The Story of David Kaspar

for the newly wed Rudolf and Iveta Kaspar.

I was able to get away from our recently enlarged family for three days to attend Rudolf's and Iveta's wedding.

The wedding was in Prague and the couple put on a relaxed wedding full of party, laughter and family love.

The day started with a small reception at the couples new apartment in an almost finished apartment block.

There were wires sticking out from the walls in the hallways and the apartment was all empty but for a pair of mattresses and sleeping bags.

This didn't prevent a great atmosphere and a never ending flow of champagne.

A red Skoda decorated with white flowers was arranged for the bride and a white mini bus was arranged for the groom and the rest of the family.

In such magnificent style did we travel to the busy Old Town Square were the wedding ceremony was to be held at the Old Town town hall.

I have been to the Old Town Square on numerous occasions to marvel at the ancient astronomical clock just like millions of tourist from all around the world. Never have I however been inside the town hall.

The actual ceremony was short and sweet and the couple had chosen a few untraditional songs for the organist: Clocks by Cold Play, Everybody's changing by Keane and Spomal by Peha.

Apparently the organist had not known how to play the songs initially but managed splendidly once provided the notes.

The square was as busy as ever on this fine Saturday and full of tourists from all around the world. They snapped away merrily at the newly wed couple.

Rudolf and Iveta are for ever recorded in the family travel albums of visitors from China, Italy, Russia, Germany but mainly Japan.

A family feast followed where I had the chance to meet the bride's family members for the first time.

I can happily report that they turned out to be a bunch of really nice and honest people that never say no to having fun.

The feast lasted longer than planned and it was getting close to the "real" evening party. Luckily I managed to squeeze in 30 minutes of power napping; something that I doubt the newly wed couple had time to do.

There was a great crowd at the evening party and I met up with a few childhood friends I hadn't seen in years. There were a few surprises like random visitors from Norway and excellent musicians dressed in poncho's.

More food was arranged in the form of a buffet with traditional Czech delicacies.

After the earlier feast I swore not to eat again for several days but I caved in for a midnight snack of chicken wings, sandwiches, goulash and some more wedding cake.

All in all a fantastic wedding and celebration and a huge privilege that I was able to attend.

Congratulations to the newly wed couple and an apology for the delayed wedding present... it is on the way!

Is a Swedish word for a kind of small hospital or more correctly a smaller emergency ward.

Which is exactly what it looks like at home at the moment.

We came back from Brazil last week and together with the fond memories of the trip our baby son also brought back a violent flue.

The symptoms are fever for 2-3 days, then excruciating body ache, then a short spell of extremely runny nose followed by a heavy and painful cough.

His mother got it shortly thereafter.

Then it was the grandmother's turn. She is only visiting for a short while but wasn't spared nonetheless.

The nanny was holding out until last Friday but surrendered shivering and with a splitting head ache.

She had to take a few days off which brought havoc to the delicate ecosystem of baby care taking at home.

So here I am, last man standing and wading through an avalanche of used tissues, dirty dishes and empty paracetamol packs.

I am under no illusion that I will escape this vicious bug but maybe I can avoid it at least until the rest of the family has recuperated (and enjoy special treatment).

From Sjukstugan with love,
David.

My dearest son, you have completed your first year - on to Level2. How much of it will you remember in years to come?

You came on Cupid's wings and landed in our arms

Do you for example remember when you took your first breath - a breath of sweet life in an otherwise sterile operation room?

Do you remember when you tasted real food for the first time or took your first tumbling step?

I sure do and the memories will be for ever etched into my mind.

You are growing up surrounded by technologies one could not even dream about when I was I child.

You are wearing a GPS/GSM tracker in your pocket, watching high definition baby television, space tourism is about to take of, open source software is challenging commercial offerings on many fronts and the Internet is becoming just another utility like tap water is.

There are some unfortunate things to be sad about like the decaying environment, advances in genetically modified plants and organisms, greed of pharmaceutical companies and cruelty going on in the world wide world.

Hopefully these issues can be improved upon with a generation of bright children like you and your sister.

I kissed your face and you said my name - Mwuuaaaaaahhh

You stand on the shoulders of great man and can achieve anything you set your mind to. However let's start with some potty training because you cannot conquer the world while wearing a diaper!

A little baby girl is on the way.

The ultrasound operator was 99% sure... and apparently she has never been wrong before. I bet that the last 1% is to avoid angry customers.

Both mom and dad to be are very proud and happy; mom a little bit more.

Celebrations commenced with a jump and heels clicked together followed by a pink shopping extravaganza at the first baby shop in sight: pure baby.

I can't help but worry that taking care of and raising two babies is possibly double work compared to a single child.

Cue cold sweat on forehead, lack of breath and a taste of blood in my mouth.

We are in search of a new home and had been viewing several properties last Saturday. Most had been charming and it was always nice to have a chat with the owners and trying to find out the peculiars of their homes.

Last property was an "open house" viewing. An estate agent (no names) had invited many, many interested couples and families to view this property.

The house was in great shape, the fire place was lit and the previous owner was the producer of one of our favourite British TV series (his BAFTA award was standing on the coffee table).... but the previous owner was nowhere to be seen.

Instead we were met with a very camp articulate agent who signed us into a book at the entrance and briefed us about the house in 1 minute. Then he was off to receive the next couple waiting at the door.

While walking around the house there was nowhere to sit down or relax and discuss what we liked/disliked. Everywhere you looked there were other couples talking away.

The open house viewing concept might be understandable in quite periods where any possible buzz needs to be generated to sell a property.

However currently the property market is extremly busy. Most decent properties recieve an offer that matches their asking price after a single day; often it recieves multiple such offers.

In such a climate it is terrible seeing all the other potential buyers. There were easily 15 other couples during the 20 minutes we stayed.

The estate agent was informing some other people that the property already had 4 offers at the asking price. This can only mean a fierce bidding war if you want the house badly.

Just as we were leaving the house after a very dissapointing viewing a lady stopped us, introduced herself as a newspaper journalist (was it from the standard?) and asked if she could ask my wife a few questions about the open house viewing concept.

