Paul in London

Scenes from Clapham High Street - Clapham Common Tube (two weeks ago again). Amongst the clutter and rubbish around this point is the old gents toilet (on the left). It has been closed for some time, but would be a great place for a coffee on the go kiosk I would imagine... If they could get rid of the smell... 

Scenes from SW4 (two Saturday's ago). Location location... 

Speaking of rubbish service, A and I go to Balans cafe in Soho regularly. I am not sure why as the food is more likely to be awful, the people often in there are freaks (usually exes of A's who are now hustlers) and the service is mixed. The one thing going for it is the location and it is a great space. I think that's why we keep coming back. Wednesday evening was a case in point. Early January they gave me a voucher which was a "buy one meal get one free" deal. The deal came with a whole series of catches however. You could only redeem the offer Mon-Wed between 5-11pm and the moon had to be in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars. The fine print was so amusing that I asked the waiter what we could get with this deal. Eventually after much haggling he told us that A's all day breakfast and my burger would cover the deal so we made the order. A few minutes later the waiter came back to apologise and say that breakfasts were not part of the meal deal an

Still no change on the Wanadoo situation. Wanadoo can-no-do... I really wish I never signed up to them. To get out of a contract here you have to sacrifice your first born so I just have to suffer in somewhat silence. I have started taking my campaign to the broader community (albeit slowly as I am using dialup!)...

Wanadoo is having a little trouble being a decent internet service provider with me. Rather than investigate my complaint properly they have offered to give me a technical call-back which one of their call centre consultants mentioned to me was a pointless exercise as they will just tell me to play with the modem and look at the lights. The problem that I am experiencing is more likely to be at the telephone exchange.   Anyway, it means they reach their target of responding to written letters within five days. After receiving their I decided to email back an acceptance of their offer so I would not be accused later by them of obstruction. This is how it went.   Original Message Follows: ------------------------ Your ref:    I would like to confirm that I would like a technical callback to take place at 8am on 12 March (giving you five days notice to set up the call back as per your request in the letter).    I would also like to point out that if you are unable to

While waiting for broadband to be connected by Wanadoo (I have been waiting six weeks now), I can confirm that I have yet to cover Seeing Stockard Channing and Aiden Quinn in The Exhonerated . It has an extended run at Riverside studios with a revolving cast. They were fantastic. A brilliant play which is staged as a simple reading telling the true tales of people wrongly sentenced to death in America. Going to the Australian Film Festival at the Barbican and seeing "The Illustrated Family Doctor", "Opal Dream" and "Three Dollars". Of the three, Opal Dream is worth catching. It is set in Cooper Pedy and actually paints the town as a nice place so it was a monumental feat of film-making and storytelling there. Caught Capote which was another great film. After seeing the film one should try to speak for as long as possible like Truman Capote until it drives you and your friends insane. I think it should be a new game. I have written another dirt

Paul: What seats do you have close to the front row? Box Office: Well I can give you B14 and B15 Adam: Oh dang you sank my battleship

On Friday evening I finally got to see Sunday in the Park with George. It has been playing at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark sine November and the season there has been completely sold out. It transfers to the West End in May (www.sundayinthepark.co.uk) but it was nice to see it in the smaller space of the Chocolate Factory (even if the seats are unreserved and not that comfy). I took M to see it as he is a bit of a musical aficionado; well he has seen Mamma Mia three times so I figured this might be his cup of tea. Prior to the show we grabbed a bite to eat at an Italian restaurant and it was there where I explained the plot of the show to him, the artist George Seurat and the history of pointillism in between bites of lasagne. M commented later during interval this briefing was useful in explaining some aspects of the first half of the show. I then was able to warn him that in the second half of the show the narrative really does something unexpected and moves forward 100

Some thoughts on Wanadoo as a broadband provider that I thought I would jot down and write to them about today after speaking to their tech support people (on the telephone no less). A Letter to Wanadoo As a new customer I would like to draw the attention of the Board that to the high number of failures provided by your company. I am sure I am not alone in this. I signed up with Wanadoo on 20 January 2006 for a wireless and talk package because it was competitively priced (not cheaper than others but competitive) and provided an easy means to register (online). Unfortunately, this was the only positive experience I have had with your company. Wanadoo’s failures include: Failure to provide a basic broadband internet service . A call to a consultant today, 24 February, suggested that this is because your service is trying to connect a faster speed to what is possible on the telephone line. Meanwhile I will be a month without an internet service while you have been charging me for a servi

Simple really, I have been waiting for wanadoo.co.uk to connect me. It should have taken two weeks but they are taking five weeks and still counting... Great service...