This week Leela and I have been in Sevenoaks, visiting the exciting local attractions and using our new national trust memberships. We also went wandering around Tunbridge Wells, her looking for a pair of jeans and me looking at nintendo ds'. I'm rather tempted by them, but the £30/game thing is putting me off - 3 games would double the price, and they'd hardly be San Andreas. I also think it's a bit chunky to fit in my pocket, but DSLinux would swing it if I could SSH over wifi, even though it sounds like a lot of hassle to set up.
Leela has been playing San Andreas recently, and I am in danger of her getting better than me. Must practice more. Yesterday evening, she drove around killing people and picking up their weapons and money, so that she could 'earn' enough to buy a house. Once she had that, she kept trying to get nice cars and park them in her driveway without crashing, with the intention of then going shopping, but the gangsters in the neighbourhood where she bought the house kept shooting up the cars before she had a chance to get it parked. So much so that by the time she had a suitable car parked in her driveway, she had made another $3000 by shooting gang members. That's more than twice what I've made so far.
July 2005
A Week In The Sun
1st July 2005 at 08:57Comment
Happy Campers
6th July 2005 at 10:5917 comments
So, on Sunday Leela and I picked up the keys for our flat in Cornwall. It's a 2 bedroom upstairs flat with a very large dining room and lounge. The first thing I did was to activate the phone line, and I have now ordered ADSL. There's no furniture in the flat, but there is 2mbit internet.
Having done an insane amount of work yesterday, I felt justified in playing a little bit of San Andreas at 2am. Ahh, I love that game. Still haven't got very far into it though, which is a shame, but since I've given up even trying to keep up with Peter there's no rush. There is the matter of trying to keep ahead of Leela though, so I can't give up completely.
My ADSL connection sounds a little too good to be true. It's 2mbit for £22/month. Sounds cheap, doesn't it? The company also say there is no usage cap and a 30:1 contention ratio. Compare this to similar services from companies such as Pipex, Nildram and Zen that all come in at over £30/month plus installation, and I'm wondering what has happened to Plusnet. Yes, over 5 years after moving away from them, I have ordered ADSL from the company that wanted to charge me £130/month for 24/7 internet access when everyone else was charging £20. So, what has happened to Plusnet? Even with the termination charge, it still works out way cheaper than anyone else. Well, only time will tell!
Having done an insane amount of work yesterday, I felt justified in playing a little bit of San Andreas at 2am. Ahh, I love that game. Still haven't got very far into it though, which is a shame, but since I've given up even trying to keep up with Peter there's no rush. There is the matter of trying to keep ahead of Leela though, so I can't give up completely.
My ADSL connection sounds a little too good to be true. It's 2mbit for £22/month. Sounds cheap, doesn't it? The company also say there is no usage cap and a 30:1 contention ratio. Compare this to similar services from companies such as Pipex, Nildram and Zen that all come in at over £30/month plus installation, and I'm wondering what has happened to Plusnet. Yes, over 5 years after moving away from them, I have ordered ADSL from the company that wanted to charge me £130/month for 24/7 internet access when everyone else was charging £20. So, what has happened to Plusnet? Even with the termination charge, it still works out way cheaper than anyone else. Well, only time will tell!
Parties and Stuff
13th July 2005 at 11:491 comment
Last Thursday was, amongst other things, Tristan's birthday! Happy birthday Tristan! He arrived home that evening in a rather intoxicated state, with a friend from work and a desire to sample the many bottles of wine which he had been collecting for such an occasion. I believe they managed to get through most of one bottle by the time I finished my work and joined them, and I watched them start on a second. Tristan excused himself, declaring that he would just be a minute, and wandered off in the direction of the toilet. I was left to make conversation with the work colleague, which was slightly awkward since we had only just met. No matter, we successfully made conversation for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes... it must have been about half an hour when one of us said "Hmm, maybe we should go check on Tristan".
The bathroom light was on and the door was locked, so I called and knocked, but didn't hear anything. I couldn't see Tristan through the double glass doors, so opened the back door and called through the open window. However, I still couldn't see any sign of him, and I didn't get a reply. Slightly concerned, I returned inside and decided that, even though it's impolite and potentially dangerous, I would unlock the outer door and peer inside.
I knocked once more and waited. Silence. I twisted the lock, carefully opened the outer door, knocked, waited. Silence. I hesitantly edged around the corner, and saw, through the frosted glass of the inner door, that Tristan was sitting on the toilet, with his hands resting on his knees, holding his head. Asleep.
