31 August 2008There are certain benefits to being a gold
medal winning cyclist as Britain's Chris Foy clearly discovered on
Beijing!

Almost makes me want to get a bicycle!
***********************
Monday, September 1, 2008, is to be observed as the
first day of the holy month of Ramadan, the committee in charge of
sighting the crescent in the UAE has announced, the official WAM news
agency reported on Saturday
*************************
Meanwhile in Thailand
Prime Minister
Samak Sundaravej has lambasted security officials of the Phuket
International Airport for failing to prevent protesters from shutting down
the airport. He does have a point. How on earth can a few hundred
protesters gain access to an international airport and shut it down for
days?
**************************
Time to end another
month; this is a very strange day at work; and I am both upset and
distracted.
30 August 2008
I feel sorry for the Democrats - they have to keep
trying to convince Americans of their patriotism - meanwhile the general
assumption is that the Republicans love America - its just that they hate
half the people living there!
I am not sure about Barack Obama - there is something
that feels insincere about him. He has lots of headlines; but there is
little substance. No details on how he will deliver his promises.
Meanwhile McCain sounds measured and sensible and far
less strident. Their debates will be interesting. At 72 he really should
retire and enjoy life. Heaven knows he has seen and experienced things
that would scar the rest of us for life.
If only McCain was a Democrat. Cant vote for him. Dont
trust Obama. So I would probably end up like most Americans and not
voting. Isn't that sad.
************************
Tai is on her way to Hong Kong and I am at work. Though I have not done
much work while I have been doing a lot of reading on events in Thailand.
*************************
I forgot to mention last week that the public taxi rank at BKK airport
has moved again.
The whole issue of taxis at the airport is an
embarrassing shambles. It should be a simple matter to organise a
taxi rank at an international airport but Suwanabhumi has turned it into
an art form.
In the terminal there are taxi touts absolutely
everywhere. They will tell you they are a taxi service. They are expensive
limo services. Then there are the private touts with private cars. Go with
them at your peril.
But try to find the proper metered taxi rank.
Near impossible. Here’s a clue, it’s on level two but you can only get to
it if you have just got off a plane and don’t make any detours.
29 August 2008
Tai is back in BKK; not an easy flight. Flying with crew
from her recent Sydney flight.
I was on the Al Hamra golf course at 7.50am. And it was
so so hot. I have been suffering all afternoon. And need to sleep.
26 August 2008
Back in Dubai; working too hard - too much drama. And sleeping too
little.
Was up at 5.30 to pick Tai up off her flight from BKK; and she has been
to Karachi this evening. She will be back in BKK for the weekend so we
have little time together this week.
********************
As I left Bangkok the Brits were performing at the Beijing Olympics
closing ceremony. It looks like London with be the ultimate low cost
Olympics - maybe Easy Olympics!
********************
Hilarious - all the abuse the Chinese got for having a girl mime a song
at the opening ceremony. And now we discover the the whole of the Sydney
Symphony Orchestra mimed the 2000 Olympic opening ceremony!
24 August 2008
Tai has learned something useful this trip - how to play pool! She has
potential !
*********************
We have been running around like crazy - seen the team from Worabura
who are well organised. Been back to the wedding studio - which I always
find frustrating! People there talk about me - but not too me. And I
really have no idea what is going on there most of the time; until its
time to pay them for something.
************************
It was good to get out on Friday night - pizza, pool and a band playing
70s music.
23 August 2008
It is like home from home staying at Siri Sathorn in Bangkok this
weekend.
The plot of land next to the serviced apartment used to have a dodgy
Japanese restaurant and a rather nice homely Italian place called Sala
Rosa. Both have been flattened.
The site is being developed into a new condminium block. Foundations
are being laid as I type this. It is a very different process from Dubai.
In Dubai you clear the sand and you are building on rock.
Dubai is built on clay so the foundations have to be drilled much
deeper. They start early in the morning as well. It is noisy. The only
good news about building on clay is that you dont create the same amount
of dust in the air.
