Monitoring the Greenland Ice Sheet from Space
3 years ago
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
How To Speak Thai
Nikki and I both learned enough Thai to get by while we were out there. Thai is a complicated language and is hard to represent using the roman alphabet, but in our case we only cared about speaking it, as I'm sure you do, so the phrases below are presented phonetically.
I had intended to learn a new expression every day, but after learning 4 I realised that I now had all I needed. You too can be as competent a Thai speaker as Nikki and I with these simple phrases. To be polite in Thai, each sentence ends with "Krap" if you're male or "Kaa" if you're female. If you want to be rude you can just cut the "Krap".
The fourth Thai phrase we learned was how to say "hello". Some of you may think this silly, surely it should be the first Thai phrase you learn, well, you're wrong, there are three far more important phrases.
The first Thai phrase we learned, was "Kop Koon Krap" for me and "Kop Koon Kaa" for Nikki. This means "Thank you". Thank you is more important than hello because you use it more often. You may say "hello" when you first walk into a pub, but you'll say "thank you" many times throughout the evening.
The second phrase we learned was "Ka Roo Na Song Sing Krap", which was definitely the most important phrase we learned. Again, Nikki needed to use "Kaa" on the end. Let me break this one down for you:
"Ka Roo Na" - Please
"Song" - Two
"Sing" - Singha beers
This phrase works like a charm. Upon hearing it, bored waiters and waitresses tired of foreigners drinking all their beer suddenly become friendly and outgoing.
Now, the third phrase wasn't one we used very much, so you don't really need to learn it as long as you're happy to repeat yourself. Waitresses would bring us beer and say "Kop Koon Kaa" and I would feel that saying "Kop Koon Krap" back was not sufficient, so we learned "Ma Pen Raa Krap", which means "You're Welcome".
Finally, it was time to learn "hello", so we could announce ourselves when walking into a pub. Hello is "Sa Wat Dee Krap", or, as you know by now if you're a girl "Sa Wat Dee Kaa". This pretty much completed our education. Now we could walk into a pub, say hello, order beer, thank the wait staff for taking our order and then respond to them for thanking us for drinking it, that, my friends, is what I call fluency.
You now know all the Thai you're ever going to need for a successful holiday to that wonderful country. Ma Pen Raa Krap.
I had intended to learn a new expression every day, but after learning 4 I realised that I now had all I needed. You too can be as competent a Thai speaker as Nikki and I with these simple phrases. To be polite in Thai, each sentence ends with "Krap" if you're male or "Kaa" if you're female. If you want to be rude you can just cut the "Krap".
The fourth Thai phrase we learned was how to say "hello". Some of you may think this silly, surely it should be the first Thai phrase you learn, well, you're wrong, there are three far more important phrases.
The first Thai phrase we learned, was "Kop Koon Krap" for me and "Kop Koon Kaa" for Nikki. This means "Thank you". Thank you is more important than hello because you use it more often. You may say "hello" when you first walk into a pub, but you'll say "thank you" many times throughout the evening.
The second phrase we learned was "Ka Roo Na Song Sing Krap", which was definitely the most important phrase we learned. Again, Nikki needed to use "Kaa" on the end. Let me break this one down for you:
"Ka Roo Na" - Please
"Song" - Two
"Sing" - Singha beers
This phrase works like a charm. Upon hearing it, bored waiters and waitresses tired of foreigners drinking all their beer suddenly become friendly and outgoing.
Now, the third phrase wasn't one we used very much, so you don't really need to learn it as long as you're happy to repeat yourself. Waitresses would bring us beer and say "Kop Koon Kaa" and I would feel that saying "Kop Koon Krap" back was not sufficient, so we learned "Ma Pen Raa Krap", which means "You're Welcome".
Finally, it was time to learn "hello", so we could announce ourselves when walking into a pub. Hello is "Sa Wat Dee Krap", or, as you know by now if you're a girl "Sa Wat Dee Kaa". This pretty much completed our education. Now we could walk into a pub, say hello, order beer, thank the wait staff for taking our order and then respond to them for thanking us for drinking it, that, my friends, is what I call fluency.
