And a year of travel comes to an end.

Yet another year is almost over and I'm in the Sydney Virgin Blue for my last flight of the Year. The last few weeks have been a nightmare of travel and long work hours but it seems to have paid off with a host of happy customers taking me to their Christmas parties this week. Unfortunately I haven't got any holidays left after the Europe trip so I'm working through the Christmas, New Year period but at least with work in Brisbane.

The airport is a bit crazy here today. I've been here since 3:30pm and my flight isn't until 7pm. I tried for an earlier one but there wasn't a seat to be had anywhere. Probably not helped by the fact that quite a few flights have been cancelled. They are starting to run later and later and there are rumours of a closure due to storms but I will get home eventually.

The lack of Internet this week has been a bit of a struggle but it's left something to entertain myself with at the airport (as well as the free alcohol).

In a bit of a change I've done all my Xmas shopping in Sydney. I had planned on a few presents from stores only in Brisbane but it would be cutting it a bit fine to organise once I got back so I found a few things in Sydney. I broke my budget as usually but I supplemented a little with the technology fund so I figure it doesn't really count.

I also had a bit of a trip down retro lane and picked up a copy of NFL Blitz for the Playstation. It was an arcade staple for Tom and I after NBA Hang Time (which Tom still has a N64 to play).

I attempted to look for a DS title after finishing all the new ones I brought with me but decided to replay Mario Kart DS (after I lost all my save data). There are quite a few titles on the Wii and 360 that I'll be looking forward to catching up on once I get a bit more time back in Brisbane.

If I don't get around to blogging again before hand hope you all have a Fantastic Christmas, Santa brings you everything you want and 2008 is even better.

No Web and No Sleep makes Cam something something

My 3G card is playing up AND I've had to work 19 hour days... not happy

Finished....

It's been a huge night/day but I'm finally finished just shy of 3am, looks like the survey was spot on. The system is in and tested within an inch of it's life.

The project team was very appreciative though... they gave me a nice bottle of wine... :)

Almost makes the 19 hours straight today worth it. Now for some sleep so I have some chance of making my other work for the week.

Time for a Gaming post

My update is cugging away in the background so I thought it was a bit of a time for a gaming update (for those who are interested, phase one was going better than expected, phase however got held up by some reporting services but has finished...).

There has been some pretty big gaming changes in the last week. I finally entered the next gen arena with an XBox 360. The graphics do look impressive especially off the HDMI feed in 720p.
Even Ness made comment that the poor Wii looked 'fuzzy' after the 360 dashboard. The 360 has started to make it's way into the stereo as a media streamer. I downloaded the trial (and subsequently payed for) Connect360 application for the iMac and it's been fantastic. It instantly discovered my 360 and indexed my iTunes and iPhoto library and once searching for music on the 360 was available for streaming. I haven't run with any movie streaming as yet but so far it's done everything I would have wanted an AppleTV to do. It's even usable from the harmony which makes it a breeze to use.

On the Nintendo front we've started again on Galaxy and it's just a fantastic game everyone who picks it up loves it. It's far and away the title to own if you have a Wii. The DS has had a fair bit of work the last couple of weeks. I finished the single player campaign of CoD4 last week but had a chance to play some of the multiplayer games tonight during the load phase and it was great fun even with 2 players. The Hunt/Prey mode is a great variation on the standard deathmatch and the maps have been well made to handle the draw distances for the DS console. They also have an unusal setup that allows you to pick your start weapons, which can make for some interesting sniper vs rocket battles. I've also managed to finish Orcs and Elves this week so I'm going to be on the look out for another DS title in the not too distant future. Orcs and Elves was a good game but really only appeals to those who are a fan of the Ulitma Underworld games.

I've got a few more hours to go here and my next phase has finishde so I might have to add some more gaming later

Can anyone guess what I'm doing tonight

That's right it's a Production roll out... accompanied by some Vs and Sustagen I'm rolling a system update into production... Just as a guide the last time they attempted this they finished about 5am. So I've added a poll so you can vote when you think I'll finish.

