Can nothing just work?!

Seriously, is there some kind of cosmic law that nothing works for me?

Sorry, this is going to be another rant. And I know, none of these
things that go wrong are really important - everyone I care about is
safe and healthy, and that's what really counts.

But come on! Today I come home planning to do some stuff on the net
that i've been meaning to get done for ages, and my router goes
haywire! So i've spent the whole evening trying to fix it, because I
can't just ignore the fact that I have no internet connection and do
something else instead.

It started that I could use http, but nothing else. Then I couldn't
connect at all. At various points throughout the evening i've not
been able to see my wireless network; been able to see, but not
connect to it; connect to it, but not be able to see the internet at
all; been able to do everything, as long as i'm plugged into the
router via an ethernet cable; pretty much every issue that could come
up has. Randomly. Without any apparent cause. And been replaced by
a different issue, again without any apparent cause.

And it's still not working.

Aaaaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

I keep giving up, and then going back to it because I can't rest until
I get it working! But I have to get to sleep now. Thank goodness for
gprs, at least.

I'm hoping it'll spontaneously be right tomorrow when I get home from
work. But if anyone has any suggestions, please post a comment - i'll
be eternally grateful if anyone can help me fix this.

Update: Still not working. It's bizarre - it will connect, wirelessly, if the network cable is plugged in. Unplug the network cable, and the wireless card suddenly can't see the wireless network at all.

Then I reset the router, and it connected briefly - wirelessly, without the cable. Now it won't connect wirelessly even with the cable plugged in. The only thing I can think is that the router's wireless component is faulty - I'd expect it not to work wirelessly at all, if that was the case, but it can't be a settings issue if it does sometimes connect. I don't think it's my wireless card either, because I can see other wireless networks (although obviously I can't actually test it, since I can't connect to them). Damn, I guess a support call to Netgear is required. And it's a difficult one to look up on the net, because there isn't even a consistent set of symptoms, nevermind nice easy words to search for.

Update: Kinda working, but not quite. Damn, I hate this! I reset the router to factory defaults, set it up again, it wouldn't work, then it did work, then it didn't work - I reset all the keys, and it seemed to be working. Yay. Went downstairs, and the laptop can't see the network. Come back upstairs, it works. I hate things that work intermittently. And I struggled for months at my place with a router that just wasn't strong enough for me to get a signal in my room, which is why when I moved into this place I bought a super-duper expensive mimo router that should work through walls, floors, ceilings, etc. And it WAS working! So I don't know what's suddenly changed, or how to fix it. But I don't want to go through that again, where I can only use my laptop in one spot in the house. And it was working, so surely it should work now!

Update: Seems to be working now. I changed the channel, and it seems to be working much better now. I guess there was a new source of interference or something.

Random Thoughts...

... that occur to me while I'm trying to sleep.

While public transport in London has its problems, at least it's always available. You barely have to think 'how will I get there', and you never have to think 'can I get there'. But still, there are some things that annoy me - mostly the other passengers. Why women think it's okay to do their makeup on the train, I do not know. And people who smoke until the second they get on the train, and then sit right next to you, with such a thick smell of smoke you can hardly breathe. But even that's nothing compared to a guy in Australia flossing his teeth on the train. Eeew.

I bought a proporta crystal case for my ipod mini the other day. It's really nice - you can still see the cool shape and colour of the ipod, but it's protected. The hinges and the lip of the lid spoil the effect but only slightly; I do wish there wasn't a seam running down each side because it totally spoils the feel od the rounded sides, but it's not too bad. The screen is protected too, but the plastic isn't perfectly flat so it does distort the light slightly. Other people have said that it's very difficult to remove from the case, nut mine just slides right out - I haven't tried it with my iHome yet, but I hope I'll be able to leave it docked in the case. Overall, it's a rwally nice case and I'd recommend to anyone who still has a mini.

