Statistical Anomaly

2010: a retrospective

2011-03-06T05:21:00.000Z

A long overdue update to the blog, and to get me back into the groove I thought I'd repeat last year's review to recap on what's been going on in the last 12 months.

The same questions, hopefully with different answers:

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?

Where do I start! 2010 was all about new things. We went on a big European holiday in June, covering 13 cities in 9 countries over 18 days. It was amazing fun and I'm so glad we did it. The other main thing we did for the first (and hopefully only time) was to emigrate to New Zealand. It was mostly trauma free, and the settling in process has been quite painless (especially for me as I reach the end of my 3 month holiday!). Things in Auckland are broadly similar, but with little difffences letting us know we're not in Kansas anymore!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next this year?

I only made a loose indication that I wanted to be less lazy last year, as I don't make resolutions. I didn't deliver on that so am even less fit now. I have joined a gym here so the plan remains the same. Also with a bit of luck I'll give surfing a go this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My good friends Rick and Fiona had a baby boy weeks after we left the UK. He's called Adam and is by all accounts behaving himself well!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Last time out I mentioned that my nephew's girlfriend Rachael had been killed in a car accident in January so I'm not going to talk about that again. Our remaining cat Magus was put to sleep just 10 days before we left the UK. It was very sad as he was in the final preparations for being flown out with us at the time. The final diagnosis was that he was getting blood clots that were causing temporary limb paralysis. It had started to give him pain and would only get worse so the only thing to do was to have him put to sleep. It was truly heartbreaking as he was the most gentle, loving animal I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and had been with us for 14 years. He was pampered right up to the end though and wanted for nothing in his life.

5. What countries did you visit?

Right, lets see. We visited Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. And moved to New Zealand.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?

I can keep this the same as last year as although I have a new house, it is rented. By the end of this year I want to own my own home again, have a more active lifestyle and earn that platinum trophy on one of my PS3 games (though completing SARPBC felt like a platinum achievement!)

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

January 15 was the day of Rachael's accident. It was a horrible time, with everyone in the family completely heartbroken.

May 1 was my sister's wedding. It was great fun, met up again with a lot of friends and family and I got to do some public speaking. :O

November 3 was the day we arrived in Auckland to start our new life. The only odd thing about it was how easy it seemed.

Other than that, no particular dates jump out. It was mostly a year of plodding along, which was another reason that we needed to move.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Emigrating. Hands down the best thing I have done in years, and the kick in the butt that was needed. I now have a new job with good career prospects and the potential to do anything with my life outside the office. It is a very liberating feeling.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Limiting myself based on what I think I can do. I have for a long time found the UK to be putting a damper on ambitions, with a can't do attitude towards opportunities if you don't fit the exact criteria. NZ seems different and I am learning to break out of that mindset and see the options available to me.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

No, nothing more than a cold, though my personal trainer at the gym did work me a little too hard on Christmas Eve meaning I could hardly walk for the rest of the year.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

I love the John Lennon Rickenbacker guitar controller I bought for Rock Band, extravagant but I don't regret it! Also our Sonos sound system which is every bit as good as I thought it could be.

12. Where did most of your money go?

Moving to NZ. It was an expensive business but we were prepared for the various costs along the way.

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

PS3 - really got into gaming again last year, helped ably by my nephew Sandy. Bought a ton of games, just need to find the time to play them now.

Euro holiday - being taken around so many famous sights in Europe was an eye opener. If anyone in the UK hasn't visited the main European destinations I would definitely say get out there and do it!

14. What song will always remind you of 2010?

Hmmm. Not been much this year to get excited about. Bruno Mars has been advertised on TV non-stop since we got here, and I find his song "Grenade" particularly amusing with it's desperate rhyming. The worst lyrics I've heard since either of the Bedingfields.

"I Still Remember" by Bloc Party is probably my song of the year though, as it woke us up on the bus every time we reached a service station. It still makes me smile when I hear it.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder?

Happier overall I'd say. After my life being on hold for 2-3 years I now feel like we're moving forward again.

b) thinner or fatter?

About the same as before, which means too fat in the paunch. This pot belly has to go!

c) richer or poorer?

Poorer following the move and buying a car, but the foundations are in place now for us to prosper.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Exercise. I remember when it used to feel good to have done a workout, now I dread the thought of the gym. Some concerted effort and that will change though.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Commuting. The journey to and from Edinburgh each day was a drain, taking up about 3 hours of our day. J didn't mind but I am glad that I now live a bus journey from work, which only takes about 30 minutes each way.

18. How will you spend Christmas?

Oops, too late on this one again this year! We spent Christmas lunch with our friends Natalie and Erik at Natalie's mum's house in Howick. It was great fun and meant we didn't have to spend our first Christmas here alone. We went home mid-afternoon and had a big Christmas dinner, which we hadn't really intended to. Phoned my parents at night, then J's family who were having the usual big get together. They had the Skype webcam on and we really felt part of it.

19. Did you fall in love in 2010?

No. Well, maybe with Sonos.

20. What was your favourite TV program?

Big Bang Theory was probably the best of the year, it has really hit its stride. Psych has gone a little off the boil, but Lie to Me and Mad Men were good new shows I started watching.

21. What was the best book you read?

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. I love his strange style of writing. It is a very sad story, moreso as it is influenced by his real life experiences. I read it soon after visiting Dresden and it had a strong effect on me.

22. What was your favourite film of this year?

Tricky one as I’ve seen a lot of films this year. The special effects and 3D in Avatar was amazing (really, really amazing) but the story, while entertaining, was not the greatest. Still very good but not the best I’ve seen in 2009. Watchmen was pretty good, I Love You Man was surprisingly hilarious, Star Trek was excellent but I think my favourite was (500) Days of Summer. Biggest laugh of the year was the karaoke scene!

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Hmm. I don't actually remember what I did, J was working so I think I just played games all day. In the inimitable words of Pete Gibbons, "I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it was everything I hoped it would be."

24. What kept you sane?

A healthy diet of comedy. Inbetweeners and Big Bang Theory while in the UK and How I Met Your Mother in NZ. Legen - wait for it - dary! Laughter truly is the best medicine. Laughter and codeine, preferrably together.

25. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

None I can think of.

26. Who did you miss?

Not sure I missed anyone too much. I had the good fortune to see most of my friends and family at some point in the year (sorry if I missed you!) and the internet makes it easy to keep in touch regardless of physical distance.

27. Who was the best new person you met?

I really liked my work colleagues at my last job in Edinburgh which ran from January to October. It was such a great working environment and everyone enjoyed being there, which makes a massive difference. Gordon was a great boss and possibly the cheekiest man I have ever met - I don't know how he gets away with it! Sara provided a wealth of information on all things nutritional as well as all things Canadian, Paul had a fantastic caustic sense of humour, Michelle found my jokes funny and Katie was always there if advice was needed (or if Gordon needed taking down a peg!).

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European Vacation Day 17 - London to home

2010-10-20T18:54:00.000+01:00

Up at around 8am this morning, a good long sleep for us! Breakfast was a bit weird as we didn’t recognise anyone, having become quite used to knowing 20-30 people every morning!

After breakfast we checked out and walked to Earls Court underground station (ironically we had been moved to the only part of London we know quite well!) and got the tube towards Kings Cross. Forgetting it was a Sunday we got off at Covent Garden to do some shopping. Everything was closed, and it confirmed to me that Londoners do not get up early on weekends! We carried on to Kings Cross train station and got the 12.30 train to Stirling. The whole journey passed without event, with us eating all our remaining stroopwafels and me watching the minute by minute commentary on NZs excellent draw with Italy.

Both J and I commented on missing our tour buddies, and that it felt weird that we were on our own today. We very quickly got used to being part of the group, with the security that brought. It felt a bit uneasy to be wandering alone through London with our suitcases.

Changed trains for Alloa in Stirling and we were back home by 6.30pm. It all seemed like a bit of a dream and it felt like we had been away for months. We were greeted by our cat, who seemed rather surprised to see us.

European Vacation Day 16 - Amsterdam to London via Bruges

2010-10-20T18:50:00.000+01:00

Very tired this morning. About 3-4 hours sleep, but we managed to get up and have breakfast before jumping on the bus.

By the time we go to Bruges at 12-ish we were well rested, and went in search of food. Bruges seems to be populated entirely by pensioners and tourists, mostly English. It is a very nice town, with some amazing buildings.

St Salvator's Cathedral

J outside the Provincial Court

me at the Belfry of Bruges

We got some vegeburgers and Belgian frites (just like chips but double-fried to make them crispier) and then headed back to the bus.

Bruges City Hall

the Basilica of the Holy Blood (dark grey building centre-left)

the Church of Our Lady, under heavy scaffolding!

One of the recurring themes of our trip has been scaffolding. Wherever we have gone there has been a monument or similar under some scaffolding. From half the Pantheon, the end of St Marks Square, St Stephens cathedral, Golden Lane, Matthias church, the Palace in Amsterdam (though I think it was under scaffolding in 1999 as well) there has been loads of scaffolding. Bruges is no different, with the Church of Our Lady being covered top to toe in scaffolding. It’s not been a problem as there is so much to see that I’m struggling to remember it all.

Bruges is very picturesque

as I say, very picturesque

After Bruges we carried on to Calais ferry terminal, where we said goodbye to our driver TomTom. On the ferry J slept while I protectively guarded our luggage from middle-aged Londoners. At Dover we got on a new bus and were taken to the drop off point at Bayswater in London. The goodbyes were very quick and people immediately started dispersing to their own hotels. We went to ours round the corner only to find out our room was flooded so we had been upgraded to a better hotel. We got a courtesy cab ride to Kensington and got checked in. We went out for dinner to a nearby Italian restaurant where J had penne arrabiata and I had gnocchi alla pomodoro, exactly the same meal we had in Milan on our first night!

ah, back to good old Blighty!

Exhausted, we walked back to our hotel for a good night’s sleep, safe in the knowledge there was no bus to catch tomorrow morning.

