cracker in four dimensions

here's a 4d scan of cracker from last thursday's appointment with our obstetrician.  you're forgiven if you thought it was actually a mars surface photo beamed down from NASA.

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you can see an eye, nose and the upper lip - the thing on the left is the umbilical cord, and that thing on his/her left cheek (your right) is his/her arm.  i'm looking forward to january so i can stop saying "his/her" all of the time.

...and awesome news from a few minutes ago, jonathan and laura just had a baby boy. jonathan's text says it's a "beautiful" baby boy, but i've had no photo evidence yet... (just kidding jonathan - now hurry up and send photos). hefty little fella weighed in at 9 pounds 9 ounces.

liam

just thought i'd post an old photo that i only just got around to editing - a lovely little shot of liam (simon and kirsty's little guy, twin of paige).  this was taken at our place earlier this year.

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.

a few photos from bangkok

back after a blissful weekend of eating, sleeping and doing nothing.  apart from thai taxi drivers all thinking that they are driving formula 1 cars, it was a fantastic relaxing time. and possibly the last time we fly as just the two of us for a long, long time - eek. as i think i mentioned a few days ago, the peninsula upgraded us to a great big awesome suite and left us a birthday cake (chocolate - delicious) - certainly got us off to a great start.  to be honest, we didn't do a lot that's worth talking about - sat by the pool, swam a bit, i hit the gym a few times (and then promptly reversed my good work in a hotel restaurant), and we picked up a bit of new cutlery that rachel was coveting.

here are a few photos - one from our balcony, one from the restaurant, one taken by me standing on the bed and one of me... um, jumping on the bed:

safe in bangkok

safe in bangkok and relaxing before dinner in the thai restaurant downstairs. flight was 45 minutes late but otherwise painless. i contacted the hotel to arrange for some birthday flowers for rachel, and the awesome peninsula staff also left a chocolate birthday cake in the room... and upgraded us to a high-floor apartment with a gorgeous view of the river - awesome!

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.

the furry boys

with all of the baby and birthday talk, it's easy to forget about our two little (well, one little and one large) housemates, ben and poppy. for your viewing pleasure here are the rascals.  first is poppy looking out the window on sunday, and the second is the bigger version of yesterday's ben photo - where he's looking at us on the balcony from inside, wondering how on earth we managed to get on the other side of the window.  the look of confusion on his face is classic: