Random Musings - Day #59 (Bahrain #9)

Last day in Bahrain. I've just got in and now I need sleep.
Interesting taxi drive to airport, as the taxi driver wanted to stop off at his house first and proceeded to take a long way round. The weather was only again dusty.
Last night/morning, I went to a club/bar called Aqua Fuena and then on to Tabu, which features a paddling pool. Finally when to a secluded pizza hut that was open 24 hours!

Random Musings - Day #58 (Bahrain #8)

Brunch
Now when I first heard about this, I thought the Bahraini have the same concept of having a breakfast mashed up with a lunch. As I like to put it, an extra hash browns and a extra glass of orange juice. Wrong, apparently over here, brunch means you have an all-you-can-eat buffet and drinks to get you very drunk. About to find this out later on (hence the early report, I'm not going to bother later)

Random Musings - Day #57 (Bahrain #7)

Jokes
Here are some old school jokes in the form of "A man walks into the pub" and "Knock knock". Talking of jokes here's Terry Tibbs receiving a phone call. Also Russell Peters make fun of other people's accents.

Dance Music
I've been looking at the MTV Dance channel. Some interesting songs there include the sneaky sound system's 'I love it' and someone has video mashed up Flithy Dukes 'This Rhythm' with Jean Claude Van Damme.

Bahrain
I went down to Manama souq (gold market) near Bab Al Bahrain, which is in the heart of the city centre. I got some gold stud earrings that someone requested. But I may have been suckered into buying another pair (diamonds). That said I managed to haggle down the price from 161 to 48 in my lame 'I really can't afford it' style.

WWW Wrestling Wrap-up #2

Move of the Month
"Here's some double team action, Pearl and Dean. They've got Vanilla Ice in a hold. It's a powerbomb on ice. A big splash! Vanilla Ice has gone through the ice. No crap dancing on ice for the vanilla one! What a move! It's the ultimate icebreaker! Pearl and Dean win!"

Quote of the Month
"Jes, let me tell you about the facts, when you face Rafa Ramon in the ring, jes is gonna crave you up"

Goldenballs (w/Posh) -vs- [ad break]
Here's the new milan kid on the block in the team's red and black colours. Looks like he'll be there in for half the time just like in 1998 (as he returns to LA soon), it's Golden Becks. Posh reminds us to never forget the name of Goldenballs...

[ad break: Rolf Harris wants us to guess a match that he will be featured in at Shovelmania. Can you guess what it is?]

Goldenballs (w/Posh) -vs- Blake 'Hitman' Hart (w/Special One)
It's the former 20-time WWW World Heavyweight Champion. Just to make it confusing he's wearing the same colours. After all he calls himself 'Red and Black' attack. He's accompanied by the Special One, Jose. Why not? Be Champion!

They lock up and Blake gets his man down and puts Golden Becks into a clipboard. Blakey uses the inspector's discretion and puts Becks to sleep. This could be it already! No, a flailing elbow to the side, breaks the hold. Becks up and weaves around Blakey. A nutmeg and tackle from behind. Blakey goes down like a ton of bricks. Becks makes a cover but only for a 2 count. Becks gets Blakey in the corner and a free kick in the goldenballs. Becks with a throw-in and a two-footed tackle on Blakey's ankle. That's it! But the ref has missed it as he's chatting to posh about Women's weekly. Blakey in trouble now as Becks hits the penalty. But the special one is distracting the ref, claiming he is not a champion. Here comes the Great One Gretsky and now there's an argument to see who is 'the one'. In the meantime, Becks has missed a second penalty and bam, Blakey hits a bus stop from nowhere right between Beck's legs. Blakey delivers a penalty fare of his own, pushes aside Posh and her Versace. He hooks Becks in the routemaster. The ref has finally started watching the match just in time to see Becks tap out. Your winner by submission, Blake 'Hitman' Hart.

