Welcome to rascott.com.
This is a personal site that reflects my interests in news, current affairs, aviation and travel.
email me at robert@rascott.com
Photo Albums
My
photographs have been moved off this site and are now stored on Picasa. They
were simply taking up too much space on my web host.
Please use this link to see my list of photo albums.
Some
Useful links:
Information:
Met Office Volcano watch
World Time Clock
Exchange Rates
Journalism:
Nationsonline.org
Project Syndicate
Amnesty International
Reporters w/o borders
The Guardian - UK
BBC World News
CNN Asia
Bangkok Post
Daylife.com - news
Gulf News
Arabian Business
Good causes:
Sister
Joan - Bangkok
Regional Info:
BKK Magazine
HK Magazine
In
Singapore Magazine
TimeOut Dubai
Travel:
Circle of Asia
Tales of Asia
Smart Travel Asia
Finance:
FinanceAsia
Aviation:
Amadeus (airline
schedules)
Airliners
- aviation forum
Thailand Info
thailand.com
learningthai.com
sawadee.com
bangkok a-z
Back in the UK:
Newton Ferrers
Government:
The
"new" White House
Photography
Denis Olivier - black and white
And for fun:
Lin Ping live panda tv
EarthCam
The opinions expressed on these pages are entirely personal unless they are credited; you may not agree with all, or anything, that I write. So please use the feedback page to respond, comment or berate me.
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An Occasional Blog
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Thailand Blogs Bangkok Pundit - politics Bangkok Metblogs - city life Thai-blogs.com - rather serious
2bangkok.com
- not really a blog but always
up to date on Bangkok news
BKKOK.com
Dubai Blogs Hong Kong Blogs A Big White Guy in Hong Kong - self explanatory Ordinary Gweilo Hemlock's Diary. And people think I am opinionated - try this! SimonWorld - Hong Kong commentary and great links to other Asian blogs EastSouthWestNorth - commentary Glutter.org - Greater China democracy news and many great links Hong Kong Hustle In China Danwei - media and advertising news from China
Shanghai Diaries - self
explanatory
In Macau My Olive Tree - Macau blog
In Singapore: Xiaxue - self-confessed mean, bitchy, sex goddess who says "wah" a lot! Mr Brown - colourful commentary from Singapore
Asia Travel Circle of Asia a useful commercial site Tales of Asia perspective and commentary on Cambodia and Thailand and other Asian travels Visit Laos a useful guide on getting to and traveling in Laos. Smart Travel Asia useful tips and destination guides. Maybe too up market.
Aviation Amadeus (airline schedules) Airline meals - see it b4 you eat it !
Airliners
- aviation forum, trip reports and pix
archive Planenation - commercial aviation news Airchive - a web museum of commercial aviation. CrankyFlier - mainly US commentary
News The Guardian - UK
China sites
Bangkok info sites
Worthy Sites Rconversation - from Rebecca MacKinnon, ex-TV reporter-turned-blogger.
Fun Sites
Useful Sites
Technology Ideas
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 engaged to Tai.
If you want to know more you only need to ask! ask.
