Links
(blogs that are not updated have been deleted)

Dubai based Airine bloggers

TampaxTowers
Style High Club
The Trolley Dolly
Life,as I know it (now Edmonton!)
Bjorn Moerman
James Nixon
TheEKSource
Jens Krüger
 

Egypt

Sandmonkey
Hammonda.net
 

Thailand Blogs

Bangkok Noir

Bangkok Pundit - politics

Thai-blogs.com - rather serious

2bangkok.com - not really a blog but always up to date on Bangkok news
BKKOK.com
Thailand Voice promoting blogs from Thailand
Thailand Golf
Thai-blogs -Thailand life and culture
trythaifood - thai recipes
CityLife Chiang Mai
Thailand Crisis not updated but important in understanding 2006-2009.
Absolutely Bangkok
Bangkok Bugle

Thai Girl The exotic adventures of a literary sexagenarian.
Thailand Jumped the Shark

Thai Films
Siam Report
Thai ENews - In Thai
Photo-journ - news blog plus pics
Prachatai - Thai news in English
New Mandala - new perspectives on SE Asia
NewsInBangkok - another news blog
Thailand Intelligent News - interesting opinion and  links
Political Prisoners in Thailand
GregToDiffer
Hua Hin Golf
Philip Golingai (mainly Malaysia)
ThailandVoice
Musings from Thailand
Women learning Thai
Vaitor
Ricefield Radio
Reporter in Exile
Robert Amsterdam - Thailand
Somtow's world
Dirtii laundry
Thai Cables
Siam Voices
ThaiWomanTalks
Tasty Thailand
Siam Intelligence Unit
Mouth of the Mekong
Carabao in english

Asia Blogs

Banyan - The Economist

Asia Unbound - CFR
Zen Journalist
The Marmot's Hole - Korea
The writings of MD Nalapat
Democratic Voice of Burma
Ideas for India

Dubai Blogs
Mainly Photos; mainly from Dubai - Gerald Donovan at work!

dxbae - picture blog - also Gerald Donovan
UAE Community Blog - uniting all UAE bloggers
Dubai informer - news and events.
The Grapeshisha Blog - commentary  on a changing Dubai
One Big Construction Site - a long term expat on life in Dubai
Secret Dubai Diary - rather disillusioned expat commentary - sadly seems to have died - but again worth keeping for some interesting recent history.
Dubai As It Used To be - self explanatory - fascinating!
Kippreport - news and commentary
Life In Dubai - moved to Oz
Fake Plastic Souks
Dubai Astronomy Group
Gulf Photo Plus
Dubai Media Observer

The Gulf Blog
Dubai Construction Update
Dubai Race Night
Burj Khalifa

Grumpy Goat
Ever changing lanes
Spontaneous Euphoria
Christopher Saul - Dubai Blog
MattJDuffy
Sport360
The Hedonista
Dubai as it used to be
DubaiDevelopmentsGuide
Al Serkel Avenue
 

Arabic affairs blogs

The Arabist
Felix Arabia
MidEastPosts
The Culturist
Pan Arabian Enquirer
Doha News
Al Monitor
The Gulf Blog
Al-Bab

Hong Kong Blogs
Digital Life - A Hong Kong picture blog - interesting pics
A Big White Guy in Hong Kong - self explanatory
Ordinary Gweilo
Hemlock's Diary. And people think I am opinionated - try this!
BigLychee
EastSouthWestNorth - commentary
Glutter.org - Greater China democracy news and many great links
Hong Kong Hustle
Hong Kong Paintings

Hong Kong Outdoors
Hong Kong and Macau Stuff
Hong Wrong
 

In China:

Danwei - media and advertising news from China

Shanghaiist.com
The China Beat - how the east is read.

Hong Kong Cinemagic
Shanghai Scrap
The Paper Tiger
Peking Duck
China Law Blog
China Rises
China Media Project
China in Africa: The Real Story
LivinginChina.com
Sinocism

Chinageeks
Beijing Cream
China Daily Show
Ministry of Tofu

In Macau:

In Singapore:
The Singapore Daily

Xiaxue - self-confessed mean, bitchy, sex goddess who says "wah" a lot!

