I have finally worked out where I neglected to go in London - The British
Library. I forgot that they often have cool stuff. Next time. The same next
time when I go to Bletchley Park. Turns out that the person who picked me up
to go to the funeral had worked there at one stage too.
Also, and please don't laugh at this - At the London Science Museum, there
was a computer based test to determine if you are male or female. Mostly
with shape and colour tests. Anyway I took this test and got 5 out of 5.
Saying that I am a female. And I really was trying.
Terminal Two - Heathrow.
This airport will never cease to amaze. No wireless access as far as I can
tell anywhere. Very Strange. I would have thought that a modern airport
would have wireless everywhere. But not Heathrow. Then again who said
Heathrow was a modern airport. But then again it is not as bad as Washington
Dulles. There they have spaces for payphones where it looks as if the
payphones have been ripped out by a thief leaving bare wires - but this was
in the secure zone.
In London, I have finally seen a bigger road. The A4 from London to the
airport is often three lanes each way. I think this is the widest road in
Brittain. I am not sure what the road toll is in Brittain, but whatever it
is, it should be worse. I cannot believe how the people drive, and I have
yet to see a single accident.
The roads are not wide, and seem to really be a rabbit's warren. You need
to know where you need to go, and need to be aggressive with turns. Yet no
accidents. I have seen so many occasions where the vehicle missed another
vehicle on the side by inches.
But having written that I am now in Italy, and I feel that the Italian
drivers are worse. They also stop in strange places and then do weird
things. I think I would be happier closing my eyes than traveling with them
opened. Thankfully I was in a vehicle with air bags and a seat belt, meaning
that I would most likely survive any crash. It also helps that the guy
driving me was appeared a better driver than most on the road - he would
actually use his indicators. With all this, very few Italians actually wear
a seat belt. So Strange.
Flying to Italy, I had my first experience with an Airbus plane - an A321. I
must say that I am impressed although I have definite reservations about the
avionics. I have no real problems with the airframe, just the avionics. In
fact I think the A321 is quieter than most similar planes, and is quite
comfortable. [If you want to ask my why I don't like these planes, I will
send you a report on one incident.]
The Alitalia plane is what I imagine a plane would be if it was decorated by
the NSW Department of Education. The floor carpeting and the seats have that
brilliant green color popular in schools. The headrests are the most
comfortable I have every felt. The armrests were about 5-6 inches wide and
seem to be leather.
I believe that there was a video program on board. There was certainly
something on ceiling mount LCD panels, but there was no instruction that
said that I could listen to it on my own headphones. Then again I did not
have an inflight magazine so that might have been what I missed.
I was surprised flying in. I thought I needed to fly in over the
Mediterranean. Actually the route is almost purely south-east, and apart
from the English channel is all over land.
The best way to describe Leonardo Da Vinci (FCO) airport is to compare it to
Orlando. Very similar thanks to the train from the outlying terminal. Having
said that it is MUCH smaller.
On getting to Passport control I went into one of the lines for non-EU
people. The person before me needed about 3-4 minutes. When he saw my
Australian passport he stamped it without even looking at it further, or
doing any data entry. I am sure that I could have got into the country with
a woman's Australian passport.
Baggage collection was a bit slow but it could have been FAR worse. Maybe 15
minutes after I got off the plane I picked up my bags. And they were among
the first off. Alitalia refuses to believe that I can earn Qantas Frequent
Flyer points on an Alitalia flight. The speedy bags may be compensation for
them being wrong.
I was picked up at the airport by Nicola and his girlfriend Michol. They
took me to lunch/dinner by the ocean near the airport. As far as I could
work out by looking at the map this was Bastianelli al Molo restraunt on the
northern inlet to the Tiber River. There were lots of fishing boats moored
on the river. The restaurant had what I would call classical al fresco
dining, with a beautiful view of The Mediterranean.
The food was apparently up-market, and I have no doubt that it was. To start
we had a seafood platter which I tried - although it mainly included
calamari. There was some white fish there, as well as some orange prawns
which were not too bad.
