The Wrath of Genghis Khan video

Genghis Khan – still causing trouble after all these years.

In the news was the strange story about Chinese security who arrested 20 tourists from Britain, South Africa and India. The tourist were traveling as a party and were 30 days into a 47 day organized tour of China when officials accused them of being linked to a terror group and watching propaganda videos in their hotel room.

A few days later the tourists apparently ‘confessed’ and were deported without charge. It was claimed by some in the group that it was a misunderstanding where the video was a BBC documentary about Genghis Khan.

Sounds like the script to a 1970’s sitcom doesn’t it?

However, when you try to dig out the details of the story from UK and South African press, it turns more into a story of political intrigue that leaves quite a few open questions unanswered. Continue reading..

In the heat of the moment

James McElvar: a bit overdressed for his travels

Dahlings, yet another pop star wanna be, James McElvar from ‘boyband’ REWIND, passed out on an EasyJet flight and violently threw up on board. An ambulance was called and after treatment, McElvar thankfully turned out ok.

The EasyJet was going from Stanstead to Jimmy’s home town of Glasgow.

This story was absolutely shocking in that it was NOT about the Stereotype Scotsman getting paralytic drunk by mid afternoon and passing out.

NOR was it about another Stereotype of an unruly misunderstood pop star diva experiencing the uhm, high life.

Instead, we need to keep an open mind. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the evidence:

• The reason Jimmy passed out was due to heat exhaustion.
• The reason Jimmy had heat exhaustion was that he was wearing 12 layers of clothes.
• The reason Jimmy was wearing 12 layer of clothes was that he didn’t want to to pay £45 to check in one of his pieces of hand luggage.

Move along there now. No Scottish Stereotypes to see here. Aye, right!

Ciao for now,
Cleo.

Land of Gyro says Oh No to Euro

The result is in and the Greek people voted 61% No or ‘Oxi’. If you think understanding the result is difficult, look at the question:

Should the agreement plan submitted by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to the Eurogroup of 25 June 2015, and comprised of two parts which make up their joint proposal, be accepted?

The term “Oxi” has historical reference in Greece where they actually have “Oxi day” on October 28th. It commemorates the formal response Greek Prime minister Metaxis gave to Mussolini who demanded military access back in 1941.  So “Oxi” itself has nationalistic implications.

Either way, whatver the Greek people had voted it was going to be a Hobson’s choice in this referendum: a slow financial death by strangulation or slow financial death by drowning.

The news outlets has been covering this for a number of years but bottom line is Greece is unable to pay off it’s prior loans nor function as a country without access to more loans. A real life Greek tragedy, Greece (with the help of the Goldman Sachs) fiddled the books to join the Euro but after a nice boom with access to low interest rates, it found it could not keep up with the other commitments that joining the Euro entailed. Hosting a mega party of it’s own,  the 2004 Olympics, certainly didn’t help which cost €9B Euro which did not include infrastructure upgrades.

What do you mean we have to pay it back?

Continue reading..

The best things in life are free

Shevans Park, Morehead NC. Not mentioned in any tourism document but it was a major hit with our kids

As mentioned previously, The Caesar family is on vacation in North Carolina. For our first week, we stayed at the Bask Hotel in Morehead. While we booked a double room intending for mainly Mr and Mrs Caesar and Caesar junior, the grown up first daughters and their families ended up staying a few nights.

While exploring the area around the hotel, we discovered a children’s playground, Shevans Park, which was a wooden Fort with plenty of ramparts, swings, slides and a sandbox for the kids to be kids. Our children loved it and wanted to return the next day and the next.

Funny thing is that you don’t see this mentioned on as a tourist attraction yet it was such a big hit. That is often the case with many of the simpler things in life like parks or natural attractions.

Another thing noted during this trip was the fact that North Carolina State parks don’t seem to charge admission. We visited Fort Macon and also the State park which has great beaches that with pavillions, restrooms and showers. You don’t even have to pay for parking.  Continue reading..

Hilton dis-HHonors

Empress Paris

Dahlings, Did any of you see that Middle Eastern TV prank where Paris Hilton was on a plane that was about to crash? To save you watching it, Paris freaked out where she understandably did not want to die and when it was finally revealed it was a prank, she was visibly upset.

A few days later, it was widely reported in the rags that she was sueing for emotional distress.

It now turns out that Paris was in on the stunt where she had been paid a million dollars according to TMV.

Well, I wasn’t taken in. I KNEW she was faking it.

The give away was that she once on board, she didn’t yell multiple times “I will fucking own anyone on this flight; they are fucking peasants!” in the manner of her similar talented sibling Conrad Hilton III upon a British Airways flight.

Oh Paris what are we going to do with you?

I look to the literati for guidance and who better than mon ami Jean Cocteau’s ‘Le Coq et l’Arlequin’:

In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator.

Oh la la.

Ciao for now,
Cleo.

Hello Sharkness my old friend

Something Fishy in North Carolina.

The Caesars are vacationing up on the North Carolina coast with the greater Caesar family. We’ve been on the beach a few times but have noted the news about shark attacks.

As of 3rd July, there have been seven people attacked in the past three weeks alone where the latest was a 68 year old man in waste deep water off Ocracoke Island on the outer banks.

Wanting to see where the attacks are happening, I called up a google map of North Carolina. They are not near to where I am staying near Atlantic Beach area but what’s that tree logo in the sea?  The Mid Atlantic Shark Area – What the fire engine ! No wonder. 

Curious about significance of these attacks, I looked up University of Florida records who track Shark attacks. I was surprised to see that Florida was the highest location for sourcing shark attacks. In fact, New Smyrna Beach – south of Daytona – is the place where most of these occur. Continue reading..