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Thursday 20 November 2008
Yet More Gay Marriage
I've remarked before how amazed I am by the fact that the issue of gay marriage seems to have come to the fore in so many places around the world in such a short preiod of time. I still don't understand how countries with such disparate cultures and perspectives can all be reaching the point where it becomes an issue in the space of the same year (though obviously global media coverage helps create some of the impetus itself). But now throwing their hat into the ring comes Spain, announcing that they expect gay marriage to be a reality there as soon as next year. Of course I'm *shocked* that the Catholic Church isn't happy. They're usually such positive supporters of a tolerant and equitable society.
Have Passport, Can Travel
I can't remember if I mentioned it, but according to the original plan, I was going to be in San Francisco for work all last week. That had to be changed for various reasons and I'm now going the week commencing Monday 11th of next month. However, because of that, I end up travelling within three months of the expiry of my old passport, which means I can't use the US Visa Waiver scheme. So it's time to get a new passport.
*However* - I'm going to Barcelona this coming weekend, so I couldn't send it off to get a new one in case it didn't get back to me in time. And so I threw myself on the tender mercies of the Passport Office's Fast Track application process. I had a 7.45am appointment to submit the application and then theoretically it would be available for collection four hours after that was accepted. I was taking a chance that they'd agree with me about my appearance being sufficiently unchanged that I didn't need to have my photos counter-signed, and there was a nasty moment where it looked like the person taking my application was going to kick off about it, but she didn't.
And astonishingly, I have to report that when i went back to try and collect it about four and a half hours later, there it was. After some of my recent experiences with one process or another (the Amazon saga continues), I'm utterly stunned that the one I was expecting the least of is the one that delivered exactly according to promise.
What is the world coming to?
Battlefront
The other thing that we did over the weekend (though truthfully, one of us did it a *lot* more than the other), is play Star Wars: Battlefront, which was released on Friday. I keep suprising myself lately by being more into things I'd usually have no time for than I ever expect (I call it The David Effect), and this is a prime example. It uses various conflict scenes from the films (Hoth, Endor, etc) as well as some that didn't actually see combat (Tatooine for instance), and gives you the opportunity to choose which side of the battle you are, and what kind of soldier from that side.
And then you blast hell out of everything that's not on your side.
It's *incredibly* satisfying.
And you can play it over X-Box Live against or alongside other people online.
We wasted more than a little time on that, I'm slightly ashamed to say..
Woar!
In a desperate attempt to get out and do something with yesterday, we went to the cinema (I know - radical), and I'm very pleased that we did. Hero, Zhang Yimou's 'new' film (actually two years old) is utterly amazing. A story of pre-unification China, the clever and complex story is impressive enough, but the visuals are simply stunning. Battles taking place in a leaf-filled clearing, on a lake, in a rain-soaked chess hall, all of them astonishing to watch, but some of the closer-up moments are every bit as intense.
David noted that for something like that, art-house is better than multiplex, because clearly there were people there who didn't 'get' the conventions and the style. Still, worth seeing wherever you can. Massively recommended.
Rugger Buggered
Meant to mention - the atmosphere in The Cork last night was slightly marred by the very loud table of five blokes who were behaving in best stereotype rugger bugger manner - lots of faux aggression, lots of drinking and shouting, and a general willingness to whip their dicks out at a moment's notice and feign shagging each other. All in an entirely heterosexual manner of course.
Most peculiar. I've never entirely got what that kind of behaviour is all about. Several of my stepdad's brothers were in a rugby team and would take any opportunity to get naked with each other, and likewise some of the very, very straight men in my sporty hall of residence at university.
Bonkers.
They're Back....
....And this time, they're married.
Dave and Octavia got back from their honeymoon yesterday, so the Cork and Bottle beckoned for a glass or three and a catch-up. The trip appears to have had its ups and downs, which Dave will no doubt expand upon in due course.
Now, what about some wedding photos then?
It's Official
Parcelforce have now definitively confirmed that they have absolutely no idea where the package is. I have to get on to Amazon for a replacement and they (Amazon) will have to claim for the original from Parcelforce. It's unreal how their supposedly sophisticated system can fall apart so badly.
So let's see what happens regarding the replacement.
More Grrrr
Back to the subject of my missing Amazon order:
I just spoke to the Parcelforce 'Helpline', who told me that they have no idea where my package is, they'll have to put a trace on it and with luck I'll hear back within 48 hours. "Okay?" "Well no, not really - it's hardly okay that a package I've paid for that was sent out through your 1 day service seems to have vanished without a trace. I thought your entire system was supposed to promise complete trackability of the packages that go into it?" "Well I'm just a call centre, so I can't go looking for it for you."
Time for a sternly-worded letter of complaint I think.
*Apparently....*
.... and don't tell anyone I told you so; Pro-hunting protesters are going to topple the government.
It must be true, because Brian Ferry's ex-wife said so, and she's very angry, and so are thousands of others.
I'm fascinated to know what she's planning on replacing it with.
