I was reading The Times newspaper today when several stories caught my attention and got me thinking enough to feel compelled to share them. Share the thoughts that is.
1. Michelle Obama is one big unit. Sure, the Duke of Edinburgh is 90 years old and looks the age with a complexion not too dissimilar to a freeze dried Cypriot date, but standing next to Mrs Obama he looks positively small.
2. The NHS (National Health Service) is creaking under the strain of demand. I've got an idea. Might it be because there are more users of it than there are contributors? Adopt the Australian model. You can't draw on the social services of a country until you have contributed via tax for a period of years. In Australia its 2 years. Just visiting the UK ? Then sure you get access. But if you emigrate to live here then perhaps a little contribution before you draw on this country's services might be a little fairer on us all.
3. A member of parliament asks his wife to take some points on her licence for him after he gets booked for speeding. Given the amount of coverage this has had in the papers this week you'd think he was doing something no one has ever done before. It happened 8 years ago. Move on !
4. Adele Adkins aka ''Adele'' is a pop star over here. She has diminished ability to add to her wealth through her talents because she has a phobia. A phobia of what I hear you ask? Crowds. Yes crowds. She can't perform in front of more than 400 people lest she has a panic attack. I liken it to a racing car driver not being able to drive his car faster than 150mph or a golfer having an allergy to grass (which some do in fact).
5. My old favourite. Libya. NATO bombers hit Gadaffi with the biggest blitz since the start of all this mess. Im looking forward to when NATO, under the same guise of ''protecting humanity'' moves on to Syria, Myanmar, China et.al
6. A Californian preacher who predicted that the world would end last weekend admits he misread Gods will and now claims the apocalypse will occur on October 21. Ooops. I wonder how all those followers who gave away their houses and cars and worldly goods on his prediction are feeling right now. Pissed off is my guess. Homeless and poor is another guess.
7. The Danish have banned Marmite because it has too many vitamins. Yes. TOO MANY vitamins. Errr Ok. That makes complete sense. Or b.
8. Mikhail Khodorkovsky a Russian billionaire is condemned to 5 more years in a Russian ''penal colony'' after a court rejected his appeal against conviction for theft and money laundering. Russian penal colony. Why do I get the impression that wouldn't be a great place to spend the next day let alone the next 1,825 ? I know little about Russia but I know this. You don't want to fook with the people who hold the stick in that country.
9. An army of pensioners in Japan, 180 of them, have volunteered to clean up the nuclear plants alive with radiation as way of apology to the future Japanese generations. They feel as it was their generation that built and benefited from the plants they should wear the burden of responsibility. There isn't another country in the world whose citizens would do this. In fact I doubt there is another country in the world whose citizens would even think about doing it.
10. America's Supreme Court has ruled that California must release 30,000 prisoners due to overcrowding. I'm guessing a couple of things. Locksmiths and gun sellers are going to see a spike in business. Trying to hitchhike anywhere in California is going to become very difficult and if you are prisoner no. 30,001 you are going to be mightily pissed off.
and finally...
11. A Canadian couple have declined to announce the sex of their newly born because they believe that a child's sex should not determine his or her place in the world. They say it will be up to her/him to decide whether to live as a boy or a girl. Errrrr...OK. That makes complete sense. Or b.
TSYLWYHTT
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Sunday, 15 May 2011
The ramblings of a jet lagged blogger
Having just returned form a whirlwind 7 day trip to Australia and suffering from the inevitable time zone differential induced jet lag I thought I would utilise this 3.15 am wake up time to communicate a few thoughts that rattled through my head on the 56 hour commute to Down Under and back.
1. We take it for granted that everyone has flown. Especially if you are Australian and need to fly to get anywhere. On the flight down I had an elderly English couple sitting next to me, and an Irish couple behind me who had never been on a plane before. Not sure it was a wise move to break your virginity by boarding a 23 hour flight to Melbourne. But hey. If you are going to do it , do it properly I guess.
2. What is with this ''bag drop'' idea? Half the time the queue for having checked in online and simply needing to deposit your bag is as long as the normal queue.
3. Why does it take a staff member 45 hours to check you and your baggage in? Dispense with the unnecessary chit chit. The conversation as you get to the counter should be simply as follows.
You - ''Hello I'm on QF 1 to Melbourne tonight''...and with that opening statement you place your bag(s) on the weight belt and hand over your passport
Them - ''Thank you sir''...clicking of computer on their side to confirm that, whirring of printing machine as it spits out your boarding pass and bag tags and then they hand both passport and boarding passes back to you. Total time spent at counter? Less than 3 minutes. They manage to do it at Changi airport in Singapore. Why can't it be replicated everywhere else?
