Don't concentrate on the last idiot, concentrate on the next one.

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internet on the go came in handy this morning as I left the house and headed toward Palmers Green. I checked national rail to discover 2 cancelled previous trains and a 'no report' on my train. A swift U turn to Southgate and I was only at work 7 minutes late.

Current Mood: sick

Well thanks a bunch facebook!
Your friends have voted on your strengths and weaknesses:

STRENGTHS:

most attractive
most likely to succeed
person with the best hair

WEAKNESSES:

most trustworthy
smartest

Everyone seems to think I'm a salesman or something. Seriously what is with this person with the best hair lark? My hair is lightweight, impossible to manage and most of the time unkempt and scruffy. How on earth does anyone think I have nice hair?

update
I have some time traveling on a train this morning on my way up to Hinckley for training. 2 weeks ago I got a new job as an IT consultant. I took it mainly because I think I will learn a lot and get my skills up to date. The downside is that it does involve a fair bit of travel.

Previously I had my own company that didn't work out, mainly because most of my clients were in the sub prime loan industry.

Otherwise things are going well. We have had a couple of house guests recently. Both from Australia and at different times, but this has given us an excuse to see more of England and we have now joined the national trust which should give us more of an excuse to travel. Bank holiday weekend was excellent; we got to see Churchhill's ex house, Dover castle, Bodium castle (fantasticly stereotypical with moat), Rye, Hastings, Winchester, stonehenge, Avebury and the house where Netherfield was portrayed in the film version of pride & p.

Saturday's Dr Who (Spoilers)

( meh )

Someone's cats like toys!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ugHp6TS_Po4

New reality tv game
Kill the lawyers:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/pakistan-faces-clash-over-judges/2008/03/10/1205125818889.html

I know I really shouldn't laugh at such atragic situation, but that picture and caption just struck me as funny.

Melbourne
5 full days in Melbourne flew past so quickly. We stayed with Claire's mum, Jennifer. Jennifer has recently moved down to Melbourne from Sydney to be closer to Claire's sister, Alison and Alison's 2 kids (my nephews). We saw a lot but not all our friends, but most of the time was spent with Claire's immediate family (and that was the purpose of the trip after all). We baby-sat Nicholas (4y 2m) and Christopher (18m) (Nicky and Crickey) on 2 occasions. Crickey is surprisingly developed for his age. I remember that Nicky was just about walking, while Crickey is now using the 3ft slide with ease. Crickey is also a great communicator and you sometimes look at him and wondering why he isn't speaking. He definately lets you know what he wants though. When Crickey is happy, he really is the happiest baby in the entire world and the world is a happy place, when he is upset however...

Nicky is a quiet kid, very deliberate. We had an argument when he called an Alsatian a shepard. I replied that it was a German Shepherd, but he was having none of it... "It's a DOGGY shepherd". Later I told him off when we were out walking, for running across a road. After that he continued walking all the way to the shops (and most of the way back) with his hands completely covering his eyes and saying nothing. Funny thing, especially when he walked into a bin.

Went out with

essjayeff,

hnpcc ,

astrocave and Dean on my final day.

hnpcc and Dean's place is really neat. I love their deck out the back, although the Kitchen needs a bit of work. We then finished up at

essjayeff 's house and played with her kitten/cats. Butch does this great thing of jumping up to the high cupboard and leaning over to the top shelf and fishing his toys out. Took some great video and it will be on youtube shortly.

I flew out on Saturday early morning to fly to Queenstown, NZ via Sydney. I got to the airport early (5:40) and walked straight up to the domestic counter. My 6:30 flight had been canceled, so she booked me on to the 6am. This meant a brisk walk through security and up to gate 1 (the closest gate). As I approached, they started announcing boarding, so I walked straight on to the plane. If I was in the terminal 5 minutes I would be surprised. Of course the qantas plane then stayed at the gate for a further 25 minutes. The flights to Sydney, then Queenstown were pretty uneventful.

Leaving Sydney - Gosford and Newcastle
We met up with a couple of Claire's friends on Wednesday. Saw Connie over lunch and then went round to Vals. Val has three kids: Hugh aged 4, Oscar aged 3 and Mia 6 months.

