Grr! Argh!

It's so damned simple. I want to buy a specific set of train tickets that I can see on the train company's website. And I want to call a hotel and say "Y'know that reservation I made for a Saturday night? I want to extend it for a Friday late arrival, that okay?"

But no, I'm doing this overseas so of course it has to be as difficult as possible.

First, the train station won't take any credit card or contact information from outside the UK. So I call... or try to call, because even after checking that I have overseas calling capability from both landline and mobile, I'm not actually managing to connect to anything. So I write an email, explaining among other things that I cannot phone them, and get... a phone number. (And also a list of other train companies that might be able to sell me a ticket. Except that every single one throws me back into the same style of registration screen, with the same UK-only drawback!)

I tried calling the hotel too, and at one point actually got contacted by AT&T wanting my credit card info, but once they got it, they told me that the call couldn't go through. So there's an email out to them as well, although my fallback there is to simply book a separate room on Friday and let them sort it out when I get there.

This is appalling, hotels and train stations deal with this kind of thing every day, this shouldn't be this hard, especially for companies that have online ordering! Why can I get my hotel and play tickets online but not the damn train ticket from point A to point B?

Dear Authors...

Dear somewhat unclear on the concept authors:

Yes, when writing books in a series, it is a good thing to reference previous books in a series. That's not really there to remind faithful readers so much as it is to coax people who've come into your universe a day late and a dollar short to go buy up the previous books.

So it follows that when you're writing mysteries and you reference a previous mystery? Please don't tell the world whodunnit. That is a bad thing. Even the most spoiler-tolerant reader is going to go "well, no need to go buy that one now!"

I couldn't believe that one of you did it, particularly since she's been around enough to know better. I REALLY can't believe two of you in a row did it!

Oy to the world,
Reviewer


Dear Editors From Different Publishing Houses:

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR COTTON-PICKING MINDS TO LET THAT GO THROUGH????!!!????!

*thwap*

No love,
Me

(no subject)

Fic rec. Not worksafe. Spoilers for Sunday's Torchwood. Frickin' HILARIOUS!

Excerpt from the Top Secret and Highly Classified Personal Shagging Records of Ianto Jones

Also? Tonight's Heros was MADE OF WIN! "Destiny should lose our number!" "No, it's an if/then statement. I know, I said it." And best of all, "What if I step on a bug and change history?"

My inner geek is utterly, utterly satisfied.