London - Pret

I'm early so I shall wait a bit and find a phone to call my colleauge. Then it will be work work work. I don't know how long it will take. Since I had time, I got an espresso and a sandwich from a close Pret shop. Finding this place was a bit tricky, apparently I found the Jewellerys' street in London - there were loads of these shops and not a single coffee shop in sight. Anyway...

I ate too much today already - this is very bad but I should be able to survive the rest of the day fine. Now I need to find the phone number...

meh...

Didn't care for this story...

On the way back...

I am owner of a signed copy of Stross' Accelerando. Yay!

On the way back, I detoured to Oxford Street and wandered around a bit as a discovery for next month, found the Borders in Oxford Street, Forbidden Planet and China Town, looked around in Soho but didn't search for Wagamama and left that for later (I've had already eaten therefore didn't want to eat even more.

Anyway, then I headed back to the train station and caught the train just fine,. Now I'm on the way back home but by the time I get home there won't be any regular buses so I might as well hang around a bit, I don't know, maybe I should take a taxi or something. We'll see - the shoes I'm wearing are useless and my feet are already hurting.

If only I had the blackberry with me, grrr, it'd be much easier, I'd have much fun now. Anyway, enough is enough.

I am listening to Escape Pod after a long time, One reasonable and one good story so far, I'm not really liking this one but I'll listen to it, Sturgeon's law apply but these are usually better than the average.

It appears that during the chaos of the move, I've forgot to buy some magasines and I have missed a coupe of magazines one of them is for March already! I should have doublechecked what I have and what I should have.

I am thistry, I haven't had something to drink for the last couple of hours and I've had some junk instead, no wonder - also the underground was quite hot and humid, as usual.

London was crowded - Oxford Street was doubly crowded, I don't think I can stand it for longg so it's nice to live far away. I am not excited to see crowds, shops nor buildings, give me some nice scenery and I'll exchange the whole thing.

I sometimes miss Cambridge's smallness, cuteness and beauty - the colleges and everything made it very very pretty. Oxford is nice but it feels much bigger and industrialized. It's an impression so it's probably not true.

I don't know much about London after all these years, I don't even know the touristic places which is a shame. At least this place is closer and I can cycle to the station and back, it's 15 min max, and can visit London during the weekends. Today I had dressed for work therefore I couldn't risk cycling and getting muddy. It was quite cold in the morning in any case and I am too lazy to cycle when it is that cold.

typo...

I made a lot of typos in the last couple of posts - I blame the Eee's small keyboard and Thunderbird not allowing me to edit "unsent" messages. Grrr...

XV-7r

I love it. Tiny little thing. I got off ebay with loads of gadgets the guy had and it's a lovely thing. I haven't had a QSO with it yet, maybe today in London I'll be lucky - I have it with me. I want to look after this little baby, I hope it will last.

It has airband, FM broadcast band, AM, SW, everything. I'm still playing with it and don't koow half the functionality - if only it had CW and SSB, it'd be so nice and beautiful! I don't know why they're not throwing a sideband board in it - it can't be hard nor that expensiive damn it, it's all about marketing. All-mode radios are much more expensive and the electronics shouldn't be significantly different, even simpler since AM/SSB is simpler to build, CW is a no-brainer.

Pain

I'm listening to a BBC World Documentart (They're really good, go and subscribe to othem) bout pain.

I have a mixed treshold to pain, some pains I can't even feel, some of them really kill me but probably I haven't really felt pain as these people do.

One of my knees started to hurt and I'm not even 35 yet, I think I need to exercise more often and stick to the diet more agressively to ease the weight on them.

On the way to Londojn

First time to take this road to London - I'm on the Chiltern line train to marleybone. It's not even 8 yet, I sdtarted too early today. I forgot my mobiles at home so that's a bummer but I'll manage to meet with my colleauge eventually, I have the map and the contact information.

The train is hotter than I expected, I should have chosen a lighter set of clothes today but you never now. Anyway, I have 2 hours to get there and I've been on the train for more than 10 mins so far, it takes approx 35 min to get to the London end of the line.

This is quite good actuallym the train is getting more crowded but when I got on it it was almost empty therefore I have a nice window-side seat.

It's a bleak day with high cover, everything is in shades of gray which is not nice. I'd prefer to see some green shiing at me but it won't happen.

Anyway, Wel'll see soon how today goes. I hope to be able to leave somewhat early and then goof aroun London a while but it doesn't matter, I might do the same tomorrow or on Sunday - it's quite close to London and the train ticket is reasoably priced - peak time travelcard costs only £25 which is very reasonable.

I also liked going to Oxford and back and I am torn between London or Oxford decision. Oxford travel takes less, cossts less but London might have more opportunities as I learn what's where and what's available - even after all this time in England, I don't know London at all.

