My flatmate Marc, aside from being French and a nice guy, is in a band called Plastic Heroes. They're not goth but they do rock.

See also facebook or spotfiy.

They have a gig on Tue 15th, at the Islington Academy 2 - N1 Centre, 16 Parkfield St, London, N1 0PS
On stage around 9:30pm. Tickets are £8 at the door, I think. There are some fan tickets for £6
I'll be going. Anyone else want to come?

The car is for sale.

The time is coming to sell the car.

Suggestions on how best to do this? I don't want to trust it to eBay.
Details are below:
The car is a Vauxhall Corsa Active 16V S-A,
3 door hatchback, 4 seater, 1.2 engine.
Easytronic gearbox
2006 Model
Full service history, low mileage, around 25 000
Current MOt, no accidents.
Dark blue
CD Player, FM/AM as per standard

Engine Size: 1,229 cc
Fuel: Petrol
Transmission: Easytronic Semi-automatic
Safety Features: Immobiliser, Driver Airbag, Passenger Airbag, Safety Belt Pretensioners, Rear seat belts, Anti-Lock Brakes (ABS)
Interior/Comfort Options: Power-assisted Steering (PAS), Air Conditioning, Power Locks, Power Windows

It looks likely that Sue can't make it, and I will have space for a passenger in the car on the way up to Whitby. It's a small car, a 3-door Vauxhall Corsa so there's room for just one person and their Whitby stuff. Does anyone want a lift?

I'm leaving North London N19 in the morning of Thursday 29th Oct (hopefully around 9am, that way we'll be in Whitby before dark), and am coming back on Tuesday 3rd Nov, probably leaving early around the crack of noon.

You will need to supply a few CDs for the journey, and some petrol money. And to not smoke.

I thought I'd put this on my f-list before posting to the Whitby forum.

Depeche Mode - Cape Town, early 1990s.

It was just after Violator, an album that I loved, one of their best I think, and they played in the Good Hope Centre (a huge concrete function and expo hall). I hadn't seen a lot of international bands then - Depeche Mode must have been the first that I liked lots and saw live, They were just amazing, at the height of their musical powers - loads of good music, huge sound (let down a bit by the acoustics of the venue) and big-budget visuals. Dave Gahan had a powerful and expressive voice, and Martin Gore's singing, e.g. on "A question of trust" was delicate, emotive and perfect.

Nothing like it until The Prodigy played a post-Fat Of the Land gig a few years later.

Stolen shamelessly from deathboy's post.

I am in Cape Town. The memorial service for my Aunt will be on Friday. I won't say it's easy, but I am coping. There are lots of little things that need doing for this. My brother and his wife are doing most of it.

Cape Town is in late winter/early spring mode - it was wet when I arrived, but has been mild and sunny. Very green.

My Aunt's health has taken a turn for the worse and she is not expected to live much longer, I am likely to be off in Cape Town very shortly, for a week or two.

I have been expecting that this could happen, but didn't know when it would come.

Picture by me. Caption suggested by first_fallen

I decided to do some Guerilla gardening in my own garden. Specifically the front needed more big fynbos. I set out to Kirstenbosch plant shop with the idea of:
1) A Leucadendron Argenteum (silver tree) for the spot where there was one a few year back.
2) A Coleonema Album (white confetti bush, has very fragrant leaves) for the sunny spot where one flourished before.
3) A protea of some kind for the shady spot between two trees.

What I ended up with was:
1) A silver tree as planned.
2) Finding out that Coleonemas tolerate partial shade better than Proteas, I swapped these around. The Coleonema Pulchellum, as the name would suggest, was pretty in pink, and just as fragrant as the white one, so I got that for the shady spot.
3) A Hybrid (cordifolium X conocarpodendron) Leucospermum (not quite a protea, but closely related) for the sunny spot under the window. The distinctive "Pincushion" flowers should bring birds. There's an old sugarbush protea in the garden already which brings birds, so this may have some synergy.

All in all, win! Planting out will happen tonight.

Due to ill health of an elderly relative I will be flying to Cape Town tonight. This will probably be for one week.

I am safely back in London, and feeling rather zombified, but a long night's sleep should sort that out. The flights were not bad, just long.

While en route I read a couple of magazines and Death at Victoria Dock
Then I went for the movies with old favourites: The Usual Suspects and L.A. Confidential Then off to foreign language movies,
Flammen & Citronen is about two guys in the Danish resistance against the Nazis, in Copenhagen, 1944. Flammen has flaming red hair, and Citronen has his face in a permanently sour expression. I enjoyed it quite a bit, the atmosphere is somewhat noir rather than thrilling. It seems that in Copenhagen 1944, the only things to do in Copenhagen were: brood ominously in hiding, chain-smoke, do a drive-by assassination, double-cross someone, conduct a doomed love affair, drink. Repeat and combine. It had well-drawn, flawed characters.

After that I watched a couple of episodes of The Simpsons, including off-the-wall rock ones where Homer does a Kurt Cobain impression in a band called Sadgasm, complete with hilariously obscure and emo lyrics; and one where Bart is Johnny Rotten in the Sex Pistols, and Lisa is Nancy Spungeon. Yep.

Then a rather different film called Go Go 70s about rockers in 1970s South Korea. The plot arc is standard, but the cultural layering was rather appealing to me, as the band in the film gradually found their feet, going from bad Asian covers of "Mustang Sally", "Soul Man" and the like, to eventually building their own scene with hybrid influences. Or possibly by then I hadn't slept in over 24 hours and my critical facilities had shut down, which let me enjoy watching young Koreans jumping around to recycled soul/rock in 1970s clothes (and thereby somehow sticking it to the Man).