European Vacation Day 15 - Amsterdam

2010-09-16T20:45:00.000+01:00

Today started with a trip into town again, with 2/3rds of the group joining in the bike tour of Amsterdam. We cycled around from 90 minutes over a variety of bridges, past the museums and through the Vondelpark, which was really nice, like a bigger version of the Meadows in Edinburgh, with more trees. I understand now why so many people here cycle, because it is so easy due to the lack of any hills and the fact that cyclists appear to be in charge! Cars stop for you, pedestrians are terrified of you (if you crash into one legally they are at fault, or so we were told), and the road and cycle lane network is very well set up for cycling.

the gang in Amsterdam! We are at the white a. [Pic courtesy of Wen E and Andy]

Our bikes all looked the same, rather old fashioned with a very upright seating position. It seems everyone here has one, none of your Specialized or Giant branded mountain bikes or hybrids here. The thing that amazed me from the start was how little effort was required. The last time I had been on a bike was 19 years ago for a school activity trip, which put me off for good (or so I thought). This was a very different experience. The tour itself didn’t give a lot of new information but it was fun to cycle around. Andy took a great picture of us as he passed, had I tried the same I would have crashed for sure.

Wheeee!!!

proof we actually cycled [pics again thanks to Wen E and Andy]

Our camera has been playing up on this trip, to the extent that anti-shake is the only setting that produces decent pictures. We bought a Gorilla pod which has enabled us to get some great self-portrait pictures and night shots. Now the backup battery is running out so most photos of Amsterdam have been taken with my phone to save the camera battery for Bruges. My phone has a better resolution than the camera we had last time we were here – a 1.3 megapixel Olympus which weighed a ton and took 4 AA batteries. It was cutting edge at the time!

After the bike tour we went in search of food. After searching for a while we ended up in a sandwich shop where the guy realised he didn’t have what we were looking for, so directed us to a completely different shop down the road. The helpfulness and friendliness of the Dutch really is top notch. Unfortunately that place was no good either so we ended up in one of the Maoz falafel places, which was very tasty.

This is what a shopping centre should look like

We headed back to the Botel where J had a snooze and I watched the Germany – Serbia match. We changed into jeans and jumpers as it was getting a bit chilly, then headed out again. There was a Greenpeace boat docked at our pier now. Hope they don’t go for the submarine.

Greenpeace boat

We went to the Bolhoed, but they were about to close to prepare for dinner so we failed again. Guess it wasn’t to be. We had a beer then walked to the restaurant for dinner. This was at a big floating restaurant called the Sea Palace, and the food was pretty good. This was our last group dinner and it all went smoothly.

relaxing with a beer on Prinsenstraat

After dinner we got on a canal boat for a cruise. We sat at a table with Ben and Lisa (who had joined the tour in Budapest and got engaged on their first day) and enjoyed an unlimited bar! The cruise was good, showing some of Amsterdam’s architectural diversity. Ben managed an impressive 9 beers, getting his money’s worth! I only managed 6, and just before we got to the end of the cruise I dropped my glass (condensation on the glass, not drunkenness, honest!) and it obligingly smashed on the table, soaking me and J. Typical.

no parking in the canal

quirky Dutch houses

Undaunted, we went to 2 more pubs before getting the tram and ferry back to the hotel (the LAST ferry of the night)

What is it with paying to go to the toilet in Europe? Even when I pay €1 to get into a pub, and €1 to put my bag in the cloakroom, I have to pay 50c every time I need to the toilet? Not cool. If they did that in the UK people would just use doorways on the way home at night...oh, wait.

European Vacation Day 14 - Berlin to Amsterdam

2010-09-13T21:20:00.000+01:00

There were a lot of hungover people on the bus today. It was the nightlife tour of Berlin last night, and we had an early 7.30 start to our trip to Amsterdam. A lot of them were very chipper as we left, but they crashed very quickly and the bus was full of sleeping people for the first few hours. Had a great vege burger (the Garden Burger) at Burger King, wish they had them in the UK.

At about 6pm we arrived at a cheese and clog factory where we found out how these were made (sadly no clog shaped cheeses) by a very eccentric guy, who speaks very good mandarin.

crazy cheese/clog guy

so many clogs

After this we carried on into Amsterdam to our hotel, which is a frickin’ boat! Our Botel is parked on the north side of the harbour and it is a 10 minutes free ferry ride to Centraal Station.

I can’t stand boats and get seasick very easily. So far it is OK and I’ll be sleeping for most of the time we are on it, but it is very weird. Particularly as there is a submarine called Psycho Cowboy parked about 30 metres outside our window.

the good ship Psycho Cowboy

We got the ferry into town and walked with the others to the Red Light District where they were all going to a sex show (one of the few optional we didn’t go for). We left them and went to get some dinner. We went to our favourite restaurant from the last time we were here in 1999, Le Bolhoed (the Bowler Hat). I made a tactical error by suggesting we check out another restaurant nearby, which turned out to be a 10 minute walk away. By the time we got to it it was 9pm and J was starving so we just decided to eat there. The food was not great but edible. Hoping we will make it to the Bolhoed for lunch tomorrow. It was the first non-UK vege restaurant we ever went to and we have great memories of it.

canals and bikes, that's Amsterdam!

We walked back to the ferry terminal where we met some of the Aussie guys who were at the show. They said it was mostly ugly girls dancing badly, and then taking their clothes off. They did say it was funny though, hopefully intentionally.

evening at the Botel

Amsterdam is the only place we have been to before on this trip, and it doesn’t seem to have changed too much in the 11 years since we were last here. Back then the Heineken Brewery Tour was closed, so hopefully we’ll get to see that tomorrow. [we didn’t go in the end.]

We’ve got a cycling tour tomorrow morning and I hate bikes almost as much as I hate boats, so that should be interesting.

Oh, and I learned today that if you look at a 7-segment LCD display and eat a crisp, the display appears to ripple! Apparently J has known this for years, but it seems to have escaped me until now. What an amazing world we live in!

European Vacation Day 13 - Berlin

2010-09-12T20:41:00.002+01:00

something about donuts...

Today started off in much the same vein as yesterday. At 9am we were at the Reichstag for our Third Reich walking tour. While we were waiting we were speaking to ‘Chelle our tour leader and it turns out she is a law graduate.

the Brandenburg Gate

Our walking tour guide Jim was from Minnesota and had studied the history of the Third Reich at university in Berlin. He was fantastic on the tour, with loads of great background info and explanations of how and why things happened. We first saw the Reichstag and Jim explained how Hitler came to be dictator of Germany. Then we went to the Brandenburg Gate, which somehow survived the Allied bombing of Berlin almost intact. From there we visited the Holocaust Memorial which was possibly my highlight of the day. It is an abstract monument covering an entire block, with concrete blocks increase in size towards the centre and the floor undulates meaning the block range from around 1 foot tall at the edges to around 16 feet tall in the centre. It is a strange experience walking through it and is probably different for each person that visits. For me it seemed to symbolise how small things can slowly grow, and as circumstances change (like the floor lowering) they can evolve into imposing, sinister and enclosing forms, which is much how the Third Reich and the Final Solution came about. But that’s just my interpretation of it.

Holocaust Memorial

Checkpoint Charlie

We then went to the site of Hitler’s bunker, which is now a small car park with only an information board to let you know what was there. This is common all over the centre of Berlin. There is nothing remaining that could glorify this part of their history, and the one remaining Nazi building on Wilhelmstrasse is just used as the German government finance office with no indication of it’s former purpose. We ended at Checkpoint Charlie, which doesn’t exist anymore, what is there now is just a replica (and the American soldiers you can take your picture with are actually Germans).

Potsdamer Platz

the atrium of the Sony centre

We had a fantastic Thai lunch back on Wilhelmstrasse, then walked to Potsdammerplatz to the massive atrium in the Sony Centre. A new hotel had a promotion on so we got to sit on these massive cushions called Fatboys and got free drinks. Sweet as! After this we got a Starbucks and walked back to the Brandenburg Gate. We walked down the beautiful Unter Den Linden to Bebelplatz to see the underground memorial to the infamous Nazi-book-burning that took place there.

Berlin Cathedral

fountain in the Lustgarten

We then went to the Lust-Garten (not as naughty as it sounds) before continuing to Alexanderplatz. By then it was about time for dinner so we walked up Oranienstrasse where we happened upon a strange artistic commune place that looked like a shanty town built in the courtyard of an abandoned building. J got a painting from one of the artists there.

the Fernsehturm (TV tower) at Alexanderplatz

Berlin Town Hall

the Tacheles art gallery

We had a great dinner at a vegan restaurant on Scharnhorststrasse before returning to the Reichstag by underground. The queue for the cupola was too big so we went to the main train station, which is an amazing glass building, and got the train back to our hotel.

the Reichstag

there are lots of bullet-damaged building all over central Berlin

me by the river Spree

We went out for a beer, looking for big steins and unfortunately ended up at Joe’s, the scene of last nights food travesty. I really didn’t want to go back but they were the only place we could find locally that sold 1 litre steins. Anyway, we had the beers, which were very good, then headed back home at 11pm. All in all a 14 hour day and time for bed. 6.30 start tomorrow, leaving the hotel at 7.20 for Amsterdam.

yaas! big beer time!

cheers!

Berlin has been great fun. There are a lot more old buildings than I expected (many reconstructed, though you would never know) and the whole city has a much more laid-back feel than say London or even Paris. People are very friendly, but it does seem quite expensive, especially to eat and drink. I would definitely recommend it though as a city break destination. I could have spent another few days here no problem.

I have however got a lot of sun today. Arms are a bit red, and I have stripes on my feet from my sandals. Fingers crossed for a tan, but the pessimist in me sees me peeling in a couple of days...

[In the end neither really happened. Perhaps a hint of a tan, but no peeling. Score!]

European Vacation Day 12 - Prague to Berlin via Terezin and Dresden

2010-09-10T21:18:00.000+01:00

[after a break due to real life, I'll finish of my holiday diary!]

Today was a heavy day.

After leaving Prague this morning we visited the former Nazi concentration camp of Terezin. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was so well preserved and out guide was so good at describing the conditions that I found it very emotional in places. The conditions the prisoners were subjected to were quite horrific, and the bunks, sinks, etc are all just as they were 65 years ago. There was also information on Terezin’s former role as a fortress and prison. We walked ½km through the underground tunnels, seeing defensive gun slots. They were never used as by the time the fortress was completed the political landscape had changed.

At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about taking pictures. In the end I took a few, but wasn’t really comfortable with it. After all, it’s not the same as the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Trevi Fountain.