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30 October 2008 There are few things more annoying that dialling a hotel long distance and being connected to their phone system to hear infomercials while you with because your call is so important to them. We value your call and will be with your shortly - sure and in the meantime I am paying a fortune for the long distance call. And this is to Bangladesh - where finding staff should not really be an issue. 29 October 2008 One week to go to the US presidential elections. Obama should win by a mile. Enough of Bush/McCain politics. Now think how far ahead the Democrats would be if Obama was white. It is sad but race is still paying a huge part in this election. And there will be people who will never vote for Obama because of his colour. But he has stood strong through everything that the Republicans have thrown at him and has been articulate and consistent. I may not be the New York Times, but I also endorse Obama for President :) ******************************** There is a lot that I have to write about. But...not now ! 27 October 2008 Home - back in Dubai - a long haul by car and plane from Tuscany. And work in a few hours - strange to be back - it has been a fabulous two weeks. Will write more about Italy later - and share some pics. Nite nite! 25 October 2008 For a nation that brought us Ferrari the Italians all seem to drive very small cars, very slowly, on very narrow roads. The roads of Tuscany must have been built by the Romans and have not been widened since. They are slow and windy - why do trains go in straight lines while roads have bends everywhere? ************************** A diet of pasta, chianti and coffee cannot be entirely healthy ! Have not seen a Thai restaurant anywhere on our travels. ************************** No internet connections where we are staying so my apologies for the lack of updates to this web site and to the blog. Blogging on honeymoon is probably not the best way to start married life ! 21 October 2008 After two nights in Venice we will drive to Tuscany later. We have had lovely cold blue skies here. Great walking weather. Venice is busy but not too crowded. This city of only about 65,000 people gets an estimated 20 million visitors a year. For the most part it is a friendly place - it needs to be to keep the tourists coming. It is not a cheap city to visit ! Tai went to her first ever classical concert last night. A chamber orchestra dressed in 18th century period costumes playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons (everyone plays that here!), and Albinoni and Pachelbel's Canon - which was Tai's wedding music. It was a nice concert - although the double bass player looked like Mrs Doubtfire and the organ player looked like an aged robot - and played without any emotion at all. 19 October 2008 Late night back to Dubai - Tai slept almost the entire flight. And now on our way to Italy for a week! 17 October 2008 Yesterday was wonderful - a genuinely special day with family and friends.....and with Tai. And she looked wonderful all day ! A couple of pictures on the today page - more to follow in time. To everyone who came to Hua Hin a huge thank you for sharing a very special day. ****************************** Their still may be a coup in Thailand this week. The current PM has no support from the military, air force, navy or police. ******************************* And Black Canyon is a very nice golf course - actually Black Canyon is a chain of coffee shops - Black Mountain is the name of the golf course! They could be a little more welcoming. And the caddies may be pleasant enough - but might learn a little more about the course. 15 October 2008 The weather is beautiful in Hua Hin - a fresh breeze; clean air, blue sky and blue ocean. Played golf today at Palm Hills - the course is in full bloom and the colours are lovely. But I am sooooooo tired - I work at 4pm with a massive migraine and all I really want to do is sleep !! 14 October 2008 Sorry to be so quiet. Too much running around in BKK over the last few days. We are now in Hua Hin and arrived at Worabura in time for a late afternoon swim and a run along the beach. Our room is right by the seafront. There are few nicer places to be. Great to see John and Leslie again from days at Asia Pacific. **************************** Tai is a little weary tonite - the girls night out last night lasted until 4.30 this morning ! The boys night out is non existant. I dont mind much. I need the rest. The days are so busy. ***************************** Mother and sister (and hear daughter) arrived in BKK on Sunday. Both are well. And they had a good Monday tour of Bangkok's grand palace and canals. 12 October 2008 We are in Bangkok and have a big week ahead of us. I have not seen a soldier on the street yet ! But the newspapers are full of speculation of what happens next in Thai politics. The consensus is that the current government, perhaps the least talented in history, will not survive for long. But expect more problems tomorrow when the PAD have summoned another rally which coincides with National Police Day. The US Embassy sent the following warning: This warning message is being issued to alert U.S. Citizens
traveling to and residing in Thailand that media reports indicate the
People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) leaders have called for a mass rally
at Police Headquarters on Monday morning, October 13, 2008. Police
Headquarters is located on Rama I road, which is the same road that Siam
Paragon, Central World, and other large shopping areas are located.
