Christmas Holiday in Wanganui - daytime

In these final pictures of my quick break in Wanganui, a few daytime photos. As you can see, Wanganui had the same great summer days as everyone else had. Great timing :-)

The first is on an "art" installation on the river front, right next to where the regular Saturday market operates from. Lots of sunshine. The second and third pictures are from the beach walk. Lots more sunshine! The last photo is a rough and ready panoramic stitched image from some pictures taken from the tower on top of the Durie Hill elevator tower [click on the image for the larger version!].

Christmas Holiday in Wanganui - Virginia Lake at night # 2

Here's the second set from my nocturnal visit to Virginia Lake in Wanganui - this time a few of the fountain.

Christmas Holiday in Wanganui - Virginia Lake at night

Most of the Christmas break this year consisted of a trip to Wanganui to visit family. While there, we went out to Virginia Lake to see what the Council has done with lighting some of the trees and the fountain in the middle of the lake. This first post consists of some of the photos of the tree lighting, the next post will have photos of the fountain.

Enjoy!

What is it with this Christmas and money?

No, I'm not going into debt for Christmas... that would be unnecessary and [most probably] cause more trouble than what it's worth. Nor is it about the unwanted brochures sent to my letter box, only to be dumped in the rubbish the next day.

It's just that this Christmas for some reason, I've received a couple of unsolicited offers to help me spend my money faster, and, sadly, for no further worthwhile benefit.

Example 1: Air NZ is making a big deal about its new OneSmart card, which seems to be a debit card with fees that would generally sit between the cost of a debit card [ATM/ EFTPOS] and a credit card. It looks like a reasonable proposition, except that I don't travel internationally that often and it won't be a suitable replacement for either my debit or credit card. In other words, mainly extra cost. Maybe if I were travelling overseas regularly...? Oh yeah - they'll send it to me and all I have to do is activate it! Am I willing to spend more so that I can reduce ATM fees when [I am infrequently] overseas? Probably not.

Example 2: BNZ have just sent me a nice letter saying that they have approved me for a flash new credit card. Nice, except that it costs almost twice as much a year in fees, and offers only a little amount extra in benefits, which do not appear to make up for the extra in cost. Oh yeah - last time they did this, I turned them down.

Come on folks! It's rapidly approaching Christmas! Most people don't actually need extra expense in their lives, especially at this time of the year.

It's OK to go out and make a dollar or two out of people, but I'm starting to think that this is a bit much! At least target your audience a bit more. Both Air NZ and BNZ must be able to see that these "offers" will be extra expense and little extra benefit for me! The only way that they "save" me money is if I spent a lot more!

Not good.

If I have missed anything, Air NZ and BNZ are welcome to contact me [not that they will]! I'm always happy to have a chat, and if I'm wrong, I'll say so. Just please, stop trying it on!

Anyway, that's my moan for Christmas!

1 8 ton dead whale and a 1/2 ton of explosives. Hilarious!

You have to watch this Youtube video! It is hilarious to the very end!

"The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds" :-) Enjoy!

Attention metal thieves...? :-)

An article from The Register caught my eye. It starts with the following statement:

British Telecom is, as a telecoms company, worth minus £30bn. Yes, that's a negative number there. And yet it is literally sitting on top of billions in assets.

and ends with this:

That's the problem we've got with the young people of today: no ambition.

The entire article is located here, and is well worth the read, whether you're in for a laugh, or if you're up for a cynical look at how to make millions :-)

Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2011 #28: Back in London

Well, actually, I'm back home in New Zealand now, but I thought I should finish with a wrap-up of the last couple of days in London.

After returning to London from Prague, I again stayed with my sister, bro-in-law and niece. It's a nice way to travel - staying with family - and it made for a relaxing 3 days before my long trip back to New Zealand. I had already done most of the touristy things I wanted to do which made it even more relaxing. I did however get out to a couple of interesting places.

The first was the Imperial War Museum - London. On my previous trip to England a couple of years ago, I had been to IWM Duxford, but I never made it to the London branch. I very interesting visit - lots of tanks, some planes and a few missiles, and lots of other interesting exhibits and information. I particularly liked the trench exhibit, where they had made up a mock trench to walk through.

Next was the Tate Modern (international modern and contemporary art). Not exactly a place I would rush to visit again, although the cafe had very good views. I know, maybe I just don't get art or something? :-)

Following the Tate Modern was a walk to see my bro-in-law's workplace on the HMS President. This is an old (1918's vintage) royal navy "Q ship", which is now permanently moored, and has conference, catering, wedding and serviced work facilities. An AWESOME place to work by the look of it, and the on-board bar is a great place to have a relaxing beer after work :-)

Lastly, there was a quick visit to London's South Bank area, in what they describe as "the cultural heart of the city" and "home to London's most iconic attractions, theatres, arts and design-led venues. The area is buzzing with things to see and do all year round; free events, music, film, exhibitions, dance, theatre, debates, festivals and all sorts of family fun." Also a great place to get a Polish sausage if you're feeling a bit peckish. Yum!

Anyway, that's about it. All in all, a really nice trip. The flights were good [OK, Air NZ and BMI were really good, Easyjet was... well... Easyjet :-)], Berlin was awesome to visit, Prague was ok, and fantastic to catch up with family in London! Having arrived home, I'm a bit tired, although pretty good considering. I am looking forward to having the rest of the week off work to recover though. Back to work next Monday!

Here's a few pictures of those last couple of days.

