The following was also written at 30000 ft on 12 November, then eaten by my iPhone. Let this be the last time I say "Itunes to the rescue..."
Yesterday, pondering again on Community and Sustainability, this phrase blossomed into mind:
Society is Community without consent.
Which probably goes some way toward explaining what I see is wrong with Society: here in Australia, at home in the UK, and across the US. Further, the UK is on a governmental abdication path called Big Society. At its best Big Society recognises the value of Communities; at its worst it casts the infrastructure of Society from the paths of strategy and resource into chance and the motivation of individuals.
There is a theory that it could hardly be worse.
Perhaps. Certainly with any transformation, the possibilities for better and worse exist in the change itself. Communities can build better schools. Communities may be able to build better hospitals, better roads, better telecommunications, maybe even better policing.
But what incumbent institutions will stand idly by and see these things slip from their grasp and their reason for continuing to be?
No, the businesses, and most of the rest of the Hydra of Government will fight individuals and communities for their turf. And barring accidents, the current regimes will win.
Because Transformation requires more than a "Make It So" from the top. It needs an infrastructure of consent.
Building an infrastructure of consent is what faces the communities of Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.
They have some hope in the changes they face.
I give Italy, Greece and the UK longer odds on their capacities to transform.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Sustainability
Fashionable in Local Government and Large Multinational Corporations alike is the notion that sustaining your environment, your community and your supply chain is ultimately good for business.
As part of a rising tide, boat lifting ethos it is well placed.
But in the same way it is always a good idea if you must worry to worry about things you can control, sustainability is self defeating if you don't look after your people and your customers.
Excuses for doing neither usually boil down to some variant of "commercial reality", which have as much to do with reality as Reality television, and are less about actual commerce than that bane of organisational complexity: Administration.
Administration does not lead the enterprise, other than on a course of self-serving decline and extinction. Logistics are important; administration is not.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
As part of a rising tide, boat lifting ethos it is well placed.
But in the same way it is always a good idea if you must worry to worry about things you can control, sustainability is self defeating if you don't look after your people and your customers.
Excuses for doing neither usually boil down to some variant of "commercial reality", which have as much to do with reality as Reality television, and are less about actual commerce than that bane of organisational complexity: Administration.
Administration does not lead the enterprise, other than on a course of self-serving decline and extinction. Logistics are important; administration is not.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:38000 ft
Thursday, November 10, 2011
My 911
It is 9/11 2011. Yes, the other 9/11 - the one in November outside the US, while inside the US the turkeys are nervous.
The other 9/11 may have happened in 2001, but 2001 is happening now.
I'm sitting in a Boeing 777-300ER. Gleaming white interior, watching 2001 streaming from my phone into a seatback personal video screen. While it's playing, I'm typing this into a perfectly flat touchscreen computer. Outside my frame of reference, an observer would see that I'm flying from the northern hemisphere to the south - where I'll end up upside down relative to my origin.
Weightlessness is obstinately absent. My pens are not floating out of my pocket and the magnificent dessert I just ate will not float from my waistline, but at least I didn't have to suck it through a straw. It was, nonetheless only last month that Virgin Galactic opened a commercial spaceport. My flight today, and another next month, will renew my Virgin Australia Platinum status. I'd be more than happy to redeem my frequent flyer miles for a sub-orbital view and a bit of pen chasing.
William Gibson said the future is already here. I am ever grateful it is distributed my way. I've seen the future, and my god, it's full of stars.
The other 9/11 may have happened in 2001, but 2001 is happening now.
I'm sitting in a Boeing 777-300ER. Gleaming white interior, watching 2001 streaming from my phone into a seatback personal video screen. While it's playing, I'm typing this into a perfectly flat touchscreen computer. Outside my frame of reference, an observer would see that I'm flying from the northern hemisphere to the south - where I'll end up upside down relative to my origin.
Weightlessness is obstinately absent. My pens are not floating out of my pocket and the magnificent dessert I just ate will not float from my waistline, but at least I didn't have to suck it through a straw. It was, nonetheless only last month that Virgin Galactic opened a commercial spaceport. My flight today, and another next month, will renew my Virgin Australia Platinum status. I'd be more than happy to redeem my frequent flyer miles for a sub-orbital view and a bit of pen chasing.
William Gibson said the future is already here. I am ever grateful it is distributed my way. I've seen the future, and my god, it's full of stars.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Flying for Pleisure
On my way to San Francisco. No hair to speak of in which to wear flowers.
Some people mistakenly think a light year is a unit of time. It isn't, of course, it measures distance: that which light travels in a year.
Most people, at least those untouched by the metric system, think of a mile as a unit of distance. They're right. But a mile is also a unit of currency. A commodity with fluctuating buy and sell prices, and increasingly open trade.
I'm currently in seat 64K on a British Airways Boeing 747. Those clued up know that this is the most spacious, the most comfortable, and the most private seat in Business Class. The smoked salmon, champagne, and warm bread before me complement it nicely. All this is mine for 25,000 miles there and back again. Yet, on this trip I will earn 25,700 miles. This is not counting the bonus 5000 miles that rolled in this morning thanks to using a particular credit card at a certain supermarket in December for regular groceries.
Airlines think miles are about Loyalty. They're right. They think they have no cash value and that they control the programmes. They're wrong. Like stock, commodities have value that flows with information and demand. Information and demand in this enlightened age are squarely in the hands of the individual. That creative individual sorely mistakenly called the consumer.
Miles haven't taken me as far as light this year, but it is only January...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Some people mistakenly think a light year is a unit of time. It isn't, of course, it measures distance: that which light travels in a year.
Most people, at least those untouched by the metric system, think of a mile as a unit of distance. They're right. But a mile is also a unit of currency. A commodity with fluctuating buy and sell prices, and increasingly open trade.
I'm currently in seat 64K on a British Airways Boeing 747. Those clued up know that this is the most spacious, the most comfortable, and the most private seat in Business Class. The smoked salmon, champagne, and warm bread before me complement it nicely. All this is mine for 25,000 miles there and back again. Yet, on this trip I will earn 25,700 miles. This is not counting the bonus 5000 miles that rolled in this morning thanks to using a particular credit card at a certain supermarket in December for regular groceries.
Airlines think miles are about Loyalty. They're right. They think they have no cash value and that they control the programmes. They're wrong. Like stock, commodities have value that flows with information and demand. Information and demand in this enlightened age are squarely in the hands of the individual. That creative individual sorely mistakenly called the consumer.
Miles haven't taken me as far as light this year, but it is only January...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:30,000 ft
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Social Flying
It's dark out. Not surprising, the dim dawn on this 1st day of English winter is hours away. What light there is outside the train is reflected back from the snow. Snow insufficient to form a useful projectile, yet enough to make me late (later).
I've spent the last week in a PWP (Post whore party) on FlyerTalk. The key word there is actually "post": you post as often as you can about anything before a deadline in order to win the trip of a lifetime. And on FlyerTalk that means something.
We end with just under 100,000 posts. 100,000 in which was built an instant community. That which is built, endures: a Babylon 5 Delenn quotation that was one of my 2351 posts. It is hard to write even 2351 random things and not reveal some of yourself. And the same is true of everyone else. It is fitting that my first experience of this was 13 years ago in the Usenet group aus.sf.babylon5. That community eventually led me to QUMS, and from there to AUCS. There are two small people at home who owe their existence to this among many connections.
In the PWP this week, I won a coffee. Starbucks, yes, but hey, it's better than National Rail coffee!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I've spent the last week in a PWP (Post whore party) on FlyerTalk. The key word there is actually "post": you post as often as you can about anything before a deadline in order to win the trip of a lifetime. And on FlyerTalk that means something.
We end with just under 100,000 posts. 100,000 in which was built an instant community. That which is built, endures: a Babylon 5 Delenn quotation that was one of my 2351 posts. It is hard to write even 2351 random things and not reveal some of yourself. And the same is true of everyone else. It is fitting that my first experience of this was 13 years ago in the Usenet group aus.sf.babylon5. That community eventually led me to QUMS, and from there to AUCS. There are two small people at home who owe their existence to this among many connections.
In the PWP this week, I won a coffee. Starbucks, yes, but hey, it's better than National Rail coffee!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Paxton Rd,,United Kingdom
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Convergence
In the same month when my company has finally decided that cloud computing and open source are the way of the future, it is fitting that the not-as-evil empire has declared that all Google accounts are created equal.
Indeed, this blog, now ipinion.thebarklas.comlives with reader, wave, picasa, YouTube and all the other Googly goodness @thebarklas.com.
My docs and friends live in the cloud, but my ToDo list lives under my desk, and seeds its own cloud.
And I think I want an iPad (almost).
Indeed, this blog, now ipinion.thebarklas.comlives with reader, wave, picasa, YouTube and all the other Googly goodness @thebarklas.com.
My docs and friends live in the cloud, but my ToDo list lives under my desk, and seeds its own cloud.
And I think I want an iPad (almost).
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Microbe Logging
No, this isn't about small multicellular organisms felling hardwood forests.
It is, by way of a convoluted apology, a treatise on why I haven't written here for so long. MicroBlogging (as opposed to the other sort) was a term coined with the rise of Twitter. To my observation, all Twitter content is short, and most of it is inane. I do have a Twitter account (Heathrown) which is used solely for eking frequent flyer goodies out of British Airways and Air New Zealand. This is not its story.
It is the story of the Social Networking phenomenon that came before it, and how it reduced the 15 kilobytes of fame that was Scott Barkla's corner of the internet to nothing more than an endless series of Status Updates. Facebook status updates can exceed 160 characters, but even mine are clear evidence that Twitter has no monopoly on Inanity. The old Capote truism, "That's not writing. That's typing" applies. Consider then that many of the updates are thumbed into my iPhone while standing on buses and trains, and really it isn't even that.
It is, nevertheless, because I have spent so much time on all manner of public transport since coming to the UK, that Convenience has been the lure of Facebook.
On the Great Journey that is this life, this job, this decade, four themes have permeated the ramblings of this expatriate Australian in the UK:
* Weather
* Travel
* Chinese (I am a 3rd year beginner in Mandarin...)
