First post on YouTube

I was out at a friend's stag night yesterday, playing a little drinking game called Glowworm. Basically you dip your finger in Sambuca, light it from someone else, pass the flame on, and put your burning finger out in your mouth. And repeat.

... you'll see from the vid.



But this is my first post to YouTube. Which I thought might be a little bit too Gen-Y for me. But it worked out ok.

Ascot 2007. In the Chav Circle

It seemed like a great day out. Royal Ascot is the pinnacle of horse racing, where the world's richest people come to bet on the "sport of kings." Or in this case the sport of queens, as the Queen had a horse running today.

We had Silver Ring tickets for Ladies Day, thanks to Symbian, and we were going to use them.


But it seems Ladies day was also the pinnacle of the chav day out. And the Silver Circle is where they all congregated. Girls of all ages were tarted up in their brightest-pinkest-fluffiest dresses, put half-a-chicken's worth of feathers on their heads, loaded on the makeup and then got drunk on Pimms.

A good rain and soft turf meant that eventually it turned into a bit of a mud fest. So whatever good footwear we had turned brown - with special grass inserts. Many shoes were ruined today. It wasn't quite Glastonbury, but people were wearing gumboots.

Eventually the shortage of somewhere dry to sit gets a bit much - and chair stealing starts to occur. This is the fight that broke out in front of us.


The best bit was the guy who came in waving a tomato sauce bottle, threatening the girls with a good dousing. Unfortunately nothing came of that - it could have been a great photo.

Overall, an exciting day out. One that I'm not keen to replicate. But now Bridie wants to do Royal Ascot properly - from the Gold Circle. Damn.

Photos of our trip to China

I have uploaded some of our photos that I took with our happy-snap camera to our photo site. Click on the big doggy above to see them. (This doesn't include the much better 2500 or so photos that Bridie took - we're still sorting through them)

In addition, here are some much better photos than mine, taken by our fellow travellers
Ally's photos
Lydik's photos
Sumitra's blog and photos

Chinese burns

Well, the weather in Beijing did last week...

With temperatures in the late 30s, early 40s, Beijing was a welcome relief after the cold wet start to summer in England. Steve's MBA was going on another jolly, you remember the one in Argentina, only this time Bridie got to go too!

So while Steve spent most of his time in the hotel conference rooms, Bridie roamed Beijing and Shanghai...and fell in love with China. That is, despite having her handbag stolen in the Forbidden City.

China is extraordinary - a place where someone with curly hair is chased by people with camera phones, where the people just want to talk and practice their English, where people get paid the equivalent of $5 a month and are expected to live on it and where there are more cities with pollution than any other. A country where, due to progress, a rich and vibrant culture is steadily becoming westernised for the sake of progress - if you want to see China, be quick...it is literally disappearing before our eyes.

Despite that China is beautiful and full of wonders...


A rare (for China) twin pagoda temple in Suzhou, south of Shanghai.



The tallest hotel in China, if not the world - Grand Hyatt at Jinmao Tower, Shanghai.



East meets west - neon lights highlight a traditional tea house in Shanghai.



A night market in Beijing...anyone for grasshopper?



Steve on the Great Wall - we had dinner on the Great Wall shortly after this photo.



Nanjing Road, the Las Vegas of Shanghai.



The Peony Pavillion, a short Chinese Opera.