Timing

BT in their infinite wisdom, have finally given us back our broadband (after nearly a month).

Yay! Especially as we have to go to hospital NOW for Alix to be induced.

Wish us luck!

Patterns

So far for 2007:

Getting the last few holidays in - the trip to Amsterdam/Den Haag was suprisingly chilled and enjoyable - witness the Giant Pregnant Woman below...

Got in contact with previous flatmate Victoria Webster, who flatted with me before I left for the UK the first time. Apparently life's been a bit of a rollercoaster (has broken up with Mark the Prince of Insincerity), but she's back in the UK, so hopefully we can catch up.

The mighty Exiles ended up top on the table (somehow).

More rugby - the six nations have been sucking up a lot of my weekends - which will be changing soon!

Have managed to get my contract extended - but part time after the creature arrives for three months. Hopefully this will be a good thing.

Ante-natal class yesterday - surprisingly non-hippy, considering the NCT's reputations. Not necessarily anything we hadn't heard before, but a few tidbits - plus very useful to meet people in the same boat!

Amusing note - one couple were booked in for an induction today (cuting it very fine), and the guy popped out at lunch to get a Wii - because after all, he had a week off afterwards!

Lets just say I'm REALLY interested in whether he gets to use said Wii, or (more likely) ends up with it imbedded in his head.

This coming weekend, we have planned a luxurious journey to Paris on the Eurostar - and staying in the Hilton Arc de Triomphe... unfortunately life has a habit of getting in the way....

A good friend Alexis Dodin was killed by an avalanche while snowboarding in Colorado, with a funeral just outside Lille this coming friday. Since I have to catch a 6AM eurostar to get there, I think Alix will be travelling by herself on our swanky tickets to Paris, and I'll have to make my own way there afterwards...

Hiding

It's not co-operating, said the cheery lady with the gel and probing wand.

The Creature appears to be camera-shy at the moment, as it declined to show off its best side. It can, however deliver a good kick, as Alix's bladder can attest.

Photo! Photo!

While The Mother will have seen these (being there and all), some photos for you! Special Friend Price!




A view over the iced-over lake. Admittedly Alix thinks shes looks like a gnome.



Starbucks + Forbidden City + Cold = Niiiice.

White

It's snowing!

Beijing (not normally the nicest looking city in the world) almost looks pretty shrouded in fresh powder. Went shopping in the various markets (incl. Alien Street, where 58 wigs were bought), and threw snowballs at each other.

House of Wax

Achieved today:


(1) Went to Mao's Tomb, to check out pickeled Mao. Very ghoulish. Debated with sister as to whether he was wax or not. Jonathan later makes comment about how his ear came off a few years ago.

Good time to do it - it's cold (but thankfully a lot warmer than normal) so the queues are short. When we were here in the summer, they were lined up round the block.

(2) Drank Starbucks in the Forbidden City. Damn fine, due to the cold.

(3) Had the World Best Dumplings. Being a Taiwanese chain, the service was even competent.

(4) Watched pirated dvd - sorry 'screening copy' - of Babel. Which I can't particularly recommend unless you like your directors being self-indulgent.

Made it!

After all that , we woke up at 5AM to see that the fog had lifted! arrived at LCY, and all was good (if delayed - not so much of a problem for people with a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam).

Alix also noticed that the after security restaurants look like they do mean brekkie.

Made it to China, had Wenz pull her diplo-thing to get us through the queues (though she said she lost face due to the diplo queue being busy), and am currently sitting down with a large G&T awaiting the chinese takeaway.

However, having had approx 4 hours sleep in nearly 3 days, suspect tiredness will suddenly hit me with a rubber cricket bat.

Fog

Hmmm... getting out of London may prove a little tricky, as fog has descended like a soggy grey blanket.

While London City Airport is pretty handy for us (being a short trip on the DLR away), it appears to have been completely shagged by the fog (being on the river and all), and odds of take-off tomorrow aren't looking so good.

