Here's my reply to Chris's Incisive ultimatum...
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 9:25 PM
Subject: 48 Hour Ultimatum
>Okay, my blogging friends, you have all been pretty silent since the collapse
> of the Post-WWII order began in earnest last week.
>Is Andrew's participation in anti-war rallies motivated purely by ennui?
>Has Marco's contrarian philosophy caused him to turn about
>180 degrees in response to new poll results?
Yes. I am afraid so. If an election were held today, I would vote against the govenment (probably democrat with labor preferences) against my other instincts that are in general pro-business, right side of centre.
Back in August 2002, Me and Sandor were talking about the developing situation in Iraq. It was even before the UN resolution recommencing inspections took place. We were both convinced (and continued to be convinced right through until March) that war was all but inevitable given the circumstances. Our only difference in opinion was the matter of when hostilities would begin. We therefore decided to make a little wager (20c or something) as to the dates of the war starting. To enable us to remember the dates, I picked the due date for Zachary (7th of November) while Sandor picked his wedding anniversary (17th of February). As it happened Sandor was right, and possibly for the right reasons as well (he figured it would take that long to move everthing into place, which I think was the main stalling factor - the UN thing was just a diversion which in the long run wouldn't harm the war effort) As it Happens, he wins, and the date hostilities started was very close to my wedding anniversary, and amazingly, both me and Kylie forgot all about it, due to the war and all that distracting us! Anyway, that sort of puts me out of the really bad books, because she forgot as well, which is better than what normally happens.
Apart from the obvious instincts, there are few other points I would like to make.
1) Peace protests essentially are "batting for the opposition". It essentially tells Iraq that it still has a chance of winning, and that it should be encouraged to keep on killing as much as possible. The obvious exception is violent protests for peace - these obviously encourage our troops who have to be violent to some extent, and strengthen the incumbent government on top of that, by making it look like the victim.
2) In general, I think wars are a matter primarily for governments. People like to think they can control the governments strategic decisions, but essentially, all they can change is the game and the shape of the board, not the mind of the person playing the game.
3) The war involves a lot of secretive information and intelligence that the ordinary voter is not privvy to. Therefore, I think we can easily jump to completely wrong conclusions about a whole heap of matters with regards to strategy. For instance, I believe that spies whose identities need to be protected know a whole heap more than can be public knowledge. To have a chance of winning, the US cannot afford to show any of its spying network information at this stage.
4) I think some of the reasons for this war are not very noble, but I don't think we'll ever find out about those for sure in our lifetime.
5) I think Australia's troops battling in the gulf are the worlds best, and the US could not win the war without them. They could even have a chance of winning the war by themselves, given enough equipment, money and time.
6) If you have to ask me in general if I am for or against this war in general, I would have to say that I'm for it, on the grounds that essentially, it forces Iraq to finally show its hand with regards to WMD and its link to terrorism. Networks of terrorists associated with the middle east will find it much harder to operate now, without putting their whole network at risk of disintegration. Every terrorist attack provides vital information about its network, and with fewer countries willing to protect them, they will find it near impossible to both hide and be an aggressive influence.
7) I have decided to make a personal boycott of French products. This means that I'm going to have to find a replacement for my "Drakkar Noir" products.
>Is Dave only making fun of Dick Cheney because it is *sooooo* easy?
> Androoo knows my opinions, reasoning and motivations, a little, but
> I am in the dark about the rest of you guys. Surely it is the duty of you
> lot as bloggers to provide moral and intellectual leadership to the world
>by clearly stating where you stand and why.
>Therefore, I am giving you all exactly 48 hours to provide a reasoned response to the *Jerusalem Post* op-ed piece below.
Sorry, I'm not going to refer to that piece directly, because I can't relate to its general assumptions.
Gee, I hope I made the 48 hr deadline!
Thursday, March 27, 2003
Monday, March 17, 2003
Monday, 17th March 2003
Philosophy
Both my political and personal philosophies are decidedly 'Contrarian'. My convictions on marginal matters side completelely with minority opinion, precisely because it is minority opinion! For instance if the leader of a *DEMOCRATIC* country makes a decision fairly early in their term, and the (even large) majority think it a very wrong move, it makes me think it must have been the correct decision. My reasoning goes that leaders only priorities are staying in power, which means public opinion. The only possible pragmatic reason a leader would do it If they can see long term benefits (admittedly, for votes) despite short term public disapproval. This argument only really works for democracies, however. This is the clear difference between democracies and dictatorships. Democratic leaders have to be accountable in the short or long term, so sooner or later they are going to make decisions *only* because they are popular - they no longer have the privilege of making unpopular choices that are good for a country. Decisions that are both good for a country and popular are no-brainers. All democratically elected governments do those anyway. It is only the marginal decisions that have a chance of being unpopular but good for the country.
