SMG

The crowd and smog of Mexico City are gone and now we're in San Miguel de Allende, a huge change from the capital. Its an über typical little Mexican town, complete with mariachis and... umm... other mexican things. Like bright paint and old beetles.

We were lucky enough to stuble upon the San Miguel short film festival while we were there, so we did a lot of that too, and then the usual lazing about on our rooftop terrace drinking frozen margaritas. (I'll freeze you, notifIfreezeyourfist!)

Mexico City

I've arrived!

After a grueling 25 hour flight I've finally arrived in Mexico. The plane ride was great... Etihad has these modern new planes with larger cabins, all kinds of different colored 'Mood' lights, and a nifty video on demand system where you can chose to watch what you want when you want.

Of course my built-in TV was the only one on the plane that didn’t work so I had the choice of staring at 14 hours of static or sleeping. I decided to do both and after about 2 minutes of static I was sound alseep. Then the 3 year old sitting next to me decided that this was a good time to start screaming, and went on for about 20 min until his grandmother decided to give him some coffee (?) which only made him scream louder. Hmm. Anyways, apart from that was a smooth flight.

Mexico City sort of reminds me of a mixture of places. Its not really distinctive by itself, but it has more of a standard developing look... a bit like Manila or Bangkok, except with hints of Hanoi too cuz of all the colonial buildings in the old town.


We did the touristy things such as the Zocalo, Anthropological museum, Wal-Mart. The most depressing Wal-Mart on earth... The fact that it was raining most of the time probably didn’t help much.

I've gotta say that the best thing about Mexico City is the food.. the amazing food...the mole and burritos and frijoles and guacamole and tortillas Mmm...

About Leaving.

The time has come… that time that I’ve been yearning for since January… the time to leave Bahrain. But I’ve realized that the more time I’ve spent here the less I’m in a hurry to leave. Which can either mean that I’m really starting to like the place or that I’m just going crazy. I think it’s a bit of both.

I’ve had a great time here in Bahrain, and most of it was because of the people. I don’t think I’ve ever made so many friends in such a short time, so thank you all for an amazing 6 months. You know who you are.

So its time to end this part of my life and start another… one more 6 month period of uncertainty and adventure, which I’ve been planning and looking forward to for more than two years now. In August I start my backpacking trip through Latin America with Charles, Sao Mai and hopefully Nadja. Tomorrow I land in Mexico City to spend 2 weeks traveling around with my family… and then the real journey begins. I’ll meet Charles in Cancun on August 4th and the plan is to somehow get to Rio De Janero by December.

Check back here to see how it goes…

Life as a Paper Clip

paper clips., originally uploaded by jessi..

I've decided I'm gonna die of this cold.

Its too bad, cuz I was starting to like this life thing. Oh well, at least if I play my karma cards right, i'll be able to come back in my next life as a paper clip.

Though now I'm not sure that I want to, after finding out that these poor defenseless creatures are being systematically abused.

SAVE THE PAPER CLIPS!

Time

dust thou art, originally uploaded by t-squared.

Here, do yourself a favor and learn about time. Cuz I can't be bothered to.

What is time? by H2G2


I want a 500 word summary on my desk, by tomorrow morning.

Watch out G.I. Joe

bar nun (for slogrl), originally uploaded by Rakka.

Believe it or not, they actually sell these nun action figures in toy stores. I've never seen the soap though... but hey, if the nun endorses it, then it must be good stuff.

We got your back

Tired of asking your mom to shave youre back before a big date?

Not to worry! We've got the perfect solution for you. Its the Razorba!

Not available in stores. Sold direct from the inventor to you.

Watch it in use here and if you manage to keep down your lunch, you get a FREE smoking monkey!

Makes a great & unique gift!

Aah... I wish I was making this up.

FREE Smoking Monkey

Lionel Hutz. Unfaithful Ex-husband, Presumed drug dealer, But most importantly, a truly visionary lawyer. Smoking monkey, originally uploaded by ukslim.


Definitely one of my favorite simpsons characters. Ever. A genius of a man.

God bless his soul, and his smoking monkey.

Hutz: Now Marge, you've come to the right place. By hiring me as your lawyer, you also get this smoking monkey. [sniff] Better cut down there, Smokey! [laughs]
Marge: Mr. Hutz!
Hutz: [excited] Look - he's taking another puff!
Marge: Mr. Hutz! This was all a misunderstanding; I didn't mean to take anything. [Lionel disappointedly drops the smoking monkey in a drawer full of identical critters]
Hutz: Now don't you worry, Mrs. Simpson, I - uh-oh. We've drawn Judge Snyder.
Marge: Is that bad?

Hutz: Well, he's kind of had it in for me, since I accidently ran over his dog. Actually, replace `accidently' with `repeatedly', and replace `dog' with `son'.

