Monkey infinitum

Visited the Natural History Museum with the family. Wow this place is big!

We also survived a fairly claustrophobic rail ride with all the kids and us parents intact… Central & District lines were down, and the S. Kensington stop was closed. Made a slight detour en-route to the Victoria Line and walked from Knightsbridge
instead. Being about lunchtime on a Saturday, the rails were quite packed and somehow we all made it! And best of all no one cried mutiny on my watch.

There was a huge open-air concert at Hyde’s Park this weekend which probably contributed to the crunch.

Also there’s a huge Greenpeace ship from Amsterdam docked outside the flat. I wonder whom they plan to run over or ram…? Hee hee…

I need this to get to work…

Reuters – Zipped into a bag, it looks like a large umbrella. Unfolded, it plies the streets like any other bicycle.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20040708/od_uk_nm/oukoe_singapore_bicycle

Clive Sinclair peddles world’s smallest folding bike

Thu Jul 8, 5:01 AM ET

By Puja Vaswani

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Zipped into a bag, it looks like a large umbrella. Unfolded, it plies the streets like any other bicycle.

The “A-Bike” is the brainchild of British inventor Sir Clive Sinclair who made history in the 1970s by developing the world’s first pocket calculator. He described it as “the world’s smallest, lightest foldable bicycle”.

“My original thought was that if you could have a bicycle that was dramatically lighter and more compact then ones that exist today, you would change the way in which bicycles could be used,” said Sinclair.

The mini-bike, unveiled in Singapore this week and set to go on sale worldwide in 2005 at a price of nearly US$300 (162 pounds), is built for riders as heavy as 112 kg (247 lbs) and is height-adjustable. It takes about 20 seconds to fold or unfold.

Like the U.S.-made Segway scooter, the idea was to find an innovative way of navigating congested cities.

Its wheels are a quarter the size of those on a regular bicycle, but Sinclair promises a smooth and sturdy ride for most cyclists. “You require no extra energy to ride the A-bike and it can go up to 15 miles per hour (24 kph),” he told Reuters.

Constructed mainly of plastic and with pneumatic tyres, the 5.5 kg (12 lbs) bicycle folds into a package of less than 0.03 cubic metres (1.1 cubic ft) and is expected to go on sale in the United States, Britain and Japan in the second quarter of 2005.

Sinclair also invented the first pocket television in 1984 and the futuristic C5 electric tricycle in 1985. He said he hopes the bicycle will attract yachtsmen, urban city executives, campers or anyone needing transport for a short trip.

Research and development started five years ago in a collaboration between Sinclair’s UK-based Sinclair Research and Hong Kong’s Daka Designs.

Daka chairman Pat Ma said Singapore was chosen to launch the invention because of its prosperous population and compact size. In addition, Daka is to list its shares in the city on July 16.

“Singapore has a small controlled market and it’s a city that uses mixed modes of transport,” Ma said.

Other foldable bicycles on the market include the 8 kg (17.6 lb) Handy Bike, which sells for around US$200, and the JD Bike, which weighs 8.5 kg (18.7 lb).

Choo Chee Kong, chief executive of SBI E2-Capital, which is lead managing Daka’s initial public offering, said he had already been approached by five groups in Singapore to distribute the bicycle.

Sinclair, awarded a knighthood by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1983 for leading what was seen as a renaissance in British industry, says the next step for the A-bike is to add an electric motor in a few years.

We had a bit of trouble with a summer storm that caused a lot of wind and damage. Well, our family wasn’t personally affected but others i nthe area were.

One of the BBC news sites had a comments section and one of them caught my eye. The ironic humor and calmness of the English personaliy wasn’t lost on me:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3874683.stm

“My roof got blown off this morning. My family have had to stay at my sister’s house. People say these things come in threes, I just hope my house doesn’t get looted. What a fine summer.
Chris, Hampshire”

“A normal train journey to work today became delayed for 1.5 hours after it hit a fallen tree just outside Ascot station. Whilst in motion, yet after the brakes had been applied, the driver emerged from his cab to reassuringly tell us ‘we are about to hit a tree’. Nobody was injured but if the driver had not made his exit, he could have been impaled on the branch that smashed through the front window!
Mark, Camberley, UK”

There is quite a debate on spanking children here in the UK. (Here it is called ‘smacking’.)

