Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Stretch your mind

Clicking on things makes stuff happen:

Try to open the portal.

The '?' at the bottom right of the screen gives the instructions.
The symbol next to it (2 arrows) reloads the game if you get stuck.

Sequels exist: Hapland 2 and Hapland 3.

I've managed the first two, but the third is still spraining me, so if anyone works it out... DON'T TELL ME!

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Beautiful game? Perhaps. Pity about the fans.

I dread travelling home late Wednesday nights. I keep forgetting how much I dislike it, and then I'll arrive at Upton Park after a West Ham game and get a 15-minute-long refresher course in my idea of hell.

Like tonight:
  • Idiot Child smoking on the train and cackling to his mates, "Oy, 'oos smokin'?" while venting clouds of exhaust
  • I ask Idiot Child to stop smoking, only to get a chorus of "Shuddup"s and "Fuck off"s from not only his mates but most of the 'adult' football fans in the carriage
  • Having to listen to inane babblings of idiot Essex slag bragging at being escorted off a train miles shy of her destination for being caught smoking and then having no ticket, so having to walk all the way in her new shoes. Can't afford to pay her fare, but has new shoes. Exemplary.
  • Idiot Child standing - still smoking - in the doorway of my train at my station while I'm trying to disembark, and refusing to move until I push him aside as the doors start closing, and then yelling abuse at me for my presumption.
  • Having a half-full can of beer thrown at me from a window by Idiot Child's crony as the train departs (he missed)
  • Being treated to the sight of an 'adult' male hauling it out and letting the urine fly directly under a main road streetlamp just outside my station for all the world to see and applaud (which his friend did)
I'm not blaming football, you have to understand. I think it's a pack animal response - make the mob big enough, and a couple of choice specimens will take advantage of the audience to make up for whatever inadequacies they're dealing with. Still. I dread travelling home late Wednesday nights. And it's not because of the theatre crowds heading home.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

On holidays and change

Overdue for a new look, I think, so here's the new styling. I get the feeling already that it'll be temporary, but it's still a good technical exercise. Enjoy it while it lasts.

What Greg did

It's been 9 months since I last had any time off work, so this last week has been a balm for jangled nerves that I didn't even know were complaining. It's been quite a novel experience as well: it's the first week off I've had since Zara and I got together almost 12 years ago that I've spent essentially without her - alone. Cue lost, puzzled bewilderment. I was able to fill my days quite adequately, but there was a continual sense of something missing, something not quite right. I think I've had a tangible awakening to the truth in the adage, "A joy shared is a joy doubled." Thankfully, these solo vacations will be rare things indeed. I don't think I'm too fond of them.

That said, I've enjoyed the time immensely (just not as much as I would have with Zara by my side). It's been a mixture of work (applying for and getting my visa for our trip to Budapest in April, learning a smattering of Hungarian to get by while we're there, checking my work email to make sure nothing goes awry), play (going to see Edward Scissorhands with Zara, catching the excellent Good Night and Good Luck and the less excellent Syriana, a lovely lunch in a Persian restaurant) and sheer indulgence (my first experience ever of sleeping until midday, an entire afternoon curled up under a blanket watching the Oscars). It's been an effective tonic for my work ennui, at least for the two weeks until my next vacation - Zara and I are off to Budapest for our anniversary! (You may have guessed that from the visa and Hungarian comments)

It's our 5th, and the first year since arriving in the UK that we haven't had the need to be in South Africa, so we finally have funds to do what we've wanted to all along - see Europe. Our first thought was "Rejkjavik" but the extortianate travel and living costs dissuaded us so we planned on somewhere like Prague instead, and ended up with tickets to Budapest. Another first for Zara and me: a week holiday abroad that involves just the two of us. No family, no friends, no obligations, no compromise, just what we want to do when we want to do it. We have plans to wander castle catacombs at night by oil lamplight, witness the atrocities of the secret police at the Terror Museum, warm ourselves in one of the many thermal baths, stroll around the rose and Japanese gardens on Margaret Island and, most importantly, just wander around soaking in the people and the culture. We only have a week (only 5 days, in fact, but we're pretending) but it's the most exciting thing we've done in ages, so it really doesn't matter.