[Colonol Dekker]

Argh. . . . . I wish I could go. Just to see a massive Scarlet on screen.
 
Stupid social life interfering with HLP

[Mika]

Okay, I thought I could write here something about my UK trip. So begins the legend this time:

It was a dry and warm Spring evening 2010 Anno Domini when I arrived to Heathrow and continued searching for the bus that would take me closer to unspecified location. After wandering about 20 mins at the arrivals gate in Heathrow I finally realize that despite signs saying "TRAIN STOP", there is also a tunnel to the central bus station. Well, you can't expect everything. I got on the bus causing only a minor incident by walking on the road that wasn't allowed for pedestrians, but by explaining that I was more worried about getting on the bus rather than obeying the rules, the driver accepted me in. The trip went well until the last quarter, when there was a huge traffic congestion at M11 (I guess) at around 23.30(!). How did they manage to do that?

I arrived about one hour late on the unspecified airfield near London and tried to look for the shuttle bus that would take me to an unspecified hotel. I didn't find the bus, nor did I find any placates of its starting platform. I proceeded to ask the airport officials where to find one, but everybody pointed out in different directions. This was the first moment, and if you bear with me, it gets better. I spotted a line of about twenty taxis next to the airport and thought "A-ha! That's my ride to hotel then!" Off we go and ask the driver, who replies "No can do, you need to have a reservation number!" The taxi reservation center was filled with people, while there were twenty unoccupied taxis waiting for apparently nothing. That's the point I started to become .

Suddenly I started to think that probably the best way to get to the hotel is simply to walk there. As the trip was about 5 kms, it's not that much, though I had about 20 kilograms of luggage with me. Then I proceeded with my inquiries of the exact position of the hotel, saying to the airport personnel that "I'll walk", they clearly didn't believe me, and just hand waved to the general direction of the airfield.   So I started to walk around the airfield, getting blisters at about 2.5 km mark. I also noted that the airport security had noted me and followed me with a car mercifully behind the fence so that I surely couldn't ask them if I'm heading to right direction. Apparently they couldn't believe their eyes that someone's walking around the airport perimeter at 01.00, and needed the long distance driving lights to confirm the sight.

Oh well, at least I wasn't carrying the poster tube. They would have probably interpreted that as a shoulder launched missile and we all know what happens to foreign people security determines to be terrorists. Cursing Brits and sweating like pig, while hoping that I have been walking towards the right direction, I note that the hotel shuttle bus passes me by (actually twice). Since I wasn't next to any kind of bus stop they didn't note me but I'm not sure if it had stopped anyways had I been at the stop either. That, though, confirmed that I'm at least walking to right direction. But I didn't bear very happy thoughts at that point of time, mostly FCUK it, which is like **** it, only worse. I did mention that I don't like football, didn't I?

At that time, I made a second observation: British roads aren't meant to be walked. There is very little extra space on the sides, so one is basically forced to walk on the grass. Nice. At last, I managed to get to the hotel carrying all the stuff and being really sweaty, but at least I got my room about two hours later and quite pissed off. I had a shower and set the wake up to 07.00, allowing the luxurious five hour sleep before the course. The receptionist thought I was crazy, but I have heard that one before.

The following days were a lot more easier, though I continued to note that even at so short distances as 5 km, the British roads are really not meant to be walked, as the clearance between pedestrian and a car is usually measured in centimeters. Oh, and I did see terran emperor at London on Thursday. More about that later, as the returning trip from there to the undisclosed location didn't go as planned.

[McCall]

So... what happened with Captain Custard?

[Mika]

I don't know. Captain Custard never showed up there.

Anyways, me and terran emperor went to a bar for a pint or two, then had some Chinese food. We talked about Freespace scene, unfortunately since I don't own a bad ass computer I couldn't comment much about SCP. It is interesting to see so many people are interested in modelling things for games, but there isn't such rush for CAD environments, although I think modelling is even better in CAD. Has probably something to do with games wanting polygons and CAD packages wanting splines.

He also gave me a hint of Doctor Who, that I haven't known existed since the thread in this board, or a picture of a Dalek in some obscure forum. I actually managed to watch a couple of episodes yesterday, and have to admit they have done good job with it. It is a lot more human centered than any other science fiction series I know, which makes it all the more better. The situations seem to be somewhat goofy, but somehow the script seems to pull it off. I have liked a lot of the Doctors played by Tennant and Eccleston, though I haven't watched the earlier episodes of the series. Referring to Doctor Who, Terran Emperor showed a police booth from the Trafalgar Square, an object I didn't even know to exist (the booth I mean). You learn something new every trip.

Oh yeah, I promised to write something about what went wrong when I wanted to get back to Liverpool Street from Embankment. I went to the Underground from Embankment and thought, jolly good the same route back and make no rush about it. Surprisingly, they never told me that the circle line doesn't go to Liverpool street after 22.00, or something like it.   Without a lady who knew the schedules and that I would need to run ( FCUK!) from some obscure place (Tower Hill?) to Bank, I would have been completely lost. I managed to get to Liverpool Street, and missed the train only by 20 minutes. It is jolly good those Brits write a lot of informational signs everywhere, too bad the content is usually next to useless and it is the important things that you never see. Like the Underground schedules, or at what time of day the don't drive the route any more.

Luckily, there was still one more train to Bishop's Stortford and I managed to get there so I only had a short trip back to hotel, this time I got a taxi immediately after leaving the station without any kind of booking numbers, as would be expected from a civilized society. In the end from the organizational point of view, French and English are not so far from each other as I thought before. Maybe I should make a Boratesque document of travelling abroad and doing stupid things, or filming the stupid things done by the locals. I seem to have a knack in finding exactly those kind of situations. Normally, I wouldn't expect a sixty mile trip to take more than one and a half hours with public transportation, but in UK it needs four as evidenced by going and returning from Stansted to Heathrow.

The only question I have is who might have been that nice blonde who almost missed Roydon in that train to Bishop's Stortford?

[McCall]

So you experienced the inexplicable time-loss that goes with trying to use our public transport. It is amazing how they eat up the hours withut going very far, isn't it? I'm wondering if it's part of a state scheme to make us think England is bigger than it really is.

Sorry I couldn't make that night. Was busy arranging wedding stuff with the missus-to-be and completely forgot I was supposed to be up in London until TE called me.

[Mika]

So you experienced the inexplicable time-loss that goes with trying to use our public transport. It is amazing how they eat up the hours withut going very far, isn't it? I'm wondering if it's part of a state scheme to make us think England is bigger than it really is.

Yeah. Using public transport always sounds better until you actually sit in that bus or train. Unfortunately, the company doesn't pay costs associated with excessive taxiing if public transportation is available, though next time in UK I'm really willing to push my luck against the corporate machine.

On the other hand, since I was practically born in a small village, I learned that 1 hour of travelling time = 100 km with a car. I find that whenever I go into a big city the distance in kms doesn't matter at all - and it's weird. I also note that the Underground and Public Transportation inside a city tend to stop every 300 meters, which is a ridiculously short distance to walk and that tends to annoy me to a no end.

No problem about that, wedding is an acceptable excuse. Besides I was delayed by one and a half hours from the original arrival time at that night, thanks (yet again) to British Rail. Missed the Iron Man II because of that I guess.

[Colonol Dekker]

Unsticky time.
 
 
Let's get the next ball rolling.

[Mongoose]

At least the UK has the right size and infrastructure to make widespread public transportation feasible.  There's a reason everyone in the US who doesn't live in the middle of a city lives and dies by their cars.

[SpardaSon21]

Yeah, you know why no one drives in New York City?  Because of all the traffic.