If you're still hungry, this shop does the best kebabs in London. And it delivers....

Whilst babysitting last night, I trawled Sky Digital for watchable TV, which was in very short supply. I stumbled across one of my favourite programs, Bush Tucker Man, at about 8pm. I love this program still - really interesting, well presented and the most amazing scenery. What am I talking about? It's a program presented by a rugged Australian Army Officer regarding all the natural food you can find in the Australian bush - grubs, seeds, etc etc. Presented whilst walking thru the bush (with his trademark hat), relaying stories of the first explorers through the most remote areas of Central and Northern Australia.

I've tried to find out if Les is still doing tours of the bush - if anyone knows anything, please let me know? The last information I could find online was from at least 4 years ago - the program last night was a 1988 re-run.

Quality TV never dies. It just goes digital.

Just in case you're feeling peckish...

A good friend of mine, David, was in NYC the day the WTC was hit. Having planned to go up the towers on tuesday morning, his plans changed, and he was up there the evening before. He is a phenomenal photographer, and took these photos whilst he was there.

Things pretty much suck right now - but I am being kept cheery by Tim Finn's new album, feeding the gods. Some kind soul has seen sense, and put the entire album online in RA format. Genius. Totally different from all his other stuff; it really rocks.

I had such an incredibly vivid dream last night. When I say vivid, I mean a virtual reality cinema - I can smell, touch, and remember everything in cinematic detail. I can see the steam drifting off the lakes, smell the sheep and hear the shouts of children. Any translations, please leave a comment. I'm warning you, it's weird.

I was sent on a job to a school in the countryside. Some computer thing with a deadline yesterday. So it was tense. The computers were in a portacabin in the large grounds of the school. We had these armbands on our wrists which when tapped allowed us to speak Thai. Odd. I wasn't feeling too well about lunchtime, so I went for a walk.

It so happened that this school was in fact my old school (see previous post for website). It had now become a mixed school, and with its move had grown and accepted boarders too. All the old staff were there, as well as some of those who'd actually left. The school was set in the grounds of an abandoned Soviet plutonium ore mine/processing plant, and some of the lakes were bright green with the residues and particles. Those bits were roped off, but the locals would go swimming in there. One of the main school buildings, an imposing grey stone construction, faced directly onto one of the lakes. Other buildings were scattered around, of different ages and from different materials. The kids' rooms were insulated portakabins. There were farm buildings full of sheep and cows and goats - with labels and information everywhere, almost like an agricultural college. All the loos were organic and all food waste was processed by the animals.

I went around, talking to the kids and the staff, having a nosy around the place. My boss was getting antsy as I wasn't there, finishing off all that code. But I moseyed around. It was playtime, and hundreds of kids were participating in different sports; some on pitches identical to those I played on as a kid (despite the school being moved).In one corner of the vast grounds was an old log cabin. Now, when I was younger, I used to go to Canada each year and stay in my step-dad's log cabin by a lake - it was similar this cabin, but the furniture was different and the layout a little jumbled. One room was filled with hand-carved benches made by an old friend of mine. A fridge - unplugged but full of food - sat in the corner of the kitchen with some oven chips in the freezer.

Apparently, I was going to move into this cabin, and be employed by the school rather than my current boss. The cabin was tidied up, a carved wooden bed was placed in the room with the carved wooden benches, with a patchwork cover. The fridge was cleared, the roof patched and electricity was hooked up. Having sorted it out, I walked back to the school. My way was blocked by a huge digger which was clearing a path next to one of the contaminated ponds. I had to run past it and grab onto a colleague's hand so that I didn't get squashed when I went past.

That was it - I woke up.

Well, I said it was vivid, and very strange. Any ideas?...

Recovering from the most awful hangover today - I haven't been this ill in ages. I managed to make it through A.I., though - was good up til the smooooshy part that's obviously a Speilberg tag-on. Good film, great special effects, brilliant acting but not over the moon about the complete package. Well worth going to see on the big screen, though.

Just heard good news on an Officer friend of mine, who isn't being sent to Afghanistan, thank goodness. He's guarding things closer to home instead. Am worried about my dad still, as there is a lot of activity in Bahrain with the US Airbase there. When people are so close to it all, it's tough being so far away and helpless. I felt that about NYC, and my fear has just shifted elsewhere.