4. In a drive to offset rising costs elsewhere, airlines are cutting corners everywhere else. What happened to a refreshing towel before take off? The stodge they call food? The minature cans of soft drink that barely wet the pallet let alone quench a thirst? The plastic cutlery? There was a chap who about 18 months ago took a photo of the trash served up to him on a London to Mumbai flight on Virgin and wrote an amusing letter to Richard Branson. I was tempted to do the same to the head of BA given what they served on the return flight. (More on BA later).
5. The size of the entertainment screens? I have seen iPhones with larger visual displays.
6. The seat pitch. I have never quite understood the concept around seat pitch and how they measure it. All I know is that if you spend 23 hours with your knees jammed into the seat in front of you then it's fairly obvious they have tried to cram too many sardines into the can. You need to have the folding skills of a Japanese origami artist master to be able to extract yourself from your seat.
7. Why is it that a person with a bladder the size of a small Brazilian jungle pea books themselves a window seat two seats away form the aisle? No better way to annoy your fellow travellers than constantly asking them to move aside at 2 am somewhere over Lithuania, 3.15 am over the Caspian sea, 4.22 am over the Caucuses, 6.05am over Iran, 7.30am over Iran, 8.45 am over Afghanistan, 9.50am over Pakistan..etc etc etc
8. What's with this code sharing practice? I booked and paid for and expected to travel QANTAS there and back. You can then imagine my surprise and disappointment when I arrived at the counter for the return leg from Sydney to London to discover that QF301 and morphed into and was now BA010. It would be OK if the service offered by both was similar. However.....
9. I never thought I would say this but.....QANTAS slaugthers British Airways. The former experience out to Melbourne bordered on ridiculously good. The seat space was tolerable, the food palatable (just), the service pleasant and endearing, the entertainment choices wide and varied, and the aircraft clean and departed on time.
BA meanwhile....the staff acted arrogantly, rudely and with no interest.On the leg from Sydney to Bangkok it took the aircraft 1 hour and 45 mins to chill down from 32'C to 22'C and almost twice as long from Bangkok to London. I can't call what they served us ''food''. If had been able to fold myself out of my seat at any point in time I would've reached for my camera and taken a photo. However as it was BA was spared the letter as I flunked my origami classes at school. Forget iPhone. The entertainment screen was smaller than the screen you get on most Swatches. The toilets dirty and unkept.
Two years ago I made a pledge to never fly Ryanair again. So far I have remained true to myself. British Airways has just joined that list.
10. Australia is expensive. Forget the exchange rate with the British pound. If you work and live in Australia it's still an expensive place. The pick of the crop was $35 for a glass of wine in the Westin Hotel foyer bar? Excuse me????
11. There is not a more beautiful and pleasing on the eye city in the world than Sydney. Period. End of discussion.
12. There is not a city with more speed cameras and road tolls than Melbourne. Period. End of discussion.
13. Hertz are a thieving bunch of car owners. Here is why. I booked a car for 7.30am pick up in Melbourne. My flight was early so i arrived at the counter at 6.15am and signed for the car at 6.28am. They then, and without telling me, charged me an additional two hours at $13.25 per hour for the early pick up. That equated to a full days base rate car hire. I say base rate because have you seen the taxes they slug you with? I booked a stock standard Toyota Corolla at $26.50 per day. So mentally somewhere in the back of my mind I foolishly had the number of $53 as my expected cost for the two days of car hire. I'm going to take a guess that anyone reading this (and congratulations if you have got this far) will be as surprised as me to read that the total 2 day cost was not indeed $53 but .....$346.70....yup aint not a mistype there...$346.70....Let me just go and get the receipt and run you through it....
''Charges ''
2 hours early pick up penalty (not communicated to me) at $13.25 per hour equalling $26.50
2 days hire at $26.50 per day equalling $53
Admin recovery fee at 3.5% equalling $8.25 ( Admin effing recovery what???)
VPR at 5.95% per day equalling $17.85 ( VP effing R what ?)
Upsell at $23 per day somehow equalling $69 for two days. I just noticed this one. Surely 2 times 23 is 46 not 69 ????
Location fee at 19% equalling $48.19
CC surcharge at 1.5% equalling $5.12
Max insurance at 3 days at $29.09 a day equalling $87.27 ...I had the car for 2 days, 1 hour and 2 mins and get hit for 3 days of charges...
subtotal $315.18
GST applied $31.52
Total $346.70.
Mr Hertz is DEFINITELY getting a letter.