* Technology
So here they are posted for posterity:
TRAVEL
23 July 2008 at 02:04
Scott Barkla Yes, now booked to leave 14th August, with a request to hold off on ticketing in case we can leave sooner....be assured, if we're not in the UK on 8th of the 8th of the 8th, we won't be in 北京.
28 July 2008 at 00:29
Scott Barkla I'm living in a Ben Folds song...
We thought he was gone
And he's come back again
last week it was funny
now the jokes wearing thin
cuz everyone knows now
that every night now
will be Scott's last night in town...
07 August 2008 at 02:35
Scott Barkla has had Visas approved AT LAST. Let loose the pidgeons!!! (What were you doing keeping pidgeons captive, anyway?)
13 August 2008 at 04:37
Scott Barkla is seeking loan of an elephant to sit on suitcases, so that they might asymptotically approach a state of closure.
15 August 2008 at 15:45
Scott Barkla has not slept for 40 hours, but he and family are well and safe in the Land of Glory and Hope.
06 September 2008 at 23:27
Scott Barkla has been to Guildford after all. Also wondering if Twyford is a carnivowous pwant?
08 September 2008 at 14:47
Scott Barkla is heading off to Glasgow again. Who said There Can Be Only One?
10 September 2008 at 00:12
Scott Barkla is heading from Glasgow to Scarborough tomorrow - not the sparkling beach with Observation City; the Yorkshire coastal town with rain and visibility to 3 feet.
12 September 2008 at 19:33
Scott Barkla is On a train, in the rain, I do not like British Rail Coffee, errr that's Green Dregs and Sham.
13 September 2008 at 14:46 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt Would you? Could you? With an umber-ella? Would you? Could you? Give some to Ella?
18 September 2008 at 13:37
Scott Barkla now has furniture. And stuff. Boxes of stuff. Bring back the spartan existence (okay - leave a chair - the floor is cold!)
19 September 2008 at 00:03
Scott Barkla is stopping unpacking. It's midnight. Pumpkin hour. And I've seen what pumpkins turn into when I don't get around to making risotto for 3 months.
24 September 2008 at 20:34
Scott Barkla is going down to Liverpool, just like the Bangles. European City of Culture 2008. I think they must sell a lot of yoghurt.
25 September 2008 at 18:26
Scott Barkla is stuck in Manchester and its giving him the sheets.
27 September 2008 at 22:25
Scott Barkla 's October is looking like Glasgow, Hertfordshire, Glasgow, Hertfordshire, Hong Kong, Auckland, Brisbane, Auckland, Los Angeles, London, Glasgow, home.
05 October 2008 at 22:39
Scott Barkla is headed for Hatfield. Quite appropriate that.
06 October 2008 at 20:06
Scott Barkla is in Glasgow wondering why Norwegians aren't from Norgow.
08 October 2008 at 13:39
Scott Barkla is going back to Hertford and Hereford, - not sure where Hampshire is but I should be safe from 'Urricanes.
14 October 2008 at 23:17
Scott Barkla is sitting in Auckland watching the day go by.
15 October 2008 at 09:13 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt Buddy - I know the roads in the UK are a bit of a handful but I think your took a wildly wrong turn there.
15 October 2008 at 15:24 ·
Alexandra Sefton There's no place like home...or Auckland...or Scotland...or London...or wherever the hell you live!
16 October 2008 at 15:48 ·
Scott Barkla Now in Surfers Paradise. Having been through Surfers Purgatory and the outer circles of Hell(ensvale).
17 October 2008 at 08:09
Scott Barkla is overnighting in Brisbane. Scott is also over nighting in Brisbane.
17 October 2008 at 15:18 ·
Alexandra Sefton are you always so freaking pithy?
17 October 2008 at 22:05 ·
Scott Barkla That depends. Are you theorious, or are you taking the pith?
18 October 2008 at 00:49
Scott Barkla is travelling east toward yesterday. Next stop In Zud.
18 October 2008 at 09:11
Scott Barkla us beck un Ocklend. Next stop El Ay.
18 October 2008 at 22:33
Scott Barkla is having his second Saturday afternoon in two days. (Could be worse - could be Monday).
22 October 2008 at 05:08
Scott Barkla uz un Luverpule, but he can't get the lilt on the scowser accent right.
26 October 2008 at 00:12
Scott Barkla has walked the length and longth of Maidenhead thrice today - and now to bed.
26 October 2008 at 19:24
Scott Barkla has been to the museums of Childhood and London Transport today. Both great - the latter with the biggest toys.
28 October 2008 at 07:30
Scott Barkla is going to Scarborough fair. Thence to York, Edinburgh and Glasgow by National Rail, upon which he will tend to Stephanie's Perl script.
29 October 2008 at 08:57
Scott Barkla says Hellooo thir, from Glasgow.
29 October 2008 at 21:49 ·
Peter P Tan Uch ya mad dobber, how bout a wee dram fur ye china peet
30 October 2008 at 06:13 ·
Dean Hollister Now that's better. Not that I fully understand it, but its much better. :)
31 October 2008 at 12:40
Scott Barkla 's family have gone to Bristol while the remaining gentlemen prefer Bonds.
02 November 2008 at 23:21
Scott Barkla is going back to Scotland in the wee small hours. Enjoying BMI's last days before Lufthansa swallows them whole and spits 'em out.
03 November 2008 at 19:13
Scott Barkla landed in fog, somewhere beneath which lay Glasgow. There was even fog in the Buchanan Street subway. Who has fog underground????
04 November 2008 at 08:32 ·
Brian Poleykett Where was the fog trying to go? Maybe it could get there faster on the train?
04 November 2008 at 18:11 ·
Scott Barkla The Glasgow Subway is a loop - it doesn't go anywhere. Thanks to its jetstaresque livery it is known locally as the Clockwork Orange. But perhaps fog doesn't know that, being more concerned as it is with pea soup than violent fruit.
09 November 2008 at 14:04
Scott Barkla is taking it Slough
09 November 2008 at 17:14 ·
Dean Hollister Please buy Jared:
1 x Pack of Tim Tams
1 x Pack of Twisties
1 x 600mL bottle of Coke
...
See more
09 November 2008 at 19:32 ·
Scott Barkla I bought him 12 highlighter pens - which was actually his order before we went out. And thereby removed fro the locale the olfactory highlight of the what the denizens of Slough call a good night out.
10 November 2008 at 07:26 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt Say hello to David Brent for me as well...
15 November 2008 at 09:52
Scott Barkla is going to see Sarah Jane at Borders. How old am I again?
23 November 2008 at 08:31
Scott Barkla is is back from Greenwich. Where it's zero degrees in more ways than one.
22 November 2008 at 22:04 ·
Maretta Mann Ha ha very funny!
25 November 2008 at 23:24
Scott Barkla was asked, "How do you find Liverpool". I said, "Turn right at Greenland". They didn't get it. So much for the European city of culture 2008.
28 November 2008 at 16:58
Scott Barkla is weekending at home ahead of a London-Manchester-Liverpool-Manchester-London-Glasgow-London-Worcester-Maidenhead start to the next.
01 December 2008 at 23:21
Scott Barkla must sleep. Consecutive 5am airport transfers can be terminal.
03 December 2008 at 09:08
Scott Barkla is departing at the speed of bad news.
07 December 2008 at 21:39
Scott Barkla is dreading a weekly Hertfordshire commute at Oh Dark Thirty
14 December 2008 at 20:25
Scott Barkla is not a morning person. So, why do I spend endless hours of pre dawn darkness attending aircraft, teleconferences or children?
19 December 2008 at 15:19
Scott Barkla is going to Henley on Thames in a round a boat way.
28 December 2008 at 08:01
Scott Barkla is winding his way down to Baker Street
31 December 2008 at 12:19
Scott Barkla has a day at home with the Offspring. Breathe.
09 January 2009 at 23:28
Scott Barkla is off to Portugal for the weekend.
09 January 2009 at 23:41 ·
Toni Porter Running away from frozen pipes, non flusing toilets and lack of coffee Mr Barkla???
10 January 2009 at 07:21 ·
Scott Barkla No, fleeing toward good friends who play in the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra while we still have the inlaws here to mind the little'uns, Ms Porter.
10 January 2009 at 07:21 ·
Toni Porter Smart man :)
13 January 2009 at 00:56
Scott Barkla is back sans bag. Obrrigado TAP.
16 January 2009 at 10:33
Scott Barkla is B'Arking off to Bath. (Actually Barking is in the wrong direction, as is Earley, which is why I'll be late.) Will however get some Reading done.
20 January 2009 at 07:37
Scott Barkla is training to Worcestershire to find the sauce of the problem.
20 January 2009 at 07:41 ·
Alice Harris god I am so glad you are on the other side of the world! :)
20 January 2009 at 11:39 ·
Siouxsie Marson ~giggles~ That's a good one.
21 January 2009 at 02:11 ·
Barrie Barkla Let's all know when you finish training and get good at it.
20 January 2009 at 21:46
Scott Barkla says life is Scarborough, which he used to think was a Beach, and certainly not fair, but now knows it as a cliff for octagenarian lemmings.
21 January 2009 at 11:25
Scott Barkla is on a train to Yorkshire. Had to get up early, work 17 hours, in the cold, and when I get home...ah, Trouble a' Mill.
21 January 2009 at 12:00 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt In our day we had to pay for the cold to be put on...oh it was a luxury to be cold.
21 January 2009 at 12:50 ·
Lucy Zinkiewicz Ha, luxury! When I were young it were trouble int hole - we DREAMT of trouble int mill!
21 January 2009 at 17:22 ·
Scott Barkla Dreamin? Ha! I spect yer did tha' lyin down, like. Luxury.
21 January 2009 at 20:49
Scott Barkla is now on a train advancing to Kings Cross Station. Will not collect £200. Will pass platform 9 3/4 for old times sake.
22 January 2009 at 08:18
Scott Barkla is thinking "if it's Thursday, this must be Glasgow". What a week.
22 January 2009 at 17:53
Scott Barkla thinks Kenilworth is a unit of measure for Barking. Barking is a colloquial extreme of madness, so bring on the Friday User Group in Kenilworth.
23 January 2009 at 22:29
Scott Barkla is going nowhere this weekend. It greatly profits this idle king, by this still hearth.
