living life

london
I like my life.
Tonight, i have to decide whether to go see a free film at the amphitheatre near london bridge, It is called 'Tops'. a cartoon about an old man and a boy flying off in a balloon to another world, or walk to the chelsea school of arts, near the tate britain to see an installation. I got the invite in my letter box, handed in to all the residents in my estate. they offer free drinks and snacks too.
So i decided to go to the nearest one.
Its quite nice , a light show that is using the spectators us to create. our movements activate the sensors and it moves the lights.
After one hour , it repeats so i came back.
Thus is my life spent haha.
its very pleasant way of living.

The gas people called apologising for not turning up, and saying none of the engineers wish to do the work. But when i clarified that it is only a gas water heater that i want replaced with a electric water heater, instead of a boiler for a central heating system, the receptionist said she understands the problem and will bring it up to the engineers.
So i hope it will be done. Sometimes if the work is too low cost, these people wont think it is worth their while to turn up and do the work.
I will be glad to once and for all get rid of this gas boiler problem. it is not worth the hassle and i would advice people to consider changing to electricity. We all think gas is cheaper, but how efficient are gas appliances and will they ever be as easy, cheap to maintain as electric appliances?

added mon 4.10.10. Not sure whether i want to do anything about this heater. the receptionist called and said the engineer thinks it will cost £900 to replace with an electric water heater. she did not say why but said she will make an appointment for an experienced engineer to talk through it with me.

I think it is putting in new electric wiring that is heavy duty for supplying the heater and that would mean cutting a groove in the walls to accommodate the wire and that will cost a lot.

let me see what he will charge me for another gas heater, and if it is £800 or more, i think i wont bother with it. and just use an electric kettle. I have not been needing to use the hot water so it will only be for the occasional guests. Even simon dont bother with it, and uses hot water from the kettle if he needs to. I know it is dangerous to have any electric appliance in the bathroom, so i shall put the kettle outside in the hall. It wont look nice but then i dont mind. we shall see when the gas engineer comes tomorrow 5.10.10 to talk to me about it.

Added 5.10.10. gasman failed to come. I have a chance to ask myself whether i really want it. it is just as quick to boil a kettle of hot water if i need hot water for the basin. so i told the receptionist that i have decided not to proceed. she said she could make another appointment for 8.10, but thank goodness i have decided not to bother. I can tell you when i made that decision such a load of trouble got off my shoulders. we have been without hot water from that boiler for more than a year, so i dont know why i want to have it fixed now. maybe because i felt it is the done thing to do. it is expected that the boiler should work and we should be able to get hot water on tap. but why do we expect that?

it is the same with central heating. we all seem to expect that, but i have no central heating and i have never felt the lack.

all this has made me question common assumptions about heating.

Have we been brainwashed without realising it? if so , it is very subtle.

I question everything now.

Anyway, I was returning from the library, and saw a group of school kids from the academy next door carrying 3 leather bean bags. Two of them shaped like a sofa. One of them asked me if i want to buy them. They said £8 each, then when i was not keen, they said buy one get one free. Then when a woman stopped by they said £5 each. Then £20 for the lot.
They sure were desperate to rid it. It was good quality leather, just too bad i am not in the market for it. I said if it was collapsible beds i will be interested.

It goes to show how quickly things go out of fashion. bean bags were such a rage in the 70s.

There was the usual news about old pensioners being poor. Though they said they can hardly survive on £27 a day. I thought it was rather good money, after all, i am surviving, and what is more saving £200 out of £400 income a month.(ya that is how much i get, and i can tell u i dont feel poor haha) If i can do it so can these so called poor pensioners. They get free bus passes and £200 heating allowances too. So really i dont know why they complain.
I think a lot of them dont know how to budget or buy things. One eg said this woman would spend hours at the co op looking for buy one get one free. i hink she is silly. She should just go to tesco or sainsburys at about 8pm, and get reduced foods for 40p. or bread at 10p.
Ah old people. they may be old but that does not stop them from being stupid or maybe they are stupid because they are old. hmm, which came first???
sorry old people for being so unsympathetic, but what can one do.There may be genuine poor cases, but quite a lot of those who cannot cope simply do not learn how. is it due to stupidity or what?
Take for eg something that i see everyday.
I pass a flat on the ground floor whose windows have their curtains open and i see a neon light on all the time, even when it is bright and sunny outside and no one in the room.
I call that stupidity.
Why have the light on in the day and you are not even in the room.
Such a waste. it serves u right if u r poor. Damn idiots.
Ah well, i suppose i should not get angry about it. Their souls wants it. That is why i dont feel any sympathy when someone says they are poor. They most probably waste their money like that and are not even aware of it.
I come across as being very unfeeling, but it is just my way of coping. otherwise, when i see such things going on, i have to keep being unfeeling, or i shall have to knock on their door and crack their silly heads together and say 'look you stupid fools, ...'

i hope i dont get to be so stupid when i get old or set in my ways or hold silly beliefs that make me do wasteful things.
(I dare say that silly git left the neon light on thinking it will cure his/er SAD, natural sunlight deficit, but s/he dont have to have it on when they are not in the room, and it is not even winter now, so they could just go out more and sit in the sun).

have you notice how some people use so much electricity when they cook?

