Random raves

Well, I was hoping to have a nice cheerful post for you all by today. I went home - to Auckland - for a few days, and it was fab. The sun shone, I got to see a ton of my friends and have excellent quality time with them all. I squoze three babies, who are just all cute. I had nice meals and great coffee. I attended the con for people who subscribe to the alt.polyamory newsgroup with the CDL and that was wonderfully unstressful and fun. I had some excellent quality time with the CDL as well, which was wonderful after a fairly otherwise-occupied few weeks, and which featured one of the best dinners I've ever had. She's a fantastic person to be around on so many levels, and was a great travelling companion on the way back. Getting home was no stress given the fact her Bear came and picked us both up from the airport, thus removing the need for stupid taxis.

But instead of feeling the usual degree of recharged and happy and loved-by-my-loved-ones and less homesick and all that after being in NZ, I have another cold. I had yesterday off work, and spent most of today in the office feeling like The Return of the Living Dead. Everything has been difficult, and while I think I'd be coping better if it were just normal being sick, coming after a big emotional high, my energy isn't where it should be. And that just feels wrong. I should be bouncing around the place going "Yippee!", or, as would be normal in these circs, "I'm toooodally mellow, man", and for that not to be the case is disappointing.

Instead, stupidity like a senior manager telling us to remove Firefox from our PCs at work because of "security reasons" (hang on while I spit) is just typical of some of the things that were pinging me today on just the trivial work level. I don't even feel irritated by it, just flattened. Not good.

Actually, disappointment and feeling snuffly and tired just isn't the best combination all round, so I think I should stop thinking about it and make some miso soup. At least I was able to find some kombu in the Asian shop on the way home from work, so I can make some proper dashi from scratch rather than use the instant stuff that has MSG as its second ingredient.

I promise a more positive post once I've got my emotional equilibrium back in its usual place. There're a lot of nice things to talk about.

Damn damn damn. I was all booked to go to Melbourne this weekend to hang out with my old colleague R, who was to be visiting from NZ. She just texted me to say it's all off, two days AFTER I paid my airfares. Dammit. Not her fault, the poor love, her boss just decided it wasn't necessary to have someone on-site for the work to be performed (since work was going to be paying for her flights, she was going to spend an extra couple of days having a weekend break).

So, I find myself having a dilemma - do I suck it up, pay extra for accomodation and just head down there and have a nowhere-near-as-much-fun evening/day by myself? Or do I cancel and forfeit $100-worth of fees? The latter option is cheaper, obviously, and it's not as if I don't have good reason to stick around Canberra this weekend.... The, er, shopping I intended to do, I can do online just as conveniently.

...I think I've just decided. Home this weekend, then. Weekend breaks are more fun if you've got someone to do them with, most definitely.

YAYyayayayayayay!

Air New Zealand has some very swanky new planes, with personal little TV screens even in cattle class. Malaysian Airways has been doing it for well over 5 years, but the Air NZ planes are nicer. Although that may have been a function of it being half-empty. I really cannot remember the last time I got on a plane that wasn't chokka. Very pleasant, althought the lunch wasn't that great.

There's a personalised movie selection, music channels, games and CDs. They had Serenity! Some guy was watching it, but he didn't get to see the end - well, hopefully he's hooked now.

I watched Goodnight and Good Luck which I was intending to see at the movies anyway. I'd been slightly putting it off because of George Clooney, but I need to remember that he actually isn't a bad actor. Just because I hated Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? and I think Ocean's Eleven etc is pure fluff doesn't mean he's bad at his job. I just need to put him in the same category as Sandra Bullock.

Anyway. Home nice. Latest niece v. cute. Sashimi dinner at the sake bar fab. Beautiful sunset. B hasn't had her baby quite yet. Pasifika Polynesian festival tomorrow.

I'm staying in a budget hotel in central Auckland for a couple of nights. I had severe difficulties remembering where the street was - it's been eight years since I did much driving here - but I headed in the general direction and found it after a few minutes. I should have remembered it better - the building that has been converted to a hotel was formerly a warehouse and offices. I belonged to a group that was trying to set up an arty-ish gay mag in the late 80s called "Glo" - we checked out that exact building for our prospective offices. Synchronicity. Well, no wonder I didn't remember the street exactly - we only did a couple of issues. Asking queers to spend over $5 for a mag back then was a BIG ask.

