neongraal

I'm going to keep this shorter, just cause otherwise my fingers will get very cold and I'll get scolded by CB again :)

( but still I typed enough that I put a cut in :) )

Just about to start loading the car for the trip around town that will end at the airport for the beginning of the flight(s) to South Africa.

Still, only essentials need to be collected: Tickets, driver, reading material, but hey it's all in the plan :)

I'll catch up here sporadically I'm sure.

A few weeks ago (possibly 4) CB and I moved into our new place and now it's (almost) tidy enough for a party.

So here is the announcement.

Sat 10th of June from 3 pm through till late (or even early), come see our new abode, meet the cats, eat drink and make merry. Generally BYOE and a small amount of crash space available.

Please RSVP by email (my livejournal one works) so we know how many to expect.
You'll also get address details by reply email :)

Just so people know, CB and I will be in Wellington for Armageddon this weekend.
Contact me via my mobile as we currently do have anything certain to do on saturday night.
We're staying at the Duxton in the CBD area (sorta, somewhere)

A bit over four weeks ago, Debbie and I found a place to live and I reasonably promptly arranged the phone connection and attempted to arrange the internet connection. Once I'd determined that the phone had to be connected to arrange the internet connection I had the phone connection date moved forward.
Then I put the internet connection request back through and quite promptly received an activation date of a couple of days later (13th April). Which was then moved forward a day (12th) and I duly received an email stating that my internet was active on the 12th.
Due to my trip to Wanaka I wasn't able to head around to plug in my modem until the 19th at which time I discovered that there was no physical link (Modem status = Physical Down). I took the modem back to my old flat and quickly plugged it into the active ADSL connection there (which also happened to be with the same ISP) and it happily connected and even logged in using my credentials just fine.
So no problem with the Modem.
So I take it back to the new house and report the fault with my ISP, who then ask some questions, which I answer: Yup, the modem works; Yes, I've tried all the sockets; No, the (correct) little green light doesn't come on; Yes, the analogue phone works; Yes, I'm using ADSL splitters.
so then they register a fault with Telecomscum, on the 21st (Friday). When I call on Monday the 24th, my ISP tells me that the response time is usually 48 hrs but can be as long as 6 working days. Tuesday (25th) is a Public Holiday, so late on Wednesday (26th) I get a call from the contracting company saying that their man will be doing the exchange investigation tomorrow (27th) and would I be available to let him into my house once he'd done that. "Sure," says I, "just get him to call me about 30 minutes before hand so I can get there from work".

Which brings us to today. About 11am, Dan from teh contracting company gives me a call and confirms that he's about to look into the exchange side of things and then he'll call me once he's heading on to my place. Now I'd left my modem plugged in and turned on just in case. About noon, I log into my ISP's online status page, put in my account details and notice that my ADSL connection is up as of 11:57.
HMMM says I.
About 12:10, Dan calls back and tells me that the orignal work order to enable the ADSL at the exchange had never made it to the contractoring companies dispatch system and had been signed off as completed without the work actually being done!
W!T!F!
So he'd done the enabling work and my modem had sprung into life.
Un-fraking-believable!

So now I get to force my ISP to not charge me for a ADSL connection that wasn't connected. Because some systems failed somewhere and someone signed off on a job that they hadn't done!

The world is just running far to fast for me right now.
Packing boxes, three excellent movies ("Mirror Mask", Kinky boots" and "Sione's Wedding"), a large chunk of "Angelic Layer", a good drunken Friday night, shopping expeditions and visiting as well as emails, an unsent text (and many sent ones), a new bank account, rain, wind, laundry and sleeping.

And then this week I have so far, locks, doctors, three different friends from out of town, I really want to catch up with and no time to do so.

Then there's packing, roleplaying, Wanaka preparations and funds to juggle as well as actual paid work to do and time missed to catch up on.

"PHHWEEEEEETTT" Time-out. Substitution. Lower key month please.

So this weekend was Flat hunting weekend, Friday night a little planning follwed by "V for Vendetta" which I (and seemingly all who joined me, thanks guys) enjoyed. Though thoughts of justifiable terrorism keep popping in.
Then saturday we rang around the places that seemed likely but only got visit one. What a DIVE!
Both the other good options we can't see till Sunday and Monday
Then a quick driveby on some fallback options and on to the Autumn Home show. Not spectacular but worthwhile (just :))
And finally a power napo and dinner at Burgerfuel before seeing "Mrs Henderson Presents". Awesome British humour with Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. Some wonderfully teary moments in a neat and truly family funny movie. Then crash into Bed.
Sunday I went over to wake up colonial_babe and then we went over to see todays place.
And frankly we were blown away. It appears to be a 50's bungalow that's been lifted and redecorated in the 70's.
Stairs from entrance into Kitchen/dining room. Across hall into Lounge facing north with sun room/office facing West.
Dinky bathroom and separate toilet in south side of hall with spare bedroom at end of hall. Last master bedroom on north side adjacent to lounge. Both bedrooms have access to deck.
We just couldn't pass it by. So paid up and now we have keys.
HUZZAH!

But for the last few weeks (5 when I count back) I've chosen to spend a large chunk of my spare time with the loverly Colonial_babe(CB) and indeed it looks like I will be spending at least as mich in the future.

Still this weekend went by so quick I feel it neccesitates an update.

• Friday was that rare thing, a night in to myself as CB was down country assisting a friend housesitting.
• Saturday I shopped (A new CF card for my camera, which completes my preparations for Warbirds over Wanaka, some comics, and some Camo trousers and hat for the nights party). Then I rested before the BBQ in the early evening and the said flatwarming in the later evening.
  Was a good night just full. Met some new people (hi unnethe and partner) and spent an interesting period looking at Victorian Erotic photos.
• Sunday was going to be a lazy morning and then afternoon with CB, but events intervened. I did laundry, brunched with my siblings and then played board games. Dinner and evening spent with CB and finally to sleep.
  
  Changes are afoot but details are on hold right now. Lets just say scary good things.

I'm still over tired. So tired that I probably shouldn't have driven all the way from Hamilton, but V is my friend.

Some good time apart (to recuperate, nah, sleep) Saturday afternoon and then colonial_girl (colonial_girl or CG she shall be) returned. We watched a heap of Veronica Mars (I really see why Joss Whedon loves this show) and then she got to cope with the influx of some else of my friends, including the "ex".

All went well, we endeavoured to get to sleep early as I'd promised to drive to hamilton ON sunday (hence above) and almost succeeded. A nice morning, attenuated by me starting the drive and her heading home. Then when I returned I forgot to text until an hour so later. Which lead to a little unhappyness and some begging and pleading on my part.
Forgiven now (I think and hope and trust) and nice phone call and then more Mars and now bed.

I should really update a little more often so these are easire to write and don't take up as much time when I should be catching Zzzz's

Taken from http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=34628

Babylon 5's Katsulas Dies

Andreas Katsulas, the character actor known to SF fans as G'Kar on Babylon 5 and a familiar face from Star Trek and other SF&F TV shows, died Feb. 13 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, his agent, Donna Massetti, confirmed to SCI FI Wire. He was 59.
Katsulas, a longtime resident of Los Angeles, played the Narn ambassador G'Kar for five years in the syndicated cult TV series Babylon 5, starting in 1993. He reprised the role in subsequent Babylon 5 telefilms.

Sad now.

Also a nice story about Andreas http://puppetmaker40.livejournal.com/194597.html