Aaaggghh, computers (or should that be, aaagghhh, RM!)

Hi all

Just to say, no, I haven't dropped off the planet, I am still here. I haven't been able to be blogging much because of - shock, horror - computer problems.

The problem is that I don't actually own my own laptop at home, I just use the one assigned to me for work. This would be fine if they actually assigned me one that works, but the one I've got at the moment won't allow me to log on to blogger, or to the bank, or to practically anything.

Fortunately I can still read email but that's about it...

I can log on at work but I'm sure they have some way of checking which websites I've been on, so I don't want to do that - or blogger will become yet another website that they block. Its ridiculous, everything is blocked at work, particularly any music sites - you try being a music teacher and not being able to access any music sites - and then being given a rubbish laptop that won't allow you access at home... its a joke.

I have got some things to put on here but they're not finished yet, look out for them in the next few days - stuff about our Scottish adventure and other things...

In the meantime, see you when I can...

An Easter Sunday at Westminster Abbey

Ok, I know, I've been a bit slack about updating the blog. If the truth be known, we weren't able to get to an internet cafe when travelling around Scotland, and once we were back, it was straight back to school, so I've been a bit busy. Couple that with the fact that the laptop I've currently been assigned from school is really rubbish... you get the picture.

Anyway.

On Easter Sunday, just before we embarked upon our Scottish adventure, Mum and I decided to attend the services at Westminster Abbey. Remembering my experience a few Christmases back, when Beck, Dem and I went to a Christmas service at the Abbey, and had to queue for some time, I thought we should try to get there a bit earlier to be sure of a seat near the front (being a choral conductor I like to be able to watch other conductors with their choirs).

The service started at 1030 and I thought if we made it there by 0900 or so we should be able to secure a good position. Fortunately there was no traffic and the good ole 159 bus had us there well and truly on time - we were able to get very good seats at the service.

The mass was really very good, I quite enjoyed the choir although to be fair I felt the boys needed a bit more oomph to do Victoria's setting real justice (Tomas Luis de Victora Missa pro victoria), particularly in the Gloria. The choir was accompanied by His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts, who were very good - actually it was just lovely to hear period instruments accompanying the singing, very atmospheric. And the organist was having a bit of a ripper day too - thought the bloke was going to take off at the end, during Durufle's transcription of Tournemire's Choral-Improvisation sur le Victimae Paschali - although surprisingly he didn't follow with the Anglican tradition of OTT improvs during the last verse of the hymns (Bobby Boughen would be disappointed, hey Dad).

Anyway, after such an uplifting experience, what to do next? Ah, why not a Sunday roast at the Woodman... so we had a very nice lunch in one of our favourite pubs in Carshalton, even managed to persuade them to put on the cricket. I must admit I was a little surprised they didn't already have it on, as England were playing - although they were playing Australia, so maybe the landlord figured the result was inevitable, why watch?

All in all it was a very pleasant day.

A Lille Break

Believe it or not, owning a car in London is a good thing.

Sure, there are the down sides - the rego is due but you need a new MOT, oh and a service, and oh sorry Madam, you need new shocks, and a wishbone - or it catches fire when you are driving to work (after having had it "repaired" - yes people, that really DID happen to me). But despite all this, it gives you the freedom to escape the city for the countryside at every available opportunity, or, for the slightly more adventurous, (and for not a lot of money), the chance to pop over to France for the day / weekend on the Channel Tunnel.

So, being the Easter weekend, that's exactly what Mal, Mum and I did. We choofed off to Lille for the weekend.

For those who don't know what a journey on the Channel Tunnel entails - basically you drive your car on to a huge train which then makes the journey through the tunnel under the Channel, taking about 30 minutes to cross. The crossing was pretty smooth, except for the fact that some burke had left the heating on in the train (it was 20 degrees outside - a warm spring day for England) and we were melting by the time we arrived.

We headed off towards Lille and decided to make a short stop in Dunkerque, encountering rather a lot of motor homes parked overlooking the beach. Pretty bleak outlook (and no, I don't mean Mum and Mal! hehehe). To each their own, I guess. So we pressed on to Lille...

