Marvel RPG

For those of you who are keeping track, Gerry is now 3 years old. As befits a nerd like me, the first thing that I started to think about was how I was going to get Gerry interested in RPGs.
:)

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Gerry will be able to get involved in any kind of role playing until 4-5 years old. However, during my research, I came across this website - http://www.marvelrpg.net/. Basically, the Marvel Super Heroes RPG is now available as a free download.

When I was a kid playing RPGs (many many moons ago), we predominantly played D&D but we did branch out briefly into some other RPGs - of which Marvel Super Heroes was one. At the time, this seemed like a great idea. I was (and still am) a big fan of Marvel comics and the opportunity to play Spider-Man, Iron Man or any of the other big super heroes seemed like a great idea.

Unfortunately, the Marvel RPG never really took off for us (for various reasons which I won't go into here) but it did leave me with one memory in particular which stands out.

It was a long long time ago so I can't remember the scenario which we were playing or which hero I was controlling at the time. All that I can remember was that we were in our base and were "visited" by some villains. In the best Marvel tradition, a fight broke out.

Being a super hero base, our home was obviously strengthened to deal with the additional punishment of heroes practicing their super powers. As a result, the walls were made out of adamantium. In the Marvel universe, adamantium is the strongest possible substance and is considered indestructible. In terms of numbers, the strength of adamantium was rated at 1000. For comparison, many heroes had strength ratings in the 10's (although the Marvel RPG mainly used descriptors like Amazing, Incredible etc).

Anyway, during the fight, one of the heroes gets really creative and decides to throw one of the villains up against the wall. Not that I'm a violent guy but you have to admit, this action is in keeping with the time (this was during a time when TV was dominated by shows like A-Team and Knight Rider - basically, shows where people get regularly thrown through windows and walls and tables etc in slow motion).

The villain flies through the air, spinning gracefully head over heels in slow motion before going splat against the wall. Beautiful, right?

Unfortunately for us, the Power Nazi DM decided that this action ended up killing the villain and penalised us by reducing our karma.

"No way" we all screamed, "his strength was only Amazing! The villain should have had enough hit points to survive!"

The DM looked at us distastefully before replying "Ah, but the wall is made of adamantium and so you did 1000 damage to the bad guy".

Despite out pleading and cajoling that the damage should be based on the heroes strength and not the sturdiness of the wall, the DM stood firm. The villain was dead.

The stinkiness of that decision sticks with me to this day...

Christmas time

The child is a king, the carollers sing,
The old has passed, theres a new beginning.
Dreams of santa, dreams of snow,
Fingers numb, faces aglow.

Christmas time, mistletoe and wine
Children singing christian rhyme
With logs on the fire and gifts on the tree
A time to rejoice in the good that we see

A time for living, a time for believing
A time for trusting, not deceiving,
Love and laughter and joy ever after,
Ours for the taking, just follow the master.

Christmas time, mistletoe and wine
Children singing christian rhyme
With logs on the fire and gifts on the tree
A time to rejoice in the good that we see

(silent night, holy night)

A time for giving, a time for getting,
A time for forgiving and for forgetting.
Christmas is love, christmas is peace,
A time for hating and fighting to cease.

Christmas time, mistletoe and wine
Children singing christian rhyme
With logs on the fire and gifts on the tree
A time to rejoice in the good that we see

Mistletoe & Wine

by Sir Cliff Richard

Goodbye Majel

Majel Barrett Roddenberry passes away - and geeks around the world cry.


Majel has been such a huge part of Star Trek that its hard to imagine the franchise without her. In addition to the host of characters that Majel has portrayed over the years, Majel was also the voice of the Federation computer. Now, any future Star Trek's will have to have a different voice (except the upcoming Star Trek film - apparently, she was able to complete the voiceover for that before she passed away).

Although you don't always see her on screen, her voice will always be associated with Star Trek for me.

On a personal level, its a shame I never got to meet her at any of the Star Trek conventions I went to. And now, I never will.

By all accounts (and by this, I mean everyone on the forums that I've read), Majel was a great person who made a real effort to really enjoy the conventions and the interaction with fans. The sad reality is that not every actor makes this much of an effort.

True Love

Miss Asia 2008

As you may or may not know, there is a recent controversy about the Miss Asia 2008 pageant (it was even mentioned on the front page of some local newspapers). First off, some background.

Apparently, the Miss Asia 2008 pageant was different from other beauty pageants in that the winners were not decided by a panel of judges. Instead, viewers from around Asia were allowed to call in and vote for the winner. The beauticious and multi-talented lady with the most votes would be crowned Miss Asia.

This is, of course, a good change. Instead of the winner being someone who can bang the most lecherous old men judges, you now have the much harder task of trying to bang the most members of the public instead. Only j/k!!! :)

What happened next is obvious - 1.3 billion votes later, Ms Eunis Yao of HK wins.

Wait, what? Someone from HK won? Wasn't anyone from mainland China watching (or voting)?

Well, actually, it turns out they were. Apparently, the voters mere "mainland dominated" (surprise!!) and the fact that a HK girl won "raised eyebrows" (I guess they were expecting a winner from mainland China). The end result is that an independent body has been setup to review the voting tally and investigate the discrepancy.

What I can't believe is that this is actually news. I mean, come on!! Is anyone taking this pageant seriously?

This is a "beauty" pageant for which the participants are representing different countries in Asia. The winner of said "beauty" pageant is determined by votes from viewers in those different countries in Asia. Considering that China has 1.3 billion people, the obvious conflict of interest is so glaring that I can't believe this judging format was actually approved. Does anyone actually believe that the majority of mainland Chinese won't vote for someone from China or at the very least, for someone who looks Chinese? The very fact that a non mainland Chinese girl was the winner was what initially raised eyebrows should tell you all you need to know about the integrity of this "beauty" pageant.

If this is how pageants are run these days, you might as well just give the crown to a girl from mainland China and save yourself the time and money in running the bloody thing...

The Bailout

Source (via Boing Boing)

Bad customer service at badminton arena

Last Monday, I spoke about watching a badminton competition live. At the end, I mentioned that there was one incident which spoiled the event a little. In the interest of being fair, I will summarise the event as factually as possible so you can understand what happened before adding in my comments at the end.

Situation
There were two courts in the badminton arena. Our seats were right behind court number 2 and we were right next to the VIP area which was reserved for members of the HK Badminton Association (and clearly labeled as such). Our seats gave us a great view of court number 2 but court number 1 was a bit far off (but still very watchable).

Play in the evening started at 6:30pm. Lin Dan finished his match on court 1 just before 11:00pm. By that time, court 2 had already finished all games by then. After Lin Dan finished, quite a few spectators got up and left (he was obviously a big draw for lots of people). At this point, the tannoy announced that there was 1 more doubles match to go on court 1 (a lot of matches on court 1 went to 3 games which was why court 1 was still playing despite it being so late).

