November 25

Lost internet access at home means a trip to an internet café to upload all the entries from last week. We go to Apostrophe on Regent Street to combine the task with a shopping trip (even busier than last Saturday but at least more productive). The café sounds charming (‘delivering the sights and sounds and smells of the traditional Boulangerie Patisserie’) but in reality feels clinical and I wonder why anyone would go there except for the free (with purchase) internet access. This is a point I make to the manager when I complain that the system doesn’t seem to be working (I think the phrase ‘I didn’t come here for the coffee’ was used). They put this down to two dodgy students who have been there for about four hours and must be downloading about 6 films each simultaneously meaning no bandwidth left over for anyone else. They are asked to leave which they interpret as moving to another table. My dagger stares are equally ineffective in getting them to budge, so when a repeated telling off from management eventually gets them out I am finally in action. Modern technology means that theoretically I can take a photo on a digital camera and instantly (rather than say, the following Wednesday at work) upload it onto a website available for the entire world to see in a matter of seconds… and I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids.