Welcome to rascott.com
This is a
personal site that reflects my interests in news,
current affairs, aviation and travel.
email me:
robert@rascott.com
rascott.com
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My photographs are now stored on Picasa.
Please use
this link to see my list of photo albums.
Some
Useful links:
Information:
World Time
Clock
Exchange Rates
Journalism:
ForeignPolicy
Nationsonline.org
Project Syndicate
Amnesty International
Reporters w/o borders
The Guardian
BBC World News
CNN Asia
Bangkok Post
Daylife.com - news
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Good causes:
Sister
Joan - Bangkok
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In
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Back in the UK:
Newton Ferrers
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And for fun:
EarthCam
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Museum
The British Library
Imperial War Museum
There are many other links on my AOB blog page.
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An Occasional Blog
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Dubai based Airine bloggers
TampaxTowers Egypt Thailand Blogs Thai-blogs.com - rather serious
2bangkok.com
-
not really a blog but always up to date on Bangkok news
Thai
Girl The exotic adventures of a literary
sexagenarian.
Thai Films
Asia Unbound - CFR
Dubai Blogs
dxbae
- picture blog - also Gerald Donovan
The Gulf Blog
Grumpy
Goat Arabic affairs blogs
The Arabist
Hong Kong Blogs In China: Danwei - media and advertising news from China
Shanghaiist.com
Hong Kong Cinemagic
Chinageeks
In Singapore: Xiaxue - self-confessed mean, bitchy, sex goddess who says "wah" a lot!
Mr Brown
- colourful commentary from Singapore
In Burma:
In Canada:
Media:
Tabloid
Watch (UK) Aviation: Amadeus (airline schedules) Airline meals - see it b4 you eat it!
Airliners
- aviation forum, trip reports and pix
archive Planenation - commercial aviation news Airchive - a web museum of commercial aviation.
CrankyFlier - mainly US commentary
Sharjah -
1937
KPAE - Paine Field Blog
Johnny Jet News: The Guardian - UK
Arabian
Business Bangkok info sites: Worthy Sites:
Rconversation - from Rebecca
MacKinnon, ex-TV reporter-turned-blogger.
Golf Sites:
Fun Sites:
Fun signs
Cooking
Technology Ideas:
Stuff -
gadgets
TNooz - Travel Tech
ViralBlog
Photography
The Rest:
Black
Flamingo - recipes and life (no golf!)
Previous months:
Nov - Dec 2011
Nov - Dec 2010
Nov - Dec 2009
Nov - Dec 2008
Nov - Dec 2007
Nov - Dec 2006
Nov - Dec 2005
Nov - Dec 2004
Author
Robert Scott lives and works in Dubai; born in England I have since lived in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok. I am very happily married to Tai.
If you want to know more you only need to ask! ask.
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31 August 2012
Blue Rodeo alert - and
coming to you on October 16th - The Blue Rodeo: 1987-1993, which Warner
Music drops October 16, will appropriately enough feature the five
full-lengths issued between that time span. The band's debut disc
Outskirts, featuring the crushing country ballad "Try," kicks off the
collection, and is followed by 1989's Diamond Mine, 1990's Casino, 1992's
Lost Together, and the troupe's unequivocal magnum opus, 1993's
magnificent Five Days in July.
The text apparently
finds the band discussing their early days, from their reaction to success
to the time they turned down the chance to work with Beatles engineer
Geoff Emerick.
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DXB SIN EK354/355
operates with A380 from 01Dec12 (regular basis, not temporary in Sep 2012) The #23 (A6-EDW) A380 was delivered on August 29th. The #24 (A6-EDX) is due on September 7th or 8th.
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****************************** But she has the right family connections.
******************************* This was part of the Romney acceptance speech at the Republican convention. I dont like Romney - he has no agenda other than to beat Obama; he flip flop on policy as he has none of his own. But the November election is going to be far closer than it should have been because the Republicans in the Senate and the House of Reps have effectively strangled Obama from substantial achievement.