Doha on the way back was still flat, brown and hot (35C at 8am. Ouch) but mercifully brief. London on arrival was overcast and wet, a bit like Cape Town on departure then. Seasons, we has them.

Things I have done in the last few days:
Driven around Cape Town buying lights and other house fittings. Mostly done now.
Various meetings with various people. More to follow on Monday.
Not gone into most of the house; the floors have been sanded and are covered in varnish.
Driven around in a tiny Hyundai with a very annoying gearbox.
Been to gym a couple of times.
Been to Cavendish mall many times. The bank is there, among other things.
Drank wine and gin and tonic while watching funny movies:
- Who is killing the great chefs of Europe? Very watchable, very 70s,
- Gamers: The Dorkness rising – better than it had any right to be.
- Black Sheep- Baaaad. Ewe. And other sheepish puns tht get your goat.
Ate excellent food at Cargill's in Rondebosch with extemporanea
Ate pizza and drank caipirinhas with mac1235
VIsited my Aunt B, who seems in better sprits than she was last time I was here. I'm not sure if this is becuase she's healed up after her hip replacement, or the Zoloft is working.
Vaguely applied for contract work in London, but not chased it too hard yet, because I can't interview until week after next.
Bought fabric, honey and other perishables that will surely push my suitcase's weight over 20kg on the way back.
Read a couple of books. Fiction, next up some ASP.NET MVC or silverlight, honest.
Watched overcast weather alternate with drizzle and pelting rain.
Wondered how sunny London is getting on without me.

Short summary of travels: took 24 hours, nothing went awry.
Qatar airways is OK. they have bad movies on demand, and airplane food served regularly. I've had worse.
London to Doha, flying southeast on a summer night made a very short period of darkness.
Doha early on Monday morning is, at first impression, hot, flat, brown, dusty, smelly. Skyscrapers loom in the distance through the dust/smog. The airport is not totally tiny, has busses trundling from long distances from aircraft to terminal. Transfer was mercifully brief and painless.
The flight to Cape Town is also the flight to Johannesburg. It was more than half-empty before the stop in JHB, and even emptier after.
Cape Town is in winter, which means it's dark before 7pm as we arrive, and cool damp air.
My phone is still not working right, probaly O2 have not yet ported the number in properly.

On the flight, I watched Quantum of Solace which made not a quantum of sense but was stylish, Bolt which was light enough for my sleep-deprived state- I liked the cat but the dog's character was underdrawn; and Gran Torino which I knew wouldn't suffer from small screen and poor light to mar special effects since it's character-driven. It was OK human drama set in the US Hmong community. And Clint Eastwood does has best grumpy old man. With a shotgun.

I also read Bruce Sterling's "The Caryatids", which was excellent near-future fiction for 2009, a sort of chillingly believable post-catastophe utopian farce, with clones; though it was a bit lacking in plot focus. I will read it again, to see if I misssed the subtleties.

Now I am realy tired, but the jetlag rule applies: No sleep 'til bedtime.

This is a long shot, but does anyone have experience of using O2's sim-only contracts? Particularly with a G1 or similar webby phone? How good is the Unlimited (*cough* Excessive usage policy applies *cough*) Web Bolt On? Will the webs work this way? Is it a better deal than the T-Mobile package at a similar price?

I'm going to have to replace my phone very soon, as the existing handset will go back to my employer. I might need to do it in the next week.

I will be pleased to be rid of Windows Mobile, and have a couple of handsets in mind that have nice stuff on them like GPS maps, twitter clients and POP email.

1) iPhone. Inevitable, really that it would be under consideration.

2) Google G1 phone. Can I get an unlocked handset?

3) HTC Magic. My attitude to the G1 when I didn't need a new phone was "good, but like most things the V2.0 is when it will start to shine". So now the HTC magic is out and it's not exactly a G1 V 2.0. No physical keyboard, which I really like on my current phone. How much is the premium over G1 for getting a newer model?

Any thoughts, comments, experiences of the HTC magic?

A few months ago, fired up with gardening enthusiasm, I bought a packet of tomato seeds on borough market. They are some funny continental variety (Saint Pierre) and I sprinkled them thickly. All of them came up, and now we have an incipient Tomato Jungle of Dooom!!!1 (where's the blink tag when you need it?)

I planted out one of the many pots of deedlings today, and filled the bed allocated to them, probably a bit too densely. The other pots sit there, rustling ominously in the wind.

Who wants some tomato seedlings? Going free to good home. By good home, I mean someone who will feed them chemical fertilisers, tie them to sticks, leave them out in the sun and rain, eat their babies and then throw them on the compost heap in Autumn.

Offer is valid only in North London.

In light of my free time I have booked a trip to Cape Town to finish up family property-related business.

Dates are:
Leave London on Sun 24 May 2009, Arrive in Cape Town Mon 25th
Leave Cape Town on Thur 4 June 2009, Arrive in London Fri 5th

If you're there I can meet during that time, but I'd suggest evening meeting. Business will take priority over wine routes and the like.

I have accepted the my employer's redundancy package. I will miss them.

Meanwhile, I am an experienced .Net developer at large in London. Job offers and suggestions are welcome.

Data from Jobstats: The crash of '09 is looking worse than the crash of '01. It's not fallen from such a height, but it has fallen a lot closer to zero. Aaargh.