The timeline of events that followed was roughly thus:

• Large groups of the crowd near court 2 get up and start moving closer to the seats near court 1
• Our group gets up and moves over 4 seats into the VIP section (the people originally sitting in the VIP section had already left)
• Just before we sit down, one of the ushers (hereafter called usher 1) says that we can't sit down there as those seats are reserved for VIPs. Then he adds "Can't you read?"
• We move back to our original seats and sit down.
• Usher 1 sees that we are sitting next to the VIP section and then comes over and asks to check our tickets.
• My friend says "Everyone is moving around - are you planning to check everyone's tickets?"
• Usher 1 replies "Don't worry - I will check everyone's tickets"
• My friend says "yeah - right" (not exactly, but this is probably the closest to what he actually said in Cantonese which was "ha ma")
• Usher 1 says "Yeah. My name is [redacted] and my number is [redacted]. You can complain to my manager if you like"
• My friend says "Fine - I'll watch you do your job"
• Usher 1 says "You do that"
• Usher 1 goes to another group of people who had moved into the VIP section and says "Excuse me. I'm sorry for troubling you but that group over there (points at us) says that I have to check your tickets"
• My friend immediately calls usher 1 back and demands to see the manager.
• Usher 1 calls on his radio and, while waiting for someone in authority to show up, goes to a 3rd group of people and asks them not to sit in the VIP section as it is reserved for VIPs. That 3rd group try to justify their position by saying that everyone else is moving around and usher 1 says that this isn't an excuse to move into the VIP section.
• At this point, a lady shows up (I will call her usher 2 as she wasn't a manager but just slightly higher up the food chain relative to usher 1)
• My friend calls over usher 1 again and after usher 1 shows up, he then explains what happened above and why he is upset (basically that usher 1 made a rude statement about his ability to read and that usher 1 is stating that he is checking tickets at the request of my friend). He also acknowledges straight off that he was wrong to move into the VIP section.
• Usher 2 makes usher 1 apologise for the rude statement about his ability to read. My friend accepts the apology.
• Usher 2 points out that we shouldn't have moved into the VIP section (my friend agrees with this again).
• Usher 2 then says that usher 1 was indeed checking tickets at my friends request because my friend indicated that other people had moved seats.
• My friend explains that this doesn't make sense as checking tickets is the job of usher 1. It isn't the job of usher 1 to be directed in how to work by members of the public.
• Usher 2 doesn't agree and says that my friend was giving a heavy indication to usher 1 that he needed to check other peoples tickets which was why usher 1 was checking the 2nd groups tickets.
• My friend doesn't accept this and, as other viewers were complaining about the noise, decides to take it outside to find a manager (and consequently missed the final doubles match).
• The manager apologises.
• My friend lodges a formal verbal complaint as well as a formal written complaint the following day.

My opinion
Flexible rules
Anyone who has any experience in CS will tell you that rules are flexible. In my opinion, the best way that usher 1 could have handled the above was by simply ignoring people moving seats. Its already late (11:00pm) and people have already started to leave. Its the very last match of the day and if anyone was coming to sit in the empty seats, they would have been there already.

Quite frankly, there was no need to get so uppity and insist on everyone moving back to their original seats. If someone did show up and find his seat taken, then a quick word and the person would have moved. There was no need for a confrontation at all in this case.

Rude
As a CS rep, you absolutely cannot be rude to the clients and say stuff like "Can't you read?"

If you want them to move, then you ask them to move politely. You can be firm and stand your ground, but you cannot be rude. Only a moron would say something like that to a customer.

If I was a boss and I heard anyone in my team do something like this, at a minimum, it would be a formal reprimand. And in the current economic climate, if I had to make cuts, you would be one of the first people out the door.

Know your job
It was usher 1's job to check tickets as an usher. To even suggest that he is checking tickets because it was at the request of my friend is basically shirking your duties. If you don't know what your job and responsibilities are, then you don't deserve to have that job.

In case there is any doubt, the ushers job and responsibilities do not include following the instructions of the public.

Cocky
When usher 1 said his name and number and said that you could complain to management, he did it in a really cocky manner. What a moron.

Most people don't like confrontations and making a formal complaint is a type of confrontation. This means that most people won't actually proactively complain unless they get really upset. For example, people might get pissed off by a really arrogant CS rep who seems to think that he won't get into any trouble.

His attitude only serves to inflame the situation and raise the possibility of a formal complaint.

Even his apology for the rude comment (which he was forced to do by usher 2) was a joke - he didn't even look at my friend and just said in a really arrogant voice - "sorry". The impression I got was that he was not remorseful and didn't think that he would be reprimanded.

Usher 2
Usher 2 could have defused the situation immediately. When usher 2 made usher 1 apologise, my friend accepted the apology even though it was clear that usher 1 didn't mean it and had no remorse whatsoever (my friend is a really easy going guy). Usher 2 should have realised from this that my friend was not interested in kicking up a fuss.

If usher 2 had made usher 1 give another apology for the incident re checking the 2nd groups tickets, my friend would have accepted it even if it had been insincere (I believe - obviously we will never actually know). And usher 2 should have realised this from his reaction to the pitiful first apology.

However, instead, usher 2 tried to justify the actions of usher 1 and say it was indeed my friends request that usher 1 check the second groups tickets. This was unacceptable to my friend which meant that he had to argue his position. The end result was that they eventually had to find an actual manager to resolve the situation and my friend ended up missing the final match.

By this stage, my friend was so pissed off that there was no way in hell he wouldn't lodge a formal complaint.

Summary
From the above, I can only come to one of two conclusions:
1) Usher 1 is a moron; and/or
2) Both usher 1 and usher 2 have little to no experience in customer service

Both usher 1 and usher 2 handled the situation badly. A little more intelligence on their part and the whole situation could have been defused easily.

But then, maybe I'm being unreasonable. I mean, let's face it. In a city like HK, if they had any intelligence, they wouldn't be working such a dead end job.

Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Super Series 2008

The Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Super Series 2008 has just wrapped up. Nothing notable except for the fact that I managed to get some tickets to watch the game live last Friday!

One of my friends is a really eager badminton fan and he was able to get 4 really good tickets for Friday night. Seeing as I had nothing else to do, I jumped at the opportunity to go along.

The games on Friday night were generally around the quarter final stage which is a good time to start watching live. Basically, at this stage, some of the not so good players have already been knocked out and the players aren't too tired yet. This means that you see lots of good players playing at the top of their game - that's the theory anyway. I don't know if the theory worked in this particular case, but the badminton on show was definitely impressive.

I was especially lucky in that the Friday night games included both Lin Dan and Taufik Hidayat - both of whom are fantastic players (in fact, you may recall that Lin Dan won the Olympic gold medal!).

Our seats were right behind court 2 so we managed to get a fantastic view of Hidayat playing singles (unfortunately, Lin Dan was on court 1 so we didn't get as good a view). I've seen a lot of good players playing badminton over the years but nothing compares to watching top professionals play - in particular, how effortless they make it seem. Two shots in particular from Hidayat stand out in my memory.

One of them was a backhand cross court smash from the middle of the court. Even in the stands, you could hear the crisp "pok" as he connected. What I couldn't believe though was how he managed to hit a powerful smash using his backhand (which was even more powerful than my best forehand smash!!). My mind boggles in trying to figure out how his hand and arm could do it.

The other shot was a straight forehand smash. At the time, Hidayat was on the far side of the court and facing our seats. Wong (his opponent) only managed a clearance to the middle of the court and you could see Hidayat preparing to smash it back (sure enough, Hidayat smacks the ball - boy oh boy, did he smack it!). From my point of view, I heard the "wallop" as he hit the shuttle - the next thing I know, the shuttle is already on the ground and Hidayat has won the point!

