House prices dip 1.1% in November

According to the lender, house prices fell by 1.1% in November
, taking the annual rate of growth down to 6.3%, compared with 8.9% in October.
...
The fall is the largest monthly drop since December 2006. It is also the first time since 1995 that the Halifax figures have shown house prices falling for three successive months.


Via BBC

Ready for the ride ?

After the US, it seems the house "slump" is coming to the UK :
UK house prices see sharp tumble
November's fall in house prices is the largest since June 1995.
UK house prices saw their biggest fall in 12 years during November, mortgage lender Nationwide has said.

How much ? The market are betting on a 7% next year, that seems a minimum considering that the house price could be overvalue by 30% for HSBC, 40% for the IMF.

Will see, it's probably gonna become more bearish as the crisis unfold. Have a good ride !

Strangled by murder

Nice title on the bbc website

Strangled woman was murder victim

Bbc

The non story of the week

PC beats WWII computer.

What ? a Modern PC beats a 60 years old technology ! What a story ...

Credit crisis worse than LTCM

NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The credit crisis gripping the U.S. is now worse than the crisis of confidence following the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998 and recession risks are growing, said Jack Malvey, chief global fixed income strategist at Lehman Brothers.

"This is the deepest correction we've ever seen in structured finance," Malvey said in an interview on Friday. "This is now worse than Long-Term Capital. This is so dispersed, so interlocked and the relationships among the various entities are not as evident. This is a painful lesson in financial engineering."


OUCH!


Via Reuters

Technical glitch throws FTSE into confusion

Opps ... some might have a long night ...


The result is quite interesting


I can imagine the face of the trading floors...

House prices to 'cool not fall'

So they say. We'll see next year, I'll bet on a big drop in next years. Do you remember the 90s ... It looks very likely that it's gonna be worse.

Via BBC

Brockwell Park Fireworks this friday

Lambeth Fireworks 2007

Lambeth FireworksFriday 2 November, 7.30pm
At Clapham Common, Brockwell Park and Streatham Common.
Free Admission

More info

Ready for Credit Crunch Act II ?

From FT Alphaville

Low interest rate are to blame

We also find that banks which are less-well monitored and disciplined (i.e., subject to more moral hazard) not only take on more risk but they especially take it when interest rates are low. Low rates therefore imply excessive risk-taking. When rates are low not only do these banks take on more risk, but loan spreads are further reduced at these banks despite the higher ex-post realisation of credit risk.

The impact of short-term interest rates on risk-taking: hard evidence

Renting cheaper than buying in 2006

Private rents in 2006 were two-thirds the cost of a 100% mortgage on a two- or three-bedroom house, for a young household on average incomes.

BBC


Thanks to, vonric

Sixty pint beer binge leads to four-week hangover

It may be the longest hangover in the history of binge beer drinking. When a 37-year old man walked into a hospital emergency room in Glasgow, Scotland last October complaining of "wavy" vision and a non-stop headache that had lasted four weeks, doctors were at first stumped, the British journal The Lancet reported Friday.

...

London House Prices Fall Most in Three Years, Rightmove Says

The average asking price for a home in London declined 2.5 percent to 384,439 pounds ($774,000) from August, according to Britain's biggest real-estate Web site. The reading is taken from a survey conducted from Aug. 12 to Sept. 8.

Via Bloomberg

The RighMove House Price Index September 2007

Are you rich?

Here is the annual income distribution for the year 2005-2006, more data here

		Percentiles
10	20	25	30	40	60	70	75	80	90
5,880	10,002	11,799	13,392	16,355	23,031	27,209	29,779	32,615	42,048

The case against Grants

Grants are used in the UK to promote renewable technologies, the market is not big enough so Grants by raising the demand increase the development of these technologies.
But Grant is not a neutral act in the economy, it's a transfer from the tax payer to the person who are gonna invest in these technologies - some would argue it's a transfer directly to the producer but it would be hard to argue that without any data-.

