Once Upon A Time In West London

So, just three days to go until I head off to Morocco. THREE DAYS! Woo hoo!

I've saved up my pocket money and raided my bank account for the two hundred pounds spending money that I would be taking with me after work. I probably won't need that much but better to take more than less and bring it any left back with me.

So there's me heading home, plugged into my MP3 player, with two ton burning a hole in my sky rocket (sorry just been watching Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels) when I get on a packed bus at Shepherd's Bush. It's the first stop but the bus stops a bit further down than usual so I'm nowhere near the doors when they open and what seems like a hundred people burst through the doors ahead of me.

It's one of those new long bendy buses that are unfortunately popping up all over London. They're bloody awful. Bring back the routemaster! All is forgiven!

The few seats are designed by contortionists for midgets or other contortionists and it's the kind of bus that struggles to go round bends without taking over the entire junction and blocking all traffic in the process. It's eighteen metres long ffs!

So I get on....All the seats are taken but there's room in the fun "bendy" section of the bus, the bit that connects the two halves. I hold on tight and the bus heads off..

One thing that always strikes me as funny is the number of people who get off over the next two stops. This is funny because they aren't further than five minutes walk away as the bus goes around Shepherd's Bush Green.

So the bus empties slightly and a "home boy wannabe" sidles in beside me. Way too close beside me! He's leaning against the left side of my body, where the money nestles in my pocket.

"Whoa, why is this guy using me as his leaning post?! He's way to close to all my money!" I think to myself.

The bus moves on. I look over. He doesn't appear to have noticed or doesn't care. I shrug my left shoulder to try and politely nudge him off. Once...twice...no response!

Hey, I'm not going to stand here by some guy with attitude thinking that he can lean on me through the entire journey!

This time I don't nudge. I purposefully shove. He shoves back! He says something. I can't hear him, I've still got my ear plugs in. I switch my MP3 player off and remove the ears plugs and shove them into my pockets....slowly.

I give him an angry look.

Me: "Sorry?"
Wannabe Home Boy:"Why you shoving me man?!"
Me: "I'm not shoving you, you're leaning on me"
WBH: "There's lots of room. Move!"
Me: "I was here first."
WBH: "Nah man."

Then I had a stroke of genius:
Me: "Why are you rubbing yourself all over me?! What's that all about?"

I supposed that I've questioned his sexuality. He looks around nervously. I have no idea which way this is going to go. I tense. Then something happens that swings it my way. Another wannabe homeboy yards away adds a mocking laugh that's obviously directed at WBH#1.

WHB#1 has no reply. He looks down, embarrassed and is saved by the fact that a few more people have just got up and freed up some space further down the bus. He moves away.

My victory is tempered by the fact that I still feel that I need to spend the rest of the journey keeping an eye on him out of the corner of my eye. He never looks up once. Maybe he wasn't such a bad kid after all but had to keep up the pretence to fit in with his surroundings. I've burst his protective bubble. I almost feel sorry for him. Fear is in the mind of the beholder but it never pays to be careful.

WHB#2 (who now reminds me of Nelson from the Simpsons, right down to the laugh) takes out a permanent marker and starts tagging the side of the bus. *sigh*

PS: What a crap preachy ending eh? Well I'm tired. I might improve it at some point. Or not. But hey, this time next week I'll be in Marakesh! So who cares, pah!

:O)

Letter From Nigeria

I got this e-mail from a poor 14 year old boy who needs my help to recoup his father's riches!

I am Tony Fred Williams I am 14 years old I live in Manchester(UK) before my father die, now I live with my mother in Scotland. my father is from Manchester (UK) and my mother is from Scotland. my late father Mr. Fred Williams was a Contractor in Manchester(UK) before he die in a car accident last years July 25th 2005. he left £50Million (Fifty Million Pounds) in his account before he die. The £50Million is in (First Union National Bank UK) I have been trying to collect the money from (First Union National Bank UK) but the MD CEO told me to go and look for some body that is honest and old enough to help me collect the money.

