a bit distracted

Life doesn't have to be a spectator sport

Friday, July 31, 2009

Which movie had the greatest impact on you?

At dinner last night, conversation took an interesting turn towards discussing which movie had had the biggest impact on each of us at the table.

Clearly a question that @shoesandtattoos would love to debate for hours, and I look forward to her views (preferably over a pint in Camden next week).

Unfortunately I run into problems here in that I can rarely remember the title of a movie I saw last week, never mind one seen eons ago. I'm now on a mission to remember and (depending on successful completion of step 1) rewatch a few of those films have set me thinking for days on end.

Anyway the film that I do remember as clear as if I saw it yesterday isn't actually a movie but a tv mini series - Bangkok Hilton, starring Nicole Kidman. It must be 20 years since it was on (goodness that makes me sound old!) but I could recount the story to the slightest detail today. Yet, even having put a lot of thought towards this over the years, I can't tell you WHY it had such a massive impact. Did it put me off travelling to far flung places through university years - something I wish I had done then and am always looking for opportunities to rectify now that I can stay in multi* hotels rather than flea-ridden hostels?!! Maybe it was simply the first really eye-opening piece of film that I'd watched about how different countries around the world are and the dangers that lurk outside of the safety of our parents home.

It was a fascinating dinnertime conversation - one to remember and re-ponder in the morning after wine-induced fog! I just wish I could remember everyone else's answer!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

On today's news agenda...

I'm reading a newspaper while finishing off my lunch (as an aside, I don't recommend the falafel wrap from the sandwich lady). Admittedly it's not a very high quality newpaper, kind of a News of the World - Dubai style. It's called 7Days (though only actually published 5 times a week)

Standing apart from its daily rivals, which are reporting on Abu Dhabi's investment in Virgin Galactic or a woman's body washing up on a beach in Ras Al Khaimah, I'm delighted to read in this newspaper that Esther Rantzen is running in the Luton South constituency election; and an unnamed 67-year old lady got stuck in her own toilet in Queensland, Australia.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

A strange co-incidence

I read this morning on Auntie Beeb that 52 pubs are closing each week in Britain. That figure is up from 27 a week in 2007 and 2 a week in 2006.

Now, I left the wonderfully sociable B&B to join Hotwire in 2006. At this point the burden of 10-13 hour days and a daily schlep all the way across London meant that my previously healthy social life took a gravity-defying nose dive. I left Blighty towards the end of October 2007.

Is it just me or is there a spooky correlation there?

One thing that does worry me is the 'official' guy that says "...unfortunately if you are a community pub, you can't transform yourself into a trendy town-centre bar." Why unfortunately?

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Hold that thought

Not quite sure what to do with this piece of info, so I might just stick it here for now and come back to it when I get more substance...


@HHShkMohdjust approved a new federal government communications strategy which aims to enhance the country’s image

Etisalat-schmisalat

There is a storm brewing here in the UAE about a software upgrade to mobile devices that Etisalat issued recently via SMS. Some sources are saying it downloads suspicious software onto the mobile device, the operator says it is a network enhancement patch. I'm not going to comment on the story, but you can read The National's report here if you're interested.

I think I saw the SMS that told me to watch out for a download. Emphasis on 'think'...because Etisalat is a serial spammer and it drives me to distraction.

I can enjoy days without a peep from them and then one day I get five within the space of an afternoon. And three of them will be in Arabic. My bill is in English, I "press option 2 to continue in English" every time I phone the service centre, and I have British clearly stated on my records - so why is there not a little box to tick on the marketing dashboard that says 'text this customer in English language or it's going to be a waste of time'.

Etisalat frequently feel the need to communicate with me at 1, 2, 3 0'clock in the morning. When my phone goes at those times I normally think it's a drunken friend or someone from England that has forgotten all about time differences - both excusable actions - but for a home-grown network operator to think that this is an appropriate time to catch my attention is just nuts. Although I guess I'm not doing anything important at the time....except, oh yeah, sleeping!

You don't have to sit through as many marketing lectures as I have to see that all of this makes for a very irritating experience. Wasting time and money on behalf of the operator, and alienating an audience with potential to be engaged. If I see Etisalat has texted me, I rarely even look to see what they want to tell me. When O2 texted me back in the UK it was about things I had asked to be informed about - music gigs, shoe sales, travel updates...

As a final thought, aren't we always hoping that little SMS bleep is something more interesting from someone else?!

Monday, July 06, 2009

Internet censorship - a growing issue

Here's an interesting project from the Guardian in the UK - a map illustrating different levels of internet censorship around the world. It's early days for the project, in fact they don't even seem to have data for most of the developed world, but it will be interesting to see how it develops.

Here in the UAE, Flikr is banned and so are all sorts of other dodgy websites. Personally, can't say I notice much beyond things my friends are talking about that I can't see on Flikr...but every now and then you follow a link sent by a friend to something quite innocent, and it comes up as banned. It can be quite infuriating.

There's an article here for anyone interested.

Another Gulf newspaper suspended

Last month I mentioned that a newspaper in Bahrain, Akhbar Al Khaleej, had been suspended until further notice. It turns out the Iranians complained to Bahrain about an article that criticised their country. The article in question was an attributed opinion article that was stating just that - an opinion held by the author. Despite living in the region for some time, this still doesn't sit well with my home-grown sensibilities.

This week, Emarat Al Youm - an Arabic language newspaper based out of Abu Dhabi -has received a 20 day suspension following a story it published in 2006. The article in question suggested that a UAE stable had doped horses with steroids for a race in Dubai...a story that suggests there may have been a hint of - shock horror - investigative journalism going on. In 2006? Amazing!

Reporting on the story, Gulf News highlighted Mohammad Yousuf, Chairman of the UAE Journalists' Association, as saying that media circles were "disturbed by the suspension, especially when the UAE media is witnessing a qualitative leap and development."

I totally agree. Yes, laws against defamation are appropriate and should result in a fine if found guilty; but a 20-day ban on publishing three years after the event...??

Saturday, July 04, 2009

"Funny" blog

As anyone that has found themselves at the mercy of my red pen will know, I have many grammatical bug bears...

This blog is all about one of them - unnecessary use of "quotation" marks. If nobody said it, don't use them!

Thursday, July 02, 2009

My carbon footprint

My colleagues, who work with a prominent ecological and environmental body here in the emirates, presented a few slides at our regular office breakfast on calculating your carbon footprint.

The UAE has the world's largest carbon footprint, but as a recycling vegetarian who mostly enjoys non-carbon sports such as running and yoga in the park, I was under the impression that my footprint would be a mite less than your average bear.

Shockingly not. Try this, err, 'fun' quiz and see how you compare (although note it is only set up for US, Canada and Australia so far - I chose the States)

If everyone lived like me, we would need a shocking 6.9 planet Earths to provide enough resources. My 'energy land' requirement is enormous...I guess that's due to my dependence on Harry the Jeep to get around town, and several flights a year to the UK and elsewhere.

All very thought provoking.

A similar application - that does have all countries in the world listed - is Carbon Footprint. I was a little more cheered by this one as, although still shocked and stunned by my contribution to the end of the world as we know it, my footprint is less than the average UAE resident...though still enormous compared to the rest of the world.

If you try it yourself, please post your result and where you are living - I'd be interested to see how lifestyles around the world compare.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Summer days...

...condensation on the outside of the windows will never seem normal to me