You now know all the Thai you're ever going to need for a successful holiday to that wonderful country. Ma Pen Raa Krap.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Home
It's good to be home. The house was in one piece, except for the computer. It appears to have blown a fuse in its power supply, but is hopefully terminal enough that Nikki will have to let me buy a whole new one.
The garden was a little overgrown. The herbs are mostly all looking big healthy and the tomato plant has gone absolutely bonkers...two of them were nice and red , so I picked them, there are about a dozen others on there that should come ready over the next few weeks:
I am bizarrely proud of these two guys.
The garden was a little overgrown. The herbs are mostly all looking big healthy and the tomato plant has gone absolutely bonkers...two of them were nice and red , so I picked them, there are about a dozen others on there that should come ready over the next few weeks:
I am bizarrely proud of these two guys.
Friday, May 11, 2007
May 11th
As any Aberdeen fan knows, May 11th is a magical day, it's a double fantastic day for me though, because it is also Nikki's birthday. We're back in Singapore, I've booked us for dinner at Equinox, on the 70th floor of the Swissotel, Nikki loved the necklace I gave her this morning. Everything's shaping up for a great day, except, well, here are some of the google searches I've run since I came to this computer:
swollen nose
swollen forehead nose
sinus infection swelling
tropical disease "swollen nose"
swelling forehead nose tropics
swelling forehead spread nose
Yeah, something is weird. Nikki had this small swelling in her forehead yesterday and a bit of a cold. No pain, no fever, we joked that it looked like she'd had botox, by last night it had shrunk a bit, this morning, maybe a bit more. We had a lazy morning. I went out for chocolate croissants, we watched one of the pirated DVD's we bought in Bangkok and then Nikki realised her glasses were a bit tight...the swelling has spread down her nose and she looks...well, she looks normal, except for her nose, which looks like the nose of a boxer who's gone 10 rounds a few times too many, it's very weird. Still no pain or fever. The internet is no help as ever. She's trying a hot bath at the moment. That usually solves everything, if not we may have to resort to drastic measures and try a hot cup of tea. Failing that we'll just get so hammered tonight that we don't care that everyone's staring at her nose and assuming I'm an abusive husband. Bizarrely, this won't be the first time I've experienced that. When she had her wisdom teeth taken out last year she ended up with huge bruises on each side of her face that lingered for weeks and migrated around her face. That was fantastic. This should be an interesting evening. Oh and you're definitely not getting pictures of this. Not unless I can take a picture of her nose without her noticing and post it here without her ever finding out.
swollen nose
swollen forehead nose
sinus infection swelling
tropical disease "swollen nose"
swelling forehead nose tropics
swelling forehead spread nose
Yeah, something is weird. Nikki had this small swelling in her forehead yesterday and a bit of a cold. No pain, no fever, we joked that it looked like she'd had botox, by last night it had shrunk a bit, this morning, maybe a bit more. We had a lazy morning. I went out for chocolate croissants, we watched one of the pirated DVD's we bought in Bangkok and then Nikki realised her glasses were a bit tight...the swelling has spread down her nose and she looks...well, she looks normal, except for her nose, which looks like the nose of a boxer who's gone 10 rounds a few times too many, it's very weird. Still no pain or fever. The internet is no help as ever. She's trying a hot bath at the moment. That usually solves everything, if not we may have to resort to drastic measures and try a hot cup of tea. Failing that we'll just get so hammered tonight that we don't care that everyone's staring at her nose and assuming I'm an abusive husband. Bizarrely, this won't be the first time I've experienced that. When she had her wisdom teeth taken out last year she ended up with huge bruises on each side of her face that lingered for weeks and migrated around her face. That was fantastic. This should be an interesting evening. Oh and you're definitely not getting pictures of this. Not unless I can take a picture of her nose without her noticing and post it here without her ever finding out.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Thailand
Still no pictures, sorry. I've no excuse this time other than that I didn't bring my portable hard drive with me to the place where the computers are and I'm not going to go back for it because Nikki's having a nap and I don't want to wake her up.
We're in Phuket now, flying back to Singapore tomorrow night, before heading home on Saturday. Bangkok was great fun, but the Sofitel Central Plaza charged 20 bhat a minute for internet access. To give you an idea of how extortionate that is, the going rate at most internet cafe's is 1 or 2 bhat per minute. Even here at the Kata Thani I bought an hour for 200 bhat, which is still too high, but not ridiculously so.
