Its nearly the end of August, so i thought I better get a post in, despite the slackness. But I don't really have much of anything I can be bothered saying. Life is good, so I don't feel the need to post. I have a life now and thats about it. Just no time, desire or creativity left for me to post something interesting.

So Farewell blog... until we meet again..

A few days in history

Well there has been a lot happening over hare lately, a new prime minister, 2 car bombs and one aimed at an airport. Then there is the job offer I have to consider and the good news that i got my visa and can stay for another two years of dreary rain.

Summer this year hasn't materialised yet, it has been a month of rain, whereas this time last year I arrived into a heatwave of terrible sweltering conditions. But I am confident summer is on its way! Seriously, I am!

So I have been offered my contract position as a permanent job. This does of course mean a pay cut, but then there are benefits as well. It is conditional on me getting my visa, and on us agreeing to a pay level. Fortunately I have received my visa, miraculously, after it survived the flooding in Sheffield affecting the Home Office, the Royal Mail office getting flooded, and finally the Postal Strike on Friday. Turns out it was delivered on Friday anyway, despite the postal strike. But the home office did have the good grace to tell me over the phone (with a bit of pushing), that I was successful, literally just in time for work to offer me the full time job.

So anyway, that just boring personal stuff about my future... More importantly, 2 car bombs were found in the West End, firstly on Haymarket, just a couple of hundred meters up the road from New Zealand House (i.e. the NZ Embassy), and secondly, a few blocks further south towards Whitehall. Plus there was the jeep driven into the airport at Glasgow. It strange, since this is the first time something like this has happened in London since I have been here, though it is a bit of an anticlimax in a sense because (fortunately) no one was hurt and half the perps have been caught already. But the terror threat remains "critical", meaning an attack is imminent. Not that they really know, but its probably a fair call. But life goes on - nobody is doing much of anything different, though maybe the west end was a little quieter last night. If anything, it could just as much be the rain that kept people away.

Living where I do, on a busy street with various "western" fast food outlets at my doorstep, I am half waiting for something to happen and find myself coming home to my room being blown away. OK, very unlikely I know, but more plausible that it could happen to me rather than someone else not on such a busy street. Perhaps the multiculturalism of the immediate area will stop it from being a target though? But I guess bombs and bombers don't discriminate when it comes down to it.

The fact is my "moments of danger" this week were the fight on the platform at Moorgate where one guy was threatening to throw another on tracks (after the other declined to "take it outside"), and then the P-high Brazilian on the tube who couldn't stop fidgeting, sweating and generally looking like he was about to completely go nuts!

I thought I might have something intelligent or all encompassing to say about these terrible events, but alas I do not. Its just as simple as get on with it, your more likely to be stabbed by a hoodie than bombed by an equally disaffected immigrant.

My Glasto Review

Word of the Festival: Mud
Sound of the festival: A kind of squishy squelch follewed by a short sucking noise then a pop as wellingtons (aka gumboots) steps it out in the mud.
Band of the festival: The Who
Let Down: Fat Boy Slim
Best kept secret: DJ Yoda (though his Glasto Performance was way better than this!)
Price of dry feet: 9.99 quid
Luck in buying gumboots at the last minute: immense!
Would I go again? Yes for sure!

Glastonbury was amazing. I saw many different musicians, my favourite of course being The Who on sunday night, who totally rocked it out in the rain. From memory I also saw... Kate Nash, Lilley Allen, Fat Freddys Drop, Fat Boy Slim, Corb Lund, The Killers, Manic Street Preachers, Kaiser Chiefs, The Cat Empire, and many more that I can't remember.

We were lucky in so many ways... In finding the last few pairs of welingtons availible in london, in our bus leaving just 20 minutes late compare to some who had a six hour wait, in arriving in the dry, and being able to walk and find a spot and set up our tents in the dry and on grass not mud. We were lucky it only rained a little each day and mostly rained at night when we were fast asleep in our tent. We were lucky to by two foldup chairs for just 10 quid. We were lucky to have a good spot on high ground and lucky to have architects for neighbours who needed help in putting up their tent. We were lucky to be up close for the Who and the Kaiser Chiefs, and we were lucky to have such good company. I was lucky to decide to take my camera, I would have regretted it otherwise! And we were lucky to come up with the brilliant plan of moving camp to one close to the bus station before the final concert, so we didn't have to trek for hours in the rain, mud and crowds with our gear. We were lucky to rock on up and get on a bus almost immediately, and then sleep for 95% of the trip back to London. And we were lucky to get back just intime for the first few tubes. We were lucky to see Michael Eavis, the owner of Worthy Farm, and the organiser of Glastonbury. He got a standing ovation just for driving past. There is a man who has by one generous act given more joy to the world than most could even dream of. And we were lucky in buying tickets to this event, though chances were 1 in 3.

All in All, I had a great time in Glastonbury. The mud and rain were all a part of the experience and not much of a problem at all. The Who were the cherry on the top, whose performance made the festival go from simply to totally awesome. (I think it was the best concert I have seen, better than the recent concerts I have seen - The Rolling Stones, Green Day or Guns n Roses.)

This weekend promises another interesting day - Wimbledon. It will be an early start on Saturday, but it should be a good one.

hobnobbing it with the stars

So whats this all about then, these stars signing autographs right in front of me? Well it goes back many many months early one sunday morning hen i was sitting around at 11am and miraculously got through online to buy tickets for the Glastonbury festival. If it hadn't been for that stroke of luck, (brought on by a determined perseverance), I wouldn't have had the honour of standing amongst a crowd of professional autograph hunters while they bayed for the ink of Dames, Sirs, and Mr's.

But it wasn't only that - the fact the weather forecast fo the next five days varies widely between light rain and heavy rain, and that for 3 of those 5 days I will be living in a tent, prompted me to hike to my favourite outdoor shop mountain warehouse and buy a big tarp so we can sit on our chairs and use it to fend off the elements whilst wurrounded by glorious mud and music.

So I found myself fed up with the heat and the crowds at Holborn, so I walked out of the station and went down the road, not really sure which way to go but knowing I had to turn right. As chance would have it, I stumbled across the premier to The Lord of the Rings Musical, complete with celebrities, stalkers, police, doormen, red carpet and randoms like me.

Somehow I got right in the middle of half a dozen people who seemed to know each other and whos conversation consisted of who autograph they had and what celebrities they had seen at other recent premiers. Not that I am complaining too much - I have of course stalked many an All Black, Black Cap and even the odd Primeminister back in the day, except I was probably only ten then and not in my mid twenties! Each to their own though!

It was however a brilliant spot - these guys had all the balls and no sense of shame and every celebrity got a freindly persistent calling of thier name (as if they were personally known to the crowd/autograph hunters), until they came over and duly signed some autographs. As luck would have it, every celebrity that did come across started with the person right in front of me, so I was able to reel off a few photographs for each of them as they signed various peoples pads and autographs books. All this while guarding one of the few pairs of wellingtons left in London as stocks sell out in preperation for the Glastonbury mudfest.

There were a couple of other stars I didn't post from my phone - Brian May of Queen, and Terry O'Quinn (aka John Locke) from Lost. (Who is pushing the buttons in the bunker!?!?! Ok yes I am a bit behind...)

So what were the stars like? Very Freindly - Dame Judy Dench seemed to really enjoy herself and was relaxed and having fun. Brian May just ignored everyone. Terry O'Quinn Enjoyed it but seemed to be doing it as a chore. Kevin Spacey was lapping it up, and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber was enjoying it too.

