Mike's musings

In planes

(backposting) Today was mainly spent in planes. First on the way to Bangkok, and then on the way to Sydney. I had a 4 and a half stop-over in Bangkok airport, which was pleasant enough, and then boarded the flight to Sydney. 12 hours to Bangkok, 9 and a half to Sydney: quite a long trip. Nor did I manage to sleep for more than a couple of hours on this flight, which was a pain, but there you go.

The election news is far from inspiring.

Labels: politics, travel

Elections are unimportant

(backposting) Well, compared to going away and leaving your family, anyway. We voted, of course, took the girls along and gave them the standard spiel about sufragettes, and how important it is to cast your vote. We also had croissants and Golden Syrup for breakfast, a _huge_ treat on a school day, but only because today's the day I fly to Australia. I took the girls to school, had a bath, and then had to rush my packing in order to be ready for the taxi's arrival at 1045. Although my flight wasn't due to leave before 2130, I decided that saying goodbye to the girls at the beginning of their day, when Jo was going into school, and Miri to her pre-school, would make it easier on all of us, and it worked quite well. Moo was working from home in the morning, so I got to say goodbye to her when the taxi arrived.

The taxi took me to Witham station, whence I journeyed to London, and spent the afternoon at work. In fact, I took 45 minutes out of the day and popped to St Paul's Cathedral, which is just a few minutes from the office. I don't think I'd ever seen Holman Hunt's The Light of the World in the flesh before, and I was moved by a painting which had always struck me as rather twee before. So, I bought a postcard of it to take with me to Australia.

Taxi and train to Heathrow, where I checked in and had a leisurely supper before getting on the Thai Airways flight to Bangkok. Nice cabin crew, and I had a bit of a sleep, though not too much, as I really want to sleep in Australian time, as it were. Kept myself awake by writing some code. Fun.

Labels: church, politics, travel

Voting

Well, given what I've seen of them, I'll be voting LibDem next Thursday. There's no way I can vote Conservative, on basic idealogical grounds. I'm closest to Labour in terms of policies, but I think they're tired and I don't trust them. Clegg and the LibDems should at least keep them a little more honest, and I think he'd make a real statesman. I can't say that of either of the other two.

Labels: politics

And home again!

Wasn't due to leave Cardiff till around 1700, and therefore to be back home pretty late. But managed to finish all the work early, and headed off after lunch, getting back in time for the girls' bedtime, which was a real treat.

Now watching the UK Election Leaders' Debate. Clegg's winning it again, for my money: fascinating.

Note to self: 7.5, then 2, then 6 hours driving on consecutive days isn't so good.

Labels: girls, politics, travel

Politics

I'm watching the UK prime ministerial debate, or whatever they're calling it, on TV. Cameron and Brown are painting Clegg as the non-statesman, the newcomer without the history and experience, and he seems to be playing along. I think that it's working for him, though. I'm rather impressed, and I'm feeling more likely to vote for his party than I was before.

Labels: politics

Politics

I don't often comment on politics on this blog, but a couple of things have just presented such a stark contrast over the past few days that I thought I would. Compare the posturings of the Liberal Democratic party (who I'd probably vote for if they could get a bit of a life and drop their ridiculous insistence on Proportional Representation - just look where it got Germany recently) with what's just happened in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto may not be perfect - in many ways - but when I turned on the news this morning and saw what had happened, I was proud to turn to Jo when a picture of Bhutto came on the screen and say, "That, Jo, is a brave woman." Not to mention, of course, the 130+ people who died, many of whom were unarmed "bodyguards" who were surrounding her armoured coach. God be with them and their families.

Labels: courage, politics