Simon is like that. he roasted a duck yesterday and the day's usage of electricity shot up from the usual 2kwh, to 7.9kwh. I have no idea how he does it, as i dont go into the kitchen when he cooks, and yesterday i was out at the gym and library.

he was disappointed at the duck, saying there is not a lot of meat in it and said he would be better off buying a chicken. so much more meat in a chicken. And it was true, even though it was a grassingham duck which usually have big breasts.
later, i realised why. It has offal inside and there was a lot of liver, far more than in a normal duck. and a long neck, and two hearts. So it looked like they stuff it with offal to bring the weight up. it was advertised as half priced at £6.

Now what is to bet the british cook will discard the offal?? I used it to stir fry, but most cooks will discard it. Even then, i threw the neck away, not much meat there. It was a long neck and quite heavy too.

what happened today

london
I found a old £20 note in an old gym bag yesterday. i know they tell us to get it changed at the bank of england, but i thought i have nothing to lose if i go to my local bank to change it. I was rather surprised that the cashier exchanged it without any fuss.
so it looked like u can change it at any bank.
Well, that saved me a journey to the bank of england office.
I guess they dont want us to go there clogging up their hallowed halls with our smelly presence changing one or two £20 notes. haha.

My block of flats are being renovated. Today, I came back from the gym to find the supervisor of the works going from door to door of our block asking us what colour for the hallway. I chose beige, which i can safely assume will be the other people's choice too. the other colours were grey, and pale blue, and i think we all want something bright.

My downstairs neighbour was also present, and when i said some of the others in the block who rent out their flats will want the carpet changed too, which made my downstairs neighbour who is a council tenant says she has to pay for it too. She said i was mistaken when i said she dont have to pay. She will pay in terms of increased rent she said.
hmm, how true is that? she said she is paying £165 a week now.
I did not say that what she is paying is way below commercial rents. Flats here will command from £400 a week.
But of course council tenants dont know what others pay and only look at their rent, compared to their income. i daresay for two elderly people it can be quite a lot if they only have the old people's pension to live on.
I have a strong feeling that because they are pensioners their rent will be heavily subsidised. And they recently got new boilers fixed at no charge to themselves.
Her rent cannot compare to what we have to pay, £7000 for this renovation. Though she did point out that we chose to buy our flats and will have it to bequeath when we die.
I laughed and said i doubt i will care who it goes to when i am dead.
I can be easy about it of course, because i bought when it was so low.
and as a gay guy with no heirs, i dont care who it goes to when i am dead.

And another thing about owning your flat, if boilers go wrong, u have to pay to get it fixed.
my gas boiler in the bathroom had gone kaput again.I got it repaired for £200 and hardly switched it on because i found out the pilot light ate up a lot of gas. So now it has completely not working. I took my time to figure out what best to do because i have to live with it. to replace it (being quoted £800 last time, but this time £2000 or decided that i shall replace it with a electric water heater.
It might mean we cannot have baths because it seems it is v expensive to heat water using electricity rather than gas, but i wonder really how true that is; and i think i can live without a bath. I dont have baths anymore anyway, preferring to go to my gym and use their showers. I have a electric shower but hardly use it.

i am very tired of the gas boilers going wrong, and always requiring yearly maintainance. All this costing money.
Just to call out a gas man to look at it costs £90.

I went to our estate office and ask them to send for the estate gas man, and tomorrow the engineer will come to assess what it wll cost to get rid of the old gas boiler and install a electric water heater and give me a quote. i hope it wont be too much.
if it is about £200, i shall be grateful.
And hardly anything goes wrong with electric appliances (my electric shower never gives me trouble touch wood. Electric water heaters should be cheaper to buy than gas boilers too. so the cost of installation all depands on the labour costs.

We shall see what happens tomorrow.

Added. Today had been rather eventful.
Earlier in the day, as i was crossing the shopping mall in victoria, i was stopped by a guy who wanted to demonstrate red sea salt moisturiser on me.
when he saw i was sceptical he tried another gadget to polish my nails. And it did work and i was impressed. I said well, it might not be so useful for a guy, but u should sell it to a woman.
he saw a black woman came up behind me and he asked her.
And she said she had bought it.
I exclaimed that is great, did u like it?
She said no, she preferred painting her nails with different colours. And was actually there to bring back the pack and get a refund.
Oh dear, both of us men were thinking it would appeal to women, not realising we were thinking like men. hahahaha.
Women were not interested. They dont mind and actually prefer to go to all that trouble painting the nails, waiting for it to dry, and risking it being chipped all for the different colours they can apply to match their lipstick etc.

The nail he demonstrated on me still looked brilliant even now. It was shiny and smooth and looked really lovely.

I did wonder whether it will attract anyone.

I doubt it. If it were a man like me, if i see such a nail on another man, i would seriously wonder if that guy is a transvestite... and if i were a woman and saw it in a man, i would seriously think that guy is rather vain, or a bit too feminine for my taste. haha.

I am afraid, such a nail on a man will not attract anyone. hahahah.

But seeing I am so woefully hopeless at guessing what women like, maybe I am wrong about that too.

