Good: Young Racey McRace was in town last night, so we jumped at the chance to meet her for dinner. She was keen to go back to an Italian place near London Bridge, which was called something like “Giovanni’s Wine Cellar”. It was pretty good, actually – fairly authentic tasting food, Italian waitresses who were a bit rusty on their English, and an awesome red wine which was number 26 on the menu, yet was called “29″ on the label.

Of course the food and wine wasn’t really the drawcard; we were there to see Stace, and it was wonderful to catch up with her. I was amazed at how quickly 7:30 PM became 10:30 PM!

Bad: I wasn’t tired when we got home, so after tucking in the wife, I sat on the couch for a little Resistance 2 online co-op action. To my dismay, the PS3 wouldn’t read the game disc!

*gasp*!

This had also happened on the weekend with the blu-ray version of Hancock; at the time I had thought it was the movie that was playing up, but it seems it’s all blu-ray discs.

Worse: Inconveniently, the PS3′s crappy 1 year warranty has expired, so now it looks like I’ll have to pay to get it fixed! Unimpressed! And as a final kick in the you-know-what’s, a shiny new game arrived for me at work yesterday, and now it looks like I won’t be able to try it for at least (insert average time to fix the PS3 console here)! Sad for me!

Worst of all: Now that I’ll be losing my precious PS3 for a while, I figure that I’ll be stuck with a bunch of free time, just as the weather has turned awful and bright and sunny! What on earth am I going to do with myself?!

Kristy recently pointed out to me a website which calls for people’s opinions about overcrowding on overground rail routes. Having now been an overground commuter for a number of months, I felt I was in a good position to share my experiences with them.

Here’s a copy of the e-mail I submitted. Continue reading →

How long do you think is reasonable to get from Chiswick to Putney, on public transport? There’s loads of options available – train, tube, and buses – so you’d think not more than half an hour, right?

Nope. Last night it took me over and hour-and-a-half! I could have walked it quicker than that. It was as if TFL was conspiring to keep me from getting home.

First I got to the overland station only to find that the next train was delayed, and after 10 minutes, the train after was cancelled. Some signaling problem further down the line was causing trains to be diverted.

So on to the E3 (bus) I hopped after wasting almost half an hour waiting. It took me to Turnham Green, where I waited only 5 minutes for a tube. Things were looking up when I got to Earl’s Court – the train I needed to transfer on to was waiting in the station!

Unfortunately, when we got to Fulham Broadway, the driver announced, “attention passengers, I have no idea where this train is going, I’ll give you an update at the next station”. Uh-oh. We got to Parson’s Green and he announced, “sorry passengers, this train will terminate here, all change please”. And out on the platform we were told that “no trains are going through to Wimbledon, try taking a bus”.

I gave up by that point and walked home – a little over 2km according to google. Thank goodness for GPS.

You’d be surprised just how cheery I was when I finally got in!

I recently ordered a Logitech Harmony 555 remote from PIXmania (through their Amazon storefront). Unfortunately, due to their (very) shoddy packaging, the remote arrived totally smashed.

Their resolution? First, I had to photograph the remote to demonstrate the damage. Then, I was supposed to lodge a compaint with Parcel Force (the company that delivered the remote). Next, I had to send the remote back to them. Finally, once they receive the remote, they will begin an investigation, which takes up to 20 days!

Talk about inadequte customer service. Below is the (latest) e-mail that I have sent back to PIXmania.

I am greatly unhappy with the course of resolution that has been undertaken for this matter. The item was inadequately packaged by PIXmania, and due (at least in part) to this inadequate packaging, the product arrived broken.

While you may wish to debate with Parcelforce whether the mistake which damaged the product was made by PIXmania or Parcelforce, I can assure you that the mistake was not mine. And yet, I am the only party who suffers.

It is unacceptable that I should have to wait until 29 February for an investigation to be resolved. I expected to be enjoying the product as of the weekend just gone (9th February, 2008), and a delay of at least 20 more days is unacceptable. Inote also that that date reflects the end of the investigation and NOT when it will be resolved to my satisfaction.

Surely my business and customer satisfaction is worth more to you than maximum of £40 pounds which you would be out of pocket, should you have sent an immediate replacement to me? Please also remember that I could have bought this product in a store, but instead I chose PIXmania based on the convenience I believed I was being offered.

Based on the service I have received since making this complaint, I would be reluctant to recommend your company to myfriends.

Please escalate this complaint to your head of customer service. I cannot believe that this is the best resolution that you can offer me.

You may wonder why I bothered including this on the web; well, it’s in the hope that after the Google robot has had a chance to parse this article, anyone who searches for “PIXMania review” will be offered an account of my experience.

It’s called “revenge”: geek style.

