Guess which way Heathrow is from our place?

For some reason that I am still not quite sure about, the sky over London is much more prone to vapour trails than the sky over Melbourne. Is it becasue the air would be colder here? Because there is more air traffic?

I have no idea really, but maybe the air temperature argument holds water because this photo was taken early yesterday, on a clear and frosty morning, and behold the vapour trails like arrows in the sky pointing directly to Heathrow.

Quite pretty really, innit??

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Miki and Tess in Dublin

Hiya Miki,

Here's the pic of you and Tess in Dublin. Too bad that Tess's bunny ears on you didn't quite make it into the photo!

This is a laff

Just stumbled across the Pseudo Dictionary. Couldn't help but contribute one of my favourite words: nadged, as in I couldn't be...

This is how sad things get at business school

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. l thought computer nerd humour was bad, I didn't realise there's a whole world of investment quant geek humour out there to be dealt with. Check this out. Aaargh!! rugby.pdf

Read it and weep.

Apart from the jokes, MBA school is fun, or at least so far. No exams get. So lm still in the flush of rediscovering what it is like to be a student. Guess what? it beats working for a living.

There's nothing so cleansing as your last day at work

It's 4.40 pm on Friday 3 October 2003 and in half an hours time I will be walking out of this building for the last time. What better purpose for my last 20 mins of employment than to do some blogging.

Its been an 'interesting' couple of months. Philippa and I have had a steady procession of visitors staying with us, Phil has changed jobs, I have had two failed attempts to negotiate a full time role at Sky that includes accomodation for studying, we were gazumped on a flat we thought we were going to buy, we have been to Czech Republic and Tuscany, after all the faffing with Sky coming to naught I have decided to quit my job to do a full time MBA, and lots of other stuff has been going on as well.

Frankly I am exhausted, and from this perspective, an MBA looks like an easy thing to tackle. No doubt I will change my tune in future posts. Look out for the self pitying complaints on just how hard it is to be a student again. I predict these should start in approx 2 weeks.

Now to get to the pub for farewell drinkies!

Ciao ragazzi

Does this mean our marriage is doomed?

So the kiosk on St Kilda pier got burnt down yesterday.



Philippa says maybe it is an omen. At least when we got married there the place looked a bit more like this.



It will be a bit strange for poor old St Kilda to not have the kiosk on the pier this summer. Where will everyone walk to on those hot evenings? Where can the tourists get an icecream?

I just hope it gets rebuilt a little bit more quickly than that health club on the foreshore. Must admit it is quite fab now that it has the Hepburn Spa in it, but God what an eyesore it was for all those years.

So I'm slow off the mark

No doubt this stuff is very old news, but I've only just stumbled across This Modern World. It is brilliant. Here is a wee sample:

Good photo of Katie (and London)

The Murphy-Hill's are in town and seeing the sights. This pretty photo of Katie is to compensate for former indiscretions...

Austin thinks London is great and he is happy. His favourite thing so far is the mummys at the British museum. Eloise liked the masks at the Museum Shop and Phill loves the tube, Katie loves the bagels and seeing us (of course).

x Phil

Gadd, the heat! (part 2)

It is official.

Sunday was England's hottest day ever recorded. Where better to get the right tone of hysteria on this incredible event than from Uncle Rupert's Sun newspaper?



And I can confirm that it wasn't some namby pamby English version of hot, it really was properly hot. Especially because London has centuries of design for insulation behind it. Ventilation is a very theoretical idea round these parts.

We went to a music festival in Regents Park and it was too hot to be in front of the stage until quite late in the evening. But then the Brazilian dancers came out any everything was OK in the end.

It very strange to know that this is but a fleeting blip in the usual icy chill, but it seems like its been summer forever.

Gadd, the heat!

London was in panic today as a strange yellow ball of flame was seen in the sky, causing temperatures to soar above 30 degrees.

"It's just too bleedin' 'ot, innit" said Reginald Blethers as he reached for a cooling gin and tonic.

The dreadful suffering is to continue throughout the week, with a possibility that Wednesday could be the hottest day ever recorded in the UK.

Bring it on!

Stephen and Fran's Wedding

Yes it is true. We missed the event itself, but it did take the curse of Matt Kennedy, a killer hangover, a bus crash and a gay pride march to stop us...

The miserable tale goes something like this:

Matt and I got home from the bucks night I organised for Stephen at about 5.00 am on Saturday morning, so were not in completely great shape next morning. But nevertheless we'd struggled to wakefulness and were getting on with breakfast when there was an incredible loud thump and an earsplitting crack. A double decker bus had crashed into the tree out the front of our house and smashed a huge limb off it which landed in the middle of the road.

Being digital media heads all prepared for a wedding, there were not one but two digital cameras in the house and we of course hung out the window and recorded the moment for posterity. This turned out to be our downfall. Because the bus driver, rather than stopping and calling the council or doing anything responsible like that, simply backed up the bus, drove around the broken tree, and continued down the road leaving behind a crime scene. So our photos were now evidence.

