Royal Ascot - the drink and show time

Horse race is one of the favourite pasttime in this country, well, maybe not so much anymore, but it is certainly a big drink and show event. Drink for guys, show time for girls. Our parent company is one of the founders of Royal Ascot, and we had a big employee+guests party of around five thousand people there on a sunny Saturday. We were very lucky with the weather. It had been a wet wet summer.

We were hanging out in those white tents they set up for this party, free booze of the whole day and people were really taking advantage of it. Drinking seems to be a national phenomenon, you find some popular pubs always busy regardless if it is raining or sunny. Of course, gambling is the theme at Ascot, even most people seem to know very little about the horses or the races. We put our bet in three races, and take home profit of around fifty pounds, deducting the loss and tickets for train journey. well, I lost all the bets, completely hopeless. Not bad overall I guess. But luck always has its flip side, Mark's old watch stopped working and the travel agent taking care of our holiday booking managed to mess up our flight booking and we had to pay 130 pound extra for the trip. See, there is no pure luck in this world.

Show time for women. Even these days not many wear those fancy hats anymore. I had a big white hat from Accessorize, nothing fancy but practical for a sunny day staying outdoors. I was pleased with my new dress, and didn't see anyone wearing the same one!

It was an interesting day, and it was fun to watch the horse race. It is a strange arrangement, you can't see much during most part of the course, it was only the last 30 seconds you got to see the horses with the jockeys racing through to the finishing line, but they are so fast so you just get a quick glance. They are beautiful horses, big muscles on the upper legs, all trimmed shinny and smooth.

We are not really into the drinking scene, a few nice summer drinks is fine, but getting drunk is nothing we are interested in at all. But it seems that drinking tends to be in the center of a lot of social activities here.

Live update from Hammersmith

It started as a normal working day, I got in office around 8:45 am, getting ready for the busy day - had been told that we might need to work overnight today to have the material ready for an important meeting tomorrow.

Then I was told that Hammersmith broadway station and shopping center was sealed off by police due to some bomb suspect. Several people came in office reporting the big chaos in rush hour traffic around this area.

Later on it was reported that police has carried out a controlled explosion on the suspect package, and it was not an explosive device.

It might have been a hoax, but in light of failed bomb attacks in Glasgow airport, I understand the police took this seriouly. This reminds me of the anthrax attacks in the USA after 911, people reported seeing all kind of suspicious white powders from baby powders to flour.

One thing has really impressed me is that British people seem to take all the potential terrorist attack in a very calm way, partly I guess it is the fact they have been through similar threats before, the IRA bombs, and London was bombed for months during the war, and people certainly estalished the resilience.

Its been a tough week for the new Prime Minister, but I think there will be more people asking questions on why the british troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place. Of course we should not yield to terrorist threats but question needs to be answered - does Iraq war make the world a more peaceful place? Maybe not.

And in the meantime, we will continue to celebrate life, after all we have to focus on the positives in life. It has not been a great summer weather wise, but we will make the best out of it. Let the rain wash away the dust but not our spirits.