Wish List Update

I've update my Wish List (mostly with non tech stuff because it was too techy apparently)

And the Monday airport ritual continues

It's Monday, and in a surprise to almost no one, I'm at the airport. In something that will also fail to surprise, I'm delayed. I knew it was a bad sign when the ETD for the 5:20 flight to Sydney was 7:25. Hopefully I get out of here before then as that's when I was due to land in Sydney. The delay is due to Air traffic control in Sydney pushing back arrivals due to congestion, but how many flights have been in before the 5:25 from Brisbane?

The thing that is the most annoying is the fact I could have done with an extra hours sleep.

In other more exciting news we had a pretty good weekend. Last night Tom & Suse and Mandy & Tom came over to watch the a Very Specky Christmas, as a follow on after we'd been to the live show a few weeks ago. We also managed to fit in a bit of Galaxy, Gears, ZeroPunctuation (NSFW) and Cat Face. Saturday was pretty busy with some Christmas shopping (also some Galaxy shopping as well) before heading to house warming Christmas drinks and Arj Barker (it was a great show that I'd recommend going to if it wasn't already finished).

The rest of the weekend was filled with singing and preparations for Christmas, which included the first inflation of the AeroBed and some more reconfiguration of the Projector setup to accommodate the Xbox 360 and a (ridiculously cheap) HDMI switch from Zazz (the best bit of which was finding the remote codes first go on the Harmony).

As far as the Xbox 360 goes it didn't get quite as much love as the Wii (at least on the gaming side) which started glowing blue from neglect almost perfectly on queue as I finished configuring the 360. Ness played a few of the arcade games before getting frustrated with the control system and wanted a Wiimote back. I doubt either will get much love while I'm in Sydney but I have a feeling that Bejeweled will swing favour slightly in the 360's direction once it's discovered.

Depsite procrastinating with this blog post for about 40 mins I'm still not looking like boarding anytime soon so I might have start on a Wish List.

113 minutes of my life I'm never getting back

Tonight I headed out to a see Beowulf, and you can probably can guess from the title... I wasn't terribly impressed. It was like sitting through a poorly acted play run by an animator theatre group played out by the Huminod characters from Shrek. The whole film is animated and in parts (especially close ups) the details are quite good, but the acting even with using advanced motion capture was quite stilted and unnatural. Some of the voice acting was just terrible as well, sounding more like a first run of lines than a finished motion picture.

It's been hailed as a great showcase of Digital films... but save your time/money and watch something from Pixar, you feel less like you needed a hero to come and save you from this demon of the cinema.

(For those who recommended it...you know who you are, youtube videos of WoW leveling guides have been more entertaining.)

It's official... I've caved....

Tonight instead of the normal hanging out in my hotel room, I thought I'd venture out and get some dinner. On my way home I managed to stumble across something a little unusual for Townsville a store that was open after 5:30pm. The place was having a one day sale so I thought I'd have a look around. To cut a long story short after a little haggling on some already discounted product (and possibly taking advantage of a casual staff member's inexperience) I walked away a happy gamer with a new Xbox 360 Arcade and Gears of War. I did have to make one consession for the discounts and that was grabbing an HDMI cable to go with it... still ended up cheaper than the just console would have cost from EB and I didn't pay full price for the cable either.
Fortunately there is an HD Ready LCD in my hotel room so Gears got a bit of a work out tonight. Even on the cheap LCD it looks quite nice and I'm looking forward to playing it on the Epson when I get it home.

The Arcade version doesn't come with a HDD but does come with a memory card (which is enough to store quite a few saves for the moment. I also discovered a way to stream your iTunes library to the console so it might be a good way of getting some of the tunes down that way.

It looks like once again travelling has ended up with me finding a bargin!

Back at the Airport!

Well in a little less than 24 hours I'm back in Brisbane airport.

It was a pretty great weekend though:

Ness picked me up
Out for Dinner with Tom and Susan at a great Indian place just down the road.
QPAC for the Spicks and Spectacular
Sleep...
Shopping for Couches
Bowls Club for Drinks and Christmas Party
Home for Packing
Back at the airport...

Doesn't look like a lot on paper... but it felt like a busy weekend.

I am tired now though, I think i could curl up for a nap without too much persuasion. Of course my flight is delayed so I have a little more time in the airport lounge than I'd planned.

