Bureaucracy

This blog is turning into post-a-vent! Sorry about this, but I now realise one of the beautiful things about being an ex-British colony. We inherited the best of British. Tea-breaks and lunch hours are very sacred in Malaysia, you do not mess with them. If you go at the wrong time to a civil servant's office, you're likely to be told that they are "out". Which means they've gone for tea break.

We've also inherited the bureauracy. It's great.
Standard conversation
"Can you help me please?"
"I'm sorry m'am, that is not my department."
"Can you transfer the line to the correct department please?"
"Sorry m'am, you have to ask the operator to do that."
"Can you pass me to the operator then?"
"One moment"
Operator"Hello"
Me -"Can you pass me to xxx department?"
Operator- "Hold on"
Phone rings, no one picks up
Operator- "No one answering the phone"
Me- "Can you transfer me to someone else please"
Operator- "No one else-la, call back later"

I love trying to apply for a new student visa as well because mine's running out soon and I haven't managed to quite finish writing my thesis yet. I'm trying to be inspired at the moment and the thought of being poor is inspiring a lot.

However, you've got to love the vagueness of the English Language when all it tells you on the website is
"The passport has been received from British High Commission, please collect the same from the UK Visa Application Center where it was submitted. "

How hard can it be to tell consular staff to put a short note "Cleared" or "Rejected" then I can decide on the next move?
People who work at immigration or consular services must go to special schools where they are taught to be as obtuse as possible.

It's not as if I can just pop over to the Application center in Kuala Lumpur like it's the next stop on the bus, there's just the small matter of the South China Sea seperating us...

Vent over.

Home is good, eating lots of good food, discovering what AM looks like, family is well, still as organised as I am about life and managed to get to Selina and James' wedding.

The haze is back. For those not in the know, this is theoretically the best time to visit Malaysia. It's in between monsoon so you're guaranteed that it won't be pelting down for a whole week (thus ruining your holiday, unless you're a Brit with a fetish for rain), the dry hot spells are over, the wind is cooler.

The only problem is the farmers in Kalimantan and Sumatra (and probably the interior) of Borneo. They used to cultivate using slash and burn which was fine before we wrecked the ecosystem but they still haven't been able to change the old ways. Result?

We're covered in a fine particulate dust we call haze (similar to smog in major towns around the world, think of the big smoke, nueva york, etc etc) and it's getting worse.

which wouldn't be so bad if we actually had a leader who was around when we're all dying from lung cancer (I overstate, a little) but he's away on holiday. At a time of crisis, the leaders go on holiday.

The rent-a-vent is now closed. Please feel free to post comments and face masks (or air filters)

I'm leaving

on a jet plane.

And I'm so excited that I can't sleep. It's 3am and I'm on a plane in 9 hours from now to go back home.

I've been dreaming of the food so much that I can't sleep.

That or I'm so stressed about leaving my work.

Toe-tapping away to the sounds of my keyboard. I must try to get some sleep.

I'll be in Malaysia until 17 October!

All systems go!

Just been given the go ahead by my supervisor to start thinking of writing up.

The load of my shoulder has now been released.

I have a new hobby that's helping my bank account look a lot less drained. It might even perk up in a bit.

Otherwise, 5 days till I go home but it's full of lab work and no time to pack, wash clothes or anything remotely domestic.

war against spinach

Now there's a war against spinach..where will it all end?

I know it's been a while since I blogged, will be back with pictures soon.

Just think stress, multiply by lots and you get me at the moment.

xxx

At least it's not boring

My life can't be called boring. I try to make it boring but it just turns out mildly interesting.

So, went to Greenbelt for bank holiday weekend. It was good. Could be worse but it's good. Sleeping on the ground is not so good. Will post pictures later when my laptop has returned after being sent it again. (Don't get me started on Apple again...)

Bands were good. Friends are good.