Europe Trip 2011 #27: Prague day 3 wanderings

Today started off with a wander up to Wenceslas Square, and decided to go to an impressive looking museum. You'll see from the picture that it looks at least as big as Te Papa Tongawera/ The Museum of New Zealand, and I thought that it would be a good look around, not to mention some shade from the sun! There was an advert for a butterfly exhibition, but I didn't let that put me off [it certainly wasn't an encouragement!]. At CZK60 [about NZD$4] it was cheap. Unfortunately, despite going to level 3 for the exhibits, it consisted of a whole two [!] exhibitions, the butterflies and an exhibition on antibiotics. Very sad. I think my ticket could have been used to get in to some related museums, but I was not that keen so decided to go wandering instead.

I decided to go for a wander away from the main tourist areas this morning which was really nice. I came across a small island [there are several of them in the river], which had bridge access and a combination of nice views and some welcome shade!

Prague is hot at this time of the year! It has been getting so hot in Prague that I've generally been calling it a day around 1pm each day, having a rest, then going for in the evening for a while. This at least makes it bearable, although it can still be in the late 20's around 6-7pm. Today was a little cooler and quite nice at around 20 degrees when I went for dinner this evening.

Anyway, here are the pictures. the first is the impressive museum building. Note the second picture. It was advertising pedal and row boats. I'm not sure exactly how to take this - perhaps all river trips are to be done naked? In any case, it is clear that the men are required to do all the work!

The last photo is some general statue I saw on the way back to the hotel.

Europe Trip 2011 #26: Other sights from today

Walking around today there was a lot of "the same", at least in the sense that it is all starting to look rather familiar. One thing that did stick out however was the first photo. Last Wednesday, an aircraft carrying most of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team crashed with the loss of 42 people [plus 2 survivors in intensive care]. The team was off to their first game of the season and is made up of players and staff from a number of countries [the coach was Canadian], including 3 players from the Czech Republic. Needless to say, this has been the main story on the news most of this week [for the aeronautical geeks among you, the plane was a Yakovlev Yak-42 tri-jet].

The second is a happier scenic shot towards one of the many bridges crossing the river, and the last is a funny shot of an English-language bookstore. The name of the store translates as Shakespeare and Sons. :-)

Europe Trip 2011 #25: I would never be so silly as to do this!

Yesterday I had caught sight of a tethered balloon ride, on the western side of the river. After visiting the Astronomical Clock tower earlier today, I went for a bit of a wander and found out where it was located.

As you'll see in the first photo, it;s a bit of a scary contraption - nothing to put your feet on, and you're suspended in a seat below the balloon itself. Oh yeah - it's attached to the ground by a single steel cable. Who would even consider going for a ride?

DOH! 30 minutes later it was me suspended below the balloon. Now, in case you didn't know, I do not have a good head for heights [strange then that I feel absolutely fine in a plane], so this was definitely far out of my comfort zone! There was a radio available should I need to come down early, but I sensed that most of the operators knew enough English to get through the briefing :-) That and I tightened the straps after they had.... I don't like slack!

Apart from the fact that I spent half the ride counting the number of things that could go wrong [balloon rapidly deflates, cable breaks, gets really windy, seat attachment points [only two of] fail, motor to haul me in fails etc], the only big shocks I got were the sudden[!] stop at the top of the ascent and then the start of the decent.

Anyway, loads of fun! Here are the pictures!

Europe Trip 2011 #24: Up the Astronomical Clock tower

The first thing that I did today was visit the Astronomical clock tower. I saw this yesterday, but it appeared to be closed. The view from the tower is quite impressive as you'll see in the photos. The first photo was at the top of the walk up. Unusually for these historic monuments, this one had almost no stairs, but instead what was essentially a ramp all the way up. They had also installed a lift down the middle. After much self congratulations about my walking all the way up I took the lift down...

The large church in the third photo is the local Catholic church - not open at the moment for some reason, but it looks impressive [as many of them do in this part of the world]. The fifth picture shows some of the crowds around the base of the building, and the last one is of the trumpeter who plays his tune, waves to the crowd, and gets a big clap every 15 minutes.

Actually, he was quite a funny chap - at one stage he "invited" me the have a go... yeah right! He also did a good job of pretending he could not play immediately before and after going out to play on the balcony. A nice touch!

Europe Trip 2011 #23: Prague Day 1 - Communism Tour

Something that was well worth while doing was a guided walking tour looking at the role in communism in Czechoslovakia to the "velvet revolution" and into the Czech Republic. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be an awesome tour - something that I would recommend to anyone coming to Prague.

The tour involved a walk around a few historic places in Prague, followed by a tram ride to a nuclear bunker and back. The pictures probably say it well, so on to them.

The first picture is of the Iron Curtain restaurant and bar - A bit of a laugh as it seems, although I have a 2-4-1 drink voucher [provided as part of the tour] which I must redeem sometime... The second photo is of the old STB [communist secret police headquarters]. Apparently the STB employed many former Gestapo agents, which shows how they generally operated, and how much they were loved by the locals...

The next photo shows the entrance to the underground bunker, followed by pictures of various gas-masks and uniforms of the communist era. Next, look at the fearsome, brave chap with the gun! In the first picture the gas mask had fogged up so bad, the safest place to stand would be been directly in front of me! No such luck for you in the second one picture, capitalist dogs! :-)

The last photo is of [what the guide called] a horrible communist building. The same comments were directed at the horrible communist hotel which I didn't get a photo of. No love lost for the communists in this place!

Anyway, that was the tour. Parting comments from the guide though were a cracker: Please don't vote for communism and have a nice day. :-)