Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the month “May, 2012”

31 May 2012

Angry Dentist and Angry Birds. A new App

As always these things happen just before going away, so I suppose thats good, better than happening when away. I do recall a visit to a Greek dentist 20 years ago, whose surgery was the living room and having to trample over people, family maybe, to get in. So,an excruciating pain equals an emergency visit. Three hours of drilling, sanding and filling, with huge sighs. Essentially though he wanted to take the tooth out and give me an implant, and having had an implant that for me was not an option. So Root Canal work it was. As one lies there things flit through the mind. Why cannot the drills be silent? Why does the dental nurse always get moaned at? Why does it cost so much…..but as the pain recedes none of these matter at all. He even tried to explain the dental x-rays to me. I am sure that a chest x-ray or a bone,I might reasonably still interpret, but teeth? were medical students ever taught about teeth? I do not recall such a thing…..

In three weeks time I have Round 2 and he is muttering about using lasers and poking wires into holes, sounds more like Angry Birds to me, now there is a thought. A new App. Angry Dentist……..what a great idea.

In case you are wondering, here is an Angry Bird, a baby owl up the top of a mountain in Benalmadena Costa in Spain

An Angry Bird. Baby Owl in Spain

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged angry, angry birds, benalmadena, dentist, laser, merton, murder, owl

29 May 2012

Manchester. Not a city of Angels

Having spent the last 48 hours mostly in Manchester I feel sufficiently able to appraise folks of my findings. These are not exciting but might save you some time and money. Firstly, the issue of paying for wi-fi in hotels. Let me list some reasonable places where wi-fi is free in no particular order, McDonalds, USA,Italy, Munich Airport and the Worsley Pub next to Worsley Park Marriott hotel. Now a game. Lets find a place where they charge 15£ for 24 hours wi-fi. Yes you guessed it the Worsley Park Marriott hotel and in fact all Marriott hotels in UK ( as far as I am aware). This is a disgrace. So my first recommendation is yes to stay at the Marriott hotel ( its rather nice and not overpriced) but instead of eating or drinking there, walk 200 yards to the pub next door and eat for less than the cost of the wi-fi.

My second recommendation is to avoid central Manchester. Signage would be better in Antarctica. The roads are crowded with folks all giving good impersonations of intractable ADHD, not able to wait at red lights, junctions or anywhere in fact.

My final recommendation is to avoid the Palace hotel. A miserable excuse for a hotel. everything was bad.

Good things? Norton Caines Services on the M6 Toll are the best I have found this year. But avoid petrol there. I can buy my diesel for 137.9p at my local south london Esso garage. Diesel at Norton Caines was 152.9p. Put it another way. Filling my tank there would have cost me an EXTRA £10.

Not Manchester but in fact a view in January 2011 from outside a hotel in Coventry on a cold morning

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged ADHD, diesel, M6, M6 toll, manchester, marriott hotels, worsley park | Leave a comment

25 May 2012

1 Comment

The Food in Barcelona. Rotten octopus pasta.

There is nothing wrong with Spanish food but what I have been served this week has been in general terms very poor. Let me rant through it. The hotel breakfasts at Diagonal Zero hotel were the same each day, and I don’t mean the same type of food but the same food exactly. What was not eaten was put back. Pineapple with black bits attached of dubious origin appeared each day. Eggs of various descriptions appeared and all uniformly ranging cool to cold in temperature.

Dinner night 1 – in the hotel bar an alleged Salmon Club Sandwich – well ok, nothing major to complain about

Night 2 – Dinner in Barcelona FC. Set menu. first course smelled of rotten fish and I think was rotten fish ( octopus in ravioli with squid ink sauce) followed by uncooked steak with vegetables so small that they may have been grown in Gullivers Kingdom . Lukewarm

Night 3 – Tapas. Ok ish. Everything fried. Fried cheese on a stick, fried this, fried that……..no vegetable. Lukewarm.

Night 4 – Harmless Burger and chips in hotel

Night 5 – Set menu in restaurant called Limbo. Strange assiette of starters , I assume a sort of Tapas, including deep fried asparagus. Main course of chicken bones in nondescript sauce, all Lukewarm

Maybe this goes down as good food there but for me I just cannot eat uncooked, lukewarm, horrid looking food. And thats why I have lost weight this week in Barcelona. What I would have given for a KFC

Squid Ink surrounds a lukewarm octopus in pasta. Believe me it smelled worse than it tasted.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged barcelona, food, food poisoning, hotel diagonal zero, KFC, restaurant, salmon, spain, squid, squid ink, uncooked meat

23 May 2012

Barcelona and Bar Obama

I have mixed views about Barcelona. Firstly it is a fantastic city but to see these fantastic bits does need a little bit of detective work. The weather has not been great at all since sunday, raining, thunder and windy at worst and grey and gloomy at best. Today however the sun shone. Due to work reasons my only excursion has been for dinner in the city last night. A Tapas bar at the entrance to Las Ramblas. A serious amount of people were in and half out of the restaurant/bar when we all arrived. Somehow we got a table and were served by a waiter who might have an alternative career as a mexican bandit in his spare time, and probably does as he needs the money, our leader I think forgetting to tip him………

Tapas does not excite me but this was fine. Tapas seems to mean a cholesterol death event mostly but again this was not too bad. The best part of the evening however was Bar Obama next door. This is a place that is highly recommended. Empty at 11.30 and packed beyond belief at 12.30. A singer and guitarist were superb and she had one of the best voices I have heard for a long time. Powerful and effortless.

