Russ and I have learned that whenever we travel, regardless of how much we plan and prepare, we will do stupid things that will cost us more and take longer than they should. Paying £400 to take a car across the English Channel and back, rather than renting one on the continent, is a prime example. But this trip is proving to be exemplary.
We had a good candidate for the most profligate night when spent $150 each in Kuala Lumpur, where cheap isn't too hard to find, on a ridiculous tourist-trap restaurant with dancing performers followed by exorbitant drinks at a grimy gay bar. But we topped that today.
When we booked our flights originally, I gave Russ the choice of an early one or a later one and he chose early so he could get to work on time. Well, despite thinking ourselves quite smart by setting our alarms on our phones last night, while we were still sober, we managed to miss our flight this morning.
Somehow we turned off both our phones after the alarms went off, spoke to the front desk when they called, and went back to sleep without remembering any of it. Needless to say, our budget airline wouldn't just move us to a new flight, so we had to buy new tickets. S$600 ($430, £280) and four hours later, we were on our way. Small silver lining, though, in that we got to fly directly into Macau rather than into Hong Kong, saving us $30 on the ferry ride over. Frugal indeed!
Here's to hoping that this remains our most expensive day!
Cheers,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com --
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Friday, 2 July 2010
Thursday, 1 July 2010
[The Life of Shaun #407] 100
Having a great time down here. Hong Kong is stunning, as every tourist shot indicates. Kuala Lumpur is interesting for all the reasons that make it somewhere I wouldn't want to live. Singapore has more to it than I thought it would - I love the 70s feel of so many of the buildings and the organisation and Western standards are welcome after KL.
Macau tomorrow, then across the border into China for shopping Saturday morning and then one last night in HK before heading home on Sunday.
Cheers,
Shaun
*My third passport, I am proud to say, as an American.
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com
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Friday, 25 June 2010
[The Life of Shaun #406] Just what Indochina needs...
...one more invader from the West!
I'm off tonight on my second whirlwind tour of SE Asia. In the next ten days I will accumulate passport stamps in the ports of Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Macau and Zhuhai in mainland China. Very excited for the break, to see these cities and finally ring in Russ's X0th.
I'll do my best to not get thrown in jail or caned, but I can't make any promises.
再见/selamat jalan/cheers,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com
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I'm off tonight on my second whirlwind tour of SE Asia. In the next ten days I will accumulate passport stamps in the ports of Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Macau and Zhuhai in mainland China. Very excited for the break, to see these cities and finally ring in Russ's X0th.
I'll do my best to not get thrown in jail or caned, but I can't make any promises.
再见/selamat jalan/cheers,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com
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Monday, 31 May 2010
[The Life of Shaun #405] Dinner in the Gherkin
Last Friday my friend Lottie got us a reservation in the Gherkin for dinner -- in a private dining room -- followed by drinks in the bar. I've waxed lyrically about the Gherkin nearly endlessly, so I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.
Cheers,
Shaun
Predrinks were at The Planet of the Grapes; each of these pictures are purported to be of people who died of alcoholism.
Fantastic bottle of wine! Buy it if you see it.
I don't care how many times I see it, it's awesome.
Security to get in is Heathrowesque.
Private dining is the way forward!
The dining room.
The dining room.
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com
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Tuesday, 18 May 2010
[The Life of Shaun #404] My 15 seconds
When I lived in America, I listened religiously* to NPR's Marketplace on my commute home. They also have a weekend show, Marketplace Money**, that's a wrap-up of the week as well as an in-depth look at financial/economic matters. Before many of you start yawning, they cover things in a very topical, lively, entertaining, relevant and, importantly, light manner.
After last week's show I wrote in a comment about one of the stories and the producer wrote back that he thought it was a great suggestion. Tonight he called me and asked me to read the suggestion for the show. So, for the one or possibly two of you who don't already listen to Marketplace Money on the radio or by podcast, tune in this weekend!
Cheers,
Shaun
Marketplace Money: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/episodes/show_rundown.php?show_id=8
*Purposely chosen for its incongruity
**I can honestly recommend listening to this regularly. Those who are into this sort of thing naturally will be all over it. But even if you're not, it's a good way to keep up with what's going on and maintaining your financial literacy without getting bored.
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com
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After last week's show I wrote in a comment about one of the stories and the producer wrote back that he thought it was a great suggestion. Tonight he called me and asked me to read the suggestion for the show. So, for the one or possibly two of you who don't already listen to Marketplace Money on the radio or by podcast, tune in this weekend!
