A quick hop from Johor to Singapore

At 1200hrs I was picked up from my hotel in Johor Bahru and was driven rapidly and efficiently across the border posts and into Singapore to arrive at my next stopping point, the Allson Hotel (pictured left) at 1300hrs. A rapid displacement of my body from the lack of care and green slime of the Hyatt Regency to the fast and efficiency of downtown Singapore.



I could also say that the shift was from the bland marble of the Hyatt Lobby to the to the wooden apples and swans (pictured left) of the Allson Hotel but at the end of the day a lobby has no place in the greater scheme of events!

My driver did his bit for his personal economy! As Singapore prices are far higher than Malaysian it makes sense to top up with fuel in Malaysia before returning home! There are though a few restrictions on fuel buying, for example the fuel tanks of all Singaporean registered cars leaving Singapore must be 3/4 full and this is checked at the border post when departing! Upon return the tank can then only be filled with what has been consumed in Malaysia and of course the remaining quarter! Malaysia doesn't care about it all, Singapore does as it loses taxes should all Singaporeans be heading across the border every five minutes to fill up their tanks! There are probably many citizens who have attempted to cheat or currently cheat the system; shorted gauges to read "full", hidden tanks under the seats and false bottoms everywhere but the penalties are high should they be caught!

Also with a packet of cigarettes currently costing over 10 Singapore dollars it would be sensible to purchase a months worth in Malaysia where one packet costs the same as a carton, or better still buy hundreds and sell them in Singapore to make a tidy profit! Once again though the Singapore government assumes it's role of protectorate of it's income and so the rule states that "one packet can be bought in Malaysia and it must be open, i.e. in use!

And so finally, before heading across the Causeway at Woodlands we entered what must be the most profitable garage in Asia (perhaps only those garages at the Mexican Border will do better) to top up with fuel and buy the dutiful packet of cigs! The place was chocker with cars of all shapes and sizes; one Indian gentleman with a smallish car was being very precise with his fuel filling; every so often he would stop and move his car up and down on its suspension and then resume filling! He was there when we arrived and he was there when we left and I can only assume that he was either nervous about overfilling his tank and thought that shaking his car would let the petrol settle or he had an illegal tube fitted from one tank to another.

Once on the road again we were through the border posts and without fanfare I found myself at the Alsson Hotel, 101 Victoria Street, Singapore 188018. This is quite a nice hotel, not fancy or anything like that but it has class, it has room service and it is very conveniently located near to an MRT, shops and the city! A fifteen minute walk from the hotel door and the large shopping malls of Suntec City are breached, just across the road and passed the National Library is the fanciful shopping mall of Bugis Junction and the departments store of Seyiu and outside the underground station beckons all for access to the rest of Singapore!

And that is that really! I had a quick walk around this afternoon, the place hasn't changed much and life goes on hectically as before!



Certainly the Christmas decorations were all up, with each mall trying to outdo the other. My award goes to those at the Marina Square, they were simple, of one colour and effective! Slightly overdone and gaudy but then not as much as some others I came across today!

The city also seemed slightly busier than usual but this was probably due to the Christmas shoppers honing their skills and their did seem to be an excess of "hippies" or "troppo's" wandering around. I have used the word "Troppo's" before, probably a word that I have made up, but I used it in an article to describe a certain type of person, male or female, who suddenly decide that smoking dope, wearing weird clothes and living in hot countries, means that they are attuned to the earth they step on or something like that! I just call them Troppo's! This article can be found here

Anyway, Singapore just seemed to be filled with them! I kept on passing these flower power girls with beads; all very well but they had no shoes on! All of them had beads around their ankles and were walking gingerly as if they had just stepped on some glass shards. Maybe they were all at the same party and had their shoes stolen, or it was a bet! Then again, they were most likely individuals who have assumed that by not wearing shoes they are "in" or part of nature! I think they're off their rockers as concrete, tarmac, litter, sharp edged gravel, other peoples feet, chewing gum, grime, cockroach and rat poisons and you name it, don't do the feet any good!

Well, it is soon time to depart for Russia! This might be my last post for a couple of months as I loose the ability to 'connect'! I might be able to post in Korea airport as I transit, I might be able to post from a hotel in Yuzhno when I arrive but it matters not! When I return in two months I will have a story to tell so do visit again! Meanwhile there are hundreds of articles to read elsewhere on the main site............and so now I go to pack my bags once again for the trip to Singapore airport and onwards to my vessel!

