AOB Nov and Dec 2005

A strange end to the year. I had a chest pain last night after we left BKK airport. Not a sharp stabbing pain - just an ache - like a strained muscle but the trouble is the only trouble is that the only muscle there is the heart ! I thought maybe it would go away over night.

The ache was still there this morning so I went off to BNH hospital for a check.

The ECG is normal; my blood pressure and pulse are normal. So the doctor said that I am fine and will live for ever. I am so fine that he did not prescribe any medication of any sort.

And my heart is still aching. Just a dull ache - nothing too serious. As I told the nurse - just heart ache - not a broken heart.

Still - a little worrying....

29 December 2005

Last night was the first time that I have had internet access on my lap top pc while in the UK.

Trouble is as I caught up on news and other sites a piece of hostile spyware attached itself to my pc - it is a nasty little piece of software that hides and disables toolbars, disables the Norton Anti-Virus toolbar and disable task manager. Avoid if you can anything that calls itself "spyaxe" and trys to portray itself as a spyware tool. It is not. It is the opposite.

Stopzilla appears to deal with most spyware and malware but is a US$30 download.

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PS - it is seriously cold in London today !

28 December 2005

Severe frost; some snow in England. It is cold, cold, cold.

Made it up to London - a coach road from Plymouth; it is a long trip with a coach load of Sun readers, and that may be being generous. The language of the kids seated across the aisle was truly horrible.

What is it about the English that makes the use of the "f" word compulsory.

Christmas Day 2005

I have been away from the UK at Christmas for 13 years. But last night Cilla Black was on TV being interviewed by Parkinson; so nothing has changed.

And Eastenders and Doctor Who are the big shows on Xmas night. Strange how little British tastes and TV have evolved.

But the weather is glorious; blue sunny skies; cold and clear. A good day for walking the beach before the turkey feast.

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I have not sent any Christmas cards this year - none at all. That sounds terrible. My parents are wading through their cards.

Mind you I have not received many either. Most people do not even know an address for me !

22 December 2005

A day on the Dubai ski slopes yesterday. Ski Dubai is the latest extravaganza to open in this rich, fast-expanding emirate. The ski hill is 400 metres and uses real (if man made) snow. Ski Dubai gives you a jacket, trousers, disposable socks, skis and poles. The one quad chairlift runes up the center of the hill through a cafe at mid station. It is designed to resemble a North American style ski hill.

It is a whole lot of fun - albeit a bit repetitive going up and down the same hill.

Avoid the weekends when it gets really crowded.

There is also a snow park for those who don't want to ski. You can toboggan, walk, throw snowballs. Great for kids and for some of the wide-eyed local people who had never seen snow.

19 December 2005

Chateau Potash moved over the weekend to new premises in the Silom Center.

It means a longer walk in the morning for me. Not a bad thing. The walk will do me good. But by April when it starts to get really warm this will be a sweaty walk along polluted Rama IV.

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My eight year old arrived in BKK last night. It is good to have him around for the holiday. He still gets so very excited about Christmas. So we did a little shopping for him last night.

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Last Saturday night's jazz line up was (thanks to the Bangkok Post): the venue was Sanam Sua Pa near the Grand Place with the illuminated dome of the Ananta Samakom Throne Hall as a backdrop.

Masato Honda: A saxophonist who was formerly a member of T-Square, Honda began classical piano at age three. He won the Best Saxophone Soloist prize during his college years and then joined T-Square in 1991. Honda is one of Japan's hottest contemporary jazz musicians and his Illusion album, released in 1999, marked his successful debut in the USA.

Eldissa: The Eldissa project was started by Brazilian guitarist Ecio Parreira and producer Rio Parreira with the idea of merging disco and soul into bossa nova with a touch of lounge music. After Rio and Ecio picked the songs they wanted to start with, they spent hours finding the best approach, the right tempo, the right chords and the right singers. London-based L'amour and Marcia and New York's Chloe were picked from over 120 female vocalists to sing on the album What a Different, which reimagines disco classics as bossa and acoustic lounge with covers of hits by The Bee Gees, Abba, Donna Summer and Michael Jackson.