According to wikipedia, Hidayat holds the record for the fastest smash in singles play of 305 km/h (189 mph) and I can't help but wonder how close he got to repeating that (or maybe even beating it) on Friday!

All in all, an awesome night out which was only spoiled by one event at the end of the night (but I'll leave that for another post).

Shooting some pool

Recently, one of my friends (henceforth known as fatboy) from the UK came over to HK for a quick holiday. If the name sounds familiar, its because he was the one who challenged me to a game of badminton via the comments section on this blog.

Despite his challenge, fatboy showed up in HK without any badminton kit and without any prior warning of when exactly he would be in HK. This basically meant that we were unable to book a court. Anyway, even if we did play, the challenge would have been meaningless as I'm sure that, come the moment of my inevitable victory, the sneaky git would have used the excuse of not having his normal kit!

So, instead of playing badminton, we ended up shooting some pool.

The last time I played fatboy at pool was when I was still seconded to the UK. At the time, the result was inconclusive primarily because the table was crap as we were in a bar/arcade. This was really annoying as, from watching him play, I was pretty sure I was better - the problem was that I just couldn't get any results due to crappy equipment! This time, I made sure we went to a proper snooker club with decent tables and decent cues.

Despite fatboy winning the first game, I could tell straight away that I was better than he was. And sure enough, I won the majority of the following games. I wasn't actually keeping score but according to fatboy, I was up by 4-2 at one point. Unfortunately, after a couple of games, I started to lose interest.

What can I say? I have always preferred snooker to pool as snooker seems to give more tactical options. So after playing pool for a couple of games, I started to watch other people playing snooker and my concentration drifted. As anyone who plays snooker (or pool) will tell you - concentration is crucial to playing well.

With my concentration down the drain, fatboy took full advantage and pulled the score back to 5-5. We were on even terms again. His come from behind challenge was almost complete - he only needed 1 more frame to pull ahead of me and snatch a famous victory from the jaws of defeat. Unfortunately (for him), fatboy make a critical and fatal mistake.

Just before we started the last frame, he turned to me and said "Last frame - this will decide the winner of the HK-UK Pool championship!".

The change was as sudden as it was startling. Gone was your friendly neighborhood jokemeister. Instead, where he had been standing just moments before, was the competitive jerkwad.

The challenge had been laid. The gauntlet thrown down with force. With renewed vigor, I started the final frame.

Getting a lucky pot on the break, I proceeded to pot another four balls with some good close control shots. Unfortunately, the 6th ball rattled in the corner pocket and bounced back out. Fatboy's turn at the table and he managed a couple of pots before missing. My turn again - all I needed were another 2 pots followed by the black.

Luckily for me, the ball that rattled in the corner pocket was just over the pocket and easy to pot. Unfortunately, fatboy had left the cue ball straight on and the 7th ball I needed was tight on the cushion next to the 6th ball. Normally, in snooker, I would have just hit the shot with backspin and tried to cut in the 7th ball. However, this is pool - and pool tables have bigger pockets.

Hitting the cue ball hard (which I rarely do due to the loss of accuracy) with a small amount of backspin , I hit the 6th ball slightly off center. The bigger pockets on the pool table meant that the ball still went in (to be honest, it would have taken a monumental cockup to miss that pot). However, the strength of the shot plus the angle was enough to take the cue ball off the cushion and cannon into the 7th ball thus knocking it off the cushion. This set me up perfectly to pot the 7th ball.

However, the black ball was also tight against the cushion near the middle pocket. Not an easy pot. Putting a small amount of sidespin onto the cue ball (the sidespin helps to keep the black tight against the cushion), I tapped it gently and the black started to roll gently down the cushion.

Motionless, I watched as the black ball trickled up to the pocket before wavering on the lip of the corner pocket. And then, with a gentle sigh, it finally dropped in. With fatboy just managing one visit to the table in the final frame, I absolutely annihilated him (and it felt good!).

Final score: 6-5.
The competitive jerkwad wins.

Happy Birthday

Today is the missus' birthday. In celebration of this momentous occasion, a haiku:

Married for six years
known for over a decade
Recall when we met

Black suit and black dress
also long flowing black hair
still fresh in my mind

Bright yellow t-shirt
and blue denim dungarees
meeting outside work

Although mood was right
in dimly lit restaurant
not first date as such

Hence too soon to kiss
and meeting was all too brief
still the spark was born

When the prince beckoned
there followed declarations
though Egypt would wait

A hug not bear like
an exchange of nervous words
a kiss most tender

Sincere wish that all Your heart's desires come true on This happy birthday
Hugs and kisses from He who will always be near Your love, jokemeister

Gerry in Disneyland - part dos

Some more pictures of Gerry in Disneyland.


Inside Disneyland are some old cars and buses (which actually work). The idea is that you can get on the bus and go for a short ride down Main Street. While one of the buses was parked, we jumped on board and managed to get several good pictures inside. This is one of Gerry driving the bus.


And a rare family picture. The bus driver was quite old but you can see from this picture that he was quite hip in terms of knowing how to take a good photo!

Gerry also took a ride on Dumbo the flying elephant for the second time. This is us just having got on the elephant.

And this is what Gerry did all through the ride - constant up and down!

The marching band they have in Disneyland is also quite good. The guys are always very friendly and willing to pose for photos (well, they are in Disneyland!).

Gerry in Disneyland - part uno

We don't take as many pictures of Gerry as we used to. As a result, we made a concerted effort over the weekend to take Gerry to Disneyland for the main purpose of getting some new photo's.


This is the first time that Gerry rode on the Dumbo ride (which he really enjoyed). What's great about this ride is that the elephant has a switch in the middle that allows you to move the elephant up or down. Naturally, we spent the entire ride constantly going up and down as Gerry played with the switch!


Love this picture - particularly cos he is now starting to look more like me!


We also took a ride on the Autopia car. Quite good fun. The ride itself is an electric car for which you control the gas and the steering. In the middle of the road is a barrier which prevents you from going too far astray. Nevertheless, it was a good opportunity to let Gerry pretend to drive a car.

Minibonds

And the minibonds saga in Hong Kong takes another twist as Legco voted to invoke special powers to investigate the Lehman Brothers minibonds saga. If you don't know what the minibonds saga is, then you can probably forgo the rest of this post. Or you could search for it on google - up to you, ya know?

Looking around at other blogs, I think this Singaporean dude sums up my view the best. I basically agree with most of what he says (isn't it great when I can point you to other people who share my view but are much more eloquent than I - saves me so much work!!). The one thing where I don't fully agree is with regard to the uncles and aunties.

On some level, I can kinda sympathise with all the uncles and aunties who bought minibonds and lost all their savings. Regardless of their own culpability, its tough to suddenly have little or no money (esp considering the current economic climate). But throughout this whole sordid affair, one question keeps popping up in my mind - how much responsibility should these uncles and aunties bear for investing in minibonds?

The papers are full of sob stories from illiterate uncles and aunties who lost their life savings. If they were illiterate, why on Earth were they investing in the first place? I mean, its not like they had any chance of really understanding what they were investing in (and heaven forbid we actually expect people to understand what they are spending their life savings on!!).