Spicks and Specks was a great show last night, hilarious the whole way through and not just from Adam, Miff and Alan. The audience members who came up on stage were just fantastic.
The Christmas party was a log of fun today although we got quite a sunburn being out on the bowling green in the middle of the day (probably not helping my tiredness)

I'm back in Townsville for the week this week (and probably Sydney again next week as Ness managed to avoid me getting a trip to the UK taking me away for the Christmas break). It's been really hot and humid in Brisbane this week so I'm not looking forward to the heat in the Tropical north.

The Hell Week comes to a close

It's been a long and hellish week but it's finally coming to a close. All the work is signed off and done and I'm in the airport just waiting for my flight (and having some lunch... yes I'm aware it's 5:30pm)

Unfortunately there isn't much of a break I'm flying back to Townsville on Sunday at 6pm (about 24 hours from when I land). I'm just very happy to be seeing Ness for at least some time!

Next week shouldn't be as bad but I will be away for the whole time and Sydney for the week after. Christmas can't come soon enough this year.

I was planning on doing some shopping in Syndey for some Christmas presents but I didn't manage to get out of the office at any stage when shops were open.

Dear Santa, I've been nice!

It's been a crazy week but I promise I will put up a Christmas list in the next few days... In the mean time this wouldn't go astray in Santa's Sack

Mario Kart Slot Racing For Geeks of All Ages

from Gizmodo by Sean Fallon

You have been a slot racer fan since you were a kid —plus, you have always enjoyed the Mario Kart series. So why not put your passions together with this Mario Kart Slot Racing set? Additional info and photo of the track after the jump.

Each set comes complete with 1:43 scale versions of Mario's B Dasher and Wario's Brute, as well as 20 feet of race track. Plus, the unit has an official Nintendo seal of approval, so you know it is quality. It is currently sold out, but when they get more in stock the set can be yours for $89.95. [Product Page]

All the way to work..... on a Saturday....

All the way to work!

Last night I managed to get the rest of the changes and fixes in by a semi reasonable hour and back to my hotel by 8:30. Fortunately this meant I wasn't too late to catch up with Amaya for a few pints and discussion on work pain, games, gadgets etc. (and some how the differences in the treatment of native inhabitants of Australia and New Zealand during their European invasion and how you store Antimatter).
Of course, as with everytime I catch up, I discover there are now a whole series of gadgets and toys that I simply have to own.

I'm still in Sydney today and am heading back to work for hopefully the final testing phases in acceptance.

And the day just gets nastier

HEAT Business Rules make Cameron Cry....

Even the weather has turned nasty

Summary of a nasty day

It's 12pm (Syd time and I'm going to bed)

19 hours in the same clothes
2 flights
10 hours at work
8 hours until I have to be back at work...
Only 22 hours of weekend to look forward to

I want to be home :(

It's up to you...

Alright... I've put up a poll on what you guys think I should buy next tech wise... quick Batman... to the polling booths

Leg one finished..

Townsville to Sydney isn't one of the easier routes I have to fly. As it happens I get to make a pit stop in Brisbane for an hour. This isn't so bad because at least I get to have some breakfast and much needed caffeine. Again on the plus side with all the flying I've reached Gold Velocity status which means I'll have lounge membership until April 2009 (at least)! It's only a short stay with about another 30 mins before I board... provided nothing is delayed

Flight one was fairly uneventful, I managed to carve my way through a few more stages of CoD4 on the DS. Judging by the number of times I'm getting shot only to duck back behind cover and the number of enemies in each room there can't be too many left. It is definately one of the best FPS on the DS. The variation in the levels from standard FPS to manning chopper guns to night missions manning cannons in air support is strong point of the game.

Also I've been reconsidering my position on owning an Xbox 360. The release of the new Arcade edition for $399 with an included HDMI port has sparked my interest again. (Ness having a shoe shopping spree yesterday didn't hurt either)

Well not long until flight two now...

4:30am and all's well

It's an early flight to Sydney this morning but in order to get there
I've got a 4:30 start. Not fun at the best of times but I've got a few
hours in the air yet and there isn't much in the way of breakfast
between here and landing. I think it will be some orange juice and
some cookies for breakfast this morning.

It's official, my laptop is hot

So my laptop is really getting hot now... So hot in fact that that it's burning the sticker on the back of the laptop..


It topped out at 71 degrees today.

