Good News Indeed...

If you visit this place regularly, you may have noticed a link (amongst many of my other defunct links) which doesn't work entitled 'Buy T-Shirts and Contribute to my Mates Beer Money'. 

This was an enterprise undertaken my one of the former members of the gang, we will call him 'The One That Got Away'. 

We lost contact when we were around 17 and he went off to the 'College of Knowledge' which was the name we gave to the local Tech, whilst most of the rest of us went to Greenhead. He was a good lad, but got involved in some shady stuff and ended up moving away to Manchester which was a real shame.

Anyway in recent year he has returned, and we've had a few beers together. Its amazing how quickly you revert to old ways after not seeing one another for nearly 10 years. You spend your youth developing your sense of humour with those who are around you at the time - and that connection never really goes.

I was in contact with him earlier this year, and it turns out he has a new enterprise:

You have no idea how much this excites me because, the idea of discount beer is much more appealing than discount t-shirts (although I will accept a t-shirt too if someone is willing to give me one). And also - the restaurant is literally less than 80m from my mums house! So the stumble to bed will be an easy one!

The only problem is that in order to make the 30 hour trip from Sydney to Holmfirth worthwhile - I would have to skank approximately 400 beers!

Here is the link if you are interested (as usual it doesn't work):

www.mezze-bar-restaurant.com  

Random Review II

I had planned to do the "Random Review" thing on a regular basis, however being as I don't have so much time on my hands anymore (in fact none) and I haven't really had the chance to read, it has been some time since my last post of this nature.

This review is related to Climate Change (as everything I write appears to be nowadays). I work in the field as an engineer and have little time to actually look back at advancing climate chance science which evolves at a rate that I just can't keep up with, so I have been trying to brush up on the issues. If you are interested - read on...

An Inconvenient Truth (the Book), Al Gore 

Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" was an exceptionally important film. This was not because of the groundbreaking science contained within or because of any new concepts relating to emissions reduction scenarios. It was because of two reasons: 

1. Al Gore is an excellent speaker

2. His film managed to explain climate change in simple terms to those who would otherwise have remained oblivious.

But this is a book review and as such relates to the accompanying tome which I first picked up in Chicago in late 2006. This gave me the opportunity to read the text before I saw the film. In many ways the book is still excellent. As with the film, the book follows Gore around the world as he presents his key-note speech on the dangers of climate change. 

I don't have a copy with me now, but 

one of the things that sticks in my mind is the photograph of mount Kilimanjaro a decade ago and the comparison with how it looks now, with vastly lessened permanent snows.

My main problems with the book

 lie with the fact that far too much of the story is focussed on Gore and his childhood, this is good in one respect as it maintains interest in his struggle to get his message across - but ... if you were to make all of your opinions based upon his explanations he would have you believe that it wa

s his university lecturers who first discovered the problem, and it was he alone carrying the torch through the 80's and 90's which is a bit of a mistruth.

I am going to give it 3 Rabbit Raisins:

The Weathermakers, Tim Flannery, 2006

The main reason why I wrote the review of Al Gores book was that I wanted to make a comparison with Tim Flannery's "The Weather Makers".

I picked up the Weathermakers back in December '07 (a little late I know seeing as it was written in 2006) based upon recommendation from a much respected former colleague in the UK ... and wow was I blown away in just a few Chapters! Tim Flannery (Australian of the year for 2006) presents information on Climate Change science in a way I have never read before - with wit, excellent writing skills, and superb honesty. It is so easy for the layman to read - from start to finish.

He, unlike Gore presents arguments and scientific consensus complete with sources and potential counter arguments in a very complete text. He is an ecologist by profession and takes us from discussions on the fate of the golden toad in Costa Rica to concepts of evolution and the 'Gaia Hypothesis'. He tells stories of struggling scientists trying to get their ideas accepted into the mainstream which helps the reader to understand why (to the general public) it appears that this climate change thing has just been sprung on us. 

Best of all, he gives possible outcomes in terms of impacts upon life. What will happen to use when energy becomes scarce and economies tighten up? And why have economists been forever arguing about the potential costs for climate change mitigation, and are they actually greater than the costs of dong nothing? 

Some of his arguments run into the philosophical, he muses that the source of our civilisation is our cities. Large concentrations of people dependent on networks that supply them with food and water. He considers that in times of scarcity it will be the specialists that suffer as happens in nature (e.g. his golden toad). Therefore it will be those in non-essential jobs that feel the pinch first.

