TV in Belgium and the fate of the UK

My hotel room has a TV that shows TV programs from a number of different countries. I could watch BBC1, BBC2, and ITV1. The local Flemish channels show English language shows but with subtitles. Some people thing that this is the reason that everyone can speak such good English.

So I was channel hopping (zappen). On the UK channels, two had shitty game or talent shows on.
Even worse BBC2 had a program about how the British felt that they were a special people. One of the local channels showed one of the new Sherlock Holmes programs made by the BBC, but with subtitles.

So the local here improve their English while the English nation is brain washed with game shows and propaganda for a lost Empire. So what is the plan to make Britain great again. Are we going to invade India and sell opium to the Chinese? What we don't need is a program telling us "we are the chosen ones."

The Elites of this country need to let go of the Empire idea. OK, many of them have, of course, they are too busy stealing as much money from the country, so they can buy a big castle in France. and retire there. Cutting the 50p tax rate -- very power to the people.

On getting old

So I was 45 yesterday -- that was the main reason I was in Bruges (apart from a massive burn out). This birthday hit me very hard. I got depressed about age and death. One of the problems with no having children is that I am not distracted by looking after my family, but I have plenty of time to go inwards to despair.

I now fully understand the mid life crisis thing, but I am not sure what to do about it.

On a more positive note I actually feel better than  last year, because of the diet and extra exercise. I just need to lose another 10 kgs and work on my flexibility. The last week has been a week of excess, but if I can calm down, than I will be back on track again.

There must be a way to cheat death.

Salvador Dali

So after surviving the lack of breakfast trial, I was ready to do some hard core tourist stuff. I was in the markt area and there was museum for Salvador Dali. When I was between 16 and 23 I was interested in surrealism, but when paranoia and madness became the normality of my normal life, I lost interest somewhat. But still I like Dali I thought.

It was a small museum but still very interesting. I didn't realize that Dali had dome so many book illustration.  He had done pictures for books such as Alice in Wonderland and Venus in Furs. Dali was both a good painter and drawer as well as good at self promotion. A lot of his work was based on philosophy or ideas

There were a lot of mirror in the museum and that freaked me out. I was a bit unsure of reality.

First day in Bruges

My hotel in Bruges is close to the railway station. The web site of the hotel claimed it was either a 20 minute walk (for normal speed walkers) to get to the city center, or take a short bus trip. It took a short while to get a ticket. I got on the bus to the Zentrum. After about 5 minutes I got off at a market. It was a standard market, with stalls selling 5 pairs of socks for 5 Euros. However I was in tourist mode so I was searching for the historical bit and a place to buy breakfast.

After the market  I walled in what I thought was the correct direction. Bruges is a tourist town, so I thought I should find something quickly. I was partly looking for history, but mostly looking for breakfast, because the night before I had just eaten 3 beers and a chocolate bar. But I walked and walked, but I didn't find any cafes or open shops. I thought, this is hell -- I am going to just walk around until  I starve or go mad. At some point I thought I smelled bacon, but I could see no shop or cafe. I shook my fist at heaven.

Just as I thought, well this is it, I hit the man tourist  area. I then had to decide on what rip off cafe to eat at. This took some while and I eventually went into a fast food joint to order a bacon burger, because please remember I was close to death and needed a little meat.

 The burger was delicious and even used a brown bap.

Belgium beer

I got the train from Wuppertal to Bruges on Friday. The train to Brussels from Koln was late, so I got into Bruges train station 20:00. However, most of the shops in the station were closed. This was a bit of a bummer, because I needed something to eat. My hotel was close to the train station.

After I checked in, I found a little shiny modern bar. I knew most of the Belgium beers on offer. I started with a Duvel beer. Duvel beer always reminds me of Liverpool, because I used to drink that beer  after going to the Odeon cinema.  I like beer, but experience has told me drinking more than 2 beers with 9% alcohol content is not a good idea. So after a small glass of Leffe, I decided to be a real slob and go for a Stella. 

I have drunk a lot of Stella beer in the UK, but it doesn't have a good reputation among the real ale crowd, apart from its ability to get you pissed. The beer was poured into a small glass and the head was removed with a knife in  a European manner. (Actually the served dropped the glass when it was half full).

After my 3 beers I got a chocolate bar from the vending machine -- and that was dinner.

Now that I think abut it, I hardly ever see Belgium beer in Germany.

How not to start a holiday

During the last couple of weeks I have been really burnt out. So I booked a weekend holiday in Bruges Belgium. Before I left I thought I should weigh myself. Bad idea, because my weight had gone up to 91 kgs. This is not information I needed to know, before I visit to the land of fries, chocolate, waffles, and strong beer.

Rammstein

So Rammstein seem to a big German metal band. I think that their control over the crowd is amazing. Somehow he makes wearing dungarees cool.


They are very theatrical as well

Stahlhammer

So in my voyage of discovery of German music, today we are looking at Stahlhammer from Austria.

They also do a neat cover of a famous Pink Floyd song.
I like their sound, but I want something faster .....

 Subway to Sally

I have started my discovery of German underground music by listening to Subway to Sally. It is clear to me from the streets of Wuppertal that metal is big in Germany. I tried one song on youtube, because this band were described as Medieval metal, and this seemed interesting enough to try.
The video looks cool, but the sound is not so special, but perhaps I should try more than one track.



 OK, from the live video I can now hear why it is called Medieval metal. But is it prog?
I like these guys more now.

Soap&skin

I was listening to Tom Ravenscroft and he played a track by Soap&Skin. I thought it was pretty awesome. She sounds a bit like Nico. She comes from Austria I believe.



I thought I should explore German music a bit more. I should make it clear that I was thinking of exploring underground German music rather than Beethoven. I could be as cool as Julian Cope,
who wrote a book on Krautrock.

I had a look at the wikipedia page for German bands. Anyway it might make more interesting posts than how depressed I am.

On being slightly less fat

On weight

So finally I have managed to reach 90 kg. I have been lost in a terrible black pit of despair, so I was happy to see this morning the reading on my scales. It makes me think what weight I would be if I had cut down on the booze. I have only lost 6 kg since Christmas, so it all going a bit slow. What is the secret of my success, well eating half grapefruit at breakfast.

Mug wars

The mystery of the broken mugs

What the fuck! I wanted a coffee so I poured hot water on the powder. Ten seconds later the mug imploded. What are the chances of that? Actually pretty high, because the same thing happened last week with a cup of tea. Why are all my mugs exploding. I think it might be due to some plot by the CIA. They know I drink a lot of tea. They are trying to assassinate me with exploding mugs, before I start to do something important in my life, such as err. Of course the other possibility is that the Euro shop sell cheap shit mugs, Another possibility is that I wake in the middle of night and start throwing mugs around, while I sleep. I am more worried about this reason, than the CIA is out to get me. Being an enemy of the CIA is heroic, but throwing mugs around while I sleep is just stupid.

Wired

I have managed to finish another book! This week I finished reading Wired by  Douglas  Richards. It was a futurist action thriller. Some of the ideas I liked, but then there was a bit too much telling rather than showing. And the end went on for longer than it needed. Still I enjoyed it.

