I'm updating my blog instead. Ho hum.

Stop the Traffik

2006-11-23T02:28:00.000+13:00

Everyone should take note of my banner at the bottom of the page. It's for Stop the Traffik, an international organisation dedicated to stamping out the problem of people trafficking. People don't seem to realise that this is a problem, but it is - people are still being taken from their homes, whether through force or through coercion, and being forced to work in other countries. The most common thing is for women to be sold into prostitution, but this isn't the whole story - men can be sold to work as illegal labour, for example, or children into organised begging.

Let me tell you a story. There was once a young Moldovan girl who dreamed of living in the West. It would be fantastic, there was enough work for everyone and the standard of living was something she could only imagine. With her boyfriend of six months, she planned and planned and finally the boyfriend managed to get visas for them to work in Holland. She was so excited - finally all her dreams were coming true, she was going to make a better life for herself. Her parents were happy too, although her mother was cautious enough to give her daughter a leaflet on people trafficking. She didn't expect it to happen, she explained, but it was better to be safe. Needless to say, the girl got angry, accused her mother of not trusting her, why couldn't she just accept that she was finally out of this life?

The girl and her boyfriend took the train to Amsterdam from Moldova. She was so excited, looking around her in amazement, planning what she was going to do. He seemed quiet, but she just thought he was nervous. After all, they had left everything they knew behind them.

When they arrived in Amsterdam they were met on the platform by a man who knew the boyfriend. The two wandered off a short distance to chat, while the girl was taking in the atmosphere. She was finally here! And they already had a friend to show them around, show them what to do etc. After a short while the other man came over to her, introducing himself and saying that he'd get her settled in to the flat he'd organised. She asked after her boyfriend - he's following later, she was told, he has a few things to do. That was fine, she thought, she could start getting this flat in order for them. She followed the man.

They arrived at the flat and he opened the door. It wasn't until he pushed her inside that she realised something was wrong. "You've just been sold to me," he hissed. "You're going to work as a prostitute, and any money you earn is mine."

She'd been sold by her "boyfriend".

Fortunately, she managed to escape after six months. Others aren't so lucky.

This is why I want EVERYONE to take just two minutes and go to www.stopthetraffik.org/help and sign the declaration there. This problem NEEDS to stop - estimates tell us that in our modern and equal world there are more people in slavery than there were when it was legal.

I've never cared about something as much as I care about this. Please help.

2006-11-15T04:59:00.000+13:00

I dscovered the way to get me out of bed is to have the fire alarm go off at 8.30... I was dozing and I heard it go off in the next staircase, so I got up because I'd been told we were having drills this week, and then sure enough it started on this staircase too. Made me go to breakfast though! But then I wasn't hungry for lunch, so worked through it. I don't like having meals three hours apart, it's far too soon!

Also FF is still underlining everything I write. This is annoying me.

Did my French presentation (on Quebecois)today - people seemed vaguely interested, so that was good. Wasn't the best presentation ever, but that's ok. There's a French evening tonight up at St Aidan's college, so I think I'll head up there - otherwise I might have to face the subtle wrath of a snubbed lectrice :) (she reminded us in the lesson, so there really is no excuse, and I know a few people that are going anyway).

Now it's time to get on with the work, just picked up summative (ie it counts) essay questions so I need to start reading for that. It just never stops!

Fireworks

2006-11-08T13:26:00.000+13:00

I went to see fireworks last night, up at the county hall in Durham. So good! I was impressed. On the way back we went for a detour through the park (there were three of us, and one is a cage-fighter - well, Mixed Martial Arts, but it's the same thing really - who's going into the army, so we felt safe enough) and stopped at the viewpoint over Durham. Oh my gods, Durham is pretty. I feel so lucky to have come back from my year abroad to live in such a pretty place. I got some pics of the cathedral and castle all lit up, since I had a stone wall to lean on smile lack of tripod means that a 1second shutter speed comes out all blurry otherwise!

Clicking will make the photos bigger, just thought these were easier to see!

Spot the train!

My hips were too big for the slide, how depressing is that?!