But here's the thing. Part of the reason they don't understand what they are buying is because they have no interest in understanding (in essence, I think the willful ignorance argument applies equally to them). All they are worried about is missing out on an easy opportunity to make money. A lot of HK people (and I include the uncles and aunties in this) are terrified of missing the boat. So instead of evaluating what they want and what they should do, they just assume that if someone else bought it, it must be a good thing.

"This complete stranger I met during lunch bought some minibonds. It must be a really good investment! Lets cash in as well. Wait! If we put all our life savings into minibonds then we can earn an even bigger return and be even richer. Hoorah!!"

Another cause for consolation is the fraud angle. Were the mini-bonds misrepresented by unscrupulous salesmen? I'm sure that in many cases, they were. Of course, we don't know the extent to which they were mis-sold - was it fraud or just the usual hyperbole of salesmen? Obviously, if it was fraud, then the usual legal recourse should apply.

However, the point is that, as an investor, you really need to understand what you are investing in regardless of your age and literacy. And if you don't understand the product (perfectly understandable considering the complexity of modern financial products), then you really shouldn't be investing in that product at all.

Let me repeat that - if you don't understand the product, you shouldn't be investing in that product at all.

Prop 8 sucks

Another post about the foibles of the US of A (Why am I spending so much time on US websites if I constantly pour derision on them? Because I can't read Chinese which kinda limits me to UK and US websites!).

Proposition 8 is a controversial issue for which you can find more details here (wikipedia - the font of all knowledge!). As usual, summary below.

In California, the supreme court previously had a decision that recognised same-sex marriages as being a fundamental right. This was a fantastic decision for which the judges deserve full praise. Subsequent to this, lots of gay people have tied the knot in California (the most prominent being George Takei - also known as Captain Sulu of Star Trek fame). Although I never blogged about it, this was one of the rare things for which I felt the Americans could be truly proud (the other being the fact that they elected a Black president!!).

Unfortunately, the course of US politics is never easy. Subsequent to the court ruling, Prop 8 was introduced which would add to the consitution the line "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California". In other words, they would get around the precedent court case by changing the law itself.

Prop 8 was passed by a majority vote of 52.5%.

Obviously, those in support of prop 8 have various reasons (excuses?) to support it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any definitive source with all the reasons in support (the official line, albeit brief, seems to be available at this site) but the best way to find out is to run a search for proposition 8 using Google's blog search and read about the various reasons people have posted for supporting prop 8 (you can also read all the blogs posts opposing prop 8 at the same time).

I don't really want to cover all the various points in this blog post as it would make the post too long. To be honest, there are plenty of other blog posts with similar views to my own and which make a case to oppose prop 8 much more eloquently than I could (and yes, I think its shameful that the black community, which voted 70% in favour of prop 8, is being targeted for racial abuse as a result of this).

Personally, after having read several blogs in support of prop 8, I can't help but come to one conclusion - Bullshit. Regardless of how you cut the cake or how you justify the decision, the end result is always the same - voting for prop 8 is a vote for non-equality.

Obama - A New Hope

Well, as expected, Obama won the election. I've mentioned before that I'm anti-McCain so obviously, I think this is a good thing.

In celebration of this moment, I would just like to send my congratulations to Mr. Obama and share this wonderful campaign video with you.

How not to translate road signs

I'm back!!

After a brief hiatus from blogging, due to various reasons which I'll go into in a later post (maybe), I am now back in business.

However, after such a long gap, lets start with something simple to get me rolling. And what could be more simpler than a link to someone elses work!

The story speaks for itself really.
:)

via: boingboing.net

Gerry and the dreamers

If you looked at the title and thought I was talking about a rock band then congratulations - you have just proved that you are old and British.

This post is actually about Gerry and his dreams - or rather nightmares. Sometimes Gerry doesn't sleep well and wakes up during the night crying. We always suspected he had nightmares but didn't know for sure until recently. Nightmares? Surely I'm mistaken! After all, what nightmares could a kid less than 3 years old be having?

One night, the missus and I were passing by his room at night when we heard him turning over in his bed and mutter something. We wandered into his room, gently so to avoid waking him up. He turned over again and muttered something which we barely heard.

"I want ... "

Eyebrows raised, I looked at the missus. What did he want? She shrugged her shoulders - she didn't hear either. Holding my breath for fear of waking him, I stepped closer to his bed and took a closer look at him.

He had his eyes closed and was still asleep. The covers had been kicked off, probably a result of him turning over repeatedly. His brow was covered in sweat and although asleep, he had a frown on his cute little brow. As I got closer, he turned his head from side to side - as if trying to avoid facing something.

"I want ... "

What was going on? What did he want? Was he thirsty? Did he want a drink? Anxiously, I looked around for his water bottle in case he woke up and wanted a sip of water. And then, finally, I heard him speak clearly.

"I want ... go play"

Of course! Everything clicked into place. The one thing that a kid less than 3 years old would be afraid of - not being able to go and play! I did the only thing I could do. I patted him gently and whispered in his ear:

"Its okay Gerry. We go play tomorrow. Go to sleep."

He gave a small sigh and settled down to sleep.

New blog functionality

Just a quick note to let you know that I have added a customised search engine to my blog. If you are looking for a specific post, then you can use the search engine on the right of the screen (it only searches my general blog and my gaming blog).

btw - you did notice that I had previously added an RSS feed to this blog, right? And you do know what RSS is, right? Right??

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I'm sure you won't be surprised, considering I'm British, to hear that I'm a big fan of Monty Python. The Monty Python boys did some great work back in the day (arr, I feel old!).

One of their most famous pieces of work is the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail - basically telling the story of King Arthur and his search for the Holy Grail (duh!).

Anyway, if you are looking for something completely different, it turns out that Monty Python and Lego are a perfect match. Check it out.

Dr. Horrible

If you have been following the geek blogosphere at all, you would know about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It was a 40 minute (approx) show produced by Joss Whedon as a web exclusive and was really cool and funny.

The show itself was only available for a very limited time online (talking a period of days here) so by the time I heard about it, it was already on the last day of free viewing before being taken offline. Luckily, I did check it out that day. Unfortunately, it was taken offline the day after so I didn't bother blogging about it.

Recently, I found out that the show is still available on hulu. If you get a chance, go on hulu and check out the entire series here (only 40 minutes in total).

PS hulu only works for user in the US. If you need to mask your IP, you can use hotspot shield. It's not great, but it is free (so I guess I shouldn't complain).

Newcastle United

Just a few days into his reign and it looks like Joe Kinnear, and by extension Newcastle United, have completely lost the plot (or did Newcastle lose the plot ages ago?).

Kinnear recently had a press conference which he used to launch a tirade (filled with expletives) against the collected members of press. In particular, he picked out a journalist from the Daily Mirror for abuse. You can find the audio recording (note - trashy language warning) on the Daily Mirror website here and an edited transcript on soccernet here.

To be fair, the Daily Mirror is a particularly trashy newspaper but judging from the actual article (again - link to Daily Mirror website here), it does seem like the journalist, Simon Bird, is being unfairly targeted by Kinnear (which just makes it seem like Kinnear can't handle the pressure of the job). Also, despite Kinnear's claim that he wouldn't speak to the media anymore, he actually did have a press conference after their draw with Everton. I'm guessing he either spoke in anger and didn't really want to cut out the press or he was overridden by management at Newcastle. Either way, it really does look like he can't handle the pressure of the job.