************************
19 August 2008
Had the worst of dreams last night. Some might think it was entirely
appropriate.
I was to be hung in the morning. It was my last night and I was up and
could not sleep and was trying to be brave, but knew that I would not see
another sunrise and was worrying about the people that I love.....
And I woke and it was still dark outside - and I tried to go back to
sleep thinking about something else but then the same dream repeated
itself. Quite disturbing.
17 August 2008
Tai is in Munich. Scene of the 1972 Olympic Games - not that she will
remember that !
Golf yesterday at the Wadi course. I really should use the summer
membership while I still have it! But it was so hot !! I was dead when I
got home and hardly moved in the afternoon. Which was a good excuse to sit
in front of the tv.
********************
Watford won their first home league game of the season yesterday with a
1-0 win over Charlton. The club has also sold the unfortunately named
Danny Shittu to Bolton for an undisclosed fee. Not the most accomplished
of defenders but huge! It could be a long season.
**********************
The four yearly debate on what sports should not be in the Olympics is
underway.
Eliminate Tennis - they have their grand slams - and I am sorry but the
likes of Roger Federer (who did not stay in the athletes' village) make
for poor Olympians.
Eliminate the horsey events. How do you judge dressage?
Change football to be an Under 21 World Cup played as part of the
Olympics.
Eliminate most of the diving events - especially anything with the word
synchronised in it.
15 August 2008
"Today is not my day" said Thaksin. The message is clear - he will be
back. Will there be a pardon on the succession? Possible.
********************
Your average Hong Kong resident on the joys of the Olympic equestrian
events: 'I expected to see horse
racing. I have to say this is the most boring thing I've ever seen in my
life.'
14 August 2008
The Chinese do have a sense of humour - and a lot of
that is directed at the state if the Chinese football team who have not
progressed beyond the group stage: one joke runs like this:
Brazil are playing China in the football. Just before kick-off, Alex
Pato, the Brazilian superstar, is so confident that he says to his team:
"I can handle this match by myself." So the rest of the team go to the pub
for a drink. Sure enough, five minutes into the game, Pato scores. The
team, watching from the bar are delighted and expected a flood of other
goals. But after 90 minutes, the game ends 1-0. Pato joins up with his
team-mates, looking dejected. "Cheer up," they say, "You were all alone
against 11 Chinese players, yet you still won. You did a great job."
Pato refuses to be comforted. "You haven't heard the whole story. After
I scored that first goal, I fouled a Chinese player and got sent off."
13 August 2008
Nice to see the Aussies in a bit of a lather as their famed swim team
fails to make much of an impression in the Beijing aquadome.
After Rebecca Adlington's 400m freestyle gold set the tone for Britain
in the pool here, John Coates, the head of the Australian Olympic
Committee and an International Olympic Committee member since 2001, was
asked for his thoughts. "It's not bad for a country that has no swimming
pools and very little soap," he said.
11 August 2008
A very sleepy Tai is back from Sydney. Not a great trip
back; but at least she is learning the difference between effective and
poor managers and how to give useful and supportive feedback ! Even if it
is by seeing first hand how not to do it !
**********************
If you had any doubt about who one of the Olympic sponsors is this
Beijing picture sums up the horrible commercialism of the event:

10 August 2008
I am sitting in a Doha hotel waiting for a car to
the airport; listening to the Peer Gynt suite on the hotel musack system
and writing emails to Huddersfield about an event in Thailand while
Argentina and Australia play football in Beijing on the TV screen in the
hotel lobby. Meanwhile Tai is leaving Aussie to get home to Dubai - I am
going to be very pleased to see her.
The big excitement from my golf on Saturday with
one of our school principals - he took at 8 iron on the full on his head -
not from me !!! Thought I was going to have to give him the kiss of life -
he was poleaxed - cfo gives principal kiss of life on 17th hole - the sort
of headline that would get me thrown out of the UAE!! 2 hours of checks at
the hospital and they let him out with a bad headache. Dangerous sport !
