Brazil's nightclub fire

If you have not read about the recent news about the fire in a nightclub that killed more than 200 people and 80 more hospitalized, READ HERE

What is eerie to read was that there were 180 bodies found in the toilet as the victims thought that was the exit sign.

The first time I read about the news yesterday, it reminded me of the Holocaust. True enough, it was reported that the policemen removing the bodies felt the same way. I know a lot about the Holocaust because there was a Holocaust museum in Washington DC which I visited. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to visit museums as that was the only museum I felt had meaning. I learnt so much and felt so much after spending half a day in the Holocaust museum.

Another sad thing about the fire was that most of them were 20 year old university students - future doctors, veteranians, etc May those young students RIP.

Snowmageddon

 

[This piece was written by me for the ACIS Tours website, for an American audience]

It's been snowing in Britain this week! You could hardly miss it if you were here: on Saturday four out of the five most read stories on the BBC related to the impending white doom that was crossing the country.
 
My part of the country was one of the worst hit: we had a good 4 inches of snow. Oh... it's almost as though I can sense your laughing at that last statement. Please, allow me to explain this whole issue to an American audience!

The stereotype goes that the British are obsessed with the weather. Such generalisations often, of course, exist for a reason. Many people here find social situations a little awkward and it's the most familiar thing in the world to fall back on a discussion about the weather. I've done it myself: there's a slightly difficult pause as I'm getting my hair cut and I comment on the terrible rain we've been having, or the lovely bit of sunshine last weekend. It's familiar territory, it's safe and we know the parameters of the discusssion. Nothing remotely embarrassing can occur.

I've heard it said that it's not just the fact the topic is safe that makes us so interested in the weather; it is because we don't have any of it. We're a generally mild little island sheltered by the gulf stream, and don't have natural extremes of weather. When it rains a little more than normal, or the temperature pushes above 75F/25C (I'm not joking) it's deemed worthy of serious comment. Newspapers begin to roll out the "heatwave" or "Blistering London is hotter than Athens!" headlines (or wherever they can find that's usually warm, but happens to be having a coolish day). We don't usually have natural disasters such as tornadoes or hurricanes (the last one we did have, October 1987 is etched in my memory as a majorly significant event from my youth). The slightest deviation from the norm is discussed. Put simply, we love the drama of it.

Oscar Examines the Snow. Finds it's 4' deep.

Therefore when it SNOWS, the British go crazy. The first thing that occurs is a delightful, almost childish excitement about it. Twitter is full of people upset that it hasn't snowed yet where they are. I've seen grown-up adults crying "I want snow!". Then the entire transport system disintegrates. Roads are blocked, trains are cancelled, schools are closed, and earnest well-meaning messages go out warning people to carry spades in their cars and thermos flasks. "Do not travel unless absolutely essential" is the refrain. Bear in mind that unless we are talking about parts of Scotland, this chaos is ensuing with literally 2-4 inches of snow on the ground and temperatures no colder by day than 25F/ -4C. I should mention in passing the Scots, who get snow more regularly, tend to be better prepared and just get on with things.

This, which was circulating on Twitter, is a joke (obviously) but it sums up the mood brilliantly:

We just adore it. My Twitter feed is full of pictures of the snow: gardens in the snow, dogs in the snow, cars in the snow, dustbins covered by snow, train cancellation boards (because of the snow). People tweet their locations with an indicator of how heavily it is snowing, so there is a real time record of where Snowmageddon has hit. The BBC actually had a "live snow blog" up last weekend. What could they possibly hope to report on a rolling basis? I've no idea, but people read it and watched the weather reports as if were literally the most important thing in the world. Australian and South African friends look on in total bafflement. As my Swiss friend, Rose, put it: "The UK is the only country where there is snow. Ever. In the whole world."

Next come all the criticisms. Roads aren't gritted properly. Stockpiles of grit are running "dangerously low" (or we are assured that stocks are "holding up"). The country has fallen to pieces. Why are flights being cancelled? We're a joke: how does Canada, Finland or Switzerland manage? Then comes the defensiveness: well, they are used to lots of snow. We don't get much, so it's no surprise this happens. That argument works to a point, but would be more convincing if it didn't happen every single year. After a couple of days people complain about the same snow they had looked forward to SO very much. "Fed up now. Wish this would go." Etc, etc.

A British snowpocalypse generally lasts a week. It can be much less, with all the fuss over in just one day. The press will herald its passing with headlines such as "NEXT COMES THE BIG THAW" and there will be flood warnings everywhere.  This local headline even set up a gallery of the few roads that were flooded, which will last in most places for a day.

Finally everything is back to normal. The UK is mild, it is green again, and it is damp. The drama of the snow has passed. All we have to look forward to are the newspaper reports on the few warm days at the end of March "that the UK is hotter than Madrid!". It will then rain, pretty much for the entire summer, until September when three sunny days in a row are heralded as an "Indian Summer".