A few of my favourite extracts:

On global population:

"In that seemingly distant age [1961] there were just 3 billion people, and they were only using half of the total resources that our global ecosystem could sustainably provide. A short 25 years later, in 1986, we had reached a watershed, for that year our population topped 5 billion, and such was our collective thirst for resources that we were using all of the earths sustainable production. In essence [since 1986] we have been running the environmental equivalent of a budget deficit, which is only sustained by plundering our capital base."

On the Economic Cost of Climate Change:

"Since the 1970s insurance losses have risen at an annual rate of around 10 per cent , reaching $100 billion by 1999. Losses at this scale threaten the very fabric of our economic system ... such a rate of increase means that by 2065 or soon thereafter, the damage bill resulting from climate change may equal the total value of everything that humanity produced in the course of a year."

On Politics

"As early as 1977 the New York Times carried the headline 'Scientists Fear Heavy Use of Coal May Bring Adverse Shift in Climate' but it was not until the late 1980 when [it became apparent] that constraints could be applied to damaging emissions and action to restrict greenhouse emissions was emerging - that industry embarked upon its propaganda war. Among the first to move were US coal producers, Fred Palmer, then head of Western Fuels ... led a campaign - informed apparently by his personal beliefs - that the earth's atmosphere 'is deficient in Carbon Dioxide'"

Quite simply - an extremely important, yet little known book.

I am going to give the Weather Makers RCWR's first ever 5 Rabbit Raisin Rating:

Everything is Backwards

Its strange being on the wrong side of the world. Everything is backwards. The toilets flush the other way (actually I haven't checked that yet ....... yes they do), and the sentences go up at the end rather than at the beginning (like everything is a question).

Another thing that is the wrong way round is that my friends have got around to booking the annual lads holiday away (number VI, I think). To Porto (that in Portugal for any Americans ... near Spain) no less, with promises of sun and sand and more importantly Sangria. It is usually done on a shoestring budget like 100 pounds for flights and accommodation. Normally this would make me extremely happy, as it has done on all past occasions. 

However, this year it has made me extremely unhappy. I wonder why - oh wait COULD IT BE THAT I AM ON THE WROG SIDE OF THE PLANET!

A New Kind of Love

This week, I went here:

(Note: Neither of these people are me, I just found the picture on the internet - though a picture of me does exist somewhere)

To the distillery in the small town of Bundaberg about 5 hours drive north of Brisbane in Northern Queensland.

... and I fell in love.

Did I find a new girlfriend I hear you ask? A better model?

No, not by any stretch of the imagination. 

This love is a deeper, stronger kind. This kind of love is the sort that comes in a bottle!

The thing is , anyone who is familiar with rum (as I am - not an expert, just familiar) and has tasted a few of the better dark rums (I am partial to a little Havana or a Mount Gay) will know that Bundaberg rum goes down a little like Windolene and leaves a taste in the mouth that lasts longer than Marmite.

However while I was in town, a guy who lived there and was a like-minded detractor of the brand introduced me to this:

"Carefully crafted to deliver a rich, smooth liqueur experience like no other". According to the bottle.

And I was smitten. It turns out that when you turn the rum into a liqueur is tastes amazing. Unfortunately they don't sell this stuff commercially and you can only get it in one shop in the whole of Australia to which people drive from far and wide. We bought 6 bottles.

Do you know how you can tell...?

Do you know one way that you can tell whether a person is racist? They may often start a sentence with the phrase "I am not a racist ... but". 

Sydney is a fairly multi-cultural, relaxed kind of place on the surface, but I have to say as soon as you start scratching around a little or step one foot into the country outside of the city, you find that a proportion of the people are a little less than tolerant of certain city inhabitants (pointed out to me by more than one shocked tourist). 

The best "I am not a racist ... but" line I have ever heard came from my taxi driver in a little town called Picton today:

"I am not a racist ... but I support races a little like other people support football teams"

He went on to clarify:

"You know how an Arsenal fan would get on with a Manchester United fan outside of a football game but they really want their team to win - I'm like that. If my taxi company was to employ a Muslim, I would probably get on alright with him and have a joke with him at the 'rank', but in the end I want the White race to win!"

Win what? The FA Cup? I wasn't sure.

Though amongst his rants about how he used to be a hippie in the '60s and was cool an' all that, but now he felt he should be buried in a nazi uniform, he did propose an unusual solution to global terrorism - I think it involved sending all terrorists to live in Beverly Hills and I am sure he expressly mentioned that each of them should be given a 'leggy blonde called Sandy' to be their wife. Something to do with cultural envy.

The conversation with the driver made me remember that one of my (usually very left wing) mates had joined a (not very) covertly racist group on a social networking site. It was a bit shocking as he is potentially one of the nicest, calmest and generally tolerant people I know. This has given me a dilemma which I am unable to solve. Should I say anything?