Next thing was the police turning up and interviewing us and getting us to print our photos so they could stick them in their special sealable evidence baggies and sign statements and all that shit. Stupidly I spend too much time helping the constables investigations rather than saying sorry, I'm going to be late for my brother's wedding, I'll make a statement later.

So by now things are getting a bit late and its a dash to get through the shower and get dressed in our wedding finery. We've still got to get from NW London down to the deep south of Brixton.

So I think not to worry, we'll be faster in a taxi because otherwise we'll have a couple of changes on the tube then a walk at the far end to get to the registry office. And besides, it's a Saturday - the traffic can't be that bad.

Wrong!

The taxi happens to be driven by a halfwit on mogadon, and as you can probably imagine, my equilibrium is rapidly evaporating as we're inching slowly through heavy north London traffic and it's becoming more and more obvious that we will be late.

We finally get to Marble Arch, to discover that the way down by Hyde Park is *completely* blocked off. It is gay pride day and the pride march has thrown the city into complete chaos.

So now it is practically show time and we still haven't even crossed the river into south London let alone got anywhere close to Brixton. The whole while I'd been trying to call anyone in the wedding party to see if by some miracle they could postpone the event till we got there. Finally I got a call back and of course, there is no way they can hold things up - they had booked a slot months ago and have to use it. Other people are booked in for 1/2 hour later and the show must go on. I did get to speak to Stephen just before they did the deed and could only apologise for having screwed up so badly. He was fine about it and just said don't worry, we'll meet up afterwards.

But I was not fine about it at all and am now crying my eyes out in the back of a taxi that is marooned in a sea of stationary traffic. People in cars around us are politely averting their gaze while Matt and Philippa are trying to give me some consoling pats.

We finally abandoned the taxi, still practically standing still in traffic, and got the tube. Very surreal to be standing in the middle of a busy station concourse - it's pride day remember - with hordes of people dressed up in feathers, hot pants, garish makeup swarming all around me, still crying inconsolably while waiting for Matt to get his tube ticket. Stephen called me again here to let me know the deed was done and that we should meet at the London Eye. All I could do was splutter some semi coherent apologies.

Eventually we made it down to the London Eye at Waterloo and met up with the gang who were all happy and excited and eager to crack open some magnums of champagne and get on with the party. I was still sobbing with frustration and regret for having actually managed to miss my own brother's wedding, especially when I'm the only immediate family member in the frigging country. But of course Stephen and Fran were fantastic. They gave us all big hugs and kisses and said don't worry about missing the event - have some champagne instead. So finally I got somewhat dry eyed and we did manage to start the partying.

Stephen and Fran had insisted all along that it was not going to be a big deal, that it would be a very informal and fun day out with friends rather than any big elaborate affair. I just don't think they'd counted on my taking that spirit quite so literally.

The party was great fun. We had a whizz around the London Eye, then off to a fab Malaysian restaurant for a feast, then to a pub for toasts and speeches. All this distraction was enough for me to get over being upset and get on with having fun.

So after all that, the day turned out to be a real hoot. Best wedding I've never been to.

Aussie pics

Yes we have been very lax with updating this site, but here is the first taste of the new, efficient, up-to-date, cutting edge, just in time methodologies and work practices being adopted by the ginklozo management committee; bringing you all the news that's fit to Gink on a need to know basis...

Well actually it is just a very hasty selection of a few pics from our trip to Australia...

We will put more fascinating stuff up here soon. Really we will...

Anyone up for a spot of regime change?

Go to google and type in "weapons of mass destruction" (dont forget the inverted commas).

Then click the 'I'm feeling lucky' button.

Long overdue pics from Etive and Nic's wedding

Finally got around to posting some pics from Etive and Nic's wedding in North Wales. It was quite a hoot. Here you go Dad, enjoy!

An aptly named local pub. The food and the local ales were good so we left not very cross at all...


The happy couple


Hello sailor...


Awesome cake.

Dad will be so proud...

We figured that Egypt and Australia in the sapce of a fortnight was not quite action enough, so had to squeeze in a weekend in Edinburgh to help Matt celebrate his 40th birthday. Old bugger.

But it gave Stephen and I the opportunity to reclaim our Scottish birthright...



Dad will be so proud of us.

You need a kite in spring

Stephen and Fran excelled and gave me a fancy collapsible aerofoil kite for my birthday. It was just in time for a glorious day at Hampstead Heath last weekend. Tis a beauty.



It is true that the winters here are completely miserable, but it is almost worth it when the weather finally gets good

Egypt!

Hi guys,

Here is a brief selection of Egypt's Greatest Hits. There is plenty more and we will post them as a photo album sometime soon.

As you can see it is fabaruccirama.


Tutankhamun's headress in the Cairo Museum.


Big, aren't they?


Fabulous Mohammed Ali Mosque. It is the size of 8 St Paul's Cathedrals.


Karnak Temple in Luxor is so big you can't even photograph it. See how puny Rich is hidden in this pic.


Luxor Temple aint bad neither.


Hatshepsut Temple... by now we had run out of superlatives.


A detail from inside Tuthmosis III tomb in Valley of the Kings, Luxor.


