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North America

Cuba - One final adventure

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One final adventure

Inevitably we had a number of adventures catching busses and getting about generally, including a delayed flight that threw our schedule and pre-booked hotels into temporary chaos, but the best was the cab that failed to appear at three in the morning to get us to the airport when leaving.  As time ticked by the hotel staff roamed the streets looking for a replacement.  It’s a long drive and everyone appreciated the urgency. 

 Cuba1080

At last a cab is found.  Off we set; but as we are travelling through a deserted ex-industrial area; there is a loud bang.  The cab’s front near side tyre has blown out.

The driver is beside himself.   Our bags are thrown from the boot and lie in the middle of a wide intersection; the jack and spare are uncovered.  Ten minutes he says; just ten. 

He is so panicked he hurts his hand jacking the car.  He is so charged with adrenaline he needs help to get the spare onto the wheel bolts and to thread the wheel nuts. He keeps dropping them.  I help again.

Ten minutes later our bags are back in the boot.  He can shave five minutes on the trip if we are fast. 

We complete the rest of the journey at 100Kmph plus, ignoring all the red lights.  I tell him to take his time going back.  I'm hoping his adrenaline has subdued and he gets back safely.  We give him an extra $5. He smiles broadly.

 

We made the flight.  Phew!

And so we left Cuba; a unique place caught in a strange time warp; at least for the present.

 

 

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Travel

Cambodia and Vietnam

 

 

 In April 2010 we travelled to the previous French territories of Cambodia and Vietnam: ‘French Indochina’, as they had been called when I started school; until 1954. Since then many things have changed.  But of course, this has been a region of change for tens of thousands of years. Our trip ‘filled in’ areas of the map between our previous trips to India and China and did not disappoint.  There is certainly a sense in which Indochina is a blend of China and India; with differences tangential to both. Both have recovered from recent conflicts of which there is still evidence everywhere, like the smell of gunpowder after fireworks.

Read more: Cambodia and Vietnam

Fiction, Recollections & News

The Craft - Preface

 

 

 

Preface: 

 

The Craft is an e-novel about Witchcraft in a future setting.  It's a prequel to my dystopian novella: The Cloud: set in the the last half of the 21st century - after The Great Famine.

 As I was writing The Cloud, I imagined that in fifty years the great bulk of the population will rely on their Virtual Personal Assistant (VPA), hosted in The Cloud, evolved from the primitive Siri and Cortana assistants available today. Owners will name their VPA and give him or her a personalised appearance, when viewed on a screen or in virtual-reality.

VPAs have obviated the need for most people to be able to read or write or to be numerate. If a text or sum is within view of a Cloud-connected camera, one can simply ask your VPA who will tell you what it says or means in your own language, explaining any difficult concepts by reference to the Central Encyclopaedia.

The potential to give the assistant multi-dimensional appearance and a virtual, interactive, body suggested the evolution of the: 'Sexy Business Assistant'. Employing all the resources of the Cloud, these would be super-smart and enhance the owner's business careers. Yet they are insidiously malicious, bankrupting their owners and causing their deaths before evaporating in a sea of bits.  But who or what could be responsible?  Witches?

Read more: The Craft - Preface

Opinions and Philosophy

A Carbon Tax for Australia

 12 July 2011

 

 

It's finally announced, Australia will have a carbon tax of $23 per tonne of CO2 emitted.  This is said to be the highest such tax in the world but it will be limited to 'about 500' of the biggest emitters.  The Government says that it can't reveal which  these are to the public because commercial privacy laws prevent it from naming them. 

Some companies have already 'gone public' and it is clear that prominent among them are the major thermal power generators and perhaps airlines.  Some like BlueScope Steel (previously BHP Steel) will be granted a grace period before the tax comes into effect. In this case it is publicly announced that the company has been granted a two year grace period with possible extensions, limited to its core (iron and steelmaking) emissions.

Read more: A Carbon Tax for Australia

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