Extended 1987 trip diary
First plane trip - TSV - SYD - HNL. Customs telling me I would need a temp visa to get back in. I remember taking a walk around during our hours of stopover in Sydney. Crossing the dateline as well as the equator. Starting a trend of eating as much as possible during flights, because we didn't know when our next meal was coming. Arrival at Honolulu and the "show me the money" incident at the customs there. Wearing silly ribbon badges to catch a Taxi. Nearly getting run over because I looked the wrong way instinctively when crossing the first road. Checking in at the hotel, noting the free light breakfast from our "host" holiday packager. Staggering around Waikiki waiting until it was time to check into our hotel like the walking dead since we soooo jetlagged. Checking out Waikiki. Me & Sandor tasting our first ever Big Mac (being disappointed). Next day take 60c bus ride to Sunset Beach ignoring all the discounts booklet. Watch the world championship surfing, while listening to the beach boys. Surfing gets cancelled because waves are too big, one surfer coming back in with a surfboard broken in half - we decide to go swimming at Weimea Bay. Quite a serious washing machine action at the surf break, filling your pockets with sand instantly. Noting sunset at Waikiki is into the ocean unlike in Tsv. Taking our tape recorder up to the restaurant on top of the fancy Hotel. Recording the waitress saying we were dressed inappropriately. Returning later we left a large tip but failed to make a clean escape. How everybody we asked for directions either (i) was a foreign tourist who didn't speak english or (ii) offered us marijuana instead. Buying Hawaiian shirts which we proceeded to wear non-stop for the next three months, especially anywhere it was -20 C or less. Going to the top of every hotel we could see along Waikiki. Taking a bus ride to the extinct crater to climb up Diamond Head. Strange incident where I thought I'd lost you guys, but you were just sneakily following me. Balcony incident. Locking some luggage at the airport as we fly to the Big Island. Part of the engine block of the plane looking very wobbly. First day of hitchhiking- almost all uphill. Sleep at the shelter near the National park. Much colder up here - Chris has no sleeping bag. Next day we start out hiking through the "lunar" landscape of solidified lava of a recent (2 yr previous) eruption. We had but a large tin of baked beans (supposedly with pork) between us for food. Listening to "Walking on the moon" by "The Police" appropriately. Saw and smelt the acrid yellow sulphur emanating from the fairly recent crater. Walked through the acid rain desert. Walked up to the ranger's building to check it out. By mistake we walked into this "staff only" room, and saw covering a whole 2*4 meter wall an impressively accurate map of the whole island, with special references to the currently active volcano bits. We sat staring at this map for a good few minutes after we realised we weren't supposed to be in this 'control' room. Restart hiking back along the main road after noting the point where the lava flow had gone straight over it, damaging it irretrievably. Start realising that there is coins on the road ( apparently people would throw out their spare coins for good luck!) Caught Chris & Sandor fighting over a penny. After many long hours, we get picked up by this Canadian woman and a man who claimed to a direct male line descendant of the Hawaiian native Royal family (it was probably true). Being it took a long time to get this lift it was of good quality. They showed us some of the sights. Drove us past the supposedly "green" beach (It looked pretty grey to me), and eventually dropped us off at another beach. Apparently the cliffs near the beach were supposed to be haunted - so we slept there. After looking around, we realised that there was no shops in the beachfront community of Ho'okena beach .being desperately thirsty that night, where we slept on a concrete picnic table, Chris under a string hammock for the second night - and the fantastic way the beach was made up of equal numbers of black and white stones. Therefore, on top of spending a hungry and thirsty night and morning, we realised that we had made a profit of around $1 for the day! The next day's hike back onto the main road, I realised that all these yellow-skinned, pink-fleshed fruits all over the side of the road were guavas. So I ate a couple. My two friends seemed dubious about picking up fruit from the side of the road and eating it. After finding a shop and restocking our food & drink, we started hiking again. We stopped at Cook, and tried to make our way down to the beach where we knew there was a memorial for where James Cook had been killed by natives. Alas, the track was completely overgrown by tall grass and banana plantations, so we headed back for the main road. We decided not to hitchhike up to the observatory on Mauna Kea, because if we were too delayed in catching rides, we may have missed our connecting flights. Next lift was quite quick - quite poor quality. He dropped us off about 1 k down the road and told us to stop there to get a ride because it was a much better spot than where we were. Ten hours later we realised we weren't going to get a ride that night and slept at a church site.While we slept outside the church at Kona-Kailua this car pulled up in the middle of the night and people who may have been cops, or crazed killers, got out and shone torches on us, but we were too tired to care and just waited for them to arrest us or stab us and then they went away. The next day was for me perhaps the defining day of the whole trip. We finally got a ride that morning after deciding to hike if we didn't get a lift. The loveliest Japanese American man you can imagine, who discussed philosophy & family etc. and then bought us breakfast - I had an eggs benedicte, the first of three meals that were bought for us that day! After saying our goodbyes and getting packed again. Our ride from hell was beckoning. Probably the first car that passed us after we stuck our thumbs out stopped. Maybe there was only 4 dogs on the back of the ute, but the front of the ute was full, and the back of the ute wasn't empty, but was flat. Chris remembers quite vividly how high all the people in the front of the ute looked and how even so one of them told me to take off his pack, otherwise he *would* fall off the ute backwards and die. Every roller coaster ride we have been on since then has seemed so tame. We got dropped off somewhere at an intersection back in Hilo. Somewhere along the line we went to the airport to check in for our connecting flight. We learnt that a hand signal similar to the hitch-hiking thumb out + little finger is a kind of greeting. We also changed to a flight that stopped over at another of the islands in the Hawaii chain so we could see more sights from the air. Somewhere along the line, we also went to a macadamia nut factory. That day we stopped for a meal, and some other gentlemen there kindly paid for us. That evening we were considering where to sleep. The place we had in mind near the shore, we were told someone had been murdered there recently. Although, that didn't concern us much, because the people that told us were (concerned), we decided to look around some more. Somewhere along the line, we nearly got run over by a police motorcycle (looking the wrong way again) who checked our passports etc. There just happened to be a beauty/talent contest going on in a building we passed. It was miss America junior or someting like that. Anyway, there was this guy there trying to peek in, but it wasn't as much fun as he'd imagined so he started talking to us. Anyway, he says he would buy us dinner. We were so delighted that he didn't offer us drugs like practically everybody else. I remember having quite a bit of raw fish amongst other Japanese delicacies. Later he offered us a place to sleep for the night. We didn't think anything of the fact that his blue ute looked rather new (with sides as well!), that his furnishings were rather plush. That he thought nothing of buying expensive takeaway food. That his girlfriend was wrapping up some seeds that looked suspiciously like Pakalolo seeds. He said that he had a good relationship with his girlfriend. He grew it - she smoked it. He personally didn't touch the stuff. Next day we flew back to Honolulu, on our rescheduled flight path. I can't remember wether we slept at the airport or on the plane, or on the way to LA. At LA, our plan was to visit Universal studios, and then move on. Our taxi ride took us to a hotel near Universal Studios (Universal Sheraton). Our taxi driver assured us that it was the best value for staying near U. S. It was very late at night and we were flabbergasted at the cost. US$ 120 a night between us. This was going to lift our average dollar a day kind of trip we'd been having so far. Anyway, we dropped off our bags and went to a nearby SUBway restaurant to eat. Nice lady (with big um.... ears) at reception told us she had tucked us in already (it was 3am in the morning), what were we doing still up? Had she ever heard of Jetlaaaag. Anyway, we stayed in the hotel as long as possible to get our maximum value for dollar, and headed off to Universal studios. Ho, hum don't remember anything really exciting - sure there was camera tricks, tunnels, King Kong, fake floods, fake fires, Huuuge backdrops, as we rode a train through the place, but all of this was a step backwards as far as holiday enjoyment went. Back at the hotel, we asked for a taxi to go to the bus station. Limo driver overheard us and said he was on his way there anyway and would give us a lift for about the same price as for a taxi. This was more like it. We were being treated like one of the *stars*. The first bus ride did not go so well, however. After having a few conversations with various interesting people (one who was working on a prototype for a perpetual motion machine!) we forgot that we were supposed to check in our luggage well before the bus was about to leave to Tucson. As a result, we lost our tape player/recorder. Some of Our luggage also got off at the wrong place and it took another day to retrieve some of it. Chris's grandparents etc. were there to greet us. We spent quite a lot of time in Tucson. I remember going ten pin bowling, playing pool, swimming at the nearby pool/Jaccuzi, showing off juggling tricks to friends. Me & Sandor played golf, once hiring a cart, another time playing the turtle course.
