Open Cogitations

House-sitting in Seddon

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:34:31 GMT

For the next few weeks, I am house-sitting in Seddon. Well, cat-sitting really. But it does put me back in the old neighbourhood. Don't miss the dump of a house I used to live in, but do miss the area.

And the cats seem to be tolerating me. Well, I feed them and let them go about their daily business. And I am often around, so I guess they are used to me.

Entry via fanfic

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:16:35 GMT

Wandering around the YouTube universe (you can get lost there for hours), I came across the phenomenon of Sterek. There are lots of fun YouTube Sterek compilations. Such as this, this, this and this. Including my favourite and runner up.

(I should point out that the Stiles-Derek pairing is a complete creation of the fans, it is not part of the show; but knowing how made up it all is adds to the fun. That the two actors play up to it, also here and here, further adds to the fun. This great Teen Wolf primer explains all. Sort of.)

Watching such led me to TeenWolf, which is fluff teen tv, but fun fluff teen tv. It also knows what it is--the third disc of the first series on DVD, has a shirtless montage as one of the special features.

On what can be found on YouTube, how to make a very public marriage proposal with musical accompaniment and reduce your beloved to a sobbing-with-happiness wreck. Very Glee, I felt. Life imitating art, in a good way.

Of course, that one can find musical gay marriage proposals just shows what a varied net-universe it is :)

Kensington bloody Kensington

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 05:13:14 GMT

Saturday night, drove to Sapporo restaurant in Mitcham for a nice dinner with J&D and K&P. Decided to go via Kensington, which was a mistake. Traffic was stuffed from top of Smithfield Rd to Royal Parade. I forgot the rule--don't go through Kensington. Trouble is, enough time goes buy and you forget the horror ...

Oh well, something to cheer up by: a young Daniel Day Lewis being very hot in My Beautiful Laundrette. A young Rupert Graves being willing in Maurice. Brent Corrigan (pornstar) becoming Sean Paul Lockhart (actor) in Judas Kiss. Perhaps kissing dares from the Polish movie Suicide Room. Or with Placebo musical accompaniment. An utterly charming coming out scene from Ugly Betty. And just to finish off, Graham Norton having great fun with a fairly adorable gay couple in the audience.

Travel plans

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 06:10:40 GMT

I will be driving up to Canberra on Friday 21st, staying with catsathome, training to Sydney Sunday evening (23rd), staying with my brother and his wife, driving back with catsathome on Saturday 29th, staying in Canberra and then driving back to Melbourne on Friday 4th January.

Have fun folks! :)

Internet connected Friday

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 04:30:26 GMT

Internet at the new Chez Snake & Lorenzo will be connected sometime Friday. Normal email service will resume then. Until then, please be patient.

How things look depends on where you stand.

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 12:27:57 GMT

This post from Stratfor points out that the US faces much less stressful challenges than the EU or China or Iran. So, the re-elected President Obama faces a world where the US's hand, vis-a-vis other Powers, is strengthening rather than weakening.

I really don't get the angst about President Obama's foreign policy. Yes, he has been less friendly to Israel, but that is likely to be, if anything, helpful in wider Middle East policy. Yes, he should have been stronger in supporting the Green Revolution in Iran, but that is partly a learning curve matter, including trying too hard to be different from the preceding Administration. (And the intervention in Libya strikes me as a backhanded way of saying they got it wrong in Iran.) Hilary Clinton is a popular Secretary of State for good reason. But, really, he has prosecuted the anti-jihadi war vigorously, Libya is now ex-Qaddafi and the al-Assad have too much to worry about back in Syria to play games elsewhere. Even better, Iran has over-committed its dwindling resources in propping the al-Assad regime up which are making sanctions more effective.

There are issue about Executive power overreach, but that is a hardy perennial in war, particularly a struggle as inherently legally murky as the jihadi war. Yes, the US has more debt than it should, but that is because the President listened to Larry Summers (who believed monetary policy had no options) and so did not make timely and helpful appointments to the Fed Board which could have allowed Ben Bernanke to do more quicker. (Leaving Fed positions vacant for months was criminally stupid: not a mistake any Oz Government would make with the RBA Board.) And doing yourself strategic damage through getting monetary policy wrong has been done before -- notably by the UK during the interwar period.

Meanwhile, the US dominates world military spending -- it spends wildly more than enough to defend itself; whether it spends enough to manage the global system is more moot, but see original point about improving relative position. Given that the US spends more on military R&D+Testing and Evaluation than the total military budget of any country except China, its qualitative and quantitative superiority is not going away anytime soon. While the upside of the Iraq and Afghan Wars is that the US's ground and air forces remain battle hardened. (China's last serious outing was a less than stellar performance on the ground against Vietnam over 40 years ago.)

So, a relatively comfortable global situation. Perhaps it is not so surprising that Ben Affleck has apparently produced a fine thriller that has CIA officers as good guys and portrays the Iranian regime as the terroristic thugs they are.

24 bookcases of books packed

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 05:51:49 GMT

I am moving and I have a lot of books.

Spam attacks may lead me to closing this LiveJournal

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 00:59:05 GMT

I have been LiveJournaling a lot less than I used to. Still, there is a whole lot of personal history and comment wrapped up in my LJ that I would hate to let it go entirely. But the spam attacks are getting to such a ridiculous level that I am seriously thinking of deleting the whole thing.

My two top reasons for being happy that Obama won

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 01:34:00 GMT

First, as a non-American, I prefer American Administrations to have as flat a learning curve as possible. Breaking in a new one is tedious (and it is not as if Obama and Romney had any serious foreign policy disagreements anyway, Romney's attempt to invent some were pretty pathetic).

