Paradoxes

Insights from a seasoned traveller ...

I have found the following over the last year or so.

After a flight/combinations of flights exceeding six hours or so, I am GUARANTEED to get leg cramps over night IF I do not drink enough NON ALCOHOLIC fluid THROUGHOUT the flight(s).

I don't drink alcoholic drinks at all but they are not a good idea while flying anyway.

Secondly, the paradox: since I had the cramps over night, I clearly didn't drink enough on my return home yesterday, so I wonder why I had to get up for a pee THREE TIMES over night!

DW

Doh! Ah! Airport

Sorry everyone but Doha airport has a lot of catching up to do. I have been travelling through Doha airport on and off for several years now and it has gone from small and a bit busy to small and exceptionally busy to extended and rather dull.

I have arrived at the new terminal here and that was painless. I have not taken off from the new part of the airport yet and I am hoping for something good.

I just read that this year QatarAirways will take delivery of a new aeroplane every 15 days. Grand schedule.

The difficulty is that the airport and some staff here and with QatarAirways are not up to speed yet.

Life's tough!

DW

Knees up!

Well, not a knees up at all. At home I walk a lot and my knees are fine unless I overdo it. When I travel I KEEP getting caught out and ending up with an iffy knee.

Left knee this week and three days ago I thought I had taken care of it. This afternoon, though, it decided to bite back. Just a bit! Lesser mortals would need a knee transplant but not me!!

DW

Knees up!

Well, not a knees up at all. At home I walk a lot and my knees are fine unless I overdo it. When I travel I KEEP getting caught out and ending up with an iffy knee.

Left knee this week and three days ago I thought I had taken care of it. This afternoon, though, it decided to bite back. Just a bit! Lesser mortals would need a knee transplant but not me!!

DW

RIP Jim

A good old man I used to work with died last week. RIP Jim Herbolich. It was nice to know you and good to work with you all of those years ago. DW

Still Saving Whales

I just proved to my own satisfaction that one can put shampoo on one's hair and then using LESS THAN A CUP OF WATER get it into the required lather. I also know that it is possible to rinse one's hair with less than a medium sized jug of water. Just so that you know. Follow this: I sit down a lot when I am not working and I have found that sitting is a science and an art. It's fine to slob around but sitting upright in the wrong chair and/or in the wrong position moves one's innards around. I am now trying to put everything back in place. I am not talking about backs and backache but innards! DW

Killing Fields Memorial Day

Today is the Cambodian Killing Fields Memorial Day.

Never forget such evil and never let it happen again.

DW

Book Review: God is not Great

Christopher Hitchens died last year and until he died I had never heard of him. I read eulogies from his fellow journalists and then heard no more until last week when, by chance, I came across some video clips of Hitchens speaking about his views on religion and I found them fascinating. I then found that Hitchens had written a book, God is not Great: how religion poisons everything. I bought the book and have now read it. Firstly, I have only read a couple of chapters of Richard Dawkins The God Delusion and I have to say that Hitchens did a far better job than Dawkins. Religious people do not like God is not Great. Not because it tests their faith but because of what it reveals about what goes on in the name of religion. Hitchens tells us, almost in passing, that he has received death threats, nasty phone calls and threats of violence for holding his view that he believes that religions poison everything. Having been born and brought up in a country where freedom of speech is taken for granted, I wonder at who it could be that would so object to someone's views that they threaten murder. That's for their conscience! As for the book, it is entertainingly written and full of stories aimed at the three main monotheisms: Christianity, Jewry, Islam. He regales us with story after story of the things that clerics hiding under these three banners get up to and have got up to for millennia. Hitchens reveals a great number of sources too: he's not just letting off steam. I have to say that I read this book for the overview it provided and not to learn the deep and detailed information that Hitchens sometimes goes into: it's there if you want it, of course. I like Hitchens' style as it is keen, ascerbic, funny, witty, well sourced and contains many words that I had never come across before. At least it will improve your vocabulary. I have to say that another motivation for reading the book is that I arrived at a similar position to Hitchens vis a vis religion over the last two or three years having seen religious brainwashing and its consequences at first hand. No God will work in that way with those people: something else is most definitely going on and I could support these things no longer, having realised what was happening. I imagine there will be people who read this mini review and who might feel angry with me for having written it: well, that's for you to come to terms with. I am glad I read the book, I learned many things about religions that I did not previously know and Hitchens gives a message that we all ought to consider. You do not have to agree with him! What's wrong with the book? Well, Hitchens has a mission, to clarify why he thinks religions poison everything. He gives no time to the good that good people in religions often do. He does not attempt to redress any imbalances in his arguments at all in this respect. If he were alive to answer this point I am sure he would ask, why on earth should I? Overall, if you are deeply committed to your religion you might not want to read this book but I think you should suspend your faith, read it and then explore fully what Hitchens has to say. Don't dismiss this book with anger in your heart! If you give Hitchens a fair hearing and stick to your guns then fine. I recommend this book to everyone but if your English reading skills are weak, it will be difficult for you: Hitchens' English language skills are highly developed and he's writing for an educated audience. No offence to anyone, just a friendly warning! DW