9 August 2008
There are some pictures from the Beijing opening ceremony here.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the ceremony was that it was
directed by Zhang Yimou.
8 August 2008
Tai is in Christchurch - in room number 808; on the 8th day of August
2008; she must be a very lucky girl indeed.
This long trip is hurting us a bit. We are both tired and it is hard to
be able to find anytime when we are able to talk.
And talking sometimes is not because you need to talk - but you need to
forget everything else that is going on and focus on what matters
most.....and that is sharing your life with the person you love.
*************************
It is also (the date is critical) the opening day of the Beijing 2008
Olympics. And the opening ceremony was breathtaking. Spectacular.
Wonderfully colourful. Imaginative. And Li Ning running around the inside
of the stadium roof to light the flame looked like the tree running scene
in the House of Flying Daggers !
China got it all right - am amazing combination of light, technology
and human grace.
And Yao Ming (all 224cm of him) leading the Chinese athletes with a 9
year old boy who rescued two friends in the Sichuan earthquake. Memorable.
London in four years time can never match this.
**************************
But we are on the edge of war between Russia and Georgia and that
cannot be good for Europe or for East/West relations.
Do the Russians have a long term plan to undermine Georgia and
overthrow its your western leaning President?
Because if that is the case then how will the west react to an attack
on Georgia. There are Russian planes flying over the Georgian capital.
Remember the name South Ossetia.
South Ossetia is a breakaway region from Georgia that the Russians have
backed for years.
Europe may see its next conflict over this small 70,000 population
autonomous region.
We should all be worried.
*************************
Golf today at the Dubai Creek course. Course is flat - very like a
Bangkok city course. It was also an exercise in survival. 45C and hot,
hot, hot.
Then as we stood by the 17th green my playing partner is hit on the
head by an errant golf ball. It hit with a thud and hurt. Very scary. He
is OK now.
6 August 2008
I wish I could see this - a modern Hamlet with a Time Lord as Hamlet
and an Enterprise Captain (Patrick Stewart) as Claudius.
The review are summarised in the Guarian "....the hype, it seems, was
justified. Months of speculation about David Tennant's Hamlet ended last
night, when the Royal Shakespeare Company's production opened to the
public in Stratford-upon-Avon, and this morning, the critics are largely
united in their praise. The Doctor Who star makes a very good
Shakespearean protagonist – but not yet great."
The RSC production continues at the Courtyard Theatre until November
15, and in London till January 10,
***********************
Tai is on her way to Sydney and Christchurch - five nights away. Too
long.
4 August 2008
Cruel game cricket. South African Graeme Smith was plumb lbw on
Saturday; but the excessive appealing of Panesar had worn down an umpire
who said not out. Smith goes on to win the match and series.
Meanwhile Michael Vaughan, who at tea on Saturday looked likely to have
led England to a win, yesterday resigned after five years as England
captain.
***********************
Beware Air Canada. Their transatlantic bag policy is that no bag can
weigh more than 23 kilos. But you can take two bags. Alex's bag was 30kg
(he has been away a long time) and he had no second bag.
So I had to pay gbp35 for the extra weight in his only bag. With two
bags he could have taken 46kg for no extra charge. Instead his 30kg bag
cost an extra fee - and their UM fee is now C$100.
And all that comes with the most miserable, scowly faced, unfriendly
check in dragons that you could possible meet.
2 August 2008
Back to the office to catch up on events at work. But I would rather be
in Rome.....it is an unpleasant 45C outside today.
*****************************
More Olympics doping: today the IOC stripped gold medals form the US
4x400m men's relay team won at the Sydney Games in 2000, after sprinter
Antonio Pettigrew admitted in June that he used banned substances between
1997 and 2003.
They should just lend the medals rather than give them out.
******************************
One football note from last week - Robbie Keane moved from Spurs to
Liverpool for gbp 20 million. Crazy price.