I went to see Trust The Man yesterday - it was okay, but not as good as I thought it would be. Although the giggling girls behind me probably had something to do with it being a sub-optimal movie experience. And is it just me, or did James Blunt's Three Wise Men appear in the trailer but not the movie?

I tried to transfer some photos from my MDA Vario to my laptop last night, via my wireless network. You don't seem to be able to do that, though, which is somewhat disappointing. I can connect to my internet connection, and use it to browse the net, but I can't connect to the pc. I'll try again, though, just in case I selected the wrong option somewhere.

It's getting dark earlier now, and being cloudy and raining more. More like the stereotypical image of London. I'm very aware that I haven't spent a winter here yet, and it worries me slightly - I suspect it will be cold, dark, wet, and depressing. I'm going home for a few weeks in mid-November, and I think it'll be really difficult coming back after summer days there. Maybe I should plan to do something something fun when I get back, something I can only do in London, just as an incentive to come back :) Like go see Spamalot, or something. Mind you, after 2 weeks without broadband, I'll probably be happy to come back!

I've decided to start Tai Chi classes again - I used to do it back in SA, but I never really got back into when I came back from Florida. Now I've decided that I need to do something, meet people, be more active, and just get out there and do something rather than coming home and watching tv/reading/browsing the net. So I've found a place that looks cool, although maybe a bit organised, and I start the beginner's class on the 12th. What's nice is that it's the same style that I was doing before, so I'll know a little bit about what I'm doing, although they do the long form whereas we used to do the short form. Still, it should be good. Now if only I had my bike, I would be able to ride down there and back!

Mind Tricks

I have the TV on in the background, and they just had one of those mind tricks on - you know, the kind you always get via email, where they make you do a bunch of things in your head then ask you to think of a colour, and they manage to predict which colour you'll think of (well, I always pick something different, but that's just me - I never claimed to be normal :P).

So this one went like this:

What is 2 + 2?


What is 4 + 4?


What is 8 + 8?


What is 16 + 16?


What is 32 + 32?

What is 64 + 64?

Now think of a vegetable...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You thought of a carrot, didn't you?


I always wonder how these things work. Surely there can't be something in the sequence that makes you think of carrots... maybe carrots are just the most obvious vegetable? I would think that the calculations are just to distract you, so that you're not thinking of the broccoli you're having with supper!

So what I'd love to do, being into the scientific method and all, is a a proper test: pick 50 people at random, and ask them to think of a vegetable. Then pick another 50, and do the whole calculation bit and then ask them to think of a vegetable. Are carrots chosen as often in both groups? And if not, why not?

Would be interesting :-)

Tickle Me Elmo Turns 10!

Okay, here's a happy laughing post.

Tickle Me Elmo turns 10 this year (I can't believe it's been 10 years!), and the new Elmo is really great! More about him here, including a video, which is the funniest thing I've seen for ages. It starts off a little bit freaky, but then you just can't help laughing along with Elmo. It's so funny. I'm sitting here on my couch by myself, laughing out loud. From the article:

"T.M.X. Elmo has three tickle spots on his chin, tummy or foot. When you tickle Elmo once on any of the tickle spots, he starts to laugh and slap his leg twice, then falls down into a sitting position and rocks himself back up to standing while laughing.

When you tickle him a second time, he repeats the pattern, then sits down again and falls backwards, kicking his feet while laughing even harder. And on the third tickle, he rolls over onto his tummy, thumping his hand on the floor in laughter, and then stands back up again."

I just wish the video was downloadable, so I could keep a copy. And I want to send it to my parents and my nieces back home (but they're on dialup, so it'll be terribly slow - and they'll have to dial up every time they want to watch it or show it to someone). Guess I'll have to watch out for a low-quality, ad-free version on YouTube, which at least will be a bit faster to download.

Why Me?!

I know, I said I was going to stop complaining and only post happy
thoughts... but... why do these things always happen to me? Why does
nothing ever just run smoothly?!