I could have tell my mother to assist me to collect the £50Million for me but my mother and father got devoured before my father die and my father told me to not have anything to do with my mother I don’t even want her to know because what my father told me before he die was true, now that I stay with my mother in Scotland she don’t even have time for me all she do is to take hard drugs and to bring men to the house and she also hit me all the time.

I don’t want to have anything to do with her, I just want some body that is old enough and honest to help me collect the £50Million from the bank as I am too young to take care of £50Million. Please I need your help if you can assist me to collect the £50Million from the bank I will give you 40% and take 60%. I have all documentation on my name you can confirm from the bank. i am the indeed benefited Next of Kin to my late father Mr. Fred Williams. The MD CEO (First Union National Bank UK) told me to look for some body that is honest and old enough so that he can send the £50Million to the person account immediately.

If you can help me i will contact the MD CEO (First Union National Bank UK) and tell him that i have found a honest person who want to help me collect the £50Million. so when you contact him he will know i sent you.

I will give you is contact so that you can contact him to enable him send the £50Million to your provided account immediately Please help me. I will be waiting for your urgent reply so i can give you the contact of the bank and send you the last statement of account of my late father and i will also send you my picture and my birth certificate. Please Help me reply back on my private email: tonyfw2@mail.md so i can send you all information you need.

Best Regards Tony Fred Williams

So I gave the MD CEO (First Union National Bank UK) a call and he didn't know anything about it. It must be a fraud. Well I never!

A Typical Weekend

Friday
Half day, so went to see Syriana. An excellent and brave movie.

Saturday
Wandered around London aimlessly with a friend.

Went to Camden Market for the first time in a long time. The smell of 'substances' wafts across Camden Lock and everyone walks around with true or pretend attitude.

Popped into the Electric Ballroom, which is turned into a market during the day. Realised just how run down it looks in broad daylight. Paint scraped and wallpaper peeling. It's best left to be seen at night when you basically don't see it.

Wandered along to the British Museum. Strangely enough, I haven't been here since I was little. Checked out the new layout with the glass roof in the centre around the reading room.

Rows upon rows of books!

Wandered through the Egypt section but was loath to plunge right in as it was quite late in on the day and I knew that I wouldn't be able to do it justice.



It had been a long day and some people were more tired than others.

Wandered down to Covent Garden and watched a few performers.




Popped into the Sports Cafe to watch a football match but it was full of p**sed up Northern tourists on a stag do. Narrowly avoided having a pitcher of beer knocked over me. I won't be going there again in a hurry.

Headed off to Richmond to meet up with more friends in a pub there.

Drank a bit, but not too much, and spotted the actor John Hannah dressed in a rather flowery shirt, drinking with friends in the same pub.

Sprained the tendons on my left foot, somehow?!

Sunday:
Limped around at home and watched Battlestar Galactica episodes all day long, chilled out.

Mr. Popular

So you might be wondering "Why no updates?" Is it because:

a) I've won millions on the lottery and am now busy in the process of buying a tropical island?
b) I've found true love and now blogging no longer matters to me?
c) I've joined a religious sect where all technology is banned and we worship trees instead?
d) All of the above

Well, okay it's none of the above really. Blogging is a hard business. It takes time and effort to try not writing a load of crap. I fail but hey, everyone's a critic nowadays and we're all our own worse critics. See what I mean? A load of crap. Haha.

Well, some people still care, I guess. I checked my e-mail today and had loads of mail from women.

Christy could use some casual sex.

WILD AND CRAZY COLLEGE GIRLS (how wild and crazy?) want to hook up with me NOW. I liked that one, it was all in capitals. Shows great potential(!)

Then Alice Miller wants sex with no strings. So she's obviously not into puppets.

Not everyone was so nice though. At least a dozen people seemed to think that I needed enlargement or herbs to help me find XTC.