More enjoyable was the main course which was spaghetti with some prawns -
which was quite nice. I had the option of having it also with clams which I
declined. Following the main meal we all had a desert platter. This was
really nice, although I have no idea what I had.
Nicola then took my to the Hotel. This is a nice place called Hotel Degli
Imperatori on the Tivoli side of the city just inside the ring road. This is
really modern with lots of what is probably Italian styling. Low voltage
down lights. Well layed out. Most everything you would expect. Well, except
for a hotel directory in any language that is. They expect you to know what
services are available. Internet will probably need to be dialup. It never
ceases to amaze me that hotels do not offer internet access in this day and
age.
On checking in they needed my passport. This is a requirement in Italy for
some reason, so I was expecting it. Still it is strange. They returned it
the next day.
One thing I do need to point out. The front desk had clocks for various
international cities. The Sydney clock was off by an hour. I suspect that
they had the version with Daylight Saving.
As you might expect there is not much in English available on the TV. Right
now on the TV is what I believe is the movie Kate and Leopold, staring Meg
Ryan. Not much use with me watching it though since it is dubbed in Italian.
Which brings up another issue - language. I am starting to pick up the
occasional word... It is hard to work out which words I know - it is much
easier for me to read Italian than to hear it - with reading I can generally
understand the meaning. Not bad since I do not know the language at all. I
think my vocab at the moment is
Si, Bambino, Arivaderchi, Bonjourno, Ciao, Sinester
Italian TV never ceases to amaze me. They just advertised a Philips CT
scanner. I am sure that this is something that every house needs. Seriously
if I was given one I am sure I could find a use for it, but not for what
they charge for one [They can be used to basically do a 3D scan of a
physical object... which is sometimes useful]
[Now a few hours later there is another travesty on Italian TV - StarTrek
'Enterprise' is on in Italian. Or should I say mostly Italian as some of the
sound effects have voices in them. Some TV should only ever be in the
original language. Enterprise is like that. So is 'Life is Beautiful' -
although the original language for it is of course Italian. They also killed
the closing credits, playing about 1 ½ seconds of the theme song before
about a second of the translation credits before the adverts started]
I was trying to decide if I needed something for dinner. So I went down to
the front desk to ask about Internet access. Dialup is the only option.
Argh. Wireless routers are cheap these days, even in Italy... And almost in
passing I asked where the restraunt was, and I was told that it was closed
on the weekends. He offered to call me a taxi to go to a local pizzeria,
which I declined.
OK, So I am passing the chance to eat one of the five major food groups
[Pizza]. But I did not have any cash on me, and I would prefer to explore
during daylight. [Now that I have seen the place, I am glad I did not
venture out. I would have died of fright]
Monday morning now and I have just had breakfast. I suspect that apart from
the Coffee, the breakfast is more French than Italian, with the main fare
being croissants. Not that I am complaining, it is just that I never viewed
that as being an Italian staple food.
The hotel has Muzak piped throughout many of the public areas. OK, so it is
not really Muzak but that is the impression that I get of it. During
breakfast it mostly had people speaking in what I assume is Italian, until a
Lionel Ritchie song came on, followed by a new version of the classic Bob
Dylan song "Knockin' on Heavens Door".
Thinking more about the hotel I would call this place non-classical Italian
architecture. Apparently it is not normal to have carpets in hotel rooms.
But there is a huge amount of marble and similar stone in the hotel. If only
they had a hotel directory, and Internet Access.
News this morning is that Alitalia have agreements with the unions, so in
all likelihood I will be able to fly home starting Friday. Italy is
certainly not what I expected. I am glad that I do not have to live here. I
cannot believe the traffic... It is just chaotic.
The best way to describe things? Well, imagine the worst rude traffic
behavior you can imagine. The sort that causes road rage. The type of road
rage where the judge lets the aggressive person off because the person was
so inconsiderate. Well, that type of driving is accepted driving practice
here. Not just accepted but required. Without a toot of a horn.
Tee intersections are considered to be places where traffic merges. I could
not believe it.
I have a new love for Sydney traffic. I just love it so much... I am staying
in a hotel on the eastern side of the city, just near the ring road, near
the road to Tivoli.
