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Thursday, October 02, 2003

 
Blast from the Past

Actually, today I wanted to make another Quicktime VR movie, a view of the Suva Skyline as seen from Lami, and when I was there and finally found a parking spot, that darn battery on the camera went down.

Then I thought I write about the weather, which has been very very nice the last couple of days, if not even weeks, not too humid, not that much rain, very sunny ...

But then an old new york friend Lucien send me this very recent link to his fotolog, where he posted all kinds of old pictures by themes, and this time he was posting some of the parties that we used to have on the 107th floor of the wolrd trade center ... please click on the image below to see a full size version, and read lucien's caption, which among other things finally solves the mystery as to whatever happened to my DJ career.



(c) of this photo byLucien

The girl on the picture I am dancing with is Bebel Gilberto, 1 or 2 years before her debut album went gold ...




Comments-[ comments.]

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

 
The looming power shortage seems to become more and more concrete ... every day now the newspaper has an article on the situation, basically trying to emotionally prepare the people for what is to come ...

Interesting is the claim of the landowners, who say they did not get the promised money for having their land used for the dam. And that is the reason why some 'higher power' is sending the draught.






Comments-[ comments.]

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

 
And then there are some newspaper articles that just leave you head scratching:

What kind of future are kids about to have by ignoring / avoiding the internet?

Comments-[ comments.]

 
My brush with royalty :)

Big news these days was that Japanese Prince and Princess Akishino were in Fiji on official business, and we were invited to a reception at the Ambassadors Residence tonight.

This event had less people than last years december reception, mainly Japanese, some Fijian, some Indo-Fijian .. and I sure was the only Caucasian person around.

We were a bit late. It was very nice that Lady Ambassador remebered us ("that weird mixed couple") and complemented us for wearing matching bula shirts). Very shortly after we arrived we saw a police car coming with lights on. And then the Prince and Princess came in, he quite casual in bula shirt, she had more of a Grace Kelly thing going on. Too bad I have no pictures but the invite clearly said "don't bring any cameras" (wonder how that works if you have one of those mobile phones with digicam implant)...

Then the couple made the round and was introduced to pretty much everyone ... and interestingly enough .. with Japanese people there was only bowing ... non Japanese, there was handshaking ... so when it was out turn, they looked a bit puzzled and asked if we are a couple (like what? I am the body guard?) and they were very nice and switched quickly from Japanese to English and had some nice words for everyone ... very nice people. Who would have ever thought I will shake hands with members of the Japanese royal family ... and in Fiji ... life is fun ... and strange .. but we all know that :)

More surprising later was a Fijian guy who talked to us, and it turned out that he was pretty fluent in Japanese .. was fun to see him talking to Ritsu ... and reminded me that I need to get better at Japanese ...

Here at least a newspaper clipping:






Comments-[ comments.]

Monday, September 29, 2003

 
And a voice said "smile, because it could be bad" ... and so I smiled ... and then it got worse

The next nice little crisis to expect are planned power outtages ... seems that the Monasavu Dam, which is providing 72% of all electricity, has not enough water, and thus the FEA (power provider) thinks about implementing ratio-measures ... which could be as bad as 3 years ago when the last coup happened or just a general warning to people to conserve energy.

But the idea of living with power on/off every 2 hours is terrible ... I mean what am I supposed to do without power ??? During the 2 hours off it means basically "no one touches that fridge" ... laptops will run a bit ... no TV, DVD, Video ... phone - i don't know yet ... as our phones go through the ISDN Terminal Adapter, which needs juice ... yippieh !!!!

I bet there will be a run for candles and batteries ... I wonder how great that is for the island environment when people use more batteries which they have to throw away after each use.



Comments-[ comments.]

Sunday, September 28, 2003

 
We spent another great weekend at Toberua Island Resort to celebrate Ritsu's Birthday. For the sixth time we managed to score our favourite Bure and we had great food, one dive (it was SO windy) and all in all a very relaxed time.



We tried out the kayaks for the first time .. and another first time was that Ritsu did not puke on the boatride to or from the divesite, though it was the roughest ride we ever had ..

a bit later I put up another quicktime VR file, though I doubt anyone is actually viewing them ...

please prove me wrong in the comment field below :)

Here it is ... click on the pic below and have your Quicktime 6 ready






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