A big grin appeared on my wife's face and she started telling the journalist just how wrong the idea was.

How important it is to have a chat with the previous owners, how it is important to feel the potential privacy and comfort of a new home, how it instead feels like being at a fish market and finally how it's all about greed and nothing about providing a service.

Photo credit Anyhoo

It was the best lunar eclipse in the last decade and certainly the first one that I took the time to observe.

Due to light scattered in the Earth's atmosphere, the moon was visible even while totally in the Earth's shadow.

Blue light scatters the most in the Earth's atmosphere, making mainly the red light to hit the moon.

In ancient times such a moon as this was called "blood moon" and usually associated with catastrophes or big changes to come. I am glad we have moved on from that.

The International Herald Tribune reports about 2 new drugs offering options in HIV fight.

One drug, maraviroc, has been developed by Pfizer; the other drug, raltegravir, has been developed by Merck.

If humanity could find a cure for HIV/AIDS it would be a major breakthrough and a clear sign of progress.

Unfortunately I have become a little numb from the last 10 years' of several "almost HIV/AIDS cure" announcements to be joyous anymore.

I doubt that there is enough profit for a company to develop a one time cure for HIV.

All the profit is surely in producing expensive drug cocktails that have to be taken regularly and for the rest of a patients life.

Unfortunately HIV/AIDS has a tendency to become resistant to drugs after prolonged usage so new drug cocktails have to be developed periodically.

Let's not be naive but instead realise that corporations have a responsibility to their share holders to maximise the return of their investments.

It would be very irresponsible to develop a cure and thus killing the steady revenue stream from millions of regularly paying patients.

The very nasty drawback is that millions of patients in developing countries do not have the funds for expensive drug cocktails and are in dire need of a cure.

Had penicillin been discovered during the last 20 years would it have been released? Maybe not and instead there would be daily medicine to be taken to keep an infection at bay; never quite curing it.

[Link] [Photo credit: sparktography]

So I was on a walkabout close from Trafalgar Square, London and noticed an amazing amount of people in the streets.

There was a performance on and everywhere red decorations and signs of Happy New Year.

Last time I had seen this kind of celebration for the Chinese New Year was in Singapore many, many winters ago.

I reckoned the best action would be in the actual China Town so I headed towards it.

Many of the major streets between Trafalgar Square and China Town were closed of for motor traffic and it was a spectacular feeling walking around these famous streets like it was in Disneyland.

There were several crowd control measures in place like one way pedestrian streets which made it a bit tricky but I made it to the golden gate in the end.

Most of the shops and restaurants had cabbage and red envelopes hanging from their doors.

Several processions with Chinese lions were performing the traditional lion dance to usher in the new year.

The lion would dance in front of the store front and like a curious cat inspect the package. It would capture the package, spit out the cabbage but keep the red envelope with money.

Suddenly the stewards started pushing people around me into different directions because two of the lions were about to have a show down right where we were standing. This turned out to be great fun and gave splendid close up views of the acrobats hiding in the lion costumes.

Call it a pig, a boar or a hog; I wish you a very red and happy new year!

PS The lions kiss at 1:15

The other evening I was shopping for a few quick groceries at our local corner shop.

While browsing among the chicken fillets and beef steaks, a gentleman appeared next to me.

He was well dressed and well groomed and opted for the premium beef steak. He then hesitated for a moment and added the premium chicken fillet to his shopping.

I went off to the check out and noticed him choosing among the vegetables by the exit.

He gave me a quick and casual look and then went straight out; clearly without paying.

For a while I was considering whether I should be a good citizen and quickly notify the staff about this. I concluded that it wasn't my job to police the shop and that the shop surely has CCTV which may or may not have caught it on tape.

Neither do I know the circumstances behind the man's actions and I was not going to judge him for them. Somebody else will do that (Karma, God, whathaveyou).

What would you have done?

Photo credit: Fanboy29

I have used so called self service check outs previously in the UK with very mixed results.

While visiting my parents in Sweden last weekend I entered their local grocery store and was faced with this wall of barcode scanners. My parents quickly updated me on how the system works.

You register for the service and are given a swipe card, similar to a store card.

When you swipe the card, one of the many barcode scanners is allocated to you and lights up so that you can find it easily. The scanner greets you with your name (and wishes you to have a nice day).

You then commence to do your shopping and every item you wish to purchase is first scanned and then put into your shopping bag. You can constantly see a list of items that you have scanned, their costs and the total.

Should you at any time change your mind about a product, you can simply delete it from the scanner and return the product.

At the check-out a member of staff asks you whether there were any problems with scanning of any items. If the answer is no, you then pay for the items registered in the scanner and walk out with your shopping.

Apparently there was an introductory period where the staff would choose customers on random and thoroughly check that their purchases were properly registered.

The advantages of this system were several. You could constantly see the total of your shopping, you did not have to wait in line to have your shopping scanned and your shopping was placed directly in your shopping bags saving you additional time.

The obvious issue would be with customers that do not scan their purchases but the occasional missed bar of chocolate is a bonus to the customer in my opinion :-)

Now imagine if you could upload your shopping list to the scanner and tick the items off one by one!

Terrorism [via]

Following last year's cities, here's my 2006 in cities:

• Sao Paulo, Brasil*
• London, UK*
• Turin, Italy
• Milano, Italy
• Le Touessrok, Mauritius
• Prague*, Czech Republic
• Edingburgh, Scotland
• Miami, USA
• Nassau, Bahamas
• Helsingborg, Sweden*
• Copenhagen, Denmark*
• Campinas, Brasil*

One or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

Click on pins to view photos from the location!

Our good friend from This Ordinary Life was turning 30 the other day.

To celebrate this sad joyous event he and his wife had organised a wonderful weekend away in the Cotswald area for 14 people.

They found a charming cottage in Far Oakridge which together with the adjacent stable cottage comfortably fitted 14 guests.

From the outside the cottage looks very charming and authentic with it's thick stone walls and low ceiling. On the inside however you'll find all the modern conveniences you'll want for a comfortable weekend away.