And if the manager is losing it - the club is going to follow. Newcastle United for relegation? Maybe ... maybe.

PS I love how Newcastle's press officer is trying (and failing miserably) to salvage the situation during the interview by trying to get the press to treat Kinnear's comments as off the record.

Sarah Palin?

By now, I'm sure you know that Sarah Palin is the Vice Presidential nominee and running mate of Sen. John McCain. My initial impression of this was that it may be a good move by McCain - getting a young running mate to help counter the impression that he is old and out of touch. However, after finding out more about her and seeing the recent interviews that she has conducted, it is clearly obvious (to me at least) that this is a disaster. Clearly, she isn't ready for the role.

Quite frankly, there is no way that you can spin this so that any intelligent person will think she is a good choice. I guess its lucky that McCain only has to spin this for the Americans then (boom boom!!).

Oooh - that was low.

Anyway, in celebration of the stupidity, here are some videos for you to enjoy.
nonpartisan message from Palin and Clinton
interview of Palin by Couric
Head of Skate trailer (I love this video - you can find the inspiration for it here)

PS Can you find the real life quote from Palin in them? You can find the answer here.

Full disclosure dept - I am heavily anti-McCain (and this was even before he chose Palin as his running mate).

I am a geekdad

Recently, I found another great website called Geekdad which seems like it was created specifically for me (the reality of course, is that I am nothing special and there are loads of people like me).

Its basically a blog which is targeted at parents who are into geeky pursuits (like RPGs!). There are a lot of posts about family friendly stuff that you can do as well as tips and hints for parents. I'm particularly looking forward to sharing my love of RPGs with Gerry and Gerry 2.0.

They also have a puzzle every Monday which can sometimes be quite challenging. The latest one (which I have copied below) can be found here. I've already worked out a solution, which I hope is right, but will have to wait until Thursday before I know for sure. Have a go and see if you can work it out.

Your brilliance has created another remarkable device. Your investors are going to love this one but there's a problem. Your oldest daughter comes upon you looking worried. "What's wrong, Dad?" she asks.

"Well, I've got this remarkable invention but it's subject from time to time to three faults: the plasma pressurizes; the sprockets stick; and the torque rings fall off."

"That's terrible!"

"Yes, but in trying to solve this trouble, I've made several observations:

When the seal is removed, button B is pressed, and the lever marked "Forward" is pulled back, the engine overheats and the phase inducer shakes. The pressing of button B, the release of the safety catch, and a firm tap on the cooling tiles are accompanied by a shaking phase inducer and the ocular interface turning blue. If the seal is removed, cooling tiles tapped, and the Forward lever pulled back, the engine overheats and the ocular interface turns blue. When the safety catch is released, cooling tiles tapped, and the Forward lever pulled back, the ocular interface turns blue. When the engine overheats and ocular interface turns blue, the plasma pressurizes. If the phase inducer shakes and the ocular interface turns blue, the sprockets stick and the torque rings fall off. [sigh]"

Your daughter thinks for a moment. "Well, Dad, working under the assumption that the various events each have single causes, not two or more in conjunction, I think I know exactly how to cure your device."

What does your daughter come up with, i.e., what would you do to be certain of curing your device of its three faults?

The God Delusion

I recently finished reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. This book is brilliant and if you haven't read it, I definitely recommend it to you (if you do buy it, make sure you buy the paperback version with the additional foreword).


Basically, the book is non-fiction and details Dawkin's argument that there is no God (just in case it isn't obvious, Dawkins is an atheist). Furthermore, the belief in a personal God, ala Christianity, qualifies as a delusion (there is a great quote in the book "when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion").


The first half of the book details his argument that there is no God. In my opinion, the first half of the book in itself merits purchase. His arguments are extremely well thought out and, despite some accusations to the contrary, do not consist of pure vitriol. The second half of the book talks about morality and particularly, the relationship between religion and morality. Unfortunately, there are a couple of areas in the second half of the book where it bogs down a bit. Overall though, he makes well thought out arguments (for the most part) in a highly entertaining and lucid manner.


Granted, the book in itself is not 100% convincing - there are a couple of arguments he makes which I'm not sure I fully agree with and there seem to be some assumptions which aren't fully explained. I guess this is due to the fact that there is a limit to how much you can convey in a book and still make it an interesting read. Nevertheless, this is one of those books which you find hard to put down after you pick it up and I cannot recommend it enough (regardless of whether you are an atheist, theist, agnostic or any of the other possiblities).


Full disclosure department - I consider myself an agnostic (and still do).

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Last night, TVB showed the pilot episode of T:TSCC on TV. I've always been a big fan of the Terminator franchise and I have to admit, I was looking forward to seeing this. Anyway, after watching the pilot, I thought I would post some impressions below. Don't worry though, I will refrain from mentioning any big spoilers below just in case you haven't seen it yet.

I have to admit that I wasn't very impressed during the first half of the show. At first, it feels like a cheap version of the T2 movie - with lots of ideas and set pieces almost being copied from the film. Nuclear explosion dream sequence - check. Two terminators smashing each other through walls - check. John Connor being a whiny git and saying he's not ready to be the messiah - check. I could go on - but I think you get the point.

In fact, I almost switched off after 15 minutes - the only reason I kept watching was because I'm such a big T2 fan. However, after a while, the pilot starts to branch off into its own plot and ideas and by the end of the pilot, I was actually looking forward to catching the second episode next week.

In hindsight, I guess I can understand why the first 15 minutes was deliberately (at least I think it was deliberate) almost copied from T2. Its been a long time since T2 was released and the familiar feel of the first 15 minutes was probably there to help people get back into the Terminator frame of mind.

Anyway, if you are a fan of the Terminator franchise (and really, who isn't?), then it is worthwhile watching if you get the chance.

Biggest missed opportunity from the pilot? Despite Summer Glau being naked twice, you don't get to see any T&A (and now you know why I want to catch the next episode - hope springs eternal!).

Lehman Brothers

As I'm sure you know by now, after the govt decided not to save Lehman Brothers, the firm has now died and stock markets around the world are in freefall.

Hurray!

As you may recall from my previous post regarding Bear Stearns, I am of the opinion that firms should face the consequences of their actions. Yes, its a shame that so many people will lose their jobs. Still, no company should be able to operate knowing that the govt will bail them out if they get in trouble.

In more distressing news, AIG is also in severe trouble. I really hope they don't go under - my insurance policy is with them!

Gaming predicts the end of the world

As you may already know, CERNs Large Hadron Collider will be powered up soon (or may even have already been powered up by the time you read this!).

Described as the "world's most powerful particle accelerator", the LHC is designed to recreate the conditions that existed at the birth of the universe. Scientists are hoping that by activating the LHC, they will be able to find the so-called "God Particle". At this point, is it worth mentioning that the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has a bet that God's Particle won't be found? Also, does the novel Angels and Demons indicate that Dan Brown believes that it will be found? Does anyone care?

Anyway, as with all good science, there is a fear that this will lead to the end of the world.