Away on Magnetic Island

As previously mentioned, I headed off to Magnetic Island last night for accomodation as everything in Townsville was booked out. Suse had even lost her place to stay on the Mainland so we managed to up my hotel to a two bedroom suite. We stayed at the SailS on Horseshoe which was around the other side of the island to the Ferry, the bus service was pretty good and matched it's times to ferry runs which was great. It wasn't much of a holiday despite it being a holiday destination. We did only get there for about 12 hours and was pretty much dark by the time we made it to the cabins. I think I would stay on the other side of the island if I was going to be there for a holiday.... Horseshoe bay is mostly for backpackers and water activites so after it was dark there wasn't a whole lot happening. We had a pretty nice dinner at the Backpackers though which was a short walk around the corner and the best place to eat near by.. I had no phone reception and precious little internet so it was a little disconnected, probably good for a holiday but not much use when you're there for work.

Today is my last day in Townsville before heading to Sydney tomorrow morning. It's a crazy couple of weeks of travel. I have only got 36 hours in Brisbane over this fortnight which is going to get tiring by the end of next week I expect.

I did managed to fit in a little bit of Call of Duty 4 on the DS though which I must say was a lot better than working.

I've been a bit spoilt in Townsville having someone to catch up with! Thanks Suse!

In other news my laptop is refusing to stay cool, the room I'm working in is running at a constant 18 degrees yet my laptop is up around the 50-60. This morning during some heavy development scripts it topped out at 71! I've got a fan management app running so that the fans kick in a bit earlier to try and keep it running cooler but they are basically running high from about 5mins after login until I shut down. I fear it's CPU (or at least the fan) is heading for certain death.

One delay... or another...

Unlike most of my flights lately my one to Townsville on Monday wasn't delayed. We managed to leave on time AND land on time. This was, however, then offset by the wait for Cabs at the Airport. The line was huge and took over an hour just to get a cab. All of this is caused by the influx of people to Townsville for the Elton John concert tonight. I had another 45 min wait for a cab to get to my customer this morning. Last night most of the places we tried to have dinner were booked out and we had to settle on our 3rd choice.

Tonight I'm off to Magnetic Island because everything on the mainland is booked out. I was planning on going over there for a holiday some time so at least I've got a bit of a scoping opportunity now.

Monday.... and back to the airport...

The trend continues and I'm back at the airport this morning ready for another trip to Townsville. It's not too bad this week because Suse will be up there for the same time as I will so there will be someone to catch up with for dinner.

Weekend Overview
We seemed to have a busier than normal weekend, first off we started trialling some grocery deliveries. Ness discovered a place called My Fruit which does a Fruit and Veg box delivered right to your door.

The box looked great and all the fruit looked great so I was a little inspired to do some juicing on Saturday morning. I thought I try for a combination with a bit of raspberry in it but it didn't turn out quite as I planned.
The juice itself was fine and quite tasty, but it wasn't so good for the juicer. The result of the berries in the juicer was something a little like blending a small mammal. The berries also don't juice so well, I think for the next run we will definately be squeezing the juice out of the berries separately.

We also manage to fit in a little bit of shopping on the weekend. We have some people coming to stay in the near future and the Desk Bed isn't going to really fit 2 people for a couple of weeks. After seeing some adds for these air beds on the web (and last week on the TV) we ventured to find one... A little (very little) haggling and a bit of a discount later we had the bed... The only real problem is that big boxes (like those of a queen sized air bed) don't fit in MX5s..


The other big event on the weekend was a huge session on the Wii with Mario Galaxy. I haven't picked up the game yet but someone come over on Saturday with their copy and 5 hours and 14 stars later we were still playing... I can see why all the reviewers are raving about it. The added 2 player function means that it's no longer a spectator sport if you're not controlling the little guy in blue and red. Playing one star each while the other plays the 2nd player support is great fun and the graphics are just gorgeous (even on the 100" screen). If you were having second thoughs about it... you should buy it today! I think it will need a few more sessions over the Christmas break so I'll be grabbing a copy as soon as I stop travelling.

That's about it for the weekend and my flight is about to board so until Townsville.

New Cabinets?

I've been looking for some additions to my stereo cabinets for a while and have even been toying with the idea of getting some custom cabinets built. After a fair bit of searching though I've stumbled on this modular solution which seems to be the perfect solution. The ModulModul solution by Finite Element allows you to build customer cabinets with clever storage and consealing techniques.
It seems to be the perfect solution and there are some great ideas for the solution that they've demonstrated really well in their solution movie. There is even a distributer in Australia. Now all I need is the price.