Bob James: A popular jazz artist, James has practically defined pop/jazz and crossover during the past 35 years. Influenced by pop and movie music, James often featured R&B sololists (such as Grover Washington Jr) who added a jazz touch to what is essentially an instrumental pop set. A mainstay of the contemporary jazz scene since the early '70s, James has released 38 solo albums, won two Grammys and topped jazz charts as a member of the super-group Fourplay.

Larry Carlton: A legend of jazz and pop guitar, his resume includes work with Joni Mitchell, Andy Williams, Michael Jackson, Herb Alpert, Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, The Crusaders and Linda Ronstadt, in addition to 20 well-crafted albums under his own name. His theme music credits for television and films include Against All Odds and Who's the Boss. In 1981, his theme for Hill Street Blues won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. In 1998 Carlton replaced Lee Ritenour in the popular contemporary jazz quartet Fourplay.

18 December 2005

It was a nice weekend. Great weather. So cool in the evenings. Golf on Saturday at Bangkaprong Riverside. I played the last 12 holes in 5 over par. But the less said about the first 6 holes the better. It took a while to warm up !

Saturday evening was spent at the Bangkok Jazz Festival. A great venue; more like a garden party than a concert.

Highlight of Saturday night was Bob James with his angels of Shanghai. Modern jazz fused with traditional Chinese instruments.

It was a fun evening.

15 December 2005

I did not write much about my golf in Hua HIn two weekends ago. This was the Wanderers Club Championship with 72 golfers playing 36 holes at the excellent Palm Hills course.

Playing yellow tees and with the large rolling greens this course is a serious golf test. A day 1 gross 82, net 69 was enough to be joint leader at the end of the first day.

A bad and sleepless night followed; not related to golf ! And we were out first on the Sunday; with no warm up I started 6,9,5 against a par of 4,5,3. The nine was particularly ugly. An 8 on the par 5 12th did not help either. So those four holes alone left me 11 over. The remaining 14 holes were played reasonably as I tried to keep some respectability. Without playing that well I seemed to scramble fairly effectively. So the second day finished with a gross 87 net 74. Over the 36 holes net 143; one under par. Only two golfers finished under par with the same net score and I finished runner up after a countback as the winner had a better 2nd day score. Fair enough - on my day 2 score I did not deserve to win.

I was pleased with the two day eclectic score of a gross 74; which shows how I might be able to play with some consistency!

It was a good weekend.

A handicap cut followed so I am down to 12. 2 better than at the start of the year; heading in the right direction.

More lessons are needed.

12 December 2005

From the Guardian's match report on my beloved Watford's 1-1 draw with Plymouth. The Championship is tough and over a long season a few injuries in a threadbare squad will cost Watford. But watch out for Adrian Boothroyd. Watford is his first management job and he has done well.

"If Boothroyd takes this team up, he should win manager of the decade. Using kids and casts-off, he has transformed Watford in a few months. Ashley Young, a slightly built 21-year-old of no fixed position turned into one of the division's top forwards with 10 goals and 12 assists before his ankle injury last month. Marlon King, in recovery from cruciate surgery and Nottingham Forest, now has 11 goals. And Anthony McNamee has laid on more goals than any winger in the division."

11 December 2005

New sporting idols - the 19 year old Song twins won many admirers in Singapore this weekend at the Lexus Trophy; the Thailand born Koreans (Aree is 9 minutes older) were playing for the losing Asian team against the International team.

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Singapore is a strange place - the Worlds' first English speaking Chinese city. For a westerner it is a very easy city to visit.

Christmas is strange here; it brings out the worst in consumerism. It is as though Christmas is up for sponsorship. The decorations on Orchard Road are brought to you by Hitachi; the drummer boys by Visa; if they could find three wise men to sponsor I am sure they would!

As you walk along Orchard Road speakers blast out tinny versions of all your least favourite Christmas Carols, all in English. No one minds all this commercialism. Orchard Road is packed.

It is also wet here; humid and not very festive weather.

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Watch out for the ladies at the GST tax refund at the airport. My refund was S$32 and she gave me S$22. Fortunately despite the crowd I did check the money and I remembered what was on the refund form. It may not have been deliberate.......

