For Willis

On twitter…

Talk about online evolution – in the last decade, I’ve gone from:

ICQ to Yahoo!Chat to Yahoo!Games to GoPlay to Hotmail to Blogger to LinkedIn toYouTube to Facebook to Skype to now…twitter!

Twitter’s a micro-blogging service where you can send and receive 140-character updates, which can include links to cool articles, personal reflections, by-the-second news etc. Sort of like the status update feature in Facebook. I’ve decided to make my profile based on sport, with my user name ‘scrumblue’.

So I’m now following the updates of the Wallabies and Waratahs (media!!) teams; journalists Jessica Halloran, Mark Cashman, Ben Kimber and the Ruggamatrix crew; a rugby blogger fromGreen and Gold Rugby; sports star Lote Tuqiri; and rugby brain and ex-Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer.

For instance:

LoteTuqiri So i'm getting 4 wisdom teeth pulled out after yesterdays consult. Now where to find the time???

You’ll also notice I’ve attached a twitter widget onto the sidebar at the bottom right (scroll down). This will include any of my updates or conversations happening on twitter.

Gay Cut

There's a barber down the road called Gay Cut. I'm still not sure if they are trying to attract a niche market, or if they're insinuating that said haircut would be an exceptionally happy experience.

I went in this morning to investigate.

Its clientèle consisted of one bloke getting a pretty standard haircut, and another getting the letters 'MJ' shaved into the side of his head. No discernable evidence of sexual disposition.

After being led to the chair by a young woman sporting pink braces and tight pencil jeans, we run through the logistics of a short back and sides in Tinglish. I then settle into a Thai popstar magazine and she gets snipping.

"OK, na ka?" she asks.

I look up. Oh god.

Is that a square chunk of hair that she's just excavated off the side of my head? Yep, a number 1 job on the sides, shaped for a lover of geometric figures. I can't even go an 'MJ' now...

We worked on it somewhat, but it has still turned out to be a shocking haircut. Only another two weeks until I no longer look like a US Marine in Bangkok on R&R.

Conclusion about Gay Cut - must be named and aimed for the gay niche market.

Could you imagine a worse place to live?

Beach times with Clare

I found these snaps on my computer randomly so thought I'd put them together and post them on the blog. They're from a disposable underwater camera that we used at beaches from Freshwater Beach in Sydney to Byron Bay in late 2007.

Doesn't Clare look like an absolute surf'n shweetie!

Click to see a larger, higher resolution photo...

On tour

I'm currently in Phuket playing in the international club rugby 10's.

After what can only be described as an emotional night last night, today I'm part man, part brewery. The rugby is a painful formality.

Elsom dominates

Watched the Heineken Cup final with a few mates on Saturday night, enjoying an absolute ball-tearer of a game from Rocky Elsom. Interestingly, Irish legend Brian O'Driscoll reckons he's the best player he's ever played with...

Elsom was named Man-of-the-Match in the final, apparently his 11th honour in Leinster's previous 13 matches, an incredible statistic.

Here's a vid including a few of Rocky's highlights from the final. Let's hope the ARU can get him back on Aussie soil!!!

Clare and I on Sunday

Clare and I are in bed, feeling somewhat sorry for ourselves after a particularly festive Saturday night...Clare sent me this PM on Skype which pretty much sums up the two of us (yes, we message each other whilst lying side-by-side...).

Playing the numbers game

According to the new 'computational knowledge engine' Wolfram Alpha:

• I am 7449km from home.
• I consumed 34% of my daily recommended caloric intake at lunch. 
• I am 25.56 years old today.
  
• My birth was not a notable event.

The internet, news and democracy

Fascinating article from this week's Economist on the future of media...what impact will the internet have on not only traditional newspapers, news and advertising, but also democracy...

...Technological change has destroyed all sorts of once-popular products, from the handloom to the Walkman, and the world has mostly been better for it. But news is not just a product: the press is the fourth estate, a pillar of the polity. Journalists investigate and criticise governments, thus helping voters decide whether to keep them or sack them. Autocracies can function perfectly well without news, but democracies cannot. Will the death of the daily newspaper—the main source of information for most educated people for at least the past century, the scourge of corrupt politicians, the conscience of nations — damage democracy?...

Read the full article here.

We live in Bangkok

A couple of snaps from our place here in Bangkok!

Looking toward the north from our bedroom window. We get some amazing sunsets, especially during the monsoon season as thick clouds engulf the city. This part of the city is home to an eclectic mix of Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist cultures, with the Islamic Call to Prayer often heard just before the sun sets.

View from our bedroom balcony, bearing north-west. You may notice the low-lying buildings surrounding the odd high-rise. We live on the 18th floor of a 38-floor building. About 1km away behind the large buildings is the snaking Chao Phraya River and further north is the royal palace and some of Thailand's most revered temples.

Looking toward the east from our living room balcony as night falls. There's quite a lot of building happening at the moment, illustrated by the new W Hotel going up in the foreground. This area is Bangkok's main financial, embassy and flash hotel district. Also of note is the constant flow of traffic along Sathorn Road below, as well as the sky train tracks passing over the motorist's heads.

My favourite Swede-rockers

Romanian handbags

How do you feel?

Dude with a keytar in a Thai rock bar

In a tuk tuk with PK!

Is Kim Jong Il sponsored by Dior?

Kim is obviously well ahead of the fashion game. He's been a proponent of oversized sunglasses for years.

