thekua.com@rest

I just got in to London this morning from my trip to New York and I’ve finally finished doing all the things you do when you get back from a trip - unpack, do some laundry, and generally unwind. One thing that I noticed, in the haze of little sleep and yet another timezone, was one of my annoying habits when doing all of this.

Do you, like me, tend to move one pile of things from one place to another? I’m sure I’ve done it plenty of times before as well. It feels like you’re making progress, by moving things and doing stuff, yet at the same time, feels like procrastination. Actually, I’m pretty sure it is procrastination.

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I’ve finally got through all the emails, uploaded all my holiday snaps and written up enough of my holidays to finally properly retrospect on the year that was 2007. It’s been a busy one and it looks a bit like this.

In terms of travel…
I ended up with plenty to the US for some reason, hitting Philadelphia, New York City, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.

The European trips started with a weekend in Paris, followed by an ad hoc whiskey drinking holiday in Scotland covering Aberdeen, Dufftown (in Speyside) and finally Edinburgh. Ben organised for eight of us to go to a wonderful skiing week in Andorra. The weekend after that I returned to Edinburgh to really get a good feel for the city.

I ended up in Italy for a work conference visiting Milan, Bergamo and the Como area only to return to Italy shortly after to its Sardinian island, Alghero for a weekend with Kath.

My final “European” trip actually ended up in Bath (of all places) for the bank holiday weekend.

I started my time in India (only eight months later than originally planned) and I’ve managed to fit in quite a lot of travel since being here. I’ve managed to visit Mysore, Kochi, Savandurga, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Mahabalipuram and Kolkata. I also managed to visit a number of India’s famous hill stations including the Queen of them, Ooty, and a couple very close to Pune, Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani. Most recently, I spent the Christmas and New Year period on a secluded island in the Andaman Islands.

In terms of entertainment…
Things ended up pretty quiet this year for concerts and the small number of people I did see included The Feeling, Bloc Party, The Editors and Keane.

I also attended my first two British/European music festivals - Oxegen held at the Punchtown Racecourse just outside Dublin and then Bestival, on the Isle of Wight. Most memorable artists from Oxegen included the ever gushing Snow Patrol, the energetic Calvin Harris and the stunning light and sound extravaganza that is Muse. The Chemical Brothers were easily the musical highlight of Bestival.

Musicals and theatre shows this year included The Colour Purple whilst I was still in New York, a disappointingly droll Porgy and Bess, a bright and energetic Lion King, and a very funny show called Boeing, Boeing. The highlight was the marathon yet very succinct Lord of the Rings stage show.

Other random things…
I moved for the second time since living in London to Farringdon, very close to Smithfields, Fabric and Turnmills. Fortunately it’s also just down the street of the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society that I became a member of and only a twenty minute walk to Old Street where I started tumbling classes.

I trialled vegetarianism for an entire month after coming back from the US, leading to learning more about the whole vegan, vegetarian and pescetarian lifestyles people live.

I barracked for Australia while I watched them lose against Denmark in a disappointing football match near White City.

I had a go at Bobsledding, of all places, in Bath(!) where they have a training site for the British team.

I also split out my life blog from my work blog at last as the content really started diverging and work people weren’t that interested in all the things I got up to, and my friends probably aren’t that concerned about my rants about onboarding and various coaching and development things I do. I’ll be sure to write up a work retrospective on the other blog too if you are interested.

I finished the year off by finishing my PADI open water diving qualification on New Year’s Eve in the Andaman Islands.

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Another fantastic google maps mashup. Wikimapia. Check out what’s in your area.

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I sometimes find catching a rickshaw a harrowing experience. As a “ferengi” (foreigner) you end up having a much tougher time trying to bargain with drivers (I’ve only caught one where you didn’t have to bargain at all). I’ve learned some lessons like not asking how much it is to get to some place as they’ll normally double or triple their prices. It’s also not a great idea to descend on one or two taxis as a large group. They realise that you all want to get somewhere in one go, and can immediately collude to increase prices.

On the other hand, heading as an individual to a place where there is a group of rickshaws generally means you can at least bargain your way back to a normal price. If someone is asking too much, it’s just a simple matter of going to someone else (of course, this can backfire if they want to collude as well).

Interestingly this casts my mind back to economics back at University. Large supply (lots of rickshaws) and limited demand (just me) will work in my favour of pushing the price down. Large demand (big group of us) and limited supply (two or three of us) result in pushes being pushed up. Price elasticity of demand is represented by how much you want to get somewhere, while price elasticity of supply depends on how much the rickshaw driver really wants their business. Both of these fluctuate as the traffic increases/decreases in the evenings.

As interesting as this is, I’d prefer the approach rickshaws in Bombay operate by simply putting on their meter.

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Can be found here.

Hopefully it will be useful for people in the future.

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Then read about a guy who hit all 171 Starbucks in New York in a day. Check it out here.

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Apparently having a large white background consumes more power as your computer needs energy to light up every single dot (pixel) on your screen. Here’s a new site called Blackle that effectively restyles google so that you can get the same power and be more energy efficient.

A UK version exists as well for all those out there. Save some watt hours now!

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I’ve been tagged by the 8 things about me meme thanks to Gerrod. The rules start something like this:

• Each player must post these rules to begin the meme.
• Each player starts with eight random facts or habits about themselves.
• People who get tagged must blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Not one for rules (and because this meme’s been going around for a while) not to mention that most people haven’t been following the last one, consider yourself tagged if you’re reading this and blog about it if you want to participate.

1. My hair grows ridiculously long ridiculously quickly. This meant either very shaggy hair, or a haircut every two or three weeks. I always get comments about how quickly my hair grows out. I took nature’s hint and just let it grow.
2. I had a shaved head in grade twelve. Of course, back to point 1, it was all fine by school formal later that year.
3. I’m pretty disinterested when it comes to watching most movies, but I’ll always happily watch any horror or thriller movies when the opportunity presents itself.
4. When I read a book, I generally don’t finish it all because it doesn’t interest me, or I have to read through it as fast as I can.
5. I always carry a pen and paper with me (where it’s practical) everywhere I go, in the form of a Moleskine journal, or more recently the leather Ciak one that Suz and Al got me last year for Christmas. You never know when you will have a great idea and want to write it down.
6. I went to my first memorable concert during my first year at work. Amber from uni invited me to see Endorphin at The Zoo in the Valley and since then, I’ve been addicted to seeing live acts where I can.
7. I never thought I’d last more than two years in the same job for the same company. I’ve now been working for Thoughtworks for over three and a half.
8. Despite considering myself a foodie, I don’t consider myself one of those foodie snobs. I think some people feel pressured to take me somewhere nice or cook over the top food, but I’m just as happy with what you might consider fairly ordinary food.

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