Even 40+ year olds can be extremely stupid

I went to The Goat in Ponders End tonight to say goodbye to two very good friends. Firstly, my friend Jude Cringle is giving up her full time job at Middlesex University to go to Australia for a year. Secondly, my good friend Michelle Copp is also giving up her full time job at Middlesex to do a study placement in California for a year. They are both fabulous friends and I'll miss them both very much. Lots of people turned up to wish them well and lots of alchohol was consumed in the process and it was all very sad and tearful, but there were lots of laughs too. I'm sure the year will go by too quickly and I can't wait to see them both again and hear all their stories.

Towards the end of the night I started to chatting to a girl (who shall be referred to as 'girl') next to me and it turns out we had some common interests. We both share a common fancy for James Marsters (i.e. Spike from Buffy), Buffy, Angel, and Charmed etc. She seemed lovely. I also have a good friend called Bob and chatted to one of his friends (whose name I forget, but shall be now known as 'idiot'), who I thought was very nice, until the following conversation occurred (it's not an exact replica of the conversation but it went something like this):

Bob: How are you getting home Janey?
Me: Oh I'm not sure
Bob: How about we share a taxi with Jude as we're on her way home?
Me: That's great
Idiot: I can give you a lift home, my car is uninsured but it's ok
Me: You're car is uninsured but it's ok?
Idiot: Yeah, the insurance company wrote it off but it's still legal
Me: How can your car be legal if the insurance company wrote it off?
Idiot: Because it is, I haven't been drinking
Me: What's drinking got to do with it. The insurance company wrote it off, so it's not legal to drive
Girl: *snigger*
Idiot: Yeah and the headlights have no glass but it's ok
Me: So, the insurance company wrote off your car, your headlights have no glass, your car is illegal, yet you still drive it
Idiot: Yeah but I haven't been drinking
Girl: *snigger*

Me is starting to get quite frustrated by this point. 'Girl' is sniggering at the argument because she thinks it's funny. Turns out both of them are 40+ and personally, I think they should know better. I say to 'girl',

Me: You're accepting a lift from this person who is driving an illegal car? (she had done)
Girl: I don't need insurance
Me: But what if he has an accident?
Girl: Oh who cares etc. etc.
Idiot: But my car is legal to drive
Me: But your car isn't legal to drive

Ad infinitum. This conversation went round in circles for a good ten minutes. At one point I said

Me: I'm not continuing this conversation. You're old enough to know better but you're behaving irresponsibly and putting yourself and your friend in danger. You're stupid (I'd resorted to insults by this stage - I generally do when I get exasperated by other peoples' stupidity).

Me, Bob and Jude eventually went to get our taxi whilst 'Idiot' and 'Girl' were walking behind us. I heard him making snide comments just loud enough for me to here about his car being unsafe while 'girl' sniggered at his comments.

To be honest, I don't see why I should care. It's their lives in danger not mine. However, they're also putting other people's lives in danger. I've met selfish twats in my lifetime but no-one as irresponsible and stupid as these two. And they're 40+ ..... and we complain about younger people being irresponsible.

Travelodge need improvement

Amendment: Things have happened since writing this original post. I went to the Travelodge mentioned on the Sunday, to see if my bag was at the hotel and it still was. When I walked into the hotel I was greeted by the staff who informed me they'd looked after my bag. I had no doubt that they had, but there is always a doubt that it could've ended up somewhere outside the hotel in someone else's car or wherever. Anyway, it turns out that the problems I had contacting the local Travelodge weren't actually Travelodge's fault, but British Telecom's. Apparently they are being arseholes about installing a new telephone line. No surprise there then. I do however, still have an issue about Travelodge not having a Complaints link nor a direct line to speak to someone instead of listening to 'Hello, I'm Lisa, the voice of Travelodge'. Having said that, I commend the staff of the said Travelodge. They are extremely friendly and helpful and I do recommend you stay there if you are ever in that neck of the woods.

