April 2005 Entries
A backlog of blogs to read led me to FeedMap. A cool idea of crossing feedreading with MapPoint. Just enter your address or latitude and longitude (straight from multimap or any other nice map site) and you get your very own BlogMap as shown below or local blogroll as on the right.
Also on the rise is Google's maps service. Crikey that's nice. I wonder how they got the maps compressed enough that you can drag and drop your map with almost nary a delay. V. nice.
Not that it'll help the sales of the books I've written with Wiley, but with Steve Jobs having a massive hissy fit at Wiley for publishing an unofficial biography on him in the summer and destocking all Apple stores of Wiley titles, this is probably as close as you can get to banning a film from the cinema in the book world. Unsurprisingly, the book is now selling (pre-ordering) like hot cakes. Sorry Steve, they're onto a winner now.
Two of my more musical friends are now e-cogent with their own websites pushing their brand of post-folk and acousti-rock. Check out Jenn and Holly and buy their stuff.
Finally getting back into it after weddings and honeymoons. Pictures to follow but my god people I'm not dead.
By the time we arrived home, we lost the entire of Friday to time zones and read 500 pages of Cryptonomicon. The same honeymoon couple we saw on our plane came back with us and there seems to be some sort of swim team not paying attention at customs. It’s fifteen degrees colder than Honolulu but its home. Where’s my bed? Sleeping for a week sounds like a good choice.
Final day. Went and said goodbye to the duke and packed. Plane not until 11pm, so checked out late and spent half an hour talking to the porter who turned out to be an ex-pat from the potteries, which would explain the odd accent. The shuttle bus driver was also fun – an ex-surf jockey in need of cash who still talked like one and got little kicks out of beating other traffic to the punch. Lots of 'dude's involved in the conversation.
Woke up late and wandered down to Waikiki Zoo. Jane flat refused to go in though thanks to the presence of reptiles therein. In particular, there were 'evil alligators'. Ended up at the cinema instead and then discovered one of US TV’s unlikeliest icons - The Schwab. In UK terms, he’d be the equivalent of Statto or John Motson, but rather than one sport, he is a walking stat book for every American sport, and ESPN’s Stump The Schwab proves it. Mind you, the idea of besuited businessmen trying to out-stat the sports-jerseyed sport addict seems a little unlikely at...
Today is a day of pampering (well, almost). Despite sunburn, we brave the spa. Jane attempts a full-body deep tissue massage – with a double twist in the tuck position – no doubt, and I opt for a male-oriented facial and salt scrub. I am thus more girly than Jane. However, her massage made here either giggle or cry out in pain so she ended up more stressed than when she went in. On the other hand, I came out cooler than the Fonz. Girly maybe, but happier.
Replenished Jane’s giddiness levels with 'orgasmic' cheesy mash at the English pub and...
Up early for the full circle tour of O’ahu with our tour guide, Uncle Les, a full-blood Hawaiian who really misses all the sugarcane and pineapple fields, and probably the old way of life here too. But with so many great stories and his love of the island it’s a cracking day. From the lookout points on the mountain ranges to the surf spots and waterfalls on the north shore, via the old style plantations and military bases in the centre to the many film locations around the island and lunch at the oldest pub on the upper east side,...
Jane felt ill so she stayed at the hotel while I went down the Ala Moana canal and up to the top of Diamond Head volcano. Really felt like a good walk even though it was probably only ten or eleven miles long. Such an amazing view from up there. Walked back to Waikiki, saw the sunset over the beach and found a freshly-baked ‘veggie’ pizza. 'Twas comical to see the cook read our order and get all huffy, try and locate the ingredients for a veggie pizza while slinking about the kitchen in the way that only huffy teenagers can...
Little bit more sunburn then expected today. Enough to get us to postpone our spa session back to Tuesday. Spent the morning at Borders instead with a cool drink on their shady veranda. Still managed to get served the wrong food again though. Do US stores hear the word ‘medium’ and misinterpret it as ‘large’ by default? The lady at the food counter yesterday looked almost offended when we didn’t order a meal each and decided to share one between the two of us. Should I shout ‘I don’t want to be as fat as you’?