Second, solidly re-electing a black President will hopefully kill off some of that "Americans are SO racist" stuff. Yes, there is racism in the US, but clearly the country is not defined by it.

On a more personal note, it was a good election for the queers. But that extended well beyond Obama being re-elected.

You Tubing

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 23:42:07 GMT

Not aware of the TV series Everwood, but a lovely teenage coming out sequence here and here.

Dream sequence. Part of a longer montage from a Spanish language TV series Ti Ti Ti. Another version, both using Eva Cassidy singing "True Colours"

Time wasting happy links

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 03:18:55 GMT

Dancing gay boys montage to the tune of Let's Hear It For The Boy.

Gay romance montage.

Between Adam and John montage from Going Down in La-La-Land .

Couples who fall in love together montage.

Amazing scene (with Clive Owen) from Bent.

Poignant moments from Grey's Anatomy.

Justin and Andrew from Desperate Housewives.

Riley and Zane from Degrassi.

Brendan and Ste from Hollyoaks.

Jamie and Ste from Beautiful Thing.

A Star Trek gay short.

And my two favourites:

Coming out moments.

"Gay" moments from Supernatural.

ADDENDA Due to continuing spam attacks, comments on this entry have been locked.

Impromptu feline surgery

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:36:36 GMT

My cat, Prunella, had a growth on her ear which was bothering me, despite that she was showing no signs of ill-health or discomfort. It was on her right ear, the one that gets chewed when she gets into fights.

The other day, she hopped onto my lap, as she sometimes does, and started purring. Then I noticed there was blood on the side of her head and her right ear was bleeding. Some other cat had bitten the growth clean off. Now, apart from a healing scab, her ear looks completely normal.

So, all's well that ends well.

You Tubing

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:35:56 GMT

I was looking for a Richard Feynman lecture and ended up watching:

10 favourite gay couples,

Things NOT to ask a gay guy

Best coming out

Crush movie trailer.

Renly and Loras from Game of Thrones.

Manuel and Lalo from Botineras

Lukas and Fabio

Angelo and Vassili

Victor and Roderick from The House of Usher

Christian and Oliver

Romance montage

Who We Are

le garçon sur les vacances ii and continuing, here and also and further.

There may be a bit of a theme ...

Sixty days notice

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 03:25:12 GMT

Well, Snake and I have received the 60 days notice to vacate. So, we will be moving further West (since we cannot afford rents in the Seddon area). The longer travel times and higher rent (we were paying very low rent because the place was such a dump) I am not looking forward to. And I will miss Seddon and being close to friends. But a clean, insulated modern house would be a good thing.

Happenings

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 01:15:10 GMT

There is a new Tinker book. The world is a happy place.

School holidays, so time to write and think. Have drafted a piece on the origin and use of money, a companion to Easy Guide to Monetary Policy; a couple of economists have kindly agreed to read and comment on it for me before I post.

Greatly enjoyed drwhacky's dinner party last Wednesday.

Also enjoyed Prof. Stephen Knight's paper Monday night on two Arthurian tales.

Had breakfast with Bec/Wendy at Seddon Deadly Sins Wednesday morning. She commented that I had lost weight and seemed a lot happier, as if a weight had lifted from my shoulders.

Went the launch of Frank Mount's Wrestling with Asia Tuesday night. Lots of people turned up, Gerard Henderson gave a great launch speech.

I have been neglecting LJ

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 14:14:44 GMT

It is true, I have been neglecting LJ. I don't read my friendslist nearly as often as I should. I don't post as often as I should. Too busying blogging elsewhere and reading other blogs.

Was watching the third season of Lie to Me, which I bought on Friday. In one of the first episodes, Cal Lightman uses the line: "Do you know how to create a disturbed personality? Constant criticism without any affection, works like a charm."

My upbringing almost exactly. I think I must be as remarkably balanced and resilient as the Emeritus Professor of Psychology said I was when I sent him a memoir of my upbringing.

Not undamaged, of course, just surprisingly resilient.

Of course, it does explain why two evil shits and one arse-wipe of a boss (to use a friend's phrase) managed to de-rail my life so completely.

Which is I guess why I ended up part-owner of a small business involving teaching. Apart from the fact that I like teaching, it does deal with the control issues. And, of course, why I am terminally single; no trust of any gestures or words of affection beyond friendship, no trust of my judgement about other people beyond friendship, happening there.

In other news, I managed to completely get over the jet lag by the middle of this week. Sleeping quite well now.

Monetary dysfunction

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 07:01:32 GMT

Some troublemaker has written an Easy Guide to Monetary Policy.

And in the spirit of the excellent Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds, a nice piece on Greece’s ambiguous placement in terms of being Western, developed and modern.

Jet lag report

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 21:45:12 GMT

I was fairly tired when I drove from N's place home on Sunday. But I stayed up until about 6.30pm, then slept until midnight, did not get much sleep until 5am, then slept until noon Monday. My housemate Snake had liked his present (a red Venezia cap: he is not a Ferrari fan, so I am glad I did not splurge on it). I found all the presents (including the smallest, which I had trouble funding for a while) and sorted them. Went to be about midnight and did not sleep all that well, but it was s normal sort of not-much-sleep night I get occasionally.

Had to teach on Tuesday, which i was not thrilled about. But teaching Dance at St Ignatius College south of Geelong proved to be relatively painless. Apart from the contrast with what I had been doing a few days earlier. Coming back to the mundane issues of bills and being a renter had had much the same effect. Possibly the drizzly, rainy weather was not helping either.

Was again tired driving home from the office about 5pm. But I deliberately stayed up until approaching 10pm, then slept solidly until the alarm woke me at 6am. So, hopefully, have re-synchronised.

