Bonfire of the Dictators

Kim jong-il is added to the role call of dicators who have gone in 2011.  The attendance at the evil dictators club meetings is going to be significantly reduced without Kim, Gadaffi, and Mubarak.  It is too much to hope that Mugabe will soon be missing meetings too?

This week's hotel room - Radisson Edwardian, London

Stayed here before, and it continues to be fine.  If I wasn't full of cold it would be finer.

Jet lag and culture shock

The view from my hotel room just now.  The Fireworks were so close I could feel the percussive shock on the window pane.  I don't know what they are for.
 
KL is a strange mixture.  There are women in Niqab, as you might expect in a muslim country.  However the ethnic Chinese have a different dress sense - have just been on an escalator fact to posterior of a young lady wearing 4 inch heels and a pair of what I believe are called Daisy Dukes - denim shorts that just about cover the bottom.  The view was not unedifying - just a culture shock to someone acclimatised to the middle east.

One more thing

Lovely though it is, this hotel room is as dark as most.  I know they want us out in the restaurants and bars spending money, but is it too much to ask that we have sufficient illumination for when we want to work in our rooms?

This week's hotel room - Ritz Carlton, Kuala Lumpur

It's as nice as you might think.  And of course, cheaper than the Radisson previously posted because it is not in London.  At least according to one of my delegates - I'm not paying for this one either.  Outside it is rainly fairly constantly.  That is why KL is so lush.  My only complaints are about the food - it is lovely but rather slow to arrive, and not my sort of dishes.  But again, it's paid for by the client so I cannot complain.  I have no idea why there are 3 sets of pillows.   Are they suggesting something?

Another suitcase, another hall - Radisson Edwardian, London

Another hotel room.  This is the Radisson Edwardian which is jolly nice.  I have stayed here before.  Lovely as it is the best thing is that it is just across the road from the British Museum.  Apparently it is not as expensive as you might think - luckily I dont have to know.  The building visible through the window is the Radisson Kennilworth which is across the road.  I guess there was not the room to expand on one of the sites, and so they bought one across the road.  Also jolly nice.

this week's hotel room - Gloria Hotel, Media City, Dubai

Pretty nice really.  Somewhat surprised to be here, but it is ok.  All the rooms appear to be suites, and are probably residences.  Which may account for why for the first time I have a washing machine in my hotel room.  Or to be more precise rooms.  Apparently it is a dry hotel, but I have not noticed.  The view from the 24th floor is of the 20 lanes of Sheikh Zayed Road.  However from the 41st floor you get an amazing view of The Palm, and the Atlantis hotel.  The Burg Al Arab is just around the corner of the view, as are the remains of The World - a bunch of sandbanks designed to look like an exploded map of the world.  Now abandoned I believe.

Reaper dodging

The breadcrumbs little helper appears to have dodged the bullet.

I am old father time..

Next year I am 50.  This year the BBC is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the first BBC television broadcast.  I have been alived for 2/3 of the history of television.

Gosh that is old.  Here I am.  Hurtling into the future, one day at a time, and I don't realise what a time traveller I am.

Facebook just reminded me that it is 24 years since I finished my doctorate.  The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is just 27.

As Sandy Denny sang, who knows where the time goes.

Reaper

I thought it was the wolf in the garden, but it feels like it might be the grim reaper.  Sonia and Jonathan gone in 2 weeks, and waiting for M's results.  Mogh a few weeks ago.  L & M having irregular heartbeats.

Feels like Death is using my facebook friends list as a To Do list.

I am become death the destroyer of worlds.

Season of doom

It is peeing down, autumn is here, money isnt and it is hard to keep a positive thought in your head.  Into this mix we are thrown the bombshell that the breadcrumb's little helper, M, has a tumour the size of a grapefruit.  We are all still in the denial and keeping on going phases.  But it is a gutter for a very important person in all of our lives.  More tests and then surgery.  Let us hope it is still in time.

Woof

here comes the black dog.

And I miss my white cat.

Here comes the rain again

After a late burst of summer the rain and cold are back with a vengence.  My shoulder is aching, its chucking it down, and we are out of money.  I can feel the winter depression gathering strength before it launches at me.