Shovelmania
Here is the current card for Shovelmania:
Mickey Rourke vs 'The boy' Mickey Rooney (Mickey Mouse match)
Blake Hart vs Coconut Shy
Masterchef Lloyd Grossman vs Gordon '2 fingers up' Ramsey (Kitchen Match)
Jessie Lawson vs Nigella Lawson
The Banker vs Million Pound Man Noel Edmonds (Credit Crunch Match - Loser must file for bankruptcy)
Francis Ford Cappello vs Van Hiddink
Rafa Ramon vs Fergilious
Special One vs Great One
Chris Brown vs Bobby Brown (Baddest boy of hip-hop match)
Charing X/Brent X/Hatton X vs Colin Dale/Stan More/Peri Vale (Underground match)
Stevie B vs Stevie G vs Stevie V (special guest ref Stevie Wonder)
Skippy vs Churchill (special guest ref Rolf Harris)

Random Musings - Day #56: (Bahrain #6)

Relaxing today and had a lovely massage.

Fitness
A friend of friend owns a fitness centre del's fitness focused on martial arts. Maybe worth a look. Also I saw yoga outfits advertised on google.

T-Shirts
In the past, I've ordered t-shirts from Itiswhatitis and chargrilled. I've been more impressed with the latter's variety and better designs.

Random Musings - Day #55: (Bahrain #5)

Bahrain
I went to Trader Vic's at the Ritz Carlton. I suspect there may have been royalty in the vicinity as everyone entering the resort was checked. In earlier in the day, really struggled to get money from a cash-point machine. The first one I tried just spit out receipt saying restricted card. I also tried my mastercard (which was allegedly acceptable) but it complained that pin was wrong. Eventually at a second cashpoint, I figured out that I was taking too much out. You can easily take out 500 bahrain dollars (1000 pounds) but the daily limit probably applies. I had been trying to get out 200 dollars and finally got out 100 dollars.
Also on my walkabout town I got down to the Navy base.

Random Musings - Day #54: (Bahrain #4)

I don't know why I feel like I have the cold/sore throat but later in the day I am fine. It might were be sandy environment of Bahrain.
Still trying to take it as easy as I can but I did go to the Bahrain National Museum, which appears to be a combination of a local art gallery, local artifacts and graves. There is also private collection on display for the late King Saud.
Also went to the Bahrain City Centre mall fairly big with 3 floors of shops, bowling alley, cinema, waterpark. Mind you, it's not fully completed though.
Went to a karaoke place and sung as well. heh.

Sexercise
As the "time warp" song goes "let's sexercise, let's sexericse", it looks like that there is evidence that it keeps you fit.

Carnival
Meanwhile in Trinidad and Tobago, the 2009 carnival is in full swing and can be watched live.

Oscars
Oh yeah and Slumdog Millionaire won 8 oscars. Kate Winslett and Heath Ledger won their oscars too. However, the rest didn't, just to show the leaked list was faked (or change at the last moment).

Random Musings - Day #53: (Bahrain #3)

Bahrain
Not a lot to report here. I am getting a cold/sore throat but it could be the sand-fog that was in Manama today.
Did go to Nando's and no they didn't accept my loyalty card. ;)
Some guides on Bahrain can be found at Bahrain Tourism and Trip Advisor

Oscars
Tonight is the Academy Awards and has the results already been leaked out. If it has, Slumdog Millionaire (which I saw last Tuesday, a two thumbs up IMHO btw) will win best picture. Also the best actor will be Mickey Rourke. Best actress will be Kate Winslett. Best supporting actor will be Heath Ledger. Best supporting actress will be Amy Adams.

The wrestler in wrestlemania?
Looks like that Mickey Rourke will not be wrestling at Wrestlemania 25. He's backed out of a match, alledgedly to focus on his acting career. However, there is a report that says he still interested in appearing/helping out at Wrestlemania as a favour.

UK Chart
No change on top as Lily Allen is now 5 weeks at #1. No change neither at #2 as Lady Gaga just stays there. Kings of Leon are at #3 with "Use somebody".

Random Musings - Day #52: (Bahrain #2)

I slept like a log. I kicked myself out of bed and had a cut at the gym. The gym is ok.

My resting heart rate has descreased to 65. The question is can you lower your Heart rate has lower further.

Interesting news as some police officers were hospitalised over HP sauce.

I've been watching True Blood.