Philosophy
Both my political and personal philosophies are decidedly 'Contrarian'. My convictions on marginal matters side completelely with minority opinion, precisely because it is minority opinion! For instance if the leader of a *DEMOCRATIC* country makes a decision fairly early in their term, and the (even large) majority think it a very wrong move, it makes me think it must have been the correct decision. My reasoning goes that leaders only priorities are staying in power, which means public opinion. The only possible pragmatic reason a leader would do it If they can see long term benefits (admittedly, for votes) despite short term public disapproval. This argument only really works for democracies, however. This is the clear difference between democracies and dictatorships. Democratic leaders have to be accountable in the short or long term, so sooner or later they are going to make decisions *only* because they are popular - they no longer have the privilege of making unpopular choices that are good for a country. Decisions that are both good for a country and popular are no-brainers. All democratically elected governments do those anyway. It is only the marginal decisions that have a chance of being unpopular but good for the country.
Extended 1987 trip diary
First plane trip - TSV - SYD - HNL. Customs telling me I would need a temp visa to get back in. I remember taking a walk around during our hours of stopover in Sydney. Crossing the dateline as well as the equator. Starting a trend of eating as much as possible during flights, because we didn't know when our next meal was coming. Arrival at Honolulu and the "show me the money" incident at the customs there. Wearing silly ribbon badges to catch a Taxi. Nearly getting run over because I looked the wrong way instinctively when crossing the first road. Checking in at the hotel, noting the free light breakfast from our "host" holiday packager. Staggering around Waikiki waiting until it was time to check into our hotel like the walking dead since we soooo jetlagged. Checking out Waikiki. Me & Sandor tasting our first ever Big Mac (being disappointed). Next day take 60c bus ride to Sunset Beach ignoring all the discounts booklet. Watch the world championship surfing, while listening to the beach boys. Surfing gets cancelled because waves are too big, one surfer coming back in with a surfboard broken in half - we decide to go swimming at Weimea Bay. Quite a serious washing machine action at the surf break, filling your pockets with sand instantly. Noting sunset at Waikiki is into the ocean unlike in Tsv. Taking our tape recorder up to the restaurant on top of the fancy Hotel. Recording the waitress saying we were dressed inappropriately. Returning later we left a large tip but failed to make a clean escape. How everybody we asked for directions either (i) was a foreign tourist who didn't speak english or (ii) offered us marijuana instead. Buying Hawaiian shirts which we proceeded to wear non-stop for the next three months, especially anywhere it was -20 C or less. Going to the top of every hotel we could see along Waikiki. Taking a bus ride to the extinct crater to climb up Diamond Head. Strange incident where I thought I'd lost you guys, but you were just sneakily following me. Balcony incident. Locking some luggage at the airport as we fly to the Big Island. Part of the engine block of the plane looking very wobbly. First day of hitchhiking- almost all uphill. Sleep at the shelter near the National park. Much colder up here - Chris has no sleeping bag. Next day we start out hiking through the "lunar" landscape of solidified lava of a recent (2 yr previous) eruption. We had but a large tin of baked beans (supposedly with pork) between us for food. Listening to "Walking on the moon" by "The Police" appropriately. Saw and smelt the acrid yellow sulphur emanating from the fairly recent crater. Walked through the acid rain desert. Walked up to the ranger's building to check it out. By mistake we walked into this "staff only" room, and saw covering a whole 2*4 meter wall an impressively accurate map of the whole island, with special references to the currently active volcano bits. We sat staring at this map for a good few minutes after we realised we weren't supposed to be in this 'control' room. Restart hiking back along the main road after noting the point where the lava flow had gone straight over it, damaging it irretrievably. Start realising that there is coins on the road ( apparently people would throw out their spare coins for good luck!) Caught Chris & Sandor fighting over a penny. After many long hours, we get picked up by this Canadian woman and a man who claimed to a direct male line descendant of the Hawaiian native Royal family (it was probably true). Being it took a long time to get this lift it was of good quality. They showed us some of the sights. Drove us past the supposedly "green" beach (It looked pretty grey to me), and eventually dropped us off at another beach. Apparently the cliffs near the beach were supposed to be haunted - so we slept there. After looking around, we realised that there was no shops in the beachfront community of Ho'okena beach .being desperately thirsty that night, where we slept on a concrete picnic table, Chris under a string hammock for the second night - and the fantastic way the beach was made up of equal numbers of black and white stones. Therefore, on top of spending a hungry and thirsty night and morning, we realised that we had made a profit of around $1 for the day! The next day's hike back onto the main road, I realised that all these yellow-skinned, pink-fleshed fruits all over the side of the road were guavas. So I ate a couple. My two friends seemed dubious about picking up fruit from the side of the road and eating it. After finding a shop and restocking our food & drink, we started hiking again. We stopped at Cook, and tried to make our way down to the beach where we knew there was a memorial for where James Cook had been killed by natives. Alas, the track was completely overgrown by tall grass and banana plantations, so we headed back for the main road. We decided not to hitchhike up to the observatory on Mauna Kea, because if we were too delayed in catching rides, we