Torment Parking

This weekend was really a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to adventures. On Friday night, Anisha and I went and saw the movie "Meet the Spartans" after work. I can only describe the movie as being 84 minutes of hilarious garbage. It's full of slapstick and completely unintelligent humour. You won't be expending too much brain power if you watch this movie.

My night was to get worse. I went to return to my car which was parked in my new secure parking to find that my access card wasn't working. I called the company up and a guy arrived in about 5 minutes. He was far from helpful, with a grasp of english which failed to communicate the problem correctly to his boss. These guys don't even have access cards to their own car parks!

He called in his boss (Tony) for assistance who didn't have access to the building either. During the debacle, another customer came into the building and lifted the door. I went and retrieved my bag and they had me move my car to another secure car park around the corner. Tony advised me that they won't be able to fix my access card until Monday. I pay for convenience, not these problems!

Over the weekend I also looked at the Acer Slimline Aspire L3600 PC, which I considered purchasing as a media centre PC. I also bought a DVD from Harvey Norman Botany with part of a gift voucher Charlene and Nick gave me previously. I couldn't believe the fact that Harvey Norman wants your contact name and phone number when you redeem a voucher. This is disgusting!

I also picked up Die Hard 4.0 from Dick Smith Electronics in Silvia Park. I ordered an additional 512mb RAM for my laptop from Ascent Technologies and Anisha ordered a Cooler Master Notepal just like mine. See here.

Anisha and I (Along with Kim and Nigel) planned to do the Cossey/Massey Loop (195 minutes / 5km) in the Hunua Ranges on Sunday, but I made an executive decision not to go as it was raining in the morning. The day actually turned out okay, so we really could have still gone, but thems the breaks.

Also, I can't forget to mention all the lovely dinners and breakfasts that Anisha made for me over the weekend. Isn't she lovely!

Additional Information: At the Festival of the Cleaver, the Spartans used to nail sausages to the wall for the older men to gnaw on... (Athenaeus 138e)

Green Crocodile Cafe

Today I received a "tip off" from a gentleman who works on my floor, but for a different department about a cafe called the Green Crocodile Cafe. The cafe is located at 10 Darby Street, Auckland Central.

Craig told me of the variety on the menu which included both traditional style takeaway food like hamburgers, and a vegetarian option which included a number of salads. When I arrived there was a queue, reasonable for the time of day. I waited in the line until it was my turn. I ordered a large chicken sandwich and a Banana milkshake. No complaints about the food here. The only issue I had was the fact that the place didn't have EFTPOS!

Now with me being the stubborn mule of a customer I am, I have decided not to buy from there in the future. The great customer service doesn't cover up for the fact that they don't even have a basic EFTPOS facility.

My car parking situation has been sorted in the mid-term with my access card and window thingy arriving. I will be paying $199 per month for the luxury of parking in the city. The earlybird parking I was using at Wilson Parking is extremely limited compared to my new parking arrangement.

Later on in the night I helped Charlene put together her CV.

I am also experimenting with using feedburner for my RSS and Atom feeds. At this stage I have configured the EinkeY and Pickled Hamster's Superfun Blog with feedburner. Should the results turn out positive I will add the capability to this blog, along with my Disjointed Thoughts Tech blog.

I have also emailed my web host, requesting that they configure a new CNAME record for use with my tech Blog. It's about time that it is brought under the nztechie.com domain. I pray they are more responsive and understanding of my request then they were on my last attempt to have a subdomain set up. See http://einkey-pickledhamster.blogspot.com/2007/11/startlogic-helpdesk-are-plonkers.html for the shorts of the disaster story!

Additional Information: Crocodiles are carnivores; they eat fish, birds, turtles, frogs, and mammals. Young crocodiles eat worms, small fish, and insects.