I miss Muswell Hill

Much as I have moved from somewhere between zone 3 and 4, somewhere that will take me 45 mins to 1 hr by public transport to anywhere central in London. I still miss that place very much. I had many good years and many good times there. I guess the best time of my life in UK was spent there. It was like a quaint little town. It had everything that it needed to be self sufficent, even a multi-screend cinema.





Muswell Hill Broadway

Feeling a little cramped for space?

And if you always wondered why people would pay over £30 000 for a parking lot in Bloomsbury in Central London, Maybe this photo will help.






Parking must be such a HUGE shortage that they actually stuff 3 cars into one long lot, with some mechanical arm lifting the first car that parked deepest straight into air. And no, this is NOT a garage.

Hello Lover....

Was talking to an old friend about having wish lists online just now, so I went on to look for suitable *ahem* stores to set up a wish list. Too bad Selfridges does not do wish lists. Anyway, being a beliver of wish lists (read = greedy pig not shy to beg for stuff) I have started on my quest for christmas.

Meet my dream lover for this christmas (she's on 75% sale!!!!):






Keep your business and social life on track with the Sony PEG-NX73V Clié. The touch-sensitive colour LCD display and handwriting recognition software allow you to store essential notes, while a built-in camera captures still images and short movies. Inputting information is simple thanks to the integrated keyboard or using a stylus via the touch screen. With Bluetooth for wireless connectivity with other enabled devices and MP3 player.


Brand: Sony

Compatible Formats: Still image recording format: JPEG, Movie recording format: MPEG4

Dimensions: H132 x W72 x D22mm

Display: TFT touchscreen LCD display

Headphones: Yes with remote control

Input/Output: USB cradle, Infra Red

Memory: 32MB Flash memory

Memory Card: Memory Stick slot, Compact Flash card slot

Operating System: Palm OS v5.0

Processor: PXA263 200MHz processor

RAM: 16MB RAM memory (11MB available)

User Input: Jog dial navigation control

Weight: 230g

USB interface: Windows 98SE, 2000, ME, XP

Red Bull Power!

Just thought the Blog needed a bit of a photo spicing up. This was a photo taken at Euston Station of a "Mini Red Bull"

Two Minute Management Course :)))

Lesson One

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw
the eagle and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing?"
The eagle answered: "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below
the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit
and ate it.

Management Lesson #1 - To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting
very, very high up.


Lesson Two

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the
top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."
"Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull.
"They're packed with nutrients."

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough
strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating
some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night,
the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly
spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Management Lesson #2 - Bull shit might get you to the top, but it won't keep
you there.


Lesson Three

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze
and fell to the ground into a large field.

While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As
the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how
warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm
and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.

A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the
sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly
dug him out and ate him.


Management Lesson #3 -

(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
(3) And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

This ends your two minute management course.

Shopping Spree

Due to incidents with the washing machine last night and an expanding belly, I have managed to lose 2 pairs of trousers in less than a week.

Belly incident. It must have been expanding silently and I was not too acutely aware of it. May have something to do with all the recent eating out. The poor thread holding the button must have been under immense pressure that it just gave way. I can’t find the button and that is a little problem. To be honest, I dint think that that the pair of trousers was any bit of a tight fit. I have things that are still tighter than that, but that is no longer the point here. The button has popped while it was in the washer and I can’t find the button and there goes one pair of boring fuddley duddley M&S blue harbour trousers.

The second incident happened last night when I was just sending the cargo trousers to the wash and well, erm, it dint seem to agree with the machine’ quick wash cycle and well, some bits of the trousers have a little bit of an embarrassing hole. Not exactly something that can be fixed with a bit of needle and thread, but more of something not at the seams. Okay, there goes another pair.

Together with the other GAP Kaki that threw in the towel early in the month, I am, or should I say WAS only left with one lonely pair of trousers. Had a bit of a panic last night.

I just HAD to get more trousers soon, just in case the last one give up on me too and then I will really be unable to get out of the house.

What was all that about? After all that long boring introduction, it was only to justify to myself why I went shopping today.

Actually, before the shopping, today was actually quite a activity filled day. Much more so than the past few boring days. I had hardly achieved so much in a day before.

The morning started with a talk that we had to attend for a friend’s upgrade, then it was off to my bug work. (Damm those bugs. They never die when I try to kill them and now they just die again even without any attempts to kill them) Even managed to squeeze a viability count in before the lunchtime meeting.

Managed to sneak off in the afternoon and went back to my old school to fiddle about and try to “help” (more like monkey about) in the practical lessons.

