Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Board Games
Last night, I went to a board game night I found through meetup.com. It was in the basement of a pub, where we had our own separate bar, with staff, and we had the whole basement to ourselves, to lay out board games on the table. It was great fun, and it was wonderful to hang out with some new people finally. I played a game called "Pandemic" with 3 guys, Martin, John, and Jason, after a woman (who's name I didn't catch) gave us a crash course on the rules. It's a very interesting game, being co-operative, rather than competitive. It's the 4 of you against a number of diseases, and you have to try to cure them before they get out of control. We played twice, and lost twice, but had loads of fun in the process. I'm really looking forward to the next one, next week. It's incredibly nice to finally have found at least one way to meet some people, though playing board games did make me feel rather homesick afterwords.
London Bus Drivers
I'm nearly convinced that most London bus drivers are NASCAR dropouts. I have to hold on for dear life when I'm on the bus, or I'll get thrown all over the place. They accelerate like a bat out of hell, brake for bus stops so hard I feel like my organs are being flattened, and go around corners so fast I'd swear I've heard the tires squealing. And all this with a double-decker red London bus! They're maniacs! The couple times I've been forced to go upstairs due to the crowding have been absolutely terrifying. When they come flying in to a bus stop, it always looks like they're about to run over the people waiting there, or like the swaying of the bus is going to crash it into one of the lamp poles.
And despite all this, neither the E3 nor the 70 (the two buses that take me to the tube station in the morning) still don't show up on schedule. They're supposed to arrive every 9-10 minutes, according to the sign, but it's usually more like 20-25 minutes.
And despite all this, neither the E3 nor the 70 (the two buses that take me to the tube station in the morning) still don't show up on schedule. They're supposed to arrive every 9-10 minutes, according to the sign, but it's usually more like 20-25 minutes.
May 4th-6th
Sorry for taking so long to get this posted. I haven't felt much like writing lately, but here it is finally.
May 6th was a bank holiday here, so I spent the long weekend down in Alresford at my auntie Gaynor and uncle John's house. I caught a train down from Waterloo station on Saturday morning. I woke up a bit earlier than expected, to I got to the station sooner, and rather than waiting for the train I told them I'd be on, I just caught the first train. Normally I would have been going all the way to Winchester for them to pick me up, but the service from Basingstone to Winchester was having maintenance done, so it was bus replacement service. As luck would have it, uncle John was going to be in Basingstoke running his roundabout (merry-go-round) in the mall across the street from the train station, so auntie Gaynor was just going to come across the screen to meet me. As I got there early, I wandered around a bit to see if I could find where uncle John was, and I did find him without much trouble.
After loitering about for a bit, Auntie Gaynor and my cousin Rachel arrived. Rachel sure has grown since I last saw her. On the way back to their house, auntie Gaynor pointed out all sorts of stuff along the way, like the house where Micheal Jackson hid out, and the house where Thomas Sopwith (of aviation fame) lived. Somewhere along the way, we got to the subject of books, and I mentioned that I had just finished reading Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. As it turns out, Jane Austin grew up not far from there, so after having a quick bite to eat at their house, we headed off to Alton where Jane Austin's house is. It was quite interesting to see all the things there, and try to imagine the world she lived and wrote in.
On the way home from there, we made a brief stop at the railway station in Alresford, where they run steam locomotives from. It was too late in the day though, and the last train had already left, so I didn't get to see much. One of my other cousins, Lynsey happened to be passing by looking for us, so we stopped into a pub on the corner for a pint before heading home for dinner. Dinner was delicious, spaghetti bolognaise. We had some wine with dinner, and some wine after dinner, and many hours of conversation and catching up before heading to bed.
On Sunday morning, auntie Gaynor made me breakfast, egg on toast (reminded me of egg and soldiers. Mom, you should remember that!) The first outing of the day was to Twyford, where there is a Victorian era steam powered pumping station. They were having an open day there, so there were loads of people that had brought steam rollers (real coal-powered steam rollers), steam tractors, steam powered water pumps, and a few old cars. It was absolutely fascinating to see all of that, and the smell of so much coal being burned was interesting. Not unpleasant, but interesting, like the odour of oil and gas that seems to permeate most modern day mechanical places.
After that, we drove into Winchester to see the cathedral. We stopped for some tea first, to give our legs a bit of a break, but mostly to rehydrate, as it was quite a warm day. When we did get to the cathedral, I was in awe! What a mammoth building! In this era of 50+ floor metal and glass skyscrapers, it's hard to imagine how something "only" 3 floors high can seem so massive, but the sheer amount of stone, and the enormous gaping caverns of rooms inside just overwhelm the senses. We spent an hour or so wandering through the cathedral, with my auntie Gaynor playing the tour guide, and pointing out all sort of interesting bits of history that would have been completely lost on me otherwise. When we were through there, we stopped for tea and cakes. I had some fruitcake. I never used to like fruitcake. I must be getting old. I even scraped some of the icing off, as it was too sweet. Before leaving Winchester, we walked over to Wolvesey castle, which is an old castle ruin. On the way over, it started raining a bit, but luckily for us, it stayed quite light, and we didn't actually get very wet.