26 January 2009 at 06:40 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is all Hertfordshire
26 January 2009 at 07:42 ·
Tim Richards Not a bit Norfolk?
26 January 2009 at 07:42 ·
Scott Barkla Norfolk in Weymouth? No, some targets are too broad.
26 January 2009 at 22:10
Scott Barkla is tipping his Hatfield, an eadin' up norf. to Yorkshire. Medic'l experiments, the lot.
27 January 2009 at 21:40
Scott Barkla is in Scarborough, Yorkshire. Gateway to the moors. Moor Door. No, not the Aye...!
31 January 2009 at 14:18
Scott Barkla is off to Slough as in Plough, not Slough as in Though, nor Slough as in Cough.
10 February 2009 at 21:42
Scott Barkla ponders that when the trains are running *really* late, they make up time by no longer stopping where he needs to get off, making him later still.
10 February 2009 at 21:44 ·
Scott Barkla If aircraft did that, no-one would ever land at Heathrow, and Durham Tees Valley would be a mecca for 747s.
28 February 2009 at 07:24
Scott Barkla just had the most amazing massage. I love Air New Zealand!
28 February 2009 at 22:58
Scott Barkla is now in Hong Kong, looking forward to some vertical slumber up the pointy end for the last stretch.
24 March 2009 at 13:18
Scott Barkla is on the rail again. A London, Hatfield, York, Scarborough, London, Glasgow, Maidenhead week.
25 March 2009 at 00:41 ·
Timothy Winter Scott, don't you mean "looxury"
25 March 2009 at 21:07 ·
Scott Barkla Aye. I do a' tha'.
09 April 2009 at 06:13
Scott Barkla had deja vu. Newcastle. Airport. No Easter shopping done. Certainty everything will be closed on the weekend. Just like 1998 only this this Newcastle actualyl *has* a castle.
19 April 2009 at 17:48
Scott Barkla has been Hampton Courting.
21 April 2009 at 10:55
Scott Barkla is back in Herts, seeking Minds.
22 April 2009 at 12:25
Scott Barkla knows York is inland, Scarborough is on the east coast, and Perth is well to the north of both, but it messes with my Westralian sensibilities.
27 April 2009 at 14:04
Scott Barkla knows that Oban is on the western coast of Scotland, but this time its the South Australian in him screaming that its an articulated busway designed to get people away from Tea Tree Plaza at high speed.
29 April 2009 at 23:07
Scott Barkla is again flying BMI to the land of the Proclaimers, where I will earn 500 miles then I will earn 500 more...
30 April 2009 at 16:17 ·
Jillian Lee tah dah dah dah dah.....and what kind of man would you be?
30 April 2009 at 16:29 ·
Scott Barkla I'd be the man who earns a thousand miles to fall down [in a heap at the end of the week].
07 May 2009 at 06:05 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla can jump Liverpudlians.
28 May 2009 at 17:33
Scott Barkla has been in the Legoland of Hope and Interlocking Glory.
07 June 2009 at 17:58
Scott Barkla is back before the Queen of Herts this week, for another round of "orf wiv 'is 'ead".
09 June 2009 at 21:45
Scott Barkla would like to thank the RMT Union for the stroll from Kings Cross to Paddington. Now I get fit, and their members can open doors on moving trains endangering passengers with impunity.
10 June 2009 at 20:10
Scott Barkla Today I'll thank the RMT Union for my tour of the Chilterns and a commute home via Luton. London goes tubeless and we're all taking Frost's Road Less Traveled By.
Scott Barkla spent 3 hours on the M25. When we finally got off it, I was surprised to see that the inhabitants of Chorleywood had not evolved into bipedal kittens, and that the Macra were not lying in wait at the M40 turnpike.
21 June 2009 at 10:05
Scott Barkla , who hails from in Sydney, is now bound for Old South Wales.
07 July 2009 at 19:21 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is facing Glaswegian Wood. I once had a grill, or should I say, it once had me...
19 July 2009 at 22:46
Scott Barkla has now been to Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire and can confirm that the incidence of American cyclonic atmospheric depressions is indeed low. However, in a twist of Pygmalonic irony, the practice of prepending aitches with themselves is rife.
20 July 2009 at 01:20 ·
Barrie Barkla Not surprising. Plum-mouthed nobs from Belgravia Square have bugger-all idea of life in the counties. American musical lyricists -- ditto.
27 July 2009 at 23:30
Scott Barkla is leaving Herts and losing minds. All for the parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme of North Yorkshire's finest.
29 July 2009 at 20:50
Scott Barkla is advancing to Kings Cross Station. Since he passed on the 2nd class ticket, deduct £200.
05 August 2009 at 19:05 ·
Scott Barkla 2nd National Express East Coast train in 2 days with no food on board. Must stop travelling at dinner time - it sets the wrong expectations for a 2 1/2 hour trip.
18 August 2009 at 00:03
Scott Barkla One year up in the UK and I get my very own National Insurance number. Like being gifted a large bow wrapped around the Medicare levy to hold the Surcharge in place. That, and the NHS want my blood this week. Coincidence? I think not.
19 August 2009 at 13:41
Scott Barkla Today's Guardian cites 10.3 million sick days a year by NHS staff. That's the joy of consulting to a hospital in Liverpool - you're never short of a desk
24 August 2009 at 10:50
Scott Barkla on a train to York: we may have lost the Ashes, but we have Copha! Let the Chocolate commence crackling!
24 August 2009 at 14:44 ·
Alexandra Sefton The copha, the copha!
The Ashes...
26 August 2009 at 21:10
Scott Barkla One more day of work, then a long weekend in Paris!
27 August 2009 at 09:14 ·
Scott Barkla The thing is, it's about the same distance - 2 hours by train.
27 August 2009 at 09:14 ·
Karen Barkla may well be cuz but definately not as impressive!!!
02 September 2009 at 04:15 ·
Scott Barkla And the pendulum swings, yesterday Paris, today Yorkshire. The Eurostar may travel to another country, but it takes National Express East Coast to travel to another time. A simpler time, when the alphabet had no 'T', an ere were always 'rouble a' mill.
Barrie Barkla It's no accident that "Dr.Who" was invented in the UK, in the forlorn hope that Brits in the Land of Soap and Borax may someday choose to travel sometime other than the past. (Even the present would be good.)
04 September 2009 at 21:38 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla says, that's the thing about moving from the south coast of Australia to Maidenhead: my Berkshire's worse than my Bight.
29 September 2009 at 04:51 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is bound for Chesterfield. Sofa, so good.
30 September 2009 at 04:30 ·
Barrie Barkla Don't you smoke them?
02 October 2009 at 18:18 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is leaving Alder small things behind and entering Widnes protection. Get me out of Liverpool!
08 October 2009 at 16:18
Scott Barkla spent an unexpected night in York. Thanks to First Scot Rail and the train that didn't, and the mad Glaswegian cab driver who almost did.
21 October 2009 at 19:27 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is back in the land of Birkenhead and Largs North - no, the OTHER one: Liverpool.
23 October 2009 at 09:24 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is crossing the Pennines without so much as an elephant.
24 October 2009 at 01:56 ·
Barrie Barkla I've got one or two over here that you can have if you like. I think they're bored with doing the rounds of the restaurants in night traffic so that their owners can cadge money off diners.
28 October 2009 at 16:20
Scott Barkla says, as needles are to haystacks, so is finding a Parrot in a Postal Strike.
29 October 2009 at 15:56 ·
Barrie Barkla Finding the parrots is easy. Read the press releases from the Minister for Communications and the Secretary of the Postal Union. The parrots speak
02 November 2009 at 08:11 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is still sick, but spending the day in Chesterfield: no, NOT the comfy chair.
03 November 2009 at 23:56
Scott Barkla Starts the trek tomorrow from London to Surfers Paradise by heading north - to Glasgow. I'm carrying way too much stuff to be encumbered with a sense of direction. It was a liability I threw away years ago when I first tackled a Malaysian Lebuhraya.
04 November 2009 at 17:43 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Had an emergency landing in an A319 this morning after losing an engine just out of Heathrow. The calm tones of the pilot in grinding the full plane to a single engine landing at Terminal 1 were belied by the stream of fire engines chasing us down the runway.
05 November 2009 at 06:06 ·
Elizabeth Rocher Oh ny God no wonder I don't like flying!
05 November 2009 at 06:53 ·
Scott Barkla Being flown is okay, but I imagine that actual flying part is a bit nerve wracking. The pointy end of the plane is the nicest part, unless you have the forward-facing windows.
07 November 2009 at 10:09
Scott Barkla I love Brisbane airport! Bags come out first. Wave the passport in Auckland, smile for the camera in Brisbane, total 10 minutes from the plane to Gold Coast train.
08 November 2009 at 00:59 ·
Scott Barkla Okay, I got lucky, but I've NEVER been that lucky at LHR. The Heathrow Disconnect trains run only every half hour and waiting for a bag I usually miss two of them.
08 November 2009 at 07:20 ·
Maretta Mann Hello! Sounds like you are close by!
12 November 2009 at 05:37 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is taking the lax way back to lhr. Must be Thursday. It's 36 hours long and I still can't get the hang of it.
12 November 2009 at 21:26 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Still Thursday. Underwhelmed in LA.
13 November 2009 at 03:57 ·
Barrie Barkla Come to Thailand, I'll get you an elephant
13 November 2009 at 07:48 ·
Jared Lachlan Barkla come to England and you can get mugged and stabbed by a bunch of kids who haven't hit puberty yet. Can't beat that kind of hospitality.
23 November 2009 at 15:28 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Arguing over a Scarborough fare. Pass through stage, gross, very unkind.
Board meetings with the customer in Yorkshire don't scan the way they used to.
27 November 2009 at 16:35
Scott Barkla Cry Havoc, and let slip the Airbus of Emancipation! It's Friday - get me out of Glasgow.
09 December 2009 at 16:45 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is Being Nurofensive: overly curt due to a lack of painkillers.
09 December 2009 at 22:44 ·
Melinda Ashley I just had my husband smuggle in some nurofen. We cannot live without it.
14 December 2009 at 09:58 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Monday. Moreton-In-Marsh. Yes, it is.
14 December 2009 at 10:06 ·
Alexandra Sefton Should I google it?
