Da booty:
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So now the dilemma: keep them or donate them to a school? Sometimes I wish I lived in a rich country. Maybe I can sell them. Or make them birthday and Christmas gifts for the next 5 years. Lol :P
Monday, 31 March 2008
I WON I WON I WON!!!!
I won a competition! A Penguin Books competition. Through the Mail and Guardian. 36 of Penguin's best selling books in recent years. Fiction, non-fiction, travel, ideas, viewpoints... Even a Noam Chomsky rant. And some book called The Secret History or something - every woman I know says its the best thing they ever read. SWEET!
Da booty:
.jpg)
So now the dilemma: keep them or donate them to a school? Sometimes I wish I lived in a rich country. Maybe I can sell them. Or make them birthday and Christmas gifts for the next 5 years. Lol :P
Da booty:
So now the dilemma: keep them or donate them to a school? Sometimes I wish I lived in a rich country. Maybe I can sell them. Or make them birthday and Christmas gifts for the next 5 years. Lol :P
We love Parys
The town, and now the woman. Or alien retard. Or whatever it is.
From The Sun: "Paris was asked on Saturday what she thought of South Africa, as she arrived in Johannesburg on tour with her guitarist fella BENJI MADDEN’s band GOOD CHARLOTTE.
And she replied with this thoughtful little gem: “I love Africa in general — South Africa and West Africa, they are both great countries."
Gosh.Sunday, 30 March 2008
Brig's virgin post
HOORAAAY!I have finally made it! I feel like a real woman!
The Doctor has just given me a blogging lesson - so you will hear more from me -
But not today!
Cheers
Brig
The Doctor has just given me a blogging lesson - so you will hear more from me -
But not today!
Cheers
Brig
Feliciano!
I first heard this track on the Rae and Christian 'Another late night' mix. It seemed out of place amid all the mid tempo dance music, but obviously stood out as an awesome track. Jose Gonzalez is such a biter its not even funny. I mean Latin American dude doing acoustic guitar cover versions? Please.
Anyway, this track gives me goosebumps every time i hear it, which the original doesn't. Not that Brian Wilson isn't a genius, mind you, but this version is better.
I haven't touched the de-clicker at all with this, it sounds better with all the hum and pops in my opinion.
Friday, 28 March 2008
I took the money and ran...
... so from 1 July I work for the Man.
That rhymes. I'll be posting sensitive information from active investigations on this here blog, you just watch me do it.
Rad logo eh? Government is so, I dunno, RAD.
More of the important world news...
'Mate, a wombat raped me'
Wellington - A New Zealand man has been sentenced to community service after telling police he had been raped by a wombat and the experience had caused him to start speaking "Australian".
Arthur Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker from Motueka on South Island, rang police on February 11 to say he was being raped by the slow moving Australian marsupial at his home, The Nelson Mail reported.
He rang back soon afterwards to say he was withdrawing his complaint against the wombat, a court was told on Wednesday.
"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know," he told police in the second call.
Cradock pleaded guilty to using a phone for a fictitious purpose and was sentenced to 75 hours community work.
Prosecutors said alcohol played a large part in Cradock's life, although his defence lawyer said he was not drunk on the afternoon of the phone calls.
Wellington - A New Zealand man has been sentenced to community service after telling police he had been raped by a wombat and the experience had caused him to start speaking "Australian".
Arthur Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker from Motueka on South Island, rang police on February 11 to say he was being raped by the slow moving Australian marsupial at his home, The Nelson Mail reported.
He rang back soon afterwards to say he was withdrawing his complaint against the wombat, a court was told on Wednesday.
"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know," he told police in the second call.
Cradock pleaded guilty to using a phone for a fictitious purpose and was sentenced to 75 hours community work.
Prosecutors said alcohol played a large part in Cradock's life, although his defence lawyer said he was not drunk on the afternoon of the phone calls.
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Alec Erwin is a moron
Alec Erwin's fall from grace continues unabated. He was, during the second half of the 1990s, one of the world's most respected trade and industry ministers. He fought the good fight in the WTO, he oversaw the DTI's restructuring (ok that was a mess), and created the Competition Commission, amongst other good things.