The nail did look very nice though.

films dont satisfy me anymore

london
When I saw the tv program for tonight, with downton abbey , Juno , and 300 showing in competition at 9pm I thought we are in for a treat.
But now I am seeing them, I find 300 is quite boring.
and somehow the little i saw of downton abbey seem to be rehashing the same old stories imitating gosford park.
I guess i must be patient and see it to the end before i write them off.
I am seeing juno now and i shall stick with it till the end, because it does look promising.

How is everyone's life these days?

It was raining today so i did not go to the eid festival in trafalgar square. How easy it is to be deterred. Just a bit of rain. I thought there wont be many people there, and in some ways it is quite good when it is not so crowded. It looked busy enough when i saw it on the webcam on the internet. There is a continuous webcam pointing at the square that u can see online. It was about 3pm by the time I thought of going. And it closed at 6.30pm so not much time left and so i decided to go to the sainsburys instead before it shuts at 5pm. I was hoping to find bread reduced but nothing. the shelves were empty too, all the fresh chicken were bought for one thing.(though they were selling off the cooked roast chicken at £2.90 instead of the usual £3.90) and it was too late to go to the tesco, they close at 4pm today, it being sunday.

I woke late today, and by the time i went to the gym, and got chatting to two visitors from another gym who went walking in croydon and came back to victoria and came to this gym for a shower; (they mentioned that their fetters lane branch gives them a replacement knapsack free but not this one. they got a corporate membership, paying £33 of the £45 monthly payment and the balance the company pays)and after i went to the library to read the sunday times, the time just flew by. And it rained when i came out of the library.

I am just rambling here, which is kind of nice to do sometimes.

Sunday is usually a lazy day, since all the shops are closed, though i noticed some of the charity shops in pimlico are opened, which is not so in the past.

John had asked me to go to poole, and join him charity shopping there, and at first i was tempted, until i had a look at the national express website, and even though there were £1 fares, i suddenly realised i dont really want to go charity shopping. I seem to have gone off it now. I would like to go to studland bay but it is likely to be cold now.
I dont want to buy anything now, not even from charity shops, because i want to get my things free.
So i told john i wont be visiting him this year. Maybe next summer.

I was chatting to David, who lives near brighton, and it seems we are living quite isolated lives. He said he enjoys not doing anything and not having anyone. I would agree with him normally, but i am beginning to realise i dont want only that. i like to have some friends in their 30s too rather than just friends who are in their 40s, 50s. or even 60s. i wont want friends who are in their 20s, because i think they wont be so interesting. but it would be nice to have people in their 30s rather than have too many at the top end.

I wonder how i can get to meet gay people in their 30s. not many of them are naturists and i dont go to discos at all now.

pasar malam london

london

Woke up today and saw C has commented about the pasar malam last night. She keeps late nights. haha.

she mentioned missing kerosene lamps. Now I come to think of it, they were the sine qua non of pasar malams in malaysia. It would certainly add a more authentic atmosphere to the place.

Kerosene lamps are still used in malaysia. At least the last time i was back, they were using it in the Sungei way village, and SS2,SS3 pasar malams and street stalls.

They are very cheap and efficient.I hope health and safety have not abolished their use in malaysia. Do you know that kerosene is used in aircraft engines as fuel? Its that cheap.

It keeps costs down so that rental of a space at the pasar malam area is cheap, and that was why pasar malam food was cheaper than restaurant or food halls. But those were then. Now i think the raw ingredients have gone up in price. and i wonder whether petrol prices not being subsidised any more in malaysia will also have raised kerosene prices.

But last night was very successful for the restaurants who were involved. EVen when i went back through the square on my way back to my flat, at about 10pm, when it was supposed to close , the square was crowded with very big queues round the food stalls.

i went around 5pm, and browsed around. Even then, there were crowds waiting to be served. I got a plastic hibiscus flower on a clip given out freely. later, my friend got one too.

He was interested in the food, and bought 3 dishes. One he bought before we met up, and he cannot tell me what he ate.

the others were a carrot cake,£3, (not v authentic and why do they call it carrot cake, no carrots and it isnot a cake, it is rice flour) and chicken rice.£4. He liked the chicken rice, but it was not authentic hailam. But being foreign he does not know any better, and being hungry he wolfed it down and enjoyed it.

We were given malaysia kitchen cards that we were told will give us 20% discount. I think all the restaurants that night were members of this card.

I guess if u like eating out the discount will pay for the VAT.

Bonda cafe was there, which surprised me because their prices are v reasonable. or maybe i should say was. now that they have joined the mainstream, maybe they will have prices to match.

with the price of raw ingredients going up, i cannot see any restaurant keeping prices low. I think people who eat out must resign themselves to high prices.

I was saying to my friend that i am glad i lived in the 90s in london, things were so cheap then, eating out was so cheap and portions were delicious and plentiful. And somehow places were never that crowded.

Even the designer clothes were affordable.

Now things are more expensive but yet so crowded. portions are smaller too.

My friend said that it was because we were earning a lot more than the average.

(I think he may be right. i read somewhere that even at £37,000 a year, people are finding it hard to cope. Amazing. That salary in the 80s or 90s would be a rich man's income).

