Ah it's grand.
Sure.

Well I’m enroute home at the home and bored in Bangkok airport. I finally got somewhere to sit down so that was a bit of a relief. Legs are rather tired. Alas, my quest for free internet access has not been successful. There are several access points, including two by wireless providers. However there were three other access points including one called ‘cathay’. Ah yes … there’s the cathay pacific lounge. Sadly, although I can connect to the point and get an IP, I can’t get any further. Oh well. I shall just upload once I get over to Ireland. Airport is bloody crowded at the moment but at least I managed to find a present for my folks. Bad state of affairs when you do your xmas shopping at the airport. Sadly, I never got time the past several weeks; work and the apartment move.

Just to add another tale of woe to the whole apartment saga, I really have to say that I hate Singtel. I’ve already switched my ADSL to Qala but Singtel still provide the phone line. They couldn’t do an evening appointment, which is fair enough, so I had to wait for a week for a Saturday appointment. Around the same time the gas company were over and were really cheerful about everything. The Singtel guy didn’t speak, just wandered in and then asks where I want the sockets. So I explained to him how fucked the wiring was, apologised for it (it’s not my fault but I still felt bad for him) and then pointed to where I wanted sockets. I wanted three, two were there already and working. The third was just replacing the socket that had been ripped off the wall. Alas, there were multiple phone lines coming in and so he had to do some work to merge the wiring.

Decided to drop in on the Mac Meetup crew on my way back from work this evening. Nice to have a chat with some genuine people. Siva is always great to talk to and continues to prove genuine leadership qualities that include a thoughtful respect for people. Was talking to someone else whose name I forgot to ask (I’m shit with names) but I’ll catch up with him again so no biggie. Had a quick chat with Andre, thoughtful guy as well and it was nice to talk to him face-to-face having seen him around online for the past two years or so (first on SPUG).

On Sunday at 7am we were awoken to the sound of gushing water. The pipe to the hot tap had sprung a leak and was shooting water at the back of the door .. or my eye when I opened the bathroom door. There’s nothing in the apartment itself that will turn the water off .. it eventually turned out that there’s one outside but the tap head was gone and the stem had been wrung, so nothing we could except wait for the plumber. When he turned up there was another argument with the landlord who wouldn’t pay for the preventive repairs (about $200). Just the necessary one. In the end I think he did the work, probably to make life easier for himself in the long run. We got him back in during the week to do some cosmetic stuff so he got back some cash. He’s a nice guy so I think we’ll put some business his way and hopefully he’ll make sure we don’t get any more surprises!

Moving apartment has been a shitload of hassle! I’ve mentioned the wanker of an agent that I had while getting this place. That was resolved when I went to his manager who took over. She improved things quite a bit which was a relief, however the landlord didn’t do the work she was supposed to do which means we spent a lot of time cleaning and will now have to do the painting as well. When we got the keys I went over to do some preparation to move in, I noticed some cockroaches, I decided to spray some roach killer :) A fuckload of them came scurrying out and more spraying brought more. Final death count 25 adults and about the same offspring. Nasty. More investigation turned up rotten wood under the sink which had been hidden by a flap. Fuckers! After a shouting match with the landlord, which wasn’t a lot of fun to resort to, we got a patch that covers the rotten wood. I wanted the whole sodding thing ripped out and replaced but the landlord won’t go for it. I don’t feel like paying for it right now – I’ve just handed over two months rent (booking and security deposits).

As Andrew so eloquently pointed out to me, I haven’t updated my blog for rather a long time. In my defence I have been distracted by moving apartment and being rather busy at work. So here are some updates in the next few entries.

Ages ago I decided that I was going to try and write my own blogging client (Open Source) as an exercise in improving my programming skills and learning Objective-C.

Alas, I just don’t have the time for it. The problem now, is that I don’t update my blog because I hate using the web interface. So I’m back to trying out Ecto again. Version 2 is available and seems to have some very nice features. So I think I will be concentrating on building my new webserver and using Ecto to actually write up my blog. I really need to get back to posting something interesting rather than this crap about what works and what doesn’t work. Thanks Andrew, for pointing out that my blog is mundane and my 6am hunt for roti prata was the only interesting entry.

My lease is ending and we’re moving to a new apartment (need more space as I’ve accumulated a lot in 3.5 years here in Singapore). Current landlord is reasonable and everything was easy with the agents last time around. This time it’s a nightmare. We looked at a place (on the 10th) which is big (2400 sq.ft) but needed a very good clean and repairs. The repairs are to the wooden surrounds where the window aircon units have leaked and caused the wood to rot. Looks nasty but is a simple remove, clean and replace exercise. We specified what we wanted done and were told it would take about two weeks. Happy with that we said we could come back and view again on the 25th. We agreed to have a letter of intent drafted and handed over a post-dated (25th) cheque as the booking deposit (which was cashed on the 25th).

In shocking news a In shocking news a states “Most priests want Vatican to lift celibacy ban”. I’m damn sure they do.

Now, I’m sure you think that discussions on etiquette and mobile phones are passé. However, recent exposure to a rather unsettling use of a mobile phone prompted, nay forced, me into a post. This afternoon as I pondered the meaning of life, the chap in the cubicle next to me, who was being rather noisy in vacating his ruminations, answered his mobile phone. This was bad to start with I thought at first, but then decided he might be telling someone he was indisposed to a chit-chat. Oh no, a lengthy conversation ensued, punctuated by further noisy ruminations. Here’s a suggestion to anyone who might be thinking of using the phone on the throne; don’t.