Aug
31

Teachers and students.

2007 | Filed Under Language teaching | 6 Comments

Last night, an ex-student and friend of mine and I got together for a pint and a chat about our summer holidays and the three-week language course he did in Dublin. As he was feeling rather nostalgic about his Irish experience, we drank, yes, you guessed: Guinness.

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Aug
30

Digital exploits.

2007 | Filed Under Digital photography | Leave a Comment

I took quite a few photos this summer.  Some were good, some were not so great.  I’m still very much learning and experimenting and making lots of mistakes.  Sometimes I understand where I went wrong, other times, I’m not so sure.  Not a problem, although it can be frustrating at times, especially when I find out that I did not manage to achieve a clean focus on my subject matter.  I put this down to lack of experience and I’m not going to blame my EOS 400d, because I’ve seen so many examples of just what this camera, in the right hands, can achieve.

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Aug
29

Added some photos to my Flickr collection.

2007 | Filed Under Digital photography | Leave a Comment

Yes, I’ve got round to adding a few more photos.  I spent the summer hols playing around with black and white.  Whilst I love colour, there is something about black and white pictures that captures the mood of certain scenes very well.  Maybe it is because the absence of colour forces you to focus your attention on the subject rather more, so you are not dazzled by a sea of colour.  Just my personal theory, but, whatever, I like black and white images, and they certainly can look stunning.

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Aug
29

Why Italy is the way it is.

2007 | Filed Under Italy | 3 Comments

My Tuscan vacation gave me a few more clues as to why Italy is the way it is and why really it is not as united as it could be.  First of all I believe that Italy is a relatively young country, in the sense that the unification of the country only really began with Garibaldi.  And Garibaldi’s exploits happened relatively recently and when all is said and done, did not really create one single united unit.  Then there was Mussolini, who, although he did lots of bad, did attempt to make the country more united.  He did not really succeed, fortunately, which is just as well because his vision of unity was that of a dictatorial fascist state.  Although even now, there are people who yearn for a return to Mussolini’s idea of a united Italy.  I know this because we met some people who make an annual pilgrimage to the celebrations of the man’s death, as though his passing were something of a loss for Italy.  In part I can understand such people and it could be said that basically they just want Italy to be one single united unit.

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Aug
29

Darwin v the Bible

2007 | Filed Under Thoughts, World News | Leave a Comment

I seem to be hearing more and more about the conflict between the Darwin’s theory of evolution and how the Bible describes the way in which we were created. And it has to be admitted that Darwin’s ideas theoretically discredit the biblical version of how we came to be. Recently, for some reason that is not entirely clear to me, a newish bunch calling themselves intelligent-designers have come on to the scene, particularly in the US. This is very odd. Darwin wrote about his famous theory many years ago, but only relatively recently have the aforementioned and other similar American groups become all hot under the collar regarding his theories, which, I’ve discovered, are some of the least contested scientific theories in existence. Not a surprise - the theory of evolution seems to be eminently logical to this here non-scientist.

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Aug
28

A black and white portrait of our son.

2007 | Filed Under My son | 2 Comments

MartyI love this photo, which I shot this summer, whilst playing with black and white settings and the sepia on-camera filter.

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Aug
28

Summer Hols 2007, part 2.

2007 | Filed Under Holidays | Leave a Comment

On another day of our Tuscan hols, and while our respective other halves relaxed, Claudio and I took the wee ones off to the Uccellina Park which was about half an hour south of us.  This park, which is an example of Mediterranean coastal woodland, is lovely.  There are plenty of walks and a sandy beach to relax on afterwards.  The beach is not organised and can get quite crowded in August, but the area is so wonderful that it is not a surprise that it attracts quite a few people.  Oh, and by the way, before heading off for the beach car park, do not forget to obtain a 4 euro parking ticket from the visitors centre in Alberese, otherwise you won’t be able to drive past the barrier.  You could walk if you are feeling tough, or cycle if you happen to have brought or hired a bike.

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Aug
28

My office - I wish!

2007 | Filed Under Holidays | Leave a Comment

My office!

I shot this on the island of Giglio. ‘Ufficio’ means office in Italian and the little red sign, if you cannot read it, says ‘back soon’! The perfect office, possibly??!!

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Aug
27

Summer Hols 2007, part 1.

2007 | Filed Under Holidays, Life in Italy | 2 Comments

Yes, I know it is a mite unoriginal for an Englishman to holiday in Tuscany seeing as part of the area has even earned the nickname ‘Chiantishire’ as a result of the numbers of Britons that frequent the area. But you can’t really blame them, the area is beautiful, the wine good and, on the whole, very peaceful, even right slap bang in the middle of the Italian holiday season.

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Aug
26

Tuscan summer and socks.

2007 | Filed Under Holidays, Italy | Leave a Comment

First, apologies for not having mentioned that I was off on my hols for three weeks. I did not say anything for a reason, but thinking about it now, my reason was possibly not a good enough excuse. Anyway , too late now.

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Aug
9

So, you want to buy an appartment in Italy?

2007 | Filed Under Italy, Property | 6 Comments

Wonderful……but you should think about the following before committing yourself. Also, these notes do not apply to detached/semi-detached houses in their own grounds.

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Aug
1

Working up to the last minute

2007 | Filed Under Holidays, Italy, Me, Work | Leave a Comment

This is quite an unusual year for me.  Poor little me.  Usually by the end of July just about all of my courses have dried up and everyone is has gone off on their summer breaks.  Not this year.  And I’ve had to do a several quite complex translations which have kept me rather busy.  Mustn’t grumble though, work means cash and cash means more opportunities to do things….and higher taxes.

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