Sturm und Drang...

Well, summer was fun while it lasted - gave me something (extra) to bitch about - being hot and all that. Today has been pleasantly cool, with occasional giant pissings down of rain, thunder, general hoohah and whatnot. Suppose it's what keeps it green.

The battle of the air conditioner has heated up again, so to speak. We have at least 3 thermostats in this office, as they keep adding to them to try to keep the peace. They do actually all connect to different air conditioners, and they did actually turn the radiators off at least a month ago (from Brigadoon). The local thermostat sits right by me. I have a tendency to turn the temperature down. Some of the other people in the office have a tendency to turn it up. I sit at my desk with my shoes off, usually, and occasionally with a fan blowing. They tried to turn it off completely today - I held my ground, but conceded 1 degree, and taped up the offending vents pointing towards the particular delicate flower of the day. I will stand up for my right not to sweat in my underpants at work!

Mr annoying telecoms manager is yapping away on his phone - I can hear him all the way across the office in his irritating Essex accent. He reminds me a bit of Humpty Dumpty. At least he hasn't shredded any CDs lately.

Ooh, I was hit by a Mercedes yesterday. Very exciting. Granted, it happened at about 2mph and just sort of doinked into my leg, but I still managed to have a pleasant discussion with the driver about his lack of driving finesse afterwards. Brings me to the comparison between a Mercedes and a porcupine - something about the location of the pricks, I believe.

Ooh, and our 4th was a rip-roaring success. We had about 12 people over, and all congregated out on the roof. We took the skylight off, so as to afford easy access (can't expect drunk people to limbo out underneath the skylight door. Robin printed off suitably tacky patriotic (or ironic) posters, which we stuck very subtly around the entire flat. In the place of red white and blue bunting, he printed out sheets of paper with flags and beefy men on them - much more tasteful, I think. Ooh, and it's gone all dark out and it's pissing buckets - more fun for my biking to the gym! We put together a compilation of American songs, ranging from the classy (Kid Rock) to the sublime (Dolly Parton), and poured enough alcohol to, well, to get a bunch of British folks drunk (always a laudable goal in this country). David cooked up lots of dead stuff, and we gnoshed down buckets of Doritos, corn on the cob, weird little snacky things I'm not sure what they were, and everyone had a lovely time. One person though forgot his sunglasses, b/c he got down to the street on his way home, and realized he was too drunk to navigate the steps coming back, and one person had to be put to bed (again - not bad for a bunch of British folks). Robin and I played party babysitters, while David let his hair down once he'd finished cooking. And no one lost any fingers or toes. We'd saved up a bunch of fireworks from Guy Fawkes, back in November, and Robin shot them all off the roof at about 1045, once it finally got dark(ish). Despite his safety precautions (standing well back, putting fireworks in a big clay pot full of soil), have of them exploded in the Plane trees across the street, a few landed on the neighbouring buildings, and at least one went into the street - and the flower pot blew up. So, a good time was had by all, nothing caught fire, and no police were called - a rip roaring success! :-)

Thursday I'm off to Scotland on my bicicleta, where I am sure it will NOT RAIN. Toying with Ireland in the fall... Hmm.

Anyway, I am now going to devote my energy to making the thunderstorm pass so that I can leave here to go to the gym to become buff und huge.

Right...

Yackety Schmo...

I am reminded today, in these patriotic times, of Calvin and Hobbes' pledge:

I pledge allegiance, to Queen Fragg,
And her mighty state of hysteria.
And to the reporters,
with delicious hams,
One nation, under bob, indefensible,
With quibbling and lettuce for all.

Now rise - Judge Woppner presiding...

Oh wait, I got confused.

So, London is now back to more civilised temperatures, after a week of sweating it out in the low 90s. This may not sound like much, but in a place that declares a heat emergency when the temperatures go above 30 (about 88), it is not a pretty thing. At the first hint that there may not be rain for a period of more than five minutes, the grass turns to straw, the trees get grumpy, and people start appearing on the street in clothing that should probably be illegal. London doesn't do hot and gross very well, to say the least. In Hackney, it also seems to bring out the wierdos, and in a place that is just crawling with them on the best of days, that usually doesn't count as a GOOD THING.

Today's big and exciting project was figuring out how to lighten the colors (colours) in a TIFF map file in a way that could be replicated and automated for many different files. Wow - that's pretty exciting. Actually, and perhaps scarily, I really enjoy spending the day nerdifying over something like that - makes my brain feel like it might have a purpose - I even had to remember algebra. Now if I could just find something that actually used calculus, I'd be over the moon... I will refrain from holding my breath.

We're having a 4th of July BBQ tomorrow - Robin is threatening to put up posters of George III. We still have boxes of fireworks left over from Guy Fawkes day, so we're going to shoot those off the roof at 10 or 1030, once it gets dark - just late enough to really piss off the neighbours (but not late enough to get past the 11pm no-fireworks rule!). Off for a bike ride (probably Cambridge) on Sunday, and then next week is my big exciting ride up to Scotland, from Newcastle - can't wait!