- Market distortion
The Grant are given to approved technology, these has the following consequences :
. Grant are running after the technology, post approving the development
. Innovator have incentive to stick to the approve technology, neglecting unforeseen development - it raise the cost of non mainstream development, because of the risk of not behind consider for a grant, and the red tape to be approve-.

- Unfairness
. Grant go to the people that can afford the installation, it's not the poorest. It's a transfer to the rich.
. It neglects effort by poor people that find other solution to the problem that are innovative but not technology related. e.g. If I save my 20% by turning the light off nobody is gonna give me money.

- Cost
. To finance Grant you need to raise taxes to finance the Grant and the allocation of the Grant.
. Taxe is always expensive, if you collect 1 it's gonna cost the economy 1.5
. Redtape to deal with the administration of approved technology, installer

- Evualation problem
. It's really hard to evaluate the impact of a Grant because you need to compare with what would have happen if the Grant was not implemented.

- Global renewable market
One can anyway ask the question of the effect of the Grant in one country when the markets are global.

So what do you do? The recommended solution is definitely taxes, - remember that anyway in grants you've got taxes-.
Taxes energy on their CO2 emission is probably the best way to achieve these goals
. it's non intrusive - only distort in the way we want it - and fair - if you use the collected money to compensate the poor family-.
. it's effect it's on all the national market, not only the technology preselected.
. it cost less than grants - no approver, distribution -.
. it's not easily corrupt by rent seeker.

The Pigou Club is a group of economist in favor of such tax in the USA.

All that for that ??

TfL said it had clarified assurances on jobs and pensions during Tuesday's talks.

Asked if anything new had been offered during the talks, Mr Hendy said: "There isn't anything fresh in terms of 'meat' to give them.

"They had... all of the assurances on Thursday and Friday."

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said they now had the assurances, they had been seeking, in writing from the employer.


BBC News

F*****g T**ts


-- Update

Considering the profile of the guy ...


Bob Crow - socialist leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union; former communist, friend of one-time miners' leader Arthur Scargill and - depending on what you read - the man who has a bust of Karl Marx and a portrait of Che Guevara in his office.


On BBC, and on Wikipedia.

We should probably buy him a one way ticket to cuba ...

Current account costs

The number of horns on a unicorn ?

ask google
Via Google Blogoscoped

Phone mast allergy 'in the mind'

Dozens of people who believed the masts trigger symptoms such as anxiety, nausea and tiredness could not detect if signals were on or off in trials.

But when they believed the signal was on they reported more distress - indicating a psychological problem.

Via BBC

Interest rate raise ?

The UK economy grew at a faster than expected rate in the second quarter of 2007, increasing the chance of further interest rate rises to curb inflation.

More ...

Lambeth Country Show at Herne Hill

Lambeth Council is gearing up to host the borough's ever popular and biggest outdoor festival – the Lambeth Country Show. The show will run from 11am to 7.30pm Saturday 21 July and Sunday 22 July in Brockwell Park and is free to enter.

More info

2 years of vinegar crisps

I remember when I was a young teenager; my cousin did a trip to England. When he came back he talks about all the English delicacies: jelly, vinegar on chips and crisps. A long time ago… Now I'm 29 and today I've been living for 2 years in London.

2 years later, a lot of beers, wine, shots. Probably over the 1092 annual -21 weekly- recommended limit. I’m in London...

So I arrive the 18 of July 2005, 11 days after the 7/7 and 3 days before 21/7. I was renting a small room in Cricklewood, North London. Not really a nice place. I spent august in the internet coffee next door looking for a job. August was desperately quiet. 2 interviews that went nowhere - one because I was French and there was too many French there ... I was starting to despair, my money was melting like an ice cube in a microwave. Then came the first week of September, I spent it in interviews. At the end of the week I had a job beside St James Park. What a relief!

With a job everything is easier, you meet a lot of new people, you can go out more - you've got money and a bank account -. That's when I start enjoying London, discovering the real craziness of this place.