Finally

Andrew Lloyd Webber, the master theatre composers. Finally saw some stars in london and all by an unforseen random chance that saw me walk instead me taking the tube to a place i wouldn't normally be going. THIS is London.

Is that...

Kevin Spacey!

Who's that signing autographs?

Dame Judy Dench at the Lord of the Rings theatre premier!

Glasto!

The lineup for Glastonbury was announced a few weeks back and it is looking wicked!

Not that any of my personal headliner choices are playing - no Pearl Jam, Aerosmith or Bon Jovi - three big bands I want to see who are all playing in London the week before - but there are plenty of options to choose from... I have tried to find a list of bands but it seems the list is so long no one has bothered to count them!

But among some of the bands I would like to see - The Who, Manic Street Preachers and Corb "Hurtin' Albertan" Lund.

But to be honest I don't know where to start - not being a music geek (in fact a recent geek test shows me to be only a paltry 15% geek), I have heard of many of the bands and surely heard their actual songs, but can make no connection between the songs and who actually sings them. I'm sure I will be learning though!

In other news Louise and I stumbled across a protest charging up a road between Covent Garden and Leicester Square on the weekend. A few hundred naked cyclists protesting against oil dependency (though admittedly, I had to look that up, since the message was rather lost among the brightly white flying, jiggling, waving and wobbling appendages). Fortunately I don't yet own a bike, as my cousin John and I were contemplating joining the protest just so you could say you did it. (Where or when else could you bike naked, let alone through the prime spots of one of the greatest cities in the world). And I wouldn't normally bike those streets anyway, let alone naked... But to my point.. Fortunately common sense prevailed (along with not having a bike), and fear of being left behind for being too unfit to keep up prevented my participation. There's always next year though I suppose!

And I had much more to comment about, like how Alistair Cookes book on America at war is your average verbosist writer ODing on Steroids. And how when I was at school I was told you couldn't start sentances with "And" (and surely lost marks for it), and how I got my Highly Skilled Visa and bar an incomprehensible decline of my leave to remain application I will be staying here for another year at least.

Bring on Glastonbury, and the sun!!

One more thing!

Congratulations to Mark and Sara for announcing they are now engaged!

What a week!!

Where do I begin?? I am not sure because I am not sure where my week should begin! But lets start with the Biggin Hill Air Fair. This is a large air show south of London that I went to on Saturday with Shaun. As we arrived we were treated to a Spitfighter and a Eurofighter Typhoon taking off. They then flew a couple of circuits of the airfield together before the Typhoon eased right off into this incredibly slow turn while the Spitfire raced away. They tried to play catchup and did a few tricks, the Typhoon going as close to the speed of sound as possible without letting off a sonic boom. You can see a cheesy video of the eurofighter here.

There were a few highlights for me...

• The propeller stunt planes.
• The Red Arrows (RAF acrobatics team).
• The RAF display of "capturing" the airfield.
• Helicopter backflips!

Bullet points don't really do them justice, so watch the videos. I also saw a Chinook land just 50 meters from me, what an impressive machine!! If anything shouldn't fly it is that helicopter but fly it does! This video while not from Biggin Hill shows some seriously impressive flying in the second half!

Here is some Youtube footage of some of the planes at Biggin Hill.

Also this week has been a documentary on Diana, showing some B&W, grainy photos of the accident. Whatever people think there were only 3 things that killed her that night, and everyone knows them. Speed, Alcohol, and no wearing a seatbelt. Pretty simple really.

And then there was President Putin (of Russia, a lot of people don't seem to know this!), who has decided to target his missile's at Europe, for something America is doing!!! Albeit the US is doing it in Europe, so maybe his motives are for Europe to push back on the US. But anyway, its all irrelevant. Like Nuclear missile's can't be re targeted in seconds anyway. Hell I think they can be re targeted while in flight!!

And GO TEAM NEW ZEALAND for getting into the Americas Cup final in Spain!! We'll beat those dastardly Swiss yet!! Since when could the Swiss sail anyway??!

Raindrops keep falling on my head

England is showing me the true meaning of bad weather this week, finally. It not that it is actually raining, but more the fact that we went from a week of sunny weather and 20+ degrees to more than a week of constant rain, and barely making it to 10 degrees today. And its not going to stop for a while yet. Essentially the forecast goes like this: "There is a big cloud covering southeast England, and its going to stay there until all that water has rained itself out onto you". No moving on over to France. No gradual dissipation into warm humidity. It just stays there and rains. And Rains. And Rains.

Oh well, I guess I can't complain much, its just a little more persisting down, as one might say.

So in the news today was an interesting article:

A religious ruling by an Islamic scholar permitting women to breastfeed
adults with whom they work has led to his suspension from Al-Azhar University in
Cairo, the world's leading Sunni university.

Dr Izzat Attiya had last month issued a fatwa offering his bold suggestion
as a way around the prohibition in Islamic religious law against a woman working
in private premises with a man who is not her close relative. Breastfeeding, he
argued, would create a familial relationship under Islamic law.

"Being together in private means being in a room with the door closed so
that nobody can see them," Attiya explained to Al-Watani Al-Yawm, after his
ruling sparked outrage.

"A man and a woman who are alone together are not [necessarily] having sex
but this possibility exists and breastfeeding provides a solution to this
problem [by] transforming the bestial relationship between two people into a
religious relationship based on [religious] duties."

In Islamic tradition, breastfeeding at infancy establishes a degree of
familial relationship between nurse and child even if there is no biological
relationship - a wetnurse, for instance, is forbidden from marrying a man she
had nursed as a child.

Attiya argued that if an adult male is nursed by a
female co-worker it would permit them to work side-by-side without raising
suspicion of illicit sex. It would even permit the woman to remove her headcover
and expose her hair in the man's presence.

Attiya headed Al-Azhar University's department dealing with hadith (oral
tradition) outside the Koran, attributed to the teachings of the Prophet
Muhammad.

Attiya said he based his ruling on one such tradition according to which,
at the Prophet's order, a man named Salem was breastfed by the wife of another
disciple. "The fact that the hadith regarding the breastfeeding of an adult is
inconceivable to the mind does not make it invalid," said Attiya.

"Rejecting it is tantamount to questioning the Prophet's
tradition."

Nevertheless, his ruling evoked almost universal rejection among Muslim
scholars and in the popular Egyptian press.

Al-Azhar University formed a committee of hadith experts who dismissed his
ruling and the university administration ordered Attiya to publish a retraction.
He complied.

"The fatwa I issued was based solely on my personal interpretation. Based
on what I have learned with my brothers, the religious scholars, I apologise and
retract my opinion, which contradicts [the norms accepted] by the
public."

His apology was deemed insufficient by the head of the Al-Azhar Supreme
Council, Sheikh Dr Muhammed Sayyid Tantawi, a widely respected figure who is the
highest spiritual authority in Sunni Islam.

Far be it from someone like me of an Christian background who knows little about Islam to criticise the Islamic tradition and religion - but what was this guy thinking?? Are Islamic clerics that backward that when they try to be progressive this is the best they can come up with?? (Kudos for trying to be progressive though). How out of touch of reality can someone be? And worse knowing just how dodgy Egyptian men can be I find this an absolutely absurd idea!! And how can adult breastfeeding not be a sexual activity!!?!?!

For a long time I have tried to be understanding of Islamic culture, take the middle ground and say that that's their culture, its just different and who are we to interfere and say what is or isn't right. (The West has interfered and messed up enough parts of the world in the past).