Later while we were strolling through old compton st and down charing cross street, (everywhere busy with people which seems to belie a recession, Old compton pub had people spilling out into the pavement) we saw there was a long queue for the kopitiam restaurant. They have a stall at the pasar malam too.

The pervading smell of food in trafalgar square can certainly make u hungry.

Malaysia airlines was giving £475 rtn fare in their stall there. reduced from their advertised rate of £499 rtn.

I have not seen so many malaysians in one place before. And noticed the malaysian -western couples. I guess my friend, who is french, and I may have looked like that. so i wont presume they are all boyfriends.

A group of ladies sitting next to me were from pahang, (Kuala trengannu). One said she lived here permanently now. Difficult to place her. she looked fair, and have slightly chinese features but if she is from kuala trengganu, she might be muslim. I did not ask.

It would not surprise me if most of those malaysian-looking people are permanent residents here.

I think the restaurants achieved their purpose because at a glance u can see who they are and they made good profits that night. And doing it on friday night is a good decision. People come out and stay out late as it is the start of the weekend.

It helped that the night was not rainy.

Autumn is here , as the wind was cold.

This sunday is another festival in trafalgar square . From 2.30pm-6.30pm the eid festival.

a stroll through my day

london
I was passing through victoria station, after my gym, (found out my gym is getting rid of the nice porcelain coffee cups replacing them with foam cups. i asked if i can get one of them)to get to pimlico library to read the papers.
(Added. 25.9.10. i see the porcelain cups returned to the shelf for us to use. so have they changed their minds about getting rid of them? i sneaked one just in case.)
I thought i shall find out how much the fare to new malden, because thats where lives my friends who are giving a naked party next month. We are joining a website started by john to coordinate these naked parties.

There was an bangladesh(he said) guy doing the self service ticket machine next to mine.
I could not access the return fare, all the prices were for the price of each zone, and i did not know what zone new malden was in.
Anyway i turned off the machine and the guy who is indian asked me how to get his ticket. he wanted to go to brighton returning in a month, and he got a railcard, so i managed to get the ticket for him, costing £18.50.
After he bought it, we chatted a bit. He lives in london, but he says it is not possible to find work here so he is going to brighton to work. he is a chef for a restaurant(i assumed it was an indian restaurant) . he gets £230 a week pay, meals and accommodation provided free. he said he does not like to cook, gives him a headache.

I told him that he could get a national express bus there for £1 but he did not seem interested. It always surprise me when this happens. People dont seem to care to save money. Am I the only person who would be agog to find out more about money saving deals when someone tells me of it, or do everyone dont care at all...
Ah well, if their souls want to pay more, so be it.
Though i did think he is stretching my patience a bit when he complains he wants to earn more money. Ha!!! If u dont want to take every chance to save money, dont tell me u are poor.
I will not have any sympathies for you.

There was a promotion booth nearby and i said lets go there and find out what they are promoting. He was not interested so off he went his way.
I asked the booth, and was told they were promoting a jeans shop selling G jeans Raw.
Two of the guys were wearing the clothes. I looked at his bum to see how it fits there, but was disappointed that it was like every jeans nowadays, droops at the back. And i criticised it to them. Saying the levis 501 are the reason why i like them, because they make anyone's bum look great.

I have noticed all the modern jeans have these droopy bums where the material sags and it looks like everyone of them had dumped a load and it was hanging in there.

Anyway, she gave me a card and said if i go to the shop , the nearest one in carnaby street, i will get a gift.
Well, i was thinking of going to john lewis, to redeem a voucher which has got mouldy because it was lying in a box where i kept my shaver, so i walked through hyde park to oxford st. A very nice pleasant walk under the trees in the park.

John lewis changed my voucher and gave me a new one to replace it, and i promptly went down to their food hall to spend it.
While i was there, a man was buying a lot of £50 vouchers. The good thing about john lewis, is that u can use the voucher to buy a small item, and they give u the rest in cash.
I suppose everyone knows that, though when i first used it i thought i had to buy everything from the store or i shall lose the balance. This is unlike other stores. For eg, Mark and Spencer vouchers are not redeemable in cash. They give u a M&S card to keep the balance. That means u have to spend the money in the store.
i bought a crayfish sandwich, (£3.30) and got change.
I have to say it was not really worth the money, because for that amount i could get a whole chicken.
but lotsof things in john lewis is overpriced. Still, it was a voucher which i got free anyway so i guess i dont mind splashing out a bit. haha
Added.To be fair, they are charging what other places will charge for the sandwich. when i say overpriced i mean to say everyone of them overcharge, not only john lewis. and their coupon policy of replacing spoilt coupons, or never letting it get out of date(that coupon i had for years) and giving u cash as change, is excellent.

It was only later as i was walking down oxford st and passed a macdonalds that i realise i should have bought something small priced and got change and used that to get a big mac, and used their promotion of buy one get one free big mac. i dont have the voucher, as i did not think i would eat at macdonalds, and so did not keep it, but still, that would have been the better option.

I went on to the carnaby st shop, and was given a denim purse and a pin with their logo on.
And then i carried on to chinatown and bought 2 of the hakka pickles300mg (50p each) which i like a lot, and another pack of anchovies100mg(65p).
And then on to the charing cross library and borrowed 'Mistress of Rome' by kate quinn.
Went to trafalgar square and sunned myself at the steps of St martins-in the field church.
There was a installation in the square. Those automatic machines for making cars doing a dance. They were supposed to be imitating pens writing in the air.