For more articles on Singapore visit here

Wasting time in Johor Bahru

I couldn't sit in my room yesterday evening! The rooms air conditioning control allowed adjustment of the room temperature to between zero degrees and plus thirty! When I switched it on I iced-up (maybe good acclimatisation for Russia but unwelcome) and when I switched it off I boiled over!



Combine this personal global-warming surroundings with the fact that the green slime on the window had enjoyed the recent rains, nearly shutting out all outside light to the room, I decided that some fresh air and a look at Johor Bahru would be a wise decision!

And so off I set! The shirt at the hotel reception desk informed me that the best (and closest) shopping mall would be the Holiday Plaza and so into a red taxi I jumped! I can confirm without doubt that this place is suffering de-colonialism through neglect! Everywhere large dirty buildings stand forlornly next to once gaily painted and pink houses! Leaning traffic signs and islands in the road that have long since provided assault courses for the cities drivers and the lack of any ongoing road repairs does suggest that it's a downhill slide! I asked my taxi-driver about the potholes and he assured categorically that three days ago, before it had rained, the roads were free of the offending holes! Again, I found this hard to believe as he knew exactly where each upcoming pothole was and weaved a careful but rapid path through them to the shopping mall!



Upon arrival at the Holiday Plaza Shopping Mall I was greeted with the "you want DVD", before I had even paid my driver! I smiled and walked on! Johor Bahru has always been an excellent place for the purchase of cheaper goods due to the difference in value's of the respective currencies! I wouldn't quite say that JB was a shoppers paradise, but the mall was extensive, the prices reasonable and once inside I was left to my own devices (not harassed anymore by a bunch of desperate DVD sellers who assume that my only purpose in town would be to purchase loads of copied products).

I left empty handed after an excellent walk-round and headed back to my green slimed room for the night!

It is the morning of the 21st now! I write this blog after packing my bags ready for the trip to Singapore! I decided that it would be wise to put some warm clothes into my hand-luggage as this evening I will be heading to the airport and onwards to Russia! Looking at the temperature today in Yuzhno Shakalinsk, my point of exit from the warm interior of the plane, it is minus nine degrees, so I don't want to be caught out wearing only a T-shirt and a pair of flip flops! And soon my passport should arrive and I will be collected for the one hour journey across the border to Singapore!

Gee, I'm shivering in this room now, must go and switch the AC off and put it onto boil mode otherwise I will see ice before I reach my ship!



I am though pleased to see that (maybe) the Hyatt Regency is halting the progress towards a derelict and rundown building that will be overtaken by the tendrils from the burgeoning jungle below! Outside the hotel grounds and in-full view of the street there is a large advertising sign that says "staff required, walk-in interview". Just maybe, they can't get the staff these days or they are attempting to reverse the current trend by hiring additional staff! There is though a small seed of doubt in my mind as to my conjectures; the sign itself looks as if it was posted in the heyday of colonialisation!

And So the Journey Begins

It would be extremely boring for me to write here that, "today I left for the ship, I caught a plane to Russia and arrived on the vessel this evening".

No, sireee! I cannot make or write in this insufficient manner! I have far more interesting things to talk about and lets face it, life for me tends to be rather more complicated, a mishmash of roads intersecting each other rather than the usual tree-lined avenues that others walk along!

To start at the beginning of this now underway spaghetti junction; I caught a plane at Kaohsiung International Airport on the 17th December after a bucket-filling session of tears with my wife and a "no you can't come with me" push away session with my curious son! After that; it was onwards to Bangkok (can't say much for the new airport as they shuffled me from arrivals to the low-lighted departure lounge without stopping for breath at a duty free shop) and then on to Singapore!

Has confusion set-in?, The general trend of thought by you (the reader) must have been, "but he's going the wrong way, he was supposed to be heading towards Russia"! And you dear reader would have been 100% correct! As roads twist and turn, I needed to get a new visa for entering Russia, and the best place for that was Singapore. I also needed to obtain a cold-water survival and HUET (helicopter, underwater, escape, training) qualification for working in the freezing and ice-coated Russian Waters! So that is why I am here!

I have in the past written about the HUET course when I did this three years ago in Singapore! And this article can be found here, so I will not repeat it all again! Suffice it to say, that the course was not held in Singapore this time but in Johor Bahru in Malaysia, so after exiting Changi International Airport I was met by a driver who whisked me away to his vehicle! He was so fast and efficient that I had hardly sat down before we were on the highway and heading towards Woodlands, the causeway and entry point to Malaysia! I still wonder how the Malaysian Immigration Official allowed me into the country as my entry form was filled out at high speed, without light and in a hurry - it could have been a replicated papyrus from the Dead Sea - but I was passed though and by 1230pm I was safely ensconced in my Hotel, the Hyatt Regency in Johor Bahru! The ensuing three days saw me on the course from 8am to 5pm each day!