Dubai to Melbourne

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 06:07:02 GMT

The Emirates flight from Marco Polo airport to Dubai took a bit over five hours and was fairly painless, as these things go. Landed in Dubai to be met by a smiling young man who shepherded us through security to the Hotel reception and to our room. I showered, interneted and went to bed, N being already asleep when I did so.

I slept quite well, getting up around 7am. We checked out a little after 8am, got a light breakfast at Paul's. N was struck by me having a pizza slice, since I had not ordered pizza once while we were in the Mediterranean. (It was one of the few savoury breakfast options.) We circumnavigated the Emirates terminal several times and hung out at our gate prior to boarding.

The 12+ hours flight from Dubai to Melbourne was and felt long. The flight was going on to Auckland and I had to explain to the nice elderly South African lady in the aisle seat next to me that Auckland was another 5 hours or so. She had come from Johannesburg, so was doing a lot of flying.

Having watched a couple of episodes on the Venezia-Dubai leg, I spent most of the Dubai-Melbourne leg working may way through Season 2 of Glee. I had resisted the Glee thing, not having a television connected to aerial or cable. But it has song and dance numbers.

Being met by a car service driver at the airport was very pleasant. He drove us to the office, we transferred our stuff to my car and we drove to N's place. Breakfast as Santucci's in Camberwell was followed by brunch at Dekko in Camberwell with N, mishymoocow, sjkasabi and HLG, montjoye and drwhacky. Then back to N's place and then home. Back to the mundane.

Venezia

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 20:37:07 GMT

Traveling around, particularly to the islands of Murana and Burana, the practical Venezian attitude of "short of land? We can just make some more!" was in evidence.

N and I have admired the ubiquitous drainage system in courtyards to collect water for cisterns. In its way, something of a social comment about how things have been, and are, done in Venezia -- with a sense of practicality and social obligation.

In Venezia, the water pouring out of fountain-plinths in squares, however traditional it might be, jars against my Australian sense that water is scarce. But we are in Europe, water is not scarce. A friend, staying in the English countryside, had her hosts state that the dry weather was being hard on the plants. "Well, you could water them" she said. Apparently, they looked at her as if she was from Mars.

The thought of Venezian water traffic being done like Sicilian road traffic is just scary.

Saw a t-shirt that had the Rialto bridge, Michelangelo's David and the Colosseum on it; loved the subtext--Venezia has canals and the glorious city built on land we created; Firenze has the wonders of Renaissance art; nothing worth mentioning has happened in Rome for about two millennia.

The narrow, weaving, curving streets of Venice between three-story buildings making navigating through said streets an adventure, particularly as many of the alley ways are not even marked.

Looking at the venerated, mummified remains in glass-sided coffins in Catholic churches, the Salafist accusation that Shia are "corpse worshippers" comes to mind. Looking at the opulence of Catholic Churches, Catholics really are the Hindus of the Christian world. (The Orthodox even more so, but there is very little theological difference between them.)

Our menu Italian generally interacted fine with serving staff's menu English.

Thursday
Got up, wandered off to Theatro San Gallo to buy tickets for the Story of Venice performance that night, then on to St Maria del Miracella which is a late C15th church, effectively the first Renaissance church in Venice and the most beautiful church I had ever seen. We, as recommended by the Church guide, on to Santa Marina de Formosa as the "next step" church. It is bigger and aesthetically much less coherent--the altar area does no really work (no where for the eye to rest).

Then on to the Venezia Casino (since 1638) to try and get a casino chip for N's brother-in-law. Communication was challenging, but the burden was come back at 3.30pm when the tables opened. (I was much more confident than N he would be able to, since it was in the Casino's interest to sell a chip that never got redeemed--unless they were awfully worried about counterfeiting.)

Then onto the Ghetto and the Jewish museum. The pieces were mainly late C17th and later, but there were some C16th printed books. The room presenting the history was very well done. One of the themes of the history of the Jewish Ghetto was that the Jews would be get along and getting ahead (e.g. being pioneers in high quality printing), and then the Papacy would put the boot in (e.g. ban the production of Jewish religious texts).

Had lunch on the Carneggio canal (the only canal apart from the Grand Canal that is big enough to have waterbuses) at Ristorante Gam Gam. At first, thought it was a remarkably narrow part of the Grand Canal, but no. We were were near a routes 4.1/2, 5.1/2 waterbus stop; it was really striking how many waterbuses went through one after another.

We had been told that, if one wanted to eat, do it around the old Jewish quarter (which still has a strong Jewish presence. I never had kosher Italian before, but the meal was lovely. I had tagliolini with salmon (which was lovely) and N had a very fine roast chicken with vegetables. We shared bianca vino and my chocolate cake (which was lovely--light, fluffy, a rich sauce), N only had a small portion.

Then did a big wander through sections we had not been to before, going up near the railway station, which helped get an even better sense of the city (since that was where we came in). The route 1 waterbus back to San Marco. N wanted to go the island of San Giorgio. Trying to work out the intricacies of the waterbus system led to some failed to and fro on route 12 before N gave up because it was clear you had to go the long way around.

Then back home for a potter and wind down.

Took ourselves off to see The Story of Venice, grabbing a nice wrap (me) and toastie (N) at Al Vecio Penasa on the way. There was a BBC film at 7pm, which took itself somewhat seriously and was very Venezian in its point of view. Then a break during which N got a Bellini cocktail and read the rather fabulous program guide. Then onto The Story of Venice, which was a male and two female actors taking on various roles, two come in go out light relief, with backdrops projected onto three walls and set pieces projected facing the audience. Was lots of fun.