The bike, first of all. The guy I'm buying it from was supposed to
bring it round last monday, but he couldn't find the registration
docs. So he ordered a copy from the dvla which was supposed to arrive
last wednesday, but which only arrived yesterday. In the mean time,
he's gone off to Spain to visit his sick mother. So I'm trying to
arrange everything through two of friends of his. In the end, it
looks like I should eventually get the bike tomorrow, but I'll believe
it when I see it.

In the mean time, I've having a problem with the letting agents who I
had to go through to get my flat - Rentals and Sales Wimbledon. It
turns out that the account that they told me to pay my rent into
doesn't belong to my landlord. It doesn't belong to them either. In
fact, they don't know who it belongs to. Nor do they seem to care.

I discovered this when my landlord phoned to remind me that I hadn't
paid my rent yet - which I had, just apparently into someone else's
account.

The letting agents don't seem to care that they made such a monumental
mistake; there's bee n no apology, probably because they don't want to
admit liability. They've just told me to ask my bank for a refund.
But the bank didn't make a mistake, they did. And from what I've
found out, it's very, very difficult to recover money paid into the
wrong account.

So I'll go speak to the bank the money was paid into tomorrow; but in
the meantime I'm out a month's rent, which really sucks. And any
resolution won't be quick.

I'm determined that I will get the money back from the agents, if I
can't get it from the bank. Even if I have to take them to small
claims court. Although I don't want to have to... I have no idea how
much that costs, and it won't be fast. But I won't let them get away
with it.

I guess I'm just lucky that I have money spare - I won't be broke
because I've effectively had to pay double rent this month. I know,
there are people who couldn't do that, and people who don't have
houses, or bikes, and compared to all that I've got nothing to
complain about.

But it sucks, and it's not fair!!!

Wednesday Update, because you just can't make this up: still no bike. The guy who's supposed to be dropping it off phones me, says he's leaving in 5 minutes. Then he phones me back, says he has to go home first and he'll be about half an hour later than he thought. Then a bit later, the other friend phones me to say that the other guy can't make it! And that he'll let me know what day he can make it. So it doesn't look like it'll be soon - I suspect he's delaying until the original guy gets back from Spain. Seriously, if I hadn't paid a deposit I'd just forget about the whole thing. Not that it's dodgy or anything, but it's just so much hassle.

And speaking of hassle... not much luck on the bank story either. Actually, this might be useful for anyone else who's paid money into the wrong account and want to get it back - my bank's website says that you have to speak to the bank whose account the money was transferred into. So I went them during lunchtime, waited for ages, only to be told that I need to speak to my bank. So I stopped at a branch on my way back to work, only to be told that I need to go back to the same branch that the transfer was done at. So, running out of time, I go to that branch, only to be told that I need to phone the "disputed transaction" line, whose number I can get by phoning customer services. Aargg!

Half a Year in London!

Last Saturday was exactly 6 months since I arrived in London. It feels like a lot longer... on the other hand, it doesn't.

I'm pretty settled by now - I've got a nice flat, a good job, great internet connection, and any day now my bike will arrive. But I do still miss SA. So here's a roundup of my thoughts on London, what I like, what I don't like, things I've noticed... just me thinking aloud again (so very much on topic for this blog, then).

The main thing I love about London is how you can get anywhere. It might take a while (and that's one of the things I don't like about London - it takes an hour to go from anywhere to anywhere else), but you can get from point A to point B without stressing. You get used to so quickly, and start complaining about the overcrowding and the heat and the fact that sometimes you have have to wait 10 whole minutes for a bus - but there's transport from anywhere to anywhere any time of the day or night (there are even night buses!). And it's safe. Compare that to Cape Town, where there are a couple of train lines, which don't run in the evenings or weekends, aren't really safe, don't run very frequently, and don't actually go anywhere useful. I can do so much more here than I ever did at home, just because I can get places and get home again.