All we've got to do is get to Amsterdam to catch our China flight..

Bugger. Might be Easyjet after all!

Dixie Fried

Munching away on a (large) canister of Tyrells vegetable chips - very yummy I should mention, even the beetroot chips - I noted that it had displayed in large letters on the side "Hand fried on our farm".

Now this could mean one (or both) of two things:

(1) None of this over-processed, industrialised farming/food prep for us - our chips are fried by hand the same way we have for, err, years... This way you know that they have been made with care and love to ensure a genuine, wholesome, tasty chip.

(2) While you enjoy the fruits of your labour-saving devices such as washing machines, coffee makers, dishwashers, we pay some East European suckers minimum wage to hand-fry the chips in hot, sweaty and disgusting conditions. And you shmucks will pay more for the privilege of buying this muck, because you think that them being hand-fried somehow makes them "better". As if there was much difference, given its a piece of vegetable fried in oil.

Fantastic. My moneys on 2.

Belated

Yes, I am slack - so while it might be mid-way through December, I've managed to dig up some photos of the Kiwi Boys tour to Cardiff for the All Blacks game. From November.

Good year for rugby - All Blacks top of the table, Ealing Exiles top of the table, and managed to make it to two All Blacks games - vs. England at Twickenham, and vs. Wales at Cardiff.

The England game was good times - we had been at Eff and Gerhilds Halloween party the night before (and stayed in luxury at Eff's Hilton), up early to get to The Weir for pre-match sustenance, and then on to the game!

One crushing All Black victory (and many pints) later, stagger onto remaining trains..

(admittedly, was a bit nervous pre-game because last time I'd been to Twickenham, was vs. France in the '99 World Cup)

Cardif though - if you like rugby, nothing beats going to Cardiff for a big match. The whole damn city goes nuts.

Once again, we made a production of it - Me and BOC had to go to Heathrow (at 9AM) to pick up the Supermodel and Eff - and then promptly drove directly (and at high speed) to Cardiff! Madmen.

The rest of the pre-match routine was soothingly familiar though - find pub, drink beer. Repeat. Go to stadium. Find more beer. Drink. Cheer. Repeat. Leave stadium, fnd pub, drink beer. Repeat. Move to bar/club. Dance badly, drink beer. Repeat.

Go to 'Chip Alley', get kebab, stagger home.... sleep.

Best of all though, we had a spare ticket for the game - so was able to give it to the Classy Tart - who we found out has had her residency for NZ approved! Yay!

(Photo below pre-haka kerfuffle)

The End is Here

The Most Horrible Man in the World is engaged.

Admittedly:

(1) He was drunk when he proposed.
(2) Zarah made him propose again in the morning when he was sober(?)
(3) She then promptly made him go to Canary Wharf to put his credit card behind the counter at the jewellers.
(4) This prompted moans that it was a "pretty pricey weekend".

Gobsmacked.

Greetings

Well since Alix thinks it has the Matthews Nose, I probably shouldn't call it the parasitic growth anymore (though Alix has dubbed it the space alien).

And despite The Most Horrible Man In The Worlds' Karmic backlash theory, it appears to be singular.

Carbon Criminal

According to the Times, Alix and I are Carbon Criminals.

Phhhtthptt!!!

Quite frankly - and I speak as someone who is at least moderately environmentally aware - I am getting heartily sick of the "responsible" and "ethical" organisations making pretty sweeping comments about how people should live their lives (and often making a healthy profit doing so).

Not entirely convinced that nagging people like this is the way to deal with the problem - but hey, those evil rich people flying make an easy target dont they?

I'm dreaming of a.. err.. greyish-black Christmas

We're off to China!

Arrive Beijing Christmas Eve,
Depart Beijing 2nd Jan.

Yay!

