Life of a mighty mouse

Shuffle Again!

2010-01-10T06:03:00.016Z

Again!

Yes I can't believe it. Once again, like last year, I return back to a frozen wasteland. With snow everywhere, the transport system has been paralysed by the dwindling supplies of salt and grit. They say this is the coldest spell in the UK on record for the last 60 years. Just a few days ago, I was in a tropical paradise.

In fact, on Christmast day, I went diving in the Sulawesi Islands. There is a marine reserve near Manado, capital of North Sulawesi, and I saw plenty of fantastic aquatic animals which I cannot name due to my limited knowledge of marine life. I saw plenty of turtles, octopuses, cuttlefishes, crabs, and shrimps. I also went wreck diving, which was really eerie. There is a 1945 cargo wreck lying a the bottom of one of the dive spots, and I half expected to see the ghosts of the crewmen still manning the bridge as I swam around it.

Manado Tua (Old Manado), a volcano shrouded in timeless mystery!

Manado has several volcanoes, some of them extinct while most of them are dormant. This contributes to the rich nutrients in the soil and water, leading to a wide diversity of life on the land and in the sea. Unfortunately I could not take any pictures underwater as I did not have an underwater camera, so you'll just have to be content with the pictures I took on land!

The dive resort

Loading up our dive boats

Off we go!

One of the dive beaches

Friendly dolphins

Friendly views!

Anyway, now that my holiday is over and I'm back in Bristol, I feel very nervous about returning back to work. As I've not been in the office for 1 month, I must have thousands of emails waiting for me in my inbox. I hope I don't have a whole stack of reports or drawings on my desk waiting for me when I get back. And I'll have to practice my shuffle to work so as to avoid getting spit off the icy pavements. I am soo not looking forward to Monday....

Sigh....

The Relentless March Of Progress

2009-12-23T01:19:00.011Z

I took this picture while strolling down a promenade. This is Singapore's latest mega project, the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort. The design consists of three large shells containing conference halls, shopping areas, restaurants (including three celebrity chef eateries), and a casino. There will also be three large 55 storey hotel towers linked on their top floors by a sweeping sky garden, and a centerpiece museum which juts out onto the bay. It will also be one of the largest and most expensive casinos in the world. Current costs stands at US$5.5 billion. The project has already been hit by construction woes and spiraling costs. The deadline for completion has been pushed back to April next year and workers are now working round the clock. And guess what? There are two of these projects being constructed at the same time.

This wasn't built when I was here this time last year. Such is the pace of progress that in the space of 1 year, two huge mega contruction projects have sprung up from thin air. This place that I know is changing so fast that I sometimes feel like a stranger in my own home. Places that I used to hang out when I was a kid have now been demolished to make way for new train stations and shopping malls.

Another shopping mall. This wasn't here last year...

Perhaps I shouldn't keep harping back to the good ol' times. Isn't this how we should make progress? At the cost of losing our past. On a brighter note, I took the opportunity to walk along Orchard Road (Singapore's prime shopping belt) and was pleasantly surprised to see all the nice Christmas lights. It would have been better if it was snowing like in Europe, just to create the chrismasy atmosphere, but then we would have all froze to death.

Pretty lights

Even more pretty lights

Gosh...do you know how much carbon we're producing?

Anyway, how do we make progress without loosing our past? Sustainable progress? Maybe we should just close our eyes and become another faceless shiny bright utopian city? I don't know. I think there is no easy answer. What I do know is that I'm going ignore everything else and concentrate on the simpler pleasures of life, as so aptly demonstrated by my fellow citizen.

Balmy Nights

2009-12-15T08:46:00.003Z

It's warm, humid, and the noise of crickets is keeping me awake. Yup, I'm home for the holiday season. Home to me is Singapore, a tropical island somewhere near the equator. It has been a while since I've written anything here. Due to time and work constraints, I've had to prioritise my habits. Unfortunately, that means maintaining this blog has fallen to the sidelines. I'll try to make up for it as I've now got plenty of time during my holiday to write about anything under the sun.

I'll be spending Christmas and New Year here in Singapore. It'll be a nice change from staying in Bristol. A nice warm holiday does wonders for the soul when you know you've friends who will be spending this festive period freezing and shivering under the duvet :-) Moi jealous? No quite the opposite. I've not taken a major holiday since this time last year. And that was to go home too.

I did spend a week in Barcelona this August though. And that was to attend a friend's wedding. Looking back, I've had incredibly good fortune to travel all around the world to attend weddings. I've been to Alicante, Barcelona, Sicily, Montana (almost a wedding), and Calcutta just to name a few. This excludes all the weddings I've been to in Singapore and the UK.

Although I do enjoy spending time at home during this period, a part of me wants to be back in Bristol at the same time. A dear friend is just about to give birth to a baby girl within the next couple of weeks. I would very much like to be there when the baby pops out. Another good friend celebrates her big 3-0 birthday. An amazing girl I met shortly before leaving has an attractive combination of warmth, honesty and beauty..... all these and more tug at my heartstrings, often turning my thoughts to wintery Bristol.

I'm currently sipping my chilled tea as I type this. The ice cubes melt and clink together before settling down in my drink. There is no wind. The clouds look pinkish in the night sky and I hear a rumbling of thunder in a distance. It looks like it is going to rain tonight.

The Map of India

2009-10-11T08:45:00.003Z

Down and up my pencil goes
Drawing a great big elephant's nose.
Across the top a mountain range,
And up above, Tibet so strange.
Below it is the Ganges Plain
Where grow so many kinds of grain.
There's Delhi where lived the Viceroys,
Calcutta with it's pride and noise;
And in between, Benares old
Where stories of the gods are told.
Quite near to where the Krishna
and the Gadavari flow,
Is the Deccan Plateau
Which all the schoolboys know.
With Bombay on the left of us
Madras is on the right,
And Hyderabad in middle
Where ruled the Nizam's might.
Down further still is Tamiland
Which ends at Comorin.
With Ceylon like a pendant
Off India's pointed chin.

It's good to be back.

2009-05-10T10:25:00.002Z

I found myself in a funny / unfortunate situation a couple of days ago. I had to get a set of fingerprints made and submitted as part of a security clearance procedure on one of the projects I was working on. The only place that I could get a set of fingerprints done (legally) was the local police station. Hence I made an appointment and they told me to come to the station at 2pm.

On the day itself, I arrived 15mins earlier hoping that I would be able to get them done quickly. Unfortunately I was directed into the waiting room and told to join a queue. The queue consisted of 4 women in front of me. I noticed that these 4 women were in various states of distress. One was slightly intoxicated and was quietly mumbling to herself. Another was sniffling and looked like she was on the verge of bursting into tears. She was comforted by the third woman, who's face was covered in bruises. The fourth woman glared at me when I entered the room.

As we waited for our turns, the ladies started chatting.

"My boyfriend has dumped me and taken my baby with him!" wailed the lady who was about to cry.

"Shh...at least you're not hurt. Look at me! I was hit in the face and whacked by golf clubs by my *censored* of a *censored* husband," comforted the bruised woman.

"Mine stole my money!" blurted the fourth woman.

"All men are bastards....all men are bastards....all men are BASTARDS!" screamed the drunk woman.

Suddenly all four heads turned to look at me as I was the only male in the waiting room. I shifted worriedly in my seat. An uncomfortable silence then ensured for the next 5 mins. Those were probably the longest 5 mins for my life.

The door eventuallly opened and an officer came out. I was surprised when he called my name as I was the last to join the queue. I breathed a sigh of relief and shuffled past the 4 women.

"Bastard," muttered the drunk lady.

Only 10%?

2009-04-10T09:40:00.007Z

Here's something I came across the other day from Dr Eric Chudler:

Do we only use 10% of our brains?

There is no scientific evidence to suggest we only use 10% of our brains. It's all a myth. We use all our brains.

Where did that 10% myth begin?

The 10% statement may have been started with a misquote of Albert Einstein or the misinterpretation of the work of Pierre Flourens in the 1800s. Perhaps it was the work of Karl Lashley in the 1920s and 1930s that started it. Lashley removed large areas of the cerebral cortex in rats and found that these animals could still relearn specific tasks. We now know that destruction of even small areas of the human brain can have devastating effects on behavior. That is one reason why neurosurgeons must carefully map the brain before removing brain tissue during operations for epilepsy or brain tumors: they want to make sure that essential areas of the brain are not damaged.

Why Does the Myth Continue?

Somehow, somewhere, someone started this myth and the popular media keep on repeating this false statement (see the figures). Soon, everyone believes the statement regardless of the evidence. I have not been able to track down the exact source of this myth, and I have never seen any scientific data to support it. According to the believers of this myth, if we used more of our brain, then we could perform super memory feats and have other fantastic mental abilities - maybe we could even move objects with a single thought. Again, I do not know of any data that would support any of this.

What Does it Mean to Use Only 10% of Your Brain?

What data were used to come up with the number - 10%? Does this mean that you would be just fine if 90% of your brain was removed? If the average human brain weighs 1,400 grams (about 3 lb) and 90% of it was removed, that would leave 140 grams (about 0.3 lb) of brain tissue. That's about the size of a sheep's brain. It is well known that damage to a relatively small area of the brain, such as that caused by a stroke, may cause devastating disabilities. Certain neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's Disease, also affect only specific areas of the brain. The damage caused by these conditions is far less than damage to 90% of the brain.

The Evidence (or lack of it)

Perhaps when people use the 10% brain statement, they mean that only one out of every ten nerve cells is essential or used at any one time? How would such a measurement be made? Even if neurons are not firing action potentials, they may still be receiving signals from other neurons.
Furthermore, from an evolutionary point of view, it is unlikely that larger brains would have developed if there was not an advantage. Certainly there are several pathways that serve similar functions. For example, there are several central pathways that are used for vision. This concept is called "redundancy" and is found throughout the nervous system. Multiple pathways for the same function may be a type of safety mechanism should one of the pathways fail. Still, functional brain imaging studies show that all parts of the brain function. Even during sleep, the brain is active. The brain is still being "used," it is just in a different active state.

Finally, the saying "Use it or Lose It" seems to apply to the nervous system. During development many new synapses are formed. In fact, some synapses are eliminated later on in development. This period of synaptic development and elimination goes on to "fine tune" the wiring of the nervous system. Many studies have shown that if the input to a particular neural system is eliminated, then neurons in this system will not function properly. This has been shown quite dramatically in the visual system: complete loss of vision will occur if visual information is prevented from stimulating the eyes (and brain) early in development. It seems reasonable to suggest that if 90% of the brain was not used, then many neural pathways would degenerate.

However, this does not seem to be the case. On the other hand, the brains of young children are quite adaptable. The function of a damaged brain area in a young brain can be taken over by remaining brain tissue. There are incredible examples of such recovery in young children who have had large portions of their brains removed to control seizures. Such miraculous recovery after extensive brain surgery is very unusual in adults.

So next time you hear someone say that they only use 10% of their brain, you can set them straight. Tell them: "NOT TRUE; We use 100% of our brains."

Spring

2009-03-22T22:26:00.007Z

It's been quite a while since my last post. Due to work and other issues, time was always lacking when it came to update this site. A breather this weekend has allowed me some time to take some pics and write something here. Unfortunately this stop-start-stop habit looks set to continue as the situation at work looks set to get tougher over the next few months.

Anyway, on to lighter and brighter (literally) topics. This weekend was really sunny. It wasn't hot by any means but it was cetainly a lot more warmer compared to the same time last year. All I can say is that spring is finally here, with the freezing temperatures and snow of last month only a distant memory. With the nice sunny weather today, I went for a bike ride to a nearby lake.

My mechanical horse

And it looks like others had the same idea as well. Ducks, swans and other birds were also out in force to enjoy the nice weather.

Penguins and seals.....no not really

I know swans are graceful. But have you ever noticed how they hold their wings up? Like some sort of posturing? This is the first time I've actually notice their wing posture. An educated guess would be to show their dominance to other swans / birds.

Swan Posture No. 1

Swan Posture No. 2

Two Swans (Yes yes I know you can count.....)

A great day out gave me the chance to have fun on the bike and recharge my batteries, ready for the next onslaught at work. Sigh...it seems like this cycle is never endless. Well....catch you next time when I'm on here.

Shuffle

2009-02-07T16:34:00.008Z

Home!

Finally! Some spare time to blog! When I last wrote here, I was about to leave for a well needed holiday in Singapore.

Jungles and Skyscrapers

So leave I did. And what a wonderful time I had back home. The weather was nice, sunny, and warm. It was good to spend quality time with all my friends and family. What a holiday!

The skyline of Singapore

Good food, good company, and good times. So good that I felt really depressed when it was time to return to Bristol. I was asking myself whether I had made a mistake. With sub zero temperatures, grey days, rain and snow, it felt like returning to a frozen hellish waste.

Frozen Downs

And hellish it was. Work had piled up and sat around while I was away on holiday. When I returned, I had a huge work load and an unmovable deadline. Hence I spent the next two weeks "living" at work, having early starts and late nights....even working on weekends. I remember sitting at my desk one weekend, alone in the office and shivering because the heating had been turned off. I looked out of the windows and saw no one on the dim, dark streets. It was light years away from my holidays. It was so depressing that I felt like quiting there and then.

But like all deadlines, they come and go. When the deadline passed, life returned to normal. Well almost. This week, the whole country was brought to a halt when a snow storm hit the UK. With buses cancelled and trains delayed, getting to work was a challenge. Having to walk 3 miles to the train station was quite scary. Snow and slush had made the pavments and streets slippery. One has to perfect the art of shuffling to move around.

It was eerie to wake up one morning and step out of the front door to hear nothing but silence. No car sounds and no people walking sounds. The snow had caused most people to avoid driving. It had also dampen the sound made by people walking.

The shuffle

I'm just starting to restablish my routine again after so many months of working crazy hours. I know some people hate routines because they get easily bored. Well, all I can say is that I find it comforting just to get into the rythm of life...you know...like waking up at sensible times, going out to meet friends, watching movies, doing the groceries and laundry, cooking, the boring stuff etc. With the snow and ice still on the roads and the weather looking to stay snowy into the next week, a nice comfortable routine would be good to keep me happy and grateful. Time to shuffle to the supermarket......

What A Day!

2008-12-17T22:46:00.003Z

What a day! Today is the day which we were told by the company on whether we would be made redundant or not. So we all had letters on our desks in the morning notifying us of our fates. I opened mine and the news wasn't good. I was made redundant. So I spent the whole day updating my CV and clearing out my desk. However, around 3pm, I got a phone call from the boss saying he would like to see me. So I popped over to his office and he offered me back my job! What can I say? On one hand, I'm relieved that I've got a bit of job security. On the other hand, I just want to shout, scream, and curse at him for screwing up. So I accepted the job back. Call me the come back kid!

However, rest assured, I won't be resting on my laurels. This whole process has exposed the true motives of certain people. And I will be keeping my options open to any opportunities in the new year. All thanks must go to my lovely friends and colleagues who offered me words of encourgement, advice and support when I initially found out that I was to be made redundant.

On a lighter note, I shall be going back home to visit my family and friends for three weeks during the Christmas and New Year period. This will give me a much needed break from work and a chance for me to think about my future. I sense great changes will be coming.....

Uncertain Times

2008-11-11T23:35:00.002Z

Apologies for my absence. It has been quite a while since I've written anything here. Due to certain developments at work, times have been tight. Overall, life in general is alright, although I wouldn't say all is well. Just last week, my company announced that they're planning to make 20% redundancy cuts to staff numbers due to the current economic situation. They've just started the consultation process and we should know in about a months' time on who will be going and who will be staying.

So come Christmas, I could be jobless. And trust me, with that kind of thought hanging over your head, you can't really enjoy yourself, whatever you're doing. Even when I chill out with friends over the weekend, the threat of losing my job is always at the back of my mind, forcing me to watch what I spend.

I haven't really thought about what I'm going to do if I'm made redundant. Any ideas? One that has been floating around my mind is to go back to university and do a PhD or an MSc. Or maybe go travelling. Or do a career change and become a chef, or a zoo keeper, or a shark cage diver! I've been told becoming a monk for a short period of time does wonders for the soul. Ideas ideas ideas.........

Should have gone golfing instead.....

2008-09-25T20:29:00.004Z

Well....you must be thinking what am I doing here right? Since my mom is supposedly with me, I should be spending all my time with her. However, due to an unfortunate turn of events, my mom had to cancel her flight. She fell sick at the last minute and the doctor advised her against flying. So she's not coming. And I had to cancel my holiday break, which I was very much looking forward to. My mom is now resting at home and hopefully on her way to recovery soon.

The Belfry

On other news, I played my first 18 hole golf game over the weekend. I've always hated golf and thought that it was a game for balding, fat, middle aged/old men (just look at the recent Ryder Cup). However, I won a lucky draw to go play golf at the Belfry sometime at the beginning of the year, so it was at the Belfry that we played golf over the weekend. Now for those of you bumpkins that don't know much about the Belfry (me included), it is the home of golf in England, just one step down from St. Andrews. It is a top class golf course and you need to be rich or well connected to play there.

So about the game, well...I was knackered by the 12th hole and towards the end of the game, I had no strength to swing my club. My hands were blistered from holding the clubs too tightly and my shoulder was sore from carrying the golf bag. It felt like I had just ran a marathon when we finished the last hole. We had great weather though.

I find golf to be a very technical game. You really have to take into account the weather , the wind direction and strength, the lay of the land, your opponents, your choice of clubs, your swing, and many other things to distract your mind. I consider myself a beginner and would really like to take my game up another level. Now all I have to do is to win another lucky draw.

Mom!

2008-09-14T07:36:00.005Z

Here's another post where I again lament the lack of time and motivation to blog. Things at work have been moving so rapid and fast that sometimes my mind is so exhausted that I don't want to think of anything else except base needs like food, sleep and se...er...scrabble.

So it is with great delight that I look forward to the week after next. My mom is coming to visit me at the end of September for two weeks and I have taken a week off work just to be with her. It'll be really great to see her again. After all these years, no matter how old I am, I'm still a little boy in the eyes of my mom! Plus she'll be bringing lots of goodies from home which you simply can't find in Bristol.

On another note, after being made single again sometime in July, I thought I would try my hand at a little online dating. Well...that led to a date yesterday with a really nice girl. It was really strange as we had only exchanged a couple of emails and photos before meeting up. We didn't have any telephone conversations at all and I was really nervous. It felt like I was going out for my first date in my life. Hayley was really nice and I couldn't ask for more in a girl, however, I just hope that I've met her expectations. Maybe it's the pessimist in me but I feel that you can't really tell much from a person from the first date/meeting. Let's hope she emails me again.

So that's it. In summary, I shall be going on a break in a week's time, my mom is coming, and I've just had a date that I'm feeling abit pessimistic about....what else could go wrong?

