Finished

I've just posted the last entry of my travels from earlier this year. Given that I returned to Australia in early June and it is now early mid September, this has taken longer than I had hoped.

Early on most of the writing was done on trains between cities, just after I had left them. Since returning to Brisbane, pretty much all of my writing has been done at the Myer Centre Starbucks, so I guess a shout out to them is due.

All up I wrote 222 pages of travels plus another 20-30 pages of other materials. Coming up is a series of Cool and Not Cool for each country.

There is a certain amount of satisfaction in having completed this. It was a rather epic trip, and the tome in which I wrote it down will stay on my bookshelf for many years to come.

I am considering what to do with the rest of the space in the journal. The two options I can see is to keep it as a diary of sorts for everyday life, or to keep it for the next time I go a big trip. There's also the fact that I have been using the unruled section for various miscellania from life in Brisbane, which may come down on the everyday diary side of things, but now that I've thought about a next trip, that does seem like a nice idea.

On the topic of a next trip, since I've knocked a lot of stuff off my want to see list, a few new contenders are at the top. The top three would be in no particular order Egypt, China and South America. Other places that are on the list include Malta, North Korea, northern Europe, the rest of Australia, a pop-culture tour of America where I would try and see live all the things I like from America like The Colbert Report and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (New York or California would be a must).

The next trip is of course some time away, and I think that the next time I go on a big trip it would be good to have a travelling companion. While it was nice meeting lots of people along the way, there was also times where it got lonely, like the six days on a train as the only English speaker on the carriage.

Closing a few tabs

There's a couple of items I've had open for a few days intending to write something about them.

First, another sad story of a child who died because his parents went to a faith healer instead of a doctor. It's uncertain yet if the parents will be prosecuted for neglect.

Next was to be a link to a story about the continuing debate over a political movie about Hilary Clinton that got banned during the primaries in 2007, but the New York Times has decided you now need to subscribe to read the article, so there's no link.

In news I'm glad to see, Nozomu Sahashi, CEO of NOVA, has been sent to jail for three and a half years after being found guilty of embezzlement. About bloody time.

Finally is a business opportunity I should look into setting up over here in Australia. It's a company run by atheists that offers to look after the pets of Christians after the rapture. The Christians pay $110 dollars for ten years of protection. And if there's no rapture, there's no refunds. Pretty easy money I think.

Naughty North Korea

The Beeb has reported that the United Arab Emirates caught the North Korea sending a boat full of weapons to Iran. The ship claimed to simply be carrying "machine parts" but included machines such as rocket propelled grenades (a machine, sure, but not what one usually imagines when you hear the phrase machine parts).

This follows on from an aborted attempt to ship arms to Myanmar earlier this year (No one saw the arms in that case, but if it was the peaceful goods the two countries claimed it was, why turn back to avoid an inspection? If America had forced its way onto a ship and found nothing it would have been a big PR win).

I'm also rather glad that this ship didn't get to Iran given Iran's nuclear ambitions and North Korea's nuclear reality. I'm sure there was more on the boat than just the grenades that we haven't been told about.

Mali Does a Good Thing

So Mali is planning to change its laws regarding marriage and a few other aspects of family life, and there are some parts of the Mali population who are not happy with the changes.

First, the change. The current law states that a wife must obey her husband. The new law states that once married husbands and wives owe each other loyalty, protection, help and assistance. Most people I know would chalk this up as a win for women's rights and the cause of equality.

Now alas, a some of the Muslim majority in Mali do not like this. They much prefer things the way they are, because that's the way things are. Not surprisingly, most of those opposed to the changes are men, but not all.

I do see a few good things in the situation. Mali's justice minister definitely gets things. He knows his country has a secular government, and acknowledges that to enshrine religious rules in law is a bad thing.

The other good point is the fact that the High Islamic Council has decided to use the soap box and the ballot box, rather than going straight for the ammo box. They are speaking out against the proposal, and encouraging Muslims to vote against parliamentarians who vote for the measure. They seem to be having some effect, because the President has sent the law back to the parliament for reconsideration. I hope they do the right thing and send it back to him.

A Second Korea Fails to join the Space Race

A few days ago South Korea launched a rocket that was, in the words of the South Korean government, a partial success. The rocket, part Russian and part South Korean, was meant to place a satellite into orbit, but failed to do so.

Naturally this brings up comparisons with North Korea, whose own failed attempt to launch a satellite earlier this year caused concern around the world. The biggest difference is the reaction of the two countries to their failures. South Korea openly admitted that the launch failed to meet its aim of putting a satellite into low Earth orbit. North Korea is still insisting that their satellite is up their orbiting the Earth and broadcasting Korean songs despite the fact that the rest of the world watched it crash into the Pacific. The South Koreans definitely have the more mature approach.

It's good to see South Korea is keen on developing a space industry, and this is a big step following getting their first astronaut (or should it be cosmonaut since she went up with the Russians?) last year. I look forward to seeing further developments.

Interesting Legal Situation

An interesting situation has arisen in England in the past few days regarding the Video Classification Act of 1984. This is the act that requires videos to be classified before they can be sold and that you can't sell videos to people who are too young to watch them.

It seems that because the government at the time didn't follow all the procedures required for it to become a law, the law never actually came into effect. This in practice didn't cause many problems because everyone was acting as though the law was real, and movies got classified and most people didn't try to sell porn to children, so all went well.

Even now don't expect an apocalypse of unclassified movies being sold to anyone. Businesses have agreed to follow the laws requirements on a voluntary basis until new legislation is passed later this year.

The tricky part though is that a number of people have been prosecuted under this law and found guilty and punished. The government has dropped all current prosecutions, but is claiming that existing convictions under the act can not be challenged. This is where I strongly disagree with them. If there was no law, there can not have been a crime. While it is regrettable, if we are to have the rule of law, then the convictions should be overturned.

This is also a reminder that there should be more scrutiny of the process of lawmaking. This law is not exactly the most important of laws, and fixing the problems that have occurred won't be too difficult. But imagine if something big were to be found not to be a law. Like murder, or even worse, taxes. Imagine what it would do to the government if it were found out that there was no tax law for 25 years. Everyone would jump on that demanding their money back. The government would be so screwed.

There should also be more active review of laws. This mistake was picked up by the Digital Britain scheme, which is something to do with improving internet access in the UK. If there had of been someone regularly reviewing the existing laws it may have been picked up earlier.

District 9

On Sunday I went and saw District 9 with some friends (bonus points for organising something social). I quite enjoyed the movie. It was not a feel good movie, but presented a harsh reality showing the depths people can sink to. It is not a movie to entertain, but a movie to make you think (although I've read a few things that show that some viewers didn't quite get that).

None of the human characters are particularly noble. Wikus is a bureaucrat who thinks he's doing something good does so through the eyes of petty racism, and does not question the things he does. He makes jokes about burning egg sacs, threatens kids to get the parents to sign eviction notices, and making fun of the poor conditions the aliens endure. The best that can be said is that he is not intentionally bad, he's just not thinking about what he does.

Others are not so nice. The higher ups at MultiNational United (really creative name there, although I had an interview today with a company owned by United Technologies Corporation, so perhaps it is art imitating life) are blatantly trying to exploit the aliens, and have no qualms using an alien as a target while trying out weapons, or dissecting Wikus to learn what has happened to him. This is made especially heartless given that the boss who orders this is Wikus' father-in-law.

The only noble character in the piece is Christopher Johnson, the main alien character. He has spent twenty years trying to get his people off Earth, and was almost ready when Wikus messed up his plans. He is willing to help Wikus when he sees what has happened to him. He also stands in contrast with pretty much all of the other aliens shown (except for his son and accomplice), who don't show much drive or sense. I wonder if he is perhaps a member of the leadership group that was speculated to have died out in the opening to explain why the aliens arrived in the condition they were in.

The action sequences are pretty good, and the weapons are awesome, though quite brutal. The conclusion is a bit ambiguous, but this works well with the whole making you think thing.

Knowing about the real life District 6 adds more to the understanding of the film.

District 9 is the second best movie I've seen this year (only Watchmen beats it) and is the closest to something not adapted from a previous work I've seen in a long time (it is based on a short film by the same production team so it's close enough for me).

After the movie we had dinner at a Turkish restaurant on Southbank which was really good (I really like Turkish food. It's a good combination of meat, simple salad, and some bread and some rice. Pretty much my ideal meal.) Overall it was a good evening out.

