ma.rcus.co.uk - The Home of Marcus Cent

TV when you have no TV

marcus — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:06:36 +0000

Help. It’s that Sunday in July when the Wimbledon Final co-incides with the Tour De France. What’s worse… I’m in Saaremaa and only have 3 Estonian channels – none of which show either, in any language. Fortunately there is a solution. A decent broadband connection with justin.tv in one window showing the Tour and bet365.com in another showing Wimbledon. It’s just about watchable.

What to do if you are in Estonia and don't have TV

Swimming in the Baltic

marcus — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:24:38 +0000

First swim of the season in Saaremaa

Most people who haven’t spent time in the Baltics seem to think that you’d need to be bonkers to swim in the sea here. The fact is that the Baltic sea, especially in the area around my Summer base of Saaremaa, is very pleasant. Compared to swimming in the hot bath that is the Gulf around Dubai at this time of year, I would take the Baltic on any hot Summer’s day.

The current temperature of the sea [early July] is between 22c and 25c. Once y0u’re in that’s really quite pleasant. Beaches are clean, vast, and mainly empty. You’re never far from the coast in Saaremaa. Another little known fact about the Baltic in this region is that it’s almost like swimming in fresh water. The very low salt content is due to the fresh water run-off from the land. On a calm day it’s like swimming in a lake. With very long hours of daylight from June to September, an evening swim in the Baltic is a perfect way to enjoy the sunset and views of neighbouring islands. Come and try it…

New Stuff in Saaremaa Shops

marcus — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:16:35 +0000

Just arrived back on Saaremaa for the summer and found a few new things. Other than a nastly cold acquired most likely due to the change in temperature from 45c to 15c I see a few more supermarkets selling the same old stuff. I did find a few noteworthy products on the shelves. Here are the highlights.

New beer – Pootsman
Spotted this on the shelf and could not resist. Poots is my brother’s pet name. Stef, come and have some of this.

A new beer in Estonia

High Tea?
Very close to the Pootsman I found some “Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea”. I remember they sold Cannabis beer in a local restaurant but this looks like something new. Claims to give you a “fantastic natural feeling”. I will test that.

Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea

For the Morning After – Alco Stop
If you drink too much Pootsman there’s a cure on the shelf. It’s called Alco Stop and comes complete with a beautfiul nurse to administer it. It has a long list of complicated sounding ingredients. The message on the bottle is in English and says “Irreplaceable in every company. Suits everyone”. I must get some for the DistinctMEDIA office fridge.

Alco Stop

California Dreamin’

marcus — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:48:02 +0000

During a busy schedule of meetings in California this month we happened to be outside the Mountain View, CA, office of Google Inc. Couldn’t resist the opportunity for a picture. I had the caption already written.

I started an internet company in 1997. Unfortunately it wasn’t this one.

Old dog doing old tricks

marcus — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:40:28 +0000

I’ve been meaning to get this online for many years. Thanks to my good friend Gary for use of his VHS to DVD converter I now have this rare footage of me at the 1988 BMX Freestyle World Cup on YouTube.

World Adventure Part 2 – Upside Down – Down Under

marcus — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:16:56 +0000

Handstand - Jan 4th. 09, Byron Bay

Didn’t need much of an excuse to travel from Thailand to Australia. Although I did manage to find one that at least made some sense. Christmas is certainly different in the summer sunshine. Must find some more words for an experience that has so far included a week in the city of Brisbane, 2 weeks residing on the river at Kanagroo Point under Story Street Bridge, and several day trips to places including Australia Zoo, Surfers Paradise and Byron Bay.

Picture = what to do when the surf looks perfect and you’ve left your body board at home.

Byron Bay Surf

World Adventure Part 1

marcus — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:10:50 +0000

Paradise Park, High above Koh Samui

Happy New Year to all. Now that I’ve realised I’m on an ad-hoc world tour I thought it must be time to make sure the adventure is documented. From a vague plan to cross the desert from Dubai to Oman and back in a single day “visa run”, I now find myself in sunny Brisbane, Australia some 6 weeks after leaving Dubai, and with Thailand already far behind. After spending 2 days in Bangkok we [Marcus and Lyyli] took the short trip to Koh Samui to spend a few weeks with iBooking customer, Tropical Garden Lounge. Other than experiencing the true force of the rainy season for 4 days, Koh Samui is highly recommended. Hire a moped, even if you have never ridden one before, and just go explore.

Genuine Thai Lady Boy

Friendly people, still good value [even with nasty ££s to exchange], great beaches, and so much more. Thai massage on the beach must be tried. Drinking cocktails from a bucket and touching lady boy breasts optional. Where to next…

Merry Xmas 2008

marcus — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:30:49 +0000

Staying true to my promise of not spending another winter in Estonia.

At least the rain is warm

marcus — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:23:49 +0000

Reporting from Koh Samui. Everyone I spoke to about Koh Samui said it was beautiful. As we had to leave UAE as part of Lyyli’s visa conditions and had the chance of a few weeks in Thailand it seemed like a good opportunity to see some of the country. With an iBooking customer offering a great deal on a place to stay – www.tropicalgardenlounge.com it was an opportunity too good to miss. I must admit to not paying too much attention to weather reports, just assuming it was always sunny and warm. What a mistake. I have never seen so much rain in my life. That’s saying something from someone who has lived most of their life in Scotland. In the last 48 hours since arrival I think there has been a total of around 2 hours when rain was not falling. This is not just a shower. This is serious torrential downpouring rain. They tell us it may stop in a few days. Hope that’s true as the walk to 7/11 yesterday evening was hazardous. We nearly lost Lyyli into a rain flooded ditch. If you are planning to visit a tropical paradise always check the weather reports first. Avoid November in Koh Samui would be my advice unless you really love rain.

Rain falling on Koh Samui

Gulf News – Vacancy for English Writer

marcus — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:16:56 +0000

As the Gulf News is delivered to our room each morning I’ve managed to find time to read at least a few pages every day. Although I’ve been visiting Dubai for several years I’ve never really noticed the unusual style of written English. It doesn’t seem to matter what the article is, the language is just plain strange. A sad fact of UAE life is carnage on the roads. I’ve seen it for myself, so it’s no suprise that the paper is full of death crash stories. Although it’s not funny, just take a read of this article I found in today’s paper. Click the image for a larger version you can read…