Veggie death

 On being poisoned

I was poisoned at work today in the Cafeteria. A couple of people told me it is important to have a few meat free days every week. In the same conversation I couldn't remember when I had a day when I had not eaten meat. I am not hard core about this. I don't start the day with a burger, much as I want to.

After passing my German exam on Wednesday, I totally failed to order a pork stir fry and ended up with the vegetarian stir fry instead, so I was poisoned. I felt weak and hungry all afternoon. I had to eat a big can of tuna to recover.

It used to be that vegetarians were thought to be  bunch of flower hugging hippies, but suddenly vegetarianism is main  stream. They should be forced to eat in a different building, so as not to corrupt the food of us meat eaters. I need my strength.

Stress

Dreams and exam stress

I finally have the final part of my exam in German today, so it is interesting to record my dreams. Also I didn't drink any alcohol last night so my dreams were vivid.

I was walking into a room. I turned around and a figure in a brown cloak was sneaking up on me. I turned around and just managed to get a reasonable elbow shot in, when I woke up. After some reflection, I think the figure was based on the evil person in the dreams in the film "Minority Report."

When I was in another dream I was around a swimming pool. Somehow I had a database of past loves. Although you might start to worry that I am stalking women, it is actually much sadder than that. I was worried about the design of the database. It didn't use sql, but used some associative array data structures in PERL. Somehow the poor design of my database resulted in me losing contact information with women.

My conclusion. I should have taken the online course from MIT on databases, if I really am serious for looking for love. Also I need to work on my martial awareness and combat techniques.

Passport blues

New Passport

If you were to hide a hidden camera near the postbox in my flat. Everyday you would see a per son open his mail box with a look of hope, but then start to cry when he saw emptiness. That person would be me,  because I am waiting for my new passport. Why do I need a new passport? Well for a holiday of course and my old one has run out. I have been nervous, in case there were some problems (like me not filling in a form correctly.)

Or perhaps the seditious thoughts expressed as on this blog.

Passports are now sent from the UK to the address in Germany, but I had to apply to an office in Dusseldorf. When I saw the DHL letter, I was at first excited, because I thought it was my new passport, but then I saw DUS on the letter. I though that is just my old passport being sent back from Dusseldorf. But when I opened there was my new passport -- all shiny and new, all ready to send me to new far flung lands.

I invent a new dish

Below is what I designed for my lunch todays. Chili and beans. I actually regret adding the chillies, because my stomach is on fire. Opinion seems mixed as to whether baked beans are healthy. The beans are healthy, but sugar is added as well.

Father Brown versus the Catholic church

Ok so I was baptised a Catholic, but I never took the communion thing. My family were not religious, when we were growing up. I think I was dragged to church at some stage, and perhaps I even went to Sunday school for a couple of months, but I think this had more to do with doing the right thing rather than anything to do with this God dude. Luckily in those days the churches didn't like young children so much, so that helped me keep out of their clutches.

On the Iplayer is a collection of stories about Father Brown by  G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries, even though he is a fat little priest. On one hand I really enjoy the stories, however on an intellectual level, the endings of the stories always seem to involve propaganda for the Catholic Church,  The priest knows more about real life than the rational men of science. To be fair he doesn't use supernatural reasoning. Personally I think a priest detective would miss all the clues, because he would spend all his time ranting about condoms and gay marriage. 

I am slightly against Chesterton, because when I was young I wanted to know about anarchism (as you do). In the days before the internet, all I found was the book " The Man Who Was Thursday", that frankly is not a good introduction to anarchism, but an interesting book.

Now that I look on Wikipedia I see that Chesterton used to carry a sword stick around, so he was a sound man.

Please note that although I don't like this nasty religious business --  I don't feel that this should stop me winning the Templeton prize, for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities, because I could do a lot with the money and prestige..

 Kill speed

I just watched "kill speed" on Itunes. I think I rented it because it was available for 99p on Itunes and it was an action film. I spent a month not watching it, because I didn't really like the plot synopsis.
It was an enjoyable film in its way. There were a lot of plane chases, but the plot was fairly standard.

I do wander what this type of film is doing to Americas, because it does suggest that just be being an American jock, you can fly jets with no training.

Love and cartoons

On love

I had a major panic attack this morning. I turned the TV on, but found no cartoons. How could I wake up properly with no cartoons, but with just lots of cups tea. There were TV programs, but normally there are cartoons -- this has been true for all the four countries I have lived in. However after I had a shower, I saw that spider man was on the TV -- so all was well.

Perhaps I need someone in my life to shake me out of my boring life. About a week ago I was talking to a female in neighbour in the lift. After she realized how bad my German was, she started talking to me in English. She told me that it was bad that I had to walk through a forest to get to my home. She cares, I thought, how sweet. I don't think she was telling me that I was a loser because I don't have a car. I tried to explain that I liked the spirit of the forest, but I expect I came across as a nerdy boy doesn't talk to chicks much. Perhaps I will never see her again. I have already forgotten what floor she got out of.

So you can see why I need to see cartoons on Sunday morning to get me out of bed.

Sharp dressing -- or not

On getting smart

I feel the need for smarting up a little bit. When I lived in the US, I used to wear colourful t-shirts, but it seemed pointless in the UK, because the weather is usually not good enough to just wear a T-shirt.
Anyway I got out of the habit. I don't see so many cool T-shirts on Amazon. But what about this one.

Unfortunately apart from being sexist, the T-shirt needs to be washed in cold water. So if I do pull, I will need some washing tips.

I am not James Bond

On being a secret agent

I awoke last night for a toilet break. I thought, wow I have not had any dreams. When I fell asleep I dreamed that I was a secret agent. I have managed to forget the first part of the dream, but later in the dream I was in a taxi that was travelling towards a museum, where a secret organisation was based. At the museum, I was quickly identified, and I got into two fights, both of which I lost badly. My secret equipment was found and stolen.

Later my partner arrived and saved me. My equipment cam back by teleportation. At the end of the dream I was a supermarket, where I borrowed the keys of one of members of the Wuppertal theory group, who was working there part time. I accidentally took the keys  hope with me.

It seemed a very middle dream about special agents. I also see I think I am a special agent, rather than a secret agent -- no wonder that i got caught so quickly.

Exam angst

 On taking an exam in German

I am in the progress of taking an exam in German. The last part of the test is next Wednesday.
Although I am a "hard" person, I also have a nervous streak. When I was at University or school, people used to hat it when I took an exam. After the test I would go into "I have failed mode", where I would get depressed, because I thought I had failed the exam. For completeness, the exam is B1,
that is I believe close to AS level in German.

After the exam on Wednesday I started to get very depressed, because I thought I had messed up two thirds of the exam. I did manage to fail many of the practice tests we did in class. And when I say fail, I mean a massive failure with 30% score. Luckily the teacher told me I hadn't failed, just I was getting  into failure mode. My mood was bad for the test, because after studying for the test, I found that I had forgotten many of the verb conjugations for important verbs such as werden.
So I had spent the morning writing out the tables, but making many mistakes.
 I also failed the last exam at the A2 level and the pass mark is 66% -- what the fuck.

At some stage I realized I knew the word for fail (durchfallen), but not the word for pass. There is a verb called passen, but my on line dictionary translates this as "to suit" or match, but I will check with my German speaking colleagues.

