ALiningLikeAnIronMaidenYou are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. Well, it's been a bloody loony few days. Most of the weekend was fine, a bit chill and perhaps a bit dull. I needed a party and didn't get one. Sunday morning I got up intending to take photo's of my portfolio in the hopes that I'll one day be able to get a new job. I got my backing board and improvised reflector's all set up near my window. It was sunny outside and a good quantity of diffuse light was coming through my window, it was perfect. I grabbed Richard's camera prepared to start shooting, only to discover the batteries were flat, and it takes a dedicated rechargeable type so I had no way of using the camera shot of getting a charger from Richard. So off I set, to Battersea Park, to go and see Richard quickly to fetch a fully charged battery and his spare charger. I took the overland from Balham, it should have been a brisk ten minutes, if that on the train, but it was only when I got to Victoria, the train having failed to stop at Battersea Park that I was made aware that there was engineering work happening this weekend so Battersea Park was closed (nice of them to let me know at Balham…) It then took me a further two hours of random train and buss routes to get to Richards. Gah. I got home just as the light was dying in time to take a few slightly less-satisfactory photos. Monday dawned bright and early. Bright enough that despite the fact that I'd forgotten to set my alarm I none-the-less woke up at the necessary 6h35. The weather was beautiful, crisp, clear and very cold. It had been down to five below. Everything that could be iced over was - even the canals by the Camden Lock. It reminded me so distinctly of Joburg, except that the air just didn't quite smell right. At the office I found myself in a strangely foul mood. The phone is usually dead on a Monday morning, but for some reason, not this one. I spent most of the day trying to find ticket prices to get myself back to London after my holiday, but it happens that the 27th of march is a cut-off date fee wise and if I were to travel before then it's cheaper and on that day or after it's about a grand more. However, I don't really want to cut my holiday any shorter than it is and all the flights for the 26th are booked solid. On top of that I tried to pay my new credit-card and landed up locking myself out of my internet and telephonic banking so now I couldn't pay my rent that way either. I won't be able to get back in until I've signed a letter they've sent me, sent it back and they then get of their butts and re-activate my service, which considering the unpleasant language I had for the Customer Service Monkey, might be a while. I got an email to stay that the long awaited dates for the next NIN concert had been announced for June, and were already sold out. At least Nats had said it was fine for me to stay with her, which was a relief, but the short emails were enough to remind me of how dearly I miss the girl. It turns out I've also waited too long to book my internal flights, so I could pay 1,5k and have a seven hour stop-over in Joburg or I could spend 2.3k and have a three hour stop-over in Joburg. Since despite the power of the pound, this little jaunt home is pretty much driving me back to broke (and not in a stylish sports car, more like a beat up old VW Golf) I opted for the seven hour stop-over. After all of that and having to do buckets of work, since Mike crapped me out for being 'un-productive' on Friday, all I wanted to do was go home, have one of my short walk / jogs and get an early night. At Tottenham Court Road the tube stopped, and ceased to run again. Apparently there was a fire alarm of some kind at Kennington and the entire Northern line, both branches of it, had been suspended for the entire length (Kennington being one of the two major junctions between the branches.) So I got out and walked down to Trafalgar square since prior experience had taught me that the 88 bus runs 24 hours to Clapham Common. A long journey later, accompanied by the somewhat unpleasant odour of warm damp Londoners, I finally reached Clapham and chose to walk the final distance in the now blowing snow. It was all to much for my resolve, so I said “sod it”, parked myself on the couch and fed myself and Jeff each half the remaining third of a bottle of red wine I had just so I wasn't drinking alone. Yesterday was only marginally better. Got crapped out by Mike for chatting on the phone after office hours (a phone call which he knows I'm going to pay for) because it's distracting to the architects who are still at their desks working. That being all of them pretty much since the blighters always arrive late in the mornings. I think this had a lot to do with the fact that Mike got mugged on Monday night and was looking to take it out on someone. Rest of the day was spend trying to unsnarl the administrative nightmare that my job's become while trying to sort out yet more stuff to do with my holiday and book NIN tickets for the new concert date that was announced. So at least I'm going to see NIN in June. That's one good thing. Comment: keep smiling (by DrunkLove? on 2005-03-05 21:25:35)it still surprises me that you think in rands - I had to struggle for a second to work out what you meant by "2.3k". :) For your international flights, did you think about flying with one of the cheaper airlines, like Qatar or SwissAir?? It means changing in Doha or Zurich, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper. Comment: Re: keep smiling (by LothrielPixie? on 2005-03-09 11:26:45)On the Rands thing, it's because I'be been practising of late. Spent a lot of time trying to figure out what things are cheaper back home, and what things are cheaper here and trying to quell my usual urge to shop! I didn't really. Probably foolish of me, but the price I paid in the end was pretty much what I'd expected to and it's for a one year open return, which is more than a little useful. Comment: Re: Re: keep smiling (by DrunkLove? on 2005-03-10 02:42:21)Fair enough - although Qatar were charging £400 for a return last time I looked. And you get to visit exotic Doha! :) Those one year open returns are cool - except when you're too skint and don't have enough holiday to go back to CT and buy another ticket there! Aaargh! |