Vacation at last! (Part 2)

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Saturday (cont.) After an uneventful trip we arrived at Posidi. Now our way of admittance was by a way of sneak entry through a hole in the back fence. You see, Posidi is only for Students of a specific university and each student may bring in one non-student as a guest. Since we didn’t have any students amongst us, this was the only way in.
It wasn’t at all difficult to get in, however we learned after a while that things have started tightening up a bit. Camping security was touring the perimeter searching rogue campers and throwing them out. I wasn’t very worried at the time since we weren’t planning to stay long anyway.
Our original plan was to stay until Sunday night and then get out the same way we got in and head back…well that plan obviously went down the drain, and pretty soon as well.
During the trip, one of the guys we were going with announced that he was going to stay there for at least a week. Upon hearing that of course I wanted to stay too but I had only packed enough things for two days and so I was a bit worried. I also had very few money, just 50 euro, with me and I didn’t know if I could make it.

We found a spot near the guys’ friends and set up our tents there, got dressed and went to the beach to meet them.
It was a shock, everywhere I looked, young, nible female bodies were swimming, playing, talking or just lying down. I has to force myself to close my jaw. Literaly boobs and asses everywhere.
In any case we met some of the friends of the guys and specifically Ourania, a girl I came to like from the first time (Too bad she was so very fat), and then had a swim. Of course I didn’t have sunblock with me and the 6 protection of Kostas (the other guy I came with, hereon known as Tall) wasn’t very comforting.

After the bath we got to our tents beside which a few people had gathered, some I had seen their faces and one I knew as Ksi (or Xi). I took a normal bath and changed into more normal clothes, black trousers and a black sleeveless shirt which I left open because of the heat. And then the first interesting thing happened, one of the girls, which I later found out was Ksi’s sister, started looking at me…a lot. I was kind of invigorating. Unfortunately they left the same day and she also lives in Athens so there wasn’t much chance anyway.

Now there was a Reggae/Jazz/Whatever concert at the local cantina, which was run by the Teenage Communist Party (KNE) and we decided to hang out there originally before heading for the beach bar. We sat there making fun of the band (it really wasn’t very good) and drinking beers when the first surprise struck. A girl, Lena, which I had met while I was still with my ex, and which had taken an interest in me back then showed up again. She just walked up to me while I was sitting in my chair and asked me if I was going to the X club.
Now believe you me, I was overjoyed. I had been searching for this girl for quite a while after breaking up and I just could not locate her. She also seemed very glad to see me and we got to talking.
We talked so much that the show ended and my buddies left for the beach bar. I told her all about my ex and my adventures after that and she told me about her current bf and what’s she’s going through (not much). There was also much holding of hands and hugging which imho is good. In the end we decided to meet up again at the beach bar.

The beach bar was packed. Packed in the equivalent of New York Guidos. After I met with my friends i sat amused watching a steroid pumped guy dancing (or trying to dance) with a group of girls. The only thing that guy did was clap his hands. I mean, all the friggin time. He would stop for maybe one minute and then start clapping rhythmicaly again clap,clap,clap it was getting ridiculous and I think the girls were getting tired of it as well.

Lena showed up but she disappeared again and I was left literally hanging dry. The other guys retreated to sleep at about 2am and I was left alone. Luckily Ourania and her friends stayed as well so I at least had an anchor. But even with that I was extremely bored. The music (Greek light country music) is the worst kind for me and when it did play foreign music was for a little while and only the most idiotic beats around. I’m telling you, the DJ should be shot in the street.
Fortunately there was some eye candy around (Specifically a couple of girls from the ANT-1 radio dancing around semi naked) and so I had something to occupy me. Nevertheless I grew bored, took a walk on the beach and was about to leave when I found Lena again.
Unfortunately she seemed to want to pass more time with her friends than me, I didn’t mind much but I was bored. Thus I drank a glass of expensive cocktail, hanged around a bit and went to bed.

Anyway, more later. I’m bored right now.