Random Musings - Day #51: (Bahrain #1)

Flight delayed by one hour. Normally, that's ok. But when the flight time is one hour only, then it feels like a long time. Settled in at a family friend's.

After some relaxation and unpacking, I ventured out to Fiddler's Green.
Later, went to dinner to a place called "Upstairs, Downstairs", which turns out has nothing to do with the BAFTA winning Upstairs, Downstairs. There was certainly a jazz vibe to the place. Particularly aided by their guest performers, blues band Nine below zero ((wikipedia)). They were very good indeed. Anyways on to the Irish bar, JJ's. A long day finally caught up with me. My body needed rest and water more than ever.

I've been told Bahrain is probably the most liberal of the Middle Eastern countries, particularly as there are a number of Americans and expats in the country. But times maybe changing as seen in this blog and reported in the Arabian Business.

Random Musings - Day #50: (Dubai #2)

Cafe
It's funny, you should always try to check out the 'local' cuisine. I am not entirely what sort of place I went to. Anyways, I had chicken curry, with a little veg and roti! And that was only 9 dirham (less than 2 quid).

Buses
I think I confused the bus driver when I tried to stop the bus. I waved my hand out and then stopped as he was coming. He nearly zoomed off! So I waved it again. Apparently, you are supposed to stick your arm until it stops.
One thing I was irritated is the fact the buses wait for an eternity before they return to service. Now this was at 4pm and start of rush hour but I had to wait 25 minutes for the bus to leave. Annoying!
I never did obtain that bus map. That and souvenirs are really hard to find.

Racing
I went to see the horse racing at Nad Al Sheba. Now the first thing, you will find odd is that it is illegal to gamble in UAE. Ironically enough, there was a car raffle though. I am sure that considered gambling where I from. Anyways you bookmakers as such. But lots of people (families) about having picnics.
Also an observation in the toilet, guys were washing their feet in their sink. Lots of people (primarily of the fairer sex) have told me not to do that;) Well now you can tell them where they can really stick their toes!
The people seem friendly. This Arab family let me sit on their mat and let me have some tea as well.

Costs
Racing Tickets (50d)
Taxi (39d, 35d)
Bus (4d)
Internet (3d)
Chicken Curry (9d)
McD (26d)
Water (1.5d)

Interesting
Heard an interesting song/remix called panjab, i think, I heard on city 101.6 fm.
Canadian Specialist Hospital, what's so special about it. Talking of canadian, I thought Hardtalk was from Canada not BBC world...

Random Musings - Day #49: (Dubai #1)

Airplane
I have theory about turbulence. I think there is a much more pronounced effect on the back of the plane. I imagine grabbing a fish by its head, the rest of it goes all over the place. A bit like a plane in turbulence.

Belarus
I loved to do a remix of Sash's Ecuador and call it "Belarus!" "BELARUS!!!"

Airport
Interesting that I didn't get any questions at passport control, they just scanned my passport through and that's it. Also both Dubai and Bahrain airports have free wireless Internet access.

Bus
There are lots of buses about. But looking on the Internet, there really a site that lists out where/when to get buses to locations. Here is a list of bus services. Here is a list of routes from the airport.

Exchange rate
I would seriously think twice about changing up front in the UK. I got an exchange rate of 4.65 dirhams to the pound. However in Dubai, I got 4.97. Worse than that if you go to the mall of Deira City Centre, you can get 5.14. It's disgusting...

Costs
2 bus rides (4d)
Internet Access (4d)
Concierge (10d)
Tennis (50d)
Costa Food (36d)
KFC (20d)
BK (16d)
2 bottle of water/apple drink (4d)
Travelling
I walked around and attempted to get from Deira to the Aviation Centre. I went over both the floating bridge and Al Maktoum bridge.