Some Thoughts on the American Heath Care Debate

The big issue in American politics right now is health care reform, and a lot of stuff is going on related to this. I want to comment on a few things that have happened.

First, is this little clipAll I can say is "Well done, Sir, well done." The level of hyperbole that has come up at some of these town hall meetings is huge, and some of these people need to just shut up rather than asking questions to score points and fear monger. They should also think before using words like Nazi, especially when asking a gay Jew why they support Nazi policies.

Next is people bringing guns to these meetings. Sure, it can be reassuring to have a gun, it can give you a feeling of power, but are you really that scared of rational debate and your fellow citizens? There have been several cases of people bringing guns along to town hall meetings held by Barack Obama. It's not clear if the people were allowed into the meeting with the guns, but they were definitely allowed into the area outside the venues. And Fox News then goes and puts these people with guns up on TV to show just how crazy some of them are. This also shows a big change from the previous administration. How do you think the Bush government would have reacted to people bringing guns to their events? Given how they reacted to signs and t-shirts, I wouldn't have wanted to find out for myself.

The whole "Death Panel" fiasco is another highlight for those who enjoy seeing stupidity run free. Starting with the woman who writes her own comedy bits, Sarah Palin, who recanted her claims the next day, but had unleashed a beast that just will not die. The relevant piece of the legislation merely allows for people to get reimbursed for talking to their doctor about options for family members who are in a fatal condition. It's just letting you talk to your doctor. No one but you is making the decisions. And in another piece of irony, this piece of the bill that is getting so many Republicans upset was introduced by a Republican. If I were a cynical, suspicious bastard I'd think it was introduced to provoke some outrage.

Finally, there is the reluctance from a great swath of the American people to even consider the idea of making sure everyone has adequate health care as something worth doing. Given the problems of the current system it seems clear that reform is needed, and yet they don't want to do it.

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Writing time: 20 minutes
Time since last post: a week or so
Current media: Leverage

Good Idea, Bad Idea

Good Idea: Take a basic premise of an old tv show, add depth, subtlety, great production values all round, and create a great new tv show.

Bad Idea: Riding on the coat tails of the previous, make a movie that ignores all the good stuff and goes back to the original.

This comes following the news that Glen Larson, the creator of the original series of Battlestar Galactica is going to make a new movie that will be another reimagining that more closely follows the original.

This I think is a bad idea. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a Battlestar Galactica movie, but I want a new Battlestar Galactica movie. A movie following the original series is going to have some major problems. First, a lot of people will show up expecting the new show, not the old one, which will cause a lot of people to be disappointed. Second, both the new and the old show were products of their times. The ethos of the original series does not resonate today like it did thirty years ago. Finally, there is also the fact that this seems a blatant move to cash in on the new series. Without the new series, there is absolutely no chance that this movie would be considered. The new series has an incredible amount of popular support which will be squandered by this film.

Glen Larson may have the legal rights to make this film but that doesn't mean he should do so. The reasons above show why doing so will be detrimental to the franchise overall. Glen Larson and Bryan Singer might make a truckload of cash, but at a cost.

I've heard similar news about a possible Buffy movie that will be made without Joss Whedon, about which I'm also doubtful. The continuation of the franchise without the involvement of the creative heart behind it might make a buck, but it will disappoint the fans and lose some of the faith they have in the franchise. I'd like to see something that lives up to the high level of quality set by the series already, rather than something that shares the name and nothing else.

End Post
Writing time: 20 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: South Park

For the Future

This new train service from Islamabad to Istanbul via Iran (the Triple I perhaps) looks as though it could be a great train journey sometime in the future when things in that region are calmer all round. I'm also going to wait until the time it takes is less than the 14 days it's currently going to take.

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Writing time: 5 minutes
Time since last post: almost a week
Current media: None

Ekka Time

Yesterday I went to the Ekka. This is the third or fourth time that I can recall going to the Ekka (twice as a kid I think, and once while at university). Being a poor unemployed slob though, my method of acquiring entry was not the usual payment of cash. As I am at the moment somewhat richer in time than money, I got a free ticket by volunteering at an ice cream stand raising funds for the Prince Charles Hospital.

My shift started at 5, but I arrived much earlier so as to have a chance to enjoy the show. I was however disappointed by the show. It was a lot smaller than I remember it being, and very little caught my interest. The food pavilion had a lot of stuff I don't like, and the one thing that caught my eye, some apple tea, did not taste anything like the apple tea I had in Turkey despite the vendor's claims. The animal displays were lame and not surprisingly reminded me of the smell of a farm. Sideshow alley has got all picky, with most games now having lots of rules like no leaning, no bank shots, etc, or being race type games where everyone pays and only one person wins a prize (and in the case of draws no one wins), and rides are no fun just on your own. Showbags, once objects of desire and full of awesome, now seem lame and horrendously overpriced.

After two or three hours of wandering around aimlessly, I found a spot in the stands and read for a while and wrote up some more of my travels, before having an expensive dinner. Working at the ice cream stand wasn't too bad, and I did get some free ice cream as well. I started out working the cream gun to finish up the ice creams (they have a pretty good assembly line going), but spent most of my time working out front selling the ice creams.

One good thing happened on my way out as well. While I was passing the krispy kreme donut stand a man leaving the stand yelled out they were giving out free donuts. I paused and asked the people at the stand if he was kidding. They said yes, and I accepted that and was about to move on, when they said I could have some donuts anyway, which I didn't turn down. I'm still not sure if he was kidding or not.

I caught the train home and got back just in time for the late showings of Buffy and Angel on Sci-fi, although I did miss Stargate SG-1.

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Writing time:
Time since last post:
Current media:

A Question About Arrow's Impossibility Theorem

Arrow's Impossibility Theorem is a theorem about voting methods that says that any voting method devised cannot have all of the following properties

• unanimity, if everyone prefers A over B, then A will be ranked higher than B.
• independence of irrelevant alternatives, if everyone prefers A over B, if asked to choose between A, B, and C, A should still rank higher than B regardless of how C is ranked.
• transitivity, if everyone prefers A over B and B over C, then A should be preferred over C.
• non-dictatorship, there should be no individual whose choices determine the overall results for society.

Now, I certainly agree that the first three are essential for a good voting method, put I'm uncertain against the fourth. Obviously, having a voting system that just follows the choices of one voter is a bad idea, but this is not the way the criteria is generally considered. The proofs I've read through has shown that if one starts changing voters preferences in a systematic but arbitrary way, there will be some voter who when they change their vote, the final result will change as well, and this voter in fact acts as a dictator.

The existence of such a dictator does not seem to be such a big problem. This is not a dictator who gets to decide the outcome. This is a dictator who is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Also, it is impossible to determine beforehand which voter will be the dictator. Finally, in a real election, there will generally be many people whose vote matches the final outcome, but that does not mean that only their vote determined the result.

Given that I don't really see why the existence of such an arbitrary dictator is a big problem, it does detract from the significance of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem. It's interesting, but not really relevant to anything (admittedly true of much of maths on first sight). If I were to design a voting method, I'd be more concerned about the transitivity property, which is much more troublesome just on its own.

End Post
Writing time: too long (I got distracted by cartoons)
Time since last post: (also too long, I'm going to try and write more, do something constructive with my unemployed time, and also get around to finishing my travel stuff)
Current media: I just turned the TV off

Another job application

Another experiment in doing something a bit different.

To Mark Gordon,
You need me for the Call Centre Operator position that you are looking to fill. Even a short look at what you want and what I can provide shows that I am exactly what you need.

*Excellent written and verbal communication skills - I am an author on two scientific papers while at university, have provided over the phone customer service to an uncountable number of people and have shared these skills with others while teaching English overseas

* Strong interpersonal skills - I am a genuinely friendly person, who while quiet, gets along well with pretty much everyone. I like to help out and make sure things go well for everyone.

* Previous customer service - I worked for over a year in an inbound call centre (on what was originally a six-week contract) where I consistently was the top of my group in providing high quality service while meeting key performance indicators such as average call time and adherence to schedule. Attention to detail, care for the customer and a quick mind were key to achieving this.

If you want me to solve your staffing problem by doing a great job, then call me straight away on xxxx xxxxxx and let me make your life just that little bit easier.

Yours sincerely,

The Abandoning God

The God came to our tribe when Man was still new on this world, as indeed it came to all the tribes of Man. And since the tribes of Man were young and not yet wise (there are some who would argue this is still the case), the God came to each tribe in the form they would be most receptive to.