Our sparklers had died and we all pulled faces like kids.

This was me writing my name with the moon - quite a talent, I thought!

"I am..."

2006-11-08T05:49:00.000+13:00

I love these - they're just too good, especially if you know Canadians or have a bit of experience with them. The random joual (Canadian French, usually involving cursing - colisse, tabernac, ostie...) in the second one is actually not too exaggerated, which is quite scary.

Now that those are out of the way, suppose I'd better say something about me. I'm egocentric, you see, and that's why I assume most people read this blog to find out more about me. I'm in for a horrible surprise one day, I feel!

I'm much less stressed than I have been, although for no good reason. I was ill, but now I'm better and inclined to blame my panic on getting sick. I still need to get a job, but am less worried (as long as I get some hours in the wall in Warrington). I have a lot of work to do, and am as procrastinatory as ever. That may not be a word. I'm annoyed that someone threw something (I think a banana) at my window for "fun" and that it's still there.I think this sounds like an Alcoholics Anonymous confession. I'm going to actually do some work now (once I've caught up on emails and stuff, of course).

I'm alive!

2006-11-04T11:17:00.000+13:00

I'm up and about again, after being confined to bed for the past three days with a nasty fever. Ages since I've had one of those, wasn't really fun to find out what I'd been missing... whatever

Now I'm just coughing a lot, and complaining a lot too smile which I think is allowed, but you can tell me to shut up and get over it. Also my knees don't belong to me any more. It's an... interesting experience, shall we say!

So from tomorrow it's back to the work and the finding of the money, because it's all been on hold. Ah well.

Oooh and I got a box o' stuff from my boy, which was nice smile including skype headsets and things so we can actually talk. We seem to be bad at that at the moment - time difference is affecting us more than usual, and we're busy with other things. Effort will need to be made! It's not like I'll be doing anything this weekend except going to fireworks... yay Guy Fawkes' Night and burning things and setting off fireworks because of that idiot!

Then I got another box, which turned out to be a bottle of absinth he got sent here in case his got seized by customs in the US. I feel like a PO box. Well, he knows I won't drink it except under duress, so it's perfectly safe!

Apart from that, people are now singing college songs in the bar. Oh yes. Well, it's better than yesterday when the rugby and rowing "initiations" were underway - by 8.15pm they'd had a quarter of a bottle of gin and 6 pints each, and by the time I came down from my friend's room (not near the bar, therefore a place of sanctuary) at about 8.45pm the security guys and captains of societies were sluicing off the steps at the bottom of the staircase I live on... it reeked of puke and since I wasn't feeling great to begin with, made me feel really sketchy as well...

Ah the perils of living in college.

Halloween party

2006-10-30T09:33:00.000+13:00

There was a Halloween party last night. I was going to go as a goth (heh) but then my friend had kitty ears and a collar, so I ended up going as a goth cat. It was quite awesome!

My hair isn't actually black, although it looks like it - it's a deep, velvety purple that doesn't come out well under yellowish lights : ) I was bored of the last one, it had faded muchly:

So I changed it, with many comments including "But your hair's not exciting any more!" to which my answer was "But... it's purple, how is that not exciting?!" People.

In other news, am feeling the pinch today. Got my bank statement the other day to discover that my student loan didn't cover my accommodation (uni provided accommodation), let alone my books that came to £90 for ONE MODULE... Drank coke last night (25p for half a pint), and I've been trawling the Job Shop for part time stuff. The thing is, I don't want a job - I want to concentrate on my degree because I'm close enough to failing at least the Russian part of it. I'm working hard and it's all just sliding out of reach.

Wednesday 25th October

2006-10-26T11:25:00.000+13:00

Because I'm unimaginative and that's the best title I could come up with.

I ache from climbing again, which is nice. Spent a lot of time bouldering, which I don't usually enjoy as much as routing, but today I seemed to be getting on with it. Heh, it's like I want to go in for BUSA or something! <shifty glances>

Also, I found this news story about the US "exiling" someone to Canada - are they even allowed to do that? I mean, it's not their country so how do they get to exile him there while telling him he must report to his parole officer in the States?