Then we raced off trying to get to Ristorante Bandierette. In a miracle of navigation, N got us there but it was a quiet night, so they appeared to be getting ready to close up. So N then tried to navigate us back to more active areas near the Casino which, after a bit of trial and error, he succeeded. We had dinner at Trattoria da Gianni. I had a fine plate of spaghetti di nero (black sauce, i.e. cuttlefish sauce) and N some carbonara, we both had bianca vino. Then we shared (well N had a piece) a formaggi misto which, while not quite as ample as some, was excellent in quality. Then off t the Casion; I waited outside, N bought a ticket, went through the signup rigmarole and then left.

We then wandered home by foot and waterbus. The Grand Canal is magical by night. Architectural magnificence from the high medieval to now.

Friday
Packed our luggage and tidied the flat. Leaving our baggage upstairs from the lockable grilll that separates the top storey, we wandered down to the Museum of Naval History. The 50 anniversary of the naval school (I thinK). Under set up pavilions there were fantastic models of the aircraft-carrier Garibaldi and amphibious support ship San Guiste. We went in, starting with the top story and worked down. The top story had a great exhibition of Swedish naval history, including its links with Italy, which date back to the C17th--Venice and then Italy having similar issues--dealing with an aggressive imperial power in enclosed seas. There was also a lovely exhibition of shells and coral, but N and I were more interested in the things that go bang. There were a few more models of contemporary Italian naval vessels on the ground floor and there was no cleaning blocking access to the c17th fortification models on the ground floor. I also go to enjoy the model of the Korean turtle boat again.

Wandered out to the Via Garibaldi and had a couple of wraps; the wraps and sandwiches have been consistently excellent--nicely flavoured, fresh ingredients.

Then collected our luggage, got a waterbus to Lido. After some toing and froing trying to work thngs out, got tickets on the Alalaguna service to the airport. It turned up almost on time (4 minutes late) and had a leisurely trip across the lagoon to the airport. One gets a much better sense of how large the lagoon is from that trip. And how many water taxis there are.

The airport was straightforward; apart from an Indian couple in front of us who seemed to have enormous difficulty understanding the perfectly normal airport security instructions from staff.

Murana and Burana

Thu, 31 May 2012 06:50:15 GMT

I now know why it is called the leaning tower of Pisa; it is to distinguish it from all the other leaning towers (such as the leaning tower of Castello, the leaning tower of Murana and the leaning tower of Burana, to cite three we have seen up close in the space of a couple of days).
Something that the histories do not make clear is what a destructive, thieving pest Napoleon was. Visiting Malta and Venezia in quick succession (and going to the Museums and reading the exhibitions and guide book) makes it clear how much thieving Napoleon got up to and how destructive he was (particularly in Venice).
Have been struck by the scale of medieval building. Some of the cathedrals are enormous, for example.
In Venezia, the scale of the Arsenale is striking; it covered a ninth of the city at its full extent.
In Padova particularly, one gets a real sense of the vigour of the Northern Italian emergence from the Dark Ages, a sense of emerging cities full of bustling purpose and underlying confidence about the possibilities of the future.
Have been impressed with how well-socialised Venezian children are--cheerful, well-behaved, affectionate and un-self-conscious. Watching a maybe 5 year old boy happily dance with himself down the Via Garibaldi, apparently not caring in the slightest that he could be seen by a couple of hundred people, mostly strangers, expressed the last particularly.
We keep running into school groups. I suppose excursions are easy when you can mostly walk places of interest. (Also, I doubt they suffer from the consequences of a litigious society as the Anglosphere does.)

Wednesday
Took the 4.2 waterbus to Murana, the glass-making island. Had a very pleasant pork sandwich and a proscuitto-and-extras toasted roll for breakfast (they had provided two rolls and N only wanted one) in between wandering through various glass shops and the streets and across the canals of Murana. The glass work generally did not do it for me, and the official glass blowing exhibitions are on Tuesday and Thursday and require a booking of at least 20 people. Found the Glass Museum of more interest, particularly as it had Roman glass. It was fairly clear, looking at the exhibits, that the medievals had caught up to Roman glass standards by the C15th and exceeded them in the C16th. We did find an actual medieval church (rebuilt in C12th on a C9th Eastern Roman church), which was a fine thing. (N and I are a bit over Baroque churches.) One of the factories near the main waterbus stop had a wide open door, so tourists could gawk at glass-blowing being done. Murana was very Venezia, with canals, bridges and only pedestrian roads, except a bit more spacious.

We had lunch at Ristorante Dalla Mora. N and I had a mixed grilled seafood for two; the serving of half each onto our plates by the waiter was an engaging spectacle in itself, as he expertly divided and de-boned the fish. The grilled seafood was delicious. We also shared a mixed salad and a half-litre of vino bianca.

Next to us was a table of four, who became a table of five, gay guys; all in their 30s or older. Did not understand a word they said, but reading the body language was engaging. There was the Daddy (who looked like a typical middle-aged Italian man, until he stood up, when he was much trimmer than the norm) and the Rough Trade who was apparently with him and either was conflicted about that or surly was his way of playing the relationship (or both). There was the Friendly Guy who was paired with Socially Awkward Guy. They were joined by Charming Guy, who got along particularly well with Friendly Guy, which seemed to make Socially Awkward Guy feel left out and a bit nervous about how well Charming Guy was engaging Friendly Guy. Not understanding a word they said probably did make body-language stand out more.

Then we took a very crowded route 12 waterbus from Murana to Burana, the lace making island. This turned out to be (rather surprisingly) more fun for me than N. We both enjoyed the way houses were all painted (various pastels--though there was one in Agro Green--and obviously they had to be different from each neighbour). It made Burana a charming pastel village.

