Power out

I went for a drink with Nick tonight, he was in a strange mood really. I think his break from Becs is having more of an effect than he would care to admit. Whats frustrating is they dont talk to each other about it. I think if they just sat down together and had a frank chat some, maybe enough could be sorted out. Mind you what do I know about it I am not exactly doing great when it come to relationships. I hope they sort things out.

I am missing Olya greatly. I sat at work today looking out of the window at the rain and the cloud wondering what the heck am I doing here? Post holiday blues perhaps, I should be happy I have a pretty ok job, a little money I am just mad at myself for taking the easy route, living with my parents, not taking risks its no wonder I cant find anyone who loves me.

I have to work tomorrow, early, its not helping my mood so I better get some sleep hopefully I'll feel better or at least be able to find more perspective.

Feeling frustrated

Going back to work was difficult, there is so much going on.

Ian's wireless link has been suffering recently so I had bought a new access point, well second hand from ebay access point. It has been sat in my room for weeks, only when I took it out to set it up it didn't work. Its broken! What a pain I was so annoyed I smashed it to pieces with Nick's sledgehammer.

I went round for some beers and a chat setting the world to rights. He seemed a little sad but trying to make the best of it.

How to rotate videos

Whilst I was away a took a number of videos on my camera side on, resulting in side on footage. I didn't realise it but with quick time pro you can actually flip the video really easily.

On an Apple Mac open the film in quick time (this only works in quicktime pro), then choose window, then show film properties (shortcut apple + j). Select the video track then visual settings. There you will find the options for rotating, resizing or flipping the film.

Also I found this really useful page on how to make screenshots in Apple OSX.

Compromising

I haven't finished all my Turkey posts yet but I am getting there, I have spent most of today just going through my photos rearranging things and writing blog posts.

I did watch the film American Splendour which I thought was pretty cool. About the man behind he comic book of the same name it was shot in a challenging but pretty interesting way. One of the better biography's I have seen, they usually tend to be over-long and obsessive but this seemed to manage to encompass the majority of the import bit without detailing too much minutiae.

Went to Japanese class and totally fucked up in front of the German girl, I just got completely confused. It was the last lesson of this year, so a break until September I already can hardly remember 20% of the words I have learned I cant even imaging how bad I will be in September.

Becky came round to pick up her hard disk, I showed her the pictures from my holiday and we had a chat. It seem things are not exactly rosy between her and Nick. I wont detail it but neither of them are very happy at the moment. I can see it from both sides and I count them both as my friends so it was a very difficult conversation. I really hope they manage to patch things up, I think relationships have there ups and down so you have to be prepared to compromise at some point if you want to carry things on.

Final Day

I am sat in the airport in Dalaman, I arrived at 2.30 and my flight isn’t until 4.55. I had to wait until after 3 for the check in desk to open. It has been a heck of a trip, I have managed to do many activities and see many things. Emotionally its been a bit of a rollercoaster. Today things were much better and as Olya waved goodbye I felt very sad to leave.

I was a relaxed day with out anything to do. We both slept in late, feeling tired after the diving, karaoke and drinking yesterday. Missed breakfast we went out to lunch, at the Baran bar. They do pretty tasty food and have air conditioning that is just the job for lunchtime heat.

The Turkish seem to be a nation of traders, everyone wants to be your friend, at whilst there is a chance they can separate you from your money. Good never have an actual fixed price you just have to haggle your way down and often this can mean right down. They do work hard though most of the bar staff seem to work all the time; it was the same people in Baran at lunchtime as the night before.

After lunch we went swimming then I sorted out my taxi, tour guide Ben managed to get it for 40 Lira cheaper than I arrived so that was a bonus.
Olya and I had dinner together than I packed and we went for a final drink on the strip before the taxi would pick me up and 1am. It was a weird evening felt close again (I am a glutton for punishment arn't I) she even wanted to sit on the beach together, it was pretty nice, I was sad to have to leave.

I had a last minute panic as I couldn’t find my driver straight away but fortunately we hooked up and I was soon whizzing down the country roads to Dalaman airport. Arriving way before my flight was due giving me a chance to sit here and start documenting my thoughts.

I caught something on the tv behind me it was a bit of a parallel life experience. I haven't really seen the news all week so it was weird to see a piece about the UK terror alerts on TV especially hearing prime minister Gordon Brown.

Diving

Though no longer together Olya and I seem to have patched things up enough that she still wants to spend time with me, especially as Luba had already headed off home.
Regardless I wanted to try doing some diving and Olya was keen to give it a try so we booked onto a day trip with Marmaris dive centre. I opted to stick with the beginners group as she was pretty nervous about the whole experience.

They were pretty good with Olya, giving a Russian-speaking instructor despite the fact she was the only Russian on the trip. He ran her through the basics, 1 breath, 2 equalise your ears, 3 clearing your mask. The rest would be taken care of by the instructors. The dive would be to 5 meters only and the instructor would tow round Olya.

Thanks to my PADI cert I was allowed to join in but not be babysat. We got into the water and though she tried hard Olya couldn't breath through her mouth so I was impossible for her to dive.

I sat on the bottom waiting having my photo taken, then went on a short dive. When I surfaced she told me about it. I was sad she couldn't join in. It did mean on the next dive I was allowed to go out with the experienced divers so at least I go a proper dive in. It wasn't the most impressive diving though. After the Coral Sea and the barrier reef in Australia seeing a few ancient amphora just didn't impress me much.

This evening Olya and I went to Baran bar, a sort of karoke cocktail bar, I got quiet drunk on Efes larger. So drunk Olya managed to talk me into doing Karoke, I have never tried it before, always finding some reason not to. I tried to inject some humour into it and choose The Beatles — Back in the USSR. I even switched Moscow Girls to Ukhta as its Olya home town. She didn't even notice!

Jeep Safari

Today we went on the pre booked Jeep Safari tour, Olya was friendly but withdrawn, despite renewed attempts to be more decisive and manly the damage is done, the gate is open and the horse has bolted.

The jeep safari was a fun trip, piling into 4x4 Jeeps, 6 people per jeep, each jeep was armed with a load of water pistols and bottles of water, which we threw over each other at any given opportunity. It helped to keep cool in the hot air.

First stop was a track overlooking Marmaris, the view was superb. After a short drive on the motorway we tool the jeeps off-road thundering round dirt tracks whilst trying to soak each other as much as possible was quite amusing indeed!

The only problem was we were a bunch of cheap people in our jeep, we couldn’t afford to buy extra water pistols like the people in the other jeeps had done. So we tended to be on the brunt of the soakings.

We stopped the madness for lunch, and then continued on to what I would consider the highlight of the trip. Stopping off at a river and waterfall. It was very pretty all trees and water. We jumped from the rocks into the waterfall pool. The water was cold but refreshing.

After 45 minutes wondering round the waterfall the next stop was a village in the mountains where they made honey. The guided showed us the Turkish Viagra honey, and a wishing tree, you had to walk around the tree three times touch it then make a wish.

We refilled out water bottles tried some honey and after the stop tore off down the back towards home. We had one last water fight before heading back to Marmaris.

Tonight I am sat only in my room, I have hardly spent any time here before now, I guess I will do so much more during the remainder of my trip. I suppose the difficult thing of it all is that she was right in many ways. I am not the most independent person, and I live my life in a kind of bubble, certain activities taking up most of my time. I am not very manly either; I have always been quiet and a little shy. I never really noticed how indecisive I could be.

Kervan Saray, and how it all went wrong

I had to work up to this post, the memory and the pain are still very fresh, and what is worse I could have just kept my mouth shut for two more days and it wouldn't have been so bad. I had to go buy a pack of cigarettes a drink before I could start.

The day had been a fun if tiring one, after the aqua park we were tired but Olya wanted to go to the Turkish nights show at Karvan Saray. Ben the tour operator we have used all week picked us up at 7.30 and took us to the show.

The shows consisted of a traditional folk group who did Turkish dances, a belly dancer, and a male belly dancer, and fire breather. To finish the night off
We were seated with a group of Russians none of whom spoke English. I was also he only man, which meant they expected me to fetch and pour drinks, apparently it is a Russian custom.

Olya in the dance competition

 After we returned from the show Olya was on a high, from the Vodka and the dancing. We went for a night swim in the sea and said goodbye to Luba Olya's friend who was returning home that evening.

We went back to Olya's room, and I felt she was being really frosty with me, and because of the drinks I had consumed, and the fate of being ignored while everyone spoke in Russian I basically decided completely stupidly to rock the boat. I guess subconsciously I knew there was a problem; I just underestimated the effect the question would have.

Olya not only confirmed that she was unhappy but went on to tell me, "I like you as a person, but as a man I don't like you at all." She didn't stop there though, "you are like a child", in that I am not independent enough, I should be making all the decisions and not asking questions. Finally to add insult to injury my performance in bed was "more or less". She didn’t believe I had any passion, I did not help her and I didn't hold her. Ouch! I felt my stomach knot I couldn't continue I just lay in the dark listening to the air conditioning. She was next to me in body but she might as well be back in Russia.

Turkish Market / Aqua Park

The Turkish like to haggle, never take the first price offered there is always a better bargain to be had. Olya and I had been waiting for the Market to buy presents for the folks back home. The market was a largest building with many stalls selling everything from foodstuffs to t-shirts. They catered to the English market with many of the stalls offering cheaper than ASDA prices.
Olya bought presents for her family, I got some Turkish delight of Bruce and Phil and a few little bits which would fit in my bag.