We ask Americans to exercise caution if you are going to be in this
vicinity or in the area of any demonstrations. 9 October 2008 Dubai's Emirates airline will receive its second A380 superjumbo on October 24 and hopes Airbus will stick to the timetable of further deliveries after earlier delays, its president said Thursday. *************************** And today was my last day of work for two weeks - I dont think ever in my career have a needed a break so badly. 8 October 2008 There are few worse sights than seeing such violence between people who want the best for themselves and their families and their nation. The fights in Bangkok may be isolated. But they are vicious and it is not clear what the end game will be. But the PAD is as divisive as the PPP/TRT, and the latter has the benefit of having been elected. ****************************** On a rather lesser issue the police are busy issuing tickets to cars parked at the side of out car park behind Falcon Tower. It is unclear why they do this. There are no no parking signs. There is no road access that is being blocked. There are no roads. Just dirt tracks. The fine is AED200 - the tickets are in Arabic...the payment instructions are bilingual. 6 October 2008 Latest EK speculation for 2009 - The UAE and Nigeria are revising the air service agreement between the two countries. New destinations that will be added to Emirates network potentially in 2009/10 include Abuja (ABV) and Kano (KAN). Emirates will also look to operate a 2nd daily to LOS. All good news for crew selling duty free !! Which does really well on Nigeria flights! ************************************ What is it about company tag-lines - some are so banal and non-sensical. Why are they needed. What purpose do they serve - Du ( a telecom provider in Dubai - "add life to life"....or a new hotel called The Address - "where life happens" Back at the dentist this morning for a clean and scrape! Tai's on standby tonite - could go anywhere at any time up til 6am ! It is a strange life! The answer to where to is the 3.30am turnaround to Bangalore. 5 October 2008 Not a very flattering commentary on Dubai in today's UK Observer newspaper. Worth a read. 4 October 2008 Open message to the resident of apartment 1502 - Falcon Tower. When you move furniture around your apartment you are allowed to pick it up and place it; you don't have to drag it scraping across the floor. And then when you have moved it once there really should be no need to move it on multiple additional occasions. **************************** The Bangkok governor election is on Sunday - here is one question that should be asked of a certain candidates before deciding who to vote for: how on earth is this guy not in prison or exile !? Apart from bribing police, beating your wife, being involved in the sex trade and sending hooligans on bulldozers to raze beer stalls, are there other things bad about you that we should know about before we vote for you? 3 October 2008 Tai brought some bread back from Singapore - I know that does not sound too exciting - but it was from Bread Talk and it was a mix of fruit and nut and it is very very good - especially with just a little plain cheddar. ************************** There was a bird chirping outside my apartment this morning - wouldnt be worth commenting except for the fact that it is so unusual ! *************************** Always interesting to read the pax reviews of their EK flights - I assume someone at EK does this on a full time basis as part of their quality reviews; This was a UAE expat passenger on a 25 September BKK-DXB flight - hope it was not 373 as someone was on that flight !! "BKK-DXB in Business Class - new flat bed seats that were comfortable with a wide array of positions. The inflight entertainment system has a huge catalogue of movies and documentaries. The food was quite good. I bought the ticket at BKK airport and as my name was not mentioned on the crew manifest of passengers the FA thought I was upgraded and made it known. Once this was corrected the service improved however still offered the usual Emirates crew disdainful service." http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/emrts.htm ***************************** In other EK news: Due to the Boeing machinist strike, Emirates is
forced to reduce the new Dubai - Los Angeles and Dubai - San Francisco