Wedding Photos?
So did anybody at Dave and Octavia's wedding actually have memory cards in their cameras, I wonder? I've never seen so many flashes going off at a cake-cutting, but none of the people there seem to have put any of them online. I obviously was a bit preoccupied, so I didn't bother with taking my camera along, but I know other people did. Anyone? Bueller?
And speaking of the groom, we had a postcard from him at work this morning sent last Wednesday noting that he hadn't touched a computer since Sunday - a new personal best. Given what I'm hoping is a serious lack of computers in the hotel in Mauritius, I think that personal best may now be well and truly unbeatable.
Grrrr
So we watched Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope last night from David's DVD set. I hate that Mr Lucas is messing with my childhood memories like this. I get that the way he's integrated the 'Special Edition' footage is very clever (mostly), but nothing is added to the story by adding a load of fussy extra details to the backgrounds.
And I'm shocked by how shoddy the packaging is considering the build-up it's had. I guess it's because they know full well that everyone is going to buy it anyway regardless of the crappy box, *diabolically* bad individual sleeve imagery, and comedy certification details ('contains mild sci-fi action'). (Yes I know that last one's a totally separate issue, but I had to get it in somewhere.)
Delivery Hell
In Dave's absence, it seems only right that I take up his mantle and bitch about the diabolical levels of service that so-called service companies offer. Right now I'm being held waiting for two fairly significant deliveries and not only do I not know when they'll be with me, I don't even know with any certainty where they are or who's going to be responsible for getting them to me.
One is from Amazon (I'll tell you what it is when it gets here), and it was apparently dispatched last week. David's similar package, ordered within ten minutes of mine and to be delivered to me on his behalf, dispatched the same day as mine, arrived on Monday. The fact that Amazon don't standardly include a Royal Mail or Parcelforce tracking reference in their dispatch confirmation pages doesn't help, as I had to complete their 'we'll aim to get back to you within 24 hours' mail to ask for one, as of course you can't just pick up the phone and talk to a human being at Amazon under any circumstances. I now have my tracking number, so it's over to Parcelforce, whose online tracking facility tells me that it's 'in progress', but not where it is or how I can get it. So I've had to fill in a form on their site to ask where my quite expensive item has got to. I await their (no-response-time-specified) answer with keen interest.
In the meantime, last week I had a letter saying that a credit card I'm awaiting had been delivered a week earlier, but it hadn't been possible to actually hand it over. Note that this card is coming to work, so it's not as if it's likely that an office which has people in it from before 7am 'til after 7pm every day was quite so unattended as they suggest. Redelivery was scheduled for yesterday, so I dutifully left my passport on Reception in case I wasn't available to sign for the thing myself, but in the event the question never arose, because they didn't deliver the damn' thing. When I called this morning, after battling through their automated redelivery system that wouldn't let me get to a human being for over ten minutes, I finally found that "for some reason it didn't go out yesterday", but will be with me today. You've got to admire a system that thinks "for some reason" is a reasonable response to an enquiry.
I hate these things. Hate hate hate.
The Born-Again Busted Fan
Look, no one's more amazed by this than I am. Nor horrified if it comes to that, but I've been introduced to the Busted oeuvre, and it's amazed me to discover that I rather like quite a bit of it. Several of the tracks on A Present for Everyone are in fact quite cracking. Crashed The Wedding is a laugh of course, but the ones I really like are Over Now and Loner In Love. Though Fake wins a prize for being the first pop song I've heard of that details the singer's worry about his penis being too small.
Seriously - it's a surprisingly good and consistent listen.
And Another Thing
My dearly-beloved pointed me in the direction of A9 last week, and I'm rather liking it. A new search from the makers of Amazon, it will search the web, images, the IMDB, and a whole lot more besides. It also has a (browser-dependent) Diary in which Internet Explorer users (for the time being) can store searches and comment them for future reference.
Not at all a bad new searching experience.
What Would You Do?
If you found a camera memory card that someone had apparently lost in a taxi, and it contained a year's worth of their photos, what would be your first and most natural course of action?
You'd start a blog with them, posting one a day and creating a fictional journal entry to go with each one? Yes, I thought that's what you'd do.
What's that? That wouldn't be your initial and automatic reaction? But surely that's what anyone would do.
Truthfully, I'm not sure I believe this - it smacks a bit of tailor-made for a book to me - but it's entertaining reading here and there nonetheless.
I'm So Spoiled
David and I got back last night from the weekend away that was his birthday present to me, and it was pretty damn near perfect. He treated me to two nights at The Crown and Castle Hotel in Orford, in Suffolk. It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend - we ate dinner at the hotel both nights, Friday because we planned to, Saturday because once we got back in the early evening we just didn't want to go back out again. Sleeping late, breakfast and papers in bed, leisurely drives around the Suffolk countryside, a quick trip into Aldeburgh where David's colleague Andy was taking part in a sailing race, and walks along shingle beaches all went together to make a really, really excellent weekend.