Going to  the gym has helped me be physically in better shape for this winter (the shoulder is nothing to do with that), and I should have plenty of work in the next 2 1/2 months - but the black dog is back sniffing at the picket fence again.

Still, I'm not down yet.  And I'm still alive, in the game, and have got grounds for optimism about the next 3 months.

It’s Ed

Personally I went for David.  I hope we don’t regret this.

Meanwhile, with the other reds – roll on next season (yes, already).

and that's the season

So, we lost to Chelsea, and that's the season over. I could hardly watch, but realistically we were not up to the job.

Summer's gone

It feels like autumn already. Apparently the coldest summer for nearly 20 years.

Still the breadcrumbs are off to tennis camp.

a week or so ago I couldn't face the thought of football - England were still beating India at Cricket. Now it feels right. The reggae CDs are coming out of the car until next April - they just don't sound right.

The black dog is still prowling the garden, but I'm trying to keep it at bay.

The cat is dying and that is not a good thing for the family, or the poor brave warrior himself.

Times are hard. It is the strain that kills

Still, at least Liverpool's season has extended past August. Which is not always the case. And for once Arsenal and Spurs are the teams suffering. Which means there is a chance we can make the Champion's league again. The two Manc teams look too strong for us to have a chance of the title. But you never know.

Outside it's Blade Runner

For what seems no good reason I find myself in Kuala Lumpur. It is night and raining. And indeed, it appears to be Blade Runner. Ok, there are no flyers and I have not actually seen Deckard hunting replicants, but apart from that this is it exactly. Constant rain,

Enjoy Every Sandwich

Warren Zevon's advice to us all.  Our small group is one fewer this week.  A reminder that the worst things in life come some idle Tuesday.  Even when things are going well, bad things can come out of nowhere.  And no matter how bad things are at the moment for many of us, if your worries are only financial then things could be worse.

Film reviews

Been watching movies recently.

Some good ones - 4 Lions, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, All that Jazz.

All that Jazz is a classic. They dont make them like that anymore. Hadnt seen it in a couple of decades, but it is still great. Off the wall, and for me the best film about showbusiness outside of the Producers.

Scott Pilgrim did not dissappoint. My GLW hated it and turned off. For me, steeped in comics, it was brilliant. Extremely funny, visually inventive, and generally wizzbang. I can see why it bombed though. It veered between comic book and realism far too much for anyone but geeks. Can't wait to see it again.

4 Lions is a work of genius. Anyone with an interest in islamic terrorism should see this film. As the director Chris Morris said, it does for Al Queda what Dad's Army did for the Home Guard. Should win an Oscar. Funny, empathic, surreal, satirical, grounded, sad. Everything you need.

One that was disappointing was Inception. Very Pretty but no emotional content, and the twist is only a twist if you dont watch a lot of SF.

And this early in the season Liverpool vs Spurs is going to be pretty important. If Spurs lose it will be easier for us to finish above them.

Summer's gone

2 days back at school, and it feels like autumn. And what is with the need for Astronauts costumes?

The link about covers my views on the US Republican party - see here

Mogh

Pooch. The Boy. Himself.

Mogh died in the garden last night, aged 11, after a short illness. There was no pain or discomfort. He just stopped eating and faded away rather rapidly. The vets could find nothing wrong with him, so we must assume it was just his time. Though far sooner that we hoped.

I hope that, being named for a Klingon warrior, he is in StoVoKor now with his sister B'eti, and old friend Dax. That many prawns are being eaten, and much catnip rolled in. And that tall tales are being told of the birdies hunted, the mouses caught and the days when he brought in rats.

His garden will soon become other cat's territory, but he will live on in our hearts. As I type this I expect to hear his chirp, and to see him padding through to sit on the keyboard and then amble hopefully over to the fridge.

Rest in Peace dear friend. K'pla

too early

Once again it is too early for football. I am still waiting for my summer.