When I was "revising" for this exam, I found that no one understood what I was talking about. And now that I think about it -- it doesn't make too much sense.

Well how should I relax? Perhaps I will read a little Mark Twain on the German language.

A few thoughts on black magic

My first dream of black magic

I had a dream with plenty of black magic in it last night. I was on an island. I went into a tunnel into the ground. There was a bunker with a locked wardrobe in it. I open the wardrobe with  key, although I knew there could be problems with evil. I looked around the bunker, but delayed too long. The sense of evil increased and I panicked. I couldn't get the wardrobe closed and locked and I had to escape from the bunker by another way. Black clouds were swarming around and I needed sunlight.

On the roof I met a goth chick who was worried about evil, but who almost kept bursting into flame.
I then met some other people who worried about the dark forces swirling around us.

So what does the dream mean master? Well on the positive side I am not actually welding black magic, but somehow I am being tempted. When I was awake I wandered whether black magic could  be used to help me win the Templeton prize. That is not really normal is it, but the Templeton prize is a lot of money? I think the dream was more influenced by watching the end of Merlin (but not the BBC series) on  TV, before I went to sleep.

How I came to love steps

On boxing

I am trying to get fit. In the past I have gone to the gym and done a little weights and used a stepper to warm up. However the University of Wuppertal is on a hill, so I thought I should use the real steps. So when I feel like it I walk down a road to the bottom of the hill, so that I can walk up the steps -- for fitness. If I feel real keen I also walk up the stairs to my office on the 10th floor.

So here are the first third of the steps to my office

Perhaps it will end like the Rocky film. I will run up the stairs and start jumping and down.




Many people have filmed themselves running up the same steps as Rocky. Perhaps when I get a bit
fitter I can be a professional boxer. At the moment I stagger to the top and wander around with my nervous system completely destroyed. Until I get a coffee.

My core

 On having a strong core

After a post about satanism, I thought I should post a saner post -- just in case any future employers are reading. After all, even  Aleister Crowley was a mountaineer, so fitness is important not just for life, but also for the occult.

Apart from being fat, I think my abdominal muscles are very weak. I find it hard to have weight on my stomach.  I have in the past used an ab roller machine, but I have read that it is not good for the neck. Also I am not very good at doing sit ups.

In a book by a hard core weight lifter he recommended an ab-wheel. Mine arrived last week. I can feel it burning my abdominal.

When my abs are strong I will be able to do stuff like invite people to hit me in the stomach. But I remember what happened to Houdini.

Late night porn

When porn didn't help

One of the TV channels in Germany plays some mild porn adverts after midnight. These are mostly adverts for chat lines and feature some nudity. When I was a younger man I would not have watched such TV, but rather I would have turned over to watch an action film with plenty of honest Godly violence.

Last night it struck me that this mild late night nakedness, might give me better dreams. But no I awoke with a confused dream about a physics calculation. I wouldn't mind, but I have had the dream before, and it is not about any project I am working on. But perhaps my subconsciousness has noticed something that will help solve the fundamental problems of physics, if only I would pay attention.
At the very least I now know physics is better than late night (mild) porn.

What not to read in public

On why buying a book by Dennis Wheatley was not such a good idea

About two weeks ago I felt like reading a book by the "horror writer" Dennis Wheatley. He was famous for writing occult novels filled with devil worshipers. He was once very popular, but now his books are almost out of print. So I chose a book on amazon and ordered a copy.

When It arrived I was a bit shocked by the cover. I thought perhaps I shouldn't read such a book outside my flat. I just hope the police come round to my flat. They would see  the book and I would have to explain that I was interested in Satanists rather that Nazis. This would be a conversation that would not end well.

Let us hope that they don't start reading, because a father and a daughter have just done something wrong in a black mass. And the father may turn out to be a hero.

On becoming slightly less fat

More exciting weight news

After a lot of hard core sulking because I didn't make my weight target last week. Being a mature adult, I dealt with my disappointment , by having a couple of beers on Sunday, Luckily I made it to 91 kgs on Saturday. This blog will become very dull, if I record every kg lost. It could be 10 posts to get to my target of 80 kgs, unless I start to gain weight again.

I am reading a book on fitness. The author went on the "velocity diet", where he only drank 5 shakes per day, but ate no food. He lost a lot of weight in a month. The Guardian have a report on an even more radical way of losing weight.  These solutions seem very hardcore to me.

Bait and Switch

I have managed to finish a book. This is the first book that I have finished this year. The book was
"Bait and Switch: The Futile Pursuit of the Corporate Dream" by Barbara Ehrenreich. Barbara is a independent left leaning writer. She wanted as an experiment to get a job at a corporation to see what people were complaining about. However after almost a year she didn't get a real interview, apart from two in sales -- that involved her fast buying the stuff she would later sell.

Finding a white collar job looked a depressing business. There were strange "job coaches" who drew weird and pointless diagrams. There were also networking sessions run by churches. A lot of the job seekers seemed to be broken. Things are bad in the USA, where there is no NHS too take care of them, between jobs.  She spent a huge amount of cash with a CV coach.

Given that I am on a fixed term contract-- I of course worry about being unemployed all the time.
I found it strange none of the IT guys tried to write some code, or learnt a new computer language.

The 7th dimension

I watched the film "the 7th dimension" on Sunday and Monday by the magic of Itunes. Th blurb for the film had something about hacker breaking int the Vatican computer network. The film started badly for me, because it had two women students talking. There is great line in a Dylan Thomas story that goes like: "he still loved her, but he didn't like anything she set or did."  The two students were attractive in a non-verbal way.  Anyway things get weirder as they go to flat where a group of three people are indeed trying to hack into the Vatican,

It was clearly a a low budget film that had some interesting (although) common ideas. Midway through the film, I thought that the two women had hidden talents, but no they both messed up -- and one had to ring there mum up. I did like the goth chick in the flat. She had started out selling wine and beer in a shop, but became an elite hacker. Interesting!

This film is another nail in the coffin of string theory. String theory was not mentioned in a film about higher dimensions. I am no expert in string theory, but I don't think it is consistent in 7 dimensions, it prefers 10, 11, or 26 dimensions.

Carnival

 Carnival time

So were big procession in Cologne and Dusseldorf today. So it is time to remember past Carnivals. Last year, i didn't go either. I watch on TV, but I don't feel the need to wear a big bunny costume, drink lots of beer, and collect sweets from the floats.

I always have great plans for work, but after lunch I start to get bitter, because I keep thinking everyone else is wearing bunny suits and drinking lots of beer. Last year I went out and purchased a coffee maker and kettle -- that seemed very important at the time, but I have only used the coffee maker once. This year I went shopping to ALDI -- more for the walk, but also to try out my shopping basket.

Shopping basket blues

On shopping

There are a lot of budget supermarkets in Germany. For example there is an ADLI sort of close to my flat. One thing that annoys me about these shops is that they don't provide hand baskets. Fucking why?  I am a single man -- I refuse to push around a shopping trolley. They get in the way. I like the feel of the weight of the shopping as I push it around.

