i accidentally paid my rent twice this month - once by transfer on the friday, then an invisible direct debit came out the monday after (it doesn't show up on your account until after the first payment comes out, so how are you meant to be able to be sure if it's set up or not?) thus i incur another 25 pound 'informal over draft arrangemt' fee, along with a letter to the same effect.
i figure, i'll call them up, say if they don't cancel the charge, i'll switch my account away and close it... as soon as i've paid them back the money i owe them.
and i realised how futile that is. i realised how it was absolutely in their interest to keep me on the edge of my overdraft, they get to keep charging me interest, they keep getting to charge me overdrawn payments. we haven't got the same goal at all. damn.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Friday, October 05, 2007
Thursday, October 04, 2007
being sucked in again
i remember speaking to someone - a nice guy - a couple of weeks ago. he spoke, i listened, i disagreed, and now i realise, looking back, i was disagreeing for the wrong reason. here's how our conversation went.
he said that, since plastic bags barely contributed to your carbon footprint, so recycling them was a waste of time. i said, well however little they matter, if you go around with the attitude of changing your habits and being enviro-conscious, it would have an impact.
i should have said, there's more to the environment than just c02, plastic bags are full of poisons, it's idiotically wasteful to throw something away that can be reused, just because it's cheap and labelled 'disposable', if it takes centuries to rot. plus they're ugly.
all of this was out of my mind due to his unintentional misdirection. i'll try not to let it happen again.
he said that, since plastic bags barely contributed to your carbon footprint, so recycling them was a waste of time. i said, well however little they matter, if you go around with the attitude of changing your habits and being enviro-conscious, it would have an impact.
i should have said, there's more to the environment than just c02, plastic bags are full of poisons, it's idiotically wasteful to throw something away that can be reused, just because it's cheap and labelled 'disposable', if it takes centuries to rot. plus they're ugly.
all of this was out of my mind due to his unintentional misdirection. i'll try not to let it happen again.
this joke is sponored by sam smiths pubs
bloke walks into the white horse in soho. he goes up to the bar and orders a bottle of oatmeal stout and a glass. he asks the barman to pour it for him.
"fair enough mate," says the barman, and as he pours it asks "what's up with your hand?"
the bloke's hand is a large oblong mass of iron. he says, "well i work as a blacksmith, see, and i lost my hand in a greeting accident. what with my work, it seemed to make sense to have it replaced with this here mallett."
at some point a wealthy cockney jeweller has walked in, spotted the bloke, and is not even trying to contain his excitement. he spritely walks up to the bloke and says "you! your 'and! i'll give you anything for it - 6 million pound! 10 million pound!"
"what - for this?" replies the bloke. "how come?"
the jeweller, gesticulating wildly, says, "it's the biggest 'ammer-fist i've ever seen!"
...and the joke is on sam smiths, because they don't advertise.
"fair enough mate," says the barman, and as he pours it asks "what's up with your hand?"
the bloke's hand is a large oblong mass of iron. he says, "well i work as a blacksmith, see, and i lost my hand in a greeting accident. what with my work, it seemed to make sense to have it replaced with this here mallett."
at some point a wealthy cockney jeweller has walked in, spotted the bloke, and is not even trying to contain his excitement. he spritely walks up to the bloke and says "you! your 'and! i'll give you anything for it - 6 million pound! 10 million pound!"
"what - for this?" replies the bloke. "how come?"
the jeweller, gesticulating wildly, says, "it's the biggest 'ammer-fist i've ever seen!"
...and the joke is on sam smiths, because they don't advertise.
Monday, October 01, 2007
the fiasco
wednesday night was euros childs; once again i didn't go. the real tradgedy is the lack of the gorky's forum; i'm sure i'd have been egged into going by strangers on the internet if that had still been operative. which reminds me, must get that gorky's family tree sorted.