may have missed our connecting flights. Next lift was quite quick - quite poor quality. He dropped us off about 1 k down the road and told us to stop there to get a ride because it was a much better spot than where we were. Ten hours later we realised we weren't going to get a ride that night and slept at a church site.While we slept outside the church at Kona-Kailua this car pulled up in the middle of the night and people who may have been cops, or crazed killers, got out and shone torches on us, but we were too tired to care and just waited for them to arrest us or stab us and then they went away. The next day was for me perhaps the defining day of the whole trip. We finally got a ride that morning after deciding to hike if we didn't get a lift. The loveliest Japanese American man you can imagine, who discussed philosophy & family etc. and then bought us breakfast - I had an eggs benedicte, the first of three meals that were bought for us that day! After saying our goodbyes and getting packed again. Our ride from hell was beckoning. Probably the first car that passed us after we stuck our thumbs out stopped. Maybe there was only 4 dogs on the back of the ute, but the front of the ute was full, and the back of the ute wasn't empty, but was flat. Chris remembers quite vividly how high all the people in the front of the ute looked and how even so one of them told me to take off his pack, otherwise he *would* fall off the ute backwards and die. Every roller coaster ride we have been on since then has seemed so tame. We got dropped off somewhere at an intersection back in Hilo. Somewhere along the line we went to the airport to check in for our connecting flight. We learnt that a hand signal similar to the hitch-hiking thumb out + little finger is a kind of greeting. We also changed to a flight that stopped over at another of the islands in the Hawaii chain so we could see more sights from the air. Somewhere along the line, we also went to a macadamia nut factory. That day we stopped for a meal, and some other gentlemen there kindly paid for us. That evening we were considering where to sleep. The place we had in mind near the shore, we were told someone had been murdered there recently. Although, that didn't concern us much, because the people that told us were (concerned), we decided to look around some more. Somewhere along the line, we nearly got run over by a police motorcycle (looking the wrong way again) who checked our passports etc. There just happened to be a beauty/talent contest going on in a building we passed. It was miss America junior or someting like that. Anyway, there was this guy there trying to peek in, but it wasn't as much fun as he'd imagined so he started talking to us. Anyway, he says he would buy us dinner. We were so delighted that he didn't offer us drugs like practically everybody else. I remember having quite a bit of raw fish amongst other Japanese delicacies. Later he offered us a place to sleep for the night. We didn't think anything of the fact that his blue ute looked rather new (with sides as well!), that his furnishings were rather plush. That he thought nothing of buying expensive takeaway food. That his girlfriend was wrapping up some seeds that looked suspiciously like Pakalolo seeds. He said that he had a good relationship with his girlfriend. He grew it - she smoked it. He personally didn't touch the stuff. Next day we flew back to Honolulu, on our rescheduled flight path. I can't remember wether we slept at the airport or on the plane, or on the way to LA. At LA, our plan was to visit Universal studios, and then move on. Our taxi ride took us to a hotel near Universal Studios (Universal Sheraton). Our taxi driver assured us that it was the best value for staying near U. S. It was very late at night and we were flabbergasted at the cost. US$ 120 a night between us. This was going to lift our average dollar a day kind of trip we'd been having so far. Anyway, we dropped off our bags and went to a nearby SUBway restaurant to eat. Nice lady (with big um.... ears) at reception told us she had tucked us in already (it was 3am in the morning), what were we doing still up? Had she ever heard of Jetlaaaag. Anyway, we stayed in the hotel as long as possible to get our maximum value for dollar, and headed off to Universal studios. Ho, hum don't remember anything really exciting - sure there was camera tricks, tunnels, King Kong, fake floods, fake fires, Huuuge backdrops, as we rode a train through the place, but all of this was a step backwards as far as holiday enjoyment went. Back at the hotel, we asked for a taxi to go to the bus station. Limo driver overheard us and said he was on his way there anyway and would give us a lift for about the same price as for a taxi. This was more like it. We were being treated like one of the *stars*. The first bus ride did not go so well, however. After having a few conversations with various interesting people (one who was working on a prototype for a perpetual motion machine!) we forgot that we were supposed to check in our luggage well before the bus was about to leave to Tucson. As a result, we lost our tape player/recorder. Some of Our luggage also got off at the wrong place and it took another day to retrieve some of it. Chris's grandparents etc. were there to greet us. We spent quite a lot of time in Tucson. I remember going ten pin bowling, playing pool, swimming at the nearby pool/Jaccuzi, showing off juggling tricks to friends. Me & Sandor played golf, once hiring a cart, another time playing the turtle course.
Thursday, March 13, 2003
Thursday, 13th March 2003
Metabolism
Well, I've checked my bathroom scales and Since the end of February I'be been steadily gaining weight. Now, over the years my weight seems to go up and down quite consistently over a 5 kg range, but to remain stable over the long run. I must come to the conclusion therefore that I'm fattening up for the winter!
The Past
Well I decided that for nostalgia's sake, I would start to piece together our overseas trip methodogically/chronologically. Hopefully if Chris and Sandor check out my blog occasionally they can add to it, correct and/or expand it into a working diary. I guess I could use email for this, but hey this is good too.