Above the gate at the back it says "Arbeit Macht Frei" - "Work Brings Freedom"

After our tour we moved from the small fortress into the town of Terezin itself. During the war this had been turned into a Jewish ghetto, essentially a holding area before they were sent to an extermination camp such as Auchwitz. It was all very fascinating and showed how awfully humans can treat each other.

Speaking of which, we then got an unscheduled stop in Dresden. This beautiful city had survived the war unscathed until 13^th February 1945, when the Allies carpet bombed it, destroying 80% of the buildings. There were no military targets in Dresden. 18,000 people were killed, not one of Britain’s finer moments. As I said to J at the time, “By any means necessary” is not an acceptable excuse for an atrocity such as this.

Hofkirche

Despite this, the centre of Dresden is surprisingly beautiful, with many of the original buildings rebuilt using the original materials salvaged from the rubble. We had a nice lunch with Amy, Craig and Sarah on the main square before heading back to the bus and on to Berlin.

the Frauenkirche

In Berlin we had a short driving tour, which included stopping at the East Side Gallery, a section of the Berlin Wall that is regularly painted by famous artists from around the world. The splitting of Berlin seems so bizarre to me. It is odd to see sections of the wall dotted around the city, mostly covered in graffiti.

No mans land

J at the East Side Gallery

We got to the hotel and went out for a group dinner at a restaurant. This is the only one we have had like this, as we normally have our group dinners in the hotel. I thought it might be an issue for us when I saw the menu and the only vege options, amongst the dozen or so steak varieties, was a salad, or baked potato with salad. We went for salad. We were sitting with Andy and Wen E again tonight and the service was just appalling. They had to take our drinks order twice, the drinks took about 30 minutes to arrive (it was a big group of 37, but still) then they forgot Andy and Wen E’s food, as well as one of the American girls’. The American basically told them to shove it, but Andy and Wen E gave their order again and they finally get their dinner, about 75 minutes after we arrived. No hint of an apology though, just incompetent, rude staff. The waitress got a sarcastic round of applause from the group when she arrived with the food, and couldn’t get away fast enough. At least the beer was nice.

all in all I'm just another brick in the wall

So after a very long day (8am to 11pm), it’s time for bed before a full day in Berlin tomorrow.

European Vacation Day 11 - Prague

2010-08-22T17:07:00.000+01:00

A free day in Prague to do whatever we want. What more could you ask for? Not much, I can tell you!

At breakfast there were a few faces even paler than mine, as a lot of the party (including Aussies drowning their sorrows) had overindulged on the absinthe last night. When I asked Scott how he was doing, he just shook his head at me with a glazed expression on his face. He couldn’t remember how he got home (Amy informed him that he ran home) and Erin couldn’t figure out why they left the pub (Amy informed her that it closed for the night).

We headed into town and after a slight detour (overshot by 3 tram stops) we passed under the Powder Tower and onto Old Square. We bumped into Amy, Katie and Mariam, who had all bought prints. We carried on around the market and ended up getting one too.

the Powder Tower

It was lunchtime by now so we had lunch at a vegan restaurant between the market and Old Square. I went nuts with the self serve and ended up with the soyameat & olive pasta AND the mushroom & ROBI meat stew with potatoes. It was awesome. This was followed by some strawberry and banana ice-cream which was delicious.

us in a little park we found

After lunch we walked towards Charles Bridge, stopping at a small park with a fountain in it. There seems to be sights such as this all over Prague, which is great for just wandering about and seeing what you can find.

The old town end of Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge is a large cobbled pedestrian bridge with massive gothic looking towers at each end. There are stalls set out all along the bridge and, like most of the rest of Prague, there seems to always be a band of some description busking away. They all seem to be very good too.

Castle entrance

St Vitus cathedral in the castle grounds

We walked up to the castle, which is a collection of buildings in a similar way to Edinburgh Castle. Big difference here though – it is free to enter, you only pay for the museum parts. Also there is a gigantic cathedral in the grounds which dominates the skyline. Disappointingly Golden Lane was closed for renovations. After out tour leader telling us we shouldn’t miss it, that was a pain.

back of the cathedral

St Georges church, also in the castle grounds

We had some beers in the Lobkowicz Palace, drinking beer from their own brewery that has been in operation for over 550 years. Beer and alcohol in general is pretty cheap in Prague (though not as cheap as I believe it once was). In the bars around our hotel and some of the centre a 400ml glass of beer is 25 koruna, which is about €1. Unfortunately we have only had beers in our hotel (just under €2) and in the castle (around €3.5), but we’re not here to drink so I’m not really bothered. It does explain how the rest of them got so rat-arsed last night though.

beers!

very colourful window in the cathedral

We walked down the steep hill from the castle back to Charles Bridge, and on to the Old Town again. I collected a souvenir paperweight – a loose cobblestone that had found it’s way onto the road. It seems most of Prague’s streets are cobbled with very small (5-10cm square) cobblestones which looks much nicer than flagstones or tarmac.

We ended up back at the same restaurant for dinner as it was so good before. I got a bit carried away with the self serve and ended up with some spaghetti Bolognese, pinto bean & carrot stew and a slice of pizza. It was awesome.

We got the tram home and the stop just before ours was right outside Viktoria Zizkov’s football stadium. It’s really small, and you can see the pitch from the road. I might try to get some pictures tomorrow morning before we leave but I don’t think there will be time. [There wasn’t] Made up for missing the San Siro though! Sort of.

Ironically, with this being about the coolest day yet, cloudy with sunny intervals, temperature around 20 degrees, I have managed to burn the back of my neck by not taking care to apply sun tan lotion. I think I’ll have a bit of a tan when I get home, but it’s all relative as I started off from a sort of white/blue colour.

Prague has been excellent and definitely the most beautiful city we have been to so far. We only saw half the things we could have so hopefully we will get the chance to come back. As J said today, Prague is a lot like Edinburgh, only bigger. There’s a castle on the hill with a steep road full of restaurants, pubs and souvenir shops leading down from it. Wenceslas Square is Princes Street and there is great architecture all around the town. The big difference is the massive river Vltava running through Prague. Maybe we could flood the gardens again?

European Vacation Day 10 - Vienna to Prague

2010-08-21T00:04:00.000+01:00

I forgot to mention yesterday that I think I might have gone mad. I say this because we watched Euro Trip on the bus and I really enjoyed it!

In the maze like gardens


We found the Palm Pavilion

Fuzzy ducks - try saying that when you're drunk

Today we started off with a trip to Schonbrunn Palace, the Hapsburg’s summer palace in Vienna. We spent ages walking around the gardens and I saw my first ever red squirrel! It was very exciting.

J at the big fountain

the palace from the top the hill

red squirrel!

We then headed for Prague, stopping at a service station where they really wanted to sell us kebabs (the conversation went a bit like this: “Do you have anything vegetarian?” “Kebab?” “no, no meat. Potatoes?” “Kebab?” “no, potatoes” (Server gets someone from the kitchen, who then tries to give us kebabs) “No, potatoes” (points at potatoes. Confused looks, then 2 plates of fried potatoes are provided. Yay!)

We got in to Prague around 5pm. When we checked in they had all the names mixed up so for the duration of our stay I am Mr Rumbold and J is Miss Fox. Dinner was at 7pm followed by a walking tour at 8.30pm.

the gang in Wenceslas square

me in the square

Walking around Prague as the sun went down was excellent. Despite the (other) tourists it felt much less claustrophobic than Budapest. We saw Wenceslas Square, the Astronomical Clock, Tyr Church, Charles Bridge and the castle (from a distance). I expect we will visit many of these again tomorrow.

Hradcany castle

one of the towers on Charles bridge

It is weird that there is a Marks & Spencer and a Debenhams on Wenceslas Square. There’s a C&As too.

We got a chance to speak to our driver TomTom today, as he came out on the town with us at night. He got the job a year ago with no experience of driving buses or coaches at all, which is pretty amazing.

Some of the Aussies didn’t go on the tour as they were going to watch the Germany-Australia game in the World Cup instead. They were beaten 4-0 so that was time well spent! ;)

It was a lot cooler today, in the low 20s. By the time we started back from the centre of town at 11pm it had started to rain. It was pretty heavy when we got back to the hotel, but hopefully it will pick up again tomorrow.

This feels like a bit of a disjointed entry, probably because it is now after midnight and I am very tired, so I’ll call it a night.

Mr Rumbold.

European Vacation Day 9 - Budapest to Vienna

2010-08-18T21:52:00.000+01:00

It’s funny being on a tour with a set itinerary. There are places you visit that you would really like to spend longer in. Ljubljana was one, Vienna is another. This surprised me a bit as I had no expectations of it at all. It was just a stop before Prague, and I knew nothing about it.

The town hall

Town hall

After a 3-4 hour journey from Budapest we got a short driving tour before dropping our bags at the hotel. Back in town J and I walked from the Hofburg Palace to the stunning Town Hall, where there were lots of sports for people to try. We carried on to the parliament building, which seemed to have three statues of guys punching horses, which was weird.

Pow, take that! Animal cruelty - Austrian style

holocaust memorial

I had left our vegan eating info in the suitcase so we were flying blind but walked past a fancy looking vege restaurant on the first street we came to! It was closed though. Our guide book had suggested a little square with a holocaust memorial as an interesting site to see and as we entered the first restaurant there was vege too! Ninety percent of the food was vegan so J had a fake chicken salad and I got Austrian wieners with fried potatoes. Very tasty indeed!

Weiners!

We then carried on to St Stephens church which was very impressive both inside and out, and again very different to the others we had seen on the tour. We walked past the opera house back to the Hofburg for the bus back to the hotel.

inside St Stephens church

Vienna opera house

The weather on our holiday thus far has been spectacular, with sun all day every day and temperatures mostly in the high 20s, with a few days in the high 30s, today possibly reaching around 40 degrees. This finally changed tonight though, and with some style.