Which brings me to the questions - could North Korea's famous leader be sponsored by a major label, such as Dior, Versace or D&G? And does he have any pyjama sponsors on his books?

Devastated

Despite perhaps dabbling in a little extra dramatic hyperbole with the above title, I am nonetheless unimpressed.

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about the best sandwiches in Bangkok, a rarity deserving UN World Heritage status. Today, my beloved bakery is being ripped apart, quite literally, by a band of marauding ninjas.

What will be the fate of my favourite house of Boulange? Will I ever find a Siamese sandwich to rival that of which I have loved so dearly? Will I be resorted to a firey hell of chilli and kaffir lime for the rest of my days???

Snorkel mania

I'm currently travelling well away from all the action of Bangkok, blogging this photo from a boat in the Gulf of Thailand.

About to go for a snorkel - can't wait!

Chicken salad?

There's a terrific little French place up the road from my work that makes arguably the best sandwiches in Bangkok. Good bread is hard to find in this part of the world, theirs is excellent.

Anyway, went in there today for lunch, feeling like something a little different. After sitting down, a young waiter brings across the specials board - I notice the Chicken Niçoise salad.

Not entirely sure what I'm getting myself into, I ask the waiter, "can you please tell me what's in the Chicken Niçoise salad?" To which he replied nervously, "um, chicken and salad".

I couldn't help but smile.

Good on the bloke though for having a go at another language - I'd have no hope in describing the ingredients of a complex curry paste in Thai language.

I ended up enjoying their delicious potato and leek soup, along with a selection of fresh crusty bread on the side. Reminded me of watching the Brumbies play in 1996 on a Canberra winter night - Mum used to pack a couple of thermoses full of soup, along with enough other treats to feed us until Monday.

Muse – Knights of Cydonia

Is this the most random video clip you’ve ever seen? Awesome song, classic clip.

Can Facebook make money?

I just enjoyed a delicious spag bol lunch and an inquisitive article from a recent edition of Fortune magazine.

Interviewing Facebook’s majority owner and the company CEO, the article asks a few questions about the business viability of Facebook, how marketers are currently using the site as a new consumer channel, and alludes to where Facebook will be in a couple of years time.

For those with no idea of how Facebook works, the article also provides a bit of a cheat sheet on the different components of the social networking site.

Check it out here!

Think you're tough?

Have a go at this bloke…

(From SMH online, courtesy of Clare)

'Ninja' kangaroo terrorises family in bed

Not a bird, nor a plane, but a kangaroo has crashed through the bedroom window of a Canberra family's home before terrorising its unsuspecting occupants.

The family, from the suburb of Garran in Canberra's south, were awoken in the early hours of Sunday morning when their pet dog began barking from the garden.

Moments later, a kangaroo burst through a three-metre high window of the house's master bedroom and onto the bed where Beat Ettlin, his partner Verity Beman and their nine-year-old
daughter, Beatrix, lay.

"My initial thought when I was half awake was [that] it's a lunatic ninja coming through the window," Mr Ettlin told The Associated Press.

"It seems about as likely as a kangaroo breaking in."

While the family took refuge under the blankets, the injured animal proceeded to jump on top of them, gouging holes in the furniture and smearing blood all over the walls.

The next thing Mr Ettlin heard was his 10-year-old son Leighton screaming from his bed: "There's a 'roo in my room!"

"I thought, this can be really dangerous for the whole family now," the 42-year-old said.

A chef, originally from the Swiss city of Stans, Mr Ettlin followed the thrashing and bleeding two-metre tall marsupial and wrestled it into a headlock before dragging it down the hallway and out the front door.

Left wearing just his shredded underpants and with scratch marks on his leg and buttocks, Mr Ettlin described himself as "lucky".

"I had just my Bonds undies on. I felt vulnerable," he said.

Website fever

I’m helping my main banking client reposition and redesign their website at the moment. It’s a bit of a mess - tough to navigate, overcomplicated language and expression, has no metrics and is cumbersome to update with new information.

On top of that, we need to do it in two very different languages and cultures.

It’s a tough job, as the bank is pretty conservative in its views, so ideas on how they can really smash the industry here from a web perspective are often difficult to get through. In a Buddhist country, it looks like I’ll have to be content with ‘the middle way’. It’s part of my job I really enjoy, and I can see some good things coming for the client…eventually!

Anyway, I’ve been checking out what other companies are doing with their websites. In my web travels, I came across ad agency Leo Burnett’s website. I may be well behind the eightball on this one, but with its unique and intuitive pencil navigation, this site is very engaging and underlines pretty much exactly what they want to tell prospective clients (and brag to their competitors about)…“We’re cool, creative, energetic people who work on big brands”.

So simple, but creative agencies so often overcomplicate their creds docs, alienating and losing the confidence of potential clients with fluff!

Cool. Obviously not something I'll be looking to do for the bank!

Bringing down the new maul law

Good news through about a rugby law that many readers of this blog won’t recognize, nor really give much of a ping ding.

For me, it’s great news – the rolling maul* looks like it will stay in its traditional form and won't be able to be pulled down. It takes skill and specialist pressure to build and sustain a well-formed maul, a team skill that should be rewarded. It also encourages more men to take up place in the set piece, opening up space out wide for the attacking side.

Read about it on the IRB's website here.


* Where players bind together in an impromptu fashion, keeping the ball above the ground and driving forward and around the opposition forward pack.