Once again a long time since my last update, but there’s quite a few things I want to cover. Firstly, a film: Koyaanisqatsi… Go watch it. Made by the same group of people that made Baraka (one of my favorite films) from the 80’s its an excellent display of cinematography with a matching sound track that should certainly get you thinking. Check out the koyaanisqatsi website.
My work has taken a big change. There’s been a large re-org so I now belong to a different group. Initially no-one knew I was there and I wasn’t even welcomed into the group or told what I was supposed to be doing. That has all been sorted now and its been very busy this week. A much higher case average than normal, but all on products I apparently specialise in. Its nice to be appreciated as no-one else in the group knows those products.
We had a bit of a disappointment earlier in the week when we finally decided not to take the flat we wanted. Financially it was just getting ridiculous. The landlady wanted an advance for her to guarantee the flat for us, then two months rent as deposit, and on top of that an Aval Bancario. This is a bizarre lets-screw-over-the-tenant arrangement where one has to put 6 months or a years worth of rent into a special bank account as a guarantee for the landlord should we fail to pay. On top of having to put large sums away unavailable and without interest, the banks charge for the privilege. Although the flat was excellent, we would have to had put down nine months worth of rent before we could have even moved in. To have that sort of cash to spare, especially around Christmas was just not on.
No post here would be complete without mention of the road works outside the flat (the whole reason we are looking to move anyway). For once its not a winge though. Espe received a call from the Police with reference to her complaint. They asked if the situation had improved and if they had worked through the night recently. They went on to inform her that the Police had been in contact with the chief of the works, who in turn had promised not to start using the pneumatic drills before 9am and to stop by 9pm every night. Lets just see if he keeps his promise. Espe, of course, took the opportunity to complain about the fact that they have stolen the neighborhood dustbins (with video evidence) so we now have nowhere to put our rubbish. Hopefully something positive will come of that too.
So what next. We’re off to London tonight. I’m going home for a full two weeks and Espe is joining me for 5 days. I’m really looking forward to it as there are so many people to catch up with. Tomorrow should be excellent as we’re going down to Clapham for the annual Christmas tapas dinner, which this year is also to say goodbye to Dan, who will also be leaving us for Aus (what’s wrong with this hemisphere anyway?). There will be a lot of faces that I’ve not seen for a while, and on top of that, Jon got back from China today. Most of his friends have not seen him since July. I am lucky, I last saw him in Mongolia.