Vacation at last! (Part 1)

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Finally I had a chance to go to vacation and it’s really a pretty interesting story on how it occured. (Bear with me because it’s a long story)

Friday started out pretty lame. I didn’t have anything better to do all day and I decided to go out by myself and hoped to bump into someone I knew. After a phone call I found out a friend of mine was working at a cafe and I decided to pay her a visit. Pretty tame stuff, we chatted a bit and then grew bored together (it was the first day on the job for her as well).
In the end I decided to take off and go home and while on the road I decide to phone a friend to see where he is and like me he is walking alone somewhere in the area, so we decide to hang out together at Navarinou square. While there, idly drinking beers another guy that I knew shows up and sis with us. He has something cooked up for the night and after an hour or so we, an some friends of his head for the warf where the bar-ships dock. We sit at the Statue of Alexander the great chatting and drinking beers, nothing serious.
Time passes, my friend takes off and after a little while they decide to go to the X club where there is a Goth party going on. I had some reservations but I didn’t have anything better to do.

The most interesting things that happened there are a) I went to Dizzy to see who’s hanging around there and bumped into a nice guy that I had talked to once, while I was hitting on a chick. He seems a pretty nice guy and we exchanged phone numbers to hang out again. b) I saw some pretty chick get worked up because some beer was spelt on her, she deserved it methinks. c) Got turned down by another goth chick before I had a chance to say much of anything other than “Hi, may I sit here”…eh d) I went outside to get some air and I bumped into an aquitance of mine (Mazetas) that we used to play card games together, he was returning from a club obviously. the time was 5 am and our conversation went like this.

Me – Hey man how is it hanging
Mazetas – You know the usual, we were just getting home
Me (atfer some more small talk) – So, you been to vacation yet?
Mazetas – Nope, but tomorrow morning we’re leaving for Posidi camping
Me – Really? (Joking) Is there room for one more?
Mazetas – Sure
Me – You’re serious? May I come?
Mazetas – Sure, why not. We’re leaving tomorrow morning at 11

And that was it, just like that, after desperate searching for vacation all week, I find it outside the X club at 5 am in the morning. Now I see this as an extreme example of luck. WHat was the chance of me being in that party (i’m not a goth) and going outside at the exact time this guy was walking outside?
And the streak of luck does not end here of course.

Saturday I was up and ready by 10:30 am. I had my things done before I went to sleep and all I had to do before they called me was to surf the net and prepare some tasks for my pc to perform while I am away. I attend to these and I sit waiting. I also have this nagging feeling that they will forget me, or that they won’t find my number or something like that so for some reason I decide to go down and wait for them at the McDonalds accross the street. That was a dumb idea of course because it only helped to increase my stress. After 50 minutes I returned home, certain that they had forgotten me, or changed their mind. I left my bag at the door and went to sleep
…only to be woken up at 1pm by a phonecall. It was Mazetas informing me that they would be passing by in 20 minutes.

Yay! I was going on vacation!

Once I find the time, wait for part 2 where I discuss what the camping experience was like.

Meeting old friends

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So yesterday I went out at the afternoon by myself because no one I called could. After a last minute call I found out that my gaming friends had gathered at a local cafeteria to playtest Warlord. Well, seeing as I had too long to see them, I went and payed them a visit.
Unsurprisingly they have stayed the same in character and kept playing Warlord as I sat there, it didn’t occur to them to stop for a while and chat with me, seeing as they haven’t seen me in quite while. Only when another member of the group arrived did I have a chance to chat for a while, asking about their news and so on. Finally I grew bored and as the third member sat down to play, I took my leave and took a walk to find some other company.

In the road I happened upon a guy I vaguely remembered his face and he seemed to remember me, he was sitting with a girl and after some chatting we decided to go for coffee at my sister’s workplace. She wasn’t there and we went to the upper floor anyway where I bumped into an ex and her party of male friends, like a young queen bee among her slaves. In any case, we merged our two companies, seeing as the one I was with knew them as well, and we sat at an inner table. Initially the discussion was very light hearted but grew more serious as time progressed. Most interesting of all was that I got to chatting with one of the guys in my ex’s company and we stuck, very funny guy. He reminded me of myself at about 4 years ago, yearning for a woman company but very inexperienced. Oh and he was obviously hitting on my ex, but I didn’t mind. She is going to eat him and spit him out so fast you won’t even notice anyway.