We had selected an optional excursion to an Austrian orchestra in one of the local palaces. We arrived and went out onto the 2^nd floor terrace for a drink as it was still very hot at 8pm. Looking out we could see dark clouds and J saw some lightening. Then we noticed a massive bank of black cloud rolling quickly towards us (pretty much like in Independence Day when the alien ships first appear). The wind started to pick up so we went inside. Before we even got to our seat one of the windows blew open and smashed outside. The others came in saying that all of a sudden the wind had blown all the tables and chairs over. It then started hailing! Andy and Wen E were very excited as they said they had never seen hailstones before.

the orchestra

The performance began to a backdrop of lightening flashes and occasional low rumbles of thunder. The performance was good with some pieces being accompanied by dancing, and some by operatic singers. By the break I was drenched in sweat (as I had been for the last 3 days) as it was so hot in there under the chandeliers. The storm had passed so we got to go back outside and it was noticeably cooler. The seconds half continued in the same vein and I was very happy when they played the Blue Danube as it is one of my favourites (and no, I don’t like it because it is at the start of 2001: A Space Odyssey, I’m not a philistine. I like it because it was at the start of Frontier: Elite II on the Amiga).

the opera singers and a baldy head

On the way home we passed a street where the scaffolding had been ripped from the wall of a building by the wind, hopefully no-one was hurt. TomTom said the tram network was out too.

I meant to mention earlier that the architecture of Vienna is just beautiful. In the town centre there just seems to be street after street of these massive ornate buildings. It is well worth a visit.

the Hofburg

there's stuff like this all over Vienna

My final thought/rant tonight is loosely about etiquette. Really just about how not to be a total douche.

Firstly, if someone has a bit of a coughing fit during a performance, there’s not much they can do about it. You shouldn’t let it bother you. You certainly shouldn’t angrily look daggers across the room in the vague direction of the person coughing each time they cough, because then you look like a tool.

Secondly if a performance is taking place with a visual element, such as dancing, in a flat-floored room don’t hold your camera up over your head recording the whole damn thing blocking the view of the people behind you. If you have to be that much of an ass-hat then sit in the back row.

And thirdly, when visiting the amenities to pass water if there is a urinal free use it. Do not take the only available cubicle and then proceed to piss with the door open as if to mock anyone waiting, and then take so long you must be passing kidney stones.

C’mon guys, just obey Wheaton’s Law. It ain’t rocket science.

European Vacation Day 8 - Budapest

2010-08-13T20:11:00.000+01:00

38 degrees again today.

Lots of lions about, this one's guarding the castle

I’m not really sure whether I like Budapest or not. I think it’s growing on me, or at least I understand it better. It’s a big place (2.7m inhabitants) and seems to be very much a working city, not so set up for tourists. There is one street that is all tourist shops, with each one selling exactly the same stuff, but at different prices. Our fridge magnet cost 250 HUF, whereas some places were selling it for 600 HUF.

The parliament building

St Marks church

Today we left the hotel at 8.30am and took the metro across the river to Fishermans Bastion and St Marks Church. We then walked to the castle and got lost trying to get out the other side.

J and the Fisherman's Bastion

view from the castle of the Liberation Monument

part of the castle complex

We walked over the Chain Bridge to the impressive St Stephens Basillica. It was very opulent inside with gold everywhere. We had a big lunch then walked to the market. The whole ground floor was fresh food stalls and the upper floor was all tourist shops. After an hour or so we came out with a handmade Hungarian lace placemat.

J at the Chain Bridge

at St Stephens Basilica

inside the Basilica

Price of goods in Budapest are not as low as I expected. Food is reasonably cheap, but other goods are the same price as many other places.

We walked from the market to the Gellert baths, where we enjoyed a spa afternoon. There were 2 indoor pools, one effervescent and one heated to 36 degrees, and 2 outdoor pools one heated and the other a large one with a wave machine. Turns out with the wave pool you are better off in the deep end, as we found out when we moved to the shallow end to get out. J couldn’t keep her balance and was traumatised by the time we got out. I enjoyed it, she did not!

Gellert baths

There were 4 of our tour mates in the baths, and we met 3 others leaving as we arrived. Before we left we sampled the thermal baths. There were 2 heated pools, one at 36 degrees and one at 38 degrees. The 38 degree one felt considerably hotter, Andy made a good point that it is probably because it is above body temperature and the other is just below.

When I went back into the thermal rooms a second time a strange thing happened. I went straight to the steam room, which was around 70 degrees, from there I spent a couple of minutes in the cold pool (18 degrees but felt like an ice bath) and then went into the 38 degree pool. As soon as I was submerged in the water I started to feel a tingling in my arms and legs that seemed to be deep in, not in the fingertips or toes, but starting about half way down the fingers. It lasted a couple of minutes and when I came out I felt invigorated! It’s hard to describe how it felt so I’ll leave it at that.

me in the restaurant

We then walked to a vegan restaurant and had a great traditional Hungarian dinner before walking back to the hotel for a beer and back to the room about 9.30pm. In all we were out for 13 hours and I’m shattered.

J was less keen on Budapest than me, and I was so-so on it, so I doubt we’ll be back. However it is a nice place, with a reasonable amount of tourist attractions (I even saw a Trabant parked on our street) and the people are quite friendly and mostly speak excellent English (useful as Hungarian is fiendishly difficult – it is similar to Finnish which is supposedly one of the hardest languages to learn). The city is however very busy all the time, traffic is a nightmare and it is a bit dirty looking. I got to see the Danube though which I think is the widest river I have ever seen. It’s not blue though, at least not here.

Oh, and they have Tesco here, and C&A. Who knew?

Had a great nights sleep last night, the best yet thanks to the air conditioning, and am looking forward to another before we head to Vienna tomorrow.

One final point of note is that when we left this morning Scott ran past us on his way back to the hotel. We caught up this evening and it turns out he had run from the hotel to the Citadella and back (a good 8-9km with a solid 5 minutes running up steps) which he had also done last night after we arrived. Now that’s just showing off! (the dude has done Ironman competitions, how jealous am I?) He and Erin watched the World Cup in a pub today with a World Cup trophy-shaped four litre beer cooler at their table. With that on offer maybe even J would watch the World Cup.

eagles AND swords? Too awesome.

European Vacation Day 7 - Ljubljana to Budapest

2010-08-10T22:27:00.001+01:00

Today was mostly a day of travelling. When we arrived in Budapest we went to the Citadella which offered amazing views over Budapest, which really showed the geographical difference between hilly Buda and flat Pest. Here also is the Liberation Monument, which is a distinctly Soviet statue commemorating Hungary’s liberation by the Soviets from Nazi Germany. Our bus tour was truncated by traffic, but we still saw Heroes Square and Vajdahunyad Castle, which has a very Eastern European look. We went out for a walk before dinner. First impressions of Budapest are not great, I think it may be where we are staying but it seems a bit grimy and very busy. Definitely down to the area is the number of strip bars and sex shops nearby, though that just reminds me of our old flat in Tollcross.

The Danube seen from the Citadella

The architecture of Budapest is quite imposing, on a similar scale to Paris and London. The central area looks nice, and we will explore more tomorrow on our free day.

Heroes Square

Vajdahunyad Castle

It was 38 degrees today, the hottest yet I think.

Yes, it was hot

European Vacation Day 6 - Venice to Ljubljana

2010-08-08T18:51:00.001+01:00

We left Venice early and headed into Slovenia. By mid-day we had reached Postojna caves. These caves were so much bigger than I expected. After we took the Temple of Doom-style train to the start of the tour we stepped out into a massive cavern that must have been around 50m high. The walking tour was 3km and took us through several large caves and over a bridge built by Russian POWs. The whole thing was staggering, from the natural phenomenon to the human engineering required to build the route we took.

Not easy to get good pics in the caves

After this we went straight to our hotel in Ljubljana. It is in a resort on the edge of town with a pool and beach volleyball court. Very cool! We were then taken back into the centre of Ljubljana and dropped off at the Triple Bridge. From there J and I walked along the river to the Dragon Bridge, then took the funicular railway up to the castle. We went up the tower in the castle and got some great views of the city.

Us at the Triple Bridge

The Dragon Bridge has one of these bad boys on each corner

Ljubljana was a very lovely city and the people were very friendly. We had dinner at a vege cafe and then went for a couple of beers at one of the many riverside bars. The people seem quite sporty with hundreds of cyclists and many rollerbladers. It’s all much less pretentious than the UK as well. I saw no-one in full tour-de-france style cycling gear or any big brand name mountain bikes, just normal people using efficient modes of transport. It’s a bit of a shame we can’t stay longer as we both really, really like Ljubljana.

J in Ljubljana's old town, castle tower in the background

It's a long way up to the top of the castle!

Oh, and Slovenia is almost entirely made of trees!

King and Queen of the castle

European Vacation Day 5 - Venice

2010-08-07T21:42:00.000+01:00

Our legs are quite sore today, I think it’s the DOMS kicking in from Rome two days ago, when we spent around 9 hours walking in total. Yesterday was only about 5 hours walking. I hope our legs get used to this quick!

Another day at the office

On the Rialto bridge, highest point in Venice

After brekkie we got the bus into Venice. We walked though the town to the Rialto bridge, and from there to St Marks Square. We then went for a gondola ride and had to wait a while for our turn. The smell at this little basin was really bad, but after a while we got our turn. There were six of us in the boat and it was fun traveling down the narrow canals between peoples houses and restaurants. We eventually emerged into the Grand Canal and traveled along it for a while before returning to the starting point. One of the people on our gondola was a guy called Glen who was from Newcastle in the UK originally but has lived in Sydney for 16 years. His accent was seriously messed up!

Gondola ride

On the Grand Canal, Rialto bridge in the background

After the gondola ride we had an hour to kill so got some lunch with Andy and Wen E. The food was good but the service was truly appalling and I was pretty disgusted by the behaviour of the staff. At one point one of them stopped a couple passing to try to get them to eat in the restaurant. He completely blocked them and they thought he meant the lane was closed so walked back the way they came. The staff then all had a good laugh about it.

un cavallo!

View from the Campanile of San Giorgio Maggiore

After lunch we went to a lace museum which was very nice but more like a sales pitch. After that we went to a Murano glass factory to see some glass blowing where the guy made a Ferrari horse in about 30 seconds!

The Bridge in Front of the Bridge of Sighs

Me, the Doge's palace & the Campanile

We then went out on our own and visited St Marks Basilica which was quite dark and gothic inside and very different to St Peters yesterday. We went up the Campanile and got some amazing views of Venice. We strolled around the shops and ended up at a small bistro where we had some wine. Again the service, while friendly this time, was quite poor. The girl forgot she was bringing us our bill, then took ages to bring me my change.