Fully equipped kitchen, power showers, central heating, multiple fire places, BBQ, games, books, flat screen TVs, DVD players, hifi and much, much more. Even a large trampoline in the garden which should have a warning sign "not to be used while intoxicated".

Some of the available activities in the area are horse back riding, hiking, clay pigeon shooting and village exploring. Naturally me and the boys chose the shooting.

To our relief everyone had a great time socialising with the little one and getting the occasional lick from the hairy ones.

Once the baby boy was sleeping soundly, shortly after 8 pm, there was time for celebration dinner and drinking games until 3 am.

The next day the others had the pleasure of sleeping in until lunch time but we had to be up by 6 am to again start pleasing the youngling.

All in all a fabulous weekend away despite a few (canine) accidents in the back of the car.

Every time I get away from London I try to cherish every ounce of fresh air and every bit of peace and quite.

The English country side truly is a feast for the eyes.

Sorry about the title but if Carlsberg can get away with it without being lynched, maybe I can too!

The missus was away for 3 days and I was in sole charge (nanny term) of our baby boy.

For the last 5 months it has been the missus solely getting up first 6 times then 4 and now 1 to 3 times a night.

My biggest issue has been just rolling over and managing to fall asleep again as soon as possible.

So my feelings were mixed when I was told I was to command the ship for a few days and nights.

On one hand I was anxious to see whether I would be able to manage by my self and especially curious just how bad the nights would be - there are torture methods based on sleep deprivation you know.

On the other hand I was well worried that the experience would be simply overwhelming and that I would break down.

To my aid was our nanny which is here 8 to 5 and so takes the heat most of the day while I was away at work.

I am glad to report that I am still here and it all went mostly well.

The wake up calls in the middle of the night required just a cuddle or repositioning of the soother - 20 minutes all in all.

Also once the baby boy was in bed by 7 pm there was still time for pizza, beer and a Playstation2 session!

Once addicted FRIENDS fans, we could not believe our ears when yesterday evening somewhere behind us in the restaurant we suddenly heard Janice's hysterical laugh.

For the not so familiar with the Friends TV series, Janice was Chandler's ex girlfriend and had one of the most irritating, high pitched, ridiculous laughs ever.

It all started one fine Sunday afternoon when feeling a bit sad to see that our weekend was vanishing before our eyes.

The husband proposed that we go out for a walk, maybe stretching it all the way to the Putney Warf for a nice bite (remember that with a 4 month old even the most common place things are mini adventures).

We packed all the 567 essential items for the baby, and head off on our mini adventure.

All being well, a very pleasant night was falling around us when we found a perfect spot at a grill restaurant by the river Thames.

Baby cosily asleep in his pram, nice champagne was ordered (again, with a 4 month old ANY opportunity is a GOOD opportunity to celebrate) and we started to unwind when a sudden shriek was heard from behind.

An airplane turbine? A motorcycle crash? Pig slaughter? Noooooo, just Janice who was having a laugh behind us!!!

For the next 50 odd minutes we had to cope with what seemed to be a fantastically funny night out for the girls behind us. Nothing wrong with that if only JANICE wasn't part of the group; laughing away in her painfully witch-like laugh.

Well, thankfully enough, my company (hubby) was excellent, and so was the dinner and the chocolate drenched brownie dessert.

To top it all up like a nice fat cherry, walking back home with my fabulous husband and amazing kid in what could be one of the last summer nights was truly a treat.

People in London often say that the London tube is a bit of a jungle. If the below python makes it there, it will take it to a whole new level.

Reward: Lost 8ft African python "Sandra" was last seen in the alleyway behind shop. Please call 07977xxxxxx Thanks.

If you do see a python without an owner do send me an email and I will notify the person who put up the above notice.

I was also about to tell you about current office politics at my office.

Despite being required 110% on a current project I had to accept a 50% working solution in order to prevent other staff QUOTE wanting the same thing UNQUOTE.

But there are no office politics at my office so there is nothing to talk about.

PS For some time ahead I am 50% available for any commercial propositions

There was quite a surprise in my latest Vodafone mobile bill. Two new accounts had been created and during almost a month they had incurred over £800 of charges.

After a short while on the phone with customer service, Vodafone quickly assured me that I would not see any of the charges on my bank statement.

It was almost too easy to get cleared from the charges and this to me seems to suggest that it is a frequent occurrence.

This happened just 2 days after a suspicious courier required my signature for a "signed delivery". The courier looked very amateur and when I asked who the delivery was from he did not know.

The delivery turned out to be a just a random advertisement so obviously the person was collecting signatures. I'm really glad I put down a phony signature that cannot be used.

To be on the safe side I reported these two incidents to the local police station. It is good to have a crime reference number in case of some later complications.

Reporting the first incident took around 1 hour. Reporting the second incident took an amazing 3 hours because two separate crime reports had to be filed as the two different frauds occurred in two different police wardens.

CIFAS is a fraud prevention service in the UK. The CIFAS web site contains useful advise on how to prevent identity fraud and theft and what to do if you are a victim.

The beautiful game; even more beautiful when your team is winning in front of nearly 60,000 spectators!

A friendly match was played between Brazil and Argentina at the Emirates Stadium in London but anybody who knows those two teams also knows that they are not friends.

It was a pleasure to visit the new Emirates Stadium.

All seats in the stadium seemed to be padded, there was plenty of leg room and all spectators were under cover.

There seemed to be many food and beverage outlets but still it took over 20 minutes to get a freaking pint at half time.

Some of the more noteworthy players in the Brazilian line-up were Robinho, Kaka and Baptista. Noteworthy Argentinian players were Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano.

It was the Brazilians' second game with their new coach Dunga; first was against Norway.

There may have been some reservation back when Dunga was selected as the new coach but these two recent internationals have shown that he can lead the world famous players very competently.

A very early goal by Elano created a lovely atmosphere at the stadium; for the Brazilian supporters that is.

Elano then followed up with a second goal in the 67th minute.

In the very few last minutes, the 89nth minute to be precise, Kaka benefited from a Messi mistake and charged ahead with the ball.