As minister of public enterprises, the only commendable thing he's done has been to place Maria Ramos in charge of Transnet's overhaul. The list of unadulterated screwups is now really long. From mysterious loose bolts in Koeberg (just before a local election in the Western Cape), to protecting SAA CEO Khaya Nqula without question (and taking SAA further back into the state and repeatedly giving it lots of taxpayer money), to Eskom. Take your pick(s). And the Erwinisms! He'd give Dubbya a run for his money in the race to be most incoherent.
The latest is peachy. Eskom, after getting a 15% or so price increase out of the regulator late last year (they wanted about 19%), has just applied for another price increase. Unadjusted their new request is a moerse SIXTY percent. Apparently late last year they couldn't foresee that in order to respond to the power crisis, running costs might have to rise along with the capex. MORONS.
Anyway, so the Business Day today says: "Economists have also warned of the harmful effect of such a sharp tariff spike on the inflation rate. But Erwin said it was better to begin the increases at once than hit consumers with one heavy blow later... 'We are proposing that it will be better for everybody to take those costs now rather than wait until 2009 and probably have a 100% increase.'"
Gee thanks Mr Minister. But isn't 60% one bladdy heavy blow now? Where was this wisdom eight years ago? Dooooos!!!!
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Some shit that has been rocking my world lately. YEAH!
WOOHOO! I'm in a good mood for no reason, which is the best kind of good mood because you don't over analyse it and get ourself down again. AWESOME! OK, here are some things that in some way or another have attributed to my good mood.
Ciao for now. Baai!
- Excercise - i hate to admit it, but its good for you, and makes you feel good too. I have been unfit for too long, but i am on the (long, circular) road (around Sydney park) to recovery.
- This documentary about 'competitive gaming' is awesome. No Al, not the kind of competitive gaming we saw on Thai TV with thousands of sad Koreans boys playing virtual tennis against each other in a huge orgy of nerdus. This movie is kind of about losers, but its a 'nice guys finish first' story, and its so well put together and heartwarming that i kind of wish i hadn't bought a pirate copy in Malaysia and had actually supported the filmmakers. Anyway, see it.
- Dolph Lundgren - I was reading this blog, and there was a post about Dolph Lundgren the other day. I was thinking that it was kind of tongue in cheek (its not). Anyway I learned all of this amazing stuff about the man. Did you know that Dolph Lundgren is a Chemical Engineer who studied at Swedens best engineering research university, then did a masters in Chemeng at the University of Sydney? Ja, serious, and he got a Fulbright scholarship to do (I assume PhD) studies at MIT. FIRRIZZLE! And loads of chicks want to do the humpty dance with him. The similarities between the two of us are uncanny, and plus i do an awesome Dolph Lundgren/He-Man impression. He took the sentence 'I do not want these innocent people to die' and transformed it into a single word that sounds something like 'idunottawannatheseinnocenpeopledoodie'. There you have it: Dolph Lundgren : engineer, actor, heart throb, orator.
- Records - I don't really want to bang this drum again, but seriously, where is the fun in paying to download music from iTunes? I don't get it? You get no awesome gatefold cover, you get no liner notes to read about the artist/album/label, you get so sense of satisfaction at having searched through lots of kak you don't want to find something that you do. Basically if downloading music from iTunes were a smell it would be like smelling the recentl flaming armpit of a guy who works in a sewage plant and is allergic to deodorant after a hard days work cleaning pooh. Vinyl is like the smell of fresh citrus blossoms as you take a sip of freshly brewed coffee to wash down a fragrant rasher of crispy bacon (or makin, in my case). Don't be a sucker, get a record player.
- Swimming with whale sharks in Mozambique - be assaulted by the awesomeness of these shots i took about 3 years ago. Man that thing was BIG!
Ciao for now. Baai!
Monday, 24 March 2008
MyPepsiFest
So Ken and me, we went to MyCokeFest 2008, keenly aware of the risks we were gleefully rushing towards:
1. It was in Alberton. Ya Alberton. DEEP south.
2. By 4pm, our time of departure from the leafy suburbs, we had already received reports that the bar wait was over 1hr.This turned out to be inaccurate. It was over 1.5hrs.
3. Many of the bands on the lineup were superkak (and still are superkak), meaning that every edenvale doos and his three-toed cousin was going to be in attendance (Korn! Fuck yeah! 30 seconds to Mars? Did you say Mars?! OMG Jared Leto is SOOOO hot!!!!).