Anyway, I should probably go. The gym beckons, and then I have to head off to the gas station to get more propane for the BBQ. £28 for 5kg - not cheap.

From creak to crack...

And we’re back in the room! I really am not very good at this whole writing regularly thing – suppose it’s b/c I actually have to do work at work. Terrible thing that is…

Anyway, I finally have a bike again today after two weeks going bikeless (it’s sort of like going commando but a lot less fun). The mysterious creak turned into a not so mysterious crack right there the seat-stay meets the top of the frame. Only thing holding the seat on was the seatpost through the frame. So, I took the bike back to the store, as well as writing a suitably aggrieved letter to Marin (to which they responded in suitably we’re-sorry-but-we-accept-nothing fashion). After two long and horrible weeks of having to take public transportation and do cardio at the gym (how I suffer!), I got the bike back yesterday with a new, upgraded frame. To this I added better brakes and better pedals, meaning I’m now basically up to the top of the line Marin bike. This just proves that if one breaks something, one should always blame the manufacturer, because one might just get a better product out of it! (Still though, it shouldn’t have cracked like that, and I don’t even want to think what would have happened had the seat fallen off while I was riding!).

We’ve just passed the summer solstice. Apparently, 36500 people went to Stonehenge to see the sun come up at 0457, or whenever it actually comes up, and guess what, it was cloudy! My friend Jesus (with a little doodah over the e) went there and it was still cloudy – you’d think he would have waved his hands around a little and sparkled things up. Just goes to show (and yes, I’m wearing rubber soled shoes). At the moment, it’s still light when I come out of the gym at 9, which I love (I think the sunset today is at 922 or something, and then it’s not really dark until at least 1030). Wouldn’t mind if that continued all year – I may not like heat, but I most certainly like light.

Not much else at the moment. I’m going to some piano concert this evening (it was free and I might absorb some culture). Apparently the composer (can’t even remember his name) was gay, which means that the venue (Wigmore Hall) is going to be full of all sorts of ‘oh darling’ poofs and their hangers on. Those homosexuals just get everywhere, like some plague or something. Recruiting numbers must be up.

Anyway, time to look busy again. Wow.

These Mondays keep occurring - I must look into having it...

And it’s Monday again. This does seem to happen like clockwork. I’ll have that looked into… Weekend was a bit of a mixed bag. I just ran errands on Saturday (and spent too much money, as usual). Paul and Ali came over on Saturday evening and we all blobbed out and watched Victor/Victoria. I love that movie – it really is just as camp as something that is very camp. David had, rather astoundingly, never seen it before. I do wonder sometimes if that boy is actually homosexual, or just a plant from the LDS church. The weather was absolutely crappy and horrible all weekend, and cold. I did, however, manage to get out cycling yesterday, but only made it 83 miles – wanted to do 100+. Sigh – tragic, I’m sure. I ended up having to stop 15 or 20 times to put on layers, take off layers, put on rain crap, take off rain crap. The temperature would vary 10 degrees within a couple of minutes, as it rained or threatened to rain. Oh, and my bike developed this hugely annoying squeak. I stopped in a gas station to try to find a small bottle of oil for some emergency oiling before I went insane. I ended up with a family jumbo size jug of WD40, complete with its own built-in applicator nozzle. Solved the squeak problem though, and it can now join the place of honor with the sundry other oil-based products languishing in the closet. Just as I got back to Brixton, which is always a downer at the end of any ride, the heavens opened, and a wet and generally grumpy Doug slogged into the house. Oh well.

And this morning was a Monday morning. I woke up late, after crappy sleep. Headed out late. Realized just as I got to the City that I had left my big lock at home. Had to shout at two stupid drivers. Locked the bike in the basement of Town Hall with a piece of dental floss (seat lock) – I’m very much hoping it will still be there (it probably will). Mr. Fat and Ugly was in my shower, so I had to trundle over to the next building to use the shower there. The water pressure decided to drop to zero somewhere about halfway through, so I got to try to rinse the water off with strategically placed drips. Nice. And the highlight of the day, so far, has definitely been the fat and obnoxious manager of the telecoms team shredding CDs in the paper shredder because he is just too lazy to break them himself. Maybe he could sit on them. So, it’s been an absolutely perfect Monday, and I have managed to accomplish just about dipshit at work, which is, admittedly, mostly my fault. Oh, I did manage to buy some new cycling shoes and pedals, which I think must count for something.

Maybe Tuesday will be a bit less retarded. We can only hope.

I'm tired and I want to go home.

