Last blog post for 2005

First of, yesterday was Winter Solstice (blog was posted 22 Dec despite the draft being written on 19 Dec), which was the shortest day of the year. Beginning today day time will begin to get longer.

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Well last Sunday I was having lunch at Nando's, Brighton with Jennifer. And some fucker nicked my black jacket (which contains some personal belongings of great value) from my seat. It was obviously a professional who did it as it was quick and I did not realise anything missing until I stood up to get a refill. I was fuming with rage on Nando's staffs who were apparently reluctant to do anything about anything. Manager? He is downstairs. Call him up! He is busy. On top of that they were casting doubt on whether I had a jacket in the first place. Are you sure you had a jacket? Did you bring it to the washroom? Etc. etc. etc.

Well hello, of course I had a fucking jacket...it's like so warm outside yesterday at the temperature of 0'C! A pathetic attempt to disown any responsibility was made by a waiter who pointed to a warning sign 'Do not let your personal belongings become take-away', which was hardly a disclaimer that meant 'We are not responsible for anything stolen'. So shut up about not owning up to the responsibility of protecting your clients of professional criminals. We pay your fucking wages you idiots. Nando's should hire lawyers who can produce proper disclaimers if they wish to fuck over their customers. A request to see the CCTV footages was also denied although I understand that the low staffs are not allowed access.

I spoke with a colleague of Jennifer on Monday, Kath, who was also a victim when her handbag was stolen on Friday at a pub. Apparently there is a professional gang making headway around Brighton this past few weeks (with three other bags stolen at the same pub that very evening) and they are quite successful in clearing up people's personal belongings. Nine flats near her place had their doors kicked in on the same day!

Anyway within the hour I had the incident reported to the friendly police of Sussex Police. Yes they (the police) were a many times more helpful than the staffs at Nando's. Anybody who purchased the stolen articles knowing or believing that the articles may be stolen (too good to be true, no packaging, etc.) will be committing an offence (Theft Act 1968) punishable by term up to 14 years imprisonment. Even then, purchasing stolen items without knowledge that it was stolen would still mean that those items are still my property (Sale of Goods Act 1979, amended by Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994).

I am pretty calm after what happened. Even then any anger that I possess seems to be directed mainly at Nando's Brighton. I realised what happened to me is nothing compared to the misery of others (Aceh, Iraq, New Orleans). The police have their hands tied doing more serious investigations that are more life threatening than this. I also realised that there is next to nothing I can do to get my stolen articles back but who knows what the future will bring. Weird things happens in this world and the next thing you could find yourself claiming legal ownership of a stolen product at a car boot sale. This is why knowing your legal rights can be helpful should such a situation ever arise.

Related post: Starbucks: 15 seconds of fame

update: item stolen is a Dell Axim x50v with Windows Mobile 2003 SE, service tag: DC8XN61 along with a 2GB Kingston Compact Flash flash card and a 512MB Sandisk Ultra-II Secure Digital flash card.
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Last night we went to Odean to catch King Kong. I am not really in a mood to write up a review of it but it is okay. I can see where Peter Jackson is going but it all felt too long. My arse was fucking aching!

Unnecessary comic characters were also included. Effects were merely okay, with the dinosaurs looking more like the gawd awful US remake of Godzilla than Walking with Dinosaurs. You don't feel pity for Kong in the end like you do in the original. It is nice seeing the old New York in digital pixels but somehow it all still felt Star War'ish. Watching it, the film felt as though it was rushed ahead to meet its Christmas deadline.

My advise: wait for the Special Edition HD version instead, where hopefully Weta could run through a couple more effect passes.

6/10

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Animal Crossing: Wild World for DS rocks. It is worth paying for a DS and importing AC:WW from the US just to be able to play that game.

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Also, as this should be my last blog post for 2005, I probably won't blog for the next two weeks. So...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

&

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I will be back in London for New Year's Eve. If anybody wants to meet-up for a drink text, e-mail me or leave a comment down here.