Closer to home, I've got too much going on here to worry about Afghanistan. Not in a negative way - I am hoping this is resolved peacefully (haha!!) but it isn't in the forefront of my mind. Numerous events and people's behaviour has been really upsetting in the last couple of months, and things came to a head last night (partly the cause of my hangover). I'm not going to speak in specifics, but in all I'm worried, sad, frightened and hurt. I wonder how some people on this planet can be so indescribably evil (that is the only word that fits). I guess this does extend to the Afghanistan thing, but it seems to be playing out in my own little microcosm, as well as on the world stage. Betrayal and lies from old friends, fearing for other people's safety, and worrying about the health of others... all trivial when held against the light of what's going on in NYC, but painful nevertheless. Whilst being helpless in the world view, sorting things out closer to home and being happy with your immediate surroundings may seem unimportant, but more emminently more achievable.

My old school has a brand new website.

An amazing dynamically illustrated history of my home-town, Tokyo. Spotted by Chris.

I have been so unbelievably busy with work this week. It's usually pretty full-on, but it's only wednesday and I need the weekend. I've pretty much tied up 3 projects though, which is nice. Yesterday I left the house @ 6am, returning @ 10pm - I was barely able to keep my eyes open during dinner, and was luckily fed very well by our house-guests over from Germany. This morning involved a long walk in the rain to another client, and another successful and happy customer. It's all very well but I wouldn't mind some sleep sometime soon! The roof is being replaced here @ home, and the builders turn up @ 7am each day. Oh, and my bathroom has died, so DynoRod are bringing their "Big Pumping Machine" tomorrow to sort out the problem. Thing is, the pipes are under my bedroom floor. And on my bedroom floor are a bloody huge bookshelf, and all the things from the loft (that I spent all of Sunday moving). Errrrr....

The busy-ness has had its positive side - I haven't had a minute to get overly upset about last weeks events. I am pretty gutted - a friend's husband didn't make it out in time, and an old uni friend of mine is still unaccounted for - but work serves a purpose - to remove me from my thoughts. Does this make me sound callous? I hope not, since that is not what I mean to express. I guess people deal with things in different ways. Last week all I wanted to do was talk (and I did, to Cal and Davo, Mo and Chris) - this week I am shutting myself off from the harsher realities.

Over on Mark's site, the lyric compo. has been hotting up. Top marks though to Neil Finn, who has seemingly written the most uncanny lyrics for the current US situation - last year. "Turn and Run" is quite scarily close to real life. There are strong words of hope though. Even before last week, this song has the ability to make me cry like no other - incredibly moving and beautiful.

Speaking of apt words, Mark's also blogged Kris quoting Albus Dumbledore, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K.Rowling):

"I say to you all, once again - in the light of Lord Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open."

.
Indeed.

And more good words - I've just bought John Simpson's new book, 'A Mad World, My Masters'. I respect his journalism and integrity (two words not often seen side by side), and he is always in the thick of things. A brave man, with a price on his head. Currently reporting from the Afghanistan/Pakistan border during the impending crisis, John Simpson's articles in the online and hard-copy Telegraph, as well as live bulletins on the BBC news, have been precise pieces of journalism; with clear explanations and no over-sentimentalisation. A man I respect and admire. I can't wait to start this book - roll on the weekend.

Soundtrack (very loud) for today has been Tim Finn's new album, Feeding the Gods. He has seen sense to put the whole lot in realaudio format on his website, and boy is it great. Tim Finn Goes Rawk. Go have a listen, it's brilliant.

Keep your fingers crossed for Rodney; his puter is very, very poorly. :( It's a shame that tea-tree oil doesn't work on broken puters, as it's done wonders for my head. My cat went a bit ape-shit today - poor baby has an abscess on her paw that we need to drain each day. She freaked today and removed a lot of skin from my head. Patched up now, and it's a great antiseptic - but it stings like *******!!

