Allergy Advice

Eating my cornflakes this morning, I had a look at the milk bottle:
"Allergy advice: contains milk!". Wow, I didn't know. I wonder if it's just stupid bureaucracy or did someone really sue them for not putting it? I think the advice should be bigger, you can hardly read it... ;-)

We love to queue...

Ok, I don't, but apparently all other people like to form queues. I am not suggesting to jump the queue, I hate when people do that, I 'm talking about situations when queuing can be avoided. One example: a traffic light with two lanes: in 9 out of 10 situations you will see all cars queueing in one lane, while nobody is using the other lane. Why?

Another example: We went to see 'Casino Royale' yesterday in the vue in North Finchley (I really enjoyed it, I think Craig is a much better Bond than Brosnan) . We were thinking of buying online, but they charge you 60p booking fee per ticket, so we thought 'screw it', should be alright Wednesdays. But no, there was this amazingly long queue, damn. Hang on, why is nobody using the ticket machine? Let's try...

"Please choose the film!"
Beep
"Please choose the amount of tickets!"
Beep, Beep, Beep
"Please pay with your debit/credit card!"
Beep (You didn't even need your pin.)
"Thank you. Take your tickets and enjoy the film."
Total amount of time: 20 seconds.
Estimated queuing time: 20 minutes.

So, I think there's no other explanation, people love queuing!

Proud Sponsor of Camden Council

Well, I decided to pay my ticket, because I didn't want to risk to pay 100 quid. I probably should have complained though. I am really annoyed by this. So have a look around, there must be some park bench named after me...

Paying is very convenient www.camden.gov.uk/pay (new bookmark :p) Really nice page., a bit like amazon.
"Which payment would you like to make?"
Fuck, I don't want to pay anything, I didn't do anything wrong.
But obviously this option wasn't displayed.
You even have a shopping basket. I couldn't believe it. Ok, you can pay your council tax and stuff like this as well, but it felt wrong for paying a parking ticket. Do you want your ticket wrapped in gift wrap paper? That's 2 quid extra...

Watch out...

Camden parking attendants might fine you if they don't like the colour of your scooter! At least, I don't know why I got fined today. I arrived too late today to get a parking space in front of UCL, so I had to park in Malet Street. There is a parking bay for motorbikes, which was nearly full already, but I found a small space at the end and I squeezed in there. I exactly fit in there. When Ettore said: "Hey, we can move this scooter here and then you can fit in here.", I replied: "Nah, that's fine. They won't fine me. It's alright. It perfectly fits." Ok, the next time I say something like this, please slap me in the face.

I left office at 11pm and I was very happy to get the gap between two raining phases. When I locked my bike at home, I found the notice. "We had reasonable cause to believe that the following parking contravention had occured: we don't like your face, the weather is horrible today and we are a bunch of grumpy man who like to fine people to annoy them!"
Ok, it didn't say that, but it should have. It said: "Not parked correctly within the markings of the bay or space."

I have 28 days to pay 100 pounds. 100 quid !!! I can't believe it. But then my heart made a little jump: there is a discount. You pay only 50 quid, if you pay within 14 days. Hooray. Thank you, Camden. Service charge not included I guess...

I love deadlines...

... I like the whooshing sound as they fly by (Douglas Adams).
Haven't written anything lately. Two reasons. First, nothing really stupid happened to me, second I am very busy writing up my thesis at the moment. Deadline is the 29th, so I hope, that I don't hear the whooshing sound :-)

I am really thinking of de-restricting my scooter. I was overtaken by a bike, and I mean bike not motorbike. Ok, we were going downhill, I was already going 60 km/h and he was a really sporty guy (wearing lycras :o) , however, it really hurt. What made me feel a little bit better was that I overtook a Porsche Carrera two days later. Ok, it was in a long queue going 10 km/h but it's the overtaking event that counts, isn't it?

Band practice tomorrow, I really enjoy playing in a band again. I don't think we'll ever make money out of it, but it is great fun. We agreed to practice three songs currently:
Knocking on heaven's door by Guns N Roses
Better do better by Hard-fi
Song 2 by Blur
Guns N Roses' "Appetite for destruction" was the very first music album I ever owned and Song 2 really reminds me of the time when I was 16 and started to go clubbing. Music always reminds my of the time and place where I heard it first. I should have "Soundtrack of my life" :-)

Ok, back to work now, I can already hear the whooshing...