In Netto - another cheap German supermarket I saw that they were selling hand baskets, so I laid out 5 Euros and got one. I would feel a bit uncool walking around the city with it, so I keep it in my rucksack outside the shop, because of the shame. Look without a basket I can only buy 3 beers at one time.

I hate cleaning

 On cleaning

When I lived with some friends in Salt lake City,  my flat mates once told me there were scared when I cleaned the bathroom. This always seemed to me outrageous because I could never remember cleaning the bathroom at all. My attitude to cleaning is usually summed up by a quote from Quentin Crisp  that the dirt reaches equilibrium, so why bother to clean.

However, at some stage, even I can't stare at flat full of papers. So I have slowly tidied up  the last two weeks, so my flat is a bit more ordered. Although no doubt if you were to visit my flat of solitude you could swipe a finger in your while glove over the wall and find some dust (I would then throw you out).

Some people may be thinking -- we clean our house every week, so what is the big deal? Interesting question, as I think I am really cleaning my flat rather than studying for my German exam.

Dream goals

On better dreams

At some stage I was scared of sleeping. I was worried about the dreams, and also not waking up.
But now I should embrace my fear. I want better dreams. My imagination is broken, so it needs to be grown.

I read in a book about the history of the literature of vampires. To write better stories, a group of friends, ate rotten meat before they slept. This seems a bit extreme to me.

So how can I get better dreams. What to do? Well I looked on the web and I found this link. I like the idea of controlling my dreams. Why pay for renting a new film, when I can dream myself into new places.  Perhaps I will not bother to get up, just spend all day in bend dreaming. Better still, I could run new particle physics simulations in my mind.

But I also remember a film by Wim Wenders called " Until The End Of The World", where they film dreams and they claim it makes them go insane.

Sill not thin

More about this weight business

Boohoo. My life sucks. I weighed myself on Saturday and I was exactly the same weight as last week. It is so unfair I was hoping to be pass the 90 kg barrier, but no. I have been walking up the big hill to the University and when there is light, I have been going up the 8 flights of stairs to my flat.
Also I had stopped my chocolate fix at 11:00 -- replacing it with an apple.

But it did no good whatever. Of course I did eat a chocolate bar on Friday, but I needed something to settle my stomach for the duration of my German class. Of course my stomach was a little bit upset from the beer from the previous evening.

Perhaps I will have to give something else up to meet my goals.

 Flashpoint

Yesterday I watched a great film called Flashpoint on Itunes. It was a standard police action film set in Hong Kong, however the fighting sequences were very impressive. The main star was not really using kung fu. but more Thai. He had some great moves, one of which made me wince. He threw a person over his shoulder  and them on their head

You can see that the lead actor is very skillful from the "making of the film" video below.
I wish I could do that.




I should mention that I might have seen the film before. There is a scene where there is bomb in a roof top flat that seemed very familar.

A boring dream

Last night I dreamed that I was walking to work. I was naked, but I was carrying a T-shirt. I decided to  have more time for work that I would just put the T-shirt on and not go home to get my trousers. After breakfast at a cafe, I felt confused and decided that I would go home and get my trousers. At the end of the dream I was trying to understand an email from a physicist in the US.

What would Freud made of the dream? My sexual needs are not being made. I don't need a dream to tell me that. It is coming up to Valentimes day and I have no date. Frankly, If I have a dream about my sexual repression and emotional coldness, I would rather have other  people naked in the dream.  I can't even turen to Jung to find some hidden racial  memory from ancient times.

More worryingly perhaps my dream is about my future. In 20 years I will already be senile, wandering around the nursing home wearing no trousers....

On death and pop music

My formative years were in the 80s. I really used to hate pop music. This was the time before the internet, so it much harder to find new music, and we were all force fed pop music. (Of course there was John Peel and fanzines). I didn't wish anyone harm. Certainly any rumours that I keep a little black book with a list of 80s pop stars  that I wish vengeance on, is untrue (its all in my head: Bono, Duran Duran, ...).

I was sorry to hear of  Whitney Houston's death. Perhaps I could have saved her. Even after the drugs and booze, she was still attractive. I could have been her new manager. We would have started slowly.
Perhaps working the Liverpool karaoke scene. There is good money of you can win on one of those nights. I could have helped with the rehab. I would get off champagne and onto something more healthy such as pints of Stella lager. Then I would make my master stroke. Who would be your idol, if you were a sex symbol, but then had problems with drugs. Well obviously, it would be Nico from the
velvet underground. Yes an album of covers of songs sung by Nico would have put her career on a new path.

Dreams of flying and lenohard Cohen

So last night I had a dream where I was flying -- in an airplane. The strange thing was that Lenohard Cohen was in the coach area as well. He seemed happy and relaxed. As the plane took off, he started singing Suzzane (one of his famous songs). Best of all the seat next to me was empty, so I could lie down. I was surprised that Cohen was not in first class. What does it all mean? I think my body was trying to award me for not drinking any beer on a Saturday night.

On Soup

On soup fascism

When I was growing up my mother tried to teach me how to eat soup in the correct manner. Some how  I didn't like tilting the spoon away from me to get the soup into the spoon. It always seemed more geometrically natural to tilt the spoon towards me, so that when the spoon left the soup it went in a smooth arc to me mouth.

Now that I look into this I see that there is plenty of advice on the correct way to eat soup on the web.
In fact in the good olde USA they claim that it is better to eat soup from a mug rather than a soup bowl. There is a video that shows the way my mum wanted me to eat the soup.

I was going to end the post, by saying that I am adult now, so I can eat my soup any fucking way I want to. However, it is coming up to valentines day, and perhaps my soup eating skills will be used as a way to judge my skills as in the bed room.

How fat are you

I was happy to see that my scales told me today that I am 92 kg. There is still a long way to go , but things are slowly moving in the correct direction for my health.

There are various ways to work out what your correct weight is for your height. There is a famous number called the BMI index that tells you what range your weight should be. After looking at the wikipedia page I see that I am now overweight rather than  Obese Class I.

However in my reading -- particularly in weight training , many people don't like to just use the weight, because they are trying to increase their muscle mass. So my own measure is looking to see whether I can see my penis under my beer gut. At the moment this measure tells me I still need to lose
10 kgs or enlarge the size of my penis in some way.

On will power (or lack there of)

I am trying to lose weight. I have had no problems eating less food in general. I don't eat chocolate or crisps in my flat. I don't miss eating half a pack of pringles in an evening. You perhaps will not believe that I eating less food, if you see me in the Mensa. The standard meal is pretty hearty. However, I have replaced pudding with fruit.

Everyday I was eating just one bar of chocolate at 11:00. This week I managed to replace the chocolate with an apple -- but it was so hard. The vending machine kept winking at me. The twix looked so tasty and that mars bar!

There was an article in guardian about a new book on will power. In the interview one of the authors says that will power is like a muscle. You have to train it, but also using too much will power can  tire you out (that is my excuse for buying 4 rather than 3 beers yesterday).

Later in the review he suggests that some sugar can be a good quick fix to improve will power. So I am not sure, whether I should go back to the chocolate bar at 11:00. Anyway the main thing is to stop thinking about food.

Or what about it being deep fried?

Yummy!