-------------------
1. We take it for granted that everyone has flown. Especially if you are Australian and need to fly to get anywhere. On the flight down I had an elderly English couple sitting next to me, and an Irish couple behind me who had never been on a plane before. Not sure it was a wise move to break your virginity by boarding a 23 hour flight to Melbourne. But hey. If you are going to do it , do it properly I guess.
2. What is with this ''bag drop'' idea? Half the time the queue for having checked in online and simply needing to deposit your bag is as long as the normal queue.
3. Why does it take a staff member 45 hours to check you and your baggage in? Dispense with the unnecessary chit chit. The conversation as you get to the counter should be simply as follows.
You - ''Hello I'm on QF 1 to Melbourne tonight''...and with that opening statement you place your bag(s) on the weight belt and hand over your passport
Them - ''Thank you sir''...clicking of computer on their side to confirm that, whirring of printing machine as it spits out your boarding pass and bag tags and then they hand both passport and boarding passes back to you. Total time spent at counter? Less than 3 minutes. They manage to do it at Changi airport in Singapore. Why can't it be replicated everywhere else?
4. In a drive to offset rising costs elsewhere, airlines are cutting corners everywhere else. What happened to a refreshing towel before take off? The stodge they call food? The minature cans of soft drink that barely wet the pallet let alone quench a thirst? The plastic cutlery? There was a chap who about 18 months ago took a photo of the trash served up to him on a London to Mumbai flight on Virgin and wrote an amusing letter to Richard Branson. I was tempted to do the same to the head of BA given what they served on the return flight. (More on BA later).
5. The size of the entertainment screens? I have seen iPhones with larger visual displays.
6. The seat pitch. I have never quite understood the concept around seat pitch and how they measure it. All I know is that if you spend 23 hours with your knees jammed into the seat in front of you then it's fairly obvious they have tried to cram too many sardines into the can. You need to have the folding skills of a Japanese origami artist master to be able to extract yourself from your seat.
7. Why is it that a person with a bladder the size of a small Brazilian jungle pea books themselves a window seat two seats away form the aisle? No better way to annoy your fellow travellers than constantly asking them to move aside at 2 am somewhere over Lithuania, 3.15 am over the Caspian sea, 4.22 am over the Caucuses, 6.05am over Iran, 7.30am over Iran, 8.45 am over Afghanistan, 9.50am over Pakistan..etc etc etc
8. What's with this code sharing practice? I booked and paid for and expected to travel QANTAS there and back. You can then imagine my surprise and disappointment when I arrived at the counter for the return leg from Sydney to London to discover that QF301 and morphed into and was now BA010. It would be OK if the service offered by both was similar. However.....
9. I never thought I would say this but.....QANTAS slaugthers British Airways. The former experience out to Melbourne bordered on ridiculously good. The seat space was tolerable, the food palatable (just), the service pleasant and endearing, the entertainment choices wide and varied, and the aircraft clean and departed on time.
BA meanwhile....the staff acted arrogantly, rudely and with no interest.On the leg from Sydney to Bangkok it took the aircraft 1 hour and 45 mins to chill down from 32'C to 22'C and almost twice as long from Bangkok to London. I can't call what they served us ''food''. If had been able to fold myself out of my seat at any point in time I would've reached for my camera and taken a photo. However as it was BA was spared the letter as I flunked my origami classes at school. Forget iPhone. The entertainment screen was smaller than the screen you get on most Swatches. The toilets dirty and unkept.
Two years ago I made a pledge to never fly Ryanair again. So far I have remained true to myself. British Airways has just joined that list.
10. Australia is expensive. Forget the exchange rate with the British pound. If you work and live in Australia it's still an expensive place. The pick of the crop was $35 for a glass of wine in the Westin Hotel foyer bar? Excuse me????
11. There is not a more beautiful and pleasing on the eye city in the world than Sydney. Period. End of discussion.
12. There is not a city with more speed cameras and road tolls than Melbourne. Period. End of discussion.
13. Hertz are a thieving bunch of car owners. Here is why. I booked a car for 7.30am pick up in Melbourne. My flight was early so i arrived at the counter at 6.15am and signed for the car at 6.28am. They then, and without telling me, charged me an additional two hours at $13.25 per hour for the early pick up. That equated to a full days base rate car hire. I say base rate because have you seen the taxes they slug you with? I booked a stock standard Toyota Corolla at $26.50 per day. So mentally somewhere in the back of my mind I foolishly had the number of $53 as my expected cost for the two days of car hire. I'm going to take a guess that anyone reading this (and congratulations if you have got this far) will be as surprised as me to read that the total 2 day cost was not indeed $53 but .....$346.70....yup aint not a mistype there...$346.70....Let me just go and get the receipt and run you through it....