thursday i was meant to be meeting aaron mcmullen, which would have been nice. i looked for a decent eastend pub on beer in the evening (dot com) and found the wenlock arms (dot co dot uk) near old street. having ran out of energon cubes at a crucial point, i nipped round rachel's after work, and got unexpectedly fed a proper meal with her dad and his wife. to whom i bequeathed a good puzzle off the xkcd forums, to which i have laurence to thank for pointing me to. he gave me a puzzle which he gave me far too big a clue for, but if he hadn't, i don't think i'd have got it because of the technology i'm used to. then i hightailed it back out, met adrian, michelle, and a friend of michelle's in the pub, to which aaron unfortunately never made it. the wenlock is a remarkable place; an 'old man pub', as michelle's friend put it, at the top of her voice, daubing us all with the pooey stick. a drunk old grey haired man was wandering about singing smiths songs, with remarkable accuaracy and length, while supergrass's innit for the money played in it's entirity in the background and a jolly looking quiz master set up. i'm not even getting to the endless line of handpumped real ales they had lining the bar.
so friday i was knackered - work and a full week of socialising. by the time i got home and et, i couldn't face heading out again to the roaring spectacle of central london on a friday night, and ultimately 'oh my god i miss you!' at the other sid eof town (bethnal green, actually) for michelle's official leaving do. failing even to meet up for a post rehearsal drink with girls girls girls, i was falling asleep at home when i realised i said i'd meet rachel outside the jonna newsom gig, since i had planned on being in town; i set off, and ultimately returned to the tube empty handed since by the time i'd got to edgeware road she was out and at the tube and it was just quicker to meet back at willesden green. the excercise took an hour and 15 minutes. this is why london sucks.
saturday i had planned on going to brighton to see everyone, pick up my qy70 from the old house, go to veggie shoes, and so on. it got to one o'clock, i'd just finished watching trapped in the closet through with rachel, who can explain it's shortcomings better than me. we took in a classic episode of fry and laurie too. so there we were, one o'clock, and part of the brighton plan had already fallen through - i'd pulled out of rach and robin's sukkot party because she had to come to london instead, so i signed up for jo's birthday meal instead. so here we were, at home, and it's seven hours before i have to be in dalston, and my auntie says to give up. so the plan changes, rachel will take her foot and herself home and i stopped off in camden to buy some shoes. and buy some shoes i did! from a shop called, according to my bank statement, scorpion, where i went in and asked if they had anything leather-free, and you know, i think i just got the right man, because he directed me to these very nice, vegan, on sale shoes, made by a company called macbeth. they were half price down from 45, and he called it 20 because one of the insoles was a little too big. stick that up your 65 quid arse, vegetarian shoes in brighton. i was thinking about blackspotting them, but rachel asked why i would blackspot a vegan brand? it's a difficult predicament ain't that the truth.
jo's meal was a fine affair at 'lmnt' (erroneously pronounced, i imagine, as 'element'). this place is like a missing section of the crystal maze, and i mean it actually is like that, the missing egyptian zone. it's got table on top of other tables, tables in pots, it's a little adventure world, and antique porn in the toilets. to be honest, it's a shame about the food. the mushroom starter, a little stack, was nice if light, but the main course, one of two veggie options was some crappy pasta bake. at least it actually had pieces of vegetables in, and it was fairly tasty, but not really up to the 9 quid i paid for it. i guess that's novelty restaurant prices. in the end a 21 pound meal at a fascinating place. maybe if you're the type of idiot who thinks it's ok to eat meat then you'd have a good feed, yeah you've got it fucking made haven't you. then we went out to the jazz bar, a strange, waiting-room style, well-stocked bar, packed to the brim - fortunately for everyone they banned indoor smoking because i don't know how all those addicts would fit inside too. so we hung around, danced a bit, and they played all the songs rachel said they would, so i can't imagine why people would go. 'to socialise' you might say, but who wants to do that when you could be at a decent night club? if there is such a thing.
sunday, after attempting to rescue a cat from a building site and a nice fry up, i headed off to brighton. i went down, i got there at four. i went to meet jess in queen's park and saw a woman with two ferrets on leads. the ferrets were ignoring her as much as a tied animal can do. jess came up with stompy, a very handsome hound, and we sat and talked for a merry hour, watching the dogs play. then i went to pick up my package, grabbed a grub's mango chilli burger, caught the 6 o clock back up. at 8 i was at london bridge, having missed dan by a whisker, and from there i came home. picked up some booze, and introduced michelle to munchkin. and also, &c.
candles are great.