The above photograph shows the barge upon which the training course is conducted, a purpose built floating school that houses simulators, classrooms, lifeboats, rescue equipment and all the necessary training aides required to conduct the courses in adequate style. For further information on the course content or what they offer please visit their website at www.msts-my-org



In short, upon departing Kaohsiung I have passed through Thailand, been whizzed through Singapore, have been turned upside down and underwater in a poor excuse for a helicopter, have fought a fire and given pulmonary resuscitation to a plastic doll! Oh, and not to forget the close quarter huddle in a swimming pool with a bunch of blokes, a hair-raising jump into some water some three-meters below and a narrow escape from a container filled with smoke and with the lights turned off! For those that have not read the above mentioned article the above happenings are all part of the aforementioned training course so no need to get you nickers in a twist!

And now? I sit here in my hotel room this fine Wednesday evening whilst writing this blog! I depart tomorrow for Singapore, should my visa be ready, and tomorrow evening I will jump onboard a flight bound for Russia and my ship!

I have enjoyed the last three days! It is good to refresh my memory on safety issues and to get out of the house once in a while! The Hyatt Regency was also decent in its offerings of comfort! I am unsure about the cracks in the wall and also the green slime that has almost completely covered the window so that any scenic view has been obliterated but then the room was cozy, the food excellent and the ambiance of the hotel satisfactory! I don't think Hyatt own this hotel anymore! My first inkling of this anomaly was when I tried to give my points membership card to the receptionist and was brushed off with a shrug and non-caring "we don't accept that here" brush-off!



Over the days I have also come to appreciate the ongoing decline of the hotel! From the outside it looks like an unoccupied building, looking up the windows reveal room curtains falling off rails, darkened shadows of green slime work up and across the whitewashed concrete and the trees and bushes, although snipped, are on the verge of taking over the driveway and surrounding gardens!



They have also forgotten to line the lobby with something more than a token Christmas tree, an ornament perhaps or a bunch of flowers, anything to relieve the echoing and hollow marble slab! But I am not faulting the hotel, Hyatt or otherwise! It has been an enjoyable stay and if required that I visit Johor again then I will willingly reside here!

As to Johor Bahru itself, it is the first time that I have been here! I did not manage to walk around much as the monsoon rains were in full force with extensive flooding in many parts! My driver, who came to pick me up from the hotel to take me to the course each morning, assured me that the endless and deep potholes that lined motorways and city roads were a result of the flash floods that had engulfed the city these last few days! I am though doubtful of his words, not simply because some potholes seemed to have been filled with newish tarmac before collapsing again, but looking around the whole city resembles a sort of 'declining colony' look! There are so many buildings half-built or half demolished, so much neglect of once fine and elegant monuments to skillful architecture, a deterioration that is not being addressed! Maybe it's just the excessive rain, perhaps my feelings are borne from first impressions of the neglected hotel that I am staying in, and I apologies sincerely to all Johor Bahru'ians' if my words hurt, but it matters not. JB is an excellent place, well kept and generally clean and I will leave here with sound memories albeit slightly wet!

Right, I better go and wind-down, sleep heavily and prepare myself for the next step of the journey, one that will one-day become part of this latest trips threads!

As a side note: I have just heard on the news that Singapore has been under deluge with the same rain that has created all the havoc here in Johor! In fact, the last two days have given record rainfalls to the Island, the most in 75 yrs! Singapore here I come!

A Seafarer's Departure to Russia

Alas, it is time for me (soonish) to pack my bags and return to the 'other' life! Like an unwitting schizophrenic whose symptoms last far longer than the real life disorder I will soon enter that other world - I know not which of my existences is fantasy and which is real! Am I escaping to the sea or do I escape into family life when I return from the sea?

I look forward to returning to sea, not quite as much as I look forward to returning to my family at the end of the trip, but adventure always calls and the itchy-feet itch! This trip will be different from many others that I have under my belt! I am to join the same ship as I sailed upon last time, the Ice-Breaking Supply Vessel (IBSV) the Pacific Endeavour in Russian Waters, but this time an added feature will bring new and uncharted territory to me!

That of ICE!

