Measuring up

I'm beginning to feel quite positive about this new flat.

Not that I didn't have a good feeling about it to begin with, but the reality of having bought it, having made it mine to move into whenever I like, left me a little shellshocked.

Today, my folks and I popped back there and started measuring up - nice and accurate, thanks to my father's ultrasound measuring device - so that we can start planning furniture and the like. My mother is perhaps a little too keen to start playing about in her interior designer software, so I'll have to make sure the end result is both functional and something that reflects me rather than her, but I'm quite glad of the assistance.

Much of what's already there, furniture-wise, will be adequate for the time being. The sofa in the lounge is - conveniently - a sofa bed. I will need to clean it out (having opened it out to see what it was like, I discovered popcorn, pistachio nuts and a used cotton bud in the inner workings) but it's a decent enough sofa bed. Not sure how useful it'll be when the place is more fully furnished, but I'll cross that bridge when I come it it.

The table and chairs, while nice enough, are a little redundant considering the amount of space I'll have to play with. I shall aim to have some kind of office space in the lounge, so a proper desk would be more appropriate.

The bedroom contained a wickerwork-look chest of drawers, a matching wardrobe, and a canvas 'wardrobe' thing. The chest of drawers now sits in the bathroom, a reasonable size for storing various bathroom trappings.

The kitchen has a washer/dryer, microwave and oven with hob, along with a fridge-freezer. My mother suggested a dishwasher but, frankly, I don't trust them to do a good job based on the performance of the one at home or the one at work.

All told, I'm quite pleased with it... I just need to figure out how much of my TransFormers collection I can safely move in ;)

So I bought a flat...

...Or, y'know, so it seems.

It's quite surreal, really. Months ago (back in February?), this process started with me putting in an offer on this single-bedroom, second floor flat. Things happened in the background (though, thankfully, none of those things were the vendor moving a tenant in) and yesterday, after a last-minute glitch, I received a phone call from the Estate Agent to the effect that everything was OK, and I could pick up the keys whenever I wanted.

This was something like 4.30pm, about four and a half hours after the usual time for such matters.

The 'last-minute glitch' was that the accountant for the vendor's solicitor went home at lunchtime and didn't tell anyone that the transaction was complete.

Classy, huh?

I'd like to be able to say that the accounts people at the company I work for are better, and wouldn't do something so stupid... but I know that's not true. These are the people that don't pay our temps unless we kick up a fuss. These are the people who don't process bonuses for several months. Who knows what other things they get up to. Or don't get up to.

So anyway, yes, I am now a property owner. And in my brief visit to the flat yesterday, I found some post for the previous occupant - one of which was from a 'certificated baliff', according to the envelope.

With this sort of thing, it wasn't long till my father shared with me the cheery thought that, if the previous occupant had kept a set of keys, they'd be able to pop back and take the furniture they'd left behind (and, stupidly, tried to get me to buy the day before completion).

That is, of course, something I had considered. When buying a new property, it is always prudent to change the locks... but it's not necessarily something you want one of your parents to say - loudly and publicly - when you've only had the keys to the place for about 45 minutes.

I am hoping to be off to the London Film and Comic Con today... just waiting on a phone call. More later, I'd imagine...

Curse you, eBay!

I'm sure I've already described the positively unhealthy amounts of time I spend trawling eBay.

There are a few things I'm on the lookout for, and will aways try to bid on when I find them. One such item is the torso of the G1 gestalt group, the Seacons. Snaptrap is a strange aquatic tortoise (he has feet rather than flippers, so he can't be a turtle) with guns sticking out of his shell, and a wierd claw thing at the back. He's pink and blue, so he looks really scary.

Considering how poorly-executed most of the Seacons are, it's strange that the combined form, Piranhacon, actually looks reasonably effective. Frankly, it looks about as good as any of the G1 gestalts (perhaps not as good as Menasor, the only full set I have, so perhaps I'm biased), but the colourscheme was always a bit on the psychedelic side. The best version was the Japanese Beast Wars II version, God Neptune, which had a consistent colour scheme - pearly white, gold and grey for the most part - and that's including the new TransFormers Collectors' Club version.