The main event milestone
- First job September 2005
- In January 2006 pulled Girlfriend
- In February 2006 I moved to Brixton, in a nice flat with a roof terrace. Was great, close to work with loads of shop around.
- In July 2006 I started a new Job. With a great increase in salary. Could not refuse, was then working in Farringdon.
- In February 2007 I moved to Herne Hill with Girl Friend.
- In July 2007, I'm starting next week in Canary Wharf at a big investment banking company.

In numbers - from the July 2005 to the 20th of July -
2 years
3 Jobs
+78% increase of my gross salary from my first job here
+150% increase of my net salary after all taxes from my last job in France
3 flats
too much alcohol
15% House Price Inflation in the UK
4.53% Real House Price Inflation in the UK
+10Kg of weight
1 Girlfriend
1 trip in ambulance
3 injuries - foot, back, finger -

Galloway ate too much oil

George Galloway should be suspended from the House of Commons for 18 sitting days, the Standards and Privileges Committee recommended today.

The MP for the Respect party was criticised by the committee over his conduct which was aimed at “concealing the true source of Iraqi funding” to a charity he set up and failure to co-operate with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

It backed a finding that there was “strong circumstantial evidence” that his Mariam Appeal received cash from the UN’s Oil for Food Programme “with Mr Galloway’s connivance”.

It said that the MP had been “complicit in the concealment of the true source of the funds” and had “damaged the reputation of the House” - and said that he was “clearly irresponsible” in refusing to look into the source of substantial donations to the fund. ...

More: Galloway faces 18-day suspension from Commons

The growth gap between the USA and Europe due to IT ?

Why some do I.T. better
Although this literature is in its early stages, the research suggests that other organisational and managerial factors - which cannot be studied in isolation - interact with the use and the effects of IT on productivity, The bulk of the evidence from firm-level, microeconomic studies is that IT does have an economically and statistically significant impact on productivity but this varies dramatically between firms. Having the right organisation is important in getting the most out of IT investment. Organisational differences lie behind US versus Europe productivity performance – US firms are better placed to take advantage of IT. This could be due to their ability to reorganize more quickly because of lighter labour regulation.

Via Vox EU

UK warning on sub-prime mortgages

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is to take action against five brokers that sell sub-prime mortgages.

Following a review of the market, it said some mortgage lenders and brokers offer loans to people who should not be given them.

Via BBC.

Just think abount what is happening in the USA and could not happen in the UK because there was no subprime problem...

Hundreds stuck in Tube derailment

Hundreds of passengers were stranded in a tunnel when a Tube train derailed during the morning rush-hour in London.

- The train is late... It's probably because it's raining.

The service of First Capital Connect has been really poor the last 3 days. I just wrote an email to complain.

"Hello, I just want to complain about the quality of service the last
days - 05/07/2007-. I take the 8.28 from Herne Hill and yesterday I
ended up taking the 8.51 because as the 8.22 was cancelled the 28 and
43 were full !. And this morning the 8.28 was a 4 couches ! how
ridiculous, ended up crunched in the 8.43 ! Not talking about the
signal failures all day 3 days ago.

What is the reason for such bad service? And don't present me your
performance indicator. it has nothing to do with what user
experiences. It give the same weight to peak trains and off peak
trains, and does not consider central London station.

Why is it that southestearn train works fine and yours aren't ?

Regards"

Probably useless, and I'm expecting a classic bullshit answer. Is there any FCC user group? I'm sure nobody involve in the FCC deal has ever take the train...

Suspected bomb found in London

Police have made safe a suspected car bomb in the heart of London.

Officers carried out a controlled explosion after reports of a suspicious vehicle parked in The Haymarket shortly before 0200 BST (0100 GMT).

The trouble with interest-only mortgages

Even if you can get an impossibly low interest rate (Rl) and unbelievable multiples (Mh) so that you can afford the half million or so for that trendy, ex-council two-bed in Clapham (whoops; Tooting), the chances are that this low interest rate requires a low-inflation environment (in which to exist). So in other words, when the time comes to actually pay for the house at the end of the mortgage, the ‘principle’ (P) will be high in real (adjusted for inflation) terms. In other words, if your payments have stayed low, the end result will be an unaffordable bill to pay for the actual house itself.