The aqua park was a little disappointing. It was quiet expensive so we expected a multitude of slides and water based entertainment. There weren’t many slides, and to of the slides there were painful to use. It was also incredibly hot and we got tired out running up the stairs to the top slides. After a few hours we headed back and booked onto an evening of Turkish dancing at Kervan Saray.

Bar Street

Bar street pretty much does what it says on the tin it’s a street full of bars and clubs, with a few snack shops thrown in for good measure. The music ranges from dance to hardcore rock, but its always cranked loud.

Bar street is packed with Russians and English people out for a good time, to meet people of just to get hammered. As usual Turk sit out the front trying to entice us in. We walked the length but couldn't find anywhere playing music we liked very much so we stopped into Crazy Daisy. It has a huge projected sign, dominating the sky at above bar street. They promise exciting nights, we were not entirely impressed and moved onto another place. This had slightly better music, but also had the interesting feature of having free popcorn and nuts. Very novel. The much was loud the air-conditioning just about cooling the room enough to dance a little. It was actually a nightmare going outside to the back bar and toilets because the night air was about 30C.

We had a few drinks, Olya met up with some girls she spoke to in the airport. Niether Olya or Luba enjoyed the music so much but we had a good time dancing and jumping around. Watching the go dancers, including one shaven headed girl and a rather camp looking guy.

On the way back to the hotel Olya stumbled across a shop with bad Russian and was given a flag, which set her and Luba off singing in Russian.

Boat Trip

Took a trip on one of the many boat sailing out of Marmaris Cruising south it stopped in several places where we could to swim and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. First stop was Paradise Island, a small rocky outcrop surrounded by a superbly beautiful and calm sea. We amused ourselves swimming and diving off the top of the boat. It was such a hot day it was nice be out of the town and to feel the sea breeze. Swimming in the cool clear water, so much cleaner than the sea near Marmaris.
I stupidly tried to climb on the rocks, which I managed but instantly regretted thanks to the millions of splinters and cuts I sustained!
Next the boat moved onto another spot for more swimming, the trip continued like this for the rest of the day moving from one amazingly beautiful place to another. I tried to take some photos but my camera really did not do the scenes justice.
One of the most beautiful places was the lunchtime stop, we moored just outside a beautiful empty and unspoilt beach. We thought it looked like paradise, the beach was sandy the water blue and clean.
After lunch we headed to another beach stop this time docking at a bay with a restaurant and more sun loungers. We wanted to sit in the shade, typical Turks forced us to buy a tea before we could even though there was plenty of space.
Whilst we were sitting a speedboat bulled up in the quay, it was towing several rubber rings. Olya and I decided to go have a go, it was great fun trying to hold on whilst the speedboat thundered road the sea. I went off a couple of times :-)
We only had one more swimming stop after that in another empty clear bay, one of the Turkish deck hands climbed right up the rocks and did a spectacular dive.

Rafting

Olya wanted to try river rafting, I had done it once before in Australia and found it enjoyable. We booked onto a trip to the Dalman river. The Dalman River is about one and a half hours drive from Marmaris. This meant we had to leave at 7.30, which meant missing breakfast so by the time we arrived at the rafting centre we were very hungry. Fortunately breakfast was included in the price of the trip.

After a quick breakfast we climbed into the rafting centre buses and started another hour and a half journey. This time the bus snaked around the mountains climbing higher and higher. The road were mostly little more than dirt tracks with rather sheer looking drops on down to the valley below. The mountains were very beautiful; we sure got a good look at them as we rode over the dirty dust tracks. The sky radiant blue, the sun hot, Olya and I were both excited it was going to be a good trip. One of the river guides told us that the government is building a dam so five years from now rather than a river the valley would be a large reservoir.

By the time we reached the high point of the river I was glad to get out of the bus. The sun was beating down strongly. The heat was such that we had to throw water over the rafts to cool them down enough to sit on.

Our boat contained myself, Olya and a Dutch family, the guide and a trainee guide. I think our guide was a little crazy to be honest but it all made for a more fun trip. We started to move downriver just about knowing when we hit the first major rapid. I do emphasise the word hit too. Our raft smashed into the rock face flipped over pouring us into the water. I ended up under the flipped boat and had to dive down to get out. I drifted away as the others struggled to right the raft. I got picked out by one of the following rafts I was ok apart from a few grazes. My sandals tore to pieces though, oh well.

After a rendezvous I rejoined my raft and we continued downriver, we actually had to get out and walk round a couple of times avoiding some the worst rapids. About halfway down the river we stopped off for a short rest. There was a deep place in the river you could jump from the high rock walls about. I tried it a few times it was very refreshing to hit the cool river.

It was kind of disappointing to see the Roman bridge which marked the end of the trip. There was one bit of fun left, we got out of the raft and floated through the final rapid. Olya and I both had a great time I bought the video of the trip, it's a bit big for the web but I am hoping to cut out the crash scene :)

Turkish Bath

Olya and her friend Luba had booked to go to a Turkish bath. They invited me to join them so I though I might as well.
There is a popular phrase "its as hot as a Turkish bath in here", now I know what they mean. The bath started with a sauna. After which we were ushered into an octagonal room. It was very humid inside the room. In the centre was a slab on which you lay during the bath. First some Turk cleans you with a kind of scouring pad, apparently this removes the dead skin. It was very relaxing; the only pain was waiting for my turn inside this hot and steamy environment. After the bath was a massage, a Turkish masseuse massaged oil into my skin. I was left feeling relaxed and smelling vaguely of fruit!

The afternoon was incredibly hot touching 50C. Just about the only things to cool down was to go for a swim in the sea then relaxed on the sun loungers.

In the evening Olya, Luba and myself went on the Moonlight cruise. The cruise takes place on board a large ship called the Orca (it has two bars and a disco). The Orca leaves the jetty and cruises up an down the marina to the sound of disco songs. There was even a belly dancing show. I enjoyed the cruise sitting up on the top deck, taking in the evening relaxing with a cocktail. I found the music a bit tiresome the typical dance rubbish they play here. Olya calls in "dunce dunce dunce" music and I tend to agree. There also weren't many people on board so the dance floor was pretty empty.

Still it was a an enjoyable evening, especially sitting outside with Olya.

Arrival in Turkey

I had a rather surreal start to my trip, I saw Peter Kay, nearly knocked him over in fact coming out of WH Smith at Manchester Airport.

My flight was late boarding they said because the incoming flight was late but I am not sure I believe that. I saw the there 1.5 hours ahead when I entered the terminal. Something else was going on, or maybe I am just paranoid.

Turkish airlines weren't exactly the slickest operation I have ever been on, I don't know why but they just seemed unprepared and stretched even though the flight was only about 2/3 full.

Istanbul airport was very confusing; I had to wait in a visa queue for ages. I had to jostle for position with a load of Russians who insisted on pushing in the queue. Then as I had to transfer I hadn't got a clue where to go I had to ask twice at the transfer desk they weren't the most helpful.

However I remain excited waiting here for my connecting flight to Dalaman. I found out the airport wireless is open to dns-html lookup attack; I will defiantly have to get one of those servers up and running.

The taxi ride to Marmaris took 1.5 hours, it is not only far but the final part of the journey involves tearing down some rather twisty mountain roads. The driver was really quiet scary, tearing around blind and sharp bends at a fair pace. Fortunately we made it into Mararis and after 15 minutes of searching and asking other taxi drivers he finally found my hotel, the Ocaktan.

Whilst I was checking in I met a Russian girl called Olya in reception. she was sat smoking and chatting to the hotel attendants. We got talking and went for a walk along the seafront. She was funny interesting and beautiful. We sat out on the deserted sun lounger watching the sea.

Marmaris reminds me of any resort from like the Costa Del Sol in Spain or even Blackpool. You can eat at the Italian/Indian/Mexican/Chinese restaurant. Loud music permeates from every bar as they via for the attention of passing trade.

The beach is a tiny strip of sand covered in sun lounges laid out by the various hotels and restaurants along the sea front. The sea is closed off from the ocean by the high mountains so there is hardly any tide, it is however very salty

Hiatus

I went out for some drinks with Bruce and Phil tonight. We sat chatting setting the world and the IT industry to rights.

I think my prediction that blueray will out is beginning to come true, blockbuster the biggest video rental chain has decided to throw its weight behind blue ray rather than hd dvd. Given Blockbuster is both a huge retail player and plays an active role in film financier this is a huge boost to blueray. I guess the execs have good reason to believe based on the market the blueray will out. I think the sooner the next gen format war is over the better for the customer, so hopefully we can see consolidation pushing down hardware and disk prices.

I have been feeling a little stale recently, in respect to this blog. There is a lot going on but its mostly work which either I cant write about or I feel its boring ground to go over. I really dont want to turn this into a work only blog its just thats actually my life at the moment. I am heading off on holiday to Turkey on Friday so I have decided to put the blog on Hiatus until I return. Ill be back with stories and pictures from there on the 3rd of July, catch you on the flipside.