When i returned i got a phone message from ian, asking me to meet today. he called at about 10am, when i was allready at the gym. So it was too late to meet today, and we arranged to meet tomorrow. he comes to my place.
he called me back using skype. it seems u can call landlines, paying them 1.6p a min. if it applies to mobiles at the same rate,(added. it does) than that would be useful, as the cheapest tariff using my asda card is 8p a min. must ask ian about it when he comes tomorrow. The connection is a bit shaky though.

Well, i can call any landline in london for free (if i keep it to within 60mins) so it is not useful for that. Calling each other on the computer is still free by skype, but the other guy must have his skype on.
So that is how i spent my afternoon today.
Quite a easy life i think and i for one enjoyed it very much.

When i got back, i got online and found out new malden is zone 4, and the train ticket if i book online is £4.50 return but if i use my oyster card and take the train from vauxhall, it costs £3.40 return. Rather good. I think it is because vauxhall straddles zone 1 and 2.
added. I found out that the single oyster fare on the weekend fr zone2 to zone4 is £1.30. hmm, why does it cost so much more if i buy the ticket at the victoria train station? perhaps it charges me a zone1 to 4 ticket. I have a feeling those ticket machines in victoria station dont give u the cheapest prices.

£199 one way fare to malaysia from london by airasiaX

london
book by 3oct 2010 for travel 3jan-31mar2011. saw their advert in the metro today.
hope malaysians will take this chance to visit london, though i imagine the fare is to attract us here in uk to fly to malaysia, it being winter during the valid period.
The fare is very attractive, but MAS was only recently giving a slightly more of £480 return. I told john of it, which john had bought some time ago, so i think this fare may not have many takers. Most who want to go would have bought the MAS ones. And you get full meals and films included on board and all the MAS service.

All these cheap fares to malaysia and it does not tempt me at all. I am beginning to wonder what is wrong with me.Is it me or what?
I am more interested in holidays in naturist places in europe and even then i am not too minded if i go or not.
Next year , someone i got chatting to in a naturist website will be staying at my place. He is a malay , his boyfriend is chinese and they are malaysians, migrated to new zealand from East malaysia where they were staying. When they told me they are visiting uk next year, i invited them to stay at my place. I know hotel rooms are the most expensive part of the holiday, apart from the airfare. it will cost at least £700 return to nz.
They hope to visit capdagde as well as come to london for the naked bike ride in june 2011.
I find that invite to join them in capadeagde tempts me more than going to malaysia.

Though capdeagde may not be all that great. I was just chatting to a friend just today, who told me they were at capdeagde a few weeks ago, and it was rather cold and wet and quite tatty with straight sex out in the open. Granted this was in mid sept, so not the peak season.
I fear it might be too straight for me.
and i subscribe to a yahoogroup of capdeadge people and i read that one couple reported that almost everyone was clothed, even during the day when it was warm. So it looked like the whole ethos of being naked has been overturned by day trippers coming in to look.
maybe we should think of some other place.
Added 23.9.10 read an article in the independent today about capdeagde. it seems there are so many hedonists who go there they are doing it in the open and pushing out the nudists.
Ah well, we shall see how i feel when summer comes and i shall make up my mind to join them or not.

I find i like staying in london. I dont do anything, which makes it even more of a mystery why i like staying here.
i am just very contented. That is all.


Simon is having trouble. he has gambling debts. I am saddened by it, but his soul wants it, and i hope he can sort it out.
I was sitting by the tate britain, trying to get some sun, and bringing with me a glass of tea which i brewed at home, and saw a chap selling the Big issue. This is a magazine to help the homeless make some money. he said he makes 70p from each issue, and am forced to sell it, because the alternative is to beg, and he will be harassed if he did so.
the big issue 19th birthday issue is £2, normal issue is £1.70.
he said he did not admire the founder of the magazine, but i said look at his example, that guy is able to use the system and so should u.

I am afraid when u look deeper into the reasons, invariably the person is the engineer of the route that ended here, homeless and selling the big issue.

They are unaware of it, and blame others, but it is true that u do bring things on yourself.

This may sound harsh, but i have seen it everywhere whenever someone has a tale of misfortune to tell. Go back further and u will see how he had engineered it but so unconsciously, whilst blaming fate or other people.

Simon has brought it on himself. much as i love him, it is clear to me he engineered it ...
simply by gambling and being unable to stop. he gambles online, and not realise he is playing with computer programs, and so he cannot win. if he is playing with other humans there might be a chance, as other humans are fallible, but not when it is with a computer.
he tries to stop, but cannot stop it by himself. I hope he will find help.

The homeless man i was chatting to told me of his observations of chinese people . he said he had seen them gamble, the women especially, and they win.
Someone was losing at roulette, than this woman came along, and she won.
She is one of the cleverer gamblers, who know when to go in, and when to leave. But dont be fooled, in the end the house always wins.