Last time I was there I joined the vessel in mid-summer, the Island of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was experiencing a heat wave that cracked the surprised thermometers at plus 30 degrees! When I left at the end of October, Autumn was dwindling and winter approaching but mild days so far! The only Ice that I had seen was that in the freezer and a lone icicle that had formed overnight at the end of a bridge window wiper (I got excited about it but everybody else just looked at me with curiosity).

This time when I return, it will be mid-winter! I have just looked for weather data for the Southern tip of Sakhalin Island and it tells me -5 degrees Celsius! Further North I have been told that it will drop to minus thirty degrees!

It is an experience certainly! I have no worries about the trip, I will remain for the most part snuggled up inside the vessels accommodation with the only reason for standing outside to take photographs, for inspection or interest and in all cases as soon as the cold starts to tingle I can jump for the nearest door and regain the warmth!

There is one period though that I am currently biting my finger nails over! It is when the plane lands on the island, when the plane door opens and I am hit my the outside temperature for the first time. For example, when arriving in London from somehwere in warm Asia, I have typically exited the plane with my Asian style dress on of T-shirt and jeans (I am no troppo who embarrasses himself by wearing shorts and flip-flops) and despite the high winds, the drizzle or horizontally flying sleet I have acted brave until my suitcase arrived and I could pull out a jumper!

I do though appreciate that this casual approach might not be a wise move when landing at Yuzhno International Airport, noting the fact that the weather will be far worse and that there is a large slab of tarmac to cross in open air between the plane and terminal! Time can also be spent on this tarmac as the Russian Immigration official's are slow, and the terminal cannot accommodate a full plane load!

I live in Taiwan! Temperatures here do not drop below 10 degrees! When snow actually fell once on Taiwan's highest mountain there was a scramble for a 'looksee'. Cars skidded, people suffered from 'snow-rage' and before anybody actually managed to get up to the top it had all melted!

This is worse than trying to buy a pair of water ski's in London's financial district, more difficult than attempting to find a decent sandwich in Bangkok but I must persevere, I need to find some cold-weather gear! All I want is a pair of gloves, a hat that I can pull down over my ears and some boots that will not get waterlogged, will not cause me to slip headlong down the exit ramp from the plane and a pair with souls that will not fall off when they first encounter water (this happened to a previous pair of Taiwanese bought boots when they encountered rain in Switzerland).

I am sure there is a shop out there! I may have to pay above the odds and it might not be 'stylish' but then all I need is enough to keep my toes from dropping off as I work my way from the plane to the terminal! After that, man-made heat should be with me all the way!

Right better go and continue my search!

Ieuan Dolby
Seadolby.Com

The Kiku Election Fever in Kaohsiung

Last Saturday, Koahsiung and Taipei were in the grip of election fever as the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) and the KMT (Chinese Nationalist Party) went head to head for the mayoral-ships of the two strongholds (DPP in Southern Taiwan, KMT in the North)!

The outcome of the election was little changed as both maintained their control and both increased the number of seats they held at the expense of the renegade James Chu-yu Soong with his PFP (Peoples First Party). An election result that will probably see the end of the PFP or a re-integration of the party into the KMT!

The only real change that the election brought upon the citizens of Taiwan was the election of Kiku Chen as the Mayor of Kaohsiung (DPP) and the fact that her fridge magnets are now selling for as much as 2,000 NTD (40 Pounds) for the set of 12! Kiku is a rather awesome woman! I first saw a picture of her on a billboard as my family and I drove towards our new apartment prior to moving in! My reaction upon seeing this large and imposing woman shaking a fist at me was to swerve into the centre of the road, and once the panic had subsided to wander if we should have purchased an apartment somewhere else instead of on the doorstep of the DPP headquarters for Southern Taiwan!

Once my heart had settled down it became clear that we were not financially able to sell-up so soon and find a quieter place to live I thought about the situation more clearly! It wasn't going to be that bad! Elections of one sort or another only happen two or three times every five years and whilst these periods tend to be extremely noisy and filled with ear abusing sounds it is also very interesting! And so I embarked on this latest election fever watch with an open -mind and a set of ear plugs, a tool that became extremely useful in the days ahead!

The DPP always accuse the KMT of vote buying, the KMT also accuses the DPP of exactly the same thing! Politics is dirty but none-more-so than in Taiwan! This is an all-out brawl for attention, for slander and attack and any weapon is used to try and usurp the popularity of any opposing party member, of importance or not! Money is spent and emphasis is placed, not on enhancing ones own image but on reducing that of the opponent!