The God never claimed to have created us. It was a traveler journeying between the stars, when it encountered Man for the first time. And when it saw Man, its heart was filled with joy and love and hope, for it saw in Man great potential, and because of its great love it bore for all beings, it chose to nurture Man, to help us grow in body, in mind, and in spirit.

The God was kind to the tribes of Man, and so when storms destroyed the crops of one tribe, the God made food appear from the sky to see them through the hard times until they could produce a new crop. The tribe was very grateful, and they praised the God. They kept praising the God throughout the harvest season, then the through the winter, then through the time of planting. They praised the God so much that they neglected to plant their crops that year, trusting in the God to look after them, and when their supplies ran low, they asked the God to provide them with more food.

The God, not wishing to see one of the tribes it loved suffer, once more gave them food for another year, and told them that they must once more plant their crops and provide for themselves. The tribe was grateful, and praised the God with even more zeal than ever. The whole tribe dedicated itself to building temples, monuments and statues in honour of the God, and in that year, not one grain of wheat was grown, not one sheep was herded, not one deer was hunted, nor one berry gathered.

And so the tribe once more ran out of food, and trusting in the God to continue looking after them. But by this time, the God had come to realise that by continuing to provide them with food it was causing them to neglect to look after themselves, and that they would not change their ways while it took care of all their needs. So, even though it broke the God's heart, the God did not give them any food. The people of the tribe cried out in despair, calling on the God to help them once more as it had done before. The God felt the pain of those who no longer had food for themselves or their children, but forced itself not to help them out.

The people of the tribe continued to call upon the God to help them, but their prayers were unanswered. Some believed that they had somehow upset the God, and called for greater praise of the God. Others in the tribe decided that the God had abandoned them, and set about scavenging whatever food they could from the nearby forests and plains, and traded some of the tribe's treasures for food from their neighbours. As time passed, more and more of the tribe who were able joined them, and when the time was right, they planted crops and tended to them. The God saw this and was glad that the tribe was once more self sufficient.

Things went well for the tribes of Man and the God for many years after this, until the tribe of Tralgan crossed the Sea of Baran and encountered the tribe of Sorthop. These two tribes were quite unusual in that both lived far from any other tribes, and neither tribe had met another tribe before this. When the two tribes met, they were initially wary, but contact between the two increased and they began to learn about each other. Things went sour however, when the two tribes learnt about each others beliefs. For although both tribes had been visited by the God, and had been blessed by its love, each tribe perceived it in a different way and could not see that the God that loved them was the same God that also loved the other tribe.

The conflict between the two tribes started out small, but each attack was returned with great viciousness and brutality, the kind that can only be carried out by those confident in the fact that a real and powerful God was on their side. After several months of escalation, the two tribes met at what should have been a great battle, but as the two tribes were about to engage in mortal combat, the God appeared between them as a gigantic being and spoke to the two tribes.

"This must stop," the God spoke, "Both the tribe of Tralgan and the tribe of Sorthop are precious to me. I have watched you grow with pride, and cared for you, but now you are about to make a great mistake. Each of you thought that I loved you only, and only you loved me, and you sought to spread my love by sword and spear and shield, which are never the instruments of love. Go back to your homes and know that I love all the tribes of Man, and am loved by all the tribes."

The two tribes went back to their homes, and there they found raised up a stone monolith, just as tribes all over the world found stone monoliths, all of them engraved with the last words the God gave to us.

"Know that while I love all of you, I can not remain with you while you are young. My presence among you disrupts your growth. I have become a source of division instead of union. I have sought to protect you from harm, but in doing so have harmed you more. No longer shall I walk with the tribes of man as I have in years before. I shall journey between the stars once more, but I shall continue to watch you, until you are ready to be with me again. Remember what I have taught you, and one day, when you are ready, we will be together again."

And that is how the God abandoned us, to let us find our own path, to grow and improve ourselves so that one day we will be worthy of the love the God has for us still. One day, we too will journey among the stars and there we will be with the God once more.

A Funny Lady

"Her words suggest that she is by no means intelligent," the spokesman said, quoted by state news agency KCNA.

"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping. Anyone making misstatements has to pay for them."

And just who is this rather unliked woman? Hillary Clinton.

Who doesn't like her (this time)? The North Koreans. The above quotes are from a North Korean spokesman a speech by Clinton in Thailand once again saying noone wants North Korea to have nuclear weapons.

This sort of ad hominem attack from North Korea isn't that surprising. There's not much else they can do.

And when even Burma is against you, you know you're unpopular.

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Writing time: 10 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: Leverage 2x01

Chemistry is fun

There are reasons certain bottles have warnings on them, although they obviously can't take into consideration all possibilities. I imagine few chemicals would warn you not to use them on an air mattress and then use an electric air pump to fill it the next day. But apparently some bottles do need this warning, because a guy in Germany has managed to blow up his apartment with some car tyre solvent, an inflatable mattress and an electric air pump.

I'm sure there are many other interesting combinations of household goods that can have similarly catastrophic consequences, but I'm not going to try.

End Post
Writing time: 5 minutes
Time since last post: longer than I'd like
Current media: Penny Arcade playing Dungeons and Dragons

You can not make this shit up

We're all familiar with the grilled cheese toast Mary, the Mary tree stump, and the oh so delicious Mary on a pizza tray, but times are changing. Mary is getting some competition from none other than recently deceased Michael Jackson. Yes, Michael Jackson has turned up on a tree in Stockton. Despite the tree having been there for 22 years, the face has apparently just appeared. Or so claim the family whose property the tree is on. Personally, I don't see it.

End Post
Writing time: 10 minutes (I had to search for some Mary links)
Time since last post: three days I think
Current media: none (cable tv runs the same episodes around noon and 10 pm ish so I've already seen tonights Stargate SG-1)

This is not representative

To Aaron Davis,
I would like to apply for the Medical Typist position that you have advertised on Seek.com.au (http://seek.com.au/users/apply/index.ascx?Sequence=49&PageNumber=1&JobID=15678153).

I'm a proficient typist through regular use of computers in a number of roles such as customer service and data entry where accuracy and speed make life easier for you, and typing while talking and, more relevantly to this role, listening is an important skill.

Also while working in customer service it was important to comply with national privacy legislation, a requirement I took quite seriously.

I have a large vocabulary in which some of medical jargon has entered not through any formal study, but through more of a culture route, being a fan of medical shows such as Scrubs and House (I'm sure your workplace is just as fun). My knowledge of cardiology terminology is a bit limited, with words like ventricle, ocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, and atherosclerosis being more tongue twisters than conversational terms.

I'm a bit of a jack of all trades looking for something new and this position caught my eye as a role where I can learn about a new field second hand (I like to know stuff, but I know I'm not going to become a doctor just by typing up their notes). I am a quick learner, especially when it comes to computers, which I have been using for almost as long as I can remember (my reliable memories go back to about 1987, the year I started school).

As with just about all human beings, I can work well on my own and in a group, although I do tend to prefer working on my own, which doesn't seem too much of a disadvantage for a typist.

Attached is a copy of my current resume, and references are available on request. I on call 24 hours at xxxx xxxxxx and I look forward to discussing this exciting opportunity with you soon.

Yours sincerely,

I have a rant

At the moment, since I'm job hunting, I'm sending a lot of emails to recruitment agencies. These are the companies that have taken over pretty much the whole hiring process (and in some cases the actual employment bit as well).

I tend to feel that these companies are a kind of leech, as they do a job that used to be done by people inside a company, but now they pay some outsider to do it for them. For a start this does not make much financial sense to me, as instead of paying an employee to do this, they pay another company to pay an employee to do this, and of course the other company has to make a bit of profit on the deal, so overall it should be a bit cheaper to hire yourself a good recruiter, make sure they know your company well, and get them to do your hiring for you.

But it is not this that has roused me to typing. Today I came across a whole new kind of beast in the recruitment industry. Recruitment for recruitment. Companies that recruit recruiters. Uber-vampires who suck blood from regular vampires.

Now, I may not be in the best place to say, but surely a company whose job it is to find employees for other companies should already be well set up to find good employees. I mean, if they can't find good people for themselves, why should I believe they can find good employees for me.

Now hopefully no recruiters find this and decide to completely blacklist me (although at times it seems they've already done this), but quite frankly they are at best an unnecessary evil

The Way to Go

I have previously written of how I don't want to leave this earth. This, however, seems a much better way to go. Death by chocolate (well, blunt trauma to the head, but close enough).