Sitting here this evening having a quiet evening preparing for a talk tomorrow ( no alcohol and lots of sleep ) I can see the cruise boats on the horizon………………wishing maybe I was onboard

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged bar obama, barcelona, cruise, murder, obama, rain | Leave a comment

16 May 2012

Lucinda Belle Orchestra . Another priviledge to have been at Southampton

I first heard the music from the Lucinda Belle Orchestra about a year ago and was impressed. During this last year I had never seen any concerts advertised and very little in the media generally about LBO. The very occasional tweet but that was it. The album is fairly unique featuring harp music that can best be described as replacing the guitar. So when about a month ago I was told that they were playing at Southampton the chance to get tickets was an easy one to agree to.

The venue is the theatre TurnerSims that is part of the main campus at Southampton University, this means easy parking and a nice venue. The band were amazing. Lucinda Belle held the stage for the whole set with comfort and the only criticism might be that the set was not long enough. She mostly sang and ” harped” but for a few songs took to the microphone to sing. Her outfit was interesting. Striped tights that caught the eye and heels that placed her 6 inches off the floor. The band also were good to watch and listen to. A Serbian double-bass player was making his debut and looked like he would take off with excitement at times. The hall sadly was not anywhere near full and I may be imagining it but was Lucinda Belle a little glum? She deserved that place to be full. Afterwards the band members came out and they were selling CDs etc, which in a funny sort of way seemed a little desperate. For me people should be queueing to buy the CDs.

The band are in the studio for the next few months working on their next album but they are playing some gigs at Pizza Express in London. If you go onto the website you can download a free couple of tracks. This band is good and it will be a shame if they eventually call it a day.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged harp, harpist, LBO, lucinda belle, lucinda belle orchestra, murder, music, serbia, southampton, turnersims | Leave a comment

10 May 2012

Hotels and WiFi and What will hotels do with all those extra foam pillows?

Recently I seem to have travelled a lot and in each hotel it is costing £15 for 24 hours wi-fi. Now a couple of things to mention here

How often does one ever actually stay in a hotel for 24 hours? It is more like 12 hours as the norm. Ever an option to pay 50% of the price? no…..
Wi-fi is free in almost all USA hotels, MacDonalds and various other hostelries
Rarely is one given the option to buy a hotel package that includes wi-fi

This is a total disgrace. I will specifically cite the Marriott hotel in Glasgow because not only did they charge 15£ but the wi-fi reception in my room was appalling and hardly worked.

So Mr Marriott can you please give us free wi-fi, free car parking and in fact everything else that you should give us free ( breakfast in my opinion) and stop ripping us off. One day a hotel chain will do the EasyJet version and provide all this at a knock down price, companies will insist we stay there and then your lovely hotel will be empty. What then will you do with all your extra foam pillows?

End of rant……

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged breakfast, brentford, macdonalds, marriott hotels, murder, pillows, rip-off, wi-fi | Leave a comment

09 May 2012

1 Comment

Tim Minchin and Band. A priviledge to have been there.

Sometime last week a tweet from Tim Minchin advertised a concert at 100 Club in London for which there were 42 tickets remaining. Two were purchased. The gig was advertised as a humourless affair just music. The venue was a quaint throwback maybe 30 years. A basement under Oxford street with few chairs and two bars, but most importantly a stage. A curious entry procedure which led to a wait of 30 minutes in a slow moving queue due to each person being ticked off a paper list. Beer was 4£ pint, very reasonable. The venue is constructed like a rectangle meaning that it is impossible to be far from the stage.

Tim Minchin came on and announced that this gig was more of an experiment and that they only had 7 songs, he then confessed that he had written one more this afternoon, so eight songs. The music began. The music was simply amazing, enjoyable, whatever…..I felt privileged to have been there at the start of what might become big. No ego’s present. The band and Tim drinking afterwards with the few crowd members remaining and happy to shake my hand and briefly chat, with no eyes-rolled-to-heaven kind of look. Humourless ? I don’t think so. No humour intended but he is just a really funny man. Lots of humour but none that overshadowed the music.

My photos are rubbish taken with the I phone but no-one minded those who brought proper cameras along. I shall spend tomorrow looking to see when he is playing again . This might be big and we were there at the start. That I like.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged 100 club, band, gig, london, murder, music, oxford street, tim minchin

07 May 2012

Blackburn rovers 0 wigan 1 . Sadly what was deserved

I am not a fan of premiership football and prefer to watch non-league and lower league teams always, for too many reasons to mention. This season I have wateched Blackburn maybe half a dozen times and their performances are consistent. Very little energy and effort, no evidence of great technical skill, howling complaining fans who want everyone out from the owners, managers through to the man who chooeses the pies. Tonight, more of the same. Wigan are no world beaters lets be sure, but organised, honest and better, yes they were. Always sad to see a club relegated but this was coming 6 months ago.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged blackburn, premier league, wigan | Leave a comment

07 May 2012

Dead Fox was not what we expected to find

A sunday afternoon in the rain in Beddington Park Croydon. The aim was getting a motorised boat to work on one of the rivers that runs through. However one is taught that it is important to look out for obstructions such as reeds, sandbanks and now it seems dead foxes. Quite near the edge there was what looked like a young fox, dead in the water almost submerged. The other inhabitants of the park included some noisy herons who refused my kind invitations to sit still at the top of their tree and stop sqwarking so i might humbly photograph them. Egyptian geese that sat in the water surrounded by various debris from croydon, plastic water bottles etc.