Wu Wei

Three detective stories

Been a bit lax on the book reviews lately, or got obsessed by Sudoku and its variants so haven't read much. 

This first is more of a preview than a review, since I just bought the book today, looking for a third for the 3 for the price of 2*.

If you have ever read the posts on the side of this blog, you will know that my family history is a bit vague on my father's side but he seems to have come from Cernowitz, a town on the borders of Ukraine and Romania.

But when I picked up a book called the Origins of the British - A genetic detective story by Stephen Oppenheimer, I had no idea that this map would reveal that my British (or more accurately English and Welsh) mother also came from the same area!  A few millenia before my father, it's true. Isn't it amazing what the study of genetics can do.  No, I can't provide any more details, I need to read the book first.

*the others were one of those nice Page Blank notebooks, with which I like to start a new project, and the new sequel to Chocolat, by Joanne Harris.

 I recently read Don't cry for me Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce, one of a series with titles like Last Tango in Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth Mon Amour, The Unbearable Lightness of Aberystwyth.  They are detective stories in the film noir variety ( can you say that about a book?) with dialogue in the style of a local Raymond Chandler.  I'm not sure how funny they are, if you don't know Aberystwyth, a small rather dour seaside town in Wales, with a university.  Characters range from the local gym master, the donkey man and the icecream seller, plus the local druids.  The plots are funny in a drole sort of way, if you know Aberystwyth.  Actually I only went there two or three times, but it's very Welsh.  The plots are pretty silly, but I quite like them.

Much better is Berlin Noir, which has 3 books in one.  In keeping with reviewing books when I feel like it,  whether I have finished them or not, I am reviewing this when I have only got as far as half way through no 2.   The books are by Philip Kerr who I had never heard of before, I didn't realise that there were 3 in 1 when I bought it, and I nearly didn't buy it at all, thinking it would be another spy novel - a poor imitation of Le Carre.  And another, half recognised thought came, did I really want to read another novel about the second world war, hasn't it all been done to death already?  I know, I know, I should be ashamed of myself.  And I am really looking forward to reading the next Irene Nemirovsky when I find it.

But Philip Kerr's books (March Violets, The Pale Criminal, and A German Requiem) are not  war or spy novels since they deal with, so far anyway, the 1930s after Hitler came to power.  The style is Raymond Chandler, the criminal argot is unfamiliar, presumably German, (though it seems they are written in English not translated), and the story is about a freelance detective wrestling with the problems of missing persons, either killed by organised crime (usually linked to the government) or missing persons (definitely linked to Gestapo or the Kripo or the Orpo, the rival police forces of the time) or missing jewellery.  Apart from the detective story and the dialogue, the books are very good on the lives of ordinary people of the time, how they cope with a government becoming increasingly thuglike and out of democratic control.  Explanations about the building of the autobahns by ex-cons are thrown in for good measure.  Black humour is also part: the first book starts with this quotation:

FIRST MAN: Have you noticed how the March Violets (people who joined the party later, jumping on the bandwagon) have managed to completely overtake Party veterans like you and me?

SECOND MAN: You're right.  Perhaps if Hitler had also waited a little before climbing on to the Nazi bandwagon he'd have become Fuhrer quicker too.

By the end of the first book, the hero just gets to solve the crime, but only after a spell in Dachau (not I should add by choice) and a lucky break, while there.  He seems to make quite a lot of money, but his girlfriend vanishes, (as do many people in the book) while he is chasing the villains, so there is no happy ending (yet).  Definitely a good read and quite educational in a grim way, well removed from the typical British caricatures of the Gestapo and Nazi leaders.

Technorati tags: genetics, history, the British Isles, detective novel, Second World War, Aberystwyth, the Third Reich

Thoughts on becoming 60

This was not something I was looking forward to.  Not only did it mean you were oooold, but it really was the beginning of the end, as opposed to the 40s when it is just the end of the beginning and other such silly phrases. 