So today I spent most of the day in an office in a residential district
under a house built just after the war without permits on land gifted by the
pope to people from his home district in the south of Italy. Lunch was at a
café with luke warm Lasagna with vegetables, and dinner was at a restraunt
and consisted of Pizza... Italian Pizza is different - they just put slabs
of the topping on the Pizza...
The café reminded me of a milkbar in some country town but with more people,
and without all the normal milkbar foods.
On the way home from the restraunt, my host needed to stop off to buy
himself some cigarettes. Anyway he purchased them from a vending machine
outside a supermarket. Next to a condom vending machine. I am not sure yet
if this is exactly what I expected, or exactly what I didn't expect. Hard to
tell.
Overnight I had a few phone calls to deal with... The first two were very
important and expected so I left the ringer on so the phone rang at 12:30AM.
Fortunately the person who rang thought that it was only 10:30 PM. After
those calls I turned the ringer off, since I wanted to know if I got a call
and I was awake. So I got a call at 4:30AM, and I must have been very
lightly sleeping since the sound of the phone vibrate motor woke me. Then
another call at 7:00 AM and another at 8:10AM. This is the busiest my phone
has been for a while.
The call at 4:30AM basically started "Hi, It's Tom Here... Where are you?". He
worked out I was not in Oz since the phone had a different ring to it, and
knew I was somewhere in Europe from that but was not quite sure where.
Italian Coffee is nice but takes some getting used to. It is served in
glasses about the size of whiskey shot glasses, and is rather concentrated.
Sugar is not an option since it is so concentrated. It takes some getting
used to - since coffee is a diuretic - meaning that it causes you to loose
fluid. And when I normally drink coffee I reduce my other fluid intake
accordingly. But you cannot do that with Italian coffee, and must drink more
fluids to compensate. Strangely you cannot get a regular cup of coffee most
places, except on Alitalia. There you cannot get a cup of the concentrated
stuff.
Lunch Tuesday was salami from the local market with Philadelphia cream
cheese on a roll. This was really nice. The best way to describe the shop
was a bit larger than the Corner Store of old. Maybe about the size of a
convenience store, but without the modern show fittings, and the brutal
fluorescent lighting.
Simpson's Fans will be impressed to know that Italy has copied one of the
strange ideas from one of the episodes. There is an episode that has Homer
Simpson as the head of the Stone Cutters. Homer is told the 'Real' emergency
number is 912, and not 911. Seems that Italy has two numbers - 112 and 113 I
think.
The 112 number is for the calibari, or the military police. 113 is for the
normal police. But it is not that easy. Not all places have the 113 police,
but all have the 112 police. The 112 police have military discipline, and
are likely to greet you before arresting you. The 113 are more likely to
arrest you before asking a question, and will then proceed to steal your
wallet. Well, maybe not, buy you get the general idea. Another way to think
of it is that 112 keeps Order, and 113 keeps the Law.
Last night I was due to go into the centre of Rome for some sighting, but
thanks to a number of things, not the least was traffic gridlock we put it
off until this afternoon. My host has arranged a 'Personal Guide' to show me
around Rome, in a large black Mercedes. I kid you not. I should note that
the guide is his brother-in-law, but still.
One of the problems was that my host needed to take someone to an
underground. This was a 2-3 Km trip each way, and ended up taking about an
hour. Unfortunately this is not uncommon. It was so bad that he rang saying
he was one KM from the office on his way back, and estimated it would take
10-15 minutes since the traffic was improving. He was right.
The person was actually an Italian Military Officer who had come from
Florence to meet with me, and hear what I had to say. At one stage my host
and he were having a conversation discussing things in Italian, being used
to more quickly exchange ideas. And they were only speaking in Italian. What
was bizarre was that I interrupted and said something like 'No, what I was
saying was...'. And you need to remember I basically know zero Italian, but
thanks to body language and the occasional word that I did understand I
worked out what they were saying.
