I’m trying to chose a hotel in Hamburg for the first night on my trip up to Denmark and Norway. Of course I want somewhere where Bertha will be safe – if I can’t bring her into my room. The Motel Hamburg (automatically or unwisely) has this customer review on its home page. Even in German you get the idea:
“Absolute Katastrophe, das “Hotel” hat völlig veraltete, liederliche Ausstattung zum völlig überhöhten Preis. !sehr unzufrieden! Alle angekündigten Services haben gefehlt (Parkplatz, WLAN…) Nie wieder!”
I don’t think I’ll be staying.
Uncle Boonmee
This was the mesmerising film showing at the Arts Picturehouse this afternoon to a not too small audience.
Here should be the official trailer:
Books in – books out
I’ve just remembered what bargains Abe Books delivers. I have five speeding my way, everything from statistics to Zizek to CSS and HTML I’ve resolved for every book that comes into the house I will get rid of one. In an exuberant gesture I’m getting rid of all of these including such gems as the 2008 ScrewFix catalogue:
Pointless blogging and twittering
this says it all
More on police behaviour
When my sons arrived home recently they told me harrowing stories of the anti-student-fees demonstration a week or so back in London that they attended. The Guardian today features some footage taken by a student involved. A large number of protesters were on their way home at the end of the protest and peacefully leaving but a line of riot police plus occasional charges from horses forced them back into an ever smaller space against another line of police who were not letting them move, and pushing them back towards the skirmishes they were moving away from. The tactic seemed pointless and counterproductive and of course dangerous and provocative. Have a look at this video. You can hear many of the students (not all of them) asking the policemen most politely why they are doing what they are doing, and other innocent questions such as ‘where would you like me to move to?’. Its at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2010/dec/21/metropolitan-police-kettling-student-fees-demonstration
Nick Clegg and Liberal democrats
Tonight, people on Twitter seem to be saying, marks the death of this political party and it seems in a way quite undeniable. Many here in the UK voted for them, feeling that New Labour had lost its way but not willing to vote for the conservatives which have always been seen as the nasty party, whose policies generally seem to make life tougher and less interesting for most of us (while certain sectors do very well). Those of us who did vote for the Libdems hoped, probably against our better judgement, that they were an enlightened, left-leaning, genuinely different party. However it seems that the politician’s will to power has triumphed over those ideals which we were rather hoping they would reintroduce into politics in the UK. I’m not sure about all the pros and cons of the new rise in higher education fees – it may turn out not nearly as bad as it looks – though the prinicple of it is pretty bad (lets’ get the younger generation to pay for the debts that we ran up through capitalistic greed etc.) But regardless of how this turns out, there is a huge sense of betrayal of the LibDems – or at least its leadership. I suspect they will never, ever get votes in any number again. I hope suited Mr Clegg enjoys the head rush of power while it lasts because it will never come his way again.