End Post
Writing time: 2 minutes
Time since last post: too long
Current media: none, although I have been rewatching season 9 and 10 of Stargate SG-1 (the Ben Browder years, or alternatively, the no-Macvyver years)

A Dangerous Job

You wouldn't think that astrologer would be a job that would get you arrested, would you? Mocked, yes, scorned even, but arrested? But that is what has happened to Chandrasiri Bandara, one of the most popular astrologers in Sri Lanka.

And why was he arrested? He predicted that the president of Sri Lanka will be forced out of office in the next few months and published it in a major newspaper.

A bit of an over reaction on the part of the president, but if I were him I'd be wondering why my private astrologer, and he has one, hadn't brought this up. Surely two astrologers would read the stars and come to the same conclusion. I mean it's the same stars and planets.

Even if you don't take astrology seriously, it is problematic that the government of Sri Lanka feels it's OK to arrest people who state they think the government might be in trouble, even if the claim is based on something as unreliable as astrology. What happens to the political analysts who can see the writing on the wall, or journalists writing about the government in a less than positive manner?

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Writing time: 10 minutes
Time since last post: 20 minutes
Current media: none

Who would have thought it would be this easy?

Want some plutonium? Try here.

I will give them some credit for being honest (or at least being worried about law suits) as they carry this statement "Please note that any reference to a disease name does not indicate a treatment for this disease. Helios remedies are without therapeutic indications." And yet somehow people still buy stuff from them. Perhaps the plutonium collectors are keeping them afloat.

I'm Back

So I'm back in Brisbane. At the moment I'm holed up at my uncle's place, taking advantage of the free internet and cheap board. I've not gone out yet, as I'm hoarding my meager reserves of money ($150 in credit on my credit card and $30 in cash I've borrowed from my uncle).

I got in contact with Centrelink today to get on the dole. I have also been applying for quite a lot of jobs. In fact, I started before I left England, and had a phone interview today for a job with Flight Centre. It was rather brief, and they will contact me in a few days to let me know if I'm to go onto a real interview or not. I have to go into some pseudo-centrelink thing tomorrow and call them up again because their computer was broken today. I'll go into the city afterward and drop of some resumes at different places.

While in the city I'll try and pick up a new sim card for a phone I've come into possession of. I may also see if my library card still works.

I know I still haven't put all my travel stuff up yet, partly because I haven't written it yet, but it is on my list of things to do. I will however postdate stuff so that it turns up as though it were posted before this post. I hope that won't cause to many problems for those few regular readers.

End Post
Writing time: 15 minutes
Time since last post: who knows?
Current media: Doug Anthony All Stars - The Unlimited Uncollected Sterling Deluxe Edition

Leaving London

7-11/6/2009

Sunday after arriving back in London on my way from Canary Wharf to JP's place I stopped in at a kebab shop I'd been to a few times to get dinner, and walked into a loud dispute as a young punk kid was arguing with the owner. Neither party was entirely dignified, but the owner was in the right. The affair ended with the kid throwing a chair at the owner which bounced off the counter before nicking off. Sunday evening also involved some contingency planning , as after I had booked my flight for Wednesday around noon, the London underground decided to go on strike for 24 hours starting at 6pm on Tuesday. After looking into various options of public and not so public transport from Canary Wharf on the Wednesday, I decided that a 6 am bus was not worth it and booked a hostel near Paddington Station for Tuesday night.

On Monday I did two things I had kind of done on my first day in London. I started by watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. I found out that they pretty much play different songs every day, and I got to be there the day they played "Living La Vida Loca". I managed to get a reasonably good spot, only one person was between me and the fence, and they were short, so I was able to get my hands through the fence to take better photos. While I was watching, I had a few evil thoughts pass through my mind. The first was "I wonder what would happen if I threw a tennis ball in there?" and "Would I be able to be lost in the crowd?", and these evolved into "I wonder what would happen if I threw a tennis ball in there and yelled out 'Grenade'?" I'm pretty sure the results would not be good for me.

After the guards had been changed I walked through a park to Westminster Abbey. I was about to go in straight away, but noticed the last guided tour of the day was in about 45 minutes, so I decided to have a relaxed lunch and come back for the tour. For lunch I had some subway which I ate sitting up against one of the statues in Trafalgar Square. The tour of Westminster Abbey was led by a prior of the abbey (I think), and while not a priest, he wore a priest like robe. The tour showed off a number of famous dead people buried in the Abbey, including but not limited to, a few kinds and queens, scientists, military leaders, and writers. We also got to sit the choir seats near the Queen's special seat in the church, learnt a bit of the history of the building, and details of the coronation including how packed it was on the day.

On leaving the Abbey I passed the Houses of Parliament, and considered going in to see the house of commons, but after being told the line was about an hour long decided to leave it for tomorrow. I then read a newspaper in a park next door before crossing the Thams to find the Udderbelly to pick up some tickets for the show that night. After picking up the tickets I relaxed sitting on a park bench near the London Eye looking over the river at Big Ben.

This is where JP met me about an hour later. We had dinner at a place I'd noticed earlier that had a special on Mondays of half price meals and cheap cocktails. I had a nice grilled chicken breast and a Tennessee iced tea (like a Long Island iced tea but with Jack Daniel's instead of tequila) for a quite reasonable price for central London. The show we saw that night was Jimeoin, which was very funny, although there were more funny faces that I expected.

Tuesday was a bit of a disaster. I started out by packing my stuff and sorting out the things I'd just ship home. Then I went to buy a box to put that stuff in. The first map of Canary Wharf I passed said the post office was at one place, but after going there I simply found a newer map saying the post office was somewhere else. After finally finding the post office I bought a box, and went back to fill it up. I returned with the box and tried to post it, only to find that they wanted 80 pounds to ship it back to Australia. I felt that was a bit ridiculous, so decided to just carry most of the stuff on my person and hope I didn't hit the baggage limit at the airport. By the time I'd sorted all this out I figured it would be too late to head into Westminster to see the parliament and actually have some time to spend there, rather than in travelling there and back or waiting in line.

So I relaxed at JP's place until around 6ish, when we tried to catch the DLR to Andrea's place, but the line was closed due to a a fire so we caught a crowded bus instead. Not fun when you're wearing a huge coat and carrying a large backpack. We then drove from Andrea's place into town, and met Tyrone and Andrea in Leicester Square behind the national gallery. We had a nice dinner nearby, and then we drove Tyrone back to his place, before I got dropped off at the hostel, which was rather poorly marked from outside. I got checked in and sorted out and got some sleep.

When I woke up in the morning and prepared for a shower I realised I'd left my towel at JP's, but using a trick I'd picked up, used one of my sheets as a towel instead. After breakfast I walked down to Paddington station and caught a train out to Heathrow. I checked in without hassle (my bag was just under the wight limit), got an emergency row seat, and sat down to wait for my flight. I spent my last few pounds on some snacks and painkillers for the flight. No major hassles with customs except for a comment that I didn't really look like my picture, although that never seemed to be an issue entering the country. I sat next to some nice people on the first leg, and spent some time chatting with them further while we were waiting for our connection.

The only hasssle transferring was that I waited until the gate was announced before going to get a hot chocolate from Starbucks before heading for the gate, not realising that there was a security checkpoint between the Satrbucks and the gate. I had to show my receipt fo rthe drink and they insisted on x-raying it, and it spilt a bit inside the box, but I did get my drink through the checkpoint. I didn't get an emergency row seat on the second flight, but I did have an empty seat on one side and the aisle on the other. The flight as a whole was pretty empty. Australian customs was pretty easy, and once through there I met my uncle, with whom I've been staying since.

Grim Glasgow

5-6/6/2009

In Glasgow I got a room in a large hostel (I'm pretty sure it used to be a hotel). I shared a room with another Australian, a Maltese guy, and a Malaysian. We talked for a while about life and traveling (the Maltese gentleman had been traveling for about 10 years). I left after an hour or two of this to get dinner and see Terminator Salvation. It was an OK movie, and I was a bit surprised to see Chekov again so soon. It would have been a lot better if the twist wasn't so well advertised, or indeed advertised at all, and Christian Bale was somewhat unnecessary for this film.

On Saturday I went out with the Malaysian I shared the room with to the transport museum. We walked there from the hostel and it was a bit further than we though, but we made it in the end, although we did make a stop at a cafe along the way when the weather got a bit wet. The museum had a large collection of trucks, trains, cars, motorcycles, model boats and more. They also had a crazy taxi machine, at which I had a go for nostalgia's sake.