Bits & Pieces

2008-08-22T19:57:00.012Z

During my travels over the past few months, I've accumulated various bits and pieces that do not warrant a full blog but they're too good to simply just let go of. Hence I've decided to write about them here, starting with this really strange picture that I took during my travels in Montana.

This pic was taken when I went to the town of Hot Springs with the all wise and knowlegeable Justin. It was framed up in the reception of the Symes Hotel. It depicts a group of men posing on a front porch of a hotel in Hot Springs in 1883. Now if you can read the names of the men scribbled at the bottom of the picture, you'll find that it's a like a who's who list of the wild wild west. Here are some of the famous men present in the picture: Wyatt Earp, his brother Morgan Earp, Doc Holiday, Butch Cassidy (Parker), Sundance Kid (Harry Longabaugh), even Teddy Rosevelt! You could say that the photo is a fake...but it was found right in the middle of....well a very sleepy ghost town. I felt that, no offence, no one there would have the motivation to do something like that. Time in that town passes very very slowly. Curioser and curioser!

Here's another pic:

I really loved the way this pic turned out. Justin and I were playing pool in the local pub in downtown Helena. It was really late and most of the locals had already gone home, barring a few regulars. The atmosphere was really relaxed and this pic highlighted the moody lighting and the chilled out environment that pervades throughout Montana. It feels really blues and jazzy with a bit of noir thrown into the mix.

Not everyone gets to see a taxidermist at work. However, I had the good fortune, thanks to Justin's father, of meeting one.

As hunting is a way of life in Montana, many people like to keep the animals they hunt as trophies on their walls. They need someone to stuff the animal and make it look life-like instead of looking like a piece of wood. In steps Mr....oh dear I've forgotten his name...so he makes moulds of animals in different positions, which he stretches the skin over them. He then insert the very life-like eyes and...voila!...you have a very real looking animal.

I've probably simplified it alot but it takes alot of skill and time to get the whole thing right. And Mr Taxidermist has been doing it for a very long time. And unfortunately it's a dying trade. Not many young people are interested in becoming a taxidermist.

Here's another atmospheric picture:

This pic was taken in Yellowstone National Park early in the morning. It was still rather cold and the mist and steam were rising from the hot springs. Two cranes were simply walking along the spring, catching some insects I guess. But the image of seeing these two birds with the steam rising in the background was really moving. The scene felt very prehistoric and also very peaceful. There was a zen-like tranquility and you could simply stare at the birds and the steam till the end of time

And finally:

Just look at that sky! This pic was taken outside our motel room in Bozeman. We were on our way to Yellowstone National Park and stopped by Bozeman to see the dinosaur fossils. When this pic was taken, the sun was setting. And I guess the sun rays were reflected off the clouds, hence you get this amazing gold purplish colouration. Simply amazing!

The Great North American Adventure !!!

2008-08-06T20:08:00.021Z

Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468 square miles, comprising of lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the North American continent.

Yellowstone Lake....which beneath lies an active volcano

The caldera is considered an active volcano and it has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone, creating some of the most amazing and beautiful landscapes ever seen. And this was where we found ourselves on the last leg of my journey in America. Justin and I were on a two day camping trip in the Yellowstone National Park.

Amazing landcape!

Yellowstone National Park, set aside as a national park in 1872, is located mostly in the state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho. The park was the first of its kind, and is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features like hot springs and geysers, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular areas in the park.

At Old Faithful.....

And there she goes!

A hot spring

The vast forests and grasslands contain many unique species of plants. Grizzlies, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in the park.

Bison!

Elk!

Grizzly Bear!

Rivers, cascades and waterfalls are abundant as well. One of the rivers, the Firehole River, never freezes in winter due to the abundant runoff from the geothermal features in this area. Hence it is a popular gathering place for wildlife during that season when the park is dominated by freezing temperatures and deep snow.

Our campsite

I had such a great time in Yellowstone National Park and would definitely recommend everyone to go visit it. I took so many pictures that my camera ran out of batteries. And that was on the first day of our trip!

An amazing sulfurous landscape!

This brings us to the end of my wonderful experience in Montana. I was there for roughly ten days and I fully enjoyed all ten days. As you can see from this post and the previous posts, all ten days were extrememly busy. Given the chance, I would have no hesitation going back to relive those days again. I left Montana with my mind full of images and experiences that I still think about them and have many dreamy nights. I have to say a big thank you to the all-wise and knowledgeable Justin, for without him this trip would not have been possible. I hope to return the favour someday soon.

Yeah I miss you too.....

The Great North American Adventure !!

2008-07-26T21:21:00.019Z

After visiting Helena, Philipsburg & Missoula, we went to Holland Lake. This was where my breath was taken away. Holland Lake is located in the Swan Valley.

Pinched between the east slope of the Mission Mountains and the west slope of the Swan Range, the Swan valley contains a series of pristine mountain lakes amongst dense stands of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and larch. The valley is an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise for boating, waterskiing, canoeing, swimming, fishing, birding, or just snoozing in a hammock.

Lower Holland Lake

I felt that it was an amazing place of outstanding beauty. Holland Lake is split into two parts, upper and lower. The Upper Holland Lake is located somewhere up in the mountains and the water flows from the upper lake down a series of rivers and waterfalls before feeding into the lower lake. Both lakes were absolutely stunning! The water was so still that it mirrored the forest and snowy peaks in the background. It was so quiet and peaceful.

Justin on a mission...

We wanted to hike to the nearest waterfall but ended up taking a 14 mile hike to visit the upper lake. The 14 mile hike was really treacherous, with river crossings and...guess what....snow! And at this time of the year!

Lower Holland Lake (Taken on the way to the upper lake)

Upper Holland Lake

The snow appeared in patches and covered several parts of the route the higher we went. I wasn't really prepared for the snow and river crossings and was only wearing sandals. My feet were so cold that I lost all feeling in them, which was just as well because they were continously being pierced by sticks and stones along the route. The route would sometimes take us along the river, and I could see and hear the roar and power of the river. That was nature at it's best, and it was truly humbling.

Treacherous crossings!

There were several "heart in the mouth" moments though, like when I was trying to cross a patch of snow just wearing sandals. The sandals had no grip and it was slippery. One slip and I would have gone tumbling down the side of the mountain.

Slippery moments!

The other moment was Justin's leap across a swollen river. I knew it was too wide for me to jump across, hence I simply waded through the icy water to the other side, getting my feet wet and cold (again!). Justin wanted to remain dry and hence tried to jump across it. But before that, he had the smart idea to give me the camera to record his leap of faith. He leapt....I thought he was going to die....and he landed safely on the other side. He must have felt like a child....jumping around and putting strange things into his mouth (like flowers), telling me they were edible.

Justin's leap of death!

Anyway, it was an amazing time and I still think about it every night before I sleep. After our adventures at Holland Lake, a few days later, we brought our tired and broken bodies to Hot Springs!

Yes...I kid you not...there's a town actually called Hot Springs. And guess what...there's a hot spring there. A historic hotel called The Symes Hot Springs Hotel was built just by the hot springs and has been in operation since 1928.

The Symes Hotel

However, we decided to save a bit of money and gave the hotel a miss. Instead, we camped in the grounds of the hotel in our little tent.

Our tent

The spring itself is known for its healing waters and draws both locals and travellers from afar to sample it's wonderous smelling waters. If you think it's like a natural rock spring/pool, then you're wrong.

A very modern hot spring

The hot spring has been developed and it is now more like a jacuzzi/swimming pool. There are three pools in total, ranging from very hot to hot, and to medium. And the waters smell like sulfur. We enjoyed it so much that we soaked ourselves for hours and hours.

Mr June and Mr February. Which one would you take home?

Next post: Yellowstone! Stay tuned!

The Great North American Adventure!

2008-07-13T21:49:00.019Z

"How ya doin?" A typical greeting in Montana. I've just returned from a two week adventure visiting my friend, Justin, in Montana, USA. If you don't know where Montana is, look at the map below.

I flew in from London Heathrow, had a stop over in Minneapolis, and finally touched down in Missoula, the hippy capital of Montana. With a land area of 145,552 square miles, the state of Montana is the fourth largest in the United States (after Alaska, Texas, and California). Although the state ranks fourth in area, it is ranked 44th in population, and therefore has the third lowest population density in the United States.

Big open roads

Big open fields....and er...Justin doing his 'thang'....crazy hippie

Coming from a place like Bristol, I was struck by the amazing sense of space in Montana. In the towns, the streets are wide and everything is so widely spaced out. In the country, you get wide open plains bordered by snowy mountains and blue skies. Hence it's nickname "Big Sky Country". The people are amazingly friendly. Everyone smiles at you and some greet you by saying "hello" or "how ya doin?". No one locks their houses or their cars. My car would probably get nicked if I did that in Bristol. Gun ownership in Montana is one of the highest in America but yet crime is one of the lowest. Amazing but true.

Guns

Anyway, I shall get on with the tale. I stayed with my good friend, Justin, for the two weeks I was there. He lives in Missoula, hence that's where we were based most of the time. But we went out and about in Montana during those two weeks, and did many amazing things.

Good ol' Justin

We went to Helena to visit his folks. Along the way, we stopped by a town called Philipsburg to do some sapphire hunting. Yup, you heard me right....sapphire gems. Philipsburg has a rich history in mining and ranching. The roots of the area started as a booming mining town in the late 1800's. It's historic downtown is full of beautifully restored buildings from that era.

Philipsburg

Amzing ice cream flavours in a diner in Philipsburg

Today these buildings are full of friendly shops, saloons, and other enjoyable establishments. We bought two bags of rocks dug up from the local mines and got it washed. The washing gets rid of the dirt and dust and makes it easier for you to pick out the sapphires amongst the useless rocks. The washed rocks are then dumped onto a table and you then use a pair of tweezers to pick out the sapphires.

What happened to the hard hats and pickaxes? !!

Can you spot the sapphires?

It was quite an interesting process as I've never done it before and I managed to pick out quite a few sapphires of various sizes (mainly small) and of various colours (mainly shades of blue). Apparently the red ones (also known as rubies) are worth a lot more.

There you go...sapphires!

Justin showing all how to bbq properly

In Helena, we met up with Justin's family and had a nice bbq. Helena is the capital of Montana. It is the county seat of Lewis and Clark County and it has a rich history in gold mining back in the 18th century.

St Helena Cathedral

Helena's main street is named Last Chance Gulch and follows the winding path of the original creek through the historic downtown district. By 1888, about 50 millionaires lived in Helena, more millionaires per capita than any city in the world.

Are these streets paved with gold?

About $3.6 billion (in today's dollars) of gold was taken from Last Chance Gulch over a 20-year period. The Last Chance Placer is one of the most famous placers in the western United States. Most of the production occurred before 1868. Much of the placer is now under the streets and buildings of Helena (but even as late as the 1970s, when repairs were being made to a bank, a vein of gold was found under the Bank's foundation).

A dedication to gold miners of the past

Next post: Holland Falls! Hot springs! Action! Suspense! And danger! Stay tuned!

Update 3.0

2008-07-06T16:11:00.003Z

Ok, I know....the silence is overwhelming. What can I say? Well, many things have happened over the past few months. These things combine together to take up most of my time, hence the lack of any activity on this blog . However, I shall try to rectify that with this update.

For starters, I've been 'sort of' promoted in my job. It's not official, but my responsibilities have gone up. That means more work and more commitment. I've also got myself another motorcycle.....and a car....and a girlfriend. The last one seems to take up most of my time. So you can probably understand why most of my free time seems to disappear so quickly. The weekends and evenings are spent maintaining my two bikes and servicing my girlfriend. Any other spare time is spent on myself.

So why this update now? Well, I've just returned from an amazing holiday in Montana, USA, visiting the all wise and knowing Justin. And the girlfriend has gone home for the next two weeks. Hence I'm currently free and relaxed, although I don't expect this to last for long. Hopefully, I'll have time to write a couple of posts on my recent holiday, my vehicles, my current plans and future hopes. Stay tuned!

Animal Encounters XXI

2008-03-23T17:00:00.007Z

Finally! A spot of sunny weather has enabled me to get some shots of this elusive bird. For today's animal encounter, we've got

The Masked Plover

The masked plover is a large, common and conspicuous bird native to Australia, particularly the northern and eastern parts of the continent. It spends most of its time on the ground searching for food such as insects and worms and has several distinctive calls. Day or night, the plover can be heard making its noisy, penetrating 'kekekekek' call. Sometimes called the alarmbird (for obvious reasons), these wading birds generally gather in loose flocks, usually near waterways where food is abundant. They feed mainly on seeds, molluscs, worms and insects.

Looking for food

Come breeding season, plovers want their privacy and split into pairs to nest and breed from late spring through winter. Together they guard their nest (a depression or mound on the ground) and then their chicks, aggressively fending off potential attackers.

On the attack run...

Medium-sized birds, plovers are brown with a black crown and white underparts. They have long red legs and grow to about 35-38cm. With bright yellow wattles on their forehead and face, and a small spur on the edge of their wing, they are hard to mistake (and frightening if they attack!). Attacks are most vicious on other birds such as ravens, and also cats and dogs but once the chicks reach 60% in size after 2-3 months, the chances of this happening decrease. Strikes are much more rare on humans since they are more aware. Sometimes the bird can damage its wing in a strike but usually survives and is flightless as the wing heals. Some masked plovers never breed due to increased dangers such as people on footpaths, cars. Nearly always two birds are seen together, male and female but many can be seen in groups at times, especially during feeding on coastlines.

Getting uncomfortably close.....

Found everywhere except Western Australia, they are most often found in open grassy areas close to water. It's not uncommon to see plovers nesting in parks, playing fields or on grassed lawns.

I'm going to run away now!

Warp Speed

2008-03-02T09:51:00.002Z

Wowee! How fast time seems to have passed when you're really busy! It felt like only last week that I wrote the previous post, but in reality it was over a month ago. A lot of things have happened in the past month, starting with me ironically crashing my bike a week after writing up on it here. It wasn't like a big crash or anything serious. I was travelling and I hit a mud patch, which I then proceeded to crash into a hedge and ended up part sliding in the hedge and part sliding down the road. I suffered two massively sprained fingers and a heavily bruised knee. Thank god for the protective kit I was wearing! If not for that, bits of my knee would have ended up on the road. The bike just had some minor cosmetic damage, but it did put a dent into my plans to sell it.

After all that excitement, work started getting really serious again (not that it wasn't serious in the first place!). And then my birthday appeared around the corner. Turning 27 seemed to have just crept up on me. I still felt the same as I was 26...heck I still felt the same as I was 23! Well...older and wiser that's what I'd like to say. So wise that I kept my birthday celebrations really low key. I simply went out for some celebratory drinks with good friends at a nearby bar and was well in bed by 12am.

The following weekend, I had a really wonderful guest, the all encompassing and wise Justin, coming from London to stay with me for a couple of days. We both used to live together when we were in university and I had a really great time catching up with him.

Now, I've got my sister staying with me for this weekend. It will be her last time here before she heads back to Singapore for good. She has been studying in Dublin for the past three years as part of her medical degree and she will have to spend the final two years in Singapore working and studying in a hospital/clinic before she can be qualified as a doctor. As usual, whenever you put two siblings together, there is a small amount of rivalry and bickering.

Anyway, that's a really quick update for now and hopefully I'll have time to make another post sometime soon. I would also like to continue my animal encounters series which has been on the back burner due to poor weather and lack of time. But for now...warp speed...engage!

Breathing Space

2008-01-27T18:10:00.000Z

Inhale......whew! It's been a while since I written anything here. Ever since I got back from India, work has been coming in hard and fast. There were times when I felt that I would simply sink and drown from all those reports and designs that I've been doing. I've even taken reports back home to work on them in the evenings and weekends, which I think is a very bad habit and need to stop. Strangely enough, this weekend seems to be free from all work, which is good. It was one of those things where I thought ' oh crap! I'm gonna have to do some work', but then the work seemed to wrap itself up by Friday. I hope this will be the case for next weekend....and all the weekends after that!

So what did I do today then? Well, I went for a bike (motorbike) ride. Today is one of those rare winter days where the skies are blue and the sun is shining. Usually its grey/cloudy and raining/drizzling. Speaking of motorbikes, I don't think I've written on this blog that I've bought a new bike. Well, newish anyway. I bought a 2006 Yamaha MT-03 sometime in November last year.

Yamaha MT-03 .....sexy rear end isn't it?

Its got a punchy little engine and a very agile and compact chassis, great for filtering in traffic! I bought it for the primary aim of commuting to work in the winter. I couldn't bear to see my Cagiva being caked in road salt (very corrosive) and cack and getting wet all the time. And being italian, the Cagiva tends to act up from time to time (especially in the cold). Hence the need/excuse for a more reliable machine! So the Cagiva was stored up in a friend's garage and I used the Yamaha to go to work.

Nice and compact

However, although the Yam is very nimble and torqey, it is not very smooth. It has got a very lumpy engine, punishing you if you're in the wrong gear. And it has got massive vibrations on the seat and handlebars. Hence I'm thinking of selling it already. Strangely enough, the previous owner contacted me a few weeks ago to ask whether he could buy the bike back sometime in late Feb or March as he misses it. And I told him 'sure! why not!'. What a strange twist of fate.

And in the best colour as well!

Anyway, so I swapped the bikes over today, storing the Yamaha in the garage while I rode the Cagiva. And it was fantastic! Riding another bike made me realise how good and rumbly the Cagiva was. Although it wasn't as nimble as the Yam, it was more stable. And its got that really terrific and addictive V twin boom when you open the throttle. It brought shivers of delight to my spine!

If you don't ride a motorbike or don't like motorcycles at all, you're probably thinking I'm a crazy/sad person. Maybe you're right, but at least I'm having fun........Exhale.......

Sweet Memories

2007-12-29T22:28:00.000Z

It has been just over a week and a half since I returned back to Bristol from India. I went to Calcutta to attend to a friend's wedding. The wedding lasted for 3 days and was terrific. However, I missed the first day due to food poisoning. Besides attending the wedding and feeling sick and lying in bed, I also went around Calcutta and the surrounding countryside. As stated in previous posts, the traffic in Calcutta was horrible, no one followed the traffic rules and it was pretty much every man for himself. However, it wasn't all doom and gloom in Calcutta. I visited a very impressive monument called the Victoria Memorial. It is a memorial dedicated to Queen Victoria back during the colonial times. It looked like a mini Taj Mahal from some angles.

The Victoria Memorial

I also took a ferry across the mighty Ganges. However, all is not good on the Ganges. It is probably one of the most polluted rivers in the world. On one side of the river bank, I saw people playing, taking a bath, washing clothes, cleaning dishes in the river. And then I saw people relieving themselves, urinating, and doing some other unprintable things into the river a few hundred metres upstream. Not very pleasant at all.

The River Ganges

I also visited a local market. The market was bustling and full of life. You could buy all sorts of exotic spices like saffron, cinnamon, nutmeg, bay leaves, cumin, and garam masala.