The priest

I watched The Priest on Itunes. This film was about a band of super warriors who were priests fighting   vampires in a bleak future. I enjoyed the film -- although it was standard action fare.  I was expecting the bishop at the end to be the bad person behind the scenes. But he wasn't -- he was just annoying.

The cold is starting to get to me

It was a fairly warm winter up until the start of this month. In February it suddendly turned bitterly cold. Every time I walk to or from work, my poor little fingers freeze, even with the gloves. I am beginning to feel bitter myself.

Last night I saw a toy's pistol lying on the road. I thought, some poor child has lost their toy. I was going to pick the gun up, but then I thought, I don't want the little kind learning to use weapons. In 10 years time the little shit will probably shoot me, while trying to rob a bank. Or perhaps with the Euro crisis, the Daily Mail newspaper will get its wish and we will be back at war. The man (or woman) will shoot me when I am heroically hiding in a cave with a bad leg. The kid is crying now, but it will help him become a man (or woman). Anyway it was too cold to do anything but run to the warm embrace of the supermarket.

Tinker tailor soldier spy

So I have just watched the film. It is a difficult film to watch, because I kept thinking about the famous TV series. The film was so much shorter than the series, so everything was very stripped down. I know that I should be able ti get past the series, but I can't. The time of the series is also a history lesson because it shows the time before Thatcher's evil influence started the final major decline of the UK.

Ip Man 2

Well I tunes were renting "Ip man 2" for 99p, so how could I resist? This time Ip man is Hong Kong and starting a martial arts school. The plot was fairly standard, with a big tournament fight at the end, where he beats a nasty English man.

What did make me laugh was that his wife was almost ready to give birth, but she moved out so he could train on the wooden dummy in preparation for his big fight. In fact she gave birth, but didn't tell him so that he wouldn't lose focus. Why can't I find someone like that for a relationship? Not that I fight in many competitions. In fact I dimly remember that something similar happened in one of the
Rocky movies, but that didn't seem as natural as in Ip man 2.

There is a WingTsun school in Wuppertal -- that I wouldn't mind training at. However, they may not be happy to train someone so unfit with a dodgy ankle. I did train a little bit at a JDK club and I liked all the sticky hands. However, some of the classical martial arts have problems. I like the video below, however no one attacks like the way they use in the drill. Still the defence is robust.

On getting fucked up

Like many people I have an  urge for self destruction that is balanced by my cowardice. Sometime I liked to get a bit messed up. For example I was going to buy a coffee maker, but instead I got some sachets of instant coffee and milk. I drink a lot of tea, so sometimes I like to drink something different.

So I drink my instant coffee, but it makes me fell like shit. Still I will persevere. It is a nice way to feel bad. Hopefully the coffee is just bad, rather than dangerous.

On gloves

I don't have a fever at the moment, so
I can tolerate a normal amount of cold.
However, it is now -4 C and even though
I wear gloves, my fingers were cold when
I got to work. It takes a while for my fingers
to warm up. I just have to wander about
my office crying about frost bite, until
I feel human again.

For many Christmases I have got gifts of
gloves and socks. I have to admit I am sometimes
a little bit disappointed with the gloves. It is a sad fact that
women, don't really understand what is important
for a man's gloves. They think that the colour, style and warmth
are important, but a man knows that the most important
things is that the glove properly protects the
knuckles in case you need to hit anybody. It has to be
east to slap someone with the gloves if you want to
challenge a person to a duel. Black leather works for me.
Man amazon in Germany even sells some gloves that have
sand in them to protect the hand. Wow!

Cohen and me

One way to tell whether you are listening too
much to one particular singer too much, is if
your mum knows all the tunes too. When I was at
studying at University, I would come home, open
a can of beer, and put a  Leonard Cohen record
on the record player. And thus the holiday would
pass.

I liked the early stuff best of course, but
I liked the 80s sounds as well. For a long time
he hardly ever made records. I think I only
got the second to last album, but I remember being
disappointed in it.

The Guardian streamed his latest record:
"New ideas". On the strength of that I downloaded
it from itunes. I think it is a great record.
People say he is depressing, but I would say he
is more realisti. He started singing later in life,
so he missed the teanage angst faze.

Last night's dreams

I started the dream in a bar. I threw one of my friends over a table. I did that a couple of times. The last time he spun over and hit a pillar. As I woke up I wondered why I did that. One reason was that I was strong enough, and also I was a bit mad because I wasn't drinking.




Later in the night. I was a detective in an office. I had some weird disease that made my body produce bluetack (this is something that can be used to stick paper to a door). I was hanging out with a cat, who I kept forgetting to feed. (Look it wasn't my cat). Later my body produced a lot of bluetack. I managed to pull it off and the floor was covered with bloody bluetack. Later I saw the cat. I thought, I have forgotten to feed it, but it it looked fat. No I thought, it has eaten the bluetack. The cat tried to bite me and I woke up.

On being fat

I sometimes meet people at conferences just once every one or two years. A number of peple had helpfully told me that I am fat now. This is of course true.
I could explain the reasons, but I wasn't working out and I was easting and drinking too much -- all the usual stuff.

Around October of last year I cut down on what I was eating. Only fruit for desert. Nothing hard core. I was 104 kg. Now if i believe my scales I am 94 kg. I feel better, but I am still have a big beer gut. I am a bit paranoid, because I had a lot of problems taking my first weight. I am worried that someone is sneaking into my flat and changing the scales so that I think I am losing weight -- and then one day I am back at 104 kg.

No one has said to me, gosh Craig you look as though you have lost weight. I know everyone hates me and wants me dead, but somebody could pretend to care about my health. Perhaps I am just fooling myself.

I was going to post a phot of my belly so we would have a record of what i look like, if I reach my target of 84 kg weight, but frankly that would be cruel to you dear reader.

In fact I should have done some press ups rather than  write this post. You have really destroyed my fitness regime, I am now going to have a couple of beers. I will never weigh below 90 kg....

Cowboys and aliens

I watched Cowboys and aliens pver the weekend. Well why wouldn't I want to watch such a film?  The film was nearly a great film, but it felt as though it had
something missing. Although the film had one of the best recent performances from Harrison Ford.

I miss Sherlock Holmes

So one of thebig downsides of living outside the UK is that I miss many good TV programs. I know that sounds a little sad, but an Englisman needs to watch dr Who sometimes -- just for a bit of reallity and sanity.

Today I am missing the new TV series about Sherlock Holmes that is set in modern times. Ok I actually got the first series from Itunes, but not all th second series is there. I will  just have to wait and watch some old episodes on youtube.

Woochi the demon slayer

Last weekend I watched a great film from Korea called  Woochi - The Demon Slayer .
This was a really great film, with wizards and goblins. The action moved from ancient to modern Korea

At this rate, I will soon have seen all the Korean actions films from Itunes. I now want to visit Korea.

I dream of Salt Lake City

I slept badly last night. I dreamed that I was working at the University of Utah. The Institute of Physics arranged me fro me to meet a salesman to talk about their books. The appointment was early, around 10:00 after the new year and I was worried that I wouldn't make it, because the meeting was arranged specially for me.

At the meeting there were two other people. He started the meeting by giving me some pamphlets about Mormonism.  This was shocking to me, but I tried to follow him around the building, so as not be rude. However I lost him, because I followed someone else in the group, who went to a cafe in the building.