This morning I saw the weather report for Australia. It is "Mostly Fine"
which is an interesting report given the size of the country. I am just
wondering if they describe Australians as "Mostly Harmless". If you don't
know what I am talking about there, then you need to re-read "The
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".
Last night I had dinner in the hotel restaurant. For starters I had a
platter of thinly sliced meat, on top of rock melon. I think the meat was
some type of smoked port. Main course was a pasta dish. Not sure exactly
what it was, but it was nice. Followed by tiramisu. Very nice.
There are cultural differences in hotels here. In the USA if you go to a
restaurant, you will be asked to sign the bill after your meal, and asked if
you want to leave a tip. In Italy, they do not even show you the bill after
the meal if you are adding the meal to your room bill.
Yesterday at the office we were talking about the various movies. I
suggested "Looking for Alibrandi" which of course is an Australian film
about a 17 year old schoolgirl, of Italian heritage. They had never heard of
it, even though it had been released in Italy. Part of the problem was that
it had been renamed for the Italian marker, to the equivalent of "Three
Generations".
Oh, and in my honor, one of the guys in the office came to work wearing his
Wallaby's jersey, signed by David Campese. This was fine until I pointed out
to everyone that this was normally work in Oz in Winter. And the temperature
yesterday was in the mid to high 20's.
Last Night (Wednesday Night) I got my tour of the center of Rome. I was
really impressed, and I finally see the attraction of this place. I don't
know that I would want to live here but even so it is an interesting place
to visit.
Rome was described as being like rings of a tree. As you get closer to the
center, the buildings get older and older. But like a tree there are spots
of newer activity in spots and radiating outwards - just like branches.
Getting nearer the center the roads got narrower which really surprised me.
I didn't think that they could. I was lucky. The vehicle I was in was
allowed to travel in Taxi lanes giving us the ability to bypass traffic at
times.
What I did not realize was that Rome consists of seven hills. When they
built the city walls they enclosed the seven hills. Could it be that "Seven
Hills" In Sydney is named after the seven hills of Rome. Also what I did not
realize was that The Vatican is actually built on Vatican Hill.
I found it a bit strange when we managed to drive through the wall of the
old city. The arches are large enough for cars to drive through, and are
strong enough to cope with the occasional car crash I guess.
Much of the roads of Rome are actually cobble stone - either on the classic
semicircle pattern or more of a grid. This looks fantastic, and ancient, but
I am told that it gets more interesting when it rains. It is also a huge
effort to maintain. These days they put in a layer of concrete, and then lay
the stones on this. No quick resurfacing of the roads here. It takes a
while...
At one stage we went past where the first emperor of Rome lived - a guy
called Romulus. My guide had a good laugh when I had to inform him that I
thought that Romulus was only the planet in Star Trek where the Romulans
live.
The tour started with some of the hills of Rome. The hills provide amazing
lookouts over the city. The view is spectacular. Unfortunately the view is
better in the morning rather than the evening thanks to the fact that the
lookouts point towards the setting sun.
Around this time we saw a famous fountain. The idea is that when you come to
Rome you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain to ensure that
you come back. Whilst I visited, my driver double parked his car, and
therefore needed to stay with it.
We then visited the tomb of the emperors. This was a mound of brick with a
moat. At the time it was built the moat was actually ground level. The level
of the city has risen 2-3 meters since then. This did not look all that
impressive thanks to theft by the rich and the Christians to build other
buildings.
My guide also told me about a court house built nearby recently (2-300 years
ago) where the architect decided to use roman building techniques with huge
blocks. He did not realize about the weight of the blocks, and the four
story building became 2.5 stories, and has been sinking ever since. Recently
the government has been putting a lot of money into improving the
foundations as it has been sinking.
We then went to what is now a huge square. It was a huge stadium seating
300,000 people. I believe that the guide said that they used to have naval
events in the center when they flooded the area. The infrastructure must
have been amazing there. Like everywhere in Rome, there are a lots of
fountains, statues and churches in the area.
Next we made our way to the square in front of what I believe is Capitoline
Hill. My Italian is not what it used to be... actually it is better. Anyway
this area is a HUGE round-about. What makes it more interesting is that
there are traffic islands in the middle, and no lane markings. If you look
at chaos in the dictionary, I think you will find a picture of this. Such a
weird design does allow some advantages though. We were able to stop in the
middle without interrupting traffic one bit.