But the reality is I find myself thinking more and more that they do have it wrong. I don't actually like taking this stand, (I'd prefer to remain neutral and out of sight), but when will the more extreme forms of Islam actually treat women with the respect they deserve? (Not that all Christians or non Christians have it right also - as a few episodes of Wife Swap with some southern US families will tell you). What is it about women that Islam fears so much that they must control or restrict them so much? And I'm not talking about headscarves, but rights to vote, to socialise with who they want, to work with men. Do they think the draconian restrictions stop infidelity? I guess they think it does, but then people in power seem to think many strange things.

Well enough blabbing for now. I have plenty of books to read still!

Two weeks late!

Well not really late, but I have been slack in my postings. This is probably down to me starting a new job, helping Louise practice her interviewing, and generally being a good for nothing lazy bones.

So the new job - this is going really well. Best of all are the hours - I haven't worked a 40 hour week since starting. (Although this does hurt my pay packet slightly). But a close second is the work itself. I have already learnt much more about access and excel querying capabilities than I realised existed. Pivot tables are really powerful when you can link them directly to a database of a couple of million rows of data! I am hoping that i can work hard and really make an impression at this organisation. It is really interesting work and is with some very interesting people.

Onto the news... There was recently an article about a local cop who said we were in danger of becoming an Orwellian society because we (as in the Royal UK "we" - gosh am I becoming a Brit?!?) are not so far away from having CCTV cameras on every street corner. Certainly in London I must be recorded every day dozens of times, and it not like I'm covering a large area.

But I have to disagree - there are fundamental differences between an Orwellian society and current UK society. The Orwellian society had a number of elements - Cameras in every home, A reduction of the language down to just 200 words, A world divided into 3 areas, 2 of which were always at war, and the powers that be would change the enemy at will. There were also the secret police, the re writing or eliminating of history, and the constant bleating of the all powerful leader as the only TV channel.

Todays society has similarities - We have CCTV cameras, some now with speakers to tell people to not act a certain way (e.g. "Don't ride bikes because this is for pedestrians only"). But is this really any different to the constant "Don't smoke on the underground". One thing that I feel has stronger similarities to an Orwellian society is that we always seem to have an enemy - The Cold War, Iraq, The Axis of Evil, North Korea (perhaps a truly Orwellian society - minus the cameras). (But perhaps we could all have a common enemy - Global warming. Something to unite and focus us all).

But what Mr Orwell didn't take into account was the internet. The fact that now anyone with a computer can publish, and this information is shared around the world free and to anyone that cares to read. If the internet is ever controlled in a way that stops us from being able to publish our thoughts then freedom will truly be moved backwards in a way our generation hasn't experienced.

I think the other thing that stops us from being an Orwellian society is that we are hedonistic. But Hedonism is complex - its not just about entertainment but fulfilling oneself. People don't watch crap TV programmes like Big Brother because its entertaining, I believe they watch it because they get more out of it, like participating in a conversation the next day, or perhaps they feel better by having a laugh a few idiots on TV. Anyway, please excuse the big pointless digression!

And do we have constant bleating of an all powerful leader on TV?? Not that I see. We certainly aren't like North Korea and the "Dear Leader" (although I wonder if this is culturally misconstrued and every older person is called "Dear", just like here our grandmothers call their grandkids "dear"!!). Perhaps our bleating comes in the forms of advertisments, which tell us how to live. But fortunately there is competition and so we have much choice in which path to follow.

I'm not sure where this plethora of thoughts is actually taking me. Perhaps because I have no answer it means I haven't been Orwellianised yet. Or perhaps it means I am more susceptable to it!! Probably I am part of the machine - spewing forth a host of information in a particular fashion that will make you all think one way without even realising it (both you and me that is). Perhaps you'll just think this is a load of nonsense.

Finally, tonight Louise and I had dinner in a Thai Restaurant. The service was great. They moved around so fast and seriously it was like waiting for a Jackie Chan movie to suddenly break out as he chased the triads to rescue Madeline from evildoer child traders in central London.

Tomorrow is Brighton, Finally!!

Oxford & Books...

Well the great news is I got the job! I start on monday, and I am very excited to see how it pans out. Its sounds really interesting, but I am not going to say here what I will be doing... If you know me, you probably already know!

Yesterday I went to Oxford for a day trip. First though an attempt at buying 25p tickets for the Regents Park open air theatre, but sadly I got there too late and stood no chance of getting a cheap ticket. It wasn't helped by circle line, traffic, then getting off the bus too late and finally not being able to find the ticket office which was actually inside the inner circle and not outside as it appeared on the map.

So off to Paddington and onto the First Great Western via Slough & Reading. It was much quicker than I thought and in no time I was on the hop on hop off bus learning about how if I went to Oxford University, I would only study for 3 years, and then 3 years later, just by virtue of having studied at Oxford, I would automatically get a Masters! Brilliant, of course, there is no chance of me studying at Oxford is there?

Needless to say, my fake International Student Card, which I legally acquired in Egypt, passed the test at the Hop on Hop off Bus ticket agency. And which university do I go to? None other than Oxford University itself.

So while I didn't attended that days public lecture of "Transgressing the boundaries of genre: the children's stories of the Soviet Yiddish writer Der Nister (1884-1950)", I did manage to find the Oxford University Press, which made me think a great souvenir from Oxford would be a book! But I wasn't too chuffed with Oxford Dictionaries or the Oxford Companion of Oxford Press's Big books. Nor did I find any of the textbooks of much use or interest.

So I set off and found the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. Fairly plain and boring on the inside, it did have a tower which I duly climbed which gave me a good view of Oxford itself.

Oxford is actually a very nice, relaxed city. What stood out for me was the bikes. I'm not sure if I will see as many bikes (that's bicycles for non Kiwis) anywhere else except Holland. you could barely go anywhere without tripping over, walking into or getting run down by a bike.

Carrying on with the bus tour, we came to a Library which is a copyright library, so it has a copy of every book that is copyrighted in the UK. Apparently it extends well underground and when you want to get a book out you must order it then come back six hours later while they find it!

And then up ahead was an apparently small looking bookstore which seemed to replicate the library, you went into a tiny shop front, down some stairs and into a massive cavernous area the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Now here was a place I could buy some books!

Keeping in mind I am now supposedly budgeting hard, I found myself walking away with five books, and worse, I stopped at another bookshop and came away with six more!! So back to London, Eleven books heavier!! At least I can say I spent my birthday money thanks mum! What were the books then I hear you wondering? (Or not perhaps, but I'm going to tell you anyway because I am unemployed and have the time to do so for once!)

Well first there were two travel books, the first about a blind man who travelled the world, (in the early 1800's no less!), the second called The Pharaoh's Shadow, about travels in Egypt.

Next a book by Alistair Cooke (a famous broadcaster who recently died), which covers life in America as it builds up to World War 2, and then a book on The Battle of the Somme. the next book, Bad Lands, follows the war theme and is written by the founder of Lonely Planet, as he travels through "The Axis of Evil" countries.

Which brings us into modernity with "The Islamist", a story of a British Muslim kid who became an Islamic fundamentalist at school and then five years later came back to being more liberal/normal/ standard Muslim type practice. (I'm not sure what you would call it. In fact reading the back of the book he calls it a return to normality). The Muslim theme then takes us to Iran Awakening, the story of a female lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize defending vulnerable cases that others refuse to touch.

Also on the theme of Religion is a book I have heard good things about - The five people you meet in heaven. Essentially the idea is you die and then go to heaven (if you haven't been too naughty I suppose!), and review you life with five people who have had a dramatic influence in your life, whether you realise they did or not.