4. Everything we were told about the organisation last year was pretty derogatory - and nothing, it seems, had changed between last year and last Friday's 'event'.
But we went anyway. Because that's what we do in Jozi. We keep standards low low low, expect very little, and get excited about it all. And fuckit, I wanted to see Chris Cornell play live. Like 13 or 14 years in the making. And he was beautiful. Jesus-like.
Muse were also excellent. Tightest live show I've seen. Kaiser Chiefs were also pretty slick, and just played and played and played. We bounced around.
In fact both Brit bands were about the show, and did damn good jobs. The American bands, except for Mr. Cornell's, did not. 30 Seconds from MyAnus (Jared Leto's nonsense) is about the worst band on the planet, and Mr Leto kept calling us all motherfuckers. Lank times. Over and over. Then he dedicated a song to freedom. I nearly wet myself laughing. Apparently Mr Leto insists that he takes his music career very seriously, and has been at since 1996. The acting thing is the side-show, allowing him to pursue his real passion - terrible music from the angry, unsuccessful half of 1995. We all pity the man. His band is so bad.
Average Charlotte came in a close second (if they'd left Parys Heeltin behind MAYBE I'd have been more sympathetic. Then again maybe not.). And I've been told Korn were actually pretty good, but I didn't wait around. Apparently, it also took an hour between Muse and Korn, the 'headline', and most people had left by the time they came on. Serves them right for being so angry all the time without any clear need or justification.
Let's see. Power went out a few times, but not Eskom's fault. Always good for a laugh. Ken's potato and spinach in breadcrumb bites from Woollies were not allowed in. No food inside. 'Ken, just give it to the guards'
'But it's Woolworths!'
'Ya whatever man we can get some more tomorrow'
'But it's fucking WOOLWORTHS food!'
'Ok cool let's chow it here outside the gate'
Eat eat.
'Dude I can't eat anymore potato balls'
'Me neither. Dammit. Ok fine we'll leave the rest with the guards'.
'Cool. So we can go in now? Excellent.'
The 'golden circle' was MASSIVE. A R400 ticket bought you a great view of the big screen, mounted on the back of the production tower, about 50m from the stage. A R600 ticket got into the ginormous circle, but apparently not too many wanted to pay that much. So we all squished up against a fence, yearning to fill the 30m of open ground in front of us, wishing we could see the real people on stage.
A swampy marsh sort of thing emerged for about 100m in every direction from the porter potties. I lost my shoe in a particularly boggy puddle, but found it again, after submerging my shoeless foot. Yes, it was covered in whatever created the bogginess for most of Muse. Rock on. The shoe and sock are on the balcony now. I don't know what to do with them.
The bar, however, has to take the cake. The past two years have produced the same complaint - takes waaaaay too long to get drinks. My god. Over an hour and half?! You stand and stand and stand, shuffle, stand stand stand. You can see the kool okes pulling on the taps up front, pouing pouring pouring. Except no wait, is that fucker texting someone? Using his CELLPHONE? Instead of POURING BEER? JESUS CHRIST! And when you finally get to the front you are told four's the limit by the grumpy lady who has by now realised that 12hrs of shuffling beer between pourer and 'customer' is not worth the free ticket to the 'event' (which you can't see from the bar anyway? Moron).
So you buy four plastic cups of beer. Castle. Eish. And wrestle your way out. You then realise you can't really walk around, much less jump around, with four full beers. You can't even drink one of them when holding the other three (well you can, but it's uncomfortable, and you definitely can't smoke). So you put two down, open your gullet and down the other two, and totter off into the crowd with the remaining two. Repeat every 3hrs or so. Ken got hammered. Blotto.
So why did I go? Did I enjoy myself? Fo sho laaitie. Chris Cornell (and Muse) made it ALL worthwhile. He played THREE tracks off Badmotorfinger, a few from Superunkown (including Black Hole Sun and Superunkown), a couple Audioslave tracks, and I think one of his solo songs. I squealed like a girl. Been listening to Superunknown all weekend since.
1. It was in Alberton. Ya Alberton. DEEP south.
2. By 4pm, our time of departure from the leafy suburbs, we had already received reports that the bar wait was over 1hr.This turned out to be inaccurate. It was over 1.5hrs.