Kaka started way down on his own half but rushed ahead and managed to pass a fair share of Argentinian players before pummeling the ball into the Argentinian goal. Cue mad celebrations.

Brazilian colors hugely outnumbered the Argentinian colors in the audience but a large number of the Brazilian supporters were non-Brazilians.

With a bit of bad luck, our group ended up with a few Argentinian supporters just in front of us.

One of the supporters was a (posh) older lady and she wasn't too impressed with my wife's passionate cheering. Several of our good friends are Argentinian so I won't go into details but let's just say that mas que um viado was shouted many times.

All in all a fantastic game and Arsenal supporters have a great season ahead at the Emirates Stadium!

Leaving the hospital with Maya

Prag occupation 21/8/1968

MC crash

Well, well, well. It seems as if the photographer has become the photographed.

Stumbled upon this piece of monitoring delight the other day and I cannot believe I missed it back when I was recorded for the moving traffic contraventions.

Must have been quite a day job during the hot days in London.

A brief message about the recent 5 day outage.

My hosting provider "had no choice but to suspend my web site due to extreme Apache overloading". I was notified of the few offending CGI scripts and a single static jpg that were causing the havoc.

It was mainly the Movable Type track back script that was being hammered by various spammers and caused the overload.

To protect the web site from future high loads I have disabled some functionality just to be on the safe side:

Movable Type track-backs (only spammers used them anyway)
Movable Type search (use Google search instead)
Mowecam post image (you can deploy the PHP file on your own server to continue using it)
ImdbRatings4Vue

Welcome back!

Friends and family, we thank you for attending the christening of our son.

The event was wonderful and emotional and will forever be remembered.

The Godparents outperformed themselves but we did not expect anything less from them. The highlight was the Godfather getting his speech just seconds before holding it in front of the congregation.

As always a grand reception had been planned by my wife. This time it was in the Winter Garden of the Landmark Hotel.

It had been a hot day and the non-stop serving of well chilled Taittinger champagne was appreciated by all.

Don't be looking for me the next 7 days as the whole family is away in Scotland visiting grand castles and small distilleries.

It was 1 year birthday of our dog's 6 puppies and a reunion was arranged.

Five of the puppies are with new owners around London and all but one managed to navigate to Richmond Park and our favourite pond.

The picnic started with a bang with 3 golden retrievers running across a couple's picnic.

I suspect that the gentlemen was expecting an apology but none was given by our fearless picnic organiser. Instead the upset gentlemen was notified that 4 more dogs were on the way.

Due to his apparent US accent he was taunted to "sue us when back in the states" upon which he sulkily proclaimed "I am bloody Canadian".

Despite the false start, things took of in a more positive spirit.

The majority of visitors to Richmond Park are dog lovers and everyone was commenting on how gorgeous our pack of 6 Golden Retrievers was.

A few children were almost run over, a few more picnics were terrorised, all white clothes in the vicinity had been jumped up on but the general response was a happy one.

The parting words of everyone was "see you again next year!".

[YouTube video, GoogleVideo]

You may or may not have noticed that local councils have a new weapon in their money collecting arsenal: Moving Traffic Enforcement.

Under the scheme, local councils can fine motorists that obey certain basic road signs if they catch the motorists on camera.

Disobeying road signs like banned right turns, one-way streets, no-entry, no u-turn and box junctions are some of the contraventions that can result in a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN).

The main reason behind the new scheme is said to be to lower traffic accidents.

Call me cynical but it seems to be yet another way of extracting money from the already tax paying population and I see parallels with congestion charging and parking fines.

The purpose of the Congestion Charge is said to be to reduce congestion in the capital. Why is it then not implemented in the most congested areas but instead in central areas often crippling local business?

A large percentage of the income is due to penalty fees. When a private company introduced a way to minimise on forgotten Congestion Charge payments they were swiftly stamped out.

Parking fines are said to reduce illegal parking and improve the flow of traffic... but in the media there are frequent stories about corrupt parking attendants, performance bonuses based on tickets issued and jokingly easy job application tests.

It is with these bitter experiences that I view the latest Moving Traffic Enforcement. I notice that the appeal process has been altered, greatly reducing the alternatives for a driver to have his say.

I was recently fined for a right turn. The turn is on my daily way to work and I have been doing it for a long time.

Due to a delay between being caught on CCTV and receiving a penalty charge notice in the mail, I incurred the same fine 5 times.

I had previously successfully appealed a parking ticket but it was a very long process and I did not have the strength to go through all the paper work again.

A search for "moving traffic enforcement" and file types of pdf, doc and xls brings up several internal documents. They discuss the expected moving traffic enforcement monetary performance and on how to lower the amount of appeals because they are consuming resources.

Central London has a very large amount of CCTVs installed. You can literally see one or two cameras on every street corner.

Camden council is up front about the location of CCTVs used to monitor the population but other councils are conveniently quite about it. Does the Human Rights Act say anything about right to privacy?

As long as the CCTV cameras help to increase security and reduce crime I have been willing to accept the price of being monitored. Now the cameras are being used to police the population and dish out traffic fines.

So next time you are about to fart in public, think twice. You are being watched, recorded and registered. Everywhere and always.

It was my birthday and I was to be wined and dined at the exclusive Rasoi Vineet Bhatia restaurant in London.

Our 2 month old son had just been properly dined (no wine here) and we were confident that he would be safe in the hands of my wife's cousin.

A short drive to the restaurant and finding a parking spot right outside it gave hints of a very successful evening out; oh what a luxury.

The restaurant is renowned for it's Indian cuisine prepared by a Michelin star chef.

Knowing that this was a once in a lifetime experience I went straight for the 9 courses Gourmand menu. The staff assured me that the sizes of the dishes were small enough to be manageable.

An explosion of flavours and colours was just a few moments away.

The restaurant offers a menu of 4 or 6 glasses of (fine) wine to go with the food and this seemed to be a worthy match.

A state of comfortable and comforting tipsiness was just a few moments away.