Mr Brown - colourful commentary from Singapore
Singapore Democrats
The Online Citizen
Icarus flew too high
Bonjour Singapore

In Burma:

National League for Democracy

In Canada:

BlogTO
Now Toronto

Media:
On the Ground ND Kristof

Tabloid Watch (UK)
The Diplomat - Asia Pacific
CJ Purcell
Foreign Policy
Vanity Fair
Watchdog reporting
Fleet Street Blues
BellingCat
 

Aviation:

Amadeus (airline schedules)

Airline meals - see it b4 you eat it!

Airliners - aviation forum, trip reports and pix archive
A Captain's Blog - the routine of a California based 767 captain
FA Uniforms - interesting collection of the old and new

Planenation - commercial aviation news

Airchive - a web museum of commercial aviation.

CrankyFlier - mainly US commentary
AvHerald - daily log of airliner incidents
RandPeck's blog
Rand Peck - writing and photography from a US based 757 captain
PlaneBuzz - airline financials
SmartCockpit

Sharjah - 1937
Boarding Area business travel
World Airports
Flight Wisdom
ATC - Toronto (YYZ)
Today in the sky
Ask the pilot
The Flying Scotsman - A BA pilot blog
Key Magazines - UK
Crossing the Sky
Blogging at FL250
Flight Level 390
The wings stayed on
PilotOutlook
Birmingham Airport
Aviation Queen
LiveATC.net
AirplaneFood
Flight to Success
Routehappy

KPAE - Paine Field Blog
UxMilk (mainly Qantas)
World Stewardess Crews
Airways magazine blog
DubaiAirportsConnect
APEX Editor's Blog
In a Foreign Sky
Better on a Camel
Simon Blakesley Photography
Jethead
Holding Pattern


Travel:

Johnny Jet
Paris photo blog
Business Traveller - Asia
Camels and Chocolate
GranTourismo
Legal Nomads
Circle of Asia
Tales of Asia
Smart Travel Asia
Untraveller
The World and his TukTuk
QuiteAlone - Matthew Teller
Around the World in 80 Elephants
Mouth of the Mekong
GranTourismo Travels
Seat 61

 

News:

The Guardian - UK

BBC World News

CNN Asia

Bangkok Post
Gulf News

Arabian Business
CNNfan.com scary fan site!
Twitmericks
vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists
Next Media - news animation

 

Bangkok info sites:

thailand.com

learningthai.com

sawadee.com

thailandstories

bangkok a-z
stickboyBangkok
 

Worthy Sites:

Niall Ferguson

Rconversation - from Rebecca MacKinnon, ex-TV reporter-turned-blogger.
RGE Monitor - macro-economic analysis
Migrant Rights
Cricket Archive
Good experience
Heresy Corner

What Matters - McKinsey
Freedom House
 

Golf Sites:
wei under par

The Christina Kim

Cricket sites:

Alternative Cricket Almanac
99.94
Cricket with Balls
The Old Batsman
StumpedForADuck
The NightWatchman
Lords.org
The Full Toss

Other Sports
Sulia.com - football

Fun Sites:

Fun signs
Urban Dictionary
Earth TV

Useful Sites:

World Time Clock

Cooking
Cooking Light
 

Technology Ideas:
Loose wire

Stuff - gadgets
TechCrunch
Boing Boing
The Next Web

TNooz - Travel Tech
The Immedium Blog

ViralBlog
The Next Web
Now and Next
The Sports Scientists
FacebookStories
LiesDamnedLiesstatistics
Mixed Topics

Photography
unchartedphotography
Glen Calvin Photography
GulfPhotoPlus

The Rest:

Black Flamingo - recipes and life (no golf!)
Mixed Topics
Watford Mad (WFC)
BHappy - a Watford Blog
Watford Legends
All About Cricket
Brain Pickings
Ballpark-it.com - recipes

TV:
Northern Exposure

Place from my past:
Bournville Village
 

Author

Robert Scott lives and works in Dubai; born in England I have since lived in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.

I am very happily married to Tai.

If you want to know more you only need to ask! ask.

29 April 2015

The Emirates passenger fleet at the end of April 2015: Excluding freighter aircraft and the executive A319

27 April 2015

In flight movie watch:

St Vincent - for the wonderful Bill Murray - bringing a whole new level of grumpy to grumpiness.

Unbroken - well-intentioned biopic - which will upset Japanese nationalists but in the end makes a few too many mistakes to be worthy...the perfectly cropped prison camp haircuts for a start.