And speaking of Heavens, I have finally buckled and bought A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (recently seen experiencing zero G). This will be a rather serious and heavy read which is why I bought The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, a book about the murder of a dog and the investigation of it by a boy who has Aspeger's Syndrome.

And finally after all these serious, depressing and inspiring books, I have The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton, a modern philosopher who puts a historical and psychological spin on ideas about how to be happy through modern architecture and living spaces.

So a lot of reading to do, and hopefully with my new job I will find the time to read!

Hofstadters Law

So true, so true.

I'm waiting with hope that I will be offered a job today. Fingers crossed. I have never been so keen on a particular position, so its like waiting for Christmas to come when you are kid. Lets hope Christmas isn't cancelled!!

On another note, I made it down to Walton-on-Thames on Sunday. Really nice little place with big country type homes and a great pub on the river. It was nice to be so low to the Thames for once. Its not often that I get out of London, so this was great, and I'm looking forward to many more trips away. I have compiled a list and hope to start ticking them off this weekend!

Louise and I also managed to see a small part of the British Museum on Sunday, including their hoard of Egyptian artifacts. I also bought two pairs of new shoes, and finally hooked up my posters and maps via a clever bulldog, string & pin arrangement.

On Friday (just since I seem to be going backwards in time), we caught up with Kim, in Swiss Cottage, which was great. Spent most of the evening talking to a Canadian who lived right near the Olympic ski jumps in Calgary, which I remember driving past almost a year ago. She and her husband were building a one room cabin on an island near Vancouver that is only accessible by boat, and they didn't even have a boat!!

It is amazing to think it has now been a year since I left little old New Zealand. Time goes fast and much experience is gained. So glad I left, as hard as it was.

The power of water...

Watch this to see just how powerful water really is... and wait for the lucky guy on the road near the end..

Quotes for the day

After having had enough of pouring over job adverts and descriptions and repetitively filling out such luridly personal details as my name and phone number on online forms, I began to read the quotes written at the bottom of the pages on my diary. Among the more interesting...

"Patience, n. A minor form of despair, cunningly disguised a virtue"

And the more lame and ignorant (sadly from oft studied NZ writer Margaret Mahy)...

"Canadians are like Americans without Disneyland"

And the one that struck me best...

"Every time you spend your money, you are casting a vote for the kind of world
you want"

How true that is. here in the UK there is a real sea of change in the way people are living their lives. Take the town that yesterday convinced all its retailers to shun plastic bags and only provide paper (and therefore recyclable), or simply reusable bags. Imagine how much waste could be saved if that could be done everyone. A simple culture change to bring bags from home. There is also movement for buying locally produced goods, organics, bins for excess packaging (which is then reviewed & redesigned with product suppliers). You can offset your own carbon emissions so that you don't make any net pollution, or you buy energy that is only from renewable sources. It seems now is a time that this really is true - your purchasing choices will make a difference - if you support the good things then they will continue, because the public demands it and has created a market for it, but if not, they will surely disappear into the lost opportunities of history...

And finally one that seems truly apt for me at the moment...

"Hofstadters Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you
take into account Hofstadters Law"

It has been quite a while since the last post - sorry for the long delay! To quickly summarise recent events - went up the coast of Croatia and inland to Plitvice National Park. Hired a car and survived unscathed arond some crazy windy roads. Got a train to Italy, a couple of sunny days in Venice, then to Milan, then up into Switzerland eventually spending about four days with my Cousin, his wife and their two kids. Came back to London with mum, where by a stroke of luck we got free tickets to the ANZAC service in Westminster Church. It was remarkable sitting in there despite it being the most un-user-freindly church I have ever seen!! Mum's now gone to Singapore, on her way home, and I'm still looking for a job. Shouldn't be too long until I find one, but until then its a fulltime job just looking.

The future also holds Glastonbury Music Festival, the purchase of a BBQ this weekend, and a good massive cleanout of my room. On top of that there is Prince Harry going to Iraq (good on him, bloody brave - or stupid - thing to do!).

To my great dismay Bon Jovi are playing in London on the last night of the Glastonbury festival. most disapointing as Bon Jovi is one of the big bands I wanted to see over here. (It seems destiny I will not see Bon Jovi, U2, or Pearl Jam - also playing that week -, the 3 remaining big bands in my top 5 that I would like to see. (At least my brother got to see U2 AND Pearl Jam all in one week!)

NZ is out of the Cricket World cup, but luckily Louise has not given me too much grief over this. Perhaps it is because she knows Aussie aren't going to make it through the Rugby World Cup.

And so London is London... the weather has been rainy here despite predictions of nice weather. They say the tube is going to be hotter than last year. I'm not looking forward to it.

And I have some photos uploaded! Very quick of me I know - So far Sarajevo, Mostar and Dubrovnic. A very small proportion of the photos I took, but a start.

Dubrovnic

Today we spent a few hours roaming the Old City of Dubrovnic. To get there we had to walk down some 245 steps (fortunately we donćt have to go back up!) It is a very nice place - High walls surround the city and it is easily walkable. It helps that the sun was beaming down upon us and I have managed to survive the day in just a t-shirt and shorts, (though it is a little cold in the shade...).

We have a seen a few churches today, the best was the Dominican church, which had a few examples of ˝Reliquaries˝, basically gold or silver designs in the shape of a human body part that contained the remains of that body part!! For example the Arm of St Thomas. There were also skulls, legs, hands and other various parts.

I had some very nice grilled Calamari for lunch, and then we walked around a small part of the outside wall and I sat down and just absorbed the sun for a while.

I am still trying to decide if I like Dubrovnic - There isn´t a lot to do here, and the things there are to do are much the same as what I have seen before. Not to get me wrong, it is a lovely place, today at least I seem to have little desire to see the sights. Perhaps after Egypt, nothing will really compare!! I think I seek some adventure, and so I am looking forward to when we hire a car and can go wherever we want.

There is no cricket on for the next few days, that is a shame. Sounds like there is some controversy over India´s early exit now. At lease NZ is top of the pool with Australia.

Tomorrow afternoon we go to Korcula. It is an Island and supposed to be very nice. On Monday we catchup with Louise in Split and that is when we hire the car - I am looking forward to that.

I am trying to upload some photos of Sarajevo - it may or may not work, even if it does there will only be four photos, and not the best ones as I havent loaded any that need rotating.

Until next time!

Sarajevo & Mostar

Mum and I landed in Sarajevo at Midday on Monday, The Airport terminal was new and the views were spectacular as we flew down a number of valleys into the airport.


Our first experience was in getting some cash - to date we still don´t know what the currency was called, so we have resorted to calling it Bosnian ˝Bozos˝. At the airport we saw a few EUFOR personnel, happily on their way home after a successful mission. The Taxi into town was fast and furious, the kind of taxi ride you want when entering into a warzone. Fast enough to dodge bullets, mortars and even any traffic that might rudely get in your way.

Sarajevo city itself was very nice - As you walk around you see there are essentially two stories to be told. The first the most interesting - That of the war. Being in valley, Sarajevo was surrounded and bombed from the hills. We were staying across the river just 100m from the frontline, or the part that took the biggest hits. The buildings that are able to stand still do, the rest are now gone. Almost every building has bullet marks on it, some have been patched and others have not. Sniper Alley, where some 10,000 innocent civilians were killed trying to get from one end of the city to the next, was particularly bad. Much of the city centre (the second part of the story), has been rebuilt and is very nice, fitting of any European city. I would encourage anyone who can to go and see Sarajevo, it is by far a fascinating city, to see the kinds of things that were done to it just over a decade ago. The pictures will speak for themselves when I have a chance to post them and also research what actually went on.