My wife wasn't as brave (or hungry) as me and went for a measly starter/main/desert combo.

Just as the starters had arrived the phone rang and alarm bells went of. False alarm however, it was just a friend wishing happy birthday.

Two mouthfuls later and the phone was ringing again.

This time it was our impromptu baby sitter informing us that the baby was crying uncontrollably and he was not able to calm him down.

Cue my wife sprinting out of the restaurant and leaving me behind explaining to the staff that everything was fine and asking if possibly we could delay the dishes for a while.

I, or was it my tummy, had made the decision that once the storm was over my wife would be able to return, her appetite preserved, and continue were we left of. Little did I know that mothers with newborn babies do not work nor think like that.

One hour later she was back. Her hair just little bit out of control and no puke on her shoulder either so I assumed things were fine.

I managed to get to course 5 out of 9 when the phone rang again.

Our impromptu baby sitter was informing us that waiting in the car outside the restaurant has made the baby unsettled yet again and that he was forced to drive in circles around the block to calm him down.

This was the final straw on my wife's back and the bill was asked for.

On the way out the person at the door mentioned jokingly that he had seen our car passing by a few times.

I must confess, with all "my teams" out of the cup, it was hard to root for any of the finalists.

I thought I had hedged my chances by favouring all of Czech Republic, Sweden, Brazil, England and Poland. Unfortunately fate would not have it like that.

Instead it was France versus Italy in the 2006 World Cup final.

France started the cup in an unimpressive way but got a little better witch each game. Then they went on to beat Brazil in the quarter finals and it was '98 all over again.

Italy were a strong team all through the cup and played a very good last game. They even managed to score 5 out of 5 penalties (something they did not do against Brazil in 1994 :-)

What will be talked about for years however, is Zinedine Zidane's spectacular head butt and the following red card.

A football player that has been described as "God" by his country men, at the top of his career, last game of his career, last minutes of a World Cup final and he looses his marbles.

What an ironic last shot of Zinedine Zidane. Him leaving the stadium and the much aspired trophy behind.

Watching the Italian players running around with flags on their shoulders, silly hats on their heads and kissing the trophy... priceless.

WELL DONE ITALIA!

[via Kottke]

I thought I would be telling you about how I was enjoying the Dark Side of the Moon being performed by Roger Waters but instead I will be telling you about how I didn't. The story is just as good I believe.

My wife had purchased 4 tickets for Hyde Park Calling, 1st of July, long long time ago. We were under the impression that a) 2 friends would be joining us and b) we would find a baby sitter. Well a) the 2 friends freaked off on a belated honey moon and b) no baby sitter was to be found.

In addition Ticketmaster had failed to deliver the tickets (despite a £5 charge per ticket) so I had to head my butt over to the box office to pick them up.

Scalpers were buying up tickets for £5-10 and selling them for £40 so it was a pretty cut throat environment trying to sell the tickets off.

Due to having so much more class than any scalper, I managed to unload one ticket for £40 and one at £20.

The third ticket was almost sold but the girl was hesitant because she thought I was selling fake tickets.

After persuading her about the authenticity of my wares, she jokingly mentioned that if I only had a friend that would join her because going to rock concerts was no fun alone.

I was about to say sorry but when I realised that a friend was on the rebound and that this could possibly turn out to be a great story to tell the grand children.

A phone call and 10 minutes later the friend was on his way super excited about Dark Side of the Moon and fairly excited about the blind date.

Sometimes life is all about those spontaneous moments that make it diverge from the seemingly fixed path of faith.

I am very much looking forward to hearing about the outcome; no details spared!

7 BBQs in 10 days; I am becoming quite the master of the fork and the sauce.

The mix of World Cup 2006, scorching hot weather and several visiting friends created a high pressure BBQ climate.

Make sure to have a decently sized BBQ to avoid disappointment among the hungry guests. A disposable BBQ will not do it. The Dual Deck Grill from Direct Design on the other hand is sized to deliver.

Meat is possibly the most important part of a successful BBQ and if you are in London I would recommend visiting the South American Beef website.

Good quality beef, amazing variety of cuts and decent prices. They even deliver to your front door.

Try the famous Picanha Brasileira cut or the Ponta de Contra File Argentino.

If you like to get your meat closer from home, then Waitrose has some very juicy Dovecote Park 6 rump steaks.

Add some portobello mushrooms, onions and wash it down with a well, well chilled rose wine.

Rinse and repeat!

[Pig BBQ from Pappa's Grills]

Yesterday was the best Father's Day ever.

Laying in bed and reading an I love you daddy card brought tears to my eyes. Once again it made me realise that I am a father and all the joy and responsibilities that come with it.

As always I was showered with presents but none delivered the message as strongly as that I love you daddy card.

A picknick was arranged with a few couples from our antenatal class. Everyone was comparing battle stories from the labour room and the progress of their babies.

Baby acne, organic nappies, colic, sleeping patterns and all kinds of wondrous details were touched upon. I think everyone was relived to find out that they were not the only people in the world with their specific issues.

So you see, the big person on the cup on the left is me and the little fellow going Weeeeeeeeeeeee is my son.

Isadora and Albert, thank you for inviting us to this special moment of your life. We wish that your wedded life will be as sweet as the desert that was served during the fabulous lunch.

Oscar and Asa, sorry we could not join you in person but be sure that we were with you in our minds.

To all of you, have a wonderful honeymoon and make sure to love and respect each other for the next 100 years.

On the topic of weddings, thank you Amor for the last 5 years.

Mark Victor Dominick Kaspar entered this world at 11:05 on the 2nd of May, 2006 with a match weight of 3.24kg.

He was greeted by a mommy overwhelmed with joy and a crying daddy.

Plenty of photos can be found in the usual photo gallery and a few movies can be found in the YouTube Dominick play list.

Thank you for stopping by; make love not war.

So a second Sky+ remote control beats the dust. It lasted only 2 weeks and was still in *mint* condition.

I never saw the carcass as the wife hid it knowing it would make my poor heart racing.

