Jason's Daily Notes

Wow, it's already the 26th of September?! The time is just flying by.

Last night, the internet router was delivered, but it was too late to call, so I spent an hour in the morning setting up the internet connection, having to call Virgin Media 3 times (and I despaired a bit when the online registration wouldn't go through). But finally, it worked! WE FINALLY HAVE INTERNET!

Then, our landlord gave me an address to go to for me to pick up the gas payment card. It was all the way beyond Brixton, towards Clapham a bit. So I went there, gave the card details and PIN, and the card was denied! I called the landlord to ask what was up, and apparently the card wouldn't be activated until 12pm! Since it was like 11:50 I just went for a little walk and returned around 12:20 to try again. But no luck! Fuck this. I chided Demi, telling him to call the gas company now and sort it out while I was at the store, but he didn't call back for a couple hours. I figured this out and just returned home.

In the afternoon, Demi returned with a crew of two guys to (1) clean [mop] the common spaces in the house and (2) fix my bed. Instead of replacing the base, he just hammered a piece of plywood onto the existing base. And it didn't fit perfectly, so there's still a small gap in the base. Unbelievable! But I don't care; I can live with it. He also installed a crappy little suction-based shower head holder. So that's being resolved. And as for the gas, apparently it wasn't activated until 4pm! And he couldn't even take care of it himself, so he asked me to return there. The audacity! But fuck, we needed gas, so I gladly made the trek over there to pick up the card and top it up with £20 (even though he told me not to add credit). And I returned, put it in the reader, and voila! It worked. We had gas again! (Although only £6 of credit.)

Since it was my last day of having a weekly travelcard, I asked Swag if he wanted to meet somewhere for dinner. He suggested a cheap place on Brick Lane. Mike and I went there (having to walk to Stockwell station for him to buy a new travelcard) and met Swag and Sandy. The food was ok, largely fish-based, but not really strongly flavored. We bought a couple sweets on our way out, and Sandy wanted us to try paan, which is a leaf filled with ground nuts, sweets, sugars, and chewing tobacco that is supposed to get you mildly high. It was hilarious, because we had to keep these large leaf things wedged in the corner of our mouths and slowly chew on them. We were laughing about the whole way as we went on the tube (randomly, I decided that we should go to King's Cross). As I mentioned, the paan "tasted like car wash" or "a grassy field without the grass." Not exactly the best. And I think the hallucinogenic properties was mostly a placebo effect. So Swag and Mike spit theirs out, while Sandy and I chewed and swallowed it all.

Sandy and I got beers at O'Neills on Euston road to wash down the taste in our mouths. Then, we went on a quest to find a photobooth for Swag and Mike to take pics for their visa application and railcard, respectively. We wandered all the way through St. Pancras and Kings Cross stations before finding a photobooth hidden in King's Cross. The guys were having fun messing with Swag or Mike while they were trying to take their picture. I suddenly felt very bored. We then just parted ways and went home. I meditated on the tube ride home, suddenly feeling very content and introspective. Maybe it was the relaxing effects of the paan? Either way, I didn't feel nervous for the first time in a while. It felt good. And I slept pretty well, because for the first night in a while we had heating :)

(However, I did knock over a mostly full glass of water on my desk, so I frantically tried to save all the papers and electronic chargers that got wet. I think I did well enough. Still - D'oh!)