July 5, 2004

Mornington Crescent

I find it weird when I run into a situations where I can't talk about things for either security reasons, or because of non-disclosure agreements. I mean, I was going to talk about the funny computer names that we've got scattered around Weta - but you can't, really, since you don't want to make a possible intruder's life any easier than you have to. So - pretend there was an interesting discussion about the problems and pitfalls of naming computers here. A reeeally interesting discussion, honest. :)

As an aside - chatting to an American at work, he was genuinely surprised to find out that NZ had a secret service. He said something like, "But who are you gonna spy on?" I guess it's a compliment, of a sort. Of course, as I understand it, the correct answer is - mostly ourselves and our allies. (After all, if the NSA gets our GCSB to spy on Americans, then they're not technically breaking the rules about not spying on their own citizens - they're just sharing info with their allies.)

***

I'm getting into Heathrow at 6:20am on Friday the 6th of August, and I'm leaving on Thursday, the 2nd of September at 6:25pm. That is the extent of my formal planning for my European trip.

There are several things I want to try to do:

  • Paul Thomas is in London, and is being kicked out of England at some point during my trip. He's kindly offered a couch, so I suspect that I'll spend the first few days in London, recovering.
  • There are a number of ex-Weta people in London that I'd love to catch up with - Robin Saxen and Sandra Reis spring to mind.
  • A small child lurks in Cambridge, and I am compelled by her cuteness-rays to visit her - I may at some point be allowed to communicate to her parents, Heather and Jack.
  • Thanks to the incompetence of various Oxford Brooks University officials, my sister Ellen will be in Britain slightly longer than she anticipated; rather than only just catching her before she wings her way to Hawaii, I'll be able to meet her at any stage during my stay.
  • The mighty metropolis of Edinburg beckons, where I'm given to understand that Morgue and Cal rule with a benevolent hand.
  • A quick trip to Denmark, to visit the lovely Helen Connor, and possibly one or two relatives, would be awesome - I made sure that my insurance would cover this side-jaunt.

There are a number of other things I'd like to do - I'd love to get to Cornwall, and Hay-on-Wye (in Wales), and I'd like to revisit Strasbourg. But I don't want to be in the position of travelling all the time, so I'll have to think very carefully about how I manage my travels.

Paul has helpfully pointed me at http://www.thetrainline.co.uk/ and http://www.qjump.co.uk/ for booking train tickets around Britain, but I'm wondering whether I might be better off trying my luck with some of the cheaper air options for the more far-flung parts of my trip. Is it worth thinking about flying up to Edinburgh?

***

Now that I'm not moving back to the parents, I'm going to have to make a deliberate attempt to get fitter before I go overseas - marble footrot is something that I'm not looking forward to. (Marble footrot, for those unfamiliar with the term, refers to the ache you get from traipsing through the hard stone halls of museums and galleries for days on end.) I'm pretty sure they frown on you bringing a canvas stool with you to the British Museum... I wonder what their policy is on stolen golf carts?

Posted by svend at July 5, 2004 7:03 PM
Comments

Internal flights are a surprisingly good idea, actually. Flights often compare favourably with the cost of the train to point b - assuming, of course, that you're going somewhere major. Don't forget, however, that you often have to take a train to get to the airport anyway... and, for example, in Edinburgh, arriving at Waverley Station is a lot cooler (and more convenient) than getting in to the airport (from which a bus is required).

Posted by: jack at July 5, 2004 8:14 PM

This is really more of a comment for the previous entry but that is just representative of my inherent slackness (and the fact that I didn't know that you had a blog until it was alluded to on Giffy's).

Glad that you are, as we suspected, wiser and have more taste than the average American TV network exec and as such are enjoying Firely.

I'm sure you will enjoy life at the flat formerly known as the Girls flat. They have SingStar, anime and Giffy makes the delicious Pad Thai (or at least has it in her fridge).

Enjoy your trip to Europe. We may see you before then or maybe not...

Are you going to WARGS this Wednesday?

Posted by: Debz at July 5, 2004 9:16 PM

I saw on Nightline once that a guy had invented special pants for sitting in. This is more complicated than it sounds.

The pants had rods sewn into the backs of the legs, with a hinge or something at the knee, and extendable foot-bits. You could walk around in them as one normally does in pants, then with a simple 5 minutes of fidgeting with your pants, you could convert them into a kind of in-your-pants stool. It looked like you could pretty much half-squat, and the pants would take all the weight. It didn't really look all that comfortable, but it did look plenty weird.

You should get some of those!

Posted by: Matt at July 5, 2004 9:20 PM

I'm not sure I have the required gravitas to get away with fidgeting with my pants for five minutes in the National Gallery.

When I first read this, I thought Matt was referring to the infamous 'wheelchair pants', pants tailored for sitting in. They are designed to look good when sitting, and have none of the pressure points that normal pants have when you're not standing up. Of course, you can't really walk around in them, but that's not really the market. Ah, here we are - courtesy of the stupid-stuff mailing list:

http://www.wheelchairjeans.com/

Posted by: Svend at July 6, 2004 10:15 AM