The thought of trying to live on my pittance of a pension (or rather several pittances eroded even more by inflation) seemed terrible.  I had worked hard all my life, not been terribly profligate, and in recent years saved quite a bit.  Somehow it seemed to amount to little more than a state pension, which is not enough to live on in the UK, so I would be banished to somewhere cheaper eg Eastern Europe.  Not that I really minded that, not wanting to live in the UK much anyway. 

I went into a panic when Bee decided to be a doctor, thinking this was just more years of work and no comfortable end in sight. 

However, now I have got to 60 it's not so bad.  I got my bus pass.  It seems OK to be offered cheaper this and that, if only I had more time to do them.  After all I have worked and paid taxes for it for most of my life. 

I fell downstairs but bounced on the way and nothing was broken, so I am not so decrepit yet.  No need for the zimmer frame yet.

I have spent the last week or so with my financial adviser and accountant dealing with all the paperwork for these pittances, which now that I really add them up, amount to something reasonable, especially when expressed in Euros.  Even the bad news about having to pay tax this year, as I have been at home for too many days, has been softened by the fact I can avoid tax by making extra pension contributions. 

And I have no plans to stop work.  5 years medical university fees for Bee will make sure of that, but at least I will have a personal doctor in my (real) old age.

Unlike those who retire at 60, I am just off to start a new project in Georgia for 18 months, which I am really looking forward to.  It's a new(ish) country for me, and I shall be doing something different (and perhaps) more useful.  I shall get to see a bit of the country as well.

In our family we never think it's too late to do things.  My mother retrained to be a teacher when I was 16 and she was 50. To be a full time student at 50 was unheard of at the time. 

So the blog will relate tales of life in Georgia.  Lets hope we start with a peaceful New Year.

Technorati tags: pensions, being 60, retirement, working after retirement, Georgia

Don't have your birthday party at Fishers' restaurant in Oxford

I haven't had time to finish Part I, it needs photos, but what the hell, here is Part II.

Birthday (part II)

Last week for my birthday, Sloph and Bee took me out to Fishers, a smart fish restaurant, which we keep for special occasions, visiting grandparents etc.  This restaurant is supposedly one of the best fish restaurants in the country.  The kids tried my oysters (not really sure they were so wonderful) and then we had our individual choices for main courses.  We were having a really nice evening.  Then instead of dessert, Sloph produced a birthday cake and all hell broke loose. 

She asked politely if we could have plates and forks.  The waitress snarled and said she would have to charge us extra, what she called "cakeage".  We thought this was a bit rude, and also a bit funny as we never heard of restaurants complaining that people brought in birthday cakes, or inventing special terms for the "service".  It's not as if Fishers has any interesting desserts that we were displacing.  I've heard of "corkage" where you pay for wine glasses in cheap restaurants where you have to bring in your own wine, but "cakeage" for a birthday cake just seems silly.

We asked to see the manager.  The waitress was the manager, it seemed. She said that she would rather pay the charge herself and give us the plates and forks.  Perhaps it could have stopped there, if she had just said, "OK, as it's a birthday, we won't charge you".  But what was this "I'll pay it myself"?  Out of her wages?  Like a favour?  We didn't want a favour, we just wanted to have our cake and get on eat it.

Then we got a long lecture on company policy and how we were not allowed to bring food into the restaurant.  "Imagine what would happen if we allowed people to bring their own fish into the restaurant" we were asked.  We couldn't imagine, but she clearly had it all planned just in case, and was going to practice on us.  I asked what had ever happened to the idea that the customer was always right, and about restaurants not spoiling their customers' birthdays.

So we decided to take our cake home with us and tried to pay the bill.  But it was not going to be so easy.  Sloph had to pay by card.  Back came the manager, and instead of trying to get us out of the restaurant without further fuss, she told us how she had never had to deal with such rude people, and we had even made her cry.  Never in her 15 years as a manager had she been treated like that*.  I began to crack and said that never in my 60 years had I been treated like this in a restaurant**.

But it didn't stop there.  We didn't have time to look carefully at the bill, before she began again. "I've only charged you for the wine, which I have to do by law" she said.  But we weren't complaining about the meal, which we had enjoyed, and were quite happy to pay the full price.  And didn't charging us less admit that she had done something wrong?  Restaurants are surely entitled to give customers free meals if they want to.  Their accountant might not be very happy, but where did the law come into it?  So it wasn't really a peace offering at all, just the minimum she thought she could get away with.  We didn't spend a lot of time worrying about how to calculate the tip.

