Matt Hobbs

Friday, I’m in pub

An interesting article from BBC News about how different countries approach Friday night drinking. Different folk from different places round the world give their view on how people enjoy the last day of the week. Of course the ironic thing is that in many places Friday night isn’t the big night out anyway, in New York when I left Wednesday was becoming ‘the’ night out in the week – unless you were bridge and tunnel of course.

Anyway, off to Sweden this weekend so I’ll let you know how their Friday night sessions pan out in a country where alcohol is extortionately expensive (but nicely chilled)…

Families and how to survive them – robin skynner/john cleese. A random book picked up from my dad’s spare room bookshelf but fascinating nonetheless. Having recently read a John Cleese biography which mentioned his foray into group therapy it was interesting to read the book that came out of it. Rather than being biographical though ‘families’ is a simple to understand ‘conversation’ between Cleese and Skynner about how we develop psychologically as individuals within a family unit. From birth and our attachment to our mothers, through adolescence and rebellion we finally come to marriage and loving relationships – Skynner expresses his belief that all problems within family relationships are due to being ‘stuck’ at an earlier development stage, and the importance of understanding that yourself in order to move past the issue.

There are a lot of interesting perspectives in this book, different ways of looking at familiar family situations, and Cleese’s input is to make the whole affair highly readable – although not laughable (this is a serious book). Whether or not it’s a suitable replacement for a full tranche of psychiatric help is a decision you’ll have to make yourself, but this book will help you make that decision and perhaps let you see ways to make your own progress. I’m definately going to check out the ‘sequel’ and see how that reads.

Don’t forget to brush your tooth!

A random article the other day in Wired caught my eye. Apparently there’s a new trend in England – toothing. Now this is significantly different, if similar sounding, to ‘teething’ which is what my nephew is currently doing (I’m pretty sure he’s not toothing just yet thankfully). With toothing you use your handy Bluetooth device, such as a phone, to find other Bluetooth devices in the immediate vicinity. Then, based on their Bluetooth name, you work out whether they happen to be the cute woman you fancy across the train carriage and then send them a message. If it all works out then bingo! Instant date. If not then you can quickly pretend it never happened when the large guy across from you starts smiling and fluttering his eyelashes at you*.

What was bizarre about this was the article also referenced ‘dogging’, another English trend I’ve never heard about where people meet in out of the way places to watch other people have sex. Amazing what the internet and mobile technology is allowing to happen. It’s also interesting how all these Wired articles are coming from England! Guess that’s the same way Jimi Hendrix made it big… Anyway, I was then reading another article on how the Craigslist personals in New York often mention iPods – a yardstick for current popular trends. In the article it mentioned that Craigslist London doesn’t seem to have the same iPod hit rate, so I went to check it out – also because I wanted to see what accomodation was listed. Turns out craigslist.co.uk is not Craigslist… it’s actually a site for arranging dogging meetings! How strange is that?

This Internet name-jacking is something that you see in meat-space regularly in Thailand. Aside from the obvious brand clones (which are often better quality than the originals – witness my 210 baht/three quid Birkenstock fake sandles that lasted two months of solid use and were still going when I bought some new ones) you also get extremely blatent ‘re-use’ of hostel names. On Ko Lanta I stayed at Lanta Long Beach resort which is pretty much the only guest house recommended on this beach by Rough Guide. But although I had a lovely stay in a great bambo hut it is in fact not the guesthouse in the guide. That guest house is in fact next door.. the Lanta Long Beach. A big sign between the two explains the difference, as the new one has just opened in the last year. In Europe this would be a huge law suit, but in Thailand… well, the law is slightly more lax on this point and will tend to fall against the farangs (foreigners) if they complain – and the original Lanta Long Beach (which is a much more hippy affair than the sanitised one I stayed at) is owned by French Canadians. Zut alors et tout ca.

* Unless of course it’s Johnny Depp in which case you’ve got some serious thinking to do…

Turn of the century – kurt andersen. A weighty novel that I decided to carry around with me as the last book I read in Thailand! Not the most sensible of decisions but there we go. The story is centered around a new media married couple – one in software development, the other in TV shows – both big industries at the end of the 20th century in New York where the story is set. We follow their lives and internal observations on minutiae in a manner not unlike American Psycho but with much less blood. In fact, apart from some interesting machinations around a Microsoft takeover and a new TV show nothing much seems to happen – although everything has importance. Ultimately there is a story in there, but it’s lost to the acute observations of 20th century life – without which the novel would be a slim novella and a lot easier to carry. Not a must read, but readable nonetheless.