And someone thought that diet pills would do the trick.

To cap it all off I even got a nice e-mail in Japanese...I have no idea what it says but I like to think that it's something to do with me winning the Japanese lottery so that I can spend my money on wild college girls, Christy and Alice on my tropical island where puppets are banned.

Well.....I can always dream

:O)

A Stroll on the South Bank

I went today to see a film preview at the National Film Theatre of a brilliant film called Mirrormask. Its screenplay is by Neil Gaiman (one of my favourite authors) and the director, Dave McKean, who is such a strong artistic visionary was on hand afterwards to talk about the film and answer questions. I really liked the film and it's a pity that it's not going to see a larger general release whilst a film like Hidden, that I saw on Wednesday and just left me empty and loathing of a wasted two hours of my life does.

I sat through the film a bit embarrassed, mind, as my nose started dripping about half-way through and I didn't have any tissues!


I then wandered down the South Bank back to Westminster and took a few shots on the way. London was typically cloudy (though weirdly not apparent in the Eye picture?!) but this didn't seem to dampen the crowd's enthusiasm for the performers out today or lessen the queues for the London Eye, which were still massive!

Only problem is now I've come down with some stupid heavy cold again. It was bloody cold. I couldn't feel my hands by the end. I slept for a few hours when I got home. I've nothing planned for tomorrow so hope a bit of rest will aid my recuperation.

Note to self....Bloody wear gloves next time!

Heading Home

Guilt over lack of exercise had me getting off the train a few stops early last night and doing the thirty-five minutes (or so) journey from Shepherd's Bush to Acton by foot.

A fortnight ago, just 'cause I was bored with taking the same routes home, I decided to do something similar but just as I emerged from the station I spotted a bus approaching and I chickened out. That bus got me home in record time (Thirty five minutes door-to-door from work to home.)

Last night, however, I decided to ignore any buses I might spot, however tempting, and do the whole brisk walk thing instead.

I can't really be plugged into my MP3 player on a journey like this though, as I'm still not convinced that parts of my route home aren't 'that' safe, so I use the time to think lots of things through in my head instead.

Shepherd's Bush is quite an interesting place. It's so culturally diverse. There are people from all cultures, backgrounds and continents.

I walk past a Moroccan restaurant and count down the days in my head until I go on holiday to Morocco....Thirty eight.

I walk past a shop and hear a man mutter drunkenly to anyone who's listening that it's not his fault. A bunch of Somali kids, who look no older than fourteen hang outside a newsagents. I can hear every sentence of their interspersed with F#@k this, and F#@k that.
I bet they don't speak like that back at home. They'd get a right ol' clip 'round the ear or worse if they dared.

It's not all bad, mad or sad though. The shops are a bustling hive of activity and kids innocently run in, out and around their surroundings given parts of the journey a safe family feel.

I wait at a junction to cross the road and head across when the light turns red for the traffic. Two steps in and I have to jump back as a lorry that seemed (in my mind) as if it would stop at the lights decides to jump them and carry on through like a juggernaut on speed.

At the next crossing a guy in a sports car decides to brake-test it just before I cross the road in front of him. What's gotten into people!?

I think about the future...I think about the nice hot shower I'll have when I get home.

Thirty two minutes later, I'm there. I'm a little bit less un-healthy, not a huge amount but enough for one day.

And, you know what? Not a single bus passed me along the way...

Raise The Red Lantern

Popped into the bank today and got my money back! YAY!

On the way home I popped down to Oxford Circus to carry on getting more acquainted with my new camera by trying a few shots of the Chinese lanterns that have been hung up to celebrate the forthcoming Chinese New Year.

I would have stayed around to take a few more pics around the West end but it's too frigging cold in London at the moment and my hands were turning blue!

Good News...Bad News...