Cheers,
Shaun
Marketplace Money: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/episodes/show_rundown.php?show_id=8
*Purposely chosen for its incongruity
**I can honestly recommend listening to this regularly. Those who are into this sort of thing naturally will be all over it. But even if you're not, it's a good way to keep up with what's going on and maintaining your financial literacy without getting bored.
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com
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Sunday, 9 May 2010
[The Life of Shaun #403] Collective plural
This is for the grammar nerds amongst us; the rest can comfortably hit delete now.
Hopefully (ie, it is hoped) you watched this week's American Idol for a live example. If so, you would have heard when Simon Cowell said "The band were good..."
Very shortly after moving here I heard this construction, incorrect in the American vernacular, which I, rightly or not, call the 'collective plural'. I watched AI with a Dutch and an American friend (since no British people live in London) and Simon's comment triggered a discussion about this topic.
In America, we would say "The band was good", and here they say "The band were good." Garret (American) took it as a cultural grammatical difference, Lottie (Dutch) considered it just incorrect. I pointed out that they say it like that on the BBC and, therefore, it's correct (everyone agreed).
But the conversation got interesting (to those of our ilk) when I counterpointed their grammatical arguments with my thoughts on it. When I first heard a comment along the lines of "The team were on form tonight" or somesuch, my thought didn't wander immediately to the grammar. I thought "Oh, in America, when we refer to the team, we think of the unit. Here, they think of the individuals that make up the team." Different perspective.
And then I quietly went along, slowly and unconsciously adapting the collective plural, until the conversation came up tonight. Lottie and Garret had never thought of it in the same light as I had. So is it a grammatical difference, or a social/perspective difference? If the latter, there might be a PhD topic there.
Would love to hear thoughts from the aforementioned grammar nerds out there.
Cheers,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com
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Hopefully (ie, it is hoped) you watched this week's American Idol for a live example. If so, you would have heard when Simon Cowell said "The band were good..."
Very shortly after moving here I heard this construction, incorrect in the American vernacular, which I, rightly or not, call the 'collective plural'. I watched AI with a Dutch and an American friend (since no British people live in London) and Simon's comment triggered a discussion about this topic.
In America, we would say "The band was good", and here they say "The band were good." Garret (American) took it as a cultural grammatical difference, Lottie (Dutch) considered it just incorrect. I pointed out that they say it like that on the BBC and, therefore, it's correct (everyone agreed).
But the conversation got interesting (to those of our ilk) when I counterpointed their grammatical arguments with my thoughts on it. When I first heard a comment along the lines of "The team were on form tonight" or somesuch, my thought didn't wander immediately to the grammar. I thought "Oh, in America, when we refer to the team, we think of the unit. Here, they think of the individuals that make up the team." Different perspective.
And then I quietly went along, slowly and unconsciously adapting the collective plural, until the conversation came up tonight. Lottie and Garret had never thought of it in the same light as I had. So is it a grammatical difference, or a social/perspective difference? If the latter, there might be a PhD topic there.
Would love to hear thoughts from the aforementioned grammar nerds out there.
Cheers,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com
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Monday, 3 May 2010
E2
Today I cheated on E1 and took a walk around the gem of E2, Bethnal Green. A couple weeks ago, the free Tower Hamlets newspaper published a walk of the month of the area, and I saved it for a day I felt like exploring.
I'd been to Bethnal Green before, for this or that, and definitely liked it, but I never really saw much off the high street. Turns out, it's quite a cool neighbourhood. It's urban at its core, but surprisingly bucolic for East London. Bethnal Green Road is a suture across E2, bringing together two realities of the East End; urban hipsters and hirsute hotties pour in from Shoreditch to the North, and the South Asian masses of Shadwell's Siamese twin, Whitechapel, come up from below. Trendily edgy cafés, diners and bars tactfully mix with kebab shops, pound savers and pubs (and a full-sized Tesco).
As you head North from the high street, the urban edge quickly gives way to lazy streets with stately stone terraced homes, trees and bushes more typical in W postcodes, and before you know it you are skirting along some of the East's premier destinations. Columbia Road Flower Market, Hackney City Farm, Broadway Market and (the heavily underused) Victoria Park hem in Bethnal Green from Hackney. The whole area is interspersed with parks, churches, plenty of housing stock that survived the Blitz and a relative dearth council estates. Shoreditch is a comfortable walk away, and there is a tube and an overland direct into Liverpool Street. What a lucky little corner of London.
