Thursday 18 December 2008

Catch 22

Being really tired is one of the worst feelings I know, unless of course you have the kind of life where you can just give in to that feeling and lay to and rest whenever you want or need to.

I find myself in a situation where I am desperate for a break. Unfortunately, given the type of break (Christmas=family holidays with lots of parties) I am afraid I will be even more tired than now when it’s all over.

Seems like a catch 22- I need the break as I’m really tired, but the break will make me exhausted.

Guess the beach, a good book and a cigar will have to wait a few more years. The kids can’t live with us forever- I hope!

Tuesday 9 December 2008

More stress and less time with kids

When I was a kid it seemed like our parents had all the time in the world for us, and they never appeared to suffer any kind of stress.

Now when I’m a parent myself, I stress daily over the fact that I don’t feel like I have enough time to spend with my kids. When I raise my concerns over this, the standard response from people is that “younger people are so much busier these days”- bit of a cliché if you ask me.

So let’s analyse this- what are we (‘younger people’) doing today that our parents didn’t do 30 years ago? Sure, we work longer hours than they did, but for what? Material stuff? Well, yes, that is one of the reason my generation works more- regardless how stupid and soulless it may seem.

What else are we doing that take up so much more of our time and stressing us out? The short answer is that I just don’t know! Clearly we are doing something wrong...

Saturday 6 December 2008

Some things never change

When my eldest daughter was born, she had a really big head. 7 years later she still has a big head! Same problem- different reason!

No Incentive to be Good

When I was a kid and went through my confirmation classes I was taught that ‘if you break Gods laws you go to hell’.

Simultaneously, I was taught that if I was truly sorry for my sins then I’d be forgiven and granted access to Heaven. I even remember asking my priest (or Vicar- he was a protestant) if this applied to any sin I’d committed to which he responded that this was the case if I was truly sorry.

So...if I have a bad night and accidently end up shooting 36 people, rape 14 goats and assault 3 beavers and a tree frog, but really regret it, at least on my death bed, I’d be OK and the gates of Heaven will open up for me. I can see why the Devil invented fatal accidents, ‘cause if people had time to regret their sins he’d probably go out of business.

So if all you have to do is be sorry after a life of being bad, then there’s no real incentive to be good, is there?!

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Zero Tolerance

Back in the 90’s the then Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, introduced the ‘zero tolerance’ policy against crimes. This harsh yet highly successful approach to fighting crimes spread like wildfire across the western world, and it would appear as if it has now reached Taiwan.

Only a few days ago a motor scooter rider in central Taiwan was held at gunpoint during a traffic stop for not wearing a safety helmet. After a police car whistled to the scooter to pull over, the officer pulled a gun on the 54-year-old female rider, who was wearing a hat but not a helmet, and ordered her not to move.

I wonder what happens if you run a red light?!?

I received another hate email...

On the 14th of November I wrote about an Islamic preacher who got imprisoned for failing to divorce 82 of his 86 wives. I actually saw the comic side of this and made a comment that implied that a man must be nuts for having 86 wives when 1 seems to be hard work enough.

Little did I know that I would receive hate emails as a result of this- certainly not from two women (have received emails like this in the past though). I will say, however, that I have no regrets about what I wrote and I do not consider myself having insulted Islam.

In fact, in accordance with Sharia (Islamic law) it is illegal to have more than 4 wives, which is what the Preacher got charged and imprisoned for in the first place, so perhaps I’m not the one insulting Islam?!

Regarding my comment- I meant this to be a joke, and since it’s my joke I reserve the right to publish it on my blog- it will not be removed!

The Preacher had 4100% more wives than allowed- that’s the real insult. I thank you, Yasmeen and Taahira, for your comments and concerns.

Monday 1 December 2008

Rotisserie Australiana

There are many things I love about Australia but the sun isn’t one of them. Well, not necessarily the sun itself but certainly the rays, or perhaps it is the lack of ozone...or a combination of both.

I went beach fishing for a few hours yesterday morning and managed yet again to get seriously sun burnt! We did have some sunscreen (although we ran out) but I find it only protects to certain point. At least I had a long sleeve shirt (at the beach?!) and a hat.

However prepared, the reflection from the ocean and wearing only shorts my face and neck along with my legs and hands now have the same colour as a cooked lobster. A man in this condition could easily lose his sense of humour when putting socks and shoes on!

This has been an ongoing problem, and one summer I decided to hide inside a beach tent where I thought I’d be safe from roasting. Unfortunately my right foot was sticking out so I ended up burning the sole of my foot- didn’t even know you could burn there!

Perhaps my pigmentation is just a little too keen as I can burn in the Australian sun in about 30 minutes. It’s actually become a bit embarrassing and somewhat of a bad joke that I’m not able to play on the beach with my kids nor go swimming for more than 10-15 minutes. Walking around in a tracksuit isn’t my idea of fun at the beach, and besides, even if I did I’d still burn my hands and feet!

A kingdom for a clear and completely waterproof sunscreen spf 10,000 I say!