 ( 11:18 AM ) Matt |
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| ( 9:05 PM ) Matt |
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| ( 11:49 AM ) Matt |
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 Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
The premise for this book is along the lines of an overweight Jewish Russian wanabe American called Misha Vainberg who happens to be the son of one of the richest men in Russia.
The brilliantly researched and presented story harks back to the might of the old Soviet oligarchy with some fascinating insights into the often corrupt underground core of the Communist power houses. The story also transports you to a beautiful portrayal of New York, particularly Brooklyn as well as the fictional country "Absurdistan" (which is based on many of the countries that fringe the Caspian Sea).
Oil, power, money (lots of it, and with it, decadence) love, sex, Jewishness, politics, corruption, war and music (Misha loves his gangasta rap). This book is funny. This book is a page turner. I ploughed through it in about 2 weeks - it proved to be a good travel companion. Plot and sub plot - a worthy read.
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| ( 10:53 AM ) Matt |
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It's been a life changing week for me. I've been feeling the winds of change for some time now, this week, they blew. I mentioned in a blog some time ago that I was presented with a path split. I decided to go with the full time job. It started a fair bit sooner than expected and quite suddenly - Wednesday morning I was called into a meeting where I was told that the powers that be felt that I could add more value in the new role - starting with imidiate effect. Within minutes I'd left my desk that I'd gotten used to over the last 2 years on the project I've been doing - a nice little office with huge windows, population 3 to 7 and moved into a huge open plan office - no widows and population 500+. Nice desk though and nice bunch of people around me. I'm taking it as a good thing - the department I've parachuted into needs a lot of work doing and sorting out and in a while, the platform I've been working on will be deployed into the department I'm in... so I'll be there ready to catch it.
 Other big things this week - Sophie's second birthday. I am so glad I came back from Portugal on the Sunday night so I could be here to see her birthday morning. It was a lovely morning and she liked the dolly dolly I got her whilst away.
So blogging - I've been a bit of a slacker recently.
I've had this guilty feeling in the back of my head that I'm not paying my beloved DragonDrop the due care and attention it deserves of late. I've got a stack of Adventure Shirt shots to sort out and there are great swathes of info, places I've been, books I've read, things I've done etc. that I've not blogged. [note to self] Must try harder.
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| ( 9:12 PM ) Matt |
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We went to Portugal to Bongo's stag tour. Much fun it was as well. We had hired a nice villa in the beautiful Algarve town of Carvoeiro. Arriving on the Thursday afternoon in high spirits, we took a walk into town for 'a quiet one' on our first night. This turned into anything but the sort and ended up chatting to all the locals in a little bar, drinking large volumes of beer and local fire water. Friday we went for a drive to the local big town - Portimao. Pretty, if not a little dull - not what we were looking for for our big night out. Friday night we mainly stopped in, a few of us braved it out late on to try and find a kebab, failed in that mission but found a couple of open bars non the less. Albefeura is the destination we chose for our big night out. Tacky, loud and busy. It ticked all the boxes. A rip roaringly good night out (After Super Sports Saturday in Carveiro) left us feeling worse the wear on Sunday. I had the longest lie in I've had in years - till deep into the afternoon. Bongo, by the end of it, gave the whole thing a whopping 16 out of 10. Photos and video to follow.
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| ( 10:44 PM ) Matt |
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Well - it's adventure eve for me. Another stag do. I can't say where it is just yet in case the stag reads this but he already knows it involves setting off at 4am to Manchester airport. Stay tooned!
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| ( 1:32 PM ) Matt |
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So flickr (the photo sharing website) has today launched the option to add video as well as stills. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I can see why they have done it - it 'adds value'. Flickr is owned by Yahoo, Yahoo and Google are fighting an ongoing battle to be market leaders. Google own YouTube, so this is Yahoo's answer to that. Microsoft are currently bidding for Yahoo. Yada yada. More power to the consumer is a plus side as technology deployment will accelerate as the service providers becomes more and more competitive and try harder and harder to get you on their books.
Anyway - here's a video of Sophie. Can't all be that bad if it lets me do this though :)
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| ( 7:41 PM ) Matt |
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I won on the Grand National today! A tip from a mate who works at SkyBet led me to have a small fultter - I put £6 on "Comply Or Die" at 10-1 each way and it went and won! £43.50 return. Sweet.
Went to Shipley Glen today. Nice little walk. Had a wander into Saltaire as well. Wasnt really in the mood for being inside after being outside if you know what I mean. Sat and watched the national on my phone.
Had a hectic week. The project I'm working on has had a couple of delays (as all good projects should) and now were under pressure to claw back some lost time. The frustration verses job satisfaction ratio is a bit out of kilter, hoping to get it back on track soon though.
Well - I'm off to put the wee'ns to bed now I think. I am inexplicably tired now m'self. Chill night I think.
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me photos...
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