First plane trip - TSV - SYD - HNL. Customs telling me I would need a temp visa to get back in. Crossing the dateline as well as the equator. Starting a trend of eating as much as possible during flights, because we didn't know when our next meal was coming. Arrival at Honolulu and the "show me the money" incident at the customs there. Wearing silly ribbon badges to catch a Taxi. Nearly getting run over because I looked the wrong way instinctively when crossing the first road. Checking in at the hotel, noting the free light breakfast from our "host" holiday packager. Checking out Waikiki. Me & Sandor tasting our first ever Big Mac (being disappointed). Next day take 60c bus ride to Sunset Beach ignoring all the discounts booklet. Watch the world championship surfing, while listening to the beach boys. Surfing gets cancelled because waves are too big, one surfer coming back in with a surfboard broken in half - we decide to go swimming at Weimea Bay. Quite a serious washing machine action at the surf break, filling your pockets with sand instantly. Noting sunset at Waikiki is into the ocean unlike in Tsv. Taking our tape recorder up to the restaurant on top of the fancy Hotel. Recording the waitress saying we were dressed inappropriately. Returning later we left a large tip but failed to make a clean escape. Buying Tropical shirt to match everybody else in the place. Taking a bus ride to the extinct crater to climb up Diamond Head. Strange incident where I thought I'd lost you guys, but you were just sneakily following me. Balcony incident. Locking some luggage at the airport as we fly to the Big Island. Part of the engine block of the plane looking very wobbly. First day of hitchhiking- almost all uphill. Sleep at the shelter near the National park. Much colder up here - Chris has no sleeping bag. Next day we start out hiking through the "lunar" landscape of solidified lava of a recent (2 yr previous) eruption. We had but a large tin of baked beans (supposedly with pork) between us for food. Listening to "Walking on the moon" by "The Police" appropriately. Saw and smelt the acrid yellow sulphur emanating from the fairly recent crater. Walked through the acid rain desert. Walked up to the ranger's building to check it out. By mistake we walked into this "staff only" room, and saw covering a whole 2*4 meter wall an impressively accurate map of the whole island, with special references to the currently active volcano bits. We sat staring at this map for a good few minutes after we realised we weren't supposed to be in this 'control' room. Restart hiking back along the main road after noting the point where the lava flow had gone straight over it, damaging it irretrievably. Start realising that there is coins on the road ( apparently people would throw out their spare coins for good luck!) Caught Chris & Sandor fighting over a penny. After many long hours, we get picked up by this Canadian woman and a man who claimed to a direct male line descendant of the Hawaiian native Royal family (it was probably true). Being it took a long time to get this lift it was of good quality. They showed us some of the sights. Drove us past the supposedly "green" beach (It looked pretty grey to me), and eventually dropped us off at another beach. Apparently the cliffs near the beach were supposed to be haunted - so we slept there. After looking around, we realised that there was no shops in the beachfront community. Therefore, on top of spending a hungry night and morning, we realised that we had made a profit of around $1 for the day! The next day's hike back onto the main road, I realised that all these yellow-skinned, pink-fleshed fruits all over the side of the road were guavas. So I ate a couple. My two friends seemed dubious about picking up fruit from the side of the road and eating it. After finding a shop and restocking our food & drink, we started hiking again. We stopped at Cook, and tried to make our way down to the beach where we knew there was a memorial for where James Cook had been killed by natives. Alas, the track was completely overgrown by tall grass and banana plantations, so we headed back for the main road. We decided not to hitchhike up to the observatory on Mauna Kea, because if we were too delayed in catching rides, we may have missed our connecting flights. Next lift was quite quick - quite poor quality. He dropped us off about 1 k down the road and told us to stop there to get a ride because it was a much better spot than where we were. Ten hours later we realised we weren't going to get a ride that night and slept at a church site......
Metabolism
Well, I've checked my bathroom scales and Since the end of February I'be been steadily gaining weight. Now, over the years my weight seems to go up and down quite consistently over a 5 kg range, but to remain stable over the long run. I must come to the conclusion therefore that I'm fattening up for the winter!
The Past
Well I decided that for nostalgia's sake, I would start to piece together our overseas trip methodogically/chronologically. Hopefully if Chris and Sandor check out my blog occasionally they can add to it, correct and/or expand it into a working diary. I guess I could use email for this, but hey this is good too.
First plane trip - TSV - SYD - HNL. Customs telling me I would need a temp visa to get back in. Crossing the dateline as well as the equator. Starting a trend of eating as much as possible during flights, because we didn't know when our next meal was coming. Arrival at Honolulu and the "show me the money" incident at the customs there. Wearing silly ribbon badges to catch a Taxi. Nearly getting run over because I looked the wrong way instinctively when crossing the first road. Checking in at the hotel, noting the free light breakfast from our "host" holiday packager. Checking out Waikiki. Me & Sandor tasting our first ever Big Mac (being disappointed). Next day take 60c bus ride to Sunset Beach ignoring all the discounts booklet. Watch the world championship surfing, while listening to the beach boys. Surfing gets cancelled because waves are too big, one surfer coming back in with a surfboard broken in half - we decide to go swimming at Weimea Bay. Quite a serious washing machine action at the surf break, filling your pockets with sand instantly. Noting sunset at Waikiki is into the ocean unlike in Tsv. Taking our tape recorder up to the restaurant on top of the fancy Hotel. Recording the waitress saying we were dressed inappropriately. Returning later we left a large tip but failed to make a clean escape. Buying Tropical shirt to match everybody else in the place. Taking a bus ride to the extinct crater to climb up Diamond Head. Strange incident where I thought I'd lost you guys, but you were just sneakily following me. Balcony incident. Locking some luggage at the airport as we fly to the Big Island. Part of the engine block of the plane looking very wobbly. First day of hitchhiking- almost all uphill. Sleep at the shelter near the National park. Much colder up here - Chris has no sleeping bag. Next day we start out hiking through the "lunar" landscape of solidified lava of a recent (2 yr previous) eruption. We had but a large tin of baked beans (supposedly with pork) between us for food. Listening to "Walking on the moon" by "The Police" appropriately. Saw and smelt the acrid yellow sulphur emanating from the fairly recent crater. Walked through the acid rain desert. Walked up to the ranger's building to check it out. By mistake we walked into this "staff only" room, and saw covering a whole 2*4 meter wall an impressively accurate map of the whole island, with special references to the currently active volcano bits. We sat staring at this map for a good few minutes after we realised we weren't supposed to be in this 'control' room. Restart hiking back along the main road after noting the point where the lava flow had gone straight over it, damaging it irretrievably. Start realising that there is coins on the road ( apparently people would throw out their spare coins for good luck!) Caught Chris & Sandor fighting over a penny. After many long hours, we get picked up by this Canadian woman and a man who claimed to a direct male line descendant of the Hawaiian native Royal family (it was probably true). Being it took a long time to get this lift it was of good quality. They showed us some of the sights. Drove us past the supposedly "green" beach (It looked pretty grey to me), and eventually dropped us off at another beach. Apparently the cliffs near the beach were supposed to be haunted - so we slept there. After looking around, we realised that there was no shops in the beachfront community. Therefore, on top of spending a hungry night and morning, we realised that we had made a profit of around $1 for the day! The next day's hike back onto the main road, I realised that all these yellow-skinned, pink-fleshed fruits all over the side of the road were guavas. So I ate a couple. My two friends seemed dubious about picking up fruit from the side of the road and eating it. After finding a shop and restocking our food & drink, we started hiking again. We stopped at Cook, and tried to make our way down to the beach where we knew there was a memorial for where James Cook had been killed by natives. Alas, the track was completely overgrown by tall grass and banana plantations, so we headed back for the main road. We decided not to hitchhike up to the observatory on Mauna Kea, because if we were too delayed in catching rides, we may have missed our connecting flights. Next lift was quite quick - quite poor quality. He dropped us off about 1 k down the road and told us to stop there to get a ride because it was a much better spot than where we were. Ten hours later we realised we weren't going to get a ride that night and slept at a church site......
