Some hilarious news I came across tonight - Emma Clarke, the voice on the London Underground announcement system has been fired for recording and posting some spoofs on her own website. Although the site has been crippled by people trying to access it I found them elsewhere and here are a few I found particularly funny -
“We’d like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loud.”
“Passengers are reminded that a smile is actually a friendship signal, not a sign of weakness.”
“Passengers should note that the bearded gentleman’s rucksack contains the following items only: Some sandwiches, a library card and a picture of a bare ankle and is no cause for concern.”
“Would the gentlemen in the pinstripe suit and £1000 glasses who obviously works in the media, please take one step forward on to the track as the train arrives. Thank you.”
I think instead of firing her they should commission some more to be randomly played between stops - it would certainly make the hellish nightmare of tube travel a little more bearable!
Download the rest of the announcements here (n.b. some are a little risqué).
I think others have already said enough about the iPhone but sufficed to say it’s living up to my expectations so far. Having phone/ email/ internet/ ipod/ calendar/ photos/ camera/ maps etc. all in one slick device is very very nice. Getting it on Friday evening was an interesting experience in itself. Surprisingly, having queued on Regents Street for about an hour and a half, it only took 15 mins to make the purchase from the time the doors opened amid the crowds of cheering Apple staff (perhaps a little much!). I quickly headed home, praying not to get mugged on the way, and activated it through iTunes - a process which was surprisingly simple (my old phone number transferred directly without any wait).
In the past I always thought micro-blogging tools like Twitter, Pownce or Jaiku were somewhat pointless but now that I have an always-on internet device I can see some merit them. When you’re on the move you don’t have time to make long posts so short updates (< 140 characters) are ideal. Now I just need to find something interesting to say… expect a few experiments to be on their way!
It’s been a long time since I posted anything under the “University” category since I graduated over two years ago and whilst I may be a little older and wiser the learning never ends! Since visiting Korea twice this year I felt it was about time I learned a bit of the language so signed up for the Beginners Korean course at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Three lessons later and it’s not going to badly but I think I’m going to have to put a fair bit of effort in to be able to keep up with the work - somewhat reminiscent of when I studied Japanese!
Korean is significantly easier to learn than Chinese or Japanese as the alphabet (called Hangul) contains only 40 characters, compared with tens of thousands in the others! If it’s of any help to anyone I’ve put together a quick reference chart which contains the consonants (19) and vowels (21) along with English sounds to help with pronunciations.
You can download the chart in a variety of formats on Scribd. Please remember that I’m in no way a language expert so can’t guarantee the accuracy of the chart (although it’s been fairly thoroughly checked by native speakers)!
Update (29/12): I’ve also updated a Korean Numbers Chart (Pure Korean & Sino-Korean).
I had a pretty busy, but very enjoyable, weekend spent mostly in the leafy suburbs on Surrey (just outside London). On Saturday afternoon I visited Richmond Park, the largest of the Royal Parks in London (2500 acres), which is home to over 650 free roaming red deer. My uncle had brought with us his Nikon D200 and 300mm lens so it was the perfect opportunity for a bit of wildlife photography Ray Mears style!
As they were in the middle of rutting season the male stags were in fighting mood so we made sure to keep down wind and a safe distance! Every so often when a stag strayed onto another’s territory they would bellow at each other but unfortunately we didn’t witness any antler clashing action! The 300mm was great for getting some nice close-ups but you certainly need a tripod to get a steady shot at that distance.
Unsurprisingly the female hinds seemed pretty oblivious to all this and were just wandering around having a nice time. More photos here.
As my plane back to the UK wasn’t until midnight on Monday I decided to have a final explore of some of the things I hadn’t yet seen which included both Dongdaemun and Namdaemun markets, centred around the historic city walls.
Dongdaemun means “Great East Gate” and was the major eastern gate in the wall that surrounded Seoul during the Joseon Dynasty. Today it’s marooned in the middle of a busy roundabout looking somewhat forlorn, no longer gatekeeper to a city which is grown way beyond its original boundaries. Surrounding the gate is Dongdaemun Market, consisting of over 26 shopping malls, mainly specialising in retail and wholesale fashion items. With over 30,000 shops you’re pretty spoilt for choice if you like that sort of thing!
I choose to steer away from the modern shopping malls and headed for the backstreets which looked a whole lot more interesting. Packed between narrow streets lay an array of curious vendors selling all manor of various goods. I particularly liked an alleyway which sold nothing but shoes of every type and size, stacked high against the walls. The place reminded somewhat of Silk Street in Beijing with many counterfeit brands!
If you’re curious to see what the more modern side look like at night check out this video. Next up, the final instalment from Korea (normal service to be restored shortly!).
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