route to 3 weekly, instead of Daily. The services both go daily on 1 February 2009. In the meantime their are 2 and 3 day crew layovers to bid for! 2 October 2008 Did not get to bed until 2am. So it was a real treat to be woken at 7am by the next door building site hammering away on metal. I thought it was supposed to be a holiday but I guess giving the labourers three days holiday was just too much to hope for. 1 October 2008 Thoroughly down today - talked with Tai for ten minutes during her too short stop and rest in Melbourne. She seemed, and was, a long way away. Did some laundry - cleaned up the apartment - did some work for the big event - two weeks away. But I have no life here outside of work and being with Tai. Only one person knows my home phone number. No one called my mobile all day and the only sms I got was from HSBC....twice ! I came here to be with Tai - but there is nothing else here - and when she is away so much I really do wonder what am I doing with my life. I went to the Mall of the Emirates in the evening - is was so, so busy. Parking was a nightmare and the place was packed and unwelcoming. Came home quickly. My apartment is like a prison cell. It feels, and is, temporary until we have somewhere we can call home. But I dont invite people to visit. It is not very attractive - functional at best. We will be married in two weeks but still unable to live together. Still apart. All this is temporary but then what next? It is a 3 day holiday leading up to the weekend. All my golfing partners have gone away. At my age people have family, friends, places to go. How do people live alone? It is hard. My mother gets by with a great community of friends and family around her. But today - I just got through the day and am grateful it is over. I am tired and feel alone in a city and a place that is never going to be home. 30 September 2008 EK404 was 8 hours late into Singapore this evening ! So the stopover in Melbourne is down to less than 12 hours! With an 8 hour flight before and after. *************************** Meanwhile it is the Eid holiday and it is very quiet - even my building sites were not working today. So I went to work. Quiet there as well. And then went for an outdoor run and a good sweat ! Around the back of Business Bay - where there are even roads being built now. And for old time sake: I was feeling a bit nostalgic today - a link to one of my favourite Faye Wong tunes: 29 September 2008 Today was the day of global bank failures on a level never seen before. And the world expected the USA to lead the recovery - and it is failing miserably. Expect more uncertainty. **************************** As of 8pm tonight tomorrow has been declared the first day of the Eid holiday and it will now be a holiday for all private companies. So strange. How are people supposed to plan their holidays when you only know its a holiday with 4 hours notice. 1st and 2nd October are holidays so it is a three day holiday leading into the weekend. With good planning people can take a long break. ***************************** Tai left for Singapore and Melbourne this morning. ***************************** I was giving a talk to a local business group on Saturday on the current global financial crisis and its potential impact on the GCC countries. Think I did an OK job. Tried to be reasonably controversial. At least to provoke a discussion!
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26 September
2008 Here are the people that were drilling and hammering at 6.50am this morning: they are drilling steel girders - no wonder it was noisy.
Incidentally he is drilling without goggles, a hard hat (he is about 10 floors up) or any other protection. ******************************* John McCain does not want a tv debate with Obama. He does not want to appear on Letterman either. He was a no show on Wednesday night and Letterman was livid. This was perhaps the strongest attack on any politician on one of the influential late night talk shows. This will cost McCain a serious number of votes. Whether his fault or his handlers fault to be lie this brazenly 6 weeks from election day is not clever. McCain phoned Letterman and said the economy was “about to crater” which necessitated that he get to Washington right away. Then Letterman learned that at the very moment Mr. McCain was supposed to be on the couch next to him being interviewed, the senator was at the CBS News center three blocks away in Manhattan, getting ready to be interviewed by the CBS News anchor, Katie Couric. Mr. Letterman ordered his director to put on a live feed from that location, which showed Mr. McCain getting made up to go on with Ms. Couric. “He doesn’t seem to be racing to the airport,” Mr. Letterman observed. The Democrats got a gift last night. Letterman ad libbing was brilliant! Watch this ! Meanwhile - "Today, John McCain made a big announcement. He said he wants to postpone Friday’s presidential debate, but not because of the economic crisis. It turns out TV Land is airing a 'Golden Girls' marathon." --Conan O'Brien And - "Sarah Palin was in New York City this week. She met with some world leaders yesterday and went to the Central Park Zoo, yeah. Took her five hours to get through the zoo, 'cause she had to keep stopping to reload." --Jay Leno ***************************** Tai came back this morning from Bangkok - which meant 2am to bed. Which would be OK except for the neighbouring building site starting to hammer and drill at 6.50 this morning. It