After the cafeteria we were supposed to go to a boat bar but two of the party decided to bail out as soon as we left and as were nearing the boat another member decided to bail. In the end we, or rather my ex, decided we should go for a walk. I didn’t wanna of course but the other two, the one hitting on my ex and the funny cripple dude, did her favor and so we got to walking. While on the road, it occurred to me that both of them were very inexperienced when women are concerned. Here’s a little snippet the cripple dude threw:

Cripple – “Let me ask you something, would you ever, just for fun, say to a very nice female friend of yours to take a bath together?”
Me – “No, it would show that I wasn’t only interested in friendship from her”
Cr – “But what if your were really close-like, and you were only joking”
Me – “Dude, let it go, there is no joking about this. You may say you’re joking but what you’re really hoping is for a very serious yes from her and she will know it the instant you say it.”

At this point my ex decided to interject and try to show them the error of their ways but making fun of him and the other guy that leaped to defense, in the end the subject was dropped.

At some point I got tired of walking and I asked them to head back, my ex told us then that we came this far so that she could take a taxi closer to home, I teased her that she used us and for some reason, she decided to take offense at this. Well, I’m sick of taking this kind of shit so I let her get all huffed up and angry while the other dudes were trying to calm down. I was snickering on the inside at the absurdity of it all. I knew she wasn’t really pissed but rather wanted to see my reaction (or maybe everyone’s reaction) and I gave her the exact opposite of what she expected/wanted of me. Of course as expected, in the end she folded and became friendly again and we took her to take a cab.

I walked with the other guys for a while where I surmised that the guy hitting on my ex should be watched out a bit more. He seems to have a tendency for backstabbing, but that will show. He may just be bitter. We left him to take a cab as well and we continued with the funny cripple dude towards home.

After that I went to the X Club where there was a disco-night and I didn’t enjoy it very much. I was feeling a bit lonely all the time and things only brightened up near the end.

eh, a meh day…

Time to relax or get bored?

Db0

Well, my [tag]vacation[/tag] time is finally here and damn if I know what to do with it. I’ve got two full weeks and I really want to get on some kind of vacation but seeing as all my friends are either working, already on vacation or avoiding me, I think that in the end I’ll be left here to rot. The only bright thing in the future is a friend of mine that has volunteered to take me with her on vacation with another friend of hers and another friend of mine that may go to Chalkidiki and may take me with him.
Bah! Couldn’t be vaguer.

It’s my fault in the end I think, I never found friends that were doing this thing and now that I’m looking, it’s too late. I haven’t even managed to find company to go to the beach with, and lets not get on the subject of “friends” that forget you so easily after 6 years. Yes I’m bitter.

In the meantime I’ve been spending my time working on Wikipedia. It’s a noble cause and at least I feel that my time is wasted on something worthy, instead of, for example, games. Currently I’ve been working on Savatage and before that on Blind Guardian, mainly filling in albums or album information. Took me a while but I got them where I like them, now I’m thinking what to move on to next. And to think that all this was inspired by Kiwilyrics ever since I’ve started putting artist links to wikipedia on its pages.

Other than that, boring stuff, I’ve been desperately trying to find some new friends to go out with, and one I did have has gone to the army. It’s sad not to have someone to call isn’t it?

Of Lyrics and Kiwis.

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I am sick and tired of Lyrc, which is the default lyrics database for amaroK. It has a crappy layout and search capabilities, the lyrics are many times missing, duplicated or badly submitted and the user has no power other than submitting new ones, which as a feature is badly designed as well. I want to contribute but ignoring the fact it is very tiresome to do so, their forum is in spanish or something as well which means it is very hard to communicate with someone in charge.

Disgusted I started looking for an alternative, even prepared to go as far as to found my own wiki lyrics site if I didn’t find one. Luckily I did and it exceeded my expectations. Its name is Kiwilyrics which is a smart play on the word wiki.

— Interjection —
In case you aren’t very active on the WWW (although I can’t see how you’ve got here otherwise), a [tag]wiki[/tag] is a web page who’s content is submitted and edited by its user base. The most famous example of a wiki is of course Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. Here’s what it has to say about Wikis. You can find my profile there as well under Db0.
—

Back to the subject at hand then. I got so worked up with Kiwilyrics that I even created a Firefox search engine which you can find here. My goal is to make [tag]amaroK[/tag] use kiwilyrics as a lyrics database since I know they will implement wikipedia (and thus the wiki engine) in some way at version 2. Hell, I may even become a developer just to code such a feature in myself.