Just in case the World does end soon - I just want to say that we (or rather, Valve) called it first!

To be honest though, I'm not worried. As you can see here, preparations have been made for the worst case scenario!

madron pictures of yerrG

No particular theme this time - just some random pictures as Gerry 2.0 makes me think of the original.

Gerry 2.0

I can finally formally announce that my wife is preggers - again.

Gerry's little brother will come out of the oven in January 2009.
:)

Best USB drive ever

Check out this awesome Teddy Bear USB drive.

Of course, what makes it awesome is the fact that you rip his head off and jam his neck into your USB drive!
>:)

Live TV

During the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, I bought a shiny new DVD recorder with a 160GB hard drive. Just in case you didn't know, DVD recorders with hard drives can pause TV while you are watching it - which is an absolutely fantastic feature (the DVDR automatically records the TV onto RAM that is cleared whenever you switch off the DVDR).

The result is that while watching the Olympics, I could take a break at any moment and, say go to the washroom, and not worry about missing anything. I would just pause the TV and then restart it after I got back. Then during the next commercial break, I could catch up to the live TV feed. Awesome!

I have to say, this really revolutionises the way that you watch TV. No longer will I have to put up with shitty commercials when watching my favourite TV show. If the show starts at 10pm, I can simply wait until 10:20 before starting to watch the replay. By the time I finish watching, and after skipping all the ads, I will have caught up with the live TV feed again (most American TV shows only last around 45 mins with the rest of the time being ads).

As I said - Awesome!

Deal with the devil

Gerry has been sick for the last week - fever and diarrhea. On Monday morning, he finally decided to share the love and passed it to me. I say Monday morning because I was fine on Sunday but had fever and diarrhea when I woke up on Monday.

Unfortunately, I had an urgent project to complete at work which was already late by virtue of the thunderstorm that hit Hong Kong last Friday. So, despite being feverish, I went into work. And boy, was it tough. Being sick, it was really hard to concentrate. However, I eventually finished the project and headed home. Of course, putting in a day at the office didn't exactly do my health any good.

Monday night was really bad in terms of my fever (I hit 38.5 centigrade at one stage). The really funny thing though, is the images your brain conjures up when you are semi-delirious.

In my fevered state of mind, I imagined the devil showing up and offering me a deal. I won't go into the details of the deal except to say that it involved Gerry and me sacrificing all videogaming for the rest of my life. Even in my delusional state, I knew it was a bad deal - after all, what deal with the devil isn't? However, despite this, I still found myself tempted (for Gerry's sake).

I can't remember if my deluded mind actually accepted the deal or not. Possibly, my fever broke before the scene got that far or my feverish brain moved onto another dream. In the cold light of day (and with my full faculties), I can see exactly why the offered deal was a raw deal. Still, it does make me wonder - how much would I sacrifice for Gerry?

Bonus question.
As a self professed agnostic, I find it interesting that my feverish mind conjured up the image of the devil. Can I still say I'm agnostic in this case (assuming, of course, that the devil has a counterpoint - ie God)?

Espana - el video

As you know, I recently went to Spain. While there, I took a lot of video. At least, I thought I did. When I finally sat down to edit the video into something watchable, I realised that I didn't actually have as much footage as I thought I did.

Anyway, despite the fact that I didn't have enough footage, I'm still quite happy with the overall results. Or maybe I'm just biased considering the number of hours I put into editing this!

Gerry the gymnast

We've been watching a lot of the Beijing Olympics over the weekend. This is rare for us as the TV is very rarely switched on during daylight hours - we normally don't allow Gerry to watch TV as we really don't want him addicted to it at too early an age. However, seeing as the Olympics is just sport, we decided it would be okay for Gerry to watch with us (or did we just use this as an excuse to justify us watching the olympics?).

Anyway, we were watching the gymnastics, in particular the Floor Exercises event. Gerry seems to really like watching the Floor Exercises as he was glued to the sofa during most of the show. This is actually quite rare for Gerry as he likes to run around a lot (he is very active which is probably why he is quite skinny despite being able to eat a lot). After a while though, he got off the sofa and I started to think that he had lost interest in the gymnastics.

Not quite.

The reason he didn't want to watch anymore was because he wanted to join in! A section of our living room floor has been covered with plastic floormats. Gerry goes up to one corner. Then he starts running across the mat until he reaches the middle at which point he starts doing rolls on the mat! After doing a couple of rolls until he reaches the corner, he gets up and then repeats the process - except this time, heading back to the original corner.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures or videos of this - something I will probably regret for the rest of my life considering how cute he was.

Beijing 2008

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that the Beijing 2008 Olympic games kicked off on Friday night (it was very cleverly timed to start at 8:00pm on the 8th day of the 8th month of 2008 - 8 is an auspicious number in China in case you hadn't guessed). And if you have been living under a rock, how come you can read this?

Admittedly, I have been very critical of China in the past (is that why my blog is blocked in China?). However, I have to admit that the opening ceremony was nothing short of spectacular. It was highly entertaining as well as extremely creative.

I was told that a lot of the dancers have been rehearsing for over a year. Wow. Having said that, the practice clearly paid off. The performers were not only in sync with each other over long periods of time, they were also in sync with the stadium. I remember one scene in particular where an army of taichichuan practitioners formed what looked like a perfect circle - I can only imagine how difficult that is to achieve!

Update - Just read about the "fake" fireworks. Although this is a shame, I won't be amending the above post as I believe the comments stand.

Update 2 - Just read about the fake girl singer. Talk about a scummy thing to do. Considering the amount of fake shit thats coming up, I'm really evaluating my above post. On one hand, its a shame that the achievements of the dancers is being overshadowed by idiots and morons. On the other hand, am I really comfortable praising the opening ceremony when it is so fake (just like the rest of China! - I know, Iknow, that is low - but I just couldn't resist).

Gerry's first concert

The nursery school which Gerry goes to recently had their annual concert. This basically comprises of all the kids in each class lining up for a song and dance routine.

Gerry has been practicing for this concert very hard. The school gave us a CD with all the songs on them and we've been playing it at home for him to practice with. And on the day of the concert, the practice really paid off!

Here you can see a video of his performance. The performance doesn't start until about two minutes in - before each performance, the school would show a video of that particular class in the classroom.

Why I don't want to go to the US

Stuff like this is why I no longer want to go to the US.

Apparently, when you go through customs in the US, federal agents have the authority to take your laptop, or any other electronic device, for an unspecified period of time without any indication of wrongdoing. Not only is this possible, but the quote below (emphasis added) indicates that it happens increasingly often:

"Civil liberties and business travel groups have pressed the government to disclose its procedures as an increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices had been taken -- for months, in at least one case -- and their contents examined."

Quite frankly, I don't want to put up with this kind of shit. Statistically, I will probably be able to go through customs without any trouble (unless the DHS reads my blog!). However, statistics won't be much comfort on the off chance that my PC gets effectively stolen from me for several months.

To the US, I have only one thing to say - No.


Update - Can anyone tell me if this article is serious or tongue in cheek?

Reviewing my Dell XPS 1530

hehe - can you believe I forgot to post this?

Anyway, you can find my thoughts on my new PC here ... as well as find out what I normally get up to while traveling in China.
:)

Is Wal-Mart evil?

Interesting post here.