Anyway. Time for a cocktail. Cheers!

Since I won't be there for Xmas/New Year, here's another pic from my holiday a couple of months back:

( Read more... )

I forgot to burble about mangroves. Aren't they cool plants? Ok, where they live is normally kind of grotty, since they like nice shallow mudflats which normally stink to high heaven when the tide's out. But they're awesome filters and great places for incubating wee fish, as well as providing a food source for lots of shoreline birds as well. Mangroves around Auckland tend to be about a metre or so high. They get taller as you head north, so the ones around the Hokianga were about 3 metres high. The biggest mangroves I've seen so far are in Cairns. They were about 5-6 metres high, I think. [/end burble]

Yippee, civilisation, here I come! I was hoping to get to the zoo there this afternoon, but the rate I'm going, I probably won't have time. I should have set off about an hour ago, but the young Work Lust Interest came over last night and stayed till 1:30-ish. Which was damn dandy, but I didn't get up this morning when I should have. Well, it's my schedule, it matters not that I'm an hour late.

Let's see how many book-disasters I have this time (I've only packed two, since I always end up buying at least 3-4x that amount when I go away).

Or at least my section of it. More precisely, my Belkin ADSL/802.11g router has gone up the spout. It utterly refuses to SYN with my phone line. The wireless networking part of it is just dandy. It's been flaky for the last couple of weeks, but I was blaming it on my USB network adapter. Also, must get a powered USB hub. The Toshie I have (provided by work) has abominable USB capability - only two ports, and they're so close together if I stick in one thumb drive, nothing else has room. It's also horribly underpowered. If I try to run my lovely iAudio from it, that's ok, but it doesn't charge. Bah.

All credit to Belkin support, though. I rang them, and once I got through, there was no hassle. They ran through the usual questions (rebooted, removed line splitter, tried another RJ-11 cable?) and since I had done all the above, they are sending out a replacement unit next week. I'd completely forgotten it had a lifetime guarantee. Which is lucky, since I don't have the faintest clue what I did with the purchase receipt.

On the other news front:

No more house-buying. I relinquished my offer. It was getting way too stressful to manage, and, since I was so crook last week, I had a bit of an epiphany that while my mortgage would be manageable most of the time, if I had ONE week being sick, I wouldn't be able to afford paying it that month. I hate being a contractor. So, I'll pay off my UK debt, and try to get at least 2-3% of a prospective house price before going there again.

It's a relief, actually. And, since I made that decision, my cold has almost gone away. It might also have something to do with the fact I found a herbal and homeopathic cough medicine - 5 minutes after I took a swig, the cough went away. Since I don't approve of complex homeopathy (where you give someone a pile of different potions in the hope that one of them works), it galls me that one of those homeopathics did in fact work. It wasn't the herbs, because herbs don't work so fast or completely. Gah. I bought it for the herbs, just to relieve the tickle. The universe has a sense of humour, and it's sarcastic.

Oh well, it gives me the impetus to do some more homeopathy research. There are about eight homeopathics in that mixture. One of them did the job and I'd like to know which one. I get the same cold about once a year (not normally so long lasting) and I'd like to take something to either knock it on the head forever, or at least have around for next time. Since I normally try to find the right potion while I'm sick (and the saying "the physician who treats herself has a fool for a patient" is completely apposite here), and I haven't succeeded in hitting the right one on the head yet, it's nice to have the field narrowed down from 200-odd potions to eight, at least two of which I've eliminated previously.

I will probably go to England again next year. While I'm in the mode of making life-enhancing decisions, I think I'll head back to England to earn some pounds to pay off my debt for once and for all. Or, if I pay it off before then, to get some savings behind me. I think I can manage 1 year to 18 months without much sunshine. It was knowing fuck-all people the first two years, and then, not having enough money and being away from home too long that got to me last time. This time, I do have friends (whom I miss), I'm vastly more marketable, I'll get a job quickly, if not beforehand (it certainly won't take two months again), and I won't be stuck without the fare home. It'd be nice to catch up with my lovely ones there. My ex has bought a flat in Honor Oak Park, not far from where I used to live, and I hope she'll be keen for a flatmate. :-) While our relationship didn't work out, we shared space well. Otherwise, no worries, I know the kind of places that I like living in, and the Time Out listings are online (I think - nothing's showing up at all there at the moment).