27 club

On the BBC radio programme "more or less" yesterday they did some quick number crunching on the deaths of rockstars. They assumed there would be a confirmation bias about the age of 27, and there possibly is. However, they found that most rock stars become famous or successful about the age of 25, and that in the following 5 years they had a 2.3% chance of dying. That is ten times the chances of a normal person, and higher than a soldier serving 5 years in Iraq (1.9%).
So the 27 club will probably have more members in future.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012x12m

Tough week

I lost my nerve after feeling that after working like a Dervish for 4 months all I have done is kept us financially in the same place. Without it we would have lost everything, but after it we are still only a couple of months from the wolf knocking on the door.
This has led to panic attacks and an inability to focus and concentrate.
Meanwhile the bills are appearing at horrible frequency -the breadcrumbs birthday party, breadcrumbs sports camps, the Purple People Carrier having one of those months all cars have.
So far it is a new tyre, 2 new windscreen wipers, 2 windscreen washer nozzles (thanks to the baboons at Knowsley), petrol and coming up soon a big service with a change of timing belt. Ouch.

But the long term worrying thing is that the littlest breadcrumb may be suffering from glaucoma. Which means that she will be in treatment for the rest of her life, and has risk of damaged or lost sight.

The treak is to keep breathing, is a great novel by Janice Galloway. And the only advice possible.

This week's hotel room - Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury

And jolly nice it is too. Room is pretty spacious by London standards and quite comfortable. Food is good. No doubt it is staggeringly expensive, but I am not paying so I don't know. The best thing about it is that is about 20m from the British museum on Great Russell Street. This makes it easy to just slip over the road and amble round. Yesterday was the Minoan rooms, which followed on a recent In our Time on Minoan culture. Also got to see more of the "history of the world in 100 objects" - the very first was a hand axe that is 1.5 million years old. 1.5million. Wow. Difficult to think that at that time there even were humans.

Crash of the Elysium

Great fun. The twins were alternately terrified and engaged for an hour. Surprisingly there were no merchandise opportunities - we would have shopped!

Manchester International Festival in Salford Quays - if your have kids aged between 8 and 12 you have to take them

The next day's room

The Wednesday night brought a rather different room - effectively a student room. In fact I thought it was as student campus, but it turned out to be a NUS training camp.

This was Yarnfield Training and Conference Centre, which is the former GPO and BT training centre. A Massive complex - very much like a student hall of residence. It seems so large that bits of it are now getting run down through disuse.

A little bit of a blast from the past.

Last week' hotel room Tuesday 27th

The Marriott Victoria and Albert in Manchester. Jolly nice. I really do like Marriotts. In fact I think I would like to live in one.

Internet was not free which is an irritation - do hotels not realise that this just causes aggrovation with guests?

Food and drink good and not especially expensive for a hotel

The first thing I want to say is....

mandate, my ass.

Last night I watched Don Lett's documenatary about Gil Scott Heron - The Revolution will not be televised. It was on BBC Four, but is not available on i-player (presumably for rights reasons), but with luck it will be repeated.

Gil was on himself - clearly suffering from his cocaine addition and HIV. His teeth were poor and he looked even more gaunt than usual. But his humour and intelligence shone through. It is tempting to say what a shame it was that this man suffered from such a terrible and debilitating addiction which deprived us his talents for most of the past twenty or twenty five years. But he seemed to accept it, and his story deserves to be about what he did rather than what else he might have done. After all plenty of people never reach his heights in the first place.

As an aside, few people swear as well as Gil - the timing and usage of a poet. Never just for the sake of it, always for judged effect.

I saw him live twice. Both in his missing years in the late 80s and early 90s. I don't know whether the drugs came first, and lead to his decline, or whether as suggested by the programme the music world decided he was old hat and his decline lead to the drugs. Only last night did I realise what a comedown it must have been from touring the world with Stevie Wonder to touring the backrooms that I saw him in.

The first was in Boston, USA. It was my first trip to the USA and I was extending a business trip to take advantage. I have no idea what made me go to Boston, apart from the fact that I could stop there for free on the way from Cincinatti to New York. In the rental car I heard that Gil was playing at a club. I changed my plans immediately.

I'd loved his music since "B-movie" was on an NME tape, starting off with the quote above. Secrets, not one of his best known albums, was one of the soundtracks to my first serious relationship. But he was mythical - not the sort of person who ever toured. It seemed impossible to imagine ever seeing him live.

