japan day 0 why do i do it

3 hours on a bus, 8hours cramped into tiny air Asia seats, 5hours in the dodgy discount terminal of KL, 6hours back in the sardine air seats, 1 hour standing on the metro in Osaka check in then 2 hours of eating... ok 2 hours of drinking and then... DAMN that was a good sleep!!   23 hours of travel and 34 hours since I was in a bed you can understand why I slept like a Log.

As AirAsia skimp on the luxuries such as food and electricity (no charging) the lounge at KL and it's slightly dodgy supply of curry puffs, reasonable seats, free beer and electricity, turned out to be our saviour. True we hit the German sausage and beer hall in Osaka but damn it was good!

Familiar Germany

My first night in Germany and it snowed through the night to blanket the land in soft white snow. Real snow not this pathetic sleety crap in London (in hindsight). Like a child i run down and tell dad that it snowed, “there is snow outside, thick snow everywhere, isn’t it wonderful?” My exclamation is returned with sardonic looks all round - the look of someone who has just had to shovel the driveway free of snow and put salt down and will have to trudge around the cold and the snow that will make the car and everything dirty by the end of the day. Ok, so maybe 3 months of snow would put a dampener on your enthusiasm... but look SNOW! (view from my window)

I have my little rent-a-car, the Audi A1. This sounds like a Formula 1 car (or at least like a formula with a one in it) and while it has no trouble with 100 in third gear, when sitting next to dad’s bmw it still seems underpowered and under tech equipped. Though the electric seat warmers a nice touch - i have never before had the need, want or desire to set my bottom on fire, but now I feel better knowing there is a button for that sort of thing.

Stuttgart and the universitytown of Tübingen are places of learning and culture. The long night of the Museums in Stuttgart was great fun. Some 60 museums open their doors till 2am with shows, demonstrations, music and drinks. If you feel like listening to a saw being played like a violin then here this is the place for you. The amateur observatory/planetarium with Bard performances was also a hoot.

I always enjoy hanging out with Family, and again it was fun in 2013... Till next time.

London in the snow

People say it always rains in London. This is not true it also snows. The snow drifts lazily suspended in the air before settling on the jackets and melting on the warm streets. My first impressions of London is of people huddling from the cold in a crowded square, crowds spill form the underground and  desperately shuffle for the safety and warmth of a Costa’s coffee.

Once again attractions include British museum, Piccadilly circus, a pie and a pint of their best, the natural history museum and, apparently, shoe shopping. The natural history museum is a fantastic building full of intricate detail and grand rooms. Unfortunately the content is a little low on the learning factor and plays too heavily for ‘wow factor’ spoiling the overall effect. Better content is found in the science museum down the road including “listening post for the sound of the internet” and a Turing (Allen Turing) exhibit.

I leave you with this picture of a typically frosty London girl at Trafalgar square.

The Plan 2013

OK the 2013 plan is set Singapore airways leaving on the 10^th and coming back on the 3^rd of April. London for a few days then it’s Germany for two weeks then a few days R&R in Singapore.

Where in Germany you ask, well now, here is the map of the plan so far... subject variations or wholesale change... what with the snow and the rain and the unforeseen events.

The Bombay Experience

Have you ever had a headache because of one too many bottles of Bombay Sapphire? I have one now, and I worked hard to get it.

You may have noticed, one quite night, that a bottle of bombay sapphire looks square and brick like yet can cast a dazzling play of light. It's soft blue light shimmers as it refracts though the glorious alcoholic substance known as Gin. Even when empty, the bottle may continue to delight.

I recently came into possession of a number of such bottles from a good friend who is moving away and can no longer care for his hard eared collection of bottles. After spending years patiently draining bottles of bombay, he had used said bottles to built himself a attractive round structure which cast a pleasant blue light though the back yard on summer evenings. Being an ambitious man, I had grander plans. I dreamed of great towering structures capable of awing and humbling the viewer.

Scoffing the advice so recently dispensed  at work - that boys should not be left unsupervised - I, being left unsupervised for the weekend, set out to be productive and build my monstrosity.
Now, the building code is strangely silent on the topic of required structural integrity and engineering standards of bottles of Bombay. It turns out this may not be so strange after all - it's silence speaks volumes.