Bad news on the post card front for any of you whose address we don't have memorised, which in my case is everyone except my Mum, Auntie Cena, and Christine (and even then I'm not sure of Christine or Auntie Cena's postcode), Nikki forgot to print off the address list, so you're not getting a postcard, sorry. Alex and Fi, I know it's BFPO53, but that's about it. Iain and Vikki, Stonehaven, probably won't do the trick and Jen and Thomas, near Dallas, really isn't going to work. Once again, sorry. I accept full responsibility, I only asked her to do it 3 times. In fact now that I think about it, what do you all have in common? That's right, you've moved in the last few years. So it's your fault, not mine, I can't possibly be expected to remember your addresses when you keep moving around.
So anyway, in holiday related news, we were sitting in a bar eating spicy prawns the other night and the woman changed the channel to a football match that was about 7 minutes in - HEA 0-0 ABE read the banner at the top...Now, I haven't seen an Aberdeen match live all season and they were playing in their white away colours, so I wasn't really sure it was them until Jamie Langfield let a soft dribbler, that he really should have saved, trickle under his hand and into the net. "Fantastic" I said to Nikki, "it's Aberdeen". So we had a lot of Singha and watched Aberdeen conspire to miss one chance after another as everyone else in the bar ignored the proceedings. Ignored them that is until Aberdeen equalised with about a minute left at which point I jumped up and shouted "Yes!" scaring the life out of the 3 or 4 Thai waitresses on my left and the 10 or 12 Russian diners on my right and drawing the attention of the entire bar. So sorry to anyone who was in, I think it was called, Oyster, on Sunday night in Kata. That was me.
We're in Phuket now, flying back to Singapore tomorrow night, before heading home on Saturday. Bangkok was great fun, but the Sofitel Central Plaza charged 20 bhat a minute for internet access. To give you an idea of how extortionate that is, the going rate at most internet cafe's is 1 or 2 bhat per minute. Even here at the Kata Thani I bought an hour for 200 bhat, which is still too high, but not ridiculously so.
Bad news on the post card front for any of you whose address we don't have memorised, which in my case is everyone except my Mum, Auntie Cena, and Christine (and even then I'm not sure of Christine or Auntie Cena's postcode), Nikki forgot to print off the address list, so you're not getting a postcard, sorry. Alex and Fi, I know it's BFPO53, but that's about it. Iain and Vikki, Stonehaven, probably won't do the trick and Jen and Thomas, near Dallas, really isn't going to work. Once again, sorry. I accept full responsibility, I only asked her to do it 3 times. In fact now that I think about it, what do you all have in common? That's right, you've moved in the last few years. So it's your fault, not mine, I can't possibly be expected to remember your addresses when you keep moving around.
So anyway, in holiday related news, we were sitting in a bar eating spicy prawns the other night and the woman changed the channel to a football match that was about 7 minutes in - HEA 0-0 ABE read the banner at the top...Now, I haven't seen an Aberdeen match live all season and they were playing in their white away colours, so I wasn't really sure it was them until Jamie Langfield let a soft dribbler, that he really should have saved, trickle under his hand and into the net. "Fantastic" I said to Nikki, "it's Aberdeen". So we had a lot of Singha and watched Aberdeen conspire to miss one chance after another as everyone else in the bar ignored the proceedings. Ignored them that is until Aberdeen equalised with about a minute left at which point I jumped up and shouted "Yes!" scaring the life out of the 3 or 4 Thai waitresses on my left and the 10 or 12 Russian diners on my right and drawing the attention of the entire bar. So sorry to anyone who was in, I think it was called, Oyster, on Sunday night in Kata. That was me.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
No Pics Today
Sorry. Met my cousin David yesterday, who had parked his container ship in Singapore for a few hours with the express purpose of forcing Nikki and I to drink lots of 660ml bottles of Tiger Beer. As a result I forgot to download my new set of pictures to Nikki's laptop and create a blog entry before she went to work. David got back on board to drive his ship round the corner to Malaysia last night where he'll park it up again today (sorry for all the nautical terms, I hope I'm not confusing you all, I've been reading a lot of Patrick O'Brien recently) before showing his replacement what he's broken this trip and taking a taxi back to Singapore to fly home this evening. Hopefully he'll have time to meet up for a couple of glasses of mineral water and maybe a garden salad before he goes.