''Charges ''
2 hours early pick up penalty (not communicated to me) at $13.25 per hour equalling $26.50
2 days hire at $26.50 per day equalling $53
Admin recovery fee at 3.5% equalling $8.25 ( Admin effing recovery what???)
VPR at 5.95% per day equalling $17.85 ( VP effing R what ?)
Upsell at $23 per day somehow equalling $69 for two days. I just noticed this one. Surely 2 times 23 is 46 not 69 ????
Location fee at 19% equalling $48.19
CC surcharge at 1.5% equalling $5.12
Max insurance at 3 days at $29.09 a day equalling $87.27 ...I had the car for 2 days, 1 hour and 2 mins and get hit for 3 days of charges...
subtotal $315.18
GST applied $31.52
Total $346.70.
Mr Hertz is DEFINITELY getting a letter.
-------------------
Was it all worth it? Of course it was. Life is short and not a dress rehearsal and if you can enjoy views like these below and have also have the high quality level of friends and family that I do at any stage in your life let alone be able to call it home and them your friends then you are a lucky man......very lucky indeed.
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| Morning mist rises at Tunks Park. A 5min walk from 'home' |
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| Northbridge Bridge from Tunks park on an early morning jet lag busting walk |
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| The commercially renamed AMP Tower known to anyone over the age of 30 as Centrepoint Tower |
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| The lunchtime view from the Northern side of the harbour |
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Sunday - May 8
Melbourne - Victoria - Australia
Nothing pleases a boy more than arriving back into Melbourne and opening the sports pages to read of the continued dominance of his beloved football team
Nothing pleases a boy more than arriving back into Melbourne and opening the sports pages to read of the continued dominance of his beloved football team
Observation of the day - There is a very prominent campaign here illustrating the perils of alcohol consumption. Whether it be highlighting the dangers of drinking and driving or the ramifications of excessive alcohol consumption on your ability to fight all manner of diseases but most of all, cancer. The campaign exists on billboards at roadside, and in all forms of the media both radio and television. Given that the burden alcohol related illnesses have on public medical expenditures is far greater than that related to tobacco it would seem only logical. It's somewhat confusing therefore that more western societies, (especially the US and UK) don't do the same.
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Tuesday - May 3
The end is surely nigh when a newspaper as venerable as The Times starts espousing the virtues and simplicity of trading Foreign Exchange with a 10 page supplement that reads like '' FX for Dummies'' as it did today.
As an aside I read elsewhere today that there have now been twice as many civilian deaths in Syria (following the protests there) as there were in Libya before the Allied forces decided to get involved in the latter justifying their actions on ''humanitarian grounds''. I'm guessing though that as the only oil Syria has, is olive in make up and texture, that it might be a while for a bit of consistency in foreign policy to shine through.
And more food for thought. If we seek retribution for an ill done to us by inflicting the same upon the transgressor then aren't we simply lowering ourselves to their standards? What happened to respecting a nations sovereignty? I thought that was a cornerstone in the makeup of the UN Charter.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Monday May 2
Kwakutil totem pole - Savill Gardens - Great Windsor Park
A single piece of Western Red Cedar measuring 100 ft in height and 27,000 lbs in weight cut from a tree 600 years old as a gift to HRH Queen Elizabteh II in 1958 to mark the centenary of British Columbia.
Tsylwyhtt
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Sunday - May 1
Goodwood racing club. Surrey.
Goodwood members sports car show day. Where the wealthy get to show how really wealthy they are. And the rest of us get to walk around in the Spring sunshine feeling very poor.
Lamborghini
Ferrari F30
The Latest Mercedes Gullwing
Ferrari something
Porsche . All style and class.
Ferrari F355 (I think)
Cobra AC
Aston Martin. Truly British
Ferrari F4
Alfa Romeo's latest retro model
Bugatti Veron. The worlds fastest and most expensive production car. Top speed? Fast. Very very fast.
Another Cobra AC
Even the Japanese turned up. The latest from Lexus
Not 1 but 4 De Lorean's ! Top speed a staggeringly underwhelming 85 mph .
The iconic Tessarossa. Thanks to Miami vice and Don Johnson.
A Ford !!!!
Bentley. All class.
Saturday - April 30
An 11km walk through the wooded English countryside in Surrey.
Quintessentially British. A solo polo player trains against the backdrop of the ruins of Cowdray ruins at Cowdray Park.
Cowdray ruins.
Friday - Royal Wedding
There was only one thing going on today. I was fortunate enough to be there and took a few snaps.
Oh. OK. I wasn't really there. Like 99.9999999 % of the rest of the UK population I was at either home or a party (the latter in my case) watching it on TV.
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