Basically, a female cyclist was denied entry to Wal-Mart on the basis that the store might get the cyclist's bike confused with the bikes on sale by Wal-Mart. The store demanded that the bike be left outside the store. However, as the store didn't have a section to safely lock the bike while shoppers went inside, the cyclist was unwilling to accept this.

Cyclist asks the manager if Wal-Mart sells shirts. The manager says yes so the cyclist takes off her shirt and says"well then I'd better not bring this in either". Cue flustered Wal-Mart manager.

This continues until the female cyclist is standing in her spandex and sports bra.
8O

Question - does this make Wal-Mart evil or simply a great place for guys to go shopping?

Brain transplant

As I'm sure you know by now, I recently bought a new PC. However, this left the question of what to do with my old PC. Well, rather than let it go to waste, I decided to cannibalise its brain. The surgeon is in da house!


Here you can see my old PC. As you can see, I've already made my first incision and the innards have been opened up!


This is the new home for the brain of my old PC. I've already opened up the packaging and it is ready for the transplant.


Here it is - the brain of my old PC. A 250GB Maxtor HDD.


You can see the new home of the brains of my old PC in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Meanwhile, on my spanking new Dell (with a picture of Ashley Williams posing in the background), you can see that that the memories of the patient remained intact after the operation.


Congratulations Doctor - the operation was a success!

Gerry and the sports convertible

As I mentioned before, Gerry likes to drive. At the moment, every time we go out, as soon as I park the car, he jumps into the drivers seat and pretends to drive. If he doesn't get to do this, or even if he thinks he won't get to do this, he gets really cranky.


As you can see from the fact that the instructor is sitting in the back seat, Gerry has now graduated from the Jokemeister School of Motoring.

Now that Gerry has his licence, there is only one thing to do. And that, of course, is to buy him a car! After all, my first car was purchased for me by my daddy so its only right that I continue the family tradition.


I splashed out and got him a sports convertible. Aren't I a good daddy?

Ronaldo

If I look up Ronaldo in a thesaurus, will I find the word classless?


In case there is any doubt, I'm talking about Christiano Ronaldo and his latest effort to leave Man Utd. To be fair, Ronaldo is a fantastic player in terms of his skill. The only problem is his propensity for gamesmanship which has always highly disappointed me.


In any event, the current issue I have with Ronaldo is his claim that he is some kind of modern slave. Granted, the comments originally came from Sepp Blatter (another plonker as far as I'm concerned but I'll save this rant for Ronaldo) but Ronaldo has come out in support of those comments.

Which is so far beyond ridiculous as to be insulting. Christiano Ronaldo is being paid a small fortune every week to play football. If he doesn't play, he still gets paid. If he does play but plays poorly, he still gets paid. If he plays and plays well, not only does he get paid but he probably also gets bonuses. This is all guaranteed by the contract he signed.

And this will remain the case for as long as he is in contract. A contract, which it is also worth pointing out, he knew all about before he signed. However, Ronaldo would now rather play somewhere else. The only problem is the slight issue of the legally binding contract that he signed (the same contract, it is worth mentioning, which also protects his rights). Quite frankly, he knew how long the contract was for when he signed it. The only way that Ronaldo can leave is if Man Utd agree to sell him.

Naturally, Man Utd don't want to sell one of the most skillful players of the current generation. Having said that, if someone offered a figure ludicrously high enough (say for example GBP2,000m), then I'm sure Man Utd would sell. Obviously, nobody will offer such a high amount. The point is that the market is about supply and demand and despite what Man Utd say, I believe that every player has his price. Man Utd have the supply (the player under contract) but nobody has met the demand price yet. And if he doesn't like it, then he is free to see out his contract and leave for any club he desires.

And so Ronaldo will have to stay at Man Utd. But he has the gall to equate his situation (ie being forced to meet his obligations under the contract he signed) with slavery. As I said, this is so ludicrous, it enters into the realms of insulting - particularly to those who are or were slaves.

Right now, I have only contempt for Ronaldo together with a fervent desire that he never gets what he wants in life.

Gerry and the tank engine

I've been told that all boys like Thomas the Tank Engine. Luckily, my sister in law had a set of Thomas the Tank Engine toys so we were able to test this theory on Gerry.

The result? I don't know if all boys like Thomas the Tank Engine, but Gerry definitely does!


Here you can see the trains leaving the hospital. The green engine is Percy which I'm driving. Gerry is driving James, the red engine.


After a couple of turns, our intrepid cavalcade approaches a tunnel.


James goes up the hill ... and then down the other side!


Not sure what has happened to Percy - he seems to have gone missing. In his place, you can see Gordon, the blue engine.

Sad

I have poked fun at how stupid Americans are many times over the course of this blog. For once, time to show the stupidity of some Brits!

Check out this link.

In brief, someone called 999 (emergency police services) regarding a "bright stationary object" in the sky. The police controller sent out a cop to investigate and the following is a transcript of what happens when the cop gets there.

Control: "Alpha Zulu 20, this object in the sky, did anyone have a look at it?"
Officer: "Yes, it's the moon. Over."

Sad.

Espana - el malo

In my last post, I talked about some of the highlights of my trip to Spain. Up next, the lowlights!

Crime
Even before my trip to Spain, I had heard lots of negative things about the security in Spain. A lot of guidebooks mention areas where you shouldn't travel. Similarly, my friend who went there for his honeymoon felt that the impression he got was that people were always scoping him out for a score.

However, the issue was thrust dramatically into the spotlight when, on the very first day that we were in Madrid, I almost had my wallet pickpocketed! While I wish I could say that I was very clever and that the theft was only prevented by my sheer brilliance and quickness of mind - the truth is much more pedestrian. The reality was that I got lucky.

What happened was thus...

The missus and I had just arrived in Spain and were on the way to the hotel from the airport. Rather than taking a cab (which would have been prohibitively expensive), we decided to take the metro as our hotel was within 5 minutes walk of the underground station anyway.

In many ways, the metro in Madrid is similar to the London underground system. There are a plethora of different colored lines and to change lines, you need to wander around for 5 mins walking up and down stairs. Considering that I had to carry the suitcase during this process, you can imagine that I was pretty tired. In short, a prime candidate for an agile thief.

Anyway, we had just hit an interchange point and had wandered over to the platform for the next train. As the train arrived, I grab the exceedingly large suitcase that we used and bundled it onto the train. Except that the bitch lady in front of me stops in the doorway just after getting into the train. I naturally bump straight into her.

At this point, I am inside the train - but only just. I put down the suitcase and for some unknown and unexplained reason swing my arms around. Not in a very dramatic manner but just very slightly. And just enough to bump into another arm right next to my trouser pocket. Next to my trouser pocket?? wtf!?!?

I immediately turn my head and see the bitch lady run off. As she runs off, the lady in front of me also gets off the train. By this time, I finally realised what was happening and check my trouser pocket. Luckily my wallet was still there so I just stand and watch them run off.

As I said - I was lucky.

Not exactly a good start to the holiday though...

Cost
I can't believe how expensive things in Spain are. Granted, London is probably more expensive. However, I'm coming at this from a Hong Kong perspective.