The flag of Venice

Water, water, everywhere

By then it was time for dinner so we crossed over into the area called Cannaregio. Venetian house numbering is mental. All the houses in an area are sequentially numbered, rather than by street. We managed to find 4582 Cannaregio, but it was not as veggie-friendly as we had been led to believe. Not to worry though as just round the corner we found a nice restaurant and had a great pasta meal.

Move along, nothing to see here

Down a lane opposite the restaurant I had seen boats passing so we investigated and found it was a dead end with a little jetty on it. We got some great canal pics using our new Gorillapod (thanks Edinburgh Airport!). Then we went home, exhausted and ready for an early night. It’s now 10.30 and I am still writing so that didn’t really work out.

European Vacation Day 4 – Rome to Venice

2010-08-05T21:45:00.001+01:00

Up early today for brekkie at 6.30am. At 7 we were on our way back into town to the Vatican City. Once there we met our guide, an Irishman called Jimmy. He gave us lots of interesting information and had many great anecdotes about Michelangelo!

Nero's bathtub

The Laocoon statue

There were amazing sights such as Nero’s bathtub and Raphael’s tapestries, including one where the end of the table follows you as you pass.

The original statue of The Thinker, and Jimmy the Guide

I twisted my ankle taking this picture so I'm damn well going to use it!

We saw the stunning Sistine Chapel and got mooned by God. After leaving there our tour ended, and we were left to stroll around by ourselves. We went into St Peters Basilica and I was taken aback by the sheer scale of the building inside. Our camera has been playing up so hopefully our pictures turn out ok. We went down to the catacombs to see the coffins of the old popes, including the one for Pope John Paul II.

Inside the basilica

Another of Michelangelo's pieces

[One thing I didn’t know until Jimmy told us is that the reason you are not allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel is nothing to do with damaging the paintings with flash photography (which is what I had assumed) as non-flash photography is also banned. Rather it is because the Japanese TV network NHK paid for the cleanup of the paintings back in the 1980s and as part of the deal they now have exclusive rights to pictures of the chapel. Something about that really bothers me.]

The lighting in the basilica was very atmospheric

The dome of the basilica

After that we were pretty much done but still managed to make everyone wait for us as we were a couple of minutes late back to the meeting point.

Us outside the basilica

The Vatican's last line of defence against the outside world

The bus then took us to Venice. The journey took seven and a half hours, with one fifteen and one thirty minute break. I was a bit worried that the others on the tour were already established in little groups, but after we were introduced to everyone, an Aussie girl called Amy came over to talk to us in the hotel reception in Venice, and at our evening group meal we sat with a really nice couple from Singapore, Andy and Wen E. We had a great chat about anything and everything. The food at dinner was fine, but the main was a margarita pizza. J got hers changed for a salad, but I was not so lucky/forceful. I peeled the cheese off (in one big lump) and ate the foccacia pizza bread with the tomato sauce. It was fine. Dessert was a fruit strudel which was great.

The hotel room is huge with two double beds, the TV is the same model as our one back home, and we have a bath! Tomorrow is a full day in Venice, which should be fun.

I thought I had taken enough podcasts with me, but now only have around 18 hours of Double Feature podcasts left. I think I’ll run out in about 4 days if I don’t ration them!

[I really like Double Feature. If you ever want to listen to a couple of guys from Chicago talking about 2 movies for an hour then that’s the place to go!]

European Vacation Day 3 – Rome

2010-08-04T22:39:00.001+01:00

What a great day! Had breakfast at a local coffee shop, right across from the Corriere Della Sport offices. I felt just like James Richardson! We made our way to our new hotel and met up with our Aussie tour leader Michelle and the others joining the tour today. They all seem very friendly. There are 2 Aussies (Scott and Erin), a Kiwi (Katie) and an American (Mariam).

Some of our party: me, trainee Greg, 'Chell and Mariam

Me at the gates of Rome

We started out on our walking tour by passing through the original gate of Rome into the Piazza del Popolo. From here we went to the Spanish Steps for some photos and to refill our water bottles at the fountain. Then it was on to the Trevi Fountain which was a spectacular sight. We got some granita (slushies), cherry for J and mint for me which was very refreshing.

Us at the Spanish Steps

J and the Trevi Fountain

After that we went to the Pantheon. It was a bit disappointing that half the facade was covered in scaffolding, but not much different to Edinburgh Castle most of the time. Inside the Pantheon was breathtaking. It was much, much bigger than I expected.

The best shot we managed to get of the Pantheon

From here we carried on to the monument of Vittorio Emmanuel II, Italy’s first king. Again the size of it was surprising and the relative modernity made it stand out against the ancient monuments. Fact time: The monument holds the world record for the largest moustache at 3 metres on the statue of VEII himself. Also here were Trajan’s column and Trajan’s Forum. Trajan is one of my favourite emperors so I enjoyed seeing these. Also from here we got our first sight of the Colloseum looming in the distance.

VE II monument - AKA The Wedding Cake

Trajan's Column

We walked down the road to the Colloseum past the Roman Forum. The tour ended at the Colloseum so we paid to go in and have a look around. It was amazing, and with that I think I’ve run out of superlatives for the day! During the tour I was good and stopped myself from correcting our guide (especially on the vomitarium myth) and really enjoyed seeing all these places I had read so much about.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum...

Inside the Collosseum

My only disappointment was that when we got out of the Colloseum the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill was closed. These were 2 of the things I wanted to see most, but they will have to wait for another time.

We took the Metro back to the Spanish Steps and from there walked to a vegetarian restaurant near the Piazza del Popolo. I was expecting a fairly low key place but it was very big, modern and stylish. The staff were excellent and very helpful. We both had the vegan set menu which consisted of 5 courses followed by coffee. I think I can safely say it was the best restaurant meal I have ever had.

We took the Metro home and met Scott and Erin as we left the station. They had done much the same as us and we got the bus back from the station to the hotel together, sharing stories of the day.

The weather was amazing again, I’m going to struggle to maintain my pale complexion if this carries on much longer! Peace out for another night!

European Vacation Day 2 – Milan to Rome via Pisa

2010-08-02T21:03:00.000+01:00

Today did not quite go to plan.

Got up a little hung over and had breakfast. Checked the train times to Pisa with reception who confirmed the only direct train would leave Milan at 1200 and get to Pisa at 1700. We had to get a train from Pisa to Rome at 1700. There was a train at 1100 that had one change and arrived at 1500, so we decided to go for that and took a tram then the Metro to Centrale Station. The station was amazing, massive and inside looked like it was all made of marble. J said it was just like Bayonetta. Waited ages in a queue only to be told that our train was full, but there was a fast train to Florence at 1100, where we would change for Pisa. It was about 60% more expensive than the other train but we had no choice. The train was packed so we had to sit in the corridor for 2 hours, not great with a hangover. We never left Florence station so I don’t think I can count it as a place I’ve visited! As it was a fast train we got in to Pisa by 1400.

The Duomo and the Tower

During my research I had noted that the leaning tower was just a couple of hundred metres from the train station. Arriving in Pisa I quickly discovered there were 2 stations in town, and the tower was near the other one. We took the leisurely ½ hour stroll across town to the tower. Despite having seen it on TV and in books, I was amazed at how much it leans! It felt quite surreal to be standing close to something so famous and it seemed a lot smaller than I expected. We did the obligatory “pretend to lean against/push the tower” pictures (along with everyone else!), then strolled back to the station. We went to McDonalds in Pisa keeping up our record of going to McDonalds in every country we have ever visited. [This record would soon be broken.]

Leaning on the Leaning Tower

Not in shot - 50 other people doing the same thing

Then on to Rome. The trains all day were excellent, and by the time we got to Rome, hangover was long gone. We found our accommodation, at the fantastically named Accommodation Planet 29 (I chose it because of the name) and then went out for dinner. The bruschetta was amazing, but both pizzas were pretty bland. We went to a convenience store for some supplies and were met by the bizarre sight of a shelf full of bottles of Tennents Super – I didn’t even know it came in bottles! Perhaps the Italians regard it as a delicacy.

So although things didn’t go to plan, it all worked out in the end. We’re meeting up with the tour tomorrow, which will be an interesting experience. It’s a shame we didn’t get a chance to see any sights in Milan (I had really wanted to visit the San Siro) so we’ll need to go back some time as it looked like a really nice city.

European Vacation Day 1 – Edinburgh to Milan

2010-08-01T20:21:00.000+01:00

[Finally posting the first journal entry from our European odyssey]

Spent a fortune in Edinburgh airport! Flight left on time but J and I were not sitting together, the first time that has happened. I got to sit in the aisle seat beside a couple with a small child. No problem, put my ipod on and went to sleep. Woke up when something brushed my face. It was the guy’s backpack, and he was in the aisle! No idea how he got there. When I had put my headphones in one of the rubber ear buds was missing. Half way through the flight I saw it rolling down the aisle, so picked it up before any of the children could eat it! Toddlers were pretty much running amok on the flight, staggering down the aisle with there mother or father attentively following them, letting them do pretty much whatever they wanted. The alternative was being in a plane full of crying children for two hours, so I guess it was the lesser of two evils.

No problems getting into Milan and to our hotel using the train and then a tram from the station. The weather was hot and sunny when we got off the train, in a very nice looking part of Milan. Wide tree-lined streets everywhere! The hotel was very impressive, considering we had just booked it along with our easyJet flight. It was quite plush and even had a balcony. The staff were also very friendly and helpful.

Our tour begins!

Found a place for dinner, an “Irish tavern” improbably named Stalingrado. Had a really nice meal, gnocchi alla pomodoro for me and penne arrabiatta for J. The waiter misunderstood and brought us a bottle of wine instead of a half bottle. We drank it all. Then we went back to the hotel, where we had 2 more big glasses each! The barman in the hotel was very nice and taught us some useful Italian. We stumbled off to bed about 12.

Stalingrado, as Irish as the Blarney Stone

[Addendum: It turns out that the fortune we spent in Edinburgh Airport was on some of the best purchases we made during the entire holiday. We got the notebook that I used for this journal, a Rough Guide to Europe which would prove invaluable (for the maps alone) and a Gorillapod, which enabled us to get some great pictures with our ageing camera (I have no doubt there will be more on the camera later)]

My travel journal

European Vacation diary: Preamble

2010-07-18T22:15:00.000+01:00

After a month of sitting on my hands, I think I'm about ready to start posting the journal I kept while we were on our holiday last month.