Some folks want to make it a crime to do so. They say that children have just as much a right as an adult to be free from assult. For instance, if I don’t like what my co-worker does, and I belt him one, I can be arrested for assult.

My two cents’ worth? This is an invalid argument — that being, children have an inalienable right to be free from physical discipline. The argument states that children have the same rights as adults. Here’s my problem with that argument:

1) My co-worker is a grown man. My hope is that he will understand and respond to conversational speech in an adult manner.

2) I am not morally or legally responsible for my co-worker’s actions. In a like vein, I am not going to pay for his medical bills should he decide to stick peanuts up his nose.

3) Should I choose to spank my co-worker against his wishes, I should hope he would cite me for assult, what with points 1 and 2 being valid above. Unless he would WANT me to spank him, and then I’ve got a bigger problem on my hands, figuratively speaking.

4) In many cases, children’s pressure points are different from adults’ pressure points. What keeps a project manager from having to break up this type of conversation from two team members: “Bill, Sally’s looking at me again…!” “Am not!” “You are too, you geek ” “Bill, Sally kicked me “…? Ok you’ve probably listened to or participated in such a conversation at work but what for the most part makes this a silly scenario? Adult attitudes and pressure points. For the most part, a 30-something adult responds to the fear of embarassment differently from a 7 year-old. That’s what makes children so refreshing and young. However, it also keeps children from fully comprehending our adult conversations… and adult discipline. In some cases, a firm but fair swap on the bottom is part of the guiding process we adults need to administer.

I agree that there are limits to spanking. Some parents are too aggresive in this area, as all parents are in one area or another. My own kids rarely if ever get spanked anymore, as they are more cognizant of their surroundings. Also, their pressure points have changed. Grounding a 2-year-old from the Playstation has no effect on the 2-year old as much as a quick spank on the hand will.

Back to work now…

…leaving a couple of Americans nearly in tears, and certainly red in the face with emotion.

A couple of folks (1 guy and a gal) are heading back to NY after spending a few weeks here with the Brit team. As per protocol, a small number of folks gethered in a semi-circle in front of the departing ones, and after a small heart-felt speech, the group started clapping. The applause rippled into the rather large room of people, and most everyone clapped with appreciation.

The Americans were as surprised as was I when I first saw this happening, and didn’t know what to say. Thankfully no one in the group asked for a speech from them because I don’t think they could have stammered out anything that would have made any sense.

Ok we’re legal now… and I need to store my copy of the license in a safe place in case we need to show proof.

It was a half-day trip taken by the wife and kids…

I’ll ask them to append to this post to report on how the visit went. Time for lunch with them now as they alight from the Jubilee Line station near work…!

The nerve of these employees! Wanting a day off work. For shame.

What’s next? They want to be PAID for it, too? What’s this world coming to?

————————-
Subject: Day-Of-Rest Law Worries Va. Employers (AP)

Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 15:51:16 GMT

AP – Because of a legislative oversight, a new Virginia law requires businesses to give workers Saturdays or Sundays off if they want it, alarming some businesses with weekend and round-the-clock shifts to cover.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20040701/ap_on_re_us/sundays_off

Adventure to Windsor Championship Dog Show tomorrow morning(http://www.dogsontour.com/showdatesinfo.cfm?ID=28)

…not far from Windsor Castle, the largest occupied castle in the world (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page557.asp)

The kids are now experienced railsurfers. We’ve gone a few times in the Underground and DLR and they’ve kept up wonderfully.

So far we’ve come home with the same number of children and they are even the same ones we left home with! ‘magine that.

Hello Dad and Mom!

Here’s a multi-part letter from each of us telling you all how our first week went! We love you!

