so iain duncan smith has just lost in a vote of confidence in him being the tory party leader. hmm... all conservative party leader losing candidates have hardcore hair and ids has none... strange. just look back at portillo, heseltine, hurd...

and as for those forest fires sweeping across california... apparently the authorities have said that they were started deliberately. so gray davis hates arnie... but cmon, destroying infrastructure and piling up a higher debt for arnie to deal with, thats just harsh! dont you think this gag is just low? the governator will be back...

food of the day:

was in sainsburys today... saw for the first time in a major supermarket the new "bigger 300g bag" walkers sensations thai sweet chilli. already spotted in the farm shop at polhill a while ago of course, the big bag has now clearly made its way into mainstream snacking! you thought 150g bags were big? get your gob around a proper 300g bag! at last, britain is catching up with america!

i wonder if this news has been covered by snackspot...

polhill garden centre, sevenoaks, kent
snackspot.org ...may contain nuts

posted by Chas at 19:51
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
sad medical news today:

18 have died in a whole load of bomb explosions in baghdad, the largest at an icrc base. wtf do they think they are playing at! cmon, bomb everyone else, not the medics! i had considered signing up for icrc a few years ago, when all that shit went down in kosovo. these missions arent easy and can be well spooky. =(

another interesting item today:

ramadan starts tonight in the uk. the new crescent moon should be visible to the naked eye after sunset if its clear. eid will be on 25/11/03. probably the reason why those suicide bombers chose today?

posted by Chas at 22:10
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
interesting...

just heard. ipv4, the current 32 bit ip address assignment version, is going to be replaced soon by 128 bit ipv6. the transition period is 2003-2005, with gradual migration from old to new. should be fun.

wtf happened to ipv5 is what i wanna know! =/

posted by Chas at 23:44
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
ok, so i made it back from "code red" in birmingham. enjoyed the weekend. good company, not too outrageous, a lot of fun. also got to check out the new bullring, flagship of birmingham city centres regeneration.

thanks to rachel, simon, rohen, helen and my old buddy narayan for coming. yvette... no lame excuses next time*, you should have been there!

narayan... dude, finally got to see your (now not so) new house... is quite a good place actually. you really should do it up a bit more.

and helen, although somewhat sceptical initially about the whole thing, i hope it was all ok and that we didnt scare you too much. =)

however, your theory about men that wear comedy socks/ties also inevitably wear comedy underwear... just not true!

a few interesting things happened too, including being locked in the bullring after closing time... had to ask some pizza hut dude to let us out through his back door.

now need to find another colour for the next code. someone mentioned lilac...

food of the day (restaurants/bars used by us in central birmingham this weekend):

- chung ying garden, chinatown
- the green room cafe bar & restaurant, arcadian
- nandos, bullring
- pjs moon & sixpence, arcadian

----
* ok ok... so youll be in oz by that time, i know i know...

posted by Chas at 22:56
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
ok, so ive just waited a little under two hours for the gasman to come. why the hell do these people ALWAYS keep you waiting?

supposed to give a quote for a new boiler/tank system. no doubt he will quote me a totally ridiculous sum.

to top it all, he said to me that whatever figure he comes up with, it "wont be valid", cuz the works dept are now operating at 6 weeks from signing of contract, by which time any quote given will have already expired (only valid for 28 days from day of visit) and a new quote will have to be given at the time of starting work!

wtf! argh!! *furious*

food of the day:

chicken and asparagus pie. a whole one. nice.

posted by Chas at 19:59
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
tetrahydrogestrinone.

this new synthetic anabolic steroid, undetectable by iaaf labs until last week (after some american coach kindly informed iaaf of its existence anonymously back in june), has landed european 100m champion dwain chambers in deep shit. sample a is positive and sample b is now in progress. could get him banned from the british team for next years olympics athens 2004.

american nutrition company balco labs has been implicated for thg manufacture. the owner is under arrest.

reminds me of ben johnsons 9.79 in olympics seoul 88. truly the best 100m that any man has ever run, even if it was done on stanozolol.

posted by Chas at 19:34
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
hmm... several interesting items this weekend...

i remember being taken on holiday to europe one summer when i was a kid... 1978 it was... and the memory is of seeing swiss guards protecting the body of pope john paul i, lying in state in vatican city after his death. why is this in my mind? today marks 25 years in office for pope john paul ii, the guy who took over. also at the big ceremony today, he beatified mother teresa of calcutta. what a dude.

i guess summer is finally over, winter is upon us again. got distinctly cold today. which leads me to think its just as well david blaine finishes his stunt today. he finally gets out of his box, maintaining his crown as master entertainer, whatever people may say about him. my 4 yearold nephew went to see him during this six week show, giving his take on the whole thing to granny on his mobile, to the amusement of fellow spectators... "hes just lying there". awesome!

ok, so not one, but TWO hans zimmer movies on five today... even though "gladiator" (2000) soundtrack was nominated (together with lisa gerrard) for an oscar, i still dont think its as good as some of his early movie work, such as the other one broadcast today, "toys" (1992). "the closing of the year" is a great track from this soundtrack.