I'll post it on a daily basis, keeping as close to the original entries as possible adding any contextual comments as required (I'd never written a diary before, so a lot of it is in a kind of stream of consciousness style). I'll add some of the better pictures from the trip as well.

Veganism

2010-07-03T22:18:00.000+01:00

Everything you ever wanted to know about Veganism but were afraid to ask:

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Vegan

European Vacation

2010-06-02T22:33:00.000+01:00

We’re going on holiday! After a lot of thought DW and I have decided to take a Topdeck coach tour of Europe, starting in Rome and going through a number of European countries finishing in London.

It feels like ages since our last proper holiday so we’re really looking forward to it, though it’s going to be pretty tiring. I might keep a diary and post it after we get back.

I’m hoping it'll be just like National Lampoon's European Vacation.

New Look

2010-06-01T22:28:00.000+01:00

My new blog format is finally here. After playing about with the new Blogger Design Template tools I’ve now got a much more user friendly blog (from my perspective) which should be much easier to add functions to.

Now I just need to think of some more functions to add...and something to write...

statanomaly.blogspot.com

Difficulty Curve

2010-04-16T08:30:00.004+01:00

Last week I completed Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks on the Nintendo DS, which is the 4th DS game I’ve completed recently, after both Professor Layton games and Jewel Quest: Expeditions. It got me to thinking about how games seem to be easier to complete these days than in the past.

I remember some excellent games on the old ZX Spectrum such as Exolon and Army Moves, where I rarely got further than a dozen screens in. My all time favourite game on the platform was Back to Skool, which was so incredibly hard I defy anyone to complete it. Despite this I never felt they were poor value for money, just a great challenge. Nowadays however I can stick Uncharted on Easy difficulty and sit back and enjoy the interactive cinematic experience right to the end. It’s not necessarily worse, just a different way to play, and reinforces gaming’s position as a peer in the entertainment industry to TV, music and movies.

Partially I think the change has come through improved technology. Previously it was only possible to save most games at the end of a level (if at all) due to memory restrictions, whereas now it is not a problem to be able to save whenever you need to. Also I think the modern gamer does not make the same allowances for games that previous generations did in terms of game length and difficulty. Previously a game could be relatively short but very difficult, whereas now less than 10 hours of game time is considered poor value for money. A game you can complete in one sitting of a couple of hours (like the Dizzy games) would be considered ridiculous now.

With the amount of development resource required now, it is important that the player gets to see more of the game. I can imagine the pitch if mainstream games still held to the old difficulty levels: “Ok, the game is going to cost $10m to develop, and around 5% of players will see the final 2 levels, of which 1% will actually see the end sequence.” It’s doubtful that such a game would be made now.

Part of the reason I complete so few games is that many of those that I play don’t have an ending. Games like The Sims, Fifa, Burnout, SARBC etc just carry on. The PS3 Trophy system (and the Achievement system on Xbox) somewhat mitigates this by providing tangible rewards for achieving specific goals in these games, but this is down to the drive within the player to get them, rather than a natural progression or requirement within the game itself. Recently I’ve been playing more completeable games as I don’t have the time to play open ended games (part of the reason why I’ve held off getting Dragon Age and probably wont get Final Fantasy 13), as the completeable ones lend themselves better to shorter bursts of gameplay.

Of course there is also the vast number of Football Management games I’ve played over the years. To my knowledge only the original Championship Manager had an end as your character aged through the game, but I can’t imagine anyone completing 40-odd seasons at the speed it ran on my Amiga. No, in each game you would continue until you got fired, at which point like a digital Graeme Souness you would be offered another job despite your glaring ineptitude.

Being both a geek and a nerd I have naturally compiled a list of all the games I have ever completed across all formats. It shows that despite playing hundreds of Spectrum games, I completed relatively few. The completion percentage is almost certainly highest on the DS, with PS3 coming next, though without knowing exactly how many games I’ve played I can’t be sure.

I’m currently playing GTA4 and The Bourne Conspiracy on the PS3, Secret Files: Tunguska on the DS and have just started Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass also on the DS. We’ll see how I get on with them!

I did read about a game which sounds like the hardest, most unforgiving game of all time. You got 1 life, any contact with enemies or bullets resulted in instant death, and the reward for clearing an entire screen of enemies: 1 point. Now that’s hardcore! Can't find the article though so the name escapes me.

A good weekend

2010-03-23T21:57:00.001Z

Last weekend was unusually productive for me, as I managed to get the brake discs on my car replaced, got a long overdue haircut and replaced the hard drive on my PS3 all by mid afternoon Saturday! It was nice to wander around Alloa town centre on a sunny morning before most people were up.

I have been very impressed with Sony’s customer service, as I had tried to replace the hard drive in my PS3 the previous weekend, but the screws attaching the drive to its caddy were so tight I sheared the threads trying to remove them. I called Sony and they sent out a replacement caddy and screws free of charge by recorded delivery. The replacement then went without a hitch, but if you are doing it and backing up your existing data make sure that you format your backup drive as FAT32 (not FAT, NTFS or the new exFAT format from Windows 7) or the PS3 will not recognise it. That took me ages to figure out. I now have loads of space as the old 60GB drive has been replaced by a 640GB one.

After that I relaxed into some gaming, though the Bourne Conspiracy made me very motion sick so that’s going to be a struggle. My nephew came round and we played Worms for ages followed by Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars, where I finally won a game against him (6-5)! He then hammered me 7-2 so I think he was taking it easy on me :)

Sunday was mostly spent gaming again, playing the beautiful but frustrating Mirror’s Edge. In a fit of game-rage I threw the manual at the screen at one point, then laughed at the ridiculously camp outburst. I managed to complete level 2 in the end, then switched it off in triumph. Set up my own Rock Band 2 band Nostromo (for practicing without affecting our main band – Dynamite Areolas!) and got some practice in.

Also watched Wolverine on Friday night, which was a great film and much better than I expected. I like wolverines, they are badass.

Bad maths

2010-03-14T18:04:00.006Z

I found an annoying example of bad maths in this BBC story about future Hard Drive issues for Windows XP users, where they stated:

“Each 512 byte sector has a marker showing where it begins and an area dedicated to storing error correction codes. In addition a tiny gap has to be left between each sector. In large drives this wasted space where data cannot be stored can take up a significant proportion of the drive.”

Now, as the sectors are a set size, and the gap is a set size, then the proportion of the drive wasted is the same regardless of whether the drive is 1GB or 500GB. I think what he meant was it could take up a significant amount of data storage space.

Pedantic? Maybe, but I am correct.

/rant

2009: a retrospective

2010-02-18T22:02:00.002Z

It is time to come out of my winter hibernation and put something up on this here blog again. As some of you will know, a very bad thing happened to our family in January, which has overshadowed everything recently. In fact January sucked so much I am starting my year in February this year. I’m going to start this new year by put down a memory aid to help me remember what I did last year.

I’ve shamelessly stolen this from my dear friend Rosie, safe in the knowledge that she stole it from one of her friends. Therefore by the bit-torrent rule, that makes it ok. Here we go:

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Sold a house! It was a stressful time for the first 5 months of the year as there were plenty of viewings but no-one was biting. Then in May we got 2 offers in one day, and the sale was all agreed in about 2 hours! We had 7 weeks to get organised before the new owner’s daughter moved in which meant it could be done in a relaxed manner.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next this year?
I don’t do resolutions, however for the coming year I want to get more exercise as I’ve been very lazy over the last year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Sadly our cat Pyewacket died this year, just short of his 13th birthday. He had inoperable cancer in his gums and jaw which was very aggressive. From finding out on March, we had about 8 weeks before he had to be put down. It was very sad as he was physically as strong as ever (and he was a very strong cat, he used to try to get into the bathroom when I was in there by putting his paw under the door and pulling - the door creaked as it bent!) but the cancer meant he was starting to feel pain when he ate, and it was only going to get worse so we had no choice.

5. What countries did you visit?
New Zealand and France.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
I’m going to play it safe here and go for a new house and a more active lifestyle. And a platinum trophy on one of my PS3 games (I’m looking at you Buzz TV!).

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
May 8 as the day we had to get Pyewacket put down. That was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, and it still upsets me to think about it.
June 25 as the day we sold our flat. After 11 years I thought it would be harder to leave, but it was kind of a relief in the end. When you own a house there are all sorts of stresses and worries, and that all went away in an instant and the feeling of freedom was exhilarating. It is still strange to think that flat where we personalised practically everything is now owned by someone else.
November 27 as the day I lost my job. In a ridiculous situation where my job was essentially given to someone with no experience, I was made redundant. However a decent redundancy package for my 5 years service (though they boasted about it being above the statutory minimum – I ended up £11 better off) softened the blow, as did getting a job that started 6 weeks later on the same pay with better conditions. My new employer is so much better that I think this was one of the best things to happen to me in years.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I’m not sure if it really counts as an achievement, but selling our house was a major task completed. I was very pleased that despite the stresses of the year I had no problems with depression, in contrast to 2008. I am learning to spot the signs and take action in advance, which has helped a lot.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Procrastination. Too much time spent avoiding doing things. The fact that this blog entry has taken weeks to produce shows that this hasn’t changed for 2010. Yet.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing of note, though I had a weird reaction on holiday in NZ when my forehead and the bridge of my nose swelled up a bit, making me look a bit like a caveman. Didn’t hurt and went away after a couple of days, but it was quite strange.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My replacement PS3 (after our original one was stolen in June 2008). Since moving out of Edinburgh it has become our entertainment hub. Watching Blu-Ray movies, DVDs and shows streamed from our NAS box, along with PlayTV for our recordable TV needs. It is also our replacement stereo now that our entire music collection is on the NAS (admittedly with a very limited functionality) and of course the games! Uncharted was the best gaming experience I have had in a long time (up there with the Monkey Island games).

12. Where did most of your money go?
In one go, probably solicitors fees and vet bills. Over the course of the year, petrol costs have become our biggest expense now we are commuting the 40 miles to Edinburgh on a daily basis. Our poor car has gone from 12,000 miles to 30,000 miles in 9 months!

