marc.vic.max.elliot

I was on my way to the supermarket yesterday and there was a truck belonging to the National Blood Service in the mall carpark.  I hadn’t given blood since moving to the UK and had been thinking about it over the last few days so the appearance of this mobile donation unit was weirdly appropriate.  It’s been over four years since I gave blood (28th January 1998 to be exact) and it felt good to give again I think it was my Mother who instilled the feeling of civic duty that comes with giving blood – I have been giving since I was 17 and gave blood 37 times in NZ.  My mother never had particularly good veins and would come back from donating with bruises where they had been digging around looking for a decent one.  In the end they told her not to put herself through it any more.  Personally I must have great veins – I have little scars in the inside of my left elbow where they put the needle every time! and the fastest I have filled a pint bag is three and a half minutes.

While I was lying there I was also thinking about organ donation. I have been a donor as long as I can remember and was trying to figure out what reasons people would have for NOT being a donor.  My first though was maybe they refuse on religious grounds.  But if the body is but a shell for the soul and the soul departs after death then what’s the problem?  Me, I just think you die and that’s it so for me they can have whatever they want.  I’m not particularly charitable in life so the least I can do is help someone out in death……..

Does anyone have any thoughts on this either for or against organ donation?  I’d really like to know what the 3 people that visit this site think on this matter

Three days into our four day weekend and things are very relaxed.

Saturday was spent catching up with friends (again! ) Lunch was Dim Sum (Yum Cha in NZ) with Steve and Geetha who moved to London about a week ago.  Dinner was spent on the banks of the Thames in the sun with David, Claire and Richard.

Sunday – well football of course! England 1 – 1 Sweden.  Lucky to get away with the draw too!

Today Vic and I went out to Europe’s largest shopping mall – Bluewater.  4 hours later I had bought a t-shirt – that’s it!  4 hours and one item was all I had to show for it 🙁

BLOODY ANNOYING! I went into Starbucks to buy a bottle of water and spotted something that Vic and I have been after for ages – one of those things you use to compress coffee when using an espresso machine (anyone know what they are called?) They had the US and Canadian prices on it but no UK pricing.  The US price was $4.95 – this is equivalent to ?3.38 at todays rate (remember that figure) I took it up to the counter thinking “OK – UK prices are often the same in pounds as dollars so expect to pay about 5 quid”

“How much is this” I asked

The young lady behind the counter punched the code into the till and replied ”Seven pounds fifty sir”

Now I would have usually just said “no thanks” but was so astounded that they would want over twice as much for it that I had to say “you have got to be joking! You are seriously asking me to pay ?7.50 for something that is labeled the equivalent of ?3.40!!”

Her answer was “They ship them in from overseas”

Of course they do!  I can’t imagine any UK manufacturer making these (Italian, yes) but 220% of the US cost!

And they are surprised when people use the term “Rip Off Britain”?

Bugger me sideways with a rubber fork!

YAY for living in the UK for once!  We have a four day weekend this weekend in celebration of the Queens golden jubilee :vbg:

And our friends Steve and Geetha moved to the UK from NZ last weekend and we get to see them tomorrow

And it’ll be interesting to see how England goes against Sweden on Sunday morning in their first World Cup game

Did I mention we get a four day weekend?

Senegal just beat title holders France 1-0 in the opening game of the World Cup!

Senegal were paying 9-1 for the win which shows how much of an underdog they were! Is it the year of an African nation’s triumph?  Probably not but still a great upset

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I look back and realise how little I’ve written here.  It’s a very strange mixture of being busy but doing nothing worthwhile mentioning at the same time :glum:  You’d think that if you were really busy there’d be loads to talk about – not me!

One thing – Big Brother (henceforth known as BB) started last weekend.  We haven’t watched very much but that’s what happened last time – started of very non committal about it but then got hooked! damnit!

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Well after spending about 100 quid on film, developing and camera hire this is about the only image that I like 🙁

There are a couple of B&W ones that I might scan in – we’ll have to see.

Synopsis: Busy but uneventful weekend had by London based Kiwi.

X-pan: Had real trouble getting my head around the panoramic format.  I really takes a whole new way of thinking that I have an idea would take a while to get.  Spent 8 hours on Saturday taking photos both on my my own and with a buddy of mine Mark.  I took the 2 films in to be developed and printed today (48 quid for 1 colour and 1 B&W neg film – bugger me!) I’m not getting them scanned so y’all probably won’t get to see them.  If need be I’ll scan the prints on my cheapo flatbed.

Brunch: Sunday morning Vic, Richi, Fi and I went to Wapping Food for brunch.  I wanted to go ‘cos they had a photo exhibition based around September 11th. The pictures were quite amazing and some of them were printed at 5m square! The impact of the photos almost made up for the rather mediocre food.  Everybody else’s eggs were stone cold when they turned up and so were promptly sent back.  Cold + hard boiled I can live with but cold + runny just creeps me out!

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Week two of dieting and the figures are:

Date……………………27 May

Weight………………..195 lbs

Loss/Gain week…..2 lbs

Loss/Gain Total……7 lbs

The loss has slowed but 2lbs in the week is OK and expected.  A couple of slip-ups during the week but nothing to serious.