So thank you fiancé.
Rumour Has It
That my domain might actually come back to life this afternoon, so I'm going to post a 'Hello, I'm still alive, even if my domain hasn't been" message.
You've got to love the whole scamming industry that is domain name registration. Okay so I missed the emails reminding me that it was due for renewal, so that's my own fault, but having put through the renewal last week, I wasn't expecting to have to call and find out what was going on today, nor to have to pay an extra £50 because of some change that's happened in the period between my renewal and today.
Unreal.
Shaun
Saw Shaun of the Dead for the first time last night, courtesy of David's DVD. Very well done, with some brilliantly funny bits and a very well-selected cast. Simon Pegg does a great job of outgrowing Spaced, and seeing Penelope Wilton surrounded by zombies makes me drool at the thought of her appearing in new Doctor Who next year.
Really glad I got to see it at last.
Post-Wedding
Well, the bride looked radiant, the groom almost started snuffling during his speech (wuss), everything went off without a bigger hitch than some temporarily-misplaced flowers, and apparently my speech wasn't wholly terrible.
Bit weird after so much build-up to think that it's over with now.
The Final Countdown
Dave and Octavia's wedding is at 4.30 tomorrow afternoon, so we're into the last 24 hours. What last-minute hitches have hit the event? Well, the bride's custom-made wedding ring was wrong, so a day-before-the-wedding replacement has had to be made - that sounds pretty good as these things go, wouldn't you say?
Anyway - tonight it's the last night of Dave's singlehood, so food and drink will be had. Tomorrow morning the groom and I are going to be shaved and massaged, and then I guess we might have some lunch before thinking about getting into our smart clobber for the main event.
And at some point I have to give a speech. Better think about writing one I suppose.
By The Way
Yesterday was my birthday, so I just want to say a big thanks to one and all for the cards, mails and greetings, and again say thanks to everyone who came along last Friday.
364 days until I turn 40.....
Road Rage
A couple of months ago I posted about a crap driver I encountered. The other evening I was going to do something similar but couldn't because of the domain lapse. Now I'm back, here it is - I've rarely been so angry behind the wheel.
As I occasionally have to, I was driving through Chelsea - along the King's Road to be specific. Ahead of me, a little old lady was waiting to cross the road - a quite classic little old lady in fact, small, white-haired, with a stick.
So I stopped to let her cross. But apparently, we don't stop for little old ladies any more. The white van behind me pulled out, drove past, and came within a hair's bredth of hitting her without even stopping, and the woman in the Merc behind him did the same. The old woman looked scared to death, and I just found myself yelling at the pair of them while they drove off. I couldn't believe how stupidly, dangerously impatient they were.
I didn't manage to get the number of the van, but I did get the Merc, so I have no hesitation in branding anonymous van driver and the woman who drives a dark blue Mercedes S320, licence plate K68 OGP as stupid, dangerous, inconsiderate fucks.
Before I was So Rudely Interrupted
Sorry about that - stupidly, I hadn't realised that the morawayoflife.org domain had had out-of-use email address as its admin contact, so I didn't get the reminders that it was due for renewal.
However, we are now renewed, and ready to fire again on all cylinders.
Normal service, etc etc.
Aftermath Too
The morning after the night before.
First off, a big thank you to everyone who came along last night - We'd catered for 50, but fortunately the amounts provided were generous, as I think the number of 'drop-ins' was fairly sizable. I hope everyone had a good time. I know I did. I got to see people I hadn't seen for a while, and also meet some more of David's friends, and generally chill after a pretty busy week.
For the first of these events in three years I didn't have my camera with me, but oddly, it was probably the least messy such event, so they'd have been very unincriminating for a change.
I also need to say thank you to everyone who brought cards and presents. We were *not* expecting any, and it was incredibly generous of people to bring them. There's now a cupboard in my flat that appears to be the unofficial overspill from the European Champagne Mountain.
That was a really great evening, and I thank everyone again.
And Yet
Here I am an hour later having been playing video games.
Okay, *now* I'm going to bed.
Aftermath
Well, that wasn't too bad, though I suspect that there will be a few sore heads in the morning. I was trying to pace, as it's the big birthday/engagement do tomorrow, and I don't want to flake too early.
Spam-Commenting Gits
Seventeen separate entries on here received a spam comment from the same place in a two minute rush last night. I hate people who do that. And how dim are they anyway? It's not like bloggers, by their nature, don't tend to check their sites quite regularly - of course they're going to spot the comments and delete them before any significant impact is had.
Courtesy of MT-Blacklist, three mouse clicks was all it took to ditch one of them and then use that one as the model to identify and eliminate the rest.
So that was all a bit pointless on their behalf, wasn't it?
Dave's Stag Too
In the interests of giving his dad a chance to go out for a few drinks with the gang, Dave has organised a night of revelry this evening, which is prefaced with a meeting at the wedding venue to sort out some last minute details and sample a bottle of champagne.
What a terrible evening it's obviously going to be....