The rest of the night didn't go so well...

Nothing broken, but after three out of ten pieces of glass were transferred in, it started raining hard enough that we (well, not we technically etc etc) couldn't use the suckers to lift the glass anymore. We waited 'till 4 and the rain still hadn't let up so we sent everyone home. Got to bed at 6. Buggered.

As for the Aussie take on the cute cat picce I promised you. These from soon-to-be-aussie-Dunc;



Closer...



Finally, a development on the gibbon shot;



had been considering animation etc but lack talent / impetus.

Bomber out

600kg of glass, 16 people, 4 changes of underwear, piece of piss

It's midnight & the BIG glass lite is on the 3rd floor, having been carried up 2 flights by 16 guys.

The evening isn't over yet but that's the scariest bit (almost) done. All the other lites can fit in the cargo lift.

Some edge damage to the big one (or â??cunting glassâ??as we're affectionately referring to it) but the subbie has said he flatly refuses ever to carry a piece of glass that big upstairs again (5mx3m) so i suppose the client will just have to lump it...

More to do yet

Bomber out

Gummed up comments and my love affair with Kim Chi

So the comments on Blogger got all snarled up yesterday, giving Dunc the opportunity to abuse me 4 times, but seemed to manage no variety at all. He did send me a rather horrid picture of a bunch of dead cats hanging from a tree, which I shall post tomorrow.

Korea was fun yesterday, the client pointed out a hole in the GC's programme which means a probable 3 month delay in the end date; although not for us only following trades. It all started when the interior guys said they wanted to start in January '05 and their requirement was a "sealed" building (ie; my wall installed). All eyes turned to little old me and the client asked when I (well, not I, technically, but you get the picture) will finish the wall. "Mid-June" says I; "As per GC's programe mi'lud". The room went into an uproar of French, Korean and English for an hour until they decided that they weren't going to solve it and so moved onto the next topic. I love this business.

Dinner involved duck with Korean wasabi and ... wait for it ... Kim Chi. No; not a hostess, but a lovely plate of stinky cabbage preserved in pepper and vinegar and other wonders. Bubble will recall whistfully that pickled onions aren't that bad after all.

Anyhoo, just arrived in Taipei so off to work with me. Glass goes in tonight, so if it's going to go wrong this is the best time for it to happen. the glass lites are all unique sizes (so no spares) and the biggest is 600 kilos and 50,000 HK$ ('bout 4 thousand new English pounds). Oh, yes, and we (well not we, technically) have to carry it down a flight of stairs.

Ho, Ho; it's going to be a 12 pair of underwear trip, me-thinks

Cross fingers; Out

How cute are they?

B3ta news letter is out. Every week they run a competition to send in the cutest pictures that people can find on the internet while they are supposed to be working. Of course thousands of kitten pictures but also the odd skunk. My favorite, though is this one;



Cat's are just so fucking belligerent. My entry for today's caption competition; "oh, great; hugged by a gibbon"

Off on me travels again this week. Korea then Taipei. As such, you will have to put up with me whingeing about hotel rooms etc. If you're very lucky, I'll have the opportunity to tell you about losing my rag in front of the Koreans. I THINK my boss gave me permission to do this yesterday ay lunch; he said something like "we have to draw a line somewhere" although whether he was talking about "with the Koreans" or "under your employment" remains to be seen.

See ya later

Bomber out

Morning all

Last week, the Guardian's "expert panel" voted for the top 10 sci-fi films. They came up with the following

1 Blade Runner (1982) Dir: Ridley Scott
2 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Dir: Stanley Kubrick
3 Star Wars (1977)/Empire Strikes Back (1980)
4 Alien (1979) Dir: Ridley Scott
5 Solaris (1972) Dir: Andrei Tarkovsky
6 Terminator (1984)/T2: Judgment day (1991) Dir: James Cameron
7 The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Dir: Robert Wise
8 War of the Worlds (1953) Dir: Byron Haskin
9 The Matrix (1999) Dir: Andy & Larry Wachowski
10 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Dir: Steven Spielberg

Look; I'm no "expert", but I'm betting that people who are, like Dave for example (you back yet, big man?), would have something to say about that list but here's my 2 pence anyway;

Entries 1-4, 6, and 10; no arguments, except to say that Alien should also mention Aliens as one of the best sequals ever made (of course always bowing before the might of T2)

No. 5; Solaris was fucking boring. Interesting plot but did you actually try and watch the Tarkovsky (original) version? Snail's pace doesn't even come close to describing it. I fell asleep and almost died.