Knowing his situation and reading between the lines I can see that the opinions to which he is subscribing are not his own and are second hand ones which come from the influence of another. This means 1) it is hard to argue against the views and 2) the only thing he is really guilty of is being a bit dim. But its always weird when you encounter racism in young people (somehow it is more acceptable from oldies).

I certainly don't want to spark big philosophical debate about the subject as I know what happens when I mention contentious words such as 'climate change' in a post (I get random aggressive comments from fanatical googlers). For now, I ignore the problem.

A Self Portrait(s)

A Valentines Day special of "photographs that make me smile"

I am not as a rule a big believer in Valentines Day. But when your Valentine is on the other side of the planet you have to make a concerted effort, if only for piece of mind. I have just got off the phone (or webcam) to Lucy who received my flowers and present this morning which earned me a decent amount of brownie points. Enough brownie points for at least 'two late nights at the pub', one 'forgetting to call' incident and a whole raft of 'leaving the toilet seat up's.

The problem is that I am still in brownie point debt due to one 'relocating to the other side of the planet' incident which will take me some time to work off!

Usually Lucy and I skip the overpriced restaurants on valentines day and wait until the weekend for a day getaway. We go to Leeds train station and just board the train to wherever we fancy and spend the day perusing shops and drinking in bars before getting the last train home. Over the last few years we have been to Harrogate, York and Manchester on our little jaunts. Unfortunately we wont be able to do that this year.

The photos above are part of a random selection that I had printed for Lucy for today as a log of Lucy's running obsession with holding the camera out and taking photos of us both (although I think that I was holding the camera in at least two of those).

We have had some brilliant times together, some of the above photos were taken in Croatia, in Spain, and in Sydney. I echo the sentiment of  Lucy's card to me, that 'I can't wait to spend the rest of my life having an adventure together' (puke)

Thats what you get for writing a post whilst listening to Jack Johnson 

I don't mean to moan but...

Sydney is absolutely without  doubt the most spectacularly beautiful city I have ever spent any time in. It harbour views are amazing and it has all of the airs and graces of of a bustling very modern metropolis. I love Sydney so I don't want to annoy any Australians by making out that I dont ... but ...

... there are one or two things about living here in Sydney that are pretty irritating and make me realise that Sydney is the financial capital of a country somewhat separated from the rest of the world by incredibly large distances, and under the surface - it can be a little behind the times. 

Sydney is a city fraught with charges. Charges for everything. My theory is that it must be to do with a lack of competition between companies, and a love of franchising various operations.

Sydney is the only place you can still get charged $1/minute on a same network mobile phone call, it still has download limit on broadband internet connections (meaning I got stung for an internet bill of multiple hundreds of dollars last month). In Sydney there are tolls for many of the roads. Only if you are a tourist they don't tell you that. The first you hear of it is when $20 worth of fines lands in your post box, and you find out that the car hire company has charged you another $50 for handling your toll fine. $50 just for passing on a fine!!

In Sydney the real estate agents rule the roost. They tell you exactly when you can view property and apparently are involved in creating hysteria about housing availability in order to more quickly get rid of properties.

And don't get me started on the banks. When I first came here I decided to set myself up with the same bank (which will remain nameless) as I am with in the UK, being as they call themselves a 'global bank'. I thought I would be able to see my bank accounts side by side on the internet (no such luck).

What I didn't reckon on was that when you have an account over here, you have to pay $5 a month for the honour of letting them take your money. Plus you don't earn interest until you have more than $2,000 in your account. In addition to this you can only take money out of certain cashpoints otherwise you get charged (my bank only has two in the whole of Sydney) and I hate the fact that you get charged for paying in cheques!

And the card you get? Well its fantastic as long as you don't want to buy anything over the Internet (it isn't a maestro or visa), so I have to pay on my UK credit card (because you need to give DNA to obtain an Australian Credit card) then transfer the money over to my UK account (which costs $20 each time) to pay it off.

The account comes with telephone and internet banking, unfortunately when I finally got my PIN number (which is obviously a completely different one to the card machine one, though they have the same name) after around 6 weeks, it didn't work so I had to send off a form (postal only) requesting another one (for the second time). However when I had chatted to the lady who had told me that my PIN didn't exist on the telephone banking service, she encouraged me to enter my PIN a number of times to check if it worked. All well and good until a couple of days later I got another letter saying that all of my telephone banking had been suspended as I had entered my PIN too many times!

