watch tHe skies

Enough has been said and written about the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks without me trying to add something new. My thoughts are with the many innocents that lost their lives that day, and their friends and relatives.

I guess 9/11 is one of those days that you remember where you were when you heard. For Jenny and I, it was Bangkok Airport, waiting for our flight home. It is hard to remember what the world was like before that day, perhaps it was no different at all and it was simply that I wasn’t aware of the political undercurrents that led to the events of that day.

I read with some interest on the BBC website, that Sven Goran Eriksson is vexed. Yes indeed, he is most upset at the criticism that he is receiving about his tenure as England Manager. It seems that only now, presumably as the alleged £13,000k a day contract is coming to an end, that he is actually coming off cloud nine long enough to notice what reality smells like.

I would imagine that he will find it hard to match the lifestyle that we Englishmen have paid for, wherever he goes next. It is sad to think that he will be remembered only for spanking the Germans, and at a time where Germany really were very poor, so we probably didn’t get value for money.

Still, if someone offered me that sort of money without any need to deliver other than to compete with other senior FA staff on how many secretaries one can bed, I’d probably take it too, so you can’t blame him.

*incidentally I would abstain from the secretary-bedding activity on the basis that I’m a happily married man

Having a baby has changed our home lives quite considerably, particularly in the amount of TV that we seem to be watching recently. Watching movies isn’t easy, as Ben needs feeding, playing with etc. So we have tended to watch more TV, and on saturdays, X-Factor takes up much of the evening.

I’ve not really watched that much of X-Factor in the past. These talent shows leave me cold. The one thing that does interest me is how people with zero musical ability are so shocked to be rejected.

If a contestant turns to the camera and says “I have the X-Factor”, you know for sure that he or she can’t sing or dance, and probably looks like they fell out of the ugly tree. So how come they are so shocked?

I listen to music in the car all of the time, my trusty ipod is forever blasting out some choice toons, and I love to sing along at the top of my voice. Occasionally I think “hmm, that sounded alright”, but more often than not that thought is knocked dead in the next instant when I can’t reach the notes in the song or I am terribly out of tune, even in my own ear. Add to this my complete inability to dance in any other style than “dad”, and I am fairly sure of failure should I somehow audition for X-Factor…

I can’t sing. If I go to a wedding or something similar I generally just mouth the words, particularly if it is being videoed, as I don’t want to spoil the recording with my caterwauling. Now Shad Helmstatter would probably tell me that “you are what you say you are”, and that telling myself I can sing would improve both my voice and my motivation to sing better. To that I would say “that’s how you end up on X-Factor!!”.

Now I may be proved wrong but I would say that most of the people who can’t sing would NEVER in a million years of practice, be popstars, so no amount of positive thinking is going to make me a good dancer or most of the X-factor wannabes in to the next Robbie or Britney.

I read with interest this article over at darkhorizons. It seems that in a desperate bid to maintain the revenue stream from Trekkies in the absence of a new show, they are going back and redoing all of the special effects from the original (Kirk and Spock) series. They are also remastering the show in hi-def and adding a new version of the theme tune.

Of course traditionalists are up in arms about it - how can they? Well I see it as not dissimilar to restoring old paintings. Remastering in hidef will keep the show preseved for the future, and putting it back on telly will get new generations watching the show. Do they really need to redo the SFX? Probably not, but as they appear to be doing it in a manner that respects the show, I can’t see any harm.

As long as we don’t get a “Kirk shoots first” issue, I’ll be happy (Lucas what were you thinking??)

And who knows what will follow - Magnum PI: The Director’s Cut? Knight Rider: The Fast and The Furious Edition……..? Watch this space.

Well it has been nearly a year since the last new iPod was announced, and if the rumour mill is to believed, the Apple press conference on September 12 will launch the new product range to fill Santa’s sacks this holiday season.

Google “ipod rumors” (yes unfortunately the american spelling reaps the most rewards) and you will find suggestions of all or any of the following:

1. Upgraded iPod Videos (40gb and 80gb respectively)
2. A new iPod with a full-body screen and virtual click wheel used with touch-sensitive screen
3. A new iPod nano with metallic body a la the mini, in many colours and (maybe) video capability with 8gb flash memory
4. The iChat Mobile, a mobile phone that doubles as a nano

If you read the various sites, it seems that 1 and 3 are the most likely tomorrow, with 2 and 4 definitely in the pipeline, but it maybe a little too soon for them. We shall see. Which ones will persuade me to upgrade from my 2g 20gb iPod? Possibly all of them, maybe none, i’ll let you know on tuesday…

Well if we hadn’t lost Freddie Mercury to AIDS\HIV , we would be celebrating his birthday today. No doubt Freddie would have thrown an elaborate birthday party, something he approached with zeal every year, many of which have become legend: the black and white cross-dressing Munich event; the hat party at home at Garden Lodge.

So put on a Queen album and remember how great Freddie was. Happy birthday Freddie.

So yesterday saw us take baby Ben for his first swimming lesson. Actually it was Jen, I got to watch from the side as she, and five other mums, got to play with babies in the water, not a float or lifebelt in sight.

The course is designed to teach babies to enjoy the water, and also take advantage of the baby dive reflex, just like when an adult’s air passage blocks during swallowing, a baby can block their throat so they don’t swallow water. This is why you often see babies swimming with their mouths open.

And so only a few minutes after getting in the pool, Ben was dunked. He wasn’t too impressed the first time, but second and third goes he was fine. By the end of the course he should be able to swim from Jen to me underwater.

Some of the other babies didn’t fare quite so well, and there was a fair amount of screaming in the half hour lesson.

Unfortunately all of these kind of courses are run during working hours so I won’t be able to attend all of them. However Jen and I are going to take him ourselves soon to put what we’ve learnt in to practice…

So this weekend I caught the big-budget remake of The Poseidon Adventure. Starring Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas and Richard Dreyfuss, this $160m re-imagining of the original book tells the story of uber-plush cruise liner Poseidon that is flipped upside-down by a rogue wave.

A small group of survivors, lead by ex-navy man Josh Lucas, and ex-fireman and NY governor Kurt Russell, attempt to climb to safety by ascending to the bowels of the ship to find a way out, leaving the rest of the surviving passengers and crew to wait patiently beside large glass windows for rescue.

This was a bit of a strange movie. At times it was absolutely compelling, such as when they are trying to cross a lift shaft below a damaged lift hanging by a thread, at other times it was just daft, such as Josh Lucas diving 40ft in to flaming water and surviving without a scratch. However the movie managed to keep me interested until nearly the final moments of the film, when I think that the screenwriter just gave up, wrote a conveniently happy ending and went home. (more…)

I was sorry to hear today of the death of Steve Irwin aka “The Crocodile Hunter”. Killed by a Stingray off the coast of North Queensland whilst filming a documentary, Steve will be remembered by many as the nutter who “played” with crocodiles and snakes whilst informing us viewers of the many interesting facts about the creatures.

No doubt if there is an afterlife, he’s there chasing a T-Rex through the jungle…