Merry Christmas

It's Christmas Eve.
All that remains is for me to wish this blogs readers for the past year a Very Merry Christmas

and a passing thought

I was cycling this morning and noticed that the retro styled Smart Car roadster coupe brought back memories of Opal Manta's and Sunbeam Alpines. Only shrunk in the wash

Pity the Fool Waiting for this Flight

A recent conversation - mostly regarding the more ridiculous merits of Chuck Norris and Mr T brought on this memory of my time in Rarotonga. I hope you like it

The primary airport of Rarotonga is just outside Avarua town. By this I mean steps not miles, this is not an airport surrounded by miles of motorways. There is after all just one road on Rarotonga.

My flight leaving the island was scheduled for 11pm that evening. That wasn't a problem, I was staying at Vara's Resort on Muri beach and transport was laid on via a small and rather full minibus. All residents at Varas' were picked up and dropped of at the check in. It seemed that most other people were dropped of at the same time. We arrived there a lot later than say a Heathrow check in would have been; not really that long before our Air New Zealand plane was due at all.

Then we discovered a nearly four hour long flight delay. Some wanted to go back to the hostel, but that wasn't really going to be practical - simply because the only transport had left. Most of us decided to get ready and trotted off to pay our departure tax (a small but necessary amount). Others found a local fish and chip shop not far from the airport. Before long a good many were sitting on the benches in the open air area that was the departure lounge. Most of this Airport is open aired. Given the location - it makes sense - if feeling a little odd. We'd all yet to go air side. Air side was a corridor full of closed shops and an open garden populated by roofed picnic tables.

So we were in an tiny airport. It was late at night with hours to kill.

The only thing we could do was watch the A-Team!

A few guys there had a 17 inch Apple powerbook and some A-Team DVD's. So on went the laptop. In went the DVD's and soon one of the most famous pieces 80's music - Mike Post's theme for the A Team was echoing across the South Pacific. Followed as always by the rattling of AK47's and the screeching tyres of a certain well known black Ford Transit. Of course it wasn't long before Mr T pitied some fool.

I will admit that I wander off to some sleep before the flight.

But it was nice for someone to supply the A Team to use forlorn passengers as we waited for Air New Zealand.

Plasma Engine Could Open Up Space Exploration

The European Space Agency is developing a new thruster based on the same physics that power the northern and southern auroras. This new plasma thruster could eventually deliver more power than the efficient ion engines which have been installed on several spacecraft.

Ok It's true - I'm a sucker for exotic space engine stories

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And the Yakuza Carried Handbags

I'm entering a new Grande Tour phase, well o.k. a new post Grande Tour stage. To put to bluntly I'm starting to remember adventures and misadventures through rose tinted spectacles. Yep I'm having nostalgic moments, memories and reflections. I think it's time to pass some of these on.

So no promises on how many or when but; let's start in Japan.

This story happened in Kyoto. In Kyoto train station there is a booking office for many (a great many) of the hotels in the area. It's a long narrow office. On one side of it's desks are seats for customers and sitting in a uniformed rank on their side of the desk are the nearly identical girls who will try and help you out. Also on the customer side are some comfy square cushions that think they are chairs that think they are posters, but that's about it.

I'd made it to a desk, to be warmly welcomed after my bullet train ride from Tokyo. It was mid afternoon and as usual in Japan had nowhere to sleep that night. So we started going through my options (this isn't the point of the story but in the end I slept near Osaka Castle - which is not far from Kyoto as the bullet train speeds).

Suddenly the entire office went very quiet. Extremely quiet. I was in the middle of conjugating something in Japanese so caught on a little more slowly than everyone else. So I was about to speak when I noticed everyone behind the desks was silent and slightly paler of complexion. Meanwhile my fellow customers were also not looking to happy either. I traced the worried gazes to the door. Two young Japanese men had walked in. Both twenty something. Both wearing expensive looking clothes. Oddly both wore sleeveless T-Shirts that revealed some very complex and ornate tattoos. Each of them had in their right hands small leather clutch handbags. They were looking around the room. Searching for someone it seemed. After taking a good long stare at everyone they turned and left.

As the door closed behind them people started talking. The atmosphere lifted into the usual polite calm of a Japanese office. All the fear just evaporated away.

We'd apparently been visited by local Yakuza.

Amazing pictures of coffee

Coffee as art.
Purely Sublime!

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How to: Build a Webpage (cute!)

Step by step process on creating and designing a webpage with little dolls used as visual aids! Very cute (and accurate)!

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I Declare this Season Open

Festive season that is.

Perhaps hunting season would be more accurate. Hunting of course for suitable presents. Hunting feels more natural description. Shopping in December is a little like braving the wilds. Then again that may not be entirely true - it's more like a zombie movie where the malls of full of present hunting zombies ("Need ... Present ... Two .... For ... Price ... of .... One).

The funny thing is that despite my dislike of the hot, humid and obstacle strewn course that Christmas shopping is ; I always leave it until this time of year. True it's easier a little more in advance, but Christmas doesn't feel right without preparing for it in December. The natural exception is of course the cake - which needs a little more time to mature, but that's another story. That's the important bit. Almost as important as getting presents right, getting them delivered and enjoying presents of Christmas day it's the action of getting everything together in a few scant weeks whilst doing other things that's matters. It has an intensity. It builds up to Christmas day. To me - hitting Christmas day full of exhaustion and adrenaline; before hitting the big relax is nice.

It's also nice to get the right presents for the right people and having to do it focusses the shopping hunter gatherer instincts.

Christmas has a nice primeval quality if you approach it in the right kind of way

I suspect the Vatican wouldn't be keen on that idea.