Then we went to a nearby art gallery/museum which had a variety of displays and was not bad, but suffered from comparison to all the other similar places I'd been to that just massively outdid it. It did host another Doctor Who exhibit, and although it was supposed to have stuff that the Cardiff exhibit did not, I didn't feel it was worth going to this one as well. By that time it was getting late in the afternoon, so we caught a bus back to the hostel, stopping by at a KFC for lunch.

Elegant Edinburgh

1-5/6/09

Monday was an early start to get out to Victoria bus terminal to catch my bus to Edinburgh. The bus ride took about 9 hours, and there were no breaks along the way except to briefly let passengers on or off. My hostel in Edinburgh was pretty good, although I did have a few hassles with the swipe card to get into my room.

Tuesday started out with my favourite thing to do in a new city. I went on a free walking tour. It started about halfway along the Royal Mile in old Edinburgh, worked its way up past a big church, the town hall, a spot in the street that the locals spit on because way back when it was a toll booth, an ill fated statue of a king, past the writers museum, up to Edinburgh Castle, where they were already putting together the seats for the Tattoo, then down the hill to the local execution spot, where there are now a number of pubs and cafes. Probably because a woman who survived the scaffolds set up a pub nearby to taunt those about to get hung. We stopped here for lunch. I got a pork roll from a shop that only sells pork rolls (well drinks as well, but that's it). Each day the shop gets a whole roast pig and they usually sell it all. I got a roast pork roll with apples sauce and gravy, and washed it down with an IRN BRU, the local sugar water (emphasis on the sugar). It's a bright orange colour and tastes like old fashioned cola (not the coke kind).

After lunch we went to a graveyard, saw the statue of the dog who kept waiting for its dead owner for years, the cafe where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter, then over the hill past the money museum to a park below Edinburgh Castle where the tour finished. After the tour I went to the Scottish National Gallery, which was OK, but didn't have any names I recall and was kind of tiny compared to the British National Gallery.

Next I went over to the Scott Monument, which resembles a gothic church spire all on its own. I climbed up the monument, and got some good views of the city and the castle from there. The steps were quite narrow though, and near the top I had to squeeze to get through.

In the evening I went on another walking tour (alas, not a free one), the ghost tour. This tour took us to another graveyard, across a bridge notorious for suicides, the hill where the doorway to the faerie realm is meant to be, the Scots attempt at a replica of the Parthenon which never got past one side, and would have finished with the graveyard next to Holyrood Abbey, but that was closed since a Royal was in town. The tour finished with a free drink at a pub that was having a karaoke night. I hung around and chatted with some German tourists before singing one song (I come from a land down under) and got a free shot of flavoured vodka for my efforts.

On Wednesday I walked along the Royal Mile, starting with the tartan factory up near the castle, and worked my way down taking in along the way the writers museum, the City of Edinburgh museum, the toy museum, St Giles Cathedral which houses the chapel of the Order of the Thistle, and finished up down at Holyrood Abbey and the Scottish Parliament. I went into the parliament and got to see government in action. (or is that inaction?)

I listened to a number of speeches regarding an extension of the hate crime act to include disabled people. While the speeches were being made there were perhaps 8-10 members present, all of them said something along the way. Then the time for the vote came, and suddenly all these extra people were present, although still onyl about two thirds of the chamber was full. There were a few votes on procedural matters, then a vote on the bill that was discussed, and then nearly everyone left again, leaving a few to talk about unpaid carers and their contributions to society. While I was listening to the parliament I decided to sketch the chamber, since photography was not allowed. As I got to the point where I would have had to decide if I was going to go to the extra effort of putting in lots of detail, one of the guards came up and told me I wasn't allowed to sketch in the chamber, which resolved that dilemma.

In the evening I got talking with the other guests in my room, and we ended up going out to a nearby pub to have dinner.

Thursday I spent most of my time in the Scottish History Museum, which covered the history of Scotland from prehistoric times, through Celtic, Roman, and Viking influences, then onto the Enlightenment, industrial revolution and onto the modern day. An interesting place by all accounts. That evening was quieter as all the people I'd gone out with the previous evening had left. I had begun to think I'd have the whole room to myself before someone else arrived around midnight.

Friday was to be my last day in Edinburgh and I started out with something a bit different. I went on the whiskey experience. It starts out a bit gimmicky, with a ghost train like ride, but instead of ghosts scaring you it was a "spirit" telling you how whiskey is made. After this it got better as next was a talk on the qualities of the different varieties of whiskey and how they depend on the region the whiskey comes from. They also had scented bottles to illustrate the smells of the different whiskeys. After smelling these I decided I wanted to try a lowland whiskey which was supposed to have a flowery taste and smell, as I had quite liked the smell of the relevant scented bottle. The actual smell however was the usual strong alcohol scent and nothing like the heather smell of the bottle.

Before the tasting though we moved from the presentation room into a vault in which the largest collection of whiskey in the world is kept, over three thousand unopened bottles going back over 100 years at least. The collection was given to the exhibit by an elderly Brazilian collector for whom it was a lifetime endeavour, and he was worried that his children would split it up, or worse drink it, after he died. The price of the collection is almost incalculable, but just the insurance bill is a ridiculous sum.

After the whiskey experience I went to the brass rubbing centre, and tried my hand at a rubbing of a pattern from the Book of Kells. My rubbing is a bit rough, as it took me a while to catch on to the symmetry of the pattern and so choose consistent colours for different bits. Finally I went to the Royal Bank of Scotland museum, which was samll, but it did clarify why there are three different types of Scottish bank notes.

After this I collected by bags from the hostel and caught a bus to Glasgow.

Lively London

26-31/5/2009

Tuesday was a bleh day due to my tooth and ear. I visited a doctor (well, nurse practitioner) who couldn't see any infections, but there was a lot of earwax. The rest of the day included doing laundry.

Wednesday I returned to the St Paul's area of London. My main plan for the day was a tour of the watchmakers guild museum led by the curator. I arrived well before the start time so I checked out a few other places to fill in the time. I started with the guild hall art gallery, which had a few nice pieces, and tucked away in the basement were the remains of the London colosseum, which were found when they were renovating the building. After the gallery I went into the guild church, which is small, and has some nice stain glass windows. Along one of the wall the stained glass was the coat of arms of various commonwealth nations.


I then walked a block or two to the London museum, and resumed my exploration with the Roman section, and then through the medieval section. This brought me to the time for the tour, so I walked back to the watchmakers guild museum.

The tour started out with about half a dozen people, and by the end there were about 15 people there. The museum was a tightly packed room full of cabinets interspersed with larger clocks. The collection of watches goes back several centuries, as does the collection itself, though not at that location. Initially the collection was kept in a trunk stored at the tavern the guild met at. The earliest acquisitions were from shortly after the guild was formed in 1631.

The curator was Sir someone or other, and I'm pretty sure this is the most contact I've had with someone who has been knighted.

Thursday was a big ticket item, the Tower of London. I bluffed my way through for a student discount, but it was still pricey at fourteen and a half pounds (not so expensive compared to most of Europe, but since so many things were free in London, it stands out). It was definitely well worth it though.

I entered the tower about 5 minutes before a demonstration of the different defenses used back in the day was about to begin. This was held on a grassy area that used to be the moat. It was quite entertaining. I got picked out by one of the presenters to be the lord of the crowd, which mostly involved crying "havoc" every now and then. I did not know the original significance of the word before then and now the line "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war" has more meaning than just sounding cool. After the havoc section of the demonstration, there was a kind of trebuchet, but instead of having a big rock as a counterweight, there are a few ropes that people pull on to send things flying. I wanted to have a go, but since I'd already had some fun crying havoc, I thought I should let others have the fun. But not enough people volunteered, so I decided what the hell and volunteered. They had a few targets set up, but a dodgy batch of water balloons meant all we hit was the crowd as the balloons exploded in mid air.


After the fun with siege engines, I went on a tour led by a yeoman warder of the tower. The tour took in the main sections of the tower, but left the ones with interesting collections inside for later. The tour finished in the tower chapel, where there are many corpses buried that lack skulls.

After the tour I went into the building that houses the crown jewels. The first room contained seats for each of the kings and queens of England back to a bit before William the Conqueror. Each chair had the names and arms of a monarch in order. It was interesting to see the progression of how the arms changed over the centuries. The next few rooms showed videos detailing the various items that make up the crown jewels, and one showing them in use during the coronation of QEII. It was a bit surprising to me, as someone who has only known the queen as a nice old lady, to find out that she looked pretty good back in the day. Then it was onto the jewels which were in cases with travelators on both sides to stop people looking at them for too long. Then it was through the vault where the jewels are kept at night which has doors that are about a foot thick.

