Blogger sucks

I was half way through a long blog on my race last weekend then it refreshed and i lost everything I was typing. Long story short version. I raced in a 6x6km relay and our team placed 7th out of 50 team in all of South England. We had an international on our team named Keith and he ran 17.40 and I ran a slow 19.05. Sucks trying to get back into shape.

Silly me

So I've blogged how I should have learned how to be a locksmith. Well today I could have really used that skill. I ran out the door to head downstairs to see if the modem had arrived in the mail because it was supposed to be here last friday and I was sure it was going to be here. Well when you leave our house the door automatically locks behind you. Well guess what 2 1/2 hours later and sixty pounds less in my pocket I was allowed to get back into my house. Yup I locked myself out and had to wait for the locksmith to come and let me back in. But the good thing about this was he showed me how to break into my place, its actually really easy so I think I'll get some stuff and give it a try soon because it looked like a lot of fun. Oh and guess what no internet at home still. I'm fully going to learn how to pick locks because I think it would be fun to bust into my house.

Internet please come to my house

Yes I am still awaiting internet to arrive at my house!!!! How am I supposed to blog if I can't even get to a computer to blog. This stupid country everything takes way to long. Last week I was up in Dundee Scotland doing some work. Man do the Scots ever hate the English it is truly funny oh and they love to drink as well. Gotta go

g

Hot water, well sort of

Hey so the useless boiler fixers were at our house on Friday to kindly tell me that the boiler was broken. Hey no kidding buddy I'm glad you finished your four month internet course and you can figure out something that I figured out when I turned on the hot water in the shower. Well he was kind enough to show me a hack so that I could get hot water while he figured out what the problem was. Well it turns out the boiler needs to be replaced so this dude will be at our house for a couple of days next week. Great I have to work from home and I got some dude hanging out in there with me. Gee that should be fun but hey at least we will get hot water so I guess I can't complain.

Yesterday the crew went to Brighhton which is right on the coast. Its super nice there but I think it is only a day tripper. We were going to spend the night there but decided at the last minute that it wasn't needed. Wednesday to Friday this coming week I'll be in Dundee Scotland installing our system. This should be tons of fun because I have to drive from Edinburgh to Dundee something that I will find kind of challenging considering I get lost in my backyard. Oh ya they drive on the other side of the road here so that should be fun. I'll have to blog about that when I'm done killing myself and everyone else on the road.

Hot water please come back

We had it and now we don’t!!!! Man I love this country we have two different people come and look at it and both times they think something else it wrong. I’m telling you I should take a online course so that I can fix this darn thing. You know the ones I’m talking about. “Call now and you to can be a trained professional in one of the following trades” then they ramble out thirty crappy jobs that you wouldn’t want anyways. “We will send you the books and you can study on your own time. Pass the tests when you get a chance and in only 6 easy weeks you will be bring in real money” Sounds good sign me up for lock picking and furnace fixing.

Lock picking you say? Ya I’ve always wanted to learn how to pick locks. Show me one kid who doesn’t want to learn to pick locks. I would love to be able to do it. Really I have no use for learning to pick locks but come on it would totally be fun to pull that skill out when you are with your buddies after a night of drinking and the dude you are staying with has gone home with some ditch pig. You were locked out but you pull your lock picking skills out and soon you are raiding his fridge. He comes home and you have eaten everything in his fridge and all his ice cream. Everyone knows I love ice cream so that would be the first thing I would hit. Ok I’m running out of time at the internet café. Man I should learn to type quicker so all my friends would get emails.

G-out

Running in London

So I have spent some time digging around and have found that a running club meets in Hyde park three times a week. I found this out from the only running store I have found yet. If any of the guys who went to London with me before its the same one Babs tracked down last time we were here. Well I asked about clubs and they gave me this one as well as a club that is a little bit better so the plan this week is for me to check out the good club and for Sonja to check out the club in Hyde Park. The club that I found has one guy who supposedly can run close to the times that I run. So hopefully I can find a compatible runner for me to run with.

Random Runner

Random Runner
So on Friday I went out for a run by myself at Hyde park. On Thursday I had written in my training log that I was having trouble getting motivated to run. Well Friday turned things around. I got into the park and started running and I'm not kidding you I was less then two minutes into my run when all of a sudden there was this dude running beside me. I was totally shocked so I put in a surge which he matched, so I thought to myself that this dude was for real and I thought I should stop being a runner snob and talk to him. I throw down the "Hey hows it going", classic Canadian line expecting a "Good" back. No all I got was this blank stare. Let me first describe this guy to you. He is decked out in Adidas gear in newer running shoes and he is African of some kind (hope thats a little pc). So I thought to myself I might be with some really fast dude because a lot of agents have athletes from other countries living in London so that they can get to all the races around Europe. Its not that strange really our own famous 800m Canadian record holder Dianne Cummins spends a lot of time in London. So here he goes leading me around Hyde park the way that he wants to go.

On one of the hills I think to myself "I'm fresh right now and I don't know how long he has been running for so I think I'll let him know that I'm not some standard chump who is out for a run." I throw down a solid surge and drop him like he is dead weight. This is bad because he is the only person I know in London who runs. I'm super down on myself realizing that I just drop this random runner. So I finish my first loop and do a second and almost near the end of my loop near the famous speakers corner is my random runner waiting for me. He flags me down and in broken english introduces himself as Ali. Thats all I get out of his ramblings is that his name is Ali and that I should meet him tomorrow at 10am for a run. I tell him my name and I take off to finish my run.