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Wednesday, March 12th 2003
Immunisations
Another trip to the doctors for scheduled immunisations for Felicia & Zachary. I get strung along due to the distress of hearing the poor babies cry when they get all those needles. Felicia had her favourite doll in the car with her, but she says, "I will leave baby in the car, otherwise she will get needled". The truth is, she doesn't want the stress of her (voodoo) doll getting the same pain she is. So she gets her needle + mandatory jellybeans, big woop. Zachary gets all of three needles plus an oral vaccine. That quite deservedly gets more than mere lollies, a breastfeed calming down the whole process nicely. So they scream a lot and have to be roped down into position like a psychopath refusing his mental health medication, but I don't think it unnecessarily cruel :-). Can you remember your early vaccinations?
Lessons from the Past
Ways of saying hello
It took a while but the questions that strangers on the street would ask, were actually greetings - somewhat akin to Australia's Howareyougoing? Alright? (in some cases we aren't really interested in how you are). In Hawaii when we passed through it would be "Do you want some Pakalolo (Marijuana)?". In Thailand it was "Where you go?". When a Thai policeman asks you that on your way past an intersection, one can take it quite the wrong way, but they are actually just trying to be friendly!
You are stuck in Thailand for another few days after having sorted out your re-entry visa. Do you
a) Head for Chiang Mai, a beautiful touristy haven in the mountains. Cost effective also given the weakness of the Thai currency.
b) Go visit some "Fine Signoritas" like nearly every other male your age seems to do in Bangkok. Very cost effective also.
c) Head for the border with Laos. Thailand is currently having a reasonably fierce border war with them at the moment and we could cause quite a stir by trying to sneak across the border. Almost free.
Bye for now
Immunisations
Another trip to the doctors for scheduled immunisations for Felicia & Zachary. I get strung along due to the distress of hearing the poor babies cry when they get all those needles. Felicia had her favourite doll in the car with her, but she says, "I will leave baby in the car, otherwise she will get needled". The truth is, she doesn't want the stress of her (voodoo) doll getting the same pain she is. So she gets her needle + mandatory jellybeans, big woop. Zachary gets all of three needles plus an oral vaccine. That quite deservedly gets more than mere lollies, a breastfeed calming down the whole process nicely. So they scream a lot and have to be roped down into position like a psychopath refusing his mental health medication, but I don't think it unnecessarily cruel :-). Can you remember your early vaccinations?
Lessons from the Past
Ways of saying hello
It took a while but the questions that strangers on the street would ask, were actually greetings - somewhat akin to Australia's Howareyougoing? Alright? (in some cases we aren't really interested in how you are). In Hawaii when we passed through it would be "Do you want some Pakalolo (Marijuana)?". In Thailand it was "Where you go?". When a Thai policeman asks you that on your way past an intersection, one can take it quite the wrong way, but they are actually just trying to be friendly!
You are stuck in Thailand for another few days after having sorted out your re-entry visa. Do you
a) Head for Chiang Mai, a beautiful touristy haven in the mountains. Cost effective also given the weakness of the Thai currency.
b) Go visit some "Fine Signoritas" like nearly every other male your age seems to do in Bangkok. Very cost effective also.
c) Head for the border with Laos. Thailand is currently having a reasonably fierce border war with them at the moment and we could cause quite a stir by trying to sneak across the border. Almost free.
Bye for now
Monday, March 10, 2003
Monday 10th March 2003
I was really going to mention something along these lines, but Chris beat me to it in an e-mail
"...If you are like me you often pray that there is no justice in the universe,
and therefore your children will turn out to be less reckless than we were!
:) But I do think it is no coincidence that the three of us - for which
life has always been a glorious adventure - have gone out and gotten on
with the prodigious adventure of getting married and having children while
our more boring friends have dithered around wasting their lives. Making
rash decisions and living with their consequences forever is what life is
all about!....."
That pretty much summarises what I was going to say on the subject. Which brings me to the leadup to the overseas trip. I have come to the conclusion that past experiences will lead us a certain direction in life, and childhood experiences especially will guide your emotional responses such as anger, happiness etc. The overseas trip was the logical extension to the Burdekin Falls riding/camping adventure. But, the beginning went further back. In grade seven at Aitkenvale S.S., I went on the school outward bound camp to somewhere along the Herbert River. The combination of hiking, camping, roughing it, rafting, abseiling was amazing. I just don't think schools could afford the liability insurance of something like that these days. I remember it rained and the whole thing became even more challenging than at first envisaged. The more adventurous/fit people went on to hike to Garawolt falls and back on one of the days. Going back further, When we lived in Lusaka, Zambia, my father had taken us on a couple of hunting trips. I was too young to catch the hunting instinct, but the adventure and the outdoor camping, I still reflect on emotively to this day, even though I was barely in school at the time. Based on the experiences of my children so far, I would expect that there would be very little emotive instinct for 'outward bound' kind of adventures. However, since both my brother and father go on a lot of adventurous hunting trips even now, I expect that it could definitely change - if the kids get invited.
I was really going to mention something along these lines, but Chris beat me to it in an e-mail
"...If you are like me you often pray that there is no justice in the universe,
and therefore your children will turn out to be less reckless than we were!
:) But I do think it is no coincidence that the three of us - for which
life has always been a glorious adventure - have gone out and gotten on
with the prodigious adventure of getting married and having children while
our more boring friends have dithered around wasting their lives. Making
rash decisions and living with their consequences forever is what life is
all about!....."
