katie writes stuff

Today I learnt how to drive a steam train!



Well, I started to, anyway. I'll be volunteering at least one Sunday each month during the summer months, and should be fully trained and allowed to drive solo after about 18 months. I'm VERY excited :)

Foursquare is my latest fun timewaster: it's a game which purports to be about finding new ways to explore your city but is really just a pointless exercise in wasting your iPhone battery checking into the places you visit and collecting badges for things like going to three places with photobooths or spending a lot of time at the gym. If you check into a place more than anybody else, you become the mayor and get a little crown next to your name when you visit.

On the web interface, you can add tags to different places which help you get badges, and to "let people know what they can expect to find". Some choice tags from the page for London Bridge train station: delays, despair, insanity, pain, stare into the abyss and suffering.

You can also add "things to do" at various places; a few of the more hilarious ones include:

• "Resist the urge to madly punch other passengers during the morning commute."
• "Abandon hope all ye who enter here."
• During peak hours, wear a pair of Heelys or a jet pack to enhance & hasten your commute.

Whoever said Londoners don't have a sense of humour? :-)

I went to Brussels for the weekend! Technically, I was at FOSDEM, but I made it a weekend of seeing a new place, drinking the local beer and eating tasty food.

The most hilarious moment of the weekend was probably the Italian Marco attempting to communicate with the French-speaking Belgian waiters to establish the available food in a menuless restaurant.

On the final morning, we were treated to a demonstration of the Belgian emergency services, when an ambulance showed up outside the florist opposite. There was a lot of running around, until after fifteen minutes, the street emptied. Ten minutes passed, and then one of the paramedics reappeared and sat down on the kerb outside the florist to light up a cigarette, to which robot101.net said, "Even for a Belgian, that's a pretty "fuck it" response."

In short, we slept a lot, drank a bit less and ate many waffles and much chocolate (when in Belgium...). I tried gnocchi for the first time, and fell in love with it, and at some point, I managed to bruise my armpit? All in all, a good weekend.