I wonder what Whale's Milk taste like

Movie Cars

Went to Leicester Square yesterday. I'm missing out on quite a few premieres now that I'm working full time. There is one next week which I was hoping to go to and it is for Kung Fu Panda. Although I doubt it, I was hoping Angelina Jolie will be there. But as it turns out I have a company meeting on Thursday night and I cannot go to Leicester afterall.

Three days ago was the premiere for Hancock and Will Smith was here...

Anyway, yesterday there was a festival promoting the West End and there were performers, booths, people in costumes (Batman, Ghostbusters), and movie cars - see below.

Finally connected!

After 3 months of having no internet connection at home and having to live in internet cafes, I'm finally connected back to the digital world. It's been hard and I cannot imagine how we all did it before the digital age.

I would have been connected a month ago if only BT (British Telecom) have done their job efficiently. Those two words together makes the whole thing worse.

Initially I couldn't get and internet connection because the flat I'm living in doesn't have a phone line. I was told that I'm able to get fibre optic connection in my street so I went to Virgin Media to get connected. After waiting 10 days, I still have not heard anything back so I decided to go to a Virgin shop to ask about it. The man behind the counter told me, and this is his exact words, "If you have not heard back from Virgin Media for 10 days then I would say it is most probably not possible to get connected to Virgin Media at your flat." WTF?! Aren't you at least going to call me and tell me that it is not possible so I don't have to keep on waiting? But being British...it seems to be the culture here let's put it that way.

So I have no choice but to go for an ADSL line with BT (and like Telecom their kinda like a monopoly and everyone hate but need them). So I ordered a new BT line on 25th May. I got confirmations straight away so I thought it was good. They've scheduled engineers to come out here to install the line on June 11 only to find out a day before that they "moved" it to the 26th! So I complained obviously...the operator said the order was somehow cancelled. I said fine cancel that and open a new one. I ended up with two accounts with them which I'm still trying to sort out even after talking to 3 phone reps.

Last wednesday the engineer finally came to install the line (you were 1.5 hours late BTW and you left your amplifier!) and last thursday I ordered my ADSL. My ISP is O2 and they are great 90% of the time (only 90% because they keep on barring my mobile phone without good reason but that's another story). A day after ordering I got my wireless router and another day later I'm connected! WOOHOO!

I'm still testing speed. I took out the Ultimate plan which is up to 20 meg speed but the max speed I got to date was 9.7 meg download so I may lower my plan and save GBP5. We'll see how it goes.

Back to normal

Started my new job last week...

First week was hell for a person who prefers to know where things are and how they work. Being a big company, there are strict responsibility boundaries and it will take a bit of getting used to.

My office is in Baker St, not far from the fictional address of Sherlock Homes.

The tube to work is not bad. Only 3 stops and it is not as crowded as the Central line - the line I used to get to my previous work in Clerkenwell. For that you literally become a human sardine.

It is second week now and things a getting to normal levels (I think). I have now moved to a new desk - my permanent one and I'm glad I sit beside a window.

I had a couple of training sessions so far and I have one in about 20 minutes to use a system for time logging or something...

I've met several staff members and my brain overloaded by the end of last week. But most of them are interesting and seem to be good people.

Da police in London

The range of police equipment here in UK seem to be a lot more interesting. They have many types of police cars and are not limited to the Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores.

So far I've seen BMWs, Fiats, Renaults, Subarus and other rally cars, and horse transporters.

My secret business in London

What's the proof of being in-love?

I saw this in the train the other day...
I thought it was funny. Sufficed to say that there are terms and conditions like a period within which you can claim back your money. Another company had something similar and the period was for 6 months. Is 6 months really enough? What if you break up after that?

Banana protector

Remember this? I've seen them doing the rounds on email until the other when I saw them in a department store!

I suppose I can understand its need. You can get pretty squashed in the tube!

Neither East nor West

After my usual emails and phone calls this morning, I spent some time further out of London (well not that far really...).

I found myself standing on the Prime Meridian with my left foot on the west side and the right foot on the east side.