********************************* I guess this is to protect Thailand's own counterfeiting business.... Useless.
********************************* Emirates is still flying to Damascus... 30 August 2012 Interesting note on the Paralympics - Thailand has sent 50 athletes -which is more than the 39 athletes at the Olympics and participating in more sports!
******************************* Emirates somehow needs to increase its access to China for the long haul market.
********************************* 29 August 2012 So long Andrew Strauss. A fine articulate captain of England's cricket team. Home and away Ashes wins. The first series win in Australia for 25 years. And he led England to number 1 in the world test rankings. "It's one of these decisions where you just know in your heart when the time is up. I knew that probably before the South Africa series started and certainly by the end of the series I was fairly clear in my mind." "The driver to it all was, quite frankly, my form with the bat. I haven't batted well enough for a long period of time now and I think for a captain to perform in his role properly it's important, firstly, you're not a passenger in the side but also that people aren't speculating as to whether you should be in the side or not. I think that would have been a big distraction to the side going forward. I know with my own energy levels and motivation, I wasn't going to improve my batting; I'd run my race." 28 August 2012 Tai to me - "Swahili and Japanese are quite similar!" Impossible. Weird. 27 August 2012 The passing of Neil Armstrong feels like the saddest of days - this most modest and fearless of men - who boldly went where no one had been before. One small step for a man; one giant loss for mankind. From today's New Yorker:
"Not that
Armstrong was one for speeches; his deeds were enough, and, if there was
something finally mysterious about him, a hint of the indecipherable, it
was not, as I say, because of things locked or encrypted within his
personal character, but just because what he achieved, however briefly,
pulled him further out of our reach and range than anyone had ever
ventured before. We claim to look up to those whom we admire; for three
hours in the summer of ’69, however, if you wanted to check out where
Armstrong was working that day, you really did have to look up—raise tired
eyes from your newspaper, or your family, or your desk, and try the skies
instead. He had stood somewhere new, and come back home; as with Lazarus,
in St. John’s Gospel, we shall never see what he had seen—not on this
planet, at any rate. 25 August 2012 The Telegraph tries to put a remarkable new spin on Prince Harry's drunken naked partying: A witness told The Sun the prince "went over to be a gentleman" and told the girl "I will shield you, I will protect you, I won’t let them see you." Cough, cough: bullshit!
22 August 2012 EK has accepted #23 A380 (A6-EDW) to be delivered later this week. A6-EGW (B77W and the 75th B777 at EK) was delivered this week. 20 August 2012 Qatar's sovereign wealth fund is buying 20% of Heathrow owner BAA in a move that adds the airport operator to a portfolio of British interests including Harrods and stakes in Barclays and J Sainsbury.
18 August 2012 16 August 2012 The third and final test match between England and South Africa is underway at Lords - the whole test match completely overshadowed by KP-gate; tweet-gate; the Kevin Pietersen affair - A great line from Mike Atherton on Sky. "It's a very modern saga, with press releases, Tweets and so on ... I tell you how this would have been sorted in the Lancashire dressing-room 20 years on: someone would have got clouted and we'd have moved on."
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************************* 14 August 2012 Tourism Authority of Thailand governor seen flying from the UK on Emirates first class - maybe not the best advertisement for Thai Airways.
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*************************** 13 August 2012 I have PODS - Post Olympic Depression Symptoms - watching the closing ceremony again - this time without the awful Barry Davies commentary!
************************* In his last round - and on a massive championship course he had just 24 putts in 18 holes as part of his 66. Now if I could putt like that! 12 August 2012 It was 47.5C when we left the golf course in Ras Al Khaimah today. Too hot. Too tired. Too many 3 putts.
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*************************** 9 August 2012 Women's boxing finals - and 16,000 in the ExCel arena - incredible crowd - loud and knowledgeable.