Fall, Fall, Fall

Just finished watching Babel, a twisting dark film connecting lives of people from America, Mexico, Japan and Morroco. It was really well shot and a very challenging film exploring the different ways people are isolated and yet connected in this modern connected world. According to the blurb its also a follow on to 21 grams and Amores perros. I have spent today writing software, updating something my dad started years ago, when I was still at school. We talked many times about updating it to something modern. It has taught me many things about writing in .net, and how to connect to the free mysql server. I found this great article on using lists, and collections. Much as I am really happy to get something working with my dad it another day I didn't go to the gym. Its nearly a week now, I am really getting out of the habit. I feel really unfit and fat, I really must try and go at least twice before Turkey. My family were all really happy today, it was father's day so we had a special meal. Add to the good mood my cousin Mark sent round photos of his newborn son Jack Henry Flannery. The pictures are wonderful look like they are really happy, Jack is very healthy; they have a great life in Kansas. Quiet funny though they have this wonderful looking dog George. He is a Rhodesian ridgeback, and apparently he loves to be in on the pictures (he made it onto loads of the new baby ones) and every says "oh nice kid, but wow that is a great dog"! There was some weirdness though apparently there were two Jack Henry Flannery's born in the same hospital that day! Very random but I guess there are many Irish immigrants.

All the gear and no idea

I spend most of my life trying not to be the sort of person who has all the gear to do a job but is unable to do it (All the gear and no idea). Today I went to help Phil set something up and I must say I had a real ATGANI afternoon. His brothers company atov wanted to project a rendered scene across 4 projectors. This would need a huge scene many times the quality of the average dvd. To do the job Phil bought one of the most powerful computers on the market, an Apple Mac Pro. It has got 4 processors 8 GB of Ram and two graphics cards.

The only problem is, it cant do the task, I am not sure anything can apart from very high end specialised kit. Stretching video across that many screens is virtually unheard of so probably untested. I think this sort of bleeding edge kind of things will require custom development and or input from someone heavily involved with this sort of technology.

T%his evening Phil myself and Nick went for some drinks in the Farmers Arms in Poynton. It was a pretty chilled out evening very relaxing after a hard week working and a frustrating time trying to make video play. Bruce even joined us later on.

We had a bit of a debate going on. I don't subscribe to the Britain is a small country and its full idea. Britain has such small cities compared to China, we have so much unused land really, even something like 1% usage of the greenbelt would house many millions of people. We mostly suffer from a lack of development the last new towns were constructed in the 1960/70's. Even Manchester big by UK standards is a minnow in the grand scheme, the leader of the industrial revolution is now something like 78th place the world GDP rankings. Far too many bright people disapear off to London or abroad, its a real brain drain down south, sorting that out attracting more business would require a real change in planning legislation to allow some more development. I don't feel threatened by immigrants I feel more threatened by a collapse in the UK.

Gone on Safari

Apple have released their web browser Safari for Windows download the beta.I am actually using it to type this blog post on. Personally I think its a bit slow and buggy at the moment, but more choice for users is likley to be a good thing.

From out of nowhere

I have been finding it very difficult to blog recently. Apart from feeling extremely tired all the time, there are things I cant talk about on here, and the rest of my life is taken up by the mundane things I have already discussed in detail. Maia hit the nail on the head when she told me she thought the thing I was most afraid of was being boring.

This morning I looked at myself in the mirror all dressed up in my work suit, and I wondered how did I end up here. Lately I have devoted the majority of my energy into work, its really wearing me down. At what point did I start living to work rather than working to live?

The problem is I cant answer the questions, I wonder if other feels like I do. That they have been swept along with the tide rather that master their own destiny. I spoke to one guy tonight, he reminded me of myself at his age, full of hope for the future. Somewhere along the way I replaced that hope for compliance, I think I need to get my edge back.

I also have a huge self confidence / doubt problem that is really an issue. I have a tenancy to be a pretty negative person, always questioning myself and striving for improvement. It's a problem working in a company where its literally impossible to get feedback on the quality of your work.At least that what I would like to believe, I am quiet lazy.

It hasn't help the one of the staffers with people picking holes in my work. C exposed some rather stupid mistakes, too much use of the cut and past caused a weird error. It was quiet embarrassing but at the same time I feel it exposed some poor working practises which we need to address.

I was like a message centre this afternoon, playing communicator between several groups of people. I was just about on top of things, until I received a random call from one of my ex's. The call came through during a busy period, so a made my excuses. Despite efforts later she didn't ring back, leaving my very curious. I think I have tried my best, worked hard and dome some good things, but all C see's is some joker who missed an obvious bug.

This evening I went for a drink with Bruce. It was very much needed, I have been feeling stressed all week, and while I realise Lager is a depressant it tastes so nice. It's has been a horrible evening, last week I was boiling, this week I needed to put the heating on!

Well I have waffled enough about nothing, night night.

Totally Random Man

I have been so busy with work recently it just seems like one thing after the next. I have been too tired to go to the gym even. Though I did manage I must say I found it difficult I was really tired I found it difficult to run and had to slow down a couple of times. Its amazing how much fatigue has on performance, I was only able to manage 45 minutes and 7KM, and that was with a couple of breaks.

I met Nina on my way in, she was telling me things at her and Bruce's house are going well its all going off on the 21st with the plastering and the kitchen arriving. I spent some time looking at some places last night. A few things caught my imagination but either don't fit my budget.

Becky came over earlier to pick up her new laptop. I managed to get her a good deal on a HP through Phil, the only snag was that is came with the new Windows Vista. I must say I like the new interface its much cleaner, less fisher price that XP. However on a laptop with 896MB of memory it was paging out over 512MB without any other applications running other than the ones that came pre-installed on the laptop. This to me suggests either HP ship bloated builds of Vista is a unbelievable memory hog. I know memory is cheap but I would have to recommend sing 2GB or more to have a good desktop experience. I also experienced a really annoying problem installing Office. I didn't realise but the laptop came pre-installed with Office 2007 trial edition. Apparently this cannot co exist with Office 2003, a host of weird errors occurred. I had to to uninstalled both versions fully, deleted mapi32.dll and reinstalled Office 2003 seemed to do the trick.

Six Days

I just walked home from Phil's house, we have enjoyed an exciting evening of Wii playing, bbq food eating and drinking.

He and I ventured to the Trafford Centre today, ostensibly to pick up Phil freshly repaired Mac Book Pro from the Apple store. We spent a while in the Apple store Phil was chatting them up as he wants some super powered Mac for some project his brother is doing. It was a glorious summer day in Manchester so I was inspired to buy a could of summery t-shirts. Also in a phase of Summer magic Phil bought one of only 4 Nintendo Wii's in the Trafford centre.

The Wii is pure genius we played the Sports game for hours on end, boxing and golf are my favourites. The graphics might not match upto the Xbox or Playstation 3 but the games and innovation is infinitely greater. Even Phil's mum joined us for a game of golf, and she even seemed to enjoy it!

In slightly unrelated news I got a tax credit today for my Standard Life shares. My £49 dividend bought another 14 shares. Unfortunately due to demand the drip shares were bought on a peak, I don't mind much though I still think it s along term (3-5) years hold. SL-.L has been one of my best purchases, up 50% from the original IPO if only all my investments performed so well, I could retire!

Building Steam With a Grain of Salt

You know I used to celebrate the milestones that this blog reached but somehow it slipped my notice that I already surpassed the 500 post mark. Crazy really I only started this all with coercion from Lulu yet somehow I have managed to keep writing (semi) regularly whereas a lot of others have fallen at the wayside.

Thanks to all the people reading, comments are always welcome and very uplifting even if its too tell me I made mistakes. I like to think of everyday as a school day, there is just so much to learn, it find it fascinating to see what is out there. I know recently I have been a little below par, hopefully after next week work will calm down and I can start getting some more of my life back, so maybe I will have something to write about.

Work was another marathon today; it seems this week has disappeared into meeting and stress rather than productive output. I went for a drink with some guys after work, came home for some dinner then headed out with Phil. We went into Cheadle Hulme but to be honest it wasn't that much fun, we were not part of the target demographic too old for the Kings Head, too young for crowds in the Jon Mil or Governors House.

Whilst I was at home, I heard from Maia. It has been a long while, but it was nice to catch up. She was in a great mood, having just got a new job and a new place to live with her husband. I am pleased that she is enjoying her life in Italy. I had my doubt on whether it would work but I am happy to say I was proved wrong in this case.

I promised my friend Esther I would mention her on here, she is going on holiday the same time as me though to a rather more exciting destination; hope you have a great time.

B.O.G.O.F Film tickets

Liz put me onto a cheap cinema deal so I thought I would share it here

Too many meetings

Today was a real pain rather than being able to get on with things and try and make a dent in my ever increasing workload, I spent the day in meetings. Whilst I understand the need to meet up and arrange thing sometimes it seems like we just keep going of the same ground. Nobody really seems to have the will to move things forward, turn down of back out so we remain over comitted and stretched even with extra bodies working.

Also a lot of work is stacking up not getting through testing which is a real problem, work gets done stacks up and can cause issues, sometime things accidentally get transferred, causing untold problems like last week.

I also lost out on my day working on the next generation project this week thanks to another colleague getting called away to another site meaning there would be no cover.

Japanese was very difficult this evening, we had a mock test which would be set to allow any newbies onto the intermediate course next year. I think on the basis of the test we would all fail. My vocabulary is limited as I don't practice enough and only doing one lesson a week means the words are not reinforced enough for me to recall them. I am really going to have to add in a lot more revision time to make significant strides.