That pretty much summarises what I was going to say on the subject. Which brings me to the leadup to the overseas trip. I have come to the conclusion that past experiences will lead us a certain direction in life, and childhood experiences especially will guide your emotional responses such as anger, happiness etc. The overseas trip was the logical extension to the Burdekin Falls riding/camping adventure. But, the beginning went further back. In grade seven at Aitkenvale S.S., I went on the school outward bound camp to somewhere along the Herbert River. The combination of hiking, camping, roughing it, rafting, abseiling was amazing. I just don't think schools could afford the liability insurance of something like that these days. I remember it rained and the whole thing became even more challenging than at first envisaged. The more adventurous/fit people went on to hike to Garawolt falls and back on one of the days. Going back further, When we lived in Lusaka, Zambia, my father had taken us on a couple of hunting trips. I was too young to catch the hunting instinct, but the adventure and the outdoor camping, I still reflect on emotively to this day, even though I was barely in school at the time. Based on the experiences of my children so far, I would expect that there would be very little emotive instinct for 'outward bound' kind of adventures. However, since both my brother and father go on a lot of adventurous hunting trips even now, I expect that it could definitely change - if the kids get invited.
Monday 10th March 2003
It's true. Against my better judgement - I hopped aboard the truck with my two buddies. Later we stopped because one of the dogs sitting behind me had fallen off and was hanging perilously by a string. The driver took the opportunity to fill up with petrol from the cannister, only just remembering to put out his joint that he was smoking at the time, before opening the fuel tank. Chris remarked later that the clifftop views, that we passed would have been thoroughly enjoyable, had it not been that we were hanging on for dear life, as we overtook some other cars. Without exception in our experience with hitch-hiking there, the longer it took for us to garner a lift, the better the quality of the ride.
No Moovies, Limited computer Games
I just can't get over this difference between me and probably all previous school/uni friends. For a long time now, the very thought of going to the Moovies just fills me with dread. I think the only reason I ever bothered initially was for general courtship for an excuse to go out with a girlfriend; or at a pinch, to go out with a group of friends including some of the female persuasion without a partner. When I got married, I breathed a subconscious sigh of relief thinking "Phew, won't have to do that again". Watching movies on the TV is usually ok with my psych, as long as I'm not obliged to watch the ending for some reason (endings are often the most stereotyped bits, and usually happen when I'm the most tired, plus I'm thinking to myself - "see, if I was at the moovies, I couldn't do this").
Now, as far as computer games go, the danger in my mind is getting so addicted that my family/work life suffers. I am convinced that at my age, all addictive and/or fun computer games are of no intellectual, social, or educational value to me. Therefore, my wife is right to tell me off for limiting my time on them. I was recently "hooked" on Age of Empires (got it from the back of a Nutri-Grain packet) and my exit strategy involved praising Kylie everytime she yelled and screamed until I got off it; and strangely, being given all the cheats to the game made me lose interest in it almost overnight, wished I'd learnt them earlier.
Weekend
Almost nothing of interest happens to me on weekends. Mainly catching up with domestic matters. If I'm lucky I get to do some gardening....
It's true. Against my better judgement - I hopped aboard the truck with my two buddies. Later we stopped because one of the dogs sitting behind me had fallen off and was hanging perilously by a string. The driver took the opportunity to fill up with petrol from the cannister, only just remembering to put out his joint that he was smoking at the time, before opening the fuel tank. Chris remarked later that the clifftop views, that we passed would have been thoroughly enjoyable, had it not been that we were hanging on for dear life, as we overtook some other cars. Without exception in our experience with hitch-hiking there, the longer it took for us to garner a lift, the better the quality of the ride.
No Moovies, Limited computer Games
I just can't get over this difference between me and probably all previous school/uni friends. For a long time now, the very thought of going to the Moovies just fills me with dread. I think the only reason I ever bothered initially was for general courtship for an excuse to go out with a girlfriend; or at a pinch, to go out with a group of friends including some of the female persuasion without a partner. When I got married, I breathed a subconscious sigh of relief thinking "Phew, won't have to do that again". Watching movies on the TV is usually ok with my psych, as long as I'm not obliged to watch the ending for some reason (endings are often the most stereotyped bits, and usually happen when I'm the most tired, plus I'm thinking to myself - "see, if I was at the moovies, I couldn't do this").
Now, as far as computer games go, the danger in my mind is getting so addicted that my family/work life suffers. I am convinced that at my age, all addictive and/or fun computer games are of no intellectual, social, or educational value to me. Therefore, my wife is right to tell me off for limiting my time on them. I was recently "hooked" on Age of Empires (got it from the back of a Nutri-Grain packet) and my exit strategy involved praising Kylie everytime she yelled and screamed until I got off it; and strangely, being given all the cheats to the game made me lose interest in it almost overnight, wished I'd learnt them earlier.
Weekend
Almost nothing of interest happens to me on weekends. Mainly catching up with domestic matters. If I'm lucky I get to do some gardening....
Thursday, March 06, 2003
Thursday 6th March 2003
another
Blast from the past
OK. You're hitch-hiking with your 2 best buddies around "the Big Island" of Hawaii. After a hearty breakfast paid for by your last hitch-hikee (driver) you set off down the road and start to hike putting out your thumbs out. Ten seconds later a flat trayback utility stops for you, the people in the seats gesturing for us to hop on. On a closer inspection you see that there are four people in the front seats designed to hold three people. On the flat tray you notice that there is a rusting currugated iron tank section (1.5m diameter say) formerly a water tank by the looks butting the back of the cab. Inside the tank, amongst other things is a tall cannister, presumably holding petrol or gas. Tied to back of the cab are no less than seven (small) dogs tied up in a daisy chain. You half expect them to wait until you're near and then zoom off, like some practical jokers like to do to unsuspecting hitch-hikers, but, no they genuinely want to give you a ride. Do you
A) Politely tell them that there is not enough room, and that we would worry about the dogs too much and that we would get another lift anyhow
B) Pretend that we weren't hitch-hiking at all we were just waving and pointing to our good friend across the road whom we just had breakfast with, and get them to move on.
C) Look across to your two friends, one with a gleam in his eye the other delighted that we got a lift so quick this time, and hop in the back together with your three biggish backpacks and brace yourself anyway you can, even if there is not enough room for all of you to hold on to something sturdy.
Spit Discography
Try something stupid, spit some apple sauce on the judge, put in a link to Spit online - music downloads, include some keywords and try putting it on your blog, sooner or later some web-crawler is going to find it and index it. It's worth a try.