Naturally, and in summary, it's so easy to mock the Brits for all this. I grew up in Germany, which gets much more snow and doesn't collapse in the same way. However, I'll also remark that the childish delight with which the arrival of snow is greeted in the UK is incredibly endearing. There aren't many occasions when an adult is permitted socially to revert to this state of excitement and wonder. As ever, and as the "Met Office" image above displays, matters are generally conducted with a healthy dose of humour and self-mockery. We KNOW we're rubbish at the weather, we KNOW we are obsessed by it, and frankly we don't really care.

In my opinion, by a long way the best thing about Britain are its inhabitants. If you haven't been you should come and visit us. Just, whatever happens, make sure it's not on one of the few days a year it actually snows here. You'll think you've landed on another planet. It might even be partially white.

Last week

The days are passing by so fast. Someone told me our minutes are actually shorter now than last time due to the Earths something something which means we do not exactly have 24 hours in a day now. We have less! I'd like to believe that fact because it really feels like time passes by really quickly nowadays. Even the snow melts so fast in Glasgow.

Last week was great.

I organised a small birthday celebration for two of my friends. Coincidentally they were both January babies born two days apart. So, just maybe, friends I'd like to keep are Capricorns. I believe in horoscopes. Sometimes reading things about myself, a Virgo, makes me understand myself more. Anyway, I made egg tarts as a birthday cake. Thankfully I lived near supermarkets because I realized I was not in KL, meaning I didn't have a single candle or matchsticks here.

The egg tarts turned out alright I guess since my friends each ate two or three of it :D

Few days ago I attended Malaysian Night. It was great effort by everyone who organized it. Who knew trying to make teh tarik could have been so messy. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the games. The food prepared were pretty good. I contributed by cooking curry chicken. Making curry chicken using three whole chicken sounded like a pretty tough job but it was actually the fastest and easiest thing to make. Very minimal washing up too :) Other people were making ondeh-ondeh, curry puffs etc. The guy who was in charge of frying had to stand in front of the stove for 6 hours to cook all the curry puffs!! I salute him!

What else... it snowed yesterday. The longest one, but it rained after that so everything melted on the same day.

Buble's Havent Met You Yet

The song Haven't Met You Yet by Michael Buble was always a nice song to listen to.
Today I read that he and his wife are having a baby and the article wrote this song was actually written for his wife. Besides that, his wife was also in the video clip for this song.

I watched the video clip again after reading the article and somehow the song sounded even better because I know all this :)

Deceiving winter

What snow? what blizzard?
Even the weather forecast for Glasgow could not predict the winter weather for this city. So many times it was forecast to snow, but it has not happened much.

Yesterday, The pathway outside my place was salted for the big freeze today. But at the end of today, the man who salted it was sweeping the salt away because the snow never came to Glasgow. LOL

The sky outside looked perfect for a walk outside. Sunshine with no rain. But once we stepped out, the cold made us shiver. The more we walk, the more the cold bites. Our cheeks felt sore, our fingers were numb, and it was too cold to talk. Not forgetting the occasional gust of wind that comes. Stay home :)

Easy Books

We all complain when customer service isn't up to scratch, but I'd just like to give an example of the opposite.

I use Easy Books on my MacBook to keep the accounts for our company.  I find it really incredibly easy to use: it's intuitive, user-friendly and very much fits the Mac ethos.  It's also superb that they offer an iOS platform, so my co-director can have real time access to the accounts on his iPhone or iPad.  They're a UK based company and developer.

Twitter: How To Do It

Today I followed the update instructions to download new software.  On trying to use the product, it then crashed whenever I tried to add a transaction.  This is incredibly frustrating: I had a load of transactions to update and the whole product was effectively useless.  You know how "hair tearing" it can be when you want to get a task done and you aren't able to.

I therefore went onto the support part of the Easy Books website and sent a message on Twitter.  This was at 15.21.  They responded exactly one minute later at 15.22.  They told me how to get in touch on the site.  I had actually already registered an issue and provided my email.  Personal emails, addressing me as "Peter" arrived at 15.31, 15.33 and 15.41, to get to the bottom of the issue. 

At 16.13 I had another personal email to let me know the issue had been solved and that a new version of the software was available.  I downloaded it and the problem is indeed solved.  The problem applied just to the Lion version of Mac OS that I'm running.  Here's the exchange:

This is genuinely superb support.  They don't just have a Twitter presence to broadcast mindlessly as many companies do.  They clearly do tweet about their product, but they also react (rapidly), interact with you on Twitter and produce a solution.  You deal with two named people by email: Matthew and Karen.

Couldn't Be Happier

I couldn't be happier with all this.  If you want an excellent Mac Based accounts system (for businesses or private accounts) that's extremely affordable, easy to use and has this Rolls-Royce level of support, you know where to go:  http://easybooksapp.com/

Kudos to Easy Books!



[Disclaimer I'm in no way related to this product as my regular readers will know: this is a genuine customer recommendation]

Kimberley Walsh - One day I will Fly away

Pretty Kimberley Walsh makes her solo debut with a new video for the song One Day I Fly Away. I think she is a pretty good singer. If you did not know, she is from the girl group Girls Aloud. The same group as Cheryl Cole.
Hmm i cant put Vevo videos here.
Watch it here: DAILYMAIL