I'll try not to think about Jakarta. The ghouls at the BBC have already set up a your experiences page though. If your country name begins with I unless it's Iceland, Ireland, or Italy, you have some sort of terrorist problem (NB Northern Ireland begins with N).

Today I read about chess a bit. An interview with Jennifer Shahade from ChessBase. She said "chess is patriarchal - I sound like a college student - it's a war game, a zero-sum game that rewards ruthlessness, not cooperation." I condemn Ms Shahade for her sexist statement and sweeping generalisation.

Speaking of female chess players, I think the best-looking specimen is Almira Skripchenko, pictured below (sixth female player in the world). Wow, you don't have to play a physical sport to be a babe, huh? Chicks like Anna K just get too much exposure for too little talent. I'll choose the brains any day. I must go to Moldova sometime and see if they're all this hot.

Of course, other deserving female chess players, like Olita Rause, ranked fifth overall in the world in correspondence chess, don't get as many pictures taken of them. In fact correspondence chess ratings don't mean much at the top, so she might be the best in the world.

In another distraction, I tried to answer the question of: Where is the next Ibiza or Goa? Believe it or not some people are suggesting Vancouver. It really will become the best city for expatriates. I was looking at the University of Victoria homepage - everything looks so beautiful... all Iranians want to move there...

Azam hasn't posted for a while, maybe that's because I told her about The Smiths, and she downloaded lots of their songs and killed herself. I saw a great movie at a party the other night, it was called 24 Hour Party People. (I was the only person to stay awake through it all.) It was about this producer called Tony Wilson and the music scene of Manchester in the 80s. A month ago I was there, I went to a nightclub called resurrection at 42nd street and I finally swore that nightclubs aren't my thing. I hate smoking and who can talk over the noise (so why did I research the above question?). I suppose I thought clubs would be somehow "better" or "different" in such a well-known clubbing city. One good thing about Manchester is that Mr Mortazavi thinks Manchester University is a "den of counter-revolutionaries." If he hates it, that must mean it's a great university!