is a Friday in the Holy month of Ramada,. Don't these people have any respect. Time for a rant: Did I mention that I hate living here. I hate the constant noise, the dust and sand, the stench of sewage, the fact that there is no road to where I live, the lack of anything green, lies (your apartment will be ready in a year - well actually it is now two years), hypocrisy, lack of transparency, rules that get made up without thought, ridiculous traffic jams at 2am, and more building noise. Access to terminal one at the airport is a disgrace at the moment. There is a single lane access way - but on airport road last night there were four lanes of traffic at a standstill trying to get into the single lane to the terminal. Any turning onto airport road from garhoud bridge and trying to get through the traffic to head south to the EK headquarters building is almost impassable. What should be a 15 minute drive was almost an hour last night at 1am ! And there is some pretty shocking driving as people try to steal the extra yard on eachother. 24 September 2008 Tai is back in Bangkok for a couple of days. Meanwhile I am sorry - I am so tired I cant keep my eyes open long enough to update this web site. Have been asleep really early every nite this week. Was eating breakfast this morning - and lost part of a tooth as I chewed on some muesli. ! It is a bit sore so it will be a trip to the dentist tomorrow. 21 September 2008 Big news from Millennium Tower - the garbage heap at the front of the building has been cleared. About two days after I wrote about it and published pictures this eyesore was gone - three trucks mover in late night and removed the mess in a hurry. Perhaps I had better start complaining more! ******************************** We had a nice weekend in BKK and Hua Hin - and everything looks ready for the big day in October ! Fingers crossed for the weather - it was raining in Hua Hin. There is a serious shortage of tourists in Thailand - and apparently forward bookings for November and December are still very low. ******************************** The Ryder Cup singles are well under way - and Europe are struggling; for the first time Europe have had the stronger individuals but America the stronger team. Without Tiger, the Americans have really come together. His fame and profile undermines the whole Ryder Cup team event ethos. Faldo has not been a cohesive captain. Irrespective of captain's picks (who nearly always do well - they're under pressure to do so) the job is to bring the team together - either through cliched Teutonic efficiency (Langer) or stereotypical Welsh amity (Woosnam). Faldo has not built a team - it's been all about him. 20 September 2008 Lots to report though some of it should wait for a while. Have been in Bangkok for two days. Flew over early morning on Thursday 18th. Heading back to Dubai this evening. Thursday was spent in BKK and then drove to Hua Hin early on Friday afternoon for one night at the Worabura resort. 15 September 2008 Late night spent watching the last king of scotland. That should be good for a few nightmares tonight. Forrest Whitaker won the Academy Award for best actor. He is very good and Amin's madness is graphic - it was not until 1979 that Amin was overthrown and sent into exile in Saudi Arabia. His regime killed over 300,000 of his own Ugandan people and send thousands more into exile. *************************! Opened the fridge this evening; and found all sorts of things that are passed their use by date. Cream cheese from April 2008; dip from August.....dare not look at the rest ! ************************** The US banking crisis is a horrible mess that is going to take the world into recession - and it may be long and deep. The question is how do you put a value on something that no one wants to buy? That's what hit Lehman Bros. and was looming over Merrill's like a proverbial sword. You can wait, and hope that something (a housing market recovery?) turns up. You can hope the government and/or central banks get you out of the jam. But if no one wants to buy something then its value diminishes towards nothing. So who will be next in the USA and what is going to be the fall out in Europe Expect Asian markets to open tomorrow to "sell" orders. There is more gloom to come. 13 September 2008 Banned in the UAE : http://isearch.com/ Reviewed by PC World as one of 12 promising new web sites: the site conglomerates information from public records, social networks, white pages, news, and professional connections. And I have no idea why it would be banned here. **************************** Golf on Friday at the Wadi course at Emirates Golf Club - considering how bad Thursday night was I played ok - and was driving the ball well. It was nice to be out for a few hours. As for Thursday night. The builders were still hammering away at 1am. Them my neighbour (again) decide to have a booze and noise party with her friends. The