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Blogging – I’ve never had a diary before, and this is just a more interactive way of keeping a journal. After an initial flurry I slowed down, but am ready to start up again.
Blackout Rugby – a great online rugby management game I started playing in June 2008. Last year I got promoted to the top division which was great fun and consumed a lot of my time. Got relegated in the new year though, so its back to the drawing board. It’s free to join and play, but takes a bit of work and time to get into it properly.
Twitter – Didn’t really get it at first, but soon became a convert. Nice way to keep in touch and share things with friends. It is also useful for keeping up to date with game offers (@frugalgaming) and blogs. And anyone who says it is pointless/stupid and then updates their facebook status is an idiothole as it’s effectively the same thing.

14. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Poker Face by Lady GaGa. First heard it in a shop in NZ and thought “what the hell is that crap?” Spent most of the year by turns being irritated, confused and entertained by her and her songs.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
About the same. There have been a lot of ups and downs in the year, but overall it all has balanced out.
b) thinner or fatter?
A bit fatter, which looks ridiculous as it has all been added as a pot belly.
c) richer or poorer?
Richer I guess, but the money is all earmarked for our next move. We are certainly in a more stable position now though.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Relaxing in the sun. I wanted to spend the summer getting a tan on the patio, but the Scottish weather decided it would rain for 3 months instead. Our trip to NZ in Jan/Feb was nice and hot, but by the end of the year that was a long time ago.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worrying. I spent a lot of the year worrying about stuff. From the flat (will it sell? Is the skylight leaking again [yes it was]? Will the buyers pull out?) to the car (is it going to break down? What’s that noise? Why haven’t I booked a service yet?) to our cat (that one was justified I think). Hopefully this year will have fewer causes for concern, but I’m also going to try to relax more.

18. How will you spend Christmas?
Well it’s been and gone, so I can confirm I had a busy morning with all the family round – about 20 people in the house at one point. Some cracking gifts (pipe wrench fight t-shirt!) and fun chat. Then a fantastic dinner with maw and paw–in-law, 2 of DW’s aunties and her cousin. Then we retired to our lounge to watch TV. A great day and a memorable Christmas. And there was tons of snow outside, with Christmas coming during about 4 weeks of weather where the temperature got down as low as -16C and never got above 0C!

19. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Yes, with Paris – possibly the most beautiful city I have ever visited (Stockholm was impressive, but Paris is on a different scale). It more than lived up to expectations!

20. What was your favourite TV program?
Psych. Love the dialogue between Shaun and Gus, and I think I get about half the 80’s cultural references. Also discovered Greys Anatomy, which is pretty good, and Big Bang Theory which is great for getting your geek on.

21. What was the best book you read?
The Player of Games by Iain M Banks. Didn’t read many books last year, but this one was a cracker. Banks creates a vivid and believable universe in his sci-fi books that really pulls you in.

22. What was your favourite film of this year?
Tricky one as I’ve seen a lot of films this year. The special effects and 3D in Avatar was amazing (really, really amazing) but the story, while entertaining, was not the greatest. Still a 9/10 but not the best I’ve seen in 2009. Watchmen was pretty good, I Love You Man was surprisingly hilarious, Star Trek was excellent but I think my favourite was (500) Days of Summer.

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Turned 33 this year, and spent most of my birthday cleaning out our flat and taking things to the recycling centre. Drove to visit our friends Rick and Fiona in their new house in Dalkeith with the roof down on the car enjoying the sun, then a meal at the Great Wall on Lothian Road (sadly now closed down). A good day all told.

24. What kept you sane?
My dear wife. She is always on hand to pep me up when I’m feeling down or worried about things, saving me from bouts of depression or panic. She is without question the most important person in my life and I only hope I can give her even half the support she gives me. Love you honey. ;) x

25. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I don’t think I fancy anyone famous. I don’t really get a lot of the fixations in the media (Cheryl Cole etc) and find the desperation of a lot of the attention seeking celebrities (and wannabes) pretty distasteful. Having said that if pushed I would probably say Jennifer Love Hewitt because I watched Ghost Whisperer a couple of nights ago. She wears a lot of nighties in that show.

26. Who did you miss?
My cat Pyewacket. We understood one another so well that I could get him to do what I wanted with just a look or a quick hand gesture. I’ve never had that kind of connection with a family pet before. He had such a big personality that no-one outside our house ever knew, as he didn’t like socialising with strangers. I had thought I was over it but writing this blog has brought it all back. I miss him a lot.

27. Who was the best new person you met?
Back in May I met my nephew’s girlfriend Rachael for the first time. She was a lovely person and I got to know her a lot better of the following months of the year, especially when we moved to Sauchie. She was genuinely one of the nicest people I have ever met, never had a bad word to say about anyone and would defend you to the last. Tragically Rachael was killed in a car crash in January this year which has been devastating for the family. She was so loved and will be missed by everyone.

------

Looking back at the answers above, it seems like 2009 was a pretty bad year, but it wasn’t really. There were a lot of good things that happened, just a couple of big bad things that stole focus I think.

I am going to change the appearance of my blog as although I love the look of it, it is functionally poor and attempting alterations results in an HTML nightmare I sometimes think I’ll never wake up from. I’ll try to add more functionality to it as well to make it a bit more interesting. If you read this on Facebook you might not be aware that it is fed from my blog page, statanomaly.blospot.com. Now you are.

As mentioned above I don’t do New Year resolutions, but I will pledge to try to update this blog much more regularly. I also pledge to answer my phone at least once a month by saying “Talk to me”.

Have yourselves a Raging little Christmas

2009-12-21T21:09:00.005Z

I've been suffering from a major case of writers block recently. Topics float into and out of my head, but nothing seems interesting enough to stick. Which is odd considering the last few weeks have been quite eventful. Maybe I'll get to that later.

However the Christmas number 1 song has interested me for the first time in ages. It was amazing to see a campaign started on Facebook a few weeks ago beat a 6 month marketing campaign watched on national TV by millions.

It was a bit of fun, anarchy in a safe environment. Not an anti-corporation protest, but just a demonstration that people don't like to be treated like idiots. I can only assume that The Climb was picked as it was already on Sony's books and cost little to nothing to procure. It certainly wasn't good enough to top the charts. It seemed like Simon Cowell thought he could put out any old tat and it would get to number 1. If the song had been half decent it would have been much harder, and if they had picked Don't Stop Believing the campaign would not have had a chance. (even Joe McElderry's version which is an out of tune crime against music)

Rage Against The Machine conducted themselves pretty well throughout this. They didn't ask to be used as the focal point, but proved to be eloquent and polite when questioned and were not afraid to speak their minds, which is becoming a rare occurrence in these days of ass-covering. Perhaps they were a little cheeky on radio 5 by swearing when they said they wouldn't, but it clearly did them no harm. The bands decision to donate all their profits to Shelter, on top of the donations made through the campaign, seems a perfect message to be sending out at this time of year.

Some people think it's a shame that young Joe is not getting "his" Christmas number 1. He won a singing competition, the prize of which was a recording contract. I don't think it said anything about getting a Christmas number 1. He has done nothing to earn a number 1.

Despite all this I'd almost guarantee that Joe will be at number 1 next week after all the final pre-christmas purchases roll in, and now there is no real competition. Hopefully this will be ok for Joe. Besides if he is that good, then his next few singles will all go straight in at number 1.

And on that I'm going to sign off.

Merry Christmas y'all!

Paris

2009-10-21T15:33:00.004+01:00

A few weeks ago we went to Paris for a long weekend to celebrate my dear wife’s birthday. Although some time has passed since we got back, I felt I couldn’t let it pass without comment.

Paris is a truly beautiful city. From the moment we came out of the Metro at St Georges into a little green square with narrow streets running off it, it was a pleasure to behold. Over the next couple of days we visited all the major attractions we could, only missing the Louvre due to it being closed on a Tuesday, not a Monday as we thought.

First thing in the morning (11am!) we went to the Eiffel Tower, but the queues were quite long so we decided to return the next day even earlier. We then took a Batobus down the Seine to Notre Dame cathedral. One of the highlights for me was going into the cathedral. The sheer size of it inside was breathtaking, and the massive stained glass windows in the north and south wings were very impressive.

Sacre Coeur was a highly recommended attraction, and I enjoyed it mostly for the view over Paris it affords from the steps at the front. Though it was very (very) nice inside and out it could not compete with Notre Dame in my mind. The view however was perfect on the day we were there as the sky was clear blue and you could see all the way to the horizon. From our position we couldn’t see the Eiffel tower, but could see Notre Dame in the distance and even further away the Montparnasse tower, looking like a black monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, looming over its surrounding buildings.

That evening we went for a walk, finding by chance the Moulin Rouge, before taking the Metro into the centre of Paris for a meal within sight of the Eiffel Tower and watching a cabaret show at Crazy Horse (my wife rocks!) before getting the last train home (they locked the gates after we left St Georges station, very lucky!).

Unfortunately it rained for most of the next day, but despite this we went up the Eiffel tower which gave great views again. I was very impressed by the Victorian engineering, but DW was less keen (certainly of the lifts) and would have preferred something a bit newer I think!

After that we travelled to L’Arc de Triomphe which again impressed me with it’s sheer size, walked a little down the Champs Elysses, and visited the Musee D’Orsay and looked at some painitings by artists such as Monet, Manet and Renoir. To be honest, art galleries are not really my bag, and we didn’t even bother going to see the Van Gogh paintings in the end. After that it was time to go back to the hotel for our bags and to head for the airport.

The food all weekend was amazing, even for us poor vegans! It helped that we found a vegetarian restaurant across the water from Notre Dame where I had the biggest vegan mezze platter in the world. Smoked tofu, seitan, grilled peppers and courgette, vegan coleslaw, a tofuburger and loads else, it was so good!

While Paris was excellent and the people very helpful and friendly, my French was appalling. Despite 4 years studying (admittedly finishing 17 years ago) I was unable to string 2 words together on the first day, mostly out of fear of embarrassment. I was getting more into it by the time we left, but still very slow and quiet.

The woman who asked me (in French) “Is this the stop for Charles de Gaulle” as we arrived at the domestic terminal stop caught me completely off guard. What I should have said is:

“Oui, c’est Charles de Gaulle. Mais il y a un autre gare en 5 minutes. Ici pour domestique, l’autre gare pour international.” (I think this is right, I haven’t looked it up)

However, as my brain was too slow at translating what she said, what I actually said was:

“Pardon, je ne comprends pas.”

Still, it’s the thought that counts and at least I answered in French.