Interstellar - the movie is like space. Big and void.

************************
Thailand's delusional and dangerous Prime Minister in a press conference yesterday:

"The media has to write well. I will keep my eyes on what you write. You understand when I talk to you, but when you write, it turns out to be something different. I circle so many passages from newspapers when I am in the car. You are all geniuses. You suggest that I fix this issue and that issue. What kind of [professional] background do you have? I ask you. Those people who criticize me, have you ever done anything successful? Or you are only at good working for newspapers, since you were a baby, until you are old? You keep criticizing the government harshly. But this is a government that seized power. Don't criticize me like I'm a normal government. You cannot. We do everything for you. We fix everything. But you still criticize me. What the hell is matter with you? Am I being too kind? I don't know."

26 April 2015

From a presumably UK pilot on PPRUNE:

"I was astonished at the volume of EK traffic in the Desdi hold the other night all with conflicting and similar call signs. Much kudos to all you EK professionals and ATC for keeping cool and amazingly error - free. If ever there was an example of systemic and corporate set up for potential serious error there it is."

It is remarkable what happens in the skies around 11.00pm over Dubai and the UAE every night. And it is a tribute to the professionals involved that the chaos does appear to be organised.

25 April 2015

From facebook: "So Etisalat UAE blocks WhatsApp free calling. How does the UAE expect to be at the forefront of global technological advances when it does this?"

Exactly. The smart government initiative is really all about image. In reality there is massive protectionism in order to allow the government owned oligopolies to make money.

Interesting how the UAE demands open skies and complains about protectionism while practicing protectionism in other industries such as telecoms.

21 April 2015

While Britain debates high speed trains - Japan’s state-of-the-art maglev train set a world speed record on Tuesday in a test run near Mount Fuji, clocking more than 600km/h (373mph).

The seven-car maglev – short for “magnetic levitation” – train, hit a top speed of 603km/h and managed nearly 11 seconds over 600km/h, Central Japan Railway said.

The new record came less than a week after the company clocked 590km/h, by breaking its own 2003 record of 581km/h.

The maglev hovers 10cm (four inches) above the tracks and is propelled by electrically charged magnets.

JR Central wants to have a train in service in 2027 plying the 286km between Tokyo and the central city of Nagoya.

****************************
Flydubai is adding Novosibirsk and Nizhniy Novgorod to its Russian network bringing the total number of destinations  in the country to 10.

The three times weekly service to Novosibirsk and the twice weekly service to Nizhniy Novgorod will commence on 04 and 07 October 2015 respectively.

20 April 2015

Happy 18th birthday Alex :)

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Three British plane spotters who have been held in prison in the United Arab Emirates for eight weeks accused of espionage are being released without charge, a lawyer has said.

Conrad Clitheroe, 53, and his friends Gary Cooper, 45, and expatriate Neil Munro were detained in February after being spotted by an off-duty police officer taking notes near Fujairah airport, about 80 miles from Dubai.

The men were taken to a police station where they signed an Arabic document apologising and promising not to plane-spot in the country again, before they were moved to a higher-security prison.

Let's hope this news is accurate and that these guys are quickly reunited with their families.

In reality they should never have been detained.

***************************
Back from a very short trip to Nice, London and Geneva. All good visits in their own way.

13 April 2015

Emirates will launch a second daily service between Dubai and Boston from October 1.

Flight EK239 departs Dubai at 0250 and arrives in Boston at 0810. The return service, EK240 will then take off from Boston at 1105 and arrive back in Dubai at 0815 the following day.

*************************
It is a year since my father in law died. RIP.

11 April 2015

Some very good golfers did not make the cut at the Masters. And Jordan Spieth - who you might ask - leads by a street at the half way stage.

It really is dull to watch. It already looks like a battle for second.

Worse there are too many golfers there who should not be - they take places away from other golfers who might win. The Masters allows past champions to play for as long as they want to. Some are sensible and do not compete - such as Faldo. Others like Crenshaw, Lyle, Mize and Woosnam are just taking up space.

Crenshaw is a bit of a legend - but the cloying commentary and pictures as he came of the 18th tee were more nauseous than sentimental.

10 April 2015

Ben Crenshaw first played the Masters at Augusta as an amateur in 1972.

