i promise not to build a nuclear weapon using my iphone

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i had never spotted this before - the EULA (end user license agreement) that flashes up before you update your iphone software.  it makes me promise that i won't use it to make nuclear missiles or chemical or biological weapons.  that's right, nuclear missiles or chemical or biological weapons.  seriously, it's a great phone - but what the hell is inside it?  and to think i was once concerned with radiation from cellphones. click on the pic to see it bigger:

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just a quiet saturday.  i just had the afro trimmed, we walked down to the post office to pick up another birthday present for rachel, and we're heading to mark and boo's tonight for dinner (that's 5 floors down in the same building we live in, so it's a nice easy commute in the elevator)

financial bailout of the automotive industry in usa

this whole financial bailout thing is quite interesting to watch, especially from the point of view of someone who is fiscally and economically clueless (that would be me). things that don't really make sense to me include GWB's systematic removal of any incentive for these car makers to develop more fuel-efficient vehicles (surely nothing to do with his oil buddies, nooooo), and the fact that they've made the same sh*tty gas guzzlers for years and years and years - and didn't think to change things when oil was a whopping US$140 per barrel. and now they act surprised as they find themselves in a financial poopoo.

still, the new obama-led presidency has said that any bailout will require a commitment to invest a considerable amount of money into fuel-efficiency and alternative fuel technologies, which appears to be a very sensible strategy.

anyway, something popped up on the internet tubes this morning that made me wonder whether the bozos in charge of the auto industries actually have any clue at all about anything.

the three ceos of ford, GM and chrysler had to go begging to washington for a bit of moolah. ford pointed out that they had closed 17 plants and had made made 51,000 people redundant over the last three years. money was tight and they are struggling.

in these tough times, how did each of these three ceos get from detroit to washington?  by private jets of course.  US$288 on economy, US$837 on first class, but us$20,000 by private jet. unbelievable.

the sad thing is, if these morons don't get the money, they're not the ones who get stung. they all have lovely redundancy and bonus packages, pensions and golden handshakes.  and if they do get the money... well, the private jets continue to fly.

morons having children

no, not us! if antenatal classes have taught me anything, it's that some hong kong expats are so mind numbingly self centred and clueless that it makes me want to throw furniture at them.

last night was the return of annoying bint (henceforth referred to as "bint"). some of the gems that she came out with last night:

midwife: "there are shared rooms, private rooms and there are vip rooms as well" bint: "is there a price list for each of them?" midwife: "yes. the private rooms and vip rooms are very expensive though" bint: [without a trace of self awareness or humour] "i'm worth it"

she then proceeded to head over to the wall mirror and pick her zits. seriously.

then during the maternity ward tour, we were shown a shared recuperation room (4 beds with separating curtains). As bint walked in, she uttered a very loud "not interested."

And as she walked out: "i'm not sharing with anyone."

question time with the doctor was equally fun: "i don't want any pain. on a pain scale of 1 to 10, i'm a minus 1". closely followed by: "if i can only get an epidural when i'm 5cm dilated, how am i going to get from 1cm to 5cm without pain?"

i was tempted to ask her if she had considered adoption - although lack of pain aside, i really don't think it's fair to introduce more of her moronic gene pool to the world.

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on a cheerier note - it's rachel's birthday today! 30 years old!

for this auspicious occasion, she's getting an eternity ring (named as such because that's how long it takes to pay the thing off). I'll admit it's shiny and sparkly  but from what i can tell it can't check email or surf the net, so i'm not really sure what it actually does.  also, we are heading to bangkok tomorrow for a nice long weekend "final solo holiday" and 30th celebration.

she also got an album of photos from our time in hong kong (from me) and some lovely pyjamas (from patrick and barbara). there are other presents which are reportedly somewhere between here and various nz post offices.

i must get off the computer now, as rachel wants to conduct her morning "sky showbiz" check and see what the celebrities are wearing, who is shagging who, and which of them has adopted an african child this week.

sunday night

aaah, almost the end of the weekend.  damn.  had a busy day today - i played golf with john in the morning:

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then we headed to kennedy town to sort out some cushions for a chair in cracker's room (cracker = all rachel ate in the first trimester = baby's nickname), shot over to kowloon to investigate rachel's 30th birthday present (i'm not telling - rachel picked it out, but you'll have to ask her if you want to know...), then i headed to fuel espresso for a coffee with sanjay, chantel and co while rach got her toenails painted (or whatever they do to toes and feet at a pedicure).  had a quiet night at home and watched the movie "run fat boy run" - which was quite hilarious.