Nikki took me on the MRT yesterday, which is Singapore's underground system. It's great. Really clean. Very cheap. Very fast. Even the escalators down to the platforms travel about 6 times faster than normal. They have this great system where you buy your ticket and get a plastic card. The two fares I paid yesterday were SG$2.30 and SG$2.50, but the clever part is, if you keep hold of your card at the end of a journey and pop it back in a machine, you get SG$1 back. The cards look like they're reusable, possibly from the same machine shortly after they've been deposited. No-one chucks their tickets away like they do outside every other underground station I've ever seen and the cards are recycled over and over. Brilliant.
Nikki took me on the MRT yesterday, which is Singapore's underground system. It's great. Really clean. Very cheap. Very fast. Even the escalators down to the platforms travel about 6 times faster than normal. They have this great system where you buy your ticket and get a plastic card. The two fares I paid yesterday were SG$2.30 and SG$2.50, but the clever part is, if you keep hold of your card at the end of a journey and pop it back in a machine, you get SG$1 back. The cards look like they're reusable, possibly from the same machine shortly after they've been deposited. No-one chucks their tickets away like they do outside every other underground station I've ever seen and the cards are recycled over and over. Brilliant.
Monday, April 30, 2007
I Feel Bad About My Shoulders
Singapore has a reputation for being home to some of the best tailors in Asia. Nikki and I talked about my maybe buying a suit while I was here. I don't wear one to work, but the one I have was bought off the rack 6 years ago. On Sunday we went for a walk to Chinatown, where many of the tailors are concentrated.
This is the view from the Chinatown MRT station back up to the Central District, where we are staying. The MRT is Singapore's underground system, but we walked down this street as it is only about 25 minutes.
Looking into one of the streets of Chinatown. Lots of shops, lots of stalls, everyone wants to sell you something. Clothes, electronics, food, souvenirs...
We spoke to a few tailors before Fierez at Eurobest talked us inside. He's a pretty persuasive salesman and I love to haggle, even if I suspect I never know what a good price is, so we hit it off pretty quickly. In the end we settled on a 120 thread count wool/cashmere suit, with an extra pair of trousers, 6 shirts and two silk ties for about US$800, which I think is a pretty good deal for a made to measure suit. During the negotiations one of his points was that I needed to buy a custom suit because my shoulders are at different heights.
What?
He then got his tape out, turned me towards Nikki, who immediately said "Oh, yeah" and then showed me in the mirror that my right shoulder is way lower than my left. Awesome. So now I can't stop looking at my weird shoulders every time I see my own reflection.
While we were waiting for Fierez's tailor to turn up to take extra measurements Nikki and I took a walk around Chinatown.
Strangley, Chinatown is home to Singapore's oldest Hindu temple, the beautiful Sri Mariamman Temple.
I was also quite astonished with the idea of the Street of the Dead, where the poor came to die. Chinese immigrants mostly lived in overcrowded quarters with barely enough room for the living and believed it was bad luck to have someone die in your home. The death houses were outlawed in 1961.
This is the view from the Chinatown MRT station back up to the Central District, where we are staying. The MRT is Singapore's underground system, but we walked down this street as it is only about 25 minutes.
Looking into one of the streets of Chinatown. Lots of shops, lots of stalls, everyone wants to sell you something. Clothes, electronics, food, souvenirs...
We spoke to a few tailors before Fierez at Eurobest talked us inside. He's a pretty persuasive salesman and I love to haggle, even if I suspect I never know what a good price is, so we hit it off pretty quickly. In the end we settled on a 120 thread count wool/cashmere suit, with an extra pair of trousers, 6 shirts and two silk ties for about US$800, which I think is a pretty good deal for a made to measure suit. During the negotiations one of his points was that I needed to buy a custom suit because my shoulders are at different heights.What?
He then got his tape out, turned me towards Nikki, who immediately said "Oh, yeah" and then showed me in the mirror that my right shoulder is way lower than my left. Awesome. So now I can't stop looking at my weird shoulders every time I see my own reflection.