That nice paella I talked about in my last post? Equivalent to HK$480. After factoring in the cost of water and bread, the meal came closer to HK$600 (we didn't order any starters or any dessert). Criminey! This was for just a reasonable looking restaurant (ie not at a nice fancy restaurant). At the price I paid, I could get a 3 course meal at a nice restaurant in HK!

Weather
In my last post, I talked about how good the weather was. Or rather, to be more specific, how good the weather was in Madrid.

You see, while the weather in Madrid was brilliant, the weather during our side trips (ie in Toledo, Segovia and Sevilla) was less so. The problem was that the temperature was a bit too hot which makes it extremely hard to wander around these small towns and really appreciate the culture and architecture there. All you end up doing is leaving a trail of sweat showing the various tourist traps you were at.

This problem was especially bad during our two nights stay in Sevilla where, even at 9:00pm at night, the temperature was so hot that it felt stifling. This meant that even when we tried to have our tapas at night (which is something we did and highly enjoyed in Madrid), we were never able to really kick back and enjoy the meal as the heat was just too oppressive. Which is a shame as this would have been the perfect way to relax after a day of abuse from the Sun.

Conclusion
Despite the above, I really did enjoy myself in Spain. Although I'm not sure when, or even if, I would go back, its a place that I would very much recommend to people if you have never been. Just remember to take lots of cash with you.

Espana

As you know, I have just been to Spain. Or rather, I'm still in Spain as I'm writing this while travelling x km/hr on a train through the Spanish countryside on my way to Seville (the wonders of Notebook technology!).

Although there are still a couple of days before my trip ends, I figure now is a good time to start capturing some of the feelings and thoughts I've had so far about the trip. As usual, I'll split my comments between positive comments (in this post) and negative comments in the next post.

So below is the stuff that I enjoyed (in no particular order) about Spain.

Football
My trip to Spain also coincided with several of Spain's games in Euro 2008. The Spanish are well known for being passionate about their football and it really shows. After the Spanish victory against the Italians, the entire street just comes alive. Scores of people wander the street singing and dancing. Cars drive by while beeping their horns followed quickly by screams of delight from the crowds on the street. The atmosphere is incredible although I shudder to think what it would have been like if the Spanish had lost!

In fact, if I had known Spain would do so well, I would have booked a longer stay to encompass the final. Ah well, que cera cera.

Food
Everything they told you about eating Paella's and Tapas in Spain is true. The Spanish food available here is nothing short of excellent.



The first night that the missus and I had Paella, we ordered the Paella Mixta – basically a mix of meat, vegetables and seafood. At the time, we were in a relatively nice restaurant (which is actually very important if you want to eat good food in Spain – more on this later) located just off Plaza Mayor in Madrid. Luckily for us, the restaurant made a slight mistake and gave us the Paella Marisco instead. The Paella Marisco is a seafood paella so there was lots of fish, calamares, prawns, scampi and even some tiny crabs.

Short version - the paella was excellent. The taste is a lot stronger compared to paellas which I've had in Hong Kong. The main difference is that the ratio of seafood to rice is much higher in Spain than in Hong Kong. This means that the rice picks up a lot more flavour from the various ingredients during the cooking process. The end result is a delicious aromatic dish which gets its flavour from the ingredients rather than from adding in lots of salt or other flavouring.

Tapas in Spain (or Madrid at any rate) are also excellent. The portion sizes are a lot bigger than the portion sizes you would get in Hong Kong. Although portion sizes in Spain are more generous than in Hong Kong, the larger tapas portions is probably more a result of the cultural difference. In Hong Kong, tapas are generally used as a starter to the main dish. However, in Spain, tapas serve a very different function.

One of the most common sights you will see in Spain is people drinking. The spanish love their alcohol and you will often see them drinking beer, wine, sangria or some other alcoholic concoction which possibly includes sherry of some sort (even during lunchtime!). Even at night, when you wander out to the various Plaza's, you will find tables laid out around the Plaza filled with people drinking. Of course, drinking on an empty stomach is never a good idea. To go with their drinks, people often order some tapas. The spanish eat dinner very late – very often after 8:30pm – and so the tapas effectively becomes their evening meal.

Weather
The weather, in Madrid at least, is brilliant. Granted, this may simply be the result of travelling to Spain at the tail end of June but regardless of the reason, the weather is brilliant. Temperature ranges from the low to mid 20's (in the morning and at night) to low 30's during the day. Although the temperature can get just a little too hot for comfort during the day, especially when you are wandering around various tourist traps, the temperature at night is simply beautiful. Generally in the mid to high 20's, the weather practically invites you to sit outside in a plaza and sip a drink while tucking into a tapas.

Being the good guest that I am, I naturally accepted this invitation graciously. Numerous times.



Museums
Spain has some great museums with some of the worlds most famous art available for your viewing pleasure (El Greco's “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz” and Picasso's “Guernica” being two of the more famous paintings that we saw). What is more impressive though is that if you are travelling on a budget, hitting the museums can be a great way to pass time.

This isn't to say that entry to the museums is cheap. Rather, the Spanish seem to love culture so much that most museums have certain times when you can get free entry. For example, the Museo del Prado (one of the biggest and most famous museums in Madrid) gives you free entry every night from 6:00-8:00pm. Other museums might have an entire day with free entry (normally on a Sunday).

In short, a great way to culture up without breaking the bank.

Flamenco
We also spent an evening at the Corral de la Moreria watching the flamenco dance. The Corral de la Moreria is meant to be one of the finest tablaos for flamenco dancing (at least according to the brochure anyway!). When we got there, the walls were filled with pictures of various celebrities (many of which were Hollywood film stars) which had been there before.

I don't know enough about flamenco dancing to say whether the Corral's reputation is justified. However, the dancing that we saw was highly entertaining. Flamenco dancing seems to be a mix of tap dancing with body movements that are at times, elegant and at other times, combative in nature. There is a huge amount of energy in the dance as the dancers slam their shoes into the dancefloor while clapping their hands or spinning their bodies.

And of course, no commentary on flamenco dancing would be complete without mention of the dresses. The dresses drape to the floor and in one case, was so long that whenever the dancer swung round, it would fly out and over the edge of the dance floor (and almost into the face of the closest crowd member!). You can tell that a lot of care and attention has been paid to the dresses themselves and you can tell it takes a lot of skill just to avoid stepping on the dress while spinning.

Off to Spain!

I'm off to Spain tomorrow for a well deserved holiday. For the next week and a bit, I will be spending my days camped out at a Spanish bar eating Tapas and sipping Sherry.

In other words, don't expect any updates till I return in July.
:p

Gerry the sprinter

I love this next set of pictures. We were in the IFC mall one weekend (the missus had to pick up her pc and some other stuff from work).


Here you can see me carrying her pc.

Anyway, while we were there, we took some great action shots of Gerry. Of course, the fact that I like them may simply be bias considering the amount of work it took to get them.

As I said before, Gerry loves to grab the camera now as soon as he sees you pointing it at him. So in order to get these pictures, I had to run ahead of him, stop and quickly take a picture of him while he was running up to me. The result is some great shots of Gerry.


This is possibly my favourite simply because of the expression on his face. He looks so happy!


I like this one due to the sensation of movement from the picture. You can really feel him running towards you in this one.


This picture is slightly skewed. After several sprints back and forth, I suspect he was starting to get tired by this point!