Mostar is another Bosnian city that took a hammering. Again here walked along the frontline. There were almost collapsed buildings, some with sandbags still visible. I think they haven't been destroyed because they do not know if it is safe as the buildings may be booby trapped. There was also a bridge that was destroyed, and for a long time the Christians and Muslims were separated on each side of the river. Even when bridges were rebuilt there was little or no interaction between the two former enemies. Yet now they appear to live in harmony, at least they are working together for the tourist dollar in the prosperity of peace.

I don't know who was fighting who in these conflicts, it seems to be a complicated war - but either way it was a disgusting war - The west not interfering for a long time, and when they finally did the war was over in a few weeks or months.

I never imagined going to Bosnia, let alone with Mum, but there we were and what an amazing experience it was. We are now in Dubrovnic in Croatia. We have organised a car for Monday next week and are spending the weekend on the island of Korcula.

M&M's

Or Mary (or Mum!) and Michael as we are otherwise known!

Tomorrow morning we leave for Sarajevo, so chances are by the time you read this we will already be there. I have no expectations or prior knowledge except that it was once a city at the centre of a bitter civil war and the most recent European war in the late 1990's. I'm sure that in itself will be interesting to see the people, the culture and the (hopefully) regeneration of the city.

Its an early 4.30am wakeup call with a trip to Gatwick and then a 2 hour flight over early morning Europe. It has been sunny today, so hopefully we will see a lot of Europe. (I forgot to mention on the way home from Egypt we flew over Switzerland, and that was spectacular, though of course from that height it looks a little more flat!)

Anyhoo, must be off to bed so I am well refreshed for another three week sojourn!

Cheerio!

Mum in london!

Something Sensible

Instead of doing something crazy like go to bed and catchup on sleep, or rewrite my CV so I can find a new job, I did something sensible and uploaded my Egypt photos instead!! They are now there even in special folders for each part of the trip!! I even weeded out the bad ones which is a vast improvement over just uploading them all. And the size of them is good - a full screen slide show is excellent quality, on my laptop at least!

Mum is coming over and arrives on Saturday. I am getting exciting and looking forward to it. It is going to be great to catchup almost a year after I left home. I just hope it doesn't make me feel like going home anytime soon!

Well its now 11.55pm and people are yelling and chanting outside... so I could argue I wouldn't have gotten to sleep anyway?!? They are being unusually noisy even by the 2am "close of the club across the road" Queensway standards...

I can also report that "project wash it all" is nearly complete. With just a couple of sheets and my raggy curtains to go, it should all be back to normal and clean by the time mum arrives.

Whether we actually have a shower is a question that remains unanswered though. Current status is slow progression over the last few days. We now have the "power shower" plugged in to both water and power, but alas no water is coming out! I am now into week 3 of shower at the gym, andit is getting a little old, especially since they are now renovating the gym bathrooms as well!!!

Six Sixes

I hadn't heard about this until the ICC threatened YouTube and told them to pull the WC cricket coverage from their site, but Kudos to Herschell Gibbs for becoming the first person to hit SIX SIXES in one over of One Day International Cricket.

deconstructions

Our flat is currently being renovated, at least very slowly. So far we are into our second week of having no bathroom, and no end in sight. Perhaps with a bit of luck the shower will work by the weekend. My room has also been half painted - It smells of paint and dust and is generally unpleasant to say the least. It does however look slightly better than before, but then I am missing my posters and now just have a plain cream room.

Anyway, I could carry on whinging or talk about something interesting, like how I quit my job yesterday. It had been on the cards for a while, with the long hours and surprise requests at 4pm for things that need to be done by the next morning. It is also very tempting to stay, but then I also know that this is London, and there will be plenty of jobs out there for me. The question not will I find a job but which one will I pick!

So all that said I need to catchup on some sleep by tomorrow, otherwise I wont be able to answer questions like what does VLT stand for in relation to science. I'm taking guesses now...

Top o' the morning to you!

Happy St Patricks day everyone from Dublin, Ireland - Home (for today at least), of all things green and gorgeous. Today I awoke early and got stuck into a "traditional"Irish breakfast, which was put on by my friend Gudi and his friends. It was a massive breakfast with so much food that we actually managed to have a traditional Irish lunch out if it as well!

After breakkie we headed to the St Patricks Day parade along the main street. After much looking for various vantage points, we ended up standing on the base of Daniel O'Connell. This proved to be an interesting vantage point as people who ad climbed higher and were sitting on the statues were told to move along by the police. As things became more and more crowded more idiots decided they would try and climb the statue, including a group of 3 Romanian guys who were firmly stood down by a group of (admittedly rather nasty) 12 year girls. Another bunch left after we told them the police arrested the people who were sitting there before, and that they were now getting their confessions beaten out of them at the local Gaol. The last guy to try was politely told where to go, and nearly got the "stop touching me like that!" treatment loudly yelled at him by one of the crowd to help move him on. It would have been hilarious to see him skelter off!

So how was the parade? Well, not very Irish, since the theme was multi-culturalism! I didn't know that fish, dinosaurs and sea creatures counted as multicultural, but we also saw plenty of American University marching bands (which were actually quite impressive for their size), a motley crew of Irish Soldiers (the height difference between each of them was remarkable and bizarre), and various other bands including the Scots who got lost and ended up in Ireland instead of home. We watched up to the Sikhs, who were quite impressive, but then we decided we had had enough as the whole thing wasn't particular Irish and it started to get repetitive.

After the parade we went off to a pub where we watched Ireland hammer Italy by 51 to 24 (or thereabouts). Unfortunately France spoiled this victory and ended up winning the six nations. Then off on a long walk to do some Irish dancing in the streets - not that we really knew what we were doing but it was good fun anyway.

So now its raining hard - apparently it is a national law that it must rain on St Paddy's Day. Of course it rains here every 2nd day anyway so chances are that "law" is rarely broken.

But there has been some remarkable news today for Ireland - they firstly not only beat Pakistan in their Cricket World Cup game, but they also bundled one of the favourites out of the competition before the first week of the cup was over!! Quite how Ireland (who I never knew played cricket until the world cup came along) actually beat Pakistan is anyones guess. I'm sure allegations of match fixing will abound. Its happened before. For those of you who know nothing about cricket, this would be akin to New Zealand coming out and beating a top 5 Ice Hockey team. It is almost completely unprecedented.

I say almost because there was another upset also tonight - Bangladesh beat India! Now India and Cricket are like Canada and Hockey, Ireland and Guinness, England and the Queen, American and guns. Cricket is India's passion and pride, a hugely popular sport. Bangladesh is a little better than Ireland at Cricket, at least they have played in a few world cups, and they are one of the main Test match playing games (again for non cricketers - a test match is a game of cricket that is played for 5 days - the world cup games are just one day each). But Bangladesh are routine bottom of the barrel and generally a tour of Bangladesh is considered practice. That said they did beat New Zealand in a warm up game, so maybe they do have a bit of hidden flair about them. I hope they do well anyway as they are a country that deserves it.

So the world cup is now wide open. It looks like many of the top teams may struggle to get through, while teams that were just making up the numbers like Ireland, Bangladesh and perhaps Kenya (if they can pull of a win against England), may go through to the super eight series. Its turning out to be an awesome cricket world cup. Now I wish was there!

Egypt Photos!

