Waaaah! I feel so poor today. Big brother aka Inland Revenue demanded a pound of flesh from me. I begged and pleaded with my accountant to make it less painful to no avail. Yep...he confirmed Big Brother wants my blood. So, reluctantly I had finally paid up at the last minute. Next torture.......July!
What is Chinese Fever? Well, this is a very personal illness that I suffer from time to time. It usually last a few days when it comes. You see, having lived overseas in the Western world for over 20 years (24 to be exact), I sometimes forget my origins in the hustle and bustle of every day life. I used to be able to speak and write passable Mandarin. However, slowly but surely it gets eroded over the years. So, sometimes I have to admit that I am a "banana"; a term that means that one is yellow on the outside (meaning having the outward appearance of a Chinese), but white on the inside; i.e only able to speak English and not Mandarin. Having said all these, from time to time, when I slow down from my hectic pace, I get nostalgic and "feel Chinese", crave for Chinese music, feel homesick and all that jazz! So thanks to Lychee, a girl from my alumni forum, who started a thread on Beautiful Songs, I am able to listen to some of my old favourites and reminice. Below is just one of my many favourites. Do enjoy and Happy New Year for 2008 folks!.
Took my little girl to sit in The Yellow Submarine. Quite impressive. We were down to about 24m. Do enjoy the Yellow Submarine video below by the Beatles.
A Fire demonstration. Just to show that the rocks are still hot. A small hole was dug, and the chap just pressed some dry twigs against the wall of the hole, an they caught fire!
Volcanic Crater
The Bedouin Experience - We had a camel ride when we were at the Timanfaya National Park. Lots of fun. Was raining quite a bit.
It is a must to do the Vocanic experience tour if you ever visited Lanzarote. It is a protected area and tourists are not allowed to drive into it. The only way there is through tour coaches. This is to protect the volcanic area and essential for conservation. Of course, it makes financial sense too. The last eruption at Timanfaya took place in 1730 and did not end till 1736. The lava structures are still very well preserved even after 300 years.Impressive or what?
Decided to take my family to Lanzarote for a week of sun, and of course diving. I am trying to post a few video clips of my trip below. But, I can't believe it takes such a long time even for a 1 minute clip to upload. OK, so this posting will take me a few days to do it. Aaarrgh! Spent ages uploading the video clip. But doesn't seem to display it on the blog. Any ideas, anyone? Used to be so easy to do it.
Yes!! Persistence does pay off. I think there is a corruption in the video upload for Blogger. Had to display the video code manually. Anyway, this is one of my favourite fish. It is even better to see them when they are mating. They move as ONE! Beautiful to watch this marine porn!!Haha!
The following video is taken at Los Hevideros, Playa Blanca. It shows the waves hitting into the lava caves formations. More on this later.
I am chartering a Liveaboard diving trip to the Red Sea next November. The boat can take 20 people. It has 10 twin rooms. All en-suite. Cost is £995, all inclusive. So far, probably have about 6 people who have said that they wanted to go. So if any of you wants to have a great week of diving, or even lazing at sea, please let me know.
Update. I have now filled the boat with 10 divers.
Ok..ok, here I go again. I am at a conference again these 2 days. What can I say? It's just that the end of the year is usually my "conference season". They all come together all at once. This time though, it's nearer home. I brought my mum and mum-in-law with me, so that they can do some sightseeing while i attend the conference in the day. Tonight they turn on the Christmas lights in city. So, we hit the town and took some pics. Any ideas where we are?