Keep cycling and don't look back !

Bumpy road ahead

Interest rate are on the rise everywhere. Was the years of non-inflationnist growth just an illusion ?. If so the BoE might try to reach the handbrake. It might be quite tough in the next years...


"If you run a very expansionary monetary policy and the historical conjuncture happens to be such that you get no inflation, what do you get? The answer, of course, is asset price inflation and deterioration of credit. This is the troubling legacy of policy that we are now left with."

Time to change

In one month it will be the anniversary of my arrival in my current company. Great people, the company is doing great, but it also be my last time there, as I just gave my notice, and accepted a offer from one of the big financial institution. A prestigious name in the industry.

In one month it will be the second anniversary of my London arrival.

I'm having a great time!

Failing states

Via The Economist

Tell No One

I'm generally not a fan of French movies. But I really liked this one. Coherent plot, tension, good timing. With enough cheese, french nude scenes, and cliche - the french suburb scum stuff - it was a great couple of hours.

Cost of Living

Moscow tops Mercer's cost of living list; London is close behind

Paris is 13th. Dublin is 16th.

The Black Swan

The Black Swan works best as an advice book. In part, that's because the unpredictable is most undervalued in our personal lives. Too many of us are caught up in routine, or a "status quo bias," as it is labeled by economists and psychologists. We are afraid to move house or change jobs or even to imagine alternative paths. It is disquieting to think we might be making bad choices, so we close off options and we shut down self-critical reasoning, whether subconsciously or by active choice. For instance, we're likely to buy certain commercial products simply because they are familiar and therefore comforting; that is why branding and advertising so influence consumers.

Via Slate.

Dr Quantum - Double Slit Experiment

Via Digg

View from Hampstead Heath

The harmful western aid to Africa

"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"

The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.


Spiegel interview with African economics expert

Republique des Blogs Londres le 12 Juin

Vous lisez des blogs, vous avez un blog, Viendez!! Vous regardez BigBrother, Viendez aussi!!

Battle at Kruger

Via The Daily Dish

Getting some fresh air

The oldest motorway to scotland

Spiderman on the coast

Should I stay or should I buy?

Me and GF are living in a nice one bedroom flat with a massive living room/kitchen in Herne Hill. The rent not quite cheap is 1000 quid a month. Are we wasting our money every month? Should we get on the property ladder?

What can you buy for 1k a month ?

Thanks to Mortgage calculator, assuming we can get a loan at rate of 6% - it would probably be more... - on 20 years - do you really want longer ?

for around 1000 you can get a mortgage of 150000 with monthly repayment of 1089.80.

So now what can you buy for this price?

A renovation project, or a flat in the big nasty towers! I think I'm better off renting !

Le totalitarisme mauvais perdant

Extrait du monde
Cinq jeunes se précipitent sous un pont pour tabasser un jeune militant UMP avant de le jeter dans le Rhône. Des voitures de police banalisées se ruent alors sur les berges et leurs occupants brandissent leurs flash-ball pour faire fuir les manifestants. De nombreux cars de CRS postés à une encablure, aux abords de la préfecture du Rhône, prennent ensuite position.

Trouver grace a Tipota

The crash is coming and it could be soon

The Bank of England must act decisively and swiftly to curb the current house price madness

Will Hutton
Sunday May 6, 2007
The Observer


Who remembers that only 15 years ago the British housing market went badly wrong; prices plunged and nearly a million buyers were trapped in their homes for years because the price was lower than the value of their mortgage? A crippling 15 per cent mortgage rate had been imposed to quell an unstoppable burst of lending that was pushing a dangerous rise in inflation

The commuter

Commuting by train has its code. You wait at the same place because you know the door stops there, so you can enter first and grab a position that will maximize your confort during your journey. One of the most wanted positions is the 'button manager' one. You don't have to move all the time when people go up and down the train, you've got enough space to breath and sometimes to read a book !! But this position is challenging, you are in charge of pressing the button to open the door, that's what garanties your privilege. You should not take this role too easy, if you're too eager to press the button people will know you can't cope with pressure, but if you're too slow and the next time they'll make sure your sacked from this strategic position.

