Countdown 6 days

I'm nearly set to go home. Only 6 more days to go.
My belongings were delivered today. My aunt was there to receive everything and make sure all the boxes were there. Thank you Titi!!!! :D
In the afternoon I called the estate agents' accounts team and learnt that my deposit money has been released! YEAH!!
Tomorrow's my last day at work, my mates are sad that I'm leaving and I'm sad to say goodbye to them.
I'm having a leaving-do, first at the office and then at the pub. Me and Hari are going to Southall to buy some (70) samosas, pakoras and jalebis for lunch. I will also buy a cake for those who don't like indian food.
Will post pics of the feast later on.



Just a note on the "glorious" unpredictability of the british weather.
Today at the office, one of the brazilian ladies told me "Is very hot, né? Is very quentji, hoji!"

the keys and lots of things I did today

Today I woke up and thought "What a silence" and then I realized I was at Zé's.
I don't think I ever told here but behind my old flat's back garden they were building a massive building. So, every day at 8:30am, the noise would begin. After a few days I got used to it. But it sure makes a difference to come to a place with no building sites nearby.

So I woke up, chatted with my mum on msn, had my breakfast, shower, and then went to Ealing to return the keys and witness the "inspection" of the flat. The guy said everything was fine so now I hope everything goes just as well with returning my deposit money.
I left Ealing and went to the British Museum to see The American Scene - Prints from Hopper to Pollock. It was a bit disappointing. Not catchy at all. I love Hopper and I love Pollock but I didn't see anything from either one or the other. I left the room, had a very expensive brie and cranberry sandwich in the museum and then went to the shop.
It is very hard being in a museum shop and not being able to buy anything because my bags are already full. My luggage is already to heavy. I CANNOT BUY ANYTHING ELSE BEFORE I GO!!! and that makes me sad. It really does.
So, after the British Museum, I went down New Oxford Street, wondered around till I got to the Seven Dials where I bought a pair of earrings and a book. It's a tiny book. Won't take much space in my luggage case.
Before I got to the Photographers Gallery, I took a rest in Leicester Square. I realised I had never sat on those benches before. It was the first time I spent more than 10 minutes there.







To be honest I got lost again. Every time I want to go from Tottenham Court Road to Leiscester Square I end up in Covent Garden... I guess I like to walk more than I need to.

moving to Zé's

I went to the bank this morning. Apparently, the "problem" with my debit card was fraud.
Or at least they thought it was... I bought an airline ticket to go on holidays and they though someone was using my card to do online shopping. They could've at least called to confirm, right? But no. They blocked the card under the suspicion of fraud...
Last year when my card was cloned and someone withdraw 35000 jamaican dollars with it, the bank's fraud department didn't do anything. They didn't find odd that someone would get cash out of the machine in London and one hour later in the Caribbean with the same card... not suspicious at all.

Tomorrow's my last day in Ealing.
If only the flat was as clean when I moved in!
I moved to Zé's where I'll be staying 'till I go home.
Zé was very kind in letting me stay here. I shall make some profiterolles in a day or two.
:D

Bad Luck - Moaning

I am not a religious person.
Never believed in any god.
But if people ask if I believe in bad luck, I'll have to say yes.
There are a few things that only happen to me when I don't need them.
Tomorrow will be my last day in this flat. Meaning that I need to go to the bank and change my address... to Portugal...
Today I was trying to top-up my pay-as-you-go Oyster card (transports pass) and the machine kept saying that my bank card had not been authorized. So I went to another ticket machine that said the same thing.
I never carry cash... In my wallet I've got £1,50...
And now the damn card doest work! Tomorrow I need to ask for another card that will be sent to my new address !?!?!?!?!

Will someone tell me WHY, oh why did it die now!!!!???

Another thing that I'm very good at is having problems with the Royal Mail.
When I send things, they disappear and I need to send them again. It happened with a CD last week. And it goes both ways... I must have this "protective" shield against any correspondence.
The lens I ordered from Amazon hasn't arrived yet and was due today!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Inside an oil tank... Transforming Tate Modern

Tate Modern oil tanks 05
Originally uploaded by Joana Saramago

Last weekend I went with Pedro and Pat to a guided tour to the Oil Tanks under Tate Modern.
Some more pics on flickr and you can read more about it here.

waiting

I'm sitting here looking at 250kg of things, waiting for the removal guys to arrive.

Failed logistics

My plans are to ship every thing I own but some clothes and camera equipment tomorrow.
And this means, having to keep enough clothes for 2 weeks...
The luggage case I'm taking with me on the plane now seems to be too small. It's full as an egg!
Just to make sure everything fitted, I packed like if was going away tomorrow.
And the most annoying thing is that 2 towels and my shoes (we're talking about a pair of trainers, 2 pairs of sandals and 1 pair of flip-flops) don't fit !!!
So tomorrow, I'm getting another travel bag.
My idea was to travel light and not like the bag lady, but now I know that won't happen.

