Today is thursday so it must be Venice

Yestery we werre in Innsbruk, today Venice.
Internet connection here is slow, so just checking in.
The Man and I had a balll today.
Gondola ride, complete with serenade, visit to a venetian glass factory, several hous free time wandering around the streets of this ancient city.
We've had a busy day and are looking forward to an early nite.

So as Forest Gump would say, that's all I have to say about that

Well we're here...

It has been a long day, and here we are in Brussels. The clocks have gone forward an hour so it got dark that hour earlier.

We had a couple of hours this evening to wander around the market square and admire stunningly lit architecture. You'll have to wait to see them though.
A good nights sleep is what we want now, got an early start tomorrow.
Oh alright. then...just one picture

An announcement...

Tomorrow morning...yes that's right Monday 25th and only four weeks until the jolly fat man with the beard and dressed in red makes his appearance, The man and I are off on a weeks coach holiday to Europe.
I have no idea if I will be able to add to the  blog or not, but I will do my darnedest.
So its goodnight from me and its goodnight from him.

Proud to be a Kiwi...

A perfect finish to the perfect year.

In a finale that mirrored the dramas of the rugby league Kiwis just 24 hours earlier, it took the All Blacks until the final minute of a glorious test match to clinch a 24-22 victory over the gallant and desperately unlucky Irish.

In a conclusion that almost defied belief, the All Blacks conjured an 80th-minute try from 65 metres out to replacement back Ryan Crotty to level the scores at 22-22, then had to watch as an ice-cool Aaron Cruden required two shots at a near sideline conversion to snatch an epic victory.

It was a finish that sapped the life out of the capacity 52,000-strong crowd who had been at full voice all afternoon as they roared their team to what they thought was going to be a history-making victory.

It would have been no less than a fabulously committed Irish side would have deserved either.

But it was not to be, and you had to admire the All Blacks' nerve at the end as they kept their cool to snatch a win that racks up the first ever perfect test season in the professional era.

Yes, the 14-0 season was achieved, but by the narrowest margin possible.

I love computors...when I can ge them to work properly

I really do love my technology, I just wish it was easy to fix things when they don't work properly or do things I don't expect.
Good thing my son is on hand to guide me in the right direction.
When I say on hand I mean on skype. Actually he's still back in NZ, staying with his biggest sister for the last few days and hopefully getting a final burst of vitamin D before heading over here.
Now back to the putor probs.
I'd read a hints book about how to temporarily disable the mouse pad to stop the cursor jumping around, and inadvertantley turend off a lot of buttons onthe key pad...OK so restoreto an earlier time to fix that.
Then he helped me to get rid of a nasty adverts page that was askingme to click on it to 'fix the problems on the pc' I don't think so tim. I've been ignoring that one for a while now.
So lots of clicks later and he tells me that he spyware/malware programme could have done it for me. Ah well it was a learning experience.
So now the notebook is running much better and yes I will be doing a virus check as soon as I finishing typing here 

Where were you when the heard the news?

 John F. Kennedy
On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die.

Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.

His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty.

The popular and charismatic president won many friends in the UK during his short term in office, and following his death an acre of land in Runnymede Meadow was dedicated to a memorial in his memory.

The inscription on the stone is from his inaugural speech

"Let every National know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty"

A bit of this and that...

Canary Wharf is looking pretty Christmassy. The decorated trees are sparkling  and the stores have shaken out all their boxes of deckies  and decked their windows with tinsel and trees. All it needs now is the Santa grotto and some snow.

Talking about the white stuff it certainly feels cold enough for it fingers crossed. The first year we were here it snowed on December first.

The man and I have a ‘train friend’ a chap we met more than a year ago now who has become our travelling buddy between Crystal palace and Canada Water. He’s quite excited a the moment and we are too for him. He’s been looking for a new job for quite a long time. Yesterday he had a very promising interview for a post in China. Well why not he’s single, fancy free and loves China. We’ve got our fingers crossed for him.

Change is on the cards for one of our family too, he’s in his final few day in New Zealand. Son he will be winging it to say a goodbye to his best mate who lives in Oz and then boarding a longer flight bound for our side of the world. We’ll be looking forward to seeing him again, but not as much as a certain lady who live further north.

Couldn't resist sharing this ...