Holiday Hell

Actually, the holiday was pretty nice - but some factors conspired to take the shine off what was meant to be a wonderful weekend. Getting to the hotel was something of a mystery tour involving lugging a large suitcase through narrow streets after what seemed like hours on a waterbus. We unpacked while I did my usual new hotel ritual of playing with all the things like the TV set and seeing what wacky Italian TV there was.

They had a CNN feed with Italian over dubbing, which makes it hard as my Italian is pretty limited to "Lasagne per favor". My heart sank when I saw a publicity shot of the crew, followed by the con trails breaking up.

Bugger, I thought, the bloody tiles finally failed.

It took the shine of the weekend, which still wasn't bad. I'll write about Venice another time. It was nice, a little expensive, and we did get to share a restaurant with some Russian Mafia which was odd.

It might not be the tiles - I hope it was the insulation foam which did the damage. At least that is a simple systemic problem you can solve - anything more complex (I've heard it suggested the landing gear doors came open) and I suspect the shuttle won't fly for a long while. The ISS will almost certainly have to be mothballed - I somehow doubt if it will be finished.

Did anybody else notice the parallels with Steve Baxter's Titan?

City by the Sea

So, Venice. I'm glad we went, but I do have some reservations about it. The first overall impression was one of decay - it's like a fantasy city gone to seed. Part of the problem lies in going at this time of year. The Festival is not for another 2/3 weeks, so pretty much everything is closed up. It makes it easier to see the place, but even so, it's pretty scary at night.

It's also amazingly expensive. I say this having lived and worked in London, Bath and Silicon Valley. Venice knocks the socks off all of these for simple things like a meal out. While the weather was cold and clear for the first 2 days, it rained on the last day. Putting about a foot of water over St Mark's Square - strange to be walking on a raised platform over the place you had coffee a day before. Rather disconcerting.

We also had a weird dining experience. There were a group of Russians in the corner. Led by a guy who could only be described as a Bond villan - huge, bad hair cut, suit and keen on throwing his money around. After the meal of seafood and lobster washed down with wine, the leader started signing rather unpleasant sounding Russian folk songs. After they left the waiter whispered to us, "Maffia". They had, apparently, bought a €2000 bottle of red wine, and a €500 white.

Then we flew home through a snow storm. While Easyjet does exactly what it says on the tin, I never feel comfortable flying with them.