(I understand that exile is usually out of the country, except when you're Russia, but really that's just ridiculous!)

That's all, I'm supposed to be writing things up before I go to bed, although I can't actually hold a pen very well - always the sign of a good climbing session - so it might just be bedtime. Huzzah, it's before midnight!

Monday 23 October

2006-10-24T11:13:00.000+13:00

I've just been climbing and I ache :) it's a really satisfying feeling.

I was also out climbing on Saturday (after a night out, fortunately I wasn't too drunk!) which was amazing! Didn't do anything too hard, just getting the feel for being back on the rock. I want to get my SPA (Single Pitch Award) training done this year, so I need to get some practice at leading... I'm just not that strong at the moment and it's annoying me.

I got a phone call from my friend at home yesterday - he wants me to come back from uni because he doesn't have a climbing partner... It'll be good to see him when I go home at Christmas.

Also at Christmas I get to see Rob, which is exciting beyond belief! He hasn't been to the UK for Christmas yet, but since I spent last Christmas in Canada with his family it's his turn to come over :)

I've just spent a good minute or so being entranced by the emoticons and their googly-eyed-ness. That probably means it's time to get a hot chocolate and read some "Wolf Brother". I really like it, and now my friend lent me the second one so I can get a bit further in the story too :)

I'm sorry this doesn't make sense. Maybe next time.

Photos

2006-10-17T12:00:00.000+13:00

There are more, but Blogger is playing up. I'll try again tomorrow.

Candlelit procession

2006-10-17T11:45:00.000+13:00

Last night was the candlelit procession from Prebends Bridge up to Durham Cathedral. It's a lot of fun, mostly because you get to have candles (I'm never actually going to grow out of the joy of holding fire) and it's also very pretty, a whole load of people walking around in the dark with candles.

Once you get into the cathedral, all the lights are turned off and so you see it just by candlelight - quite a change from the usual brightness! It's a very spiritual moment, and you can see why people have been coming to that site for over a thousand years (the cathedral is 1010 years old, and before that was a wooden Saxon church - I was listening to the spiel we were given!). Then they talk for a bit about the cathedral, religion and the university, and then lights come on and you can wander round the cathedral for a bit. I've been there just a few times before, so I wasn't too bothered about that until I realised that everyone was taking photos, which is usually forbidden, so I decided I'd join in. Here are the fruits of my illicit endeavours!

It's Friday and I can breathe again!

2006-10-14T13:46:00.000+13:00

The essays are done, dusted and handed in. This means I can start to live again! Feels like I've been in a bit of a black hole this week, it'll be nice to breathe a little bit. Obviously I still have work to do, term has started... but the languages dept here being what it is, so far it's been just a little chaotic! My favourite is that my friend isn't registered for Spanish, despite having done Spanish for the previous three years and having told them at pre-registration in June she wanted to do Spanish this year, and having told them again when we formally registered last week... when will they learn?

Tonight was a celebratory night of watching Disney DVDs (Hercules and Aladdin) while drinking wine and eating Ben&Jerry's. We fourth years know how to party!

Also a question - I'm trying to learn how to use Dreamweaver to make a website for the college art society, but the tutorial is just confusing me. Anybody got any hints/tips etc?

I love reading lists

2006-10-13T04:40:00.000+13:00

I've just spent £90 on books. All compulsory ones, and none in the library... well done Durham!

Cake

2006-10-11T00:46:00.000+13:00

Helen just brought me cake to help maintain my sanity... I love this girl. It has a smiley face on it. That is my favourite part.

Jon Stewart's 9/11 speech

2006-10-09T09:31:00.000+13:00

For those of you who don't know Jon Stewart, he's a satirist who hosts a programme called "The Daily Show" (broadcast in the US, Canada and now on More4 in the UK). He's also my hero, and seeing this speech is incredibly emotional as it shows a side to him that isn't shown on the programme, the side that loves his country despite all his ridiculing of the administration. Seeing Jon Stewart cry is like kicking a puppy. (I'm apparently having an emotional day).