It really is wet...

Road flooded, rain is just pelting down... I even bought an umbrella.

A not so beautiful day in Sydney

Yesterday I took a photo of the view from my hotel, a great view of the bridge. Today though isn't quite as nice, it's positively wet and dismal today.
This is what it looked like yesterday...
Fortunately it's only about a 2 minute walk to the office here so at least I won't get too wet (without an umbrella).

This week is only a short travel week with a flight back on Wednesday but that I think just makes up for the Sunday -> Sunday Travel next week, including a Townsville to Sydney flight somewhere in the middle.

I also posted the food photos from lunch on the weekend.

The Greg Cooley Wine Tasting Lunch

Just a short follow up post to add the photos of the great food.
Entree - Sand Crab on Green Tea noodles (I didn't eat this one)
2nd Course - Goat's Cheese and Beetroot stack
3rd Course - Pork Belly
4th Course - Wagyu

The Big Ticket Wii Releases keep coming

This week is the release for probably the biggest title on the Wii this year.. Super Mario Galaxy

It's been a big few weeks for the Wii after so many weeks/months of hardly any titles...
24th October 2007 Guitar Hero 3
7th November 2007 Lego Star Wars Saga
8th November 2007 The Simpsons
8th November 2007 Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
8th November 2007 Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
8th November 2007 EA Playground
15th November 2007 Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
22nd November 2007 Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games
23rd November 2007 Pokemon Battle Revolution
29th November 2007 Super Mario Galaxy

Now all I have to do is decide how many of them I can justify.

Yet another Monday Breakfast at the airport....

In what is becoming an all too familiar Monday morning ritual, I'm having breakfast in the Virgin Blue Lounge again. On a bright note on the travel though I have almost enough points to get to the UK and back.

After planning on having a quite weekend together with all the travelling we only managed it a little on Friday and Sunday.

Friday night we tried out a new local Red Room DVD store, someone had recommended. I've never been big on hiring DVDs usually preferring to buy most of the title that I like. We were only looking for a trashy movie experience so it seemed the perfect time to try it out. It's a pretty impressive system allowing you to reserve titles from there web as well as instore and all the titles are held in a storage system saving the endless walk up and down shelves. They also charge based on how long you have the title so if you can get it back in 6 hours it's only about $3, you can even opt to keep the title... for a fee of course.

Saturday was a bit of a marathon of eating with morning tea, followed by a Wine lunch at Bespoke and then an Election BBQ at Mandy's.

Lunch was fantastic. The event was for Greg Cooley Wines and was a matched degustation menu. Probably the longest lunch I've been to in a while, which we skipped out early at 5pm, with just enough time for us to make it to the polling booths before heading to the BBQ. In what was slightly unexpected for a young wine maker the Reds were much more impressive than their white selection but we still managed to leave without any! I took some photos of the meals but I have yet to upload them so you'll have to wait.

Yesterday, after singing in the morning, Ness pottered around the house and I finished off some work I didn't get around to on Friday.

This morning I'm off to Sydney (and delayed 20 mins already due to traffic control) but a relatively short trip with only 2 nights before I'm heading back.

The wedding photos are up!

I had a bit of time this morning after I got in from Townsville and I've put the rest of the photos from Andrew's and Kat's Wedding up.

They aren't all captioned yet but that might be a job for tonight! Here's a quick sample though

Up before the sun

6am flights aren't the best fun... the least fun part is the getting up before the sun!

I'll be back in Brisbane today and the flight should give me some time to get a few more missions done in Call of Duty 4 or finish a couple of quests in Orcs and Elves.

Most of my gaming at the moment is on the DS with all the travel. Orcs and Elves is a nod back to the old skool RPG (when it was a few people sitting around a table) genre. It incorporates a grid based move system and completely turn based combat system but that's what gives the game it's charm. The graphics are very remenisent of Doom 1 (&2) but again adding to the charm of the games retro feel. Probably only worth picking up though if you remember the old RPG days or every played the first D&D PC games (like Eye of the Beholder).