(As experienced on London transport)

Number 5: Impatience – This one is number 5 because I’m sure we’re all guilty of it, and realistically I think everyone is entitled to a little impatience every now and then. What annoys me is when people make it loudly known that they’re impatient, like the dude this morning who was loudly cursing the district line using lots of colourful words which were not appropriate for young children.

Number 4: Arrogance – Kristy and I were standing on the platform at Chiswick Park yesterday, waiting for the freakin District line which we’d missed by like, two freakin minutes. Then, for no particular reason, this dude wanders up the stairs, over to our direction, and stands directly in front of us! I mean, the platform was starting to fill up, but there were a lot of other places he could have stood. I should have said something, but instead I just did the English thing – huffed loudly and shook my head.

Another one that happens all the time and really kills my goat (or whatever that expression is supposed to be) is when people rush to get in front of me on a crowded platform/staircase, and then insist on walking at a very slow, relaxed pace. Everyone knows how much I get ticked off by slow walkers – but actually cutting me off first? That’s taking it to a whole new level.

Number 3: Inconsideration – Why oh why do teenagers insist on playing their crap-rap music through the speaker in their mobile phone? It sounds terrible – not only because all their pathetic music choices sound the same – but the speaker in a mobile phone is not exactly designed for hi-fidelity music. Anyway – the point of the story – people who have no consideration for others around them should be thrown off the tube/bus/high speed boat.

Number 2: Ignorance – This one is similar to point number 3, however I feel it’s even worse – not only do some people have no consideration for other people around them, but they don’t even realise how inconsiderate they’re being! This covers the clever folks who feel the best place to gather their belongings is the top of a crowded escalator, or the best time to find their oyster card is when they’re standing in front of the gates.

Number 1: Idiots – This is more of a class of instead of an individual quality. I figure that folks who exhibit two or more of the behaviours above fall squarely in this category, and unfortunately there’s a lot of them.

I guess that’s the joys of taking public transport in a Metropolis.

It’s hard to find good help these days. A few folks have e-mailed me lately to let me know that my domain e-mail account has been bouncing their messages (thanks Pat and Bender, and others!). Finally I went to have a look at what the problem was and it turns out that all of my e-mail accounts had disappeared!

I jumped onto my web host’s support site and submitted a ticket telling them the error that I was receiving. To their credit, they responded to the request quite quickly, however their response was somewhat worrying:

We have checked your email domain and we cannot find it either. The only way we can do is to recreate your email domain. Please advise

Best Regards

It’s a good thing they sent their best regards! But seriously, it really is a good thing that I’ve been forwarding all of my e-mail accounts to GMail (whose praises I cannot sing enough) for ages; otherwise I may have lost a lot of messages!

I really don’t understand some people.

When you’re taking a tube, and it’s rush hour (or whatever the local term for it is), you can be assured of one thing: it’s going to be packed. Packed. Since we’re right on the border of Zone 2 and 3, chances are that at least we’ll get a decent place to stand on our morning commute.

But so far – twice this week, no less – whilst I’ve been standing there minding my own bees, holding on to the centre pole, an inconsiderate dude decides that the pole was placed there for him to lean on. Never mind that my hand was firmly planted there. Never mind that said pole was providing my only means of support (often in the middle of the carriages, there is nothing else to hold on to). Never mind that his back is disgusting and sweaty, and that, by proxy, my hand now wreaks of his body oder. So long as he is comfy, that’s really all that matters.

The first time this happened, I was somewhat surprised – surely he most have noticed that he’s leaning on my hand? And, being stubborn (and with a peppering of New York attitude), I refused to move; instead I twisted my hand around so it was my knuckles digging into his spine. But he didn’t seem to notice – or at least he didn’t care! I gave up after about ten stations and moved down the aisle a bit.

When it happened today for the second time, I at least was less surprised, though no less disgusted. I was very, very tempted to cough all over the guys neck, conjuring up as much phlegm as I possibly could. My evil imagination went into overdrive, picturing him being dragged out of the tube covered in slimey green goo. Woah hahaha hahahaaa. But of course I didn’t – I just shook my head and moved.

At least I didn’t apologise.

Seems it’s a good weekend for farewelling. As you may recall when we moved in to our new apartment, we inherited a whole lot of food. Well, something else that we inherited was a bunch of stuff (belongings) from the previous tenant.

Now in her defence, she did ask us if it would be ok to “leave a box here” when she left, and I said something like, “one box? Well, that should be ok”. Ordinarily I may have been a bit hesitant, but we were getting quite desperate to get an apartment so I didn’t want a box of stuff ruining our chance of getting this place.

Anyway, when we moved in, we found out what “one box” really meant. Firstly, there was two boxes piled in the corner near the window. Then Kristy found another box cleverly hidden under the table. Finally when we opened the closet, we found that half of it was unavailable!