[child 1]
Hi this week has been great. We took trains and the under ground. We also saw a military ship from Canada docked outside our flat. we took long walks and saw some different things. There skateboards are different from amereican ones. We walked in a tunnel that went under the river. It was very exciting. There was a ship we saw they dont use any more but a long time ago it was the fastest sail ship around. It could go somwhere around 360 miles in 24hrs. It took trades with China for silk and Africa for gold.Well thats me,i love you guys bye.

[child 2]
hey grandma we walked alredy alot of miles because we don’t have our car with us and we lost alot of pounds not the money kind of way. We saw alot things like the londen bridge,grass(lots of it),the mall,trains,and dirrent peolpe and accents it’s great here.We are all fine here and not dead.Well heres [child 3]. luv ya.

[child 3]
we walk alot. we rode a train! It was fun!

[me]
Hi all, we’re settling in pretty well. The weather’s been cooperating pretty well and [—] and the kids have done a great job getting acclimated to the newness of it all.

It’s been great having the family here with me. The living arrangement’s kind of crowded but we love each other so that makes it a good thing!

[wife]

hello my heart

i know you won’t be able to read this until after you are here

but i wanted you to have my letter in your heart if not in front of your eyes

i love you and adore you

you are my heart and my love and my life

come quickly! come safely!

One thing that kept nagging at the back of my head this whole time I’ve been here has finally popped into focus now that the kids are here.

Our kids have adjusted themselves to sleep schedules that follow the sun. That is, when the sun goes down they go to sleep. When the sun comes up they wake up.

Being from a roughly equatorial latitude, this means 6:30 am to 8:30 pm pretty much most of the time. Sunrise, Sunset in Houston, TX, USA

Not so here up in the Northern latitude. Currently sunrise is at 4:30 am, sunset is at 9:30 pm. 16 hours of daylight. Really messing with the poor kids. Sunrise, Sunset in London, UK

I noticed it but never thought about it. Pretty much I’m tied to the clock and I can sleep standing up, so the extra daylight never bothered me.

Kind of makes me wonder what’s going to happen when the pendulum swings the other way in the fall…

Everyone made it, no crying or dying. Here’s a photo of the travelling explorers.

The family made it safe and sound! Yay!

We rode the Gatwick Express in to Victoria station and somehow a cabbie fit all of us plus our baggage into ONE black cab… and got us here for less than 25 quid.

Our path took us past Westminster and the Tower of London and the London Eye so it was very much fun. We’re heading out now to get groceries.

All the pieces are in place… the family journey has started.

My better half has turned over the cell phone to a family friend, and has has also turned over her PC to my father for his use (it’s too bulky to make the trip).

So that means we are no longer in communication. That is really weird after being in daily contact with each other for weeks.

It’s like in the ’60s when the astronauts’ moon orbit took then on the other side of the moon, and the radio link between them and us here on Earth was severed.

I’m holding my breath until tomorrow morning, when I get to find out if they all made it on the plane, past customs, and are happily waiting for me with smiles and hugs.

Wow it’s going to be hard to go to sleep tonight.

The nature of these posts will certainly change to be more family-oriented, although I will continue to report my personal editorials and work-related items.

My family arrives on Saturday morning! Yay! We are all so excited. Keep a close eye on this page (or subscribe to the RSS feed for news as it happens).

As we explore London together I’ll post our findings here. Part of my family’s homeschooling project will be to maintain this site (or a spin-off) so the kids will have some input here also.

hello darling!

i love you ad adore you

my dreams of us are now dreams of us here together

and not me there with you

kiss me when we meet again

i am ready and happy waiting for it

love
your heart

To anyone performing commodity trading analysis, this subject is a basic one. It is as basic as saying, “To live, one must breathe once in a while”.

This is because future events and trends are found in past events. If for example on the first day of every year, electricity demand shoots up in Anytown, USA, then it is safe to predict that next Jan 1, demand for electricity will again shoot up.

So it seems to go with anything else… including human behavior.

For example, I was stymied by the average *native* Londoner’s avoidance of eye contact and casual chatting on the street or in the building lobby at work with strangers (namely me). However, those with whom I work are very friendly to me, more than I would expect.