I had an argument with one my fellow Nihon students (who else but Martine) regarding a art. I suppose I am a bit of a Philistine in that I really don't like modern art, so Damien Hursts skull nor the graffiti inspired London 2012 logo just look like rubbish to me. I much prefer Bejing's Panda bears or a beautiful Renascence work to Sheep in formaldehyde. I guess the stupid amount of money languished on this stuff that upsets me too. Ill never forget when I read about the forty thousand pound pebble outside the Bridgewater Hall.

I went for a drink with Bruce, he has spent the last few days trekking round the country on an emergency replacement mission. His company suffer from bad planning just like most others, only its competent people like him and myself that end up having to pick up the ball after its been dropped. Sigh, at least we had a nice chat and a drink.

Run rabbit run

I felt like death this morning, once the cat woke me up I wasn't really fit for anything except sitting reading the economist. This weeks is a great issue, there is a rather interesting essay by Tony Blair. I dont really agree with his views on much but he always puts across a good argument, worth a read. There is also a 15 page section about climate change which was very interesting. Especially the discussion on the economics of some of the different types of renewable energy versus fossil fuel generation.

I left my car at Phil's last night, so after several hours reading and drinking water I finally felt able to go round and pick it up. I walked round, the day was beautiful, sunny and warm. Phil felt much like me, we had a sit and chat in the garden, taking a few photos with Phil's Brothers amazing digital SLR camera.

We got talking about Australia, and decided to go check out how much it would cost to go diving in the UK. Heading to Macclesfield and New Horizons Dive centre. We had a look at the prices, £500 for a dry suit, nearly £200 for a course on how to use a dry suit, and the pictures of the UK waters hardly looked impressive. Diving here is a lot more than in Australia.

In the evening we headed out to for a meal, to celebrate both Bruce and Philips birthdays. Jo, Holly, Endo, Jo, Bruce, Nina myself and Phil headed for a curry at the Spicy Hut in Rusholme. It was a very enjoyable evening, we had good meal, a nice chat and a few drinks afterwards. I really enjoyed the relaxed and comfortable time.

Long days and pleasent nights

Friday was a very up and down day. With the successful go live of a major project on Wednesday and slightly traumatic update yesterday, I was at a little bit of a loose end. It was decided that we start work on a new project, again another data transfer this time to a lender. It means I have to do yet another tedious data mapping exercise, but at least I got the project, its a step in the right direction.

The day wasn't all smooth though. There was a last minute problem with one of the systems so I had to do a last minute bit of bodging to make it work, well at least not to crash. There seems to bit a bit of politics going on over this particular system, so I just did enough for the moment.

After that I felt in need of some R&R and was invited to the pub by the customers staff. A rare treat I decided not to pass up the offer. The weather was gorgeous we sat in the beer garden of the Rectory and had a couple of pints and a chat.

Today was a big day for Phil, his 27th birthday. To celebrate we had a bbq with his parents and brother. It was really nice sat in his back garden in the sun enjoying some steaks and ribs. Phil's family were all in very good spirits, he mum was telling us about "the Major", some very funny but unrepeatable stories. He had an interesting chat up line, apparently he asked the then 19 year old Miss Hadfield "Do you Fuck?" Pretty direct eh? :D Despite being sorely tempted when drunk later, I decided (wisely I think) not to try that one.

Phil and I headed out into Didsbury for more drinks, arriving at the Slug and Lettuce we tucked into several beers, including one gratis thanks to Galaxy 102. They were doing some night there, unfortunately it did attract some rather less savory characters. There were some real chav's my "favourite" example was one young looking pregnant girl, complete with hoop earrings, a fag in one hand and an alchopop in the other!

Ian joined us about 10ish, he elected to drive as he had an event the next morning. He persuaded us to move to the Bollin Fee in Wilmslow. We arrived and started hitting the harder drinks I must admit by this stage I had been drinking since 6 and it was now nearly 12 so I was more than a little bit drunk. In fact my memory is a little hazy, I remember dancing like a fool, and acting like a tit. The I remember getting a lift home and Ian pouring me out of the car.

I feel bloody awful today but it was an enjoyable evening I think Phil had a good time which is the main thing.

Mortality

Today was an especially busy day but not for the reasons I imagined. A very long project has finally gone live, after well over six months of preperation the first applications started heading through today. To be honest unlike the lsast big project this one wasn't a mad panic at the end. In fact it hardly requred any tweaking.

Unfortunatly one totally unrelated change went pretty badly wrong, something sneaked past testing causing major issues on this month end week. I probably could have fixed it in 10 minutes but by the time the various people had said their piece distracting me it was over an hours work to sort out. In future Ill have to be a lot more careful checking if other people have worked on the same area.

Both Phil and I have had heavy days fo one reason or another so it was nice o head to the pub this evening to relax. Juilie was on and told us she is doing the race for life. I am pretty impressed, I hope she makes it. I would like to do the Manchester 10km next year but I am not sure if I will chicken out at the last moment.

After our drinks we came back to my place and looked over some old photos of us all looking younger less stressed, Phil seemed to feel old (even though he is younger than me) some of the pictures feel a lifetime away fom us now. I talk to people aboutn their wild all night sessions and I rememebr them wel but I always feel too tired these days. I have to apply myself so muchat work I just dont seem to have the energy to party so much, or myabe I am really getting older, I hope not!

Fscked website

Ian came round earlier and dropped off his rather broken pc, the hard disk is making clicking noises and isn't seen by the bios so I have a feeling there is little I can do to fix it.

He was amazed I have not been able to take the helicopter out for a spin yet, but the weather has been foul and I have been busy. I am hoping this weekend will be nicer.

I had planned to spend this evening going through www.johncooke.info/index.php and changing it to use the new styles. Unfortunately I only managed to get through a small number of pages.
I found I had an error, I had used the css attribute

height:100%;

It took me a while to track the problem down (in fact my friend Nekane spotted it). For some weird reason height:100%; made the pages render incorrectly in Firefox. Removing the style completely solved fixed it so the pages render correctly in Firefox. The delay meant I was only able to update a handful of pages. I think the new style looks cleaner though if you have any comments about the new site design or anything else please post them. Bear in mind the site is still a work in progress. It is far from finished some links and pages are broken.

28 Weeks later

I have been off the airwaves for a while recently, I had to do a lot of set up for the lan party yesterday which ate into my time. The lan went really well its the 14th one we have held under the ejected brass banner, nearly 20 people turned up which is pretty good, considering they drag themselves and computers to a tiny place in the back end of Manchester to place computers games all day.

Today I went to see Bruce's new house, its a little 3 bedroom semi in Cheadle Hulme. I was kind of shocked at the state of the place when I walked in floorboards raised, wires hanging out all over the place and the kitchen ripped out. It looked more like something Nick would preside over. The wiring was a complete mess so its mostly being ripped out and replaced, ditto the kitchen and some of the floors which had rot and wood worm.

I was supposed to be helping Bruce do some wiring of the lights, we basically spent the day ripping out the old dodgy cabling and rerunning a new upstairs light ring. I say we, but really I did very little, apart from tearing out old cabling and fitting a couple of wires, acting a gopher for Bruce's dad when he was called out to go check on an alarm at his work.

After our days work we headed to the cinema for some light relief, well not that light we chose to see the zombie fest sequel to 28 days later, 28 weeks later. The premise is 28 weeks after the infection, the "infected" are dead and the epidemic burned out. London is being repatriated by a US led Nato force. However things gone badly wrong and soon the zombies are on the march again. Personally I felt the film was slick and true to the original. However it was so contrived, why were people going back? Why if the infection spreads so fast would your emergency procedure be to heard people together into a room where the doors arn't even secure. The family connection smacked of the sort of poor George Lucas thinking that had Anakin Skywalker build C3P0. I am probably being a bit harsh though, suspend brain enjoy the gore and mindless thrills and scares ;-)

Manchester 2.0?

Apparently Manchester is being recreated in the digital world of Secondlife for the big chip awards. More satirical coverage on El Reg.

Personally I think Manchester need all the advertising it can get, so many talented people are keen to leave for London and abroad its no wonder Manchester is sliding down the world city rankings by GDP. Its a real shame that the epicentre of the industrial revolution is such a nothing city these days :(

My night has been somewhat soured as some complete twa decided to use the ejectedbrass top level domain to send a load of spam out. The server has not compromised, rather someone sent out a whole heap of emails spoofing our address. Its a total ball ache and could result in us being banned by some ISP&s.

I have no idea why they picked on us, just lucky I guess! Hopefully it wont spoil any communication.

Thin ice

I had a very busy day today. I was bombarded with stuff at work, so many projects seem to becoming due at the same time its almost ridiculous. I also really lost my cool with a colleague whom I don't feel is pulling their weight. Given he is a contractor and supposedly experienced I feel he should really be picking up a bit more of the slack.

After work was Japanese class. Our teacher was really pushing us to go over a lot of the areas we have learned. She also introduced one new particle and reintroduced a particle I (and most of the class) had basically forgotten. We can now use verbs and noun's, numbers and time so getting to be about pre school entry club level!

After class Phil and I headed into Manchester. Phil and I had planned to see the first Sandbox gig of 2007. We made it, just about. The gig was delayed thanks to a problem with the drums. Chief was looking a little stressed. Fortunately Emily was in a good mood though. She showed me the pictures from Saturday nights party. There were some very funny ones, apparently it went on for some hours after we left.