10/10 for staff at my local Travelodge
5/10 to Travelodge Head Office for being crap at customer service

This post is going to be a lot shorter than originally intended. I've been outside to have a walk around and calm down because I was so angry. I'm also writing this post before the one about Nick and Hina's wedding as I didn't want my rant to overshadow what was, a fabulous evening!

Anyway, my friend Tamzin and I stayed at the new Travelodge in Hoddesdon last night. It opened its doors for the first time yesterday and my friend Bob was their first customer. Bob said they were overexcited when he walked through the door (despite this rant, the staff were lovely - no, I'm not being sarcastic). Tamzin and I shared a double room in the hotel for after Nick and Hina's wedding celebrations and we were quite drunk to say the least when we went to bed.

During these celebrations I somehow managed to lose my bag which contained my mobile phone, my flat/office keys, and my cards. I'm an idiot and didn't realise this until just before the bus stopped near my flat today. Luckily, when I phoned Silas, he was in the park nearby and he let me into the flat. He didn't take the piss out of me for being an idiot *hugshugs*.

So I think to myself, this is simple. I just phone the hotel, say my bag is there, and Silas drives me to the hotel to pick it up. No. It's. Not. That. Simple. I still have the hotel confirmation slip in my overnight bag and I look at that thinking, it's common sense to have a contact number on there. But there isn't. So I google the Travelodge in Hoddesdon and there's a number listed. I phone the number and it's unobtainable. Am a bit hungover and think I may have pressed the wrong number so I try again. Still unobtainable. Once more for luck ....

So I look again on the net and find another number for the local Travelodge. I try that number and get "Hello, this is Lisa, the voice of Travelodge ....". I'm given four options, I try them all, and none of them give me the option to speak to anybody. So I look again on their site and there's a 'Contact Us' link. Click on that and I get the option to write them a letter or send them an email. No contact number.

By this time I'm starting to lose it. I'm tired, worried about my stuff, and from being on a complete high an hour ago, I'm starting to see the end of my tether and am muttering swear words about the incompetence of Travelodge. I decide to phone Directory Enquiries and ask them. They can't find a number for this particular Travelodge so they give me another different number for the Travelodge company and put me through .... "Hello, this is Lisa, the voice of Travelodge ...." with the same four fucking options. Fuck off Lisa. I actually shout "You complete stupid fuckers" down the phone before slamming it back into place. I look again on the site, and decide to click on the "Press Office" link as now I just want any old number to speak to someone. I get, "The mailbox for this number is currently full and you will be unable to leave a message". Another direct line number I try for a Director of Travelodge is unobtainable *insert all known expletives here*. Fucking bastards.

It's so simple to put a phone number THAT'S OBTAINABLE on a website. And why isn't there a number where THEIR CUSTOMERS CAN SPEAK TO A PERSON, NOT LISTEN TO A BUNCH OF FUCKING OPTIONS!? Travelodge are THE most irritating company I've had to contact, next to Abbey, Microlink, and Telewest Broadband. When we do have to contact the latter, I have to ask Silas to do it. He's more patient than I am and much more able to express himself when angry than I am.

So I've cancelled my cards and my phone and I just have to wait to see if my stuff is there tomorrow when Silas drives me up. Good that it's only 20 minutes drive away.

I shall be complaining to Travelodge (via email obviously as there's no other option) and if they send me Travelodge vouchers to apologise I shall wipe my arse with them and post them back. I will.

Develop Conference, Brighton - 2007

Got a lovely email today after registering my interest for working at the Conference again this year as a volunteer (conference associate) -

We'd like to "promote" you to an Associate Head this
year as Susan was so pleased with how you did last year. Do you remember
Carl - we've asked him to be a Head Associate too so the two of you will
be overseeing the others.


Yay to me and Carl! :D


Read about the conference here

Lawl

Awesome tshirts from Offworld Designs

........

BUY!

ME!

THIIIIIINGS!

