Click on the link for Thomo's Timezones (those places Thomo is working with at the moment). A new window will open.
Join in the Hole
This is Thomo's Hole. You can look at anything in the Hole and post comments. However, if you want to publish an article here, then join Thomo's Hole and submit articles.
As a registered user of the Hole, you can look at anything in the Hole, post comments, submit interesting links (including links back to your home page) and submit articles.
As far as Privacy goes, I have one rule. Anyone joining here stays here. No lists are sold on to anywhere.
Look around and enjoy the Hole.
Welcome to Thomo's Hole
Welcome to Thomo's Hole. Benvenuto al Thomo's Hole. Bienvenue au Thomo's Hole. Willkommen zur Thomo's Hole. Boa vinda ao Thomo's Hole. Recepción al Thomo's Hole. Oh, and hello in whatever is your preferred language.
Thomo's Hole is hosted in Jeff's Domain, coldie.net. For those of you curious, the picture hanging around this page somewhere will let you know roughly what I look like. The photo of me currently on show was taken on the train from Ulaanbaatar to Erlian last year. So, welcome to Thomo's Hole. This is where I can get away from work and stress and where I talk about just about anything that takes my fancy. You will therefore see some odd discussions linked out of here as well as information about my hobby, Wargaming. The odd discussions result from my travels around the world and turn up when something particular tickles my fancy.
Contacting Thomo
If you want to talk to me about anything, or leave a comment, please drop me a line. The address is below. I would also appreciate you noting where you follow a link and the link either no longer exists or fails to function. Oh, and the address is to Thomo the Lost of course.
There are a couple of blocks of links into the articles on the site below and there are more detailed category splits along the right hand side. The topic menus on the side show a date which is the date of the last update to that topic. That is a useful way of seeing where new articles have been added since your last visit. I tend to add articles in subject chunks. For example, I may write up my impressions of several countries at the same time. I will then add five or six Travel articles. Then some reading of Polybios may result in two or three wargaming articles. Use the menus on the side to help you navigate.
OK. I have to admit it. I have been really, really slack over these past months and not updated the Hole at all. Months? Did I say months? I think it has been years, and as it is December 2006 when I am writing this I cannot use the excuse of still recovering from 2005 still. Do look around though. There is some useful old stuff still laying around here, especially for the wargamer.
Also look in the gallery as well as there are some interesting photos are there. There are albums for Thomo and the Family (for those of you curious), wargaming (including images of my wargame figures plus a number of "how-to-do" articles) and places I have visited. There are some good photos from museums around the world as well. Most of all, while you are in Thomo's Hole, enjoy!
Thomo's Blog
On the top of the right menu bar is a link to Thomo's Blog. It is at http://thomohole.spaces.live.com/ and I update it fairly frequently (every couple of days). It is a good way of keeping up with what I am doing from time to time. It also means that the updates to here are less often, although both Thomo's Hole and Thomo's Blog have different uses. Do look at the blog, leave comments if you wish.
Jeffro and I have been talking and Jeffro noted that PostNuke was kind of good in its time but there were lots of really cool ways of managing content on a website now. WikiMedia was mentioned, WordPress was also mentioned as well as Drupal (which Jeffro uses for his page). I think I like the idea of being able to combine a blog like way of keeping in touch along with the ability to post articles as I have done here. Also the Ephemerids are nice (fun to track down as well) as are the quotes. So, because of Thomo's Hole being defaced again recently by a script kiddie or similar, the Hole will be moved away from PostNuke as a CMS.
To that end, the Hole will become "Read-Only" for a couple of months as we restructure it, give it a new 2007 appearance and migrate the historically interesting stuff from the old Hole to the new Hole. Once this is done, the old Hole will be filled and the new Hole opened (free beer and cheeseburgers to those physically with me at the launch).
Er, and for consistency, have you heard this one before?
I still have that research on the French-Thai War of 1940-41 - just not with me at the moment. It is done - just the articles need to be written. Aircraft in 1/300th scale have been purchased for this as well. The research I have with me. The aeroplanes are still in Australia. I will get to this eventually. I had pressed my Old mate Bill in Boston into service in this regards to and hopefully I will be able to bring up an article on the Battle of Koh Chang as a starter. I almost made it to Koh Chang this Christmas to have a look around ... next holiday down this way.
Submissions
The Hole has space and is able to take articles, reviews and such. This will still be the case in the new Hole and if you want somewhere to publish a review or an article about Wargaming, History, Travel or Cooking, then pass the article on to me. I will vet all submissions, of course, and apply Thomo's rules of niceness to what is received. I am happy to have the articles though and will restructure parts of the Hole to accommodate them if necessary. Contact me if you want to discuss further.
A SEA KRIEGSPIEL SIMULATING ALL THE MOVEMENTS AND EVOLUTIONS OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL TYPE OF MODERN WARSHIP, AND THE PROPORTIONATE EFFECT OF EVERY SORT OF GUN AND PROJECTILE
PART I. TACTICAL PART II. STRATEGICAL
INVENTED BY FRED T. JANE AUTHOR OF “ALL THE WORLD'S FIGHTING SHIPS,” ETC., ETC.