The island also had space for gardens and various parks. Passing the smell of cut grass in one was a nice change. I was quite taken with some of the lace on display. Also, with the Lace Museum (which had almost as many costume pieces as the Costume Museum), a film on loop where the main piece that had been put together was hanging in a display case next to seats you watched the film from. There were paintings (and photographs) showing people in lace, displays of laces you could pull out and have a look at and elderly women making lace in a light, airy room near a window overlooking the square. I have a new appreciation of lace.

We then took a number 12 waterbus back to the main waterbus terminal. The large crowd of people waiting to get on was a bit of a worry, but it was one of the large waterbuses I had seen but we had not yet been on and it was fine. We stood in the front cabin and had a good view. Both to and from Murana, passed Cimenetaria stop, which is the cemetery island (since Napoleon). The water hearse N had pointed out early in our stay made so much sense.

At the main terminal, we changed to a 4.1 waterbus back to our stop. Passed the main hospital, which had a floating ambulance outside it. For the first time, there was a guy checking tickets. It was obvious the students/children all had permanent photo id tickets. It made me glad I had been validating mine each time.

Wandered back home for some quiet time.

During our wanderings, had passed a boat with crane unloading gear at the end of our street. The bit of the road that just ends at the canal turns out to be the "services entrance". Had also passed a lifting device being use to put furniture in through a window; that is how you move in Venezia.

After a while, wandered out to the Via Garibaldi for dinner; at Ristorante Biennale again. I had spaghetti with cuttlefish sauce (which was lovely), H had lasagne (which looked like "real" lasagne and he said was good). We shared some vino bianca and then a formaggio mista (mixed cheese). Cheese plates in Venezia make what passes for cheese plates in Melboune just look sad.

Then a mildly circuitous wander back home.

Venezia

Wed, 30 May 2012 06:36:52 GMT

You look at male deities seizing unwilling women and you think "oh yes, scenes of male dominance". But then you look at a Judith looking you in the eye with a knife in her had and the head of Holofernes sitting next to her and that is not quite the subtext.
While we were in Padova Friday night, wandering along discussing the many ways Northern Italy was different to Southern Italy, a live demonstration played out in front of us. A gentleman (I would guess hairdresser by his white coat, but could have been a pharmacist) started yelling loudly (saying at a guess "stop thief!" with elaboration) chasing a guy in front of him. Immediately, all the pedestrians started converging to cut the fellow running away off so the angry guy in the white coat could seize him, one fellow waved and shouted to the police and last we saw, the gentleman in the white coat was dragging the recalcicrant back, presumably for him to pay.
The further North we go, the more African men we see. They are a notable feature of Venice, hanging around in groups, or flogging handbags, or sunglasses, or whatever.

Sunday (continued)
Pottered and relaxed around the apartment for a while. kirieldp went online to search for a restaurant, reporting the various results to us. Notionally, they were supposed to be in the Castello area, but the search did not actually restrict that way, as we found when working out where the restaurant we agreed upon was. So we took the bus and went off to Ristorante ai Barbarcani. The free glass of Proseco at the beginning and the free glass of Grappa or Lemincella at the end was cute, as were the ship models decorating the walls. The sardines in onion entrée that N and kirieldp (she gave me a taste) were good, as were my marinated anchovies. The rest was a bit of a disappointment; N enjoyed his lamb chops, kirieldp salted cod was OK and my Sole was unexciting, though the vegetables were generally done well (except that N and I are both over honeyed carrots; it's an SCA thing). N and kirieldp's pannacotta's had too much added to them and my profiteroles were ordinary. So, online research did not pay off; our technique of wandering by and seeing if it looked good has been working much better.

We then wandered a little more, before taking the route 1 waterbus (which stops every stop) on a leisurely trip back to Castello, which was a good way to see Venice at night. The waterbuses are a 24-hour service, though only in the centre bit of the Grand Canal from about midnight to about 5 am. Back to the flat, winding down and sleep.

Monday
Since kirieldp was leaving, she got to nominate where to go. Which turned out to be, after another breakfast at al Casa Venuci, going to the Diocesan Museum, which had paintings, architectural remnants, woodwork and metal work from former churches. This was a lot of fun, especially as it included furniture, tools, a large copy of a medieval map, a large copy of a 1500 woodcut of the entire city and various other goodies. It had a particularly good brief discussion of pilgrimages and relics. We then walked back to the flat and walked kirieldp down to the route 5.2 waterbus to the bus station.

N and I then had a pleasant but unremarkable lunch at Bar 98o on the Via Garibaldi (I had tagliatelle funghi porcini, he had chicken with vegetables plus a glass of white wine each). We walked down to the Maritime Museum (which had been open when we went past in the morning) but, it turned out, closed at 1.30pm. So we went for a long wander down the far end of Castello, working around the Arsenale (which is still a military area). We visited San Pietro di Campo, which proved to be a delightful, rather cleanly neo-classical church with the Baroque over-doneness restricted to the main altar and various side altars. We found ourselves back in the Via Garibaldi, so went home for a break and wind down.

Eventually, we decided it was time for dinner so walked back to the Via Garibaldi and had a very pleasant meal at Ristorante Biennale--I had livers Venetian style, N had an ample and varied plate of fried seafood (which was too much for him, so I gamely finished it off on his behalf), with 1/2 litre of white wine. N followed with a lemon torte, I followed with formaggio misto (mixed cheese) which was also ample and varied. We have been having water "with gas" with our meals, Italian sparkling water being a fine thing.