Tennis
Finally I got to the aviation tennis centre at 7:30pm, which still gave me a chance to watch a couple of matches.
I kind of hope there would be price reduction because of the late session. No, still had to pay 50 dirhams.
They had started second session and I started watching with Jelena Jankovic serving to stay in the first 5-2 down.
She lost the set and looked outclassed by Kaia Kanepic. Jankovic quickly went 4-0 down, mostly due to her hitting forehand drives long. But Kanepic started to miss her first serves badly and double-faulted a few times as Jankovic played a fair bit better. She got back to 5-5. But Kanepic broke her Jankovic one more time to win the match. The second match was between Serena Williams and Jie Zheng of China. The score didn't really reflect an entertaining game as Williams came through 6-4, 6-2. The time of the match was interesting nearly 90 minutes! A lot of the games were tightly contested albeit mostly on Zheng's serve. It was fairly even the first set but I couldn't see Serena been broken. She served a 200kph fault. Zheng reminds me a lot of Justine Henin, small but very gutsy in more than holding her own in rallies.
Also I saw former England footballer and racehorse trainer, Mick Channon in some court-side seats.

No moths/mosquitoes
One thing I have noticed there are no mosquitoes at all. I saw one moth whilst watching the tennis.

Sex
It's funny I was watching Mr & Mrs Smith and they cut out the love scene after the massive household fight in my hotel. Whilst outside my hotel, I see a number of ladies of the night loitering about the street corner outside my hotel. Just where exactly have I booked my hotel this time. Well I supposed it's not a hostel. Talking about my passport, they wanted to hang on to my passport for my stay at the hotel. That's not a common thing, is it?

Random Musings - Day #48

In case you are wondering I've gone on holiday for 10 days to Dubai and Bahrain... Seeya!
The consensus is that you can take aerosols on board the plane (as long as the contains aren't illegal). Evidence from such forums as answerbank and holiday watchdog

Random Musings - Day #47

Travel Insurance
Oh yes, I have not been impressed with the travel insurance advertised on moneysupermarket.com and the reviews for travel insurance companies are nothing to right home about. It looks like a total minefield. Naturally the problems will start when a claim is made. I used to use Atlas Direct but the reviews particularly for claiming are poor. I decided to get OUL Direct.

Random Musings - Day #46

Bristol
I went for a day trip up to Bristol. I was going to say I've not been there for 10 years. But strictly speaking, that's not true, I was just north of Bristol (near Patchway) for work a couple of months ago. Anyways I didn't get to the city centre that time around. This time around I did, a lot has changed, it looks a lot more built up. However, Valentine's bridge was closed. That tells me something!

Perfect... Floors...
Anyhow, I did see a number of interesting things. The perfect push-up is basically a pair of rotating push-up stands that look like those suction cups used to climb buildings or the ouside of spaceships. Not sure what is so perfect about it. That said there is another item, pushup pro and here's a video comparison
Another item of curiosity is the floor guard. They provide perfect protection for floors. Heck let's just replace my floor with the stuff. ;)

"What about these shoes, I say?"
These shoes he said is almost like something being said...
MBT Anti-shoes look like weeble shoes to me. However, they apparently naturally help with balance and posture. Talking of feet, I feel ankles can be weak especially if you are exerting a lot of pressure on them (most sports do). So I wondered what a good ankle exercise would be to strengthen them and also prevent sprains. It turns the answer is a balance board. They come in two types, rocking and wobble.

Disconnect/Reconnect Wireless
I've noticed a problem with an Acer laptop connecting up to the Sky broadband and noticed it keeps disconnecting and disconnecting. I've looked at forums and the solutions provided don't work (e.g. turn off upnp). It appeared that setting the "Power saving mode" to maximum performance (presumably boosting the power) for the wireless adapter did the trick for the laptop.

UK Singles Chart
No real change as Lily Allen stays at #1 for a third week with "The fear". Lady Gaga holds on to #2 and Alesha Dixon climbs into the #3 slot with "Breathe".

Random Musings - Day #45: Relationships and Football

Well recently, two Premiership managers got sacked. Also of note a couple of my friends split up, which begs the question is there a parallel between relationships and football. I think there is.
You are a singleton looking to impress the opposite sex (well same sex if you are that inclined). When you get into relationship. The first few days, weeks or even months are all luvvy dubby. Same thing with a new football management. Often the new manager is bigged up by the board of directors as the saviour. Usually, there is a feel good factor. Players are trying to impress the new manager. A match made in heaven for about 3 months. Then the relationship goes stale as players figure out their role at the club under the manager. The manager's team tactics are sussed by opponents. Just like a relationship between two lovers, they start to figure out their pros and flaws. They need some injection into their relationship. They spend more on each other. Likewise the football manager tries to splash the cash on new players to bring about some injection into the club. When the results start to go bad or there are disagreements about the board, such as the board going behind the manager's back in selling players, the end of relationship is night. Just like two lovers who hit bad times, argue and go behind each other's back.
You see the similarity? I rest my salami!