Attached are some photos of my local ramble, full set at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=222493&id=713081334&l=7d6a6358a9
Cheers,
Shaun
Bethnal Green's Banksy
Hackney City Farm
Graffiti next to Haggerston Park
Where the übercool Broadway Market meets the Regent's Canal
An urban stretch of the canal
Ah, home!
Where London taxis go to die
Random small art studio on a back alley; how very East indeed
Entrance to Victoria Park
The canal goes green
About the park (it was opened in 1850 by Queen Victoria as a means to improve the lives and health of London's East Enders)
The park, if you're into that sorta thing
Duty, indeed!
Terraced homes of Bethnal Green
York Hall, opened in 1929 by the Duke & Dutchess of York. It now has spa treatments in addition to its original pools and gym
The tube
Bethnal Green Road
La Forchetta, a nod back to Clerkenwell
Shaun H. ColeyFriday, 16 April 2010
[The Life of Shaun #401] And that's that
Can't get to the West coast before Thursday. Long way to go for a Thu-Sun trip.
So new plan: going to see Russ in Hong Kong later in the year with a side trip to either Vietnam or Burma instead. Gutted to be missing the party, but I guess this is my year to see Southeast Asia.
All you West coasters -- guess this is just a sign it's time for you to come visit me here!
Sad, but alternatively excited,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org/
http://shaunism.blogspot.com/
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So new plan: going to see Russ in Hong Kong later in the year with a side trip to either Vietnam or Burma instead. Gutted to be missing the party, but I guess this is my year to see Southeast Asia.
All you West coasters -- guess this is just a sign it's time for you to come visit me here!
Sad, but alternatively excited,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org/
http://shaunism.blogspot.com/
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[The Life of Shaun #400] Çürßèd Eyjafjallajökul
The text/eMail/call has come in - British Airways flight 0275 from London Heathrow to Las Vegas McCarran is cancelled tomorrow. Mexican dinner is nixed. Holiday in flux. I am currently on hold with BA in America since BA Britain is, well, a no-go. Current estimated wait time? 64 minutes.
Sharing tonight with me is my friend Lottie, whose boyfriend was due back today to celebrate their one-year anniversary. He's stuck in Amsterdam. We're currently seeking comfort in Cobra beer.
Holiday interrupted. Wish me luck for tomorrow.
Cheers,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org/
http://shaunism.blogspot.com/
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Sharing tonight with me is my friend Lottie, whose boyfriend was due back today to celebrate their one-year anniversary. He's stuck in Amsterdam. We're currently seeking comfort in Cobra beer.
Holiday interrupted. Wish me luck for tomorrow.
Cheers,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org/
http://shaunism.blogspot.com/
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Tuesday, 6 April 2010
[The Life of Shaun #401] This is a public service announcement
Non-Americans can safely stop reading here.
OK, this is a bit off topic, but I thought there'd be enough (American) people interested/fact-deprived to find these useful, so I wanted to share.
NPR's Marketplace Money show had an exposé on the health care bill two weeks ago. So, if you'd like an audio review of the main features of the 2,400 pages of health reform, you can get it here:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/episodes/show_rundown.php?show_id=8&start_date=03-26-2010
(If you click on the orange banner near the upper right that says "Listen to the Show", you can listen to the whole thing as aired, or you can just check out the individual segments below.)
This week they had a story on student loan reform, which affects all too many of us:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/04/02/mm-studentloan/
OK, enough Samaritanism - back to my normal hedonistic, oblivious ways,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com
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OK, this is a bit off topic, but I thought there'd be enough (American) people interested/fact-deprived to find these useful, so I wanted to share.
NPR's Marketplace Money show had an exposé on the health care bill two weeks ago. So, if you'd like an audio review of the main features of the 2,400 pages of health reform, you can get it here:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/episodes/show_rundown.php?show_id=8&start_date=03-26-2010
(If you click on the orange banner near the upper right that says "Listen to the Show", you can listen to the whole thing as aired, or you can just check out the individual segments below.)
This week they had a story on student loan reform, which affects all too many of us:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/04/02/mm-studentloan/
OK, enough Samaritanism - back to my normal hedonistic, oblivious ways,
Shaun
Shaun H. Coley
Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
London, UK
http://www.nocirc.org
http://shaunism.blogspot.com
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