I suppose part of my thinking for completing my G1 Seacons set is that, if I sell the complete set on eBay, I would probably make more than enough to buy the Club set, if I so desired.

The Club set is complete - unlike God Neptune, which was lacking one of the smaller Seacons - but the colourscheme is pretty vile. Apparently, much like Club Astrotrain, it's based on an unreleased Walmart exclusive set. Unlike Astrotrain, however, it's made from a 20-year-old mold that wasn't particularly impressive the first time round. Add to that a colourscheme that's even more psychedelic than the original (the yellow burns my eyes!), and you've got a Club exclusive that's not high on my want list.

I shall consider my options very carefully when Snaptrap arrives... To be honest, having looked over my G1 collection several times of late, I'm thinking of selling a good chunk of it. Things like the Headmasters are, in this day and age, pretty rubbishy - incredibly simplistic transformations, very limited posability, boring gimmick. Even the massive Scorponok isn't much cop by today's standards. Then there are things like the Firecons and the Throttlebots - very limited play value, and not much to look at on display. I'd imagine some of it would net me a fair old sum...

The upside to selling a complete set of G1 Seacons to fund buying the Club set is that it's supporting the Club. When I join a club, I do like to support it... and it's really only by buying the exclusives that one can support this club.

I kind of wish they'd reduce the number of BotCon exclusives and channel more resources into the Club exclusives (say, a 3-piece BotCon box set, a further 4 'souvenir' pieces, and then 4 more Club members only pieces to go with the two non-BotCon Club exclusives?) but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon... BotCon is a huge moneyspinner, and this year's set sold out completely, well before the show.

But, back to eBay... While I was there, I ordered a couple of Japanese videogame artbooks - for Guilty Gear and War of Genesis - from Otaku's eBay shop. It's been ages since I ordered any artbooks, which is odd because I tend to find them quite inspiring, one way or another.

More progress

Had some post from my solicitor today - copies of a fax detailing the 2007 accounts for the block of flats I'm looking to move into.

Looks like everything is in order, but my solicitor has recommended to the vendor's solicitor that an additional thousand be held by them, to pay off the charges that have accrued during this process - certainly, it would be unfair for me to pay for the last six months, when I only put in the offer in February/March...

This has been a very long process...

Back to work :(

Taking the day off after the trip to Chessington really felt like a mid-week weekend... I spent most of today thinking it was Monday. Curiously, though, I didn't think it was my press day - which Monday will be.

I heard all sorts of stories about what had gone on yesterday. Largely about the editor of Monday's magazine. Apparently she had been very rude and childish toward her designer.

It's not exactly a match made in heaven. Her designer has English only as a second language and, while she speaks it reasonably well, she can find it difficult to follow native English speakers in conversation. And when those native English speakers start snapping, or speaking in a fast, shrill whine - as her editor is wont to do when frustrated or angry - she doesn't follow it very well at all.

Even after a stern talking to from my boss, all the editor did was run and complain to her new boss - coincidentally the editor of the other magazine my designer works on. He's a big fan, and doesn't understand the complaints. He asked my boss what was going on, and basically got told (not for the first time) that this editor never supplies decent pictures, has a terrible idea of page layout, and snaps, whines and cries if she doesn't get her way.

Sadly, this carried on today, and resulted in another stern talking to from my boss. When the editor emerged not only unscathe, but not crying, I wasn't sure whether I was glad or disappointed.

Still, due to the continued underperformance of that magazine, she may not be around much longer.

Another interesting point was a scene my boss related to me after work. One of the editors (the only one now who's been there longer than me!) looked over the Chessington photos and expressed some surprise that "someone as quiet" as me had ventured onto any of the rides. One of the copy controllers interjected "He's not that quiet!", leaving the editor nonplussed and my boss rolling around laughing.

After work, because my boss needed to find a birthday present for her mother, we jetted off to Brent Cross and paid a visit on... WH Smith. Her mother had actually asked for Smiths tokens and something small as a bonus. That turned out to be the treacherous part, as this commonly leads to a scene where her mother returns the gift. My boss now has a system where she buys something she'd quite like herself, for just such eventualities.

