In gatwick airport

here i am waiting for my flight o croatia. had an xtended text chat with my sistr before leaving. we all met up easily enough, even if the baggage conveyors weren't working
here we go!!!

hi everyone...jo here... just saying hello while we have some internet time to kill! we are tres excited about heading off. hoping for some sunshine!

very belated, and very late, blog

It is 1AM on friday morning, a mere 7.45 hours before I start my trip to Croatia with Jo, Lucy, Kathy and Kathy's boyfriend. I am writing this on my Mac Mini, as I have finally got my broadband connection going (have therefore been listening to a lot of Radio National - it is probably my Ozzie bias, but they do seem better than the BBC...)
Since last we spoke, what have I done...
I retired early on Friday with not much to do, and lots of desire to do not much. I think I read a bit and stuff...watched a very low budget film called 'Aurora'.
Saturday I used my phone to ring people, Mum, Dad. Actually, I think that's it. I kept it small (sorry Mark!) because I am trying to get a phone card (the only one I've found so far requires me to ring back every 10 minutes - not good enough!)
Then I headed out to Samba class! This was great, except that it resulted in big blisters on my toes, and I'm also not very good at it. Admitedly the blisters started in Capoeira, but I didn't get them till now.
Caught up with Dimita and went to an exhibition of modern african art - which was closed. She had to rush off, so I went over to Alasdair (from work) 's place. We went met his ex-flatmates, Mon, Sanji, and another girl that I am really annoyed I can't remember the name of - because she is the one we spent most of the evening with! We had a burger on BrickLane and some drinks in a pub. [girl] and alasdair and I chatted a lot, though I think because of the alcohol I chatted more than anyone :) The next day I certainly felt that I'd bored [girl] shitless with my ranting, but Alasdair assured me this was not the case.
Anyway, Sunday I met up with Jo and Alasdair and Vanessa (Jo's friend) and went for quite an extensive roller blade. As much as I complain that I am not getting better, I was definitely more confident that day. I just have to maintain that skill level.
After that I rushed off to Capoeira again and had a good time - met Annie, Shem and Tarwee (already know big american Dave)
I then went to dinner with Jo and her flatmates at the Oak _again_.
Monday I can't remember.
Tuesday was climbing with Tam, had quite a hard session, but I wasn't sore the next day at all.
Wednesday was Pilates. This was better than last week as I was a little more confident in the exercises, and so could work them harder. I didn't go to Capoeira becuse I wanted to get the broadband going and let my feet rest (and my body for that matter).
This morning I had a much too long conversation with Dunja from NZ about Croatia, where she is from, and I am going. This evening I went to see Ska Cubana, a ska band from Cuba! I wne tiwht my great flatmate Leo, his girlfriend Jess, and work colleage Tom.
Well that's about it until I get back from Croatia, so you all have fun, you hear?

Interesting Wokr development

Looks like I might be managing an 'outsourced' project. Though we have come around from full outsourcing, I am going to get most of the web/UI stuff done for me. This is good because I hate that bit and am not as good at it - it's too touchy feely (which is an annoying thing to realise when I would love to do some GUI design....)
I have also organised for Broadband on the 26th. What's that, Tuesday I think.

Week that was

So Monday i thought I'd try and improve my roller blading and headed out to hyde park all by myself. Fell over only once, but felt like poo and went much slower than with Jo :(
Tuesday Tam and John and I went to Westway for a 'real' indoor climb (as in up and down, not just sideways). This was the first time John "a little scared of heights" Rae had done this and he did a good job of overcoming his fears. He inspired me to take a big risk on a lead route, which I almost pulled off, but the fall didn't hurt - I'll have to keep this in mind for next time...
Wednesday has now turned into an execise fest; pilates from 6-7 and Capoeira from 8-10. I made sure that I had a lot of low GI (wholemeal spaghetti - as low as it goes baby!) food to scoff, and managed to easily keep my energy levels up. The pilates was interesting, some really good exercises for my upper back, but maybe I'll increase the intensity next week, and move up to the intermediate group soon (lots of girls too!). Capoeira was good, no new blisters, and I felt more confident about what I was doing. I am used to demonstrate what to do! I just have to learn some people's names now (there is a very friendly american, god bless em :)
Thursday night I fianlly got my phone, and went for a good walk with Tam as the sun was up and we felt like it. Got the phone set up, then tried ringing people to no avail. or did I do that this morning? I think I did it this morning because of the time difference.

