mccullochblog

A Little Bit of Politics

As you know, unless I'm gabbing on about Tibetan Freedom, I don't stray into politics on this blog too often, but I feel I must tag my fellow blogger Ian for his commentary on this week's elections in Palestine, specifically America's pledge not to do business with the new, democratically-elected government.

It seems that when George W Bush said he wanted to spread democracy throughout the Middle East, what he actually meant was that he wanted to spread his kind of democracy throughout the Middle East.

OK, so Hamas may not be known for its conciliatory views towards Israel, but isn't that the beauty of democracy? After all, it's not as if anyone in the rest of the world was happy when the idiot Bush was elected either, is it?

The Height of Indiscretion - Part II

I've been spending a lot of time recently at a San Francisco Doctor's office on account of my Green Card application. I had my skin tested for tuberculosis - that came up postitive - so I had to get a chest x-ray. Then I had to get a blood test for syphillis and HIV and to test whether I was immune to measles, mumps and rubella. Then I had to get a tetanus shot. It's been quite the ordeal.

As my colleague Doug pointed out, given the levels of obesity in the USA, you wouldn't think the US Government would be so fussy about all this other stuff...but there you go. I had to do it.

Anyway, given everything came up negative or positive, depending on whether it was supposed to, yesterday my visit to the Doctor was really just a formality to get my x-ray results and pick up my final paperwork for the Immigration Department.

Astonishingly though, as I'm sitting there in his waiting room, he's consulting with another patient with his office door wide open, informing the patient (upon scrutiny of his chest x-ray) that "in 30 years in the medical profession, I've never seen anything quite like this tumor on your lung". "Cancer?" exclaims the patient, understandably shocked. "Well, probably not. You see, it would be unusual to have a cancerous tumor like that there, but you should go to San Francisco General to have it checked out for your own peace of mind."

Moments later, 'Jose' and the Doctor come strolling into the waiting room. Understandably, Jose is looking pretty glum. Given that I was about to get my chest x-ray results, I was feeling pretty glum too. Worst of all though was the fact that Jose made eye-contact with me and I had to try and give him a look which didn't say "Shit buddy, you think you've got cancer....that sucks."

Fortunately, I think I gave him a look that said: "I've been sitting here waiting for 30 minutes past my scheduled appointment time and its your fault, you shit." which in retrospect may have been too big an overcompensation for what I thought I might disclose, but there you go, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing.

Anyway, the point is, if you visit the Doctor, make sure he shuts the bloody door!

Latest Odds from FIFA

Turns out Poddy was right about me having used up all my luck for the year. FIFA has announced that 677,900 people have made 6 million requests for the 250,000 tickets that are still available for this summer's tournament. The odds of success are now 24-1.

It appears I will now be forced into buying a Slingbox after all so that my World Cup viewing will not be interrupted by such inconveniences as being on a conference call or keeping up with my email.

All Downhill From Here

To celebrate the excellent news of the past week, I have decided to share with you the previously promised snowboarding masterclass video. Note this is a certificate PG on account of Emma's dynamic camera work and equally dynamic cursing. Enjoy.Download SnowboardMasterclass.wmv

Undertoad Meets Maker

In the early hours of 2006 Emma and I agreed we both sensed the presence of the Undertoad. If you're not a John Irving novel reader you might not be familiar with the Undertoad; the mysterious lurking omen of ill fortune in 'The World According to Garp', but suffice to say that after a knackering Christmas holiday and facing the promise of an insanely busy January, we both feared the worst.

Little did we know that two weeks later Emma would have passed her US citizenship exam and that (as of yesterday!) we would become joint home owners of a fantastic 'condo' (flat - for Brits) in San Francisco. (See pic above). We can hardly believe we managed to get this place.

It's amazing. Best of all - it's a bargain compared to the two other places we've bid on. We've even got enough space for a room with a pool table in it!!! (Emma has yet to agree that we will buy my ex-boss' pool table - but she has also yet to realise that she has no choice in THAT matter.)

In retrospect, it does seem that the Undertoad has at least momentarily beaten a retreat. Let's hope it stays that way and that 2006 continues in the same glorious vein!!

Voyage to Narnia

Having watched the Chronicles of Narnia movie last week, with its scenes of snowy forests and wintery adventure, Emma and I were inspired to take her parents up to the mountains of Lake Tahoe area this weekend.

We love the mountains (and the skiiing and snowboarding of course) and with such stunning scenery, we were sure we'd be onto a winner with the folks too.

Well, as it turned out, we WERE onto a winner until we had a teeny delay in getting to Tahoe - a teeny delay that turned a typical 3-4 hour journey into an EIGHT HOUR journey. OK, to be precise, it took eight hours, two road closures, one persistent snowstorm and one evening of -10 degree temperatures before we got to Tahoe.

But, heck, you gotta make a little sacrifice to get to paradise, right? And on Sunday morning when the snow cleared, the ice was scraped off the car and the sun started to shine, it was just a perfect day on the slopes.

"We're thrilled to bits"..."We've never seen anything so beautiful"..proclaimed Emma's parents as we drove up to the Alpine Meadows ski resort. "Let's GO SNOWBOARDING!" proclaimed I...and so we did. It was awesome, as it always is.

Best of all, Emma went into the movie making business, so come back soon to view "McCulloch Snowboarding Masterlcass - Vol I."

Word from Kathmandu!

It's been a while since I heard from the young monk I befriended in Kathmandu on my trip there in 2004, so I was delighted to discover today that he'd written to me over the Christmas holidays.

Despite young Sonam's Buddhist upbringing, he'd actually written to say "Happy Christmas" as well as to inform me that he hadn't written in a while because "our examination is coming near so this year i also wanted to take first position".

Having rarely come close to 'first position' in any class I can recall taking, I am suitably impressed with Sonam's singular focus. I can only hope he'll be head Boudha and in a position to provide free luxury accommodation in the monastery when I eventually take Emma to Nepal.

Quite by chance, when I Googled Sonam's monastery, the photo above came up. This is actually his class, the very same group that I met almost two years ago. I recognize several of the boys. Sadly, I still don't know which one is Sonam as he doesn't seem to have managed to acquire a digital camera yet. No doubt these luxuries will also come with his scholarly success.

Anyway, all of this serves as a warm up for telling you that Emma and I are off to Laos for two weeks in February. The BBC informs me that Laos is "a landlocked, mountainous country, widely covered by largely unspoilt tropical forest. Outside the capital, many people live without electricity or access to basic facilities."

Sounds fantastic, doesn't it?! We can't wait.

2005: A Photospective

To celebrate the New Year (and to postpone the no-doubt painful review of 2005 New Year's resolutions) I've posted a new album today of my favorite photographs from the past twelve months. I'll do poster-sized prints for $20...roll-up, roll-up! ;-)