What can i say when i see such things, people with drug, alcohol or gambling addictions heading towards self destruction. All i can say with resignation is their soul wants it, and i hope that the soul will tire of it, and they change.

james wong and the malaysian garden

london
Thought people might like to catch this program on bbc2 tonight at 8pm.
looking at gardens in malaysia, for plants for medicine and ceremony and going to baku national park in sarawak to find a rare pitcher plant.
I sent the above by email because i found that lovely font in my email windows live box.
its very pretty font, don't you agree? it is called andalus.
It's a pity i cannot get that font in this weblog.
I have changed my default font for my emails to this andalus font now.
You can watch the tv program here

light on yoga, b.k.s. Iyengar

london

I was browsing in the library in their new premises next door to the pimlico academy,and saw this book on sale. It was £1.75. I have heard of Iyengar yoga of course, and here is his book. So i bought it.

It actually was donated by the ivengar yoga institute in maida vale to the pimlico academy. It's a pity the library did not want to keep it for lending but their loss is my gain. haha.

Normally i dont buy these books sold by the library because though the intention is good to do the exercises, more often than not, it is never done.

but browsing through it i saw it has v good pictures of the poses and it says you will be taken through a week by week plan with a total of 300 wks when they say u will be able to do the advanced poses.

Sounds good and a lot of the poses looked doable.

The local centre do yoga classes, and tai chi classes, and i have become a member but i m a guy who likes to do things by himself rather than follow a class. I find you have to go at a set time and day and that i find rather restricting.

I learnt to ride a bike when i was a kid and i did it all by myself on a adult bike what's more. And i learnt to type just self taught using a type writing manual. These things are doable. u dont really need anyone to teach you.

I know people say if u dont do yoga properly u will not get the full benefit, or they warn u may even injure yourself.

people always think they will injure themselves when they try something new without supervision, and that is very difficult to overcome.

if my parents had stopped me from learning to ride, i would not have done it and would have missed out on the sense of achievement and joy of riding.

Long ago when i was in india, i saw an old man casually put his legs behind his head whilst sitting and i have said to myself one day i shall be able to do that. that kind of flexibility is what i aim to get when i am that old, because it would make life so much healthier and make me agile in my old age.

There was a pose like that in his book and that make me want to buy it.

there was another pose, with him arching his back, facing upwards, whilst his feet and hands were on the floor. I used to be able to do that pose in the past. It would be nice to be able to get that ability again.

Another pose where one leg was stretched out on the ground in front and the other stretched back flat on the ground, so that it made a straight line from his body i have been attempting it in the gym and not getting it right. and i hope the book will show me how it is done.

I saw a program on tv last night (ironically called the young ones)about old people put into a 70s environment, (basically a flat with 70's decor and furniture and kitchen appliances) and one old woman was struggling to climb the stairs and another old man took an age just to bend down to pick up the milk on the door. I thought i m not going to be like that when i am their age. no fear.

the idea of the program was to see if being in a environment that reminds them of when they were young would make them young. I doubt it really. They would be better off taking up tai chi, or yoga.

Added. they all improved, but i think it was because they were limiting themselves before. The experiment encouraged them to extend themselves.

so many festivals and i dont go to them why?

london
I was browsing the boyz, a free gay magazine, and saw an advert saying today is Soho Pink Sunday. noon till late.
I have not heard of it till now.
Or rather there used to be a soho pride day, but london stopped funding it, and so this must be the local businesses way to bring it back. there are no shows or anything unlike in the past.
(Another thing i have noticed about the free gay magazines, they always feature a female on the cover. Why? its a gay male magazine. I want to see guys on the cover. but then being commercial they want to attract everyone. And another thing, they will only feature those businesses that advertise with them. I know this because i like my favourite gay sex pub, and it never gets any mention in these gaypers.... because it do not need to advertise with them..hahahahaa.
so dont think everything is here in these papers. u miss out on some really good value for money places because they are not featured. It goes to show why u need to know a local guy if u want value for money rather than rely on these recommendations or articles in the gaypers.
Looks like it is only boyz that have females on the cover. QX is still guys.
What a long way Boyz has gone from its early beginnings. And not for the better either.

What is with all these festivals going on at the same day in london.
Today is also the final day of the Thames festival weekend. Big procession tonight followed by fireworks.

then the truth dawned on me.
these festivals are all a ploy by \London businesses to attract tourists (and locals) to come into the centre of london and eat at the restaurants.
Added. 13.9.10 Last night at about 11pm I heard the fireworks. lasted about 4mins with pops and cackling. And i thought who in their right minds would stick around all day to see it?? then it dawned on me of course no one. it is meant to keep people in central london, or to attract new people into london at various times of the day to keep the centre full so the businesses can have a steady stream of customers.

No wonder the locals long ago stopped going.

I was with some friends in benidorm in September about 3or 4yrs ago; and we saw a procession of the natives wearing costumes and enacting some history event. I think it was the victory of the Christians over the Moors or something .
And at that time i thought how quaint that they would go to all this trouble to do this.