Okay, so the good news is that after waiting so long to get a working land line back, a British
Telecom engineer came along (even ringing me thirty minutes beforehand to let me know that he was on the way) and managed to do in ten minutes what NTL had failed to do in ten weeks!

HOORAH!

And a telephoto lens for my shiny new camera also arrived whilst I was at home, so double bonus for not having to go to the sorting office across the local dodgy council estate to pick it up!

The reason I wanted to switch to NTL was because I got suckered in by all the junk mail that they sent me promising how much I could save on my monthly service charge as as an existing cable customer it would already included in my bill and not be an extra charge.

What they FRIGGING FORGOT TO MENTION was that whilst there is no service charge per se, there is something that they call a tariff charge which is ABSO-FRIGGING-LUTELY THE SAME BLOODY THING BUT WITH A DIFFERENT NAME!

So I wouldn't have saved much at all and I'm just so happy to finally have a land line again.

And my TiVo lives again! Yay! No more "Recorded BBC1 9-10pm" nameless programmes!

But with every silver lining, there comes a cloud...

My cloud happened on Friday night when I logged into my bank account online to pay one of my bills and found that I was overdrawn by a VERY large amount!

Okay so, this might be a regular sight for some people but for me, was most definitely not!

I didn't even realise that I had an overdraft limit on this account (having never been overdrawn) and someone had cleaned out what was left of my account and then some!

I was worried.
I tried to rationalise the loss. Thoughts rushed through my head:

- Did I buy something and completely forget about it?" No, way. Too much money gone.
- Had my mortgage payment (my largest monthly expense) gone through two or three times???" No, I checked, just the once.
- Had my nice new camera actually cost me a lot more than I realised?" No, I'm not that stupid! (Even if I was blonde....once. )

Bugger! What the f#@k was going on???!!!

I tried to ring my bank's help line but it had closed 20 minutes before. So great! Now I had to
sleep on the worry too! Well, unsurprisingly, I didn't sleep all that well.

I got up early and rang them up as soon as they had opened.

"Hmmm, yes, we can see three suspect debit card transactions. They increase in amount, each day. That's normal for someone trying to see how active the account is."

"Okay sir, it does look like internet fraud, we'll cancel your card and issue you with a new one
and the money will be back in your account on Monday afternoon."

A wave of relief flooded through me. I felt like the 'quote me happy' guy on the Direct Line
Insurance adverts. "Yes....YES....YESSSS!!!!!"
Still a bit stunned, I uttered a sincere "Thank you!" before hanging up.

Monday afternoon came. I logged on...Still no change, and no replacement card.
Tuesday. The same...
I rang my bank up again. "It can take up to ten days to refund the transactions to your account
sir."

"But, the (nice, angelic sounding) lady on Saturday told me that it would be back by yesterday afternoon"
She seemed at bit flustered. "Oh....Well, sometimes these things are done on a case-by-case basis.""Sometimes? I thought, slightly bemused.

"I can put you through to someone who can help. I'll have to confirm your identity by asking you a series of security questions before I can do so though. Is that okay?"
"Sure"
"Date of birth" Check
"Account number" Check
"Sort Code" Check.
"This is easy", I thought.
"The long number on your debit card".
"Errrmmmm, do you mean the old cancelled one or the new one that I haven't received yet?"
"Your current one"
"But it's been cancelled?"
She waited...So I read out the number of the only card I had. She went quiet for a few seconds,
then said "I'm sorry sir but you've failed the security check and I can't proceed further. You'll
have to go along to your local branch with photo ID to carry on. Goodbye"

It was THAT abrupt. She hung up!

Hmmm, so my bank is so secure (good) that even I can't deal with them over the telephone! (bad.)

So today, I popped along to the branch on Baker Street, nearest to work. I kid you not but about
a dozen people were waiting to see three bank staff!

I took one look and walked out. My lunch break wasn't THAT long! *sigh*

I'll give them another chance. Hopefully my new card will be waiting for me when I get home, I thought, so I can just ring them up and not have to wait an hour at the bank to get my money back!

