Fireworks!

Tonight I took the kids into Coleraine for the local firework display. This year it seemed particularly amateur, but that didn't stop the little ones from enjoying it.

We were unsure of the start time, but we figured out that last year started at 8:30. We were there just before 8:30, only to hear several folks telling us that they just announced it was starting at 9pm. An extra long wait, especially with two tired children.

Walking on the beach

One of our favorite local walks is along Castlerock beach. I sometimes wonder if we should spread our wings, explore more, and not stick to the same old walks over and over. But on a night like tonight I remember why we visit so often... never fails to impress.

Downhill forest

This evening we went for a walk in Downhill Forest. It was a beautiful autumn evening, perfect for the walk, and the changing leaves made it just fantastic.

We spent quite a while rummaging around in the undergrowth too, looking for conkers, but we only found a couple. Seems like all of the village had been there before us. Maybe next year....

Pacific Coast Highway

Today it was time to go home. Rather than hang around we decided to go to the airport via the coastal route, and headed slightly south, and west to the coast. We followed the Pacific Coast Highway for the miles, stopping briefly at things that were interesting or cool.

One of the most unusual things were the hundreds of oil pumps draining the black gold from the soil, and beaches with oil tankers and oil rigs on the horizon. We also passed by an industrial estate with what seemed to be miles of refinery. Very interesting to see.

With every beach came more great swell, and surfers keenly waiting on the next big wave. All looked very nice, unfortunately we had no time (or equipment) to join in. Made the trip to the airport a lot more interesting though, I'd highly recommend this route to LAX, if you're ever going there.

Mountains

This afternoon we had some time off, so decided to do a bit of exploring. Firstly we went South to Cleveland National Forest, where you could drive through a bit of the mountainside, which was very cool. We thoroughly enjoyed the breathtaking roads and views, coupled with the beautiful sunshine.

After stopping off for some lunch, and having acquired a taste for the mountains we drove North towards "Big Bear Lake" - the local winter sports venue of choice. The cool thing about this part of California is that while the flat plains are only a few hundred feet above sea level they are consistently surrounded by mountains that soar into the clouds. Now, we all love mountains, and we all love a nice stroll in the hills, but we had no time for that. Fortunately, neither do most of the folks from LA, and so they've built great big roads that we can power up in our gas-guzzling V6 trucks.

So, up we went, 1000ft, 2000ft, the markers at the side of the road rolled by. We made our way up to Rolling Springs, the first settlement on the hill, just after the 6000ft marker, and it was cold. Unfortunately our relatively tight schedule didn't permit us to go any further, and I suspect it would have gotten even more spectacular beyond that.

Overall we rarely strayed more than 30-40 miles from the hotel, but we got to see a lot. And the best bit was that although we used thousands of gallons of 'gas', it only cost a few cents...

Silverado - Real America

So, I finally found it. This is what I wanted to see in the US. Silverado, a small village in the hills outside the main LA area in Orange county, California

This town represents a welcome escape from the over-urbanised generic America that we've come to recognise from modern TV.

On the way up here we got lost, and stopped with a guy who seems to live in the most ideal place in the word. He was almost apologetic, that he only lived in a "trailer", but what was cool was that his trailer was in a lovely scenic valley, bounded by conservation areas and national parkland. This means that he is assured that no one else will build around him. Fantastic.

Sunset over the Pacific

After work today we had asked a colleague for recommendations of places to visit. A coastal town called Laguna Beach came highly recommended, and so we decided to go in that direction. Due to the limited daylight we had to get wherever we were going as quickly as possible, but unfortunately we picked the road with an accident, and subsequent tailback. Anyhow, we arrived just in time for the sunset, which I have to say was particularly beautiful, and well worth the wait in the traffic.

Work Travel - LA, California

Once again it falls to me to travel for work. Today I travelled to LA, California in preparation for a weeks work, and I have to say the 11 hour flight is one I could have done without.

Aer Lingus made the flight all the more enjoyable with a personal TV system available, offering a selection of TV programmes, films and music.

It's a bit annoying travelling at this time of year, as the daylight disappears so soon, but I'm informed that it's never that brilliant in LA anyway - not like midsummer here when it hardly gets dark. But, no doubt I will try to make the most of it over the incoming week....

Tax book

The tax book for the car actually arrived today. So now its officially in my name, even if it is to the wrong address. That'll be the next step ;)

Beach fun

Tonight we had some time to kill, so we decided to visit the beach. It was completely empty, and all semi-hard, wet sand. So I let the impreza go, and boy it was some serious fun.

Did the whole thing in second, which was a bit weird, as I had to be over the 2500 rpm to get the turbo. It was a completely different experience than I had been expecting - I'd been expecting to go round in circles, but there's just too much grip for that, even in the sand.

Great.

Tax

At last I have a tax disc. We had to jump through some hoops to get this disc, but the car is finally registered in my name, and I have a valid tax disc.

Today I have insurance, MOT and tax. Great!

Thanks to the hideous brother-in-law for getting it all sorted for me!