Sundown Over Dubai This Evening

I am missing the chance to take many photos these days and since Facebook objected to the background tracks that included in the slideshows that I created in iPhoto I have decided to stop using Facebook completely. Moreover, I have just produced a very simple series of sundown photos over Dubai and whilst I was hoping to attach the video here I have found I can't. Nothing fantastic, just take a look at my page on YouTube where you will see the slideshow. Click this link http://youtu.be/8cr4Ig0xnzk DW

Tie ... no tie!

A good thing about wearing a bow tie is that if you ever slop pizza topping it cannot slop all over your tie ... it goes straight for the shirt!! Top tip DW

Roland Hill where are you?

Whatever happened to the Penny Black? Within three weeks the Penny Black will have become the 12 Shilling Dreadful.

That will be the price of a first class stamp from 30th April 2012. 144 times the price of the first ever British stamp.

We are not amused!

DW

Christopher Hitchens

I had never heard if this man until he died last year. Last night I came across a tribute compilation of his speeches, television and radio appearances. Very interesting.

I will be searching for more.

DW

When you get access to the chequebook this is what happens

You get the idea, politicians ... I have little time for them. Here's a very good example of why.

Take a look at this article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/william-hague/9191852/William-Hague-defends-rising-costs-at-his-official-residence.html and then tell me that this man isn't taking the slash out of all of us.

If you follow William Hague on twitter you will quickly see that he is very keen to tell you that he is jetting off here, there and everywhere: it will be first or business class too. He name drops like an elephant drops its dung. Now he's living in a palace that you and I are paying for.

He's an oik from Yorkshire although it looks as if the mucky fine accent he's got comes from having attended public school for a while and then having to be yanked out for some reason.

As an interesting aside for anyone who likes gossip, click through to the articles at the bottom of the link above: nice and sleazy does it. Wonder if anyone goes in through the back door at the palace?

DW

The Benefits of the Gold Card

Every now and again IF YOU HAVE TO, travel on an airline other than the one with which you have your gold frequent flyer card. You WILL appreciate the difference!

DW

Good men and true in short supply

I wrote this in response to an article by Lord Paddy Ashdown that was posted by Foreign Secretary William Hague on his Facebook page. Sorry, gentlemen, but you have to take responsibility for many of these kinds of situations. Of course I am not blaming you for Bosnia but in general, your jobs mean that you interfere in all sorts of situations and your perspective is generally that of a politician. Take Syria at the moment: where is the Tony Blair to go there and get a grip ... against the wishes of a US President? Kofi Annan is not the man and he left BiH etc under a cloud didn't he? I was ashamed of Annan post tsunami when he went to Sri Lanka to see the situation there but refused, even as a gesture of humanity, to reach out to the Tamil Tigers who were also suffering. That was a purely political gesture that really didn't sit well with me. Where is the person or people to get a grip? Blair blotted his copybook over the Lebanon of course but at least he took a risk and the lead over that lot. Among the many other places I have worked, I have worked in BiH and it was a pleasure to work with everyone there and to appreciate the beauty of their country and hospitality. We don't need glad handing and back slapping, we need good men to act when things go wrong. I can't even renew my passport in the UK Embassy in Riyadh and no one will explain why. Britain helping Brits abroad? I doubt very much that either gentleman will have the courage to reply! DW

Eye? Aye!

