London Bathroom Cam

As you know I live with 5 other people and share a bathroom. There's 3 guys and 3 girls, but one of them keeps using my shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste etc etc and it's getting on my nerves.

To find out which one, rather then confront them all, I've set up a webcam so that I can monitor it from anywhere I go.

I'm turning it off when I'm using the bathroom and as soon as I catch them I'll take it down.

Work getting the better of you?

Work has been getting the better of me lately.

Work and the pub.

Work during the day, pub at night......... and on the weekends..... all day.

The pub has been getting the better of me lately.

Ahhh yes, that's much more to the point.

It's not 'entirely' true, but true enough at the moment.

That shouldn't fool you though, there's been plenty of other things happening over the past few weeks that seemed to have missed out on constant updating posts, so watch out for the follow up on the West Hame game, East Point Sunset, Comic Book look at World War 2, and the filming of Victor Mennace at Burdens.

Informative Coffee Mugs

Today was a long day.

I've spent a good part of 6 hours a day over the past few days writing a scope of work for a client.

While it is fun and rewarding because you are able to create the perfect project..... after 15 hours anyone is going to get tired of anything (yes, even that ;)

This tiredness led me into the kitchen for a coffee, where I made a simple yet profound discovery.

Informative Coffee Mugs.

The Coffee Mug that I chose was "The Mug of VI" which had a list of VI commands around it's circumference.

Nerdy? Yes, very nerdy indeed. BUT it made me think that we could have a whole swagger of coffee mugs with tips. Mac Tips, PC Tips, Matrix tips, tips on popping up, paddling, duck diving, reading weather maps, good conditions, bad conditions...........good pick up lines, bad pick uplines, the list is endless........

If you could have a coffee mug with instructions, what would you want to have?

Open Street Map Visualisation

While travelling I've been very lucky picking navigating my way around different places.

Lately the navigation is thanks to a handy sat nav I picked up in Italy at the beginning on my summer travels through Europe, but prior to that I wasn't quite as current with my technology (and I couldn't afford it).

I relied a lot on Google Maps or Open Street Map to print off maps or directions before we left and follow it as we drove.

Open Street Map is like the wikipedia of road maps and it relies on us to keep in current.

The video below is the growth rate of Open Street Map over a 12 months period, and you can visually understand how quickly contributions can spread around the world.

Go Technology. Go People.


OSM 2008: A Year of Edits from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

HSBC Customer Service

I made a trip to the bank this morning to cash a cheque for some filming I did last year but got a little more then I bargained for.

Here's what happened.

When I left for Australia recently I put a freeze on my gym membership until I got back, not that I ever used it much while I was here. Unbeknown to me the gym decided they still wanted me to pay and subsequently direct debited money out of my bank account........ or at least they tried to........... three times.

Each time the transaction was dishonored, but after the 3rd time HSBC closed the account down. Fair enough.

When I went in to find out what I couldn't transfer money and cash my cheque (which I now seemed to have misplaced) I found out that it was closed.

"Well please reopen it so I can do all these things". I said.

The young man informed me that it was not possible to reopen the account because it was closed, before going on to say I wasn't able to ever open an account with HSBC again........ or at least not for 12 months.

"But I've got £1000 sitting in a savings account with you, how do I access that?"

Apparently they could transfer it to another bank account, once I opened one at another bank.

"That's a bit inconvenient." I thought to myself (thoughts have been moderated for this post).

I asked what I could do to the Gym based on the fact they were the cause of this whole thing.

"I would have to check with my Manager" he said, "did you want me to do that?"

Do fat kids like smarties. Do my girls gain weight when I spend time at home.

YES!!!!

"Well," he says on his return, "it turns out that we might be able to do something for you."

Really?!?! I thought I could never open an account ever again. Well don't let me put you out or anything. I wouldn't want you to service a customers needs or anything like that. Shouldn't you be charging people account fee's or denying them finances?

I know your title is customer services manager but I'm sure it doesn't mean you have to help EVERY customer that comes through the doors. But if you insist, sure. Knock yourself out.

We took down a bunch of details and it turned out that yes, I could reopen the account. He even set me up with a better account with less fees. The only catch is that I have to bring in a council bill with my name/address on it and my passport before the account is unfrozen.

"Can I bring it in tomorrow?" I asked, knowing that some of the banks functions are open on a Saturday.

"No, sorry sir. We're not open until Monday." he replied.......... before adding....... "oh, but I'm not in Monday. I'm not back again until Wednesday."

But surely someone else could finish off the process? Surely..........

Surely not apparently. He started it, only he can finish the process off. *cough*pigsarse*cough*

Well at least I left the bank a somewhat satisfied customer.

Snow in London Photo's

In reverse order........... welcome to the images of London since I got back from Darwin...... the capital city of warm.

For my little brother Chaz!

View from my room

Snow in London

Yet again I take another giant step away from life as it were in Darwin.

On the walk up to the pub for a sunday roast and a pint it started to snow.  How beautiful, yet very cold, it was to walk along in the gentle falling snow.

When I awoke this morning things had changed a little.

As I opened the curtains to look out over the back yard all I could see was a white blanket of snow covering the world.

On the roof terrace sat about 8 inches of overnight snow, and in the front yard there was eight inches of snow ready to soak into my new grandpa slippers for my walk to work.

Compared to rain, snow is so much better to walk to work in.

I'm without my camera cable at the moment, but there will be a series of pictures put up this evening when I get home.

Simply beautiful.