What makes a good button manager ? You must know the journey, so you can prepare yourself for the next arrival, is the correct platform on your side? otherwise you'd look stupid preparing your self for the wrong side. You must learn the timing of the train, the position it takes every day and most important- watch the light. You don't want to look like the amateur that presses the button before the light is on. It's an art and people are depending on your skills. If you don't feel like it one day, it would probably be at your honour to refuse this position. If you're good enough, after months of hard work you will gain the respect of your 'commates', and this day, the day you achieve the mastering of the door opening, they will look at you with envy!!!

Watch out for the cracks

Housing market - Watch out for the cracks

The boom has built upon itself, which is why it will not last

The past decade will be remembered not just for Mr Blair's domination of British politics but also for the most sustained housing boom in post-war history. After the slump of the early 1990s, the market turned in early 1996, a year before Labour won power. In the 11 years since then the average house price has risen by 240%, according to the Nationwide index; in real terms it has increased by 155%. In contrast, the big upturn in the 1980s lasted for seven years, and real house prices rose by 80%.

Free to choose, and learn

New research shows that parental choice raises standards—including for those who stay in public schools

FEW ideas in education are more controversial than vouchers—letting parents choose to educate their children wherever they wish at the taxpayer's expense. First suggested by Milton Friedman, an economist, in 1955, the principle is compellingly simple. The state pays; parents choose; schools compete; standards rise; everybody gains.

Frank's adventure

Frank takes the train to the Himalayas



Frank climbs the mountain !




Frank is on the top of the world !
"I am on the top of the world !" he says.

Brighton

French election

a short version is

The left describe Sarkozy as a dangerous man
The right try to sale its programme.

Hopefully in 5 years the french left would have achieve its mutation to a classic social democrate party, there is a lot of potential with people like Bockel. But this year I don't think they are ready for anything ...

"What most people really object to when they object to a free market is that it is so hard for them to shape it to their own will. The market gives people what the people want instead of what other people think they ought to want. At the bottom of many criticisms of the market economy is really lack of belief in freedom itself."

-- Milton Friedman, Wall Street Journal, May 18, 1961

Spoon Moment

"Being a spoon is quite a sad business, look at these lovey dovey knife and fork!" - Sad Spoon, London

"I don't like milk!" - Confused Spoon, Birmingham

Republique des blogs a Londres ce soir

The Pitbull did not call back

Follow-up to my adventure with my internet provider.

Still no news from the lame customer service. I sent an email today :

Ok I phoned last tuesday, and after much shooting somebody eventually understood that
even if you can provide service to where I'm leaving I can't place an order on the
web site. So they told me that they can place an order manually. Now I'd like to know
if there is actually an order in your system, because since last tuesday I've got no new. And don't tell me to wait I'm no mood and will cancel every thing and go with BT. I still got no internet and it's been more than 3 weeks that I started trying to move my subscription. So do you have a subsription for

XXXXX XXXXXXx
XXX XXX
XX XXXXXX XXXXXXX
XXXX XXX XXXXXXXX


my old bdolXXXXXXX

If you don't have a subscription in your system or if I did not get contacted before the end of the week I'll cancel my subscription and go with another provider.

a tired customer.

Cheers.


PS: cut the bullshit, It tooks me 3 f***** weeks to possibly place an order, and all you had to do is apparently place it manually. no I don't know if it's actually in your system. All I want is a connection. Your customer service is still crap. I'll have no regrets going to another provider.


Hope I'm gonna have some news.

Puppet sex

Ever wonder about what puppets do when they go to bed ? They have sex ! at least in avenue Q, and they can give you some idea.

NB: ever wonder where Internet is for porn came from ?

No Comment

The script monkeys

I moved a wee bit more than 1 week ago from Brixton to lovely Herne Hill. The unpacking, repacking, unpacking is in a stabilisation phase. The TV works, the wee has now two motes. Great ! except one thing : the broadband access. No Internet is not very surprising just one week after moving, but it looks unlikely to be solved anytime soon thanks to my provider, let's call him pit-bull to avoid citing the brand :).