No wonder due to all the sweat that was put into purchasing it at a local Maplin's shop. A sweaty shop with sweaty carpets and even sweatier customers.

The first remote control at least lasted 1 year which I was quite content with. 2 weeks is however not acceptable so this family will simply have to do without.

The family is however allowed to use the amplifier multi-control which was conveniently programmed for Sky+ before the destruction.

A small call out to Sky to make their remote controls less appetizing. I guess tastiness was something that was overlooked in the design process. The black rubbery part of the remote seems to be simply irresistible for dogs..

Maybe I should have a taste next time!

Today I finally received the "Your penalty charge notice (PCN) has been canceled" letter from the City of Westminster, London.

This saga has been going on for over 8 months with me posting 9 recorded/signed for letters and the council of City of Westminster around 5.

It all started with a screaming red Charge Certificate stating that it was now too late to appeal to the alleged parking infringement and that I had better pay up.

This meant that the council had failed to notify me first by placing a PCN on my vehicle and second with a Notice To Owner in the mail.

Pretty scandalous way of extorting money from law abiding motorists I thought and started researching my rights in parking disputes.

It was a bit difficult to stay calm so my first letter to the council was a fiery one about extortion, scandals, citizen rights and other silly bits.

The reply was a cold and formal "Thank you for your appeal but it is now too late to appeal". It was obvious that the council would not listen. Instead they were pushing the matter forward to the County Court.

At this point my only option was to hire the services of a solicitor and swear in a Statuary Declaration that I had not received the original Notice To Owner.

I felt like a criminal sitting in a solicitor's office, holding the Bible and swearing the fact but it was true and it had to be done.

Luckily the County Court accepted the statuary declaration and this prevented the scary bailiffs and ultimate debt recovery.

You would have thought that the matter would have been cleared at this point but it only put it back to the original Notice to Owner stage.

The new Notice to Owner was promptly sent a few days later demanding once again the £100 (it was too late to pay the discounted £50 charge) or to appeal.

I vaguely remembered that a penalty for an alleged parking offence cannot take place if the PCN was not presented to the vehicle owner, i.e. it had not been served properly.

One could always throw away the PCN and claim that it was never there. However during the last 2 years I have seen many Traffic Wardens photographing vehicles with attached PCNs and I guess this is the reason why.

Since there had been no PCN on my vehicle I knew there could be no photograph and I was prepared to go to the County Court if required so I appealed selecting the wonderful "The offence did not occur" option.

It came as a total surprise that the council chose to accept my appeal and canceled the PCN but I accepted it wholeheartedly.

Below are some other reasons that can invalidate a PCN that I found while researching (some may be just rumours):

1. The traffic warden must be wearing their uniform and hat (have a disposable camera handy)

2. The PCN must have been attached to your vehicle or handed to you. If you see a traffic warden furiously punching on his ticket machine don't start arguing with him/her, just drive away.

3. A single yellow line must end with a t-bar to be enforceable

4. A sign stating enforcement hours of the yellow line must be close by and visible

5. If the council does not reply within 2 months of receiving your appeal

A very good resource was the National Parking Adjudication Service and I recommend you to study their pages closely.

My master's thesis was on a non-intrusive neonatal imaging method called optical tomography.

When finished, it will help doctors diagnose newborn babies from brain injury caused by breathing difficulties or other problems that prevent the baby from receiving sufficient amounts of oxygenated blood during birth.

While I was only involved with calibrations of the instrument being developed, I have always stayed interested in non-intrusive imaging methods.

That is why it was a double joy to join my wife the other day for a 4D ultrasound scan session of our little baby boy.

Traditional ultra sound just shows a thin slice of the baby in the mothers womb and is often seen in profile.

With 3D ultrasound, a series of slices is taken in a short amount of time (2s?). The slices are then combined and are visualised as a volume (3D).

4D just means that the volume of images can be seen moving in real time. The video is a bit jerky due to the 2 second scanning sweep but nevertheless it is breathtakingly clear.

The 4D scan was performed at the Create Health London Clinic and I can highly recommend them for being very professional..

A pink box full of sugar and saturated fat: $80
Uprooted dead plants: $60

A romantic dinner at home to avoid the Valentine's menu at restaurant X at triple the price and in a 90 minutes time slot: priceless

Whether you are a single person or just fed up with the commercial pressure of Valentine's Day, visit Meish for her great anti-Valentine's Day cards.

See and behold, one bastard of cupboards. The frame is from the IKEA bathroom selection, the sliding doors are from the kitchen collection and the feet, plinth and lights are from various other collections.

We were in need of 3 new cupboard units at home. The soon arrival of our baby is one reason but the always increasing amount of gadgets was another one.

Our first impulse was to hire some cunning craftsmen that would conjure up our new storage solution.

Four quotes later however, the highest quote was a pound above £3k and a whole lot above our budget. The drawings from that particular carpenter were great but the total sum was not.

Being the creative money saver my wife is, she started browsing the 2005 IKEA catalog ferociously. By combining furniture parts from different areas, she was able to come up with a combination of units that fitted our measures.

The total sum of shopping was around £500 and this included all kinds of IKEA goodies like plants, carpets, baskets, Swedish food and more boxes.

Besides my sweat and blood, the assembling required many more power tools than the default IKEA hexagonal key. Electrical drill and screw driver, wood saw, iron saw, hammer and wood glue just to mention a few of them.

It got me thinking that there might be a market for Custom IKEA-TM jobs. It would combine the affordability of IKEA furniture with the individuality of hand made furniture.

The customer and the installer would split the difference in price between the IKEA shopping and original quote from a carpenter.

yours sincerely,
The IKEA Boy.

Following Kottke's example, here's my 2005 in cities:

• Sao Paulo, Brasil*
• London, UK*
• Mumbai, India
• Ahmedabad, India
• Tokyo, Japan
• Kyoto, Japan
• Mt Koya, Japan
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Lulea, Sweden
• Paris, France
• Prague, Czech Republic
• NYC, USA
• Ilheus, Brasil
• Helsingborg, Sweden*
• Copenhagen, Denmark*
• Campinas, Brasil*

One or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

Click on pins to view photos from the location

I am having a second cold right on the heels of the previous one. No one told me that you could catch a cold in 28C just by having a fan blowing lukewarm air on you on full blast. Obviously you can.