Random Musings - Day #44

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Random Musings - Day #43

It's Unix Time!
A geek thing this but tomorrow (Feb 13) at 11:31:30, the time sponsored by UNIX will be 1234567890.

More Radio
Here's a community radio station in Gillingham called Sunlight Radio.

Lastminute missed
I missed a golden opportunity today. I got in my emails (aside from the usual spam), an interesting email from lastminute.com that had an offer of hotels for 10 quid but it didn't start until 10am today. I checked at 9am and forgot about it due to work until 11am. Too late, most of the deals were snapped up.

Brown Envelope
The term brown envelope comes from big brown envelopes used to hide money as part of a bribes and corruption.
It's often associated with football too (a.k.a. bungs).

Close Team-mates
Talking of football, it looks like Frank Lampard and John Terry are getting a little too close for my liking as they trained for England 2-0 defeat to Spain.

Queen's Website
Well I heard on the radio that the Queen has a new website. The British Monarchy has been revamped. All I will say about it is if the Queen goes down, I go down with her!

Random Musings - Day #42

Nappy Factor
The stats look good for Tiger Woods winning the US Open due to the Nappy Factor. Previous winners, Phil Mickelson (2002), Zach Johnson (2007) and Trevor Immelman (2008) won just after having a baby boy.

Eggs
I just had an omelette. Curiously I didn't make it in the style of Delia Smith. There was a time when health experts said eggs were good for you. A good source of protein. However for many years since then, eggs have been considered to be bad in that they are high in cholesterol, particular the yolk. But now it looks like it is good for you after all as it does not raise cholesterol.
Here's more nutrition details.

Running/Shoes
Here's the UK Running Directory of all the outdoor tracks in the UK. Talking of running. I recently bought two pairs of shoes from a local stores and I've broke BOTH of them in less than a month. Shows you, you can't beat a certain of degree of quality and that I've not learned from hostel mistake in Dublin, last December, where I booked the hostel from hell.

Films
Well I was overhearing someone watching Mary Poppins and there's one scene that reminds me of the credit crunch. That's when the boy goes to the bank with his banker dad. When the boy doesn't want to give his tupence to the bank, the manager snatches the tupence from him and welcomes him to the bank. The boy screams "Give me back my money" and then everyone else in the bank demanded their money back. Sounds like our banks today. Heh.
In Shaun of the dead, there's one scene with John, the owner of the Winchester becomes a zombie and attacks Shaun and co. He looks suspiciously like John McCririck.

Random Musings - Day #41

Feeling a bit tired and busy lately. Last night went to see a friend's rock band Red 13.

More hacking stuff. One coming up in August is Hacking at random 2009. Another hacking blog that's updated daily is the aptly named hackaday (which is not to be confused with wacaday). Also for the code hacks (aka developers) out there, there's hackday.

You can gather up some music from findsounds.com and dancetrippin.com. At the winter music conference, they will announce the winners of the 24th International Dance Music Awards and you can vote!

Random Musings - Day #40

How Bizarre
Remember OMC had a hit with "How Bizarre" in 1996 but it's amazing how similar front man Pauly Fuemana looks like the Rock.

Well Tony McCoy finally got his 3000th career winner. Whilst there was not one but two premiership sackings today, Tony Adams and Phil Scolari

Random Musings - Day #39

Ray Parker Jr is well known for the original theme tune for Ghostbusters. Well he's making a kind of comeback, he's on the new ad campaign for 118 118 (who you gonna call...) Just seen the full version, I am sure I saw the Stig towards the end of it.

I was looking at the football scores. There is a team in the Spanish Premiera called Getafe. They are located in South Madrid. Anyhow Getafe reminds me of Getafix, the humorously named druid character in Asterix .

Here's how to encode in base64.

