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Waterloo for breakfast; Paris for lunch; London for last orders

When they aren’t compromising my personal information, Virgin are actually providing our flat with a nice fast broadband connection. Which is great. I suppose it would be rude, then, not to update you on what I’ve been up to recently.

On Saturday, I went on a day trip to Paris with work, which was great. On arrival, we headed over to the Seine for a lunch cruise, during which “a singer and a pianist intervene[d] from time to time to tell original anecdotes about Paris”… and sing in a cheesy club singer-stylee (his rendition of “New Yorr, New Yorr” as we rounded the replica of the Statue of Liberty near the Eiffel Tower was a particularly surreal experience). After lunch, I headed for the impressive confines of the Musee d’Orsay, which has an extensive collection of impressionist art, albeit slightly overshadowed by the exhibition space itself, so much so that you find yourself emerging from a room of Van Goghs, say, and realising you weren’t paying any attention to the paintings, just marvelling at the building. But maybe that’s just me being a bit pissed after drinking lots of free wine on the river at lunch.

After a bit of shopping and a quick trip up to the Sacre Coeur, it was time to head home again. Fantastically, in time to catch last orders at The Porterhouse with Sal and the Australian contingent.

Sunday drinking

On Sunday afternoon, Jim, Rob and Claire joined us for a few gentle drinks on Upper Street, choosing at random to enjoy them at The Parr’s Head, the oddest pub in Islington. Only joking: the interesting selection of couples (she younger, he older and uglier) in the bar led Sally to believe that something untoward might be going on (not helped, admittedly, by the wideboy who kept asking us if we were ok–if we needed any drinks, he said, either we could get them ourselves or he would get “one of the girls” to get one for us.

My Restaurant Rules

Apart from that, this week, I have mostly been addicted to overseas reality television, sent to us on video (long-play E240!) courtesy of Sal’s mum, if only because Sal was once sick in Tayissa’s house. Well, we’re either watching that or American Idol 3 (but then neither of us has ever thrown up in any of the Pop Idol contestants’ houses).

I give My Restaurant Rules three couples representing their state out of five couples representing their state.

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Fun with databases

Hey, does anyone want to come and see Test Event with me? I’ve heard they’re really good. (I personally love the fact that they felt the need to add the warning “Do Not Purchase” on at least one of these).

[On an unrelated note, there seem to be plenty of tickets for this. Can’t imagine why.]

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Surrounded by fools (2): Virgin.net are giving out my bank details if anyone’s interested

Like most people who shop on the Internet, I would never buy anything from a website without a secure (SSL) connection. The Internet being an inherently insecure means of communication and all, it seems only prudent to encrypt personal information like your bank or credit card details when sending them out into the network. There’s lots of nasty people out there, and they’ll happily take your information if you’re dumb enough to offer it up to them.

It is with some concern that I discovered this week that after signing up for an account with Virgin.net so that they provide broadband to my flat, they think nothing of “reconfirming my bank details” for my direct debit by email. Email! That’s plain text email, with no PGP encryption or anything, just an unencrypted message that anyone who cares to sniff can have a good long look at. With my bank details in it!

I have already complained to them, but they have so far been unhelpful. It is standard procedure, apparently: “When setting up an online Auddis Direct Debit, it is standard procedure to confirm the details via e-mail.”

Well I don’t care: it shouldn’t be! I feel sufficiently annoyed about this that I want to take it further, but I don’t know how: anyone out there have any idea who I should be complaining to?