Bruno … a study in bad taste

Kabuki and I both enjoyed Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat and were looking forward to him in Bruno. Did any of you see it? Jesus! Nothing redeeming about this movie at all. Well maybe I can’t talk definitively because after 30 minutes (at most) we had to stop watching it. It is just one fowl scene after another. Trust me we’re not faint-hearted, politically delicate, or too conservative to see the dark humour in works. This just wasn’t funny. It wasn’t smart. It was just pushing as hard as possible to be distasteful. It success in this last category doesn’t make it worth watching and I’m surprised that Sacha had such poor taste and that the movie execs were willing to ever let it see the light of day.

Singapore Starbucks

Grabbing a coffee at Starbucks and noticed that almost everyone has a laptop with them. Not remarkable in itself but the shocking part is that every single, bar none, is an Apple! Bizarre. I guess the fashion conscious can't be seen with the more pedestrian Windows machine.


-- Post From My iPhone

Singapore

I’ve been to the airport before but now I’m actually going to see the city / nation state. Lots of meetings but it’ll be nice to finally see it. Also excited about flying Emirates Business (outbound) and 1st Class (return). I’ve never flown 1st class on an international flight before and I hear Emirates is particularly nice. :^)

Three Days Grace

Kinda digging the self-titled Three Days Grace album. It’s harder driving than most of the music I’m listening to these days but good for when you’re having an angry rant.

Biscuit the escape artist

Just got these pictures from Kabuki … the one on the left is the hole that Biscuit dug under the fence; the one on the right the poster that ultimately helped track down the escape artist.

Nico Siraa at 5 months

In a somewhat belated post, I have now posted pictures of little Nico Siraa at five months. For the complete set go to my Smug Mug site: Nico at 5 months.

Biscuit’s long lost cousin

 

Ok they’re not officially related but this dog does the Manchester Terrier breed proud … craziness to a beat.

A cure for world hunger

brought to you by Sarah Silverman, bless her heart …

An interesting investment or a foolish gamble

If you’re interested in the title check out my post on my Energy blog here: article.

Calgary Trip

Just got back to London after a week in sunny – albeit bitterly cold – Calgary. It was a great trip from a number of angles. For one it allowed me to get a real sense on who the players were in the energy business as well as what they were thinking and how they viewed the current economic environment, the low natural gas prices and recovering oil prices. It was also nice to get to know our team from Calgary better and have the chance to meet up with Gord, an old friend and colleague. Finally, and this is the only part I have pictures for, it was great to finish up early on friday (10am), rent a car and get out of proverbial Dodge to do some exploring.

The road was a bit harry in a few bits (it had snowed the night before) but throughout most it was a beautiful drive. Two and half hours into the drive I found myself in Lake Louise. Very excited, I got out of the car only to find that my thin leather jacket wasn’t nearly enough to protect me from the –10C conditions (without the wind chill calculated in). Damn. I’ll never write a book “How to Successfully Pack for your Business Trip” but now I was stuck with a decision … should I limp into the lake-side hotel and watch the lake from indoor or take corrective action. I chose the latter and bought a jacket that is so warm I doubt I’ll ever be able to use it in the UK but I was now ready for mother nature. From Lake Louise I backtracked to Banff, the famous ski resort town, and plodded around there for a few more hours before jumping back into the car and driving back to the airport.

 

 

 

For more pictures from this trip, refer to my SmugMug site at: Banff and Lake Louise.

The Broken iPhone Club

I have had my iPhone 3GS for two months now and in that time we have developed a deep relationship. We go on walks together, attend parties, my phone even goes to work with me. Tragically my iPhone jumped from my hand today and crashed into the pavement below. It is badly hurt and my iPhone health insurance ran out last month without any option of renewal. What a fucking debacle! O2 (my phone company) has helpfully told me that for about £150 and 10 days of surgery they can return my iPhone in perfect condition. Seems expensive but 10 days? What the fuck? Who can live without their phone for 10 days?

More Spiders

Kabuki, my wife and a well-respected spider hater, has been saying for months that we have significantly higher numbers of spiders this year than in the past. I must admit that even with my untrained eyes I find myself agreeing. Now it appears the BBC has confirmed our deep seated suspicion:

More insects expected this autumn | BBC News

Guess that means the score is now: 1 for bio-diversity, 0 for garden-loving people. Hard to root against bio-diversity but for the sake of spider haters around the world can’t we find a way to be diverse outside our damn garden?

A “non-electric” plug-in hybrid?

Kleiner Perkins hints at plug-in car launch this week and they have said it “it is not an electric vehicle” and then said “do not think batteries”. My guess? It IS an electric car but it doesn’t use batteries. I mean what other kind of propulsion system would the car run on? It’s really annoying but modern vernacular confuses automotive propulsion with energy storage with regularity. For instance, a “hydrogen fuel cell” car IS an electric car … it just uses H2 as is energy storage and a fuel cell to convert it to electricity.

My guess is that this car in fact does use a fuel cell technology -- possibly hydrogen fuel cell -- and the real breakthrough is that they’ve come up with a more efficient way of using on-board electrolysis to make hydrogen gas (or whatever gas the fuel cell consumes). If that is true and the economics of this storage system compete with battery technology that could have a huge impact on the automotive field.

Map of our Sardinia Trip

View Sardinia in a larger map

Sardinia

Kabuki and I just got back from Sardinia today. The trip largely consisted of two parts:

1. North-East Sardinia. We stayed in the hills of Panteleo. With a quiet and relaxed base we had easy access to the “emerald coast” and the Maddalena islands.
2. North-West Sardinia. We stayed in Alghero which is a cool tourist beach town and the site of Lukas and Kristina’s wedding.

And of course we also drove between these two locations – hugging the coast as much as possible – and flexing our tourist muscles whenever possible. Here are some pictures from the trip.

 

North-East Sardinia and the Trip West:

 

North-West Sardinia and the Wedding:

 

For more pictures check out the photo galleries on Smug Mug:

1. The Sardinia Trip
2. Lukas and Kristina’s Wedding