We're back, and all is well

I'm back in the UK. In fact, I've been back since Saturday evening, and I'm typing this on Monday morning, at work. It was an effort to drag myself to the office this morning. I don't think the jet lag has quite worn off yet. I actually got up at about 6am. Dumpy is adjusting well, but he's waking up early also.

I was surprised at how easy it was to travel half way round the world with a baby. I think we were lucky. He could have been a pain in the arse, but in fact he didn't really seem to notice that he was travelling. He slept in his sky cot for most of the journey out. Coming back we left Taipei at 6 am and he wasn't really in the mood to sleep. He was still good however and we received no complaints from other passengers.

It turns out that Dumpy doesn't give a toss who picks him up and plays with him. He has a huge Asian family and they all passed him round like a doll. He probaly met about 50 relatives over the course of two weeks, the oldest of whom is now 94. Some days were just one long noisy party. We had fun, all of us, but it was hard work. I'm glad he met everyone, particularly his great grandfather. Everyone was very pleased to meet him and I think he enjoyed the attention.



I was in Taiwan for the 228 holiday. I've written about this before, but briefly, it's a day set aside each year in Taiwan to comemorate a massacre which took place on 28 Feb 1947. Thousands of people were killed by Chinese troops. Ex mayor of Taipei Mr. Ma is a big wheel in the political party responsible for the massacre, and has recently claimed that the incident which saw KMT troops kill thousands was merely an excessive reaction to a rebellion against the government. This is one of the most chilling remarks I think I have ever heard from a politician claiming to support democracy. This man will run for president in the next Taiwanese election, and he's likely to win. Where I come from we are allowed to rebel against the government.

While I've been away a couple of noteworthy things have occured. I think the most interesting thing would have to be the cash for peerages row. This just keeps rumbling on. Usually investigations like this last a very short time and conclude that no one was to blame, but this one just keeps rolling. So far we have had very little information about exactly what the investigation is covering. There have been suggestions that e-mails have been deleted, and now it seems that the BBC has obtained a possibly incriminating e-mail, which they have been prevented from broadcasting. I cannot believe that there will be no casualties from this.

Prince Charles has commented that McDonalds should be banned. What an idiot. Apparently there is to be a documentary aired shortly that calls into question Charles' suitability to become king. It has long been suggested that Charles' continual political meddling is inapprorate for a future king. Charles' response has always been that he would not involve himself in politics after he became king. It seems a rather weak defence however, since we will all know of his political opinion even if he doesn't chose to share it. The documentary will also apparently uncover questionable business practices.

I've recently watched the film "The Queen". Considering the praise that has been heaped upon it, I thought it was really very mediocre. It's all conjecture and I felt that some of the characters were completely wrong. Helen Mirren was very good as the queen, but I didn't think the role was particularly demanding. Other than that, I thought the film had little to recommend it. Another film I saw recently was "Babel". Now this I was impressed with. I won't ruin it for people that haven't seen it. I'd say just go and see it. It's very thought provoking. It's four separate short stories all interwoven. It's very clever.