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Flew back from Singapore on JetstarAsia; it really is quite comfortable. A Marks and Spencer of an airline rather than the Air Asia Walmart approach.

10 December 2005

Bill Clinton took a star role at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Montreal last night.

Clinton could not get the Kyoto Accord past the US Senate. But his message is worth listening to. The USA is not the only villain. There are countries that have signed Kyoto that are not meeting their emission targets; in fact Spain and Canada are two countries with increasing not decreasing emissions.

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The World Cup draw was made last night. England got one of he better groups - with Sweden, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago.

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After 50 years it is bye bye to the London Routemaster.

5 December 2005

Bangkok travel guide from the readers of the Guardian newspaper.

Sorry - I have ignored this column recently. A good day's weekend playing golf in Hua Hin has been a distraction.

Forgot to mention: England lost the test series to Pakistan. The best team won by some distance.

30 November 2005

I am at a point now where the best outcome if for Australia to declare war on Singapore. As a colleague reminded me that is unlikely, since the Aussies could only do that if the USA did it first !!

I am with the Aussie labour unions on this one. If (probably when) Nguyen hangs, the union is threatening that it will nor provide refueling or baggage handling services to Singapore Airlines. If that is what the union members agree to do then they should make their protest.

As we all should in whatever way we believe is both legal and appropriate.

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I am up to episode 19 of the 6th series of West Wing. Its fictional portrayal of potentially real events is almost clairvoyant. In this series we have dealt with Palestinian/Israeli peace talks; North Korea, Taiwan, Cuba and Iran. The British Prime Minister is a female Conservative and a Hispanic may win the Democratic nomination.

29 November 2005

Paul Martin's minority government in Canada fell last night on a no-confidence vote. It was inevitable.

Trouble is the new government will probably be as weak as the old.

And if it was a vote for charisma then neither Martin or the Conservative Harper would win !

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Your first Xmas cracker joke of the year:

Q: What do Alexander the Great and Winnie The Pooh have in common?

A: The same middle name.

28 November 2005

Singapore has dismissed its only trained hangman - could this mean a reprieve for Nguyen Tuong Van?

Darshan Singh, 74, is said to have carried out more than 850 hangings in 46 years in Singapore. At dawn on Friday this week he was due to end the life of Van Tuong Nguyen, 25, who was caught carrying 396g of heroin through Singapore airport in 2002.

But Mr Singh has been relieved of his duties after his identity and a picture of him were published last month in The Australian newspaper.

He has tried but not succeeded in training a scuccessor.

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It was suggested to me yesterday that Singapore likes hanging foreigners; it is good for the post colonial sense of superiority.

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Given such dark issues it is hard to write anything else here.

26 November 2005

Farewell George Best, footballer, born May 22 1946; died November 25 2005. If only you had been English and not Irish. The greatest British footballer ever and the best on the world never to play in a World Cup. Perhaps you can rest now.

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The Thaksin/Sondhi feud continued last night - with up to 50,000 gathered in Lumpini Park. The only absentee was Sondhi himself, who was beamed in form a temple in Chinag Mai.

The stakes are getting high - Sondhi told yesterday’s audience that there had been a threat on his life and speculated that people in power had been behind it. He said this was why he was holding his talk show from the well-guarded temple.

“They are following me and a team of assassins has been set up,” he said from the temple run by revered senior monk Luangta Maha Bua, who is sympathetic to Sondhi. “There’s an ongoing attempt to eliminate me. They think if I’m gone, the movement will lose a leader.”

But Sondhi offered nothing new last night. No new allegations. Ignore him and he will go away. Muzzle and threaten him and his support will grow.

24 November 2005

Conversation in Chateau Potash: Robert, do you like meatballs for lunch? I don't mind. Someone said that you don't like them. Well, I don't eat beef. That's Ok; these are fish. Err- isn't that a fishball??