A somber but spiritually positive account from a Manhattan resident:

"As I left the Union Square, I turned back to look at all the people who'd come for a sense of community or to make a public statement. I'd never experienced anything like it. So much emotion, so many opinions, and yet all peacefully co-existing, even with the volatile tempers. And I realized the terrorists didn't win. I know now they can't. They destroyed buildings and planes and people, but they didn't touch what we're really about. We take our personal freedoms for granted, but you know what? That's good. That means they're so deeply a part of who we are as Americans, we can't exist without them, we just won't. "

The whole account is well worth reading.

This blog entry regarding the WTC moved me more than any other.

I've seen so many ghastly photos of the WTC in flames this week, I searched out my pictures from a visit to NYC in October 1999 to show how beautiful it was, and how it so dominated the city. All the photos I've seen recently haven't really given much of a sense of scale. I've scanned them in really small (the real photos are a darn sight better quality - this scanner is rubbish) so they'll load as quick as possible. They're taken from the Staten Island Ferry and the Empire State Building. I've also included a couple of other photos that I loved. My favourite is the first pic - the original is almost black set against liquid silver (taken with a colour film on a very sunny day).















All pics copyright Jen Rundall.

Toothpick Girl blogged the following. Please help if you possibly can.

"I just got a call from a recruiter at Tekmark Solutions. They are desperately looking for people to work for the next 4 days, 15 hour shifts (compensation unknown at this time) to help with companies impacted by the WTC attack. Please contact Kristen at 732.572.9600 ex. 293 if you have experience developing web sites in HTML, FLASH, DREAMWEAVER and can possibly work for the next 4 days in NJ."

On Sunday 16th September, I will not be blogging. I will be observing a Day of Silence, to allow reflection on the recent events in the USA.

Just heard from another friend in NYC I was worried about. Still 3 friends to reply. One is a fireman, an Irish friend from Uni who decided to go out there and work.

I was working on-site today, a last minute contract with an international company. I couldn't believe it when 11am came round and nobody stopped talking. It's an open-plan office and has a clock on the wall - no excuse. So I walked silently to the loo and sat in a cubicle for 5 minutes. Mum said that the neighbourhood was deathly, all the builders stopped what they were doing and stood on their scaffolding. The local church tolled its bell.

My dad's fine, he's was in Saudi and due to the current situation there were few if any telephone/mobile calls getting thru. Thank you for your messages.

I think of all my friends who've had such lucky escapes, and then think of so many of those who haven't. I am very lucky. I just feel so powerless and helpless sitting here with my computer and four walls and a roof over my head. And guilty, in a sad way. I wish I could go and help.

Yesterday morning, they interviewed the Principal of TASIS, the American School in Surrey. Having to explain such a catastrophic event to such small children, explaining to them why it happened - even though there are no answers. He held a drawing by a little girl in kindergarten; a red and black carefully drawn building on fire, with a small stick figure standing on the top of the building. At this point he nearly broke down. Such a hard job. I remembered my teacher @ school; we had an exchange program with a school in NYC, and she went out there for a while to teach. Although she's safely in this city now, I think of her with so many friends out there. Our school still has a great deal of full-time American pupils - it must be so hard. Partygirl's blog of the kids' 'I Love You' notes in the peanutbutter sandwiches made for a rescue shelter in NYC - that made me cry.

Walking through Covent Garden, down the Strand, I choked back a sob yesterday on the way back from the theatre, as all the flags in London stood at half mast.

I received a mail from my good friend in Chicago; we both mentioned our weekend trip out to NYC a couple of years ago - our long walk from 87th St. all the way to the Staten Island Ferry terminal at the very tip of Manhattan, our photos taken on the ferry in front of the famous skyline - taking it in turns to snap the view in a brisk October wind and drizzle. Our walk back through the financial district to Greenwich (where we had such a great evening), pausing to take a photo of the New York Stock Exchange. The day before she arrived, I went up to the top of the Empire State Building, and took some lovely photos. I'll scan them.

I didn't go up the WTC Towers. I'd figured I'd do that next time.

On This Day In History

I just found a really freaky thing in the attic, whilst cleaning it out for the impending building work. In 1986 when my paternal grandfather sadly passed away, I was given his 'birth newspaper' - a copy of The Times dated 1908 from the day he was born. I haven't actually seen it since; I know I packed it in the move in 1990, but didn't open the poster tube at that time.

I just opened it. It was dated September 11th, 1908.