I was woken up many a times as the election vans trawled the streets shouting slogans and abuse through speakers large enough to sound the alarms in Australia! They tread a weary path through every street and lane in the city, they park outside apartment blocks and stand there for twenty minutes repeating the same slander or same "vote for me" style bullet points as if all the residents will succumb to forced hypnotism before the van drives onwards! All I got was sore ears and a screaming son who had been woken up by the racket!

Both parties accuse the other of vote-rigging and probably both are possibly correct in their frequently charged accusations! It is oft muttered that party members become liberal with their cash gifts; maybe the upper echelons pass full envelopes to important city officials, they might pass some on to lesser important officials who in-turn perhaps pass grubby notes onward to the minions at the bottom! It is wrong to do this, it is immoral and illegal but then I can only laugh at the stupidity behind it all - if it happens! As both parties are in the thick of the accusations, at the end of the day who cares? Both are as bad as each other! Vote for the lesser of two evils perhaps?

My wife and I were having a quiet moment on Saturday evening! Our son was asleep and we had completely forgotten that not 100 metres away from our apartment was a large woman shaking her fist at us! We were sitting quietly, for probably the first time in the last three weeks, when the attack came! At first, I thought that the whole Chinese Army had sneaked into Taiwan and were busy mowing down the city's residents and then I remembered that today was voting day, or should I say that this evening was so quiet because they had been counting the votes!

We were blasted out of our happy silence by a city wide firework party that heralded the election of Kiku Chen (who not soon after said "I can't enjoy the result as I am already worrying about the job") as the mayor of Koahsiung! The amount of fireworks set-off that evening must have caused smog to descend on some foreign capital and for earthquake seismographs to jump off the scale as far away as Tokyo! I even think that the Chinese (who after all had not attacked the city) to mobilise their troops to ward of the Taiwanese army who they must have assumed were making a surprise foray into the hinterland.

I must admit, it was all very interesting and as we sit here now, days after the event and with constant peace every evening, it was all an experience not to be missed (although a repeat will be harder to accept).

I just wish that I had collected the set of twelve fridge magnets of Kiku-Chen that ranged from her as a builder, as a cook, as a carpenter, et al so that I could sell them onward at a grossly inflated profit!

Ieuan Dolby
Seadolby.Com

An Authority on Writing

I am positive that most writers write about writing at one point or another, especially when they are feeling down or a sold concrete wall with no exits has surrounded all other possible topics!

I have authored my fair share of articles on 'writing', I admit that many of them are typical of thousands of other splurges out there! I also agree that these articles are nothing special and come with the usual grammatical errors and spelling mistakes that I am best known for!

One particular article of mine titled The True Writer was recently commented on at the buzzle.com website! I would not normally bring my trouble and strife's from one website to here but the article comment (left by a name Chris Popp) annoyed me greatly! A good writer expects criticism and an even better writer can use it to his advantage! Nobody though likes critics who use foul language and who resort to toilet humour to make a point!

I was saddened to read his comment, firstly because he used language that kept his unthoughtful words at the minimum level of acceptance at Buzzle but words and meanings that were so obviously dredged up from the public lavatories at Kings Cross Station after a bunch of pissed up football hooligans had passed through! Secondly because none of his facts had been researched and he had obviously not read the article in its entirety!

I admit that I found it hard to re-read the article as it tends to go off at a tangent, repeat itself and to loose the plot before returning in the last line (an article with no middle I suppose) but then why not pass comment on that, rather than resort to toilet paper (T.P as he put it) and bowel movements in a comment that I find makes no point at all! Yes, what are you talking about?

I paste his comment here should anybody care to read it:

"What came out of me that day was an unstoppable piece of drift wood on the flood tide.", I love reading aspiring writers write about writing while writing. Come on, give it up, writers bug me and normally I hate participating in any group event on the matter, what the hell difference should it make. Just shut the hell up and write the dam book, script, or what have you, and let that baby take flight or plunge, either way, the same result will be accomplished. Writing is like a bowel movement, a natural part of the body’s ability to extricate the consumption of life, those seeking tools to induce it, only mire in their own filth trying to participate in a function limited only by their own virtues. Perhaps my words are a bit harsh, as your criticism of Moby Dick was evidence of your own resentment of not having had a successful purge. Relax, quit squandering your time pondering a talent that may or may not be in your blood, enjoy your time here and if you have anything relevant to extol, then have the T.P at hand.

I think most writers would agree with me here, that if it were always that simple to write a book, novel or article then many more works would be written! As a general rule of thumb most writers tend to write about subjects that they find interesting, have researched clearly or know something about! And most writers find writing interesting, they know something about the art and have probably researched it, so following on from this it would be safe to assume that writers like to write about writing!

