Posts made in December, 2008

Festive Fun in the Office

Posted by Alex on 18 Dec, 2008 in My Stream | 0 comments

Spinning Geomag Christmas Stars

This morning my colleagues and I got even more creative than usual with my favourite desk toy, Geomag. We realised that the magnets stick to the metal parts of the ceiling between the ceiling panels. Initially we had one long column hanging from the ceiling but it was not strong enough to support anything more than a small pyramid. So we then went for a two column approach to spread the load. This allowed us to hang a spinning star going one way and a spinning diamond the other way, as pictured above! I can see we’re going to be working hard this last day in the office!

More Geomag constructions (not my own) can be seen at The Geomag Wiki.

Like – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted by Alex on 14 Dec, 2008 in My Stream | 0 comments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like

Have you ever considered what part of speech the word “like” is? Turns out its one of the strangest and most versatile words in the English language…

Why did I create The Powers Zone? | The Powers Zone

Posted by Alex on 14 Dec, 2008 in My Stream | 0 comments

http://www.thepowerszone.com/blog/archives/65

Good Blog on technical info for non-technical people

The Road To Sepilok

Posted by Alex on 12 Dec, 2008 in Travel Bites | 0 comments

A Short Travel Story

What follows is my entry into the 2008 Telegraph Travel Writing Competition. The brief was to write a short story in a maximum of 500 words about an adventurous travel experience. I’ll let it stand for itself, except to say that it happened while my wife and I were on honeymoon last summer. My wife is called Alex too – which you need to know while reading this or you will get confused!!

The Road To Sepilok
by Alex Bowyer

The fuel light had been flashing furiously for an hour. It was dark now. In 100 miles we’d seen only two petrol stations; our anxiety grew into panic when we found a third one deserted.

Driving across Malaysian Borneo was always going to be ambitious, but we really wanted to see orang-utans in the wild. We hadn’t anticipated this kind of trouble.

“If we run out, who could we call?” I wondered aloud, “I bet there’s no AA here.”

“No,” sighed Alex.

At last the endless palm plantations receded. We’d reached the outskirts of Sandakan.

“Can you tell how far it is?” Alex asked. Her voice was strained.

I checked. “No.” Useless map.

Minutes passed. We drove on.

“Hang on!” I yelled. “I saw a sign.” We must be close!

She pulled over.

“OK, you go and check. I’ll turn around.”

I walked back to the roundabout and crossed the road carefully, invisible in the darkness. Cicadas chirruped loudly in the dense jungle all around. I reached the signpost. It read LABUK B&B – 600 METRES, with a big arrow. I smiled. What a relief! I bounded back, eager to share the good news.

Getting closer, I froze. Four Malaysian youths surrounded the car. Shit. I ran, my heart pounding. Shouldn’t have left her.

I’ve been around the world and I I I..

Posted by Alex on 11 Dec, 2008 in My Stream | 0 comments

Track your travels with 29travels.com

I’ve just found an interesting site, 29travels.com, which draws up a personalised Google Map of countries in the world you’ve been. Here’s my personal map…

Still lots of white bits, I better get cracking!