So to all who might be reading this, get active. Go to Kiwilyrics and submit the albums you can’t find or fix obvious errors.

I'm not well…again.

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Recent developments have dropped my self-esteem and my older friends seem to have abandoned me altogether. It becomes tiresome to find that someone that you used to hang out with very often does not even go into the trouble to call you or send you a instant message. Yeah, 6 years of friendship my ass!
Psymon and Yo!Master, if you happen read this, you SUCK! You haven’t called in ages even though I did try to contact you. Yeah, have a nice time going to the beach or playing games. I know when I’m not wanted, it would be nice to know why at least…

I’ve been working on my linux desktop for the last few days. I have been using KDE and superkaramba themes. It is still a work in progress and this is what I’ve managed ’till now I still need to get the thunderbird theme to work and find some more stuff to fill me screen with.
.

I have also been lurking on the Deviant Art for a while, checking things out. It would be nice to be able to contribute something there as well but alas my artistic abilities are limited to desktop configuration and game design. However I think my sister could benefit from it. If I could just get her to register.

I also found out about Folding @ Home. It is similar to Seti@Home but it is about helping find cures for diseases like alzheimer and cancer so I think it is a much better cause. Since I have a relative power over the company’s network where I work I have installed F@H to 125 PC and got them to work for the good of all mankind. Here’s an updating sample of my contributions so far

Speaking of my work, I have been asked to provide an Active Desktop configuration. I have already cooked something up with my limited HTML/CSS knowledge but I would welcome any hints from anyone who has invested on the subject.

Holy Typo Batman!

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Damn, I just checked some of the older entries in the journal and I was just appaled at the number of typing error's I've made. Until now I haven't been using the spellchecker because I'm a lazy slob with such a short attention span that I can't take 2 extra minutes for this thing.
Well, it's all going to change from now on! It's going to chnage I tlel yuo!

My feet hurt!

Db02 Comments

So I’m back from my Iron Maiden Tour, Eddie Rips up Athens and my feel still hurt from the sheer amount of walking we did in Athens. Did anybody listen when I told them to take an organized tour with a bus and everything? No, we had to take the damn Train and suffer so many hours of waiting and boredom. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The original plan involved us getting the train to Athens and then waiting in the station for the next train to head back, my idea was to wait at a bar or something while we were there and take an early morning train. Well OSE (Greek Railroads company) had other plans for us.
For of us, Dimitris, Lampis, Athena and me were on the same trip. We met up in front of the station and started our journey uneventfully. Now allow me to rant about the quality of seats in these damn trains…they’re impossible to sleep in! While we spent most of the trip talking, I still tried to catch an hour or so of shut-eye but it was nearly impossible. The seat is just VERY uncomfortable (It’s uncomfortable enough just sitting) and there is just too much interference from around. In any case, the six-hour journey was unproblematic and I got to know Athena who I was seeing for the second time. So far, so good.

Due to a spot of good luck the train driver makes a stop, just for us metalheads, to get off in Malakasa (where the concert is taking place) and he start marching to the concert area a simple 1km trip. Luckily it was a bit overcast and we didn’t had to suffer the sun on our heads the whole time.
We reached the concert area 3 hours before the doors open and we have the joy of sitting there doing nothing but hearing the cantinas around us advertising their ridiculously overpriced goods. I mean 4 Euro for a damn Souvlaki Sandwich? WTF is that? I didn’t give them the joy of my money of course Dimitris was pretty much starving so he had no choice, especially after they enticed him with a free souvlaki.
As the four hours were reaching the end, another good event happened. A romantic acquaintance of mine showed up and brightened my day and I think that Athena got a bit moody about that but I can’t be sure. In any case, the last hour went by pretty quickly and then the doors opened.

I got inside the concert area with said former acquaintance and cruised the are to the stage where she decided to enter the mass of people and head for the front a few hours before Maiden were scheduled to start despite my warning that it wasn’t a good place to be. Oh well…
After that Dimitris called and we met in front of the toilets (of all the places) and slowly the rest of the crew gathered as well, including four other people that arrived in a private car.