Spices

Fresh fruits and meats were also readily available. Fresh - as in you buy your chicken live and it will be slaughtered right in front of your eyes. You really do need a strong stomach to buy your meats. And it is customary to haggle to get the best prices.

Lively and bustling

I then took a trip to the countryside as the bride's family had a country house and we were welcomed to use it. And what a difference it was compared to the city!

Peaceful and idyllic

The air was cool and fresh and the cough that I had while I was in the city disappeared. There were very few vehicles about and it was so quiet and peaceful.

View from my window

The country house had a pond which had fishes and prawns inside, so we caught some of them and had them for lunch and dinner.

Fishing in the pond

Fish food!

However, power blackouts are common in the countryside and we were unlucky to experience one during our stay there. It only lasted for a couple of hours and the power came back on again.

A cricket game in the village square

I really felt relaxed and calm while I was in the countryside. Hence it was with a heavy heart that I left to return back to the city to catch my flight. All in all, it was an enjoyable and eye-opening experience. India is such a great place to visit and 10 days just isn't enough to do it justice. I hope to return again someday to satisfy my thirst for more exploration. I really have to thank my hosts, Soorjya and Ishita, for inviting me to their wedding and for taking the time to show me around their amazing city. It is a favour I hope to return someday.

Farewell for now......

A Big FAT Indian Wedding

2007-12-23T14:42:00.000Z

I'm now going to attempt a short description of the recent Indian wedding I attended. More specifically, it was a Bengali wedding. Calcutta lies in the state of West Bengal, hence the type of wedding. A typical Bengali wedding will last for 3 days. I'm told that a Gujerati wedding lasts for 7 days! So it varies according the region. For Soorjya's and Ishita's wedding, the 1st day was the big one, where most of the ceremonies, sound, music, and dance were carried out. Unfortunately, it was also the day that I missed out (read other storey).

Soorjya & Ishita

On this day, the groom will head over to the bride's place, where all the festivities will take place. In our case, dozens of ceremonies were performed (to describe each and everyone of them would take a lot of time, plus I don't know them). A lot of food was served, and from what I've been told, the spread was sumptious and very rich. The couple and guests then mingled after this meal. By this time, it was night already. More ceremonies were performed and the guests stayed over for the night. In Soorjya's (groom) case, he and Ishita (bride) did not get any sleep till 5am the next day.

Well wishers

The 2nd day was meant to be a 'quiet' day in this event. There would still be ceremonies to go through, but nothing of that scale compared to the 1st day. On this day, the groom will take his bride to his home and she would now stay there 'forever'. However, they can't sleep in the same room yet.

Sumptious & rich food!

For the 3rd day, more ceremonies and more food! There was a reception at the groom's place for the guests and a buffet meal was served in the evening. All the guests came to wish both groom and bride a happy and fufilling life together. It is only on this day onwards that both groom and bride can sleep together, as they're now known as husband and wife.

They can finally sleep together!

I know I've probably missed out many important aspects of the wedding (gifts, customs, traditions....) so please forgive me. To fully understand every ceremony would take several years of learning. The worse part was that I couldn't even eat the food as I was recovering from a stomach infection and was told to 'take it easy'. Hence I had boiled rice, boiled veg and boiled fish - the plainest food you can find, while everyone was feasting on the richest food ever. Anyway, it was a wonderful experience and given the chance, I would've gotten sick to experience all this again. Wait...well.....perhaps not the sick part.

Calcutta: The REAL City That Never Sleeps

2007-12-15T14:12:00.000Z

Calcutta

Righty ho, I'm currently in Calcutta to attend a friend's wedding. Unfortuntately, I've missed half of it already. More on that later. Calcutta is truly a city that never sleeps. All your senses are assaulted at the same time. The traffic is never ending. Cars, buses, taxis, motorcycles, bicycles, tricycles, people, animals all jostle for space on small narrow roads. Traffic laws are non existent here. People drive base on their gut feelings and instinct. The horn is used very frequently, in fact, it is used every 10 secs. The cacophony and choas simply overwhelms the mind.

Local wildlife

Apart from that, Calcutta is a thriving and lively city. Every corner you turn you'll bump into shops selling all maner of goods, from sweets and spices to furniture and motor parts. The people are warm and friendly.

Constant smog

However, all is not good in the city of lights and sound. Lots of people are poor and sleep by the roadside. Traffic is heavy and pollution is bad. A constant smog covers the city from dusk till dawn. And I picked up a stomach infection which caused me a lot of pain and misery and to miss the first half of the wedding. I'm largely recovered now but am still feeling very weak. Thankfully, the wedding is still in progress as it lasts for three days, so I'll have some time to make up for it. Further updates to follow.

Update 2.0

2007-11-18T21:44:00.000Z

I've just moved flats and did not have an internet connection for about a whole month until now. That explains the huge gap in this blog. You don't realize how much you depend on the internet until you find it being taken away from you. I use the internet to check my mail, read the news, download movies, talk to family and friends (skype), and write this blog. Hence I felt like a fish out of water without the internet. While I had internet access at work, I couldn't really surf the net as I was (ahem!) working. While I was living in exile from the internet, I took up reading. Yes, reading actual printed paper hardcopies. It felt strange as I've not read a book since my college days. It felt unique turning a page, instead of clicking a mouse button. I guess in today's society, whereby one can find almost anything on the internet, books and magazines are being ignored and considered as expensive and troublesome. Why would I buy a magazine when I can read a version of it online? Only when I loose the internet would I start wishing I had bought the magazine.

Anyways, it is now winter and raining as I type this post. Due to the size of my room (big), the heating is not very effective, hence I'm feeling cold. But that could also be due to my bermudas and t-shirt that I'm wearing now. I look forward to my trip to India in a month's time where I can walk around outside in just sandals and shorts and t-shirts.

So, now that the internet is back in my life, I hope to post here more often (work dependent of course).

Autumn Colours

2007-10-21T19:33:00.001Z

Gold & Bronze

It's all quiet at the moment. The rustling of leaves as they fall and get blown along by the cold winds tell of the approaching winter. However, at the moment, its still mercifully warm enough to be comfortable without wearing a thick winter jacket. Life for me is also pretty quiet at the moment. After a short break back home in Singapore, my return to Bristol was marked by a really intense period of work. With project deadlines approaching, I was really spending lots of time at work. I'm having a breather period now to relax and refresh myself before the next wave of work hits me.

So what are my plans for the next couple of months? Well, in a few weeks time, I shall be moving to a new flat (hurray!). This new flat will be much bigger than my current flat. But its an older flat which needs some work done. Hence, not only will I be busy at work, I'll also be busy at home. And in December, I shall be going to India for 2 weeks (double hurray!) to attend a wedding of a very good friend, Soorjya. For this trip itself, I'll be travelling in the company of the all magnificient and wise philosopher Justin (http://justininengland.blogspot.com) , also another goof friend that has been invited to the wedding.

So what can I say? Its gonna be very busy for the next couple of months, which is good. As the days get colder and darker earlier and earlier, it is very easy to wrap up and isolate one's self (hibernate). All these activities will prevent me from doing that and getting fat. So off I go to...er...sleep now.

Winds of Change

2007-09-30T21:58:00.000Z

Its been a week since I've returned to Bristol. Before that, I was away for a 2 week holiday back home in Singapore. It was warm and humid, just as I remembered it. However, due to me being in the UK for the past 5 years, my body found it extremely uncomfortable to cope to the local weather conditions. But still, I was out and about with family and catching up with friends and basically, just revisiting old sites I used to hang out when I was a teenager.

The Raffles Hotel

Unfortunately, some of these memorable sites have been demolished to make way for progress in the grand scheme of things. New buildings, shopping centres, trains stations, bus stations, roads and highways, are being built. Many places now look so new and unfamiliar to me that I sometimes feel like a tourist in my own country. And I feel quite disturbed in finding my own place unfamiliar to me. Is home a place to remind you of your roots & childhood? Or is it a place just to provide a roof over your head?

Tropical fruits

However, I am delighted to report that the food still taste the same as ever! Perhaps the reason I'm so happy is that I've found something that hasn't changed in the face of 'progress'. Just imagine me saying: the food is as reliable and delicious as ever! I think no one has ever described food as reliable.

Bright & shiny

When I arrived in Bristol, it was really chilly and cool, a huge contrast to the weather in Singapore. It felt like someone had just turned on the air conditioning. However, I felt comfortable in feeling this coolness, like I'm familiar with it already, which I should as I've been living here for 5 years. But the disturbing thought of considering Bristol my home just flitted through my mind. I'm proud of my own country and that thought made me feel like a traitor, which was really uncomfortable. Perhaps I've now become what you call a global citizen, a person who moves from place to place but doesn't really settle down and has no place to call home. Or a person that considers the world his/her home.

Tropical jungles

Agony

2007-09-17T02:02:00.000Z

Looks like the previous post was a self fulfiling prophecy. I not only had to go to the toilet once, but twice during the half marathon! My time was 1 hr 54 mins. And I was actually looking to go under 1 hr 30 mins before my first toilet break hit me. I was pretty lucky for the first one as there was one of those porta-loos along the route when I had to go. I wasn't so lucky when I had to go the 2nd time. I was basically in agony for about 30 mins before I dashed into a hotel (thank you Ramada Bristol!) along the route to use their first class toilet. And that was how I felt for the rest of the day, even after the half marathon. I was feeling extremely weak and dehydrated that I had great trouble walking back home after the run. It looked like I was suffering from a mild bout of food poisoning from the smoked mackerel I ate the night before (grrrrr).

So there you go. Just imagine, assuming I took 20 mins for my toilet breaks, my actual timing could be 1 hr 20 something mins! Instead, what could be a personal best for me turned out to be one of the most agonising runs I've ever done. Oh well, such is life and I'm just glad I got through the ordeal without looking like a wimp in front of thousands of people.

Anyway, I'm now back home in Singapore and its humid as hell! Well, almost. The recent rains seems to have cooled things down a bit and the breeze whispering at me feels pretty soothing. I've met up with most of my friends and family and I've just couple of days left before I return to England. I'm gonna feel pretty homesick when I do. The journey back is always never pleasant.

Homecoming

2007-09-09T05:55:00.000Z

Well, in about two and a half hours, I'll be running the Bristol Half Marathon. I woke up early today so I could have a proper breakfast, and most importantly, go to the toilet. Believe me, its the most fustrating and, might I say, embarrasing moment when you're doing an event in the public eye and then suddenly, you just have to answer the call of nature. This is confounded by the lack of toilets when the feeling hits you. Where are the toilets when you need them?! The is the stuff nightmares are made out of.

Anyway, I'm expecting to finish the half marathon in 1 hour and 30 -45 mins. That should be a reasonable enough target for me. I am also going home (i.e. Singapore!) for two weeks tomorrow. That is the day after the half marathon. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep peacefully on the flight home and not cramp up my body. The flight is 13 hours, so I'll be watching lots of in-flight movies and sleeping.

So thank you all for your kind words of support. For the silent majority of you, I'm sure you'll be supporting me in your heart and you're just too modest to voice it all out :-) Hopefully, fingers crossed, I won't be needing the toilet when I'm running. Now......all I have to do is go to the loo.

Animal Encounters XX

2007-08-27T07:50:00.000Z

The Pygmy Hippo

Much smaller than the common hippopotamus, with proportionally longer legs, a smaller head, less prominent eyes and ears more towards the side of the head. The pygmy hippo's nose and ears can be closed under water - an adaptation to aquatic life. The skin is hairless and sensitive to the sun, but is kept supple and moisturised by a fluid that oozes from glands all over the skin. This gives the Pygmy Hippo a glossy sheen all over. Adults stand about 0.75m high and weigh up to 275 kg.

"Zzzzzz"

Most of the day is spent resting in ponds swamps and rivers,soaking in water in order to keep their skin healthy, but at night they emerge and wander along channels in swamps and into forests, feeding on lush waterside vegetation. Generally they are quiet, but they can make a range of snorting and grunting sounds - sounds that probably travel well through the dense vegetation in which they live.

"Zzzzz"

In the wild, females usually breed once every two years. A single youngster is born, after a gestation period of about 6 months. The baby weighs 4.5 - 6.2 kg. The baby hippo is unable to walk very far at first, and its mother conceals it in thick cover, visiting it to feed it. After three months it is able to feed on vegetation. The mother encourages the young to move on at two years, when she may have another calf. It will be able to breed for themselves by the age of 4 or 5 . In captivity, their lifespan is about 30+ years.

"Glug..glug...glug..glug.."

Pygmy hippos were thought to sweat blood. The clear fluid that oozes continuously from glands on the surface of the hippo's skin can look reddish in colour in certain conditions, as it picks up the reddish brown colour of the skin itself. Early explorers thought that the skin of these animals was covered in blood - that the hippo must be sweating blood!

"Sniff....sniff....sniff"

The pygmy hippo is threatened in the wild - where perhaps only 2000-3000 of these animals survive. In Liberia, destruction of forests surrounding the Sapo National Park by logging companies is damaging one of the few remaining strongholds for the pygmy hippo. Bristol Zoo Gardens is part of an international captive breeding programme for the pygmy hippo.

The Running Mouse

2007-08-08T20:20:00.000Z

Alright! I'm running the Bristol Half Marathon on the 9th of Sept in aid of the Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal charity. Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal was founded in 1995, to raise £11 million towards the planned £22 million cost of the new Royal Hospital for Children in Bristol. In the end, in addition to the £11 million, they also raised an extra £1 million towards a wonderful programme of art in the new hospital. Now, they need money for limb reconstruction and the building of a new medical ward for children suffering from a complex range of medical conditions who need to be constantly monitored. The medical ward will treat children aged 0-12 years old suffering from a range of non surgical medical conditions including cycstic fibrosis, rheumatological arthritis, diabetes and those children with special needs that require specialist individual care.

Your support and donations will be greatly appreciated! Any amount, great or small, will be welcomed. You can do it online for me at http://www.justgiving.com/runningmouse

And if you're free on the 9th of Sept, why not come down and support me in Bristol? The atmosphere will be fantastic, with lots of activities available besides running. Thank you for reading this and see you at the finishing line!

Are you an 'A' and other stuff....

2007-07-29T21:47:00.000Z

That's right. Are you an 'A' ? Does your name starts with the letter A? I'm painstakingly transfering all my contact numbers on my old mobile phone to a new one. And the names of people starting with 'A' are more than the names of people starting with the other letters of the aphabetical order. For the record, I've 23 'A' people on my mobile phone. Thats 10 more than the next nearest letter, J. The name that is repeated the most on my phone is Ben. I have 5 Bens, followed by 4 Dans, and 3 Daves. So 'A' people, congratulations! You've beaten the record :-)

Workwise, it has started to become a bit monotonous. I work, eat, sleep, day in day out. Hopefully I shall be able to break this habbit soon. On another matter, the weather has started to lighten up slightly. It has been pouring with rain for the past few weeks, with various parts of England suffering from floods and its after effects. However, today was sunny and the forecast for next week seem to be pretty sunny too. Let's hope it lasts much longer this time round.

A pot of gold just over the next house?

The lighter side of motorbiking

2007-07-15T20:41:00.000Z

I came across these few strips drawn by a very well know local artist near home. I have to say I find them quite funny.

Animal Encounters XIX

2007-07-08T20:58:00.000Z

Hey there! Its been a long time since the last encounter. But its good to be back! So without further ado, this week's special is.....

The Roul-Roul Partridge

The roul-roul partridge is found in on the Asia continent, in places like Thailand, Brunei, and Malaysia. They are approximately 26 cm in length, weighing 200 g (female) to 230 g (male). It is an unmistakable bird with a spectacular reddish crest, dark plumage and bright red bare parts. The female is very different from the male, but equally distinctive, with most of the plumage green and head grey. The young birds resemble the female but with more mottled colouring. The young male has a greyish belly.

Check out my super cool mohawk!

The roul-roul partridge lives on the forest floor in large gregarious groups of up to 40 birds, that spend the day foraging for fruits, seeds and insects.

I'm so camouflaged! Opps I forgot I've got pink legs.....

The roul-roul often follows wild pigs around the forest, feeding on the pig's leftovers, such as half-eaten fruits. They use their feet to scratch for food in the leaf-litter.

I'm doing the poka dance....to look for food

The birds have a loud alarm call that is uttered when danger threatens. A quiet whistle is also used by family members to stay together in dense forest cover. The nest is a complex dome construction made of leaves and twigs that hides the female completely when she is inside. Five to six eggs are laid and incubation is undertaken by the female and lasts about 18-19 days. When the chicks hatch they are well developed, but still need to be fed by the female for the first week. They stay with the parents for a further three months.

Aye, a stash of whiskey hidden under this rock! Damn I've only got a beak....

The roul-roul partridge is not considered to be globally threatened but it is vulnerable to habitat destruction particularly due to logging. What was once a widespread species is now limited in its distribution. Did you know that the nest dome of this species can be burst open in a hurry if predators threaten, allowing nesting material to fall onto the eggs, perhaps hiding them from sight. No? Well, now you do!

Folk Free Rain....

2007-07-02T22:24:00.000Z

Finally! I've now finished my internal secondment at work. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, go read my previous posts. So that means I'm relaxing now, listening to great music, and typing on this blog. Speaking of which, I watched a really nice gig on Sunday. The band is called Malarchy and they play gypsy/balkan/folk music, which I wholeheartedly recommend. If you would like to hear some of their music, they've got a website on myspace which you can go and listen or download. It is at http://www.myspace.com/malarchyband .

And also, if you've been living in the British Isles recently, you'll probably know that we've been experiencing some really shitty weather. Several towns in the Midlands were flooded last week. Over here in Bristol, we're getting it easy. While there have been some downpours, no floods were reported. What we are experiencing now is 5 mins of rain, followed by 5 mins of sunshine, and then rain again. The cycle repeats itself throughout the day. I find this really fustrating. Anyway it tells us that mother earth is going crazy over the changes in climate...

So, now that I've got more free time on my hands, I shall be updating this blog more often. Peace out.....and stay dry.

Taking stock

2007-06-10T09:20:00.000Z

Good morning fellow blog readers! It has been quite some time since I last blogged here. This is mainly due to working commitments. If you've read my previous posts, you'll probably know that I'm doing a 3 month internal secondment in my company to another department. I foolishly chose the Quantity Surveying (QS) group, and I'm now regretting it. Basically, it's all about counting and measuring. Lots of counting and measuring of light fittings, sockets, cables and many more minute building elements. However, the good thing now is that I've already completed 2 months and 1 week of my secondment, leaving me just three weeks to go! (You can tell I'm keeping count of this) So once I've completed the secondment, I should have more time to do what I want, i.e. going out, socialising, relaxing, motorcycling, blogging....