The next building I explored was a corner of the tower and contained a collection of lesser crowns, most those of queens over the last two hundred years. Then it was onto the exciting stuff, weapons. In the central keep there was a display of arms and armour that belonged to Henry VIII. The armour makes his girth as a function of time quite clear. His collection of swords and armour were quite impressive.

After this I made a circuit of complex visiting spots I wanted to see in the short time I had left before closing. This included the execution spot of VIPs like Mary, Queen of Scots, the tower ravens, the tower walls, and some other bits that just seemed old. I did like the metal sculptures of soldiers defending the walls spread around the place. I left the tower just before it closed for the day and crossed the road to the spot where public executions were held, which was next to the memorial for the merchant marine. To end the day I walked back along the Thames to Canary Wharf for the evening.

Friday I headed out to Greenwich, home of the Royal Observatory and home of Greenwich Mean Time. It was a short walk from the DLR station. I first explored the Maritime museum, which was interesting, but nothing outstanding. Then it was up to the observatory. I stood with my feet across the prime meridian, and then went into the museum. There were various observation rooms, and of course a collection of clocks, the highlight of which were the Harrison clocks which solved the longitude problem. Very impressive. The watchmakers guild museum had a few of Harrison's lesser pieces, but to see these was fantastic. There were also a few telescopes that were used by royal astronomers over the years, which were the basis for the different prime meridians over the years (the line itself is based on the location of the observatory's main telescope, and has shifted a few times as new telescopes were installed). The view from the hill the observatory is atop is rather nice.

I went back down the hill to an art gallery that is housed in a building that was originally a royal palace, and then became a school for orphans of sailors in the royal navy. The art, of course, had a maritime theme. The person at the front desk insisted that I get a ticket, despite the fact that admission was free.

On my way back I walked to where the Cutty Sark is, but due to restoration work I could not see it. I then walked along the Thames to Canary Wharf, but as I got close to my destination it became clear that I was on the wrong side of the river, and the nearest bridges were back at Greenwich or at the Tower of London, neither of which appealed too much. I instead headed to a nearby tube station , but along the way remembered with dread that the station was one of these along the closed east city line. I managed to catch a bus to a working tube station, and eventually made it back to Canary Wharf on the right side of the river.

Saturday was another road trip, though a much shorter one than the previous weekend. Andrea, JP and I went out to Salisbury. We got to the town around 1ish, and began by getting lunch. We then went in search of the tourist office to better plan things. Along the way we saw some street performers doing some sort of upper class twit act which was rather amusing. At the tourist office we found out that there was a festival going on, and we tried to get tickets to a show called "Daleks Stole My Doctor Who Scarf", but alas it was sold out. We then made our way to Salisbury Cathedral, which is the possessor of one of the tallest spires in England, a nice baptismal font, excellent stained glass windows, and a Magna Carta. I did try to read it, but the writing is incredibly small and styles have changed a bit since those days.

Then it was onto the reason why everyone goes to Salisbury, Stonehenge. It was a lot smaller than I expected. The audioguide was saying how difficult it was to build, and then said it was built at around the same time as the pyramids, which I think most would agree are much more impressive. We circled around the stones taking lots of photos. Near the heelstone, JP noticed something attached to the fence we thought was a geocache. After Stonehenge closed we walked along the fence to the object, and when there seemed to be little chance of being noticed, tried to take it off the fence. This was a bit tricky and at one stage involved the use of an umbrella after it was dropped and landed a little out of reach. The object was a slightly cut up beer can, and we were beguiled to find a piece of photographic paper inside it with some curves on it and what might have been stonehenge on a horizon. Later investigation led us to conclude that the contraption was a long exposure pin hole camera.

We then spent a little while playing with Andrea's remote controlled helicopter in a field across the road from Stonehenge, but there was too much wind for a controlled flight. On the way back to London we stopped in at Andrea's brother's place to drop off some stuff, and ended up playing some Wii Fit and MarioKart and getting Indian takeout for dinner that was pretty good.

Sunday was an easy going day. The morning was mostly spent planning a visit to Scotland. In the afternoon I visited Camden market which is an interesting place. I saw a lot of cool t-shirts, and had thought of buying one or two, but after buying some trick cards, a book (Godel, Escher, Bach) and Monty Python Fluxx, I decided my budget couldn't stand much more spending that afternoon. I also skipped the chance to buy some juggling clubs for much the same reason. Catching a train back was complicated by the fact that to reduce crowding, they don't let people catch the train at Camden Station on Sunday afternoons, so I had to walk to the next station to catch the train.

Road Trip

22-25/5/2009

As this weekend was to be a long weekend, Alan, Andrea, JP and I went on a continental road trip. After quickly packing some stuff for the weekend on Friday afternoon, I met JP at Canary wharf, and then we caught the DLR to Andrea's place, where Alan and JP keep their car since her apartment comes with a car park. We left London around 6ish and made our way through the London traffic to the motorway, and then drove down to Dover. We had dinner at a road stop along the way, and arrived at our hotel around 10:30 or so. We had a quiet drink in the hotel bar before calling it a night.

Saturday was an early start, catching an 8 o'clock ferry across the channel. There seemed to be absolutely no customs checks on either side and soon after docking in France we were on our way. We drove through the French countryside all morning, and arrived at San Quentin around noonish and had a short look around. We saw a few churches, but only went into one, and a rather abandoned square, and had a drink at one of the few cafes still open.

We then drove onto Reims, and made a detour to stop at a town along the way. It caught our attention for the medieval looking church and town up on a hill. We made our way up the hill and had a look at the church and the view from up high, both of which were quite good. Then it was onto Reims. We got there mid afternoon.

The first order of business was to find a place to stay, which we did with the help of the tourist office. Then we had a late lunch. I had a steak and chip sandwich which was greasy but filling. After lunch we visited the Notre Dame de Reims, which is a very impressive building with a rather disastrous history, having been damaged in numerous wars. The restoration work is good, but the materials make it obvious where it's done. The outside and the inside are both magnificent.

After getting our fill of the church we went on a drive around town to see the sights. This was made a little trickier by numerous one way streets and roads closed due to the construction of a new tram system, but this just meant we saw more stuff we might not have otherwise seen. We finally checked into our hotel for the night around 6ish, and relaxed for a while before going out for dinner at a nearby restaurant (there was a whole street of them a block from the hotel).

On Sunday we started by visiting a church on the outskirts of Reims, and came across a market on the streets outside, and never actually got to the church. We bought some pastries for breakfast. The we tried to start one of the scenic drives in the booklet we got from the tourist office the day before, but due to the fact all the tourist drive signs were for a different drive, we decided to do that one instead. Along the way we stopped in at two wineries, drank champagne at one of them, ignored numerous detour signs through a town where all the roads were being rebuilt, two towns separated by less than 30 seconds of driving, and a lot of nice countryside.

We returned to Reims for lunch, which we had at the same place as yesterday, and then began the drive to Luxembourg, the nominal destination of the road trip. I believe it was during this section of the trip that JP lost his hat while standing up in the back.

When we got to Luxembourg we drove around a little to get the lay of the land, including driving through a tunnel we were destined to drive through many times. We stopped for a while at a lookout looking over a deep valley and on the other side was an impressive building that turned out to be a bank. Stealing some wifi we found the name and address of a youth hostel, but without a map had very little (no) luck finding it. After about a half an hour we went to the train station to get a map and directions. It turns out the hostel was about 5 minutes drive from the lookout.

The hostel was a big professional (impersonal) hostel, which also acted as a conference centre. We easily booked a room for four. We had dinner downtown then returned to the lookout to see the view at night, which was just as good. The rest of the night was a bit unpleasant as my tooth and ear were acting up again and the pain was so bad I was not able to sleep, and spent most of the night playing Lego Star Wars (which like Lego Batman, is designed for obsessive compulsive types).

Monday consisted of roundabout drive back to London. We started by driving through the Luxembourg countryside looking for a village Alan had been told about. We found the village which was nice. It had a stream flowing through it, a dam, quaint buildings, a tower thing up on a hill and a few other bits and pieces. Since I wasn't feeling so good, I stayed and sat on the grass under a tree while Alan, Andrea and JP climbed the hill.