So I got home and looked in my letter box. There was a letter in there but no card.

And the letter...Who was it from?

Why who else but my old best friend....NTL, charging me for a month of telephone charges for a phone that they never installed!

Photo is of Trafalgar Square, taken last week, with me fiddling with the RAW image properties to make it look less grey and boring.

Pause....Play

It's been a while since my last blog. Not too long, mind.

So what happened?

Well, I'd be sat on the train or walking along the street working out blog entries and then get home either late or tired or both and just flake out.

So, no blog entries. :(

But I enjoy the 'creative' release I get from just splurging out a load of old tosh that some people might or might not be interested in, so I don't plan on being one of the
large numbers that give up after a few weeks or months.

I've not been up to a huge amount but have managed to book myself a week-long holiday to Morocco in March to use up the last few days of my holiday allowance. I always make sure that I get max usage out of any time that I can get off. Our company doesn't allow you to carry your holiday allowance through from one rolling year to the next so you lose it if you don't take it.

I can't believe that there are still people who don't use it all up?

WHY?

I just can't understand. Even if you don't want to travel somewhere, we live in London! There are always loads of things to do or see around the city that there's just NO EXCUSE!!!

There are sooooo many parts of London that, even having lived here for 33 years, I have never seen or been to. And that's just London. What about the rest of the world? And then there are all those virtual worlds that millions of people live their lives

There's just plenty to keep us all busy online. The list is endless!


So cinema-wise, I start the year as I ended it with more films. UGC Cinemas who I have an 'unlimited' subscription with got taken over by Cineworld so I got sent out a new dark blue membership card. It looks quite nice, don't you know! (Crap picture, with flash showing, mind you.)

I've now seen 'Matchpoint', 'Memoirs Of A Geisha' and 'Jarhead' and plan for a bit of escapism tomorrow with 'Underworld - Evolution' and later in the week probably 'A Cock & Bull Story.'

'Geisha' was a great film with amazing cinematography. The film's visuals have rekindled my desire to go to Japan some time soon. Japan seems so different culturally that it fascinates me.

'Jarhead' was basically a testosterone fuelled male bonding session of a film. No blood or guts, just a bunch of big kids mucking about in the desert, so desperate to find the enemy that they had been trained to kill. I came out really liking the film, though it's probably some primeval part of my brain that enjoyed it rather than anything at all cereberal.

'Matchpoint' was, I think, pretty much an American's-eye view of London. Lots of posh people hob-nobbing visiting galleries blah blah blah. Scarlett Johanson looked as stunning as ever and Woody Allen's decision to have a scene where she's in a white top, soaked through in pouring rain was pure genius but the film overall just didn't do it for me. James Nesbitt as a detective at one of my local police stations? Nah! I like a bit of escapism at the best of times but come on! That was pushing things too far! I wonder if Americans will love it though?

In between all this I decided that it was time to get myself a spanking new digital SLR camera. I bought myself a Nikon D70s. So now I can get some serious looking lenses and look like I know what I'm doing when I go around taking photos in London and around the world, when for the moment I haven't got the foggiest. The fun will be in the experimentation. At least with digital it won't cost me anything. Though lenses are bloody expensive!

And it makes a proper shutter sound that is sooo much better than anything else that I've had and sooo looks the business. I've a half day tomorrow so plan on trying out a few shots around central London after I've had my escapism fix at the flicks.
Until then....

Through The Keyhole

Things looked up today. I really thought that my six weeks of having no land-line and a dead TiVo would be over.

Over the phone, the NTL engineer sounded like a Londoner and not the same muppet that rolled his Rs that came twice before.

And, he sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

And most importantly of all, when he turned up, he had a standard set of keys to get into the ground floor cupboards at my flats where the phone lines are connected up!

I looked at the keys as he took them out of the back of his van.

