Category Archives: Travel

So,  how do you order a coffee?

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Duomo - Milan

Duomo – Milan

One of the joys of Italy is coffee, particularly if you know how to order it!

After two days my desire for a decent coffee has seen me get

  • an Americano, when I wanted a long black
  • a glass of white wine, when I wanted a white coffee
  • an espresso because my favourite person couldn’t get the waiter to understand macchiato.

All of this is of course our fault because we can’t speak Italian and when we try the results are hilarious.

However, the last straw was making a dinner reservation last night for two “due”, to which the restaurant  queried whether my booking was for “three” or “twelve”. Clearly I have some work to do!

In frustration, I have now downloaded the Google Translate App which has been successful in me being able to ask where the toilet (gabinetto) was and actually making them understand! This is progress, Continue reading →

We saw elephants and much more 

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So after 3 days in Sri Lanka I definitely want to come back. It wasn’t even on our wishlist until it was suggested by the travel agent as a stopover.

Colombo is a bustling city. You take your life in your hands (many do!) walkng across the road. There are cars, tuk tuks, buses and bikes stretched across the road. It seems the road markings are only for decoration. It’s a form of organised chaos. This is definitely not a place to get your international drivers license out hire a car. You’d be taking you and others lives in your hands.

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We packed plenty into our short stay.

Friday afternoon Drinks at the historic nd recently renovated Galle Face Hotel and walk on the beach at Galle Face. On a bright hot sunny day this was pretty special and a far cry from drinks at our local (albeit very pleasant bar).
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We searched for a tuk tuk for the return trip to our hotel from Galle Face, looking for one with a metre as instructed by the hotel. One of the numerous security people directed us to a tuk tuk. No metre of course but the security guard told us the fee would be 200 LKR (I know, I could hear Chris De Burgh’s, “Don’t pay the ferryman, don’t even fix a price” in my head, as I was doing this!). No we weren’t interested in the one day gem sale that both the security guard and driver seemed keen for us not to miss. Just back to the hotel. As we stepped out of the tuk tuk I gave the driver what I understood to be the agreed fee 200LKR and he said no it was 300LKR. I said no and we walked off to cross the road (at the traffic lights).

One of the main reasons we were enthusiastic about taking up the suggestion of a stopover in Colombo was to see the elephants. Continue reading →

From unpacked with places to go to packed and ready to go

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Italy 2015 beckons!

We have moved from

  

to

  

So now we are actually ready to go.

We quickly moved past the “we can get by with one bag” to “don’t be silly, of course we need two”.

It’s always a challenge packing for 2 climates. It’s 35C plus in Adelaide today and will be 30C and humid in Singapore and Colombo and then 6C in Milan. So, it’s shorts and t-shirts and full coats all in the space of a week.

We’re excited but I’m not sure the animals are quite so keen?

  

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No summer for us

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We have most likely had our only glimpse of summer, a weekend at the beach as we prepare to go away.

G & Ts on a warm summer ‘s night

Normally at this time of the year we are preparing for a hot summer at the beach 

  

Not this year. In just over a week we will be in the north of Italy trading late spring for late autumn.

My Blog is Three!

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Source – Daily Mail Australia

So my blog turned three in the last few days.

It survived the “Terrible Twos” with sporadic posts on topics ranging from travel, music, books, What’s Next, and study.

What my blog celebrates most is the period of transition that the last three years have been. It started three years ago with a post about The Adelaide Crows close loss to Hawthorn in the 2012 Prelimanry Final and just a week before its third birthday, The Adelaide Crows had a not so close loss to Hawthorn in another final. Most significantly my blog’s third birthday coincides with completion of my Honours Thesis (due in just a few weeks).

Three years ago I decided that I needed a reason to write as I pursued options to position myself  for What’s Next and a blog seemed a good idea. A reason to write a thousand words a month, a goal that has well and truly been achieved in each and every month since, by way of blog posts, articles for The Adelaide Review and University assignments that will culminate in few weeks time with about 20,000 words in the form of my Thesis.

So my blog’a third birthday is perhaps best described as the first chapter of What’s Next. It has been a place to experiment; writing about different things and recording thoughts about the stages of What’s Next. Importantly for me it has provided a contemporary record of what I was thinking across a significant period of my life. 

Now as my blog enters its fourth year I expect my blog will record events  that occur as I move past What’s Next, exit transition and get on with it. It will be a place to write about our three months in Italy, my progress into academia which hopefully next year will see me commence my PhD, and to continue to write about books I’ve found interesting and of course music.

Happy Third Birthday browney237.com.

Source : www.walkitoffrecovery.org