Mum and Mal at Dunkerque

I have never been to Lille before nor have I ever wanted to go, but actually, it is a real pretty little city. It was the European capital of culture (or something like this) in 2004 and I guess you can sort of see why, it has some very beautiful architecture and there are heaps of things to do /see there. Plus the food is pretty good, too (as my hips will attest!). If you only have a limited amount of time in Lille, as we did, then my recommendation is to do a mini-bus tour for €9.50, bookable from the tourist information centre in the Palais Rihour. This tour lasts about an hour and is an audio visual experience so you get to see what the buildings look like inside without having to leave your seat (or pay more for the experience).

In order to keep the weekend costs down, we decided to fall back on our old favourite, Formule 1, for accommodation. This hotel chain was introduced to me by my good friend Chris a few years back when he was visiting Paris with his mate Sam for a gaming tournament. Its good, cheap accommodation - the rooms are all exactly the same, no variation (at least that I've seen) from country to country - they appear to be pre-fabricated capsules. For not much more than the cost of a dormitory room in a hostel, you get a room to yourself with a double bed, bunk bed, sink and TV (plus a couple of power points and a desk). You don't have any keys to worry about, as there is a 6 digit code for you to forget which allows you access to your room (you should have seen it a little while back when we did the Normandie beaches, Belgium and Amsterdam and stayed in these hotels - a new code every night - didn't know whether we were coming or going...).

The amenities are located outside of the room and "self-clean" automatically when you leave them. The only problem with the toilets is that there is no basin to wash your hands after you do your business - which means that every single person who uses the facilities has to touch the door handle with their manky hands afterwards to leave the cubicle, then touch the minging door handle (and key code pad) to the rooms - BEFORE washing their hands in their rooms... and I don't know if the cleaning crew for the hotel actually clean the door handles... hm. Food for thought.

The only other thing I can find fault with in the Formule 1's is that they are usually located on the outskirts of the town and so you really do need a car to get there. That's ok, but for a couple of things. First, the directions to the hotel on the website and in the booklet are only provided in the language of the country the hotel is in. Therefore, if you are staying in a Formule 1 in France, the directions are in French. Now I never studied any French at school, and the extent of my French is basically anything to do with musical terms (which is why I can understand some road signs e.g. cedez le passage and know my gauche from my droit), or ask for the bill. So you try deciphering:

Par autoroute de Paris, Calais, Dunkerque, Lille : suivre dir. Roubaix/ Tourcoing-Gent (A22), sortie 17 ( Halluin / Tourcoing) après le centre commercial Auchan. Dans la sortie 17 prendre à gauche en direction de Halluin/ Douane, continuer tout droit jusqu' au 2ème rond-point. F1 au 2e rond-point sur le parking du restaurant Buffalo.

Que?

Throw into that the fact that highways in France (and indeed much of Europe) often have more than one name - I think due to the EU thing. So you can be on the E42, which is also the A25, and is also called the N225. At one point I saw 4 names for the same road! Suffice to say we had more than our fair share of trouble trying to find the hotel...

But it was a brilliant weekend after all... roll on Scotland next week...

Oh, and I can recommend a cute little pub in Stanford North just off the M20 en route from London to Folkestone, called "The Drum Inn". Excellent food, excellent prices, and great history - the pub was built in 1708 and has a whole gory history with smugglers, night watchmen and the military...

A Great British Tradition

One of the things I really like about England is a traditional Sunday roast in a quaint little pub.

Today Mal, Ken, Mum and I headed off to the Old Plough, Cobham, for Sunday lunch. The food at this place is awesome! The portions are absolutely huge, atmosphere very nice, and the surroundings very pretty. We even encountered a cottage with a thatched roof on the way! But the big plus for this place, at least for Dad when he visited with Mum last year, is that it is one of the few places in the UK which takes Bartercard.

So we had a very nice lunch, courtesy of Bartercard - thanks, Dad, this one's on you...

Mum's the word...

Last Saturday I had a very early start at Heathrow as Mum arrived from Singapore with Aunty Mal. She needed to stay awake all day so I dragged her up to the Strand for my weekly visit with Jessops.

On Sunday we headed off to the Army and then went with the Corps to see Amazing Grace, the movie about William Wilberforce, at Croydon Grants cinema. The film was absolutely excellent, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Then on Tuesday we went out for coffee after school and ended up in Clapham, happening upon Clapham Holy Trinity church, where Wilberforce worshipped.

The rest of the week went without event, then on Friday night, in honour of Pommy mother's day a few weeks back, I decided (as has become a bit of a tradition with me and Mum) to take Mum to the theatre as her mother's day gift. We debated upon a few different plays, and then finally decided to see Dame Maggie Smith in "The Lady from Dubuque".

I have to say I still have no idea what that play was about. I think the playwright, Edward Albee, just wrote down a bunch of words, then rustled up a couple of people to say them. Mum and I both left the theatre scratching our heads...

The only saving grace of the play was Maggie Smith, who, as Mum quipped, "could act her way out of a shoebox". And the dude who played Oscar was pretty good - just as well, as everyone else was, to be frank, pretty ordinary.

Maybe we'd have been better off seeing Jessica Lange in "The Glass Menagerie" instead...

The Saga of the Mobile Phone

I am obviously destined not to have a working mobile phone.

For some time now, I have had problems with my mobile phone. It all started about a year ago, when I moved to Streatham, to a room with hardwood floor boards. One day my phone rang, but it was on vibrate, so it vibrated fair off my bedside table and CRASH! onto the floor. Never worked the same again.

So my mate Nic loaned me a phone. Much appreciated. However I don't like flip phones, and I really liked my little Ericsson T66 - so I bought another one second hand on ebay. Seriously, this phone is the smallest mobile you'll see. Alas, it kept powering down mid phone call - and then one day, it too, took a suicide leap off my bedside table. Bye bye phone.

I discovered a great little website called www.mobdeals.com where you can get a free phone, plus free line rental. So, I ordered a Sony Ericsson K610 - but each company I ordered from when push came to shove, did not have the phone I wanted. Or the ability to port my T-Mobile pay as you go number to the new network.

Finally I found a company that did, www.mobilerainbow.co.uk so I go ahead with the phone, eventually it arrives - and it keeps powering down mid call. I've sent it back, but I don't hold much hope that I'll get a working phone.

Alas.

Photo saga update

Hi everyone, sorry I've been offline for a bit. Been a bit busy.

So the latest on the Jessops photo saga. When I left you, Jessops had lost one roll of negatives.

Well they can't find them. At all. So now they asked me to bring the dud CD in so they can produce negatives off it and make new prints. I reminded them that the images on the dud CD are rubbish because they were developed poorly. "That's no problem," they say, "we'll just correct them". Well I don't know how they will, I tried fixing them in photoshop and there's no way you can make a badly pixelated image into a good one.

Good luck to them. They better pay me compensation after all this. Or at least reimburse my bus fare...

Uh-Oh...OFSTED!

Just a quick one to say don't expect any blogs from me for a few days. Or emails. Or anything.

School got a phone call on Friday to say that Ofsted are coming this week. For those who don't know, Ofsted are the school inspectors, the little Hitlers who have the power basically to sack the school leadership team and put the school into "special measures" (aka big pain in the proverbial) based on a 2 day inspection. If they don't like what they see, then its thank you very much and goodbye.

So I got a bit of work to do, basically.

Hm.

Underneath the Lintel

I’ve lived in London long enough now to take for granted the many cultural opportunities afforded to me here (and therefore not take advantage of them).

This fact has been brought home to me recently because of my need to make several trips into town (the Jessops photo saga). I think I’ve been in the West End more times in the past 2 weeks than I had in the whole of last year.

So, I decided recently that its time to take advantage of the cultural life that London has to offer, and my first step towards that was a trip to the National Gallery the other day (whilst waiting for my photos to be developed). My second step was a trip to the West End tonight to see “Underneath the Lintel”, a one-man play by Glen Berger starring Richard Schiff (“Toby Ziegler” from “The West Wing”). I managed to get good priced tickets from lastminute.com for my mate Jane and myself.