I am a writer, I like to write and therefore I will write about this subject whenever I feel like it! I also feel that I am qualified to criticize Moby Dick (have you read the book Chris??) as I have sailed the seas for twenty years! I disagree with Moby Dick for reasons of plausibility, just like I cannot watch films about the Titanic as I know that ships do not behave as suggested! And finally, to "purge myself" of your ignorance and resort to toilet-based descriptions, I would like to ask you why you read the article in the first place? What do you mean by 'group events', that 'writers bug you' when you have just written a comment and have thus become a writer, and what do you mean by "enjoy your time here"?

Where is here? It's certainly not there! Do you mean here as on this earth? Are you threatening me? Do you know that I am here and not there? Where is here?

Och, enough! I must admit that I am writing this blog entry as I simply have nothing else to write about! This is not the first comment that I have received like this, in fact down the line I've had endless streams of stranger and harsher messages and threats landing on my doorstep! My favourite is the email that I received one fine day! It said "if you write about me or my company then I will sue you". Strangely enough, the author of the email left no name, no company and the email address was non-returnable so I was left with no idea as to the purpose behind sending it in the first place! I can only assume that it was sent by somebody that knows me and who has something really serious to hide, but regardless of its intent, I've pinned his email on the wall next to my computer and every time I have even the smallest tingle of oncoming writers block, I look towards it for inspiration!

The threat has proved a successful companion and aid for the last three years, but now I it seems to have lost its power!

Ieuan Dolby
Seadolby.Com

A Webmasters Nightmare

Like a light bulb springing to life after a week long blackout (brownout to the Americans, daily life to the Chinese and a power cut to those who are now reaching for the dictionary) I have realised why I have not managed to write much during the past few weeks and it is certainly not due to a lack of light!

I've been at the computer full-time but instead of writing reams of articles and maritime based novels I have been going in circles like a dog chasing its own tail! As I've said before the main purpose of having and running my website is to showcase my articles and others without incurring great expense - a hobby if you may that I have so far enjoyed keeping up! I have spent many hours learning HTML and the paths through the maze of search engine inclusion so that at least one visitor will find me every year! But for the most part I concentrate on writing, rather than being a webmaster as at the end of the day my hobby is writing not computing!

My hosting company called "Bravepages", a hosting solution provided by Bravenet has been giving me problems! It all started three years ago when for lengthy periods of time my website would disappear from the airwaves; potential visitors would send me an email stating "I tried to visit your site but it was inaccessible"! I twice appealed to their better nature but despite backwards and forwards communications nothing ever changed and my site has continued to be a jack-in-the-box type website, one day it's there the next day its vanished! I put up with this annoying anomaly as the cost of a new hosting provider was too much for a website that makes nothing (even less due to not being on the air half the time)!

Then this time back home I decided that enough was enough! It was time to change this unwanted feature to a website that anybody could visit any time they wanted! I opted to change from Bravepages hosting solutions to one provided by Bravenet itself! And I paid 170 US dollars for the hosting package and a further 21 dollars or so to transfer three domain names from another registrar to Bravenet (all under one roof so to speak).

After three weeks I am now far worse off then I was before (I should have left it all alone and suffered the magical vanishing tricks in silence). I transferred my domain names but the losing registrar decided that they would not transfer due to the fact that I changed my contact address recently! Bravenet though will not refund the money and insist that "the domains names will transfer after five days". That was three weeks ago!

The website is an even bigger problem and despite toilet paper length support tickets (discussions with a supposed expert on the matter) I am hanging in limbo - with my website dangling precariously over the proverbial edge of the hosting waste ground (the place were defunct and discarded websites lie rotting)!

To change the website from one hosting provider to another has typically been a relatively simple process for even the most IT challenged web masters; a process that simply involves the change of the nameservers. These are pointers, a bit like an address, that shows browsers were to go in the world! I changed the nameservers on some test domains to those stated by Bravenet so that they would prove to me that the hosting solution would work! Nothing happened and these domain names kept on coming up with the dreaded "server not found".

I contacted the toilet paper support group at Bravenet and they told me that I should change the A-Record to a IP address that they provided. This is not something that the average webmaster tends to do. The A-Record has typically been the property of expert users, of hosting companies and those who like to play around with the DNS; not for inexperienced users who only wish to run a website for no-profit and for fun! In the world of postal mail, the A Record is like telling your friends your new house address and then going along to the post office to reconfigure all the automatic sorting machines to point to this address.