Silly me, of course they do it every year, because they have been paid by their council , or whatever the local equivalent ,to put on this show for the tourists. otherwise the tourists wont have anything to see.

i think these paid pageants may not be the case in Asia, where the locals will do their local deities festivities without being paid for it. and so provide lots of pageantry for the amusement of the tourists as a by product.
Certainly in some festivals , esp the Thaipusam festivals, there will be full of indians.(some doing crazy things like being pierced with arrows and carrying huge structures or have skewers through their cheeks, and i doubt anyone would do these even if u paid them to do it, unless they are dedicated)

Added. 13.9.10 Cynical me am thinking it would not surprise me if these guys are paid in kind or via donations or by the temple priests to do it. After all they provide a lot of attractions to the devotees and spectators. I think those who do it every year may be paid to do it.
Follow the money.
It makes me look at the betting and fixing scandal that is with the Indian cricket players in a new light. I have often wondered why people go on playing cricket on tv when it does not seem to pay very well. Football u can understand because the players are paid so well. but cricket??? never heard of millions being mentioned for these players.
Now we know what has been keeping it going haha. Betting which will apply to all sports , but now we know fixing the game and that is the payment to the players.
i wonder whether all of these competitive spectator sports that we see, wrestling, boxing, etc as well as rugby, football, etc have this crooked element in them.

We all know there is some kind of fakery in TV wrestling, it is a kind of show. They seem to pound each other ferociously and act like they are hurt bad, but none of them ever come to any harm. No blood spilled at all. So what is to stop them going one further and fixing the result before hand???
And why not apply it to all sports???
When there is such big money involved, you would be a fool to play it just for fun and love of the game.

The Thaipusam crowd will be predominantly indians amongst the spectators, and very few white foreigners around. In fact there wont even be many of the other races,chinese, malays... because the crowds are something fierce and many of the other races dont like to be caught up in this frenzy.

But here in uk, things are tamer and we are not so fanatical about it.
I for one wont even bother to go. They happen every year, and once u been to one for the first time, it gets a bit boring to go every year.
I was commenting to simon about it after i read that advert about the Soho Pink Sunday.
I said, it is funny how when we were young, we would come all the way from outside london where we live to the centre all the time for our fun and for these things, and take so much trouble and time and money to travel into the centre. But now, i live right in the centre and i dont bother.
Added.13.9.10. I just realise why we go when we were young. We go in the hope of meeting and picking up guys. that is why.haha. in those days there are no other ways, but now we have the internet to make contact with guys.

And that is the case nowadays with the young people to come from all over the suburbs,where they live, because they cannot afford to live nearer, to these things.

It is a crazy world.

Today i read in the paper that Lord Sainsbury has donated £25 million to the british museum.
You know what, I could not help thinking that old fart had made so much money out of ordinary people from his sainsbury supermarket chain, and now what does he do with all that money. he gives it to art and everyone praises him for it.
he should find a way to give it back to allthe customers who have made him rich.

he wont get any praises from me.
Why these old millionaire farts dont want to give their money to people. Why????

Added. I know why.By donating to museums, they lock up the allready rare works of art thereby further increasing those others still in private hands. This is taking art out of circulation, creating a rarity market for those still out there and also forcing other artworks, of secondary importance to enter the rarity domain and also preventing a glut on the market of old masters.
Fantastic ploy. And they get tax offsets , the kudos of being benefactors , have a building named after them, or even a whole museum and their name lives on.

No wonder he donates to the musuem. In fact, he has to.

each soul's desires

london
I cannot help thinking of that saying 'be careful what u want u will get it' when i heard people complaining that because of the interns' reduced hours , they are not getting enough experience.
Their rotas have been arranged so that they work nights, and no more following the consultant on his morning rounds, and keeping in touch with the patients... because they are sleeping after their night shifts so that they dont get over the hours allowed.
haha. i laughed when i heard that, not because i am amused by it, but more a derisive laugh, because here are those people who were fighting to have reduced hours for their junior doctors, (i can remember the headlines that time) and now they are all lamenting it. hahaheehehee.

Doctoring is a different profession to your normal 9-5 day job.
Now, the new doctors are time watchers, and so dont have the experiences any more.
One new consultant said he was scared he did not have enough practise time in some operations, because of these reduced hours. And he is now the consultant, and will be going to do them on his own with no one more experienced to supervise.

Ah well, nevermind. their souls wants it.

There is the mayor's festival this weekend, and i thought i shall be going to the food fest on southwark bridge, but i am afraid i turned tail and came back when i reached the eye, the crowds there made me realise I dont have to be there thinking i have to go to support it or there wont be anyone. haha. of course that is silly. there will be more than enough people, in fact too many.
nothing in london ever gets lack of people attending, because people are everywhere.

I think there is no need to advertise even. People will be there, in fact u wish less of them will go, because it is so crowded.
And London has only 7.5million people and everything that is held there will always be crowded with people. In fact, u can have 3 festivals, or more, running on the same day, and they will all be crowded.
(i think a lot of them are tourists actually! It is a fact of life that the locals just dont bother to go, but leave it to the tourists.)

Well, whatever it is, i did not go to the southwark bridge food fest. I wonder who pays for it. Hope they get their money's worth. Not sure if it is free or people buys it off the food stalls. Anyone went this year and tell us?
what is to bet they will say we had a lovely time, and you should have gone, you missed something really good. the food was fabulous and all free...

I was looking at an article about megacities, (anything over 10million people, so london is not in it) and I laugh when i see what i wrote above about crowds and too many people. There i was sprouting all kinds of shit about overcrowding, what do i know of crowds!!!!

