Friday, May 06, 2005
five more years
Yes, congratulations to Tony Blair and the Labour Party. Five more years and all achieved without either of our votes.
On arrival in Kuala Lumpur, Operation Find Star Sports was postponed for a few days and instead it was Operation Find BBC World. Suspecting that the CNN election coverage would be bobbins, we invested at least an hour in traipsing round different hotels in the pouring rain to find one with BBC World. As the BBC channel is virtually sponsored by the Malaysian Tourist Board, this seemed quite achievable. How wrong we were? After a fruitless hour, we gave in and opted for a place with only CNN, thinking the coverage couldn't be that bad. Again, how wrong we were.
Bobbins doesn't quite do their coverage justice. After a good 5 hours viewing we're probably lucky to actually know who won. Clearly, being a 'breaking news' event, all the big guns (sic) had been flown in from Atlanta. Most of them must have left their Ladybird Guide to British Politics at home. Factual errors galore. Poor Robin Oakley was sat there looking bemused and probably wishing he had never left the BBC.
One especially stupid presenter was delegated to stand in the dark outside a deserted Houses of Parliament all night. Obviously, with anyone who is anyone back home in their constituencies, all she had was a series of total nonentities to interview in ridculous depth.
Anyway, the piece d'resistance was the Mrs Thatcher interview. You can imagine the scene back in Atlanta HQ. "Who the hell is the Kennedy guy? We need faces people know'. So all of a sudden they find Mrs Thatcher (barely able to speak and with nothing interesting to say) and are so overjoyed that we got her 5 minute interview played about 20 times over in the next 2 hours.
Those that care about these things (you know who you are, Messers Etchell, Wright, Mortimer etc) will be pleased to hear that I didn't make it to Downing Street to wave Tony back this time. But we did manage to see it live on CNN (which by now had decided to actually report real news) which was almost as good.
Having completed that, Operation Find Star Sports swings firmly into place. This is what being in foreign countries is really about... With a historic third term secured, now it's the equally historic second season for the Eagles that we need.
On arrival in Kuala Lumpur, Operation Find Star Sports was postponed for a few days and instead it was Operation Find BBC World. Suspecting that the CNN election coverage would be bobbins, we invested at least an hour in traipsing round different hotels in the pouring rain to find one with BBC World. As the BBC channel is virtually sponsored by the Malaysian Tourist Board, this seemed quite achievable. How wrong we were? After a fruitless hour, we gave in and opted for a place with only CNN, thinking the coverage couldn't be that bad. Again, how wrong we were.
Bobbins doesn't quite do their coverage justice. After a good 5 hours viewing we're probably lucky to actually know who won. Clearly, being a 'breaking news' event, all the big guns (sic) had been flown in from Atlanta. Most of them must have left their Ladybird Guide to British Politics at home. Factual errors galore. Poor Robin Oakley was sat there looking bemused and probably wishing he had never left the BBC.
One especially stupid presenter was delegated to stand in the dark outside a deserted Houses of Parliament all night. Obviously, with anyone who is anyone back home in their constituencies, all she had was a series of total nonentities to interview in ridculous depth.
Anyway, the piece d'resistance was the Mrs Thatcher interview. You can imagine the scene back in Atlanta HQ. "Who the hell is the Kennedy guy? We need faces people know'. So all of a sudden they find Mrs Thatcher (barely able to speak and with nothing interesting to say) and are so overjoyed that we got her 5 minute interview played about 20 times over in the next 2 hours.
Those that care about these things (you know who you are, Messers Etchell, Wright, Mortimer etc) will be pleased to hear that I didn't make it to Downing Street to wave Tony back this time. But we did manage to see it live on CNN (which by now had decided to actually report real news) which was almost as good.
Having completed that, Operation Find Star Sports swings firmly into place. This is what being in foreign countries is really about... With a historic third term secured, now it's the equally historic second season for the Eagles that we need.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
spaghetti
And so, finally, it's goodbye from Indonesia. 29 days on the visa is up tomorrow, they don't allow you to extend, so it's off to Malaysia instead.