So off we went and had my Maison Blanc chocolate birthday cake at home.  As you can imagine it was not quite the birthday celebration we had planned.

Next day, I found that along with the bill, she had given us a card for the restaurant.  Some hope of us going back, I thought.  When I looked more carefully, it requested comments and suggestions. After that, it  said (I kid you not):

Do you want a free meal on your birthday? Then  enter your details below. 
Thank you for joining Fishers Birthday Club.  We will be in touch.

I don't think I could face another birthday there. And filling in our details might give her a chance to ring up and continue her harangue.  The website doesn't have an email contact otherwise I would send them a link to this post. 

It's really hard to understand a character like that, trained so successfully in the Basil Fawlty manner, or a restaurant that lets her loose on customers. 

Technorati tags: birthday, restaurant review, Oxford, fish, Basil Fawlty

*Actually she looked in her late 30s so to have spent 15 years as a manager in such an established restaurant seemed rather unlikely.  More like she started as a waitress there aged 25 and had worked her way up.  I bet this was her first night as manager.  Sloph was more charitable, saying maybe  it had been a horrendous evening and we were just the straw that broke the camel's back.

**even in Kiev, where they have often had a good try. 

Russians hijack Lufthansa company

I was more than a little startled to see this headline here
MOSCOW FORCING LUFTHANSA TO SWITCH FROM KAZAKHSTAN TO SIBERIAN HUB

It seems that Lufthansa just have to build a new hub and move from the old one. No choice, no discussion, no high level negotiations. The German government just caved in.

I don't think I will be choosing a German gas supplier any time soon. But then it's not up to me.

All power to Lex MOL say I. Remember when we used to have state owned companies and everything was safe, even if it might not have been awfully efficient.

And why has there been no coverage of the Lufthansa hijacking in the press? Has anyone else seen anything? Nothing in BBCWorld about the Lufthansa cave in, only the threat.

Are you on Facebook?

Testing the feed to Facebook

Doesn't seem to appear on Facebook very quickly, if at all

Problems I solved this week

In line with Carpetblogger I can report on some progress.

Repaired computer yay
First my computer came back from the hospital earlier than expected. Sloph has been recently been on phone duty to Sony Vaio and after 10 days and no action she was so skeptical about promises to phone back with some information, that it obviously did the trick. And phone they did, several times and promptly. On Wednesday morning they phoned to say the computer was on its way to Heathrow. Ten minutes later there was a knock at my door. It seems they replaced the mother board and now all is well (apart from two weeks work missing somehow). A big thank you to Kelly at Sony Vaio wherever you are. We will say nothing about the four different people I spoke to in two days when I was in Bosnia who mostly never phoned back. I would still be waiting for a pickup now, thanks to them.

Feeling more confident on technology I rushed out to buy a wireless kit for a cable modem and a cable for Bee's camera so the Japanese photos could be got off the computer. In the first shop I tried for the wireless, a callow youth told me that all wireless kits worked with cable modems, whereupon I told him that I wouldn't need a new one if that were true, and called for the next callow youth with more experience. He told me that they didn't have the best one in stock so I removed myself from the premises in disgust.

Skype phone
A short bus ride away at PC World, they managed to convince me to buy a cable router, a Skype phone and a laptop bag with wheels. I grabbed the Skype phone thinking it was the one I had been recommended to buy, but at a cheaper price. Disappointment set in when I got home and found it was configured for Windows Messenger not Skype. No wonder it was cheap. I refuse to use anything connected with Microsoft, that I can manage without. So that will have to go back. Still I can order one on Skype like I was planning to anyway.

wireless router
I was thinking that the wireless router would have to go back too as it kept saying the computer couldn't find the router. Eventually I switched everything off, including undoing the coax connection to the cable modem (which seems to be the answer to most Virgin cable internet problems) and of course it worked. Now I just have to fix up the security.