Went to London yesterday right after returning from Greenbelt and met up with the lovely Sarah after she finished work, then Sebby who sat down with me at the Genius bar while we were trying to figure out what to do about my diseased Powerbook. It's just too painful to relate the whole story but suffice to say that it's now in repairs again, I expect to have a working laptop at some point in my lifetime. After dinner and a half bottle of wine with Sebby (we had to celebrate that he's been in gainful employment for five years and I hadn't somehow. I'm also an alcoholic) Walked to Marble Arch to bus stop to start talking with random French Algerian boy and then spent the time talking to random Oxford boy on the bus the way back.

Am pleased with self as can still chat up random men.

There is also a big piss up organised for the end of October when I get back. I should start practising for that.

The bank holiday weekend

I'm off to Greenbelt, where they've got quite a random line up this year....

There will be camping in the rain, joy. Why do people in this country put themselves up for it?

Should be fun.

Madness...

I felt frivolous when I woke up this morning so I'm wearing stilettos at work today. Now I know I am well and truly mad.

Working very hard makes me very tense. If you haven't realised from reading the past few posts, I could make it more obvious but I am feeling better today. I have a slight cold but for some strange reason, I'm not so tense. How odd. Maybe it's just the exhaustion. Or the fact that the end is in sight? Well, I can smell the end, I have a good sense of smell.

Then again, maybe I smell because I've been working with flies for a long time.

Enough of that, lots of good things have been happening but because there's so much crap going on in my life, I haven't posted about it.

I've started speaking to an old friend, we haven't been in touch for a long time (due to many silly mistakes from my part) and it's good. I'm going to try and catch up with him again soon. I'm growing up because I know I'm learning from my mistakes.

Mary came to see me last week and we checked out the new tourist attraction in Oxford, Oxford Unlocked. It was hilarious!! It's also nice to see a part of Oxford completely not related to the university and learn about medieval England. It's about prisons, so not really the most entertaining or uplifting experience. We saw an underground Normal crypt, then explored the prison using some high-tech Navigator tools, basically a heavy duty MP4 player, and at the end of it, we climbed one of the few towers left in Oxford. We then had a late lunch and supped some wine.

Later in the evening, I managed to go out drinking with Annie. Drunken debauchery. Not suitable for sensitive eyes, so you know how to get the full story (double rums are so the way forward)

Crawled out of bed on Sunday with hangover (now I remember what one of those feels like, it's been a while my friend) and jumped on a train to Brum. Sent in my beloved baby to be repaired by the Apple Store, you've heard it all from the previous posts and met up with Pete. We had lunch at this crazy crazy Italian deli in the Bullring then walked to Victoria Square when we randomly decided to go into a Birmingham Museum/Art Gallery. He'd never been in there and he's lived in Brum for ages. My excuse is that I always meant to go in there. They have the most random collection of stuff, odd odd artworks.

Worked like a madwoman from hell this week, so bad that I had a breakdown on Thursday. So on Friday, I met Keiko for lunch and we decided that it would be fun to go and have our hair cut. I now have shorter hair, and more texture and layers. I love the unkempt look. I'm so good at it. But then again, I am so lazy, I love rolling out of bed, scraping my hair back if I have time but otherwise, just coffee then work.

I am in a pleasant mood today, I think the frivolity of wearing stilettos to work helped. Lots of other things have happened in between my cycles of madness, pictures here.

Apple Customer Service

Yet again

How can a customer oriented company have no one to pick up the phone?

Are you listening Apple? Your customer service sucks! I don't live locally to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorised Service Provider so I need my laptop which has been fixed by you shipped to me.

HOW HARD CAN THAT BE? Apparently with the best customer service company in the world, impossible.
I've dealt with better trained monkeys than Apple CS.

B***ards

Apple Customer Service

bites.

Big time.

I have just spent about 45 minutes of my life trying to get ONE person to tell me where my laptop is, but no one knows. I try to call the Apple Store and it HANGS UP ON ME.