Which is the second thing I love about London - there's always so much to do. There are always new movies to see, theatre to go to, and you could spend a lifetime here and still not get finished doing all the touristy stuff.

What I don't like, as I mentioned, is how long it takes to go anywhere. It takes me an hour to get to work, and an hour back again, which is a huge chunk out of your day. I don't like how it's always crowded, and noisy - but then that's why it's so nice to live out here, where there's greenery and peace. And winter might be worse, admittedly, but the weather's really not as bad as everyone thinks. Summer's short, but it's worthwhile - you imagine London as being this drab, grey place, but it really does get blue and sunny.

I like my flat - I like how it's small and compact and all my own, and I barely even notice the sloping floor any more. What I don't like about the flat is the shower - it's tiny, and I really miss having a bath. And I don't like the dryer, which gets way too hot, even on the half-heat setting, and I'm sure it's not good for my clothes. But I can live with that... there are little things, like no mixer taps, and the stove is really ancient and uses gas, and the couch is comfy enough but not quite what I would have chosen. But considering that I'm not going to live here forever (even if I stayed in London, I'd get my get own place and furnish it myself) it's fine.

I don't like the way insurance works here. You pay for a year up front, and generally in one lump sum (you can pay monthly, but you pay extra). And then you're locked in for the year. And it's expensive. In SA, you can switch around as you like, whenever you get a better quote!

I'm starting to get used to the shops - I know where to go for what, mostly. It sounds dumb, but it's difficult at first when even the shops are all different to what you're used to :-) And I'm getting used to the money, and I've almost stopped converting everything back to ZAR. And I love how I earn so much, when you convert the amount I put into savings everything month back into Rands!

I love the way they always have these "50 greatest" type shows on TV. It means there's always something to watch, and there's a definite popcorn effect... oh, I'll just watch _one_ more! And the TV's pretty decent, in general.

But SA's still home (although I've been told it takes a year for that to wear off). I know how everything works there, and I grew up there... it's home, basically. And my family's there, and I do miss them (and I feel a bit guilty because I know they miss me too). I phone home a lot, which is cool - with cheap phone calls, and email, and msn, it's like you're not that far away at all.

Walking around in London, you know that you're not going to run into anyone you know; if someone looks familiar, it's not going to be who you think it is. But it's not like I'm not forming any attachments here, and as much as I miss SA now, I know I'll miss London when I eventually go home (whenever that may be). I did hope that I'd meet more people here, and make more friends, but I guess I should have known better - I'm the same shy, not-very-outgoing, find-it-difficult-to-talk-to-people person that I was in SA, and being in a new country wouldn't change that. But I should make more of an effort to make friends with the people I do meet; although I still don't really know how to meet people.

I know, this is another monster-long post all about me - but then if you thought this blog was about something else, you didn't notice the title :D Some more techie stuff isn't coming, really, it just takes more effort than rambling on about myself! And really - if anyone reading this has any questions about living in London, especially coming from SA, post a comment and I'll do my best to answer. I've already written a bunch of stuff on moving to London for a friend of mine back in SA; I really should reformat it sometime and post it, since it might be useful to someone else sometime. I guess the biggest difference between SA and London is that there's just so much more here - more to do, more career opportunites, more everything.

Update: Other things I've thought of since I started this post - I miss my dog (well, my parents' dog, but still); there just aren't that many animals in London, and I miss that. And when I was saying about SA being home, and familiar - it's little things, like shopping centers, and the mountain and the sea (I miss them both!), and just the look of the houses and gardens and roads and pavements.

Bike Gear

I had great fun today - went out and bought some stuff for the bike :-) Boring stuff was a cover (since it's going into winter, and I'd hate to see it get ruined by rain - although a cover seems somewhat... I want to say geeky, but that's not quite right in the context); and a disc lock (along with one of those gizmos to hook on to the lock and the handlebars, so that you don't try to ride off with it still attached; a very important thing).