Then I began reading Ivanhoe by Walter Scott. At first it was just a diversion; a way to force myself away from work at lunch. However, unbeknownst to me, this story also contains a treasure of historical English behavior patterns and speech.

Then it became clear to me what was going on. Centuries of behavioral training have taught the native Englander that one must be properly introduced (and family history known) before familiarity can comfortably take place.

Yes, I’ve read it in the preparatory articles I read before coming here but somehow reading a historical account told in story format made this more clear to me.

So, knowing the past (in this case, behavioral patterns) can help me to predict how my new-found roomates will behave in a given situation.

Pretty cool.

Hey darling if you look at your phone you’ll notice I called about the same
time you started writing this email.

I “heard” you calling to me…

I love you

Thank you for this email and for everything you are doing there. You are the
glue that holds our families together. Thank you.

Your Heart

[Heart] wrote:

IT JUSTS NEEDS A BATH.
I LOVE YOU!
IT COST 117.00 INSTEAD OF A LOT MORE LIKE I THOUGHT AND THAT INCLUDES THE
TIRE GETTING FIXED.

I AM GETTING SO EXCITED NOW!
WE ARE WRITING WITH [—], [—] APOLOGIZED, YOUR MOM IS HAPPY WE ARE
GOING, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

I HAVE SEXY UNDERWARE, [—]’S FINGER IS BETTER, [—] IS STILL CUTE, [—]
AND HER SISTER AND [—]’S WIFE FOUND [—]’S RETAINERS. I LOVE THEM. I
WILL HAVE [—] THANK THEM PERSONALLY. SEND [—] THE LINK TO OUR FAMILY
PICTURES, PLEASE. THEY WANT TO SEE US.

BRUNETTE. REDHEAD. BLONDE. WHICH DO YOU PREFER?

[—] AND YOUR MOM PLANNED A GOING AWAY PARTY FOR THURSDAY NIGHT.  WE WILL  BE AT THE AIRPORT HOTEL WITH NO CAR.  I TOLD YOUR MOM I WOULD COME UP WITH A PLAN AND MAKE IT WORK.  I NEED TO SHOW HER WE CAN BE FLEXIBLE.  I ALSO TALKED WITH YOUR MOM ABOUT HER PERSEPTION THAT WE NEVER CAME TO VISIT AND THAT WE WERE NOT BEING BAD CHILDREN.  I TOLD HER THAT WE WERE INSTRUCTED THAT SHE NEEDED REST AND QUIET WHEN SHE WAS ILL.  SHE WAS SAD TO HEAR THAT BUT YET RELEIVED.  SHE THOUGHT WE DIDN’T CARE.