About Gravy

Live on the coke side of life, originally uploaded by renaissancechambara.

Say the name ‘Bahrain’, just say it.


It gives my mouth a dry, pasty feeling; as if I know I’m going to be having trouble swallowing something. Something harsh and grainy- a kind of bland astringence. It tastes of bleakness, of androgynous indifference. I squeeze my eyes shut and wrinkle my forehead. My throat muscles contract. I try swallowing once, twice, three times- but I can’t. I can’t keep it down. My eyes unwrap, my mouth clicks open, and it all comes pouring out.


It comes out in a thousand brilliant colors, screaming, cheering and whispering all at once. This blurring rush of numbers and figures, places and faces, dialects, signs, camels and street lamps morphing into corvettes and neon baths. Eyes fixed up, pupils unmoving, glaring feverishly, searching for a sign of the clearing distance. Never look down. It stumbles out impatiently, rushing towards the haze blown up by the strength of the sandstorm. It’s carried out on the rattling two wheeled cart, piling itself hand over hand, brick over brick, ignoring the creaking sounds coming from the splintering of the wooden wheels.


Say the name ‘Bahrain’, and this is what you get.

A Short History of the World of Bahrain.

Bahrain, like much of the pseudo-modern world, is a land of contrasts. It’s the rags-to-riches story of the whole Middle East really. The whole region used to be the poorest in the world. Devoid of agriculture and sustainability, Bahrain depended on pearl diving for survival. That is, before modern technology screwed it over by inventing pearl farming. Uh-oh. Luckily, at around the same time, oil was discovered. Who’d a thunk. Oil, in the middle of the desert.

Bahrain was the first country in the gulf to hit oil- and just in time too, cuz there’s only so many things you can do with sand. So this catapulted the tiny kingdom into a palace building, Ferrari buying frenzy. Of course, these palaces weren’t gonna build themselves, and with a population too small to support this boom, Bahrain went oversees to find its many palace builders. And so the importation of cheap labor began. But, alas, they discovered that there’s only so many things you can do with palaces too. That was a sad day. :-(

So, instead of bathing in cash or spreading chocolate on it and trying to eat it, they decided to stick it into things called banks. Bahrain soon became the banking capital of the Middle East; and once again, they looked beyond their borders for workers. Then, one day its big brother Iran decided that he wanted to eat some chocolate-coated money, and so he laid claim to Bahrain being his. Everybody laughed and Iran said that of course, he was kidding. He was then pacified with a couple of tiny desert islands (And I mean tiny). Maybe that’s why their president is so cranky. Ah, if only he knew that chocolate coated money rots your teeth.

So the little island-country of Bahrain grew and grew, importing more foreigners to do its dirty work and more Ferraris to fill the ever-expanding roads. Today, Bahrain is a kingdom of 600,000 people- a third of which are foreigners. This has led to the creation of parallel societies- both in terms of income and culture. It’s what has aided Bahrain in being the most open nation in the Gulf, embracing a myriad of different religions, ethnic groups, languages and traditions. This- coupled with the internal split of its own culture, which is now torn between its traditional mud-dried buildings and shiny new skyscrapers has created an interwoven instability in the country. It’s all these differences meshed together and resting upon themselves that stabilize this society. But how long will this last? Will this web crumble under the burden, or explode from all the pressure being cast on it?

About Me and my F1 Buddies.

One of the perks of working in the hotel business is that everyone needs to sleep. (well, except for Michael Jackson who just plugs in to recharge), but, everyone else needs a place to sleep. And one of the perks of working at a Ritz-Carlton, is that you get to meet lots of famous people that need sleep. And maybe a champagne bath or two.


So this week is when the last Formula 1 tests are scheduled before the start of the season. Its when all the teams fine-tune their shiny new cars and pray to their shiny car gods that this year’s mix of carbon-fiber, engines, and tires are just that little bit better than their competition’s. And it just so happens that these tests are being conducted in the tiny kingdom-state of Bahrain (Sound the royal trumpets please).


So, with us being the fanciest hotel in the land, all the teams and their drivers end up staying here. I am ecstatic. I mean, this is friggin cool. Unfortunately, nobody here shares my enthusiasm cuz, well, nobody knows or cares who these drivers are. But I know. And I care. And this is friggin cool. So far I’ve made a dinner reservation for Jenson Button, welcomed Nick Heindfelds at the airport, and I saw Kimi Raikkonen, David Coulthard, Christian Klein, Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher. Ooh yea.


The thing that struck me about these people is that they’re all so perfectly normal. They’re really young, like, between 20 and 27, and very down to earth. The media builds them up to being some superhuman creatures, and you almost expect to see someone with two heads or a tail poking out of their jeans. But really they’re just normal people who happen to be paid 20 million dollars to drive cars in circles 18 times a year.