A swift trip to John Lewis yielded two new TransFormers Animated deluxes - Blackarachnia and Ratchet - and a Bumblebee for my boss to add to her gradually swelling collection (Movie, Beatmix, G1 keyring). After a swift meal at Burger King (one of the few food places at Brent Cross that was still open at this point) we drove over to Toys'R'Us and I had a swift turn around there while my boss stayed in the car and played with her new toy.

There wasn't anything new, so I emerged empty-handed... all the more annoying since I read that Toys'R'Us in Aberdeen has a couple of the Leader class figures - Megatron and Bulkhead.

Adventures of a different kind...

So it looks as though my flat purchase is proceeding well.

I took the day off work today to visit my bank and transfer my deposit (or part thereof, 10% of the purchase price) into my currant account so that I could hand a cheque to my solicitor.

This turned out to be a rather more complicated process than it should have been, largely due to a miscommunication between my solicitor and I. When we'd last spoken, he had instructed me to sign the contract and return it to him along with a cheque for the deposit. I asked if he meant the whole deposit (since I'm putting up quite a chunk of my own money for this flat), and he replied that he only wanted 10%.

So I'd trotted into the bank and asked for an amount equal to 10% of my deposit to be transferred between my savings account and my current account, before popping down the road to sign the contract and write out the cheque.

When I handed over the cheque to the secretary (as the soliticor had popped out for lunch), she seemed worried that the amount of the cheque seemed rather small. I explained that I'd confirmed with the soliticor that I should be handing over a cheque for 10% of the deposit, but she still seemed concerned. Lo and behold, when the solicitor arrived back at the office, he indicated that it should have been 10% of the purchase price.

Back I went to the back, explained the misunderstanding to one of the staff, and had the remaining amount transferred between accounts. With a printed confirmation of the transaction in hand, I returned to the solicitor, tore up the old cheque, and wrote a new one.

...And then found I was supposed to return all the enclosures (lots of documentation about the flat) along with the contract and cheque.

By this time, it was getting close to my solicitor's next appointment, so I had to dash home, stuff everything back into the envelope, and dash back to the solicitor's office. I overheard as I was leaving that his next appointment was already late...

Today also, I received the 2008 TransFormers Collectors Club Membership Figure, Topspin. Based on the helicopter mold from Energon's Bruticus Maximus gestalt, it's made out of opaque red plastic, and a mixture of translucent red, grey and blue. I now have all the limbs (and have worked out how to transform them into limb mode, even though the provided instructions do not explain this), so I'm looking forward to next year's - the torso part, based on Energon Barricade, coincidentally the only Energon gestalt torso part I don't own. We are told there will be a new head mold. We are told the combined super robot will be a 'Prime'. It should be pretty darned cool.

Worlds of Adventure

The department day-trip to Chessington World of Adventures didn't get off to a good start.

When I got to the station - having very intentionally left the house bang on time to ensure I got to the office early - I bumped into my old mate Paul, who informed me that he'd been there five or ten minutes already, and that there had been announcements of severe delays due to trespassers on the track around Ealing Common/Acton Town. Great.

As it turned out, the 'Severe Delays' were downgraded at the next announcement to 'Delays', and the train arrived shortly after. It stopped irregularly along the way, because trains were backing up outside Ealing and Acton (and, as it turned out, Hammersmith too), but both of us got to our destinations in good time.

The same cannot be said for some of my colleagues, who were either hit by the same delay, but from a different direction, or a different delay elsewhere. One, who would normally travel on the Central line decided to switch to the Piccadilly before she heard about the delays.

One of my team ended up arriving half an hour late due to the same delay I had - evidently she hasn't figured out that one should always leave the house at least half an hour earlier than the journey necessitates (particularly as the instruction was to arrive by 9am at the latest!) to ensure one arrives on time.


Another member of staff had called in sick, having eaten something that disagreed with him, so our group of 11 was reduced to a more easily manageable 10 and, once we were all together (and the Salespeople hovering around understood that we were not working and so could not answer any work questions), we filed off into our respective cars and headed off.

