Cetero censeo "authored" delendam esse

Large furnished double room (4.20m x 3.20m) in clean comfortable Victorian terraced house with lovely garden. Shared fitted kitchen/diner, bath and shower, garden.
1 months deposit and 1 months rent in advance. The rent is inclusive of all bills (council tax, water, electricity, gas, broadband connection, petty cash expenses ...) so the total amount is £460.00 per month.
The house is situated in Tottenham Hale (7 mns from tube station) and has very good transport connections to the city (liverpool street 15 mns by train) west end (25 mns) and is fairly close to Stoke Newington (20 mns by bus).
The room is a big room with laminated wooden floor.
It was redecorated fairly recently. It has a double bed, a wardrobe and a chest of drawers and if you need one it can also have a television.
You would be sharing with two gay men and a bi female who all harmoniously get along.
A fairly mature, reliable person, reasonably clean and tidy, who can be sociable but also enjoy his or her own space would be ideal for this room.
The moving date is negotiable.
There are some pictures as well:
one two three.

I should add that I'm posting this on behalf of my gf :-)

(Edit: added room size, lowered asked rent)
(Edit: gone)

Due to all the talk about dreamwidth, I got an OpenID login there, which today I could upgrade to a pre-beta real account. And now they've given out some more invite codes. So I've got one... anyone wants to use it?

Edit: it's gone.

Recently I've started to notice that the irritating concept "pingback" has started to invade livejournal. Here you are, reading someone's post, and the replies to it, and then in the middle of the first sentence of one of the replies you notice that it isn't a reply at all, just a couple of sentence fragments from some other person who happened to read the same post and decided to link to it. Bah. Sometimes it even gets so bad that you have to search for the real replies in between all the junk. I don't like pingbacks.

Next chapter in the saga of transport troubles.

Monday.

I am about to travel home from London, while there is a few cm of snow in the streets. About 10, as far as I have seen. Not really an insane amount, I would say, but the Britons think it is the worst in 18 years. Therefore the Stansted Express (and all other trainlines) immediately stops operating. Some flights are cancelled in the morning and afternoon, but not mine, which is in the evening at 21:20.
Looking at relevant websites about every 5 minutes, at some point the Stansted Express starts operating again with half the trains. Then a short time later my flight gets cancelled. Of the (at least) 3 different information systems run by Ryanair that know about such things, the rebooking site is the last to know, but eventually I manage to move my flight to tuesday. Fortunately for free, since by now the fare is € 199,99 (+ tax). Fortunately I don't mind staying another day with Isabelle.

Tuesday.