Call of Duty 4 for th DS though pushes the console to produce another good FPS. Still not as polished as Metroid Prime: Hunters, but still a great title. The graphics are great and the action is frantic pushing you to press on to each new mission. It's turned into a hard title to put down. The only real disappointments is the lack of online for the game or co-op multiplayer, it does support 4 player deathmatch from a single cart though.

Heading home early

Due to a few issues up in Townsville today I'm getting to head back early. I've got to head out at 6am and next week I'll have to do double travel week, but it will be nice to be home early.

The weather is getting hot for the end of the week so it's probably not a bad time to be heading home.

I'm planning a bit more work on the blog tonight before an early night ready for the flight.

Template updated.... again

So after doing some work on the blog yesterday I had a quick look at Ness's blog and realised that we had the same base template... Clearly that had to change so I've picked another base template. Unfortunately I don't have enough time this morning to do any major changes to the base template so this is how it's going to stay for most of the day.

Until the next update...

Also, in the news today (only interesting really because of all the historic sites that we saw in Rome) they have discovered a cavern believe to be that she-wolf suckled Rome's founders Romulus and Remus. At least now we have a reason for going back soon!

Europe Photos, some more

I've started uploading the photos I took on my real camera while we were overseas.

Holiday Post Cards

I've called the album Postcards from Europe and I'm including all the big attraction photos of the trip. One of the best things about the upload is there is a new feature from Blogger allowing you to put the photos in a slideshow in the blog (I'm going to leave all the camera phone photos up as well). As a result I've done a bit of a redesign of the layout of the blog... There's still a bit of work to do but I figure there will be a bit of time to play around while I'm in Townsville this week. I don't have many more photos but there will probably be some more changes to the blog.

Speaking of Townsville, for dinner tonight we went to the Watermark Restaurant on the The Stand and they had the most fantastic Orange and Chocolate Brulee for desert. If you're in Townsville it's worth a look.

Party Weekends....

It is coming into the silly season and most of our weekends are filled with parties. The last two have been no different. I finally got around to putting up some of the photos from Bee's Birthday Bash and Andrew and Kathleen's Wedding.

There are a few more to come from the wedding but it's a start.

Andrew and Kat's Wedding

Bee's 80s Birthday Bash

Delayed... Again

It seems to be a recurring theme with trips to the airport at the moment... the big theme is delay. Every flight I've had since I've got back has been delayed and today's is no different... Fortunately my Dad very kindly drove me in today so I had someone to chat to in the VB Lounge.

With all the time I'm spending in airports it's becoming a bit of a pain... hopefully it improves soon.

Traffic....

It's been a long time since I've had to travel on the Southeast freeway from Loganholme in peak hour. This morning however after Andrew and Kat's Wedding (more on that once the photos are up) in Tamborine Mountain we're experincing the joy of the commute from the hyperdome. There isn't much joy. We left Tamborine at 6:45 this morning and now as it's nearing 8am we're just at Garden City. It's been very much bumper to bumper just after getting onto the freeway at Beenleigh. Fortunately Tom is driving in the 430 SEL so there is enough room in the back for me to use the lappy (actually there'd be enough room for us to get a couple of dual display 20" setups in the back here.

I don't think I'll be complaining about the 30 minute bus ride in for quite a while!

A little of (GF) Spain in Sydney

First of all I'm going to make an effort to do a few more posts.... Last night, however, I went out to dinner with a Vendor and they took us to a Spanish Restaurant on Oxford st called Raquels Spanish Kitchen. The food was fantastic, but the most impressive thing was the service. We had a largish table and ordered the Banquet. The thing that really surprised me was they asked if anyone needed specially dietary requirements. Normally in big groups like that I just steer clear of anything that might be risky, after telling them I was both Seafood and Gluten Free they not only brought out special meals just for my needs (included as part of the banquet) they also went to great lengths to ensure that the rest of the food was not placed too close to my food and told me which dish I could and couldn't eat.

It was a level of service for dietary requirements I've never seen before (even in restaurants that are big on Gluten Free menus). To top it off the food was great and it was the best Patatas Bravas I've had since we were at the Taxidermista in Barcelona. The food was quite authentic and there quantities were well and truly more than any of us could eat... We were all completely full even before the Paella came out.