After four months or so of suffering from Vaseline Vision, I had the implanted lens in my right eye zapped by a laser beam yesterday.

Today I can see very clearly out of my right eye again as the laser cleaned off the residue from the lens.

Medical research and research into laser beams are so impressive.

DW

Who Moved Venus?

I have never noticed this kind of thing before. Last week, in Gulu Uganda I noticed Venus in the sky. I also noticed that there was another fairly bright star/planet near Venus. Just now I looked out of the window here in Halifax, Northern England and spotted Venus ... and that sister star/planet looked much further away from Venus than it did in Gulu as well as being in different places in the sky. I understand all of the above ... relative positions etc and am just saying it is the first time I have ever noticed anything like this. So I am not saying this is awesome or amazing!!! DW

Dreams of a Life: must watch film

It took me a while to get the chance to watch this film and now I have: see here for the synopsis and a trailer: http://dreamsofalife.com Here are the few words that I penned for the above web site immediately after I had seen the film: --oo0oo-- I have finally seen this film and although I have not read many of the views and reviews here I think I feel the same as everyone. Yes, she died alone but she seems to have been quite a complex character. Who knows whether she was happy or sad to be alone at the end? I have to say that I thought the way that Carol Morley has put this tribute/documentary film together was fascinating. The people who feature in the film all seem like nice and caring people and in a sense I felt that if Martin had not broken down at some stage, the whole thing would have been a sham! John Dunne is famous for saying that no man is an island ... this film proves that wrong. I have been in football grounds where there were thousands of other people all around me and I have felt alone! Joyce has been portrayed as a lonely woman. Of course, everyone was careful to say that whatever they thought might have been behind her, she was a lovely person, loved by everyone. I enjoyed the film because, like many people, when I first heard this story I was horrified; but now I know that in a sense it is not such a horrible story. Joyce's family has refused to be involved in this film and they must have their reasons for that. I will not judge the family since I know nothing about them. Their consciences will either be resting easily or eating away at them over this story. When I say the story is not so horrible I mean that things are clearer to me now; her friends have explained many things that make what happened more understandable; and in the end Joyce just died. I think we should all appreciate the amount of work that Carol Morley has put into this film: the story boards, post it and notes that we see throughout the film are testament to that. Carol has found out a great deal about Joyce, her life and friends. I won't get sentimental and say that I know and understand Joyce now because I don't. I am content, though, that whilst she died alone, Joyce was not without people who cared for her: she didn't always realise that though did she? Thanks for all the effort Carol and everyone involved in the making of this film. --oo0oo-- Watch this film! DW

The Irish in Uganda!

I had dinner in a very nice restaurant in Gulu, Northern Uganda last week and on the menu I saw the word/dish IRISH. So what is Irish doing on a menu? They mean POTATOES!!! DW

Uganda Trip

I have just returned from a 9 day trip to the town of Gulu in Uganda, 2 degrees south of the equator. My friend Shakespeare is living and working in Gulu and he invited me to go and spend some time there. As many people know I lived in Malawi for five years from mid 1988 to mid 1993 but I have not really been back to Africa since then, apart from about three weeks spent in Khartoum over three years.

I enjoyed to trip and it took in eating Malakwang to drinking gallons of fluids to an excellent trip to Murchison falls via Murchison National Park.

I will be writing an essay on my findings of those few days in Africa and watch out for a video on YouTube courtesy of yours truly.

Here are some photos for you but take a look at my Facebook page for even more.

Malakwang ...	With host Shakespeare ...
12 feet tall lone Elephant ...	Gormless looking Water Buffalo ...