For Mully - some 'willy' shots :D

Many thanks to Lazuli Lyra, who was the butt ('scuse the pun) of many willy jokes started by Halaleset. *cheers at Lazuli*

World of Warcraft Survey

I'm currently doing a PhD at Middlesex University, London, investigating psychological aspects of World of Warcraft players. If you're a WoW player and want to take part, click here to take the survey

The password is starwars

PLEASE NOTE: The survey website will be offline for a short period of time this weekend - Friday, 25th May at 6pm (PST) until Saturday, 26th May, noon (PST).

Many thanks :D

Develop in Brighton - Day 1

Tuesday 11th July - Mobile Gaming Day

After being accepted as a Conference Volunteer (CV) I prepared myself for my daily pilgrimage to the Brighton Metropole, for the Develop Conference in Brighton.

The Brighton Metropole

The Mobile Gaming event was held on the 11th, the conference proper was from the 12th to the 13th, and the Games Education event was the finale on the 14th July. I wasn't the only volunteer. My friends Carl and Alex were there along with James - we all worked together at the Game Developers Conference Europe last year at Cafe Royal in Piccadilly. There were also some new faces as volunteers - Bill, Brook, Dominic, Ben and a few others. And yes, once again, I was the only girl which I always find mildly surprising but pleasant.


The only girly geek in the village

My first early morning. By tomorrow morning I'll have made the choice to stay in Brighton every night next year. I was up and out of bed and catching the bus by 6.30 a.m. which isn't too bad to be honest. I had to be in Brighton by 9.30 a.m. and I managed to catch the 7.50 a.m. train from King's Cross. It took an hour and a half which could be bad if you're easily bored, however if you carry a Nintendo DS, a selection of games, a good book, and an ipod around everywhere with you, it's not that bad and the time flies by. We met Susan who was our supervisor. Those of us who had worked at GDCe last year were given extra responsibility which was nice. The job of being a CV isn't hard but it does require you to be on your toes, always be helpful, know everything that is happening, and always be nice to people even if they're rude to you.


View of the sea and a Brighton garbage truck

There are many presentations in different rooms going on simultaneously. Therefore, there needs to be at least one CV in each room. First off, we have to cover all the seminars that are happening. When I say cover, I mean let the speaker know that you're there, hand out feedback sheets at the beginning of the talk, collect them at the end, take the occasional head count. Some speakers are quite nervous so they'll rely on you to tell them when to start. One of the nice things about the Mobile day was that my friend Steev was there with his workmates from Glu.


My friend Steev (far right)

We had a good gossip at some point during the day but missed each other at lunchtime unfortunately. The first presentation was the keynote speech by Kamar Shah from Nokia. You can read about what he said here. There were also a couple of people from Ideaworks3D! (where I do my game testing) there too. Tim Closs and Thor Gunnarson gave a very popular presentation straight after lunch. So there were lots and lots of presentations. We were lucky to have our lunch included as part of our work contract and some of us wandered around the Expo area, or what was going to be the Expo area. Lots of companies were there building up their areas with big flash TV screens, computers, advertisements, and freebies. Sony, who sponsored the conference, had set themselves up in the middle of the area complete with PSPs for conference attendees to play with.

The Sony stand

Brighton Beach and the burned down pier

Close up of the burned pier

Carl, Ben, James, and Alex at Al Fresco

The event was held at Al Fresco and drinks were courtesy of Autodesk. The view out to the beach was lovely. Although it was a blazing hot day we were still amazed that some people were out surfing. Although it did look impressive it was obviously for show. But even more impressive was the old burned out pier. A very stark contrast to the other pier which now has a funfair on it. Anyway, we all indulged in the free booze


Before the Autodesk party

The Autodesk party in full swing

and then Steev and I made our way up to the station (all the way uphill) to catch the 10.30 p.m. train, only to miss it, and go to the pub instead for half an hour. I fell asleep on the train and Steev very kindly woke me up at King's Cross. I then couldn't be arsed to get a bus home so I got a taxi and crawled into bed at 2.00 a.m., only to get up at ....


One last drink in here

To be continued ....