Half the snow has disappeared, and no new snow has fallen, at least where I was.
Since the trains are still running at half capacity, I decide to take an hour more time than I usually do: I leave 3 hours before flight departure time, for a train trip to Stansted Airport that normally takes just a bit over half an hour. The 18:22 train is a few minutes late (no biggie) and then is stuck behind a slow train for a while (no biggie either - I have plenty of time). After about 50 minutes, about 5 minutes before the airport, there is an announcement that there may be a points failure up ahead and there may be some delay. The train stops. And waits.
And waits.
Now and then there is an announcement that engineers are on their way to fix the point, then that they had arrived, then that they were working. I don't know what they would do, but I would expect a gas heater to thaw the ice and a hammer to get the moving rails moving. In any case, no progress.
By then we had been there for more than an hour (2 hours into the journey) and the time of 20:20 (being the last reasonable time to get through security and not miss the boarding call) was approaching... and passing.
New announcements were made, almost inaudibly, about something with a replacement bus service. Very useful.
More announcement. The plan was to drive the train back a bit to some obscure small station (must have been Elsenham), where we would get out, cross a footbridge, enter another train which would bring us to Bisshop's Stortford, where the replacing bus service would operate. Great. But nothing moved yet.
More new announcement. It would be quicker to move the train backwards to Audley End, then go forward again and change tracks, to get to Bisshop's Stortford. The weird thing is, that looking on that map, we were going past the airport towards Cambridge, and then back past it again towards London.
Finally around 20:30 some guy with a rucksack and a jacket with the logo of the previous train operating company passed through the train, and it started moving back. A while later, it went forward. And we got to Bisshop's Stortford. Some people were running towards the few taxis that were there.
By this time I was quite sure I had missed my flight, and I was wondering how to get back to London. I supposed I might as well go to to the airport on the bus, in the hope that there would be better transport for that purpose, and I could rebook my flight again. Or it could be cancelled, I hoped for that, since it would save me a lot of money.
At 21:05 I finally entered the terminal building. I looked at the flight departure boards. There were just a few flights remaining. Mine said "Estimated 22:35". A miracle had happened! Suddenly I had plenty of time.
Security was fairly fast since there was almost nobody to check anymore (of course they closed almost all lanes), although some italian woman in front of me seemed to have her suitcase full of liquids. Dangerous, you know, liquids.
I made my way to gate 54, which is about as far away as you can walk. The other piers are served by a little train to save you some trouble, but the cheap one isn't. I got there at around 21:25.
People were waiting here, obviously for a while. Outside was a parked plane, but it was dark and nothing was happening. We were waiting for an incoming plane, and someone knew (somehow) that it was really the crew of that plane we were waiting for, and that we'd fly with the plane that was already there. Well, it was nice of them to wait for me, but as far as I was concerned we might as well leave now. Of course no such thing happened.
About 22:20. A plane arrived. People got off. The cabin crew went over to the other plane. Boarding started, people walked to the plane, walked up the stairs and got in. Then they started to pile up in front of the stairs, and even got out of the plane again. Of course nobody knew what was going on, but the crew invited people inside the terminal building again since it was cold outside. Time passed. I was at the front of the boarding queue.
Crew went back to the original plane. People went inside original plane. Boarding continued. Departure procedures started. People were counted. People were counted. People were counted. People were counted. People were counted. It was announced that there was one person too many on board, and if the passenger who wanted to go somewhere else than Weeze (NRN) would kindly leave the plane, since it would not otherwise depart. Ground crew came in and checked off all boarding passes on a list. Somehow this resolved the problem, since to my knowledge noone was thrown off the plane.
Finally we left. (Past) 23:30 I think by now. I adjusted my watch to CET: 0:30. This was the time my shuttle bus was leaving. I wondered if it would wait; normally it will wait a bit for the last flight, but a full hour...
It was announced that the visibility at Weeze wasn't very good, and that the other plane didn't have an automatic landing system, while this one had. That was why the pilot (or whoever) preferred this plane.
At about 10 to 1, the captain made an announcement. He had bad news. More bad news? It didn't seem possible. However, Weeze airport didn't want to keep its runway open past 1 o'clock, and since we wouldn't be able to make that, we could not land there. We would divert to the nearest airport that would have us, which would likely be Frankfurt Hahn. That caused quite a panic! The crew was friendly but didn't know anything more than we had just heard. Nearby, a blond girl who had her boyfriend waiting at Weeze already asked what he should do. Nobody knew for sure. There would probably be a bus of some sort.
Frankfurt Hahn is nowhere near Weeze. Nor is it very close to Frankfurt. More or less like Weeze isn't close to Düsseldorf.
Time passed. It was dark outside. Stranded in the air, it felt like.
We landed somewhere. 1:30 or later. It was indeed Frankfurt Hahn. As we clustered in the Arrivals hall, nobody of Ryanair was available, as is their standard tactic. You cannot complain anywhere, not via the website or via email. You can only call (expensive!) call centers or send a fax to somewhere in Ireland. Here we had only one lady behind the airport information desk. She thought there would be a bus to bring us to Weeze. It would be there in about 15 minutes. Of course it took a lot longer. There was nothing to eat or drink. The cash machine didn't want to let my card in.
The crew appeared. They were going somewhere. Some people started to talk (or argue) with them. While this was going on, 2 coaches appeared. Everybody went in, and after a while they left. 2:20.
We started out with a nice tour of the airport. It looked like this was also a former military airport, since they had bomb shelters for aircraft. The area is very nice looking, I'm sure, but we didn't see much of it, since it was dark. I tried to sleep but that isn't very easy sitting up, even if there is plenty of room.
The drive was 3 hours and 10 minutes, and with exactly 6 hours delay we arrived at Weeze Airport at 5:30. Which is not a place where you want to be at such a time, since it is in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, the girl's boyfriend had slept in his car, was still there, and was prepared to give me and some other guy a lift to Nijmegen central station, where my bike was.
I arrived home around 6:45.
I was so tired I couldn't even sleep for a while, and I woke up too early too.