What made this stop important was the building in front - with a balcony.
This is THE balcony where Mussolini used to give his speeches to the crowd
below. About this point I found out more about the person. It seems that
much of what remains of ancient Rome exists because he recognized the value
of things. Sure he did some bad things, but not everything he did was bad.
[Having said that, you might want to ask a local what they feel about a 10KM
commute that takes 1-2 hours because new roads cannot be built quickly
because of the roman monuments.]
Then I went to the Capitoline Hill. In classic roman architecture there is a
huge step of stairs leading up to a church just on the side of the hill. I
am told that the stairs are actually the seats from the coliseum. The stairs
just seem to go on. Next to it is an urban redevelopment project on the top
of the hill that Leonardo Da Vinci was commissioned to work on.
Like most good projects he was not given the budget to do the project
properly so he cheated. Instead of building new buildings, he just built
facades around the existing buildings. But this was not a case of simply. He
cheated all the time on this project. Firstly, for the stairs leading up, he
only used about ¼ of the stairs he should have, and used a ramp between the
steps. This creates the optical illusion of not being as many stairs.
Then the square at the top has geometric patterns on it. It is assumed that
the patterns are circles, but are in fact ovals creating a strange
perspective. The buildings are not built straight up, but come in to further
increase the sense of size.
In the centre of the courtyard is the top of a brass stake. This is the
centre of Rome. When it is said that all roads lead to Rome, they all lead
to this stake.
I was instructed to take a path to the side of two of the buildings, and
meet my driver at the bottom of the path. What he did not say was that I
would see so much more on the other side. You see behind this building are
roman ruins that were uncovered by mousilini when he was in power. So many
important buildings are here, one of the most important being the Roman
Senate,. I was really blown away.
My driver then picked me up and took me past Constantine's arch, and the
coliseum. This took us under a roman aqua duct that still took pride of
place in the city. The Coliseum really is a marvel of modern engineering. It
is so large. Looked at from above it really is amazing.
I then walked up close and personal, touching it and the like. Unlike
Constantine's Arch nearby you were actually able to touch some of it. Wow,
the history. This whole area had cobble stones, like much of Rome.
At one stage my driver took my down some back streets. They were actually
back streets. I would have called them paths. They were about the size of
walkways in housing estates. Things are so tight that the people flip in
both their side mirrors in order to get as close to the wall as they can. I
believe that 10cm is the acceptable distance from the wall. Driving a car
down these streets appears fun.
They are so tight that they appear to be a dead end at the end, but might be
a right angle or a T intersection. What is more fun is the occasional
restaurant with outdoor dining. Diners are suggested that they do not lean
back on their chairs, as they are likely to come into contact with a car.
Onwards and upwards we then decided to cross the Tiber river to the western
side where I was able to visit the eighth country I had every been in. That
was the Holy See, commonly known as The Vatican. Nothing can prepare you for
St Paul's. Not being a Catholic, I had not recently seen a photo of the
place, so I really was not expecting anything.
And I was certainly impressed. St Paul's is on the top of Vatican Hill,
meaning that as you look up the road leading to it, you are struck by the
scale. Some of this is real, and some is an optical illusion.
St Paul's is fronted by a huge square. Well it is actually a circle, but it
is a square. The front quarter of the circumference to the square is open.
The far side is bordered by St Peters. And the right hand side is bordered
by the Papal Apartments. Apart from that, the square is surrounded by a
double row of huge columns connected with a roof. To top the effect off,
large chandeliers light the columns.
Once again the area is entirely cobble stones. Also in the square is a
statue of St Peter, and from memory also an Obelisk. Since this is an area
that is very popular for open-air services, the area in front of St Paul's
contains a roped off area for chairs. I guess this is for invited guests.
Off to one side is a 'box' that is obviously a video screen attempting to
look innocuous. Many of the pillars around the edge also contain speakers
allowing those without the good seats to participate.