16 days to go

If you are wondering why I haven't updated this blog as much as I used to, or as I should, I can tell you that the ones to blame are 3 Mobile for selling such crappy pay-as-you-go internet.
I have connected and disconnected today over 20 times.

16 days to go, I've weighted all the boxes today and learnt that in 3 years I accumulated 250kg of stuff. amazing isn't it?
The printer and the dinner set were sold today, the pans and all kitchen utensils have all got new owners now, the scanner has found a new home and I'm very happy that I won't have to take all these things with me.

I'm very anxious to go back home, now that I only have got to weeks ahead, I feel that I'm almost there.
2 weeks will be gone so quick!!!

23 days left...

The living room is full of boxes. next week I'll be sending all my things to Portugal.
Only 14 days to leave the flat, 18 days to quit my job and 23 days to leave Britain for good.

on the set

After the death of my external drive with all my backups on it, I went to buy a new one and I also got a good DVD recorder to make backups of backups. like we say in portuguese, casa roubada, trancas à porta.
And I had to buy this stuff urgently because there was no more storage room on the internal disc and today I went to shoot Finlay Morton, a singer/song writer on the set of his new videoclip.
The video was shot between 2 locations, The Bedford in Balham and Kensal Green Cemetery.
I shall post some pics when I can.

Londonist

Today, Londonist used my photo of Sir Ian McKellen with their article about the Pride Parade.
:D

beer fest. lunch in the park. pride.

Last thursday I went with colleagues from the office to the CAMRA Ealing beer festival.
I enjoyed it but I don't usually drink much, so 1/2 pint of stout was enough for me.
I chose a porter's chocolate stout. Not as good or creamy as the one I had in Dublin. It also had coffee and at 3a.m I was still awake.
I guess I should've had chosen something different.
There were more than 200 beers to chose from, mostly Real Ales and Stouts.
The next day I met Andréia (from Bordado Inglês) for lunch and we had our sandwiches in Walpole Park sitting on the grass. Silly me, I should've taken the camera.

Saturday I went to Trafalgar Square to see the Pride Parade. Not as busy as last year although the weather was much better. I saw lots of Amy Whinehouses and wondered if Amy had become a gay/drag icon like Barbara Streisand but V. said they were only joking...
more pics at flickr.

Interview and pics

Two things published today:

My interview at Bordado Inglês, and some of my pics of Riot:Noise at Glitzine.

Countdown and Deliveries

Countdown: 34 days

For those who haven't realised yet, I'm counting the days to leave London (and the UK) for good.
Since this countdown started, I'm been dealing with paperwork, bills, landlord, packing, getting ready to go without leaving things to do behind.
I created a blog to sell the things that I will not be able to take with me and most of those things are now sold.
My flat is completely full of boxes (Dave gave me a few and some more are due to come today), luggage cases and rucksacks, bubble-wrap and polystyrene.
The bulky things will have to go by land before, but I will still go by plane and due to luggage restrictions this must be planned to the most accurate detail.
So my dilema is:

1. I'll be working 'till the end of the month, I need office clothes for a month. What must I not pack? I will also need casual clothes and going out clothes. And shoes. Off course.
So, all this cannot be shipped along with the rest, will have to stay with me and will have to fit in the small luggage case.

2. Photographic equipment: How to take home all the cameras, laptop, hard-drives at the same time, without losing or damaging anything?

Before that terrorist threat a couple of years ago that lead into hand luggage restrictions (no liquids, only one bag for person) one could carry most everything one would like into an airplane. I remember when I moved to the UK, I brought lot's of stuff with me. I looked like the bag lady. I really did!!
But now, after 3 years accumulating stuff, I'm going back and all the fragile things will have to go with me rather than in the hold or by land.
I already had a good photographic rucksack but there was no room for the laptop. On the other hand, not every thing would fit there.
So I bought a new rucksack, good enough to carry the laptop, the camera and some more gear, all in a balanced way without hurting my back.
I bought in online at WarehouseExpress and I must say I'm very pleased with their service.
Do you know when you're expecting a delivery and the courier only shows up at 5pm?
Well this one was ringing my bell at 7am!!!!
7am!!!
And he had a huge box with him!!! Almost like Santa!!!
So I jumped out of bed and went downstairs to get the parcel, I ran up the stairs to open the parcel and then I put everything inside just to check if the laptop fit. and it does and i'm so happy!
So this dilemma is sorted.
Moving on to the next one.

I told my manager that I need to take the day off because I was waiting for a few deliveries.
I bought a moving pack (boxes, more bubble-wrap, tape) and that should be delivered today as well, although I'm guessing that they will only be here at 5pm...

And since I'm up since dawn today, I might just do something useful like, continue packing!