I would definitely head there if you were looking for some nice Spanish cuisine

Europe 2007 - It's OVER! (aka the Summary)

It's a been a full two weeks now since we've been back and had a chance to get a good dose of reality and remember all of the things we would rather be doing had it been a few weeks earlier.

(Sorry it's taken so long but I'm travelling again for work and it's reduced the blogging time significantly)

As a close to the fantastic holiday I thought I would give a summary of the best things about the holiday

First of all the top 5 attractions. I found it so hard to decide what was best they are just the best 5 not in any particular order

Best 5 Attractions

Cameron's	Vanessa's
Ruins Pompeii
Gondola Ride in Venice
Walking the Cinque Terre
Modernism + Gaudi architecture (La Sagrada Familia) in Barcelona
Colosseum

Best 4 Restaurants

Cameron's	Vanessa's
Il Chianti (Rome)
Taxidermista Restaurant Barcelona
Le Torri di Bagnara Umbria
Restaurante El Churrasco

Best 3 Hotels

Cameron's	Vanessa's
Le Torri di Bagnara Umbria
Guest House in Venice
Castle Steps Prague

So Close to home...

Brief run down...

 

• Trip ended in Rome how it started in Prague... Worlds craziest Taxi Driver! I'm all for getting there but 160km/h weaving through freeway traffic was a little much...
• Longest check in every... We got to the airport 2 hours before our flight and only just made it to the gate in time for boarding... (the one open security gate didn't help either)
• Long and completely full flight, I managed to sleep through most of it though... crying baby and all.
• Found a Gloria Jeans Coffee clone in the Airport to get some caffine fix (after about 5 espressos a day for the last 5 weeks)
• We did a bit of a splurge and got massages and showers at the airport... I now feel fantastic... Best money spent in an airport.... EVER
• Still almost 2 hours to go before we fly, but we've just lost our free interent...

Arivaderci Roma

It's only 2 hours until we head off to the airport to fly home... Hard to believe that it's over already!

 

Today after a trip to the Crypt Balbi Museum and seeing some archeology of the various levels of Rome built on top of one another we worked hard on some souvenir shopping... The museum was very cool, one of the most amazing things was the decline of the brickwork after the end of the Roman empire and the number of centuries that it took to return to some decent bricks. 

 

We went very hard on the shopping, so hard in fact that we've had to buy a new suitcase, which could fit all of our other stuff in combined. The shopping was good, even though we managed a trip to the Ferrari store I left the Ferrari Segway there.

 

With 2 hours to go we're struggling with what to do, so we've fallen back on the internet.

 

We've got a little over 20 hours of flying and some 30 hours of travel time to go so it's going to be a bit of a slog before we get home... At least all the gadgets are charged!

Rome - The Vatican and our last full day.

Today we braved the Vatican with the plan to see St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. After taking the long way to the Vatican we ended up at the end of the line... with a long wait ahead.

The line looked huge but we're prepared ourselves for a wait. With a bit of luck we stumbled across (for want of a better word) guide sprukers who pointed us to a tour and quick way into the Basilica. As our wait was at least 2 hours we figured it couldn't be too bad and jumped on board. It turned out to be a fantastic way to see the whole Vatican with just the right amount of info. Our guide was a Canadian (from Toronto, but he didn't know your Roman or at least not enough to give me a discount).

As promised the got us in fairly quickly to the museum and to the Sistine Chapel again with good information and straight into the Basilica.

The Sistine Chapel was amazing, even though it wasn't as big as I remember. No photos (which is to be expected) even thought there were enough people flashing away. The cleaning effort has restored the colours of the ceiling beautifully and it's incredible to think it was the first fresco done by Michelangelo

The tour guide was great and I'd recommend anyone else looking him up if you're in Rome and looking at the Vatican. It turns out he's starting his own world wide guiding service which should turn out ok given the professionalism and attentiveness today.

We toured the Basilica and the crypts before heading up to the Dome to get an amazing view over the Vatican City. A huge number of steps so we chickened out and took the lift part of the way.

It was a huge day at the Vatican, with over 6 hours in the Vatican complex alone. Still we ventured on and headed to the Castella St Angelo for some views over the city at sunset.

After being disappointed last night trying to get to Il Chianti, we made a reservation for tonight.When we turned up it was still busy and we had to wait for a table but it was worth it and a great last dinner in Rome.