After 5 years of celebrating Christmas in the southern hemisphere, where there is summer in December instead of the usual winter, I am still not getting used to it. I guess that I never will.

Instead of freezing temperatures and snowball fights there is a scorching sun and some lounging in the pool. It doesn't quite bring on the cosy Christmas feeling but it is oh so much more comfortable.

The local shopping malls try their best with red and fat Santa Clauses, miniature versions of his work shop and white cotton wool laying around that is supposed to look like snow. It all just looks awkward and misplaced but I bet it improves the sales figures.

The local tradition in Brazil is to dig in into the many Christmas delicacies only at midnight on the 24th. This is followed by hugs, best wishings and finally presents. A strategic power nap in the late afternoon is highly recommend as the celebrations seldom finish before 3 am.

Each year there are a few songs that are hot, which means that they are played a lot. These songs often stick with me for the rest of the year as a reminder of good times. This year so far it has been Gasolina by Dady Yankee. A silly song that is played everywhere so it sticks with you.

Having a cold has given me a lot of time in the hammock, catching up on the Dark Tower by Steven King. Currently finishing Song of Susanah and looking forward to the last book in the heptology.

By now I am getting used to listening to audiobooks. While it's is not as easy to "flick back a few pages" it is so much more convenient than to lugg around several books. It is also great while in a moving vehicle or in the sun on the beach. Give it a try.

We just found out that a friend of ours died recently in a plane crash. He leaves behind a beautiful wife and a 4 year old daughter.

It feels like yesterday when were smoking cigars and drinking fine whiskey together and it feels like earlier today when we attended his and his wife’s very romantic wedding.

What a rude reminder this is that things we take for granted can be abruptly and unjustly taken away.

Our warmest condolences go out to the rest of our late friends family but it makes me wonder just how much of a help words can be.

This is just so damn unfair...

This is my first time in the digg and del.icio.us limelights so an obligatory big welcome to everyone.

You may have come here for the XP Limits half-open connections to 10 article but I urge you to have a look around for more on Internet, gadgets, Java development and photography.

have a nice stay,
David Kaspar

The doctor recommended it so we followed his advice and waited 3 months before letting anyone know.

Our baby is due June 2006, just in time for the football world cup. I immediately take that as a sign that it will be a world class player especially with the Brazilian and Czech heritage.

So after three months of explaining to people why my wife was so ill for so long I was running out of excuses. There are only so many flues, food poisonings and jet lags one can blame on.

Reactions? Great joy mixed with just a tad of anxiety and nervousness. I can barely take care my self so how will I managed another human being? I will let you all know in 18 years.

The number of unwanted telemarketing phone calls we receive have increased a lot after a recent telephone number change.

There are various ways dealing with such calls:

1. For a short term relief just hang up.

I am a honest and polite person and for the last 5 years I tried to be rational and sensible when dealing with unwanted telemarketing calls. This did not help. It was a waste of time.

Once I overcame this politeness, I can now terminate an unwanted call in just 10 seconds. "Hello I am calling from Super Cheap Calls, would you be interested in... CLICK".

2. The better solution is to register your number with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). By UK law it is unlawful to make unsolicited direct marketing calls to registered numbers.

Save the registration confirmation as it is required when submitting a complaint.

The registration can take up to 3 months to come into effect so wait this long before submitting any complaints.

It is the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) who enforces the above law. You can find handy complaint templates at their making a complaint page.

Even if the phone call is originating from abroad, there will be an UK company that is responsible for the offered product/service and is intended to receive your money.

Ask the caller who you will be paying to.

3. If you have a lot of spare time, a third approach is to try and waste as much as possible of the callers time.

The conversion rates (successful sales out of total calls) are low so the call centers rely on quick finishes on calls that do not result in a sale.

If enough people did this, the call center operation would become unprofitable due to high calling costs and amount of time spent on unsuccessful calls.

Ask about every single option in the offering, tell them to hold while you are getting a pen and paper, tell them you don't understand, ask about costs and cancelations, tell them to call back in 5 minutes and start asking the same questions.

My personal record is 8 minutes, can you beat that? (leave a comment)

This poor pumpkin looked so much better before Hallowe'en.

Before

After

The question is, how did you feel before and after this year's Hallowe'en party?

The recent "Win a free plasma TV" campaign on Sky Digital is causing a ghost image on the plasma because it is bright and stays in the same position for a prolonged time.

Can't think of a good analogy at the moment. I'm sure there is one.

So we were supposed to be going to the Txai resort, Bahia, Brazil. The flight Sao Paulo to Illeus was at 7 am which meant we had to go up at 4:30.

Now this would normally not have been too bad but this time it was the morning after my brother in law's wedding. Of course there was a big Brazilian party to mark the occasion and of course did I have to force my self to go to bed by midnight.

To add to the already nicely stressed schedule, a project for work was due and this was possibly the last time with decent Internet access to send of a couple of MB worth of application design. It got done, just. Between midnight and two in the morning.

After just 3 hours of sleep but very psyched to be of to a sunny paradise we got of to the airport Guarulhos. Getting another ride from my wife's cousin who by now I know is an excellent driver (fast, safe, breaking all possible traffic rules) in the Sao Paulo traffic.

At the airport we discovered to our horror that Guarulhos was the wrong airport. TAM, the airline that was to service us, had changed the airport of departure to Congonhas just one day before the flight. They had notified as many passengers as possible but we booked through an agent and he did not get through to us.

It was 6:30 and the flight was scheduled for 7 am. The trip between Guarulhos and Congonhas is about 1 hour we were told.

Close to tears, we gave it a shot to try to speed to the correct airport. The TAM staff were at least nice enough to warn the crew at the other airport that we were making a dash for it.

18 minutes later our tires were screeching outside the correct airport. A few ladies at the check in desk notified us professionally that there was no way we could make it on the flight but a senior staff jumped swiftly over the counter and commanded us to run after him.