I tried this! I went along to my registrar and gained access to the A-Record and changed certain domain names to point to Bravenet! As I didn't really know what I was doing I asked the toilet support group of the registrars and Bravenet for some exact instructions on how to successfully achieve this reconfiguration. Bravenet responded with "have you changed the nameservers", obviously having not read my support ticket and completely at odds with themselves. The registrars told me that "I should not alter or change the A-Record unless I knew exactly what I was doing" and left it at that!

Two weeks down the line I now have
1. Five domain names with A Records that have been changed to point towards a variety of plausible homes but none are working - on all domains the "server can not be found" page appears like the Black Plague!
2. I have a costly web hosting site at Bravenet that is unused.
3. I have a paid for hosting solution at Bravepages which is going to expire at some unnamed date and that allows my website to vanish from the air at will!
4. I have three domain names that are under transfer, that the losing registrar says they will not transfer and that the gaining registrar (Bravenet) says they will! Which effectively means that I have spent money on something that will not happen and that I will not get a refund.
5. I am also confused with this; my domain names are registered with a company called "secure server" whose website is harder to follow than the changing skyline of shanghai. I asked them about the A-Record and they responded with a pat email that told me nothing! But all their emails have Bravenet Support team signed at the bottom! I questioned Bravenet about this, I asked them if this was in fact part of their company but all they said was "we used to be affiliated to them but no longer". Who then is this mysterious company who signs off with Bravenet but who Bravenet don't know? Oh, and Bravepages, aren't part of Bravenet as well??????

I have explained to all support ticket members that I would like to get all the above solved (apart from Bravenet's confusion about their very own company) as I am due to return to sea shortly but...................

I have given up! Bravenet have not come to my party and I am tired of going in circles and wondering if the answering machines at the other end of the support tickets are asleep or just simple robots with a pat set of answers to give! I paid for a service that I'm not getting, shame on you Bravenet, and so I will leave it for now!

My website may disappear from the air for a while as I currently have no control over what is happening! But upon my return in February I will sort things out and possibly change hosting providers to one who cares, discarding Bravenet to the garbage heap like they have done to me.

This blog will not disappear, as Bravenet do not have their claws in this one..........at least something will survive the Bravenet quagmire!

Ieuan Dolby
Seadolby.Com

Silas E Parks and The Christmas Speech

By Ieuan Dolby

Christmas is for the family, not for a bunch of seasoned seafarers! Don't get me wrong, it's not the occasion that I find hard to swallow; it's just the fact that all the glitter and glamour doesn't do much for me at all! It's for the children, for the family reunion and whatnot! I'm just a simple Captain who has spent most of his life on the ocean waves and Santa is as far removed from my life here as is my ex-wife!

I'm getting on in years and x-mass is well, just another day in the year! Anyway, the younger lads like to be at home so it's me that ends up on-board, keeping the flag flying if you know what I mean! I would rather be in port of course, then everybody will go ashore and I can just hideaway in my cabin with a little glass of rum to sip on and a good book to read!

This particular Christmas, the one that I recall as if it was only yesterday, turned out to be a disaster, not one of my own making but a series of mishaps and mistaken words of no small proportions and a Christmas that left me with no option but to leave the vessel earlier than I was supposed to!

It all started well before the officers, crew and I had even thought about hanging up the decorations, before the cook started to grease the baking tray and well before the hamper arrived from the office! It all started in November when somebody just happened to mention in passing that he had sailed with me before and that he had heard my Christmas speech! That simple utterance, just a conversation piece I suppose, meant that I would have to prepare a new speech! I couldn't repeat the one that had been heard before now could I? You see, I can drive ships; I can navigate my way from one end of the world to the other but I could never put pen to paper! I mean when I do give the speech anyway, they all look at me with blank expressions, the Chiefs tend to hide their yawns behind oil-stained hands and those at the back, the thirds and cadets are all hiding smirks - I know they are!

Whilst the cook ordered cranberry sauce and worked overtime on mince pies, as the crew eventually located the now rusty Christmas tree stand and resurrected the dusty decorations, I took to spending more time in my cabin to complete the task given to me! My life was a mess! I could not get two sentences onto paper before coming to the conclusion that what I had written down was complete and utter garbage! It all went through my head, the "call-to-duty", the "thank you" from the company and the toasts to every man jack and his dog but when I tried to put it onto paper it just made no sense whatsoever.