At this point, some people might have opened the inner door and shaken him awake to a world of embarassment. Others may have gone outside and thrown water at him through the window. Others may have taken a photograph and held it for ransom at a future date should he ever try to achieve a position in public office. I, however, being a true friend, decided that the best course of action would be to leave him there and recall my adventures to all of our friends. Happy birthday, Tristan!
The next day, although we were originally planning to have a birthday party in London, we decided it might be a good idea to have a get-together in Bath instead, heading for Weatherspoons and then Qube.
The day was also results day, so quite a few people were around collecting those. Congratulations to everyone, and a special mention to Leela who not only got a first, but she also won the prize for the best overall marks in final year clinical pharmacy! Yay!
Last night I was back in Sevenoaks for another birthday - Chris was 23, and we had a meal in Zizzis, followed by drinks and pool in the Dorset. Unfortunately no exciting alcohol-related tales to recount, but it was fun and it was good to see people again.
Well, I think that covers the past week pretty well. The only other news is that I have started using those little sponges to do my washing up, and I am very impressed by the results.
The bathroom light was on and the door was locked, so I called and knocked, but didn't hear anything. I couldn't see Tristan through the double glass doors, so opened the back door and called through the open window. However, I still couldn't see any sign of him, and I didn't get a reply. Slightly concerned, I returned inside and decided that, even though it's impolite and potentially dangerous, I would unlock the outer door and peer inside.
I knocked once more and waited. Silence. I twisted the lock, carefully opened the outer door, knocked, waited. Silence. I hesitantly edged around the corner, and saw, through the frosted glass of the inner door, that Tristan was sitting on the toilet, with his hands resting on his knees, holding his head. Asleep.
At this point, some people might have opened the inner door and shaken him awake to a world of embarassment. Others may have gone outside and thrown water at him through the window. Others may have taken a photograph and held it for ransom at a future date should he ever try to achieve a position in public office. I, however, being a true friend, decided that the best course of action would be to leave him there and recall my adventures to all of our friends. Happy birthday, Tristan!
The next day, although we were originally planning to have a birthday party in London, we decided it might be a good idea to have a get-together in Bath instead, heading for Weatherspoons and then Qube.
The day was also results day, so quite a few people were around collecting those. Congratulations to everyone, and a special mention to Leela who not only got a first, but she also won the prize for the best overall marks in final year clinical pharmacy! Yay!
Last night I was back in Sevenoaks for another birthday - Chris was 23, and we had a meal in Zizzis, followed by drinks and pool in the Dorset. Unfortunately no exciting alcohol-related tales to recount, but it was fun and it was good to see people again.
Well, I think that covers the past week pretty well. The only other news is that I have started using those little sponges to do my washing up, and I am very impressed by the results.
Radiac's A-Road Adventure
26th July 2005 at 11:26Comment
You may be wondering why I have not updated my diary in weeks. Well, I have been busy. In particular, I have been driving. A lot. Over 1600 miles, in fact.
As I said in an earlier entry, I am moving to Cornwall with Leela, and we rented a flat that is the perfect size and in the perfect place, but unfortunately it came unfurnished. All we had were the carpets and curtains. Seeing as I'm moving out of my other two homes (Sevenoaks and Bath), it seemed to make sense to bring things from those. Just two little problems - they're on opposite sides of the country, and there's no way I can fit a fridge in my car.
The solution? My first adventure into commercial vehicle hire.
Yes, that's right, on Friday I became a white van man for 3 days. I picked up a rental van (a Renault Traffic - a transit-stylee van) at 5pm and drove it around Sevenoaks picking up bits and pieces from my various safe houses. Mmm, it's just like GTA. Anyway, I then drove it home and packed it with half my house, with the help of my dad. We gave up at 1am.
Saturday we continued loading the van and sorting things out, and I eventually set off at about 2pm and drove to Bodmin to pick up Leela (252 miles), then on to Truro (26.1). Driving a white van definitely does something to your attitude on the road. I loved it, I wanna do it again! If anyone needs anything moving and wants to cover rental, petrol costs and make a contribution towards my Own-A-Hawaiian-Island Fund, count me in!
Anyway, getting my stuff to Truro was the easy bit. I then had to unload the stuff.
Anyone who had tried carrying a 28" widescreen TV and a 6' fridge up a right-angled flight of stairs to a first floor flat will understand my pain. I had a sack barrow and a Leela to help, and at least the TV wasn't very tall, but the angle I had to hold the fridge at to stop it from toppling down the stairs and crushing my lovely girlfriend meant that I had to almost lie on the steps and pull the sack barrow into the step more than up - it was pretty hard work. Still, thanks to my strict weight-training regime at the gym, and no doubt in no small part assisted by the steriods I'm taking, I managed it all ok, and we headed back to Bodmin (26.1) at nearly midnight.
On Sunday we popped over to Bristol (143.5 miles) and bought lots of furniture from Ikea, then went to Bath to pick up some stuff (12.7), and headed back to Truro (188) to unload (which was a lot easier than the day before, although the sofa was fun), before going back to Bodmin (26.1). Monday I set off with Leela for Sevenoaks to return the van (252), arriving 3 minutes after they closed, which was slightly unfortunate. They can't have minded though, I just dropped the key through the letter box and haven't heard anything since.
Tuesday, Leela and I went down to Bath (135) in order to prepare the house for the inspection the next day. So when we arrived at 10pm, we started cleaning. Fun! Still, it seemed to be ok when the inspector came over on Wednesday and wandered around the house saying "Yes, that's nice", and all was well. We later met Leela's mum and aunt when they arrived for the graduation stuff the next day, and we were driven to Bristol for a meal (25 miles, but I did not drive myself so it does not really count).
And on Thursday, it was graduation day for Leela and a lot of my friends. Unfortunately I got the times mixed up, so completely missed the CompSci graduation, instead seeing Simon standing at the bus stop and Meri wandering around near Garfunkels. If you're reading this, sorry I missed it and the ensuing celebrations, but congratulations everybody!
Anyway, after playing taxi driver for a bit (going up to uni and round bath several times - parking in bath is a nightmare so I dropped people off where they wanted to go), I was in time to meet Leela outside the abbey before she went in. I then went over to find her mum, and said that I would see her later. The person behind them in the queue overheard, and said "Oh, would you like to go in? I have a spare ticket". Which was very nice - thank you Mrs Sparks. So I trotted in and watched Leela graduate along with her friends, the hooligan sports scienticians and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. After that, we milled around outside the abbey and bumped into Tristan and Peter and we chatted while I took photos. In the evening, Leela, family and I went off to Bristol (25 miles, this time I drove) for a celebration meal in a very fancy restaurant with a load of her mum's friends who showered her with gifts. Alright for some.
I think that Friday was the last day I'll wake up in my own room in Bath, which was rather sad. I've not been able to spend as much time in Bath this year as I would have liked nor as I planned, but even so, it's been one of my homes for 4 years, and there's all of the memories and lovely people I have met there too, so part of me doesn't really want to leave. But the show must go on, and it's not like I can never go back and that I will never see my friends again. You can't escape that easily! So I packed up most of my stuff and put it into the back of my corsa, and headed off to Truro (188 miles), and then back to Bodmin (26.1) to stay - no, we still don't have a bed. It's on order, but it has not arrived.
Saturday we went back down to Truro (52.2) and set up most of the flat-packed stuff we had bought from Ikea. Unfortunately one of the sides for one of the drawers has been mis-drilled, so stay tuned for the ongoing saga of why our chest of drawers has a large drawer-shaped hole in it. Still, the rest of the stuff was fine, so we now have a sofa, footstools, a coffee table, a dining room table, a bookcase and a chest of drawers, all in Ikea birch. Well, not the sofa or footstools, they're black. Now all I've got to do is find something that will hold 300 DVDs and not take up three walls.
And on Sunday, I headed back to Sevenoaks (252 for a meeting in Tonbridge the next day. So ends my A-Road adventure - over 1600 miles in 8 days, no accidents, no incidents, and no speeding. That's right kids, I did not speed at all. Well, ok, my speedo may have drifted into the 70s a few times, but that's what you get when you pay attention to traffic and other hazards rather than the little dial. No, I am a reformed driver, and it has nothing to do with possibly being caught on camera on the M5 a couple of weeks ago - I've thought I've been caught in the past, but that hasn't made me slow down at all. No, instead I have come to the conclusion that it does not matter if I take an extra 30 minutes to get from A to B, I'm in no hurry, and that way I'll get to keep my license. Result.