Then it was back to lab to finish some work, quick dinner with a friend in the unpalatable hospital cafeteria. (Chicken Tikka Masala with things they claimed to be rice. I chose the chocolate croissant instead)

Tried to make use of the late night shopping and took a tube to Bond Street, Went through Debenhams, John Lewis and I think the other one is called House of Fraser.

Managed to get myself a pair of Quicksilver ¾ length trousers for an amazing £20 when the original price was £50, plus another pair of crappy looking thing and a head massager (I am not too sure if I am already regretting this gadget).

Then it was off to the Royal Society of Medicine to collect a letter, and then down to Victoria to collect some other letters before finally stopping at Marks for some Stollen.

I have to say, the Stollen does look like mouldy fruitcake but its one of the nicest things that I have eaten in ages. Who says that the Germans only made sausages and beer that was worth eating!

Lots more to say, but I realise that I am rambling on too much now. Gotta stop. I am sure that no one is really interested in such rubbish.

The End of the S"

Just thought that I would put in a quick update here. I did not manage to finish what i wanted to log about the Story of the Smoke that happened on Thursday. To be honest, I cant quite be arsed to finish it now.

Dint do much on Saturday. Woke up late with a huge headache and decided to go back to bed for a bit and then just stoned around the house. Came to lab later and did my bugs and got my head chewed off by my supervisor because she thought the post doc and I left the huge mess in the bug hood, but then again, it cant have been me because I don’t do any bug work up here anyway. Made me talk cock with her until 8pm and then it was too late to pop to visit a friend. Tried to rearrange my room again, but then it still looks as messy as ever, thought most of the mess seems to have been displaced to the left against the window.

Sunday started with a dim sum lunch at Phoenix Palace and that was a such a huge gathering that it took us up from 1 pm to about half three to finish the lunch. Came back with a friend on the car, but dint managed to get very far as there was multiple road closures due to some demonstration again. Had to park the car in the middle of nowhere by the road side and walk to work. Nothing much interesting.

No significant update on Monday. Nothing much happening other than the fact that I am still at work at the moment, going back now as I am starving and I am giving up the theme of the letter S. One week of that was enough to really annoy myself.

S is for a super unhappy me....

S is for super shit. We have this male toilet that has only 2 cubicles in one of the newly built lab. Therefore, without urinals, the guys have to use the normal toilet bowl. I don’t need to go into too much details but there was only one stall available when I went there. When I got into the stall, there was just this huge poo sitting in the middle of the tub, happily floating in the water. I just thought this was too disgusting to use, so I decided to flush the toilet first before use. One full flush later, the poo was still sitting defiantly in the middle of the bowl. Tried a second time, this time pumping the flush handle vigorously trying to flush it down. Still dint work. Gave up and went to another loo. Wonder if Supershit will still be floating there tomorrow?

S is still for Singlepoint. Singlepoint is not just Shit, but totally fucked up. Yes, totally fucked up. Without my knowledge or permission, they have cancelled my contract and transferred me to pay as you go. They claim that I have replied a text message to transfer, but how could I have done that when I was not even in the country? In the beginning of the week, I was told that the contract was cancelled by accident and would be reconnected, but now, they tell me that I am no longer on their network but on another network. I call the other network, but they say that I cant be connected to their network because I don’t have the correct SIM card. WTF are they all doing??? I want my number back and have been left waiting for 30 mins on this dammed national call rate. Am typing with one hand as I am waiting but the latest news is that my number is no longer attached to any SIM card. WTF???

S is for stairs. This is a short story. 2 of the 3 lifts have broken down. It takes forever to get anywhere waiting for the lifts so now I am having to walk up and down 6 flights of stairs.

S is for smoke. There was a lot of smoke today. The smoke alarm went off and we were all evacuated. The Royal London Homeopathic Hospital was burning. But that’s too long a story for here.

S is for Singlepoint

Singlepoint cancelled my mobile subscription. This is not the first time they did this to me. One day my phone is working fine, the next day it tells me unregistered SIM. I don’t know what they are up to. They gave me an 0800 number to call, but call as I might, the number is always engaged. Had to call a 0870 number to be ripped off during peak time to actually speak to someone to complain that my phone is dead. Oops they say, you dint send in a letter to cancel your mobile, and we don’t know why it has been disconnected. I am so sorry, if you would just please give us your SIM card number and we will reactivate the phone for you in less than 24 hours. Just remember to keep the phone off and turn it on tomorrow. This was on Monday. It is almost Thursday, and my phone still says unregistered SIM every time I turn it on to check. Sucks.

