2 December 2001
26 November – 7h30 –
Moderate snow. It’s been colder out so it’s sticking to the ground.
21h – It snowed for most of the morning and it‘s
still on the ground. This begins our snow cover until March.
27 November – 6h35 –
CBS has a film crew on the ground with the Northern Alliance and they were
filming when a USA bomb went astray and hit a position near the NA some
American military people were with them. The film crew ran over to try to get
coverage of it, but someone pushed the camera down and yelled “Come on, stop.
We’ve got wounded Americans here!” So, I guess it’s okay for news programs to
show dead Afghanis, but not wounded Americans? I don’t think so.
7h05 – It’s getting light now and is very foggy. I
opened the window and it’s also quite cold.
6h33 – They just showed dozens of dead Taliban
soldiers on the CBS Evening news. Why wasn’t that censored?
Back in Feb, the
airlines put a $20 per ticket fuel surcharge on each ticket. The price of fuel
has gone by down by half, but they’re still keeping the surcharge because they
need the money.
7h44 –
Brrrr..this flat is cold! It’s only 19°C in here. I’m in sweat pants and a
sweater. In my old flat, I could walk around in shorts and a T-shirt at this
time of the year.
21h – It’s been
snowing moderately since about 6pm. I’m glad to live closer to work than last
year.
21h42 – I’m
watching the movie Witness, from 1984. I remember seeing this in the theatre
when it first came out. The murder takes place in 30th Street
Station in Philadelphia, a station I know well, being that I’ve taken many
trains to and from it. I even know the restroom the murder took place in. I
know nothing about the Amish people, but I have been out to the Lancaster area
and have seen the horses and buggies.
21h57 – The old
SEPTA busses are hilarious!
22h51 – I’ve
always loved the “barn raising” they show in this movie.
22h57 – OH MY
GOD! This is definitely the European version. They’ve just showed female
frontal nudity!
23h30 – Sky News
is showing a live interview (from Winfield, Alabama) with the father of the CIA
officer who was killed a while back in Afghanistan. This leads back to what CNN
said on 25 November, but the USA government wouldn’t admit then. He’s the first
American killed in the “War on Terrorism.” Interesting how CNN isn’t showing
this. He was going to have news conference, they’d alert all of the major
media. I suppose that the officer will be deemed a hero. See My Soapbox for my
opinion about this.
29 November – 6h28 – It’s still snowing! Hooray! It
appears to have snowed most of the night. I want as much as possible this year
since I know this will be my last year this far north.
9h15 – I was
right, the CIA agent who died earlier was just called a hero. What a load of
crap. Click here to
read an article from the Miami Herald about who the heroes really are.
21h – It snowed
until about 14h30 today and we have quite a bit.
21h27 – I’m
watching the movie Clueless from 1995. I remember seeing it in the theatre that
year. I know it’s incredibly stupid, but I like it, in a weird way.
The CIA finally
admitted that their office died in Afghanistan. I guess they had to since his
father had a news conference about it yesterday.
I read in the
Philadelphia Citypaper that Ed Rendell, the man who was mayor of Philadelphia
when I lived there, is going to run for governor in Pennsylvania (click here to read the
article). For all that he did for Philadelphia, he has my full support.
30 November – 6h51 – In my entry on 28 November talks
about the fuel surcharge for the airlines in the USA. The fuel surcharge has
been around for the last two years, when oil was around $30/barrel. The price
of oil is around $18/barrel now. None of the airlines would return the CBS Even
News’ phone calls, but others in the industry have said that the fuel surcharge
isn’t only for fuel, it also covers the cost of labour.
Dan Rather
hasn’t been on his show for a while, because he’s on his way to Afghanistan. He
filed a report from Bahrain today.
7h16 – The USA
is now providing “immigration assistance” if people who are not US citizens
come forward with information on terrorists, this includes people living in the
USA illegally. Great, now the USA is using bribery to get what they want.
Remember in the old Soviet era when they had neighbours spying on neighbours?
It’s now alive and well in the USA. So, lets see, they’ve taken away a lot of
civil rights and people are now spying on other people. Yeah, that’s a place I
want to live. NOT!
8h56 –
Interesting....according to CNN Business report, when the Eastern European
countries join the European Union, they wont be able to opt out of joining the
Euro currency.
9h22 – According
to BBC World, George Harrison has just died of cancer at his home in Los
Angeles, at the age of 58.