14 December 2009 at 10:08 ·
Alexandra Sefton Oh it looks so pretty-and a market on Tuesdays!
14 December 2009 at 10:26 ·
Scott Barkla It's Monday. 2 degrees and raining heavily. The Market isn't looking hopeful. Anyway, onward to Malvern Link which sounds far too much like a bicycle part.
21 December 2009 at 09:45 · Comment · Like
Scott Barkla Today, the World. Tomorrow, Perth.
04 January at 12:43
Scott Barkla Back home. A "welcome home" from the UK Border official, which was nice and unexpected, then a 90 minute wait for our bags at Heathrow, which was not, and wholly predictable.
04 January at 13:57 ·
Carol Duncan The good old UK. You'd have been disappointed if you'd been through in 10 minutes
04 January at 21:55 ·
Tim Richards I've always found the guys at Heathrow to be a bit grim, but I flew into Luton last year fron Slovakia and the guy there was quite cheery. An airport for holidaymakers, I suppose.
05 January at 01:12 ·
Jamie L Cant Heathrow weren't going to let me through until I'd had a chest x-ray once.
14 January at 18:26 ·
Scott Barkla Flight BD2. 6 hours from Heathrow to Glasgow, most of it in the ground. Deice the plane. Long queue at runway. Runway closes. Long queue at other runway. Deicing expires. Return to gate for redeicing. Out of deicing fluid....
17 January at 15:59
Scott Barkla Was published in InsideFlyer magazine. At last, notoriety for the journey, if not for the destinations along the way.
09 February at 13:54 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is almost Glasgone and Edin for Burgh.
18 February at 07:47 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is going to Scotland to surrender his stylish SA drivers licence for a naff pink British one with a dodgy photo. Or is that EU, pronounced Ewww?
18 February at 08:52 ·
Jared Lachlan Barkla Oh but dad pink is so your colour!
18 February at 08:52 ·
Emma Clutterham i hear ya! did mine yesterday, the whole process was surprisingly painless and comprehensible! then again, it wasn't england.
24 February at 08:53 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is in training all day. First Great Western, Circle Line, East Coast Express, Transpennine Express, and First Scot Rail. Let's see what privatisation has done for consistency of British Rail coffee.
24 February at 09:46 ·
Sarah Barkla Probably consistently bad sweetheart.
25 February at 21:58 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Heathrow central. Again. Getting home would be easier if I just lived *here*.
26 February at 07:11 ·
Garry Grbavac Heathrow was designed by a bunch of lunatics. I think they let a couple of them loose to have a crack at Perth domestic airport.
01 March at 10:06 · Comment · Like
Scott Barkla Yay! Though I pass through The Valley on my way to Toowong, I will fear no weevil.
06 March at 23:11 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is once again on US soil, if by soil they mean the concete wastes of LAX.
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt LAX is the 10th Circle
Scott Barkla Home of Big Al Dante.
WEATHER
23 November 2008 at 08:31
Scott Barkla says hooray, it's Snowvember!
28 January 2009 at 08:16
Scott Barkla is watching seagulls in fog while Adelaide melts.
01 February 2009 at 12:57
Scott Barkla hums, "The more it goes, tiddly pom, on snowing" 下雪新年！
03 February 2009 at 00:40
Scott Barkla at 40 has flung his first snowball. It hit a wall. It is an old wall. It waits.
04 February 2009 at 23:07
Scott Barkla thinks rain in Glasgow was disappointing after all that snow. How quickly perspective changes six months after leaving Adelaide's drought.
10 February 2009 at 21:44 ·
Scott Barkla thought, "So THAT's sleet. Like rain, only wetter." From the country that invented the peat bog.
20 February 2009 at 11:16
Scott Barkla can't believe he's leaving brilliant blue sky in England to go to Brisvegas.
06 March 2009 at 17:01
Scott Barkla is back in the UK. Full of the joy of spring.
17 March 2009 at 23:51
Scott Barkla knows that on the way to work if the little ducks are going with the flow, but the giant swans are staying out of the water altogether, he should have slept in.
12 April 2009 at 21:30
Scott Barkla is working this Easter weekend. Not so bad with the HCBs on tap, new Dr Who and Red Dwarf on the box, and the small people garden prospecting for vitamin Ch.
25 April 2009 at 08:02
Scott Barkla : London. Rain. 11. We have normality, I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem.
08 September 2009 at 18:15
Scott Barkla is home in daylight for the second in succession. Also, the sun is out. Strange days, indeed.
19 November 2009 at 18:25 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So I sat and consulted in Glasgow all day.
22 November 2009 at 11:30
Scott Barkla I sat there with Owen. We sat there we two. And I said, "How I wish I had much less to do".
25 November 2009 at 09:04 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Too wet to go out. Too wet to play ball. So I land back in Glasgow in pea soup fog squall.
25 November 2009 at 17:33 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Then I looked an eyesore
Dripping there on the mat.
I looked an eyesore for
800 plus VAT.
15 December 2009 at 16:29 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Sleet, fiscal despondency and BA on strike. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.
16 December 2009 at 06:09 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla 五度零下. Now north to Glasgow. Struggling to see how the kilt evolved as anything other than bloody minded perversity.
17 December 2009 at 23:32
Scott Barkla is now on leave!!! About to start the London-LA-Auckland-Adelaide (& Perth) trek for Christmas, but it is lovely of London to turn on a white Christmas before we leave. Now just hoping they salted the runway at Terminal 1.
18 December 2009 at 00:21 ·
Scott Barkla 下雪！White Week-Before_Christmas in the UK. I'm stoked.
18 December 2009 at 01:26 ·
Jared Lachlan Barkla Of course you are! you're heading to warm country where the average temperature will be around 30 degrees tomorrow. The snow however will remain here with me!!!!
18 December 2009 at 13:26 ·
Jamie L Cant Or is it the ash from an exploded alien ship?
05 January at 21:49
Scott Barkla It's snowing so hard that I've been home 10 minutes and the car looks like a comedy marshmallow.
06 January at 22:41
Scott Barkla How is that Fedex and the Milkman can get through the snow, but Royal Mail, the Borough Garbage Collection, Sainsburys, ASDA, Schoolteachers and Pizza delivery can't?
11 January at 07:34
Scott Barkla Ella back to school this morning in the slush. Sarah and Owen due to land in the slush. It's all fun, games, snow angels and siege warfare until it melts....
11 January at 09:33 ·
Karen Barkla OH can you send some cool over here - it got to 43degrees today - bloody hot!
11 January at 10:14 ·
Justine Ryan oh, enjoy that slush, better than stone baked earth here!
23 February at 16:59 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla So cold. Struggling to imagine that this time next week Ill be warm in Brisvegas.
24 February at 02:15 ·
Alexandra Sefton 40, 40, 40, 40, 40, 40 here for the next 11eventy million days.
CHINESE
12 August 2008 at 08:30
Scott Barkla 是星期四坐十二点的飞机去英国在新加飞机。 再见！
10 October 2008 at 00:04
Scott Barkla is no longer going to 香港 :-(
12 October 2008 at 19:22
Scott Barkla is packing for 香港，新西兰，不里斯本， 美国 和 英国。
07 November 2008 at 22:29
Scott Barkla 喜欢周末
31 January 2009 at 21:43
Scott Barkla 说新年快乐
27 June 2009 at 13:54
Scott Barkla is home with the family, revising 普通话, and trying to explain to the locals that 26 degrees does NOT constitute a heatwave, people!
09 September 2009 at 12:44
Scott Barkla 我们败局东伦敦大学。A moment's sadness for us. A year of pain ahead for them.
16 September 2009 at 09:17
Scott Barkla has finally re-enrolled in 汉语 after more than a year of neglect.
05 October 2009 at 09:18 ·
Scott Barkla 我不知道
Barrie Barkla Same here with Thai. I can now count to 1 million, but now I'm struggling to learn to tell the time. The Thai day is divided into 4 quarters e.g. 9am is 7am plus two.
As for writing it!!!????
06 October 2009 at 22:17
Scott Barkla "I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me Cookie, 又。。。又。。。" - Mandarin class just leaves me channeling the Bloodhound Gang.
06 October 2009 at 22:36 ·
Peter Gill I am assuming that the roof is in fact not on fire?
07 October 2009 at 05:26 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt We don't need no water.....or no stinking badges...
10 October 2009 at 23:19
Scott Barkla has taken only one year AFTER the Beijing Olympics to be able to read all the words to 北京欢迎你. Roll on London 2012. I think I've got that one covered.
10 October 2009 at 23:19
Jamie L Cant Cockney rhyming slang?
25 October 2009 at 19:27
Scott Barkla has finished Assignment 1. 那是很难懂了
26 October 2009 at 02:52 ·
Barrie Barkla What's Chinese for "Yeee-haaaaah!"
08 November 2009 at 03:53
Scott Barkla is working through flu, jet lag, and procrastination on 汉语 assignment 2, while out the hotel window the eternal sunshine of the dermatalogically-challenged gold coast beckons.
08 November 2009 at 23:01 ·
Barrie Barkla Forget the Chinese for a while. Flu & jetlag are enough to cope with at once. Love. Dad
04 December 2009 at 22:27 ·
Scott Barkla 怀考试. Better luck next time.
Nicquelle May Did they mail my STAT results to your house? Haha
Scott Barkla 下雪！
24 December 2009 at 04:10
Scott Barkla is going native with a children's nativity in the cathedral. 圣诞快乐。
29 December 2009 at 21:29
Scott Barkla is going to see the 熊猫。
30 December 2009 at 04:00
Scott Barkla 网网 and 福妮 were very cute, but I wonder if the other 1598 in the world enjoy such celebrity status.
01 January at 05:57
Scott Barkla 新年快乐, Selamat Tahun Baru, and a very Happy New Year to all my friends.
20 January at 00:22 ·
Scott Barkla Got seriously picked on in class this evening. Going home to lick my wounds and emigrate to Yorkshire.
Nicquelle May Aww *Hugs*
Yesterday at 21:08 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is assailing the unforgiving ediface of jetlag on the steep ascent back to humanity. Pretty sure that will be reflected in my assignment mark.
TECHNOLOGY
26 August 2008 at 17:22
Scott Barkla now has to wait 4 weeks for an internet connection. Patience must be an English virtue.