The Times in those days had no headlines to speak of - adverts covered the front and back pages, and all content was inside. It was all in extremely fine print, about 8px I'd guess in our terms, with headings in 11px.

Selected news: (11/9/1908): A meeting of the British Society (Science), a few horse races in Cardiff, a letter to the Editor about children in parks, a host of adverts for Steam Packets to Australia, the Anglo-Russian action in Persia [spooky!] , Arrest of a Spy in France, Compulsory Military Training, Orville Wright's Successful Flight, The Sydney Tramway Strike, and The Florists Flowers. A 10 bedroom house in South Kensington was available to rent for £160 per annum. It was 55 degrees Fahrenheit, with a south-easterly fair wind. "Nothing has happened in the past week to cause so much as a ripple on the surface of the Money Market in the past week".

No news about the USA (paper dominated by Canada and Australia). Not even American $ exchanges, very few stocks.

And today we sit watching the television live from NYC, with global IM conversations happening in their millions.

The world has most definitely shrunk, and now we're all involved.

Am still waiting to hear from several friends in NYC. I hope to god they're ok.

US Disaster - People Finder/Reporter

For all of you impacted or looking for people affected by yesterday's horrific WTC/Pentagon/Penn events in the US, here are a few sites where you can leave messages to say you're ok / find people who've checked in. [thanks to Cal for pointing this out]. If you want to use this info on your page (as the black box above) head here.

http://safe.millennium.berkeley.edu/
http://okay.prodigy.net/
http://www.bostoncoop.net:8080/SeptEleven
http://www.viexpo.com/dmstest/america.html
http://www.ahnj.com/Ferry.htm
http://www.ny.com/wtclist.html

I woke up this morning thinking "god, that was a really bad dream". I have nightmares sometimes, but none this bad - perhaps the consequence of watching too many bad movies? But my TV comes on in the morning automatically, and as I looked at the BBC News straight from NYC, I realised it wasn't. It wasn't until then that it really sunk in.

I got an email this morning from a friend in NYC - I didn't even know he was there. He'd been up the WTC the night before (but had been planning to go up yesterday morning). But he's fine.

Still waiting for a message from another friend living close by.

This is awful.

Astounding amateur footage of the WTC burning and collapsing. [timelapse .mov, 0.5mb]

swerdloff dot com has set up an "I'm ok" message point for any NYC/DC bloggers who want to check in/let us know they're ok.

God almighty.

If you're in the NYC area and you're ok, thank god. If you're in NYC and able to give blood, do so, they really need it.

Well, the situation that spoilt my day yesterday has still not been resolved, but I am in a marginally better mood. Firstly I have a lot to distract me - a new (techie) toy - and secondly, because I'm off to see Ed Byrne tonight. I last saw him @ the Fringe in Edinburgh, about 3 years ago. I hear he's chopped off all his hair - I just hope the jokes didn't disappear with it! He isn't my favourite comedian - that spot is shared jointly by Eddie Izzard and Billy Connolly - but I am in the mood to laugh. God knows I need to ;)

The techie toy? Filemaker integration with the Web, using Lasso. A steep learning curve, as I haven't used Filemaker for several years, and Lasso is new to me. It's not that different from TCL or ASP - just getting the syntax right and working out what is possible - that's proving challenging. Going at it from cold, modifying other people's pages and integrating the whole thing with WorldPay - it's another medal to pin up in the skills cabinet, and I'm actually finding it quite enjoyable. It is also lovely to use a Mac again - I only switched to PCs due to my MSc thesis software requirements, but I'm a Mac baby, really :)

I really need to get out more.. ;)

I really hate it when I am in a bad mood. I get all tense and my head hurts and I just want to kick something. Today has surpassed itself in exactly how bad a day could be, and how many people could possibly piss me off. Let me tell you, today will take some beating.

ARRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is National Breadmaking Day.

Well that's a lie, but I just IM'd Rodney, and coincidentally he was about to start making ciabatta. And since I've been experimenting this afternoon making fruit-bread, it's too much of a coincidence to not blog. I'm happy with my fruit bread - I've never attempted bread before (I can do pastry and cakes) - it seemed like a great lazy Sunday challenge. And it distracted me from tidying my room, always a good thing.

