Matts Meanderings

While Paul & Lyds were over here a few months back, we headed off to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, to see Othello.

I'd seen the "Shakespeare Code" episode of Doctor Who, and thought that it was about time to get along there and check it out, seeing its a pretty damn amazing venue.

Was well worth going, and seeing theatre as they did in the days of old. Though, was definitely a good idea to hire some seat cushions, and probably would have been a good idea to hire the seat backs as well - hard work sitting for 3 hours on hard wooden benches... Though it would've been much worse for those standing.

Othello itself was hard work keeping up (seeing I didn't even know the storyline), but was done quite well.

All in all, was good - though it was very strange to be sitting in a place like that and looking out the roof (only the bays are covered) and seeing planes fly overhead...

Okay, this is slightly nerdy, but hey, I thought it was interesting... Notes on the Resolution and Other Details of the Human Eye.

Apparently its equivalent to a 576 megapixel camera... Cool.

Seems that my My MDA Vario was a bit of a casualty of Glastonbury... The touch screen no longer works, and seeing it relies on the touch screen for a lot of things, its not as useful as it could be. It works most of the time, but a few things you cant do with the keyboard - makes it a tad annoying.

Unfortunately, I'm still in a contract (until August), so I cant get a new one, and the new phone I want (the HTC Kaiser - way cool!) isn't out just yet, it seems I'm in a bit of a pickle. Though, luckily, it turns out my phone is still under warranty, so all I have to do is take it back to the shop, and they'll fix it for me. Just have to live without it for a week or so - hope I don't get the shakes again being out of email contact! (Yes... I'm serious.)

I just rang up NatWest to complain about a over limit charge they wacked on my account, and they really didn't care.

I saw that I was going to go over my overdraft a few months back, and made the effort to cancel a standing order that was going to take me over the limit. But then, even though it was canceled, it still got taken out of my account. Had a whinge to them about it, and frankly, they didn't care. I made the effort to try and stay within the limit, but they claim that its reasonable to require 3 days notice to cancel a standing order.

THREE DAYS? What planet are they on? I could've sworn that it would be possible to cancel it 3 minutes before it was due to go out - all they have to do is stop the money going out of my account. Woulda thought that was easy.

Well, gonna write them a formal letter of complaint (I want my 35 quid back thank you very much!), and most likely, switch banks.

And damnit, I like writing posts about this - the last post i wrote about NatWest has had 449 hits so far - one of the most popular posts of written (okay, this isn't a very popular blog, but still...). How much damage are they doing to themselves with this?

Finally made it back from Glastonbury, covered in mud, smelling like... well, don't ask - it wasn't pretty.

Had a pretty good time there, though the mud was a bit crazy. Took a gazillion photos (surprise, surprise), so thought I might share a few for your enlightenment...

Definitely some interesting things happening there, like a milk bottle elephant, cows, artistic 'disagreements', chained mythical creatures...

Random mud sculptures (before the real mud hit), strange sculptures, random people in trees, and bizarre venues...

The odd 'interesting character, cool fire twirling, strange alien invasions, and the odd 'happy' person

We did have rain and mud, but also some real nice weather, and of course, with that much mud about, who could resist mud wrestling???

But, there was also quite a few cool bands, including The Killers, The Who, Manic Street Preachers, Kaiser Chiefs and about 200 others...

But definitely had a good time, with a good (if slightly batty crowd)... (ignore the face I'm pulling - it don't look good!)

Also managed to see some interesting child management techniques...

And finally, the view as we left - what a mess - was a bit of a shame really...

Anyway, all of these, and quite a few others will be uploaded shortly... Check em out if you're interested...

Go check out Photosynth that Microsoft Live Labs has put together... Very cool.