No news is good news

It’s been an exciting few days… my nephew has completely recovered and is now even cuter. It’s amazing how much fun you can have watching a small relative putting a towel over his head and then pulling it off when his mother goes “where’s Nathanael?” – big smiles all round. It’s certainly infinitely more fun than the so called ‘entertainment’ program shown on Saturday night on ITV where pathetic, puerile tricks are played on unsuspecting members of the public to the backing track of extremely over the top laughter. Nice to see that quality British TV hasn’t slumped to new lows while I’ve been away… plus there’s always Neighbours to watch isn’t there?

And now, here is the news… Yep, my idea for a ‘contextual’ news service suddenly popped into my inbox today from Idea a Day. Can’t remember how long ago it was since I posted that but ’twas certainly a surprise to see it again. Now just hope someone goes off and builds it – or tells me where I can find it already. This added to my already high geek quotient today as I’d just gotten my email retrieval working on my mobile.

Blown away

Blimey. Almost a week back in England and I’m still waking up stoopidly early. I hate jet lag sometimes… On the plus side the clocks go forward in a week or so, which means I’m ahead of the game – huzah!

Being back home is strange, it’s even harder when you had a really good last few weeks on your holiday and the last thing you want to do is give up the floating bambo huts, diving with manta rays and lying in the gorgeous, warm sun. Being back home is even stranger when home isn’t home anymore! Yep, my folks moved while I was away in Thailand so instead of the usual home of 25 years I’m now in a house near Norwich, Norfolk listening to the howling of the 80 mph wind across the fields. All very scenic, but not home! Ah well. Luckily having not had the same bed for longer than a few days over the last few months means that one more new bed isn’t much of a change.

Highlight of being home so far is, of course, seeing my nephew again (and the rest of my family)! He is now one year old and walking around (with help) in between running the full emotional range in 10 seconds – from laughing, to crying and back again. He is so cute!! He’s also a complete tart for the camera bless him which makes a change from the whole rest of my family and great for a camera addict like me who has 10 months of no photos to make up for.. hee hee. Next week I get to see my four month old niece for the first time which will be super cool as well. My siblings have been busy while I’ve been off enjoying myself round the world…

To soften the blow of being back out of the sun I’ve gotten myself a new mobile – a Nokia 6600. Great little toy, about the same length as my old phone but a 1/3 wider and half as heavy – but for all that you get a camera built in, organiser and bluetooth. Toys! Decided to stay with Orange but have a new phone number – +44 (07870) 560.325, they have this cool add-on where you can call Orange mobiles and landlines unlimited all weekend. Sweet! Only fly in that ointment is really bad Orange reception at the converted barn where I’m staying.. Hmm. So having great fun standing on top of a table in the conservatory to make calls. Technology, eh.

Oh, and my cat Muffin has gotten super-fat since I left so she’s now on a rigourous exercise regime… no more lounging in front of the TV for her!

Khop khom khap

Big shout out to everyone in Thailand who’s made my last two months so much fun. Yep. About to get on that big ol’ plane thang again and head back home to Heathrow. Spent the last day shopping like a maniac and stressing about weight limits (20 kg! hmm…) but now all I have to do is sit in a large metal tube and be whisked home in comfort. Not quite as much fun as diving with manta rays though….

Ishamael – daniel quinn. A cautionary tale describing how human evolution is now dominated by a group of humans called the ‘takers”, who will end up destroying the world. The author, through the story of a captive ape called Ishmael, guides out understanding to what he believes is a better way – or at least a social evolutionary seperate branch – the ‘leavers’ who were the nomadic peoples oppressed since Cain (agrarian culture) destroyed his brother (the nomads) Abel. All good stuff with a good message – makes you think, but not too hard as its written in simple American esoteric-speak.

Starcrossed – a a gill. Random book picked up at a hostel. Surprisingly good beach read with a lot of wit and insight into celebrity life and some reasonable plots and characters going on (even if one of the main plots seems to disapear halfway through the book).

The truth is out there

Been a long time since I watched the X-Files, but for some reason that title popped in my head…

In Ko Lak now after a lush few days in Khao Suk National Park. Did a two day hike (which turned out to be very fortuitous) – swimming through tiger cave, avoiding leaches (well, some of us did), scooting across a beautiful lake in a long boat and watching monkies and gibbons swing about in the trees. Awesome. Highlight of it all was spending a night on the biggest water bed ever, a bambo hut floating on the lake – with the full moon streaming in the open door as I lay on the bed watching the reflections of the moon ripple on the water. Very romantic.

Ko Luk was a bit of culture shock after being in the wilds for a few days – a fluorescent strip mall holiday resort style pervades here with something like 20 odd dive shops (half of which are new this year). Had a fun local bus with chintz curtains on the way over though – only 80 baht! More wetness forecast for tonight as I head off for a four day liveaboard out to the Similian Islands, Ko Tachai and Richelieu rock. All cutting it a bit fine for getting back to Bangkok for shopping before getting on the plane on Monday back to England (argh! reality!) but a total bargain and well worth it. In fact to celebrate how cheap it was I went out and bought a new dive watch – toys…