21h – Daylight
report – Sunrise – 7h21
Sunset –
15h28
1 December – 15h30 – I’m home. I went to Olsztyn
today. Lucja and Zdzislaw were going, so I decided to catch a ride there with
them as their car is more comfortable a bus. IT was mainly to be a shopping
trip, and also to buy an air ticket to Spain for Winter Break.
They picked me up on the road that leads out of town (it’s a
2 minute walk from my flat) at 9h and we arrived in Olsztyn around 9h50.
My first stop
was the travel agency next to the bus/train station. However, despite having
airline special listed, as well as airline schedules, they can’t book air
tickets. They referred me to Orbis, the biggest travel agency in the country,
which is closed on Saturdays. Bummer.
Next was the
internet café in the basement of the train station. I go there when I go to
Olsztyn as it’s lightning fast and only cost 3zl per hour. I spent an hour
there and did what it takes 2 hours to do at the internet café in my town.
From there, I
caught minibus 42 to Old Town. I walked around the castle for a bit (it was too
cloudy to take good photos) and then went to Rossmans. Anyone who has read my
journals for a while knows I love Rossmans (because things are cheap there).
Christmas decorations are absurdly expensive in my town, so that was one of the
things I came to Olsztyn to buy. So, I did. I spent 43.93 zl and got the
following:
I also noticed
that the film that I buy, which usually costs 14.99 for a double pack of
200ASA/36 exposures, was on sale for 11.99 until 31 December. I’ll have to
stock up the next time I am near a Rossmans.
From there, I
took bus 4 to HIT, the hypermarket that I like. I also bought Christmas
decorations there. Here’s what I bought for 20.92 zl:
From there, I
took bus 21 back to the train/bus station. It was now 1pm I bought a ticket for
the 13h45 bus back to my town (8.3zl 66km). I had lunch at the café in the
train/bus station, picked up a couple of magazines, and was off, arriving at
15h07.
17h24 – Ski
jumping is on! It’s coming from Neustadt, Germany. Go Malysz!!! I hope he wins
today. There are 50 jumpers and Malysz is last (the person in the lead goes
last). I’ll tune in
later.
18h08 – Malysz
just jumped 138.5 metres (he was going 95.1 kph) when he went airborne!!
There’s
something ironic about a Pole beating Germans in Germany!
The first Jay
Leno show was from 23 November and the second was from 26 November.
14h36 – Malysz just jumped 126 metres (he was going 93.4 kph) when he left the ramp and went airborne and remains in the lead!!
15h – Nick Sanders is back on the Travel Channel
with another motorcycle trip. This one is called “Journey To The Edge Of The
Desert” and will take him and 7 other riders through Europe and eventually down
to the Sahara Desert. Today they left England and went through France and
Spain, ending the show on the ferry to Morocco.
15h32 – Malysz’s second jump today was 133.5 metres (he was going 94.0
kph) when he went airborne)!! He was second today, but overall still remains in
first place. HOORAY!!! There were 71 jumpers today.
15h33 – Inside Africa is
on. It dealt with the economic problems in Nigeria as well as the problems of
12 of Nigeria’s 36 states implementation of Sharia, (Islamic law), a the USA’s new law that will prohibit the sale of
diamonds from countries that use that trade to fund wars, tourism in Africa
since 11 September (the number of cruise ships calling at Cape Town has tripled
since last year - interestingly enough, one of the UK passengers interviewed
said that after 11 September, America is now “off limits” for travelling) and
the fossil of a giant crocodile found in Niger (weighing 8 or 9 tons, 40 feet
in length and about 110 million years old). I saw my favourite commercial
twice.
16h – There were three bombings in Israel last night
and another one about midday today (CEDT time).
16h50 – Something that really annoys me….Celine Dion
has made “America the Beautiful” into a music video. They play it about four
times a day on a channel called PULS. First of all, she’s Canadian. However,
what really annoys me is that the video starts off by showing the WTC buildings
burning shortly before they collapse! I don’t want to remember that, nor do I
think that anyone else does. Whenever I see it, I turn the channel.
20h03 – Idiots ! I’m watching “Don’t Forget Your
Passport” on the Travel Channel, and an idiot (Canadian) reporter said that
Austria is surrounded by countries such as Germany and “The Republic of
Czechoslovakia.” What a bunch of morons! Czechoslovakia hasn’t existed for 10
years!!!
21h01 – The Jay Leno show was from 27 November. I
still don’t like the show being on a half hour later. I also still miss
Dateline.