Project management. I've been doing a course on it this week (two more modules to follow), and I have to say, it's immensely interesting. Yikes, maybe I'm becoming responsible in my advanced years. God forbid. I think I'd like to get into it, actually, if I can overcome my complete and utter lack of organisation. One of the instructors said that managing a project basically consists of making huge lists and making sure those lists are checked off (that's a simplistic rendering of what he said). Personally, I have never made a list in my life, so, if I can get over that wee hurdle, and the fact that budgeting is an arcane science to me (haven't balanced a chequebook either - thank god for online banking, eh?), then, well, I may have something to sustain me after I burn out with being a techie. I give that about five years.

So, there you go, that's me at the moment.

I love Maui, it feels like home. Seriously. I loved the green volcanic hills, the rain, the sun and the people. I've missed the Polynesian vibe so much.

I went and got a tattoo from Samson at Sacred Center Tattoo on South Kihei Rd, behind the KFC. Amazing work. My companion heard about him from a shop assistant and wanted to get some kind of tribal animal (like a lizard) done. I wasn't intending to get another tattoo, but as soon as I saw his work, I had to have one. I pointed to a few examples of plants and patterns, and he tattooed a fantastic design freehand directly (! - no prep drawing or stencil) onto my lower leg - a band about 3cm wide around my mid-calf. It's beautful - perfect - an amazing example of putting yourself entirely into someone's hands and a miracle resulting. I haven't done that before - I get twitchy about going to a hairdresser for the first time - so it's great to have had that trust so wonderfully repaid. I'll post up a pic as soon as I get my hands on a digital camera. Since it's at the lovely scabby stage, I'll probably wait a few days for it to look more how it should. It's very me, the design, amazing. There are a couple of slight wobbles due to my twitching at inopportune moments from a somewhat sun-touched skin, but nothing dire.

Other than that, I had a fantastic week: riding a bike down Haleakala after watching the dawn and seeing the silversword plants; snorkeling with the Pacific Whale Foundation, a non-profit organisation; kayaking and snorkeling another day; driving around Hana and checking out the old hippies and the jungle and the shooting stars from the jacuzzi at night; having a wonderful talk with a guide at the mini Bishop Museum back in Honolulu - tena koe e hoa, ko tino pai to korero. Kia ora koe.

Funny how my most meaningful interactions were with Hawaiians, considering how white bread I am myself. The two granola-ish dykes (whom I should have had something in common with) who owned the studio accomodation where we were staying looked at me as if I'd dropped from outer space; maybe they were having problems deciphering my accent.

As well as the aforementioned sights, we ate a ton of food, quaffed many mai tais and other coconut-cocktail delights. Other than the fact that my companion had the emotional equivalent of a brain fart and deserted me on my last day there (I'm still croggled, and jet-lagged, haven't processed that one yet), it was pretty much a perfect week. Oh, and other than the lack of hot tea (I'm going to have to be like the poms in Europe and take tea bags with me to the US in future, despite how naff that sounds), and the fact that the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki expect you to pay per cup for your inroom hot drinks! The dinner I had there at the Java Room there was exquisite though. If you don't mind spending $US70 on a meal (and glass of wine) for one person.

I got back to Canberra at 10am; I've been sitting around pretty much in a stupor all day - it's cold - going from 35-ish deg to 9 is a bit of an adjustment - but I need to go and get some milk for my tea! Off, then, I venture...

Don't worry, this isn't anything miserable. Someone's done a nice hack of the Google Maps API, which enables you to map a route and show the distance. It's called the Gmaps Pedometer.

Here's my walk to work (my last job) in London, from Charing Cross Station. Wow, 1 3/4km! I almost feel virtuous! Of course, we won't talk about the number of times I couldn't be buggered walking up in the morning, and got the Northern Line up to Goodge St... (at least I always walked back to Charing X on my way home, being awake then).

