FFS Doctor Beeching!

And so we continue the tale of woe of trying to buy my train tickets for Transpocalypse.

Last time on The 12 Tasks of Pandora I was told Central Trains were fannying about switching from return fares to singles only. The incredibly helpful girl at Norwich station gave me a timetable with *new single fares* scribbled on, and the advice to leave it for a couple of weeks. So I did.

I was about to ring the ticket sales line when I noticed the warning “Please note this telephone service is for ticket sales only. If you wish to enquire about times or prices please call National Rail Enquiries on…”

After a bit of negotiation, where it is clear I have access to better information than the National Rail Enquiries helpdesk, I am told that Central are still selling return tickets. Thanks. Bloody helpful you’ve been!

So I call the sales line after all. And it’s an automated voice recognition system. First off I’m invited to take part in a customer service survey. With hindsight I wish I’d said yes. I then go through all the palaver of calling out the trains, times and stations I want in a clear voice. And then I get “Please wait while I transfer you to our partner service” and I’m on the line to a young girl, who asks for all the details again as their system isn’t playing. After a brief mix up (because anybody could confuse LIVERPOOL with CHESTERFIELD) I am offered an advance saver for over £100.

“No thanks,” I say. “I want a Value 7.”
“Not available,” is the reply.
“Why?” I ask.
“Sold out,” says she.
“Already? For the end of January 2007?”
“Or not available…”
“And how do I find out?”
“I’ll check.”
Five minutes later.
“They’re not available yet. Try again in a week or two.”

Stunning!

So I’m still without travel yet and it’s getting closer.

Old pic time

Since you all got denied my Halloween pic I thought I'd upload anoher pic of me making more of an effort. Behold a pic from March when I went to Wendyhouse in Leeds for a night of gothing-it-up:

For those plus-size trannies wondering, the dress is Sessocaldo Black from Lady B Wear

Owwwwww!

Last Saturday I woke up wth a tremendous ache in my lower back. Its put me in a load of pain for the last week. Moving from a sharp pain when I moved, to a dull ache all the time with a jab if I catch it wrong. And it makes all my muscles around the area tense up leading to pressure on bits that really need to hang free if you get my drift.

It might be liked to my back pain in summer when I strained muscles and had a blackout, but the smart money is on a trapped sciatic nerve. Especially as the pain has moved to my hips, and my right leg feels like it has a cold metal wire just under the skin.

Either way, I'm off to the doc's tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get a diagnosis, and maybe something better than Deep Heat.

Fingers crossed

Singles Life

Back in the day there used to be three bus companies in this town. The Blue Buses were subsidised by the council and were fairly clean and fairly efficient. Eastern Counties were private run, served the outlying villages, but I always tought hey were a bit seedy, and then there was the mavericks of The Flying Banana. Shoddy, but incredibly cheap, and again they also served the sticks. And you could play bingo on them when they first started operating (yes really).

When Eastern Counties drove the Blue Buses out, and bought out the Flying Banana, they pretty much had the monoply so could dictate how local bussing was run, so when they recently announced they were stopping return tickets and only selling singles "for our customers convenience" no one batted an eyelid. It didnt even make the local press.

So I was incredibly shocked to find Central Trains doing the same, and then the girl at the train station said "everyone's doing it".

Do they really have that much contempt for the traveller, or is there really no competition to keep them in check. Or, conspiracy theory time, is it part of some grand Illuminati scheme to destroy public transport?

As a result I have to wait till Central sorts out their ticket structure before I can book my tickets to Transpocalypse.

Bugger!

ASCII Memorial Park

I would like to take a moment and introduce the newest addition to the City of Nidus - ASCII Memorial Park. Located just west of our ground zero, ASCII Park is a fairly normal park like you would see elsewhere, except that the games at the park all work :)

There are currently four multi-player games available (board games) and are not the normal Chess or Checkers like you are used to. Hosted by Atari, the games are Monopoly, Scrabble, Sorry and Battleship. A slight departure from the normal, but then again that's what we do in VR5.

The games will probably need you to create a login (but it's totally free) after which you can play the boardgames against other people online.

The other addition is our recent award from the Flight Festival 2006, given to us by OneSummer for our effort to serve the community during International Community Week. There were probably a number of worlds that received this award, but we are still grateful for it none the less. The award is proudly on display in ASCII Park for all to see.

Why the name ASCII Memorial? Well, I was thinking of the old school chat rooms and the BBS systems that came before all this graphical eye candy and decided to name a memorial park after the efforts. Hopefully we'll receive a Cy Award in 2007 so we can display it at the park as well... provided we don't get beaten out by another Easter Egg Hunt at the last minute. ;)

Again, as always, everything at the park works. You can sit on the benches, the chairs, play the games, etc... because well... we're in the habit of making things work and not just for looks. There will most likely be some additions or some tweaks to the design of the park as time progresses, but for now we're happy with the current design.

Looking To The Future of AW - With Zen In Mind - Darian Knight

The Weather Forcast....

In other news, it seems an unusually cold front has moved into the City of Nidus, causing some light snow showers around ground zero. This coupled with some ice in some areas may make for hazardous travel conditions, citizens please be advised.

Some holiday decorations have been hung, with expectation of more decorations in the coming month.

Halloween Redux

I've removed the entry and pic of my Halloween outfit. Partly because I was unhappy with the pic, but also because it doesn't belong here.

This is Pandora's hideaway. Its a blog about her, not the guy that is sometimes her.

This Halloween I was in drag, but I was not presenting as female, and was not being Pandora.

The people I was with do not know about her, and to go full out would have given out the wrong signals.

By making a decent effort, but not going too far (ie using a joke-shop wig rather than my own hair) everyone got to have a good night but continue to live in their favorite Egyptian river.

If you know me well enough to have my email, feel free to request pics by mail, but I'm only going to post pictures of me presenting on this blog from now on.