3. Many of the bands on the lineup were superkak (and still are superkak), meaning that every edenvale doos and his three-toed cousin was going to be in attendance (Korn! Fuck yeah! 30 seconds to Mars? Did you say Mars?! OMG Jared Leto is SOOOO hot!!!!).
4. Everything we were told about the organisation last year was pretty derogatory - and nothing, it seems, had changed between last year and last Friday's 'event'.
But we went anyway. Because that's what we do in Jozi. We keep standards low low low, expect very little, and get excited about it all. And fuckit, I wanted to see Chris Cornell play live. Like 13 or 14 years in the making. And he was beautiful. Jesus-like.
Muse were also excellent. Tightest live show I've seen. Kaiser Chiefs were also pretty slick, and just played and played and played. We bounced around.
In fact both Brit bands were about the show, and did damn good jobs. The American bands, except for Mr. Cornell's, did not. 30 Seconds from MyAnus (Jared Leto's nonsense) is about the worst band on the planet, and Mr Leto kept calling us all motherfuckers. Lank times. Over and over. Then he dedicated a song to freedom. I nearly wet myself laughing. Apparently Mr Leto insists that he takes his music career very seriously, and has been at since 1996. The acting thing is the side-show, allowing him to pursue his real passion - terrible music from the angry, unsuccessful half of 1995. We all pity the man. His band is so bad.
Average Charlotte came in a close second (if they'd left Parys Heeltin behind MAYBE I'd have been more sympathetic. Then again maybe not.). And I've been told Korn were actually pretty good, but I didn't wait around. Apparently, it also took an hour between Muse and Korn, the 'headline', and most people had left by the time they came on. Serves them right for being so angry all the time without any clear need or justification.
Let's see. Power went out a few times, but not Eskom's fault. Always good for a laugh. Ken's potato and spinach in breadcrumb bites from Woollies were not allowed in. No food inside. 'Ken, just give it to the guards'
'But it's Woolworths!'
'Ya whatever man we can get some more tomorrow'
'But it's fucking WOOLWORTHS food!'
'Ok cool let's chow it here outside the gate'
Eat eat.
'Dude I can't eat anymore potato balls'
'Me neither. Dammit. Ok fine we'll leave the rest with the guards'.
'Cool. So we can go in now? Excellent.'
The 'golden circle' was MASSIVE. A R400 ticket bought you a great view of the big screen, mounted on the back of the production tower, about 50m from the stage. A R600 ticket got into the ginormous circle, but apparently not too many wanted to pay that much. So we all squished up against a fence, yearning to fill the 30m of open ground in front of us, wishing we could see the real people on stage.
A swampy marsh sort of thing emerged for about 100m in every direction from the porter potties. I lost my shoe in a particularly boggy puddle, but found it again, after submerging my shoeless foot. Yes, it was covered in whatever created the bogginess for most of Muse. Rock on. The shoe and sock are on the balcony now. I don't know what to do with them.
The bar, however, has to take the cake. The past two years have produced the same complaint - takes waaaaay too long to get drinks. My god. Over an hour and half?! You stand and stand and stand, shuffle, stand stand stand. You can see the kool okes pulling on the taps up front, pouing pouring pouring. Except no wait, is that fucker texting someone? Using his CELLPHONE? Instead of POURING BEER? JESUS CHRIST! And when you finally get to the front you are told four's the limit by the grumpy lady who has by now realised that 12hrs of shuffling beer between pourer and 'customer' is not worth the free ticket to the 'event' (which you can't see from the bar anyway? Moron).
So you buy four plastic cups of beer. Castle. Eish. And wrestle your way out. You then realise you can't really walk around, much less jump around, with four full beers. You can't even drink one of them when holding the other three (well you can, but it's uncomfortable, and you definitely can't smoke). So you put two down, open your gullet and down the other two, and totter off into the crowd with the remaining two. Repeat every 3hrs or so. Ken got hammered. Blotto.
So why did I go? Did I enjoy myself? Fo sho laaitie. Chris Cornell (and Muse) made it ALL worthwhile. He played THREE tracks off Badmotorfinger, a few from Superunkown (including Black Hole Sun and Superunkown), a couple Audioslave tracks, and I think one of his solo songs. I squealed like a girl. Been listening to Superunknown all weekend since.
easter shmeaster
So it's a very long weekend here down under. I'm semi bored. I've got stuff to do, just don't feel like doing it.