I've been slammed dunked with Giardia and admittedly its going to take me ages to get my photos up, but here are six of the best for the record, to prove that I really did go to Egypt!

This first one is of me in front of 3 ancient structures. From memory they are called "the Pyramids", or something like that.

This next one is of me standing on one of the aforementioned "Pyramids". It is the middle one I am standing on.

Here I am in front of the home of "the Sphinx". It used to be called the Lynx, but a translation glitch caused the misspelling. Strangely, the curse of misunderstanding passed to a group of Asian girls who accosted me for photos of a real cowboy in front of the pyramids. Yes and you can find my camel over there thanks!

Below is me in front of Abu Simbel, blocking the sun from shining directly down the tunnel onto the statues at the end. (Not the big ones you can see!) Apparently the ancient Egyptians moved these statues and the entire mountain they were carved into to a higher spot in anticipation of the High Dam causing Lake Nasser to flood the area.

Below is a felucca, the type of boat we sailed up the Nile on. Apparently many lookers have fallen off them.

And finally the temple of Hatshepsut, the massive 3 level wardrobe of hats built for the Pharaoh who just couldn't have enough. It wasn't long after that Egypt had its treasures stolen by various invading empires. (including all the Hats She Put in this temple). Hats are no good for defending a country, what can you do? "Halt! Or I'll, I'll... I'll throw my hat at you!!"

Assuming the Giardia clears up in time, I'll be in Dublin this Saturday for St Patricks Day. Fingers crossed otherwise I might finally have to claim something on my insurance!

One positive thing

If anything can be taken as a positive after New Zealand's disgraceful loss to Bangladesh in a Cricket World Cup warm up match yesterday it is this:

"New Zealand is better than Australia, Bangladesh is better than New Zealand, therefore, Bangladesh is better than Australia."

Well that's the kind of thing we used to study in my Philosophy 101 paper. Of course its a load of bollocks, but we have to try and take solace from somewhere!

New Zealand, England, Kenya and Canada are all in Group C, and the cup starts in just a few days. Did I mention this is going to be a brilliant year for New Zealand Sport? Firstly we are going to take out the cricket world cup with a run chase that goes down to the wire. Then we are going to make a clean sweep in the Americas cup, and finally we will take our glorious rugby world cup home after smashing France in the final at Paris. Just remember you heard it here first!

----------

Well I have been babbling, so onto more serious matters. After returning from Egypt, I continued to have fairly "interesting" bowel movements, cramps, nausea and headaches. I went to the doctor yesterday morning and after a bit of prodding and poking, he advised me to go to the University College Hospital A&E ASAP and get seen by one of their tropical diseases specialists. On arrival, at the mention of the fact that "my doctor sent me here because he thought I might have Typhoid", the doctors and nurses swung into action. Ok, well a phone call was made and the TD expert turned up. I got my own room, I guess so that I didn't infect others, and had various blood tests, my blood pressure taken 2 times, and various other poking and prodding.

Eventually I got shifted to my own room in the wards. (via wheelchair, policy apparently!) This room was pretty flash, it even had a flat screen TV with phone, radio and Internet capability, like a high tech version of what you get on a plane! But at 4p a minute for the Internet I wasn't going to try. More waiting around and eventually had the first result - a negative for Malaria. (Unfortunately I have to do this test again today and tomorrow as it has false negatives and positives). The test for Typhoid takes up to 5 days, but the specialist thinks I instead have Giardiasis. After being given the all clear to leave hospital, I had to stay around for another 3 hours to provide a sample to test for Giardia. I can report that hospital meals are beyond terrible!! But sure enough it helped me provide a sample and I was on my way after 8 hours in a hospital with some medicine to combat the suspected parasite! Unfortunately this medicine has made me feel a bit crook, but it seems to have done the trick in eliminating stomach cramps for the most part.

Finally I think I might write a book on my OE. Sure its not the most interesting OE, and neither is my life, but its the easiest option for a lazy person like myself. No research, plenty of content, scope for "creative" additions. And I don't think there is a book out there about peoples OEs? Not that I know of anyway. Plus I have plenty of content already from my blogs, and when the book eventually catches up with "today", I can write it as things happen. Brilliant. I have wanted to do this for a long time, but never been able to think of a decent subject. Now I best be off for a shower and more yummy blood tests.

where you from

Ten phrases that remind you are in Egypt:

1. Where you From (closely follwed by "Kiwi" when you say NZ)
2. How you doing
3. Hello my freind
4. No hassle
5. Please take a look in my shop!
6. How many wives you have?
7. Look this, it is made of high quality (insert material here)
8. For you my freind, I give you very special price
9. Hello Cowboy
10. You need scarf, spices, t-shirt? very cheap! Best prices for you!

Although a few of these apply equally to Morocco, and I guess, Turkey and a whole raft of other countries as well. Pleasingly I can announce after a couple of hours shopping that I am now best freinds and get no hassle with the best prices from most of the shop keepers in Dahab! (Of course its all a load of bollocks but to their credit they are much much less pushy here than in other parts, and in fact you can walk into a shop and some barely say anything at all! It feels like home almost!).

People do do strange things here, for example, at the moment there is a guy with a bucket of water and the bottom half of a plastic bottle walking around outside. He is using the half plastic bottle to throw water all over the promenade for no particular reason at all, except from my window perch I can see that the pavement stones outside his restaturant are now a little shinier as they are wet!

Two nights ago I watched lord of the Rings - Return of the King on TV, it was quite good. The channel here (ironically channel 2 with a very similar logo), usually plays B grade movies, so it was a nice surprise for something decent to go on. Its the only channel in english except for an even worse music channel which is barely worth a mention except it played some obscure U2 song which was a relief.

One thing we don't have at the hotel is a news channel, so I have been suffering without my daily dose of the BBC. They don't even have the Arabic version (let alone the English version) of Al Jazeera which is quite disappointing.

I was terribly windy again today, so I haven't had much lying around in the sun, despite our beautiful beach resort with large swimming pool and deck chairs. No one mentioned to me that apparently the Red Sea has "reliable" strong winds which are good for windsurfing. Sadly the winds today were too strong for windsurfing even!

Red Sea Blue Sea but not the Dead Sea..

First things first but I never expected to be reminded of my old work, The National Bank, here in Dahab in Egypt by the Red sea. But as I sat down to this ancient PC the mouse arrow changed to the running horse, the same design as the National Bank uses, only it was Red not black.

Maybe it was red because of the Red Sea right next door. And maybe a horse was chosen because Arabian Horses are supposed to be the biggest/strongest/fastest in the world (or something like that).

Nevertheless I can report that the Red Sea is indeed a a Deep and beautiful shade of Blue, and Saudi Arabia stand on the far side, its sandy brown mountains reflecting lazily through the dusty air.

There are many fascinating stories arond this part of Egypt, chief amoung them the guy who windsurfed/paddled or otherwise accidentally made it from Dahab across the Red Sea and landed at Saudi Arabia. One version says it was a drunk Ausie who paddled one of those paddling boats across to the American Naval base on the other side. Another says a guy windsurfed across, was picked up by the Saudi Military who flew him and his windsurfer to Cairo airport. He then had to get a 10 hour bus back to Dahab in just his boardies and with his windsurfer. Based on a true story anyway.

Saudi is a harsh place too, I am very tempted to go and cisit just for the culture, but two girls on our tour had their flight diverted there, and got majorly hit up by the "authorities" because they had alcohol on them!! And they were even supposed to be going there!!