wall is so thing from her living room to my bedroom that I could be lying in the middle of their party. I banged on her door in my pyjamas. I was almost polite. It was 2.30am. It made no difference. So I went to sleep on the living room sofa. Felt like I had a bad migraine. Took tylenol; but it was still pounding when I woke at 7am. ************************ Not is a very pro - Dubai mood at the moment. Wish we were living somewhere that I enjoyed. ************************ Another big storm hits the USA - this time into Galveston and Houston. The CNN reporters and tv crews appear to be the only people left there. It makes for quite fun reality tv but if they are putting their lives in danger for some tv pictures then this is wrong. Everyone else had been ordered to evacuate Galveston. 11 September 2008 8 years ago today three hijacked Boeing airliners were targeted against the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, destroying the twin towers and killing nearly 3,000 peopl. It is a day that lives in infamy and has shaped modern history and politics. It is a day that should never be forgotten. ************************ Tai has an Amman turnaround today. The last turnaround of the month - that will cheer her up! 7 September 2006 Tai had two weekend turnarounds - I had two days at work - and there, gentle reader, goes another weekend. And this will be a tough week at work. So there really is not a lot to add to this diary. Sorry. Plenty of news that is worth following - from the US presidential campaign which should now be a rivetting two months and a very close finish, to a new President on Pakistan who is too beholden to Washington to a battle for the future of Thailand. 5 September 2008 There is a blog I stumbled across written by another of EK's crew - she got engaged and wrote this about her fiance - "He is my pillar, my strength, my reason for moving on through tough roads. He is my pride and joy. He is God's gift to me. What can I say. This is bliss." Such a public affirmation of their faith in eachother is very touching. I have been so tired recently and Tai and I seem to get little time together - I just wonder if she is as happy as I want her to be. I don't seem to be able to do much that is right for her at the moment.....little things become bigger issues..... ************************* Convention watch: Sarah Palin looked very comfortable at the podium making her speech - after all it is not unlike Alaska: you look out on that convention floor, there is nothing but white as far as the eye can see. Sad. ************************* Now this is scary - your VP candidate !
************************* And a great link to what the presumptive vice son-in-law may be thinking (other than I wish I had used a condom) - http://borowitzreport.com/article.aspx?ID=6933 From hillbilly to centre - stage at the GOP overnight. I almost feel sorry for him...... ************************* More days off for EK's underworked A380 crews; the second airplane has not arrived yet and the first plane has taken sick leave within weeks of starting work: Scheduled engineering on the airline’s only operating A380 is taking longer than expected and has forced the airline to replace today's scheduled flight of the super jumbo with a Boeing 777. ************************ Keegan quits. At last roar thousands of grateful Geordies..... ************************** Old joke's home: A man took his dog to the cinema to see War and Peace.
The dog sat beside him and the audience was amazed to see the dog and his
reactions to the film. When the heroine was facing dire straits the dog
would howl and when things were going well he'd bark and wag his tail. Tired - really tired. *************************** Three games into the new English football season and there are casualties already: Curbishley resigns at West Ham. He did not appear to have much control over who arrived and who left West Ham. **************************** Rumours that Keegan will go - six months after being appointed at Newcastle. **************************** Meanwhile in Dubai another departure: Turkish ACMI operator KUZU Airlines Cargo, has purchased three Airbus A310 freighters from Emirates SkyCargo. That is all three of the Emirates A310 fleet and is the end of the line in Dubai for the airline's first wide body airplanes. 1 September 2008 The Republicans got a bonus - Hurricane Gustav. They can look responsible and prepared this time; and it means they dont have to get George Bush to speak at the Republican convention today - most of which ahs been cancelled. ***************************** Phuket Airport reopened as you can see in this pic:
******************************* Thaksin sells out Manchester City to Abu Dhabi based investors; another UAE/Thailand link! ******************************* Who would want to live in New Orleans - a major hurricane every three years.
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