Twin Peaks has come onto my radar. What a crazy trip of a show?! May become one of my favorite tv experiences soon.
Thought Id give you a heightened Melbourne sunset moment. Soon I shall be out of Melbourne. Up and out faraway. I'm thinking Prague.. London.. Croatia.. oh yes people. I'll be going up north on other people's money to explore all things theatrical.
And I'm excited.
More news soon.
signing out..
Thursday, 20 March 2008
dANIEL wANG iS cOOL, aND i aM bORED aT wORK, dESPITE dEADLINES
Tadaa. My first divshare experience, direct to your blog. It's off a poppin' disco mix I filched from somewhere a couple months ago. Would give you that link too if I could find it.
Daniel Wang - Pistol Oderso
HAPPY EASTER. Greg and Tals, you string him up tomorrow, he dies Sunday, and comes back to life sometime thereafter. I forget when. I also don't know where the rabbit link comes from.
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Rock out!
Ok, so this isn't a record i've had for ages (in fact i only got it yesterday, along with some other rippers at my new favourite record store). The Cult rock, well, at least the used to. This is the 12" long version of She Sells Sanctuary. The record crackles a bit, but it's a nice loud pressing. Good for :
- Rocking out in the shower
- Long road trips (to Mozambique?)
- Video montages of training athletes
Saturday, 15 March 2008
waiting....
i hate being in limbo. it sucks..
waiting to find out about europe.. and residencies.. and funding.. and and and...
but here's a piccie of some yummy desert i had the other night at a very fabulous restaurant in the city, seamstress. fried banana spring rolls in a vinegar caramel sauce with goats milk sorbet. wow.
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Well we might have over-reacted..!?
Anyone who was in Jozi in January would have had at best a moment of wondering how the hell this country is gonna survive due to the blackouts, and at worst would have actually submitted your british visa applications.
Well it seems all the predictions of resulting economic colapse may have been bit hasty. Manufacturing data for January came out today and shows that - while the sector is struggling - it is not on the brink of collapse. Year on year production increased by 1.4% in January. This compared to an 0.3% increase in the year to December 2007.
About time for some good news.
Well it seems all the predictions of resulting economic colapse may have been bit hasty. Manufacturing data for January came out today and shows that - while the sector is struggling - it is not on the brink of collapse. Year on year production increased by 1.4% in January. This compared to an 0.3% increase in the year to December 2007.
About time for some good news.
Should I join the Competition Commission?; and Liverpool and Ajax Cape Town are Glorious
So I've been offered a position at the Competition Commission, the government agency that sticks it to the Corporate Man (like Tiger Brands, SAA, Mittal, and others). It's somewhere between investigator and policy researcher. I guess I'd be an analyst, and they say I'll be working on the banking enquiry. Are you tired of stupid bank charges? Well so am I!
Pros: Better pay, interesting work, obvious international applicability, some travel, good potential for make-me-rich consulting one day, and sticking it to the Corporate Man.
Cons: Pretoria commute every day (+- 100km driving, or 2 to 2.5 hours in total), it's government, no more squash or anything else fun (like French class) after hours in Jozi, scrapping half-baked plans to get overseas for some international experience or a PhD (again).
I gotta decide by the end of the week, sort of. Should I stay or should I go?
Meanwhile, in Milan last night struggling Livers stuck it to Inter in glorious fashion. Our European form continues to amaze, given how kak we are in the EPL. We went through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League by winning 3-0 on aggregate. We won 1-0, in Italy, against the runaway leaders of Serie-A. Rock on! This is also the first time any country in Europe has had four clubs in the q-finals of the Champions League. The fact that that country is Engulund is truly remarkable indeed.
Also, in case you didn't know, Ajax Cape Town is leading the South Africa PSL. This is equally glorious and amazing, because we usually suck. The Stormers, on the other hand, usually and still do suck.
The Doctor.
Pros: Better pay, interesting work, obvious international applicability, some travel, good potential for make-me-rich consulting one day, and sticking it to the Corporate Man.
Cons: Pretoria commute every day (+- 100km driving, or 2 to 2.5 hours in total), it's government, no more squash or anything else fun (like French class) after hours in Jozi, scrapping half-baked plans to get overseas for some international experience or a PhD (again).
