Dancing On Virgin

A news report today on Heather Mills and dancing partner "cheering up" the passengers on a Virgin Atlantic flight from LA with an impromptu dance up the aisles after the entire in-flight entertatinment system broke down, leaving passengers movieless for more than 10 hours.

The self-aggrandizement of Mills was the feature of the news, but the more insteresting fact (to me) was the further evidence that the Virgin Atlantic fleet is too thinly stretched. Virgin said that a "power surge" caused the entire caboodle to fuck up and that "all passengers were compensated". Yeah, right. I wonder how much. Well, no-one was compensated on my trip back when the system (partially) failed. Indeed, no announcement was made that there had been a failure, let alone an offer of compensation. With the last three flights I have taken with them being significantly late (but not late enough so that mandatory compensation kicks in), I think I would advise avoiding flights on Virgin Atlantic until they have sorted out their shit. At the moment, it's a mess.

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This summer Man Utd will be touring the Far East, re-emphasizing their huge brand value over there. It made the front page of today's Singapore Straits Times, and from this it's clear that Ronaldo is the new black, or the new Beckham, if you prefer. That many of the games will see Ronaldo appearing for only a short time, or playing in goal, will matter not one whit. This is show business, after all, and we all know that the business called show (and anyone involved in it) has its own bizarre concept of "truth".

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Well, I've organized about as much as I can for Vietnam before I fly out tomorrow. Theoretically a nice man with a sign will be awaiting me at Hanoi airport, to whisk me off in the hotel car. If he doesn't, I could well take a wrong turn and end up in Laos.

I'm really going to force myself to get out and about, rather than do what I normally prefer to do when on holiday -- never leave my hotel suite (it has a certain womb-like safety and lack of stress to it). So, if I don't send daily reports, it's because I'm out, busy, trying to enjoy myself.

I've booked a two-day/one-night Lagoon cruise on a Junk. This looks like fun and I'm actually looking forward to that bit, provided I can find the pick-up point in Hanoi. Maybe I'll turn up at the wrong place and end up touring the Veitnamese Boat Camps in Hong Kong by mistake.


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I'm off to the dentist again tis afternoon. For those of you of similar advanced years to me, who are unlikely ever to have had to submit to the fitting of a brace, what happens is that, for a few days (up to a week) after the wires are retightened, you can't bite down with the front teeth at all, because the wires are doing most of their hard work, shifting the teeth. Then for three or four weeks, the teeth get used to their new position, until (like now) it's as if they had always been in their current position. Rinse and repeat until teeth are in correct place.

Unfortunately, there are no signs of my second teeth dropping down into the gaps created by the extraction of the milk teeth. Not even a hint of white peeking trhough. Damn. This probably means surgery for both of them, so that the little chains can bet attached to "drag" down the teeth, enabling the brace to be attached.

Still, that will be the worst of it. Once that's through, it's plain sailing. Well, sort of.

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Nice to see that wonderful Mr Gates offering software for $3 to schools where the government subsidizes the purchase of PCs. Why was it that I was immediately reminded of the drug dealer giving out free samples outside the school gates.

"No, it's not addictive. It just makes you feel good. Here, try a sample. This one's on me..."

Very unfair of me, of course. Windows and Office are nothing like crack.

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PJ