per request

as per Sandy's request some more old time photos. On the left, my dad and Sandy's dad - yet another smoking implement in my dad's mouth...on the right my dad posing. I think this is where Manu gets it from...

A gorgeous couple...

March 21 marks the 7 month anniversary of my dad passing away. I had a dream last night where he appeared in his youthful mien...This morning I found this picture on my desktop at work of my parents sometime in the 60's when they came to England... Funnily enough they look like they are on the steps of the University College London dome, where studied law.

Bungee!!

After many years of wanting, but being too scared, to do a bungee I finally made it this weekend....in Macau off a 233 metre high tower. Picture of the Tower can be found here. Here's a picture of me dangling off the top of the tower while they took a photo:

3.14159265358979323846

Tomorrow in the States is the National Pi day. Clever - 14th March in US terms is 3/14 which bears some resemblance (at the initial stages) to Pi.

Everyone knows, or should know, that if you divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter you get a number which is on the one hand, but one the other a number which has never been properly written down. A computer in Japan has apparently calculated pi to 2 billion digits but there are an infinite number of digits yet to be calculated.

It's one of those wonders of nature, of maths and of philosophy that I feel constitute one of the major arguments for the existence of God, the spiritual being or whomever. It's got that hint of weirdness as well which makes it that much more interesting.

The history of the number (or "Life of Pi" if you like) is like one of those awful (but compelling) Dan Brown novels. The origins of pi are believed to have come from Babylon in around the 20th Century BC (that itself is a bit of a headfuck) when the architects there, especially keen on geometry, discovered that the division of the circumference of a circle by its diameter always produced a constant. It is referred to in the Bible and has been studied by Indian, Chinese and Persian mathematicians. A Welshman gave it its name. And yet no-one has been able to write the number in full. A true mystery...

I wish I knew how to quit you!

For some people a fellow cowboy, a cigarette, booze etc. For me (now that the cancer stick has been dealt with) it's potato chips and cheese. This is the first day of a month when I'll abstain from both of these things, which will be hard given my addiction. Usually I'll have a small packet of potato chips with my lunch (which will usually be a sandwich with cheese). Terrible!! salad and sushi from now on..

This, of course, is in a bid to rid myself of some...ahem... excess weight. I'll update as to how it's going from time to time.

The Aristocrats

Award season has come and gone...gay cowboys, gay writers and racist police the winners... still I saw a movie last night called the Aristocrats which I think missed out. I would highly recommend going to see it. Crash might be a 'complex tale of modern day prejudices'; Brokeback Mountain may be 'a love story for the ages' but the Aristocrats is truly entertaining and compelling. In brief it is just one joke being told by a whole host of different comedians. In detail it is so much more.... I would be interested to hear anyone who's seen it and their views - I suspect that half will hate it and half will love it.

Premature ejac-election

I saw this story on the BBC website about the US mid-term elections which was the standard "will they win this time?" regarding the Democrats- all fairly mundane until later on when it says the elections are on November 7 2006 - that's 8 months from now!! No wonder people are so sick of elections and politics having the whole business of electioneering (which I would say is completely distinct from the business of governing or running the country) running for a period of 8 months every two years (mid terms and general elections).

The Yerasis (or Bhatia Yerasis to be accurate) comprising my cousin Priya, her man Ash and their two boys Nikhil and Devin, visited Hong Kong last week. Their visit is only the second visit from my US cousins Shadi and I have been here (shame!!). Honours for the first visit go to Priya's younger sister. I hear on the grapevine that Sonu and Kavita are also planning to come (and have in fact bought tickets) but they haven't told us yet. HK is small enough so that we may just bump into you here Sonu even if you are trying to sneak in without letting us know...

Anyway, the week was great fun except for the fact that (as seems to be normal whenever we have visitors) my work load increased about 200%. We were all due to go to Bangkok from Thursday to Sunday but an urgent Court application meant I had to stay in HK until Friday night and only made it out to Bangkok for the day on Saturday and half a day on Sunday (during which I worked as well). Still, it was an absolute joy to have them here and to spend time with Nikhil and Devin (7 and 5 respectively) who are two of the smartest and cutest kids I haev ever met. When I say smart, I am not kidding - I played chess with both of them and found, halfway through, that I needed to really concentrate to make sure I didn't suffer an embarrassing loss. Nikhil would have had me in stalemate were it not for one tiny mistake at the end. Anyway, some photos, courtesy of Ash (who spent the week trying to wreck my computer and took up all my hard drive with his photos):


This is me and Nikhil in our living room.



This is a photo of all of us walking up to the Peak as per superwoman Priya's request and after eating a huge lunch. Devin took one look at the slope and got his mommy to carry him up there. Look at him below and you'll see why you just can't resist...


Chess playing.. my excuse is that I was drinking a martini and kids just had water - their minds were that much more uncluttered...

a civilised picture


Priya and the kids on the harbour front in Kowloon.




Some great pics of the kids



Some pics from rooftop bar in Bangkok called Vertigo on top of Banyan Tree Hotel
















And lastly, Ash and I were driven to this hotel after getting in a Tuk Tuk to go to the Peninsula (where we were staying). We had just come out of a 1.5 hour massage (in separate rooms) and wer trying to get back to the hotel so that Shadi and Priya could make their massages. The driver pulled up to what was essentially a construction site. We were extremely confused but then looked behind us to this sign to see that he had, indeed, taken us to the Peninsula just not the correct one. OF course, Bangkok traffic being what it is it took us about an hour to get back.