On a totally separate matter, I helped a friend to paint a wall yesterday. Nothing fancy, just applying a normal coat of paint to a wall the size of roughly 5m lengthwise and 2m heightwise. And I found it hard work! I know I might be a softie but it was surprising how fast I tired out. My arm started aching just a couple of minutes into painting and I had to hold the roller brush with two hands towards the end as I could barely lift it! And it was also amazingly difficult to apply an even coat of paint. Ok...well the wall wasn't a smooth wall, it had a rough pitted surface, but still....I was very surprised by the difficulty of the task. I did complete the painting in the end, but the simple task had me humbled.

Oh how I wish she could help me paint the wall....

Anyway, we're now into the full swing of summer. And that means pleasant warm temperatures, plenty of sunshine, nice cool evenings, and yummy bbqs, and hot girls dressed in nothing much :-) Oh well, I'm such a pervert....

Sailing.....

2007-05-22T21:56:00.000Z

Docks at Dartmouth

I went sailing last weekend. It was a 3 day sailing trip and it was with some colleagues from work. We sailed from Dartmouth to Newton Ferrers, a small quaint village along the coast, and back.

The Margarita

Our sailboat, the Margarita, was a 36ft sailboat. It had accomodation for a crew of 6. The first day of our sailing trip was horrible. We had really bad weather. The sea was so choppy and rough that 2 of the crew were sick (not me!). I came close to losing it too. It took a lot of mind control not to throw up. And it was cold and raining! In other words, it was a storm that we sailed in. It was so bad that another boat that was following us had to pull into an earlier port. We managed to reach Newton Ferrers all in one piece. It was only after we had docked that we found out that we were sailing in Force 6-7 winds. That meant near gale force winds! We were all quite chuffed at that (or at least I was, being a complete novice).

Sailing!

Newton Ferrers is small, quaint, and beautiful. I shall let the pictures speak for themselves.

Newton Ferrers (from shore)

Newton Ferrers (from boat)

The Dolphin (nice pub in Newton Ferrers)

Unfurling the sail the next day [me (deckhand) on the left, Tim (skipper) on the right]

Day 2 was great! We sailed from Newton Ferrers to another small coastal village called Salcombe. This was on the way back to Dartmouth. The weather was terrific! We had good winds and lots of sunshine. We did some proper and good sailing on day 2. We were all very happy and no one got sick.

Salcombe

WWII Memorial in Salcombe

On day 3, we sailed from Salcombe back to Dartmouth. Day 3 was alright. We had plenty of sunshine but not much wind. Some of the boats had to use their motor to get them to their destinations. However we were lucky as we left Salcombe early and caught much of the winds before they died down later in the day.

In action! Look at the tilt of the boat! That's sailing for you....

Along the way, we met an old sailboat and a naval warship.

Really old sailboat (Arrghh me mateys!)

Naval warship

Overall, I found sailing to be enjoyable. I enjoyed the camaraderie on the boat and visiting quaint villages along the beautiful English coast. It provided a welcome break from work. Although the first day was scary, I'm still in one piece. And I now have sunburnt ears.

The heroic crew of the Margarita!

1 down, 2 more to go...and counting!

2007-05-12T07:41:00.000Z

Whew! The end of another exhausting week. Its been such a long time that I've written any real post. What can I say? Guilty as charged. Work is not very enjoyable these days. I'm currently doing a 3 month internal secondment within the company as part of my graduate training. And it was my mistake that I chose the QS (Quantity Surveying) dept. I've been there for a month already and all I've done so far is count. Yes, you heard me, count ( as in 1,2,3....). I count the number of light fittings in a building, the number of electrical sockets, the number of fire detectors, so on and so forth. Its a smashing job....as in I occasionally feel like smashing my head into the computer screen.

But I guess its part of the training isn't it? You have to really do mundane and tedious work to learn about the job. Except that I don't really like it. Sigh....at least its just for 3 months. And I've already done a month....so I count two more months. Smashing.

Animal Encounters XIIX

2007-04-29T16:19:00.000Z

The Giant Tortoise

The male giant tortoise at Bristol Zoo Gardens is currently at the centre of a very exciting debate. Previously it was thought to belong to a species called the Aldabran giant tortoise, but in the last few years, it has been suggested that it may be a survivor from a species that was thought extinct - the Seychelles giant tortoise (Dipsochelys hololissa). Their lifespan is at least 100 years, possibly up to 150. The Zoo's male is thought to be over 80 years old - a survivor from an almost extinct species. Giant tortoises grow steadily for the first 40 years of their lives and, given enough food, can weigh up to 254 kg. The head and legs are much too big to be completely withdrawn into the shells. The shell does not need to serve as protection from predators because there are no predators on the islands where they evolved.

I eat.....

Little is known about Seychelles giant tortoises in the wild, because none are believed to be alive in the wild. The Aldabran giant tortoises still survive in large numbers on their island home, largely free of predators and competitors. They graze grassy areas on the island in large numbers. There are over 100,000 on the island of Aldabra. So many graze the grass on the island that the grasses themselves have adopted a special low-growing form to avoid being killed completely by the tortoises. The tortoises start to feed early in the morning, before it is too hot, when the dew is thick on the grass. By mid-morning they are still feeding, but now with their heads faced away from the sun to keep their heads cool. By midday, they have stopped feeding and have taken refuge in the shade of the few trees on the island. By late evening they emerge once again to feed. They eventually stop feeding after the sun sets, falling asleep wherever they happened to be feeding, ready for the next day.

very....

Tortoises are usually silent, although mating males make a hollow groaning sound that can be heard hundreds of metres away.

very....

Giant tortoises were found on all islands in the western Indian Ocean until Mauritius was colonised in the 1600s and an increasing number of settlers and explorers visited the Seychelles islands removing and killing tortoises. It was thought that all Seychelles tortoises became extinct around 120 years ago, with the exception of the Aldabran species, until reports of oddly-shaped captive tortoises prompted a re-examination of their identity. In 1998, staff at Bristol Zoo Gardens were excited to find out that their giant tortoise may be one of these individuals in question. After examination, the experts suspected that this tortoise was a Dipsochelys hololissa, of which there may be fewer than 40 individuals left in the world. Experts are still debating. The Nature Protection Trust of the Seychelles has set up a breeding programme to ensure the survival of this rediscovered species.

slowly...

Did you know that the name Dipsochelys means 'drinking tortoise' - named because they have a special flap inside their head that allow them to suck water up their noses continuously without raising their heads. Aldabra is such a dry island that drinking quickly and efficiently like this is an important survival technique.

yummy.....

Easter Eggs & More .....

2007-04-14T17:09:00.000Z

Well, I know its a week since easter and two weeks since my last posting, but what can I say? Time flies...especially when you've been busy. And I have been busy for the past two weeks. At work, I've just started my internal secondment to another department as part of my training. The cost management department is where I'm doing my secondment for the next 3 months. So far, I've just been tasked with the counting of light fittings :-( I hope things will get more interesting in the next couple of weeks.

For the easter weekend itself, three friends from Spain came to visit me. Hence I was a tour guide for three days. I took them around Bristol and Bath, seeing the sights, sounds and delights of the west country. And we were blessed with perfect weather for the whole weekend! David, one of my Spanish friends, told me that it was raining heavily in Spain and they were all really surprised at the sunnyness of England. It should really be the other way round! I also showed them the nightlife of Bristol, and for those two nights that they were here, we met some pretty surprising people around town......pretty twin sisters (imagine that! Twins!), a group of pirates (mostly females!), and some others. All in all, it was very enjoyable.

David, David & Juanjo

And today, I test rode the world's largest capacity motorbike, the Triumph Rocket III. It is the biggest, most bad-ass motorcycle money can buy! The specs are awesome, a 2.3-litre engine producing almost 150ft lb of torque, pistons the same size as those found in a Dodge Viper supercar, the biggest back tyre on a production bike…it’s simply an incredible experience and bravo to Triumph for making it. The engine itself is bigger than most cars on the road!

The Rocket III !

But it’s not intimidating to ride. Triumph actually softened the power delivery in the first three gears, so although acceleration is outrageous it’s never out of control. However, its still immensely powerful! I was cruising when I realised I had already hit 100mph and the engine was turning over at only 3000rpm!

It's huge!

Anyway, it was an amazing experience test riding the world's largest bike. Although it is a good bike, I feel that it doesn't really suit me. I prefer a more sportier bike and something less heavier and cumbersome. Plus it costs eleven grand! That is a lot of money for a lot of bike! Well, you get what you pay for.

It's sexy & powerful!

So, now that the weather is getting better (and warmer), I shall be doing more rides on my bike around the countryside, and will post some pics on the places that I have visited on my rides.

But not for me....

Animal Encounters XVII

2007-04-01T10:20:00.000Z

The Blue Poison Dart Frog

Poison arrow (or dart) frogs are brightly-coloured toxic amphibians in the family Dendrobatidae. Their bright colouration serves as a warning to potential predators that this frog is harmful to eat. The frogs' toxins are concentrated in its skin but these are not one of the three or four species that are thought to be dangerous to humans. They are small, rarely more than 4 cm long.

Me and my paradise!

These species live in permanently damp leaf litter on the forest floor. They are most active in mornings and evenings. Males have bright colours that they use to display with. Each male defends a small patch of the forest floor, where he will chirp and trill, while showing off his colours. If his display is good enough he will eventually attract a female into his patch.

Me & my love shack! Wanna come in?

They can breed all year round if food is plentiful, and the females will lay around six to ten eggs in a secluded area on the land or on a leaf. They are fertilised by the male, who then assumes most of the responsibility for caring for the clutch. He guards them and keeps them moist by transporting water from a pool. When the tadpoles are ready to hatch (usually three to four weeks), he allows them to wriggle onto his back and he carries them to a suitable pool of water. This may be a small pool on the forest floor or in the leaf bract of a bromeliad plant several metres off the ground. For the next month or so, the tadpoles feed on algae and dead insects in the pool until they are ready to change (or 'metamorphose').

Me and my waterfall! Wanna dive in?

They eat insects, especially ants- myrmevore. The ants supply some of the frogs' toxins. In Bristol Zoo Gardens, the frogs are fed on hatchling crickets, fruit flies and, during the summer, aphids. Poison dart (or arrow) frogs are so named because the poison from their skins is taken by Colombian Indians to smear onto the tips of their blow-pipe darts and arrows to help kill animals when hunting. In fact, only a very few species are used for this purpose, but this common name has been applied to their close relatives. Unfortunately, the blue poison dart frog is at risk in the wild due to habitat loss. This species is on a European breeding programme.

Unlike last year, this is not an April Fool's joke. They really do exist.

Old Friends, Old Times.....

2007-03-24T18:06:00.000Z

Recently, I've been spending a lot of time meeting up with old friends. Friends that I had shared a house with 2 years ago. It brought back a lot of good and sweet memories. It made me think how life was like for us 2 years ago when we were still students. Everyone that I know was till unchanged, and it felt like a door to the past had just opened up, leading to eerie feelings of deja vu. It demostrated to me how much I've changed/remained the same after 2 years.

But it is good to know that all of them are currently doing well or relatively well given the circumstances. I had promised to mention them in my blog, so here goes:

Federica has finished her studies and is now working in Queens University in Belfast organising glamourous cultural events under the EU banner. I think she'll mix well with the celebrities and famous people, so watch out for her on TV sometime soon!

Lucia is just about to finish her Masters in Italy and will be looking for a job afterwards, hopefully with Ferrari! But she was told that she'll make a good test driver for Lamborghini, so I now know where to buy my cars! (By the way, the Lamborghini website is awesome, check it out at www.lamborghini.com)

Justin is midway through his Masters in Buddhism and made the "short" trip from the States to Bristol to search out future PhD opportunities in Europe, and to meet up with his Spanish girlfriend, Ana, whom I also know very well. Bubbly Ana will be finishing her degree in Law in Spain in a couple of months time.

So in a nutshell, everyone's safe, sound, and doing pretty well. We all met up for dinner together, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was like old times again. And we all had so much catching up to do! However, good times fly by fast. So it was with a tinge of sadness that I had to say goodbye to them all as they returned home to their respective lives and jobs, with the hope of seeing them again sometime in the future.

Animal Encounters XVI

2007-03-11T08:50:00.000Z

The Cagiva V Raptor 650

"Holy Smokes Batman! Isn't that your bike?!"

I know, I know.....its not an animal......but its so awesome! This is my new motorbike! It's a 2000 registration. So it's almost 7 years old, but its very clean and looks just like new! Its powered by a 650cc Vertical Twin engine (V-Twin), the very same class of engines which are found in Harley Davidsons, Buells and Ducatis. It's got plenty of style and street cred, like most Italian bikes. But unlike most Italian bikes, its got power to back it up too! It can go from 0 - 60mph (not that I've tried) in just 3 secs! It is classified as a naked/muscle bike. And its got a very futuristic look to it, with a sharp beak-like head very much like its name (Raptor - bird of prey in latin). You either love it or hate it. And I love it.

"No Robin, that's the bike of Mighty Mouse, and a damn fine bike it is!"

Of course with great power, you need great control. This bike is one of the most stable bikes I've every ridden. It's pretty forgiving and very stable in corners, helped by its low centre of gravity, which makes me want to go even lower when turning into corners. I can't describe the feeling of exhilaration as you come out of a corner and nailing the throttle to the bone and exploding forward like a rocket! Its one of the biggest thrills you can get (besides flying).

Check out the sexy rear end!

It has also been fitted with aftermarket exhausts (Carbon Cans) that gives it a very deep growl as you start the bike up. I'm pretty sure I'll make enemies out of my neighbours in the coming weeks. However, this deep sound works both ways too. Besides annoying my neighbours and giving me great pleasure, it lets car drivers know that I'm coming, and...surprisingly....they give way and let me pass. Hence I twist the throttle and roar away.

If looks could kill....

After what I've said so far, you must be thinking I've become a hooligan. Of course, I've always been a hooligan, but I realise the dangers of motorcycling. So rest assured I shall, and will always, be practicing safe riding.

Why Are Men Happier?

2007-03-04T09:24:00.000Z

With reference to my last post, I came across this email which was sent to me by one of my colleagues. I personally find it very funny and, surprisingly, true! I don't realize how lucky I am until someone points out the obvious to me (typical male - that's what my sis would say). Feel free to copy this and send it to any women that can handle it and any men who will enjoy reading it. Anyway, here it is, in full cut & paste glory.

Why Are Men Happier?

Men Are Just Happier People-- What do you expect from such simple creatures?
Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just another snack.

You can never be pregnant.
You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.

The world is your urinal.
You never have to drive to another petrol station toilet because this one is just too icky.
You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.
Wedding dress £2000. Tux rental-£100.

People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.
New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
One mood all the time.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
You know stuff about tanks.

A five-day holiday requires only one suitcase.
You can open all your own jars.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

Your underwear is £4.95 for a three-pack.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
You almost never have strap problems in public.
You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
Everything on your face stays its original colour.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.

You can play with toys all your life.
One wallet and one pair of shoes one colour for all seasons.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife.
You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache.

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

In Pursuit of Happiness

2007-02-27T22:44:00.000Z

I'm not happy. I don't know why. I just feel that something is missing in my life. This was demonstrated most clearly at my recent birthday celebration weekend. While having drinks with friends, and going out for dinner with more friends, I pondered over the state of my situation, comparing it to when I was 25, followed by 24, 23, and so on and so forth. I came to the conclusion that something was seriously missing. Could it be money? Sex? Food? Friends? Job? Expectations? My motorbike?

Well, money and job would probably go together. I am holding (in my opinion) an ideal job for someone with my background and experience. Fresh out of uni, you can't really jump into a high flying job. And I'm learning new things everyday. Of course some days can be really boring, while others can be hectic. But overall, its all good. The salary is ok. I'm not filthy rich, and I'm not poor either. I'm comfortable. And I'm not overworked.

Sex? Er....well....I'm single at the moment. And I hope that doesn't last. There are a couple of girls I fancy. And I think only one has the potential to lead to something more. But the situation is pretty murky at the moment. So I'll just have to wait and see how it turns out. But I've been without sex before, for a longer period of time compared to this, and that hasn't caused me any problems.

Food? I eat pretty healthily. Lots of fruits and veg and water. A very balanced diet. And I work out pretty regularly too. And I make sure I get enough sleep everyday.

Friends? I've got loads of friends, as recently proven during the weekend of my birthday. Old friends from uni. Friends from overseas. Friends from work. Friends from home. Many friends that wished me well for my birthday.

Expectations? Hmm....what does that mean? Am I supposed to be in a secure job with a girlfriend or *gasp* wife with kids? A few of my colleagues that are younger than me are getting married. Or am I supposed to be back home with my family? I don't know. There's a big question mark for this one.

My motorbike? Hehehe, this might actually cure my problem. I'm expecting the arrival of my next motorbike very soon. And its one hell of a bike! I'm not going to spoil the surprise, but suffice to say, I shall be writing about it here. Keep an eye (or ear) out for it!

So what is it? Why do I feel that something is missing. Will getting a new toy (motorbike) or girlfriend solve it? Will earning more money make me happier? Will going home to my family make me feel satisfied? What, at the age of 26, is a physially fit young male that feels like he is 4 or 5 years younger supposed to do? This is in no way an identity crisis. Nor is it a midlife crisis experienced by many men around 40. This is not a moaning post either. I'm missing something here, and I intend to find out what that is.

Note: Coincidentally, there is a movie that has just been released, starring Will Smith called "The Pursuit of Happiness". I have to say that this post is in no way related to it. I have not seen it.

Animal Encounters XV

2007-02-25T23:53:00.000Z

Well, here we are again. It has been a pretty hectic weekend for me. Celebrating my birthday, meeting up with new friends, hearing from old flames, feeling grumpy and old.....all rolled into 3 days. What can I say? I'm immensely popular :)

The Victoria Crowned Pigeon

This bird is very different from the pigeon we are used to seeing in towns and cities. The crowned pigeon is quite spectacular, being blue in colour and as tall as a turkey (74 cm). It has a large crest of feathers on its head that can be raised - hence its name. It is the largest of all living pigeons and is found in the wild only in New Guinea and some smaller offshore islands nearby.

Meet Fred

These beautiful birds forage the forest floor for fruit, seeds and snails. They seem to spend time in small flocks. Very little is known about them in the wild as they live in dense forest.

Meet George

The sounds that these birds make are unusual. Their contact call sounds a bit like the sound created by blowing over the top of a milk bottle, whilst their display call is a dramatic 'boom-pa!'

Fred & George foraging around

Did you know that the victoria crowned pigeon is the largest living pigeon? But the extinct dodo - also a member of the pigeon family - was much larger, weighing around 14 kg. Like the crowned pigeon, the dodo fed on the forest floor, and with no predators on its island home of Mauritius and so not needing to fly, it evolved shorter wings and became flightless.