*************************** 8 August 2012 Effective 28 OCT EK 355 will be retimed to SIN 2135 DXB 0100 +1 (Currently this leaves Singapore at 02.00am arriving in Dubai at 05.10am). 7 August 2012 47C today ad I was out playing golf. Mad.
********************************** NBC even failed to show live coverage of Bolt winning the 100m. By the time they broadcast in the evening everyone new the result thanks to the internet. 4 August 2012
As per 04AUG12 GDS
inventory display, Hong Kong Airlines is cancelling Hong Kong – London
Gatwick daily service starting 03SEP12. Reservation for this flight is
closed for travel on/after 03SEP12, although its website shows “sold out”. A few aircraft changes for Emirates :
Washington Dulles New
route from 12SEP12 to be operated by 777-200LR instead of -300ER (the
-300ER will operate SIN EK354/355 from 01SEP12. Meanwhile : Emirates flight catering on YouTube. 1 August 2012
Emirates starting
10DEC12 is launching Dubai – Phuket service, its 2nd destination in
Thailand. Service operates with Airbus A330-200 aircraft. Connectivity for the outbound sector seems questionable. I presume that European connections are targeted, but they are left with average connecting times of 6 to 7 hours. Other South East Asian departures with this kind of schedule leave over 2 hours earlier: BKK at 0905 and 0940, SGN at 0925, HKG at 1005, KUL at 1030, SIN at 0935, CGK at 1025, MNL at 1030
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31 July 2012 Sorry - distracted by the Olympics.
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************************* 27 July 2012 Forgot to mention that I recently read Tony Parson's book "Catching the Sun". Rather then review it myself here is a review off the Amazon.com site.....I agree with every wood.
"Catching the Sun is a
boring, mind-numbingly simple and idealistic tale of a family who flee
recession-hit Britain, after their house is robbed by chavs (naturally,
eugh), and head to Thailand, where Tom has been offered a driving job.
Their neighbours are, naturally, adorable - operating a seafood restaurant
on the beach, where the wife cooks and serves, while the husband goes out
to fish for the menu in his traditional boat.....
******************************* Al Jazeera's Andrew Richardson goes in search of the soul of British football. 25 July 2012 Two days to go to the London Olympics - and suddenly I have realised how much more fun in would be to be in London rather than in Dubai where it is 46C in the day and when we are in the first weeks of Ramada when the city is at its quietest in the daytime. The Olympics in your "home" country really is a once in a lifetime event. I used to get very excited about watching the Games - from Tokyo in 1964 to Mexico in 1968. Interest started to disappear in the 1970 and 1980s with political boycotts, the Munich tragedy, doping scandals - yes, you, Ben Johnson and appalling commercialisation - the Coca Cola games in Atlanta. 23 July 2012 Idiotic female interviewer from the BBC to Adam Scott just after he had thrown away the British Open: "Those three bogies at the end didn't help you , did they ?" Actually it was four bogies. That is 3 out of the last 4 majors won with long putters. Cannot be right. 21 July 2012
The AOB’s favourite
golf statistic for the day is that the 62-year-old Tom Watson is 15 years
older than the combined age of his playing partners for the first two
rounds, Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa, 20, and Germany’s Martin Kaymer, 27. Of the
three, only Watson made the cut. Presumably, he will decline any invitation to revisit the spot on the same fairway from which his overhit a nine-iron in 2009 which cost him his chance of victory.
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*************************** 20 July 2012 Dreadful events overnight in Aurora Colorado. But the ridiculous gun laws in the USA means events like this and Columbine happen all to frequently. It is not about gun control. It is about gun abolition. The right to carry guns is in the second amendment of the US constitution from 1787. This has to change.
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Do you really need to
announce routes that will not be launched for another 15 months....
********************************* Trouble is there is so much other sport in the UK. The Open is on this weekend. There is a great test series between England and South Africa. The Euros just finished. Wimbledon just finished. The reality is that Britain didn’t need the Olympics. But it will make the best of them without too much more complaining. After all Olympic mud slinging is a sport.