04 September 2008 at 20:15
Scott Barkla has the net back!!! Yay, and then some. (Still no furniture, but hey, at least the essentials are taken care of)
10 September 2008 at 18:52
Scott Barkla is on a train in southern Scotland. Civilsation in the 21st Century is in-seat power and free rolling wifi! Woo hoo!
20 September 2008 at 10:46
Scott Barkla is going to Legoland this afternoon with Ella's boyfriend from pre-school in Adelaide. Facebook has nothing on a 5 year-old's social network.
18 October 2008 at 22:30 ·
Scott Barkla Okay, well I'm now in a holding pen at Tom Bradley International Los Angeles. The makeshift Koru Club consisting of three chairs and two desks does have wifi though!
09 December 2008 at 22:05
Scott Barkla is a PC. And he runs Linux. Because artificial duopolies (not to mention crashes, viruses and banality) annoy him.
16 December 2008 at 17:04 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is wondering who at Microsoft came up with "A life without walls" and didn't think "has no use for Windows"?
04 February 2009 at 23:07
Scott Barkla walked down Tottenham Court Road without buying a gadget.
12 February 2009 at 21:04
Scott Barkla has been coding VB.NET all day and feels unclean. In the words of the Kaiser Chiefs: Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby!
12 February 2009 at 23:43 ·
Peter P Tan Perhaps you should see Sharp?
13 February 2009 at 07:41 ·
Scott Barkla I see Sharp sometimes - must be my Perl-bred fondness for semi-colons.
26 February 2009 at 08:03
Scott Barkla is wondering how the Tech One conference in Brisbane managed to share the Convention Centre with Sexpo.
14 March 2009 at 22:15
Scott Barkla is planning 3 projects on a Saturday night. Can't say this little black duck doesn't know how to party.
12 May 2009 at 22:00
Scott Barkla has been regexing student address soup. Perl can do many things, but it falls short of engendering love for the data to be munged.
15 May 2009 at 22:59
Scott Barkla is Heathrown: the sensation of finding yourself going to the airport when you least expected it.
21 May 2009 at 19:50 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is on an A319 with less than a full complement of working engines. Fortunately, at zero feet above Glasgow airport.
21 May 2009 at 23:18 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt Yikes. Remind them to take one out on the other side so you don't go round in circles ...
29 May 2009 at 15:13
Scott Barkla is calmly coding in ruby to avoid contacting the customer PM and thanking him for scheduling me in meetings when I am not going to be on site; something he would know if he read any of the project documentation that I obviously write for my own amusement.
30 May 2009 at 04:21 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt Are you channeling Dilbert?
01 June 2009 at 00:00
Scott Barkla is back to work tomorrow. One 4-day week off. 117 urgent emails lie in wait. Just goes to show - doesn't matter what you say in an Out-Of-Office message, it only encourages the bastards.
13 June 2009 at 16:45
Scott Barkla is spending Saturday pasting 38000 UNSPSC commodity codes. Now I know what code to use to get aspirin, but there doesn't seem to be one for a life.
27 September 2009 at 23:50
Scott Barkla now has a headless laptop. Really takes the "able" out of "portable".
31 October 2009 at 18:18
Scott Barkla has Karmic Koala and the lurgi. 我病。有感冒， 发烧， 和 嗓子疼
17 November 2009 at 16:11
Scott Barkla thinks pre-sales in Chesterfield is the Casting Couch for the IT world.
18 November 2009 at 06:17 ·
Scott Barkla I got used to the Asian process. It was direct, tangible. Enshrined ignorance isn't the only alternative to corruption, but it is the laziest in terms of personal effort, and is probably inevitable.
18 November 2009 at 06:30 ·
Barrie Barkla In a bureaucracy, yes. I'm afraid you're right.
10 December 2009 at 14:31
Scott Barkla has Packed the Pregnant Pachyderm in the Prius. Now if we win that business, all I need is a time machine to deliver on the project plan.
10 December 2009 at 21:24 ·
Mandi Bergin You say some of the most random things Scott!
10 December 2009 at 23:40 ·
Scott Barkla Trying to fit 128 days of work into two weeks with two people - I was reminded of getting elephants into a mini. So, not totally random...
14 January at 18:20 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla XPath is a road less travelled for good reason. Shudder My Perl comfort blanky is calling me from the other side of madness.
04 March at 21:11 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is bewaring the Ides of March, especially the I'd rather be anywhere else than facing death by PowerPoint. Ask not For Whom The Belt Holes, they Hole for last nights Turkish dinner and inferior ales...
It is, by way of a convoluted apology, a treatise on why I haven't written here for so long. MicroBlogging (as opposed to the other sort) was a term coined with the rise of Twitter. To my observation, all Twitter content is short, and most of it is inane. I do have a Twitter account (Heathrown) which is used solely for eking frequent flyer goodies out of British Airways and Air New Zealand. This is not its story.
It is the story of the Social Networking phenomenon that came before it, and how it reduced the 15 kilobytes of fame that was Scott Barkla's corner of the internet to nothing more than an endless series of Status Updates. Facebook status updates can exceed 160 characters, but even mine are clear evidence that Twitter has no monopoly on Inanity. The old Capote truism, "That's not writing. That's typing" applies. Consider then that many of the updates are thumbed into my iPhone while standing on buses and trains, and really it isn't even that.
It is, nevertheless, because I have spent so much time on all manner of public transport since coming to the UK, that Convenience has been the lure of Facebook.
On the Great Journey that is this life, this job, this decade, four themes have permeated the ramblings of this expatriate Australian in the UK:
* Weather
* Travel
* Chinese (I am a 3rd year beginner in Mandarin...)
* Technology
So here they are posted for posterity:
TRAVEL
23 July 2008 at 02:04
Scott Barkla Yes, now booked to leave 14th August, with a request to hold off on ticketing in case we can leave sooner....be assured, if we're not in the UK on 8th of the 8th of the 8th, we won't be in 北京.
28 July 2008 at 00:29
Scott Barkla I'm living in a Ben Folds song...
We thought he was gone
And he's come back again
last week it was funny
now the jokes wearing thin
cuz everyone knows now
that every night now
will be Scott's last night in town...
07 August 2008 at 02:35
Scott Barkla has had Visas approved AT LAST. Let loose the pidgeons!!! (What were you doing keeping pidgeons captive, anyway?)
13 August 2008 at 04:37
Scott Barkla is seeking loan of an elephant to sit on suitcases, so that they might asymptotically approach a state of closure.
15 August 2008 at 15:45
Scott Barkla has not slept for 40 hours, but he and family are well and safe in the Land of Glory and Hope.
06 September 2008 at 23:27
Scott Barkla has been to Guildford after all. Also wondering if Twyford is a carnivowous pwant?
08 September 2008 at 14:47
Scott Barkla is heading off to Glasgow again. Who said There Can Be Only One?
10 September 2008 at 00:12
Scott Barkla is heading from Glasgow to Scarborough tomorrow - not the sparkling beach with Observation City; the Yorkshire coastal town with rain and visibility to 3 feet.
12 September 2008 at 19:33
Scott Barkla is On a train, in the rain, I do not like British Rail Coffee, errr that's Green Dregs and Sham.
13 September 2008 at 14:46 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt Would you? Could you? With an umber-ella? Would you? Could you? Give some to Ella?
18 September 2008 at 13:37
Scott Barkla now has furniture. And stuff. Boxes of stuff. Bring back the spartan existence (okay - leave a chair - the floor is cold!)
19 September 2008 at 00:03
Scott Barkla is stopping unpacking. It's midnight. Pumpkin hour. And I've seen what pumpkins turn into when I don't get around to making risotto for 3 months.
24 September 2008 at 20:34
Scott Barkla is going down to Liverpool, just like the Bangles. European City of Culture 2008. I think they must sell a lot of yoghurt.
25 September 2008 at 18:26
Scott Barkla is stuck in Manchester and its giving him the sheets.
27 September 2008 at 22:25
Scott Barkla 's October is looking like Glasgow, Hertfordshire, Glasgow, Hertfordshire, Hong Kong, Auckland, Brisbane, Auckland, Los Angeles, London, Glasgow, home.
05 October 2008 at 22:39
Scott Barkla is headed for Hatfield. Quite appropriate that.
06 October 2008 at 20:06
Scott Barkla is in Glasgow wondering why Norwegians aren't from Norgow.
08 October 2008 at 13:39
Scott Barkla is going back to Hertford and Hereford, - not sure where Hampshire is but I should be safe from 'Urricanes.
14 October 2008 at 23:17
Scott Barkla is sitting in Auckland watching the day go by.
15 October 2008 at 09:13 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt Buddy - I know the roads in the UK are a bit of a handful but I think your took a wildly wrong turn there.
15 October 2008 at 15:24 ·
Alexandra Sefton There's no place like home...or Auckland...or Scotland...or London...or wherever the hell you live!
16 October 2008 at 15:48 ·
Scott Barkla Now in Surfers Paradise. Having been through Surfers Purgatory and the outer circles of Hell(ensvale).
17 October 2008 at 08:09
Scott Barkla is overnighting in Brisbane. Scott is also over nighting in Brisbane.
17 October 2008 at 15:18 ·
Alexandra Sefton are you always so freaking pithy?
17 October 2008 at 22:05 ·
Scott Barkla That depends. Are you theorious, or are you taking the pith?
18 October 2008 at 00:49
Scott Barkla is travelling east toward yesterday. Next stop In Zud.
18 October 2008 at 09:11
Scott Barkla us beck un Ocklend. Next stop El Ay.
18 October 2008 at 22:33
Scott Barkla is having his second Saturday afternoon in two days. (Could be worse - could be Monday).
22 October 2008 at 05:08
Scott Barkla uz un Luverpule, but he can't get the lilt on the scowser accent right.
26 October 2008 at 00:12
Scott Barkla has walked the length and longth of Maidenhead thrice today - and now to bed.
26 October 2008 at 19:24
Scott Barkla has been to the museums of Childhood and London Transport today. Both great - the latter with the biggest toys.
28 October 2008 at 07:30
Scott Barkla is going to Scarborough fair. Thence to York, Edinburgh and Glasgow by National Rail, upon which he will tend to Stephanie's Perl script.
