MB, Satoshi Nakamoto & Don Williams

Question lads – What does MB, Satoshi Nakamoto and Don Williams have in common?

Well, all have entered the Qatar ether in recent days, the latter two having become intertwined in the life of the former, to a greater or lesser degree.

Friday saw MB indulge in a Gulf/Middle East institution, the ubiquitous Friday Brunch. The FB is an all-u-can-eat affair for a fixed fee. The standard fee depends on the establishment one is dining in or course, but they are mostly hosted in 5-star hotels (so a tad expensive), and the duration is generally fixed at 4 or 5 hours. The most popular FB haunts are the ones offering both the standard package and the ‘with alcohol’ package, which turns the brunch into an all-u-can-eat-and-drink-in-5-hours affair. A challenge indeed!

Anyway, MB does not drive his Ferrari if he is indulging in even a single glass of wine. Getting nabbed for drinking and driving can have serious consequences in the Gulf, including prison (if involved in an accident) and possible visa cancellation and deportation in serious cases, following the stretch of ‘porridge’.

So you drive a Ferrari MB???

Maybe MB drives a Ferrari lads, or maybe he’s just joking with you all!

But back to the brunch……..

As one can imagine, Friday brunch time is bumper-time for taxi drivers. Middle East taxi drivers, who generally hail from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan or certain African countries, like to pick up Westies especially, as Westie culture means, more often than not, a decent tip.

Anyway, MB keyed in his taxi request on his UBER app and awaited his driver. As it turned out, the taxi driver was Tewodros, from Ethiopian, and on entering the taxi MB immediately recognised the song that was playing –

Don’t think about tomorrow, it don’t matter anymore,

We can turn the key and lock the world outside the door,

I need you so now, come on let’s go now,

Kick off your shoes, turn out the light and love me tonight.

So you’re a Don Williams fan? said MB.

Yes Sir, I love Don Williams, slightly surprised that ‘taxi fare’ knew the singer. I always play him in my home country and now I play in Qatar, every day. I love Don Williams.

Good for you replied MB, as Taxi driver Tewodros from Ethiopia and MB from Limerick, Ireland, sang along to Don Wiliams’s greatest hits for the rest of the 20-minute journey. Interruptions to the singing included discussing the perilous state of Ethiopia at the moment, and the fact that the countries President has recently but on his army clothing and headed off to help defend the country against the advancing rebels from Tigray province, yet another speciality topic of MB!

The journey ended; fare and tip handed over. A pleasant, slightly surreal, interlude in this mad crazy world.

A few days later, mere days, enter Satoshi Nakamota into the life of MB.

Who MB?

Satoshi Nakomoto lads. The inventor of Bitcoin and the blockchain cryptography behind the crypto, that allows the whole thing to work.

Only thing is, there is nobody called Satoshi Nakamoto, lads. SN is an alias that somebody (or group) used to hide behind when he/she/they published the famous Bitcoin white paper in 2008. To this day, nobody knows for sure who SN actually is. But the white paper grew legs and has spawned multiple other cryptocurrencies and multiple other applications that use the clever blockchain as the brains and engine. And today, 13 years later, the tech is still in its infancy. Sort of very early-days internet/Tim Berners Lee, sort of thing. But watch this space. Blockchain tech/apps are coming at you in the very near future, from angles you never dreamt existed.

And how come you know all this geek stuff MB? Are you now ‘MB the Geek’?

Well lads, MB just started a 6-week online course on the very same blockchain topic. Maybe MB will change his name to Satoshi B. Watch this space!

But biggest news of all in the last week lads, MB became a granddad. Yes, a granddad! One Ciara Robin B has entered the life of MB (and that of her parents of course), making the mad crazy world seem less mad and crazy. A baby smile lights up the planet, does it not?

So MB will soon make the Christmas trip home, diverting en route to UK to visit son of MB, wife of SOMB, and new granddaughter Ciara Robin. What a great end to mad crazy 2021, and what a great start to the Christmas holiday.

Maybe MB will sing a Don Williams song to Ciara Robin. It’s never too early to introduce them…………………………!

Anyway lads, thanks for the positive comments and interaction during the year. Happy Christmas and New Year to you all. Best wishes for 2022.