I didn't follow a recipe; I don't think anyone in our family has ever done that, and I wasn't going to be the one to break a tradition. I got down the Jamie Oliver "Cooking for Idiots" book, the Readers Digest Cookery Year, my mum's recipe folder and the yeast packet, realised I had none of the ingredients (bar the yeast), so shut the books, and decided to make it up as I went along.

Instead of bread flour, I used plain flour. I didn't mix the yeast in with water first; I sprinkled it in the flour and salt along with several heaped teaspoons of cinnamon and ground cloves. Adding water, I started kneading the sticky mess, bringing in the flour bit by bit. In a blender, I mashed up more cinnamon, dried apricots, dates and sultanas (admittedly, I nicked that idea from Jamie). I folded it into the doughy mixture, and with a large lump of dough in my hands, beat the living daylights out of the thing.

Now for somewhere to prove (rise) the dough. Despite it being bloody freezing today, we haven't put the central heating on since March - and therefore our airing cupboard was not the warm cosy place it should have been. "Aha!", I thought, folding my clothes (with still slightly floury hands). I cut notches in the lumpen mass, dumped it on a floured baking tray, covered it in clingfilm, and placed (carefully) in the still-warm dryer.

Perfect. 40 minutes later, the proto-bread had become a monster, threatening to take over the utility room and annex the washing machine. "Beat the **** out of your proven dough" said the Readers Digest, and it never lies. So I did. And folded in some dark brown sugar, more cinnamon and some sultanas. And made 2 nice loaves (well, one nice loaf and some round thing) and put them back in the tumble drier (having run it a few minutes first with a wet tea-towel, a perfectly warm damp environment).

An hour later, and two monsters were holding the clothes on the washing line to ransom; time to cook the little beggars. A preheated oven (around 200C), a super-heated pan of water on the bottom shelf, and in they popped in their respective tins. Oh, I did take the clingfim off first, and brushed them with some beaten egg and milk. And a sprinkle of ground allspice.

Half an hour later, they rang hollow when flicked, the knife came out clean, and it was smelling good. Out they came, forcibly removed from the baking tins, one nice and conventionally loaf-shaped, the other more of an elephant-dung shape (sure that some Brit-Pack Nouveau artist would be interested), smelling of warm farmhouse kitchens and childhood. I burnt my finger on the hot brown sugar and sultanas oozing out the side.

A small piece sawn off the side of the elephant's offering, spread with a little "I am positive it's really nothing to do with butter", and sampled.

Actually, it's rather good. If I do say so myself.

I do hope Rodney's ciabatta comes out nicely...

Gah. Dodgy chinese. Food poisoning. Gah.

So much for an early night. A sodding huge police helicopter is hovering overhead (what's he trying to do, hatch my house?!), making a bloody racket in the process. Gah. I seem to recall this happening before.. yes, 3rd April, at approximately the same time of night (morning?!). Is this an anniversary I don't know about ? Go away, I'm trying to sleep. It isn't like I'm living in some crime-infested suburb of London - we only get celebrity crime here (that's why the rents are so darn high).

EURO Currency according to the Americans. Blatently pinched from Rodney.

I am just soooooo tired at the moment; I have so many things to do but just can't muster the energy to do them. Work is more of a supreme effort than usual, I have paperwork coming out my ears (not a pretty sight!) and to be honest - I just can't be arsed to do anything!

I need to snap out of this apathetic mood - I have to get my Skills Assessment in to the Australian Visa people about 2 months ago (oops!) and still haven't got all the necessary paperwork (about 12 forms, 6 letters of recommendation, 9 certificates, 2 covering letters and a hefty credit card bill). That's just for starters - and only about 1/12th of the complete amount of paperwork and fees I'm going to need. You'd almost think they didn't want people over there...

Positive Thing: am borrowing my mate David's Nokia 8210 blue phone cover for a bit. A nice change from the red, it does look really smart. And seems to be making the phone a bit more robust, too. It's a bit like borrowing a jumper or a video, just 101% more geeky. I need to get out more...

Am off to crawl into bed with my new book (Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson), and hope it isn't so good I don't go to sleep for 3 hours, like the last one. Oops.