I gotta decide by the end of the week, sort of. Should I stay or should I go?
Meanwhile, in Milan last night struggling Livers stuck it to Inter in glorious fashion. Our European form continues to amaze, given how kak we are in the EPL. We went through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League by winning 3-0 on aggregate. We won 1-0, in Italy, against the runaway leaders of Serie-A. Rock on! This is also the first time any country in Europe has had four clubs in the q-finals of the Champions League. The fact that that country is Engulund is truly remarkable indeed.
Also, in case you didn't know, Ajax Cape Town is leading the South Africa PSL. This is equally glorious and amazing, because we usually suck. The Stormers, on the other hand, usually and still do suck.
The Doctor.
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Koala Lumpur
I’m about to ship out of Kuala Lumpur, but like most of this weekend, I’m sitting in a plush, air-conditioned lounge wondering where exactly all the excitement is. Downtown KL is really just a maze of expensive hotels and shopping malls, not the messy warren of alleyways that Bangkok is (which is kind of what i was expecting from KL). Of course, every city has hotels and shopping malls, but that seems to be all most people actually see of KL. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure its a great city (certainly a lot of the food is great), I just struggled to find the pulse. Anyway, in the spirit of Alex’s post about her trip to Rome, let me take you meal by meal through my few days here…
I landed Wednesday night and was taken to my rather fancy hotel by a typical KL ‘Budget Teksi’. These are usually Protons with no seat padding and only three functional gears, but they are ridiculously cheap (120 Ront for an hour long ride from the airport to the inner city). A Proton, for those that don’t know, is the Malaysian national car. That is to say they are subsidised by the government, and the taxes on all non-Protons are ridiculously high. Like the product of most subsidised industries, the Proton is a total lemon. I would describe it as a cross between a Mitsubishi and an immobile mound of turd, but you’d have to ride on the unpadded, unbelted seat of one to fully understand. Anyway, I get to my hotel late, and sleep.
The next day we had meetings in the Petronas towers with some oil and gas people who ‘kindly’ offer us lunch out of a plastic box after the meeting. I’m pissed because every meal is valuable, and I don’t want to waste my time with kak food. Anyway, our agent C.K. (a bit of a Malaysian gourmand) promises to take us out for a ripper meal for dinner. He doesn’t disappoint and takes us to this crazy roadside diner in the suburbs where we have fish head curry, mutton curry, and prawn curry with the biggest fresh water prawns I have ever seen, even in pictures. We have some 'local tea' (five roses with condensed milk) for desert.
The next day, more meetings in the twin towers and more shitty whiteman food, but at night, my colleague Colin and I head downstairs for the hotels buffet, which, while a bit low on spicy malaysian food had enough sashimi and oysters to keep me happy. Then we went to the Sky Bar which is right next to the Petronas towers, at about the level of the bridge that connects the two towers. It's basically the pool area of a hotel that they turn into a swish bar at night, and its pretty rad. Especially when the company is paying! We drank many cocktails, most of the ones on the menu, and did i mention that the company was paying?
Next day, I i head out to Chinatown, which actually kind of sucks. It's like the Kho-San road of KL (lots of hawkers selling Man Utd t-shirts). Anyway, when i ran into the Malaysian equivalent of Tony and Guy i was kicking myself for paying so much at Toni and Guy in Sydney before i left. Dang it!
I head off to the Chow Kit market where you can apparently find anything you could ever dream of eating, including monkey brains. I didn't find monkey brains, but i did find an election poster for the deliciously named Mr Tititwangsa (the Malaysian national election was this weekend).
Anyway, for lunch i went to have an assam laksa at a place recommended by C.K. and it was rippah! It totally ponged of fish and shrimp paste, so its not for everyone, but it was awesome (mint in a fish soup? its weird, but it works). Some stir fried turnip with shrimps, and some chili sauce with belacan (shrimp paste) to make the meal complete.
Then, to take my mind off my bloated gut, i head off to buy some pirated DVD's. What else do you do in this city? On my way home I was getting assaulted by loads of pimps offering me their 'business card' which i thought was pretty brazen to do out in the open, and really fucking annoying. Anyway, i'm getting tired of not taking their cards, and being followed down the street, and the heat is really starting to get to me, so i pop into a 7-11 and pick up just what my worn out little Jewish soul needed some Kickapoo Joy Juice! Thanks gott!