They were long and made of shiny steel with lots of complicated bits at the end. I'd waited so long to meet these keys. I almost loved those keys. My heart was a flutter...

He tried the first key. No joy. Then the next, it wouldn't even fit the key hole. And then the next until there was only one left. Anxiety gripped me by the throat and throttled away my last vestige of hope as the key was tried and failed to fit the lock.

He looked genuinely surprised! He tried the cupboard next to it where the electric meters for all the flats are stored. Opened first try! WHAT! What's going on here?!!!

He peered down at the keyhole.
- "Someone's been tampering with this. Look. You can see that the screws around the hole don't match."

Sure enough. Someone had changed the frigging lock!

So twice someone has turned up with no keys, then nobody turned up at all on my third attempt to get an engineer out and now, someone with the correct set of keys can't even get into the cupboard 'cause someone has changed the #!'*ing lock!

I think that I'll go off somewhere now and cry....... :o(

Movie Review Of The Year 2005

Cue flashy music and intro sequence.... Welcome to.....

Nah, forget all that. Well, for those that don't already know, I love going to the movies. I made over sixty visits over the past year and even managed to go when I was in Hungary to see a film (luckily in English) with Hungarian subtitles.

I've actually also managed to not see any out-and-out awful films this year or maybe it's because I can generally take something out of any film that makes it seem better afterwards. A scene, a line, a shot, whatever....

So here, for prosperity, is my list for the past year: (and sorry about the dodgy formatting. I got bored halfway through and rushed this out before I fell asleep at the keyboard.)

Average:
(Not crap all the time but also nothing special for its genre.)
Sahara, Strings, Sky Blue, Appleseed

Okay:
(Shows promise in bits but descends to being just average at times too.)
Criminal, Around the Bend, Madagascar, Silver City, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Longest Yard, Wolf Creek

Liked:
(Okay, so this depends on my mood at the moment in time but generally if I feel that I have enjoyed the movie and liked it all the way through.)
2046, Ray, Meet the Fockers, Sideways, Robots, Bullet Boy, The Interpreter, The Edukators, Kingdom of Heaven, Ong-bak, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds, Fantastic Four, Dear Wendy, The Island, Crash, Me and You and Everyone We Know, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Land of the Dead, A History of Violence, The Brothers Grimm, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Producers

Liked, a lot:
(Felt like I had seen and enjoyed an entertaining or sometimes thought provoking movie coming out from the theatre after these. So money, well spent. Things I would buy on DVD afterwards. Yes, I have toooo many DVDs.)
Closer, Million Dollar Baby, A Very Long Engagement, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Ocean's Twelve, Constantine, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Downfall, Mean Creek, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Jacket, Only Human, Sin City, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Batman Begins, Kung Fu Hustle, Broken Flowers, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Where the Truth Lies

And, ta daaaaa......

My Films Of The Year:

The Aviator - Amazing cinematography and set pieces, a fascinating story, an excellent performance from Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn and even Leo was good too. I always think he looks too young to pull it off but he did in 'Catch Me If You Can' and he does here too.





Hotel Rwanda - Fascinating, thought provoking and beautifully shot. A serious story that needed to be told.








The Descent - The most entertaining blood splattered, horror movie for years, bar none!









Serenity - Interesting, well developed characters in an intelligent, amazing and most importantly action packed and entertaining science fiction movie. What the Star Wars prequels should have been. That it flopped at the box office is the biggest disappointment of the year for me!



The Constant Gardener - This film looks beautiful, Rachel Weisz looks beautiful and acts beautifully in a proper 'grown-up' role alongside Ralph Fiennes. A great thriller!






Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - I've not read any of the books so am not bothered by all the bits that didn't make it into the film. It's three hours long and is a non-stop entertaining fantasy roller coaster ride that doesn't feel over long. Great ideas, great effects and amazing set pieces. Plain good old fashioned fantasy fun!




