Be Excellent To Each Other

Are we still talking about this. He is dead to us now.

According to an online flight tracker, he landed about 45 minutes ago.

And even now is re-flying it on his laptop.

He's probably snowed in at the airport.

I'm assuming authorities were waiting for him at the airport, concerning activities of international significance, and he's had to run for it... he'll be living 'off the grid' until he can paddle his old State-issue kayak back to Wales. Fucking knew this would happen. Some people....

He's not really gone anywhere. This entire thread is actually about him playing various humdrum activity simulators.

Haha! Virtual Intercontinental Relocation and Career Change Sim 2012!

Well, I'm here now.

Sitting behind me on the plane was a woman who sounded like Stacey Lavell (who invented Malibu Stacey), you know, 90 cigarettes a day. She rasped on about how the in-flight entertainment system wasn't working and and that they kept bringing her full fat Pepsi instead of diet in the vodka and cokes she was constantly drinking. Sitting next to me was Grim...'s long lost cousin Greg from Winnipeg. I only wish I'd started talking to him earlier as we spent the last half an hour discussing Steam and games and stuff. I then got to talk to several border control officers regarding my 'unaccompanied goods' (all our stuff that's being sent on) and as the guy in the cashier's office stamped the form he gave me my first 'welcome home!'

A rather fraught journey to my friend Catherine's house ensued, trying to lug two suitcases and two carry-on bags onto the subway and then the bus (which, luckily, stops at the end of her street). You might think this was foolish but I thought spending $52 on a taxi was even more foolish. Then we went out for dinner along with her mother, where I had two lovely pints of Rickard's Red, ate an enormous hamburger and one of the waiters seemed to recognize me as he asked me how long I was back for this time! I told him forever! I then tried to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime (about 11pm here, or 4am as it felt to me) and woke up today at 7.

I had a wonderful surprise as we were buying coffee at Gatwick yesterday morning: I have been approved to sponsor Kate, and our application has now been sent to the Canadian immigration office in London where the final part of the process is done (assessing her side of the application). That could still take a few months but I'm confident she will have permanent resident status by the end of the year.

I'm currently waiting to hear back from my apartment-finder estate agent guy, so Catherine and I are going to go out for lunch and I'm going to buy some plug adaptors (which I didn't have time to get at Gatwick) and then... I dunno, wait and see how it goes I guess. Tomorrow morning I have the English assessment test for my course but apart from that I'm free to apartment hunt.

It's still such a strange feeling being back like this but now that I've had a good night's sleep I'm able to take it all in a bit better.

Thanks all for your good wishes.

Fuck off splitter!

Uh-oh, hope you pass dude! Make sure you write eh at the end of everything eh.

I'm here now as well.

Glad you managed to do something after deciding to do something. I keep getting stuck at the deciding.

Soon you will all join us here.
Join us.
Join Us.
JOIN US!

Our country reeks of trees
Our yaks are really large
And they smell like rotting beef carcuses

And we have to clean up after them
And our sadle sores are the best
We proudly wear womens' clothing
And seering sand blows up our skirts

And the buzzards, they soar overhead
And poisonous snakes will devour whole
Our bones will bleach in the sun

And we will probably go to (censored)
And that is our great reward
For being the
Ro-oy-oy-al
Canadian
Kilted
YAKSMEN!

Slipped right back into the lingo, eh? "Hey apartment-finder estate agent guy!" "Hey, apartment-hunter buddy!" "Any news, friend?!" "Aww, nothing aboot that yet, guy" "Maybe tomorrow, eh."

"The space shuttle that goes about and moves stuff with the canadian built arm?"

That's not that far removed from reality.

What a surprise, I passed my English assessment test for college today at the top level.

Excellent, so what's next?

Top level? That's the Initiation into the Secret English Tweed Guild.

That's amazing considering the amount of time you've been pronouncing w's and ll's wrong.

Things are going fairly well. The two apartments I saw yesterday weren't that great: one was in a decent location but very small for the price, the other will be lovely when it's fucking finished, considering as there were still wires hanging out of holes in the plaster waiting to be fitted with plugs and switches, plaster and paint dust everywhere and an unsealed, still wrapped bathtub in the bathroom. The apartment finder agent guy (buddy) was not happy, considering it was given to him to show as 'available immediately'. The location wasn't ideal.

Today I went to see one I saw from the bus, and it was pretty nice inside. The building even has a pool, it's right next to a subway station and is currently my first choice depending on what the place I see tomorrow (newer, but further out) is like.