Back in Durham

2006-10-08T11:12:00.000+13:00

It's all a little strange. I'm living right opposite the bar, which is kind of noisy at the moment what with all the freshers being excitable 18 year olds... I do feel kind of like a granny, being a fourth year and therefore having to work while they play.

Lectures start on Monday. I can't believe that with a centralised timetabling system I didn't get any clashes... that's too good to be true so I'm fully expecting it all to go wrong :) I have so much faith in our department!

I should keep this blog updated more now I have internet, I really didn't like doing it on dialup because it's so slow and didn't really want to work for me.

Not much to say about uni yet, it's good to see people though. I hadn't seen Sophie and Helen for two years, so it's quite interesting to catch up with them. And the most exciting news of the day is that I have finally written one of my essays, woot! Just another 2000 words in Russian to go ... it's my own fault and I expect no sympathy (although if you want to give me some anyway I won't say no :) ).

Oh, and another, rather random thing is that I now have a problem with Thunderbird. Here are the details...

The history:
I had Gmail working on Thunderbird a couple of years ago, but got rid of Thunderbird (and therefore the Gmail POP access) for a variety of reasons. Now I'm using Thunderbird again (version 1.5.0.7) and have set it up to download Gmail messages using POP. I've followed the
instructions on the help centre site .

The problem:
I can't download or send email, as the server times out. The other account I use through TBird (a uni account) works fine.

I have:

changed my servers to googlemail rather than gmail
checked all the settings (including making sure that gmail is using its own servers rather than my university's)
since I'm on a network, changed the "direct access to internet" to the automatic proxy configuration URL given by the university
checked that TBird is authorised by ZoneAlarm to access the web and act as a server
unlocked my account using the CAPTCHA form
made sure that the settings in gmail are correct (I hadn't changed them from when I had TBird two years ago

Any ideas? I'm stuck, and the forums weren't helping this time .

That's all for now, I'll write more as interesting things happen.

I made it!

2006-09-01T09:48:00.000+12:00

I got home all safe and stuff, which is good. Although there was a woman next to me who ordered a brandy right at the start of the flight, which she then didn't drink till the end, so I had 7 hours smelling brandy... Not so good when you're not feeling too well to begin with! whatever.
Monday was a bank holiday, so Mum was off work, which meant she came and met me (for which I'm very grateful) with all my bags. Then she kept me awake all afternoon visiting, so that I slept very well on Monday night!
Haven't actually done much since I've been home. I've caught up with the family, obviously, and today I went to Trafford with a Rachel to get another Rach a birthday present... but that's it. Need to send off my student loan form so they'll give me money. Important.
Currently I'm sitting in my Mum's office while she's faffing around sorting out databases etc (she brought the wrong one home to work on) so I thought I'd take advantage of it to use internet that isn't dialup (I'm sure Mum appreciates it too, saves on her phone bill!) Have just replied to an email from college asking me how long I want my room for - my answer was "As long as possible so you don't keep making me shift all my stuff!". Well, more or less. It was slightly politer, but that's the basic sentiment.

Leaving

2006-08-28T06:48:00.000+12:00

I'm leaving in a couple of hours :( it's all very sad.

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End of summer?

2006-08-26T08:57:00.000+12:00

Already? I say that's not fair, not had the time to do half of the things I was going to.

But we are going to see the Foo Fighters do an acoustic gig tonight, so that's good :)

Still jealous of my sister though, who will be at Leeds festival now (although half the lineup was at Lollapalooza - which doesn't get any easier to type with repetition - so I'm sure I'll survive).

I'm actually quite excited to be coming home. Much as I love being here with Rob (which is very much) 51 weeks away is a long time and there's been changes at home that I'm sure will feel very strange. My great-grandad won't be around any more, and I'll miss the conversation of "You'll set something on fire with that hair, you will!" to which my response was "Well, at least you can see it. It's a public service for you, this hair is!"

Also there will be a new dog at my nan's house to get to know. I've missed dogs this year. The cat that my Russian hosts had just wasn't the same.