King Kong - Set pieces to die for. They just get larger and better! A great fantasy movie where the relationship between the girl and the ape takes centre stage like it never has before. Just amazing. A great, popcorn event movie!

So, another year, eh?

It's been nice to have a few lazy days at home over the holiday period. Yay!

But it's back to the usual work routine tomorrow. Boo!

I spent New Years Eve with friends at Camden's Electric Ballroom boogying the night away to the same 80s and 90s tunes that I grew up with. So much for not living in the past!

The place was packed but never so uncomfortably so compared to last year when I went to a School Disco event and you were basically trapped like a sardine at midnight. That was really(!) pleasant.

Hmmm, maybe something different music-wise next year? Who knows?

It was a good night though. Okay so I'm single and my mates have given up trying to set me up, 'cause it just gets embarrassing or annoying or both for all concerned. Tonight though seemed to be more about fun. Which, to be honest was a relief. I needed a good time.

The Ballroom really pushed the boat out on balloons for the zero hour (There must have been, oh...about thirty) though what they lacked in quantity, they made up for in size! They had to be the biggest, most blown up balloons I've ever seen! And as you can see from the top part of the picture above, they had a really sophisticated way of switching the lights, above the DJs' booth from 2005 to 2006 by illuminated an extra strip at the right time *laugh*

The biggest worry of the night was about how to get there and how to get home. There was supposed to be a tube strike on but apart from a handful of strikers staying away and closing down a few stations, everything ran the same as usual. Well, almost everything. The train didn't actually stop at the station that we were supposed to interchange at on the way back, so we had to do a bit of walking to figure out what was open and what wasn't but, in our state, a bit of walking did us a lot of good. We only had to carry one person most of the way, so it wasn't too bad. I'll take the exercise any way that I can!!

I took the other two pictures on the walk back. There were more police along the route than I've seen in a long time too but everyone was in good spirits and I hope that the night was a good one for everyone.

Oh...And resolutions? What are they good for??? Absolutely nothing! (War too.)

The truth hurts but retail therapy heals

Okay, so it was the last day at work before Christmas and we finished at 1pm.

I'm still a bit under the weather so thought I'd head home and have a well earned(!) nap.

As I walked home past the hustle and bustle of the last minute Christmas shopper crowd I thought about how this can be a challenging time of year for me. Christmas is a time for family, love it or hate it but I have none. I see friends and colleagues disappear off out of London or travelling abroad to meet up with their nearest and dearest and I couldn't help but feel a bit meloncholic that here I was going home, alone to have a nap.

That was when I got a text message from an old friend of mine (let's just call her Ami, cause it's short) who wanted to meet up for a few drinks as she was finishing early too. "Great!", I thought, "just what the doctor ordered!"

Me and Ami had known each other for over seven years. We used to work together back when I got my first job out of Uni and apart from my old boss too we are the only ones that meet up every few months or so for a meal and a few drinks after work, to catch up on old times and generally talk bullshit.

Problem is....I have been nursing a crush on her since I knew her but she's engaged to some bloke, who I have never met, but is built like a brick-shit house. And that coupled with the fact that I was really feeling sorry for myself that evening could only have spelt d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r!

To cut a long yarn short, after a few drinks I blurted out how I felt. I don't think she took it that well. It was awkward to say the least. I haven't heard from her since *sigh*

Can a man and a woman be "just" friends? I hope that we can again...

Binge drinking on Friday didn't do anything for my temperature either. I got home last night, hit the pillow and was asleep in seconds but woke up around 3am unable to get back to sleep again.

I watched a bit of TV, read a bit but for some reason, my brain wouldn't switch off. Over the past week I've toyed with the idea of getting hold of an XBox 360 from e-bay and at 4am, for some reason this seemed like a good idea to follow up on again. Retail therapy perhaps?

