november 2000 archives

Thursday, November 30, 2000

Wow, this is great fun! I am using a Blog This! bookmarklet. You go to a Web site. Clicking on the BLog This! bookmarklet, a Blogger window is opened containing the link of the Web page and the page title or any other selected text as hypertext already included. Well, last night I came home and watched this very funny film at last: The Full Monty! A bit too much following the conventional lines in film. Already far in advance you know what is going to happen. The overall atmosphere is a bit like "Brassed off"! Anyway, I had a good laugh.

Wednesday, November 29, 2000

Monday night at 0.30 am, Augusta starts shouting. First in the main hall and retreats to her room continuing her shouting. She's upset with the landlady, as she withheld part of Augusta's deposit to cover electricity and gas bills that are still open! Sounds reasonable to me as Augusta and Richard told me that some people who moved out before went without paying the bills. Well, shouting like a small child in the middle of the night is one thing. However, when I came to the bathroom the next morning I found the toilet disabled! Please, grow up! Last night coming home after karate lessons, I talked to Augusta, but she would not listen and hurriedly fled to her room! She'll be gone by tomorrow fortunately.

Sunday, November 26, 2000

Camden Market. It seems as if it is always raining when I get there. Really a must see for everyone, so be warned if you want to come and visit me in London: I will definitely take you there. Bought some presents for Sinterklaas on the 5th of December for my flatmates from Enschede (I won't tell what it is!). As you see I am more or less reconstructing my Web site. I am trying to make maintenance more manageable by using XHTML and CSS and the latest: PHP3! All these abbreviations might not mean a thing to you, but it ensures that I can update my Web site much easier and port it to other platforms in the future. Cybercartographer!

Saturday, November 25, 2000

Otokai ni re, (= Japanese for "greetings my friends"). Yesterday I have took up shotokan karate again, this time in London with the University College London and University College Hospital Karate Club. So today my body is just hurting everywhere! I really liked practicing karate again and it was quite easy tp pick up all the katas again. Afterwards we all went out to a students' pub. Really nice to be among students once again.

Wednesday, November 22, 2000

Some interesting meetings this week with Belgian data suppliers. Because of their multilingual problems and multi-level government they seem to be very good at dealing with geographic data. Very interesting. Yesterday even had lunch at Belgo's to make our visitor feel at home!

Wednesday, November 15, 2000

So what's Edward been doing lately in his new job? Well, I am turning into a computer geek more and more! Yesterday I set up the fastest Compaq server that is running in the UK. Today I made it happen: Multimap had its first route calculated for the Netherlands! From Pr. Irenestraat to Peuleyen and from Den Helder to Maastricht! That was really some revelation. If only I would be able to say the same for the new British and French data sets. Unfortunately! Well, the good thing is I am not a redundant employee. There's enough trouble to keep me busy. Time to call it a day at the moment and to go home.

Tuesday, November 14, 2000

Small moments of happiness: - walking to the tube station and overlooking Clapham Common with the weak, rising autumn sun penetrating the morning dew. - reading a book whilst commuting that's so funny you don't realise your fly is open and you take the wrong tube. - exiting Leicester Square tube station and you find someone else's wallet whereas just three days before your own belongings were stolen! Isn't it ironic? Don't you think? - coming to work to find an e-mail of your friend in El Salvador with all good news!

Sunday, November 12, 2000

Finally I thought everything was all right. At last I had a bank account. The heating system at home was working properly, I had a mobile telephone and my bed had finally arrived! Until Friday night. As I mentioned earlier, we were to go to the Free Mason's Arms just up the road from the Regus offices. Then within an hour my rucksuck was stolen! Containing a lot of my important documents. Not to mention the master copy of my thesis! So I spent the rest of Friday night around Covent Garden looking for my rucksack, possibly left by the thief and at the Charing Cross Police Station. Yesterday I tried to get copies of all the documents I lost and phoned my supervisor to send me his copy of my thesis. Hopefully I'll be back on track soon!

Thursday, November 09, 2000

After days of programming I have my first application up and running. Specifying co-ordinates of both start and end point in your Web browser allows you to calculate a route between them. Next step is of course to enter real world addresses rather than co-ordinates, but that is a matter of geocoding. Tomorrow night off to the pub with some collegues for a small farewell party for a girl who's going to work at another Regus facility.

Monday, November 06, 2000

10% of people have continued to have sex whilst answering the phone to friends and family. 76% of people would interrupt their lovemaking for answering the phone. Am I starting to become a sexual pervert all alone in the big city? No, it's just a telephone company advertisement in the London underground!

I realised this morning, that I am now for ONE month in the UK, but I still don't have a bank account! AAaaaarrrgggghhhhhhhhhh! O, behave. Still very much impressed by the Danish film I watched last night, "A Place Nearby". I strongly recommend it to everyone! Both the director and the "Baron" were present at the showing. The "Baron" is the actor who played the pater familias in "Festen"! "El accordion del diablo" on the other hand was a very cheerful film, fortunately!

Sunday, November 05, 2000

After some troubles with my mobile (diverts immediately to voicemail!), hopefully communication has been re-established. Well, today I am going to see some nice film at the London Film Festival together with one of my collegues, Simon. Tonight it's Bonfire Night, in rememberance of Guy Fawkes who tried once to explode the Houses of Parliament! So some great firework diplays all over London. Okay, it won't match Enschede, May 13th, but still it is supposed to be some sight, especially at Battersea Park close to where I live. Back to work tomorrow!

Saturday, November 04, 2000

O, yes! The moment everyone has been waiting for! Edward goes MOBILE. From now on, I am part of the scene I never wanted to become part of. So if you want to reach me more personally than just sending me an e-mail, please dial: 00-44-(0)790-1998510. This number is only temporary, as I want to move to a monthly pay phone asap. That means I have tochange my number again. I'll let you know!