Walks and cycling

After going to bed quite late, I managed to wake up reasonably early and did a bit of recycling. The weather was nice so after that, I came back home and prepared for a short walk. I went up to the mausoleum which was hard work - I am really unfit. Then I realised that I left the CF card for the camera at home. Then a slight disorientiation - the map doesn't match the real world that easily - found my way back to West wycombe. Then I took an other detour and climbed an other hill and did the walk I was thinking it'd be easy - the damn hill is steep! On the other hand, it was very nice but sections were seriously muddy. I found the way to the river but there are not many diversions - that bit was really muddy, I got bogged down a couple of times. After that I came back home, took a bike out, went upstairs and got some new clothes and went to High Wycombe center for a noodle + sushi, it was OK. I cycled back, a total of 25 mins of cycling. This is quite good, if the drivers honour cyclists - they've been good apart from one asshole today, it looks like I won't be using the car for shopping again unless the weather is really lousy.
As a result I feel quite tired - the noodle's carbohydrates are putting me to sleep. Next week I should cook at home but less than £10 for two diet cokes, soup, main course and sushi is very cheap, at least in my books!
I am sticking to veggie sushi, I gave way a couple of weeks ago when I was eating with Michele and had some real stuff but I don't mind the veggie stuff they serve there, it's quite good actually but more choice would be good.

American poli-ticks

I hope Democrats win - the world can't take an other one or two term neo-republicans.

What gets me is two of the most unelectable people are getting the best votes in the primary.

One is a woman.

The other one is black.

Both are red signs in American politics.

I'd love to have them a black AND female president but I'll settle for either option but I hope it will be Obama. The guy is very charismatic, down to earth and does make sense, was against the war from day one and he'll do good.

Unfortunately the mess GWB is leaving them is very very large and I don't think either of the candidates will have the time to undo all of the harm GWB has inflicted all over the world.

Some people ask me why are you so interested in American Politics and the real answer is they affect me more than what a New Labour or Tory government can do. That's the problem, these people are very powerful, inflict damage on billions on other countries and go around starting wars - a power that's used for good will be beneficial to all.

Because of GWB policies, I can't take water into a plane, I have to take my shoes off in Stansted, wait in long loong queues in Heathrow. Because of their plans, I will be asked to give my fingerprint before I can even apply for a visa to go and see my sister and brother-in law. Because of their plans UK government is wasting billions of pounds in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and the UK Astronomy research is being shut down because of a measly £80M short.

GWB and his cronies are the worst thing to come since Adolf Hitler and his mob invading here and there (Hi Godwin!) but they need to be removed and replaced with something way better and I really hope Obama will fit the mold.

There you go, my first political blog-rant.

200802091106 Oxford

Woke up quite early even though I went to bed rather late.
Then I dragged myself out of the house to a glorious cold winter morning with no clouds and frost all around me. After defrosting and scraping the thin layer of frost from the windows and a quick refill at the Stokenchurch filling station, I headed Oxford following the A40. It wasn't very interesting, I should have chosen the Mway but it didn't make a big difference. I left the car in Park&Ride and for a reasonable fare of £2.20, headed to cetral Oxford.

It was a deserted place, just before 9am, now I am sitting upstairs in a Starbucks,watching the street down below and it's getting more and more crowded. I don't have much of a plan for today, the main target is out of the way (getting the address changed in one of my banks). I can afford to be lazy.

Things not to do are:
-Buy more books
-Eeat sweets an pastries.

I had a nice panini and a skimmed cappucino, next time I'll get an espresso instead of these. Skimmed or not, there is still a lot of milk but this has been the first reasonable amount of milk I've had in a week.

I am thining of finding where the tourist info is and getting a map of Oxford. Maybe... I know where the high street is and that's good enough for shopping purposes. On the other hand, I want to do a bit of sightseeing as well - I have the camera and the eee with me which means I can shoot some pics and write some flash fiction.

I seriously want to be able to write more often an better. Haikus are OK but they don't give me the time to describe what I'm feeling.

The story I've started to write is not going anywhere, I have a couple of other ideas, I'll start writing one of those. On the other hand, I realise that most of the plotlines I'm thinking are quite dark - it must be something I've been supressing somehow. I can't think of a single cheerful plotline - the one in my mind is about a person trying to survive a space-wreck and he'll die in the end, feeling lonely and deperate.

One thing about this Starbucks, the girls here are gorgeous! I should come here more often damnit. :-)

Winter morning depression

It works.. Really works.

I tend to have a mild depression in the winter days, it's quite
common, you hardly see the sun, when you wake up it's dark, when you
get to the office, it's dark, when you get out of the office, it's
dark. It takes its toll.

My solution? Get a halogen light, stick it into a timer and set it to
turn on between 6:30 and 7:30 at full blast.

It does make a difference. Now at 7 I don't want to stay in bed
forever, I don't spend an hour in that sweet spot between awakeness
and sleep. I wake up, not even make a cup of coffee, shave, dress and
get out of the house. Also I tend to be more cheerful, which is nice.

Get a halogen lamp and a timer. It works.

exercise

Tomorrow everything starts again.
A bit of a light exercise with 1/2h of walk to start with.
Then every day, a bit more, following The Hacker's Diet.
It'll work.