My name is Rachel Corrie

Went to see the above play last night with Hels an old university friend of mine. Its a production by Alan Rickman based (very closely) on the diary and emails of Rachel Corrie who went to act as a peacekeeper and human shield in the Palestine around 2001. The girl who acted as Rachel was fantastic! It was the opening night and she was word perfect. She kept up the monologue for 90 minutes, it was very impressive and you were always captivated.

It is a very depressing tale of the hell the palestinians are living through with regard to the fighting with Israel at the time. You really did get a sense of the injustice and purgatory the common, innocent, palestinian had to live with. It did not excuse the violence of the Hamas or the suicide bombers but it did reveal the plight of ordinary people caught up in a war they did not want or understand and that was out of their reach to control.

Rachel died standing in front of a bulldozer as it demolished yet another Greenhouse complex, one of the few left producing much needed vegetables and fruit for the common man.

At the end of the play you are left subdued, frustrated at the injustice and angry at the lack of humanity displayed by those in power, on both sides. The play is well worth going to as it does open your eyes and does play with your emotions, which i believe, all good plays should.

St Anton pictures update

Man, I've been having massive trouble getting the photos off my Sony V800, carphone warehouse, Orange, Vodafone and the O2 shops don't have a usb cable, i even bought a bluetooth dongle which connects to the V800 but doesn't see the photos.

So, at the moment, you'll just have to take my word for it that it was a wicked weekend and the weather was stunning... sorry :-(

Fight night

The interesting thing about boxing is that it is exactly like what you see on TV. I mean, motor racing is excellent when you're right in front of it. The smells, noise and speed are amazing! you don't get a sense of that on the TV. But, with boxing, its the same. The only difference is the punches sound harder in reality, oh, and there's alot more blood that you can see than on sanitised TV.

York Hall - Bethnal Greem

Was at the David Hayle vs er, someone from Denmark, Cruiserweight European Title match at York Hall Bethnal Green on friday night.

Now, i've never been to a boxing match before and if you're going to do it, do it in style. We were guests of a friend of mine, Karen White. She's a lawyer for Sky Sports and we had front row tickets and i mean literally front row - when the boxing started we were hit by the sweat (although, fortunately, we didn't find any blood on us).

While the evening started at 7.30 it wasn't going live on Sky Sports until 10pm and that was just for the main event of the night.

Here we are waiting for the first match.

Odeo and St Anton

Wow, been a while since i blogged. Just got back from St Anton. God it was WICKED! I've moved 'to the next level' of boarding, I can now start at the top of a mountain and ride all the way to the bottom with some wicked carving action! I'm waiting for a few friends to send through photos and then i'll update them here.

I've sorted out Odeo and created my first audio blog. Nothing special, just seeing how it sounds and works. Let me know what you think of the quality of the sound (not the content ;)) and ease of listening to my charismatic, charming voice...

The Royal Commonwealth Club

Waiting for a lunchtime business meeting.

Another fantastic day

I've only got 1 more hour before i have to come back to miserable England (i hear it's been snowing). The trip has been a fascinating insight into both the american and american government employee psyche. I'm feeling particularly reflective, as i often do before coming home. I'd like to get away more often and explore. I also felt quite lonely and would like to change that too...