So I had to spend two hours of my lunch break last week going into the city to the only branch of my Bank to pay my rent (of course is was chucking it down with rain). Only it costs $20 to make a one off payment when not using internet banking or you can set up a direct debit which costs $5 every time the transaction is made. So I had to withdraw the money in Cash and trapse round Sydney looking for the correct bank (my Landlords bank) in which to make the deposit. and of course then the landlord had no idea where the money had come from because they neglected to put a reference on it and by the way shouldn't my landlord be giving me a direct debit form for this or something and not be making me pay on my credit card all of the time ......ARGHHH!!!

A Twofold Crisis

My new job has seen me doing some quite unusual work. Work that I am not familiar with, but has opened my eyes to a whole range of new issues in the global energy markets.

I like to rant a lot about Climate Change (and its effects) on this blog, but I am also not adverse to ranting a little about the other great crisis which I believe will face our generation - one related to energy security.

You may have heard in the news recently about cheap Indian cars which are supposedly to cost around $3000 and to make cars accessible to the population of India and will put millions of new cars on the road. People are concerned that all of these new cars will substantially increase air pollution and cause massive congestion.

Then (what didn't really make the papers), is the issue of how the cars will be made (and how the rest of the Indian economy will be supported in terms of energy) in the first place. India needs coal for its new coal fired power stations. 

Another item you may have read in the papers is the BHP is now trying its luck in taking over Rio Tinto, the mining behemoth. Someone is trying to buy Rio Tinto! Its not only the sheer scale of the company being purchased that is a surprise, but the fact that someone is investing so heavily in mining expansion.

And it doesn't stop there. Countries all over the world are grabbing up energy (coal) reserves wherever they can at a rate of knots. India has trouble accessing much of its own coal reserve due to political unrest in some of the regions where the coalfields are prevalent. But it wont stop them from building as many new power stations as they can.

Australia (the largest exporter of coal in the world) is being inundated with Indian investors looking to avoid spot coal price and buy into Australian coal mines. Indonesia (another massive coal exporter) is trying to reduce its coal exports (to preserve its reserves) and China (the country with all of these massive natural reserves) has recently become a net coal importer which is probably something that a lot of people would be surprised to learn.

Australia is now struggling to get enough coal out the door to supply its Asian neighbours (due to bad weather and a lack of capacity at its ports) and all of these issues have algamated to double certain coal prices in the last few weeks.

What makes this all a big joke to me, is that there is Australia going all out preaching the good word about Climate change and signing up to Kyoto - and at the same time, it is desperately building new port capacity so that it can sell more and more coal to resource fast growing Asian states. The Australians (with 20% of export market share) have it within their power, to really get a grasp on Climate Change and just limit exports.

It took 20 years from the initial scientific proof of Climate Change to exist, before it really hit the newspaper headline hard and Western Countries even thought about doing something to counter it. I imagine it will take a good few years yet before people actually realise that we don't have enough energy to last forever. 

I have to say that I have seen very little in the papers about the coal crises that are beneath our noses (apart from in my favorite publication - 'global coal')- so if this does hit the papers over the net few weeks, remember that you read it here first (just like the plastic beer bottles story, or the one about dodgy carbon abatement).

A Group Portrait

Due to the lack of any real news, I am launching a new regular feature looking at some of the most memorable photos I have taken over the last few years...

Picture the scene ... its Christmas Day and I am just getting out of bed early in the morning to sunshine over the harbour, the glorious Sydney sunshine pouring in through the windows. Lucy is mid-way through her month long visit and a usual is hard to wake up (despite my best attempts). At this point I am missing home somewhat, its the first real Christmas I have spent away from my family and friends and I have woken to an extremely quiet flat.

I switch on my Mac and load up skype to see what is going on and see that my friend The Sergeant Major is online as we had pre-arranged. I called him up and an image popped up on my screen ... a big group of my mates somewhere in Yorkshire, already pretty beered up and on their way out for our annual Christmas Eve celebrations. 

They had projected me onto the wall at the Sergeant Major's house and we proceeded to have the most bizzare long range conversation, including a quick game of round the world flip-flop tennis (I will have to explain the rules to this someday). I was shouting out loud by the end of it, until Lucy politely reminded me that we live in a block of flats with a bunch of OAPs and it was 7am on Christmas Day morning.

This photo is one taken of my computer screen of the larger part of the gang - from left to right: 

The Artist;

The Rock Star; 

The City Worker; 

The Nurse; and 

The Sergeant Major

This photo makes me remember that it doesn't matter where you are in the world, its the people that you keep around you that will make you happy (puke).

This is what you get for writing a post whilst listening to Radiohead!