Month: February 2012

In Body Only…

Some may have read my comment earlier this week that I had checked in, on-line, for my return trip to Oz on Monday morning. I was delighted to find that the flight was half empty and that I could organise a complete row of seats all to myself on both flights.

Alas! The best laid plans of mice and … I arrived at Heathrow on Monday morning, checked in for the 10.50 am flight with my over-weight baggage and was informed that a flight from Singapore had been delayed due to ‘technical’ problems and, therefore, my flight was delayed. I was given a voucher for food, and finally boarded at around 2.00 pm.

I slept most of the way and arrived in Singapore at 10.30 am – one hour after my connecting flight had left, and another 11 hours to wait for the next flight. Continue reading “In Body Only…”

Indian love call

‘When I’m calling you, oo-oo-ooo, oo-oo-oo…..,’ with an attractive sub-continental accent. ‘ Good morning. You owe my company 500 bucks. So pay up very quickly before we doorstep you. Thank you very much.’

Now I’m pleased to report that these distant, unsolicited callers haven’t yet discovered the wilds of Vikingland – perhaps owing to their concentration on English-speaking victims – but a word to the wise – you might get a call yourself before long.

Witness the Times of India: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Indian-call-centres-used-for-5m-debt-collection-scam/articleshow/11999098.cms

NZ v SA T20

For a change it wasn’t us snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

In fact ½ way through the Black Caps innings I thought that it was all over and said as much on my ‘England’ post, then with 2 overs to go only 10 runs were needed for not only a New Zealand win but also the series, normally a fairly comfortable proposition.

But, cricket’s a funny ol’ game and just to prove it, what seemed like an apparent convincing loss turned into an improbable victory.

On the left is Marchant de Lange, the final over hero (2 wickets only 3 runs conceded) but that’s not what this post is about!

See the red ribbons on the sleeves? Today marks  the first anniversary of that terrible earthquake in Christchurch, in which 189 people lost their lives.

I found it hard to believe that it was ‘only’ 12 months ago, seems so much longer than that, good on the cricketers for reminding me.

NZ Herald article here

The Jeans of Slave Traders

Some of you may remember a post I wrote a couple of years ago about my disillusionment with Richard Dawkins. A copy of that post is here. Yesterday I was reading one of our local papers and I came across this rather dodgy article here, which took me to the original, but equally dodgy article in the Daily Telegraph here. Continue reading “The Jeans of Slave Traders”

Steak Tartare

Something stirred in me today. It may have been the comment from Ferret earlier this morning about raw meat and vets that did it, but I went out and bought a kilo of rminced steak, chopped up an onion, four or five cloves of garlic, various pickled gherkins, a handful of alcaparras, wassaname in English? – capers – added loads of salt, sixty four grinds of black peppercorn, cracked a fresh country egg on top and ate the lot.

I absolutely love steak tartare even more than sex and sashimi. Or is it just me?

OZ

The Bozone Layer

In an effort to kick-start my brain after years of inactivity, I have started to learn the skill of solving cryptic crosswords. Some time ago, I bought a book of Daily Telegraph puzzles and began struggling away. I know there are some who rattle through them each morning in no time at all, but never having really attempted more than a handful before, I still usually battle to get beyond half way, though I am getting better. I actually completed my first puzzle, without help, just before Christmas. Occasionally my grey cells ignite and I will get several in a few minutes, but other times I stare blankly and cannot for the life of me figure out the answers. Continue reading “The Bozone Layer”

Doing the decent thing

So the Eurozoners are chipping another cool £110 bn. into the Greek pot – which is almost certain to be p*ssed away within a few years. At least that’s the view of the ‘markets’ this morning. Put another way, the neighbours have now subbed every Greek about £18,000 to zero effect so far. So why did the paymasters stump up?

Probably because they don’t want to wear the black hat. “We did everything we could, but the Greeks blew it,” they’ll say before long. Better than refusing charity and being blamed for the demise of a friend.

Is it? I wonder. Isn’t being nice to Greeks the same as being mean to the rest of the Europopulation? No contest then.