We here in the West are really silly. We know nothing of crowds, nor poverty nor slum conditions. I think we should have a law that says take with a pinch of salt anything said by a western person talking of poverty and overcrowding because they know nothing of it unless they show proof of their credentials of living in india or china. I have to include myself in that because I have not lived in india or china, at all.
Visited , yes, but that is nothing right?

some of my personal life

london
I would like it if all of us living in this block of flats pool together and get online broadband and let just one of us subscribe and share it out to the rest of us.
But this never happens.
why?
Recently , i got a leaflet through my letter box from 3 people sharing a flat on the top floor of our common stairwell, and they ask if i would let them share my wifi as they have their landline being reconnected and it will take 10days.
i dont know them at all, but i decided to give them the code for my wifi, so they can get online using mine.
itis only for 10days till they get their own landline.
I remember i was in the same situation a few years ago, and asked my neighbours and one of them kindly offered me use of their laptop to get online.
though it would be more useful if we join up with other residents here pay one person's internet line, and all share it using his wifi.

then we could disconnect our landline and just use our mobile for calls.
i have been wanting to do that for many years now. my landline is costly at £11.50 (going up to £12)monthly rental, plus £7 for the package of free calls which includes free broadband. this is with talk talk.
and they charge a lot for mobile calls, whereas my ASDA sim card on my mobile costs 8p a min for calls, whether landlines or other mobiles, 4p text.

But i cannnot disconnect my landline or i wont be able to get broadband.

I have been having a cough recently, so much so that i did not go to enrol in the tai chi class on tuesday, because i did not want to spread it.

I think the worst is over, last night i was sleepless, but managed to get some sleep on the living room couch. i did not want to disturb simon.
ah well, it is only when u feel unwell that u appreciate being healthy.

health problems are the biggest thing that will affect us as we grow old.
That is why i really sympathise with americans. Their health care system is really bad. Why are they so against a national health service??

Its like as if they think if u r poor it is your own fault. or they think people will scrounge on a welfare state.

They dont realise that one day they too might be grateful for a universal health service. when they become jobless and have no more medical insurance.

There should be a limit to what u can get on the national health. it should provide a basic service, and luxury items should not be catered for.
for eg. expensive modern drugs to prolong life of cancer patients. or ivf , or plastic surgery, or sex change surgery.
at the moment there are no limits, so that a family can get hundreds of thousands on the welfare state if they know how to claim everything or wanting all kinds of exotic treatments under the nhs. Put a limit to it and u wont get these people screwing it up for all those others who are struggling.

Well, what i got now is a flu, and there is nothing for it but to endure it till it runs its course. i have been taking lots of vit c tablets, and hope it helps shorten the flu.

so many things going on in london

london
I was looking at a blog showing all the things going on in london, and boy, we are spoilt for choice.
Like today, there is the deaf and disabled festival in trafalgar square, and the morris dancing festival in the south bank.
I went to the latter, and even though there are lots of jokes making fun of morris dancers, i think they are very nice to watch. I like the men only dancers, as they are more energetic. At least the one i saw. Part of the dance includes hitting the sticks of the guy partnering you, and boy, did they hit it ... so hard u can hear the loud crack, and i can see some of the sticks were showing splintering. Now that is what i call vigorous. haha. They continue tomorrow, but tomorrow is also the skyride where some roads are closed to traffic so cyclists can make free with them.

Kindness of a stranger

london
I was at the gym today, when a personal trainer corrected me on the way i was using the machines for weight lifting.
Usually they dont bother to do so, because they want you to hire them to train,and also people can get annoyed if you correct them; but he just came up and showed me how, without me even noticing he was watching what i was doing and doing it wrong.
i was very grateful to him for correcting me, because I can feel the effect of the new way of doing the machine on my muscles straight away.

Ideally, when we join the gym, we should get a first time workout with a trainer who can point out to us how to use the machines correctly, but this does not happen as the trainers are not paid to do it, and so why should they, right? you are taking up their time.
At another gym, i was taken up by a trainer, but it was not to show me how to use the machines, but to take me through the different exercises with the aim of finding out what i want so he can persuade me to book him for personal training.
I could only remember the wonderful stretch exercise he did on me at the end of the session, and thought he might get more business if he offered his services as a masseur instead of a personal trainer.

Anyway, this personal trainer who corrected me is new to the gym. i have not seen him before, and after he corrected me, he disappeared and i did not see him again.

the kindness of strangers has always been a big factor in my life.

Added the next day 2.9.10 . I was reading the daily mail today and saw an article saying stelios whatisname , the guy who founded easyjet, is going to set up easygym for £15 a month membership no contract.

But i have heard from a gay friend that he is allready a member of The gym, in vauxhall, and it is a group that have £15 a month gym membership no contract. so it looks like stelios has been preempted. ( A bit more googling throws up fit space, and pure gym run along the same lines). i think stelios has missed the boat.

The gym special offer £9.99 a month in gyms that are newly opening, and save on the £20 joining fee too.

these gyms have no frills, ie no saunas, no steam room. just showers.

I confess I shall not be changing my gym. I like the free coffee and tea and newspapers and sauna at my fitness first gym, even though it is £11 more.