Back at their home, we had a wonderful roast chicken dinner, with yorkshire puddings, veggies, and loads of gravy. Mmmmmm gravy. More wine flowed with, and after, dinner, and we chatted until late once again.
On Monday, auntie Gaynor had to work, so uncle John showed me around instead. We went back to the station in Alresford, where this time there was a train getting ready to leave. It was there for around half an hour though, so I had plenty of opportunity for photos. I even got to climb up into the cab (is that what it's called?) and feel the heat from the boiler, and pose for a photo with the coal shovel. After it left, we drove to Ropley, one of the other stations along the Watercress line (the one that runs the steam engines), which also houses the engineering yard. Another train was passing through, and refilling the water in the boiler, and there was three sitting in the engineering yard, so there was plenty of targets for my camera.
Later that day, I caught the regular (electric) train back home, and went out to see the movie Persepolis with a few of my flatmates.
What a full weekend!
May 6th was a bank holiday here, so I spent the long weekend down in Alresford at my auntie Gaynor and uncle John's house. I caught a train down from Waterloo station on Saturday morning. I woke up a bit earlier than expected, to I got to the station sooner, and rather than waiting for the train I told them I'd be on, I just caught the first train. Normally I would have been going all the way to Winchester for them to pick me up, but the service from Basingstone to Winchester was having maintenance done, so it was bus replacement service. As luck would have it, uncle John was going to be in Basingstoke running his roundabout (merry-go-round) in the mall across the street from the train station, so auntie Gaynor was just going to come across the screen to meet me. As I got there early, I wandered around a bit to see if I could find where uncle John was, and I did find him without much trouble.
After loitering about for a bit, Auntie Gaynor and my cousin Rachel arrived. Rachel sure has grown since I last saw her. On the way back to their house, auntie Gaynor pointed out all sorts of stuff along the way, like the house where Micheal Jackson hid out, and the house where Thomas Sopwith (of aviation fame) lived. Somewhere along the way, we got to the subject of books, and I mentioned that I had just finished reading Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. As it turns out, Jane Austin grew up not far from there, so after having a quick bite to eat at their house, we headed off to Alton where Jane Austin's house is. It was quite interesting to see all the things there, and try to imagine the world she lived and wrote in.
On the way home from there, we made a brief stop at the railway station in Alresford, where they run steam locomotives from. It was too late in the day though, and the last train had already left, so I didn't get to see much. One of my other cousins, Lynsey happened to be passing by looking for us, so we stopped into a pub on the corner for a pint before heading home for dinner. Dinner was delicious, spaghetti bolognaise. We had some wine with dinner, and some wine after dinner, and many hours of conversation and catching up before heading to bed.
On Sunday morning, auntie Gaynor made me breakfast, egg on toast (reminded me of egg and soldiers. Mom, you should remember that!) The first outing of the day was to Twyford, where there is a Victorian era steam powered pumping station. They were having an open day there, so there were loads of people that had brought steam rollers (real coal-powered steam rollers), steam tractors, steam powered water pumps, and a few old cars. It was absolutely fascinating to see all of that, and the smell of so much coal being burned was interesting. Not unpleasant, but interesting, like the odour of oil and gas that seems to permeate most modern day mechanical places.
After that, we drove into Winchester to see the cathedral. We stopped for some tea first, to give our legs a bit of a break, but mostly to rehydrate, as it was quite a warm day. When we did get to the cathedral, I was in awe! What a mammoth building! In this era of 50+ floor metal and glass skyscrapers, it's hard to imagine how something "only" 3 floors high can seem so massive, but the sheer amount of stone, and the enormous gaping caverns of rooms inside just overwhelm the senses. We spent an hour or so wandering through the cathedral, with my auntie Gaynor playing the tour guide, and pointing out all sort of interesting bits of history that would have been completely lost on me otherwise. When we were through there, we stopped for tea and cakes. I had some fruitcake. I never used to like fruitcake. I must be getting old. I even scraped some of the icing off, as it was too sweet. Before leaving Winchester, we walked over to Wolvesey castle, which is an old castle ruin. On the way over, it started raining a bit, but luckily for us, it stayed quite light, and we didn't actually get very wet.
Back at their home, we had a wonderful roast chicken dinner, with yorkshire puddings, veggies, and loads of gravy. Mmmmmm gravy. More wine flowed with, and after, dinner, and we chatted until late once again.
On Monday, auntie Gaynor had to work, so uncle John showed me around instead. We went back to the station in Alresford, where this time there was a train getting ready to leave. It was there for around half an hour though, so I had plenty of opportunity for photos. I even got to climb up into the cab (is that what it's called?) and feel the heat from the boiler, and pose for a photo with the coal shovel. After it left, we drove to Ropley, one of the other stations along the Watercress line (the one that runs the steam engines), which also houses the engineering yard. Another train was passing through, and refilling the water in the boiler, and there was three sitting in the engineering yard, so there was plenty of targets for my camera.