As I said in an earlier entry, I am moving to Cornwall with Leela, and we rented a flat that is the perfect size and in the perfect place, but unfortunately it came unfurnished. All we had were the carpets and curtains. Seeing as I'm moving out of my other two homes (Sevenoaks and Bath), it seemed to make sense to bring things from those. Just two little problems - they're on opposite sides of the country, and there's no way I can fit a fridge in my car.
The solution? My first adventure into commercial vehicle hire.
Yes, that's right, on Friday I became a white van man for 3 days. I picked up a rental van (a Renault Traffic - a transit-stylee van) at 5pm and drove it around Sevenoaks picking up bits and pieces from my various safe houses. Mmm, it's just like GTA. Anyway, I then drove it home and packed it with half my house, with the help of my dad. We gave up at 1am.
Saturday we continued loading the van and sorting things out, and I eventually set off at about 2pm and drove to Bodmin to pick up Leela (252 miles), then on to Truro (26.1). Driving a white van definitely does something to your attitude on the road. I loved it, I wanna do it again! If anyone needs anything moving and wants to cover rental, petrol costs and make a contribution towards my Own-A-Hawaiian-Island Fund, count me in!
Anyway, getting my stuff to Truro was the easy bit. I then had to unload the stuff.
Anyone who had tried carrying a 28" widescreen TV and a 6' fridge up a right-angled flight of stairs to a first floor flat will understand my pain. I had a sack barrow and a Leela to help, and at least the TV wasn't very tall, but the angle I had to hold the fridge at to stop it from toppling down the stairs and crushing my lovely girlfriend meant that I had to almost lie on the steps and pull the sack barrow into the step more than up - it was pretty hard work. Still, thanks to my strict weight-training regime at the gym, and no doubt in no small part assisted by the steriods I'm taking, I managed it all ok, and we headed back to Bodmin (26.1) at nearly midnight.
On Sunday we popped over to Bristol (143.5 miles) and bought lots of furniture from Ikea, then went to Bath to pick up some stuff (12.7), and headed back to Truro (188) to unload (which was a lot easier than the day before, although the sofa was fun), before going back to Bodmin (26.1). Monday I set off with Leela for Sevenoaks to return the van (252), arriving 3 minutes after they closed, which was slightly unfortunate. They can't have minded though, I just dropped the key through the letter box and haven't heard anything since.
Tuesday, Leela and I went down to Bath (135) in order to prepare the house for the inspection the next day. So when we arrived at 10pm, we started cleaning. Fun! Still, it seemed to be ok when the inspector came over on Wednesday and wandered around the house saying "Yes, that's nice", and all was well. We later met Leela's mum and aunt when they arrived for the graduation stuff the next day, and we were driven to Bristol for a meal (25 miles, but I did not drive myself so it does not really count).
And on Thursday, it was graduation day for Leela and a lot of my friends. Unfortunately I got the times mixed up, so completely missed the CompSci graduation, instead seeing Simon standing at the bus stop and Meri wandering around near Garfunkels. If you're reading this, sorry I missed it and the ensuing celebrations, but congratulations everybody!
Anyway, after playing taxi driver for a bit (going up to uni and round bath several times - parking in bath is a nightmare so I dropped people off where they wanted to go), I was in time to meet Leela outside the abbey before she went in. I then went over to find her mum, and said that I would see her later. The person behind them in the queue overheard, and said "Oh, would you like to go in? I have a spare ticket". Which was very nice - thank you Mrs Sparks. So I trotted in and watched Leela graduate along with her friends, the hooligan sports scienticians and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. After that, we milled around outside the abbey and bumped into Tristan and Peter and we chatted while I took photos. In the evening, Leela, family and I went off to Bristol (25 miles, this time I drove) for a celebration meal in a very fancy restaurant with a load of her mum's friends who showered her with gifts. Alright for some.
I think that Friday was the last day I'll wake up in my own room in Bath, which was rather sad. I've not been able to spend as much time in Bath this year as I would have liked nor as I planned, but even so, it's been one of my homes for 4 years, and there's all of the memories and lovely people I have met there too, so part of me doesn't really want to leave. But the show must go on, and it's not like I can never go back and that I will never see my friends again. You can't escape that easily! So I packed up most of my stuff and put it into the back of my corsa, and headed off to Truro (188 miles), and then back to Bodmin (26.1) to stay - no, we still don't have a bed. It's on order, but it has not arrived.
