OK, here is a link to our photos of Italy. The link will open in a fresh page/tab.
I built this photo album using JALBUM which works great, especially if you have your own hosted site.
Photos follow the sequence Lake Como Region, Milano, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Assisi, Pompei, Sorrento/Capri and finally Rome/Vatican City. We were away 15 days. to May 10 2008.
John
We have just returned from our recent trip to Italy alive and well.
We went on a two week tour organised by GoAheadTours.com and had a fabulous time. Everything went according to plan, apart from two very long airport lay-overs (both in New York’s JFK – 1 of 7 hours and one of 6 hours). Go Ahead was great and we would not hesitate to use them again. The Atlantic crossings were flown on Alitalia. This was the first time we had ever flown Alitalia, and would try to stay away from them in the future. Service was not up to the standard we have become accustomed to with Qantas. The Boeing 767 we flew in from Rome to JFK was pretty much fitted out in a vary basic format (no in-seat video), and the most seats had broken support under whatever cushion was left. In all, a very tired plane. My wife had a broken seat. Our two fiends had broken seats. They partially overcame the problem by placing their blankets on top of the seat cushions. As the flights were all full to capacity, there was no option to switch seats.
The highlights of the trip for me were the Lake Como region of northern Italy and the isle of Capri. Also, we enjoyed a few days in Assisi.
I will post some photos in the next few days and place a link here when I get the chance.
John
Great News…
The Italian government today (April 22 2008 ) is to somehow (in contravention of EU rulings) advance Alitalia 300 Million Euros. This should keep Alitalia airborne for the next few weeks! Well, to the end of the year at least! So it looks like our trip is going to Go Ahead.
John
We have trekked back to Texas for the Northern summer but so far summer has gone missing. So much (again) for Global Warming.
In just over a week from now, we are heading to Italy to check things out there. This will be our first visit to Italy and it looks like being a lot of fun. We are touring with some friends from Texas and hope to enjoy some great wine and food there. Oh, yes, we are also going to take in some of the scenery and famous architecture.
There is one factor that may throw a spanner into the works though – The tour company have booked us on Alitalia for the flight across to Italy. Sadly Alitalia are having financial problems and it is rumoured that they may shut down whilst we are away. It is a long swim back to the US so we are hoping that this does not go wrong. Fingers crossed.
John
This Christmas was an unusual one for me. At this time of year I am usually in Perth, West Australia. But we traveled back to Midland Texas to spend the holidays with our 2 year old granddaughter and family. On Christmas day in Perth, it was about 38C (102F) but in Midland it was a cool 60F with nights all below freezing. It was about the coldest I have ever experienced. I know there are much colder places but why would anyone go there 
We did come prepared, and had plenty of warm clothes. My Son Ben and GF Dana came over from London to catch up with us. He said it was great to see the sunshine again – Lots of cloudy cool days in the UK.
On Monday we head back DownUnder on the big Qantas bird. This leaves out of LAX on Dec31 and gets to Australia Jan 2, so we will miss out on NewYear this year. I “think” we will still find an appropriate moment (or more) to celebrate with some Champagne en-route.
A Happy New year to all y’all
Well, it has been a real busy few months and I am beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
We have re-located back to our home in Perth, Western Australia after spending the Northern summer at our home in Kerrville, Texas. Boy, am I getting sick of those long flights across the Pacific between LAX and Sydney. The journey is not so bad if you are lucky enough to be on a plane that is not too full. Getting an empty seat or two between us is our ideal seating arrangement. A bonus is if we can get empty seats in front of us so there is no one leaning back into “our” area!
But, just for fun, we are heading back to Texas for two weeks at Christmas. This is mainly to see our granddaughter (now aged 2). We had enough frequent flyer miles/points to pay for the trip so it is not costing us much.
Software Development
My software (a finance system) has become increasingly popular over the past few years. I concentrate on one core product, and modify it for each particular client. Presently I am working on six versions for five different clients. I am doing some really fancy stuff with CapeSoft’s NetTalk plus a bunch of other 3rd party add-on tools.
Hopefully things will slow down some in the next month or two so that I can relax a little.
JohnG
We made it! All the way from Texas to Western Australia for the southern summer. Now that we are here, the weather needs to warm up.
The journey was as long as ever, but with some smart selection of flight times, and a couple of stopovers en-route, we arrived not too worn out, and hardly any jet-lag. Thanks to American Airlines and Qantas. Now to catch up on some work.
Our summer here in Texas is coming rapidly to its end. We pack up and leave out in just under two weeks. I will be busy shutting down a few systems in development, and making backups onto CDs (some I airmail back to myself, some I carry with me), Zipping up some source code (which I post to an FTP site I have), and this year I will be copying a bunch of development source and tools onto some new external drives I have.
My new external drives come in two flavours, and both are USB connected. The first is a 300Gig internal 3.5″ ATA drive which uses a Sabrent connection kit I learned of on Dave Harm’s blog. I have the bare hard drive fitted into a small metal case adapted for my needs. Works great and the power supply is 110 and 240 volt!
My second one is a small 2.5″ FireLite Smartdisk with 80Gigs. This one is powered from the USB connector and would fit neatly into a shirt pocket.
We spend about three days travelling with overnight stopovers in Los Angeles and Sydney (and just a short 14.75 hours non-stop flight between the two!). Without at least one stopover, the journey is too long.