To give you an idea of how important it was, while waiting to go to the club a perfectly nice attractive young American girl offered to take me back to her place. I turned her down. Just so I could go to see Gil. Seriously, I've never done that for anyone else.

And then he let me down. He bad mouthed Britain, saying what a cold grey place it was. I was probably the only Brit there, and why would he think there was even one. He got big laughs, but it disappointed me.

I still went when he played the Riverside in Newcastle, and I got to meet him backstage when he signed a book of poems for me. He was polite, but clearly keen to get on to other things. But that time it was ok for me. I realised he was a man, not a hero - and indeed he would have laughed at people seeing him as a role model, or any kind of perfect creature.

It must have been tough going from big gigs to the Riverside, which was only about 250 people.

The documentary made me realise that there is music of his out there that I have not heard, and I want to. That is unusual for this sort of programme. Normally you just remember the hits. This made me want to go deeper. So it was a success. The thing about Gil was that the combination of poetry (because he genuinely was a poet, not just a lyric writer), jazz and politics was pretty rare - and still is.

When I was younger I would have thought he had a good innings dying at 62. Now I am creeping up on 50 I realise how young it was, and how young he was when he started doing all this great music. We were practically contemporaries.

RIP Gil Scott Heron.

This week's hotel room

The really quite pleasant, and reassuringly expensive Park Plaza in Amsterdam. The first hotel you come to when you walk out of Central Station. A sensible internet policy (free for low bandwidth, pay if you want broadband) but a bizarre 15Euro charge to use the gym. Do they want us to be fat? More money than I would pay, but I'm not picking up the bill.

distance living

Been out the country for 3 of the past 4 weeks. Two weeks here, then away again. Then maybe 2 more weeks here and away for 2 more weeks (one in London).
Good for the bank balance, and therefore for my state of health. But a bit of a drag - in the way that people who understand "lost in translation" will understand. And other people will say "oh, isnt it interesting to be in Istanbul/Abu Dhabi/Qatar/Amsterdam/Vienna?"

3 years of King Kenny

Which he deserves. But the whalloping at home by Spurs shows how far we have to go. As KD himself said there is a bigger gap between 6th and 4th in the Premiership than between 12th and 6th. We were outplayed, and their bench was way better than ours. Here's to next season.

Idiot

Prime Minister David Cameron used the Today programme to decry the idea of Gordon Brown becoming Managing Director of the IMF. He then suggested that it was time for someone from the developing economies to take the role.

I have never come across such a piece of self serving, and UK damaging nonsense. David Cameron used to complain bitterly about the decline of UK influence in the world, and now he seeks to give it away so that he can stick the boot into his predessor. He is using Britain's prestige as a tool for narrow political advantage.

I am sure that he genuinely feels Brown is not the man for the job. However how can it be in Britain's interest to give away a key global role for no gain? A Brit in the job, even the wrong man, at least has some interest in the country doing well.

The Tories have previous on this. Out of spite they have attacked Tony Blair bidding to become European President, and the appointment of a Brit as de facto head of European Foreign Policy. Because they were from the Labour Party. As if having a British President of Europe would not have reflected well on the country. Other countries are sensible enough to realise that politics should stop at the border. In their disdain for anyone who is not exactly like them the Tories have shown their contempt for the whole country of Great Britain. These are the people who have talked of it not mattering if they have no presence in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland because of their majority in England. Forgetting that they are supposed to be a Unionist party, and not an English party.

They should put aside their hatred of Labour, and look to the good of the country. As opposed to just the bits of it that they own.

1-1

What an attitude. One nil down after 97 minutes, Liverpool managed to draw 1-1 at Arsenal with another (rather soft) penalty as the last kick of the game.
That is a major change - there would have been no blame for having lost to Arsenal, away from home, having lost 3 players to injury. Under Roy Hodgson that would have been seen as a reasonable excuse. Under Dalgleish the excuse was not needed.

I feel sorry for Arsenal, who I would prefer to win the Premiership, but they did not really deserve to win.