I had actually tried unsuccessfully during the week twice but each time the price goes from something reasonable (just 30 pounds over retail) to over 100-150 pounds up in the last minute of bidding. There was no way I was going to pay over the odds for something that I could buy in February for normal retail price.

But, boy, I struck lucky this night. Somebody with a good rating seemed to be really eager to make a quick sell on Christmas Eve so long as whoever bought it could pick it up that day.

So, result! I managed to get a shiny new XBox360 and 3 games (he did seem desperate for the money) for normal retail price! The guy didn't appear dodgy. He was a friendly French guy who said that he'd bought 3 and kept one for himself.

Hehe. I met him at Southfields train station (by Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club, as the automated voice on the tube announced as the train pulled in.) He opened up the box, showed me the contents and the games and all appeared fine.

I wore my long black coat, hoodie and black wool hat to (try to) look hard in case he did turn out to be a dodgy geezer. At least I'd look a lot less like an easy score.

Anyhow, got the console home and all is fine. It makes a nice Christmas present for myself. Woo hoo!

Unfortunately Microsoft have only provided a cheapo cable to connect the console to the TV and so I spent the rest of Christmas Eve trying to avoid the humungous crowds in Central London whilst trying to find the "Advanced" version of the cable that gives you awesome picture quality and surround sound. I went to 11 places and walked miles.

It was sold out EVERYWHERE!

I can understand how the console was in short supply and sold out so quickly, but the cables too ? Come on, how long can it take to get a few more of those into the shops???

As it is, I had to rely on E-bay again to buy one *sigh* I should get it next week.

Anyway, despite us having a cold spell a few weeks ago, today was actually quite mild , so there is absolutely no chance of us having a white Christmas. So to get into the Christmas-y spirit, here's London as it was two years ago.

Lovely and snow covered :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Take care and try not to eat too much! Yeah, right(!)

January the fourth!

That's the earliest I can expect NTL to pay a visit to me to connect my phone. *sigh*
Will they even frigging turn up? Who knows. But it's got to be better than BT's February reconnection.

I usually ring my relatives in Hungary up over Christmas. If they try to ring me they'll get a dead tone so I'll have to bite the bullet (cost-wise) and ring them up on my mobile this year.

I'm still not feeling well but forced myself to write my Christmas cards and go outside to post them off. I discovered that cold, fresh air feels nice when you have a temperature.

Anyway, it's not as if I could put them off any longer! Normally I'd have them gone at least a fortnight ago but kept on putting it off and then I got this stupid flu.

One of my old uni mates sent me a nice card with a photo of his kids in. He's the same age as me and is married with two kids..... Sometimes I feel that life is passing me by. Hmmmmm.

On the good side of things, the few presents that I had to get were all bought in plenty of time thanks to the marvel of the internet and Amazon next day deliveries and I've had time to wrap them all up ready.

I may even get around to sticking my fibre optic, fabuloso changing colours Christmas tree up this week, just to get into the right vibe before the weekend.

:O)

Hanging On The Telephone

So I've been off sick today and Bulgarian Bert the NTL engineer didn't turn up....

In fact nobody did *sigh*

At all!

I shouldn't be surprised really. It turns out that the woman in NTL Customer Services who booked my appointment did so on the wrong system and the installation department didn't know anything about it!

This was the last straw. I rang up BT to try to re-connect. You see all those adverts about all the people who reconnect being welcomed back into open arms?

Well, I'm obviously not one of them!

- "Yes, sir, we can do that for you. How does February sound?"

- "Excuse Me? Did you just say February? NTL haven't actually got around to my flat to do anything yet, I just need my number ported back."

- "The computer tells me that somebody in the exchange has to do some work to port you back. And the computer is my god, (she actually said that!) it's always right. They're very busy with all the customers who are coming back to BT"

- "But I have no phone whatsoever now. I want a phone line.....please?"

- "So shall I go ahead and book that for February?"

- "Click"

That was the sound of me hanging up.