We then walked along the foreshore to Piazza San Marco where diners were being serenaded by string quartets. The Piazza has a magical feel at night. We then struck out for another wander before eventually weaving our way home, for pottering time and bed. One our evening wandering, we passed various musical buskers and musicians playing to restaurants. N's expression and comments on some of these have been amusing. Particularly his expression at an accordion player leading a restaurant crowd in a lusty rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In" (not exactly a Catholic song).

Tuesday
Earlyish in the morning, I dozily wondered why there seemed to be someone moving around in the mezzanine bedroom above me. We found out later there had been a mild tremor.

Got up in a leisurely fashion, wandered down to the foreshore, went to one of the booths so I could buy a (cheap) Venetian flag, then back to the Museo Naval Storica (Museum of Naval History), which turned out to be fabulous. Amazing models (including one of a C16th Korean turtle boat), C16th and C17th models of Venetian fortifications mounted on walls, a great Asian maritime display on one room, a great Swedish maritime display on the top floor.

But it closed at 1.30pm, so we wandered off and had a pleasant but unremarkable meal at Ristorante Cleopatra (I had spaghetti Napoletana--they warned me it had anchovies; it did but they had clearly dissolved into the oil) while N had a carbonara which he found boring one (I tasted it, it was). Then onto the Piazza San Marco and the Ducal Palace, which was lots of fun, with magnificent rooms, spectacular art, nice explanations of the Venetian political system, a great armoury and a side trip across the Bridge of Sighs through the "New Prison", built in the C16th, the first purpose-built just-a-prison in Europe. Then more of a wander, grabbed a wrap and back home to wind-down.

Then off for another longish wander, eventually being inveigled by a persuasive waiter to have a meal at Ristorante Artisti Agli. We had the set fish meal; we hadn't done the full Italian meal, so both had the fish meal each having the version they other did not. It started with marinated sardines (me, rather pleasant) and seafood salad (N) then spaghetti in cuttlefish sauce (me, very nice; it's a Venetian speciality) and spaghetti with clams (N) followed by mixed fried seafood (me, quite pleasant) and Sole in sauce (N; the sauce overwhelmed the fish) and finished up with a chocolate cake (me, a bit dry) and lemon torte (him). N also had a cappuccino, which he found quite bitter and needed both sachets of sugar.

Then we took another wander. After a while, what we presumed was the fireworks display in the distance seemed to be getting louder. It turned out to be a thunderstorm and it started to rain. I had spotted the Grand Canal and a street we went down to see where we were turned out to be a waterbus stop (Cara d'oro), so we took a waterbus back. The Grand Canal at night lit up by periodic lightning is very spectacular. Then home.

Padova, Venezia

Sun, 27 May 2012 16:20:58 GMT

Friday (continued)
After some time resting and interneting at the hotel, went out and wandered around enjoying the sights and looking for a place to have dinner. I said I wanted something with a good view that did not just to pizza but was not too upmarket. So after a genial wander, ended up at Catena Mobile looking across the square at the Palazzo della Ragione, which was rather magnificently lit. (Old city Padua looks particularly good at night). I had Venetian Liver (it was wonderful--liver cooked with onion in a rich gravy with grilled polenta) and N had baked cockerel with potatoes, which was also splendid. I had a Forst red beer, which was excellent and then helped N drink his 1/2 litre of white wine. I then had a pannacotta with caramel sauce which was wonderful. N had a ricotta torte with creme inglese (custard). N felt it was marred by using almond essence in the torte. Then we wandered off and found some of the remaining walls before returning to the hotel. Which N found despite not having brought a map with him.

Saturday
Breakfast at the hotel--fresh fruit and yoghurt, with some pumpernickel, cheese and salami. Then booked out, left our baggage backpacks with the hotel and wandered off to what proved to be the highlight, the Scrovegni chapel decorated by Giotto, part of the Civic Museum complex (pictures here).

The frescoes were amazing, both individually and in total effect. I was struck by the very balanced composition, both the obvious vice and virtue on opposite walls but balancing male and female. I liked the touch where the Devil literally consumes sinners (one disappearing down his gullet while he was defecating out another). The weeping mothers in the slaughter of the innocents put the lie about parents not attaching to their children in past centuries.

We walked back to the hotel noticing (as we had not so much on the way there) that little was open and few people about in the old city. Walking to the station, only a couple of snack bars were open,so had wraps at Cafebricco at the station. (They also served enormous wedges of pizza, if you were interested.)

N managed to work out the ticket machine, though the lack of time information on the printed out tickets was a bit disconcerting. Took a pleasant train trip to Venezia S Lucia, though we walked the length of the platform twice because I expected the first class carriages to be behind the engine, and they turned out to be the other end. Long queue for waterbus once we were out of S Lucia station, though we worked out we were in the queue for the wrong waterbuses. Sorted that out and got to the flat back on 4pm, as agreed. Worked things out with the landlord, though he spoke almost no English (there was a helpful letter from his wife, who did but could not be there). We potted around the very nice flat (with working WiFi, oh joy) waiting for kirieldp to turn up, which she duly did.

After doing hello, great to see you, catching up thing we wandered off, eventually having dinner at Trattoria Bandierette, where N and I had lovely platters of grilled seafood, kirieldp had pasta with pumpkin and smoked ricotta with mixed salads and chips to share. (Mixed salads are quite often a bit sad, but the Italian habit of putting oil and vinegar on the table allows such salads to be greatly improved.) I followed with a splendid formaggio misto (cheese plate) and N had a diabolically good lemon cake with white chocolate centre. Then off to the Piazza San Marco, which is lovely at dusk. Diners were being serenaded by various string quartets. Then we wandered back home, doing a bit of window shopping (a place that had some striking chess sets, amongst other things) and some mask-browsing and t-shirt shopping (I bought three) at another establishment. Once back at the apartment, Eurovision failed to turn up on any of the zillion channels on the TV, much to kirieldp's disappointment.