And of course I have all my friends to see and catch up with. People have graduated, people have also travelled this year, people have got jobs and are out in the real world... lots has changed and I'm out of date! Although not as much as I would have been had Facebook not taken over everyone's life... it's good for some things!

Anyway, got to get on with stuff - I'm doing the washing so I can pack (I hate packing dirty stuff, it just makes everything that wasn't dirty need a wash). And of course, go to see the Foos!

Oh. My. God.

2006-08-19T13:43:00.000+12:00

I'm so excited about this you cannot understand.

Hogfather

Except now I need to find someone with Sky One... volunteers?

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2006-08-17T12:12:00.000+12:00

I haven't forgotten about this blog thing, but the last couple of weeks have been insanely busy. And I only have 11 days left here, which is complete bull.

I intend to write up my own version of events, but meanwhile, here's Rob's memories of Lollapalooza weekend...

"

Lollapalooza
So Lolla this past weekend eh? Wow...

This will be just a mini update... I'll try to do more tonight before I collapse but.... well I've promised similar things before :)
http://lollapalooza.com/schedule/ftaf.aspx?sid=LOLLA181406

Friday:
Stupid work kept me from getting there until 5:30 but I did make it in time for Iron & Wine which was good.
The rest of the evening was basically just wandering & sitting & drinking Bud ( ... )
We caught some of The Raconteurs, Violent Femmes, VHS or BETA and Death Cab for Cutie
Oh yeah we also went to the Blackalicious after show at the House of Blues.... Omega Watts and 1773 were lots of fun, and Lyrics Born was fricking amazing, but unfortunately Blackalicious was pretty much a disappointment.

Saturday:
Another start to the day a bit later than we wanted but by 2:30 we were back in the think of things (after stopping for some sushi for lunch/breakfast.... MMMMMmmmm)
Saturday was by far the highlight day starting with Coheed and Cambria (pretty fun), then Wolfmother (not bad.. but not great), we caught a couple of songs from Calexico before Sonic Youth, then the big surprise of the weekend, The Dresden Dolls, wow! are they ever a lot of fun!!!! I want a "coin operated boy" too! Flaming Lips were damn good too, but we stayed back so we had a good spot for Thievery Corporation. Who rocked. Then rounded out the day with some mad dancing to Manu Chao. We met up with some friends down from Canada for the festival and offered them a place to crash (they slept in their van on friday night)... However I was the only one who actually slept...

Sunday:
everyone else stayed up drinking until about 6:30 (after waking me up and dragging me out to watch the sunrise.. bastards...) So I was of course the only one ready to go at a decent time. Sara was feeling pretty off tho... so while the rest of the posse headed out at about 2, we stuck around home & she slept while I watched TV (X games & Cartoons! woot!) and read computer magazines... we finally managed to haul ourselves up and out in time to catch a cab down to the park just in time for the final few chords of Broken Social Scene before the big guns came out... apparently something like 70,000 people where there for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers... Wow that was a hell of a show. Then home again for a last ditch attempt to get rested for this morning...

and despite my best efforts (aka decent amount of sleep both nights) I still feel rough this morning.... this "working stiff/cubicle monkey" life while hanging out with people on vacation really sucks...

"

So there you have it :)

All the photos are here. If you click on the "More info" link at the side of each photo (underneath where it tells you the number of the photo and the folder name) it will tell you the file name, which has the name of the band etc in it. I'm trying to work out how to get it to show the file name as a caption, but I've only just got this picasaweb thing so I'm still learning...

2006-08-03T11:07:00.000+12:00

So now I have the site meter in two places. I'll sort it out later (the one at the bottom of the page has to go, silly place to put it!)

[EDIT: did it, fiddled around with html and everything, I feel so technical :) ]

It's so hot...

2006-08-03T09:26:00.000+12:00

...even the birds are panting.

I didn't know they did that, but they definitely do. Rob and I tend to sit in one of the Art Institute's gardens for lunch, along with the sparrows (who are now so used to us that they're getting cheeky, especially the one with no tail who will come very very close so she can eat the bread in peace because none of the others are brave enough). There are a whole gang of this year's youngsters, along with their long-suffering dad who is still pestered to feed them, so at first we thought they just had their mouths open to make dad feed them, but no - on closer inspection their little chests were heaving in the same way that dogs' chests do when they're panting. Poor little things (also very cute, in a funny sort of way. I've become quite attached to them).

Just to let you know how hot, it was 94F at 9pm on Monday as we were coming home from seeing Camera Obscura, and it was noticeably cooler than earlier in the day. Eek.

I really hope it's cooler this weekend, because it's Lollapalooza weekend. Festivals in the sun are undoubtedly better than festivals in the rain, but festivals with heatstroke are probably quite unpleasant. Fingers crossed.

Anyways, here are some more photos. It wouldn't let me post any more yesterday for some reason known only unto itself - the little "upload photo" window kept coming up blank, which is really not useful.
The first three are of one of the Art Institute's gardens. One day there was a woman in there with a statue (above) that she would put somewhere and take photos from the other side of the garden, much to the confusion (and delight) of tourists who often posed with it for photos of their own.

This one is of me in the condo. Rob was playing with the camera and the "Pick a colour" function (which has some other name but I don't remember what). It's quite fun isn't it?

Then we have the black and white thing, which is also good.

Photo-ness

2006-08-02T10:31:00.000+12:00

Decided it was time for photos of Chicago, so here are some. The above and below photos are of Michigan avenue on Independence Day, when it was closed due to the fireworks. Look at all the people trying to go home!

The skyline from out by the Planetarium

Mum in a nice Italian restaurant just off the swanky Rush St

My hair glows!

2006-08-02T09:06:00.000+12:00

Look! This was taken the day it was done (or the day after, not sure) with a UV light. Fun, eh?

It's Special Effects Atomic Pink and Fishbowl.

These were taken in the daylight a couple of days later. The Fishbowl is already fading there, and now (about a week later) it's gone completely. My hair hates blue, which is unfortunate because I rather like it. Ah well, such is life.

It's been a while again

2006-08-01T13:56:00.000+12:00

But I don't really have time. Essays have finally become a priority (almost) so time is being spent researching those and doing all the other stuff that's become a norm, like meeting Rob for lunch (which takes 2 hours by the time I've got there and back) etc etc etc.

Went to see Cirque du Soleil's "Corteo" show on Saturday. It was amazing! Those people are crazy bendy, and strong, and just generally frightening. The premise of the show is that it's a clown's funeral which his ghost (I suppose) is presiding over, and the Cirque comes out to pay their respects in the ways they know best. So we had "kids" on trampoline beds, including one guy who kept bouncing on his back and then running up the headboard and coming to a dead stop balanced on the top of it (how is that even possible?). There were people behaving like cartwheels, in the middle of big metal rings - they looked like pennies spinning, but under more control. There were acrobats on chandeliers, acrobats on podium-type things throwing smaller acrobats to each other, acrobats on tightropes at 45 degree angles, acrobats on tethers that he kept holding in his mouth while she (not as small as the ones that were being thrown around) clung to him in improbable ways... a human marionette, a tiny (Russian) woman who was suspended beneath balloons (like a cartoon, but true), a crystal glass orchestra with the ringmaster whistling (better than it sounds), a man that ran up and down a ladder (not fixed to anything of course) and then did a handstand at the top of it, a scene with two people having an acrobatics fight over a see-saw (reminded me of "West Side Story" but more aerial)... All kinds of stuff. It was spectacular, which I think is the point, and made me feel entirely inadequate, but never mind.

There's a lot of shows in Chicago in the summer! I hadn't realised before because we've been based out in Naperville (which is a pain to get to) or have been up in Canada for the majority of the time I've been around. This Thursday we're going to see Muse, then on Friday Camera Obscura. Talvin Singh is playing at some point, Blackalicious (who I only know from the ridiculous song "Alphabet Aerobics", in which he uses as many words beginning with one letter as he can in two or three lines before moving on to the next), Tricky, a Foo Fighters acoustic gig... I'm sure there were some others but I don't think we have tickets for them yet. Oh and Lollapalooza adds about another hundred bands to that (obviously we won't see them all, but still). All in all, a fun summer!