Think I’m exaggerating? Check this out – this is the first pile of her stuff, mainly what was in the closet:

(The garbage bags are full of clothes, linens, etc. – not garbage, thank goodness.) Here’s the second pile – this was what was creatively stacked around the apartment for us to find, and a bit more of the stuff from the closet:

The angle on that pile doesn’t really do it justice – suffice to say it stacks up to about the height of my waist.

I maintain that a single box of stuff wouldn’t have been a big deal for us to store for her, but given that this is only a small studio apartment – well, it’s quite ridiculous, really.

Anyway, the parents of the previous tenant (= our landlords) are coming round in a moment to collect all this stuff for their daughter. I’m not sure if they’re actually aware how much stuff there is, but now that they’re committed to take it, I’m committed to getting rid of it. I must admit, I hadn’t realised how much was there myself until we pulled it all out and stacked it up. Anyway, now that our stuff is stored properly instead of hers – well, it’s like the apartment is twice as big! Rockin!

Update: The stuff is gone, and to her credit, she was very nice about it all and very apologetic.

Yesterday after gym (5km run in 25 minutes, woohoo!) I did my usual routine of a steam and a shower before leaving. When I came out of the shower and got back to my locker, I was thrown because there was no lock there. At first I thought I must have been in the wrong locker bay (they all look the same), but I double checked, and sure enough I was in the right spot.

When I opened the locker that I was sure was mine, all my clothes were hanging there, so then I was really confused. What happened to my padlock? There was another guy there – Bart (may not be his real name) – who noticed my hesitation and asked if everything was ok. After I explained to him that my lock seemed to be missing, he told me that a little earlier, there was another guy in the bay who had found a lock on the floor. Bart said that the other guy also complained that someone had mistakenly put a lock onto his locker.

It all seemed a bit strange, so I checked through my stuff and my heart-rate monitor, ipod, and wallet were all there. So I was happy that there must have been a mix up, and perhaps the guy that found my lock had handed it in.

Unfortunately though, about 15 minutes after I had left the gym I tried to call Kristy and realised that my phone was missing.

I’m not sure what really happened now. I’m certain that it wasn’t Bart – he was a gentle old soul. Kristy’s theory is that the guy who “found the lock on the floor” had actually cut my lock off the locker, and started going through my stuff. Perhaps when Bart walked into the bay, he interrupted the thief who then made up a story and walked out with my phone (which was in the pocket of my trackies).

The lucky thing for me is that all the stuff that’s actually worth stealing was kind-of buried under my sweaty gym gear, at the back of the locker. And also, the phone is on its last legs – it gets maybe 2 days of battery life, and the screen is practically unreadable. So of all the things to have stolen, I guess the phone is probably the least valuable – seriously, my Snow Patrol tour shirt would have been a better option. But still, it’s disconcerting.

I’ll head to work today via the gym and ask if it’s been handed in – I guess there’s a slim chance that I simply dropped it, but that doesn’t explain what happened to my lock. Either way, I’m pretty confident it won’t be there.

Update: Yep, as suspected, the phone is gone, and the gym staff were no help. In fact, they simply said, “you probably just left it somewhere”. I don’t think so.

Unfortunately, we’re almost at that part of the holiday that everybody hates – the end. Skiing in Andorra was absolutely awesome, by far the best skiing that I’ve ever done – especially after all the snow we got on Thursday through Saturday.

We spent 12 painful hours in transit yesterday. First it was a four hour bus trip down the mountain, with Michael Schumacher as our bus driver. We were a bit concerned that driving so quickly down winding icy roads couldn’t be safe, but thankfully we all lived to tell the tale.

Next we waited in Girona for a few hours, then boarded a plane for our flight back to London. I have never seen a plane whose seats were more crammed together – just sitting still my knees were flush against the seat in front of me! At least no-one insisted on putting their chair back. Team BaM had to do it the toughest since they had to share one meal between the two of them – for the entire plane of about 300 passengers, there was only 3 vegetarian meals on board!

Finally after landing in London, we got a taxi service from Gatwick back to Hotel BaM – about an hour’s drive. I got flashbacks to Schumacher after our driver started dragging motorbikes off at the lights, but at least we were in a decent car and the roads weren’t icy. And in the end, it probably meant we got back faster.

Ahh, the joys of travel.

Anyway, our final night of holidays was nice and cruisy, and we were introduced to some delicious vegetarian fare – why I’ve never eaten a falafel before is beyond me! Today we’ll take the final leg of our journey, with a seven hour flight back to New York.

A huge thanks to Ben and Michelle our gracious hosts, and another huge thanks to our travelling buddies who helped make the holiday so fantastic – John and Kirstin, Pat, and Matt.

Photos will be up soon!