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Poor Donkeys

Jul 30, 2008 Uncategorized

I just spent a great week in Marrakech…. if you’re ever thinking of going then Dar Zemora is the place to stay, it was a truly fantastic “Riad” (sort of posh house palace thing) with only 5 rooms, a great pool, amazing staff, wonderful architecture, awesome food, amazing staff, lovely setting and amazing staff. But *best* of all was that we were pretty much the only guests so it was like it WAS MINE, ALL MINE. Sigh, why am I not rich?

Anyway, Marrakech reminded me of a quote in a book about the Vietnam war I was reading. The quote was something like “The village boy went from the 15th century to the 20th century in just a few seconds” as he saw something like an American air strike coming down on him, meh, I can’t remember the quote so good. But anyway, in Marrakech in the year 2008 it was possible to go from a cultured quiet modern environment to seeing a poor beaten donkey trotting his sorry ass down some dangerous street delivering camel hides to a market seller, very scary. You can go from incredibly poor bums to swanky 21st century night club just by turning a corner. So, my highlights…

• A couple of OK photos going up on Flickr
• Six course meals in my own private palace that I felt like I owned for a week
• Reading 4 books
• Being driven through Marrakech and thinking I’m going to die I’m going to die constantly, wow the driving was nearly as bad as Bali (officially the worst driving conditions I’ve ever seen except when I’m angry and behind the wheel)

But mainly, totally, top of the list by a long long way…. was this item on a trendy restaurants menu…

HARIBO CANDIES!!!!! And here they are….

Wow!!!!

Tags: dar zemora, marrakech, morroco

Pron

Jul 18, 2008 Uncategorized

I went for a run this morning.

I found a pornographic DVD on the ground but a car was driving past so I didn’t stop, for too long.

Tomorrow I’m taking my TV and a DVD player and I may be some time.

No Country for Old Men

Jul 17, 2008 Uncategorized

I went to Cyprus recently… great holiday, terrible Island, full of Brits and dust! Anyway, I only had one book that I was looking forward to reading on the entire holiday… I started reading it as we boarded the plane and damned well finished it as we came into land in Cyprus!

The book… I ain’t telling you the title you can work it out… was a really excellent story. Although it was set in the present day had a lot in common with Cormac McCarthy’s other books in that it felt like it was a time long gone by. I loved how the build up to the *really* obvious ending was handled with such balls (basically the finale in the book happened off camera, um, as it were. Thoroughly recommended.

And the obvious question… if you found several million dollars in a bag, would you keep it? Would you keep it if a psycho was trying to get it back? Would you keep it if a psycho and a bunch of drug dealers were trying to get it back? You would? Wow I love you… but you’re going to die.

p.s. I watched the film… it was good, but not even nearly as good as the book.

Tags: film, no country for old men

Conversing

Jul 17, 2008 Uncategorized

When running with someone, certain conversation is ok. But not ones about re-engineering your business thingies to bring them in line with your other thingies. Grunting is the order of the day. My new running buddy should know that conversations when running are had at the expense of breathing. As we all know, breathing is important otherwise it’s being humped by a hobo time. We even passed some girls with water pistols… now I grunted of course, which is my way of saying “Girls pant pant water pant pant spray pant pant cool down pant pant”. Seems perfectly sensible right? So here are my permitted subjects when running…

• Anything that involves nodding at something vaguely interesting, then I can look at it and grunt as a response. This could include things like “I just saw a UFO” or “Oh look, a nuclear weapon has just gone off” (Response : Grunt, Grunt, Nod)
• Raised eyebrows in my direction… this obviously indicates “Oh, you appear to have died, are you going to be OK? Can I rob you/interfere with you?”   (Response : try to lie still and pretend to be dead)
• Quizicle frowning look thing…. which clearly means “Look I fancy a break but I’ll only stop if you stop then I can blame you for it and of course I could clearly have carried on for hours” (Response : ohgodpleasestopI’lldoanythingyoucaneventouchmyhappyplace)
• Saying “I am currently re-engineering the business paradigms of co-opetition policies to bring them in line with the arghghghg stop stabbing me stop stop you’re sweatyyyy”

(Great photo courtest of http://flickr.com/photos/sanydan/2505012489/)

My new babyyyyy

Jul 16, 2008 Uncategorized

At lasttt, my honeymoon with my Boxster lasted about a year… in fact I think my honeymoon with any car would be over in a year… go on, buy me a Lambo and I’ll try to prove it! So, now I’m back to owning a rice racer!

As the economy / oil reserves / planet / polar bears etc. are all about to die in a ditch I thought I’d do my bit to help and have moved from a 3.2 litre engine to a 3.5 litre engine! It’s OK though I’ll just drive faster so the polar bear won’t suffer any pain when I run him over (-:

Tags: nissan 350z harbour cars

I’m backkk to blogging

Jul 16, 2008 Uncategorized