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.