I just don't see today's young golfers - the Speiths and McIlroys still playing competitive golf in 43 years time.

Tom Watson shot 71 yesterday (1 under) at the age of 65. Amazing given the length of the course now. He then shot 81 today.

9 April 2015

From 1 December 2015 the Emirates flight to Copenhagen will be served by a two class A380 with 615 seats.

557 in Economy and 58 in Business Class.

It looks like Gatwick will get a two class A380 from 1 January 2016 replacing the exisiting three-class service.

*************************
Bizarre header on an email from tripadvisor this morning - "rascottdotcom, have you visited Bangkok yet?"

Err :)

8 April 2015

The stakes are getting higher for airlines seeking to recruit experienced pilots - and here is Turkish Airlines coming to Dubai to recruit in Emirates backyard!

"Turkish Airlines invites you to take part in its exclusive Roadshow in Dubai - on 20/21 April 2015.

Istanbul's tranquility lies in its ability to embrace its beauties, and is one of the largest, liveliest and most exciting cities in the World.

Our mission is to become the preferred leading European air carrier thanks to its strict compliance with flight safety.

Turkish Airlines is currently seeking to employ Captains and First Officers who wish to become part of our continued growth and success."

7 April 2015

Dear Neighbour,

There are many places in ET/Bay Avenue that are suitable for your child's birthday party and that would welcome your business.

Your apartment is probably the least suitable place.

Of course you have not had the consideration to inform us in advance or to find out how we might be inconvenienced. After all that would have required a trace of thoughtfulness on your part.

I doubt you will care that one of us returned home at midday after working through the night and is currently trying to sleep.

Sleep is of course problematic when the whole apartment periodically shakes as your precious child and his friends scream and jump around to your highly questionable taste in kids party music. "Gangnam Style" is so 2012.

Yours sincerely,

Your less than impressed neighbour.

5 April 2015

Just 1 per cent of drivers in Dubai managed to keep a clean sheet last year by avoiding any traffic fines.

New statistics from Dubai Traffic Police revealed that out of 1.3 million motorists on the emirate’s roads, only 18,000 kept a clean licence – about one in 70.

Seems unlikely - though I have been fine-free for about five years now.

2 April 2015

One of the recurring UK election themes from the Tories is that is was Labour who ruined the economy.

Not true - try the bankers and other hangers on in the City of London (and Wall St, and Dubai etc) - with their dodgy risk taking with investors money and sub prime mortgage lending by useless bankers paid millions in bonuses for reckless gambling....
 
The Labour Party did not cause the financial crisis. They were as blind as everyone else. No one saw it coming and no one created a strong enough regulatory environment.

 1 April 2015

I have Tinnitus - for about two weeks there has been a hissing in my left ear. I can manage it - but it is very frustrating.

I went to see the ENT - ear, nose, throat specialist. 

There is no reason for it to be there.

There is no cure or treatment.

My hearing is good - my balance is good. Just the hiss in my inner ear.

******************************
As Bruce Springsteen wrote - there is a freight train running through the middle of my head!

Oh oh oh - I'm on fire!

******************************
German Wings - is there a video of the flight's final seconds?

The answer is probably yes - and during long ten minute descent with the pilot banging in the door there is little doubt that some people tried to video events.

The only issue is whether any phone could survive the massive impact.

CNN states today that there are reports of a cell phone video that shows the nightmarish final seconds of Germanwings Flight 9525, but a police spokesman said the accounts were "completely wrong."

French magazine Paris Match and German newspaper Bild reported that a video recovered from a phone at the wreckage site showed the inside of the plane moments before it crashed.

"One can hear cries of 'My God' in several languages," Paris Match reported. "Metallic banging can also be heard more than three times, perhaps of the pilot trying to open the cockpit door with a heavy object. Towards the end, after a heavy shake, stronger than the others, the screaming intensifies. Then nothing."

The two publications described the video, but did not post it on their websites. The publications reported that they watched the video, which was found by a source close to the investigation.

"It is a very disturbing scene," said Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Bild online.

An official with France's accident investigation agency, the BEA, said the agency is not aware of any such video.

And that is why the BEA gets in a mess. They are either not on top of the investigation or they lie.

Lt. Col. Jean-Marc Menichini, a French Gendarmerie spokesman in charge of communications on rescue efforts around the Germanwings crash site, told CNN that the reports were "completely wrong" and "unwarranted." Cell phones have been collected at the site, he said, but that they "hadn't been exploited yet."