After the village we meandered our way to Brussels where we had lunch and bought petrol (at the same place). We had a bit of trouble finding our way out of Brussels, but once we were out we had no trouble making it to Calais with plenty of time. We filled some of the time by going to a supermarket and buying significant quantities of french wine. After settling up for fuel and ferry fares and such I still had a few euros left, and tried to find something that was exactly the amount I had left. I was unsuccessful and ended up buying a pack of mini fruit cakes.

Getting on the ferry, I once again was graced with all the welcome and hospitality that UK immigration is renowned for, or in other words I faced another inquisition, which was made a briefer than the first by the fact that there were three other people in the car who had no problems and a line of cars behind us. Across the channel we went through extremely lax customs who waved us through without a word about the boot full of booze and then it was back to London.

Lovely London

19-22/5/2009
Tuesday I headed to somewhere I'd been past several times, the National Gallery. This is another site that takes a full day to get close to taking in everything. It has a very nice collection, although not as vast as some other places I've been to. Highlights included Holbein's The Ambassadors, with space off to the right to properly view the skull that's there just because Holbein wanted to show off, a few da Vincis and Raphaels, and a bunch of other stuff that obviously wasn't that memorable to me.

Wednesday, continuing the art theme, I went to the Tate Modern, which I did not enjoy anywhere near as much as the National Gallery. The items collected at the Tate did not appeal to me as much. A few of them were interesting concepts, but don't really stand out as art. One example of this was a room containing two tables with bits and pieces on and around the tables, much as if the artists had brought in the tables from their garage. Only on overhearing a staff member telling some other visitors did I learn the whole thing was moulded plastic and painted. Certainly a lot of technical skill went into it, but it hardly inspires the soul.

I left the Tate about 1ish, and walked along the Thames towards the Tower of London. Along the way I stopped at Wagamama for lunch, and had some excellent chicken raman (the best I've had outside of Japan). Continuing along the river I stopped in for a quick look at Southwark Cathedral (I've been informed the o and the w are silent), and opposite the tower came across the HMS Belfast, a light Cruiser that saw service in WWII, the Korean War, and around the world in peace time. Wandering through it was quite interesting, although at times confusing as they were in the process of changing the tour route and in places the signs and rooms did not match where the audio guide was saying to go. I timed my finish of the tour well, as I was heading through the last sections as they started closing for the day. While on the aft deck preparing to leave, I got to see the Tower Bridge raised to let a boat pass underneath. At the souvenir shop I bought a WWII ship spotters deck of cards and a tot of naval rum (interesting fact: a daily allowance of rum was standard aboard Royal Navy ships until the 31st of July 1970). I then crossed the Tower Bridge and walked along the Thames back to Canary Wharf, which took around an hour and a half.

On Thursday I again caught the tube to Southwark station near the Tate, but this time I crossed the river to meet up with David from Monday night who had kindly offered to let me use one of his company's passes to visit St Paul's Cathedral. With the pass I walked a few blocks to the cathedral and spent a few hours exploring it. I couldn't go all the way to the top of the dome as that was closed, but I did get a nice view of London from as far up as I could go. There were a lot of famous people buried in the catacombs beneath, including Admiral Nelson, The Duke of Wellington, Christopher Wren (the architect of the current incarnation of St Paul's) and numerous memorials to fallen soldiers in plenty of wars.

After I finished at the cathedral, I tried to return the pass to David to save having to return to this section of town again, but could not get in touch with David before my phone's battery died. After a late lunch I found the Bank of England museum and explore it for a while. It was alright, but aimed at a younger audience (specifically one unfamiliar with the concept of inflation).

Dinner that evening was at a fancy restaurant that because it lost its Michellin star had decided to offer up five course meals for 20 pounds, although the courses weren't really big. About eight of us went, and it was a pleasant evening. Definitely the first time I've had a five course meal.

On Friday I returned to the district around St Paul's to return the pass to David. After that I visited Samuel Johnson's house, which was interesting but I shouldn't have paid extra to take photos. After that I made a short visit to the Museum of London, which covers London's history from the days when mammoths and lions roamed the area to today. After going through the ancient history and Great Fire sections, I went on a guided tour which had a health and medicine theme. The most interesting item this tour showed off was a prehistoric skull which had had a hole scraped into it and the person then went on to live for several years after the procedure.

I left town early that afternoon as I had to pack for the weekends adventures.

Castlerific Cardiff

15-19/5/2009

On Friday, I left London on my own. I caught the train from Paddington station (complete with stand selling Paddington Bears) to Cardiff. I arrived in Cardiff around 2ish and checked into my hostel which was just across a canal from the Millennium Stadium. I then headed down towards the bay to see the Doctor Who exhibition. This was pretty cool, but also a bit disappointing. I was expecting a lot of behinds the scenes info and insight, but instead it was just a collection of props and costumes. It gave the feeling that all they'd done was bag and tag stuff after they'd finished each episode. After that I wandered around the bay area taking in sights like the Millennium Centre, Roald Dahl Place, the outside of the Welsh parliament, a boat lighthouse, and a few other things before heading back to the hostel. In the evening I went to a nearby cinema and saw the new Star Trek movie. I enjoyed it a lot, although I was quite aghast when they blew up Vulcan. They got a lot of the small details right, like the noises the communicators make and the earpieces they used. Also Kirk doing the Kobayashi Maru was well done.

On Saturday I spent the day wandering around Cardiff Castle. This castle is a mix of eras and is built on a site that way back when was a Roman fortress. The walls were rebuilt in the 19th century to follow the then recently discovered remains of the Roman walls. There was meant to be a pageant on the history of Wales presented by various groups of school kids while I was there, but rain postponed/relocated this event. I had dinner at a Japanese restaurant with one of the people staying in my room, and then went and saw Wolverine. It was OK, but nothing great. Back at the hostel I spend a while chatting with a Danish girl who had the bunk beneath mine.

On Sunday I got out of Cardiff and visited a few castles. The first was Castle Coch which, like Cardiff Castle, was once owned by the Bute family. It was restored/rebuilt by them in a kind of romantic style that is more what Victorian era people thought medieval castles were like than what medieval castles actually were. It was a small castle that was kind of cozy, and was located by itself surrounded by woods. While waiting for the bus to the next town I had a roast lunch at a pub which was quite good.

Next was Caerphilly Castle. This was not as well kept as the other castles, and had not been rebuilt, so you got to see more of the original castle. Caerphilly Castle was a proper fighting fortress, with multiple moats and defensive walls. This was my favourite castle in Wales. Getting back to Cardiff was a hassle, as I just missed the bus and then had to wait two hours for the next one. This was particularly annoying as part of the reason why I went to Cardiff for the weekend was to avoid public transport hassles in London. That evening I just relaxed at the hostel as the cinema had run out of movies I wanted to see (they had Coraline, but only in 2D).

On Monday I had planned to visit the history museum, but on arrival there I learnt that it was closed on Mondays. So instead I wandered around the downtown area for a little while before settling down at the train station to wait for my train. I got back into London around 6ish, and met JP and David, a friend of his, at Canary Wharf for dinner at a nearby pub.

Lazy London

10-14/5/2009

Sunday was an easy day of relaxing and laundry at JP's place.

On Monday I planned to visit two places: Baker St to see what was at 221B and the Natural History museum. When I got to Baker St station though I saw a sign by one of the exits for Lord's cricket ground. Considering this an opportunity not to be missed, I followed the signs, and about 15 minutes later found myself outside Lord's. The place was pretty quiet since there was no match on. However, on the schedule outside it said that there would be a match on Wednesday for which entry was free.

I headed back to Baker St and visited 221B Barker St, which is home to the Sherlock Holmes museum which is well presented. The ground floor is a gift shop and the upper floors are set up like they would have been when Sherlock Holmes lived there. The first floor was the sitting room and Watson's consulting room. I sat in Sherlock Holmes' chair, which was reasonably comfy. The second floor had a number of souvenirs from Holmes' adventures. The third floor had mannequins of characters from the stories.
After Baker St I headed over to the Natural History museum. This was excellent. A good dinosaur collection, a massive geology collection and lots of animals. That evening I went and saw Wicked! a musical based on the novel telling the story of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West. It simplified a lot of stuff from the book, and skipped a lot of things, but was enjoyable enough that I downloaded the cd later. The really fustrating thing was that while I was sitting waiting for the show to start, this guy came up to the couple sitting next to me and told them that since they were the two millionth customer they were getting great seats right at the front and were going to get to meet the cast and all that. If only I'd bought my tickets ten minutes earlier. Or ten minutes later.

