Archives for January 2006
My name is Michael Caine
There comes a moment in a glasses wearer’s life when it’s time for new spectacles, a regular occurrence since being diagnosed myopic as a headache-plagued teenager. At first there was the need to lose the NHS frames; soon after, a replacement for a pair lost under a lawnmower (not wearing them at the time thankfully); later, just a need to change – imagine wearing the same pants every day, you’d understand.
My underwear remains clean but my glasses were getting old. Matters finally came to a head in Hong Kong. Choosing frames is a very difficult task given the tradeoff between fashion, function, identity and price. It’s even harder when shopping alone (as my 1998 Lacoste purchase proved).
When browsing shops in Causeway Bay my solution was to ask each optician to take pictures of me wearing various styles. As you can see I’ve gone for the Michael Caine Smiley’s People look, in direct contrast to the 2002-2005 lightweight frames, and am secretly proud of the result. Question is, which pair did I – or should I have – gone for?
Ironic that each of these are rather similar to the NHS pair I was so keen to get rid of all those years ago. Not sure the 14 year old Joel would have approved.
Things in life that should be free
Travel isn’t always easy but sometimes barriers are raised that rankle. Things that should have been free in the past few days but weren’t:
Public toilets. Obviously. It’s a basic human need
Internet access in moderately expensive hotels. I’m already paying good money for the room, don’t charge me more for what is arguably a 21st century basic human need
Baggage carts. This really annoys me. It’s not possible to carry skis, ski boots and a rucksack by hand between baggage belt and the hire car parked 50 metres outside. So in Sydney and Brisbane I’ve had to pay $4 a time to hire a small, wobbly Le Carte to support a journey Lynford Christie could finish in five seconds or less, depending on what he had to ‘help his headache’ that morning. Bloody hell. There’s no consistency: on arrival at Sydney the trolley is free, on departure it’s not; trolleys cost money at Brisbane’s domestic terminal, but not when travelling internationally. We already pay enough in airport taxes, why screw us further?
What have I missed?
Tangentially, advice is one thing that is free when travelling. Trip Advisor is an excellent website where travellers post reviews of almost every hotel you could name. It has the scale to have multiple reviews of most places I’m considering and is one of the few sites to which I have actively contributed. Now, I won’t book somewhere without checking Tripadvisor first. Recommended.
What’s next
As I write I am sitting in the lounge at Hong Kong airport stuffing my face with Tim Tams (not so nice here I’m afraid), waiting for a flight to Colombo. I’ll be there until early February before returning back through Hong Kong to the Docherty wedding.
Despite my mixed experiences in India I’m looking forward to Sri Lanka. It’s a whole different country. Everything I hear about it sounds good, except for a few rebels up the North, whom I shall avoid. Any recommendations warmly welcomed.
I read that internet access is not that great in Sri Lanka so I may be out of touch for extended periods. If I don’t reply to your emails then assume I am alive and text me instead.
Never did tell you much about my trip round New Zealand, did I? I’ll get onto that too. This is, after all, a travel website (allegedly).
See ya later.
Hikikomori: tales of teenage withdrawl
A friend who shall remain nameless recently sent me a picture of a toy Batmobile (first generation) and wrote
Had a burning desire to make a model in the last month. No idea why, so I ended up painting, then gluing and making these attached. Rather proud of myself though I do not know ANYONE else who a) would do this at 33 or b) anyone else other than you who might appreciate it. Rather therapeutic.
It was a good model, well made, and there is no shame in doing something useful with your hands once in a while. Yet we automatically think it is ‘wrong’ to take part in child-like activities.
I was reminded of this, very tangentially, by a story in today’s International Herald Tribune.
One morning when he was 15, Takeshi shut the door to his bedroom, and for the next four years he did not come out…Y.S. suffered from a problem known in Japan as hikikomori, which translates as “withdrawal” and refers to a person sequestered in his room for six months or longer with no social life beyond his home. (The word is a noun that describes both the problem and the person suffering from it and is also an adjective, like “alcoholic.”)