Saturday we went back down to Truro (52.2) and set up most of the flat-packed stuff we had bought from Ikea. Unfortunately one of the sides for one of the drawers has been mis-drilled, so stay tuned for the ongoing saga of why our chest of drawers has a large drawer-shaped hole in it. Still, the rest of the stuff was fine, so we now have a sofa, footstools, a coffee table, a dining room table, a bookcase and a chest of drawers, all in Ikea birch. Well, not the sofa or footstools, they're black. Now all I've got to do is find something that will hold 300 DVDs and not take up three walls.
And on Sunday, I headed back to Sevenoaks (252 for a meeting in Tonbridge the next day. So ends my A-Road adventure - over 1600 miles in 8 days, no accidents, no incidents, and no speeding. That's right kids, I did not speed at all. Well, ok, my speedo may have drifted into the 70s a few times, but that's what you get when you pay attention to traffic and other hazards rather than the little dial. No, I am a reformed driver, and it has nothing to do with possibly being caught on camera on the M5 a couple of weeks ago - I've thought I've been caught in the past, but that hasn't made me slow down at all. No, instead I have come to the conclusion that it does not matter if I take an extra 30 minutes to get from A to B, I'm in no hurry, and that way I'll get to keep my license. Result.
We Really Love BT
30th July 2005 at 22:55Comment
Ok, so on 03/07 I contacted BT to say that I was taking over the tenancy of my flat, would they please connect the phone line, which had been disconnected by the landlord a few days before. They said yes, that would be lovely, activated it on 04/07 and then sent us a bill on 06/07. Bless.
So, on 06/07, satisfied that the line was now working and that it was in my name, I went ahead and ordered ADSL. I recieved an email on 13/07 saying that BT had now activated adsl on my line and that I could connect.
So, today being the first time I've been here with any amount of time to do anything other than build flat-packs, I tried to set up my adsl router. I plugged it in, waited for it to sync, and... well, nothing. I'm still waiting for it to sync.
So I ran up plusnet, worried that Benc's prophesy had come true already. He checked through his system, and there it was.
BT had ceased my ADSL service on 25/07.
Yes, that's right - despite me clearly being the owner of the line for the past 21 days, they decided that it must have actually been the previous occupant who ordered an ADSL connection 2 weeks after disconnecting his phone line and moving out, and that it should therefore be terminated as part of the disconnection process.
Yeah. Thanks for that.
The insult did not end there, however. I rang them up, but because my phone is running out of battery, I used their service where they would call you back within half an hour. This was at 5.30 this evening. I waited till about 6.30, then re-requested it. I waited and waited, had my tea, continued waiting, and have just tried ringing them again, only to find they all buggered off home at 8pm. Nice.
So I'm back to 56k modem, and it hurts. Still haven't quite worked out how I'm going to synchronise my server here with my ones elsewhere to get an up-to-date version of my work - my local store here is several tens of MB out. Living with broadband makes you forget just how slow 56k is.
So, on 06/07, satisfied that the line was now working and that it was in my name, I went ahead and ordered ADSL. I recieved an email on 13/07 saying that BT had now activated adsl on my line and that I could connect.
So, today being the first time I've been here with any amount of time to do anything other than build flat-packs, I tried to set up my adsl router. I plugged it in, waited for it to sync, and... well, nothing. I'm still waiting for it to sync.
So I ran up plusnet, worried that Benc's prophesy had come true already. He checked through his system, and there it was.
BT had ceased my ADSL service on 25/07.
Yes, that's right - despite me clearly being the owner of the line for the past 21 days, they decided that it must have actually been the previous occupant who ordered an ADSL connection 2 weeks after disconnecting his phone line and moving out, and that it should therefore be terminated as part of the disconnection process.
Yeah. Thanks for that.
The insult did not end there, however. I rang them up, but because my phone is running out of battery, I used their service where they would call you back within half an hour. This was at 5.30 this evening. I waited till about 6.30, then re-requested it. I waited and waited, had my tea, continued waiting, and have just tried ringing them again, only to find they all buggered off home at 8pm. Nice.
So I'm back to 56k modem, and it hurts. Still haven't quite worked out how I'm going to synchronise my server here with my ones elsewhere to get an up-to-date version of my work - my local store here is several tens of MB out. Living with broadband makes you forget just how slow 56k is.