The weather is incredible, it's been 30 degrees every day since I arrived, which is great except that I'm walking almost everywhere looking at apartment buildings and then going to the website on their sign to see what's available. It's been a pretty busy summer for rentals, I'm told, so most places don't have anything available left for September 1st.

Having been walking around in the sun for the last six hours I've just about had enough, so I've come home to have a cold drink and relax. My friend is at work until late so I guess I'll watch some TV or something.

Yes yes, very fascinating. But what everyone here is wanting to ask: when are your fucking bins collected?

And don't skimp on the details. Do they have a provision for recycling? A slop bucket?

And what sort of washing machine setup are you thinking of getting? Or will it be a communal laundry room deal?

perkioes, do you have an ios device? this is on sale
http://toucharcade.com/2012/08/07/ta-pl ... simulator/

I think garbage day was the day before yesterday, I came 'home' and the garbage bin and the two cans were out on the curb so I brought them around to the back. There are two slop buckets, one for veggies and one for something else, I haven't dared open either of them.



This is my friend's washing machine setup, it's very spicy as she claims to have seen a centipede down here (she might be joking). The building I'm looking at moving into has them in the basement like on TV.





Interesting. About time that they brought out an iPhone version, that iPad version has been around for a long time. I wonder how many layouts and trains there are?

Top-loading washing machines are shit. That is all.

Where's Dimmers when you need him to start a new topic?

Rather scarily, that appears to be the exact same washing machine and tumble dryer I have, although thankfully not the same laundry room.

Why do North Americans appear to be 40 years behind with washing machines?

Because 40 years ago they built their shit to last?

Danielle hates our British washing machines. They hold 1/4 as much and take 4x longer to wash. Apparently. I saw with my own eyes that her old machine in Indy had a "normal wash" cycle that took 45 minutes, which feels like too quick to have washed anything.

Apartment get! Last one bedroom in the building, I think she took at least two enquiries about it while I was filling in the forms so I am very very happy!

Excellent!

Although I'm still hoping you'll shout "GOTCHA!" at us all and return.

Y'all take care now.

That's the same as mine.

I'm sure the washing machine in Bicester had about an hour cycle. The new one we bought last year twas baout hour forty five, and the integrated one here is something like two and a half.

I'm willing to bet that the average North American washing machine doesn't do a default 40C wash.

My washing machine has a basic cycle of 1:45, but you have to add on 10 minutes to that while it pauses after you press each button. Fucking thing.
Surely it can't be that processor heavy, all i'm doing is spinning the selector and then pressing go, but no, the displays flashes away for ages before it lets me actually press the go button. God forbid you want to add any drying into the programme, that really must be confusing for the fucking thing, the amount of times it takes for it to allow me to set a drying time.

Oh, and more pictures of general Canadia life please, I find pictures of everyday stuff from other countries overly interesting for some reason.

Me, too. As did the Fraggles when they receive dcommuniques from Travelling Uncle Matt.

Have you thought about a fresh OS install on your washer?

I can go an take some pictures if you want.

He could Flash the bios.

yes, please. Houses and telegraph poles, especially. Like where people live and stuff.

I think the problem is the LEDs, my last washing machine didn't have any and just worked. Takes a lot of processing power to light up the right LED it seems.

It's a Kenmore 80 series, look it up and see.



I'll try not and freak the neighbours out too much (everyone on the street here knows everyone else, I'm not in my apartment until Saturday as I won't have a bed to sleep on until it gets delivered) but are you serious? You want Arnold Rimmer telephone pole pictures? You could always just go on Streetview and look.

In other news, first day of college today. Interpreters present (all the teachers seems to be Deaf) but that's apparently not going to last, we'll be in full on immersion soon enough. Met my friend that I knew from a Deaf forum who's in my class with me, she's also a mature student (unlike the majority who are all very young). A lot of the work is done with a webcam/video camera and submitted via USB stick or uploaded. Some of my fellow students seem a lot more switched on to it all than others.

To make things a bit confusing, though, we're also studying gesture-based communication and were told that ASL is specifically banned for the assignments if not for actual use for communication in the classroom during that subject (as is, obviously voice). Fortunately, many of the gestures seem to have their roots in ASL signs but I think that's confused a lot of people, especially when we are for all intents in purposes fresh off the street with little or no knowledege.

30/male/Nottingham