Reichelt told "Erin Burnett: Outfront" that he had watched the video and stood by the report, saying Bild and Paris Match are "very confident" that the clip is real.

He noted that investigators only revealed they'd recovered cell phones from the crash site after Bild and Paris Match published their reports.

"That is something we did not know before. ... Overall we can say many things of the investigation weren't revealed by the investigation at the beginning," he said.

31 March 2015

Thailan's dear leader today speaking bluntly to reporters: Gen. Prayuth said he will not use Article 44 to violate the civil rights of anyone who is innocent.

"If you didn't do anything wrong, why are worried?" Gen. Prayuth quipped when he was asked to comment on the law. "I insist that Article 44 will be used creatively in one aspect, and the other aspect is to deal with national security problems. If there's any shooting and causing of chaos again, I will arrest them. I will arrest them immediately. We will use laws like this, otherwise we would have to wait for court warrants."

He explained further that Article 44 will permit military officers to work on national security issues and assist various bureaucratic agencies.

"Don't be afraid. I don't know why are you so afraid, if you didn't do anything wrong. Please help explain to the people," the general added.

He really does not understand. He now has unlimited power with no checks or balances and not even a requirement to consult his handpicked team at the NLA.

***********************
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank - four words that I think you may be hearing a lot.

************************

continues in next column.....
 

Russell Brand with unusual thoughtfulness spoke on the subject of mental illness - so widely discussed since the GermanWings crash:

Brand notes that 50 per cent of people will suffer from some diagnosable form of mental illness in their lifetimes, while only 60 per cent of those will receive any help.

Yet mental health is stigmatised.

The most common form of death in young people in the USA is suicide.

“So far from being something weird, peculiar, uncommon, it’s some normal thing that’s happening all the time. Why is it happening all the time? Why are we living in the times of a mental illness plague?”

The answer, he considers, is in the hands of those in power, like FOX News.

“The reason FOX News can’t be honest about what causes mental illness is that FOX News IS what causes mental illness,” Brand added.

“FOX News are the propaganda machine of capitalism – a system that separates us from one another and tells us the way to solve our individual problems is through purchasing, through buying things, through identifying primarily through our roles as consumers, not as active citizens or participants in society, members in communities that should care about others, but people who shouldn’t be condemning those who are weaker, vilifying people that act in any way that’s unusual.

We know in the core of our being that that isn’t right, so it creates a friction and a tension. We know that what [the FOX Anchor] is saying isn’t true. “The reality is [Lubitz] lived in a system that causes individuals to malfunction, because we have a lack of cohesion, a lack of connection and a lack of truth. If you want incidents like this and...less mad individuals whether it’s Adolf Hitler, Isis, or the fella crashing the plane, if you want less problems of this nature, I believe the solution is not to look at madness, darkness and evil as an outside issue, but as an internal issue.”

"The vast privatisation of stress has taken place over the last thirty years."

brand quoted Solzhenitsyn: "The line between good and evil runs not between nations and races but through every human heart."

“We can never have that conversation properly because FOX News and big corporations benefit from things being the way they are,” he concludes.

His conclusions: once we recognise and accept the problem then we have to change society as a whole.

Hard to disagree. But how, when and by who are far from clear.

*************************
"EK is a LoCo long haul operation that pushes every boundary when it comes to squeezing its staff (Engineers, CC plus many others as well). I now know it is not sustainable for my health and unless you are a super human, I don’t think it is sustainable for any human being. But then again you can always leave, as I was told and am in the process of now doing. If only the management managed people instead of numbers, it could be such a great place to work."

From pprune today - posted by a pilot who is leaving the airline.

This is not just Emirates. This is an industry wide issue.

30 March 2015

Terrorism is violence for ideological or political reasons, how complex is that?

Worth remembering when the work is used so loosely this week from GermanWings to Yemen.

***************************
Dubai International airport: a love story

"In my decade of passing through Dubai, I never once exited its airport, a fact I wore as a badge of honour. And why would I, given all that I held against the state – its labour practices, its hypercapitalism, its sheer megalomania?"

Sums it up really!

29 March 2015

That should be the end of Hart of Dixie after a shortened 10 episode season 4 - and a fitting end it was. So many tv series have died in appalling endings recently that this felt good.