29 October 2008 at 08:57
Scott Barkla says Hellooo thir, from Glasgow.
29 October 2008 at 21:49 ·
Peter P Tan Uch ya mad dobber, how bout a wee dram fur ye china peet
30 October 2008 at 06:13 ·
Dean Hollister Now that's better. Not that I fully understand it, but its much better. :)
31 October 2008 at 12:40
Scott Barkla 's family have gone to Bristol while the remaining gentlemen prefer Bonds.
02 November 2008 at 23:21
Scott Barkla is going back to Scotland in the wee small hours. Enjoying BMI's last days before Lufthansa swallows them whole and spits 'em out.
03 November 2008 at 19:13
Scott Barkla landed in fog, somewhere beneath which lay Glasgow. There was even fog in the Buchanan Street subway. Who has fog underground????
04 November 2008 at 08:32 ·
Brian Poleykett Where was the fog trying to go? Maybe it could get there faster on the train?
04 November 2008 at 18:11 ·
Scott Barkla The Glasgow Subway is a loop - it doesn't go anywhere. Thanks to its jetstaresque livery it is known locally as the Clockwork Orange. But perhaps fog doesn't know that, being more concerned as it is with pea soup than violent fruit.
09 November 2008 at 14:04
Scott Barkla is taking it Slough
09 November 2008 at 17:14 ·
Dean Hollister Please buy Jared:
1 x Pack of Tim Tams
1 x Pack of Twisties
1 x 600mL bottle of Coke
...
See more
09 November 2008 at 19:32 ·
Scott Barkla I bought him 12 highlighter pens - which was actually his order before we went out. And thereby removed fro the locale the olfactory highlight of the what the denizens of Slough call a good night out.
10 November 2008 at 07:26 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt Say hello to David Brent for me as well...
15 November 2008 at 09:52
Scott Barkla is going to see Sarah Jane at Borders. How old am I again?
23 November 2008 at 08:31
Scott Barkla is is back from Greenwich. Where it's zero degrees in more ways than one.
22 November 2008 at 22:04 ·
Maretta Mann Ha ha very funny!
25 November 2008 at 23:24
Scott Barkla was asked, "How do you find Liverpool". I said, "Turn right at Greenland". They didn't get it. So much for the European city of culture 2008.
28 November 2008 at 16:58
Scott Barkla is weekending at home ahead of a London-Manchester-Liverpool-Manchester-London-Glasgow-London-Worcester-Maidenhead start to the next.
01 December 2008 at 23:21
Scott Barkla must sleep. Consecutive 5am airport transfers can be terminal.
03 December 2008 at 09:08
Scott Barkla is departing at the speed of bad news.
07 December 2008 at 21:39
Scott Barkla is dreading a weekly Hertfordshire commute at Oh Dark Thirty
14 December 2008 at 20:25
Scott Barkla is not a morning person. So, why do I spend endless hours of pre dawn darkness attending aircraft, teleconferences or children?
19 December 2008 at 15:19
Scott Barkla is going to Henley on Thames in a round a boat way.
28 December 2008 at 08:01
Scott Barkla is winding his way down to Baker Street
31 December 2008 at 12:19
Scott Barkla has a day at home with the Offspring. Breathe.
09 January 2009 at 23:28
Scott Barkla is off to Portugal for the weekend.
09 January 2009 at 23:41 ·
Toni Porter Running away from frozen pipes, non flusing toilets and lack of coffee Mr Barkla???
10 January 2009 at 07:21 ·
Scott Barkla No, fleeing toward good friends who play in the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra while we still have the inlaws here to mind the little'uns, Ms Porter.
10 January 2009 at 07:21 ·
Toni Porter Smart man :)
13 January 2009 at 00:56
Scott Barkla is back sans bag. Obrrigado TAP.
16 January 2009 at 10:33
Scott Barkla is B'Arking off to Bath. (Actually Barking is in the wrong direction, as is Earley, which is why I'll be late.) Will however get some Reading done.
20 January 2009 at 07:37
Scott Barkla is training to Worcestershire to find the sauce of the problem.
20 January 2009 at 07:41 ·
Alice Harris god I am so glad you are on the other side of the world! :)
20 January 2009 at 11:39 ·
Siouxsie Marson ~giggles~ That's a good one.
21 January 2009 at 02:11 ·
Barrie Barkla Let's all know when you finish training and get good at it.
20 January 2009 at 21:46
Scott Barkla says life is Scarborough, which he used to think was a Beach, and certainly not fair, but now knows it as a cliff for octagenarian lemmings.
21 January 2009 at 11:25
Scott Barkla is on a train to Yorkshire. Had to get up early, work 17 hours, in the cold, and when I get home...ah, Trouble a' Mill.
21 January 2009 at 12:00 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt In our day we had to pay for the cold to be put on...oh it was a luxury to be cold.
21 January 2009 at 12:50 ·
Lucy Zinkiewicz Ha, luxury! When I were young it were trouble int hole - we DREAMT of trouble int mill!
21 January 2009 at 17:22 ·
Scott Barkla Dreamin? Ha! I spect yer did tha' lyin down, like. Luxury.
21 January 2009 at 20:49
Scott Barkla is now on a train advancing to Kings Cross Station. Will not collect £200. Will pass platform 9 3/4 for old times sake.
22 January 2009 at 08:18
Scott Barkla is thinking "if it's Thursday, this must be Glasgow". What a week.
22 January 2009 at 17:53
Scott Barkla thinks Kenilworth is a unit of measure for Barking. Barking is a colloquial extreme of madness, so bring on the Friday User Group in Kenilworth.
23 January 2009 at 22:29
Scott Barkla is going nowhere this weekend. It greatly profits this idle king, by this still hearth.
26 January 2009 at 06:40 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is all Hertfordshire
26 January 2009 at 07:42 ·
Tim Richards Not a bit Norfolk?
26 January 2009 at 07:42 ·
Scott Barkla Norfolk in Weymouth? No, some targets are too broad.
26 January 2009 at 22:10
Scott Barkla is tipping his Hatfield, an eadin' up norf. to Yorkshire. Medic'l experiments, the lot.
27 January 2009 at 21:40
Scott Barkla is in Scarborough, Yorkshire. Gateway to the moors. Moor Door. No, not the Aye...!
31 January 2009 at 14:18
Scott Barkla is off to Slough as in Plough, not Slough as in Though, nor Slough as in Cough.
10 February 2009 at 21:42
Scott Barkla ponders that when the trains are running *really* late, they make up time by no longer stopping where he needs to get off, making him later still.
10 February 2009 at 21:44 ·
Scott Barkla If aircraft did that, no-one would ever land at Heathrow, and Durham Tees Valley would be a mecca for 747s.
28 February 2009 at 07:24
Scott Barkla just had the most amazing massage. I love Air New Zealand!
28 February 2009 at 22:58
Scott Barkla is now in Hong Kong, looking forward to some vertical slumber up the pointy end for the last stretch.
24 March 2009 at 13:18
Scott Barkla is on the rail again. A London, Hatfield, York, Scarborough, London, Glasgow, Maidenhead week.
25 March 2009 at 00:41 ·
Timothy Winter Scott, don't you mean "looxury"
25 March 2009 at 21:07 ·
Scott Barkla Aye. I do a' tha'.
09 April 2009 at 06:13
Scott Barkla had deja vu. Newcastle. Airport. No Easter shopping done. Certainty everything will be closed on the weekend. Just like 1998 only this this Newcastle actualyl *has* a castle.
19 April 2009 at 17:48
Scott Barkla has been Hampton Courting.
21 April 2009 at 10:55
Scott Barkla is back in Herts, seeking Minds.
22 April 2009 at 12:25
Scott Barkla knows York is inland, Scarborough is on the east coast, and Perth is well to the north of both, but it messes with my Westralian sensibilities.
27 April 2009 at 14:04
Scott Barkla knows that Oban is on the western coast of Scotland, but this time its the South Australian in him screaming that its an articulated busway designed to get people away from Tea Tree Plaza at high speed.
29 April 2009 at 23:07
Scott Barkla is again flying BMI to the land of the Proclaimers, where I will earn 500 miles then I will earn 500 more...
30 April 2009 at 16:17 ·
Jillian Lee tah dah dah dah dah.....and what kind of man would you be?
30 April 2009 at 16:29 ·
Scott Barkla I'd be the man who earns a thousand miles to fall down [in a heap at the end of the week].
07 May 2009 at 06:05 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla can jump Liverpudlians.
28 May 2009 at 17:33
Scott Barkla has been in the Legoland of Hope and Interlocking Glory.
07 June 2009 at 17:58
Scott Barkla is back before the Queen of Herts this week, for another round of "orf wiv 'is 'ead".
09 June 2009 at 21:45
Scott Barkla would like to thank the RMT Union for the stroll from Kings Cross to Paddington. Now I get fit, and their members can open doors on moving trains endangering passengers with impunity.
10 June 2009 at 20:10
Scott Barkla Today I'll thank the RMT Union for my tour of the Chilterns and a commute home via Luton. London goes tubeless and we're all taking Frost's Road Less Traveled By.
Scott Barkla spent 3 hours on the M25. When we finally got off it, I was surprised to see that the inhabitants of Chorleywood had not evolved into bipedal kittens, and that the Macra were not lying in wait at the M40 turnpike.
21 June 2009 at 10:05
Scott Barkla , who hails from in Sydney, is now bound for Old South Wales.
07 July 2009 at 19:21 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is facing Glaswegian Wood. I once had a grill, or should I say, it once had me...
19 July 2009 at 22:46
Scott Barkla has now been to Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire and can confirm that the incidence of American cyclonic atmospheric depressions is indeed low. However, in a twist of Pygmalonic irony, the practice of prepending aitches with themselves is rife.
20 July 2009 at 01:20 ·
Barrie Barkla Not surprising. Plum-mouthed nobs from Belgravia Square have bugger-all idea of life in the counties. American musical lyricists -- ditto.
27 July 2009 at 23:30
Scott Barkla is leaving Herts and losing minds. All for the parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme of North Yorkshire's finest.
29 July 2009 at 20:50
Scott Barkla is advancing to Kings Cross Station. Since he passed on the 2nd class ticket, deduct £200.
