Dan Makovec’s blog

UK joins the civilized world

This story pasted verbatim from Yahoo! UK News at this location, dated Wednesday March 31, 01:05 PM. I’m copying it because Yahoo! tends to scroll its stories offline after a certain amount of time, and I wanted to capture the story permanently.

LONDON (Reuters) - The government has confirmed plans to give legal
recognition to gay partnerships, a move bringing it into line with most
other EU members.

 Nine other countries in the European Union already have some provision for
recognising those in committed same-sex partnerships.

 Under the Civil Partnership Bill, same-sex couples will be allowed to make
a legal commitment to each other at a formal ceremony and have similar
rights on pensions and property to heterosexual partners.

 "It opens the way to respect, recognition and justice for those who have
been denied it for too long," minister for women and equality Jacqui Smith
said on Wednesday.

 "Same-sex couples often face a range of unnecessary problems in their
everyday lives because of a lack of legal recognition of their
relationships."

 In the United States, the fight over gay marriage has become an
election-year issue, with President George W. Bush backing an amendment to
the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage after officials in various
states, claiming ambiguity in the law, began marrying gay couples.

 The British bill gives full recognition for the purposes of life assurance,
the right to take over tenancy rights and pension benefits from a partner
and an ability to gain parental responsibility for their civil partner's
children.

 Officials say it is intended to be passed into law by the end of the year.

 Gay campaigners welcomed the move, with some qualifications.

 "This is absolutely the most significant event in the history of gay rights
in Britain. I never thought this would happen in my lifetime," Terry
Sanderson of the Gay Times, Europe's biggest gay publication, told Reuters.

 "My only regret is that they didn't offer us marriage and complete
equality," he said.

 Government officials said the Bill did not use the term "gay marriage" but
that civil partnerships were designed to be as close to a marriage contract
as possible.

 The Conservatives have also moved to court the gay community, with a
general election expected in the first half of 2005.

 Senior Conservatives, anxious to shake off their anti-gay image, met
homosexual rights campaigners this week to hear accounts of discrimination
against gay and lesbians.

Brussels it is

I just got confirmation this morning. Prior to jetting off down under, Brian and I will be spending our second Easter in a row on a train under the English Channel. This time we’re off to Brussels in Belgium for 3 days.

As well as indulging in legendary Belgian beer and chocolate, we’ll be taking a look around the historic town centre and checking out one or two nice night spots (oh yeah there’s a strong gay community there, where marriage has been the norm for years).

We’re heading out first thing Good Friday and coming back late Sunday night. That leaves Monday to chill out at home, and Tuesday for me to pack my things before my 10pm flight to Oz

Adelaide flight itinerary

Time to take to the skies again soon. Graz’s wedding’s coming up, so I’m heading south!

Flying Singapore Airlines this time. Haven’t flown with them in 11 years, but they were good last time and apparently the service levels are still excellent. Here are the dates and flight details, mainly for my own reference

Outbound:
Tue April 13 2215 - SQ 321 London/Heathrow T3 - Wed April 14 1800 Singapore/Changi T2 (747-400)
Wed April 14 2300 - SQ 229 Singapore/Changi T2 - Thu April 15 0700 Adelaide Intl (777-200)

Inbound:
Wed April 28 1305 - SQ 230 Adelaide Intl - Wed April 28 1840 Singapore/Changi T2 (777-200)
Thu April 29 1240 - SQ 320 Singapore/Changi - Thu April 29 1910 London/Heathrow T3 (747-400)

I’m dumbing down!

I just took an IQ test on Tickle and received a 135! That’s a full 10 points lower than what I scored soon after landing in London and 20 lower than about 2 years ago. I’m getting old and slow DUMB!! *wails unconsolably* Next thing I’ll move to a marketing job

Sick again

I’ve already determined that I will not be in this country next March. Once again I’m sick, with a nose running in a way that *never* happened back home, chronic sneezing fits and an overall feeling of being so out of it that I can’t concentrate.

I need another vacation from this city, it’s killing me

Broadband at Turnpike Lane

… Oh to hell with it, enough bitching.

Suffice to say that I finally got my card last Tuesday.

I had a hell of a time hooking up Telewest (their billing system leaves a lot to be desired, and I speak from the point of view of both a customer and a billing systems software engineer), but they finally came out this afternoon and installed our phone, 512k cable broadband and cable TV - all three for 38 quid a month, which I’m pretty happy with. 1MB is starting to become all the rage here at the moment, but I can’t see any point in it until something like Blockbuster’s full video library becomes available on demand for the price of a DVD rental.

While I’m not really one for Pay TV, it works out to only 3.50 a month and if nothing else it gives perfect terrestrial channel reception plus all the new public access digital channels as well as some other stuff. I figured what the hell. After the installer left and customer care got my wireless hub’s MAC authenticated to get the lappy surfing, I had to wrestle with the wiring a bit to get the TV box to cooperate with the DVD (involving dissecting and rearranging the rediculously complex pin layout in some SCART plugs). It was a little awkward, but I finally traced the problem to a voltage difference between the two devices confusing the TV, so before long I was able to flick between endless reruns of Star Trek TNG and one of Brian’s DVDs without so much as a flutter from the set.