One hand baggage problem
Buying the laptop bag was an extra bonus. For some time now, I have been dealing with the UK one hand baggage rule by arriving with a medium sized handbag and a large and full laptop bag, redistributing the contents of the handbag throughout the laptop bag and cramming the handbag into the laptop bag, which usually doesn't close, but nobody seems to care much by then, as long as there is only one thing you are carrying and it looks OK. Immediately after the security check I then reconstitute my handbag from the laptop and march off feeling superior. However, I have been rather envious of those people with wheelie bags for their hand baggage. So now I have a nice wheelie bag with lots of room for handbags inside as well as laptops and even overnight stuff and papers.

Camera cards
Finally the nice people at PCWorld recommended not to buy an expensive replacement cable but a card reader from another shop round the corner. At the till, the Polish (who else) checkout girl helped me put all my boxes in the laptop bag and off I wheeled. Then I bought a multiple card reader which solved everybody's problems not just Bee's. So the Japanese photos are rescued and can go on Facebook, where they will presumably be safe for ever (??).

So all of this problem solving will be good practice for setting up a new office in a country where I don't speak the language. I too will become a bureaucracy usta like Carpetblogger.

Problems I haven't yet solved:

the new passport (no room left in the old and no time to get a new one sent by snail mail) but I have made an appointment to get one in one day. I'll believe it when I see it.

my pensions (some due for the big birthday). I'm not used to letters hassling me to take money, even if it is only a pittance compared with what I earn on a good day.

what to do on the birthday, though it seems that is being solved for me.

the trip to IKEA for the new sofa and the long list of objects it seems we no longer have after our gypsy like existence in the summer. One of Bee's friends has NEVER BEEN TO IKEA. Can you believe it? I can remember going to IKEA on my honeymoon, (before the dinosaurs) but that was in Sweden. So we have to take the friend for the cultural experience (and the shopping angst).

how to get the cat back. Said cat is used to a few stop overs on the way to a new home. But this time she has been stopping over with men (courtesy of Sloph and her two male housemates). She was always more partial to men visitors, quickly jumping on their knees and demanding a stroke. Now she has settled in and I was ignored last time I went round. The three have made a bid to keep her on the grounds that I won't be at home and three people are more reliable as cat sitters than one person (Bee). 'S not fair. I can't think of any counter arguments, and taking her with me for 18 months doesn't make much sense either.

Now all I have to do is get on with finishing my reports.

Coming soon

Sorry about the lack of posting. Days have been full of logframes* (you really don't want to know) and biomass, endless revisions of the same document, evenings much the same except for a new restaurant in Sarajevo, a Gilmore Girls rerun (my colleague is now buying sets for all her family for Christmas), and a surprisingly large time spent discussing jewellery and retirement planning (huh?). Also hilarity about sausage dogs**, a uniquely British (OK Irish as well) contribution to energy efficiency (3rd world technology in everyday use in Britain) and educats***.

I will be soooooooooo glad to get back to my own computer with a non-Bosnian keyboard (though I did manage to fix it in the end) and my own bookmarks, not to mention passwords automatically remembered. Though I did find the presentation on policing in Bosnia (left on the laptop I borrowed) quite interesting. It didn't shed much light on the current debate on police reform though.

Shame I can't be coming back to BiH again on current plans.

Coming soonl

Thoughts on the big birthday
Another rant about Sony Vaio maintenance (advertised as 5-10 day service, and already 10 days have passed with no action)
Planning for a new country

*see Wikipedia here. Reading Wikipedia I learnt there were such things as killer assumptions. Sure are plenty when designing projects in Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Given a well constructed logical framework, an informed skeptic and a project advocate should be able to agree on exactly what the project attempts to accomplish, and how likely it is to succeed-- in terms of programmatic (goal-level) as well as project (purpose-level) objectives.

I'm really good at the informed skeptic part. My risks and assumptions could be so daunting that no one would ever fund the project.

**For a retro version see here, how to make one here

***In the context of public education campaigns and sausage dogs, this typo seemed awfully funny. As a concept it is so far underdeveloped. Just goes to show that shared context is everything when it comes to jokes. Evaporates entirely next day.