Long Weekend

If only!
So I caught up with Muz and his mate Brent and went to see A life in the theatre, which was OK but made me want slightly different direction. We then went out for curry afterwards (even though I was full having eaten before - but that's just rude to not join in) which I thought was quite so-so, though the eggplant was very nice (I've discovered that I really like eggplant now - though I suspect it has to be well cooked)
Sunday I met up with Jo for breakfast and ate too much again, and she got her eggs done wrongly (sunny side down, yolk broken - NO LIQUID PLEASE!). Then we headed to Canada Wharf (just across from canary) to 'Decatholon' and spent WAY to much money on sports equipment.
I got; pants, rollerblades and gloves, pilates mat, squash racket. Jo expressed an interest in squash, so I thought I'd take her up on that as I love the game.
We then headed off to Hyde park for a rollerblade - Jo saw my room for the first time :) She took her new roller-skates, and me my blades. I fell over twice, and still don't feel any better at the sport :(
I then rushed off to my first London Capoeira lesson at 4:30, having had no lunch, and had a great time. Only one blister, no fainting because of hunger, and people seemed to be quite impressed with my 5killz. I suspect this is because the individual moves look quite good on my lanky, dance-trained body, just wait for when I start trying to string them together, or dodging under people's attacks.
Then back home for a quick dinner before meeting up with Jo and friends for drinks - only to get a phone call just as the microwave finished asking where I was, they were waiting to order food! So food in the fridge, and I rushed off to eat dinner with Jo, Vanessa, Ann and Michelle (I think, Jo correct me please!).

First release of the 'humane' interface

Archy, the first release of Jef Raskin's UI, is now available for PC. As with anything new it is such a departure from the norm that I don't (as yet) like it... it is very largely text based at the moment, and claims to be a million times faster :) because of this approach; but it requires learning something new, which people aren't very open to.
Anyway, I hope to put in a few more entries today to catch up.
Oh, I also have a PHONE NUMBER so please ring me

(+44) 20 7402 8596

Of eyes and telephones and Jellys

Thursday morning I went for an eye test - I've been complaing about them since I found out that my monitor was out of focus and that my pain was real, not just me whinging. Anyway, my right eye is pretty bad but doesn't warrant glasses, the diagnosis is the same as last time; look away everynow and then from your monitor at work, and get some 'VDU' glasses that you can wear on and off to keep the eye muscles from seizing.
So I will get them on Monday. (If I remember)
Then Friday morning I got the phone installed. I wasn't sure when they were going to turn up, sometime between 8 and 1, so I was a little apprehensive about when I might get to work. When they turned up at 9 I thought 'great, I'll get to work not too late at all'. Boy was I wrong - all the cables were cut or disconnected or in bad condition, so they had to replace it all and drill a hole in our door... This in the end took 2.5 hours, so I left for work at 11:30!!! And on top of that I asked the guys how much it would cost, and they refused to tell me because 'then we might dispute the figure and maybe not get the phone connected' - too right! So now I am waiting to find out how much they are going to charge me for installation so I can say 'you quoted me £30, and then proceeded to do extra work with no quote or invoice, bugger off' though I am sure it won't work.
Anyway, getting to work so late threw the rest of the day; no friday lunch, and I didn't leave for home until a little before 7, so I had to rush hard to get there, have dinner, and then try to get to Murray's place. I didn't get there until 8:35, a mere 35 minutes late...
We then headed for the night club 'Fabric' at 9:05 and managed to get so lost we caught a cab and got there at 9:35, a mere 20 minutes late for meeting up with Damita.
Anyway, we lined up to get in, went through the rigmarole, and then discovered that I had to get my tickets converted outside... so we went outside and got them converted and then lined up again and then went through the rigmarole again and woo hoo we were in.
Fabric is supposed to be one of THE clubs in London, and is especially well known for its Drum and Bass dance music. It has 3 separate rooms for different kinds of music (maybe tempos would be a better description :) and promised to be a night of dance mayhem.
Of course that wasn't to be, as it was more like a night of dance confusion as the two main dance areas were regularly taken over by live bands (bah, humbug). By this time Murray, Damita, and I had met up with Alasdair and Jo. Murray and I were a little dissapointed in the dance opportunities (we just wanted to get down and dirty and 'lose ourselves' in those Phat Beatz), Damita was stunned and didn't really know what to make of it (I guess they don't teach you about dance music in Duntroon), but Alasdair and Jo seemed really turned on.
So we sort of went from room to room looking for excitement and not really finding satisfaction.
Murray has been trying to get me to have an Eee-xcellent night out ever since he found out that 'jellyfish' and I have not become acquanted. At any rate we had an opportunity present itself and, more through boredom than anything else, took it (or at least took half, because we were with people who didn't really get off on the whole thing and we didn't want to make them uncomfortable).
Dissapointingly I only really got a speedy effect, which was good in that I could keep on dancing for a qhile without getting tired, but none of the touchy feely stuff I was expecting - my body must need higher doses than Muz cos he was having a great time. In fact him and Alasdair both had a great time from that perspective.
It was shortly after this that a band called the 'Infidels' came on. They do a human extension of heavy dance music into, well, metal. Throw in a bit of Sisters of Mercy with a singer instead of whinger/moaner and you might have an idea of what they were like. I loved them, as did we all, though I wonder if we were in a good position to judge... anyhoo.
We kept on going for a while, and I judged at about 2 o'clock that the balance between my enjoying myself and Damita _not_ enjoying herself had crossed a threshold and it was time to go home (Damita was crashing at my place, so relied upon me to go home). We eventually emerged just before 3 and Muz and Jo came too; we caught a cab, with Jo continuing on, and Muz coming up to my place to crash too.
Finally my bunkbed proves its worth!
Single bed on top, double down below, and all three of us slept in peace (though I was a little speedy so got to listen to Murray snore for a good 45 minutes).
Saw Damita off this morning (saturdya), then went and got tickets to 'A life in the theatre' with patrick stewart for tonight with Muz and his mate Brett. Then I went and saw the german film 'The Edukators'.