Now, I don't normally do theme parks... or, more specifically, I don't normally do rollercoasters and the like. I'm not entirely sure why, though I suspect it has something to do with a ride called 'Wild Mouse' that I experienced while very young. It was pretty tame by today's standards, but had a profound effect on me at the time.


So... Following on from 'breaking out of my comfort zone' at the Personal Effectiveness training thing a while back, I had decided to try out some of the rides I wouldn't normally go anywhere near.

Once inside, we took a quick tour of a section of the zoo, peering in on gorillas (looking bored), tigers (cute cubs playfighting, parents... looking bored), lions (looking bored) and several smaller animals that all appeared to be hiding.


The first stop in the theme park area was one of the newer rides: Vampire, in the 'Transylvania' zone of the park. It was actually rather good. Comparatively tame, I would have said. It's the one that rushes around, twisty-turney style, with your legs hanging down in the air. One of our number had decided to wear very floppy shoes that had a tendency to fall off, and panicked when she saw signs up saying "shoes must be worn at all times" - she managed to improvise a solution to prevent them flying off on the bends by fastening them to her feet with hair bands.

Next up was the Rattlesnake - kind of like being in the mine cart chase from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - with its faux-rusty decor and many sharp turns. This, too, felt quite tame... and I ended up going on it twice.

I can't remember all the names of the rides I went on, or the order I went on them... but it was all good fun. Things like Dragon's Fury look terrifying - not only does the carriage move at a fair old speed, but the damned thing spins round as it goes! - but turned out to be far easier on the stomach than I'd anticipated. OK, I kept my eyes closed for the first half, so perhaps it was edging close to the limits of my extended comfort zones, but it was a lot of fun. The log flume was nice and sedate - there's something about them that I really like. One of my team, on his first run, hadn't realised there were any drops. "I thought it was just a boat ride," he whined as we approached the first, quite tiny drop. "Oh, God... Oh, God... Oh, God..."

Also among our group was a sufferer of a particular kind of vertigo. Not so much a problem with heights as a problem with spinning, though. She reckoned her eyes would keep spinning even after the ride was over, should she suffer an attack. Nevertheless, she was eventually encouraged onto a couple of the rides.

The dodgems, in Beanoland (rather cool, I thought, that Chessington should have a section devoted to this old, much loved British comic institution), were as much fun as the usual, but without the annoying tokens and their habit of getting stuck in the slots.

Runaway Train - once upon a time advertised as a very fast, scary ride, was incredibly sedate. Fast, yes, but not the fastest ride there... and all of the turns were so wide there was never any sense of peril. Pretty good, though.

There were a couple of rides I didn't do - Ramses Revenge just didn't look pleasant - but we all managed to try something, and no-one sat everything out. I was quietly pleased with myself for trying so many, and for carrying on with the fun rather than being discouraged by the first ride I didn't like th look of.

The major disappointment of the day was the food which, frankly, is bland and samey. Each zone may have its own 'signature dish' (we went for fajitas in the Mexican/Old West zone), the menus everywhere are padded out with nachos and the like.

Overall, though, the day was a roaring success... There was a moment when I thought my boss was going to go ballistic, because the Copy Controllers had all stopped off at the pub while the rest of us were enjoying the rides, but they eventually came to their senses (what's the point of going to Chessington and then staying in the pub?!) and rejoined the rest of us.

We weren't even that badly hit by the rain - certainly those brave souls who boarded Ramses Revenge didn't care, thanks to the soaking they got from the ride - so, while it wasn't the sunniest day, it was probably a better day to be out at a theme park than the day before, which had been very sunny.

One of the funniest parts of the trip was the stark contrast between my two designers - one older than me, female, and hailing from the Ukraine, the other much younger than either of us, male, and Turkish via London. One surprised everyone by eagerly jumping onto every ride (and complaining when she wasn't allowed to stay on for a second trip, even if there was no queue!), the other made us all laugh by letting his hard-man image get thoroughly tarnished by some quite tame rides.

The trip back was split for practicality - my boss took the group who were headed to west London, my counterpart took those who were headed into town or up north - and, aside from hitting traffic, went quite smoothly.

I very much hope we do something similar again... though I'd imagine the weather in our next dead week will not be so favourable.