05 August 2009 at 19:05 ·
Scott Barkla 2nd National Express East Coast train in 2 days with no food on board. Must stop travelling at dinner time - it sets the wrong expectations for a 2 1/2 hour trip.
18 August 2009 at 00:03
Scott Barkla One year up in the UK and I get my very own National Insurance number. Like being gifted a large bow wrapped around the Medicare levy to hold the Surcharge in place. That, and the NHS want my blood this week. Coincidence? I think not.
19 August 2009 at 13:41
Scott Barkla Today's Guardian cites 10.3 million sick days a year by NHS staff. That's the joy of consulting to a hospital in Liverpool - you're never short of a desk
24 August 2009 at 10:50
Scott Barkla on a train to York: we may have lost the Ashes, but we have Copha! Let the Chocolate commence crackling!
24 August 2009 at 14:44 ·
Alexandra Sefton The copha, the copha!
The Ashes...
26 August 2009 at 21:10
Scott Barkla One more day of work, then a long weekend in Paris!
27 August 2009 at 09:14 ·
Scott Barkla The thing is, it's about the same distance - 2 hours by train.
27 August 2009 at 09:14 ·
Karen Barkla may well be cuz but definately not as impressive!!!
02 September 2009 at 04:15 ·
Scott Barkla And the pendulum swings, yesterday Paris, today Yorkshire. The Eurostar may travel to another country, but it takes National Express East Coast to travel to another time. A simpler time, when the alphabet had no 'T', an ere were always 'rouble a' mill.
Barrie Barkla It's no accident that "Dr.Who" was invented in the UK, in the forlorn hope that Brits in the Land of Soap and Borax may someday choose to travel sometime other than the past. (Even the present would be good.)
04 September 2009 at 21:38 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla says, that's the thing about moving from the south coast of Australia to Maidenhead: my Berkshire's worse than my Bight.
29 September 2009 at 04:51 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is bound for Chesterfield. Sofa, so good.
30 September 2009 at 04:30 ·
Barrie Barkla Don't you smoke them?
02 October 2009 at 18:18 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is leaving Alder small things behind and entering Widnes protection. Get me out of Liverpool!
08 October 2009 at 16:18
Scott Barkla spent an unexpected night in York. Thanks to First Scot Rail and the train that didn't, and the mad Glaswegian cab driver who almost did.
21 October 2009 at 19:27 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is back in the land of Birkenhead and Largs North - no, the OTHER one: Liverpool.
23 October 2009 at 09:24 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is crossing the Pennines without so much as an elephant.
24 October 2009 at 01:56 ·
Barrie Barkla I've got one or two over here that you can have if you like. I think they're bored with doing the rounds of the restaurants in night traffic so that their owners can cadge money off diners.
28 October 2009 at 16:20
Scott Barkla says, as needles are to haystacks, so is finding a Parrot in a Postal Strike.
29 October 2009 at 15:56 ·
Barrie Barkla Finding the parrots is easy. Read the press releases from the Minister for Communications and the Secretary of the Postal Union. The parrots speak
02 November 2009 at 08:11 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is still sick, but spending the day in Chesterfield: no, NOT the comfy chair.
03 November 2009 at 23:56
Scott Barkla Starts the trek tomorrow from London to Surfers Paradise by heading north - to Glasgow. I'm carrying way too much stuff to be encumbered with a sense of direction. It was a liability I threw away years ago when I first tackled a Malaysian Lebuhraya.
04 November 2009 at 17:43 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Had an emergency landing in an A319 this morning after losing an engine just out of Heathrow. The calm tones of the pilot in grinding the full plane to a single engine landing at Terminal 1 were belied by the stream of fire engines chasing us down the runway.
05 November 2009 at 06:06 ·
Elizabeth Rocher Oh ny God no wonder I don't like flying!
05 November 2009 at 06:53 ·
Scott Barkla Being flown is okay, but I imagine that actual flying part is a bit nerve wracking. The pointy end of the plane is the nicest part, unless you have the forward-facing windows.
07 November 2009 at 10:09
Scott Barkla I love Brisbane airport! Bags come out first. Wave the passport in Auckland, smile for the camera in Brisbane, total 10 minutes from the plane to Gold Coast train.
08 November 2009 at 00:59 ·
Scott Barkla Okay, I got lucky, but I've NEVER been that lucky at LHR. The Heathrow Disconnect trains run only every half hour and waiting for a bag I usually miss two of them.
08 November 2009 at 07:20 ·
Maretta Mann Hello! Sounds like you are close by!
12 November 2009 at 05:37 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is taking the lax way back to lhr. Must be Thursday. It's 36 hours long and I still can't get the hang of it.
12 November 2009 at 21:26 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Still Thursday. Underwhelmed in LA.
13 November 2009 at 03:57 ·
Barrie Barkla Come to Thailand, I'll get you an elephant
13 November 2009 at 07:48 ·
Jared Lachlan Barkla come to England and you can get mugged and stabbed by a bunch of kids who haven't hit puberty yet. Can't beat that kind of hospitality.
23 November 2009 at 15:28 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Arguing over a Scarborough fare. Pass through stage, gross, very unkind.
Board meetings with the customer in Yorkshire don't scan the way they used to.
27 November 2009 at 16:35
Scott Barkla Cry Havoc, and let slip the Airbus of Emancipation! It's Friday - get me out of Glasgow.
09 December 2009 at 16:45 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is Being Nurofensive: overly curt due to a lack of painkillers.
09 December 2009 at 22:44 ·
Melinda Ashley I just had my husband smuggle in some nurofen. We cannot live without it.
14 December 2009 at 09:58 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Monday. Moreton-In-Marsh. Yes, it is.
14 December 2009 at 10:06 ·
Alexandra Sefton Should I google it?
14 December 2009 at 10:08 ·
Alexandra Sefton Oh it looks so pretty-and a market on Tuesdays!
14 December 2009 at 10:26 ·
Scott Barkla It's Monday. 2 degrees and raining heavily. The Market isn't looking hopeful. Anyway, onward to Malvern Link which sounds far too much like a bicycle part.
21 December 2009 at 09:45 · Comment · Like
Scott Barkla Today, the World. Tomorrow, Perth.
04 January at 12:43
Scott Barkla Back home. A "welcome home" from the UK Border official, which was nice and unexpected, then a 90 minute wait for our bags at Heathrow, which was not, and wholly predictable.
04 January at 13:57 ·
Carol Duncan The good old UK. You'd have been disappointed if you'd been through in 10 minutes
04 January at 21:55 ·
Tim Richards I've always found the guys at Heathrow to be a bit grim, but I flew into Luton last year fron Slovakia and the guy there was quite cheery. An airport for holidaymakers, I suppose.
05 January at 01:12 ·
Jamie L Cant Heathrow weren't going to let me through until I'd had a chest x-ray once.
14 January at 18:26 ·
Scott Barkla Flight BD2. 6 hours from Heathrow to Glasgow, most of it in the ground. Deice the plane. Long queue at runway. Runway closes. Long queue at other runway. Deicing expires. Return to gate for redeicing. Out of deicing fluid....
17 January at 15:59
Scott Barkla Was published in InsideFlyer magazine. At last, notoriety for the journey, if not for the destinations along the way.
09 February at 13:54 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is almost Glasgone and Edin for Burgh.
18 February at 07:47 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is going to Scotland to surrender his stylish SA drivers licence for a naff pink British one with a dodgy photo. Or is that EU, pronounced Ewww?
18 February at 08:52 ·
Jared Lachlan Barkla Oh but dad pink is so your colour!
18 February at 08:52 ·
Emma Clutterham i hear ya! did mine yesterday, the whole process was surprisingly painless and comprehensible! then again, it wasn't england.
24 February at 08:53 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is in training all day. First Great Western, Circle Line, East Coast Express, Transpennine Express, and First Scot Rail. Let's see what privatisation has done for consistency of British Rail coffee.
24 February at 09:46 ·
Sarah Barkla Probably consistently bad sweetheart.
25 February at 21:58 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Heathrow central. Again. Getting home would be easier if I just lived *here*.
26 February at 07:11 ·
Garry Grbavac Heathrow was designed by a bunch of lunatics. I think they let a couple of them loose to have a crack at Perth domestic airport.
01 March at 10:06 · Comment · Like
Scott Barkla Yay! Though I pass through The Valley on my way to Toowong, I will fear no weevil.
06 March at 23:11 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is once again on US soil, if by soil they mean the concete wastes of LAX.
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt LAX is the 10th Circle
Scott Barkla Home of Big Al Dante.
WEATHER
23 November 2008 at 08:31
Scott Barkla says hooray, it's Snowvember!
28 January 2009 at 08:16
Scott Barkla is watching seagulls in fog while Adelaide melts.
01 February 2009 at 12:57
Scott Barkla hums, "The more it goes, tiddly pom, on snowing" 下雪新年！
03 February 2009 at 00:40
Scott Barkla at 40 has flung his first snowball. It hit a wall. It is an old wall. It waits.
04 February 2009 at 23:07
Scott Barkla thinks rain in Glasgow was disappointing after all that snow. How quickly perspective changes six months after leaving Adelaide's drought.
10 February 2009 at 21:44 ·
Scott Barkla thought, "So THAT's sleet. Like rain, only wetter." From the country that invented the peat bog.
20 February 2009 at 11:16
Scott Barkla can't believe he's leaving brilliant blue sky in England to go to Brisvegas.
06 March 2009 at 17:01
Scott Barkla is back in the UK. Full of the joy of spring.
17 March 2009 at 23:51
Scott Barkla knows that on the way to work if the little ducks are going with the flow, but the giant swans are staying out of the water altogether, he should have slept in.
12 April 2009 at 21:30
Scott Barkla is working this Easter weekend. Not so bad with the HCBs on tap, new Dr Who and Red Dwarf on the box, and the small people garden prospecting for vitamin Ch.
25 April 2009 at 08:02
Scott Barkla : London. Rain. 11. We have normality, I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem.
08 September 2009 at 18:15
Scott Barkla is home in daylight for the second in succession. Also, the sun is out. Strange days, indeed.
19 November 2009 at 18:25 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So I sat and consulted in Glasgow all day.
22 November 2009 at 11:30
Scott Barkla I sat there with Owen. We sat there we two. And I said, "How I wish I had much less to do".