A couple of times, I rode my bike into work, but really 11km through the mean streets of London at rush hour didn't really thrill me. Even if it was slightly faster than catching the train.

(It worketh not for Oz or NZ, alas)

Being the amazingly dutiful daughter that I am, I booked all the accomodation for my mother's visit. She arrives Sunday. The dates were a bit vague at first, so I booked places anyway, assuming that it'd be fairly straightforward to twiddle a day either way for both sets of hotels. I read the terms and conditions at booking time, and nothing there contradicted my assumption. However, according to the world that lastminute.com inhabits (bugger linking to them), it is NOT straightforward, or, indeed, possible to modify the booking.

What I wanted to do was extend my mother's stay in Canberra by one day, and reduce our stay in Melbourne by a day. I sent an email to lastminute last week. No reply. So I rang them. They said, "We're still working through our mail backlog", and I said that since time was running out, it'd be nice to sort it out then and there. Okay. So they said they'd have to call the hotel to get the booking reduced. I'd already contacted the hotel directly to do it, but they fobbed me off back to lastminute. Hold hold hold... Finally, the operator gets back and says no, the booking cannot be altered. I did a big WTF?! (politely), and she parroted the line that lastminute has to abide by the terms of the accomodation provider, and said provider does not allow any alteration of internet bookings WHATSOEVER. I didn't recall seeing any such terms and conditions when I booked, so I checked.

Here is the fun stuff for your edification:

1. In many cases we are acting as disclosed agents for a third party supplier and in each of these cases your contract is between you and them. You will be subject to their terms and conditions and you must read these before proceeding with your order.

D. Specifically with regard to accomodation booked on the site,
If you wish to cancel your hotel booking you must contact our Customer Service Team on 1300 132 799 (+61 2 9249 6070) a minimum of 24hrs before your arrival. Contact must be made between 9:00am and 5:30pm AEST. We will contact the hotel on your behalf. Some hotels may accept a cancellation (with or without a cancellation charge) but it is entirely at their discretion. As part of the terms of sale, they are not obligated to accept any cancellations and you may be charged for the entire length of stay. In the event that the hotel will allow a cancellation, you will be charged an administration fee of AUD35.00 per booking by lastminute.com. This will be in addition to any cancellation charges the hotel may impose.

[bold per the site]

So, ok, the hotel does not have to allow any alterations to the booking. I think that's crap, given reasonable notice, but c'est la vie. What gets me is the FIRST clause, where it says, You will be subject to their terms and conditions and you must read these before proceeding with your order.

There was no fucking terms and conditions from the hotel I booked. None at all!

So I called back, and pointed out this slight inconsistency.

Was I expected, before completing a booking, to go to the provider's website and check their terms and conditions THERE before finishing the booking on lastminute.com?
No, of course not. (Also, the terms and conditions between the hotel and lastminute.com might be different to those on their own web site).
So how AM I supposed to see what their terms and conditions are before I booked? I wouldn't have booked with that hotel if I'd been aware of that particular gotcha.
The accomodation provider is under no obligation to refund anything, as you can see in our terms and conditions.
Yes, I did see that, since I HAVE read your terms and conditions, including the part where it says that I should read the provider's terms and conditions before completing the booking. Once again, how was I supposed to do that? I think that your site is wilfully misleading.
It's not misleading, it's very clear that the provider does not have to provide a refund.
And it also does not say that they WON'T. And it tells me how to alter a booking, and cites a cancellation charge (not that I'm cancelling), so by implication you say that it is possible.
But it is up to the individual provider.
While I was unable to ascertain what the provider was or was not willing to do due to the MISLEADING information on your website!

...Rinse and repeat. After a couple of iterations of this, I was unable to maintain the "calm and reasonable" thing (since I am not a particularly calm or reasonable person), and said thxkbye and hung up.