So now we have 5 games left - one against Spurs - to catch Spurs or Man City for the last European place. 6 points behind, 15 to play for... I think we need to beat Spurs at Anfield, and then take 9 or the remaining 12. Doable given that it is Fulham, Birmingham and Villa. An amazing turnaround from Christmas

The Change in the weather

It is amazing that a bit of better weather can make things more bearable. Despite the fact that things are no better workwise, or in fact even worse. A weekend in Paris also was a break and a chance to see that things could be worse - one friend's business is now in administration. At least I am not there yet.

Change in the weather

So, business is still grim - but I am still in business. Mrs. Breadcrumb's new job is going well, which is a relief.
And the cherry blossom is begining to come though. Always my favourite sign of Spring.

Funny how, although times remain hard, the coming of spring makes things seem just that little bit brighter and that little bit more possible.
We live to fight another month.

Though the mighty reds only now have the battle for 5th to fight for. And it seems too much in too little time. I have to say I didn't think we could even get into the position where it was possible. King Kenny has made a big difference. Suarez and Carroll have real potential, but the rest of the squad looks thin. Roll on next season. And come on whoever is playing MUFC in any competition. (mean spirited I know, but still...)

A year of change

I thought it was going to be a year of change. Looks like I had no idea how much.
Mrs Breadcrumb has just one more week in her current job, and is trying to work out whether here new home is the fire or somewhere cooler than the frying pan. At least during the jump there is cooling down.
I am trying to work out whether I want to change what I do - which is largely driven by the fact that this year I am not making any money doing it.
We have a house move to plan. The breadcrumbs little helper has a marriage to finally face up to. The godparents have two breadcrumbs of their own to adopt.
The economy is on the fritz, the environment is on the fritz, and the middle east (source of much of my income) is on the turn.

Year of change indeed.

Meanwhile Liverpool beat Sparta Prague. All together now - "We are Sparta FC"!

Insights

Funny the insights you get as you are falling asleep. I suddenly found myself thinking that the reason I am self-indulgent as an adult is because I was rather neglected as a child. This is not an excuse incidentally, more a warning to myself.

Isn't it funny how things from our childhood can still haunt us decades later.

all political careers end in failure

I wonder if we can add Prime Minister Berlesconi and Colnel Gadaffi to the list of people contemplating them message?

4 gym sessions, ice skating and swimming in a week. I may be old, decrepit and skint, but at least I can try to do something about the decrepit bit.

odds and ends

Mrs Breadcrumb is away for the week wrapping up odds and ends with her old job. So, I am at something of a loose end in the evenings. Saw Spurs beat AC Milan - great goal by Crouchie - still don't know why we sold him.

Then finished off the Millenium trilogy for the second time. It's rare I re-read books - especially within 12 months. It may be something like comfort food - you know you are going to like it. But great books.

And tonight will be Arsenal vs Barcelona - which should be good. They are the 2 teams I would choose to watch if Liverpool were not involved. According to my principles I should support Arsenal, but my heart wants Barcelona to be brilliant and win again.

Meanwhile, there is sunlight during the day and I am going to the gym. Although realistically our finances are still perilous, it is easier to be positive. Or at least ignore the situation. Some paid work would be nice though.

The American Constitution

I'm a Brit, so I don't always understand American Culture - but I've become strangely interested in the logic of the Tea Party and other Republicans who have a fixation on the American Constitution. From here, in the land they broke away from to write the constitution (by a bunch of slave owners with holes in the ground for toilets as pointed out by Scott Adams of Dilbert), there seems to have a lot of people who believe all the answers and authority of the US government lies in the constitution as originally written. Now they have Amended the constitution. Does that mean the Tea Party think that all the Amendments should be withdrawn? Or do they accept the amendments? In which case their whole argument collapses (because obviously the original constitution was not perfect, and there is no obvious reason why the current version should be either). Just asking. It confuses me.
I am used to people having holes in their political beliefs (says a guy who is apparently to the left of 98% of the population on social matters, and to the right of 90% on economic matters) - but this seems more aligned with the views taken by religous cults than real politics.