Sandbox were very good, they opened with one of my favorites a million Marlboro lights, and even played light blue, a rare treat indeed. LD the new guitarist was very good. He played very well adding a few little tweaks to the songs. They also played a rather natty new song, on first play it sounded very nice. I got a feel of arctic monkeys on the opening but then it shifted into a more Sandbox style, I good new adjunct to the repertoire

I don't know if its me being old here, but I didn't care for the Night and Day very much as a venue. I found the pa setup a little over-powering; it felt very, very loud, painfully so at time, my ears are ringing.

Well, Well

The kettle was broken this morning, I wasn't able to get my morning caffine fix, very upsetting. I went to Argos at lunch and bought a new one, deciding the Ferrari one was a little too expensive at near £100, so I just got a quick boil Kenwood.

Whilst I was out in Argos, Phil phoned me from Aria. He went down to buy pick up some more helicopters. Martin got four, one for little Martin, a replacement for the one Phil lost and a spare. Phil asked me if I wanted one and after yesterdays fun I jumped at the chance of getting my own, hopefully I can make it last more than the last few!

Ian and Nick were impressed with the helicopter. They had ventured round as well were all going for a few quiet drinks at the thieves. They were just in time to see me playing around with before putting it on charge.

At the Thieves one of the barmaids from ages ago had returned. She was complaining that the five of us (Bruce and Phil also joined us). It was nice to have a civilised drink and chat, Ian and I swapped storied about our recent expenditure fixing our cars. My body work damage versus the failure of his wheel bearing. He also found out one of his tired is a remould, I did warn him that place in Stockport is dodgy as hell but they were just cheap enough. Personally I don't skimp on tires, they connect your car to the road and make a huge difference in performance, handling and safety, so I would never use part worn or remoulded tires because frankly its not a risk worth taking as far as I am concerned. I am me own best asset so I like to take care of me, speaking of which its bed time.

Tomorrow I am off to Japanese then watching Sandbox play at the night and day cafe. It's their first gig of 2007 and they have a surprise, so it should be a good one.

Airwolf

It has been an eventful weekend, Friday night Phil and I went to the Unicorn for some drinks and a chat.

Last night was Andy Gilmore's official last days of Edgeworth drive party. Nick is selling the house so the chief` is moving on. His stuff is going into storage and he is going to be a sofa surfer. He will be working part time in London coming back to Manchester for the band.

The party was fun, not as well attended as previous ones thanks to the FA cup, many people had gone out early and were already too worse for wear by the evening. Nick made a surprise entry, been a while since I have seen him come out for a few drinks. The chief and Emily were on good form, her sister drank enough for the rest of the party put together I would like her hangover the next day.

I just got back from Martins house. A few of us went out for a pub lunch to celebrate Endo's birthday. Endo, his girlfriend Jo, Martin and Charlotte, Little Martin, Adam, myself and Phil all went to the Honey Bee in Wilmslow. It was a beautiful day, we all sat outside enjoying the sunshine and the crazy cars going past. We must have seen 4 Aston martins, 2 Ferrari's, and there was a Zonda parked in the pub car park. Add to that Adam's Menaro, and Endo's Celica and it was a car fest. We all had a nice lunch and a few drinks, mostly went for the roast dinner option, the food was pretty reasonably priced and tasted nice, not quiet upto home cooking standard especially the Yorkshire puddings but tasty never the less.

After eating we headed back to Martin's house, we had plenty of new toys to test out. First was guitar hero. It is a rather quirky play station 2 game, where you attempt to play along to songs. The guitar shaped controllers have 5 keys on the neck for cords, a strum button and have tilt sensors. Its all pretty good fun, especially two player on his projector. I was pretty poor to be honest only managed to hit 70% of the notes, but it was good fun playing along to Heart Shaped Box.

Next up were the helicopters, these are plastic electric powered beast from Aria on offer for pound;15 + vat, bargin!

Now £15 dosn't buy a lot of helicopter but there are still great fun. They do need lots of open ground though they travel high and as we found out can easily get lost. Within 30 minutes we destroyed one and lost another. We went into the recreation area behind Martins house. Little Martin had lost chopper the night before after accidentally piloting it over onto the railway line. We meant to be careful, however within 5 minutes Martin managed to crash land little Martin's copper and snap its rotor. Phil had a go next; taking over the controls of Martin's copper he flew high, really high. As it got higher it moved closer to the houses, too close. Disappearing over the treeline, over the houses, road and into the next set of buildings somewhere. Martins neighbour told is he saw it fly over and took cover in the shed.

Black Mirror

Put my car into have the dent pulled out today, and expensive mistake. I was working at the Cheadle office on my one day per week visual studio job. Thanks to the gap since the last time one I spent most of the day simply familiarising myself with the code. To be honest I felt pretty useless I seem to be falling further behind the development curve.

This evening Phil and I went to try out Kendo which is Japanese sword driven martial art. Coincidently a Japanese 6th Dan was visiting this evening so many people had turned up to view. I found it incredibly difficult to try and organise my body to move in the correct ways, especially to use my right side more exclusively. I have never been the most coordinated person and trying to use the wrong side was weird. I think I must have looked rather a state. The Japanese guy and the English Sensi were so fluid and impressive to watch they made it all look very easy, when in actual fact I found even the simple exercises very difficult.

I found them a pretty friendly bunch though a lot more welcoming than the Akido crowd, we had a drink with them aferwards and it was all very civilized.

cigarettes and alcohol

Had a software update this morning, a few minor changes, thankfully it all went off without a hitch. This afternoon we had a long and tiring but potential promising meeting in the boardroom regarding some for future development. I arrived home late though after having a debrief with one of my colleagues.

Getting home late and starting early was all a it of a pain because this evening I planned to go to the Zanshin flair competition. Held at Classroom in Altrincham, it was Zanshin's way of having a little fun and generating some buzz. There were 9 contestants to start, four went into a final event, the winner got big cheque (big as in size not amount, like the charity ones).

Zanshin were running the event, so Ian and Ben looked a little stressed organising everything when I arrived. The quality of the contestants was pretty high especially the Fox (who represented Zanshin) and a guy from Southport.

I went down to the compition with Alison, she was in high spirits. I saw a few faces there but I don't know the Fridays crew very well. Shania came and said hello, she was bubbly and fun as usual trying to drag me out for more drinks in town. I guess I am getting old but I already felt tired and I find it harder to get up for work after nights out these days.

Motley Fool gives linux thumbs up

Personal Finance website Motley Fool has a rather interesting money saving tip, use an old pc running Linux (Ubuntu).

In search of cheap deals

I know I only got back to the rain and greyness of Manchester last week but I am feeling like I need something to look forward to. I have been scowering a few websites looking for deals, I usually use expedia travelocity and airmiles (I used to get quiet a few airmiles with my fuel when I commuted to Accrington for work each day).

I detect that the price of online trips might have risen a little since I started using them a few years ago, however I still think the value is slightly better than travel agents. I have seen a few deals to Turkey and to Tunisia. I had some carry over holiday from last year so even with my trip to China I have still got quiet a lot of holiday left to use this year. I think I might take another trip soon and get some rest, and sun.

My big boss was up in these parts today I picked him up from another one of our customers, and we went for a coffee and a chat. He is basically very happy with my performance and told me a little of the plans for the future. He wants to employ someone else to take over my current role, and over the next few months have me train them up and slowly move to another project. I might be working on a web project we have which is all about providing information and reporting to people. This would be a pretty big increase in my responsibility and so would mean some extra cash and an expanded role. This is great from my point of view as I don't really feel there is much room to grow in my current role. Unfortunately it wasn't all positive I need to shape up my interpersonal skills more as its felt I am not very good under pressure. Personally I think this is somewhat down to experience, I am at a customers site, and I am lacking in backup as to know how to handle people as a representative, I think I have done pretty well but could do better on this score. Tomorrow is another day so hopefully I can start to try to improve and connect with the customers better :)

This evening I went out for a couple of pints with Bruce, we had a chat about his house, which is going well, and course he has been on. He is currently wiring up his new pad it seems to be going well if a little slower than he expected, I still haven't seen the place I might go take a look this weekend. Apparently he has had to rip a lot out in order to get started so its going to be interesting to see. It was nice to have a relax and a drink and have a natter Bruce is always good company.

I have an upgrade to do tomorrow so I better get to bed.

Employee of the month

After last night enjoyment today was a little flat, I didn't really achieve much. Finally managed to solve a little html issue which means I can start the revamp of my website proper expect to see the "facelift version" soon.

I found out Firebug is a very powerful tool for examining webpages its a free plugin for Firefox. It is a excellent helper when examining pages.

I cleaned out the fish tank I think the heater is broken its making thing tank too hot, even on the lowest setting its running at over 30c far too high. That causes all sorts of other problems with faster growth of algae on the glass, upset fish not eating and faster decomposition of the plant matter.

I watched the film "Employee of the month" basically about a guy drifting with his life until he is inspired by the arrival of a new checkout girl at the store where he works. It had some funny parts but like Talladega nights it was a little over done with a lot of unfunny sequences and an overall message that made me squeamish. I guess maybe I identified too much with the guy drifting along not fulfilling his potential. Talking of potential I realise in order to move on I need to be able to prove my worth with the newer technology. As it dosn't look like I will be working on those projects after all I think I might have to go on some courses and get the certificate instead. I priced it up at around £3000 for the MCAD course. I just need to work out it the money is better spent on that or on some other investment. Or do I invest in myself or do I look for something to invest in like some shares?