Later that day, I caught the regular (electric) train back home, and went out to see the movie Persepolis with a few of my flatmates.
What a full weekend!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
On Saturday, just after noon, I caught the train out to Richard and Elizabeth's house, to spend the weekend with them. I had a wonderful weekend, catching up with them, and them with me, and wandering around the coast taking photos. On Saturday afternoon, the weather was quite nice, so we drove to Maldon
, and walked down the pier, taking photos of the Thames barges, and the statue of Brithnoth, an Anglo-Saxon defender, killed when the Vikings invaded in 991.
On Sunday, during a bit of break in the rain, we drove to Tollesbury and took some more photos of boats and such around there.
I was also introduced to Elizabeth's two new hens, and acquainted with what "henpecking" really is. All in all, it was a very pleasant weekend.
, and walked down the pier, taking photos of the Thames barges, and the statue of Brithnoth, an Anglo-Saxon defender, killed when the Vikings invaded in 991.
On Sunday, during a bit of break in the rain, we drove to Tollesbury and took some more photos of boats and such around there.
I was also introduced to Elizabeth's two new hens, and acquainted with what "henpecking" really is. All in all, it was a very pleasant weekend.
Starbucks Sucks
I've discovered something interesting since I got here. I used to think I liked Starbucks coffee, but it turns out I was wrong! What I really liked was lots and lots of cream (not milk) and sugar in my coffee. Back home, I put so much cream and sugar in it, I could barely taste the coffee. When I got here, and met Richard and Elizabeth in the airport, they offered to get a coffee for me, to help me with the jet lag. I got a white americano, with sugar, which is the closest you can generally order to the way I used to drink coffee. A white americano is watered down espresso, with milk added. Milk, mind you, not cream. Despite having much less cream and sugar than I was used to, it was quite tasty, and I ended up going to the same coffee chain (Costa Coffee) again, and tried one without any sugar in it, and found it quite palatable. I've been drinking my coffee like that since, but one morning when walking to work, I took a slightly different route, and didn't see anywhere terribly appealing to get coffee, so I popped into the Starbucks close to my office. I ordered a white americano, and nearly spit out my first sip. It's horrible! Not only is it not nearly as tasty as everywhere else I've been, but they do their coffee so hot you have to let it cool down before drinking it, or you'll burn your mouth to a crisp! Everywhere else serves it hot, but not scorchingly so. I can't believe I've been drinking that stuff for so long.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Nearly Set
I've nearly got my abode set up to my satisfaction. On the weekend, I bought an LCD screen, computer case, mouse, and keyboard, in order to put my desktop computer together, with the parts I'd brought with me from Canada. Sunday evening, when I finally sat down to start putting everything together, I discovered, much to my dismay, that I had no SATA cables, so I couldn't connect my hard drive or DVD drive. Everything else is all connected and ready to go, except for that. How frustrating. I also realized that since the internet in the house is wireless, I would need a wireless card for my desktop, something I've never needed before. The last (I hope) missing item was speakers. Since I've been there, I've been listening to my music on my laptop, with the built in speakers, so when I start using my desktop, I'll need speakers so I can listen to music. No sense, I figured, in buying some chintzy little speakers I'd want to replace in a couple months, so I bought some nice surround speakers like I had back home, so my music will sound good.
I may not actually be able to get everything set up tonight though, as Giuseppe has invited me out with he and his friends to a pub where one of them is going to be playing guitar, and as much as I do want to get my computer up and running, it'll be there tomorrow, so I'll probably go out with Giuseppe and company tonight instead.
I may not actually be able to get everything set up tonight though, as Giuseppe has invited me out with he and his friends to a pub where one of them is going to be playing guitar, and as much as I do want to get my computer up and running, it'll be there tomorrow, so I'll probably go out with Giuseppe and company tonight instead.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
It's Alive!
My laptop locked up solid the other night in Linux. The CPU had been running a tad hot, and the fan was coming on very frequently, and running for quite a while even when the laptop was just idle, so I suspected it might have something to do with cooling problems. I suspected that the fan and heatsink would be full of cat hair. So, I did what any self respecting geek would do, and took my laptop apart. I had no idea it would have so many screws! After getting it apart, I found very little hair, but did find that it looks like the thermal compound on the CPU heatsink was pretty cooked. I bought some good old Arctic Silver after work today, and proceeded to put my laptop back together. I'm typing on it now, so the good news is that it works! It remains to be seen yet if this actually fixed the problem or not, but so far, I don't notice any ill effects. The temperature does seem to be staying more stable, with the fan coming on less often, and for shorter periods of time, but it's a bit early yet to tell.
In other news, when I got home from work today, my Italian flatmate was just starting to cook dinner, and insisted that I join him. It was quite tasty, some basic Italian food, and the conversation was wonderful. It was really nice to be able to come home and have someone to talk to.
In other news, when I got home from work today, my Italian flatmate was just starting to cook dinner, and insisted that I join him. It was quite tasty, some basic Italian food, and the conversation was wonderful. It was really nice to be able to come home and have someone to talk to.
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