I hadn’t realised that it was a one-man play when I booked it. I have to admit, the reason I wanted to go was (1) because Toby Ziegler was in it – why not take the chance to see someone ‘sort of famous’ live, and (2) because the story of a library book returned 113 years overdue sounded just a little bit intriguing.

The play itself really was excellent in terms of the writing and the storyline. Its one of those philosophical sort of plays about our 'purpose' in life. Basically, the plot centres around a Dutch librarian, who has never been outside of his own town, who comes across a library book that has been returned 113 years after it was borrowed. He embarks upon an adventure to discover who borrowed the book as there is now a rather hefty overdue fine on it. This leads him on a discovery not only about the person who borrowed the book, but about the librarian himself.

I have to say that I thought Richard Schiff’s performance was absolutely amazing. You would think, being a one-act, one-man play about a librarian (who is presenting a lecture), that your attention might tend to wander in spots, but there’s just no way that happens because you are glued to Schiff. His little quirks, mannerisms, many accents, and the ability to make his eyes glisten at JUST the right moment – I was well impressed.

If you ever get the chance to see this play (and particularly this actor) - take advantage. Its well worth it. Read a review about it here.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda - but didn't...

I should have checked it before I left.

I know I should have checked it before I left, a little voice niggled at me as I walked out, but you see, it had been a long day, we had Concert Band rehearsal after school (with big performance on Friday) and then I had to hoof it into town before the shop shut, and I only just made it, plus the fact that I was due to meet Jane (housemate) for dinner before we went to the theatre. So I thought, she’ll be right, the package looks right and feels right – it’ll all be ok. There's no way they can stuff it up twice.

You know I was wrong, don’t you. You can feel it coming, it's Murphy's law. So, despite my earlier attempt at decorum (and avoidance of a lawsuit), I find I have no choice now but to name and shame. Jessops on the Strand, you really suck. I am now an avid enemy, and will stop at nothing to ensure that none of my friends ever fall into your trap. You are a poor excuse for a photo developer, and in the words of Derryn Hinch - shame!

Basically, the story is this: I went into town on Monday to pick up the reprints from the London Camera Exchange so that I could take them down to Jessops to complain about the poor quality of my Iceland photos. I presented my case to the little man at the front desk, who promptly told me that the reprints had obviously been enhanced by LCE, and were not a true representation of what was on the negative. Excuse me? Not a true representation? Compared to what – their pic, or your washed out one? Just by holding the negative up to the light you can see that there is infinitely more contrast in the picture than the poor excuse for a print that Jessops dished up.

Then he tells me that it is company policy not to correct the prints in developing (what, not even re-calibrate your machine?), and that if customers want this, they have to specifically ask for it and pay an extral 99p per roll. Beg pardon? And where is this information displayed in the shop for new customers who don’t know about this “company policy”? And for that matter, where is any information displayed in the shop about the cost of developing rolls of film, reprints from film – anything related to film? Exactly. Nowhere.

So he tries to fob me off with camera psycho-babble, but we shall not be moved. I told him I was incredibly unhappy with their work and either they reprinted my pictures correctly (and fix the CD problems), or they refund my money. So they said they would reprint them.

You know, I should’ve just taken the money. Shoulda, woulda, coulda – but didn’t. No, I wanted the prints. So I gave him my negatives, all the dud prints (and the dud CD) and he tells me that “just this once” he’ll waive the 99p per roll for the hand adjustment – how big of him. Like I’m ever going to get photos developed there again.

Anyway, I go back today to collect my photos. I should have checked them before I left, because the blighters have only reprinted 5 of the 6 rolls, and in fact have only returned 5 of the 6 negatives (although they have returned all 6 rolls of dud prints) – they’ve lost my negatives. And the pics are still upside down on the CD! You wouldn't read about it...

So, this Saturday, I'll be back on the 159 bus (hopefully the wacko won't be), back to Jessops – and I’ll tell you now, they sure won’t like it if they can’t produce my precious negatives…