The cook didn't help at all! He ran around the ship one day screaming that somebody had stolen his cooking wine and brandy, just when he was ready to make the Christmas cake. All a fuss about nothing really! I admit that I might have helped myself to a glass or two of his brandy as all we had in the ships bar was beer, but it was only a little glass I took to help myself think. A tiny little glass was all I had!

As November turned into December I was no further along! Now it seemed that work was always getting in the way, ports to visit, cargo crisis to look into and telexes to send regarding food orders and more brandy for the cook! I also had to submit the order for some wines and liqueurs for Christmas day otherwise the whole crew would have been on my back, never mind just the cook! The steward seemed to be emptying my bin on a daily basis now, bits of screwed up paper overflowing from it as I pulled my hair out! I realize that I might have been making a very large mountain out of a very small mole hill but the speech is very important and it can't be messed around with! This has been a maritime tradition since time began; the Captain is expected to give an upbeat and slightly humorous speech before the wine bottle is uncorked and the Christmas lunch demolished! And here I was with absolutely nothing to say!

As Christmas day came closer I struggled harder to get something down onto paper. I asked the Chief Engineer if he had any ideas or thoughts on the matter but he said "can't you see I'm busy"! I approached the Chief Officer on the bridge one day and he muttered "hummmph". Doesn't say much that man! I also asked the third engineer but all he said was "if this carries on much longer we will need to order some more Whisky and Gin".

For the rest of the story and other Silas E Parks adventures click here

Tintin, The Last Hero of the World

Recently, as may have been noted by the serious lack of updates, articles and writings, I can find absolutely nothing to write about! I mean we have Bush and his cronies havering over Iraq, Tony Blair just havering, supposed cold war style arms races between China and USA, threats of nuclear powers emerging in North Korea and Iran and so on but all this is just extremely boring and old hat!

Then of course the dollars movements up and down (or the Yens or the Brazilian Peso's for that matter) could be cause for worry, or the fact that globalisation has become a fashion trend to the detriment of the environment and national culture might give rise to a word or two but I couldn't care less! Don't misinterpret my words here, I do care about the environment, I have frequently made myself clear about what I think of government policies and people who sprout garbage about what we should do in the future to save ourselves whilst pocketing the rewards. I'm tired though of being endlessly shocked at what gets done (or not) and what supposed intellectuals say about the matter! And anyway, as far as the environment goes, actions speak far lauder than words - so I will concentrate on recycling and do my little bit that way!

I could of course turn to writing about my travels, Taiwan where I live or the fact that I have never written about my two year experience in Tuvalu leaves me plenty of material to get on with without even scratching my head for inspiration! I'm just not interested though! I am feeling despondent about writing, the first time that I have felt like this since starting my website five years ago!

I think my main problem though lies with Tintin! I recently started to read the Complete Companion; a book about the beginning and end of Tintin, Herge's creation! He's a hero, a real and true hero of no matching proportion! He is to me a memory of my childhood, a figure representing adventure and sensible thinking and a person to follow to the ends of the world. There is nobody like that today! No cartoon hero amongst the thousands that block the airwaves, no Disney creation or for that matter real-life figure who comes close to being as worldly-wise and worthy of adoration as the ginger headed reporter does!

My son can't get enough of Tintin! Endless Japanese cartoons, Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder have all been relegated to the side benches! My son has learnt at the tender of age of two years and three months to open up the DVD player cabinet to put a Tintin DVD into the machine and to switch the television on to watch a rerun of one of the movies for about the hundredth time! I will ask the simple question; why does my son prefer this simple story to the thousands of flashy cartoons that he has at his disposal. Why does he prefer to watch the antics of Captain Haddock and the Detectives in preference to some fast moving and noisy train that talks or a builder who converses more with his diggers and cranes than he does with the other cartoon figures?

I don't know the answer, I am just appreciating the fact that he has fallen for this rather than something else! My sons actions though have caused me to loose the will to write!

The world no longer has adventure and romance (not that Tintin ever got romantically involved), there are no imaginary figures that give hero's to boys, girls and adults alike! We have a world that is left to the devices of economists, the wealthy and money strings, leaving the youth of today to struggle through life with Barbie Dolls and Action Men, to gain adventure from cheap cartoons that have talking machinery or aliens shooting guns at them, so is it any wonder that the world is in such a socially inefficient and downward spiralling state?

When I am faced with writing about the world and life around me I find that I have nothing left to say any more! Tintin has said it all and I for one will never be able to aspire to what he gave to a world which is no longer with us!

Ieuan Dolby
Seadolby.Com