Great Aunt Vera's Funeral

My great aunt Vera passed away on the 2nd of April (easily upstaging the pope) after protracted illness. The funeral was on Wednesday just passed, the 13th, and was a beautiful response to someone who must have been a beautiful person.
Unfortunately I didn't really get to know Vera too well, having only met a handful of times, but I wanted to attend her funeral for a number of reasons : I had spent 2 months staying with Keith and Anne and had made good friends with them, Keith is Vera's first son; because of various reasons I couldn't attend either Nan or Martin's funeral, which was dissapointing for me as Martin was probably my favorite, and best know, great aunt/uncle; I have never been to a traditional funeral and was intrigued, the only other funeral I'd been to was for an Aboriginal girl I new.
So I got a lift up with William, and bought a boquet of flowers on the way up; I followed Jan's advice and asked for 'garden flowers' as Vera loved to garden, and got a boquet a little larger than the minimum. The message I wrote on the card was something like (though better written) this

While I had little chance to meet Great Auntie Vera, the little time I had with her, and the time I spent with her generous and wonderful children and grandchildren, convince me that she was great indeed.

From myself, on behalf of the Viles. The flowers were so well received (unbeknowest to me we weren't actually supposed to bring any) that they were used to decorate the mantlepiece in the living room.
We milled around a bit, making hasty jokes, covering our emotions, as we waited for 1:45 and the funeral herse. We piled into the various vehicles (though this was a little confused as Joan and Wilfe ended up coming in William's black mercedes with me, and Jan got to drive all on her own)
We walked in as the funeral procession; this was a little strange as I felt a little intrusive to be included in this 'elite' when there were many people in the church who knew Vera, and the family, far better than I. It did, however, give me the chance to connect deeply with the Riders.
The service was simple, three hymns that we sang (me badly - I don't know them!) a few prayers and a wonderful, if austere and overly chronological, speech by the priest (who knew Vera personally). While this was all a little christian for me (d'oh!) there were some wonderful bits about life/rebirth and death, transience and imortality, our insignificance and ultimate importance.
The most important part for me, though, was simply observing and being involved with a fantastic family of deeply caring people. I didn't so much feel a huge sense of loss, though that was of course there, but a much greater sense of pure and simple love. I said to Jan afterwards that if 'God is Love' then God was in the house that day.
(Yes I am nearly crying again at the beauty of the occasion as I write these words)
We then proceeded to the crematorium and had a very simple and short final ceremony and then the official stuff was over. We went outside and stood around a bit, again making light conversation. This was when I realised the honour I received having my flowers decorating the house; other peoples were used to decorate Vera's rememberance plaque thing, which in itself is important, but I was delighted that mine had a connection with the living, because it is in the love and memories of the living where Vera will live on.
We returned to the house for the usual massive Rider party - they know so many people, and make so much food, that it is always a great event.
Eventually the guests left and we all relaxed a bit, and organised ourselves for a bit of dinner (after doing the washing up and so on) before Will and I rushed home (thanks again Will for dropping me off directly instead of 1 hour away by train - much appreciated).