Lily Allen holds on to #1 with "the fear" for a 2nd week. Lady Gaga is still at #2. Tinchy Stryder's "Take me back" is at #3.

Random Musings - Day #38

Just seen an absolute funny edition of special1tv featuring Arsenal's new signing...

It's funny how I posted that I was spinning around on facebook and everyone commented about the Dead or Alive song, You spin me round as opposed to the Kylie song, "Spinning around".

You should always be on the look out for events to go to and here's a couple of complete listings to look for, devtownstation and the generic all conferences. Also check out the events listed at the register. A couple of events coming soon include cebit and infosec. Also more security-related conferences include defcon and hackinthebox.

Random Musings - Day #37

High profile celebrities are coming out saying they were done in by the Bernard Madoff affair. Mr 'six degrees of separation' Kevin Bacon claims he is affected, so much so he's admitted he has to work
Larry King has also stated he has lost one million dollars.

Someone told me that Cyndi Lauper was well buxom. Anyways, she's 56, wow! Still looking good! Also yesterday, a client thought I commented I look like Terence Trent D'Arby

Random Musings - Day #36

So the UK interest rate is down to a paltry 1%. This means savers will get a maximum of 1% interest. You can't save squat, might as well spend it... Oh let's all go buy a house for a laugh! However, the flip-side is you can borrow pretty cheaply now.

Be careful of hotels. Apparently some hotels are being targeted in an old fashioned phishing attack... That said, it looks like it fallen under the radar of the most popular anti-virus/malware companies and fraudtip weren't available for comment. Pinch of salt?

Well hopefully winter is going to go away soon. But why fight it? Certainly in North America, you've got the start of Winterlude in Ottawa tomorrow for 3 weekends and then if you can get down Miami, there's the Winter Music Conference. While we are at it here's a good guide of things to do, clubs, bars and more at Hype1 (which is not to be confused with an energy drink called hype).

Look out for a remix of Cafe Del Mar vs Nelly Furtado of "Say it right"

Tictac are your real winners of the fourth round of the FA Cup. Due to no fault of their own, they and Volkswagon replaced the goal that saw Everton past Liverpool.

In case you are wondering here's the way to turn off the sounds for yahoo messenger within yahoo mail.

Random Musings - Day #35

Christian Bale
Well, Christian Bale has shown his more aggressive side when he had massive rant at a stagehand who walked through a scene whilst filming. He really turned the air blue for 12 minutes. The audio is floating about on the Internet and there is already a remix called "Bale out" by RevoLucian.

Miracle Berries
The berry of the miracle plant is the most weirdest fruit as it turns the taste of something sour into something sweet and visa versa. Apparently it turns the taste of Guinness into chocolate, limes into sherbet lemons. It is a big hit in New York and Tokyo. They are not cheap though, 6 pounds for 2g. You can see more at miracleberry.co.uk.

No Pigeons
Here's the weird story of a guy trying to smuggle pigeons into Australia from Dubai.

Random Musings - Day #34

A second day of chaos in the UK with the snow moving up north. But the crazy thing is that transport was still affected here down south. I couldn't get to work because no trains were running my station. Furthermore, the bus that would have got me to the nearest stop was suspended as well. I had to beg for a lift in. The Southeastern trains equally looks like that's taking a hit!

Champion of champions
I was wondering who has won the most titles in any sport. Now there would be restrictions, e.g. some sport's championship occur annually (e.g. snooker, darts..) some sport's occur when they feel like it (e.g. boxing, wrestling..)
Well so far I've come up with 13-times champion jockey Tony McCoy who is currently a couple of winners from a career total of 3000. But he is bettered by 14-times world darts champion Phil Taylor.

Football
Following up on previous posts, Frank Lampard won his appeal over the red card that he did not deserve in the first place. Robbie Keane has found a new home at Spurs (again).

Dance Sites
A few more dance sites and blog that I've been looking at. I've been having a quick chuckle at DJ Ron's Dancemusic blog, which today featured 'I saw Beyonce at Burger King' as his song of the day. Kind of reminds me of Eninem. Also a delft of songs snippets can be found at the listen.com blog
A couple of decent dance sites, which covers news, reviews and events are mixmag and Resident Advisor. At let's not forget the legendary Pete Tong.