Think Southern Exposure - rather than Northern and you will understand the program!

The finale often felt like it was constructed out of cotton candy and rainbows, with happy endings around every corner, but it fell well within the cheerful, whimsical nature of the rest of the series. Bluebell has never felt like a real town, but rather an exaggerated, wacky dreamscape that might possibly be the result of a gas leak. But that's all part of its charm. I've never seen a more hopeful and cheerful finale, which is what makes it the perfect ending for the type of show Hart of Dixie was for four amazing, heartwarming seasons.

The final musical number ends with the entire town singing and dancing in the middle of the town square, and it’s cheesy and over-the-top and tremendously silly, and yet it’s almost impossible to imagine the show finishing its run any other way.

Hart Of Dixie is a show that celebrates small town life, small town people, small town shenanigans, and small town love, and everything about this final number embraced the joy it always found in telling stories about those things.

**************************
Quick note on why Watford may still struggle for a promotion spot this seaso:

Watford have failed to beat Ipswich Town, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Norwich City over two matches. Watford have also lost at home to Derby County and drew at Middlesbrough.

The only top-eight team the Golden Boys have recorded victory against this season was Brentford, a feat they managed home and away.

So it is little surprise Watford have the 17th worst record in the division against the top-eight sides.

They have taken just nine points from a possible 36. Wigan Athletic, who are battling relegation, have managed a point more.

In contrast, Watford have won 17 of their 21 matches when taking on teams in the bottom half and have collected 52 of their 72 points from those matches.

28 March 2015

"Deep throating every Iowa farmer within yodelling distance" - campaigning for the US presidential election as described by Jon Stewart.

In the UK it is just kissing babies....

27 March 2015

Emirates announced that it will reduce services on the Dubai – Perth route from three to two daily with the withdrawal of the EK422/EK423 Dubai – Perth rotation with effect from 6th July 2015. The planes will instead be used for the second daily rotation to Seattle.

From the same date the EK424/EK425 Dubai – Perth rotation will be upguaged from Boeing 777-200LR to Boeing 777-300ER equipment. The third rotation, EK420/EK421 switches to A380 operation from May 1st.

************************
No more than 2 cabin crew in cockpit at any one time appears to be the new standard. The Emirates position is that if one cockpit crew leaves - one (preferably male) cabin crew has to enter and sit on the observation seat. 

*************************
Emirates will increase Athens to 10 weekly B77W from 1st May to 30th June.

Schedule as follow:

EK105 DXB1005 – 1405ATH 77W D
EK3105 DXB1645 – 2045ATH 77W 35
EK3105 DXB1710 – 2110ATH 77W 7

EK106 ATH1600 – 2135DXB 77W D
EK3106 ATH2230 – 0405+1DXB 77W 35
EK3106 ATH2320 – 0455+1DXB 77W 7
 

25 March 2015

I almost missed this from Arabian Business - Two airline pilots were caught racing along Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach Road at 200kph, Dubai Police revealed.

According to news website 7 Days, the pilots, who allegedly worked for a UAE airline, were among 336 drivers who had their vehicles impounded during GCC Traffic Week last week.

Police said they clocked the two motorists racing down the street at nearly three times the speed limit.

Gulf Traffic Week is a week-long road safety campaign held across the GCC each year to raise awareness about reckless driving and other road dangers.

OK - read between the lines - if they were foreigners their nationalities would be mentioned.

They are driving at 200lph in a heavily residential area.

They are entrusted to fly your families safely in an airliner.

Very scary. But not a surprise.

*************************
Apologies for the lack of updates - we have been in Mauritius for a few days. One of those places that you would not think of going to unless it was with Emirates.

I like it. I doubt I would rush back but I would happily recommend a visit to other travelers.

************************
Sad news from Europe of the downed GermanWings A320. Flight 4U9525 was flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when it crashed in theFrench Alps. There are no survivors.

20 March 2015

Update on the planespotters arrested last month at Fujairah - the trio, who have been behind bars since their arrest on February 22, were told this week that their detention in custody would be extended for a further 28 days, until April 12.

They have not yet been charged with any offense.

When you get caught up in the legal system in the UAE it is very hard to get out - and you can be quickly forgotten when there is so little lobbying on your behalf and when any criticism has, of necessity, to be muted.

