neonascent

After many quiet, stillful nights in this concrete city of digital dreams, I have returned to blow new life and fresh colour into these pages. “O frabjious day! Calooh! Calay!” I hear you chortling in your joy.

In case you wonder: Christmas involved mild yucky-illness, though was nice and toasty and mince-pie-ish.

First post back is a photoset of pictures from my daytrip to Amsterdam with my cousin. Unfortunetly, the digital camera died right on cue as we got into Amsterdam Central Station, but did managed to get some chill-evoking white snowscenes captured on the way there. In case you are unaware, a large portion of the Netherlands is reclaimed wetlands (hence “Low Lands”) and so tends to be vast swathes of completely flat land. The wind struts unchallenged where it will, and makes for chilly times.

I’d love to say that our visit to Amsterdam revolved around the enormous collection of museums and galleries, beautiful architecture and canals, but this would be a big fat lie. Realistically, my cousin is an excited teenager who/and so has very specific things in mind when in comes to the Big A. Our day was spent roughly devided between oogling through the seedy quarters of Amsterdam’s red light district, and relaxing (with some herbal assistance) in some of the many Coffee Shops. Some shopping, a little cultural osmosis, and introduction to some traditional Dutch food helped to even things out a bit, and all in all the day was turned out to be fun.

• >> Link to Flickr Set

I was standing outside a restaurant with my mum yesturday, debating whether to go in. A policeman (English; decked out in the usual english policeman getup) came up to me.
In a tone of sombre authority he said something along the lines of:
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this sir,” <dramatic pause used to full effect> “but you have a tail.” He then called to his police chums down the road suggesting that they “Have a look at this!”

It was quite funny, though it’s certainly indicative of a different reaction from this hemisphere.

While going through security at Changi in Singapore, the security detector was evidently more sensitive than the one at Heathrow; it went off. I was taken quite benignly to one side, and a security woman used the magic wand on me. After buzzing around my stomach, she lifted up my T-shirt and said “You’ve got a belt buckle.” I replied that yes I did. She then noticed something else, and said with an amused smile, but in the same voice “You’ve got a tail.” Yes, I replied, just the usual. Maybe this anecdote could be told better, but the point is really that it is lovely when my tail gets to bring warmth into two people’s day: the security woman for seeing it, and myself for sharing

Just finished an epic 34 hours of travelling, including hiring a car and driving to where I’m staying. Incredible culture different. got to go.
tired.

Well. I’m in Singapore’s Changi airport waiting for a transfer. I’ve just had a nice shower and complimentry green tea, so I’m all fresh-faced and bushy-tailed for the next leg.

Ain’t I just the international traveller?
My fellow companions were very friendly. Talked mostly to the Gary on my right who is a Ski judge on his way to the north of China for a “world cup” ski event.

Well got to go.
Love is all around

It’s over. My head is still buzzing with wonderful experiences with wonderful people. What an absolutely fantastic time.

You may have heard that a bi-polar airline passenger has recently been shot by undercover air marshals. The BBC reports “Man shot dead at Florida airport”. There are certainly issues of balance with regards to offensive force to pre-empt terrorist action, as well as the question of whether terrorists would hit the airlines again now that it is no longer the “weak link”. I’m agitated by the lack of intelligent debate on these issues, but that’s not what has made me blog today. (Okay the entry title is a giveaway)

The US air marshal statement released is the most extreme case of biased textual representation I have seen in a long time:

“As he was attempting to evade them, his actions caused the FAMs to fire shots, and in fact he is deceased.”

Journalists regularly place sentences in the passive to elliminate blame, but this is going much further. IMHO, this is absolutely disgusting and moreso because most people won’t even notice - the power of rhetoric such as “collateral damage”, and the language used here is that it is insidious. While they could have completely removed the FAMs (air marshals) from the sentance to make it “Shots were fired”, they present the firing of shots as something totally undirected and not implicitly violent. Shots were not fired “at the man”, and post-text of “in fact he is deseased.” does not offer the slightest causal connection between these shots being fired and the man dying.

>> Link

In a few days I’ll be heading from this (currently) golden city of Sydney to London. Normally I leave for England early in November, but this year I’ve chosen to make a shorter trip over in anticipation of an extended stay once I graduate.

Until today I hadn’t thought much about it, but it looks like the difference in temperatures will be pretty servere this close to Christmas - with the two hemispheres being polarised in mid-summer/winter.

I remember a few years ago I was flying alone back to England just in time to take my Uni exams (what a great end to a holiday! ). It had been an extremely hot summer in Sydney, so when after around 21 hours of flying I looked out to see Europe below, it took a lengthy “paradigm shift” to realise that the white stuff on the ground was snow!

I must say though that personally I prefer the cold; one can always throw more clothes on, and it’s a good excuse to get comfy beside an open fire sipping Cocoa.

For those of you outside of Australia*, the prime minister John Howard is in the process of bringing in has just brought in an anti-sedition law that will effectively cripple any semblance of free speech. This move will effectively bring Australia into the ideological neighbourhood of other countries with active sedition laws: North Korea, China, Cuba, Syria, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Singapore. Together with a substantial segment relating to “control orders” (inspired by the UK’s new anti-terror laws regarding the control of “persons of interest”) the anti-sedition decree will create an easy mechanism for prosecution and incarceration on persons who have comitted no crime! Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Green party gravely observes:

We are in a new period of McCarthyism and we need to know that, and understand it, and worry that this time it won’t be turned around, that citizens, using a law like this, will be brought before courts for political reasons, not security reasons. >> Link

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I’ve just changed my flight arrangements to allow me to attend the Petes Ridge Festival (of sustainable art and music).

I will now be leaving at 4:55pm on 12th December. I also managed to score some good seats - the emergency exit and one of the back two - so the trip should not be uncomfortable (touch wood).

From then, my previsional itinerary is as follows:

• 5:25 AM 13th Dec - Fly into London Heathrow
• 22nd Dec - Fly to the Netherlands with my cousin to enjoy Christmas at home
• 29th Dec - Head back to England in time for New Years parties
• 8th Jan - fly back to Holland to start IT contract on Monday 9th (local work until Friday 20th)
• 21th Jan - Head back to Oz, maybe via Hong Kong