Today one of the books that I ordered at Lulu.com arrived. Lulu is a print-on-demand publisher, so this book was printed specifically for me. It works fairly fast too; I ordered them on christmas eve, and I received notice that they were shipped last monday 5 january.
Why I didn't receive both of them at the same time is slightly strange. I had ordered them separately because I was expecting shipment from the USA; instead this one (the one I paid in US dollars) was shipped from Eastbourne (Great Britain).
It makes a lot of sense to actually print the books close to the destination, but it makes the shipping fee of $11,38 even more ridiculous than it already is. People on the Lulu message boards indeed complain a lot about this.
Only after ordering the first book I noticed that one can select prices in Euros - it only works if you enable Javascript, which was needed at some point in the paying procedure. So the second book I paid for in Euros. The shipping here cost € 8,43, which is pretty much the same given the exchange rate.
The actual postage on my shipping is £ 3,62 which is actually only € 4,08.
I haven't actually read the book yet, but it looks well printed. I chose for the hardcover edition because (due to the high shipping) it was relatively not much more expensive overall. It is one story from volume 12 of the Vance Integral Edition. This was a one-time publication of all of Jack Vance's works. I still don't understand how I have been able to miss it when I could still subscribe. It was rather expensive but I would have liked to subscribe anyway. Edition Andreas Irle is reprinting some of the volumes "on demand", but that is really going too slowly for my tastes. There is some talk of a "Massive Vance" edition, printing all VIE texts (? I hope) in three massive volumes. I hope the result of that is sufficiently readable and durable, but it may be the only real option there is left.
The paper size of Bad Ronald is somewhat larger than of EAI's Lyonesse editions. The letters are somewhat larger too, I think it is a bit easier on the eyes this way.
Now, I'm off to read :-)

Edit: today, monday the 12th, Space Opera arrived.

http://www.genderanalyzer.com/

We guess rhialto is written by a woman (50%), however it's quite gender neutral.

( Silly meme )
How much is ###? Buffer overflow?
I'm hungry, and the city waits...

I've been asking a number of dutch computer shops, since they started advertising the Eee 901 with ms-windows, when they are going to offer the Linux version.
There are 2 reasons I want the Linux version: I don't want a single cent of my money to end up at Microsoft, and it has a bigger SSD.
The ones that replied (Not the smallest chains! Computerland and MyCom) said that they had no plans to do so.
Are all those shops really so mindboggling stupid, or are they just pretending?
According to The Register, in the UK the Linux version is outselling the MSWindows version.

I have been somewhat unsatisfied with my fitness recently, so I decided it was time to do some exercise. This is nice to combine with some cheap shopping for rum: the Aldi in Kranenburg has cheap rum and peppermint tea (which tends to be expensive here, for some reason, if you can even find it).
My bike has just been repaired (new chain and cogwheels; they weren't gripping properly anymore), and with properly pumped up tires, fresh brakes, the saddle set to a good position again, and 2 apples and self-made energy drink (tea with sugar), I undertook my trip.
I wanted to show the approximate route with google maps (warning: may require javascript) but it doesn't seem to know the border crossing which is visible on the map, so it shows a weird detour.
The part "Oude Kleefsebaan" is very good exercise since it is a hill. Yes, a hill. It belongs to the village "Berg en Dal" (Mountain and Valley). The highest point of the trip is in that village, so once you get there, the rest of the trip is easy. And again on the way back.
The trip out took me about 50 minutes (including some short rests), and back about 60. Now I have sufficient rum, tea, and After Eights for a while :-)

Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 21:05:21 +0200
From: Olaf Seibert <rhialto@...nl>
Subject: Complaint and demand for refund
To: nxea.customerrelations@nationalexpress.com

Sir, Madam,

I am writing you to express my extreme displeasure about your Stansted Express service.

Yesterday, monday 26 may 2008, I had to take your 17.36 service from Tottenham Hale to Stansted Airport, for which I had already purchased a return ticket.

During the day I had checked several times on your website, www.stanstedexpress.com, which each time proclaimed "All services are currently running normally." I have checked this up to approximately 20 minutes before the scheduled departure.

Upon arriving at Tottenham Hale station, I discovered it locked and out of service. This had obviously been the case for some time.

According to a bus driver on the bus service to and from Seven Sisters, there were no trains from Seven Sisters either.

Faced with this lack of options, and unable to spend much time on trying to find out the situation at Seven Sisters in more detail, I was forced to use a minicab for transportation to Stansted Airport, which cost £ 40,00.

Due to your deliberate misinformation of your passengers (i.e., me), you are liable for your incorrect information and its consequences. I expect you to promptly credit my Dutch bank account (details below) with the equivalent of £ 40,00 (at least EUR 50,33).

In addition, I would like to note that on a similar service, several weeks ago, the train was literally chock full of football supporters, and not a single extra passenger could squeeze aboard. I myself was forced to balance between and to lean on other passengers for a significant amount of time, much to their (and my) displeasure, and obviously no seat was available.

I expect better service for your extortionate fares. I have made a quick calculation which has shown me that for instance the luxurious Eurostar trains are far cheaper than the Stansted Express by several factors, so I expect commensurate service from you, or a fare which is in line with the quality of your rickety old rolling stock.

Kind regards,
me
The Netherlands.