thursday i was meant to be meeting aaron mcmullen, which would have been nice. i looked for a decent eastend pub on beer in the evening (dot com) and found the wenlock arms (dot co dot uk) near old street. having ran out of energon cubes at a crucial point, i nipped round rachel's after work, and got unexpectedly fed a proper meal with her dad and his wife. to whom i bequeathed a good puzzle off the xkcd forums, to which i have laurence to thank for pointing me to. he gave me a puzzle which he gave me far too big a clue for, but if he hadn't, i don't think i'd have got it because of the technology i'm used to. then i hightailed it back out, met adrian, michelle, and a friend of michelle's in the pub, to which aaron unfortunately never made it. the wenlock is a remarkable place; an 'old man pub', as michelle's friend put it, at the top of her voice, daubing us all with the pooey stick. a drunk old grey haired man was wandering about singing smiths songs, with remarkable accuaracy and length, while supergrass's innit for the money played in it's entirity in the background and a jolly looking quiz master set up. i'm not even getting to the endless line of handpumped real ales they had lining the bar.
so friday i was knackered - work and a full week of socialising. by the time i got home and et, i couldn't face heading out again to the roaring spectacle of central london on a friday night, and ultimately 'oh my god i miss you!' at the other sid eof town (bethnal green, actually) for michelle's official leaving do. failing even to meet up for a post rehearsal drink with girls girls girls, i was falling asleep at home when i realised i said i'd meet rachel outside the jonna newsom gig, since i had planned on being in town; i set off, and ultimately returned to the tube empty handed since by the time i'd got to edgeware road she was out and at the tube and it was just quicker to meet back at willesden green. the excercise took an hour and 15 minutes. this is why london sucks.
saturday i had planned on going to brighton to see everyone, pick up my qy70 from the old house, go to veggie shoes, and so on. it got to one o'clock, i'd just finished watching trapped in the closet through with rachel, who can explain it's shortcomings better than me. we took in a classic episode of fry and laurie too. so there we were, one o'clock, and part of the brighton plan had already fallen through - i'd pulled out of rach and robin's sukkot party because she had to come to london instead, so i signed up for jo's birthday meal instead. so here we were, at home, and it's seven hours before i have to be in dalston, and my auntie says to give up. so the plan changes, rachel will take her foot and herself home and i stopped off in camden to buy some shoes. and buy some shoes i did! from a shop called, according to my bank statement, scorpion, where i went in and asked if they had anything leather-free, and you know, i think i just got the right man, because he directed me to these very nice, vegan, on sale shoes, made by a company called macbeth. they were half price down from 45, and he called it 20 because one of the insoles was a little too big. stick that up your 65 quid arse, vegetarian shoes in brighton. i was thinking about blackspotting them, but rachel asked why i would blackspot a vegan brand? it's a difficult predicament ain't that the truth.
jo's meal was a fine affair at 'lmnt' (erroneously pronounced, i imagine, as 'element'). this place is like a missing section of the crystal maze, and i mean it actually is like that, the missing egyptian zone. it's got table on top of other tables, tables in pots, it's a little adventure world, and antique porn in the toilets. to be honest, it's a shame about the food. the mushroom starter, a little stack, was nice if light, but the main course, one of two veggie options was some crappy pasta bake. at least it actually had pieces of vegetables in, and it was fairly tasty, but not really up to the 9 quid i paid for it. i guess that's novelty restaurant prices. in the end a 21 pound meal at a fascinating place. maybe if you're the type of idiot who thinks it's ok to eat meat then you'd have a good feed, yeah you've got it fucking made haven't you. then we went out to the jazz bar, a strange, waiting-room style, well-stocked bar, packed to the brim - fortunately for everyone they banned indoor smoking because i don't know how all those addicts would fit inside too. so we hung around, danced a bit, and they played all the songs rachel said they would, so i can't imagine why people would go. 'to socialise' you might say, but who wants to do that when you could be at a decent night club? if there is such a thing.
sunday, after attempting to rescue a cat from a building site and a nice fry up, i headed off to brighton. i went down, i got there at four. i went to meet jess in queen's park and saw a woman with two ferrets on leads. the ferrets were ignoring her as much as a tied animal can do. jess came up with stompy, a very handsome hound, and we sat and talked for a merry hour, watching the dogs play. then i went to pick up my package, grabbed a grub's mango chilli burger, caught the 6 o clock back up. at 8 i was at london bridge, having missed dan by a whisker, and from there i came home. picked up some booze, and introduced michelle to munchkin. and also, &c.
candles are great.
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