Sunniest day so far, but Jane...
Today was water park day. Got a bit red, but thanks to SPF25 I won’t be bedridden with minor burns as happened in Sri Lanka. There’s nothing like larking about in water and the park is pretty much our own as well. Strangely, the lifeguards keep apologizing for the nice cool breeze blowing through the area like its spoiling our day or something. In the end, we walked up a five storey hill 16 times, bodysurfed in a wave pool, drifted round a river upside down and walked under a waterfall in pursuit of fun and general gung-ho-dom. Best day...
Food, or rather some place to eat dinner has been hard to find. So far all we’ve needed have been the complimentary canapés on the terrace. Step up our new discovery, the Ye Olde Fox and Hounds bar with such English fare on the menu as sausage and mash, chicken curry and more. No real ale, but at least ten good beers on the menu. Even Guinness doesn’t taste too bad here.
With the exception of Luau’s which are the exclusive domain of tourists, things seem to shut down here at about 9pm, so why are McD’s, Starbucks and the like...
Switched on the TV for the first time this holiday. I come half way around the world and the first thing on is English football and all CNN has to offer is Prince Charles getting married again and the pope being dead. What happened to CNN’s usual attitude of anything outside America doesn’t matter unless it involves America.
Breakfast on the terrace again and then a trip out to see some of the boat wrecks and artificial reefs just off the coast in a submarine. Aquariums are great but this is just something else and the clarity of the water round here just makes this particular excursion something else. The fishes are wonderful to watch, the plane and shipwrecks are great, and a sea turtle ‘waved’ at me too. Nice. And despite being the only English speakers in the sub, the sixty-odd Japanese tourists had to wear the headphones for the taped commentary in their language. I’m guessing...
Walked along the beach into Waikiki proper en route to the aquarium. Could spend the entire holiday without leaving the confines of the hotel, but hey... Met a few key people here in Hawaii – well, their statues – including Duke Kahanamoku, who was one of the first Hawaiians to take surfing to the west coast of the states. Aquarium very keyed towards the discussion of coral reefs and their preservation – bit of a switch from the North Sea banks. Prettier fish and a diver in the shark tank too.
Everyone is so friendly here. But hey, what have they...
Haven’t slept that long in a long time, or in such a soft bed. Brain batteries are now recognising shapes and sounds again. The room looks over palm trees to Waikiki and then further inward to the mist-capped mountain range beyond. Inside the room, there’s the bed, a 32" LCD TV, sofa, table, bathroom and so on. And this is about the cheapest room in the hotel? What do you get for $1500 a night then?
Internal clock is screwed, so head down to breakfast on our private terrace at 7am to watch dawn splash the first sun onto the hotel...
San Francisco airport has a friendly and calm atmosphere in exactly the same way that Newark is much akin to a portal from hell. Europeans should consider entering the US here and then flying back to the East Coast. Let’s face it, the only reason we fly to Newark the first time is because we assume the ticket has a misprint on it. Honolulu airport, meanwhile, feels almost completely unlike the US at all with the tropical temperatures in effect, signs in both English and Japanese, and tourist reps handing out garlands of plastic hibiscus in the colours of their...
The purpose of a hotel alarm clock is not to wake you up. It’s to make you concerned enough as to whether or not it works that you wake every hour on the hour in order to make sure that it hasn’t failed to wake you up and thus miss your plane. This particular clock excels and we wake at 2.30, 3.30, 4.30 and, finally, 5.30 in the nick of time for the hotel shuttle bus to whisk us away to Terminal 3.
And so the big day has been and gone. The reception room is already being cleared away by the time we make it down for breakfast. Those few who have braved the restaurant offer their repeated well-dones and pre-emptive goodbyes in advance of checkout. The sun is up and is a fact most welcome after the darkness and the somme-like chaos of our room has been cleared away. A leisurely four hour drive blows out the cobwebs and makes room for caffeine. Today will be the first day I wish that my sunglasses hadn’t been nicked last week.
A couple of...