I've spent my lunchtime looking @ different subnotebooks, and do love the new Sony Vaio; specifically the PCG SR31K. With Bluetooth (wireless networking) and a heap of video/image software, and a dinky footprint (25x20x0.3cm) I'm starting to drool. Thing is, I want a CDRW rather than a CDROM, and don't know if Sony will be that flexible. I'll also need a bigger/2nd battery and perhaps an ethernet card. It's a huge heap of £££ that I don't have. But there's no harm in window shopping in the meantime..... ;)

Thing is, a few people have advised me to look @ other subnotebooks carefully. I want one as dinky as SR31K if possible, light, portable, CDRW if at all possible, and preferably better warranty (International). Can you help? Do you have any recommendations? Please let me know !

Another Japanese-related link from Chris of Tokyo Tales - Engrish.com. Fab.

I walked to work this morning through the back-forests of Canada - the wind whispering through the trees, rustling the leaves and evoking 20-year-old memories of silver birch, cedar, American oak and Canadian maple. I shut my eyes for a while as I walked down a long Fulham street (I know the route so well), and imagined myself aged 7, sitting in the treehouse with my little sister, a 1870's British Colony flag whipping from the flag-post, our lunch laid out on a doll's tea-set amongst the pine needles on the smooth-planed wood. The wind whipping up from the lake through the woods, disturbing the chattering red squirrels, blue-jays and chicadees in their daily forage for food. We were only yards away from the cabin, but it may as well have been hundreds of miles.

The treehouse has long since fallen down, and the sound of powerful motorboats now punctuates the gentle hissing of the leaves on the trees. The roar of a chainsaw clearing the woods for yet another holiday pre-fab, the drip of nitrates into the lake - the green of the algae choking and clouding the one-clear water. We now have a bathroom, an electric pump and a telephone. There's a webcam of the lake now. The real world marches in and the 21st century grabs hold and shakes the last vestiges of the 19th out of the trees and bushes, sweeps the dust of history out of the cracks in the floorboards from under the tied-rag rugs.

Nothing ever stays the same, but one small, seemingly insignificant sound can bring back the memories as if it were yesterday.

Occasionally I stumble across blogs that I wish I'd seen earlier. Tokyo Tales is one such site, which I spotted in my referrer log. I have reciprocated Chris's Jen-X link now, but wanted to draw attention to the site - it's superb. Great humour, concise, well written, and a subject close to my heart. As someone born in Tokyo, and who worked in the capital exactly 20 years later, I'm a bit of a Japan-junkie. Travelling round the country in 1994 was a unique and emminently enjoyable experience - one I would love to repeat sooner rather than later. Reading this blog, I must admit to a slight touch of the green-eyed monster, but love being able to live vicariously through someone else in my "home town". Read it now. Please.

I don't know why, but (messily) feeding my ickle neice Jasmine the other weekend has got me hideously addicted to Petit Filous fromage frais. They are incredibly more-ish; one is never, ever enough. Perhaps babies are subversive 'pushers', working as fromage frais pimps? "Go on, you're doing me a favour, I just can't manage the whole pot after all that mashed carrot - oh, and if you want another they're on the bottom shelf of the fridge". One pot and you're hooked.

Earl Grey tea rocks my world.

Darn these cats. Now there's a mouse loose in the house.

[Update: the mouse crawled into the table leg of a new table, I put the table outside then had to go out in the pouring rain at 2am to fetch the table back in again - it's a wicker table and not for outside. I have no idea if the mouse got out or not - hope so!]

A good weekend - Friday night spent with a good friend, a chinese takeaway, a bottle of good red and Absolutely Fabulous (dahhhhling!). Saturday was spent with an old work colleague (and friend), and her cute daughter Abbie :) I zonked out when I got home. Today was a delicious Chinese Dim Sum lunch with my dad, aunt and uncle.

Spent all evening playing with Greymatter; I totally forgot to watch the videos I got out (yesterday), to do the photo scanning I intended (I did manage one though), or even to eat dinner. Oops.

I just had to deal with an extremely fat moth-erpillar (brought in by the cat), which has brought out a nasty allergic reaction on my right hand, so I now have to stop all typing and go deal with that in an anti-histamine-related fashion. G'night!

Send something special... a hug, an iceberg, two stealth bombers... free! [via Graybo]