Later someone told me that the IOP will not give out religious material again to me anyway.

What does it all mean? Perhaps I am worried that Mitt \Rommey will become the president of America.

A drinking story for a sober night  

I enjoyed reading this newspaper article about drinking. Ok well enjoyed may put it too strongly.
Although making the gay bar his local it taking drinking a bit too far.
 Although it is not so easy to drink in the US in bars because of the car issue, it is possible to buy booze from a liquor store and watch it at home. In Kentucky there were even drive in liquor stores. To celebrate the 6 pack and TV life style I embed black flag playing "6 pack". The singer Henry Rollins doesn't drink beer I believe, so the post can end on a high point of irony.

On the shoe question

When I was at high school, my shoes were falling apart.
So I glued the bottom to the top. However, I was out walking
near the family home and the bottom of one of my shoes
fell off. I had to go home and get my mother to go
out and buy some new shoes.

About four years ago, some family members kidnapped me and
forced me into a shoe store to buy a new pair of shoes.
At first I thought the shoes and me would be friends, but the
bastard things started to rub and they drew blood. Unfortunately,
the blood stained the bedroom carpet. I was charged 100 pounds to
clean the carpet by my landlord when I left. Not that I am bitter.

The first time I looked in the shoe store in Wuppertal,
I staggered a little bit, because the cost of a pair of shoes was 100 Euros
or more. I did find one store that sold shoes at a reasonable cost.
However yesterday I found the store closed, with a sign on the door,
saying it would reopen in mid February. So I wondered around
Wuppertal looking for cheap shoes. I finally went to TK Max.
I now have a nice pair of brown boot like shoes. I think my feet love my new shoes, at least there isn't any blood.

As well as complicated things such as the Euro, I have to get used
to shoes sizes in the 40s.

Ip man

Over the weekend I watched "Ip Man" from Itunes. The film was about a small part of life IP Man, a martial arts master in the style of kung fu called Wing Chun. As usual with asian martial arts films, the action is great, but the stories and characters were good as well.

I am a lot more interested in Wing Chun. I din't like one of the Wing Chun stances, because the knees are pointing inward. This makes it a very static stance, although given the speed of my foot work, it may be my stance.

I want a Wing Chun dummy to train with and to impress the girls.

On dreams

I have been awake for 40 minutes, but I am already starting to forget my vivid dreams.

In the first dream, I was in a big house that I might have known. There was lots of white sheets.

In the second dream, I was talking with a Russian spy master. He was upset because one of his friends was dead. He shot some guns onto the windowsill. He was talking to a group of us about the loss. I had a little training about spycraft, but I didn't say anything. I gave him a another gun, so he could shoot up the windowsill.

So I don't need Freud to tell me that I am watching too many action movies.

Dinner and dreams

I had a number of strange dreams last night. In one I was preparing a dinner for a large number of people, but I wasn't clear what had to be done. I opened a big can of soup.

In the next dream I was organizing a dinner party for 4 people. On of the guests actually lives in the US, so I think the plan was for him to join via the internet. I spent more time worrying about setting the table properly, than worrying about the food. I awoke to the alarm and almost sent an email to the guest in the US with the invitation.

On being cool  musically

I like to think that I have fairly wide musical tastes. However, I don't follow what is happening in the charts, mostly because I listen to radio 6, and mostly hate the output of radio 1. I do occasionally see newspaper articles about pop stars, such as lady gaga and various winners of talent shows, but I mostly ignore them.

I did hear about some woman called Adele. because she was having problems with her voice. My mum played me a track over the X-mas break and there is something in that I liked. So I even got her latest album from Itunes. Gosh, I am now finding music from my mum. Where will it end? Perhaps soon you will hear me say, I am really looking forward to Paul McCartney's  latest piece of bilge. So this is middle age. Well perhaps just because something is popular doesn't make it crap.

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So I want to be willfully obscure. The freakzone on radio 6 last week had the featured album of  

Don Bradshaw-Leather

that was never released as a CD. Also no one really knows who the guy is. The album has the scariest cover ever. It sounds a bit weird.

 The Saint and Mr Teal

While on holiday I read  "The Saint and Mr Teal" by Leslie Charters. I really enjoyed this book. One of things that I perhaps misremembered about the TV series of the Saint was that Simon Templar never carried a gun, because he didn't like them. In the book he actually doesn't carry a gun, because he is in trouble with the police so much, it is too dangerous for him to carry a gun, in case he is arrested. But he does carry some knives. In facts guns feature in most of the stories.

There is a lot of violence in the book. One time he actually kills a Professor by accident, but he didn't care in the least. He also lies in the high court of London. Still he is amusing.

The back of the books says that 8 million Saint books have been sold. But now on Amazon the books are
almost disappearing

Conclusion to my holiday

So I am back from my holiday in Tenerife. So what I have learned.?

Every time I go to a Spanish speaking country I keep wishing I had spent more time learning to speak the language. I only know a few words. A couple of times I almost ordered a full English breakfast, but I didn't know how to ask that they didn't include eggs in the meal.

I should stop these resort holidays, because I do too much reading. I am  not reading any great literature, but its gets my imagination going again. If I can't be bothered to visit a volcano, what else could tempt me to put down the book (ok kindle)

I flew into Dusseldorf/Weeze airport. This airport is famous for being 1 hour by train from Dusseldorf. I got the buss from the airport to the Weeze train station. I was happy to see a train in -- I just had to buy a ticket. Unfortunately, there was only one ticket machine and a group of use from the bus. One guy seemed to be ordering a season ticket. It took him nearly ten minutes to buy the ticket. After he had finally  convinced the machine to release his ticket, he then had problems opening the train door. Press the fucking green button I thought, for it would be ironic that after he stopped us buying tickets, that he wouldn't get the train. After he managed to master the technology of the door -- the train departed and a group of us were left in the rain.  Obviously in Germany we all obey the law, so we don't get on a train with no ticket. (As it happened two of the people spoke English, but not as their mother tongue),
It was only a short wait of half an hour for the next train. Of course no one checked my ticket all the way to Wuppertal.


 

I managed to finish reading:

The Bones of Avalon

by Phil Rickman while on holiday.

This books was set in Tudor times. It was a clever story - set in Glastonbury. John Dee was asked by the queen to find the bones of King Arthur to give legitimacy to the Tudor kings. It was a very clever atmospheric novel, that tried to mix magic with realism. In fact although John Dee was looking for magic, he found none, except when he had a trip from some natural herb LSD substance.

The northern monkey survival guide

My cousin got me a great little book called "The Northern Monkey survival guide" for X-mas. The book was an amusing comparison between the North and South of the UK. At the heart of the book, it is much nicer to live in the North  rather than the South. I was impressed that he had noticed that people in the North can actually go home and change before a night out. In London say many people have to commute, so he claimed people went out after work. It looks like he lives in London.

The Road to Serfdom

There is a rule of undergraduate arguments in the UK that states that the argument end with both sides declaring that the other side is a Nazi. I thought this as I read The Road to Serfdom bu Hayek. I believe that the ideas of Hayek were important to the evil ideology that is Thatcherism.