Most spectacular here is the Blue Hole, a circular coral reef about 50m by 50m, which you can snorkel in and around. I saw some fantastic fish there. Apparently the whole coast of the Red sea is 2nd only to the Great Barrier Reef in the world in terms of diving and snorkelling. I can definitel believe it!

I'm typing all this with some lovely stomach cramps and maybe, just hopefully they are passing. I hope so because there is a lot to write!

I could go back and list all the details of what I have seen, but the truth I really can't be bothered! There are so many temples and heiroglyphics and statues I wouldn't know where to begin. So I'll list a few highlights:

Abu Simbel
A giant temple built into the side of a hill. Just 30 miles from Sudan. The temple is aligned so that on a particular day (just 3 days after we were there in fact), the rising sun shines right down the length of the main corridor onto 3 of 4 statues (3 Gods and one Pharoh trying to pass himself off as a God). Only catch was they had to move it to make way for the massive High Dam, which created lake Nasser and would have flooded the temple. So the temple was moved, mountain and all, to a higher location. But after moving this massive mountain and positioning the temple, they found they had messed up the aligning of the sunrise, and so the sunrise hits a day late. On top of that, the misalignment means that the sun shines on 2 whole statues and half of the two others. Ironically the statue who is not supposed to be recieving light is the God of Darkeness (or something similar), so I bet he's well peeved with all this sunlight on him now after thousands of years of darkness!!!

Aswan High Dam
There are two dams here, but thge big one created Lake Nasser, the largest man made lake in the world. It controls the Nile floods, and allows for three planting seasons instead of the previous one. It is surrounded by something like 10% of Egypts army, because if it was ever destroyed, 97% of Egypts population/inhabitabed areas would be flooded within two weeks. Basically it would wipe out Egypt for good. So here's hoping that never happens!!

Philae Temple
Another temple saved from flooding, but this one after the fact - they had to move this one from underwater to above water!!

Felucca
2 days on a sail boat going 60km up the Nile. Really relaxing and good fun. Really enjoyed and one day i want to try and go a lot further!

Valley of the Kings
Here I went inside King Ramses 1, 3 and 9's tombs. Ramses 3rd was the best because he was trying to out do Ramses 2, Egypts greatest ever ruler. On the otherside of the hill was the Valley of the Queens (much less interesting tombs, most were holes in the ground similar to wells!). I also saw the temple for Hatshepsut - a mammoth 3 level construction built into the side of a hill.

Karnak
This is in Luxor, and is a massive complex which still has some paint remaining on the temples. (All the temples were painted back in thier glory days). This is probably similar to the Forum in Rome, though of course there is no connection!

Finally I'd like to comment on "Security". As a tourist, Egypt is not supposed to be the safest country - personal safety is ok, but for example there have been busses shot up. bombs going off, massacres and temples, and even here in the sunny resort of Dahab there were 3 bombs that went off not so long ago. So everywhere you go as a tourist, you see the tourist police. You also go through coppious amounts of metal detectors, that just beep and but you just go straight through. Excellent security - the job of being a tourist police officer must be one of the easiest in the world.

Indeed the strangest part of security is the "police convoy". To get to Dahab we had a 17 hour drive, the first 4 hours or so in a police convoy with six armed police cars and about 120 vehicles. We then did the rest on our own - one police car (which incidentally I never even saw), for our bus. Apparently this all stems from the nineties when a German Bus got shot up. I'm not sure how have 6 police cars to protect 120 vehicles works, but if I was a terrorist, I'd think all my Christmas's had come at once! What better opportunity for attack that 120 busses driving past you. And there is no option but for them to drive past, because you can't stop 120 busses and turn them around, that would leave them as sitting ducks. Its a tradgedy waiting to happen.

On that depressing note, it is also very sunny outside, but very windy. There is very little hassle here in Dahab, so I'm going out to do a bit of shopping. Until next time!

Egyptology

The quick summary of what I've done:

Giza Pyramids - Big, Impressive, lots of photos. More of The Sphinx which was very interesting to see in real life - it looks quite different. There was a lot of Hassle around the musuem, but it was good fun at first until one guy went over the top. Basically I got a photo with one guy and and another helped them, so I had to pay them both. I gave each 20 Egyptian Pounds, (aboiut 2 quid), but the the guy who owned the camel (probably seeing my wallet burstng with cash!), gave his twenty to the other guy then tried to make me give him a 100. After Morocco, where I learned not to take any crap I just told him "sorry mate, thats your call to give your freind the money I gave you, tough luck, I've paid more than a fair price" And walked off. Much yelling, cussing and chasing after me ensued, which I just ignored and had a good laugh about! If only these idiots would realise that if they actually got out of our faces and left us alone we would probably spend more money. Its a terrible reflections of people characters that the basis of their business is based on coercion and getting as much money as possible from some one.

Then we got rained on as we left for a Papyris museum. This is the paper they make out of a plant. There were two amazing paintings for about 90 quid each, but sadly I couldn't really justify buying them after my carpet in Morocco.

We also saw a much older pyramid shaped structure - technically not a pyramid as it was tiered, but it could be seen from Giza and Vice Versa. That night we went to a hotel where I touched a live tiger before we caught the 14 hour overnight train to Aswan. I luckliy managed 7 hours of sleep, which was great considering most people got none.

Righto, the clock is ticking, more next time!

Egypt Day 1

Well I have reached that point again where my blog changes from a boring blog about everyday life in London to something exciting like about Egypt.!!

After a slight hiccup on the way to Heathrow, (I went to Terminal 2 instead of 4), I got on my BA flight to Cairo. We flew over France, Germany, Austria, then right down the coastline of Croatia, past the islands of Greece then over the mediteranean to Cairo. Again we flew right down the Nile, turning south of the city to go into the airport. It was quite a spectacular flight for a night flight. Cairo is a truly massive city!

The airport was fine, but I pity the guy in front of me who had a very serious military looking guy run off with his passport with no explanation. And then there was the Americans who had their flight diverted to Saudi Arabia and were arrested (yes arrested!) because they had alcohol in their luggage!). And they weren't even supposed to be there!

Today we did the rounds of Cairo - The Egyptian museum (highlight was King Tuts tombs' treasures plus the biggest mummy collection of kings, queens, princes etc..). Then we hit the Citadel which was next to a quarry where some of the rock for the Giza Pyramids came from. In the distance we could see the pyramids, they were quite big, and apparently 14 Kms away. It was very hazy as we were looking across Cairo, so ironically thi means the best view I have had of the Pyramids so far was from a plane flying over Cairo in 1997!

The Muhammed Ali (not the boxer!) Mosque was quite impressive and better than the one I saw in Casablanca (though much much smaller). We also saw a Coptic church and had lunch (felafel sandwhiches) shouted by our tour guide. He is great and have really enjoyed him so far.

Tonight is a cruise on the Nile, then tomorrow we hit the Giza (as opposed to Geezer - though I think this is a much funnier name!) Pyramids. Probably do some camel riding or something there. plus lots of photos and excpect a blog photo I guess!

Then the overnight train down to Luxor (or Aswan, I forget), and then its just going to be a surprise because I don't know what is next for sure, but I think its a Felucca cruise on the Nile.

The hotel we are in is really nice, so I'm glad of that. There are heaps of police and military guys about which i guess shows Egypt is serious about protecting tourists, though I'm just not sure they could do much considering.

Till next blog!

Walk like an Egyptian

Ok cheesy song I know but when in Rome...