S is for.....

S is for Sunday. This is an entry for something that happened yesterday but I was just too tired to blog. Anyway, the letter for the week is S.

S is for Safeway. Safeway is Sucky. At least, that’s my verdict on Safeway in Bloomsbury. Its huge, its much larger than the Sainsbury in Muswell Hill, but the stuff they carry seems to be so pathetic and silly. Would one be able to imagine that in a supermarket so big, there would not be any nail clipper nor lime scale remover? Nope, I took 20 mins to search about Safeway before I decided to seek help from one of their employees. And that brings me to the third S.

S is for Samad. Samad is Stupid. I found Samad at the bakery department when he was trying to put little sticky reduction stickers onto expiring food. I knew he was Samad because he had his nametag on the collar of his shirt instead of in the front. I asked Samad for help with nail clipper and lime scale remover. Samad could not fine me the nail clipper. That’s okay, that’s not his fault. Safeway sucks, don’t seem to stock such basic needs. Samad cant find the lime scale remover as well. We were at the cleaning and kitchen section for some time. It was not that bad, until Samad came up with his great idea.

“Lime scale remover? Used to clean things?”

Me: “Yes, to clean the kettle”

“Yesh, you want something to clean something? Grease and all? Here got a lot” he points to various kitchen cleaning products.

Me: “No, to clean kettle inside, lime scale, you know, the white stuff that builds up when you use the kettle to make tea?”

At this point, Samad passes me a Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner from the top left shelf. “ This oven cleaner very good. Can clean grease and all the black black things!”

I took the cleaner from him and tried again. “Kettle for making tea, boiling water, lime scale, white stuff”, keeping my words really slow just in case Samad cant catch my accent (thought I cont believe that I have a problem communicating generally)

“Yes, grease, dirt, rust, everything this can clean! “ Samad replies almost like an excited little kid that has found the secret ingredient to some magical recipe.

At this point, I really gave up and said thanks and walked off with the bottle of Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner. Samad happily goes back to sticking reduced price labels on bakery products. I went back the long way to replace the oven cleaner on the shelf. I am sure the oven cleaner cleans grease, rust, dirt and everything, but I am not exactly too keen to use it to clean a kettle that has a slight coating of lime scale (and eat through the element of the kettle or poison myself to death when I next use the kettle).

And if you thought the Sunday Saga was over, there was still one S left to go.

S is for Swipecard, S is for Shit. Shit, by the time I got to my office, I realised that I had left my swipecard at home and had to go all the way home to get my card.

So that’s the Summary of a Shitty Sunday, filled with incidents with the letter S.

Dover, Kent

Is the electric fence ment to keep the goat in or the tourist out?

Arrival for the Big Day

Turned up at Finsbury Park at 1.30pm. A little early for the match but there was no way that I was going to be late.

The official store was just outside the Mainline rail station and they were already selling programmes and guide books for the matches.

From Our Seats

Top left of the lower tier, first seat at the leftmost. Not that great a view actually.

Team Warm Up

The wonders of a 10X zoom when you are stuck in the top corner....

There were no photos during the match as I was just trying to record all the corner kicks or the exciting moments. I almost had the bit where Henry scored with a backheel while piggybacking Fortune (I think it was fortune or did I get the names wrong?)that had jumped onto him in an attempt to block him from turning to shoot.

Rainbow after the Rain

It was raining quite heavily during the match but the sky has cleared up by the time the match ended. Was trying to catch the rainbow after the match with this photo but it dint come out too well on the photograph. Its somewere above the guy's head, between the second and third chimmney. I think you have to click on the photo to enlarge it before you can actually see it.

Highbury

East Stand, or also known as Highbury's Main entrance. It looks really run down compared to the other Clubs such as Newcastle or Man Utd. But then again, we are going to have a brand new stadium soon.

And the Tube has done it again!

And the tube has done it again! This is the post match result at Finsbury park. Picadilly Line was totally dead between Kings Cross and Cockfosters, hence all the fans had to use the Victoria Line at Finsbury park and none of the other 2 stations nearby that runs Picidally line.

I think what would really suprise me is that if the tube actually RUNS for once without break down on some line or the other every week!

4 - 0

4-0 and we were there.

Its really a totally different experience if you were there in person.
You get to see things that are not reported fairly in the news.
You get to feel the emotions and the rush. You feel the whole stadium shudder when everyone stands up together at a crutial moment.
Will update the photos once I clear my table. At the moment, I can hardly even see anything with all the paper work burying my table and can hardly with all the rubbish strewn all over the room floor.