Sunday
N got up to the sound of the bell's, saying sourly "I can take a hint". (It was after 8am, the poor thing.) We sent him on a supermarket expedition, then we wandered off trying to find the Palazzo Moncenigo housing the Museum of Textiles. Because of the big race, the waterbus was on a short route, so we got off at Piazza San Marco (on the second time around). We stopped on the way for a pleasant light breakfast of wraps and roll. Then we detoured to Palazzo Querini, which was a pleasant wander through a C18th Venezian stately home which also had a good bookshop. N found a crepery and was terribly excited, and had a nutella crepe (I followed suit).

We found the Palazzo Moncenigo and then backtracked for a lovely lunch at Osteria Trattoria al Nono Ristoranto "Al Bacareto"; N had carbonara, I had a lovely tagliatelle pesto and kirieldp a "four seasons" pizza. The Museum of Textiles proved to be a bit of a disappointment (a whole 4 period costumes, which were spectacular, and various samples under cover) but it was quite an impressive great Venezian noble house. Alas, no decent book about the Palazzo or the collection and you weren't allowed to take pictures.

We then tried to find the Museum of Jewish History, which we eventually did but it was closed for Shavout (the festival celebrating the giving on the Law on Mt Sinai). It did mean we located the Jewish quarter (the original Ghetto) and wandered back home, using the waterbus. Which is rather more fun when you know what you are looking at (and what awaits you at the other end).

Siracusa, Catania, Padova

Fri, 25 May 2012 17:03:41 GMT

Mediterranean driving is one of weak expectations. Things that would end badly back in places with stronger expectations about rule-following, folk get away with because everyone is much more alert to sudden actions. Hence Mediterranean driving is a process of constant and assertive negotiation. Noticeably less use of traffic lights than in comparable Australian cities. We have seen various types of police (municipal, regional, carabinieri, garda di finanzia) in Sicily but no sign of traffic police; hence the traffic code not being so much a code as more of a general guideline.

Thin cats and enthusiastically swirling swallows are to the two most vivid images of the fauna of Catania (though there was a thin and piteous kitten trying to cadge some of our lunch at Siracusa).

Thursday
Took a day trip by bus to Siracusa, after another croissant-with-custard and hot chocolate (Cioccolata calda) breakfast at Cafe Bruca. Bus dumped us at a stop with no information. Found some Roman ruins which had very impressive gate and fence keeping you away from them. Walked back to the old city. This is Sicily, so the foreshore is a place to put police, military, railways, freeways. Not, however, in the old city proper, which has some of the best use of foreshores we have seen so far, Walked up the seaside foreshore around to the C13th castle and C16-early C19th fort on the promontory. This turned out to be another (rather splendid) castle built by Frederick di Svebia (Stupor Mundi). Having seen two of his castles, and pictures of others, N has decided that, if he comes back to Sicily, he would settle for a tour of castles built by Frederick, any Norman bits actually still standing, forget the rest.

Castle Mancia even had (oh joy!) a guide book (quite a good one). N had spotted it and bought it. I was going to buy one when I got back to the ticket office. This is Sicily; it closed at 1pm so I was out of luck. But the castle was great. The cannon fort was moderately impressive but, as N said, it would have seemed much more impressive if we hadn't recently been to Valetta.

Walked back down the habourside. Stopped at Lungolatte Ristobar with a spectacular view over the Bay of Syracuse for lunch. We had a glass of vino bianca each. I had grilled fish (sardines and spectacular sea bream) followed by tiramasu. N had scaloppine with lemon and a lemon torte. Walked into the main square, which was surprisingly large for a medieval city. The cathedral was a striking conjunction of a Greek temple into which a Romanesque Norman cathedral had been constructed with later Baroque add ons. There was one, completely unnamed, apparently condemned clearly medieval building, a couple of C15th buildings, a C15th city gate, but the old city was mostly Baroque or Neoclassical. Walked down to the foreshore and into the newer parts of the city: Siracusa is much better supplied with public gardens with shade trees than Catania. But it clearly also has the advantage of "taking off" only in the C20th, so has less space issues.

Walked up to the archaeological park. Saw the Roman amphitheatre, which mostly overgrown but far more extant than Catania's. Found what we thought was the box office for tickets wasn't, so had to walk back the way we came to an area with tourist traps laid on. I succumbed to a t-shirt and a cute picture of a classical Greek scene. Bought the tickets and then back the way we had gone (again) to the Greek theatre. Which had lots of scaffolding, modern sound gear, wooden planking, etc for an event being planned there. It was sought of nice that it still being used. Its setting was magnificent, with the Bay of Syracuse behind it. Then, after going diametrically the wrong way, walked to the reputed tomb of Archimedes, which you can look at from a distance through another fence grill. Then walked back to the bus terminal, had an Italian lemon soda at a streetside bar while we waited and bused back to Catania.

After a small break, had another meal in the Trattoria Sapora in the local Piazza Marconi. N had the Fantasia alla Chef (excellent seafood on spaghetti), I had a very fine carbonara and then we both had some grilled horse, which we both enjoyed. We shared a rather pleasant bottle of white wine. Then we walked down to the Piazza di Martiri where the electric blue neon halo over the statue of St Agatha was on! So we appreciated the spectacle, walked back to the central square where we were able to buy bus tickets at an open tobacconist and then we each had two of St Agatha's breasts (small marzipan iced cakes with a red cherry on top), me with Cioccolata calda (hot chocolate) and N with tea, at Cafe Presidio. Then back to the flat and packed, ready for an early departure next morning.