The Phantom Menace

2009-10-20T16:05:00.006+01:00

I had planned to blog last week about the above 10 year old film, but stopped as I thought "Nah, no-one would want to read that". Since then Andrew Collins has blogged about it, Richard Herring has tweeted about it, and it has been on national television at primetime. I did not watch it. After all that I decided to dust down the draft and post it anyway. You are free not to read it should you see fit.

It is 10 years since the release of Star Wars : The Phantom Menace. I wanted to write about this because, even after 10 years, it still irritates me for numerous reasons.

The original Star Wars films (the good trilogy) were part of my childhood, as I’m sure they were for many people. Because of this when the new films were announced in ‘95/’96 I was very excited.

Then Episode 1 was released. As soon as the opening titles appeared it was clear that something was wrong. Trade agreements and blockades didn’t sound very exciting, but maybe it would be ok.

No. It would not be ok.

What we got was essentially the plot from an episode of the A-Team (Helpless ordinary folks being bullied by an aggressor, the team come in and help fight them off, everyone lives happily ever after), with a tacked on story about how they found Anakin Skywalker. Or a story about how they found Anakin with an A-team episode tacked on, I can’t decide which plot arc is worse.

But there were worse things than the overall plot. In no particular order:

1. Jar Jar Binks. The much maligned possible racial stereotype CGI idiot. Clearly only there for comedy effect (but without any comedy) and to show off Industrial Light & Magics CGI skills, there was nothing redeeming about him. He did get his own usenet group though, alt.fan.starwars.jar-jar-binks.die.die.die.

2. The pod race. Added nothing to the story, and appeared to be there so they could again show off their CGI skills, have a chase scene (In the absence of proper space battles) and show how smart Anakin was.

3. The spaceships. The ships in the original trilogy were chunky, functional looking machines. A style that has been immitated many times since then (Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1, Wing Commander, etc) as they look like they fit a purpose. However now, some 50 years or so earlier, we have ships like the sleek vessels of the Naboo and Gungans, which looked completely different. Why years later would the ships look so low tech in comparison?

4. C3PO & R2D2. Why are they even there? There are so many things wrong with this it makes my head want to explode. Anakin’s mother needs help around the house, so he builds her a protocol droid who can speak several billion languages and can’t walk properly or straighten his arms? I’d be grateful and all, but would ask if maybe he could make a cleaner droid or a child minder droid first. And R2D2 belongs to Obi-Wan? Ok that maybe explains why he knows where to go on Tatooine in Episode 4, but it’s still a bit of an awkward way to get a favourite character into the film. It gives the impression Lucas wasn’t confident enough in the new characters he had created (with good reason it turns out). The inclusion of these droids is nothing short of insulting to the intelligence of the viewer.

5. The Imperial Senate. Just how long is spent watching bureaucrats debating trade agreements and sanctions? It saps the life out of the movie and the viewer.

6. Immaculate conception. Turns out that Anakin was an immaculate conception. Seriously? Yes, seriously.

I could go on, but I’d really rather not for fear of injuring myself in a fit of rage. One plus from The Phantom Menace was that it was so bad I quite enjoyed Attack of the Clones by comparison (yes I continued to watch the movies) even though it is completely mediocre. I cannot recall anything about Revenge of the Sith except the hastily revealed Darth Vader at the end, whose low tech costume again stood out like a sore thumb against the sleek look of the rest of the film.

However I will say Ewan McGregor was excellent as Obi-Wan, and possibly played Alec Guinness better than Alec Guinness could have done.

.

Gonnae No Drink So Much

2009-10-05T13:37:00.006+01:00

On Saturday we were in Edinburgh for some shopping and went to Walkabout, the Australian bar in the Omni Centre. They were offering a new discount card, the Boomerang Card (sadly rectangular in shape), which gives you 25% off food and drink. Despite it costing £3 I still saved money on 2 meals, a beer and an OJ & lemonade which was ace.

Looking at the back of the card though, in the small print it says “Selected drinks range in London. Soft drinks only in Glasgow.”

It seems their reputation precedes them!

Ironically I filled in their online form and won a Beefburger. Bollocks.

Statistical Predator!

2009-10-01T15:50:00.012+01:00

Just realised I have not posted anything stat-related on this website yet.

In order to rectify this, I give you:

Illegal in 9 countries, it stings the nostrils. In a good way.

As worn by Brian Fantana.

.

Reflections on Edinburgh

2009-09-17T15:51:00.005+01:00

We’ve been out of Edinburgh for 3 months now. Returning every day for work has kept some continuity but there’s no doubt that it’s been quite a change for us. To provide a memory aid and combat rose-tintedness, I thought I would make a list of things I miss and don’t miss about living in Edinburgh, now that I have a better perspective on it.

Things I miss:

The immediacy of things. Cinema right around the corner. Shop right across the road. 3 pubs on my doorstep. 10 minute walk to work.
The older lady in the Odeon who looks a bit like Mrs Doubtfire and says “thank you dear” when you give her your ticket.
The guy in the shop across the road. Over 10 years we barely exchanged more than a handful of sentences, yet he still knew to buy in boxes of Space Raiders to feed my addiction! And his wife who always tried to short-change me.
Ricebox – the greatest Chinese delivery service ever, with the most surly telephone operator you could imagine.
Cable TV and in particular Cable broadband!!!
The Real Foods shop. A wonderful selection of vegan food at extortionate prices, some sorry looking vegetables and oats. Lots and lots of oats. Staffed by our friendy Spanish neighbour, Nervous Boy and Weird Hairstyle Aussie Girl.

Things I don’t miss:

The street cleaning machine that would travel down my street at 4am.
Drunken idiots screaming at/fighting with each other at 2am.
Junkies in my stairwell.
The cold rattling windows in winter (all 9 months of it).
The regular vandalism of my car.
The constant noise and light, 24 hours a day.
Having no friends living nearby.
Carrying shopping up 3 flights of stairs.

So in summary, it is now quieter, with less local stuff. Which is fine by me. Instead I’ll drive to the cinema, binge drink in the house and bore friends and family with tales of how good cable broadband was.

My Days of Rice and Salt

2009-09-09T14:22:00.003+01:00

Today I successfully finished reading “The Years of Rice and Salt” by Kim Stanley Robinson. All 772 pages of it. Off and on it took me about a year to get through it.

It is an alternate history, assuming that the entire population of Europe (with a few small exceptions, go Orkney!) was wiped out by the bubonic plague around the year 1200-1400. The story is told through the reincarnations of a small group of souls, and covers the period from the plague up to modern times.

Reading it was a real labour at first, as the first 100 pages or so were pretty dry and a bit confusing. However once I got past that the story really got going and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Robinson is an expert at characterisation and brings each of the dozens of characters and locations vividly to life.

It was interesting to see a world without Christianity, and in particular it’s effect on the North and South American people. All in all it came across quite realistically, albeit perhaps a little idealistic in places – a criticism that could also be levelled at his Mars trilogy of books.

Now I need to find something else to read. Iain M Banks “Use of Weapons” awaits me, but I think I’ll try something a bit lighter next.

Any suggestions?

On travelling North

2009-08-18T15:30:00.006+01:00

This past weekend Janet and I took a day trip up to Aberdeen. We arrived at lunchtime and spent the entire day in pubs/beer gardens, followed by a nice Chinese meal. It was great to meet up again with Craig, Tosh, Steve and his girlfriend Kerry. The conversation flowed like the beer and it was just like our student days again, though with less Monty Python quotes.

A trip to Aberdeen always produces a mixture of emotions. On the one hand it is always nice to get back to familiar territory and meet up with old friends that I don’t see enough of. On the other hand the territory becomes less familiar each time as bars and shops are replaced with new ones that don’t have links to important times in my life.

However, if life has hammered one thing into my head repeatedly over the past few months, it is that change is inevitable. After many years where little changed other than my employer and (less often) my clothing style, 2008-09 has seen a massive amount of change. Firstly there were the kind souls who burgled our flat last June, enabling us to change all our electrical goods. Then there was the renovation of our flat in preparation for its sale. Just as that sale was being completed our beloved family cat Pyewacket died after contracting cancer. Finally the move out of the old homestead came in late June and with it a complete change to our daily lives and routines (mostly for the better!).

Change is something that should be embraced and despite my sentimental nature I am really enjoying the opportunities these changes have provided to break out of old routines and start anew. Soon enough we will be doing it all again and the cycle will repeat. I will aim to take the positive aspects from each cycle and apply them to the next in some sort of lifestyle samsara.

Aberdeen’s changes have been for the best. Old haunts have gone, but they were for the old me. The new ones will do fine for me now. And as with all things Aberdeen’s face may change, but the heart stays the same.

All hail the quiz kings!

2009-08-07T13:53:00.003+01:00

After a seven week hiatus, our quiz team reconvened at the Chanter last night for a stab at the £50 bar tab prize. Going by the name “Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal” we performed well, finishing with a storming movie/movie quotes double round to take the prize!

We beat regular quiz winners The Slackers much to Quizmaster Jules’ delight, Bagpuss were surprisingly crap and as usual the giant team of 12+ students failed miserably. (Can’t use your iPhone on the audio rounds guys ;) )

I think we knew we were onto a good thing when the first round was on Heavy Metal, and the first question “Which of the following band’s lead singer is homosexual?” was answered before Jules even gave the options. The answer was Judas Priest – I was wearing my Judas Priest t-shirt. All team members performed heroic question answering feats, we were like a well oiled machine!

The only downside to attending the quiz now is the hour drive home, meaning we only got home at 12.15AM. 6 hours sleep later it was time to get ready for work again, bah!

First Steps

2009-07-28T13:23:00.000+01:00

So I have finally decided to start a blog! As yet I'm not sure of the direction this is going to take, so we'll see how it goes.

I've called it Statistical Anomaly mainly for the reason that I enjoy (yes, enjoy) mathematics and statistical analysis. The name came to me during half-sleep in the middle of last night so hopefully I'll find it as pleasing in the coming weeks, months, etc as I do now.

I've never been one for diaries, so I'll probably post on a variety of topics with a bit of the everyday stuff thrown in. Hopefully it'll be interesting enough to hold your (and my) attention!

To finish off my first blog I'll share a comment from the latest Answer Me This! podcast on the topic of emotions that made me laugh:

"But if we didn't have emotions what would we do? We'd
probably just sit around all day doing maths."