It may have escaped your notice but no two bottles of Bombay sapphire are exactly the same. Or rather, no two of the bottles in my collection are, nor will they sit on top of each other. Subtle differences in the shape and curve of the bottles mean that while a bottle of Bombay sapphire may look somewhat brick shaped, when it comes to building materials bricks win out every time.

But of course this problem has already been overcome by the marvellous product called blue tack. For the few of you who may not be familiar with blue tack (because you have lived your whole life in a cave in the Gobi desert for example) It is the sticky equivalent of gaffer tape in that it can hold any two objects together as long as you use enough of it. It is also discreet and blue (unlike gaffer tape).

So I set to work, at first a simple three bottle overlay pattern and then a more complex streaming out to two bottles which come together in an arch and crossed over. The blue tack was being amassing - as usual - and solved the structural problems instantly. So much so, in fact, that I sometimes had trouble removing a carelessly placed bottle. Of course I started running a bit low on blue tack toward the top half, but that's ok as blue tack still works well if you use a bit less.

So there it rose, a grandiose twined double helix twisting skyward with the sort of profound dignity presidents aspire to. I was so pleased with myself, I thought I would send a photo to the poor man who had to empty so many bottles to make my dream a reality.

I was just getting my phone out when an unforeseeable event occurred. A gust of wind! I now know exactly how the guys who designed Fukushima Daiichi felt - Uhm, we did factor in for waves right? Yep, I remember we built this little wall and everything. You don't think that maybe... ohh oh.

I heard an ominous creak  and with a startled look of terror I gazed at the movement of the top row of bottles... but but I used blue tack my frenzied mind was saying, it will hold, won't it?? It has to, it was quite a lot of blue tack. Slowly I shifted from deer in the headlights to a deer trying to save the president from assassination... "NOOOOooooooo.....!"  I screamed silently as I dived uselessly for the structure. Reaching it mid way up, I tried ineffectually to arrest the fall. I watched the bottles lean and then cascade in a sapphire shower down upon me. I tried wildly to stop them with my only free appendage - my head! As bottles clattered off my head, and then to the crashing sounds of heavy blue rain hitting the ground, I realised my folly.

So there I sat amidst the broken blue chaos, murmuring softly and inanely "A hard rain's a-gonna fall".  I gazed about at the  shards of glass laying around me. Beautiful and dangerous. Well, looks like I made art again! (based on my longstanding view that anything which was created but has no functional purpose must be art)

I artist, I. And have I not suffered for my art? Do these shards of sapphire not say something profound about the frailty of man. Or if not man,  at least of bottles of Bombay sapphire. Yes, I have done art today and I am somewhat proud, but mostly just sore.

 

Now if you will excuse me I have some cleaning to do...

Long time no post

It occurs to me that I have not posed in a long time... this is largely as 1) my 2010 world trip is over and 2) it is not 2010 anymore 3) I live in Canberra during the winter and mother always told me if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything. However as this blog is still getting more hits than Jim walking drunk though a park at night (still don't understand how he manages that) so I feel that I owe it to my devoted audience of people who got diverted here from the page they were intending to look at, to post once more.

What’s so funny about living in Canberra?

Ok so it’s been a month or so and (other than the cold) i can’t really complain about Canberra. I found a nice little place near the city (turner) and a nice little car (alpha 147). There are some great bike rides, some reasonable pubs in walking distance, easy drive to work, all in all life’s good.

Speaking of work (where my official title is S.P.O.C.) there is a strange thing in Canberra called a work/life balance. The idea is you work a bit each day, true enough, but then there’s lots of other hours in the day. Example typical working day 7.21h work, 8h sleeping, 0.5h driving, , 2.5h eating/drinking, and 5.8h for procrastination and other words ending in –ation (that’s relaxation, education, sanitation, and oralisation – talking, and get your mind out of the gutter!). And this is normal - expected! All in all a balance I can live with – why would anyone want to work on a mine? Love thy Government.

[if you don’t believe me: 15min breakfast, 15 min drive to work (including 2 min of getting lost because the damn roads curve and are signposted very badly), work for 2 hours, get a coffee for 5-10min, work 2 hours, lunch 1 hour, work 2 hours,(maybe shop for 20 min on the way), cook dinner and eat 1 hour, watch some tv/computer 1.5 hours, talk to the housemate and potter around for a bit, cup of tea 15 min, and then sleep for 8 hours. A little creative accounting and you get the numbers above ]