Can someone please tell me why when I pay stupid amounts of money for a laptop, and Apple's mantra is 'customer service' and they have bloody 'Genius Bar' they can't even get a human being to answer the phone and tell me where my laptop is?

Or they can't even update the damn service log online and tell me what's happening to it?

I expect this kind of customer service from Dell and their ilks but when you sell a whole image Steve Jobs, make sure it works.

And a lead time of 7 to 10 WORKING DAYS to fix a laptop is WRONG.

Stress relief

Just what I was looking for, anyone for a new business venture in Oxford?

When pigs fly...

That's how I feel about the people in the lab at the moment. Wendy has gone away for 2 weeks and this time, I've vowed not to be the village idiot and left things as they stand. Why should I empty something that I haven't used?

Of course, everyone feels the same way, even though they have used it. So the pigs that I work with have left the bins overflowing... I am getting annoyed by it as it's just starting to look grimy.

And when pigs fly will someone else go and get the food for the flies. Everyone's been stealing what I bring up for the past 3 days and when I ask nicely, no one seems to give a flying fuck. How hard can it be to get your FAT LAZY ASS off the chair and pick some food up? I've done the damn things countless times and you lazy fuckers just help yourself to it?

I don't think so. Personal use things only from now on. And people wonder why I don't share.

Rant over.

I've been swept off my feet

from the sheer frustration...

that no one seems to care about the crap conditions that I work in.

that no matter how much I work, it all seems to go wrong. Why can't I have the luck of Riley on my side? Just for the next 8 weeks so that it will all be over?

that the people I work with, one is an incompetant and the other is inept. Or is it me?

that there isn't enough time in the world to do what I want to do.

A woman and her shoes

So, been helping Acua pack her stuff. They are going to be away for 4 1/2 months but she can't bear the thought of parting with her 30 pairs of shoes. I'm going to miss them while they're away.





There's been a photo competition at work, the demolition work next to ours is a pain in the butt. For those not in the know, the building I used to work in, the Walter Bodmer building is now being torn down to be replaced by a shiny new building.


















I've also decided I want a squeaky toy at work. But the boys in the lab have vetoed it. I wonder why...

Things that make me happy

'Stolen' moments to pray

Home made pesto

Smiling with random strangers

Roast duck salad with mushroom and red onion red wine gravy

Watching 22 fit men running around a small field, kicking a very fast ball

A hot sunny day with a breeze

Well made mojitos

Friends who reply texts at random hours of the day

Phone conversations about nothing at all

Lazy Sundays

--------------------------------------------

I have a football shaped hole in my life until Tuesday. What am I to do with myself??

Read below

There is a new post. Sort of, I started one and edited it today. So skip the suicidal one and read the happy one....

I'd also like to say that Ricardo is the best goalkeeper in the world right now...

Tears flowing freely...

Job Chapter 3: 1-7
Finally Job broke the silence and cursed the day on which he had been born.
Job "O God, put a curse on the day I was born; put a curse on the nnight when I was conceived! Turn that day into darkness, God. Never again remember that day; never again let light shine on it. Make it a day of gloom and darkness; cover it with clouds, and blot out the sun. Blot that night out of the year, and never let it be counted again; make it a barren joyous night.

Why is that carrying your cross makes you feel like Job? And when will one find redemption as he does in the final chapter?

I cried today.

O2 wireless festival with James

Mr Blunt of course. Also described as Mr Bland but he actually rocked for the show at this festival. Although, calling it a festival would seem to be pushing it. At times it felt like a fun fair but had a very enjoyable day with Bex drinking pear cider, lots of Pimm's (it was on offer, to be fair) and listened to lots of nice music. It helped to dampen the previous suicidal notions, which will return tomorrow when I look at my data again.

But on the myspace stage, Roddy Hart stood out. Nice melodies and someone who can actually sing instead of screaming out the words of the lyrics they wrote.

