Flahed out

Been “listening” in on #linux to a conversation between elrond and Stewie. Apparently purchases from CD-Wow (or other vendors) under the value of €25 do not attract duty from the customs & excise people. That’s an interesting loophole. I tend to buy no more than two CDs at a time anyway, and most of the time those purchases would come in under €25.

It’s amazing what you learn on an IRC channel for Linux heads.

N.B. This information is hearsay. I have not verified it, so I will not be held responsible for customs & excise duty on your imported goods if it turns out to be incorrect

Fresh from Donncha’s blog comes the news that the website from which I buy most of my music – CD-Wow is being sued by IRMA, the “Irish Recorded Music Association”, for illegally importing music CDs “without the copyright holders consent”. For those of you who don’t know, CD-Wow sells music CDs at a fraction of the price we pay in our high-street retail music stores.

In a vicious attempt to screw the Irish consumer, IRMA want to ensure that we have no other avenue than our massively over-priced music stores from which to purchase our music. Well, fuck ‘em. The Irish consumer is under attack from all avenues as our country becomes ever more expensive to live – to survive – in. I’ve written some emails to my local TDs complaining about it, hopefully it’ll help to raise awareness, though I’m not optimistic.

Next step is to get someone to call some of the Irish radio shows about this. Would that I could but I’m not staying on hold for half-an-hour from Kenya!

Was in my local pub out here on Tuesday night, which has a – much nicer, quieter – private members bar. Me being sort of person who doesn’t like standing in a tightly packed crowd of drunk people in the bar at the weekends, I sought out the manager and asked about membership. Apparently, because I spend so much money in the place (I’m in there most nights) and I’ve never been involved in any trouble, I qualify for membership free

So, I have to go back this evening to sort that out and have a free drink or two. Nothing like a little bit of elitism The big advantage is that I can bring along guests, so the lads can all come up.

Well, the decorations have started to go up in shopping centers here finally. I still think it’s too bloody early, but at least they’re not up in late October like at home. I’ve discovered one advantage to being away though: Louise has all the Christmas shopping done, so I don’t have to worry about that

Had a look at Daragh’s blog this morning and found this. Apparently, the UK number one track on the day I was born was “If” by Telly Savalas. Kojak. Bloody KOJAK?! Bollocks. The US one wasn’t much better. That’s what I get for being born in the mid-seventies.

Apparently my new printer/scanner/photocopier/fax machine arrived at my parents’ house on Friday, which means I’m going to be really pissed off about not being home to play with it for the next three-and-a-bit weeks. It’s a Hewlett Packard MFD, an Officejet 4110. Hours of fun. Knowing me, I’ll run up a large phone bill sending people faxes until the novelty value wears off.

Spent the weekend out here sunning myself, God the weather is great Well… there has to be at least one advantage to spending so long away from home, right?

I was rereading this earlier this morning, and it occurred to me that our local councillors are playing a dangerous game deliberately shafting first time buyers so close to the next local elections. I’m thinking that obtaining a list of councillors who support these ridiculous measures to swell the coffers and publishing it prior to the local elections would be an excellent idea. As county and city council meeting minutes are public record this shouldn’t be too difficult, if there were people in each local authority area willing to take responsibility for gathering this info.

Sometimes I really wish I didn’t have to travel so much for work

Just had lunch with the boss, and confirmed that I am indeed staying here (Nairobi) until the 19th of December. So… I’m definitely going to miss Louise’ birthday. Bugger. The extra cash will be handy though.

And before anyone asks, my duty free allowance is already used

Yep, for those of you who were having doubts, I am still alive. Just about. And still in Kenya. My return date has been put back to at least the 12th of December though I’m thinking this is only the start of it and I may not be leaving before the 19th. As long as I get back before Christmas, I don’t really care, and it’ll mean spending more time living on expenses, saving my own cash for important things like paying the bills… and there are many!

I’m discovering how hard it is to find anything interesting to put into a ‘blog when you’re onsite for a couple of months. Days run into each other and pretty much the same things happen. And if I put the really interesting stuff up here, I’d probably lose my job, or at least get sued by the client anyway.

Well, I’ll update again when I have any news or anything interesting to add.