Beijing

We arrived by train today. We arrived at 2pm, but couldn't find our lift. It turend out they were waiting outside the station but it was a bit frought finding them. Beijing traffic is almost as bad as Moscow, our driver twice drove in cycle lanes, and it seemed ages to drive what looked on the map as a journey of a few blocks.

The room is superb. They hadn't quite got our booking correct, and maybe because of this, or because we mentioned we were on our honeymoon we were bumped up to a suite. Our fellow travellers' guide book describes the west wing of the hotel as "tired"- well we're perfectly happy, it's more lucurious than anything we've stayed in before.

Now off for a walk to explore the area and get some food. The Forbidden City is a short distance away, and beyond that Tianamen Sqaure.

Haitus

This blog is going to be closed while Sarah and I go away. We have set up a honeymoon blog which we might be able to update as we go!

Links Update

I've updated the sidebar. James C has moved his blog to a new domain name, and tactfully reminded me on Wednesday. I had already updated the SAGGA Blogs Digest, and my own digest page on bloglines, but forgot to update the sidebar.

Also, given it's been in the news recently, I've included a link to the Lib Dem page about the BAe bribes scandal. You can still catch Monday's Panorama on the subject at the BBC Panorama website.

Irrational irritation number 12478

There's another one linked to this.

My pet peeve at the moment is people who don't have dyslexia, who write without using capital letters or punctuation. It's not brain taxing or difficult, and it doesn't look cool either. Neither is it hard for people without a reading disability to know the difference between you're and your and their and there.

Yes I know the internet being the live medium it is people are going to make the odd typo or spelling error in their posts. You will find plenty in this blog. But the spelling and grammar slows me down too much look is just so irritating.

It goes ping when there's... stuff

Great episode. Particularly identified with the bits where the Doctor stuggles to explain things he obviously understands, to other people. That's so me.

Best line "The windows are too big". An in joke at the fact the Tardis prop isn't an exact replica of an old London Police Box!

Bred in captivity

Hot on the heels of my comments about leaders on a big camp, comes analysis from the Childrens Society showing that we are becoming more risk phobic as a nation.

The report suggests that children who aren't allowed out of their parent's sight before they are teenaged end up suffering and lacking in judgement.

The BBC comments page is a familiar picture. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, people are still asserting that today's world is a much more dangerous place than the one they grew up in. It's only more dangerous because people are getting ever more unable to judge risk.

It's often asserted that even though a risk is not proved, it's better to be on the safe side and guard against it. Risk assessment is seen by some as the act of eliminating, rather than sensibly controlling risk.

Worrying disproportionately about specific, unproven risks, far from keeping people safe, puts us in danger, by diverting attention away from a general awareness of the world around us.

Letting children get muddy and bruised helps them develop an awareness that will stop them getting seriously hurt in their teenage and adult life.

The Family of Blood

Millennium Dome Elephant kindly lets his Daddy Richard post a review on his blog. Isn't he a kind little toy?

And Jonn Elledge does the same on Shiny Shelf.

Paul Cornell Made Me Cry

No, this isn't another post about bullying, but one about Doctor Who.

The end of the latest Doctor Who two parter left me with moist eyes, right from the point where Latimer and Hutchinson survive the war. Sarah reckons I'm a wuss.

We got to watch part one (Human Nature) on Thursday, in time for Saturday's part two.

The weekend was packed with preparations for our own adventure, two weeks today we will be off to Manchester airport for our trip of a lifetime! We also managed to pack in a visit to a coffee shop.

Who to believe?

Yesterday the Sun carried a story about the fact David Tennant, Russel T Davies, and other key members of the Doctor Who production team are moving on after the 2008 series. Only the spin was that they would all walk out at the same time and this was a plot to axe the show.

Today the Guardian have their own unnamed source, said that RTD was always going to move on after a while, and that the work schedule is too gruelling. Their source recons the BBC will not let Doctor Who disappear now it's so popular and will look for replacements for the key players.

Speculation among online Doctor Who fandom reckon that the Sun's source is none other than their own wild and fevered speculation on Doctor Who fan boards. The Sun has got it right, but fans put this down to the infinite number of monkeys using typewriters theory.