That's about it for now, I'm sure I was going to write more but I just don't remember what. Ooh apart from the fact that my hair glows under UV light, which is very cool. I'll post a pic as soon as I find my camera cable, which I've mislaid – very upsetting. It'll turn up though.

--
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http://avatarofcunning.blogspot.com

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I really need to update this more often

2006-07-27T11:27:00.000+12:00

Utter nonsense

2006-07-25T14:35:00.000+12:00

But quite funny. From the "Bad Jokes" pages of Wikipedia:

Phillippe Phloppe

Phillippe Phloppe (1215-1302) was the French inventor of the backless sandal.

Phloppe was born in the small French hamlet of Chue, in the region of Piedmont in Southern France nestled under the pyre nees. His father was a cobbler. Having served his apprenticeship, he moved to Sleeveiesse, where Napoleon is said to have kept his armies. His father had often compained that sandals with rear support, of the style that the Roman Army had conquered most of Europe on cost too much labour to construct particularly for the most important market of British holidaymakers who turned up in the region and discovered that their more traditional forms footwear acquired the odour of some of the local cheeses, and thus required cheap additional modes of transport.

Phloppe designed a version of the sandal without a back support, that was strong and sturdy, if a little difficult to run in, but did make an annoying tip-tap noise. One advantage of the lack of back support was that they could easily be removed for swimming. Phloppe's sandal was an immediate success, propelling him to fame and fortune. The sandal was further developed with the addition of a thong.

Fans of this type of footwear are said to include Formula One driver Michael Schumacher.

Namesdatabase.com

2006-07-25T13:21:00.000+12:00

They seem to be the Devil.

This is what Rob found out when he got the invite email thingy and decided he didn't like it. I decided I'd pass it on so no-one else gets suckered into it (not that you would cos you're all too clever, but still...)

Still busy

2006-07-14T14:07:00.000+12:00

And don't have the internet, so posting becomes more of an issue.

Currently I'm sitting in Rob's office waiting for him to finish work so we can go and get some food (I locked myself out of the flat, which wasn't very clever, but ok when it was warm and I could sit in the park... it's now almost 9 and I'm hungry!)

I don't actually know where my days are going. They all just seem to pass really fast and it's already the 13th of July... <sigh> silly time.

Anyways, I'm mostly just rambling because I decided I should update my blog since I'm in an office full of computers anyway (I'm using Jim's, so that's ok. He won't mind. Or even know, unless Rob tells him.)

Um. Independance Day stuff was fun, lots of people, lots of fireworks, lots of sitting in the office and drinking (it looks out toward the lake, which is where the fireworks were happening, and being on the 8th floor we got a really good view). Oh and eating sandwiches for the next week that had been bought by the company - they were expecting about 40 people and only 15 turned up, so we had lots and lots and lots of food and drink left over. Fun.

Also, watched the world cup final at Lee's house (he's from Bury, therefore very interested - as are most people in this company, with it being an international firm. Everyone seems to realise there's a world outside the US. I think some of them may even have passports. Don't tell the government.) That was also fun and involved more alcohol. There was a "wine and cheese battle" between France and Italy, since they were in the finals... it all made sense at the time.

Anyway, I appear to be spending more time thinking about what I'd like to eat that what I'm writing (I could probably be arrested for my above comments) so I'm going to stop writing and concentrate on getting Rob out of here. We should have the interweb (which I'm going to call the internet from now on) soon, so I keep getting told, so then I can type away to my heart's content and you'll all be bored of reading it.

Till then...

(oh and do you like my "Earth Status" tag? I thought it was good to know that the Earth is not destroyed. Of course, I don't think I'll be able to check if the Armageddon happens, but...)

Coffee is thicker than water...

http://avatarofcunning.blogspot.com

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Busy!

2006-07-04T08:51:00.000+12:00

Still not had chance to sit and write up all the stuff that I've been up to.