But it would be very good news if these guys are released quickly.

18 March 2015

To boost tourist numbers, Indonesia from next month will waive visa requirements for nationals from an extra 30 countries — but not Australia — the government has announced. Citizens from the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as Hong Kong, Macau, Ecuador, Chile and Peru were already exempted from the visa requirement. The countries that will join this list next month are: China, Japan, South Korea, United States, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Chech Republic, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and South Africa.

*************************************
Mr Putin is alive and well. And is a new father. Sweet.

My twitter comment proved very popular - even being picked up by the BBC.

16 March 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Navy's Northern Fleet and paratrooper units to be on full alert as part of snap military exercises, state-owned RIA news agency cited the defence minister as saying on Monday.

The tests were due to include nearly 40,000 servicemen, 41 warships and 15 submarines, RIA reported.

Putin has not been seen for over a week leading to  great deal of speculation in and outside Russia about his health.

***************************
NokScoot (XW, Bangkok Don Mueang) will commence scheduled operations on May 5 with a 3x weekly service from Bangkok Don Mueang to Nanjing service on-board a B777-200(ER). Thereafter, a 3x weekly service to Seoul Incheon will launch on May 10 which will grow to a daily flight from June 1.

In the interim, the long haul budget carrier will operate charter flights from/to Tokyo Narita, Sapporo Chitose, and Osaka Kansai in Japan, and Seoul Incheon.

14 March 2015

Manuel Pellegrini is a decent, honest guy but he must know he will not be managing Manchester City at the start of next season.

*****************************
When Arsenal play well they are a treat to watch! Three very classy goals against West Ham today.

*****************************
Alex left yesterday. Just a few days in Dubai. It was good to see him. Just one more term at Le Rosey and then onto university. It is a big year for him.

11 March 2015

Alex is visiting - and sleeping!

*****************************
Kumar Sangakkara has become the first ever person to score four consecutive centuries in ODI cricket  - the man is a genius.

10 March 2015

EK have also started a new cargo station Ouagadougou, with once weekly 777F linked to Dakar and Frankfurt.

9 March 2015

So England go crashing out of the Word Cup -  the cricker version.

And it was ugly.

I am no great Piers Morgan fan but he does care about English cricket - and he nails a large part of te problem in this message on twitter: "Downton counted beans in a bank, Moores is a serial loser & Whitaker played ONE Test match. How did these clowns get to run England cricket?"

7 March 2015

Last day in BKK and my taxi driver told me that Thaksin will be back in a year. That Prayuth was bad and that the army were bad.

He said that there are 70 million red shirts in Thailand. Maybe a little delusional.

I asked - so what are you doing about it.

Nothing we can do, he replied.

I disagreed - and said that if one million people take to the streets the army cannot arrest them all.

He will keep on driving his taxi and complaining to anyone who listens.

And that s why the army can get away with its preposterous rule.

6 March 2015

Delta, American and United contiune to step up their anti-competitive posturing in the USA - starting with a new web site http://www.openandfairskies.com/

On the site they state that "the three carriers’ routes to the U.S. have not meaningfully increased passenger traffic; they only serve to displace U.S. airline market share and shift good U.S. aviation jobs overseas. In fact, every lost international roundtrip route by U.S. carriers because of this subsidized competition equals a net loss of more than 800 U.S. jobs."

Nonsense - I am not an apologist for the ME3, but the above argument is absurd! The 3 US carriers have no meaningful routes in competition with the ME3.

At best it can be construed that they're out to protect their European/Asian codeshare partners in the OneWorld, Star and Skyteam alliances, and their routes into those connections.

Chapter 11 did a fair amount of damage to European airlines post 9/11 - and the Ch.11 issue has been conveniently ignored.

The USA is now down to three major carriers after a massive period of consolidation. If you sign the petition you are asking for less competition and higher prices. You are keeping the shareholders of the US airlines happy but not their consumers.

1 March 2015

So here we are back in Bangkok for another try at IVF treatment - this time with frozen embryos saved from last May.

Yesterday was transfer date so we now wait and see. Unfortunately there was some concern at the quality of the frozen blastocysts.

In My last year we were very optimistic and the disappointment was real and painful when we were not successful.

This time around the surprise will be if we are successful. It is a different feeling. We can only wait and see.