And it’s another Monday. This does seem to keep happening, no matter how much I try to prevent it. Sigh. It was an interesting weekend (a bit of the ‘may you live in interesting times’ type of interesting…). David, Robin and I went to the zoo on Saturday. Well, first David and I went and got tickets (£17!!), and then, as Robin was farting around and taking forever (he said he had a problem at work, we suspected he was making out with his new man of the moment, but we will give him the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, David and I waited for Robin up on Primrose Hill, with its gorgeous view of London, and the occasional (very occasional) gorgeous specimen of manhood strutting about (and yes, I mean strutting). Robin finally shows up, resplendent in head to toe lycra (there is no accounting for taste sometimes) and we head off for a snack before heading into the zoo. Anyway, long story short, something didn’t agree with Our Lady of Perpetual Night, and poor Robin spent quite a while in deep negotiations with one of the zoo toilets. However, once freshened up, he was able to continue on his exploration of the (amazingly crappy) London Zoo, and then partake in a nice soup in St John’s Wood. Oh, and he still managed to go out in the evening to meet friends. I think had I spent my afternoon barfing at the zoo, I would be not entirely inclined to head off to a dance club that very same day. But you know, it’s fashion, darling…

Went for a lovely 95 mile bike ride yesterday off through the rolling wheat and soy fields of Essex. It’s strangely pretty for a county that inspires so much derision for being full of chavs and general horrible people. Granted, the folks I saw wandering around the various towns and cities I went through did look like they had spent a while paddling around the shallow end of the gene pool (and the clothes – honey, jeans shorts are so late 90’s and what’s with that tattoo??)… But I digress. Questionable locals aside, it was a lovely ride, and my heinie is only mildly sore today. I still have in mind to break the 200km barrier (about 120 miles), but my weakest link does seem to be the skin on my tender posterior. You’d think I’d get calluses or something. Eeeiuw!

Crappy day

Ugh, one of those days. I had weird dreams last night and woke up feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. I took my bike in (again) to get worked on, then had general transport disaster on the way to work after that. Waited through 2 Tube trains that I couldn't get onto, then they announced that 'a passenger had taken ill' two stops ahead. So I walked the two miles to Liverpool Street, where I got a train that overshot Hackney by a stop. How people survive commuting in packed public transport every day I will never know. So, I thought I would be efficient and get my bike over lunch, as it doesn't normally take long to get to London Bridge. Big mistake. They weren't done with the bike, despite saying they would be and me giving them an extra half hour leeway. My lunch ended up taking 2.5 hours, as I was also stopped by the bridge going up on my way back. Lunch bled into when I was supposed to be having an appraisal meeting, and, unfortunately, Thomas is very Germanic about time, where I am very, I suppose, Mediterranean (ie. I couldn't give a crap), so I got a big talking to about time keeping and blah blah blah whatever don't care go away. Oh, and I had a playground fight yesterday with someone in another department b/c I said he was a liar, which he is. So it's been a crappy day all told - looking forward to getting out of here, and, hopefully, getting a good workout and getting to sleep on time for once.

The cup holder on my computer doesn't work!

Had a slight blonde moment today… I’d been rummaging around under my desk, trying to move a cable. Sat back down and started to work, and my email crashed – said the server was unavailable. This has happened before, so I dutifully called the help desk and reported the problem. The guy there asked a few questions, then asked if my internet connection worked. It didn’t, though it had quite recently. Had I checked the cable? Why no, I had not, and voila, the cable was, in fact, unplugged. How embarrassing.

I had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend. David and I met up with Brian and Kathy (as well as Laurel and Heather) on Saturday evening. They also met Robin, briefly (and survived!). I tried to take them to an interesting pub for dinner, but, unfortunately, it had stopped serving food for the evening, so we ended up at a (very good) chain pub down the road. The highlight of that meal was definitely watching the woman sitting just next door climb up onto her man, straddle him, and start making out. Charming indeed – welcome to London! We wandered down after that to Leicester Square and had some very decadent ice cream. It’s always a slightly strange thing to see family outside of normal family habitat – it’s sort of like seeing one’s teacher outside the classroom. Who knew they had a life – that they even go to the supermarket?

I went for a bike ride on Sunday, 66 miles up to the north of London. It was slightly marred by my bike not shifting properly, which turned out to be a problem with the new waterbottle cage I’d put on. It took going to the bike store to figure this out – also slightly embarrassing. As the bugs were out in abundance, I ate as many as possible, and provided a sticky, sunblock coated landing pad for the remainder. I like to be helpful. My knee was misbehaving itself a bit, and my bike was making creaky noises, so, all and all, it wasn’t as good of a ride as it could have been.

And we had a bbq on the roof yesterday evening with 4 people over. We sat up on the patio furniture shooting the breeze and the weather dutifully cooperated and decided to rain at exactly the moment we started to eat. Fortunately, between the table umbrella, and four golf umbrellas, we managed to stay relatively dry. It wouldn’t be a British bbq without a little crappy weather. David is a remarkably good bbq’er, whereas when I bbq, it tends to more resemble a minor nuclear holocaust. We did, however, have one exciting moment when the bbq wouldn’t light. David and Robin kept prodding it with lit pieces of paper – and – well, it did light, and took most of the hair off of one of Robin’s hands. Mmm – extra tasty. I had one beer and one Coke – between them I stayed awake for hours last night. How sad.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I think I have figured out the secret to keeping female pedestrians from wandering out into the road. If one just stares them down, and, if they start to cross, shout out a warning, ‘Bad woman! Bad woman! No mascara!’ This usually works unless they are already in possession and use of said mascara, in which case one is just hosed. One must press on…