No. 7; I haven't seen, will make a point of renting it (probably only available on 8mm or parchment or whatever they used back then)

No. 8; War of the Worlds is included because it was a cracking story and because of the infamy of the yanks first letting their gullability shine bright in the Great Radio Hoax (for those who don't know about this, they serialised WotW on radio and yanks thought it was real. Major stupidity fuelled panic ensued). Frankly didn't rate it as a film

No. 9; The Matrix IS a top action / Scifi flick, but Top 10?

I think the following would have been better inclusions

Gattaca - So good, some people claim it's not SF
The Thing - Class in every gut wrenching, alien morphing way. Some of the special effects in that movie have never been bettered, and it was made in '82. And it's got Kurt Russel in it
Escape from New York / Escape from LA. More Kurt Russel. Fantastic
Pitch Black - Top Scifi / horror on a budget of 3 quid and a bag of jelly beans. How Tall dunc got his start
Akira - Motorbikes, lasers, ninjas, aliens and it's a cartoon. What more could you want?
Dark City - As bubble pointed out; a much more seminal treatment of confused reality than that battery bollocks in the Matrix (sadly lacking Trin's leather clad bot, though)
Predator - that scene where he rips out the indian's spine...

And several flops that I think deserve an honourable mention

Tank Girl - Top cartoon conversion. Fantastic music. And a girl in a tank. Oh yeah, and Ice T as a kangaroo (his most convincing role to date)
Dune - I think I'm the only person who ever watched this, it flopped so hard. I still think it's ace, and so does FatBoy Slim, evidently.
Starship troopers - Everybody hated this movie, I thought the soap-opera hamminess and the proaganda ads were inspired. Also includes the immortal line form Micheal Ironside "IT SUCKED HIS BRAINS OUT..." Class.
Battlefield Earth - Err, how did that get there. No I didn't men that. This was a truly shit film. Only saving grace was Forrest Wittaker dressed as an alien in big dancing boots playing Travolta's side kick, looking really embarassed in every scene (one assumes about his inclusion in the movie) Scientologist nonsense.

Whew, that went on too long, I'm off to work

Bomber out

Oh no, wot 've I done...!

In a fit of what may turn out to be suicidal stupidity, I have gotten drunk and agreed to enter the Action Asia Challenge in Hong Kong on December 5th (that's THIS year, folks!) This is generally a 1 day event involving running, biking, kayaking, swimming and abseiling. Insert the optional sport of dying at any point in the preceeding list. My concept, apparently, with talking myself into this is that I need a goal in order to start the battle with the thing growing under my nipples, which, if left unchecked, will likely reach smudge proportions before the year is out. Generally I intend to train gradually over the next three months, by which time I should be fit enough to get to the airport and leave HK, never to return. Ah well, best intentions and all.

Meantime, I got this from Guy today. I suspect it's real;


An ill-wind has blown through the federal election campaign.

The Cattle Council of Australia demanded reassurance from Labor that it would not introduce a so-called fart tax.

The fart tax, known in more polite circles as an animal emissions tax, has been considered in other countries, most recently New Zealand.

The aim is to cut the amount of methane, a greenhouse gas, produced by cattle and other ruminant livestock by changing what is in their feed or switching to less gassy breeds. Cattle Council president Keith Adams said a fart tax on Australia's 27 million bovines would be a tragedy that would do little to help the environment.

"Any emissions tax on livestock would be an unfounded attack on Australian cattle producers," he said.

"A fart tax would be an economic tragedy and scientific nonsense for our $12 billion beef industry which prides itself on good environmental stewardship."

Mr Adams said a fart tax of around 50 cents an animal would be a $13 million slug on the cattle industry.

But Labor's finance spokesman Bob McMullan, without referring to fart or flatulence, managed to rule out the idea for an ALP government.

"That's one of the more extraordinary propositions," he told reporters.

"I'm happy to say, in all the discussions we've had about all the policy options that might be undertaken, that didn't come up."

A Fart Tax; I'd suffer for that...

Bomber out

alright, all right; maybe it is a little waxen

Either way, I am bound to bow to Mr Collis' superior knowledge of all things kylie. Meantime, and by way of apology for misleading you, here's a couple of shots from Smudge, including a rare appearance by Jason






and one you would have found if you had clicked the fake bot...



Aplologies (again) for misleading you with fake porn ... errr ... Pictures of the Aussie cherub

Bomber out