Four years ago in
Beijing we were going to be choked by smog and entombed in algae at the
sailing venue. Athens was going to be a building site. Somehow it will all work out ok. 19 July 2012 Dad would have been 80 today - left too soon.
********************************* 18 July 2012 Some 10 years ago the standard government slice of any contract granted in Thailand was 25% - this appears to have crept up to between 30 and 35% according to a report in today's The Nation. OK - it is in the Peua Thai hating Nation; the organisation carrying out the survey is also known to be anti PT.
More than 85 per cent
of respondents to a University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce survey said
they had to pay bribes whenever they had to deal with government agencies
or politicians to win contracts. Depressing. 16 July 2012
A German competitor was
lost, and wanted directions to the Olympic village in Stratford, London.
He was standing outside East Ham tube station when he saw two lads walking
by so he stops them and asks, 'Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch
sprechen?'
****************************** Assad and his cronies had to go he said They help themselves and not the people. But China, Russia and America all make the situation more complicated. Syria cannot be Iraq or Libya - as Syria has "no petrol." so they do not expect western help. Change is hard he said. But it will happen.
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bmibaby's largest base
is at East Midlands. 14 July 2012 Emirates Boeing 777-31HER A6-EGU was delivered Paine Field – Dubai yesterday as EK777. This brings the Boeing 777-300ER fleet up to 73 aircraft. 13 July 2012
Today's National
newspaper happily reports that "Abu Dhabi Police arrested 23 Asian
workers, six of whom are illegal immigrants, who were running a gambling
scheme in public that involved a belt, a screw driver and an ironing
table. What on earth were they playing?
***************************** Starring the Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, the film follows Aung San Suu Kyi's involvement in politics and how her dedication tested her marriage with the British scholar Michael Aris, played by David Thewlis. It opened in Britain in December 2011. Suu Kyi has not yet watched the film. The director, Luc Besson, said in an interview that: "the film is very private and emotional for her." It depicts scenes of her late father, who was assassinated, and her husband, who died of cancer while she was under house arrest." Suu Kyi did however meet with MIchelle Yeoh and the physical resemblance in the movie is quite striking. It is a decently made movie; more a story or love and sacrifice than of political change. And because it was made in 2010 it misses the remarkable changes of the last six months. And in doing so it misses what would have been a wonderful ending - Suu Kyi collecting in 2012 her Nobel peace prize, awarded to her in 1991. 11 July 2012 Lese Majeste prisoner Joe Gordon was given a royal pardon late afternoon yesterday to avoid USA raising the LM issue at Asean Summit Of course he should never have been imprisoned in the first place.
9 July 2012 Personal abuse is an unpleasant part of almost any football match whether in a Sunday league or in the Premiership. Live with it. 8 July 2012 Really, really dislike the new Emirates advertisement - rich girl does first class. Hardly an invite to the 99% of us who travel steerage. 7 July 2012 M4 motorway closed between junctions 1-3 for up to 5 days. Other options include: Heathrow Express, Heathrow Connect or the Underground. Just in time for the Olympics and when London is at its busiest. 6 July 2012 Andy Murray becomes first British man to reach Wimbledon final in 74 years.
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**************************** EK007/008 DXB LHR DXB, the 2.30am departure from DXB will upgrade to an A388 from 28 October 2012. When EK029/030 starts operating with A388 on 01 February 2013, all 5 LHR roundtrips will then operate with A388 5 July 2012
Higgs Boson goes into a
Catholic church.
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Hong Kong Accelerate from Spot On Idea on Vimeo. 2 July 2012 Half way through 2012 already. Alex and I are in Grantown on Spey - in the north of Scotland - cold and wet and not much of a summer....and Alex is sensible laid up with a headache. We stopped at Balmoral Castle yesterday - the Queen's Scottish residence for August and September each year. Built by Queen Victoria and her husband Albert. The location is very nice. But a ballroom with stuffed stag heads around the room is just depressing; and so out of touch.
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