On Tuesday I went to the British museum. It has a huge collection from all over the world. I saw the Elgin marbles taken from the Acropolis, the Egyptian collection, the Middle East collection, the English collection including the Lewis chessmen, a nice collection of clocks, and a few other collections. This filled the entire day, and I didn't even get to the South American or Chinese collections.
On Wednesday I had a a bit of a late start, and began by going back to Holborn near the British Museum. I went to a money shop (a shop that bought and sold money to collectors) that I'd seen on Tuesday to buy a $10,000,000,000 note from Zimbabwe. I then wandered around the area for a little while and then met up with Ty for lunch. We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant nearby and I had my first good katsu curry for a long while.

After lunch I made my way over to Lord's in time for the second innings. The MCC Young Cricketers were batting against the MCC in a limited overs game (30 overs). The MCC YC had a good start, then faded for a while in the middle before making a strong finish to win with a few overs to spare. It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, with the exception of the fact that my tooth got really bad that afternoon, to the point where eating dinner was quite an unpleasant experience.
Thursday then became a day with one mission. Find a dentist would would see me quickly and not charge an arm and a leg. I found one which had relatively reasonable rates, but they did not have an appointment available for 9 days. I then found one in Canary wharf which had a spot available that afternoon. I then hung around waiting until it was time to see the dentist. At the dentist I found out that I had an infected nerve beneath a tooth and that the rest of my teeth are shit. The dentist drilled in and removed the nerve and then filled the hole again. The cost of all this was 150 pounds, almost as painful as the tooth itself.

Obtuse Oxford

9/5/2009

Saturday started off with a walk around the docks area near Tower Bridge with Andrea, Caroline and JP, and then sitting in a coffe shop for a while. In the afternoon JP, Andrea and I went up to Oxford and had a walk around town including going into Christchurch College. In the evening we had drinks at two different places. At the second I had a Vespa, of Casino Royale fame, which was better than a martini, but still a bit rough to drink. We then had dinner at a Chinese restaurant called the Opium Den

Late London

6-8/5/2009

Arriving in London was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. Getting to the airport was no problem, and the flight wasn't too bad. Immigration though was hell. I thought it would be quite easy, being an Australian, to get into the UK. It was not to be. After finding the non-EU line and thinking "great" since there were only two other people using that line, I got questioned for almost half an hour by the two ladies at the desk about everywhere I'd been for the last few years, how much money I had, where I was staying, how long I was staying for, what was I going to do there, when was I leaving, did I have a ticket yet, and more. Russia was eaiser to get into than that.

But get through I did, and then it was a train from Gatwick to Canary Wharf, where I met JP, who was a more than gracious host to me during my stay. I dropped my stuff off at his place and then we went out to dinner at a French restaurant with Caroline, a friend of JP's from WA, and Andrea, JP's girlfriend. It was a nice meal with nice company and a very pleasant evening overall.

On Thursday I took a walking tour in the morning, taking in a few of the royal residences such as Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Westminster and a few other places. After the tour I met up with Caroline at Piccadilly Circus and we walked around West End towards Hyde Park and after that towards the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum, at which we arrived 15 minutes after it closed. Having lucked out there, we caught the tube back to Trafalgar square and visited the National Portrait Gallery which opened late on Thursdays. The gallery was pretty good, and I liked most of it up until they got to the 20th century. It was here I first made the connection between the start of non-realistic painting styles kind of coincided with the invention of the camera. After the gallery we had a late dinner at an English pub. (an English pub in England? How quaint.)

On Friday I took in a few museums, starting with the science museum, which alternated between gimmicky teach stuff to kids stuff and awesome collections of historic instruments of all sorts. It has the largest collection of slide rules I've come across (and I've seen a few), a great collection of 18th century scientific instruments, a clock collection, and a few historic computers. There was also a cool art thing called the Listening Post that displayed and read out messages taken in real time from forums and bulletin boards all over the web. The "I am ..." and "I like ..." movements were interesting and amusing.

After the science museum I went across the road to the V&A museum which has an interesting and widely varied collection. It has a good oriental collection, a lot of nice statues, some art, a clothing collection, an architecture display and a lot more. The clothing display featured clothes of all sorts from various eras. I'm not sure what to make of the fact that all the people I saw sketching in that room were in front of the underwear display, or the fact that this was the only display in the museum to have tables and chairs in front of it.

Livid Lisbon and Faux Faro

2-5/5/2009

When I arrived in Lisbon it was somewhat dead with very few people out on the streets. I found the hostel without any hassles, but for the first time since Vladivostok the staff didn't speak much English. I did eventually sort everything out although it was complicated by the fact that I had to change room on the second day and they had a new person on that night who didn't really know what was going on.

After bludging around at the hostel for a while (I didn't sleep well on the train) I left my stuff at the hostel and had a bit of a walk around the downtown area. I saw a bt of the bay where they had these large plastic things that were half bench, half large pot plant that were on wheels so you could always sit in the shade. I then headed back into the central area of town where I had lunch. I then went to the Guarda museum which had what could have been an interesting look at the revolution a few decades ago, but going through the exhibit I couldn't work out who were the good guys and who were the bad guys in the whole scenario. Then I waited near a big statue for a walking tour, but since I didn't realise that Portugal is not in the same time zone as Spain, I was an hour early and at about ten past I gave up waiting. I headed back to the hostel and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

On Sunday I again tried to go on a walking tour. I had wanted to go on the tour around the historic centre of town, but the guy doing that tour never turned up so I did the Discovery tour instead, which focused on Portugal's empire period. It was pretty good. The tour finished at a bakery famous for its custard tarts which were quite nice.

For the rest of the afternoon I climbed up the hill to the old fortress which was alright. Particularly impressive was the camera obscura they'd installed in the tallest of the towers that gave a great view of the city.

Monday I accomplished the main thing I wanted to do in Portugal. I went to the beach and sat on the beach all day. I split my time between reading "The Algebraist", looking at girls, and watching the Atlantic ocean. I did not wait around until sunset as around 5 I was getting hungry and my shins were getting sunburnt (I had a hat, a long-sleeved shirt, and my feet were in the sand, so only my shins were exposed to the sun) so I called it a day and headed back to the hostel for my last night.

Tuesday my plan was simply to get from Lisbon to Faro, where I was to catch my flight to London the next day. The trip was a pretty uneventful train ride south. Faro seemed like a nice town, but between world weariness and my legs I didn't feel like exploring much, so I had a quiet afternoon in.

Brash Barcelona and Melodius Madrid

I arrived in Barcelona at a train station which due to a brilliant piece of urban planning did not have a connecting subway station. So I had to walk a bit to a nearby station to catch a train to my hostel, which was actually most of an apartment building. My room was on the 6th floor, well out of the range of the wifi. It was a pretty good place with a lounge and a kitchen that I actually made use of.

In the afternoon I walked to the Sagrada Familia. It's a pretty impressive structure. The passion facade did tend to remind me of volume 9 of The Sandman, The Kindly Ones. After leaving the church I had lunch and then headed towards one of the big hills of town that was the location for a few old buildings and art galleries, and the stadium and other buildings for the Barcelona Olympics. I visited the main stadium and the nearby sports museum. The museum was pretty good, and cheap at four or five euros (I can't remember exactly). I then made my way down the hill towards a subway station to return to the hostel.

My second day in Barcelona I started by visiting a park designed by Gaudi which was also the site of his old house, which is now a museum. The park was nice, but I don't think it would get anywhere near as many visitors if the name Gaudi weren't attached to it. Then I went downtown and walked along La Rambla, a pedestrian zone that goes down to the bay. I strolled down La Rambla, and finished by taking a lift up the column at the end of La Rambla. A nice view, but not for the claustrophobes. For dinner I cooked up another batch of just add water and heat packet mix spaghetti carbonara.

On Thursday I caught the train for my brief stay in Madrid. I arrived in Madrid around one and was checked in by two. I then walked around town for a while. I saw a statue of a bear, a cathedral, the Palace Real, some gardens with statues of kings, an Egyptian temple that was given to Spain, a beggar with a website, and other various miscellanea.

My second day in Madrid was nice, but a bit disappointing. I found out the reason I'd been unable to book a room for Friday night was because Friday was May day, a national holiday and the start of a long weekend. It also meant that all the museums and galleries were closed. I spent the morning walking through a large park that was moderately crowded. In the afternoon I had a bit of a nap on the edge of the park before going back to the hostel to pick up my bags and catching the overnight train to Lisbon.