The moving broadband stuff started about 1 month ago. There is a form on pit-bull's website where you enter all your customer's information and your moving address. Looks easy ! So I thought naively. After 3 weeks no news, redo the form, and send another request to be updated. I received a confirmation of my request but no of the moving form. I was not really worried, we were moving in 1 weeks, broadband was not a priority. On the 28th we were "settled" and I decide to call pit bull. Good stuff, they told me they sent me an email at 10 - I received it in the afternoon ... - and I just need to place a new order. Easy !

I go on the web site, try to place a new order. "ERROR, can't find your address details, it my be our fault" the web site said. Yes might be ... It's been their fault no for 2 week ... After a few days, I decide to try to phone the pit-bull customer torture service, just to know what was the issue and if they can provide Internet at my new place. Otherwise I just going to another provider not a big deal. Except that the customer was useless, or deaf ... So I sent a email to complain, after a more few days they told me to phone the billing team and ask for the Customer Operation mythic team. It took me about 30 minutes, 3 calls and telling my details 8 times to get in touch with this elusive team. And after 1 minute they wanted to transfer me to the technical support !!!!!!

Piss off by all these morons, I started to get rude, and it worked. I said I did not want to go to technical support, that they're gonna f****** solve my problem or I gonna see if some other birds have a better customer service. So now I'm waiting he should call me in 30-40 minutes, after talking to his supervisor. No call at 3pm and I send a f****** email to cancel my subscription and my direct debit.

Anybody wrote a book called "Call Center Survival Guide" ? because that would be bloody useful to go through all the script monkeys in less than 30 minutes.


NB: my-bulldog-hell apparently paired with bulldog to sort issues.

-- Update
He call me back on time ! He told me to check with BT if they were providing the service, I say and what if they do ? He say then you place your order ! But I can't f****** place my order if the site does not work ! yes you can. No I f****** can't. Oh yes you're right you can't. Gonna talk to my supervisor... Oh yes what we can do it's placing it for you.

Thank God !!!!

8 phone calls, 54 minutes and 9 emails letter they did get it !

Darwin’s God

Hot subject this days, God is in the new york times
on the evolutionary point of view.

How to spin the science

If you believe the press releases, you should read this entry from Pielke Jr., R. at Prometheus where he points out to one that misrepresents the study. The PR says that the study show link between GW and hurricanes except that it does not.

View from my windows

No Comment

It's moving, man !

Last sunday - the 25th for the record -, I moved with girlfriend to a gorgeous new flat in Herne Hill.

Moving in France cost a fortune from what I remember it's not less than 1000 Euro. But here in London the market is different.

Hiring 2 men and a van for the move cost 70 quid for 2 hours. And that was it. The van was quite big, and almost full, we add to stop at 2 places, only 70 quid ! Not worth the trouble of doing that by yourself.

Merci ibuprofen

Cette non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug est tres utile pour lutter contre le hang over ! Ca t'apprendra a vouloir tester toutes les bierres du comptoir me dit mon hemisphere central ... Bon enfin c'etait la republique des blogs, je n'ai rien fait d'humiliant ce qui m'evitera de finir sur youtube. Et la proprietaire du pub avec qui j'ai discute apres est tres sympa.

Merci a ceux qui sont venus !

Oyster Glitch

The oyster is a fantastic way of paying for the london transports. It adapts the fare on one day to what is cheapest for you. You can have weekly, monthly, quaterly ... cards for any zone and then ponctually extends your subscription to another zone. It's great and most of the time it works fine.

But this morning... It did not really.

Nowaday you can't use the oyster pre-pay on all the transport system. It's accepted on all the tube/dlr and the buses but only on some overground station - and to be useful you need both end and start point to accept it -. But the train companies are eventually moving to a full oyster pre-pay support, to do that they've got to put oyster born to go through. At Blackfriars there is some but you don't have to touch in to go through, as you would imagine, nobody touch their oyster. That's fine for a weekly card, but not for prepaid. So they decide to first do some random control, and this morning they put one small girl in charge of dealing with the crowd of potential commuters-criminals.

