It seems that my web server has failed so it wasn’t possible to publish more blog entries from the road. I also had pretty good time at Puerto Galera and didn’t really fancy writing anything anyway.
I’ll be home in about 24 hours and hopefully server hasn’t failed too badly.
I just upgraded my WP installation. Finally I can blog from my iPhone 
Originally I was planning to use this holiday season to travel somewhere warm but ended up going to Finland instead. I guess it’s nice to see friends and family there as well but I would have preferred some quality time with fish and corals
Right now I’m waiting in Heathrow airport to get my bag checked in. For some reason self-checking here doesn’t work like anywhere else where you can just skip queus by doing everything yourself but after checking you still need to wait together with everyone else for 30-40 minutes just to drop your bags. Not really nice but at least I have plenty of time.
Provided my flight is on time I’ll be in Turku around 3AM
Of course, lot of things happened in 4 months. Here’s highlights of my life:
Now it’s less than 4 week until I’m back in Helsinki again - and again for wedding! This time I have no official role so I can enjoy party even more…
I moved to new home late June (that’s 4.5 months ago already).
Of course previous tenant had decided not to terminate his ADSL connection properly and I had to wait again about a month before I had connection.
Then in August I got tired of the fan noise from current server and decided to change it - and being careless managed to fry CPU or motherboard. I got replacement parts few weeks ago and now I’ve finally moved everything from old computer to new one.
I have now rather fast Intel Celeron D 3.2GHz with 2GB of memory - and there’s still room for additional 2GB. It has also total of 1.1TB hard disk space. That should be more than enough to run small home server
I know it’s nerdy but this time I decided it’s time to virtualize some services. I have now following virtual machines:
Still under construction is separate server for Micro$oft stuff - I’ll be using .NET in the future as well…
Most important reason for doing this is being able to backup virtual machines easily. If I ever decide to upgrade my computer I only need to backup virtual machines, reinstall base operating system and install VMware. I can also test new server software way easier this way.
OneSE8 is development I live in now… but only for 3 more weeks until moving to semi-detached house in Rotherhithe. It has informal, funny and sometimes strange residents forum at http://www.onese8residents.com/forum/ - you need to register and I guess it’s not THAT funny if you don’t live in the area.
Anyway, here’s something I posted there before going away. I guess I’m just interested what the replies are (if any).
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After I moved to UK last summer I rented apartment in Indiana Building.
First I kind a thought that I would get used to DLR going past only 5 meters (15 feet?) from my windows - and in a way I did. Now I’m only annoyed by it every morning when I’m trying to sleep that another 5 minutes before going to work. And if I’m watching a movie that I wouldn’t like to be interrupted every 2 minutes by noise way louder than I would consider listening to a movie.
I’m happy that I don’t own flat here. Every time someone uses toilet somewhere in the higher floors hoses wobble inside the wall. I have woken up quite a few times for that - it’s really loud. When I’m away I’ll keep my eyes open for news about flooded Indiana Building since it can’t be more than couple of years until that happens. That will be expensive as hell - who thinks St James will pay for it? 
I’m also happy that I don’t have to live under those chain-smokers above me. I finally did use some really nasty words last Saturday when I was eating a sandwich at my “balcony” and huge piece of ash landed on it. It was kind a funny as well but I really hated cleaning your stuff pretty much every time I opened door to my “balcony”.
Not all the posts about concierges have been positive here but I am leaving with positive feelings. Yes, they almost insisted to give me wrong parcel some time ago and yes, sometimes they aren’t there but nothing really beats that feeling when someone says you “Good morning” really meaning it when you are still trying to wake up to get yourself to office in the morning.
Thanks for Dynamic Turtle for a nice telly; it’s not latests HDTV plasma but boy it has nice picture. I hope I can get in one piece to my next apartment - and without anyone breaking their backs.
Thanks for people at The Retreat and new shop; I have always felt welcome to both places. Maybe I’ll even come down to Retreat for a pint or two again - I’m only moving to Rotherhithe anyway.
Tero
Overall my relocation to London has been quite OK and actually biggest surprises have usually been related to banks! One would think that one of financial capitals of the world would also have the most advanced banking systems in the world. How wrong I was?
I did knew about checks before coming over; I recall last time checks were accepted in shops was sometime mid 90’s in Finland. If I remember right nobody really used them anyway and they were just pieces of paper anyway. I did use check around 1994 to pay for 5000€ worth of computer equipment we mail ordered and did receive some as a graduation gift from relatives (thanks!) in 1992. Those were only times in my life I had seen a check ever.
Back to London in August 2006: My landlord would prefer to get rent paid with check. I tell him that I don’t want to use checks - now I have to send him SMS every time I’ve paid my rent. I also did most of the times.
Couple of weeks ago I decided to move to another flat and needed to pay 350 pounds to property agency. I could only get 300 with my Maestro and went to my local bank to get rest of it. I got some strange response about flooding and couldn’t get money. No prob, I just paid remaining next day.
Today I walked past my bank and decided to confirm that I can get remaining 2k out of my account when I am to pay it to get my keys for new flat. Friendly woman explained to me that to withdraw money from my own account I have to bring my withdrawal/deposit book with me. They did send me one but actually I couldn’t understand why on earth I would need one so I promptly shredded it. Anyway here any paper with any personal details in it has to be shredded because otherwise it can be used as an evidence of identity - that another story.
I suppose I can get new book from HSBC when I call them but what they should really do is to hire more people from Finnish banks to explain them how to do 21st century banking
Banana Store restaurant close to Borough Market has quite interesting idea:
Buy whatever food you want from Borough Market, take it to them and they will cook it for you. It costs 10 pounds per person making it quite reasonable considering that proper meal is easily 30-40 pounds here.
I scanned their leaflet for more information (and some neck bending… )
I haven’t tried this, it’s only commencing tomorrow, but definitely will soon. I just hope their chefs are good, it takes some courage to promise to make food of anything exotic that you can find at the market!
Since my Bulldog experience was rather similar I’ll post link here as well.
Daily Bread - A Tideswell Mans’ Weblog: Bulldog Broadband - Possibly the Worst company ever
I placed order late August -06, canceled after about 2 months because I got never connected and after 10-15 phone calls and 4 months in late February got my 99 pounds back after filing ISPA complaint against them.
I can understand that there is a company that is trying to grow too fast and gets into trouble for that - I participated Internet gold rush back in 98-00 - but fact is that each phone call to CS costs some money which can’t be offset by interest from few quid. I would think that it would make more business sense to take care of complaints asap to keep people from calling them.
Good luck for everyone with Bulldog!
Nice, during the night there was 5cm snowfall and it seems that everything is again closed here. Stansted airport, half of the tube lines, trains etc. This all is really confusing for a Finn who has lived most of his life in a country where nobody barely notices unless there is 40-50cm of snowfall in one night. I can recall some times when we got over 100cm of snow and that took about a day clear away to get things back to relatively normal status.
Unfortunately my parents are coming (if they can) to Lonton today and their Ryanair flight was cancelled. I really hope they can make it with evening flight.
Edit1: We have to re-schedule trip with my parents. Real nice but what can you do? Atleast they will see better weather when they come here.
Edit2: DLR I took to work broke after 3 stations, Mudchute was full of people and I had to pass 2 trains. Then one I took was re-directed to Stratford instead of Bank where I wanted to go. It normally takes 24 minutes but I guess now it took about 45 to get to Bank. Should have taken boat from Greenwich this morning instead.