Fred & George looking faintly interested

They are hunted for food and sport and collected alive for illegal sale. There are also forestry and mining activities that threaten the forest they live in. They have largely disappeared from areas of human habitation but are thought to be fairly common in the wilder jungles of New Guinea.

As you probably already know, I hate pigeons. Not Fred & George, but the kind which you find in cities. The common pigeon. To me, they're like giant rats with wings. They're pests. They shit everywhere. On trees, on cars, on buildings, on statues, on me. Given the chance, I will stomp on one if I can. And remember, never feed the pigeons. Ever.

Happy Birthday....

2007-02-22T13:59:00.000Z

Well, well, well.....its that time of the year again. Yup, its my birthday. Or it was my birthday. Mine was on the 21st Feb, so its one day late now. A grand old age of 26 years! So what did I do you ask? Well, initially, nothing. After "some" persuasion from friends and housemates, I went out for a few last minute drinks in the end. I drank two pints of cider. Very strong cider. End of story.

Animal Encounters XIV

2007-02-11T15:26:00.000Z

Hello there folks! I hope everyone is well and warm in this cold but refreshing month of Febuary. The latest animal from Bristol Zoo to grace this page is a very elusive animal.

The Cassowary

The double-wattled cassowary is one of the largest birds in the world. Weighing as much as 128 pounds, only the ostrich is heavier. Flightless birds, cassowaries are covered in coarse black feathers, with the exception of the skin on the head and throat which is brightly colored red and blue. These coarse feathers are an adaptation to the thick vegetation of the rain forest where cassowaries live. The flight feathers are reduced to five or six quills on both sides of their body that protect the bird when it is traveling through the undergrowth. One of the cassowary's most distinguishing features is the large protuberance on the top of its head called the casque.

Check out my cool casque!

It is believed that the casque assists the cassowary in pushing through the dense tropical forest vegetation, and may also provide some sort of protection. In captivity, cassowaries have been observed using their casques like a shovel to search for food on the ground. It is believed that the size of the casque may indicate dominance and age, since the casque continues to grow throughout the life of the bird. Another distinguishing feature of the cassowaries is their wattles. Wattles are present in two of the three species of cassowary. These brilliantly colored folds of skin hang from the bird's neck, and may act as social signals in the dark forest. Cassowaries have powerful legs and feet that enable them to run up to 30 miles per hour and jump as high as five feet. Their feet are equipped with sharp claws and the inner toe is formed into a long dagger-like claw that can be a formidable weapon.

Cassowary chick

Double-wattled cassowaries are found in New Guinea and northern Australia. They are most often found in the rain forest, occasionally straying to swampy forested areas. They are excellent swimmers and are often found along river banks. Cassowaries are very important to the native people of New Guinea both economically and ritually. Cassowaries have been traded for pigs and even for a wife. Some tribes hunt them for their meat which is considered a delicacy. They use the feathers to decorate headdresses, and the feather quills for earrings. The sharp claws are often placed at the tips of arrows, while the strong leg bones are used as daggers. Cassowaries have been traded throughout Asia for at least 500 years, and it is believed that this is how the double-wattled cassowary reached Australia. For many native people, cassowaries are full of legends and mystical powers. Some tribes believe that cassowaries are reincarnations of female ancestors, while others believe that the cassowary is the primal mother. These tribes do not hunt or deal in trade with cassowaries.

I'm shy!

Although none of the three species of cassowary are globally threatened, all are suffering from loss of habitat. Their strict ecological needs mean that they are especially vulnerable to shrinking habitats. As rainforests are cleared, cassowaries are forced from one forest to another, often crossing roads where they are in danger of being hit by passing cars. Introduced feral pigs and dogs prey often upon chicks. In New Guinea, an increase in the price of cassowary feathers by the native people, has led to an increase in hunting of the cassowary.

On a seperate note, I've just moved houses and am now settling in. As always, I find the process of moving traumatising and troublesome. The decision to keep some useless junk for sentimental values compared with the need to be practical and realistic always have me gnashing my teeth and pulling my hair out at the end of the day. This goes to show what a stubborn old dog I've become ......

A Poem

2007-01-28T11:00:00.000Z

Its supposed to be another animal encounter post today, but I forgot to take my camera with me when I was at the zoo yesterday. So to fill up this space, I've decided to do some poetry, in honour of Robert Burns, author of many Scots poems including "Auld Lang Syne" which is generally sung as a folk song at Hogmanay and other New Year celebrations around the world.

I recently had the honour to attend a Burns supper on Friday night, which was organised by the people I work with. And oh what a night it was! It was held in a really posh and swanky hotel in London. And I was in the VIP lounge called the "Sky Lounge" of the hotel in Westminster. We were at the top of the hotel and the lounge had a 360 view of the London skyline, which was amazing. Then I ate haggis, which is a traditional scottish delicacy made from offal (which I shall not go into detail), and drank whiskey (everything went downhill from there). Perks of the job I say!

Anyway, the poem which I'm about to write is loosely based on a song from my childhood, but I've butchered it up so it comes across as almost original. So here it goes:

Early morning late one night,
Two dead dogs came out to fight,
One blind man to see fair play,
One deaf man to shout hooray!
Fancy fancy fancy that,
Hey! Fancy fancy fancy that.

A paralysed dog came walking by,
Kicked the blind man in the eye,
Kicked him through a six foot wall,
Into a well to drown them all,
Fancy fancy fancy that,
Hey! Fancy fancy fancy that.

Well? What do you think?

Animal Encounters XIV

2007-01-20T17:55:00.000Z

Ahem. The absence of any new posts after the previous one was .... deplorable. Almost criminal. But I've got my reasons. Work. Play. Travelling. Too many things to do in such a short time. I know, I know, I admit its all excuses. I shall be more attentive the next time round. Lets get on with the show then.

The Asiatic Lion

The Indian lion is another name for the Asiatic lion, Panthera leo persica, the sub-species that once ranged from Greece to central India. This animal has played a major part in the symbols and folklore of Indian culture for over 2000 years.

The Asiatic lion has long been celebrated as Lord of Beasts, and it became a symbol for human power and sovereignty. In ancient societies in India, to fight with a lion was considered to be the ultimate test of leadership. This gradually shifted to a somewhat safer, more symbolic gesture of a leader clothing himself in or standing on a lion skin. There were magnificent depictions of lions amongst the statues at Mahabalipuram. The most important use of the lion as a symbol of power and strength was associated with the Emperor Asoka in Sarnath, 2000 years ago. This depiction of a lion eventually became the symbol for the modern Republic of India.

"Hmm......I see meat"

As India’s population grew and began cultivating or settling more and more of its forest and scrublands, the Asiatic lion was squeezed nearly out of existence. Before they were completely wiped out, the lions came under the protection of the Nawab of Junagadh, a local monarch, who banned all lion hunting in the area. Soon, the lion population began to rise in number. By the declaration of Indian independence in 1947, the government had come to realise the importance and fragile nature of this last bastion of the Asiatic lion, and the Nawab’s conservation policy was upheld. Naturalists were assigned to study and take a census of the Gir’s lion population. At that time there were around 200 lions.

"Is she playing hard to get? Women....."

Today, the lions can only be found in the Gir Forest Sanctuary in India, which is smaller in area than the UK's new forest. This area is made up of dry scrubland with hills, rivers, and teak forest. In addition to the lion population, the Gir forest contains leopards, antelope, deer, jackals, hyenas, and marsh crocodiles. The lions are critically endangered and the last count put their numbers around 350. The Gir forest is not big enough for 350 lions and a few have moved outside the sanctuary, hunting cattle and clashing with humans.

Asiatic lions are slightly smaller than their African cousins, although the largest Asiatic lion on record was an imposing 2.9 m in length. Though they have a less well developed mane, Asiatic lions have thicker elbow tufts and a longer tail tuft.

"Its cold. Its wet. And she's not interested. Maybe if I just give her a bite....."

We have two Asiatic lions (a lion and a lioness) at Bristol Zoo and they are part of a European conservation breeding programme. You can contribute to helping the plight of the lions by adopting one at the Zoo!

The Merry Year Is Born

2007-01-01T09:46:00.000Z

Happy 2007!

Gale force winds blowing across the UK. New Year parties being cancelled in Scotland (due to the afore mentioned winds). What a start! Although I have to say having gale force winds blowing at you when you are at the top of a hill trying to gain the most strategic spot for watching the fireworks does add to the dramatic atmosphere. That was where I found myself yesterday night and this morning. Me and a group of friends were suffering from wind chill and watching fireworks being comically blown off course and exploding somewhere else in the sky instead of their intended positions. It was quite a sight and a great laugh! Of course, the night wouldn't be complete if you didn't usher in the New Year with a glass of champagne (we had fizzy wine but it was good enough) and a few muttured resolutions.

To make it even more dramatic, after the fireworks display, as we were making our way home, we were assaulted by a massive storm of hail and rain. Thank god I was only 3 mins away from home, hence I just ran as fast as I could, but still finding myself drenched as I got past the front door. Oh well, at least it was a fun night. Now I've got to chuck out the old, and bring in the new.
Best wishes to you all.

Bah, Hambug!

2006-12-22T16:47:00.000Z

Foggy!

Alright.....we've been having very cold and foggy days here in the UK. So foggy that its causing chaos in most airports. Heathrow Airport is one of those that have been badly affected. But closer to home, its been causing problems to my bike. Just two nights ago, my bike broke down on the A4 as I made my way home from Bath to Bristol. I called the RAC (a motoring association, similar to the AA) for their roadside recovery and was told that I had to pay £106 on the spot to join their yearly memberships. I didn't have a choice so I joined and was told that a patrol would be with me in 40 mins.

After waiting 32 mins, I received another call telling me that the patrol had just been dispatched and should be with me in another 30 mins. So I waited.......and waited......and waited. After one hour had passed, I tried hailing some passing cars for help as my phone battery was running dangerously low. Only one kind soul stopped and offered his mobile phone to me. So I called the RAC again and explained my location to them........To cut a long story short, in the end, the RAC van turned up and towed my bike home. The RAC guy reckons its a faulty alternator (generator) and hence the battery was not getting charged up. The whole thing took 3 hours, from 7.30pm to 10.30pm. And I was shivering from the cold and feeling extremely......unsociable. Just before he left, the RAC man wished me a Merry Christmas. Well.....what could I say?

Solo's Run

2006-12-07T21:00:00.000Z

Han Solo: Look, Your Worshipfulness, let's get one thing straight. I take orders from just one person: me.
Princess Leia: It's a wonder you're still alive.

[Pushing past Chewbacca]

Princess Leia: Will someone get this big walking carpet out of my way?

Han Solo: No reward is worth this.

That's right, I'm supposed to be Han Solo for my company's Christmas party. Unbelievable. Well, the party has a theme, and that is the 1970's. So most people are coming in flares and frilly shirts, like hippies. But my table has decided to do something special. We've decided to come as characters from movies made in the 70's. And that, unfortunately, includes Star Wars. So someone smart (Obi Wan) suggested that we all come as characters from the classic Star Wars film, and hence I was delegated the role of Han Solo, Captain of the Millenium Falcon, the fastest ship in the galaxy. Let me make this clear, I did not chose to be Han Solo, I was delegated the role as the other characters were already taken up. Given a choice, I would have prefered Chewbacca. Or one of the Jawa people. How the hell in Tatooine's moon am I supposed to pull this off, I don't know. May the force be with me.....

[after a successful rescue of Princess Leia]

Luke: So, what do you think of her, Han?

Han Solo: I'm tryin' not to, kid.

Luke: [sotto voce] Good.

Han Solo: [baiting him] Still, she's got a lot of spirit. I don't know, whaddya think? You think a princess and a guy like me...

Luke: [quickly] No.

Windy Blues

2006-11-26T22:46:00.000Z

Oh boy! It sure is windy right now in Bristol. I can hear the winds howling outside my window. The BBC's weather forecast for tonight is "wet and windy". Here is a pressure chart from their website for tomorrow's forecast:

As you can see from the chart, the UK is stuck between high and low, which means we'll be getting pretty shitty weather tomorrow. Well, its already shitty now but it'll get worst. What a perfect start to the week. And I'll be tossed around again like a leaf as I ride to work. Perhaps we should adapt, evolve, and sprout wings to allow the wind currents to carry us to work, or wherever we want to go. Just like angels ......

On another note (lighter or heavier, you decide), I'm moving again. Again you say?! Yup, again. Hopefully some time in January, in the new year. The place which I'm staying now is almost perfect. Perfect housemates, perfect facilities, inperfect landlady, which is a real shame, so I'll be moving. And I hope it'll be to somewhere better and cheaper too. It'll be like a bird looking for a new nest, a hermit crab looking for a new shell, a mouse searching for a new hole. The winds of change are blowing again .....

Biker Blues

2006-11-18T10:45:00.000Z

It only been one month and I've had to bring my bike to the mechanics three times! The first time was for general servicing. The second time was to fix the clutch, which was coming loose, and the third time was to replace the bulb of the headlight and fix some bits and boobs. The bulb blew while I was on the motorway at night, and it was a really scary experience. Its really fustrating for someone who just wants to ride the bike to work and back.

While I was riding on the motorway, I was hit by a sudden gust of wind. It blew me towards the centre of the road, with the oncoming traffic coming dangerously close. Again, another scary experience. I think my bike is too light, hence it's being tossed around like a leaf in a wind. I will be upgrading to a bigger and heavier bike soon, hopefully a harley or a triumph, or even a BMW!

I've seen bikes of the same make and model ride past me before, and they sound a lot more quieter than mine. After some careful observation, I've noticed that my exhaust pipe is bigger than theirs. I think the previous owner did some modifications to it. Which isn't a bad thing. It is just that I live in a quiet and nice neighbourhood, and I feel embarassed every morning as I start my bike to go to work, shattering the peace and tranquility. I've noticed the granny living down the road has been giving me annoying looks every morning out from her window. But screw them! Although it sounds like I ride a mean bike, there isn't much power to bring it up to the "whee!" speed. I've got to throttle it all the way to the end to get some decent power. And it makes alot of noise while I do this. Which, again, isn't a bad thing. It really sounds like I'm riding a mean powerful bike. But the opposite is true in this case. Looks like its bark is worse than its bite!

Animal Encounters XIII

2006-11-05T11:56:00.000Z

The Red Panda

The red panda is a raccoon-like creature from the Asian continent. It can be found in Bhutan, India, Nepal, Laos, Myanmar, and China. For many decades the taxonomic classification of the panda was under debate as both the red panda and the distantly related giant panda share characteristics of both bears and raccoons. At first glance it may have a raccoon-like appearance. The red panda's fur is long, thick and fuzzy to protect it against rain and cold and its colour perhaps helps the panda to blend with the reddish moss and white lichen growing on the fir trees of its mountainous habitat at up to 5000 m altitude. These pandas have fur on the soles of their feet to aid grip on wet branches and to keep them warm when walking on snow. They are 50 -60 cm long and weigh between 3 and 6 kg.

They are excellent climbers, using their strong claws to grasp branches. The jaws are powerful and the teeth and forelimbs are specially adapted for manipulating and crushing bamboo shoots and leaves, which make up 95% of their diet. Red pandas are nocturnal, spending most of their day asleep in trees. As their bamboo diet is low in nutrition, sleeping for much of the day may help save energy.

They are an endangered species and the major threat to the red panda is habitat destruction. The loss of the forests which support the bamboo continues at an alarming rate, due to demand for land and timber by increasing human populations in China and Nepal. Did you know that the word panda comes from the Nepalese 'Nigalya ponya' which means bamboo eater? The red panda is also known as the lesser panda or red cat bear. In China it is called 'hon ho' or 'fire fox'.

Look into my eyes .....

Halloween & Pumpkins

2006-10-29T19:44:00.000Z

Impressive isn't it? My very own Jack-0-Lantern. And I carved it myself! Ok, ok, I admit, I cheated a little. I used a stencil. Still, it was hardwork. And the pumpkin flesh was used to make some soup, which was delicious.

Without a doubt the most recognizable symbol of Halloween is a pumpkin carved into a Jack-o-Lantern. But as I just found out, the origins of pumpkin carving came from the Irish. For most of the general population it is known as Halloween and is a night for dressing up, telling ghost stories, having spooky parties, trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving. What most people don't know is that Halloween is actually based on an ancient Celtic holiday known as Samhain (pronounced "sow wan"), which means "summer's end".

It was the end of the Celtic year, starting at sundown on October 31st and going through to sundown November 1st. It was a night to honor loved ones that had passed on since the veil between their realm and ours is at it's thinnest on that night. It is also called the Witches' New Year, and the Last Harvest, though the religious significance of it has passed for the general public.

Fact: Did you know that pumpkins are not a vegetable - they are a fruit! Pumpkins, like gourds, and other varieties of squash are all members of the Cucurbitacae family , which also includes cucumbers, gherkins, and melons.

So there you go, a little bit of knowlegdge sharing on my part. So come Oct 31st, go carve yourself a pumpkin and have some nice pumpkin soup! Trick or treat .....

Vroom!

2006-10-22T20:32:00.000Z

Yeah...go ahead and drool! Its a Yamaha TW 125. And its mine. I bought it. I know its not a Harley, but I'm slowly getting there. Its got a kickass rear tire with a good grip and plenty of rubber to burn. Unfortunately, I can't ride it yet as it can't start. I bought it second hand and the previous owner has left it in his garage for 2 years. So the battery is pretty weak and some parts of the bike still needs servicing. He also did some serious off-road riding with it and there's still some mud under the mud guard. Plus I need to get it taxed and buy some insurance before I can ride it on the road. Still I think its a real looker....and once I get my leather bike outfit, we'll both rock the world ! Watch out dude! Hear me come....and bite my dust!

Animal Encounters XII

2006-10-07T17:10:00.000Z

Well, its been quite some time since the last encounter, which turned out to be a pretty wild and wet experience! Since I'm now back in the zoo, I shall be continuing the profiling of all the animals there. Hence, without further ado, our feathered guest this week is:

THE EAGLE OWL

The Eagle Owl is a species of horned owl resident in much of Europe and Asia. It is a very large and powerful bird, but despite its name it is generally smaller than for instance the Golden Eagle. It is the largest species of owl with a wingspan of up to 2m. Adults can weigh in excess of 4 kg, in comparison the common Barn Owl weighs about 500 g. It mainly feeds on small mammals but will take prey up to the size of foxes and young deer. It will also take many other birds including other birds of prey.

Silent and stealthy flight

It is largely nocturnal and is found in mountains and forests with cliffs and rocky areas. It usually nests on cliff ledges. They live for around 20 years although like many other bird species in captivity they can live much longer, perhaps up to 60 years. The calls of the Eagle Owl is a deep resonant “ooh-hu” with emphasis on the first syllable for the male, and a more high-pitched uh-Hu for the female. A recent study has shown that these calls are easily individualized. It means that each member of an Eagle Owl population can be individually identified by means of its vocalizations.