Hugh and Oscar were both born very premature, but you wouldn't know it. Very energetic kids! I tired myself out playing with them, while Claire caught up with Val.

Gosford was great, but New South Wales is making up for the 5 years of drought. It has rained torrentially every day. Sometimes it's actually quite cold. In between have been some sunny spells and we've taken our chances to go out for a couple of walks. We spent some really quality time with Claire's 87 year old Godmother Clare.

Got to experience dial-up internet for the first time in years. It's like going back to the stone-age! In Newcastle we are back to fast wireless broadband. We are visiting Claire's friend Vicky, her husband Mark and 2 year old son Freddy. We fly off to Melbourne at o crack double-o tomorrow morning.

Australia update
Had an excellent time with Cousin Lorna last night. She is looking great. Encasa in Pitt Street was packed for a Tuesday, but when we asked for a table for 3 we were taken to the only empty table in the place. It had 3 seats! The service was frankly superhuman. We didn't have to catch the waitresses eye all night. When we finished our jug of water it was replaced within seconds of us putting it down. The tapas portions were HUGE and very tasty. The conversation was also of course excellent.

I have managed to use the last of my Qantas FFP to book a flight to Queenstown to visit my Sister. That free flight costs 149 Australian in taxes. Instead of flying back to Sydney on 17th with Claire as planned, I fly to Queenstown on the 16th. I fly (paid ticket with airNZ) back to Sydney on 19th, so it really is a flying visit.

Tomorrow we drive up to Central Coast to visit Claire's aging God Mother and then off to Newcastle to visit friends. We sample the delights of JetStar Newcastle to Melbourne on the morning of the 11th.

Back to Australia

3 weeks back in Australia. Currently sitting in the Japan Air lounge at Heathrow. Frequent flyer points means 2 business class returns only cost 400 quid or so.

We arrive in Sydney on Tuesday morning and on to Melbourne the following Monday.

It was booked at quite short notice to take advantage of Frequent Flyer availability. Any one fancy meeting up?

Privilege meme

( Pretty privileged )

Email to BBC

( Water Boarding is torture )

Serious question
Why would you sack a manager and then ask him to take charge of a match?

New Flat Part 4 (Grand Finale)
On Wednesday, we flew into Heathrow and went straight round my parents to pick up the keys. After a cup of tea[1] etc, we arrived at the new flat. We were terribly disapointed. After compiling a list of 11 items wrong with the place, we went around to the agent. He seemed[2] as shocked as we were. A phone call and then a stern email to the new landlady followed. We gave her a list of 8 items to be addressed, mostly by COB Friday. She emailed back agreeing to everything, but we were not hopeful. In fact we were a very short step to pulling the plug on the whole thing.

Friday evening and everything changed for the better! We have a flat in a reasonable condition, if a little unclean in places. The windows are now sparkling on the inside[3]. Following a very generous offer of help from Dad and 2 more van loads than expected, we are now in. My office is now virtually set up, but the rest of the flat looks like a storage depot.... gotta go and unpack!

[1] not really I don't drink tea very often.
[2] well you never really know with agents!
[3] we should have been more specific on the email, we meant for the outside to be cleaned as well!

Holiday

Now sitting in the AA longe in Sao Paulo. We have a night flight, then a day in Miami and then another night flight to Heathrow... and then the holiday is over. We plan to hire a Car in Miami this time and drive to the beach and learn to surf.

The Holiday has been great. Very relaxing, met a few great people and visited some great waterfalls and did some cool things. A canopy tree top walk through a forest being the best. Of course there was a spiritual side to the whole thing and the results from that vary, but overall pretty good. More on that if it happens.

New Flat Part 3
So eventually we recieved a scanned copy of the contract via email. It just came a little later than promised. On the day the contract started I contacted the agent to organise Dad to pick up the keys. Remember this was the date at least 1 week earlier than we wanted. No Keys. 2 days later we try again and when Dad arrives at the Flat, the land-lady is still decorating. Long story short, we arranged to start the contract a week later.