Only in the past decade and only in Japan has hikikomori become a social phenomenon. Like anorexia, which has been largely limited to Western cultures, hikikomori is a culturebound syndrome that thrives in one particular country during a particular moment in its history.
It describes the growth of hikikomori and different ways parents have used to persuade their sons to come out of the dark, including “rental sisters”. I think all counsellors should be called rental sisters (or brothers), makes it seem more acceptable to get some outside help.
The author suggests that whilst disaffected Western youth join gangs or become Goths, Japanese young adults live in a society where the importance of conformity is so great that they use withdrawl rather than visible difference as a form of rebellion.
Is it better to have thousands of young men joining gangs, wearing eyeliner or sitting in their rooms 24 hours a day. For society as a whole (especially somewhere like Japan) I imagine they’re glad to not have such teenage rebels on the streets, but for the boys themselves they’re missing out on an important part of subversion. Because being in a gang or part of the underground means you belong somewhere; but sitting alone in your room feels like belonging nowhere.
Bring out the rental sisters. Whoppi Goldberg in Rental Sister Act 2 – I can see it now…
Australian confusion
Left New Zealand for good just after New Year and hopped over to Australia for about ten days, which was nice. Caught up with several friends and their partners/children/housemates/cats, which was very nice. Then headed up to Brisbane where I sweltered in the oppressive humidity, which was not nice. The city has a reputation as being rather provincial, hence ‘Brisvegas’ etc, but I found it a pleasant place near the sea.
This was a social rather than sightseeing visit so I’ll leave you with one thought. Why are so many Australian tourist attractions signposted with a castle? For there are no castles in Australia. Hmmm. (Too much information about Aussie road signs here and here too)
Toilet humour
How odd to be sitting here in Brisbane, Australia whilst The Bill is on in the background, featuring scenes shot 500m from my flat in Tooting. (Heritage Park, if you’re a local).
Anyhow I’m not normally one to take pictures in public toilets but two things caught my eye recently. In the new Sofitel Queenstown, there are ladies in the men’s. Yes, that is a tape measure she’s holding on the right.
Meanwhile in Sydney’s Lord Dudley, pop a dollar into the Select-A-Scent and receive one of ‘Jean Baudin’s interpretations of popular fragrances’.
Looks like something Wallace would have invented, those are rather industrial nozzles.
New photos are up
Hello again.
You might notice that annoying thing chugging away on the right of the page, showing an array of people-less pictures. After taking the advice of experts I’ve finally got around to putting some pictures on Flickr, which you are welcome to browse around. Be warned, there are more than 100 of New Zealand alone.
Flickr is a clever tool, and whilst we shan’t get into a debate about social networking and tagging (for those who know and/or care what that means), it’s interesting to see how images start spreading between users. Already a number of these holiday snaps have been bookmarked as ‘favorites’ by complete strangers. Following a path through different users’ pages is dangerously addictive.
More pictures to come, next time with a human element. You might spot that I’ve been cheating with the dates of some of these posts. Bear with me, I’m trying to give some coherence to what I’m about to put on the website. Much catching up to do.
Mapping Queenstown
Happy new year.
I finally leave Queenstown and New Zealand for good on Tuesday morning. Inspired by these maps on Flickr I’ve created two annotated aerial photographs of my Queenstown. Click here and you’ll be taken through to an interactive version of the map below, where (provided you have Flash installed, and you probably do) you can run your mouse over the page and see where I’ve spilled my text crumbs.
We’ll talk again about memory and mental maps. They’re a neat concept.
Flickr or Abajo?
A question for the geeks and artists out there. Others do please skip on.
I’ve got quite a few photos I’d like to post for others to see, and am torn between two solutions. Previously I’ve hosted them myself here and have been reasonably happy with the design, although if I kept my own hosting I’d probably upgrade to something like this.
Alternatively, I could start using Flickr as my main photo host. I’ve set up a handful of pictures here to test it. Cost is not really an issue, I’m not that bothered about the communal tagging although I think it’s clever. Flickr is easier to maintain but I worry about the presentation of the pages, which seem quite busy and may detract from the pictures themselves.
Any suggestions?