Saturday 10am:
I meet him in the park and we head off on our run. He has learned a little more english and tells me his name is Ali and he lives in Dubai but he is Kenyan (I think but I'm not sure) and he is here to run the marathon. So we do a loop and he uses hand signs to tell me he ate to much and his belly is sore. So we end the run after one loop. He tells me that tomorrow we do two loops. All sign language that I try to figure out and I think I'm doing a good job.

Sunday 11am:
We meet again and do two loops the second loop he drops back and I have to wait for him at one point to let him catch up. I'm starting to think that he may not be a super fast runner anymore but I can not complain because once again he is the only person I know in London who runs. I leave him after two loops with the thought that we will meet on Monday at 12.

Monday Noon:
We meet and he tells me that we are going to do one loop but quicker so I lead the way and once again I drop him. Today he says his stomach is sore from eating again but we finish but one problem I will not be able to meet him for a week because I have other commitments that I have to do during the day. Thankfully I am smarter then the next guy as I had already thought of this and I brought along a piece of paper that I had drawn out a calendar on and I put the that I would be away. So after our run I had to explain to him that I would be gone for a week and I will meet him next Monday at noon in Hyde park. So now I have this friend who does not speak english but he is a running buddy at least.

Randoms

Hey Everyone,

Well I have a bank account it cost me 75 canadian to set up but it was totally worth it because after I visited at least 6 different banks and each was kind enough to tell me I couldn't get an account. It seems that if you don't have an address that has three months of bills being sent to it in your name you can't get a bank account. How in the world can anyone start out in this country it is beyond me. The next challenge has been setting up broadband in our home. Super easy in canada you just put in a call to your broadband provider and bam there you go. Within a week you are good to go. Not in this country hell no. You have to set up a phone line two weeks. Then you have sign a 12 month contract that if you break you have to buy it out no matter what. There is no way to opt out of the contract how budge is that. Well something funny is going on with our phone line because it will be another week until we have a phone line but here is the kicker you can't even get broadband all set up without a phone. So its going to be another two weeks before we have the internet at home.

So how do I work you must be wondering? Well I get up in the morning and type out the emails that I want to send at home then I walk over to the internet cafe and plug my laptop in and send emails update my codebase and download anything that I think I might need for the day. Thankfully work is 8 hours behind me so I can work in a cone of silence without worrying that the stuff that I'm working on is being fixed or updated by someone in canada.

I bought my ticket to India today. Yikes I'm actually going so thats kinda crazy. It cost me 455 pounds, quick someone do the conversion to canadian because I'm at home without internet (no free wireless around here). I'll be leaving on October 31 and I will arrive in New Delhi at 11:30pm. Yikes that should be crazy arriving that late in the night and trying to find my buddy Rob. I will be coming back on February 8th one day before my birthday. While I come back to London by buddy Rob is off to Thailand for some more adventures. Well I haven't spoken to Rob in almost a month because he is in on his fishing boat doing that fishing thang so I am not sure if he has bought his ticket or not yet. This worries Sonja a lot because she's scared that I will be in India by myself but I keep telling her that Robbie Haines will buy the ticket and will be with me in New Delhi on October 31 no matter what. How is that for faith in a friend.

Well how much do they need IT people in this country you maybe thinking. Well I have a job but I have posted my resume online a while back and it has been really strange what has happened. People have randomly called me and asked if I want to interview for different positions. One position that I was actually interested in was becoming a technical auditor which I not exactly sure what that is but it sounds like it could pay really well. I was contacted today while I was in the travel agency by a fellow who wants me to interview for a team lead for a development team in Surrey, which they tell me is only half an hour by train outside of London. He was really pushy so when they asked how much I was expecting I said mid 30's which he seemed would not be a problem. I also threw in I would like to have benefits as well. He said that he was forwarding my resume onto the company so who knows maybe I'll go and get some interview experience. It must be noted that I would not take the job because I'm going to India for three months. Even though Sonja keeps telling me that its a lot of money in Canadian dollars and I would be crazy to walk away from it. I have to keep telling her that life is not all about money its about experiences, which she tells me to shut up and then I tell her the truth that if this type of job is there now it will be there when I get back from India.

Well we went to Brick Lane the other day for dinner. For those that haven't been to Brick Lane (almost everyone I know hasn't) its a street thats full of Indian restaurants. Every restaurant has a person on the street trying to get you to come to there restaurant so they are trying to give you the best deal to come to their place. Its totally fun bargaining with these people for a place to eat. "You throw in beer for everyone and 25% off and we'll look at the menu" is the line I like to use. The food was totally amazing and I'm totally cheap. For Sonja and I it only cost 10 pounds each, which isn't bad considering the last dinner Sonja and I went out for was 20 pounds each and it didn't consist of beer.

Sonja and our roomate Tanya, Sonja's best friend, have got a pass to the local gym so thats where they are tonight. Trying to get buff, sadly they will never be as big as my massive runner body.

We had a bunch of randoms over to our house on Saturday night for a new friends birthday party. We drank, Sonja and I fed them and then we headed out. It was a good night, heck it was a great night I have tons of pictures of random people. Here is a lesson I should learn, never bring the camera to the bar it only causes trouble.

Ok that is way to long of a blog so I'm out.

Stupid London

Just a short post today since I'm pissed at this stupid country. It will take almost a month before I get a proper internet connection. Oh and when I do get one I'll be locked in for a solid year. Yup a solid year man thats awesome. If I want to leave earlier I have to buy out the contract. Guess everyone will have to wait before they get to see our sweet pad as I won't be able to upload those pics as of yet.

peace out I'm going looking for some free wireless instead.

G