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From the Guardian: "If the cricketers of England and Pakistan have learned one thing from the second Test in Faisalabad it is that there is no hiding place on the field. Shahid Afridi found this out the hard way, when he used the distraction of an explosion on the boundary edge and its aftermath to surreptitiously attempt to rough up the surface of the pitch with his spikes. Leaving aside the ethics of even thinking of such a ruse while many people in the ground, not least the teams in the middle, were still wondering whether anyone had actually been blown to bits, the notion that he thought no one would be watching is astonishing. I have a vision of him pirouetting on a length while whistling "You've got to pick a pocket or two" from Oliver!"

21 November 2005

Someone told me yesterday that I don't look 48. The question is what does 48 look like !?

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Driving range last night - after golf on Friday as well. Maybe getting some enthusiasm back.

Weather is cooler as well. Paddled a row boat for 30 minutes in Lumphini Park yesterday evening. A 30baht bargain. It was very pleasant.

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Christmas has come earlier to Starbucks than to ABP - toffee nut latte, creme brulee latte and peppermint mocha ! A million calories in each!

20 November 2005

Sports news this morning !

Watford won again - 2-1 over Sheffield Wednesday. Watford stay 3rd in the Championship.

And in Faisalabad on a Sunday morning Pakistan won the toss again and will bat - on a pitch that already has some prominent cracks and which is expected to turn significantly and soon. Pakistan have added a second leg spinner to upset the English further. This game has probably already been decided by the coin toss.

Bye Bye Roy Keane - you could always dish it out but couldn't take it. Hard to tell why Ferguson kept you around as long as he did.

16 November 2005

Pakistan win by 22 runs. Terrific game. England snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. They bowl and field well. The middle order batting is a shocker. Second test starts on Saturday.

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England are doing quite well considering they are have perhaps the worst middle order batting line up ever seen in test cricket - Bell at 3, followed by Collingwood, Peiterson and Flintoff. A Thorpe clone would be very welcome! Even a Hussain.

England are struggling in the fifth day of the first test in Multan. From 64 for 1 to 67 for 4. Funny old game! 123 for 7; another 75 needed to win. Advantage Pakistan.

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A DVD buying spree in Hong Kong at he weekend; including the entire sixth series of The West Wing. I watched the first three episodes last night.

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Memoirs of a Geisha is coming soon to a movie screen near you. Already the Chinese chat rooms are full of patriotic nonsense about Zhang Zhiyi being screwed by a Japanese. It is just a movie. It is not meant to symbolise the history of a nation.

Have to love those eyes!

Movie Poster Image for Memoirs of a Geisha

14 November 2005

Feels like my life is on hold, but time is not...

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Back in BKK late on Sunday night/Monday morning. And predictably it is raining again.

Forgot to mention that on Friday when we landed our flight was met by at least 20 customs officers all doing passport checks as we came out of the plane.

Very unusual. Maybe something to do with the security threat from earlier in the week. I asked the immigration officer why they were doing this. We always do, she said. Not so; I have never seen checks like that immediately on leaving the plane in HKG.

There was also one guy with his sony videocam quite openly videoing everyone who came off the plane. Very weird.

11 November 2005

In flight to Hong Kong on Emirates. As we took off from BKK the woman to my left in 39B has her hands together in prayer. The right hand of the lady in 39A was clamped to the left knee of the praying lady!

Just after take off it must have been time for prayer. One of the faithful finds open space by the left hand rear exit door; places his emirates rug on the ground, removes his shoes, faces the back of the plane (to the west) and completes his call to prayer.

Carry in like this and I will be converted one way or another by the end of the flight.

10 November 2005

Somewhere different to stay in BKK:

http://www.reflections-thai.com/

This is definitely not your run of the mill Holiday Inn. Every room is different; each themed by a local artist. You can see each of the 28 rooms on the web site. Take a tour!

9 November 2005

A diverse, international, cosmopolitan and talented team attended the British Chamber of Commerce Quiz night in the intense, smoke filled cauldron of The Londoner last night.

Full of confidence; we had a journalist with us and they are always good at general knowledge. We were quickly put in our place.

But there are teams there that are professional quiz answerers. They sit at home all month working on Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica and then are let out for this monthly two hour ordeal.

We were not last- but fair to say we were in the bottom half of the table. I thought I knew a lot of trivia. Sadly not !