Listened to most of the main stage, Nizlopi, The Eels, Zero 7 and unimitable James Blunt. Overheard Killa Kela whilst sat on the sun lounge drinking Pimms. Nizlope were great!! Two guys, one plays guitar the other plays double bass and they shot to stardom singing about a 5-year old boy sitting on a JCB with his dad so he wouldn't have to go to school where he got bullied. I imagined them to be a bit folksy but there was some rapping, some beatbox and a very tuneful double bass playing. Reminds me of the guy in Barenaked Ladies when he does gigs, if you've been to one of their gigs, you know how he just goes mad and everyone gets in a frenzy. Zero 7 was nice and electronic chill out. They had one hit and some other good songs, but chill out electronic music never makes it big around here. Very odd.

Mr Bland/Blunt impressed me. I'll admit, I like his music anyways so would have stood around but his show was quite good. Better than I gave him credit for. Guess this is where PR and marketing come to play. He doesn't sit on a stool with his guitar but rather jumps up and down and has a crazy keyboard player who does a silly dance..
There was a whole thing going on with the crowd throwing balls around.












Hello Mr Blunt *wink* *wink*















Me and Bex enjoying the day.











Then had the most hectic week, swept off my feet!! Went for dinner at Ale's place on Monday, it was her birthday. I think JM might be slightly jealous that we all love her as much as we love him. But don't worry, we love you more. Sometimes.

Aw...Chad and all the girls.













Then on Tuesday, went for going down dinner. I'm pretending that I will be alumni at St Cross College soon.
Me and Mrs Kramer looking all bling bling for the evening. Can you tell we just RAN there from my flat?










Then worked Wednesday, slept on Thursday and another dinner on Friday. Phew!!

And today, history repeated itself. England lost to Portugal on penalties again. France beat Brazil.

And for the first time in such a long time, an all European semi-final. Might have to take time off on Tuesday and Wednesday. I mean, this only happens once every 4 years.

Don't take life too seriously...

I am beyond the depths of depression, if there is a hole further down than the lowest plumbs, then I in it right now. I can't sleep because my brain can't rest. The results that I spent the last 2 weeks on didn't work out.

It's too late to quit.

Is it?

Summer of music

Joy joy joy

I got a free ticket to the O2 wireless festival in London to see James Blunt plus guests for next Saturday.

Then off to Greenbelt to volunteer and watch loads of music, performances and maybe even listen to a couple of life-inspiring talks. Oh, and drink beer. Organic beer tent...mmm....

And because Switchfoot are no longer head-lining at Greenbelt, I thought I would just pop into London to see them. Since they've got Tree63 supporting them and I vaguely remember Tree63 at Greenbelt some point which means they were pretty good.

Rock n roll. :p

Thank you for smoking review

Went to see "Thank you for smoking". What a fabulous, side-splitting film. It's based on a book by Christopher Buckley. It's about Nick Naylor, a tobacco lobbyist who's probably one of the most hated men in the world. He and his friends the MOD (Merchants of Death) squad have lunch at Bert's and discuss their spin. They are a wonderfully politically incorrect bunch of people . The movie is great because it expects the audience to be intelligent, sort of. They are all spin-doctors, lobbyists fighting for their causes in a puritannical America. They speak of allowing for choice. And that's always good. The movie also involves Nick's relationship with his son Joey, showing how he can be a role model to his son even though his job isn't exactly great. There's a great scene where he goes to his son's school on a parent day and he has to explain his job in between a fireman and a pilot. But he manages to spin the kids, asking them to question everything and getting them to like him.


Fantastic piece of trivia. The act of smoking is not shown anywhere in the movie by anyone. Even when Nick reaches into his pocket to pull out a cigarette — his pack is empty.

Quotes
Joey Naylor: Dad, why is the American government the best government?
Nick Naylor: Because of our endless appeals system.

Nick Naylor: You know the guy who can pick up any girl? I'm him on crack.

Nick Naylor: Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk.

Go and watch the film! It's on a limited release in the States but that's the country that voted in Dubya for a second term...