First Dragonforce came to the stage to the dismay of everyone else in the crew instead of me. I can’t say they were perfect, at least not for the Greek crowd, but I enjoyed them and I even headed for the front at one time. Let me tell you, never head for the front in a concert this big. There are at least two thousand people wanting to get to the front and they all try like mad to get to the first line. I, for some reason, can always get to the front line if I really want to and I proved that to myself by getting to the front on W.A.S.P. and Queensryche/Nightwish at last year’s Rockwave. In any case I got till the third line where the sheer amount of pressure around me was enough to suffocate a smaller person and that’s when I thought of my friend. I threw a desperate search for her but it was just impossible to find her. I sent her a message where to find me and returned back to my cluster of friends only to hear them groan about how long Dragonforce had to play.
I don’t understand why so few people like power metal around here. Almost everyone I meet likes all kinds of metal except power for some strange reason. They either find it too happy or too stupid or something other like that. It’s very strange that I keep liking it so much.

After Dragonforce there was a half hour pause to get the stage ready for Maiden where I took the time to grab something to eat and look around the area. There were some nice clothes shops around with some shirts I really wanted to buy but the some price tags were unbelievable. I just can’t spend 65e for a damn shirt, not in my condition. Funny thing is that the guy who was selling the shirts was very enthusiastic when I looked around, telling me how they were from the US and showing me all the nice stamps and whatnot but I soon as I mentioned that I had no money, his enthusiasm died like a spider on a frying pan. I headed out and to the cluster of friends again.

At last Iron Maiden came on, among cheers and whistles and let me tell you, these guys know how to put up a really nice show. There where entrances, fires, giant eddie balloons, giant Piece of Mind Eddie’s walking around and other fun facts. I’m sure there are many sites giving an adequate review, even in Greece so I won’t go into detail about that. Needless to say that the rest of the crew, along with several thousand other people, were jumping around like insane rabid monkeys on crack. Especially Dimitris who was seeing maiden for the first time was cumming out of his nostrils, so to speak. I am sorry to say that I wasn’t as excited as I could have been because I didn’t know the song quite as well (They played only the first four albums which, while I have them, have not listened to them that much) and also because I was a bit afraid about what happened to my friend. Thus I ended up only really getting down to it at a few select songs like Running Free or Number of the Beast.
When the concert ended it caught as all in a bit of surprise as it looked like they (Iron Maiden) were waiting for a second call to stage (We Want More) which never came. I don’t know if it was because people didn’t like it that much (I don’t think so), because they were tired or because they didn’t understand. In any case I later heard that the Maiden where pissed off for some reason and this could just be it. Last song of the concert: Always look on the Bright Side of Life 😉

After that we were running or, more appropriately, strolling quickly, to the train station. Unfortunately not only did the crew not go quite as fast, but they also stopped not once but twice for water on the way. As a result we lost the final train and we stayed at the station for no good reason. At least I got something out of it when I met a girl there that Athena had started chatting with. She turned up to be a 30 years old freelancer photograph and I ended up chatting with her until we reached Athens. How did we reach Athens? well after an hour and a half waiting at the station it finally dawned on us that a train was not forthcoming and we headed out to find the bus. At one point we reached a crossroads where someone had told people the bus would come through and people stopped there and started lighting fires and stuff. Sooner or later people would be jumping over the fire in a mock pagan ceremony. In any case we headed out and finally learned that we should take the bus from the concert area groan.
At the concert area it was panic. A whole lot of tired people wanting to get on the bus without having any money and patience. Shouting at the bus drivers, shouting at the managing team, shouting at everyone, panic I tell you! Luckily we got in the bus before any riot started and I dozed off for the half hour or so it took us to reach Athens, (Happy moment: The reporter felt comfortable enough to sleep on my shoulder 😉 ).

So we are at Athens’ train station and after I give my goodbyes (and phone number 😉 ) to the reporter, we learn that the first train to Thessaloniki is approximately 7 hours away Groan! again. We decide to visit a local bar and grab a drink so we catch a ride to the central square of Athens and we almost get into a fight with the Cab driver. After I calm the spirits and we reach the square, we get to eating. For some reason Lampis takes a dive in a eats one Everest sandwich and two Croissants. Talk about hunger. After the we argue a bit where to head to and finally we decide to go out to Psiri. We almost get lost, get past a few hookers and find a nice enough bar playing rock but not quite. Unfortunately at this point exhaustion was creeping in and my usual talkativity was giving way the sleep. After about two hours we pay the very expensive drinks and head to the station again.

