Dropsafe

Well it’s amazing how in the space of 36 hours how one’s plans for the remainder of the remaining New-Year vacation can get turned upside down; and yet it started so well… From the perspective of the typical British lad-about-town with nothing else to be doing, nor anyone else to be seeing, the Christmas holiday

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More from Cynthia, filed yesterday: An APB went out on the ex-pat grapevine this morning for English/French/German-speaking people to look after tourists brought to BKK, whether injured, bereaved, orphaned or whatever. So Sonja and i went and registered ourselves, then went off to the Red Cross to give blood. Blood donations: there isn’t a culture

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In the spirit of Godwin’s Law I am half-inclined to run a sweepstake about how long it will be before we see news articles and self-aggrandising postings about how: The Blogosphere is helping organise disaster relief in Tsunami-hit SE Asia and India! …like blogging needed some justification for its continued existence, or something. I give

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Hinting at some of the instrastructure issues that relief efforts will face, Cynthia Milton writes: I’m begining to feel like the Rain God in the Hitchhiker’s Guide. Quakes and other disasters seem to be following me around. The tally so far is four quakes and two typhoons. This one was felt a little in Bangkok

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I sometimes wonder whether Stephen Fry thinks he’s the reincarnation of Oscar: [news.bbc.co.uk] Whether or not the CIA considered that an option, Stephen Fry demonstrated another potential weapon of mass destruction. When asked whether he had any sharp objects at Heathrow airport, he replied: “Only my tongue, sir.” …with many other quotes of light amusement

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Well I have at least three current/former colleagues from Sri Lanka, one of whom has heavy ties with the local fishing industry. I also have friends and colleagues living in / visiting the area. My thoughts are with them. Reports are not good, the BBC is all over it this morning, having made not much

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Whilst my iBook is being repaired, I have the opportunity to try out a 15″, 867MHz G4 Powerbook as a interim machine. In almost every way it is nicer, other than (1) formfactor convenience – which, let’s be honest, is the point of the 15″ so it’s a bit churlish to complain about it –

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Wishing you all a Happy Kwanzaa and a prosperous Newtonmas, and my hopes that in 2005 George W Bush gets impeached the world becomes a safer, happier place. – alec

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Planning for the next motorbike tour is still in progress; fruits of my research are outlined for review below. The general plan is to pelt up to Nordkapp as quickly as possible, dawdle back along the Norwegian coastline, and then use Denmark and Germany to get rapidly to Switzerland and thence France, do the Alps

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Cynthia’s now ridden from the New Forest in Hampshire, to Angkor Wat at Siem Reap in Cambodia. She posted this e-mail to her maillist: Miles ridden: 10,315 Miles actually travelled: the above plus around 18 hours flying and 72 hours on ships. Number of countries: 15 Number of days: 110 Favourite country: Laos Worst day:

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I drove through the gloom to SPC Motorcycles in Alton on Friday night, to see Charley Boorman talking about Long Way Round; it was a good evening which (given the turnout) made £2200-ish for charities, local and national. A few bullet-points from the evening: His next project appears to involve doing the Dakar rally with

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The Economist Christmas Issue is now out. If anyone ever wants explanation as to why there is usually an ever-increasing pile of issues of this magazine in my house, this is the annual opportunity for you to find out.

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