Landing gear

The size, ear tufts and orange eyes make this a very distinctive species. It has a strong direct flight. The horned owls are a part of the larger grouping of owls known as the typical owls, Strigidae, which contains most species of owl. The other grouping is the barn owls, Tytonidae.
The Eagle Owl is not naturally resident in England, but (ref. a BBC TV program) a pair have been breeding for several years in a valley in Ministry of Defence land in North Yorkshire. There is some debate as to whether these birds are escapees or whether they have arrived naturally from the continent which would only be a relatively short journey. At the time the program was made, they had reared 20 young to independence, and they had 3 young in the nest. Nothing was known of what happened to those 20 young, except that one of them electrocuted itself on power lines in Shropshire.

Check out those cool ear tuffs!

The Eagle Owl's scientific name comes from its deep booming call. The word "bubo," based on the call, has referred to owls, particularly the Eagle Owl, since the dark ages, and is mentioned in Middle English bestiaries. The difference between the male and female is very recognisable as the male's ear tufts are more upright than the female's, while hers are usually drooping down.

Hey there sexy!

So thats it for today folks, join me next week for another interesting episode of Animal Encounters!

All work...no play

2006-09-30T18:47:00.000Z

Whoa! Its been quite a while since my last post! I've started my new job and haven't had much time to do anything else. I'm now 2 weeks into my job and ..... so far its been pretty overwhelming. On my first day of work, I was given a pile of books to study and was told that I would be having an exam some time next year....yay...how horrific. Plus my job has highlighted how much catching up I've got to do (loads!). I've already forgotten so much stuff which I've learnt at University. But still, I find it pretty exciting and fast moving. My group is involved in the demolition/refurbishment/upgrading of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon. And on my second day, I was sent to Covent Gardens in London for a backstage tour of the Royal Opera House as there were some designs there which might help towards the planning and design of the new theatre. It was a tour of epic proportions....literally! The Royal Opera House was huge! And very complex! As for my 2nd week, we had a day out at CentreParcs at Longleat where we tried archery, crazy golf, some team games, and an amazing water theme park. It was for some sort of team bonding day, which happens only once a year. Not too bad for a start eh? My boss and some of my colleagues have been telling me that I've been lucky and shouldn't expect to have a day out every week :-)

Anyways, skipping over the small details, I'm now starting to settle down a bit. I'm getting into some sort of routine...as in...wake up, go to work, come home, dinner, sleep...of course with a bit of time squeezed in between for fun. I'm currently looking to sort out some sort of transport for commuting to work as I find the train too expensive. Just yesterday, I went for a bike assesment session....in the rain. I think I did pretty well and the instructor recommended me for an intermediate course. But I'll have to think about it....as its not very comfortable to ride a bike especially with winter round the corner. The thing with cars is that you're sheltered from the elements, but parking will probably be horrendous in Bath and Bristol. Well, who knows? We'll have to wait and see......

Homecoming

2006-09-11T17:03:00.000Z

Right, I'm now back in Bristol, safe and sound. I've been back since Wednesday, and that makes it 5 days ago. Apart from having really rough and calloused hands (unavoidable when you're working on a boat), all my limbs are twitching and functional. No sharks got a piece of me. Well, I did cut my finger on a shark's tooth when I put my hand in its mouth. It was a really deep cut and there was blood everywhere, but the shark was dead anyway.

Jellyfish

Everything in Bristol is still as it is when I left 2 months ago. Although the weather has gotten pleasantly cooler, the sights, the smell, and the people are thankfully still the same. It feels surreal to return back to the familiarity. And why not? For that, I'm grateful. The familiarity reminds me of what I was and what I'll be soon. I shall enter the life of employment in a week's time. To tell the truth, I can't really remember much of what I've learnt at university anymore. All I know about are sharks and how to work on a boat. Time to hit the books again eh? ;-)

Table Mountain Dreams

My time in South Africa now feels like a dream that happend a life time ago. Soon my hands will become soft and smooth again and all that will be left of will be memories. Despite feeling afraid and excited about my impending start of work, it still feels good to be back. Good friends here brighten my time and hold me to this place. That is why I treasure my friends, both here and abroad. They make my time worth it. So for the next few care free days left, I shall try to prepare myself for work and catch up with all my old friends.

Best friend

Shark Tales

2006-09-03T08:35:00.000Z

My placement in Gansbaai is coming to an end. I shall be leaving soon for good ol' bristol. But before I do that, pull up a stool, get yerself a glass of whiskey and let me regale you of my tales of a seasoned shiphand ;-) Arrgggrrh!

Sunrise @ the harbour

A working day starts with me being awakened at 6am by a flock of bloody geese living in my backyard. I have my breakfast and make my way to the harbour (20 mins away) by 7am. Me and Mandla (one of the crew) prep the boat for launch by 9am. This involves tying the bouys and fenders on the side of the boat, getting the bait and the chum ready, checking and warming up the props and engines, sorting out the wetsuits, and giving the boat a wipe down. Meanwhile, the skippers (Gerald and Grant) give their briefing to the clients about the sharks, safety, and how we operate.

Gerald Grant Mandla

We launch the boat by 9am and make our way to Dyer Island. The trip takes about 30 mins and the seas are very choppy. At full capacity, the boat carries 18 passengers and 4 crew. Most of the time(about 80% of the time) there will be someone getting seasick on board (not the crew of course). And they start puking out their breakfast over the side of the boat.

Boat & me

We anchor the boat just off the island (close to the seals) and start chumming the area and throwing the bait into the water. The chum is made up of fish heads (mainly butterfish and tuna) and liver of another shark (soupfin shark). The chum stinks like hell and is very oily. The bait is made up of pieces of tuna tied to a rope. The chum attracts the sharks to the boat and the bait gives the sharks a target to aim for. Once we get a good shark (inquisitive and not aggressive) around the boat, we get the clients into their wetsuits and into the cage. The sharks will try all sorts of tricks to get the bait. You have to see it to believe it. Some of them will rush from below and jump straight out of the water (called breaching). Others peek out of the water at the bait. Its simply amazing to see them try.

Once everyone has a go in the cage, we pack up and go back. When we reach dry land, we wash the wetsuits and the boat and go back home tired. Usually, its just one trip per day. However, on somedays we have two trips, depending on the number of people. I usually reach back home by 6pm and crash out by 8pm. This is what I've been doing for the past 5 weeks, 7 days a week. Its hardwork, especially when lifting the anchor and trying to keep your eyes off some babe changing into her wetsuit ;-) But seriously, its gruelling physical work. And I enjoy every minute of it.

Going home

Soon, this will all come to an end and I'll miss it. I've made many friends and learnt many lessons. And now.... the tale's almost over. Got any more whisky left?

Animal Encounters XI

2006-08-15T08:02:00.000Z

The Great White Shark

The great white shark is a streamlined swimmer and a ferocious predator with 3,000 teeth at any one time. This much-feared fish has a torpedo-shaped body, a pointed snout, a crescent-shaped tail, 5 gill slits, no fin spines, an anal fin, and 3 main fins: the dorsal fin (on its back) and 2 pectoral fins (on its sides). When the shark is near the surface, the dorsal fin and part of the tail are visible above the water.

Fins!

Only the underbelly of the great white shark is actually white; its top surface is gray to blue gray. This is useful in hunting its prey. The great white usually strikes from below and its grayish top coloration blends in with the dark water, enabling it to approach the prey unobserved. Great whites average 12-16 feet long (3.7-4.9 m) long. The biggest great white shark on record was 23 feet (7 m) long, weighing about 7,000 pounds (3200 kg). Females are larger than males, as with most sharks. Shark pups can be over 5 feet (1.5 m) long at birth. Young great white sharks eat fish, rays, and other sharks. Adults eat larger prey, including pinnipeds (sea lions and seals), small toothed whales (like belugas), otters, and sea turtles. They also eat carrion (dead animals that they have found floating dead in the water). Great whites do not chew their food. Their teeth rip prey into mouth-sized pieces which are swallowed whole. A big meal can satisfy a great white for up to 2 months.

Shark going for the bait

The great white shark has 3,000 teeth at any one time. They are triangular, serrated (saw-edged), razor-sharp, and up to 3 inches (7.5 cm) long. The teeth are located in rows which rotate into use as needed. The first two rows are used in obtaining prey, the other rows rotate into place as they are needed. As teeth are lost, broken, or worn down, they are replaced by new teeth that rotate into place. Great whites are propelled through the water by their powerful tails. The fins are only used for balance. Their movement is more like an aircraft's flight than other fishes swimming. They can swim 30 miles per hour in short bursts. They swim constantly or they will sink since, like other sharks, they have no gas filled swim bladder to keep them afloat like bony fish do. Like other sharks, their large, oily liver provides some buoyancy, but they are still heavier than water and will sink unless they are propelling themselves through the water. Also like other sharks, they cannot swim backwards or even come to an abrupt stop, because their fins are not flexible like other fish. In order to go backwards, they must stop swimming and fall backwards, using gravity to propel themselves backwards. Great white sharks can also jump out of the water (called breaching). They jump into the air from deep water in order to catch fast-swimming seals.

Shark breach!

And its a male!

No one knows the life span of the great white shark. Some people estimate it to be about 100 years, but this has not been proven. Great whites are decreasing in numbers and are rare due to years of being hunted by man. They are a protected species along the coasts of California, USA, Australia, and South Africa.

Cage diving

The organisation I work with (White Shark Projects) undertakes much cage diving with sharks. This was originally thought of as a bad idea, as it was believed that by baiting humans in cages, sharks would associate humans as food, through the process of conditioning. However, this is disputed as sharks are highly nomadic animals, their territory ranging over vast areas, even across continents. Recently a female great white that was tagged in South Africa was found swimming of the coast of Southern Australia. And a couple of months later, she was back in South African waters. Personally, I see a different shark every time I go out on the boat. We get about 6-9 different sharks a day approaching our boat. Hence this and other research show that a shark would never stay in a place long enough to become conditioned. The organisation also disagree that cage diving is a dangerous on the basis that a shark cannot mentally seperate the human diver from the cage.

Note: Many thanks to Dean for his wonderful underwater camera and photography tips !

Update: There was a shark attack on a swimmer off False Bay, Cape Town, yesterday. He lost a foot.

Gansbaai

2006-08-06T14:55:00.000Z

I'm now in Gansbaai, the world capital of the Great White Shark, with Dyer Island ( about 25km off Gansbaai) presenting the best place in the world to discover, observe and dive with these elusive and wonderful animals. From June through December, Gansbaai becomes home to the Southern Right Whale. This coastline and the many bays then become the breeding area for these giants of the Oceans. I've seen a couple a whales from the coast in the mornings when I go out to sea on the boat.

Gansbaai Harbour

Gansbaai itself is a very small fishing village. You can basically walk from one end of the village to the other in just 15 mins. It has a harbour where the fishing boats come in at about 2-4pm in the afternoon. The fishermen here fish a kind of fish (hope that sounds right) called Snoek. And you can also buy it fresh straight off the boat, where the fisherman will help you descale and fillet it.

Fisherman with Snoek

Descaling & filleting

Along with the fishing industry, Gansbaai has grown into a charming village and holiday resort. It has primary school, churches of various denominations and shops to provide for every need. Fishmongers are stocked with fresh catches daily. Gansbaai is a popular holiday resort for boating and fishing enthusiasts and whale watchers. Dyer Island near Gansbaai is a breeding colony for jackass penquins while seals breed on nearby Geyser Rock. There is a narrow channel in the sea between Geyser Rock and Dyer Island which is home to up to 60 000 Cape Fur Seals.

60,000 seals! Just imagine the smell!

The narrow channel is called shark alley. The sea around these islands have become the feeding ground of the endangered great white shark and regular shark safaris are undertaken from Gansbaai. Since the area around Dyer Island has been declared a nature reserve, boats may only enter this area with a permit given by the Department of Nature Conservation.

Shark cage diving!

I'm staying in a nice house by the coast. The view from my room is magnificent! It looks out to the sea. And I sleep and wake up to the sound of crashing waves!

Room with a view!

The winds and waves are very strong. Sea conditions can change in a blink of an eye. When there is a storm, it is like being in a middle of a hurricane, except the locals here just call it a storm. Many ships have run aground on the treacherous rocks around here, with the legendary Cape of Good Hope just around the corner (about 100 miles).

Treacherous swells

Beginning of an Adventure......

2006-07-30T08:54:00.000Z

Finally! I'm now in Cape Town. And I'm in an internet cafe!

My current view

I'm just glad I've reached Cape Town safe and sound. My original flight path was to fly from Heathrow to Frankfurt and then on to Cape Town with Lufthansa. However, the flight from Heathrow was delayed for 1 hour, causing me to miss the connecting flight to Cape Town. Hence I spent a night in a hotel in Frankfurt at the courtesy of Lufthansa.

Advert at Frankfurt International

The next day I had to take a flight to Paris, and then from Paris to Johannesburg with Air France, followed by a domestic flight to Cape Town with South African Airways. And sadly enough, all these troubles were caused by Heathrow's ageing systems and poor planning. I've been through quite a few airports during this journey...Heathrow, Frankfurt International, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Johannesburg International, Cape Town International....and I've to say that Heathrow is the worst of the lot. Poor planning, old systems, and inadequate ventilation led to long queues and rising temperatures (both literally and metaphorically). All the other airports were made of shiny metal and glass, very modern and contemporary. While Heathrow is just a grey lump of concrete shit. It beggars belief, considering that it is one of the largest airports in the world...

South African hospitality!

Anyway, enough of me bitching about airports. Cape Town is a magnificent city, dominated of Table Mountains. It is winter now. The weather at the moment is.....fresh is the word that comes to mind. It is not cold (temperatures are around 18 deg C in the day and around 4-5 deg C at night). It is very green at the moment. Trees and grasses are growing every where due to the rains. Due to Cape Town being at the coast, the fog from the seas blow inshore into the city in the early morning, and by noon, the sun burns it up, leaving it clear and bright. It feels like a coastal city in America (eg California, Miami) with wide boulevards and multi-million beach front properties.

Table Mountains dominate the sky line

However, all is not bright and white (pun not intended) in Cape Town. Just a few kilometers out from the airport on the way to town, I pass by slums where poor Africans live. And in the city itself, it is dangerous to hang around at night. The street kids take over and they can snatch wallets and cameras from you.

City Hall, with cloud-covered Table Mountains in the background

I was taking some pictures of the City Hall, where a street market in its parking lot was being taken down for the day, when a lady (I later found out that she was the market manager) told me to be careful as the kids might snatch my camera away. She was telling me to go home and come back on a weekday as the kids take over the streets after 5pm on the weekends (and it was 4.45pm already!).

Armed security

Rest assured, I reached my hostel safe and sound. Houses here are alarmed, protected by razor wire (some be electric fences) and guarded by armed security personnel. I've been to quite a few places in my life, and I do definitey get a vibe that some areas here are really not safe to be traveling alone.

Razor wire

Apart from crime, things here are slightly cheaper than Bristol. Food is excellent and really cheap! The oranges are huge and filling! People are generally friendly and welcoming (could they be thinking that I'm a rich tourist?). You can find street markets in the city centre selling African handicrafts to local food and fruits.

Street market

On Tuesday, I shall be starting my White Shark placement in Gaansbaai (about 2 hours drive from Cape Town). Hopefully, I'll have some really great pictures to post here soon!

"Wellekom! Wellekom to Afriika! Give me monie! Thank you!"

Packing Up & Moving Out

2006-07-24T15:59:00.000Z

I've been packing up all my stuff as I am moving houses. I find it quite a traumatising experience each time I move. As you're packing your stuff into boxes, you find things which have laid untouched and forgotten in places like behind a shelf or cupboard. And as you hold them in your hands, you spend time reminiscing how they end up with you. Each little thing you find tells its own story. And then you find things which you have to decide whether to bin it or to take it away with you. The dilema comes when your sentimental self finds it too valuable to throw it away and your logical self tells you that there is no space for it. Most of the time, I just have to bin it with a torn heart.

Material things aside, I find it psychologically taxing as well, as I'm leaving the comfortable and the familiar behind and going into the unknown. Memories of people and friends at Hodgkin House will always be remembered and cherished, both good and bad. But I think the change is good for me, even though it is stressful. I'll probably feel that I'm stagnating and start getting really attached to the furniture if I remain any further.

On another note, I shall be leaving for Cape Town on Wednesday ( hurray! more packing!) to do a conservation project involving great white sharks (see: http://holeofmightymouse.blogspot.com/2006/06/life-in-slow-lane.html). Depending on the availability of internet access, I shall try to update this blog as often as I can of my adventures in South Africa.

Animal Encounters X

2006-07-18T15:36:00.000Z

The Greater Flamingo

There are six different species of flamingo. The greater flamingo has the widest distribution of them all. Flamingos are found in wetland habitats; on coastal lagoons, mud flats and inland at large shallow lakes which may be very saline or highly alkaline. Flamingos stand up to 150 cm high, on long legs. They weigh around 3 kg. The head is a peculiar shape - and when feeding, the bill is placed in the water upside down. Water is sucked in through the partly-opened bill. As it is squeezed out again by the tongue, a row of spines or lamellae along the edge of the bill filter out the food particles.

"Blup! Blup! Blup! Blup!"

Flamingos are filter feeders, living off algae and tiny animals such as shrimps, molluscs and insect larvae which live in the mud at the bottom of shallow pools. In some years, the pools that they feed in are teeming with life and there is plenty of food to feed chicks with. In other years, the pools are nearly empty. As a result, flamingos do not breed every year, but when conditions are just right.

"Shoo duckie!"

Flamingos are gregarious birds, living in groups called flocks or 'stands' numbering from a few individuals to tens of thousands. Whether feeding or nesting they remain closely packed together. Pairs are monogamous - they stay together for life. They can be very noisy, having a deep goose-like 'honk'. At the beginning of the nesting season, flamingos perform mass courtship displays, where hundreds move together in a coordinated walk.

Check out those sexy bendable legs!

Flamingo feathers are tinged a wonderful rosy pink colour, due to coloured materials called carotenoids in the tiny shrimps that they feed on. If they don't eat the shrimps, their feathers turn pale. In captivity, they are fed special food that contains these natural pigments to ensure that their feathers are coloured.

A Mother's Love

2006-07-09T22:26:00.000Z

My mom is coming tomorrow! She's coming to visit me for 10 days. I love her so much. I have to say that without her, I wouldn't be the man I am today. My mother has been through so much for me. She taught me values and manners. She taught me honour and pride. She taught me many things. Now before you start sniggering and calling me a mother's boy, consider my situation first. My father was a working man. He would work from 9 till 5, Mondays to Fridays, half-days on Saturdays. After work, he would have his dinner and read the papers. The interaction with him was considerably less compared to my mom. Then came the divorce when I was 15, and I stayed with my mom after the separation. Hence he was never around much during my teens.