REVISED AND APPROVED BY CAPTAIN H.I.H. GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER MIHAILOVITCH OF RUSSIA, I.R.N; CAPTAIN H.S.H. PRINCE LOUIS OF BATTENBERG, R.N.; CAPTAIN H. J. MAY, R.N.; AND LIEUTENANT R. KAWASHIMA, I.J.N.
LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON AND COMPANY LIMITED ST. DUNSTAN'S HOUSE, FETTER LANE, E.C. 1898
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
A ballad from some time ago - this version was published in The Oxford Book of Ballads, 1910 edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944). I particularly like it fot two reasons. One is that it is nautical in theme and deals with Henry VIII and the Scots. The second is the wonderful verse 64 that reads:
‘Fight on, my men!’ says Sir Andrew Barton,
‘I am hurt, but I am not slain;
I’le lay me downe and bleed a-while,
And then I’le rise and fight again.
OK, so the English on this is a tough one, tougher than Banjo Patterson, but it is a stirring poem.
Like all good sagas, there should be a second following piece. This one is no different. So, there I was, finally back in Ulaanbaatar. I was feeling more relaxed as the visa had been stamped into the passport and a residents card/work permit had been given to me. Legal at last I thought.
I had organised back in early June to fly to Seoul for the Naadam Holiday in Mongolia. Naadam is an annual three day holiday, occuring 11, 12 and 13 July each year. It is perhaps the second oldest set of sports events, having been running for 800 years or so. It is a celebration of the three manly sports, wrestling, horse riding and archery.
I had checked with the office and they confirmed that there would be no more problem with my visa so I went ahead and booked a flight out of Mongolia to Seoul, to catch up with my old gaming buddies there. The flight left at 7:25 in the morning so my faithful translator and Aide Confidente, Baggy, picked my up at 5:15 am. We headed to the airport, had a cup of coffee, bid farewell to each other and I headed into the departure area. Baggy headed back to his apartment.
Mongolia, 19 May 2005. Thomo must leave the country on or before 20 May 2005. Take the train to Erlian in China says the admin department. It is not expensive, you can see the countryside and there is a Mongolian consulate in Erlian where your visa can be upgraded to the correct type. Go on, take the train.
"Make it the flight to Seoul" says Thomo. The Mongolian Embassy in Seoul will be efficient at handling these things and yes, it may be more expensive but it will likely be easier and quicker.
"Well, if you take the train to Erlian, Nara from legal department will be with you, she knows someone at the consulate and they will smooth the process. Besides, the train is cheap and quick and you'll get to see a lot of the countryside".
OK, so Thomo took the train. It departed from Ulaanbaatar at 20:10 on Thursday, 19 May 2005 and was due to arrive in Erlian in China late the next morning.
Before going further, I should mention that in Mongolia all central heating is turned off on 15 May and then turned back on again on 15 September each year, regardless of the weather. What follows is the saga of Thomo's Train Journey (eat your heart out Michael Palin). I have added some photos as well to the Gallery in Thomo's Hole
Last Friday (6 May 2005) I moved house. I moved out of the Puma Hotel here in Ulaanbaatar and into an apartment. Apartment is good, new, has 24x7 security and is in a building popular with expats because of its security. Because of functions on Friday afternoon and night, I grabbed my bags in the afternoon, and my laptop, and moved them into the apartment. Left them overnight (came back and slept) and unpacked everything in the morning. The office mobile phone, which I was not using because mine is better, was left here along with battery chargers for both phones, phone pouch for my good phone and the rest of my cables and such. I went into the office with the good phone and the laptop. That was about 11:00 am (I had gone to the office and had to come back as I had left my glasses here). It was sometime after that when things started to happen.
I was asked to help my Korean employers Indian partners in Kazakhstan in March 2005. I agreed and so we went through the routine of applying for a visa (“I am sorry, Mr Thompson will need to attend the embassy personally” – this would not have been so bad except that I had to walk up hills on the hilly side of Seoul past bodies of mountain goats that had died from exhaustion trying to climb a little higher).
I naturally checked the weather in Kazakhstan every few days and numbers like -17 Celsius and such were of some concern, especially as the cold weather clothing I had purchased in Norway was still in Australia. Isn’t it always the way? Still, I remembered a valuable lesson from the Norwegians which was “layers”. Layers give you warmth. It worked.
This is an alternative history of the Second World War written by James Kyler. James noted that many years ago he had written an alternate history for the Second World War. This was partly to amuse himself and the other members of his wargame club as well as provide a source for scenarios for games set within that alternate history. James noted that “During the 1980’s I wrote on a manual typewriter a 50 page diary of a reporter that reported events during World War II. It was a story about the military exploits of World War II, mainly battles and it included some members’ names from our club as well. 50 – is true and 50 – is false. Can you tell me the difference?”