took a few photos of el rats this weekend as well - rachel and poppy, ben looking at me on the balcony wondering how i got out there, and ben reclining on the floor:

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not much else - oh, there was this effort in the gym last week after my run on friday.  too sexy for my shirt:

busy week this week - we have an appointment with the unbornbabydoctor on tuesday, then i have work website profile photos on wednesday, then thursday is rachel's 30th birthday - and then on friday we take off to bangkok for a long weekend (partly for rachel's birthday and partly for the "last holiday" for a long, long, long time...

saturday morning laziness

ola!  what a week - barack obama voted president-elect of the united states of whatever george bush left behind, and i managed four lunchtime gym visits (i skipped the day of the us elections - i might have been watching coverage at my desk). we are cruising along in the runup to xmas.  xmas day we have the challis clan here for dinner - and that means ALL of them:  robin, kirstie, paddy, arabella, kate and aurora.  it'll be a busy day, but it will be fantastic - funnily enough the challis clan came for xmas lunch in 2005, and at that time it was just robin, kirstie and 'bump'!

today we've got cam, carolin and little sam coming down for some coffee and pastries - we haven't seen them for ages, and then we're heading out to discovery bay to sort out some employment papers for charise. a quiet night tonight - sweet.

tomorrow john s and i are heading out early morning to nine eagles golf course by the airport for a cheeky 9 holes.  after that, not sure what the day holds.  i have my eye on a new camera lens...  of course it's absolutely necessary to buy this lens in order to photograph brand new baby. not buying it effectively means that i don't love the child.  so i have to buy it, see?

next week is rachel's 30th birthday (thursday, in case you've forgotten), and we're heading to bangkok for 4 days on friday (it's not very far away).

time to go and clean myself up and get the coffee ready.  a few photos which i may or may not have uploaded before (click on them to enlarge...)

bloody airlines

just looking at the cost of getting home with mini-narly next march, and it annoys me greatly to see that air new zealand can get me to london for HK$2050 HK$4080 plus various taxes, but the best offer i can get to go to new zealand is HK$6500 plus (loads of) taxes.  it's amazing what a complete lack of competition can do for the price of flying. there are more than 15 airlines flying from hong kong to london direct.  and how many fly directly to new zealand? two - air new zealand and cathay pacific.

NB - Corrected the numbers. The Air NZ site had a one way deal of HK$2040, but still - $2000+ per person extra to get back to New Zealand is completely kumara-sucking.

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us elections this week.  is it possible for them to screw things up for the third time in a row? probably.

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post-bledisloe

great night last night - the all blacks won 19-14 (although in fairness that pass that led to mccaw's try was painfully forward, so 14-14 would have been a fair ending).  we had a fun time in the stands, with great seats - other than the plonker australian a few seats behind us who simply could not shut up the whole night with his painfully ignorant take on the ref's multitudes of crap decisions. met up with mark pearce (margot's husband) and his work colleague andrew and heading to TOTT (the humbly named restaurant "talk of the town") in causeway bay to meet one of their clients. turns out that TOTT was in the hotel where the all blacks were staying, so on the way out, mark managed to shake Keven Mealamu's hand and congratulate him on a great result!  had a great meal and then called it a night fairly early, as mark and andrew were pretty jetlagged.

lazy day today, we read the paper and mucked around this morning and then mark popped over for an afternoon bbq (and to drop off our basinet that he had kindly dragged over from new zealand). had a nice relaxing afternoon with sausages, steak and beers.

and now i have to go back to work tomorrow.  bah.

here is a shot of our sunset, taken about an hour ago from our little balcony:

hedge fund fight night

although i was feeling a tad stomachey, i headed along to the 2nd annual hedge fund fight night in causeway bay last night.  alex was one of the 12 fighters and was second to last fight - the business end of the evening. ended up having a great time - we had a good bunch of people on our table and although i'm not really into boxing or fighting or anything like martial arts, i did enjoy myself. the food was crackingly good and i took much pleasure in destroying a plate of lamb shank and garlic mash in record time.

alex's fight went the full three rounds and in the end he lost on points.  it was a great fight - i thought he took the second and lost the first and third, but the other guy did land a few more blows on alex and the result seemed to be fair.

the evening ended up finishing around midnight, and after dropping alex off at a pub, i scuttled home to see rach and the cats.  ben kindly woke me at 6:30am demanding a pat and fresh bowl of food.  brat.

some photos from the evening (click for bigger size):

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weirdly, a handful of visitors crashed our function - recognise any of them?