In fact you can see all the conservative ideas in this book. Hayek is against planning of any kind. He is vary much against the public sector. He even states he is against a policy that aims for full employment. One of the main ironies of Thatcher's government that they got in on with a slogan "Labour isn't working" and promptly unemployment went up to 3 million.

You can also see the seeds of the ideas of the EU sceptics.

The book was written in 1944 and I think the arguments were reasonable then. However, experience with his ideas, since the 80s, is that don't really work for the bulk of the population. His ideas are good for the elites, as they get more wealthy. I think the book was good on the criticism of  socialism, particularly those systems that were influenced by Marxism. However, I don't think any body believes those systems any more.

He looks back at the nineteenth century as a golden age, but never mentions the help the British Empire
on trade. \The book is short of data and facts

I guess I am now ready for reading a book by the anti-Christ himself:  Milton Friedman.

One of the books I read on holiday was

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer [

This was a great book. The "hero" Johannes had no redeeming features at all. His task was to get 100 souls for the devil with the aid of a crazy carnival in the space of 1 year.

I eat rabbit and the guilt washes over me ...

So I decided today was going to be rabbit eating day. I found another restaurant that serves rabbit. I was ready at 18:00 in the restaurant with one other diner.

I ordered the rabbit. I also thought rather than have the salad for starter that the waiter tried to suggest, that I would have an aperitif. La st night I realized that I didn't actually know what an aperitif was, but after looking it up on wikipedia -- it seemed like a good idea. I ordered a Pernod, but apparently I misprounced it, because he corrected me. I will have to reread the wikipedia entry on aperitif, because the pernod came with ice and a bottle of mineral water that made it into a long drink. I thought I was going to get a shot.

The rabbit turned up, Fuck I thought it looks like rabbit too. I am actually going to be eating  Fiver from Watership Down.  After messing around with a knife and fork, the waiter came up and told me I was wrong again, that the way to eat rabbit is with your fingers. That made it easier. The rabbit essentially tasted like chicken. Of course when I eat chicken I feel no guilt at all, that I am eating a family pet.

What can I do to get some relief from the terrible guilt. A couple of cans of beer should do the trick.

More booze and a little sand

I have spent the day just wandering around and reading in he sun. I would say that I hear much more German than English on the streets. I found one pub that claims to have an English atmosphere. It is full of old English people drinking beer watching football. One time I passed the bar two women were arguing in loud voices that I could hear half way up the street. I was going to go i for a drink, but I looked at the customers and thought "no".

There are two small  beaches within a reasonable walk from my hotel. one of the  beaches is rocks, but the other has black sand. A bit weird, but an interesting change.

Yet another failed attempt to eat rabbit

So this rabbit business is getting on my nerves. I went to one of the restaurants that claims to serve rabbit. I sat at an outside table. I waited and waited until someone asked me I wanted. This seemed a bit weird, because I assumed it was a restaurant that would probably have a good guess at what I wanted. It was not a place to just drink beer. Anyway he helpfully said that I wanted a menu.

15 minutes later he turned up with a menu, but told me that they didn't have any rabbit. Wot I thought. Why does God hate me so? I want to eat rabbit. I want to eat rabbit. I ordered a selection of Tapas and a beer. 30 minutes later the beer turned up,  and then some bread turned up with salad cream as a sauce. 30 minutes later my 7 Tapas showed up and I ate them in 10 minutes. so I could go to the mini-market for some beer for my hotel room.

Tomorrow I could try the other restaurant that serves rabbit, but perhaps I should cut my losses, and just give up and feel bitter.

On booze

There is a cocktail bar close to the hotel that I am staying in Tenerife. I poped in for a dry Martini about 17:30 a day ago. However, the guy who served me didn't really know what he was doing. At some stage I nearly got Martini out of a bottle rather than Gin and Vermouth (and Vodka if you are a James Bond fan). He was looking around the bottles in a confused way. The final Martini was OK, but it tasted too much of
Vermouth.  I once read that the perfect Martin should be made with Gin, but with a ray of sunlight passing through the vermouth into the dry Martini.

At Bonn/Cologne airport I had a vodka absolut in a little bottle that was ice cold in a cold glass. It was a pleasure to drink. At Manchester airport I had a vodka from one of those nasty bottles on the wall. The vodka was at room temperature and not too nice. I can see why they wanted me to put ice or mixers with it

So I am getting a little bit sophisticated with drinks that are simple and many people don't know much about.  Now that I think about it, both the drinks above were drunk by James Bond in the Casino Royal book.

English wine

For a long time I have wanted to try some English wine. It is not very easy to get English wine, but Amazon sell one brand. My mum managed to get some other bottles from Liddle, so we ended up with a little collection of English wine. As it happened I only tried one bottle of  wine, because I am really a beer man.

First night in Tenerife

My flight was meant to get into Tenerife about midnight, so I booked a hotel very close to the airport. The flight was a bit late, but by only half an hour. I got to the hotel OK, but as I showed him the confirmation sheet from the booking, he seemed to turn very pale. He said, "please wait one moment" and then he started
making phone calls. After a while he explained that the hotel was fully booked and there was no place for me to stay, but that they were going to put me in another hotel.

It was 1 O Clock in the morning, so I didn't really need that, but what can you do. After a short Taxi ride
I ended up at a new hotel. This was actually a better hotel than the one I had booked. It was by the ocean, although that is not so important at 2 in the morning.

The next day I had a pleasant stroll by the beach. The beach was close to what looked like a pyramid.

Thoughts on the UK -- X-mas 2011

So I spent about a week in the UK at my mum's house.  What impressions did I have? Well not many. As I took the bus from Manchester to Burnley, I noticed that a pub in Manchester called Napoleons. Wellington must be turning in his grave (good thing too, we remember Peterloo you murdering shit).


I watched a lot of TV when I was home. I still seem obsessed by Agatha Christie mysteries, so I watched a lot of Peirot episodes -- most of which I had seen before.

It is a 4 hour flight from Manchester to Tenerife, so it is understandable that a young lade should have a quick smoke before he got on the plane. However, as the official said it is not  very sensible to have a smoke outside a plane where there is a lot of aircraft fuel.

So I learnt essentially nothing about the state of the UK, while I was there, but I did enjoy the Dr Who Christmas special on TV, so that was alright.

I still want my rabbit dinner!

My cunning plan of getting to the restaurant early for my rabbit has been thwarted. I even found a second restaurant that serves rabbit. However at 18:00 I was ready and hungry for my rabbit. Unfortunately both restaurants were closed. Not fair. Why does God hate me so. Other restaurants were open and I ate some
Mussels, sausage, and grilled Tuna. It was delicious,  but I am totally stuffed.

We had a family rabbit when I lived with my mother. It used to escape and run around our neighbours garden. I used to get a knock on the door after I had been to the pub late at night, and I was asked to catch
it. I always felt guilty that we didn't look after it well enough.

Why I want to eat rabbit

There is a speciality in Tenerife of rabbit with a spicy sauce. There is a restaurant close to the hotel that serves this dish. I was ready for my food, but when I went into the restaurant it was full of people speaking German. Given that the service in Spain is not quick I decided to not to wait. But I will get my rabbit one day, I just have to get to the restaurant before anyone else.

How I spent New years eve....