Now the waiting was just awful. While at the bar, I could sleep wherever but at the station, due to the noise and commotion, it was impossible to sleep. Whenever you drifted into the arms of Morpheus at fucking train would come by and whistle you into the land of bitter consciousness. Athena decided to get the Intercity train in order to get to Thessaloniki 3 hours sooner, paying 18e in the process, but we, as eternal brokes waited until the 9:45 train. It finally came and after a brief struggle with the train staff about where it was appropriate to sleep (we were in a kid’s playground at the time) we got into our chairs and tried to sleep. I ended up getting cramps in my lower back and sleeping approximately three hours our of six.

Now, I’m back in my room after a good solid 5 hours of sleep in my comfortable bed and I’m ready to head out into the night!

Oh, and my feet hurt!

The Seat Hunter

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So there is this weird old lady at the bus I usually take to work; she's thin, relatively frail with yellow-white hair and her head kind of…wobbles all the time. She always gets on the bus 2 stops after me and usually by then all the seats of the bus are taken. What makes her deserve a mention here is her seat-finding tactics.
This lady wants to seat and I mean she really wants to sit. She's not any kind of paraplegic either, kind of agile as well as you'll see later but for some inexplicable reason, as people's like her usually are, she craves for that perfect seat. That in itself wouldn't be so bad or strange as I'm usually used to seeing old people that could be better of sitting because of some specific problem or just generic frail bones likely to break at the first fall. Many just ask some young person if they can take their seat and usually they will get it. However, this lady, either because she doesn't feel she deserves a seat or because she's too shy will try very hard to get the first available seat.

Now when she is just standing around, she is constantly scanning her immediate are for signs of seat-emptying. If someone checks his bag, checks his environment to get his bearings, adjust his position or whatever else makes it seem like he's about to leave, this lade will move into attack position. That is as close as possible to the target, sometimes discreetly pushing people out of their position so that she can get a better vector.

In the case that someone does get up, she moves to intercept! She moves deftly and swiftly through the crowd and may even run the last few feet in order to get her behind in relative comfort. People that haven't noticed it are usually startled by her appearance on the scene and I'm talking from personal experience here. A while ago I was on the front side of the bus and last time I checked her, she was about the middle half. From where we were standing there is easily a 5 meter distance. Now the person in front of me suddenly get up and goes to exit, this means that I was now between her and the empty seat. Seeing no one elderly near I move to sit, and I had to pass around a holding pole to do that because said pole is near another seat and you have to maneuver to move between them.
Before I could even turn around to get into my usual “this seat is now taken, move along” position, I see a blur and this lady is now happily sitting, to my dismay, on my former butt-target. She literally jumped over the seat next to the pole and landed on the seat on her ass and with a smug look on her face.
I was kind of shocked and amused to see her both move so fast and for such a reason, but I'm not usually one to take something like that gracefully, mainly because I like to confront people about their bullshit, so I announce

“Hey lady, take it easy”

“Oh I'm sorry” She said while making to get up “Did you want this seat” all feigned innocence.

“Not really, just don't hurt yourself”

Now I was truly amused. She was acting all surprised and innocent that she took my seat when she was pretty aware of what she was doing all the time. I didn't really care about it, since I found another seat a few minutes later, but it's pretty funny to see people get worked up for a friggin' bus seat.
After that incident I decided that she was worth paying attention to, both for the humorous material that she is and because she is bound to get into trouble eventually but also because I don't want to turn around to seat only to find myself sitting onto a suddenly materialized woman.

In any case, her antics do not end with just a simple seat taking. Oh no, that's just too easy. Not only must she have the first seat to free up, but she is constantly looking for a better ass holder. I have seen her jump from one seat to another, even when those seats are in opposite sides of the bus. She gets up in a half crouch, golum-like, zips through the intervening space and get down on her new target. People are always taken by surprise by that one.

So that's the case of the Seat Hunter, as I've dubbed her. Today is actually the day I took the decision that she is worth watching.