While we were waiting for Fierez's tailor to turn up to take extra measurements Nikki and I took a walk around Chinatown.
Strangley, Chinatown is home to Singapore's oldest Hindu temple, the beautiful Sri Mariamman Temple.
I was also quite astonished with the idea of the Street of the Dead, where the poor came to die. Chinese immigrants mostly lived in overcrowded quarters with barely enough room for the living and believed it was bad luck to have someone die in your home. The death houses were outlawed in 1961.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Singapore
After 22 hours of travel and my first crossing of the international date line, I arrived safely in Singapore just before noon on Saturday. Changi airport played a cruel trick on me upon arrival. I cleared immigration quickly and made my way into the baggage reclaim hall, where I could see Nikki on the other side of the floor to ceiling glass wall and we could almost touch hands maximum security prison style. This was mildly amusing at first but became increasingly more agonising as my bags took 30 minutes to appear before I could deliver a proper hug and kiss.
Singapore itself has been great so far. The food has been great everywhere we've gone, the weather is good and there are lots of beautiful old buildings tucked in amongst the beautiful new buildings. It's a lovely city.
I've taken a bunch of pictures already and if Nikki remembers to bring the card reader home from work I'll post some of them soon.
Singapore itself has been great so far. The food has been great everywhere we've gone, the weather is good and there are lots of beautiful old buildings tucked in amongst the beautiful new buildings. It's a lovely city.
I've taken a bunch of pictures already and if Nikki remembers to bring the card reader home from work I'll post some of them soon.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Baggage
Well, my bags are packed, I'm ready to go.
My weight (after dinner and fully clothed): 210.2lbs
My weight (after dinner, fully clothed and holding my packed suitcase): 249lbs
Difference: 38.8lbs
In kilograms: 17.6kg
Continental Baggage Limit: 23kg
Singapore Airlines Baggage Limit: 20kg
---To / From the USA: 32kg
The budget airline we're taking to Bangkok's baggage limit: 15kg
Amount of stuff in my suitcase that is Nikki's: About one third
Things of mine I'm already thinking I'll have to throw away to reduce the weight and make more room for Nikki's stuff:
---Any books I finish before next Thursday
---Socks that I've already worn
---Underpants I've already worn
---Any 2 of the 6 favourite t-shirts I've brought with me
---1 of my 3 shirts
---My pajamas
---1 of my 3 pairs of shorts
My weight (after dinner and fully clothed): 210.2lbs
My weight (after dinner, fully clothed and holding my packed suitcase): 249lbs
Difference: 38.8lbs
In kilograms: 17.6kg
Continental Baggage Limit: 23kg
Singapore Airlines Baggage Limit: 20kg
---To / From the USA: 32kg
The budget airline we're taking to Bangkok's baggage limit: 15kg
Amount of stuff in my suitcase that is Nikki's: About one third
Things of mine I'm already thinking I'll have to throw away to reduce the weight and make more room for Nikki's stuff:
---Any books I finish before next Thursday
---Socks that I've already worn
---Underpants I've already worn
---Any 2 of the 6 favourite t-shirts I've brought with me
---1 of my 3 shirts
---My pajamas
---1 of my 3 pairs of shorts
Monday, April 23, 2007
New Rules of Dating
Had a couple of beers with friends last night, including one who I believe to be one of the final members of the increasingly endangered species known as my single friends. The discussion turned, inevitably, to his recent dating experiences and encounters. As a result of the discussion we have come up with two new rules that single people need to follow:
1) Thou shalt not date anyone younger than half your age plus 7. For example, if you're 34, she has to be at least 17+7=24.
2) Guys shall not be expected to wait more than 5 minutes for each point a girl scores on the standard 1-10 hotness scale. If you're a 7, you can be 35 minutes late. If he leaves after that point, it's your fault. If he leaves before that point, it's his fault.
1) Thou shalt not date anyone younger than half your age plus 7. For example, if you're 34, she has to be at least 17+7=24.
2) Guys shall not be expected to wait more than 5 minutes for each point a girl scores on the standard 1-10 hotness scale. If you're a 7, you can be 35 minutes late. If he leaves after that point, it's your fault. If he leaves before that point, it's his fault.
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