Old Cataract Hotel, Aswan - according to The Times, this is the 'worlds greatest view from a hotel'. We thought it didn't suck.


It's big, it's amazing, its in Nubia. It's Abu Simbel Temple, built for Ramses II so anyone travelling up the Nile into Egypt would be freaked out and understand who's the boss. 'Look upon my works ye mighty and despair'.

Spring has sprung

The doom and gloom is definitely very doomy and gloomy. But there has been one small improvement for London - Spring has arrived.



This is at Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath in the evening of one of the first full sunny days since last summer.

But no doubt like most people, we've been spending a lot of time in front of the telly, watching in disbelief. Unbelievably, the BBC seems to be even more partisan than Uncle Rupert's Sky News. Unbelievable because in print, Rupert and all his editors seem very pro the US agenda, and of course The Sun in the UK is screaming its usual right wing propaganda.

Lucky that the web makes it easier to find some alternative voices like the fantastic disinfopedia.org, indymedia, and even Aljazeerah.

We went to another peace rally yesterday in Hyde Park.



There were 100,000 or more people protesting against England's involvement in an illegal, unjust, dishonest war. Strangely, it didn't get very much mainstream media attention. Since open hostilities began, it has become taboo in the UK to criticise the war effort. This is because we are all meant to be supporting the brave men and women risking their lives on the battlefields. One of the speakers made a very good point - she said she supports the British troops so much that she wants to see them removed from danger of being killed and danger of being convicted of war crimes by bringing them immediately back home.

English rallys always seem to finish with popstars making various ill informed and self aggrandising statements. Last time it was Miss Dynamite a London R&B diva singing her hit song whose chorus goes 'I'm Miss Dynamite-tee-ee' ... no shit Sherlock. This time it was some bloke from Travis singing some thin ballad about 'war being like really, umm, bad, and all that kind of stuff'. Very lame after hearing some powerful speakers on the stage. I think they do it deliberately just to get people to go home after these kinds of events.

Terror in London

The army is out in force at Heathrow. Today they evacuated terminal 2 after someone left their bag lying around. Gatwick was closed down when someone was caught with a grenade in their luggage - although they'd flown into England with it. The whole of London is crawling with police and the news is on hysterical high rotation with new info snippets on possible terror attacks.

But Londoners themselves are strangely calm. Maybe it's because they've gotten used to bombs going off around the place with the IRA stuff. Maybe it's because no-one wants to think of what might happen here. But there seems to be a tangible refusal to be phased about any of it.

The English psyche is a strange beast. they rant endlessly about late trains and bad traffic, but will not even countenance the prospect of the Tube being attacked. A survey today says that over 84% of people here will not modify their travel plans due to the current situation. And this on a day when the police are allegedly hunting for people armed with those shoulder launched missiles ready to shoot down passenger jets.

People at work are rolling on the floor laughing at the news reports from the US of people stockpiling their pathetic tins of baked beans and a few bottles of water and wrapping their houses in clingfilm to help survive biological attack.

I reckon its a massive PR stunt to get us more afraid and to help soften up public opinion to be more supportive of a war on Iraq.

There is a big anti-war rally planned in London for Saturday, with plenty of others all around the world. We'll be doing some stomping around. See you there.

The birthday girl

Philippa at the square near Victor Hugo's house.



Lovely innit?

Why Paris is better than London

We went to Paris for the weekend for Philippa's birthday. It was absolutely freezing cold with a top temp of 0 and lowest of -8, brrr, but it was gloriously sunny with the kind of huge clear blue sky you hardly ever get to see in London (umm except for today which did happen to be a beautiful blue sky in London -- but that's just the exception that proves the rule).



We just walked around the Marais area where we were staying and went to the Louvre which of course is bloody amazing.

It's funny that everyone in England complains that Parisians are very rude, but I can't see it. Everyone in Paris makes a point of greeting and thanking each other with every interaction no matter how trivial. Even buying a metro ticket involves good morning, thank you and goodbye. Compare that to London where you're lucky to even make eye contact with someone working in a shop, let alone exchange a pleasantry with them.

Tomorrow is Australia day. Don't forget to recite your Oath of Allegiance...

Has Australia gone completely insane?

First I hear that John Howard has offered to do a few pre-emptive strikes around the neighborhood to help nice Mr Bush to keep them dirty evil infidels on the hop. After all, they pushed him too far, and now its payback time. And this time its personal after they bombed our very own cute little cheap exotic holiday island. Oops I mean Indonesia's island.

Then I heard from Phil's rellos the other day that there are now government ads on Australian TV with warnings about suspect packages and that everyone should keep a close eye on their neighbors for any suspicious terrorist-type activities. Like speaking funny languages and eating weird food and wearing strange clothes and stuff.

And now I see this crap in The Age about the Oath of Allegiance. Puhleeeeze. Bloody hell guys. What is going on?

Anyone who recites this by the barbie should give John Howard and Les Murray a call immediately. Never know, you just might get that stupid bloody mateship preamble into the constitution after all.



Here's a better idea: just chuck the stupid card on the barbie and vote Howard out. Gawann. Do it for Orstraylia.