25 November 2009 at 09:04 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Too wet to go out. Too wet to play ball. So I land back in Glasgow in pea soup fog squall.
25 November 2009 at 17:33 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Then I looked an eyesore
Dripping there on the mat.
I looked an eyesore for
800 plus VAT.
15 December 2009 at 16:29 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Sleet, fiscal despondency and BA on strike. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.
16 December 2009 at 06:09 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla 五度零下. Now north to Glasgow. Struggling to see how the kilt evolved as anything other than bloody minded perversity.
17 December 2009 at 23:32
Scott Barkla is now on leave!!! About to start the London-LA-Auckland-Adelaide (& Perth) trek for Christmas, but it is lovely of London to turn on a white Christmas before we leave. Now just hoping they salted the runway at Terminal 1.
18 December 2009 at 00:21 ·
Scott Barkla 下雪！White Week-Before_Christmas in the UK. I'm stoked.
18 December 2009 at 01:26 ·
Jared Lachlan Barkla Of course you are! you're heading to warm country where the average temperature will be around 30 degrees tomorrow. The snow however will remain here with me!!!!
18 December 2009 at 13:26 ·
Jamie L Cant Or is it the ash from an exploded alien ship?
05 January at 21:49
Scott Barkla It's snowing so hard that I've been home 10 minutes and the car looks like a comedy marshmallow.
06 January at 22:41
Scott Barkla How is that Fedex and the Milkman can get through the snow, but Royal Mail, the Borough Garbage Collection, Sainsburys, ASDA, Schoolteachers and Pizza delivery can't?
11 January at 07:34
Scott Barkla Ella back to school this morning in the slush. Sarah and Owen due to land in the slush. It's all fun, games, snow angels and siege warfare until it melts....
11 January at 09:33 ·
Karen Barkla OH can you send some cool over here - it got to 43degrees today - bloody hot!
11 January at 10:14 ·
Justine Ryan oh, enjoy that slush, better than stone baked earth here!
23 February at 16:59 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla So cold. Struggling to imagine that this time next week Ill be warm in Brisvegas.
24 February at 02:15 ·
Alexandra Sefton 40, 40, 40, 40, 40, 40 here for the next 11eventy million days.
CHINESE
12 August 2008 at 08:30
Scott Barkla 是星期四坐十二点的飞机去英国在新加飞机。 再见！
10 October 2008 at 00:04
Scott Barkla is no longer going to 香港 :-(
12 October 2008 at 19:22
Scott Barkla is packing for 香港，新西兰，不里斯本， 美国 和 英国。
07 November 2008 at 22:29
Scott Barkla 喜欢周末
31 January 2009 at 21:43
Scott Barkla 说新年快乐
27 June 2009 at 13:54
Scott Barkla is home with the family, revising 普通话, and trying to explain to the locals that 26 degrees does NOT constitute a heatwave, people!
09 September 2009 at 12:44
Scott Barkla 我们败局东伦敦大学。A moment's sadness for us. A year of pain ahead for them.
16 September 2009 at 09:17
Scott Barkla has finally re-enrolled in 汉语 after more than a year of neglect.
05 October 2009 at 09:18 ·
Scott Barkla 我不知道
Barrie Barkla Same here with Thai. I can now count to 1 million, but now I'm struggling to learn to tell the time. The Thai day is divided into 4 quarters e.g. 9am is 7am plus two.
As for writing it!!!????
06 October 2009 at 22:17
Scott Barkla "I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me Cookie, 又。。。又。。。" - Mandarin class just leaves me channeling the Bloodhound Gang.
06 October 2009 at 22:36 ·
Peter Gill I am assuming that the roof is in fact not on fire?
07 October 2009 at 05:26 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt We don't need no water.....or no stinking badges...
10 October 2009 at 23:19
Scott Barkla has taken only one year AFTER the Beijing Olympics to be able to read all the words to 北京欢迎你. Roll on London 2012. I think I've got that one covered.
10 October 2009 at 23:19
Jamie L Cant Cockney rhyming slang?
25 October 2009 at 19:27
Scott Barkla has finished Assignment 1. 那是很难懂了
26 October 2009 at 02:52 ·
Barrie Barkla What's Chinese for "Yeee-haaaaah!"
08 November 2009 at 03:53
Scott Barkla is working through flu, jet lag, and procrastination on 汉语 assignment 2, while out the hotel window the eternal sunshine of the dermatalogically-challenged gold coast beckons.
08 November 2009 at 23:01 ·
Barrie Barkla Forget the Chinese for a while. Flu & jetlag are enough to cope with at once. Love. Dad
04 December 2009 at 22:27 ·
Scott Barkla 怀考试. Better luck next time.
Nicquelle May Did they mail my STAT results to your house? Haha
Scott Barkla 下雪！
24 December 2009 at 04:10
Scott Barkla is going native with a children's nativity in the cathedral. 圣诞快乐。
29 December 2009 at 21:29
Scott Barkla is going to see the 熊猫。
30 December 2009 at 04:00
Scott Barkla 网网 and 福妮 were very cute, but I wonder if the other 1598 in the world enjoy such celebrity status.
01 January at 05:57
Scott Barkla 新年快乐, Selamat Tahun Baru, and a very Happy New Year to all my friends.
20 January at 00:22 ·
Scott Barkla Got seriously picked on in class this evening. Going home to lick my wounds and emigrate to Yorkshire.
Nicquelle May Aww *Hugs*
Yesterday at 21:08 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is assailing the unforgiving ediface of jetlag on the steep ascent back to humanity. Pretty sure that will be reflected in my assignment mark.
TECHNOLOGY
26 August 2008 at 17:22
Scott Barkla now has to wait 4 weeks for an internet connection. Patience must be an English virtue.
04 September 2008 at 20:15
Scott Barkla has the net back!!! Yay, and then some. (Still no furniture, but hey, at least the essentials are taken care of)
10 September 2008 at 18:52
Scott Barkla is on a train in southern Scotland. Civilsation in the 21st Century is in-seat power and free rolling wifi! Woo hoo!
20 September 2008 at 10:46
Scott Barkla is going to Legoland this afternoon with Ella's boyfriend from pre-school in Adelaide. Facebook has nothing on a 5 year-old's social network.
18 October 2008 at 22:30 ·
Scott Barkla Okay, well I'm now in a holding pen at Tom Bradley International Los Angeles. The makeshift Koru Club consisting of three chairs and two desks does have wifi though!
09 December 2008 at 22:05
Scott Barkla is a PC. And he runs Linux. Because artificial duopolies (not to mention crashes, viruses and banality) annoy him.
16 December 2008 at 17:04 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla Is wondering who at Microsoft came up with "A life without walls" and didn't think "has no use for Windows"?
04 February 2009 at 23:07
Scott Barkla walked down Tottenham Court Road without buying a gadget.
12 February 2009 at 21:04
Scott Barkla has been coding VB.NET all day and feels unclean. In the words of the Kaiser Chiefs: Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby!
12 February 2009 at 23:43 ·
Peter P Tan Perhaps you should see Sharp?
13 February 2009 at 07:41 ·
Scott Barkla I see Sharp sometimes - must be my Perl-bred fondness for semi-colons.
26 February 2009 at 08:03
Scott Barkla is wondering how the Tech One conference in Brisbane managed to share the Convention Centre with Sexpo.
14 March 2009 at 22:15
Scott Barkla is planning 3 projects on a Saturday night. Can't say this little black duck doesn't know how to party.
12 May 2009 at 22:00
Scott Barkla has been regexing student address soup. Perl can do many things, but it falls short of engendering love for the data to be munged.
15 May 2009 at 22:59
Scott Barkla is Heathrown: the sensation of finding yourself going to the airport when you least expected it.
21 May 2009 at 19:50 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is on an A319 with less than a full complement of working engines. Fortunately, at zero feet above Glasgow airport.
21 May 2009 at 23:18 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt Yikes. Remind them to take one out on the other side so you don't go round in circles ...
29 May 2009 at 15:13
Scott Barkla is calmly coding in ruby to avoid contacting the customer PM and thanking him for scheduling me in meetings when I am not going to be on site; something he would know if he read any of the project documentation that I obviously write for my own amusement.
30 May 2009 at 04:21 ·
Fredrik Johan Cartledge Smelt Are you channeling Dilbert?
01 June 2009 at 00:00
Scott Barkla is back to work tomorrow. One 4-day week off. 117 urgent emails lie in wait. Just goes to show - doesn't matter what you say in an Out-Of-Office message, it only encourages the bastards.
13 June 2009 at 16:45
Scott Barkla is spending Saturday pasting 38000 UNSPSC commodity codes. Now I know what code to use to get aspirin, but there doesn't seem to be one for a life.
27 September 2009 at 23:50
Scott Barkla now has a headless laptop. Really takes the "able" out of "portable".
31 October 2009 at 18:18
Scott Barkla has Karmic Koala and the lurgi. 我病。有感冒， 发烧， 和 嗓子疼
17 November 2009 at 16:11
Scott Barkla thinks pre-sales in Chesterfield is the Casting Couch for the IT world.
18 November 2009 at 06:17 ·
Scott Barkla I got used to the Asian process. It was direct, tangible. Enshrined ignorance isn't the only alternative to corruption, but it is the laziest in terms of personal effort, and is probably inevitable.
18 November 2009 at 06:30 ·
Barrie Barkla In a bureaucracy, yes. I'm afraid you're right.
10 December 2009 at 14:31
Scott Barkla has Packed the Pregnant Pachyderm in the Prius. Now if we win that business, all I need is a time machine to deliver on the project plan.
10 December 2009 at 21:24 ·
Mandi Bergin You say some of the most random things Scott!
10 December 2009 at 23:40 ·
Scott Barkla Trying to fit 128 days of work into two weeks with two people - I was reminded of getting elephants into a mini. So, not totally random...
14 January at 18:20 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla XPath is a road less travelled for good reason. Shudder My Perl comfort blanky is calling me from the other side of madness.
04 March at 21:11 via Facebook for iPhone
Scott Barkla is bewaring the Ides of March, especially the I'd rather be anywhere else than facing death by PowerPoint. Ask not For Whom The Belt Holes, they Hole for last nights Turkish dinner and inferior ales...
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