World Extents (2)

My world extents post was out of date as soon as it was written almost.  Thanks to work I got sent on an emergency trip to Malaysia, so my new list reads:

1. North - Northampton UK
2. East - Malaysia
3. South - Malaysia
4. West - St Austell UK

Malaysia Initial Impressions

I got sent to Malaysia for work in February, a very last minute thing.  It was my first visit to Asia, and I wanted to note down my thoughts a few months on.

First impressions were of the flight, which is long 12 hours from London Heathrow.  This was my first ever long haul flight so I was a little worried about how it would be.  Flying on an A380 was nice though, even in economy.  I think the secret to long haul is being able to sleep or doze through most of it.  I took a window seat which may not have been such a great idea - it worked out ok as I sat next to a nice couple.

Arriving at Kuala Lumpur the first thing that hits you is the heat, it was immediate warm air after having left a cold London.  Working my way through the airport was ok, the only confusing thing was baggage return being seperated in another terminal.  Getting to KL Sentral was easy as there was an express train dedicated to doing this trip. 

I did not make the colonial times connection until I realised how many traits there still were, driving on the left side, signposting in English.  But having said that there were as many differences, it is many cultures in one nation.  I was relieved to find my hotel very close to the central station, a very short walk.

World Extents

I'm going to Australia this year, which is a big trip. My travels have been confined to Europe only so far, I did not leave the country until I was 30!

So the extents of my travels are:

1. North - Northampton UK
2. East - Milan Italy
3. South - Milan Italy
4. West - St Austell UK

CES No Microsoft

The past few years I would watch the Steve Ballmer keynote at CES. With Microsoft pretending to be a consumer device company. Last year was the last one, they were replaced by Qualcomm - really a hardware supplier into such consumer devices, but who probably think they can make their own impact as a device manufacturer.

But Ballmer put in an appearance!, to show off Windows 8 on touch devices. It has got off to a slow start - but maybe it will pick up. Also with Apple clearly at their peak of innovation and now reduced product line - maybe Microsoft will make some inroads into this market.

Film: Shaolin directed by Benny Chan

An interesting film about feuding warlords in China, with a fair amount of martial arts and fighting scenes - but still with a reasonable story.

My favorite scene was the meditation poles the temple worshipers would stand on with one foot - an argument ensues but this then causes one of them to leave his state of mindfulness and fall off his pole.

But a light moment in a more serious film - and there are others like that.

Book read: Secrets of the Conqueror by Stuar Prebble

An interesting read of the operations of the SSN HMS Conqueror pre and post Falklands war. Also describing the inept political covering up that followed over who took the decision to sink Belgrano outside of the 200 mile TEZ.

Pre/Post Falklands is revealed as an operation to capture Russian towed array sonar to gain information on their capability. It is conjectured that this is the true operation that was wanted to be kept quiet during the subsequent loss of ships logs.

The subsequent political fall out from this meant that a crew member Narendra Sethia was accused of stealing the logs and supplying a Labour politician with the information needed to question the government (he had in fact just kept a diary that he provided to a trusted person with a view to publishing).

A sub-story is his winning of a libel case against the main papers - something that cannot easily be undertaken if you do not have the financial backing.

Sethia went on to meet survivors of Belgrano in 2000:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/oct/18/argentina.falklands

Artic Convoy Medals

The long campaign has paid off, there will be a medal associated with the WWII arctic convoys:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20783362

I could never understand how it had taken so long, I have heard only a few descriptions of what conditions were like - these were volunteers whose efforts were conveniently forgotten post war.