So much to write, so little time

I have to tell you all about Great Aunt Vera's beautiful funeral, that Murray is here, and the BT phone installation debacle. But that will all come later, for now check out this 'nerd' site

The Paradox of Self-Amendment:
A Study of Law, Logic, Omnipotence, and Change By Peter Suber
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/psa/index.htm

Which details in an appendix the game 'Nomic' ->
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/nomic.htm#how%20to%20play

Dogs and Bikes

This morning, walking to work, I met my doggie frient again. It's this big, old, white thing that's losing its fur. I often run into it when I am walking to work, as it's going for it's morning trot. The main reason I notice it is because it insists on bringing it's doll with it on every walk, which I am sure embaresses it's owner no end....
Also, on a more serious note, I was witness to a not-serious moped accident last just outside home. The Moped was coming up on the inside when a guy in a car decided to turn left. I didn't see anything useful, having been staring at the pavement before hearing the beep of the moped, but looked up in time to see the collision.
People involved in accidents are so annoying! They refuse to listen to you, presumably because of all the adrenaline in their bodies, and walk around like they're alright, and then are surprised to find they're not and that maybe they should have sat down and not moved their head/neck FROM THE BEGINNING.
Anyway, hopefully I won't have to make a statement or anything, and thankfully the guy wasn't too badly hurt.

No less busy, but it would be easier if I kept up to date with posts...

I have finally finished the book 'Collapse' by Jarred Diamond (head of the WWF no less) and am going to review that shortly.
Tuesday I went climbing, at Westway for once so we actually did some routes, even if it was indoor. Wednesday I had off, I was going to go to Capoeira or Downfall, but ended up staying at the pub with Tam, John and Alistair until 9pm, by which time it was too late. But I did go and pick up a timetable from the capoeira place, so not all a loss.
Thursday I went to the Londoin Symphony Orchestra performance of Beeth-oven's :) 6th and 7th symponies. It was pretty good, but I still find the idea and practice of attending purely musical performances with no dancing or anything strange (like when I went to see Midnight Oil and no one was allowed to get up from their seats).
Friday night I went out with Matt from work and his beau Jenny (also from work) who were having a few drinks with some old friends. It was quite an interesting evening, chatting with full-time scientists, all women, about the world and so on.
Yesterday I took Damita, an Aussie, around the National Gallery which neither of us had been in yet. That was alright, I think I've realized that good ol' Van Gogh is easily my favorite artist, they had some superb examples of his work.
I finally managed to see Downfall last night which was pretty darn good, I don't know if I can call it excellent as I left kind of muddled, it is dealing with morally corrupt people and can't evade all the stigma associated with them no matter how hard it tries...
Am about to go climbing outdoors for the first time since coming to Enlgand, so I am very excited!

Catching up

I haven't realy got back in the swing of blogging since Egypt, I guess I was quite busy last week, but here goes
Didn't really do much last week, though I did find out that my mate Murray is coming through again, so that'll be fun. I just worked quite hard, acheiving in 4 days what I thought would take 9. I've never been good at estimates :)
Thursday night Jo and I had dinner and talked holidays, I bored her with my photos (which I haven't yet sorted into interesting vs personal ones)
Friday night I went out with Jo after seeing the film 'Constantine' and borrowing a guitar from Liam at work. I'll admit I wasn't really in the dancing mood, and did want to play my guitar, but I thought I'd better meet Jo's new friends Brad and, bugger I've forgotten his name.
So I went along to Loop bar and actually had a pretty good time - it wasn't insanely noisy, but was too crowded for me to get carried away dancing so I just did the rock sided to side stuff that everybody else does :) And Brad and co were really nice guys too, had some good chats.
Saturday I went to see 'the Machinist' then bought some guitar music, and then got my hair cut. This was all before heading off to Liam's birthday dinner at an Indian place near Old Street.
The dinner wasn't bad, though I paid for it the next day, but the pub we went to after was excellent. It was really mellow and not too loud and, after 3 hours chatting, I didn't emerge feeling that my throat was about to tear itself apart.
We then all headed to Alasdairs house warming, which was happening in Old Street too. By the time we got there it was winding down a bit, but it was good to meet some new people and we all stayed around for a good 2 hours.
It then took me a good 2 hours to get home! Sometimes busses can be VERY slow :)
Sunday I went over to Keith and Annes to have a big get together. Given the unpredictable nature of my bowls (due to the indian last night) this was quite an adventure, especially since there was a bus replacement for the trains which turned the journey into a 2 hour rigmarole.
I found out that my Great Aunt Vera had passed away on Saturday, which was bad news, but Keith seemed to be taking it quite well.
We had a marvelous lunch, and I had a great time chatting with Lucy and Coddie (?) who I found to have very similar views/outlooks/music taste to myself - probably the first person in England who does!
Finally I returned home and, feeling the worse for wear, did not go to see DownFall at the cinema. Instead I watched Ran by Akira Kurosawa.
Yesterday (Monday) went to work, and then off to see the short films at the Future Shorts show. I thought that they were going to get Mike Leigh in to chat about his short film 'A sense of history', but instead John Broadbent did. Ultimately this was probably better as Broadbent devised and performed the piece, but I would have liked to cross paths with Leigh because of his influence on my Mum (he directed her at MAC when she was a young-un)
phew - that's it!