Heavyweight Champion of the World

I finally started to feel like myself again today, I have felt so ill the last few days it great to be me again. Though I felt better I tried to keep it low key today just read and watched TV. Watched Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest. I felt they whilst there were some great moments, the comedy was well timed, the film was filler. Like Back to the Future II, not quiet a great film in its own just a glue in between the first and the next film.

It pretty good that I am feeling better, as I had been asked to go for a meal tonight to celebrate Martin's birthday. Part of the lyrics from the song that inspires this post title repeat the phrase "Be like everybody else". One person who is certainly unique is Martin, who wasn't on top form tonight but he seemed to enjoy the fact we all turned out to wish him well.

The evening started with us meeting up at t the farmers arms in Poynton. Present were Endo, his girlfriend Jo, Simon, Adam, Steph, Bruce, Nina, Phil and myself. The event was supposed to be a surprise, though I am not sure how surprised Martin was to see us there when he turned up with Charlotte.

We headed off for a meal at the nearby Italian restaurant the Tarantella. The group had grown from the original booking so we had to wait a little while to get a big table despite the booking. Once we got sat down it seemed like everyone was having a birthday, the lights dimming and the birthday song played for each one. Martin and Steph (we found out its her birthday tomorrow too) got theirs when we ordered desert. Cheesecakes with sparklers!

I had garlic bread to start and a seafood Spaghetti, my food was very tasty and I from what I could tell everyone enjoyed theirs, it is a slighty more expensive place so its a good job it tastes nice. We chatted, I bored people with my Shanghai stories, Adam Martin and Simon swapped work and technology stories, Philip talked about Japan and Martial arts. I felt a little tired towards the end even the coffee hardly picked me up I guess I am still a little sick.

I got home and found an album I just bought from ITunes was already in my collection on another pc! Oh well I guess its better I gave the artists some money.

Getting better all the time

Well today I finally start to feel better, it really wonderful not to feel so ill all the time. I haven't got much to write about though as I have just been resting. I did start a little facelift for www.johncooke.info, I would be interested to know anyone's thoughts on it.

Photos from Shanghai

I have finally finished uploading all of the photos from Shanghai please take a look here

Oriental Pearl Tower

Ill

Oh dear I am feeling so sorry for myself, since coming home from Japanese class on Tuesday I have had a really bad bug. I had the shakes I haven't been able to hold down food and I ache all over. I guess it is some virus. I spent yesterday in bed unable to do anything, today I feel a little better but very fragile, so I called in sick.
It's been pretty horrible either sat in bed or in the living room but not able to properly relax because of the uncomfortable ill feelings.

Last night in Shanghai

I sit here in my room having mostly packed my bag, just got a few more bits to squeeze in there. Today has been a strange day really, I visited two places of worship, eaten more different things, and went bowling.

The first place we went to was Saint Ignatius Cathedral, this is a Christian Church built by the Jesuits. It is a rather striking building, this totally western Church next to the hear of Shanghais computer retail sector. We arrived just in time for Sunday mass, and Lulu said she wanted to stay. So I sat through something I haven't attended for a very very long time, I never even got to be confirmed as a Catholic so it was a strange for me especially as the service was conducted in Chinese. I could make out the tunes of some of the hymns so it was weird to hear them in Chinese. I tried my best to explain how the service worked to Lulu seemed pretty interested in the process, but it has been so long it was very hazy to me. I cant say I felt any sort of rapture for going, I did feel peaceful afterwards.

As we were in the area we went for a walk round the technology park, it was very interesting, one part of it where they sol computer components reminded me of the computer shows back in the good all days, when you really could get bargains and any sort of computer part you were after. After looking about a bit we found a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch, Lulu ordered pork balls, clam and eels. I was a bit worried about the ells but they actually turned out to be ok, much better than frogs!

From the Christian world of worship we now headed firmly firmly back to Chinese tradition at the Jingan Temple. This is a traditional Buddhist temple, part of which is wonderful the other part looks like some sort of concrete nuclear shelter. We bought some incense sticks and made a prayed to the Buddha's there then wondered around. The bell room and Buddha's were very ornate and interesting, I cant say I really understand it but I can see the beauty and power in it.

Near to Jingan Temple is a little park where and a the first building Lulu worked in, the Apollo building. The park is very beautiful and ornate, full of lovely little places to sit and enjoy the day. Apparently it is a favourite for couples to take their wedding photos; in Chinese society wedding photos with the bride and groom are usually taken before the wedding in a specially staged photo shoot.

We had some time left over before Lulu had to depart and visit her cousin before he left to go home, so we went for a walk around an older district of the town, then hit a few shops. We planned to have a game of badminton or tennis but there were no courts available so we went bowling instead. I totally sucked and Lulu beat me in the first game. In the second I won but more due to her throwing it away then my good bowling.

This evening it was a flash back to the first day of the trip as we went back to the mall we visited on day one, as I have been struggling with chopsticks all week Lulu decided we should go for stake so she could see if I could use a knife and fork. Twan Twan, Lulu's boyfriend joined us for dinner. He was explaining about the martial arts traditions in China, and that I had been by no means adventurous with my choices of food, snake. boiled monkeys head, pigeon and various body parts should also be tried! Unfortunately our food wasn't very good the stake was tougher than old boots, however the company was nice and a great way to spend my last evening.

I am now sat in my room I have pretty much packed and ready for tomorrow mornings flight, I must admit I never would have thought it after the pain of the culture shock but I think I am going to really miss Shanghai, and I hardly even scratched the surface. Lulu asked me one word to describe it, at first I thought crowded, but on reflection I decided enigmatic. This place is a riddle, I have take a look at it but I am far from solving the puzzle.

Nearly over :(

I just got back from my first foray alone on a night out in Shanghai. I have been a little bit of a coward o far not really wanting to go out alone. In the end it was quiet enjoyable, however I guess I did not find the right places as there wasn't really much happening (perhaps I went out too early?).

Anyway more about going out later, I have had a strange day today. Lulu and I visited two temples, ChengHuang Temple(Town god's Temple) and Longhua Temple Fair. At the Cheng Hang we saw the bridge of nine turns and many market stalls where I bought a few gifts for the people back home, and got myself a really nice stylised "Cookie" sign. The temple structure was very pretty and well worth looking around. I threw a coin onto a tree in the centre for good luck with my career I hope it will come true ;)

At the second temple we went in to see the Buddah's, you could not take pictures but they were very ornate and different well worth seeing. There were huge crowds at both of the temples though, got jostled and pushed around the place.

For lunch went went to a Shechuan (not sure on the spelling) diner near Lulu'ls old college. The food was very spicy and quiet nice, except in an effort o spice up the meal she ordered frogs. They came served in spices on hot pebbles. I have to say I found them tough and not very tasty, though Lulu's opinion was they were not well cooked.

Lulu wasn't feeling the best today so she went home early, and why i ended up going out by myself into the city. I was quiet worried about it, Lulu has been my guide, she has made up for my lack of Chinese. So I was worried I wouldnt be able to function without her. Fortunatly using my guide and some poinitng at things I managed to get into the city, walked around the shops on the South Chongqing road, then went for a few beers in some of the bars on Yandang road. I didnt managed to meet anyone though wih was a shame people seemed mostly in groups and it wasn't really very busy.

Its kind of strange today is the first day I am getting a little bit of a handle on Shanghai and yet my trip is nearly over. Its a very different place, the customs are strange, Anglo-Saxons are a minority. Life feels like someone turned up the volume and the colour's especially at night you are bombarded with neons, horns, shouting and noise. The smells are very pungent, with the cooking, the rotting waste, the smells of the many construction sites. I cant even describe the crowding its unreal! Yet for all that Shanghai has a charm, a real spirit, I feel very alive, possibly because I feel lucky ever time I make it from one side of the road to another. I think its the most varied place I have ever been too there are whole different sides to the place, different sights and sounds and feelings to experience. I have been here a week and not even scratched the surface of Shanghai, one city in a country as big as the EU with a population equal to one quarter of the world, with a culture established when western Europe lived in caves so there is a lot to see, do taste and experience.

I got home about 23:15 tonight, just been sitting here blogging, and a storm started up, first the wind picked up, whistling though my (closed) windows, then rain now lightening. Being on the 25th floor I am getting quiet a show :)

Xitang

Today the plan was to go and visit a "traditional" Chinese village called Xitang (pictures here). I got up at 6am as we had to catch the bus at 8am from the stadium about 6 stops away on the metro.

After just over an hour on the bus we arrived in a really run down town, walked a little down the road then the narrowest street I have seen in some time. So narrow we had to hide in a door way as one of the tuc tuc style bikes pasted through.

Xitang is a maze of small streets separated by rivers, with a large collection of bridges of all shapes and sizes. The bridges are both useful as Xitang sprawls over the river but also beautiful adding a real magic to the place.

Just walking around is amazing the sights and smells, the constricted space on the pavement and the crowds of tourists give the place an otherworldly, sad but proud feeling. The bridges and buildings are wonderful to look at. The places stinks, and not just the tofu, rotting garbage and the river smells and looks horribly polluted.