Tonight is our last night in Rome and we fly home tomorrow afternoon. It's been a fantastic holiday and I can't believe it's coming to a close, but part of me will be glad to see home...

Pompeii...

Ness has been updating our journey so I'm doing Pompeii itself.

First of all it must have been a Roman archeologists greatest dream to find Pompeii, so much of it is still intact that it's the best insight into the daily of the Romans.

The thing that fascinated me the most was the amount of decoration that adorned every house. It seemed as though every wall was covered in frescos and the floors with great mosaics.

It was also very cold today and the snow on the volcano looked fantastic.

Vanessa's favourite thing was the pedestrian crossings over the Roman roads (again complete with chariot groves)

Even with the long travel, it was a great day and seeing an almost complete Roman city after all the ruins was just fantastic.

Tomorrow we're off to the Vatican in our last full day in Italy!

Trains and buses

 

Today we travelled to Pompei to see the excavations. Cameron will be giving you an update on the site, whereas I will be giving you a critical evaluation of the Eurostar service. For free, I will provide the abstract of an artical comparing the tourist buses we have caught in different cities.

 

(Anyone suggesting that I am lacking intellectual stimulation will be ritually flayed before being defenestrated).

 

Eurostar

Because I am hopeless in the mornings, we ended up on the more expensive Eurostar service to Napoli. This wasn't an issue, but it was a slightly higher expense. However, this was the best train I have ever been on. Firstly, it didn't stop between Rome and Napoli. Secondly, it went fast. Third, it was empty, and for a full hour and a half Cameron and I enjoyed the silence we didn't realise we had been missing since arriving in Roma.

 

Then we transfered to the Circumvestuviana, to get to the Pompei site. Their trains were not nice. Neither were their platforms. But they did get us to the site which was all they needed to do.

 

Our return trip presented us with the choice between two first class train options; one we would have had to fun for, and the other being another Eurostar journey. Again, we enjoyed the quiet, peaceful trip as night fell. So warm, so pleasant. I understand why trains can be considered the royalty of travel. I look forward to longer trips on the Eurostar when I return to Italy.

 

A critcal evaluation of tourist bus services: An Australian perspective from the shoulder season.

 

This short piece evaluates three tourist bus services: the Barcelona Bus Touristic; the Rome Sightseeing Bus and the Rome Archeobus. All three services were used within a 6 week period of 2007. The three services are rated on ease of ticket purchase, frequency of services, quality of audio commentery and route coverage.

 

The services were selected because of their popularity, and the inclusion of two services from the same city allows within-study triangulation. In addition, two services of the same franchise (the Barcelona and Rome Sightseeing Bus) were investigated and will be contrasted. Limitations in the study include the low number of bus services sampled, and that all services are offered in the Western European region. Despite these constraints, the author believes they lay a solid foundation for future research into tourist bus services.

 

The study concludes that the quality of the bus service relies in part on its level of patronage, but also relies heavily on the operator's willingness to continue to innovate in service delivery. Overall, the Barcelona service is the clear winner of the three options, as both Rome options have serious limitations in the quality of audio delivery and frequency of services.

 

 

 

 

 

Rome (only 3 more sleeps until we leave)

First of all a Big Happy Birthday to my Gran who is 80 today!

 

Today we headed out to see some of the harder to get to (further out) ruins of Ancient Rome.

 

It wasn't our best day for travel with a fair bit of time sitting around waiting for busses but still a good day in the end.

 

Our first stop was to one of the longest sections of aquaduct in the city.

The Aquaducts

They stretch for (almost) ever and is completely amazing to think they were built around two thousand years ago. The other, slightly unexpected, sight was some sheep hearders. We spotted them moving a heard along the aquaduct but didn't really expect them to bring them down the road ( and neither did Vanessa) ...

After some lunch, I convinced Vanessa to ride the Appian Way. Not the smoothest of surfaces, the oldest cobble stones aren't exactly flat after 2000 years but it certainly was straight... Probably the most amazing fact was Vanessa agreeing to yet another bike ride though.

 

It's hard to believe we've only got another 3 nights here. We're having a quiet night in tonight as it's getting quite cold here and we both almost froze while we were looking for a place to eat.

 

Tomorrow we're going to catch the train to Naples and see Pompei!