Work
Maybe there is some job satisfaction in being in a family business. One tends to be more a master of one's (and the businesses) destiny. The downside is the tricky nature of mixing family with business, and for that matter weighing up work and leisure time. . In conclusion, if business is going very well, it's great for everyone - if not, everyone must suffer to some degree...
Thursday 6th March 2003
Felicia's incident
Yesterday afternoon I get an urgent phone call on my mobile - Felicia's hit her head and is bleeding everywhere - Rush home. Big red bump on the back of her head, blood all over her nice pink clothes. Ten minutes later, I've finally calmed her down enough that she's happily reading a book, eating a biscuit, so I go and see if there is any more blood to clean up. Pick up her favourite doll, who is wearing pink clothes that used to be Felicias. Blood is spattered over dolls pink clothes and a big red splat of blood on the back of its head. Spooky voodoo-type moment. What exactly was Nikolas doing in the bedroom with her when all of this happened? Why wasn't there any blood on the curtain right next to the doll? How can a girl cause herself so much damage when she is so tiny and light?.............................................
Felicia's incident
Yesterday afternoon I get an urgent phone call on my mobile - Felicia's hit her head and is bleeding everywhere - Rush home. Big red bump on the back of her head, blood all over her nice pink clothes. Ten minutes later, I've finally calmed her down enough that she's happily reading a book, eating a biscuit, so I go and see if there is any more blood to clean up. Pick up her favourite doll, who is wearing pink clothes that used to be Felicias. Blood is spattered over dolls pink clothes and a big red splat of blood on the back of its head. Spooky voodoo-type moment. What exactly was Nikolas doing in the bedroom with her when all of this happened? Why wasn't there any blood on the curtain right next to the doll? How can a girl cause herself so much damage when she is so tiny and light?.............................................
Tuesday, March 04, 2003
Tuesday 4th March 2003
Those of you who calculated Jager's birthday to be 14 June 2002, correct. Those of you who answered c to the other question, right.
As a corollary, would one further risk ones life by climbing down the rest of the way rather than create extra embarrassment by going through someone elses hotel room? yep.
Head Lice
This must me one of the most intractable health problem imaginable for school & pre-school age children imaginable. Due to the virtual indestructibility of the eggs, the ease of re-infestation, the complex variety of strategies of containment - all of which have flaws and particular timing and coordination issues with others who are in direct or indirect contact with infected children, one must accept that infestations will be unavoidable and possibly regular as well, no matter how much one frets about it.
In my mind there really is only one slight possible chance of full eradication - Popularise the once a year day which people think about the poor children with Leukemia - and make it compulsory for everyone to "Shave for a Cure" especially all the children. This is clearly simplistic - but it is bound to work wonders. A much better possibility than going through the constant rigmarole of putting smelly chemicals through ones hair regularly, knowing full well that reinfestation is inevitable.
Is there anybody out there? I am looking for others with diary blogs, in particular old friends like Chris Fellows, Evan Dean, David Astley, Noel Small, and any others that may be of interest anywhere. If you are reading this can you please send me a (blank?) email - Marco. For some reason I just hate thinking that I'm talking to myself..., and besides, I seem to have lost the email addresses I used to have that I never bothered to follow up before, but am now in the mood...
Those of you who calculated Jager's birthday to be 14 June 2002, correct. Those of you who answered c to the other question, right.
As a corollary, would one further risk ones life by climbing down the rest of the way rather than create extra embarrassment by going through someone elses hotel room? yep.
Head Lice
This must me one of the most intractable health problem imaginable for school & pre-school age children imaginable. Due to the virtual indestructibility of the eggs, the ease of re-infestation, the complex variety of strategies of containment - all of which have flaws and particular timing and coordination issues with others who are in direct or indirect contact with infected children, one must accept that infestations will be unavoidable and possibly regular as well, no matter how much one frets about it.
In my mind there really is only one slight possible chance of full eradication - Popularise the once a year day which people think about the poor children with Leukemia - and make it compulsory for everyone to "Shave for a Cure" especially all the children. This is clearly simplistic - but it is bound to work wonders. A much better possibility than going through the constant rigmarole of putting smelly chemicals through ones hair regularly, knowing full well that reinfestation is inevitable.
Is there anybody out there? I am looking for others with diary blogs, in particular old friends like Chris Fellows, Evan Dean, David Astley, Noel Small, and any others that may be of interest anywhere. If you are reading this can you please send me a (blank?) email - Marco. For some reason I just hate thinking that I'm talking to myself..., and besides, I seem to have lost the email addresses I used to have that I never bothered to follow up before, but am now in the mood...
Monday, March 03, 2003
3rd March 2003
Today Zachary is Exactly half as old as his cousin Jager Parigi, my brother's first child. Given that I wrote Zac's birthday on an earlier blog, what is Jager's birth date? Any guesses?
mail link
Blast from the past
You are on an overseas trip with a couple of mates from school, and are staying in the sixth storey of a hotel in Honolulu. Your two good buddies decide to play a practical joke on you and lock you outside on the balcony. do you::
a) Bang on the door, yell loudly waking up everybody in the block, until your friends decide that before you can cause any damage that they'd better let you in.
b) Get yourself as comfortable as possible to settle down for the night, because you know these guys, they won't let you in until the morning; when you may get a chance to play a joke back onto them.
c) Climb down onto the balcony on the floor below you - that'll show'em who's boss.
Any guesses.
Today Zachary is Exactly half as old as his cousin Jager Parigi, my brother's first child. Given that I wrote Zac's birthday on an earlier blog, what is Jager's birth date? Any guesses?
mail link
Blast from the past
You are on an overseas trip with a couple of mates from school, and are staying in the sixth storey of a hotel in Honolulu. Your two good buddies decide to play a practical joke on you and lock you outside on the balcony. do you::
a) Bang on the door, yell loudly waking up everybody in the block, until your friends decide that before you can cause any damage that they'd better let you in.
b) Get yourself as comfortable as possible to settle down for the night, because you know these guys, they won't let you in until the morning; when you may get a chance to play a joke back onto them.
c) Climb down onto the balcony on the floor below you - that'll show'em who's boss.
Any guesses.
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