James further noted that he’d “lost the first page of it. So we start on the second page.” The first page was later recovered and has been included here to keep the notes complete. Here we present August 1939 according to the alternate history. If you like this and wish to read further, then check in the Download Section of Thomo’s Hole for a complete 1939. 1940 is being prepared at the moment and will be released in three parts. Also, the scenarios that can be played from this alternate history will also be published here in the future as well.
August 2, 1939 – Germany’s Foreign Minister Ribbentrop -- in an almost casual conversation with the Soviet charge’ in Berlin -- said, “from the Baltic to the Black Sea, there was no problem which could not be solved to our mutual satisfaction.”
Albert Einstein writes a letter to Franklin Delanor Roosevelt alerting him to the potential of creating an Atomic bomb. To indicate the power of such a device, Einstein said if the bomb exploded in a port, it “might destroy the whole port together with some surrounding territory.”
The Kriegsmarine unveils some new ships to be added to the fleet; the Pocket Battleship Zenker - sister ship of the Admiral Graf von Spee, Battleships Sachsen, Württemberg, Baden and Bayern (now modernized with new engines, new long range guns, and flak batteries), Light Cruiser Leipzig now has three sister ships -- Gefion, Hela and Gazelle, the training ships Niobe, Amazone, Medusa, Nymphe, and Thetis are to be up gunned to have 10 x 5.9”/45, improved flak batteries and a brace of torpedo tubes. It is hoped that the training cruisers will be ready by the end of 1939.
Poetry: Gunga Din Posted by: ThomoTheLost on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - 06:35 PM Poetry
by Rudyard Klipling
You may talk o' gin and beer
When you're quartered safe out 'ere,
An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;
But when it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water,
An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it.
Now in Injia's sunny clime,
Where I used to spend my time
A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen,
Of all them blackfaced crew
The finest man I knew
Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din.
He was "Din! Din! Din!
You limpin' lump o' brick-dust, Gunga Din!
Hi! Slippy hitherao!
Water, get it! Panee lao!
You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din."
Note: bhisti - water-carrier
hitherao - come here
Panee lao - Bring water swiftly
juldee - Be quick
marrow - Hit you
mussick - Water-skin
Macau was the first European settlement on the China coast. The Portuguese established the settlement in 1557. The object of the settlement was to be a trading post as well as bastion of Christianity, providing missions for the conversion of the Chinese. The Portuguese originally called the settlement "City of the Name of God, Macau". The name "Macau" itself derives from A-Ma-Gau or place of A-Ma, a local goddess. Macau itself is a little south west of Hong Kong on the coast of the South China Sea and is reachable by a number of different ferries from Hong Kong. The fastest (jet boats) take about 40 minutes on a ferry powered by jet engines. The slower ferries are cheaper and take about 50 to 60 minutes.
Macau actually stretches across three islands (Macau, Taipa and Coloane), the main one (Macau) being connected to mainland China by a sand spit. Macau returns to Chinese control from Portuguese control this year (1999). The city itself is an interesting mixture of Chinese and Portuguese architecture and looks significantly different to its near neighbour, Hong Kong. Where Hong Kong developed as a major commercial, finance and tourist centre, Macau appears to have developed in a supporting role and its income is centred upon tourism, finance and entertainment. There are a large number of casinos, night-clubs and other entertainment venues in Macau. Macau also appears a popular destination for middle and upper class Hong Kong Chinese, many of whom keep their 'little wives' on Macau.
Another country with 7000 years of history, culture and civilisation of various sorts. A true Mediterranean lifestyle though. one of my greatest pleasures is sitting outside in the afternoon and evening, on Archibishop Makarios Drive through Lefkosia (Nicosia), sipping a hot cappuccino and watching the girls stroll by. That has to be one of the closest things to heaven on earth.
Cyprus is an island down the eastern end of the Mediteranean Sea, just off the coast of the Lebanon. It has been populated for many a year and was an reasonably important centre in ancient times. In fact, Ancient Cyprus was populated and ruled by Greeks and Romans. In those times it was a trade centre, trading copper around the Aegean and the Middle East. It was also famous for its wines.
Thomo's Log is an MSN area I log the odd daily (well, it would be daily if I updated it each day) comment in. A weblog and somewhere I can update info in the Hole quickly.
My good friend, Tserenlkham Purevjav, has also set a space in MSN - Tseye's Space. She's Mongolian and she captures her thoughts there.
Ulaanbaatar Cheeseburger Hunt
The hunt for the best cheeseburger in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia has commenced. Baagi, my ever-faithful translator and aide confidente and I have commenced a winter project to sample the wares of all chesseburger purveyors in Ulaanbaatar in the hunt for the best cheeseburger in town. You can check the irregular updates to the hunt at http://cheeseburger.coldie.net/.
![[Valid RSS]](http://thomo.coldie.net/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}