There are many little exhibits to view whilst walking about, a wine museum informed us the Chinese have over a millenia of wine making tradition. There is a Buddhist temple, a place called the Drunk Room home to some excellent calligraphers, and a grand house complete with courtyard, rockery and splendid Chinese architecture.

The trouble with chopsticks for a western guy is that whilst the Chinese have used the sticks since they were young, I am struggling with the sticks themselves and with the fact its normal to chew food and spit bits out, something that is no-no in the UK is normal practice here. Today i was trying to eat shrimp, I found it very difficult Lulu torn off the her in her teeth, spat it out, did the same with the tail then stripped the rest of the shell in her mouth and spat it out. I found it difficult and unusual, ended up eating mostly the salad and other bits.

There were many little stalls selling all sort of traditional Chinese goods, foods, and curiosities. I bought a rather natty Tea set with a spout shaped like a dragon. I also bought some nice Chinese paintings depicting Xitang in the four seasons. I also sampled smelly tofu, a rather foul smelling fried tofu, it actually tastes pretty nice especially with a little sauce on.

The poverty of Xitang is palpable, from the people working the stalls to the townspeople outside, it is very different from Shanghai. I was approached by a shoe cleaning women whilst we were sitting waiting for the bus, she cleaned my shoes for 5 Yuan then went off looking for more customers. I guess underemployment must pretty high here.

This evening we were both tired after the early morning, so we went back to the apartment and cooked up some of the leftover dumplings from the party. Along with an Elizabeth melon and some crisps.

It was early evening so although slightly tired Lulu took me out to Xintiandi. It is a modern shopping complex built inside a renovated Shikumen (stone houses) part of the old French concession. The place is full of trendy shops and restaurants and had about the most western faces I had seen so far on the trip. I think that maybe goes along with the western prices!

We grabbed a coffee, at one of the brand chain coffee houses. I had to go and order, first time ordering anything, it took ages but not because for me more due to the queue inside. I think Lulu thought I was messing about! We sat outside and had a rather deep and meaningful conversation about life which was rather enjoyable, however we were both tired. So Lulu went off home and I was so tired I went to the apartment and crashed out.

Hidden Skype

My friend Kelly sent me this link to some hidden Skype emotions.

Just in case it goes offline here is a listing

(tmi) Unsure looks like peekaboo
(fubar)
(swear) Skype swearing
(bug) Skype bug
(poolparty) Skype Pool Party
(bandit) Skype Bandit
(headbang) Skype Headbang
(banghead) Skype Headbang
(mooning) Skype Mooning
(rock) Skype Rock
(ci) Skype Smoke
(smoking) Skype Smoke
(toivo) Skype Toivo
(drunk) Skype Drunk
(finger) Skype Finger
(makeup) Skype Makeup
(kate) Skype Makeup
(heidy) Heidy
(myspace) MySpace (latest skype)
(flag:ca) Skype Flag Canada
(flag:us) Skype Flag US
*Update pretty much any flag can appear just use (flag:xx) where xx is the two letter code e.g. (flag:gb) or (flag:eu)

Oriental Pearl

Thanks to the fact it was so busy yesterday we decided to get up early and catch the Oriental Pearl as it opened and avoid the queue. We arrived at 8 and we able to just walk in and head up to the viewing platform. We had tickets to the second highest level, I decided the extra 50 Yuan for a few more meters didn't matter so much at there was a little cloud / smog in the air, plus the guide book said it really wasn't worht the extra money.

The view was really good despite the poor visibility. You could clearly see the Bund in a lot better detail than from the Jan Mao.
After a good look about we made our way back down. At the bottom of the tower the queue was already beginning to grow.

Next stop was people square, when the communist took power they took what was a racetrack and turned it into an area for the people. A sort of soviet style park with the museum in the middle. The museum has "unique architectural form of a round top with a square base, symbolizing the ancient Chinese philosophy that the square earth is under the round sky" - Shanghai Museum. It is actually pretty impressive and had some nice exhibitions of Chinese art in, I enjoyed the paintings, th caligraphy and the statues but the currency and seal
exhibits were a little dry. They also had an exhibition of American art, from the 20s, and 30s so a lot of pop art, realist paintings from the Guggenheim. These stylized art if mostly not to my tastes although the odd the piece stands out some I just thought were jokes, I deformed (poorly drawn) circle in a square canvas, is that really high art?

After the museum we headed down Nanjing market it was very very crowded though. We gave up before long in the face of massive crowds, and went for lunch. We went to a rather tasty diner I had a spicy beef dish it was lovely.

In the afternoon Lulu arranged for some of her friends to come to my apartment, and prepare a Chinese meal. I even helped with the preparations! We prepared dumplings, I think I got quiet good at making them in the end. We had a hot pot on the table into which went all manor of food, prawn balls, port, vegetables dumplings and vermicelli . The food was good but it was hard for me, they were all chattering away in Chinese I had no idea what was being said or what was happening, they seemed a nice enough bunch was just a clique not including me. I felt a bit bored after they left though. Lulu said they needed to get home as they lived far away, though I doubt it somewhat, they didn't want to go for a drink so as of 9pm I was alone. Chinese people seem very different, if i got invited to a party I would expect a few drinks and some fun not just food and home. Tempted as I was to go out I'm up very early to go on a village tour to Xitang, I saw some pictures and it looked very pretty.

How many people!

Today I woke up early, too early in fact. I think it must be down to the jet lag.

Lulu arrived and brought breakfast, her Grandmothers Yuanxiao dumplings. They were incredibly tasty sticky rice balls with a filling. We set out for the metro line on route to the Pearl TV tower. Unfortunately on arriving at the metro line we got the first taste of just how Crowded Shanghai can get. The trains were totally crowded. When I say full I mean so full you could not physically fit in another person. In fact we saw two people injured on the trains. One guy got his hand trapped in the opening door, and a girl passed out on the station. In the end the crushed were to bad so we got a taxi.

The taxi took us to the Bund on the wrong side of the river. So Lulu bought us combined tickets for the tourist tunnel, Jin Mao Building and the Oriental Pearl TV tower.

Across the river from the Bund is Pudong, this is the special economic zone which has helped to power Shanghais incredible growth over the last decade. In a total contrast to the Bund Puong is full of new buildings, mostly skyscrapers. The Oriental Pearl seems to be the centre piece to a showcase of huge imposing corporate monsters.

In order cross the river we used the Shanghai tourist tunnel, this is basically an underground car which goes under the river. To jazz it up they have added some weird special effects like you on some sort of weird acid trip.

The Oriental Pearl TV tower is the third tallest tower in the world and the tallest in Asia. It has multiple viewing platforms, you pay more the higher you want to go. We joined the queue, and waited, and waited and waited. After an hour we realised the line stretched all the way around the building and inside. We asked how long and were told at least another 30 minutes maybe an hour. This was too long we were hungry by now so we decided to go for lunch and see what the queue was like later.

We ate lunch in the shopping centre opposite the Perl. Its called Super Brand Mall, nice Chinglish name ;) Inside the mall you could almost be somewhere like the Trafford centre, apart from the odd more authentic restaurant and shop the brands and names are global.

After lunch we went to the Jin Mao building. It has an observations deck on the 88th floor, which includes a post office where you can send a postcard to the people back home. There was a little more more queuing, but nothing like at the Pearl. The view from 88th floor was great but due to the haze (I am not sure if the haze was weather or pollution) it was difficult to take a decent picture. The Jin Mao has a central atrium running all the way to the top its a vertigo inducing look down from the centre of the observation deck.

After the Jin Mao and some time spent gaming inside the shopping mall. We won a pair of chopsticks, which was quiet funny as Lulu was only laughing at me trying in vain to eat my lunch with them earlier. Then went back to the Pearl, but the queue was bigger than ever. They did however have a free outdoor show we watched. Traditional Chinese entertainers, I think they said they were from the circus world troupe, which I went to yesterday. The also had some fantastic Russian dancers from St Petersburg.

We left the to meet up with a friend of Lulu's. Taking took the tunnel back to the Bund and walked along the riverside. It's quite amazing view at night, everywhere lit up with neons the Bund buildings one side Pudong's great skyscrapers on the other side of the river. The only problem was there were so many people it was a like a river of people. Difficult to stop and take pictures you just got pulled along in this big mass. It was also very difficult toto find a taxi then its so busy, eventually we made it back Lulu's friend Twan Twan was even kind enough to shout us dinner.

I will post all the pictures when I get back. Pictures here

Days to go zero, arrival!

Ive been ticking down for a month and yesterday am was the beginning of the epic trip. I arrived at Manchester Airport for 9 and from there hit Helsinki then Shanghai on time at 7am in the morning. I sit here typing this at 9pm Shanghai Time. I haven't slept since

The filght was somewhat long and uncomfortable. Airbus A380s suck compared to the Bowing 747s I have traveled on. The Finnair staff were helpful and Polite and the food only sucked as much as usual. Two things really sucked the lack of parental control over the two brats sat in the aisle next door, and the two old women in front talking loudly enough for people in China to hear them.

Without any sleep i arrived in Shanghai tired but willing myself to go on. Lulu met me in the arrivals lounge it was great to see her there. We then rode on the Maglev train into the city, it cost quiet a bit 50yuan for a 10 minute trip but it is petty funny seeing the speed race upto 300kph.