There was a great quote from a friend of Thorou (perhaps Emerson) about travelling. The gist of the quote was you are the same person when you travel. Travel doesn't broaden the mind.

Last new years eve I was drinking beer and watching TV on my own. I thought that next year, I will go away and things would be different. So in a period of deep stress, when I booked a holiday in Tenerife, I thought I would be partying hard on New years eve. However I booked my hotel in Puerto de la Cruz
in the North of Tenerife. Unfortunately all the hard core drinking resorts are in the south of the Island. As wikipedia says Puerto de la Cruz is the a city for the more mature traveler, where mature means ancient.

This is not really a bad thing. I hope (and my liver does too) that my wild years are behind me. Puerto de la Cruz has some interesting things and there are many places to read outside, so I am happy enough. Don't get me wrong there are enough bars around, but so far I have only seen one English pub since I have been here. At the table there was an old guy with 6 cans of John Smiths on the his table -- not bad for 14:00 in the afternoon. All the people in the bar looked like sun (the famous fascist newspaper) readers, so I didn't fancy a chat.

There was a stage in a square close to the hotel. However, around 21:00 I didn't really fancy staying out late watching a band I probably wouldn't like, so I got some cans of beer and went back to my cheap hotel room. I watched a  Korean film called "the sword with no name" on Itunes. So essentially I spent exactly the same type of new years eve as last year - just in a different place.

When I woke up at 4:00 in the morning I could hear sounds from the party. When I went out for breakfast, I saw some people holding cans of beer,

On the Saint

The "Saint" is a popular TV program with the famous actor Roger Moore, who later starred in the James Bond films. The Saint, or Simon Templar was always very smart. He never seemed to use guns. I was watching the repeats. The Saint was always a kindly hero who was always helping attractive women who had family members kidnapped .

Apart from the fairly recent film about the Saint in the 90s or 200s that starred Van Kilmer most of the films of the Saint were similar to the TV series. However, in one black and white film the Saint was almost vicious, while he was still a dandy.

There were a series of 3 adaptations of the Saint on BBC radio, that I listened to recently. There was a hardness to Saint character that was missing in the TV series.

On holiday I have just read "Enter the Saint" by Leslie Charters. These books are not available on kindle, so I had to use a real paperback book. I am not sure if I can use a kindle on a plane so I have to use a real book to pass the time. The Saint in the original books is a dandy, but is also capable of  extreme violence. In the book a number of people were killed by people in the Saint's gang

So perhaps as usual the TV series was a watered down version of the character in the books.

Many of the Saint books are out of print -- at least according to Amazon. Even the books say that Templar is not a man of this time -- when the time was the 30s to 60s. Now it is very hard to have any positive feelings about the tweed dressed public school educated men, who know how to box and give their word of honour.

On being a God

About a month ago I was reading a scathing review of the new film about Tintin -- the boy reporter. The reviewer was clearly obsessed by Tintin and was a bit of a freak because he had read all the Tintin books.
He claimed that the original author of the Tintin had hidden he idea in his books that he was the king of Belgium. This struck me as insane in a grand way. I tried to think of a central theme about this blog.




What I decided was that the hidden theme of this blog is that I an in fact a God. Not the single sky God, because that would be insane and weird. But I like the idea of being a God.


In particular it would solve one of the problems that I have in winning the Templeton prize for corrupting science with religion. I don't see how they couldn't give me the prize, if was both a God and had a PhD in physics. What more could I do to get my hands on the million pound prize, One of the main problems with me winning the Templeton prize, apart from the fact that I don't deserve it, is my deep hatred of priests and vicars. I can see the fat bishop trying to shake my hand as he handed me my cheque, and me giving a gentle slap with my fist.




Of course if I was a God, I could happily punch a couple of vicars and not been censored, and more importantly still get the cash.




Of course you may be thinking Craig has finally lost his mind. However, I remember that an old Greek philosopher, who thought he was God. To prove he was he jumped into a Volcano. Where you might ask will I find a Volcano. Funny you should ask that, because there is a friendly Volcano on Tenerife.
Luckily it is quite a walk to the Volcano.

Stress and holidays

Tenerife

So here I sit in a hotel room in Tenerife, trying to think of some content for a blog post. This year I decided to spend the new year on holiday-- mostly because the last two winters were so harsh in Wuppertal.  I seem to be spending more time in these englishfied holiday resorts. In my defense you need reasonable weather, if you want to read outside.

So far it ha rained a little bit here but perhaps rain is not the right word, for only a small amount of
water fell from the sky. I do like to see the black clouds swirling in the night sky.




I should say that I tried to push myself to do many things at work  before I left work for the holidays. I was unable to complete anything, and the stress meant that I could not write any blog posts.

 The dead list

Last night I watched The Dead List
a film with Jean Reno in it.
It was a strange film with action mixed
in with some father versus son conflict.



I feel slightly guilty because the film
was set in France and I know from the Daily
Mail newspaper that the UK is almost at war with
France. That sneaky French president using
an underhand tactic called negotiating that
no proper English gentleman, such Cameron
would bother to use or understand. Doesn't Sarkozy
know that Cameron went to Eton and that his demands
should automatically be granted.

On the importance of goofing off

I have so much to do at the moment. I wanted to spend most of the weekend working on the backlog. Although I do a reasonable amount over the weekend, I did laze around after dinner for a while. I watched an episode of the "13 Warehouse" This is an american fantasy series.

I felt guilty, but somehow relaxed as well. If I wasn't working perhaps I should have been reading. If you are thinking, what is the guy talking about, because the last 4 posts have been on films. I normally watch films after 10:30 at night, when my brain is dead, and I have worked up a beer thurst. It was relaxing to do nothing for 2 hours and just watch TV.

We have been doing the theme of free time in my German class. Every essay I read said that watching TV is bad, but is passes the etime. In fact "supernatural" is on TV now, so I must finish this post.

Attack the block

Over the weeken I watched "attack the block" from Itunes. As I am sure many people have written it was really hoodies versus Aliens. I enjoyed it, it was fairly inventive. The killer aliens looked like cuddly toys with teeth, but they were scary.

Being cold is to be a man

On thinking warm

I feel so ashamed! Today I switched the heating on for the first time this winter. I am getting weaker -- I could have held out for a few more weeks, but I get cold when I am sitting down at the computer.

I have been going around the campus just wearing a T-shirt. This has been remarked apon by many people, so I am going to have to keep this up the entire winter. So because of my pride I will probably freeze to death this winter.

X-mas market in Wuppertal

Last night we hit the Christmass markets of Wuppertal. The Christmas market in Wuppertal is clearly a close copy of the famous Manchester Christmas markets.

First we drank a mug of Gluwein, after a problematic German conversation, about whether there was a deposit on the mug with the hot wine in. We them moved onto another Gluwin stand, where I had taste of mead. For a long time I have wanted to try mead, because it was the drink of the vikings. I was disappointed with the mead -- it was too sweet and tasted of honey.

There is a lot of food stalls at the market, but I just had the greasiest Wurst in some bread. My faith in the German sausage was restored. There is also a little area with animals close to the C&A. What you don't see, is the big goat trying to mount the little goat, that it spent about 15 minutes. An interesting way to end a short evening of drinking.