Italy Holiday Day 01: Stansted Airport

yes, I’m sitting and waiting in Stansted airport. Using some free BT OpenZone credit that I nearly forgot I had! This morning was fairly uneventful – I arrived in Euston on the sleeper train at roughly 7AM, then got the tube to Liverpool Street station to board a coach to Stansted.

Only annoyance was that when standing looking at a map @Liverpool Street stn, a fucking pigeon dropped a juicy yellow-green SHIT on me from the great heights above. I had to go to the toilets (and pay 30p for the privilege!) and try get the shit off which wasn’t all that easy. At least it hadn’t shat on my hair or face.

Last night I went to the Amanda Palmer gig. It was quite good, and the crowd was approximately lenina 10 years ago – all interesting looking folk, many alternative types but in a mostly good, interesting, pretty way (none of your baggy trousers/skaters/drunk punks or OTT gothic types). I left before the gig had finished as I got bored. Amanda’s music is great, but I’d rather listen to it from home so I can skip the songs I don’t like 😛

Also, the crowd was a little too admirational I thought, and at one point it was more like a cabaret/entertainment (? not sure) when all I wanted was to just listen to her music live, without any interaction and stories etc. So I guess I’m better off staying at home next time. Actually I don’t mind either way – I simply don’t have the same enthusiasm for live gigs any more. And I’ve been turning into a bit of a homebody hehe – that’s not too bad though. I just like having a cosy, nice home, and spending time there 🙂

BT Openzone and BT FON (Advert)

While up here in Edinburgh, I had meant to downgrade my broadband to a cheap and nasty Virgin-Internet only service (cable modem).

However, I’ve now decided against that. First of all, it annoys me that they seem to be phasing out their Internet-only supply and and instead push their shitty TV-Uber-Alles in your face. I really DON’T like watching TV much, and I don’t need another 50 channels thank you very much. Freeview serves me just fine.

Secondly, I’ve discovered that my rather expensive BT Total Broadband (option 3) has various services to offer for the discerning nethead, that are part of my ‘package’ but which I’ve never really looked into until now. It has:

• 250 free minutes of BT Openzone. This means that next Tuesday 8th, when I have some builders in to replace all my sockets, light switches, and the smoke alarm, I can just fuck off to a nearby Openzone hotspot cafe and work from there, for free (apart from a few mugs of coffee).

• BT Fon: This means you open up a section of your own wireless connection for public use, and in return you get access to all the other ones that have done the same, for free! It’s a great idea really, and one I will try out once I’m back in London. There, population is so dense (not in that way!) that I can imagine I’ll always be able to use someone else’s wireless network via BT FON for free 🙂

BT really seem to know what they’re doing. OK, they’re not the cheapest (and have never been), but to be honest I was with Blueyonder when I first came to Edinburgh and their service was terrible, and we had loads of technical problems.

BT on the other hand – never had any problems, and they are pushing the envelope with their services. Instead of turning us into mediawh0res like Sky and VirginMedia, they focus on what’s most important, at least in relation to my life: computer networks, and ubiquitous access.