Moving part 2
We met our new landlady when we inspected the flat. She´s from New Zealand but she is also very nice.[1] She and her husband and little baby boy are moving back to New Zealand and that´s why they are renting out their flat. She mentioned that they would be flexible about our moving in date. Now I don´t know what she meant by flexible, but it´s not the usual dictionary definition. They moved out on 31st Aug and the flat was ´available´ from the 1st. She knew at the time of the ´flexible´ statement that we were not planing to move in until 6th Oct at the earliest.

When we put the deposit down, the agent said the property would be removed from the market, so we are a bit alarmed (after terminating our current contract) when we the agent phones us to say she has another person (privately) who has made them an offer. They aren´t considering the offer, but would like the contract to start on 7th September. 1 week doesn´t seem that flexible to me, so I request a start date of 21st and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we agree on the 14th. Given our old place doesn´t stop til 28th Oct, it´s a long time to be paying double rent.

In the meantime I am unable to get a reference from the current landlady[2] and I get Dad to email a reference (given we stayed at my parents place for 4 months and paid some board). The Agent receives the reference and I ask him if it´s ok. He says it´s fine. We go to sign the contract on the evening before we fly to Brazil. We sign the contract, but the Landlady is not there! Also the agent says that Dad´s reference is not OK[3]. So we leave the agent without a contract! I am not happy, I had assumed they would have already signed and that we would be able to take a copy. We are now in limbo and despite the deposit, we feel that the Landlady could pull out while we are away. It´s not likely to happen, but would leave us with very little time to find a new place if it did The Agent promises to get the landlady´s signature next morning and I phone him before we step on to the plane. No signature yet, but he promises[4] to email us as soon as she signs which will be that morning. No email by the time to get to Miami. More tomorrow...maybe.

[1] Couldn´t resist
[2] Due to a double bereavement
[3] He hasn´t included any contact info, just his first name and email address!
[4] Promises from agents are worth less that the paper they are not written on.

New Place

So I quit my job and started my own company[1]. This means that we no longer need to live in essex. In fact my main client is in Finchely, with other clients in Barnet, so moving is definately preferable. Location wise we want to be close to my parents in Potters Bar and also close to my Brother in Walthamstow. Also Claire wants a quick and easy (no changes) journey into Russel Square (or Kings Cross). This means the Picadilly line or main line into KX. We want a 3 bedroom (as we plan to start a family and I need an office) and Claire wants a garden. No stairs and off street parking also preferable and finally Claire must be able to pay the rent by her salary (even if she can afford nothing else). With a shopping list like that, we wanted to start looking as soon as possible. I look a few places up on the interweb and contact a few agents, but there is no substitute for driving around and popping into estate agents. We start in Palmers Green, which is a bit to the east of ideal, but has a mainline branch station (into Moorgate, but I assume incorrectly that this would be OK for Claire.)

We pop into 4 estate agents with propertys (and a few without) and have a view of one (which we knew would be unsuitable) and book another viewing for the afternoon. We are just about out of PG, when we spot one more estate agent. I hesitate to stop, as parking is on a meter and it doesn´t look like a place that does rentals. Cliare has another looking and says ´look they advertise rentals´, so we stop. They have a place which sounds good and we get to view it immediately. I love it. It has steps, no off street parking and the Garden isn´t attached directly, but otherwise is ideal. It´s the top 2 floors of a three story house converted into 2 flats. The top floor is a bedroom with an en-suite, and they currently use it as an office.[2]

It´s not too far off our top range in price, but I spend the hour (mostly spent walking to Southgate tube and back) persuading Claire that we will be hard pressed to find anything better. Claire wants to look at more properties and we look at 2 more that day. They aren´t very good. We pop back before close of business and put a deposit down. All has gone very smoothly so far... I´ll leave the irritations for another post. On Monday we are taken round 4 more properties by Foxtons[3]. This simply confirms our choice.

[1] Which of course needs another post.
[2] I want it as an office, Cliare wants it as the main bedroom
[3] of which I´ve read some bad things, but they are very polished and professional

Edit - must remeber to proof read before posting

Robert Jordan
Robert Jordan, he of the Wheel of Time series, has died. The news has hit me a bit harder than I thought it would. My thoughts are with his family.

Current Mood: shocked