Sunday i'm up early to check out the National Mosque before any Muslims arrive and find that I'm a circumcised whitey (seriously, i signed in as Gregory Smith). Then I ran over to the Museum of Muslim Arts which was pretty cool actually, not least because all of the people were so damn friendly. Then off to check out the KL train station which is supposed to be the most well known building in KL, but the train company headquarters across the road were way cooler, so i took a picture of that instead.
For lunch i headed back to the Central Market for a better char kway teow, and then headed over to what the Rough Guide describes as 'the best south indian curry in KL' at Lakshmi Villas, and goddamn it! the rough guide was spot on again. Three curries and an assortment of sambals and deep fried goodies, all served with some rice, dahl, no cutlery, and a banana leaf for the equivalent of like 15 ront (including a fresh coconut to wash it down). It sucks to have the locals staring at you eating with your fingers and laughing, but one of the guys that worked there felt sorry for me (must have been all the curry running down my chin) and gave me some seconds. Rad!
So anyway, i was pretty worn out by then so i headed back to the hotel for a nap, and headed out later for some more laksas and shopping, but this post is getting too long...
Who is next in the great eat off?
I landed Wednesday night and was taken to my rather fancy hotel by a typical KL ‘Budget Teksi’. These are usually Protons with no seat padding and only three functional gears, but they are ridiculously cheap (120 Ront for an hour long ride from the airport to the inner city). A Proton, for those that don’t know, is the Malaysian national car. That is to say they are subsidised by the government, and the taxes on all non-Protons are ridiculously high. Like the product of most subsidised industries, the Proton is a total lemon. I would describe it as a cross between a Mitsubishi and an immobile mound of turd, but you’d have to ride on the unpadded, unbelted seat of one to fully understand. Anyway, I get to my hotel late, and sleep.
The next day we had meetings in the Petronas towers with some oil and gas people who ‘kindly’ offer us lunch out of a plastic box after the meeting. I’m pissed because every meal is valuable, and I don’t want to waste my time with kak food. Anyway, our agent C.K. (a bit of a Malaysian gourmand) promises to take us out for a ripper meal for dinner. He doesn’t disappoint and takes us to this crazy roadside diner in the suburbs where we have fish head curry, mutton curry, and prawn curry with the biggest fresh water prawns I have ever seen, even in pictures. We have some 'local tea' (five roses with condensed milk) for desert.
The next day, more meetings in the twin towers and more shitty whiteman food, but at night, my colleague Colin and I head downstairs for the hotels buffet, which, while a bit low on spicy malaysian food had enough sashimi and oysters to keep me happy. Then we went to the Sky Bar which is right next to the Petronas towers, at about the level of the bridge that connects the two towers. It's basically the pool area of a hotel that they turn into a swish bar at night, and its pretty rad. Especially when the company is paying! We drank many cocktails, most of the ones on the menu, and did i mention that the company was paying?
Next day, I i head out to Chinatown, which actually kind of sucks. It's like the Kho-San road of KL (lots of hawkers selling Man Utd t-shirts). Anyway, when i ran into the Malaysian equivalent of Tony and Guy i was kicking myself for paying so much at Toni and Guy in Sydney before i left. Dang it!
Anyway, for lunch i went to have an assam laksa at a place recommended by C.K. and it was rippah! It totally ponged of fish and shrimp paste, so its not for everyone, but it was awesome (mint in a fish soup? its weird, but it works). Some stir fried turnip with shrimps, and some chili sauce with belacan (shrimp paste) to make the meal complete.
Then, to take my mind off my bloated gut, i head off to buy some pirated DVD's. What else do you do in this city? On my way home I was getting assaulted by loads of pimps offering me their 'business card' which i thought was pretty brazen to do out in the open, and really fucking annoying. Anyway, i'm getting tired of not taking their cards, and being followed down the street, and the heat is really starting to get to me, so i pop into a 7-11 and pick up just what my worn out little Jewish soul needed some Kickapoo Joy Juice! Thanks gott!
For dinner on Saturday i checked out some Malaysian food blogs and found that there was an awesome chinese restaurant near my hotel, so i set out to find it. I dont find it, and turn down an offer to dine with my country legend Kenny Rogers (wtf??). So i check out this food hall that one of the blogs said was also good. Sucks to be eating at a food hall, so to make myself feel better i order two mains. Char kway teow (fried noodles with shrimp, chicken and sprouts and stuff) which sucked, and an oyster omelet which was challenging from a mouth-sliminess point of view, but tasted awesome.
