We set off from my uncle Hew’s place, not excessively early, but early enough. Our eventual destination this day was Birmingham. All the English people I spoke to wanted to know why on Earth we’d want to go to such a hell-hole, but as it turned out, Birmingham’s reputation for being grey and very nasty ... [More]
Just as we were getting used to Roma, it was time to move on to pastures new. We packed everything, somehow, back into our bags, disposing of whatever stuff we thought was surplus to requirements (those two huge books all about the pasta museum, for a start) and set off for the station. On the ... [More]
Today, we got religion, and we got robbed. Well, almost. Well, okay, not even almost. But we did visit Il Vaticano (The Vatican), and we did have a close encounter with a pickpocket. You can hardly go to Roma without visiting the Vatican, so we caught the Metro to the brand spanking new Cipro/Musei Vaticani ... [More]
Another glorious day in Roma (Rome), and our first activity of the day was to head back to Pincio, a little corner of the gigantic park Villa Borghese. We were going to meet L’s Italian teacher Giuseppe, who when he’s not in Melbourne teaching Aussies how to speak Italian, is in Roma being a Roman. ... [More]
After a quick stop-off by the Colloseo to exchange the el-cheapo t-shirt L had bought for one that didn’t have a hole in it (there’s a tip for any of you wandering off to Roma – check the merchandise before you walk away), we wandered up Via Del Circo Massimo, enjoying the impressive view of ... [More]
Today, we had one simple mission: To cast a vote. The Victorian state election was on Saturday, and we’d decided that rather than vote at the airport on our way out of Australia, we’d explore Roma and find the local Australian Consulate and exercise our democratic rights there. So we set out to find it, ... [More]
We woke up early, around 5am, and watched CNN for a bit. During our stay in Italy, this was the easiest way of catching up with the news, at least all the big world news. Getting it from the Italian news services was a bit dodgy with my Italian vocabulary, which was (and still is) ... [More]
Around half past six in the morning we landed in Roma (Rome). There was a looooong queue at immigration for all of us poor sods without EU passports. Actually a number of long queues, a bit like at McDonalds where you never know which one will move fastest, and which one will split into two ... [More]
After dashing around like maniacs making sure everything was packed, we left the house around 2pm and zoomed up the Tullamarine eventually-to-be-a-tollway to the airport. The good people at the car parking place couldn’t find our reservation, and reckoned we’d been quoted the wrong price. But they grudgingly allowed the quoted price, and took the ... [More]
Discussion over lunch last Thursday… DT: So, why are you going to Italy? DB: My wife’s learning Italian. DT: Well, there’s no better place to learn Italian. Apart from Lygon Street perhaps. DB: You’re right! Lygon Street! Cancel the tickets, we’re going to Lygon Street! DT: Lygon Street has it all. DB: Apart from the ... [More]
From today’s Age:
Ah yes, Microsoft Office 2000, the most powerful, most user-friendly yet… So there I am, re-installing Frontpage 2000, and it wants a qualifying upgrade product. Fair enough, and it probably won’t settle for selecting itself, like Office 97 did. So I reach for my old FP98 CD, and bung it in the other CD drive. ... [More]
Got an e-mail from an irate Net user who came across my diary pages and was outraged that my opinions are headlined as "Diary of an Average Australian". Apparently only people the only people with the right to call themselves Australian are those who believe all the immigrants (oh, only the recent ones – eg ... [More]
On Wednesday, driving to a client site (aka a mate of a mate who wanted a program debugged), I encountered what in TCWF‘s younger days was called a Moron Of The Week. A little old lady, obviously not fully grasping the whole concept of footpath versus road, had decided to cross (on foot) a roundabout ... [More]
I got the slippers. Of course, since they don’t have any holes (well, okay, just one hole, where I put my foot in), they feel almost too warm. It’s been a few weeks since the new City Link toll road opened – without tolls until the government’s sure they’ve won the election, of course (ooh, ... [More]
My birthday is next Friday, and this year I’ve found it necessary to ask for a new pair of slippers. All of us in my family let each other know what we’d like – because we know how hopeless we all are at buying things for each other. It’s not that I’ve asked for slippers ... [More]