In the UK we avoid this by not having a written constitution, which allows our politicians to make things up as they go along. Note that this doesn't seem to work either.
At some stage I shall get exercised by the government deciding that we can have an extra MEP, but not bothering to going to all the trouble and expense of holding an election - just appointing a Tory off the Midlands list. That is the sort of thing you expect in Egypt! Oh, we could have had an election but it would have cost money, so we decided not to bother...
Even if it is perfectly legal it shows a disregard for the democratic process which is staggering. As did the attempted coup when they pushed for a fixed term government that could not be defeated by a majority of the House of Commons but only a majority +5%. Again, in most countries we call that fixing the parliament.

Oh apparently I am going to rant about it now. Sorry.

all political careers end

in failure.

I forget who said that, but I wonder if Mubarak has heard it?

Fernando who?

Well, to be serious, Torres is a great player and will get better at Chelsea. However, beating Chelsea in London was more than I could have hoped for. Despite my reservations about the potential damage to King Kenny if he should fail, it seems that (so far) he is succeeding. Liverpool again look like a Liverpool team. They seem to have confidence that they can actually beat anyone (personally I am pretty pleased this is not going to be tested against Barcelona). A cause for (cautious) optimism.

On that tack though, if Arsenal can conceed 4 to Newcastle, what is going to happen when they play Barcelona and Lionel Messi?

things could be worse

Bleak as things sometimes seem, they could be worse. A friend of the Breadcrumb's little helper has had a breakdown and is needing round the clock support and attention to make sure she does not harm herself. As well as taking herself off the grid she had cancelled all her bills, including the rent, with the clear implication that she would not be around to pay them next time.

As Peter Hook said about Ian Curtis - a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

I hope she makes it through.

off we go

Mrs Breadcrumb is escaping the evil empire, otherwise known as Bastard, Bastard and Greedy GmbH, and heading for the wilds of Widnes.
We means that me, the breadcrumbs, one cat, 5 fish, and 2 gerbils will also be heading west. But not until 2011. Cut off for schools is 1 March, and we don't know where we are going to live, so the move has to wait until next year.

As David Tennant said as Dr Who, "I don't want to go". I shall be happy when we are there, but the thought of the upheaval and losing our friends here is rather disheartening.

Still, we are only here because of Mrs Breadcrumb's job, so it is not surprising we have to move again. And hopefully this will be the last time. But it is unlikely we can ever again afford something as large and rambling as this house. Shame, but there you go.

Transfer Madness

£50m for Torres seems about right. £35m for Andy Carroll? I hope I am as wrong about that as I was about Roy Hodgson.
I had forgotten that it was Chelsea at the weekend. Shouldn't we have a clause saying that he could not play in that game?
Got to feel sorry for Anelka, and that is not something you can say everyday.

two in a row

So the Mighty Reds sneaked past Fulham, after their convincing display against Wolves. It means we only need 8 or 9 points to avoid relegation. Which is both good and sad. We need about the same to get 5th place. So our best chance of Europe next season is to win the Europa league. But it shows that things can get better, and I take heart from that in both football and real life.

Still hanging in there

Blue Monday over a week ago, but I am still hanging on by my fingernails and expecting the sky to fall at any minute. I need more good news. I find it almost impossible to watch the news now - just too glum for words.

Beyond Blue Monday

Yesterday was apparently the most depressing, or depressed, day of the year for most of us. Really felt like it. Anyway that it gone, so maybe I can be more positive from now on. The trouble is the crushing anxiety that is currently a constant companion.

Deep breaths.
Next!

Till things are brighter

Things are pretty bad wherever you go...

Been a bad time, and things are still remarkably tough. Call it reality biting, or seasonal disorder, I find it hard to keep my head in the right place. The black dog is not exactly with me, but I can hear a howling in the trees behind the garden.

And this feels like a year of change. Mrs Breadcrumb will find out next week whether she has a new job which will mean uprooting us all. The Breadcrumbs would of course have to find a new school. And their joint carer is probably getting married and going home to central Europe in the summer.

I would like to be really positive about it all, but I live my days in a state of dread worrying about what imminent disaster is about to befall us.

Compared to some others we have it pretty easy - oppressive debts but a fairly large (though unstable) income. Loving family life.

So it goes.