I will just say that moving into a flat a block away from the gay village on Pride weekend is fun, although not particularly efficient.

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Happy Birthday Dad!

2006-06-21T03:48:00.000+12:00

Yes, happy birthday to my Dad. As always, far too close to Father's Day :)

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Summary

2006-06-20T08:31:00.000+12:00

Here's a summary of what I've been up to in the past couple of weeks:

Moving from Montreal to Chicago, on a Greyhound via Toronto, Buffalo and Cleveland
Meeting my Mum at the airport (first time I've been standing on that side of the doors!)
Being a tourist in Chicago with Mum for a few days
Driving (or more accurately, being driven) up to Kenora and spending a few days out at the Lake of the Woods, showing Mum round camp and catching up with people there and generally enjoying the lake-ness of it all
Driving across to Regina to meet up with the Tullochs, going to a concert that Ian's school was doing, driving round Regina in the rain (it's where Rob grew up and I'd never been there)
More driving up to Naicam for the wedding of James (Rob's cousin) and Kelly (which was so much fun, even though we were camping in the rain and Mum got to stay in the hotel in the next town – the town was full of wedding party people and there were no more rooms)
Leaving bright and early the following morning and driving south for 14 hours one day and then 9 the next
Having dinner at Naperville when we got there, then heading back into the centre of Chicago for the night
Packing Rob off to work the next day and going shopping with Mum before taking her back to the airport exhausted
Trying to have a quiet couple of days cleaning and tidying before James and Kelly came to use the condo for their honeymoon – this was thwarted by video games and then Rob being recruited for softball
Meeting James and Kelly and then going out for beer and pizza, and then walking round Chicago at 1am looking at all the fancy cars
Shopping at the outlet village on Saturday, then having a barbecue out in Naperville
Going to the track that John (Rob's dad) is a member of and getting driven round it very fast, then making the cars limp home with no brake pads left (that was more scary than the track!)
Playing in the Children's Garden in the Arboretum J
Realising that I've got so much to write it'll take me about three weeks to get it all done.

So as you can see, been a bit busy! I'll spend time this week writing it all up, probably in sections so I don't get too bored and neither do you.

Also want to say Happy Father's Day to my Dad – there's a card, but it's not even posted yet… I'm a bad daughter.

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Coffee is thicker than water...

http://avatarofcunning.blogspot.com

Friday

2006-05-27T09:15:00.000+12:00

I've managed to pay my phone bill (in the third bank I tried... why do they close at 3? this is not a reasonable time for things to close).
Have not managed to cancel my phone, despite walking up to the shop with phone in box with everything, the bill to pay and the bills that were wrong. The stores don't take payments unless they're credit card and they don't deal with cancellations, meaniing I will still have my phone. What is wrong with this company? They've given me a $150 phone and I can't give it back to them? weird. So I came to the decision that procrastinating is good - I can keep my phone till I have finished with Canada altogether (after the wedding and stuff) and then cancel it, since I need to do that over the phone and pay the cancellation charge with my credit card anyway.

Still need to call the bank so I can see how much money I don't have (and be able to pay off my credit card bill when necessary, which was probably about 3 months ago). I hate companies.

My hands have decided to randomly generate black smudges on them whnever I do anything. This strikes me as odd. Must be bird flu/SARS (remember that?)/mad cow disease or something.

Anyway, I'm clearly going insane so I'll stop typing now and drink my coffee.

--
Coffee is thicker than water...

http://avatarofcunning.blogspot.com

2006-05-26T09:52:00.000+12:00

I also bought another suitcase a few days ago in order to get my massively expanded amount of stuff down to Chicago. I'm blaming (most of) it on Rob, since every time he came to visit he'd bring one of those business-type cases which contained more stuff for me (DVDs, books and the like) than stuff that he was going to use... but since he never took any of the stuff home, I now have all my stuff from Russia, stuff that I've bought here, and a whole schwackload of extra stuff. Ah well, I must say I appreciated having lots of reading material and stuff to watch.

--
Coffee is thicker than water...

http://avatarofcunning.blogspot.com