As the days go by, the decision to leave Bali and Lombok early and give ourselves 8 days on Java has seemed more and more unfortunate. Imagine having 29 days in the UK, having a right royal time visiting the Lake District, Scottish Highlands, York etc, and then inexplicably deciding to spend the last 8 days visting Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Coventry. Sure, you'd get to see Spaghetti Junction and have a great day out at Cadbury World, but, on balance, it' d be a monumentally bad decision.
First Yogyhkarata (still can't spell it) was the worst place we'd visited since this whole jaunt began. Then came Bandung and stole it's crown. Then next was Bogor which was as bad as it sounds. And now Jakarta - a capital city that would make even Coventry seem like an island paradise...
Ms Love did the words for Yogyhkarata and Bandung, so Bogor is my turn. The city of cracked and broken pavements. And seemingly one restaurant for all the 2 million people that live there. At least we struck gold on the hotel which had a bathroom suitable for a princess, let alone Courtney. It even had hot water.
Now, before I get a reputation for doom and gloom, I'd better add that Bogor did have one attraction. Right in the middle of possibly the most congested 248 lane inner city ringroad in the world, was a quite stupendous Botanical Gardens. Truly an oasis in a city of desert. Once you'd braved the 30 minute walk there, avoiding the open sewers and piles of burning rubbish, you were rewarded with an incredible 30 acres of greenery and calm. However, someone (actually me) inexplicably forgot to pack the spare camera battery so we don't have any photos to prove how nice it was.
And Jakarata. A city of 10 million people and, a couple of closed museums aside, seemingly nothing to do except risk life and limb crossing the road.
6 paragraphs and no mention of football. A new Wylie record....about to be ruined...
Yes, the moment we touch ground in MalaysiaTrulyAsia, it'll be the now familiar Operation Find Star Sports once again. As ever we are due to be in the middle of nowhere on Saturday night but this won't get in the way. If it takes even signing up for a hotel with a proper bathroom then that's what we'll do..
As even Courtney can recite now, if we beat Southampton, West Brom and Norwich fail to win and then we get at least a point at the Valley the week after (and and and...), then Rough Guides Jumpers and Outer Mongolia will have a truly happy and fitting ending...
As the days go by, the decision to leave Bali and Lombok early and give ourselves 8 days on Java has seemed more and more unfortunate. Imagine having 29 days in the UK, having a right royal time visiting the Lake District, Scottish Highlands, York etc, and then inexplicably deciding to spend the last 8 days visting Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Coventry. Sure, you'd get to see Spaghetti Junction and have a great day out at Cadbury World, but, on balance, it' d be a monumentally bad decision.
First Yogyhkarata (still can't spell it) was the worst place we'd visited since this whole jaunt began. Then came Bandung and stole it's crown. Then next was Bogor which was as bad as it sounds. And now Jakarta - a capital city that would make even Coventry seem like an island paradise...
Ms Love did the words for Yogyhkarata and Bandung, so Bogor is my turn. The city of cracked and broken pavements. And seemingly one restaurant for all the 2 million people that live there. At least we struck gold on the hotel which had a bathroom suitable for a princess, let alone Courtney. It even had hot water.
Now, before I get a reputation for doom and gloom, I'd better add that Bogor did have one attraction. Right in the middle of possibly the most congested 248 lane inner city ringroad in the world, was a quite stupendous Botanical Gardens. Truly an oasis in a city of desert. Once you'd braved the 30 minute walk there, avoiding the open sewers and piles of burning rubbish, you were rewarded with an incredible 30 acres of greenery and calm. However, someone (actually me) inexplicably forgot to pack the spare camera battery so we don't have any photos to prove how nice it was.
And Jakarata. A city of 10 million people and, a couple of closed museums aside, seemingly nothing to do except risk life and limb crossing the road.
6 paragraphs and no mention of football. A new Wylie record....about to be ruined...
Yes, the moment we touch ground in MalaysiaTrulyAsia, it'll be the now familiar Operation Find Star Sports once again. As ever we are due to be in the middle of nowhere on Saturday night but this won't get in the way. If it takes even signing up for a hotel with a proper bathroom then that's what we'll do..
As even Courtney can recite now, if we beat Southampton, West Brom and Norwich fail to win and then we get at least a point at the Valley the week after (and and and...), then Rough Guides Jumpers and Outer Mongolia will have a truly happy and fitting ending...