Had to catch the metro train from the Maglev station this was cheaper but packed. We arrived at the apartment just before 9. I was quiet impressed it needs a clean and is quiet compact but no more so than some of the ones in Manchetser. The finish on the fittings an design is a little poor now. I nice place to have a holiday but not to live in I think.

We went together to the Circus, I thought it would be a nice relaxing and simple thing to do and its right nearby to the apartment. They had lots a of trained animals, bears, tigers a lion, dogs and lots of clowns. It was very entertaining, though I felt a little sorry for the animals the tigers in particular looked drugged.

Sent the afternoon walking about with Lulu, we visited the Shanghai university where she used to study. Its a modern mega university purpose build in the 1990s. We walked round the amply sized grounds, ate a meal int he canteen and fed the huge fish that live in the river snaking through the campus.

By this time I was fading fast, my eays can hardly keep open but im desperately trying to go to bed a normal time and get into the Shangahi timezone. Next to the campus there is a large shopping area we walked round tried some miniature lobsters nd killed a bit of time before heading back to my apartment. I just wanted to write something to help clear my own head its been a real head mash all the traveling then the culture shock. It really is a different world, people were staring a little at me as I walked around with Lulu. On the metro and in the circus I hardly saw any westerners.

< 1 Day to Go

Tomorrow morning I am heading to the airport to catch an 11.15 flight, 18 hours later I should be in Shanghai. I have just about got everything packed up and am ready to go. I am really excited but at the same time a little worried, it is going to be a really different experience for me.

I am taking my laptop with me as apparently I have internet access in the apartment. Unfortunately it is unlikely I will be able to write any blog's or upload any photos until after I get home as I believe Cookies World is not allowed past the firewall. I might catch people on MSN or ICQ though.

I spent today tidying a few things up, I made some changes to Becky's website, I was pleased to be able to add the google maps, hopefully its what she was after.

I even managed to get a bit of jogging done hopefully it will help loosen me up for tomorrows flight.

This evening I had a quiet one and watched Hero's with Phil and Bruce. Its gone very confusing the plot is far too convoluted, in an obvious attempt to play like Lost its almost surpassed it for twisting storyline's.

2 Days

I did something very bloody stupid this evening and compounded it by avoiding the issue. Only the future will tell if its going to come out.

Tonight I went out with Jo's Friday night pub club, I arrived at 8.30pm only Jo and I were there. I continued to drink until other people arrived. I was challenged with people I hardly know and people I frankly wish I could have avoided. Together with the earlier stupidity just wished I could dissolve. I felt so depressed I just wanted to disappear, this is not the mood I wanted to be in before Shanghai but unfortunately I messed up and here I am.

I arrived at 8.30 to find Jo sat on his own. The Governers house was not as I remembered, it seemed full of pretentious women in their late thritys, showing too much cleveage and waering too much makeup.

Nick and Becky joined us, she was telling us how dangerous riding can be. Apparently earlier that day a girl died on the horse riding course that she is competing in tomorrow, I hope she is more careful. Then Leon and Wally turned up, Leons girlfirend looked bored and I found it hard to strike up conversation. Then Liz G and her friend turned up, I just downed a few more pints and wished I could vanish.

Street Hawk / 3 Days to go

Becky came over this evening to talk about some updates for Cheshire Horse Box hire. She gave me some photos and ideas to add, and hopefully jazz the site up a little. I am not sure I will manage to get much done before I go away though.

After having a chat and reminiscing over old photos, Nick bobbed over and we headed to the revamped Unicorn. It has been shut for a couple of week so we were interested to find out what's new. Basically not a lot the outside bit has been remodelled with a heated seating area I guess mainly for the smokers and in readiness for Summer. Inside a lick of pains new carpets and seats, but mostly the same. Its kind of strange because it is so similar but different enough so as you notice.

Julie was working, she basically made an effort to ignore us until the end of the evening when Becky made a point of chatting to her. From that point on they renewed their friendship and chatted about life love and the universe for quiet a while. Nick and I sat and chatted about the life money and women.

I was having a stress as so far this week three people have accused me of being gay. I mean there is nothing wrong with being gay its just I don't have any attraction in that way. My problem is the sort of women that seem to like me hold no attraction for me. Whereas the women I won't seem not to notice me at all. Perhaps I am setting my sights too high, its just I don't want to end up in a loveless relationship just for the sake of being with someone, I want to be with the right someone. In my opinion at least one of my friends is in a relationship more through inertia than love, or even affection and I know deep down I would be made deeply unhappy by that (even more unhappy than I am single).

My little empire / 4 days

Sorry for the recent dearth of posts, I have been very, very busy. I have let a lot of people down, but work has been crazy and I have fixed my friend laptop (which turned into an epic on which I am working on an article).

Recentl at work everyday is a battle, I am really looking forward to break from it, to be honest I am not sure how long it can continue. The atmosphere was pretty combatative to start with but now its ridicules. In between being the main representative for my company and training a guy how is paid twice as much as me to do less than the same job and having no support from management I just feel tired and stressed. It is difficult to know how to behaviour I am often in the unknown to bumbling along. My bosses mum died earlier this week so management direction has been less than usual and I have missed my window to get a review as he is going them next week, when I am away, very annoying.

This evening I went out with Bruce and Nina, kind of a rare treat these days. We had a chat about their impending house purchase, its all very stressful what with bit of the house built without planning and organising things it sounds s real mission. Nina seemed happy though, positive about the new house and the future. She seems to be enjoying her job at total fitness.

There was a weird moment when the barman tried to convince us to join in th e quiz as he was several teams down. He gave it te hard sell but my brain was well beyond being up for a quizz. I had spent two hour in the gym after work trying to get rid of todays frustrations there was no way I wanted to join a pub stress game.

We had a chat about how Martins hands seem to get way to busy with friends other halves. Bruce is the second person today to insinuate I am going to get arrested (reason unknown) in China. Personally I think as long as I follow the rules it should be safer than Manchester on a Friday night.

Vhcs sucks

Spent the day playing with servers. For a long time I have wanted to move the websites I host to being more of a professional service. On the new server I installed vhcs. It was supposed to make it easier for users to control their sites but in fact its just been a royal pain in the arse from day one. Bruce (see his take here) and I struggled first to get it working at all then with each of the services offered. I finally gave up after finding a major and unfixed security hole advertised on their own forum. Complete with links to a page which automates the hack!

We spent the rest of the evening eating curry and moving to isp control. Its basically a web panel like vhcs but it looks a bit more secure and well maintained. We did finally manage to make a backup of the main webserver though which is a major goal it hasnt been done for months thanks to our lack of access and technical hitchs (like one time we went down to the colocation centre and couldnt get in as the key to the rack was missing.

I cant believe its not gutter

I went bowling with some people from work tonight. The customers people invited me on their annual bowling outing, I played on one of the IT Teams. I am actually pretty rubbish at bowling, I find it difficult to let the ball glide out of my hand. However I did manage not to be the worst player which is the main thing at these sort of events.

I don't know if its because I am not a member of staff or just that I am not a very a likeable person, but basically I find it difficult to mingle with the people I work with. I find them a quiet titghly closed off group. I did enjoy myself though, I rode the bus down there so was able to enjoy a few beers (it probably didn't really help my playing very much). I managed to cadge a lift back withone of the staffers and made it back to Woodford for 9.30. In time to go out with Nick for a few more drinks. He seemed in a strange mood I think he and becky are having trouble and rather than communicate about it they have both rereated to their safe places. For him that mean throwing himself into yet more work for her more time at home with her mum. It is a shame as I like them both I hope they find a way to work out their differences.

I am terrible at working through those sort of problems I have load of advice for others but I find it difficult even to talk to women I am attracted to and when in relationships (rare but the do happen even for me) I am pretty useless at broaching difficult subjects.

Cinderella man / 12 Days to Shanghai

I have now less then two weeks before I leave for Shanghai, it has crept up fast. I been tracking the price of the Yuan but given that the Dollar feel to a 26 year low against the pound I am hopeful for a good exchange rate. According to Google 1 British pound = 15.4315986 Chinese yuan, I guess thats good, tough I have really no Idea what a Yuan buys. I guess I will soon find out.

I have been really busy at work since the new project manager started. So far she is proving to be the best of the three have worked under while in my current job. She has certainly kept me busy though I am not entirely sure we will be able to keep up the pace of the last few weeks but it feels better to have a purpose again. Another quiet disconcerting thing is teaching the new guy things. Given he is older than my dad it feel rather weird when he walks over and asks me the sort of questions I used to ask Mike. As a side note I have become addicted to worse than failure (it is a website for programmers so if your not you might not get it, I am not proficient enough to understand all the WTFs).

I am not feeling too good this evening, had a bi of a stomach bug today. Instead of going to the gym as normal I have stayed in my room and watched the film Cinderella Man. It was a good story though a little saccharine sweet like most Ron Howard affairs. Russell Crowe worked really well as the world weary boxer. I must admit the rags to riches and second chance taken is always a promising story, though it would have been nice to see a little more about the depression rather then limiting the effects pretty exclusively to his family.

None of the contacts I removed have contacted me, it is sad but expected. I was always the one who had to keep up the "friendship" say always nice things to make them feel good about themselves, but in the end they just didn't care too much about me. It is a shame after all the time vested in the relationships but I will try and not let it bother me overly, whatever dosn't kill you makes you stronger right?