Regardless of my situation, I have to say that for most males, the mother is the dominant figure in their lives. While for females, it is the father. Hence the saying "mother's boy" or "daddy's little girl". It has also been said that when the sons or daughters grow up and look for potential mates, they try to get a mate which bears the qualities of their mothers or fathers. I'm not saying that I'm looking for a girl just like my mother, but my mom is the best woman in the world (in my opinion of course) and ..... I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut and have an open mind ;-) I could be wrong but I think this is the general opinion.

So no matter how old I get or what I do, in the eyes of my mom, I'm still the small little boy that cried at the first day of school. Go give your mother a little hug ......oh don't forget about daddy too!

Pleasant surprise

2006-07-06T14:32:00.000Z

I've just received a letter from the University today informing me that I've been nominated to receive the Wertheimer Memorial Prize ! Apparently, this prize is awarded by the Society of Merchant Venturers to a student in his/her final year for making the best contribution to the life of the Faculty and to his/her fellow students. Sure I did organise a few things but ......a bit of an overkill here. I think they've got the wrong person. Still I'm not going to turn them down ;-) Above and beyong the call of duty eh? Man, I hope this sweet run doesn't end......

Animal Encounters IX

2006-07-02T08:37:00.000Z

Slender-tailed Meerkat

One of the most cheeky small mammals from the African continent. They are only about 24 cm long with a 20 cm tail and weigh only a few hundred grammes, yet their character is so much bigger. Their bodies are rather skinny and their limbs slender. Their eyes are surrounded by black smudges, which may help to limit the glare of the sun in the desert. A series of dark bands runs across the back. They often stand up straight on their rear legs, with front legs held neatly in front of their chests.

Mother and baby

Meerkats are active by day, taking shelter in their warm burrows against the chill of the night. The burrows are complex and may have up to 90 entrances and several different levels. They usually stay within sprinting distance of this burrow complex, but launch food-hunting missions out into the surrounding area. Together they will cheerfully attack potentially dangerous prey such as scorpions, returning to the burrow with choice items of food to feed the young.

Ever watchful

They are sociable animals, living in groups of about 10-20, and they take turns to act as look-out from a high branch or rock, warning the rest of the group of any approaching danger. Their mainenemies are birds of prey. They often stand up on hind legs while on guard. The colonies are close knit with each meerkat taking on special duties e.g. sentry, baby-sitter, and hunter, to benefit the group as a whole.

Baby meerkat

Alert, inquisitive, adaptable and living in areas where there is often little human activity, meerkats are currently not threatened.

Bonus: The other baby in the zoo

Baby prairie dog

Since I've already done an article on the prairie dogs (refer to Animal Encounters V), I'm not going to say much here. I'll just post some photos of the young one. Enjoy.

Open Day

2006-06-29T19:41:00.000Z

Wonderful weather today. Today is one of those days that you wish it could last forever. Or that everyday could be like today. Wonderful warm sunshine and fresh cool flower-scented air blowing gently at your face. And when you lie down absorbing this wonderful warmth, you feel the tension in every single muscle fibre fading away, and time slows down. You feel at peace with the world, and very calm and relaxed. Until the next hottie walks by and your heart rate jumps up ten-fold. Yes, there are many hotties around today, as today is Open day too. Open day is the day where the University and all its departments are opened to parents and prospective students to come tour and sample the courses and their delights. Basically, its “show off “day. You see huge stands and flashy demonstrations being set up to try to entice the prospective student to choose Bristol Uni as his/her place of study. And some of these female students are……whew! Its gotta be illegal to wear something like that in Uni. But still…..the eye candy was good! I got into a conversation with one of these hot babes, apparently she was lost and couldn’t find her way around the University.

Her: “Hi! Could you tell me where is the Queen’s Building?”
Me: “Yes, its…..(I give her the directions)…so are you new here?”
Her: “Yes.”
Me: “Going take up Engineering ?”
Her: “Yes! How do you know ?”
Me: “Well, I can tell. You’re suitable to be an engineer….at least you meet the…….requirements.”
Her: “Haha! That’s funny!”
Me: “Great. Good luck and see you around.”
Her: “Wait! Could you gimme your number….”

Damn! Its great to be in Bristol!

First Class

2006-06-25T08:36:00.000Z

I got my results on Friday, and guess what, I got a 1st class degree with honours! It was totally unexpected. Well, I was expecting to get a second upper class (which is the next lower classification) but this totally blew it all away. After what I've been through during my exams and the last 4 years, this really made my day. It hasn't really sunk in yet but I guess it will sometime next week. I will probably sit down and think: wow! unbelievable!
A great personal achievement on my part, and now at least I can put some letters behind my name......

Animal Encounters VIII

2006-06-18T09:51:00.000Z

Now that the weather is excellent, the animals are almost raring to go! For this eighth edition, we've got:

The South American Fur Seal

The fur seals belong to the same family as sea lions (Otariidae, meaning eared seals). They are more agile on land than the 'earless' seals as they can move their hind limbs forward underneath their body which is raised as they move. Using their front and hind flippers alternately, they can move almost at a gallop on land. In the water the front flippers are used in a rowing movement but the rear flippers are not used at all. The fur seals also have a different type of coat from that of the sea lion, having considerably more secondary hairs, forming a dense undercoat which effectively insulates the body. Other seals have a thick layer of blubber to keep them warm, rather than a layer of "fur". Bulls grow to an average length of 6 ft. (1.9 m) and a weight of 348 lb (158 kg), cows being considerably smaller at 4.5 ft (1.4 m) and a weight of only 110 lb (50 kg).

In the breeding season, this species prefers rocky coasts, where adults haul out onto the rocks. They are particularly numerous on the coast of Uruguay and numbers are stabilising or increasing in other areas since hunting has been controlled. When not at their breeding colonies, these superbly adapted marine mammals spend their time hundreds of miles from land chasing shoals of fish and small shrimps called krill. They can sometimes be seen in the open ocean breaking the water surface to breathe. Their natural enemies in the open ocean are sharks and killer whales.

Check out the ears!

Like all fur seals, this species was hunted almost to extinction for their rich, warm fur. Until very recently they were still being killed in Uruguay, but in 1991 the hunt was finally stopped. Another growing threat may be the reduction of fish stocks that the seals depend on, as a result of large-scale industrial fishing.

Vocal displays

At Bristol Zoo Gardens, the seals enjoy the water. Lots of objects are put in the pool to keep them occupied such as rafts, floating logs and balls. They swim around and climb on top of these "toys". They are sometimes given ice blocks with frozen fish or fish blood inside. They play with them as they melt and obtain the treat inside. Food balls are attached to buoys which they have to play with and knock about until food falls out. This stimulates the behaviour that is natural to them in the wild.

Pup

Recently, the female seal has given birth to two pups, of which one is on show while the other is still in care. There's been plenty of new births at the zoo recently and I'll be profiling the cute newcomers in the following weeks to come.

Life in the slow lane

2006-06-16T08:07:00.000Z

Now that my finals are over, things are settling down abit. It really does feel strange, not having anything to do. My results should be out by the 23rd of June and I'll probably start biting my nails on the 22nd. In the mean time, besides watching the World Cup, I'm trying to pick up my banjo again. I bought my banjo 2 years ago. And strangely enough, each time I start to get real good at it, I've got to put it down due to other committments. And when I pick it up again, I need to start from the basics as my fingers have lost their touch. I guess this stop-start behaviour tend to represent most of the things I do in life. Picking up new hobbies and then stopping it once I loose my interest. I'm trying to change the habit as I know its not very healthy.
Also, since my exams are over, I am doing things at a really relaxed pace. The sense of urgency that was always behind my actions is now gone. And it feels quite liberating! Oh I'm stopping to smell the flowers too!

So what are my plans now? Well, for starters, I'm looking for a new place to stay with a couple of friends. Its time to move out and move on with my life. Don't get me wrong, the house (Hodgkin House) which I'm staying in is an excellent place and I get to meet interesting people from all over the world. I've had many memories, both happy and sad, in this house. But I realise that I'm now no longer a student (not for long anyway!), its time to grow up and get on with another phase of my life. But I shall miss the people and will always have many memories of this place.
Next, graduation! The ceremony is on the 17th of July and my family is coming! I've got to start drawing up some kind of itinerary for them as this will be their first time in Bristol!
And finally, I shall be meeting my destiny when I go to South Africa at the end of July. I'll be in Cape Town (or nearby) for just over a month and I'll be working with an organisation dedicated to the conservation of Great White Sharks! I'll be involved in (I hope!) sighting, tagging, cage diving, recording, and filming of the great white in its natural environment. Oh boy I just can't wait! So that is my summer in a nutshell. Of course there will be many more wonderful events before it ends (will it ever end?)....parties...BBQs....summer of love..... Aaahhh, life in the slow lane.....

Hurray!

2006-06-10T17:15:00.000Z

Its over!

Its finally over!

I'm done! I've finally finished my exams! The whole purpose of my 4 years being here, all over! I'm now coming out from my self-imposed exile. I feel so exhuasted. It feels like I've aged many years. But at the same time, I feel this joy bursting out from my heart. Like water overflowing from a cup. It feels so strange, not having anything to do. Not having to study or write reports or meet deadlines. Now its just the waiting for the results, which should be out in a couple of weeks. The mouse has emerged.....

Have you ever....

2006-05-23T20:11:00.000Z

Phew! I'm taking a break from revision. I did some pen and thumb twiddling during my breaks, and the result is this poem. My very first stab at poetry. When someone like me starts writing poetry, the world is starting to turn in the opposite direction. You see what stress and thinking about your past and someone else can do to your mind.....

Have you ever?

Have you ever wondered why, humans were created?
Have you ever wondered why, the dead are sometimes cremated?
Have you ever wondered why, y has a long tail?
Have you ever wondered why, when we try so hard we sometimes fail?

Have you ever seen, the Northern aurora lights?
Have you ever seen, the devil dance in the pale moonlight?
Have you ever seen, on a brilliant night a shooting star?
Have you ever seen, someone you love, die in a car?

Have you ever been, too scared to stop a fight?
Have you ever been, too stubborn and then seen the light?
Have you ever been, in a fight and regret the words you said?
Have you ever been, so angry and stormed off really early to bed?

Have you ever felt, someone’s smile light up your face?
Have you ever felt, really happy when you’ve engaged in a long embrace?
Have you ever felt, betrayed by someone you love?
Have you ever felt, sadness caused by the one above?

Some of these questions are written, just to really confuse,
But all I’m trying to say is that, life is so obtuse.

And yes, I have done all the above.
So hold me tight, my love.

So there you go. Right, back to revision.....

Crunch Time

2006-05-10T17:33:00.000Z

Oh man. This is really it. My FINAL exams. So much to revise yet so little time. I wonder why do I always feel this way when the exams are approaching. Even when I've done all the necessary revision and practice (which I haven't), I still feel the pressure and butterflies. Is it just me, or is it natural? And the worst thing is everyone in my group seems so calm about it. Maybe I'm just worrying too much.

Well, my first paper is next week, followed by one on the 25th of May. And then afterwards, all the shit will hit the fan. No doubt about it. And no misses too. I'll be craaaazzzzeeey from the 1st of June till the 9th of June. In total I've got 7 papers to plough through. And after that, I'll probably look really really bad.

How I shall look like after my exams

So, I think I will be taking a break from this blog till my exams are over. I need all the resources and time. Good luck to all those that are having exams at this moment. This is SJ....over and out.

Animal Encounters VII

2006-05-06T07:33:00.000Z

Hello folks. Welcome to another posting of animal encounters.
This time, we’ve got the

Ring-tailed Lemur

Ring-tailed Lemurs live in social groups in the southern forest of Madagascar. They use their tail as a signal to others in the group whilst foraging for food on the forest floor. The stripey tail is used as a flag when they are walking on the ground, held aloft where others can see. The tail is also used in "stink fights" where the animals rub their tails against scent glands on their arms and wave them over their heads at the opponent. Lemurs have longer and more sensitive noses than other primates. This suggests that smell is an important way of communicating for them. They also chatter among themselves with series of barks and alarm screams when frightened.

There are over 1000 ring-tailed lemurs in zoos worldwide, but only 10,000 - 100,000 in the wild. The dry, scrubby forest in which they live is being destroyed by slash and burn agriculture, charcoal production and mining for gemstones and minerals.

Did you know that Ring-tails in the wild occasionally pick up toxic millipedes and rub themselves all over with the foul smelling juices from the millipede. The juices may act as an insect repellent - the lemur equivalent of flea-spray!

Like most lemurs, you can often see them sun bathing in the early morning sun. Well that's about it for this encounter. Look out for the next one!

On a side note, I’ve been pretty busy recently, with many things on my mind and many things to do (exam revision, studies, housing), hence the absence of updates and postings. I’ll do my best to update this site.

Reality Bites

2006-04-25T21:46:00.000Z

Now that the Easter break is over, things are really starting to sink in. Deadlines and exams are looming in a couple of weeks time. The sense of false security that I've fallen into is quickly fading, replaced by urgency and fear. I was resting on a cloud, but I now find myself plummeting towards a bed of thorns (perhaps in there lies a rose?).

The love, the laughter, the pleasure, the euphoria ..... all gone, pulled out from under my feet, replaced by a desolate desert (is there such a thing?). The revision I did over the holidays ..... I now can't recall. Was it all in vain?

Perhaps this is payback time. Reality biting back, claiming back what was taken. The rollercoaster of life. Difficult as it is, the solution is simple. Like a good soldier, I'll have to battle on. Perhaps once I've reached the other side, I'll look back ..... and smile.

Black Gold

2006-04-18T21:57:00.000Z

Have you checked the price of oil? It now stands at $71.60 a barrel. As reported on the BBC, this price has been fuelled by Iran's nuclear standoff with the international community. Isn't it time to actually decouple our economy from oil? How long should our economy be held hostage by oil prices? Inflation, interest rates, house prices, car prices, electricity, air tickets, ....... anything that you can think of, will be affected by the price of oil. And what about the environment? The production of oil directly contributes to global warming. All nations should make more effort to improve alternative energy sources. It can be done. Imagine if all those monies spent on building up armies and weapons were to be directed to solving this problem, give it 10 years, I'm sure it can be solved.

But its not happening. Nations are not doing enough. Governments are giving excuses that it would affect their economic competitiveness. What is money worth when the whole world has been flooded over due to the melting of the ice caps? It becomes paper. We have to make some sacrifices. We have to sacrifice the paper called money for the health of the world. Take a look at the state of the world now and you'll understand what I mean. Floods in Europe, Hurricanes in America, ......

I admit that is a very simplistic solution, but hey sometimes keeping it simple is the only way forward. Alas, I know the top brass won't do anything substantial until people start getting wiped out like flies. It will be too late by then. Society and its rules and laws , as we know it, will probably collapse.

Enough ranting from me. I'm gonna start planning. I'm going to look for some high ground to build my "settlement". I'm going to learn some hunting & farming skills. In 50 years time, when the world has flooded over, you'll find me on some high ground, living simply. A simple man in a simple house...... want to join me?

Animal Encounters VI

2006-04-15T19:15:00.000Z

Greetings folks! Welcome to Animal Encounters, where I talk about a certain animal from my workplace at the Bristol Zoo each week. This week we've got the lovely

BLACK-CHEEKED LOVEBIRDS

This small parrot is mainly green with an orange patch on the breast, brown head and black face, with a white ring around the eye. They are around 14 cm long, with a very short tail. Much of a lovebird's day is spent feeding on grass seeds near the ground. If danger threatens, the birds fly silently up into the nearest tree. Drinking from pools and waterholes is an important part of a lovebird's day - the food they eat is often low in moisture so they need an additional source of water. They sleep with their heads tucked under their wing, or resting on their orange breast.

"Honey, who are you looking at?"

Unlike other lovebird species, these birds are not so often seen perched as a close pair, but partners do usually perch nearby one another. It is believed that pairs mate for life. Birds gather in large noisy groups to drink at pools. Lovebirds will often feed on seeds and fruits alongside other birds such as weavers and mammals such as squirrels.

"I'm pretending to be deaf"

The black-checked lovebird is Africa's most endangered parrot. There is an estimated 20% chance that this species will go extinct in the wild within the next 20 years. Restricted to approximately 6,000 sq km in southern Zambia, where the wild population is below 10,000. In the 1920's they suffered from extensive trapping for the pet trade. The population has never fully recovered, probably because less millet (one of their favourite foods) is grown and the area in which they live has become much drier. As a popular cage bird, there is still a real risk that trapping could again become a problem.

"Your place or mine?"

So its a pretty grim outlook for the lovebirds. Will they still be lovers? Tune in next week to find out.....

Peanuts again

2006-04-14T22:37:00.000Z

Once again, my favourite comic strip. I like to see Linus and Lucy together. They’re siblings and they remind me of my own relationship with my sister.

Animal Encounters V

2006-04-08T14:59:00.000Z

Hello and welcome!
Today’s guest is:

The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog

Prairie dogs are burrowing squirrels that get their name from one of their various alarm calls which sounds like a bark. They’re found in the open plains and plateaus of North America. They can live up to 8 years in captivity.

Check out my black-tipped tail!

They used to live in huge colonies called “towns” often containing several thousand individuals and covering many acres. But because they compete with domestic livestock for food and eat cultivated crops, farmers consider them as pests and destroy their colonies. Prairie Dogs have a high-pitched, bark-like call. Recent studies suggest that Prairie Dogs possess the most sophisticated of all natural animal languages. They apparently issue different sounds identifying various predators, which include hawks, owls, eagles, ravens, coyotes, badgers, ferrets and snakes. Prairie Dogs can run up to 35 miles per hour for short distances. The Prairie Dog has only one defense that works -- raising the alarm and disappearing quickly.

Attention

The Prairie Dog digs its own burrows. There is a well-constructed and frequently reinforced dike against flooding from sudden rains. The entrance holes themselves are funnel-shaped, from 3 to 4 inches in diameter.When a predator approaches, the first alert Prairie Dog gives a sharp warning call, bobs up and down in excitement, calls again and then plunges below. The danger signal is a 2-syllable bark, issued at about 40 per minute. Other sentinels farther from the danger zone take up the watch, monitoring the course of the predator.

At ease

Because they eat as much as 7 percent of a ranch's forage, Prairie Dog eradication programs have been underway for decades in the American West. But a growing number of experts argue that Prairie Dogs may actually be beneficial, that they are natural fertilizers who also increase the protein content and digestibility of rangeland grasses. Today, after decades of eradication by federal, state, and local governments, devastation from disease, poisoning, recreational shooting and habitat destruction , Prairie Dogs are rapidly disappearing. More have been exterminated than remain, inhabiting only about 2 percent of their former range. Colonies are being preserved, however, in Wind Cave National Park, Devils Tower National Monument and in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Reserve.

"Psst! Did you hear that Amy.........."