medical news update:

separated conjoined twin mohamed extubated today, breathing on his own now.

totally cliched yet irritatingly catchy song that one just cannot get out of ones head:

"if you come to me", atomic kitten (uk release 27/10/03). argh!

right, going to spend this week sorting out paperwork for new job next month. also for this week, need to prepare for "code red" on saturday...

posted by Chas at 22:06
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
today marks the completion of the worlds tallest skyscraper, the taipei 101 building in taipei, taiwan. including pinnacle, total height is 508m/1676ft. there are 91 storeys and the tower is scheduled to open sometime next year.

although it beats the petronas towers in kuala lumpur, malaysia by more than 50m/165ft, taipei 101 wont actually hold the title for that long... the shanghai world financial centre should take over the crown in 2007 ive heard.

should also contain the fastest elevators in the world. woohoo.

oh, crimson tide (tony scott dir, buena vista, 1995) is on again. one of my alltime fav movies. awesome.

only one other point of note today...

this new video... "slow", kylie minogue... bloody hell...

posted by Chas at 17:58
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
so china becomes only the third country in the world to send a man into space.

for those into manned space flight:

- a shenzhou 5 spacecraft on a long march 2f launch vehicle
- the shenzhou design is based on the russian soyuz capsule
- carrying astronaut (taikonaut, coined by singaporean press?) yang liwei, a 38 yearold lieutenant in the peoples liberation army
- launched from the jiuquan launch centre
- total activity of 14 low earth orbits, total time 22 hours
- landing at 0700 local time tomorrow (2300 gmt tonight)

so one small step for national pride, one giant leap for space wars...

food of the day (is this really the inflight meal for this mission?):

freezedried shredded pork with garlic sauce and fried rice, tea.

posted by Chas at 21:40
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
hot on the heels of barcelona and prague from about five to ten years ago, helsinki and reykjavik seem to have dominated european city breaks more recently. another city has also joined this esteemed group, vienna.

three unique points:

- the only city in the world to have a funeral museum
- the only capital city in the world to have vineyards and wine production within the city limit
- more museums per capita than any other city in the world

falco ("rock me amadeus", "vienna calling", both good tracks) died 5 years ago in a car crash and is buried in the second largest cemetery in europe, the central cemetery, together with brahms, schubert, strauss x4 and beethoven. mozarts cenotaph is also there.

dont forget the vienna state opera house, the vienna mozart orchestra and the wiener schnitzel (used to be veal, now made with pork).

so there you have it. go there. vienna.

next city to join these ranks... i reckon dubrovnik.

medical news today:

- egyptian 2 yearold conjoined twins mohamed and ahmed separated after 34 hours of surgery at childrens medical center dallas (right next door to parkland memorial hospital, where jfk was taken after he got shot. ive had a look around trauma er there, pretty impressive!)
- first report of successful ovary transplantation in monkeys

food of the day:

four cheese pizza. tasted surprisingly good.

posted by Chas at 19:37
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
man, was really busy at karate yesterday! the most number of fighters ive ever had to treat! sent one to hospital for a deep laceration to his left upper lip, oozing ++, no way would i have even tried to put a suture in that. nasty.

local hospital sent him to plastics at another hospital in central london. he eventually returned to the arena, showing off 20 stitches. glad i didnt try anything fancy!

the actual fighting was very good this year, earlier rounds somewhat scrappy, but all the finals were edge of the seat. who needs shotokan, when you can fight kyokushin!

even managed to meet up with "the baby that fought in the final", his mother was in the audience this year, not fighting. she wanted to, but her husband (a tournament judge) didnt. remembered me and the crew treating her from last year! awesome!

british karate kyokushinkai

had to dash into town afterwards, to meet up with previna and sandeep at their party. turned out couple old buddies from med school were there too. excellent.

tired. good day. =)

bali bomb one year memorial day amid very tight security. why? noone strikes the same place twice...

posted by Chas at 23:10
go ahead, roll the donut!

 
ok, so here it is finally, after months of anticipation, first entry from the rolling donut...

so ive got a new job lined up for next month. meantime, working an event tomorrow, the 28th british open national knockdown karate championships at crystal palace national sports centre. last year had to take one girl to hospital after getting knocked out cold from a head blow. when she came round, couldnt even recall the fact that she was pregnant. good news was that she was released from the ed later that day. the year before, i sent a fighter to hospital with a double carpometacarpal (wrist) fracture dislocation from breaking the boards.

these guys are ultra fit and have basically psyched themselves up all year to get into a ring and kick the shit outta each other, literally. still dunno why bkk (british karate kyokushinkai, governing body) insists on us checking each fighters pretournament bp at the morning medical, to make sure it is within normal range. anyone can see that they will all be totally stoked and running on systolics of 220!

ok, so im gonna get an early night. later.

posted by Chas at 23:37
go ahead, roll the donut!