#PAGEBREAK#

10 minutes later after an express security check, a personal lift to the aircraft and re-lowering the plane staircase we were on board. Sweaty but on board. The plane took of 7:01, just one minute late. (BA, take some pointers please)

So here we are. Writing you from a sunny Bahia. They even have some sort of Internet connection here! (I had to high-jack a LAN cable and an IP address but it works)

Another scorcher in London last weekend with temperatures soaring up to 30C. We don't get many of those in London and Imade sure to soak it up properly.

Lounging in an inflatable pool from Argus, the BBQ stacked up with char coal and VH1 Top 100 classic rock tunes pumping out from the living room. If I only I had had a Piña Colada floating next to me, I could have totally dreamed my self back to the Maldives.

The puppies are growing really fast and have for the last 4 days been demanding to be left out in the garden. I feel a bit anxious about letting them rummage around in the wild but it is most likely good for them.

Just the other day Oswald (the orange one) found a gap under the wooden decking and disappeared. Only after pulling out five boards did I manage to find him. He was sleeping soundly and protested loudly when I rescued him.

How was your weekend?

There was a small party in our garden to celebrate the occasion. I had sent out the invites only 2 days ahead so naturally several friends had to decline as they already had made plans.

I was sending them a few "What is more important than cake and champagne" SMS messages but they would not budge. No sweat, the more cake and champagne there was for the rest of us.

It wasn't as bad as I had expect it to be, to turn 30. I did wake up with a head ache and for a brief moment I was terrified that maybe after you turn 30, you would have a constant head ache. Nobody had told me that. The head ache disappeared next day however so all was good again.

I was overwhelmed by the preparations my wife had put into it all. She even sent me away to a favourite restaurant of ours to "pick up some things". There was nothing to be picked up. Instead a 90 minute massage appointment was waiting for me across the street, at Bliss.

There were also presents involved in the celebrating. A few friends combined their efforts and surprised me mightily with a Nikkor 20mm 2.8D lens. An object of desire that I would not have indulged my self in otherwise.

Fine wine, cigar accessories and sporting gear were other high-lights. I felt spoiled rotten!

Around 9am today (Thursday) several London underground trains and busses had exploded. All of London underground network is currently suspended and people are being evacuated.

Initially the incidents were being reported as "power surges" on the underground. After several buses had exploded as well it was clear that it was actually bombs that had exploded.

Currently (11am) there have been a few (2) fatal casualties.

No information regarding who is responsible for the attacks as of yet.

I am fine and so is our family. I have been in touch with several close friends who are all fine as well but I am very worried that not all have been so lucky.

Update 3.30pm
Currently there are more than 33 fatalities confirmed. More than 300 people have been treated.

Other sources
Real time Wiki
BBC Timeline
Sky News

Yes it is 5:01am.

Ginger, our Golden Retriever, has just had her fourth and last puppy.

Surely she is able to take care of her newborn pups so it's time to get a few hours rest.

Zzorry for the incoherent writing.

---

Turns out that last puppy was not so last after all.

Two more puppies were delivered before 7am. By then I had already passed out in the living room, so I did not notice.

Prepare yourselves for a whole load of puppy photos in the near future. Eating puppies, sleeping puppies, puppies playing and puppies in jars... no, not that, sorry.

---

Turns out that the six puppies are all boys. What is the chance of that?! (Actually it is 0.5^6 or 1:64 or 1.6%).

Since we cannot keep them all, 5 of these Golden Retriever puppies in London will be for sale second week of August. This of course after an excrutiating interview process :-)

Use the contact form to contact me.

I am freakin heavy. That was the only thing I could think about during todays entire run.

Back in the days a 1 hour run was only refreshing, nowadays a 30 minute run is excruciating. The only thing that pulled me through was Blue Sonics Deapseediver*.

One positive thing with being out of shape is that you get to understand the huffing and puffing of the slightly over weight people while they work it out in the streets and parks during the weekends. I am one of them :-)

So to all the wannabe runners that are trying hard, keep at it, it will get better. To all the aces that effortlessly run and run, please have some compassion for the ones that are trying. One day it could be you again.

* Tune in to Digitally Imported for great Trance and Dance tunes. If you use Winamp with Streamripper (free software) you can even save the high quality MP3 tunes for later ;-)

Ok, calm down parents, it is not human babies. It is our golden retriever Ginger (AKA Poo Princess) that is pregnant.

The new addition to the family will be with us in just 5 weeks. You see, a dog pregnancy is 9 weeks only.

Expect a plethora of puppy photos.

Right, back to that serious S.L.A.I: Phantom Crash beta testing.

I thought I would be telling you about how our ski holiday in Courchevel, France is coming along. But you see, my wife managed to pull off the biggest surprise of my life and I am nowhere near France or Europe for that matter.

On the morning of our departure she confessed. There was no need for ski clothes and they were quickly unpacked. Instead I was given a fat itinerary and a travel guide to study.

Needless to say, I was completely flabbergasted. The illusion of a ski trip had been very real and I had been day dreaming about deep powder snow the last two weeks.

Nobody knew. Not our parents, not our friends. This one will be a tough cookie to beat if ever possible. Touché mon amor!

Good night Tokyo, I am signing off.

Japan, Tokyo and Kyoto photos

Most likely because I did not open the work laptop a single time.

Visited the current Lee Miller portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Lee Miller was a (female) model cum photographer during the first part of 20th century.

Through her relationships she came into contact with a range of artists and was able to take many intimate photographs. Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Fred Astaire, Colette and Marlene Dietrich being some of those artists. If you are interested in history of photography the exhibition is worth the £7.

London's Brick Lane is famous for it's many curry houses. A good friend of ours had arranged a charity dinner event at a one such curry house. The event was well organised and a respective sum was collected for the cause but I will not be going back to Nazrul 2 Tandoori and Balti Restaurant any time soon. The food was bad and the service was worse.

Finally caught a flick as well, have been missing the silver screen lately. Les Choristes (The Chorus) is a touching story about group of boys at a boarding school an