I would have loved to visited the Papal Museum, but I did not get a chance
on this trip. Hopefully on my next one too. Then I would also get a chance
to see inside St Paul's and also The Sistine Chapel.
I asked about what happens when the current pope dies. Apparently he is
entitled to be buried in the Vatican, but that is his choice. What I was
more interested in was the voting for the new one. I was told that this was
commonly done in the Sistine Chapel. By commonly done, I mean it has been
done that way for about 500 years or so. But there are rumors that the next
time it may be done somewhere else - I did not hear why but I suspect that
it might be so that the faithful could still access the Sistine chapel.
For the uninitiated, the cardinals are locked up to come to a decision on
the new pope. They get to vote once a day, and spend the rest of the time
praying and talking. No one is allowed in or out. Food is delivered but that
is all. Once the decision is made the voting slips are burned creating a
special colored smoke indicating that there is a new Bishop of Rome [The
actual post].
On leaving the Holy Sea, it was time for dinner. My host took me back into
the center of town and after a while we found a parking spot. The driver
seemed to be an expert at reversing the car - able to drive it as well in
reverse as forward. I was impressed. In searching for a spot we went down
some streets that would have been hard enough for me to drive down myself.
He was able to reverse out of them.
Once we found a spot we found that the restaurant was actually closed. The
owner apparently was just recovering from an operation we found out later.
But to get there we needed to walk from the car, and passed a few police
officers obviously on special duty. The sub machine guns were a tiny bit of
a give away.
My host then took me somewhere else - I have no idea where it was. When the
menu came I was told "there is no need for that if you trust me', which I
did. We ended up having Bresheta, a platter of meat and rock melon,
anchovies and a Pizza. All were really nice.
At one stage a woman in hospital blues comes in and collects some food. When
she leaves I comment that there must be a hospital nearby. He said yes, it
was called (I believe) St Lukes, and was opened in 1525. I was impressed.
Following dinner it was about time for me to get some sleep so my driver
took me back to my hotel. He then needed to drive about 30 minutes further
south towards Naples.
Thursday I did not have much to do, so once I grabbed my email I was offered
the chance to go back into Rome. Nicola and his girlfriend took me shopping
- and I finally got a chance to see the Rome traffic up close and personal.
It was not too bad, really. But this was not peak hour either.
They took me to a district near the Vatican, and it was really interesting
to see all the different clothes and other things on display. I actually
found what I was after just outside the walls to the Vatican - some souvenir
shops. Following shopping I did some more work at the office meeting with
some of my clients clients. Not much more to say about this.
Checking in at Rome was strange. The woman found it strange that I had a
ticket to London, and then a separate one to Singapore. Once she realized
that it was because of ticket types and schedule problems she was able to
check my bags through. Until then it was going to be an issue.
Rome is an airport that seems to be locked in the dark ages. It has machines
to wrap your baggage in plastic wrap. This is despite the fact that it is
probably the latest country in 'western' Europe to have a terrorist incident
- although to be fair it was an attempt to blow up their prime minister,
Belisconi, so probably 75% of the population would be supporting the
terrorists.
Arriving in London Heathrow I found the transfer system intelligent.
International arrivals transferring from one of the EU flights get shunted
into an area with a security check, and then a chance to check in to get a
boarding pass. You then take a bus to the right terminal. Very quick and
civilized. The security people even let a child see his Teddy Bear on the
X-Ray machine.
Flying from London we flew back over several interesting places. We came
went about 100km south of Kiev, and then flew over Afghanistan. We also flew
about 100km south of Kandaha I think it was. I tried to get the pilot to
make a short detour for sight seeing and refueling, but he did not take me
up on the offer ?
I found this flight a whole lot better than the one from Rome to Italy. Part
of that was that I fell asleep for a few minutes during taxi-ing before
taking off, but I think the pilot was better, and most of the flight was
over land. As an example the landing at Singapore was the best I felt for a
while. I was impressed.
Changi Airport impressed me too. There was no-one in front of me in the lane
I chose to go through passport control. Very quick. Then my bags came off
the carousel about 2 minutes after I arrived there. And there was no delay
getting out with any sort of customs issues.