The house is now finally pretty much set up. We’ve still got two pictures to hang and a lampshade to fit to the extremely high living room ceiling, but other than that we’re nice and comfy - thanks in no small part to a couple of visits to Ikea. B’s in the kitchen at the moment overseeing tonight’s chicken tikka masala, having already beaten me to the laptop to do his email. I’m curled up on the couch, lappy happily plodding wirelessly along. Despite the fact that we’re both coming down with a bit of a cold, overall we’re finally both feeling pretty chilled and content.

Now to tackle the job market again…

Dan goes postal - part deux

March 4 - No point going into the bank, as I’ve been told that the courier usually delivers right at the end of the day. Instead, I opt for Friday.

March 5 - I walk wearily into the bank at 9.30am, where a new face behind the counter informs me that the card hasn’t come in. I blow up, letting everybody in the bank know what I think of their ridiculous system. Bank girl (by the name of Caroline, lovely person) does her best to placate me and gets on the phone to the courier while I resume my position in the now familiar office chair.

She gets through within 15 minutes (!), and starts blasting the person on the other end, demanding that the card be delivered. After about 5 minutes of arguing, I get handed the phone and bombard the courier with a few rounds of “What the hell is going on” style rhetoric. Conversation (over-simplified here for brevity) goes something like:

Me: What’s going on? Where’s my card?
Courier: It hasn’t been delivered
Me: I know. Why not?
Them: I don’t know
Me: Not good enough. You’ve promised several delivery dates and failed to meet any of them
Them: I never promised anything
Me (Increasing sense of frustration): By “you” I mean “your company”, of which you are my only known interface at this time.
Them: Oh
Me: So why wasn’t it delivered?
Them: I don’t know, I’m not a mind reader (seriously!!)
Me: Give me your supervisor
Them: You can’t, he’s not here
Me: Give me their number
Them: I can’t, I don’t have it
.. you get the gist

I passed them back to the banker, who demanded delivery that day, the bank covering the cost. They refused, saying deliveries had to be ordered at least 24 hours in advance. When it was explained that the order has been made 3 weeks ago they refused to budge. I left it with her, and she kindly gave me a “written credit card” - a hand written note containing my CC number, issue number and expiry date. I’m not sure how dodgy it is doing that, but it came in useful for some online ordering later that day.

That’s part 2, to be concluded tomorrow, so stay tuned…

Dan goes postal

I can’t believe how fucking idiotic business is in this country!

Series of events precipitating my current mood:
Feb 15 - lose wallet, report card missing, order new one, told it will take 5 working days

Feb 23 - no card arrived, I check with bank who tell me it’s been dispatched, and give me courier’s number. I call courier and arrange delivery for Saturday Feb 28, the day before I move out.

Feb 28 - Courier arrives at house, doesn’t bother to knock, leave slip under door saying he missed me after I went into bathroom and left door open (just in case) for *2* minutes. I ring courier company who says there’s nothing they can do, can they arrange delivery on Tuesday (Monday’s booked). I say no, I’m moving out tomorrow. They offer to deliver to a bank branch. We organize delivery to bank near work for Tuesday Feb 2.

March 3 - Having predicted the courier wouldn’t deliver the card until the last minute the night before, and so too late for me to pick ie up, I go to bank in the morning. Am told it’s not there. Sit and wait for 45 minutes while bank employee sits on hold to courier company. Give up, get into work 1 hour late. Ring courier direct during the day, apologetic operator says “sorry, the truck must have broken down. how about tomorrow?” We agree. March 4th it is. Later that night we go up and get the house keys - at least that went ok

To be continued….

A whole lotta driving

I sat down and did some preparation for this weekend’s move, guessing it’s going to take 3 trips in a rather small car to move everything from Lewisham to Turnpike Lane.

I hit the MSN maps site and got some strip maps and directions for the various parts of the trip, printed out for my navigator, the spiky haired one, to guide me from.

All up over the weekend, it looks like I’m going to be behind the wheel for 5 and a half hours, covering about 130 miles! I hope my driving’s up to scratch - I haven’t sat in a driver’s seat since last March, when I was back i Adelaide for the week.

If there’s any good news, it’s that Saturday will be the rough day (3 1/2 hours) and Sunday a little easier (2 hours). Still, something tells me I’m going to be too exhausted to go into work on Monday after all that!

Why drink beer?

Went out with B and his new ozzie soon-to-be-former-flatties to a pub at Greenwich last night, right next to the Cutty Sark. Nice pub, relaxed and not too noisy or smokey. Cute bar staff.

I don’t know how, but I managed to down 4 pints of beer. Kinda weird, because I just don’t like the stuff - it doesn’t taste that wonderful and it usually leaves one feeling bloated. Still, it’s cheap, and after feeling mildly depressed yesterday about the overall quality of life in London it mellowed me out enough to not care.

Brian’s bedroom is looking like a bomb’s hit it. All my stuff is on one side, and his stuff is packed up on the other side. We get the keys to the new place tonight, and the big move is Saturday morning. I wonder how my driving skills are after not having touched a car in over a year, and even then only for a week…