I TOLD HER IT WAS THE OPPOSITE.  WE CARED ENOUGH TO LET HER REST.  WE LAUGHED OVER THE MIS-UNDERSTANDING.  WE TALKED ABOUT EVERYBODY’S DIFFERENT DADS AND LACK OF DADS AND ALL KINDS OF STUFF.  I THINK IT HELPS HER TO BE ABLE TO TALK WITH ME ABOUT THINGS THAT MAKE HER VERY UNCOMFORTABLE WHEN OTHER PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THEM  .  LIKE YOUR BIO-FATHER FOR EXAMPLE.  I REALLY PUSHED HER ON LOOKING AT LIFE FROM OTHER PEOPLES PERSPECTIVE.  SHE DID A GREAT JOB WITH YOU, AND I WITH [—], ETC.ETC….  WE DID TALK ABOUT [—] AND [—].  THAT [—] SHOULD HAVE GONE BACK TO THE TRIBE.  SHE DIDN’T COMPLETELY SAY IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER BUT WE WENT ALL AROUND IT WITH OUT ANY FREEAKING OUT, SHE SAID SHE ASKED YOU IF YOU KNEW WHAT YOU WERE DOING, LAWS, FAMILY ETC…  SHE IS MORE UNDERSTANDING TO IT THEN I THOUGHT.  GRANTED THAT WAS YESTERDAY, MAYBE NOT HOW SHE WOULD FEEL TODAY.BUT NONE THE LESS.  WE TALKED ABOUT [—] AND WAHT MY ROLE WAS IN YOU LEAVING [—].  SHE INSISTED THAT I CAUSED YOU TO LEAVE AND I SAID YOU WERE ALREADY GONE, SHE SAID NO, I SAID NOT PHYSICALLY, BUT YOUR HEART LEFT LONG BEFORE I CAME ONTO THE PICTURE.  I TOLD HER I HAD VOWED TO BE [—]’S FRIEND IF NEED BE TO SUPPORT YOU, AS A FRIEND, IF [—] WOULD MOVE DOWN HERE.  I ALSO TOLD HER WE HAVE A LOT OF DEBT TO PAY OFF AND THAT EVEN WHEN YOU WERE UNEMPLOYED WE SENT [—] MONEY AND THAT WE SEND HER EXTRA MONEY NOT THRU THE COURTS.  I HAD TO TELL HER.  NOT HOW MUCH BUT THAT WE DO AND WE HAVE ALL THE RECEIPTS.  SHE LOOKED A LITTLE SHOCKED BUT SOME HOW SATISFIED AT THE SAME TIME.  IT WAS GOOD FOR ME TO TELL SOMEONE.  WE TALKED ABOUT [—] NOT WATCHING HIS KIDS DURING THE COLORADO RENIUNE AND THAT IS HOW HE WAS ABLE TO VISIT HER ON HER DEATH BED AND YOU WEREN’T.  WE NEED TO TALK TO HER WAY MORE OFTEN.

SHE TAKES RESPONABILITY FOR US NOT KNOWING THAT THE KIDS MAYBE WANTED TO COME DOWN THIS SUMMER.  SHE FEELS VERY BAD SHE DIDN’T MENTION IT TO YOU AND THAT YOU REALLY HAD NO IDEA.  BUT SHE IS NOT MAD AT US.  AFTER ALL OUR TALK I GET THAT SHE WANTS TO SEE YOU REACH OUT TO THEM IN SOME WAY , TO HEAL HER HEART ABOUT HER CHILDREN PAIN.  THAT IS THE MAIN THING REALLY.  I TALKED ABOUT [—] AND HIS BIO-FATHER AND MY BIO-FATHER AND YOURS AND SO ON AND SO ON…  TIL SHE HAD TO SUBMIT THAT SOMETIMES IT “IS” BETTER TO MOVE ON….I TOLD HER, WE TALKED ABOUT GOING FOR CUSTODY EVEN FROM THE BEGINNIG IN EL PASO BECAUSE WE ALREADY KNEW THEN, THAT OUR LIVES WERE GOING TO BE BETTER, SHE SMILED, BUT THAT, THAT WOULD BE VERY HARD ON [—].  SHE AGREED.  SHE SAID [—] HAS TO HAVE [—] TO FULFILL HER NEED FOR UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.  SHE SAID BASICALLY THAT [—] IS A FREAK AND HER MOM, TOO.  I TALKED WITH YOUR DAD ABOUT PARENTS AND RESPECTING YOU ELDERS THE NIGHT BEFORE.  HE LOVES ME! HE IS SO MUCH LIKE MY DAD.  MOM WANTS HIM TO COME FOR A VISIT.  LETS ENCOURAGE HIM.  AND YOUR MOM TOO.  MAN, THIS VISITING HAS BEEN VERY HELPFUL TO MY HEART AND TO THE KIDS HEARTS.  BECAUSE THEY SEE THAT I CAN LOVE THEM AND STILL BE FRIENDS EVEN WHEN WE DO NOT AGREE ABOUT THINGS.  WE DID COME ALOT CLOSER TO UNDERSTANDING EACH OTHER YESTERDAY.  OK GOTTA GO NOW OR YOU WILL NEVER GET THIS!!!!

KISS KISS KISS AND ALL MY NEVER ENDING
LOVE,
YOUR LIFE