I bought a quaterly card, it's valid until May, so like somebody who is proud of not being part of the no-paying scum I present my oyster at the mouth of the magnetic reader. Ready to continue my journey (10 minutes walk), this Oyster Frauding Patrol Control girl stop, and start to speak to me. She told me that I did not touch in at the start ? Why should I care I've got a quaterly card ? But that's not what the buggos reader told her ... After being quite convincing, or maybe she was afraid of me, she let me go. She was quite cluless though, and did not know how to deal with that. They don't have a backup reader, and she anyway don't understand how it works. She probably had a 5 minutes training, from which she just remember the butt of the instructor... anyway ... I want downstair to the assitant point.

A friendly guy checkout my card and say that everything was fine, I've got my subscription. He gave me a receipt with a lot of info. And what you can see on the receipt is that also I've got a valid zone 1-2 card, the stupid system decide to mark a pre-pay entry ! So I went up flash that at the Frauding Is a Crime Unit, Which did not what to do or to say except Oh.. That's not what magnetic god tell me ...

I touch out - still got to check they're not gonna take money out of my card for that - and went.

So if you are on the card, or pre-pay be careful and check regulary that you are not billed for what should not be.

NB: I do understand as a IT guy that complex system got bug, also I don't understand how the you've got a subscription then do nothing code can be bogus (synchronization, multiple process, dirty data ...)
NB: I do also appreciate how good the Oyster is, in Paris you don't have this flexibility, at least 2 years ago.

PS: the fact of making you pay a maximum fee if you forget to touch, is it not a bit against the innocent until proven guilty principle ?

République des blogs ) 3 ( Londres

Mardi 20 mars, demain donc aura lieu la 3eme Republique des blogs a Londres. Francophone vivant ou de passage a Londres, tu souhaites rencontrer les blogueurs expatries, viens nous rejoindres demain soir dans un pub du cote de Victoria a partir de 19h pour parler et/ou boire un verre.

Malheureusement Francois, d'Un Swissroll, ne pourras pas etre la ce mardi, mais viendez nombreux, quand meme !!

J'offres une pinte de Guinness au premier qui me dit qu'il est venu grace a mon blog :)

Let's play a wii game

I collected my wii on saturday morning. On Saturday evening I was able to feel the first syptoms of excessive playing. If I was not fit - Shut up you know who :) - I probably would not be able to move and would have to crawl to work !

I had 4 extra games with the Bundle so let's do a quick rating of them :

* Rayman Raving Rabbids : Brillant, the dancing games is great fun. And the4 physical games are really physical ... I can still feel it in my arm ...

* Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz : did not play much. looks a bit .. boring. Looks like a waste of money.

* The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess : good, but now I'm blocked try to do a stab in front of children ...

* WarioWare, Smooth Moves : Weird ... Did not get it ...

The Wii is good, wii sport and ray man are great party fun. Zelda is a good single player.

Nice precision

Man dies after new gun killing. Nice to know he was dead, friend of mine survived after being killed.

Bloc Party at the Brixton Academy

The 19th and 20th of April. tickets available here.

Got mine.

Lovely South London

3 killed by murder in south London.

Useless Opening Post Office Time

Brixton Main Post Office 250 Ferndale Rd, SW9
Open: Mon - Fri 9am - 5.30pm, Sat 9am - 12pm
phone 0845 722 3344

Why ?
Are the main client of the Post Office unemployed ?
Or is it the lack of competition ?
Is this lack of competition the result of some regulation ?

The new year has started

With a bloody 25% increase of the bus ticket bought with an oyster card. It was 80p it's now a round 1 quid. How can they possibly explain that ? I don't have any f***ing idea. Anyway go on a monthly card from tomorrow. That's probably to pay the study of a useless tramway in the south, the victoria line is probably not enough, and Ken probably does not like the trains company. Why the tramway why not more buses or better a more F***ING reliable tube !