Friday, June 19

Arranigng a meeting Old Skool

I gave Geek the heads up about my travel itinerary, which is to land at London City Airport (LCY) on Thursday the 215th at at aproximately 18:15then make my way, somehow, to the Old Street Underground station to meet up with Phèdre there at around 19:00
Since this trip supposedly takes 37 minutes this gives me plenty of time to get lost at either the airport or the Underground and find it again.

Geek then expressed his hopes that Phè dan myself have exchanged phone numbers or intend to prior to the meeting as Old Street Station has a warren-like number of exits.
Well, we did. However, me being a rabid anti cellphone maniac only recently felt obligated to acquire one. Because of the situation with my mom. So I have a pre-paid thing of which I'm unshure if it works.
Now one of the reasons why I hate those little buggers (besides their inexplicable tendency to run out of batteries at the worst possible times) is that it stiffles human ingenuity and makes us even more lazy than we are by nature.
I.e. people used to be perfectly capable of meeting up without the use of these newfangled technologies.

We did it using Google Maps street view!

Ok, so we used to do it by making prior agreements as to where exactly to meet.
Like "at the North-Eastern Exit", or "under the meeting point sign", which may be a Dutch railway station compulsive disorder excentricity. Anyway, looking around Old Street I noticed this lovely triangular piece of clear, out of the traffic flow, pavement which is ideal for meeting up.
Provided that Phè thinks this is a good idea of course. Maybe she's in favor of meeting somewhere she can park her car without the Bobbies pouncing all over instead. ut for a pedestrian meeting spot this looks ideal. There's even a candy machine just out of sight to the left/North for if anyone is early and fancies a snack :-)


See? With some ingenuity and Google Maps you can find Lo-Tek means of meeting up without needing to resort to cellphones. Next week we will demonstrate that I'm a bleeding idiot by totally failing to meet up this way and find each other at the appointed restaurant half an hour later instead. As it's only 0.3 miles away. :-)

Cekkphones are teH Evil!


4 comments:

  1. That corner is the perfect corner to meet, it puts you at the right exit on the right side of the road (funnily enough called Old Street). I have lost count of how many times I have passed that exit and have never noticed a candy machine....don't hold your breath it will be working.

    I'm with you 100% on your hatred for mobile phones, my reasoning is slightly different and more to do with the degredation of something called manners, god forbid anybody meets me for a drink and proceeds to engage in conversations on their mobile, I will get up and walk away. Of course working in the service industry my hatred of them gets more intense, customers who order while talking on their mobile are my public enemy number one, I even banned them at the counter of the last unit I managed, thats another blog entry all unto itself :) Work had to buy me a mobile because I refuse to pour credit on the one I do have which is handy for web clients getting hold of me, all my friends know it's pointless texting me or expecting any kind of returned call from the damn thing. They are Teh Evil indeed!

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  2. Oh God I absolutely hate it how some people think a mobile phone ringing takes priority over anything else and will simply interrupt a conversation with you to take the call. Now if it is very urgent or something like can happen in a job situation, I can accept it. But half the time they'll just stop talking to you and pick up without a glance at caller ID.

    I had a coworker manning the phones for a short time who actually put a customer on hold to answer his private phone. Luckily it was during her first day with me providing supervision and tutelage so I got to decide it was her last.
    That was a fun call to my boss as she'd been hired by the same subco company that detaches me to the place I work.

    Upon closer inspection the candy machine is on the triangle a bit further north and is actually a phonebooth. I thought those were supposed to be wooden and blue with a flashlight on top? Not purple candy coloured!
    But it will give Phè a clue as to where to look when I do my "Help I'm lost!" call. :-)

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  3. Looks like with MMOFPS, we have a concensus on how annoying cellphones are as well. It is a good thing I am not working behind a counter. I would simply refuse to the phone talking idiot. Nothing is that important that it can't wait. I got my first cellphone three year back for vacation in Germany. Half the time I don't even carry it with me, of carry it with the battery dead.

    That corner looks like a perfect spot. I'll be there at seven-ish. Crossing London by car at 6pm on a working day is not the best of ideas. I'll be tubing too, I think.

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  4. Well, I may have to revise my opinion on MMOFPS soon. Maybe.
    Anyway, driving through London around 18:00 PM was why I didn't insist on being met at the airport :-)
    Tubing sounds like a better idea. It's still a quiant concept for me though, effective public ttransportation. We don't have that. We do ride bikes a lot.

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