Sunday i'm up early to check out the National Mosque before any Muslims arrive and find that I'm a circumcised whitey (seriously, i signed in as Gregory Smith). Then I ran over to the Museum of Muslim Arts which was pretty cool actually, not least because all of the people were so damn friendly. Then off to check out the KL train station which is supposed to be the most well known building in KL, but the train company headquarters across the road were way cooler, so i took a picture of that instead.
For lunch i headed back to the Central Market for a better char kway teow, and then headed over to what the Rough Guide describes as 'the best south indian curry in KL' at Lakshmi Villas, and goddamn it! the rough guide was spot on again. Three curries and an assortment of sambals and deep fried goodies, all served with some rice, dahl, no cutlery, and a banana leaf for the equivalent of like 15 ront (including a fresh coconut to wash it down). It sucks to have the locals staring at you eating with your fingers and laughing, but one of the guys that worked there felt sorry for me (must have been all the curry running down my chin) and gave me some seconds. Rad!
So anyway, i was pretty worn out by then so i headed back to the hotel for a nap, and headed out later for some more laksas and shopping, but this post is getting too long...Who is next in the great eat off?
Mbeki is a doos
According to Business Day today Thabo Mbeki is in Mauritius, just three weeks after Zuma was there trying to get the Mauritan courts to squash some evidence relevant to his corruption case. It's Mauritius's 40th Independence Day, but Mbeki is the only head of state there. Whatever evidence the Mauritian judiciary has will apparently be made available to the NPA; Zuma's application was given the boot. That would suggest that Mbeki is just there to have a chat and a pina colada or two, but he's meeting the president, prime minister, and chief justice. And besides, Mbeki is a workaholic - he always designates people to attend this sort of thing, if it really is only about an independence celebration.
The whole basis of Zuma's case is that there is a political conspiracy against him, led by Mbeki, and co-opting state institutions like the NPA. The whole arms deal saga stinks more than a load-shedded waste water treatment plant. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that most if not all of the cabinet knew what was going on and either turned a blind eye or got actively involved. Mbeki was head of the procurement committee ffs. There is also little doubt that Zuma was the fall-guy. So he's probably guilty, but he's probably also right about a conspiracy. Exactly how that amounts to a defence is that Koos advocate's job to figure out, but he's pretty darn smart.
The NPA bungling and generally weird behaviour in the Zuma case, the rape stuff (which the cynic in me can't help thinking was a set up), Mbeki's continued denial that ANYONE else was involved - effectively arguing that a guy with a standard 5 bantustan education and who learned to read on Robben Island managed to orchestrate a complex web of corrupt deals that none of his peers knew anything about; and of course dismissing out of hand all of Andrew Feinstein's evidence - all adds up to a lot of kak in my view.
Mbeki going to Mauritius 3 weeks after Zoooms was there just fuels the fire, deepens divisions, encourages faction fighting, screws the country further. What a doos.
The whole basis of Zuma's case is that there is a political conspiracy against him, led by Mbeki, and co-opting state institutions like the NPA. The whole arms deal saga stinks more than a load-shedded waste water treatment plant. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that most if not all of the cabinet knew what was going on and either turned a blind eye or got actively involved. Mbeki was head of the procurement committee ffs. There is also little doubt that Zuma was the fall-guy. So he's probably guilty, but he's probably also right about a conspiracy. Exactly how that amounts to a defence is that Koos advocate's job to figure out, but he's pretty darn smart.
The NPA bungling and generally weird behaviour in the Zuma case, the rape stuff (which the cynic in me can't help thinking was a set up), Mbeki's continued denial that ANYONE else was involved - effectively arguing that a guy with a standard 5 bantustan education and who learned to read on Robben Island managed to orchestrate a complex web of corrupt deals that none of his peers knew anything about; and of course dismissing out of hand all of Andrew Feinstein's evidence - all adds up to a lot of kak in my view.
Mbeki going to Mauritius 3 weeks after Zoooms was there just fuels the fire, deepens divisions, encourages faction fighting, screws the country further. What a doos.
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