So I thought I better knock off a blog before I fly out tomorrow. Its a good day tomorrow - I'm Heading to Cairo where on Saturday I will start a 13 day tour of Egypt. Its going to be fascinating. I remember when I was 17 and first came to Europe - We flew over Egypt and because I was sick I had a cabin crew seat and could see out the window and see the pyramids as we flew over. I even managed to take a photo which showed the pyramids.

So tomorrow night I will fly in, I assume to be met at the airport - Haven't actually figured that out yet.. hmmm actually... No it ok - I have the address of the hotel, and I AM supposed to be met at the airport. Thats good!

Its amazing how travelling has changed me - The fact that I can seemingly be so unprepared the night before I go to a foreign country would have shocked me to no end if you had told me befor I left NZ. But instead I have discovered that, well, things have a way of working out. People will help you out, (even if you have to pay them for it in dodgy developing countries), and places do actually have those things you need that you think they wouldn't. Its just a little more challenging to find thats all.

So what am I looking forward to in Egypt? Well its not the Pyramids, nor the temples or the statues or the markets, and its definitely not the hassle and haggling! I'm looking forward to the sun. Its been straight sun there for the past three weeks! Temperatures gradually creeping up to the 20s and beyond in Cairo, with Luxor and Dahab into the mid twenties. But warm temperatures is a bonus when the hours of sun is taken into consideration. I'm really looking forward to just soaking up the sun, getting a tan and finally getting some vitamin D in me!

I want to chill out on the beach at Dahab, relax on the Felluca as we cruise up the Nile for a few days. Sleep on the bus a lot, read some good books (specifically, "The Rough Guide to Climate Change" and "A boy called Pi" - I think thats the title). Oh and I guess I'll get around to reading that Lonely Planet I have on Egypt as well.

And with a bit of Luck I will make it up to Allexandria as well.

So I haven't blogged about much lately really. The world has been an interesting place - It looks like the Axis of Evil mainstays North Korea may be thinking of giving up their reactors in exchange for some Chinese support. I think this is a good since the North is so far backward they make China look like a country more free than the air we breath.

Then there is global warming. The IPCC's climate report got a barracking in the latest New Scientist because the most recent data, while valid, was not included in models and not sufficently tested so they left it out. What was this new information? Well one thing was that Ice, be it glaciers or polar ice or whatever, actually melts faster than predicted in current models. Basically as the ice melts it cracks, this lets flowing water (warmer than the ice of course), reach the bottom of the glacier, so the bottom starts melting well before it was originally predicted.

Then there was the fact that sea temperatures have increased as far a 3 km deep in the oceans. There were other things as well, but as for the large amount of reading and research I have done on this topic lately, I've come to the conclusion that the world is seriously screwed. Sell your baches and run for the hills kind of screwed. Well, lets put it this way, I'mnot so sure i would be buying a place near the sea, not because I think it would suddenly be permanently underwater, no, that wouldn't happen for decades, but as water levels gradually increase, its the storms, more violent from the warmer weather, and the higher storm surges they will create, which will cause greater flooding. You saw it in New Orleans. Its happening now, its a lesson, what have you learned.

Well anyway, I guess climate change is my new passion and hobby. Its a fascinating subject. I just hope the world wakes up to do something about it as soon as they can. (Its my doubt that this will happen, that leads me to conclude we are all screwed). Oh well, At least I'll see the Pyramids before they are eroded away by an overflowing, flooded Nile!

Its snowing again!!

Wow a second snow in London, this is a bit of a treat! This one was well predicted and is a bit heavier than the first, plus it is still snowing at 9am this morning. I've taken photos from my window, but sadly I'm just too crook to go out into it (and its switching between rain and snow anyway). But I did get an inch of snow on my windowsill and its actually coming down quite thickly now.

Meanwhile I am staying in bed to get better - all the antibiotics have done so far is made me lose my voice!

Grumble, grumble grumble...

I'm Sick! Alas, it is a long one too. Have been sick since monday last week with a horrible flu/cold/infection type thing. Finally made it to the doctors today and got some antibiotics, so I am hoping they will kick in very soon and that i will start to feel better!!

A short analysis on the pros and cons of being sick:

Pros

• Don't have to go to work
• Can finally watch Pirates of the Caribbean after many failed attempts to see it
• Flatmates do your dishes
• Scrubs is on high rotation on Freeview
• There even episodes of Friendds I haven't seen, amazing!
• At least on Queensway, everything is right by my front door - Video rental (for only 2 quid a pop!), Food places, Boots Pharmacy, Free newspapers.
• Super nice freinds come and look after you.
• I can finally get through some of the books and magazines I have bought but not had a chance to read.

Cons

• No Work = no pay = less exciting holidays come the summer time. Missing two weeks work is a bit of a financial dent in the plan to Kombi around Europe.
• Work is actually piling up for me, so when I go back, ouch!
• Because of this, I am actually going to do some from home anyway.
• Feeling ill all the time is a bit rotten, esp after 1 week when your throat is getting worse and not better.
• All that effort at the gym is fading...
• I have more medicine belonging to me in my flat than I do food.

Hey well thats 8 pros v 6 cons. The Pros have it!! Guess it is better to be sick after all...

Kiwi Ingenuity

Who said Kiwis can't fly???

A few things about me...

I Miss You by Blink 182

"The unsuspecting victim Of darkness in the valley We can live like Jack and Sally if we want Where you can always find me" You grew up a lot in 2004. And it was mostly a very good thing.

What 2004 Hit Song Are You?

You Belong in the UK

Blimey! A little proper, a little saucy. You're so witty and charming... No one notices your curry breath

What English Speaking Country Are You?

You've Experienced 56% of Life

You have a good deal of life experience, about as much as someone in their late 20s. You've seen and done enough to be quite wise, but you still have a lot of life to look forward to.

How Much Life Experience Do You Have?

Your Summer Anthem is Best Of You by the Foo Fighters

"I've got another confession my friend I'm no fool I'm getting tired of starting again Somewhere new" While you may seem bright on the outside, your insides have a distinct angst flavor.

What's Your 2005 Summer Anthem?

Your Hair Should Be Purple

Intense, thoughtful, and unconventional. You're always philosophizing and inspiring others with your insights.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

blatant plug

I must quickly plug the bar of Waxy O'Connors - Quite possibly the coolest and most well decorated pub in London. It had what seemed to be a petrified tree inside, with all kinds of split levels and different nooks and crannies. And great Irish music, with the novelty of the musicians sitting at a table, so the patrons had to stand around (which is actually better). I think I may make this my local. Though since its in Leistcer square I guess its a bit far away!

Snow!!

So I woke up this morning to something I have been waiting a long long time to see in London, snow! In what is apparently the heaviest snowfall since 2003 (whoop-dee-doo, what a record snowfall it must have been!), Hyde park, well the bit near me, was under about an inch of snow. Fortunately I woke up early with good intentions of going to the gym but that soon got cancelled for a quick expedition into the Hyde for some "snow-in-the-city" photos. Apparently there is more on the way tonight... (And yes my Canadian freinds I know it is a lame snowfall but its exciting for this kiwi who's never seen snow in a city before ;)

There's a little bit of snow on the roofs of these phone booths. I get my weekly TNT magazine from behind them each week.

Snow on the bikes on Bayswater Road. It wasn't actually that cold considering...

A "long and winding road", alright, just a path in Hyde Park that heads towards the lake. One day the lake will freeze over again (there are warning signs for it), and I'll go ice skating on it...

The Princesses Memorial playground. I wish I had a snow covered playground when I was a kid!

Picnic tables... Not much of a day for it really!

It's a beautiful park when its covered in snow.

Me and the park, not too late for work!