"Really? Oh my!"

So that's it for today. Join me again next week for the sixth (oh boy) edition!

The Ordinary Hero

2006-04-07T22:19:00.000Z

I must do apologise for not posting here as often as I initially intended to. I've been very busy these past two weeks, mainly writing up on my thesis. I'm almost done now actually, just got to do some tidying up. My thesis comes in at a mammoth 50 pages! With 62 diagrams and 46 equations! And thats not even counting the appendix! That's quite substantial for a technical report. Plus I've need to print three copies. That would mean lots of pages (including colour!) and lots of money spent on printing them. Sigh....life of an engineer....never glamourous, always behind the scenes. The ordinary hero. Speaking of engineers, this weekend marks the 200th aniversary of the birth of

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Oh boy! Wished I had a name like that. They don't name babies like they used to in the past anymore. Anyway, Brunel was one of the most versatile, audacious and inspirational engineers of the 19th century. He was involved in many engineering projects in Bristol and the UK that were ahead of its time. Borned in Portsmouth on the 9th of April, 1806, he was educated at Hove, near Brighton and the Henri Quatre in Paris. He started work with his father on building the Thames Tunnel. In 1829, he designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge across the river Avon. And it is still standing today, after 177 years! A bridge originally designed to carry horse carts ..... amazing.

Bristol Temple Meads

Brunel was responsible for the growth of the modern Bristol and many of its famouse landmarks, like the Bristol Temple Meads Station. He made further improvements to the Bristol Docks in 1830. The port was given a boast when Brunel decided to build his steamships, Great Western (1837) and Great Britain (1843) in Bristol. The SS Great Britain is now a museum ship open to public down in the docks. Brunel also helped the city by building the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol in 1841. This was followed by the Bristol & Exeter Railway (1844) and the Bristol & Gloucester Railway (1844). This stimulated further economic growth and by 1861 the population of the city had increased to 154,000.

The SS Great Britain

The demise of this great man was caused by the disregard for his own health and his undying dedication to furthering the engineering field. In 1852 Brunel was employed by the Eastern Steam Navigation Company to build another steamship, the Great Eastern. The Great Eastern was extremely large and was designed to carry 4,000 passengers. Brunel faced many difficult engineering problems on this project and the strain of the work began to affect his health. While watching the Great Eastern in her trials, Brunel suffered a seizure. He died on 15th September, 1859 and was buried five days later.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge

So when you see the performances and the fireworks on the suspension bridge tomorrow, think back, and remember Brunel, the great man, the ordinary hero. Without him, Bristol just wouldn't be the same.

Animal Encounters IV

2006-04-01T16:13:00.000Z

Greetings!
Today, I've got a special guest:

The Liger

Patrick

Long ago, outside the old city of Singapore, which was considered to be the city of Lions, there was reported to be giant brown beasts. This was before the Asiatic lion was reduced to such low numbers that their are now less than 200 left in the Gir forest. This huge animal might just be an explanation for this myth, for he is neither a lion nor a tiger, but he is about the size of both of them combined. The liger is the world's largest big cat. An average male liger weighs over 900 pounds and standing almost 12 feet tall.

Pretty much my favourite animal...

The reason that they are called a liger is because the father was a lion and the mother was a tiger. If the situation was reversed and the mother was a lion and the father was a tiger, he would be called a tigon, and would be a dwarf instead of a giant. A fully grown tigon is usually less that 350lbs. Ligers are not sterile, and they can reproduce. If a liger were to reproduce with a tiger, it would be called a titi, and if it were to reproduce with a lion, it would be call a lili.
Ligers are not something we planned on having. We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures. We had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl. Low and behold, she had giant brown babies, and we knew we had ourselves some ligers.

Bred for its skills and magic...

Our ligers were raised on a baby bottle, and they still enjoy getting them as treats. They are not tame from these activities, they are trained to behave. They will still bite or even kill someone given the right set of circumstances. Our liger could easily eat a hundred pound of food in a sitting but they tend to gain a little extra weight so we feed them about 25 pounds of food a night. People often ask what our big cats eat. They love to eat something called, King Lion diet, which is made basically by taking a horse, a cow, a couple of pigs and a flock of chickens and putting them into a blender on high with all they parts and pieces. This ends up looking like a raw bloody meatloaf. They also enjoy restaurant quality chicken thigh quarters and chunk beef.

Once again, thats all folks. Tune in next week for another enjoyable edition of Animal Encounters!

Peanuts

2006-03-30T17:50:00.000Z

This is my favourite comic strip.
Guess who I relate to the most.....

Animal Encounters III

2006-03-25T17:14:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to another riveting edition!
This week, I'm glad to have:

The Northern Pine Snake

Cassidy

There are four types of pine snakes that can be found in the United States. The northern pine snake is found in the Northern and Eastern-Central regions of the country, in areas with sandy soils and dry upland forests. The population distribution of this pine snake is spotty and all indications suggest that pine snake abundance is decreasing throughout the Northeastern region. As a result, all states in which they are found have listed them as either endangered or threatened. The northern pine snake is known for being secretive and is therefore challenging to study and detect. This species of snake, which rarely climbs vegetation and prefers to be on the ground, has the ability to tunnel underground and excavate its own nests, summer dens and places to hibernate. Therefore, scientists believe that it prefers the more pliable sandy soils and forested areas of the Pinelands.

Argh! Too fast!

The northern pine snake can grow to 5 feet to 7 feet long and has a black and dull white pattern. They can live up to 21 years in captivity. There are dark blotches along the top and sides of the body which are less distinct in the front part of the body and more distinct in the hind part. The belly is white with rows of black dots along either side.

My shielded nose!

This species of snake has a small pointed head with a tipped snout and thick neck, which are helpful when it moves soil around or burrows. It also has a special scale at the front of its snout that shields its nose and protects it as it tunnels underground. In fact, much of its time is spent hidden underground.

Check out my black tongue!

The pine snake is a nonvenomous constrictor. It kills its prey by coiling itself around it in order to suffocate the animal. Pine snakes are known to eat mammals as large as rabbits, as well as small rodents and birds. They are usually most active in early morning or late afternoon when they leave their burrows to hunt. Pine snakes are egg-layers and typically lay their eggs in underground nests that they excavate in open sandy areas. Eggs are usually laid in mid-summer, and adult females have the tendency to re-use their nest sites year after year.

Never do this at home

Photographing a snake is one of the hardest things I've ever done, especially when you've got a shitty camera like mine. Its also pretty dangerous. Thank god Cassidy is nonvenmomous. Its a she, and today, she was very active (must be her feeding day). We've got two Northern Pine snakes in our section, Cassidy and Fluffy. Cassidy is the bigger of the two. She's about 1.5m long, and she's very fast and very muscular. She was getting very moody towards the end and was making hissing noises at the camera.

Er....time to go

So thats probably it for now. Perhaps next week, if the weather's good, I might be able to get a special guest!

Work in Progress.....

2006-03-24T10:21:00.000Z

Oh dear! How time flies....its almost the end of term again! And its just 3 more months before I graduate! I will cease to be a student very soon....a day which I have been dreading, but also looking forward to at the same time. A phase of my life will end and another will begin.....but I'll handle that when the time comes. In the mean time, I've been looking out of the windows of the main lab where I work/study/live/suffer and I've noticed a subtle change in the Wills Memorial Building.

Before

After

It seems that there are now small little insects crawling all over the Wills building. According to the university website, the 215 foot, Grade II listed tower is now undergoing essential repair and restoration work that should be finished by October 2006. That means when I and hundreds of other finalists graduate in June/July, it will still be covered in ugly scaffoldings.
No more pretty pictures of graduates in their gowns and happy parents with the magnificient Wills as a backdrop = Bad publicity = What a pity...
Interesting Fact: The Wills tower houses the fourth largest bell in England! And it has many gargolyes which caricature contemporary members of the University's staff.

Well....who knows? Maybe miracles can happen and they finish everything by June....

Happy Easter holidays everyone!

Animal Encounters II

2006-03-18T18:44:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to the 2nd edition of....Animal Encounters!
This is a weekly special edition and it's about animals at the zoo where I work! If you missed the 1st edition, click http://holeofmightymouse.blogspot.com/2006/03/animal-encounters-i.html to read it. Now, without further ado, let me introduce my guests for this week:

The Penguins

There are thought to be 17 species of penguin. All are black and white with flipper-like wings and are unable to fly. Penguins all come from the southern half of the world, living along the cold coasts of Antartica to the Equator. The largest penguin is the Emperor penguin at 1m tall, and weighing up to 30kg.

"Er..Skipper...someone's taking pictures!"

Penguins feed at sea, chasing fish at high speeds. They swim with porpoise-like movement, jumping above the surface from time to time to breath air. This also confuses predators like leopard seals, killer whales, and sharks. Penguins can collapse their lungs when they dive in search of fish, usually at depths of up to 20m. Normally they hold their breath for up to 3 mins.

"Well...act cute & cuddly boys"

Have a look at the penguins. They have light fronts and dark backs. This colouring camouflages them when swimming. Seen from below, their white tummy blend with the white sky; from above, their backs blend with the deep dark water. Other animals, like killer whales, camouflage themselves in the same way.

"Cute & cuddly...."

Penguins keep themselves warm by two ways. They have a thick layer of body fat (blubber), and special feathers which are oily at the top but fluffy at the bottom. This fluffy part traps warm air close to the skin, and the oily part makes a waterproof layer over the top.

"Now...run!"

We've got two different species of penguin at the zoo. One is the African Penguin and they come from Southern Africa.

African Penguin

The other is the Gentoo Penguin and they are the 3rd largest penguin. They breed in the sub-Antartic regions like the Falkland Islands.

Gentoo Penguin

So that's about it fellow readers! I hope you've enjoyed this week's post. Look out for the next exciting edition of....Animal Encounters!

"Aw crap!"

On a side note, I've received an offer from the firm which I had an interview with on Wednesday in Bath! And my final year project is finally falling into place, with my poster presentation coming up next week! It seems everything is going pretty smooth after the past few weeks of misery....almost unbelievable. Such a big turnaround...life can be really unpredictable.

Ah..Bath

2006-03-15T17:57:00.000Z

I went to Bath today for an interview. This is the third time I’ve been there and it never fails to impress me. It is a very charming and pretty city, Georgian in style. Most of the buildings in Bath are made out of Bath stones, which give the city its distinctive colour (sandy colour). Do you know that the whole of Bath is designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO? Now that’s a very impressive feat.

Bath Abbey

Two thousand years ago, with most of the world at their feet, the Romans recognised the unique qualities of Bath and settled there. They chose well. Set in a sheltered valley, surrounded like Rome by seven wooded hills and nourished by Britain's only natural hot springs, it is a natural haven. And it still is. Those thermal waters that first attracted the Celts and Romans are the source of life, inspiring the creation of a spa complex. However, the spa complex has been plagued by several problems….like leaking tiles…contractors pulling out…so on and so forth. Its original opening date was in 2004. It is now rescheduled to be opened in 2006.

Bath by day

Despite its problems, Bath remains a very beautiful city, with all its charming Georgian houses and shops, rich in history and heritage. It is a place which I would definitely recommend visiting at least once in your lifetime.

Bath by night

As for the interview, I think it went pretty well. I should be hearing something from them in a week’s time! Fingers crossed…..

Animal Encounters I

2006-03-11T16:52:00.000Z

Hello readers!
Today's post will be a special edition! Every Saturday, I'll try to take some pictures from the zoo and I'll post them here. And I'll start to give my 10 cents or 10p worth. So welcome to the first part of Animal Encounters! For today, I'm honoured to have as my very first guest:

The Chilean Rose Spider

This is Bella (means beautiful lady in Italian). She's a Chilean Rose Spider from...Chile! She's from the Tarantula family and she's about the size of my hand. If you observe her closely, she's got a reddish tinge to her, hence the word 'rose' in her title. Besides having eight legs, spiders have an exoskeleton, that means their skeletons are on the outside. We humans have our skeletons on the inside, hence the word endoskeleton. She has two little black structues behind called the spinnerets, where the silk comes out from. In the wild, they spin their webs on the ground, not in the trees as they're too heavy to be jumping about. They've got their own little hole in the ground where they spin their web about. Any insect walking near the hole will step on the web, triggering the vibrations. They'll then jump out of the hole to ambush their prey, sinking their huge fangs in to the prey. Their venom does two things: it kills the prey, and it contains some enzymes which digest the insides of the prey into a mass of globbery fluid. Hence a spider sucks it food up, it does not chew its food.

Whoa!

Over in the zoo we feed Bella crickets and very small children......and in the wild they eat insects like grasshoppers, crickets, and so on. The larger tarantulas are big enough to hunt birds...whether they really eat (or suck) the bird up is a mystery to me. I always get asked some standard questions: Is it poisonous? Answer: All spiders are poisonous. They need it to kill their prey, unless you come across a vegetarian spider...... Question: If it bites me, will I die? Answer: No, but it'll be painful......just like bees and wasps stings, if you're allergic to it, you could develop swellings and go into shock.

Oh my, what big fangs you have!

Also, again observing closely, you can see that Bella's pretty hairy. She's able to flick those hairs into the air when aggitated. And when those hairs get into your eyes, they can cause blindness. Mostly they tend to get into noses and skins, which will then proceed to cause massive irritations. It is a self defence mechanism to deter larger predators. What other facts can I say? Well their blood is blue and their piss is colourless. We've got four Chilean Rose in our collection, Bella, Xena, Gabrielle, Flossie. They're all lovely females. Females tend to be larger and live longer. By the way, never ever pick up spiders in the wild! In other words, don't try this at home kids!

So, thats about it folks! Tune in next week for another exciting edition of.....Animal Encounters!

Significance of Birthdays....

2006-03-09T19:32:00.000Z

As I prepare to go to the Highbury Vaults to have some celebratory drinks in the honour of my good course mate's birthday, I question the significance of birthdays to ourselves. Before I continue, let me state that I've never....I repeat never... ever known so many birthdays happening in such a short period of time (Feb-Mar) until this year. I just had mine 2 weeks ago, and 2 girls in my Spanish class just had theirs too (amazingly, one of them a day after mine!). A friend's brother just had his too. I'm honoured to know so many fellow pisceans....its the sexiest sign to be ;-)
But apart from all that, what is the birthday worth to us? It is, after all, the day we were brought into this world. One could say that it is a sacred day. The Sri Aurobindo Society states :

"It is truly a special day in one's life. It is one of those days in the year when the Supreme descends into us - or when we are face to face with the Eternal - one of those days when our soul comes in contact with the Eternal and, if we remain a little conscious, we can feel His Presence within us. If we make a little effort on this day, we accomplish the work of many lives as in a lightning flash. That is why I give so much importance to the birthday - because what one gains in one day is truly something incomparable… My child, it is a very very special day, for it is the day of decision, the day one can unite with the Supreme Consciousness. For the Lord lifts us on this day to the highest region possible so that our soul, which is a portion of that Eternal Flame, may be united and identified with its Origin."

That was quite a lenghty explaination, but in short, it means that it is sacred and hence one should treat it with respect and make full use of it. The AskMoses.com states:

"A Jewish birthday is a very auspicious day. Our sages tell us that on a person’s birthday his “mazel” is dominant. Indeed, according to the Talmud, the miracle of Purim is largely credited to the fact that Moses’ birthday occurs during the month of Adar! Two of our major holidays celebrate birthdays: Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of Adam, and Passover is the collective birthday of the Jewish Nation (see Ezekiel, chapter 16). Your birthday is a day to express gratitude to G-d for bringing you into this world, entrusting you with the mission of illuminating it with the radiance of Torah and Mitzvot. This day, which is akin to a personal Rosh Hashanah, is the appropriate time to recommit to the mission at hand, resolving that the added maturity and experience gained during the past year will cause the following year to be even more productive and fruitful."

In short, pretty much the same thing as the one above. So in the light of all these religious context, how do people spend their birthdays? Some go out and get so drunk that they wish its not their birthday the next morning. Others throw a big party. Some treat themselves to a nice milkshake ;-) or a really posh full body massage. As for me, I didn't want to do anything as I had too much work to do that night (lazy excuse you might say), but due to my pushy housemates, we ended up having a surprisingly nice dinner and quite a few bottles of wine (so much so that one of them got a bit too talkative). I guess it all boils down to the individual in the end. Sure, friends might treat you extra special on your birthday, but you can only be 21 once in your life (25 in my case). You are who you want to be. You can be 8, 18 or 80.

So for tonight, how will it all end? Will we drink like there's no tomorrow? Will we all scream, shout, laugh, cry to vent our happiness at the anniversary of a birth? Will we end up like hedonistic cavemen with pints in our hands? Probably not, as we are all responsible final year students........;-)

Happy 23rd birthday Tom!

Why blog?

2006-03-09T10:10:00.000Z

Yes. Exactly. Why blog? I ask myself this question. Is it to show off?To become a narcissist? Is it to impose my views and values on my readers? Or is it for friends to keep in touch with me?
Well, to tell the truth, for me at least, its none of these.

I question and find out more about myself by posting my thoughts. I find out how I think and function. I recall funny situations and remember quaint things. Basically, I stop to smell the "mental" flowers instead of rushing on. It is true. By writing down my daily thoughts, I put myself down on a path of self discovery. If you find my posts interesting, feel free to post your comments, and I'll try to respond. However, I must warn you "Rita Skeeter" types that I'm not here to dish the dirt on people. Don't expect any scandalous facts or rumours to surface. This is a place for light hearted musings on life, people, animals, situations, basically anything under the sun that catches my attention.

So yes, what was the question again?

My secret identity

2006-03-09T00:01:00.000Z

Birth of the mighty mouse!

2006-03-08T21:49:00.000Z

Squeak!

Welcome to my very first blog, devoted readers!
Hmm...where do I start? A place for some light hearted musings.
Well, I'll start by describing today then....I've got a poster presentation for my project coming right up in 2 weeks time! And I've got a job interview in a weeks time, where I'll have to give a 10 min presentation. Plus I've also got a Spanish presentation to give also in a weeks time. Presentations....presentations....presentations.....its driving me nuts. I can't wait till the end of term.

Anyway, I guess thats the way to test your character isn't it. I remeber walking past this grand georgian house on my way to the zoo (I volunteer there) every Saturday. And inscribed on its walls is this line: " Conflict tests the Warrior" I've been walking past this house for the past 3.5 years and every time I pass it, it reminds me of my army days where we have motiffs or sentences like these to boost our morale (or just irritate us).

Here's one: "Yesterday was the only easy day" and "Tough times don't last but tough men do"
How about " For honour and glory"?
And the favourite of my unit : "Fear what you can't see"

Sigh...the good old glory days....for my new readers...don't worry if you can't catch up.....I'll slowly reveal my history to you.....all the more for you to stay tuned! So let me end my virgin post by saying : The best is yet to be...... ;-)