I am not sure how much sleep I got on the journey, but it was not enough. I
think I slept maybe two hours on the plan, and the flight got in about 1AM
Rome time, and I had woken up at 4AM. One long day.
I have worked out how you can tell you have been on too many flights and
have had too little sleep. Basically if you feel that the world is spinning
in time with turbulence, God is probably telling me that it is a good time
for a sleep.
My hotel is next to probably my idea of heaven... It is a shopping centre
called "The IT Shopping Center", and is about double the size of the MLC
Center shopping centre in Sydney. It also has food and some other stores,
including a decent Christian bookstore. And did I mention that there is
wireless access there too.
Well, the wireless access is supposed to be free. There are at least 10
access points set up there. Most are private for the shops. The one provided
by the centre for free does not actually work, so I need to use the SingTel
access point. This comes out about $8 per hour. This is not cheap but the
connection is fast, and you can pay that much for dialup with a roaming
account. And I know of a whole lot more expensive internet access methods.
Sunday I did a bit of walking around in the morning. Firstly down to
Chinatown, and this is what I expected. More of the Singapore of old. I went
back to my room about 11:00 to have a shower before checking out. This was
essential considering I had been walking and Singapore is on the equator.
Then I went to the Suntec Shopping center and found the local Cinema. They
proudly pronounce that they have Digital projectors. So I decided to see the
only movie that was in English and suited my timeslot - A Cinderella Story
starring Hillary Duff. This was not a bad movie. I think I would see it
again. Strangely the cinema assigns seats even though it was less than 25%
full.
I could tell that either the projectors were not digital or they were
scanned from the edit marks. In a film there are marks - circles- on the
film in the top left corner when they need to change reels. I learned about
this on the TV show Columbo. Anyway, films that are delivered on film are
delivered on many reels and are edited into one. Digital films are usually
delivered through satellite or some other digital form.
But this movie had the crop marks. Worse, it had grease pencil markings just
after the edit point. So easy to fix. And so much of an indicator that it
was not a digital feed.
Following the movie I decided to visit another shop that I had not been to
before - "The Rock". Turns out it is a christian bookstore. Wow. I am
impressed. I seriously thought about buying a teddy bear. This one was on
it's knees praying. Wow. They had the complete collection of Hillsong CD's
and DVD's there it would appear. And a lot of Sermons on tape. Eh?
Going out the other door I found out that this is actually attached to a
church here in the center of Singapore. Although I seriously considered it,
I declined to attend the service. Things would have been too tight with my
schedule. Besides they had a sign up saying that priority to get inside is
given to first time attendees. This is a sure sign that maybe they need all
the seats that they can get ?
Anyway after some more window shopping I got my lift to the airport. Checkin
was strange. It must be the only place in the world where there is one queue
per checkin lane. Anyway I did not even need to wait so it must work. The
woman also put priority stickers on my bags which she should not have. I did
not complain ?
Changi is a nice airport. They have a movie area, life music, free internet,
shops open 24/7, and even a special hotel inside immigration called the
"Transit Hotel" where you can book a room by the hour. No, not for that. To
sleep and have a shower. They have thought about things. I was concerned
about security as only about 1% of the people were x-rayed before going
through immigration, but then I found that there were also x-rays at each
gate.
Qantas Club beats the world in Singapore too. The showers are fantastic,
particularly when you have been out in the Singapore heat all day. And they
have attendants to clean the rooms between use. Wow.
The flight home was quick. We got in at 5:05AM, and then I was straight
though immigration, collected my bags quickly, and then went though customs
without issue. The slowest thing was waiting 20 minutes for my train. Cest
La Vie.
You know that you need to clean your wallet when there are notes in four
different currencies, and receipts in five currencies. And when none of them
are for the country you are actually in.
Anyway this is being written on my way from the airport on the train. I am
looking forward to being home, but have enjoyed my time away. In closing I
will just quote Dido...
Two weeks away
feels like the whole world should have changed
But I'm Home Now.
And things still look the same
Darryl