Not sure where to go from here. It seems obvious to me that their first clause implies that they WILL provide the terms and conditions of the individual operator, but they do not. There is also a reasonable assumption (reasonable to me), that most hotels will accept a cancellation of all or part of a booking, given notice and perhaps payment of a fee, unless otherwise specified. Of course, I'm sure it'll be argued that it doesn't matter what "common practice" might be, they aren't under any obligation. I do think that all of that should be spelled out in the operator's terms and conditions, which are not available in any form on lastminute.com, although they are well and truly available on other web booking sites (such as wotif.com). And I think it is misleading in the legal sense, but who the hell am I to know.

I don't think that they should get away with this. I'm sure I am not the first and only one to be sucked in by something similar. I think there's such a thing as a consumer ombudsman here in Canberra. I'll see how far I get with it. If it was something like $50, I might say the hell, but $240 is enough to be bloody annoying.

I like being here, much more so than Canberra. Canberra is so utterly homogonised, except perhaps for the ambassadors and their various families. Here, there are all sorts. I miss this kind of cultural diversity.

I really like King Street here in Newtown. Just to put in Auckland terms, it's like a big long Ponsonby Rd crossed with K Rd, without K Rd's sleaziness or Ponsonby Rd's - I have to say it - ponciness. The area around reminds me of Grey Lynn/Ponsonby, those late-19th Century central Auckland suburbs. Narrow streets and small houses (especially in Australian terms), and those vibrant yet slightly-decayed-round-the-edges-shops. The queer culture (not just "gay") is evident, and it is like standing in a revitalising rainstorm. I haven't realised how much I've missed it.

So, I've done my normal "holiday" pursuits: spent way too much money on books, music and especially food. I've tried sampling coffee around and about, but haven't really found a cup that makes me go, "Yum!". I had high hopes of a cafe called Allegro, where they roast on the premises, but like everywhere else I've encountered so far around here, they do a light French roast which is too acidic for my taste. Dark roast is the way to go, for me. To put in spice terms, it's like the difference between nutmeg and cinnamon: nutmeg is great for extra zing and a sharper note, but if you want your apple pie to taste right, it has to be cinnamon. Oh, and speaking of hot drink oddness, to all those baristas out there, chocolate sprinkled over one's chai latte does NOT work. Kills the small hint of spices you get in the commercial syrups and you most certainly can't taste the tea. Cinnamon OR nutmeg are just fine, thank you.

I just had some delicious sushi - just from a sushi robot, but yummo. While I was there, they were showing stuff from a Japanese TV programme on sushi - how the fish is caught, how it's prepared, types of sushi, etc. They kept doing long slow food porn shots of the rich and glistening hunks of flesh, I mean fish. But they killed the mood with a nice middle-aged Japanese bloke complete with bushy fu manchu moustache and pony tail, gobbling it up, and, presumably, giving a spiel on what it tastes like. Frankly, I'd much rather watch Nigella Lawson doing food porn, any time. I'd much rather watch Nigella Lawson doing ANY porn, any time. Or in fact, anything at all, if it's in close proximity to me. (sorry, gratuitous Nigella-dribble there).

I had good intentions of going to the Australia Museum today, but didn't get the time. As well as my coffee search, I bumped into one of my old colleagues, Chris, who left my last workplace to come back to Australia a couple of months after I left. So off we went and caught up on the goss and talked boring techie talk. He's looking so much happier and relaxed back here, and he told to me that he is utterly relieved to be out of Wellington. It was very evident. Personally, I'd be relieved to be back there, but it's all about what we have an affinity for, isn't it? I also can't believe I just bumped into the only other person I know in Sydney; I didn't have a clue that he lived in Newtown, and there ARE 4 million people in this town, after all.

Other than catching up with Chris, I also had the massage from hell (actually, it was fantastic), which I evidently needed, given how much everything is aching right now. But my upper back is sooo much looser and I feel like I've dropped 20 kilos. Must remember that while I'm not having sex, a massage is a GOOD THING to have regularly. The massage chappie told me that everything was completely locked up (yes, I could tell that when he ran his fingers down my spine, and I had to stop myself from yelping, in several places)... but that once he had a chance to work on me, everything loosened up incredibly well. Sounds like me, really, all or nothing.

So, I'm back off home tomorrow evening, but I hope to get to the museum in the morning, it's just a quick train ride from here. And I've definitely decided that I need to come visit more often, so as to be able to recharge various of my batteries more often.