Cold

I have a head cold. I haven't had one this bad since I was a kid. Nose both blocked and somehow running at the same time. Head variously spinning or sore. Cough, sore throat, sore joints and my skin is itchy (not had that before). On the plus side my stomach seems OK and I'm still eating and drinking. Also, I don't appear to have much of a temperature (37.5), though I'm taking paracetamol every 4 hours, so it wouldn't be obvious anyway. So that's it, hopefully it'll be done in a day or so and I won't get another one this year.

In other news... today is mine and Andrea's anniversary. We were planning to go out to celebrate but we're going to have to put that off, probably until the weekend.

The Purple Shirt of Bangkok

In my hotel in Bangkok. Start work tomorrow morning. Flight was great. Managed to rest a bit since I arrived. Going to have dinner and an early night.

My Bangkok tailored shirts arrived. (Ordered them and got measured up on the last trip). You can look at them here:

Why did I chose to have a purple shirt? I don't know! It is a bit mad allright. I probably can't wear that in Ireland, I'll save it for Rio...

Stupid Advertising

I just saw an add on Sky One. (Or maybe it was for Sky One, I obviously didn't get the message.) What stuck was their attempt to portray the saying, "as easy as falling off a log", which simply means very easy.

The character positioned a log, with the cut ends facing up and down, as follows:

He then proceeded to don a crash helmet, stand on, and fall off the log.

The problem... the log positioned as above is not easy to fall off. It is perfectly stable. Why did he fall? Nobody knows. Now, the following log, positioned so that it rolls, is very easy to fall off:

Maybe I'm too fussy, but to mind someone was paid a fortune to make a film of someone else falling off a log and they f***ed it up. Idiots, f***ing idiots! Sorry, rant over, I had to get that off my chest.

Do you like the logs? I drew them myself...

Here we go again...

Because I haven't spent enough time in Heathrow airport (aka. the cursed place) I'm going back there tomorrow morning to try to go to Bangkok again. This time should be OK. I'll be back on Saturday.

Not in Bangkok

I didn't get to Bangkok. Due to complications with the flight I didn't get any further than London. And rather than splash out for hotel, etc. with no guarantee of getting to Bangkok I just came back home. So I got up at 5am and got home again at 5pm with nothing to show for it except sore feet and a wrinkled shirt. I'm not upset though, this happens often when you work in this business, and I've been very lucky so far.

No plans for the weekend obiously...

Back to Bangkok

Tomorrow morning (at 5am) I'll be leaving for the airport. I'm going back to Bangkok again, for three days this time. I'll be back in Ireland on Wednesday morning, back in work on Thursday. It's a long, long trip for 3 days, and what's worse, it looks like business class is full. Maybe I'll have the energy to do something on Sunday when I arrive, we'll see. I ordered three shirts on my last trip, should be getting them on Monday, can't wait!

Primeiro Blog em Português!

Olá! Como vai?

Eu sou estudante de português.

Eu vou colégio cada terça à noite.

Ele é muito utilidade, por exemplo:
¨Eu estou com sede!¨
¨Andrea está com sono¨

Eu entendo os verbos ¨SER¨ e ¨ESTAR¨, presente somente.

Até breve!

Online portuguese courses...
http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/PortLang/godtup.html
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~huuhilo/portuguese/

My school...
http://www.marinocollege.com/

Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror - Junji Ito

Manga horror. Manga might not be your thing, but this is quite different. The Spiral starts with madness and recurring spiral patterns "infecting" a small Japanese fishing village and evolves in a series of individually shocking stories into a surreal mix of monsters, mutation, violence, darkness and death.

Absent are all the normal Manga materials - busty high school girls, battling robots, reality defying ninjas, cute side kicks and a mix of bewildering angels, aliens and faeries. In contrast, the Spiral is populated by the nervous inhabitants of the village and the recurring, sinister presence of the spiral shape. The series follows the life of one inhabitant in particular, Kirie. She has an uncanny physical resemblance to John Tenniel's illustrations of Alice in Wonderland! The stories report her many close encounters with the growing evil. Sometimes Kirie is merely a witness but gradually the stories draw her into greater danger, along the way involving her reclusive boyfriend and the rest of her family.

At first the stories revolve around a crazy obsession with the spiral shape, but gradually the surreal visual elements start to become more obvious. I couldn't put it down. By the end, the whole thing is so surreal it is simply shocking to move from panel to panel. I think I'll have to think twice before going back to Newgrange!

Bangkok Pictures

I've posted up a selection of 60 or so pictures. Most of the time I was too overwhelmed to take pictures. Photography doesn't do places like the Grand Palace justice, you need to be close to the buildings to appreciate the tiny and exact details of the gold decorations yet far from them to appreciate their scale. Like looking at fractals all the time, very hard to explain. In many other places I couldn't take pictures (e.g. inside shops, temples, etc.). You must go there and see for yourself!

Back from Bangkok

Well I've been back for one week now. It was a great trip. I'll post pictures over the weekend. The flight out was great, Thai Airways business class is very good. The hotel was good also, very nice Japanese resaraunt on the first floor. The work was hard but I got a lot done. I had the Sunday I arrived and the Saturday before I left to see some of Bangkok.

The day I arrived, Sunday 26th, was the day of the GAA All Ireland football final with Mayo Vs Kerry. I spent Sunday night travelling around the Irish pubs of Bangkok but I couldn't find anywhere showing the match. They were all pseudo-Irish pubs. They had the Guinneass gear hanging on the walls but no reall connection to Ireland.

I ended up hooking up with about a dozen other Irish people in the exact same situation. We couldn't find the match and so had to get friends and family to text us the scores as they happened. Kerry totally dominated the game, so it is probably a good thing I didn't see it!

Travelling all over Bangkok on my very first day in Thailand was an experience! At one point I got lost and hired a "Tuc Tuc" to take me to the Irish pub. A "Tuc Tuc" is a tiny 3 wheel vehicle with a driver in the front and seating for two in a small rear carriage. I ate in a pretty dingy diner near one of the Irish bars. By the time I got back to the hotel I was exhausted.

I'll write more about Bangkok tomorrow!

Friday Time Waster

This flash game
from the "bleach eating freaks" is guaranteed to hit your productivity like a hammer. I need to stay away from this site until I get my work done...