8 November 2005

Preliminary dates for England's March/April 2006 cricket tour of India:

Tour dates: Test matches: Mar 8-12: Ahmedabad; Mar 16-20: Nagpur; Mar 25-29: Mumbai. One-day internationals: Apr 4: Goa; Apr 7: Indore; Apr 10: Guwahati; Apr 13: Faridabad; Apr 16: Cuttack; Apr 19: Cochin; Apr 22: Visakhapatnam.

A quite bizarre schedule that ignores the major city and stadia of Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and Bangalore and takes the teams on a tour or remote and in the case of Ahmedabad, dry (no booze) parts of India.

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The perfect Christmas gift for the Aussie in your life: a three disc dvd collection of the poms winning back the Ashes ! A must have !

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Tuesday morning - there is a huge storm coming in from the west - will it ever stop raining.

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At the risk of upsetting my Singaporean friends, Hemlock's Hong Kong commentary was at its most acerbic yesterday:

"Throughout modern history, economic development has led to pressure for the franchise. Singapore is the exception that proves the rule. The Lion City has the world’s only lobotomized middle class, its people unaware they have a choice other than to be cowed into compliance.

Australia and the Vatican are pleading for the life of one Van Tuong Nguyen, who will hang at Changi Prison in the next few days for being one of the small percentage of dim-witted drug smugglers actually caught. He’s just a ‘mule’, and killing him will serve no purpose, critics say. They miss the point. He has to die, for the same reason a man selling fireworks in Singapore must be flogged, and a woman shoplifting cosmetics must serve 10 years in prison – to condition the population."

7 November 2005

At the other end of the football spectrum, Staffordshire based, Chasetown were playing in the first round of the FA Cup for the first time on Sunday - at the Scholars ground in front of a crowd of 1,997 people. Their opponents Oldham were in the FA Cup semi finals ten years ago,

Better still - look who is playing for Oldham:

Oldham

Chris Day (Lance Cronin), Daniel Hall, Gareth Owen, Rob Scott, Marc Tierney, David Eyres, Mark Hughes, Paul Warne (Chris Hall), Richie Wellens, Andy Liddell, Chris Porter (Luke Beckett)

There was a Rob Scott playing at Rochdale some 25 years ago ! We are so common !

Chasetown got a 1-1 tie and a profitable replay at Oldham. The FA Cup is so much fun !

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Strange how the once regal Manchester United have now taken on the role of fighting underdog. Last year they ended Arsenal's unbeaten run at 49 games; this year it was Chelsea's turn to be harassed into defeat. It was a good result for the Premiership.

6 November 2005

Life must be improving - someone just asked me if they could store a stool sample in my refrigerator !!!

This is Thailand - anything is possible. Except for that. There may be other smelly decomposing things in my fridge however, including a brie that I bought a couple of weeks ago and have not gotten around to eating yet !

More rain this afternoon; another big storm. A good day to stay indoors.

5 November 2005

Golf today at Bangsai with the Wanderers. I played quite dreadfully and could not even break 100. That is only my fourth game in the last three months. But I have not enjoyed any of them. And I am not enjoying my golf at the moment. The golf/tennis/whatever elbow is not helping.

Now I think it all goes a bit deeper than what I think about my golf game. It is beginning to worry me that I am not enjoying anything right now. There should be pleasure in living but I have not found it at the moment.

Work is not easy at the moment. I am spending too many evenings coming home and sitting if front of the tv or this computer. And there are still too many rainy or stormy nights (tonight included) when really there is little incentive to go out.

2 November 2005

Bird flu paranoia alert - effective yesterday the restaurant in my apartment building has stopped serving any meals that include either chicken or duck.

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Watford beat QPR last night to go third in the Championship. This is heady stuff from a team that unceremoniously dumped Ray Lewington as manager towards the end of last season and gave Adrian Boothroyd his first full managerial job. Over 16,000 at Vicarage Road last night!

1 November 2005

This has to be the strangest opening to a news story: "The highest court in the United Methodist Church yesterday defrocked an openly lesbian minister in Philadelphia." I guess she should have been wearing trousers. Yet another church totally out of touch with changes in the world in which we live.