Random Musings - Day #33

Snowed under
I looked out last night and a foot of snow wow. But today, it's been an absolute disaster getting around particularly in the south east of the UK. London transport was stuffed with no bus services and all tube services with delays or partial suspensions except the Victoria line and that's only because it is one line that is completely underground. The snow evidently got to the Internet too. Not only the trains were suspended but it looked like both the South East Trains (No suitable nodes are available to serve your request) and National Rail websites were suspended or at least experiencing heavy delays!

I remember way back in January 2004, I was getting back from work in Quinton, Birmingham after it snowed. It was so icy, the main road into the city centre, Hagley Road was completely blocked. No cars were moving for 3 hours. So I decided to walk from near near enough Quinton to the city centre, which is about 6 miles. This seemed like double that as it was very very icy. Throughout the journey, not one car moved! However, it took me another 3 hours to get to town. I didn't get to the train station until 11pm and I had to get home with the night bus in London.

The thing is, the snowy weather was expected and the country should have been prepared. For example, I have not seen in any salt-gritting.

Weather watch
Obviously, keep your eyes out on the weather. Such weather sites include Metcheck and Met office.

Rickrollin'/Rick Astley
The phenomenon that is rickrolling took another turn in the form of Barackrolling. Yes, it's Barack Obama singing Rick Astley's "Never gonna give you up". Coincidently Astley has signed up on the 80s here and now tour.

Superbowl porn
I find it funny when porn magically appeared on the tv screens towards the end of the superbowl.

Nurse suspended for prayer
Something a little controversial is the case of the Nurse that asked if she could pray for her patient. The patient declined. Next day, nurse is disciplined and suspended for her indiscretion. The patient had remarked to her superior about it. That she wasn't offended other patients maybe offended. Fair enough if the nurse was ramming in faith down the patient's throat. But that wasn't the case. The authorities are being very insensitive as it looks like another one for the secular world... I'd love to know what the patient has to say for herself now, though.

Random Musings - Day #32

CCCP
I remember when I was a kid and I got asked, "What is the meaning of CCCP?" There was some joke by that question. Presumably it was that no-one knew what CCCP stood for. I'm always considered it, as Russian for USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). Check out this funny article about the CCCP Fair. People do wear CCCP shirts and jerseys and it's suggested that people do not understand what they are wearing.
BTW CCCP is also a combined community codec pack.

Tapping up
I find it funny that Harry Redknapp, Spurs manager has been accused of tapping up Robbie Keane for making this remark...

Robbie is a terrific player and a good lad but he belongs to Liverpool so it's not a possibility.

To me that looks so innocuous to me that I am not surprised that Harry has come back fighting. Surely there's more to this than meets the eye!
Check out the funny sequence with Robbie Keane and the January transfer window on special1tv. At least Rafa will be happy as his 12-man Liverpool beat 10-man Chelsea, 2-0.

The Gillette Curse
I was watching an advert for Gillette, which features Thierry Henry, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer. But the curse is definitely on. Roger Federer lost again to Rafael Nadal, this time in the Australian Open. Tiger Woods has not been seen since injuring his left knee when winning the 2008 US PGA Open (even though he still #1 in the world rankings). Whilst Thierry Henry? Thierry who?
Arguably, the new brigade should be Nadal, world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Garcia.

Bootable Pendrives
Here's the way to install linux and backtrack onto a pen drive. Personally, you would not want a writable OS on a pendrive because constant read/writing (particularly in swap files) is not good for a technology that uses flash media.

Dairy Milk
Have to give praise to whoever is in charge of advertising for Cadbury's Dairy Milk, with the 80s throwback. First, there's the Gorilla impersonating Phil Collins. Now, a very cute video of two kids raising their eyebrows all over the place on the back of a funky 80s beat.

UK Chart
A bit of surprise as Lily Allen scores her second number 1 hit (after "Smile" in July 2006). She displaces Lady Gaga (#2) and Kid Cudi slips a slot to #3.

Trevor McDoughnut
I leave you with Trevor McDoughNut (Lenny Henry) eventually singing the blues.