Friday
Got up, did morning things, had breakfast (cornflakes and sugar for N, cheese and bread plus bread,butter and honey for me), cleaned up and left Vico Castro for the final time. Walked down to the bus terminal, inquiry directed us to the correct bus, bused to airport, which proved to be a model of efficiency (once we worked out to go to the machines, get our boarding passes, and which was the already-checked in baggage queue. The Air Italia flight was very smooth and we got to Venezia airport early, with the baggage becoming available shortly after we got to the terminal. N said it was fine to go out the market exit as we had nothing to declare; I pointed out that it was an internal flight and so we weren't going through customs.

Getting a bus (and even more a ticket for the bus) for Padova (Padua) turned out to be a bit more exciting. N tried to buy our tickets when we got off at Padova, but the driver wasn't interested. Still, we got there (via Venezia, because that is the bus route). Northern Italy is visibly richer than Sicily. Also, we travelled a total of about 40+km and did not hear a single car horn. There were speed trap warnings. I even saw a policeman who had clearly pulled over a truck. We may, indeed, be in a different country (culturally if not legally).

We stopped at the Railway Station (which looked rather Fascist era in architecture) to get a map and stop for a light repast--no hot chocolate at Briccocafe, but the wrap was superior.

Walked to hotel in the middle of the medieval town. Nice facilities; WiFi not so much, though we could get some access by alternating using N's iPad (only one machine at a time could be logged in; or so it appeared--if you ignore the error messages and just wait, apparently it is all fine).

We wandered off and had pasta (tagliattate bolognese for me, lasagna for N at Livorno Bar, circumnavigated around the (enormous) medieval cathedral, then into the main square where we paid to go into the Palazzo della Ragione, the C13th political and legal centre of Padua. It contained an enormous, magnificent medieval hall with a very high vaulted wooded roof and frescoes around the wall. There was an enormous wooden horse plus an exhibition of uninteresting mid C20th art collected by a doctor brother and wife (there were three interesting pieces and two striking ones; the rest was a monument to mediocre taste). Stopped for a sparkling water, N also had a cappuccino.

Padua also has beggars (those in Catania tended to be more stationary and passive). We walked down to the Basilica of St Anthony, a magnificent (and very large) Romanesque cathedral with Baroque add-ons. Kept wandering through Padua, which is very much a lived-in city. New buildings have generally built in a style sympathetic to the existing buildings. We investigated the C16-18th bastion walls, but it turned out little was left apart from the line of the dry moat. Walked down to a major park, in the middle of a huge open space, full of (it appeared) C18th statues of prominent folk from Paduan history on either side of, and looking away from, a surrounding water feature. Then back towards and into the old city. Stopped for gelati for N (he tried for lemon and got mint chocolate) and sparkling water for me. (The sparkling water has been persistently superior; the bread in Sicily was also consistently good.) Then back to the University of Padua, where we waited to sign up for the 5.15 tour. I took a break in a hole-in-the-war bar, having an arianciata (I have always liked Italian soft drinks) and a hot chocolate (my attempts to say ciocolatta con panne failed miserably, until rescued by an English speaking student or young member of faculty.) Then it was off to the tour, which started in the University Senate room which was originally the anatomy theory lecture theatre. It had portraits of various professors of anatomy back to the first in 1535, and (mounted and in glass case) the skulls of some of said professors, who had donated their bodies to the faculty. Then in it was into a room next for the famous (and first anywhere) theatre of practical anatomy, where background information was given before smaller groups could go in and have a "body's eye view" of the theatre. Then down to commemorative statue of the first woman graduate anywhere, who graduated in 1678.

Then a casual wander back to the hotel, passing through a flea market.

Catania Wednesday

Thu, 24 May 2012 06:12:09 GMT

Balconies in Catania seem mostly for show, though they do seem to be good places to put potted plants (sometimes a bit sad), air-conditioners and satellite dishes.
School groups seem quite common wandering around; the children seem generally well-behaved.
It actually rained Tuesday night (naturally, since I had put out some more handwashing that morning, but it was mostly dry). While I would not want to have it as a permanent regime, do find handwashing restful.

Wednesday
After breakfast at Cafe Bruca (croissant filled with apricot jam) and hot chocolate (dark) went to the Tourist information office, N asking about buses and trains to Syracuse was not so successful with the young lady there. So, went to the railway station and found that next train to Siracusa was 12.45 (the 10.08 express apparently did not count). Failing to find anything resembling a regional time table or place to buy tickets at the adjacent bus terminal, wandered back to Tourist information office, where asking the middle aged man now manning the desk about Siracusa was more successful, he giving us a bus timetable and directions to the other bus terminal.

We took one of the local open deck bus tours of Catania, which was of some interest (mainly due to the commentary) but we have clearly seen most of what there is to see in Catania. Wandered back to the Cathedral, which really is a splendid neoclassical cathedral in its interior. Then a few tourist shops (mainly to buy postcards and in the vague hope the rather good Acicastello castle t-shirt might be on sale; it wasn't) then checked out the bus terminal near the port, which had a clear place to buy tickets. Then through the markets, where I bought another wedge of cheese to sample and back to Trattoria Vecchi Sapori in Piazza Mazzini where we shared a litre of vino bianca and both had spaghetti amatricana.

We retired for a quite time of reading, sleeping, writing. Then off to a walk so I could take some pictures of the electric halo added to the C18th statue of St Agatha in the Piazza del Matiri then back for some kebabs, buying a Peroni Gran Riserva for me and one of N's girlie drinks (he wanted some alcohol that wasn't wine) some watching of Italian TV (Walker, Texas Ranger seemed the best offering) and, eventually, to bed.