Politics: Not so Super Tuesday

Tommorow is the November mid-term elections in the US - the entire House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, and 30-odd governorships are going to the polls.

Of course it's completely coincidental that Saddam has been sentenced to death this week.

Most commentators are expecting a Democrat victory in the House, and perhaps, if they're REAL lucky, the Senate.

Does this matter? I suspect a lot less than many people are hoping for. While it will provide a (much needed) check on the Bush presidency - and provide (hopefully) some transparency, don't expect any major surprises or any major turn left. Fun though it might be to fantasise about a Bush impeachment.

After all:

(1) While the Democrats might be more 'left' than the Republicans, there is a certain difference between a lot of the American left and, say, the UK left. Must be a driving on the wrong side of the road thing.
(2) A lot of the candidates the Dems are putting up are 'electable' - i.e. pro-gun, anti-abortion, anti gay (marriage), etc.
(3) "You Break it, You Bought it" as Powell said. 'Nuff said.

EDIT - 12/11 - Well bugger me - they got the Senate as well.

Stag

So when did stag (and hen) nights become weekends? Or (God forbid), weeks?

This weekend involved going up to Newcastle for a weekend of drunkeness for Andy's stag.
Suffice to say that the Friday early afternoon train did not mix well with the Friday morning hardware drop for my project. And the Saturday midday to Sunday midday drinking did not make the Monday early morning nerd wrangling any easier either.

What happened to good old fashioned go out (on one night) get drunk, visit strip joint, get drunked, vomit on shoes, go home stag nights?

Feh.

China

Sharon and Riadan are currently visting Wendy in Beijing. Very jealous. As a result, we are currently plotting to go to Beijing for Xmas.

The theory being, that while one's sister has swanky apartment in foreign city, one should take thorough advantage of it.

Now, because Sharon was up on the wall recently - it seemed like a good time for a gratuitous Great Wall shot. Nyah.

To TV or not to TV

Its been a few years since we've had a TV, but the urge is rising again. There's a few good reasons:

• Winter is coming - and with that, more time indoors.
• Free TV doesn't suck as much as it used to, now there's freeview.
• TV's are cheap

So this has resulted in me and Alix pottering around the shops looking at freeview decoders and TV's. Our intent to buy cheap is undermined my Alix's fascination with projectors and really big plasmas. No comment.

On a more positive note, Alix has OK'd me buying a new nokia. mmmmmmmm.....

Plus, found a fantastic cheap Thai place on Saturday night, when the guys took us there after the game (a mighty victory for the exiles). Yummy and cheap. Fantistico!

Way out West

One of the advantages of living in west London (as Alix did last time) is that there are a lot of parks, and nice places to walk/cycle/eat/drink on the river.

While the east has some good places too - Greenwich park and blackheath come to mind - the west does tend to do it better.

So this weekend, since I had a late kickoff for rugger we figured we'd fold up the bikes and take them to Kingston-upon-Thames, and cycle from there (about an hour and a half or so). Since this cycle ride would take us around Hampton Court Palace, and along the Thames path, this seemed like a good plan. And since the English weather (bizarrely) seems to be holding up, it was in fact very pleasant - and as Alix has been keen to get a ride in for a while, conducive to matrimonial harmony .

Unfortunately we didnt get to stop off at any riverside pubs - wrong side of the river and all that. However the after match bbq at Sleepys with Eff, Unpronounceable and the Supermodel made up for it. Mmm.... barbequed mammal flesh... mmmm...

Zombies!!!

Currently reading "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War". Pretty interesting stuff, as it weaves together various stories from 'patient zero' of the zombie epidemic, to it spreading, and almost taking out humanity.

The way it reads makes it fairly gripping. Lets just say that GTA on my PSP has been getting a bit of a rest lately.

On othe news, the rugby season started last Saturday - which, well, left me walking around a littely zombieish on Sunday. And we went to Brick Lane with Paul and Ann, and ate so much that we, well - you get the idea.