Cool stuff is my helmet - it's a Caberg Justissimo flip-front, black, with sunshades :-) Not so useful in the UK, I would have thought, but then I guess the weather can get pretty sunny even here. It's even treated with Sanitex, or something like that, which stops the growth of mold and bacteria; and the inner lining is removable and washable (although there was a rather bizzarre warning saying that petrol shouldn't be used to wash it). The padding is also supposed to be super cool and wickable, which can be quite important since your head gets really hot wearing a helmet at times.

The other cool thing is my jacket - it's truly awesome. It's a Spyke, black, with a removeable inner lining (which can be worn as a jacket on its own, if you don't mind wearing silver). It's really comfortable, and it's got shoulder armour as well as elbow and forearm armour, and it's got a 3M reflective strip so it'll be nice and visible in the dark. And pockets! It's got two inner zip pockets, about 6 outer zip pockets, and 2 inner pockets, a chest pocket, and a sleeve pocket in the lining as well. It's got a velcro covered main zip, so rain won't get in, and adjustable arms and sides and adjustable velcro closings on the neck It's even got a removable hood, also with an adjustable velcro closing on the neck. And it's a nice plain black/charcoal colour, so you can easily wear it almost as a normal jacket (the problem always is, when riding somewhere, what do you do with your jacket when you get there? but this one you can wear).

Umm, what else? Guess that's all I bought; this was all from Motoden, by the way, which is an excellent place. I impressed the hell out of the sales guy when I told him what I'm riding :D, and apparently they're quite happy to do services on grey imports, which is great. They're a bit far away, but they seem a lot more professional than the little bike places around here, and I trust them a lot more. So far, anyway :-)

Haven't bought a GPS unit yet - it's going to take a bit of getting used to riding the new bike, since it's a totally different riding position from the Hipster, so I don't really need the GPS unit yet. I want to get the TomTom Rider, since it's the only one I know of that's specifically designed for bikes, and it's got very good reviews. I shopped around for it a bit yesterday, and it seems like prices vary from £250 (but they don't actually have stock) up to £540 online. Most places seem to charge about £350.

Woohoo!

Got my internet access set up! I ended up getting a Netgear DG834PN, which was really simple to set up and seems to work really well. Not that my flat is all that big, but it's split-level, and after the problems I had with signal at my last place, I really wanted to get a wireless router that wouldn't have a problem with walls and floors. The Netgear is a MIMO router, so it dynamically configures its 6 internal aerials to give the best signal - don't ask me how it does that, but it does, and so far it works well. Next step is to set up my camera and phone to use the new access point, and then all my gadgets can talk to my laptop whereever they are in the house :D (if only I could charge my laptop wirelessly, it would be perfect....)

Actually, it's the connection isn't 100% - it drops the connection for a second every now and then, but I assume that's just because it's still in the 10 day figure-out-the-best-speed period. And it's not terribly noticeable, except on msn, but it will get annoying if it carries on, I guess.

And also woohoo, I bought a bike yesterday! A beautiful Honda VFR400R NC24, in really good condition (at least, I think so, but for all that I've been riding for 8 years I still know nothing mechanical):

Haven't got it yet - the guy's going to bring it round Monday evening, since I'm really not comfortable riding it yet (very different riding style from what I'm used to), and I don't know the London roads at all. And I don't have a helmet... so tomorrow I'm going out shopping for a helmet, and a jacket, and I guess gloves as well, and a cover, since it's going into winter and I don't want the bike to get too rained on, and a lock, and a gps unit (TomTom Rider) so I can actually go places and know where I'm going.... it's an expensive business :-) Insurance was quite difficult - most quotes cost more than the bike did, and it was difficult to get anyone who'll insure a grey import. But I got it sorted, so everything's going well.

But for now, I'm off to bed - it's been a really exhausting week, and I'm soooo tired. But happy :D Out of the three 'b's, I have 'broadband', I have 'bike', and now I just need to work on 'boyfriend'... ;)