Sideways - dry

Only very slight drifting, but definitely a landmark. Tonight on the way home I had an opportunity to overtake nicely round a roundabout, as someone went off right. In second I floored it, and felt the tail go slightly before I had to turn to exit the roundabout.

Very reassuring, the amount of grip available

Boot and numberplate lights

Today I tackled the problem with the rusted rear numberplate lights. The plate that holds them tight to the underside of the bumper had completely rusted away at one side.

I had considered getting some sort of new plate and screwing it all together, but I figured out that if I used the original 2 plastic mounting holes that were now unused because of the rust, I could cable-tie the remaining metal to the bumper.

It's not very beautiful, and certainly temporary at best, but it's definitely a lot better than it was!

When I had the boot open for access I noticed that the light in the boot wasn't working at all. After inspecting the bulb I saw that it wasn't the problem, so I turned to the switch. It seems that corrosion had stopped the switch from closing properly. So I pulled the switch out, and gave the contacts a good clean. All working again!

Perfect wind

Tonight we decided to take the kids to the beach, and I thought I would pack the kites too. Due to the inclement weather we have experienced all "summer" we have hardly been at the beach at all.

Tonight however was superb - the wind was completely steady, and just at the right speed for my 4m buster.

May the pleasant post-summer evenings continue....

Oil change!

At last the car turned over the anticipated 2000 miles. This meant that the running in oil should be changed for fully synthetic oil.


So I went ahead and got a new filter from Subaru, and some fully synthetic oil, (although I am not completely convinced this is the correct oil) and got it changed today.

The wisdom that comes with years.....

.... seems to have completely passed me by!

We're just back from a family outing to pick up my new scooby, a MY98 special edition, full uk spec at 208bhp!

New Car

Got the impreza today. Finally it went through MOT in Newry after getting a cancellation. We went over to pick it up tonight, and I have to say, the drive home was most enjoyable :)

Passat 110 - gone

With the near certainty of another car coming in the next week I decided to advertise my car in Autotrader. Within two hours I had the first call, and today, the second day, I have had loads of calls, and one visitor.

The one visitor had a good look round, bid me bad money, we talked, he bid me better money, and I agreed.

So the car that faithfully carried me home from work tonight left for Derry again, almost of its own accord. There are some cars that it's really good to see go, but this one has done us well, and was going well, it was almost a shame to let it go. I wish the best to the new owner.

g400 service menu

I really like my little camera, and while googling about it I came across this method to get into the service menu. The most exciting thing is really the info screen that appears part way through the process, currently showing 3032 pictures taken, and the first and last date/time etc...

From here:

Press and hold menu button (standard menu will appear in the display)

Press and hold shutter button
(at this point, both the menu button and shutter button are still held down)
Then (while continuing to hold the menu button and shutter button down throughout the sequence below):
- 2xTELE (press right zoom button twice)
- 1xWIDE (press left zoom button once)(a blue information screen appears here)
- 1xTRASH (press trashcan icon button once)
- 1xPLAY (press upper left button on back of camera)
- 2xTELE (press right zoom button twice)
- 1xWIDE (press left zoom button once)

The developer menu will appear (you can release the shutter button and menu button now).

Let the bizarreness continue

Even on our final holiday day it continues to get weirder.

With our mad travel experiences we ensured we were at the airport very early. We managed to skip the queues because we were travelling with "bambinos", and make it more quickly through security, where we then had to wait for longer. All ok so far.

Then the bus came, albeit a little late, to take us onto the tarmac where the plane waited. Loads of people piled on, we were taken to the plane, where we waited in the bus. And we waited. After an age the pilot came down to explain that they had received incorrect data and loaded the plane with 2 tonnes of extra fuel.

This would normally be ok, but being *Rome* Campino airport they have no facility for taking fuel off a plane. So they had to go for a fly to burn off some fuel. Oh, I forgot to tell you why we couldn't just fly. It seems that due to "runway problems", local mountains, high temperatures, a full flight and nearby mountains the plane wouldn't have enough speed to take off by the end of the short runway.

So they went for the flight, and came back for us about 2 hours later.

The take-off was interesting. Normally the plane follows the painted lines onto the runway, but we went right to the grass at the top, and didn't stop - we took a rolling start. As soon as we straightened up it was full power, and we went almost the full length of the runway before taking off. In the end we were up and away.

Oh, and another thing. Now we hadn't enough fuel to get to Belfast. So it was a detour to Nice. I have to say the flight was spectacular. We flew directly over the centre of Rome, and then over Corsica, followed by a great descent into Nice. I would say it was worth the detour just to see the views over the mountains, and the landing in Nice.

While we refueled in Nice I took the kids to talk to the pilot, which I think they really enjoyed.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, flight back to Belfast, landed, luggage, and home. Home for about 7 minutes, and then off to Benone where SWMBO had to play piano. Then home. It's always nice to get home.

Back to Rome - Colosseum

We drove back to Rome, eventually found our way through the maze of roads to our "Pinewood hotel" which actually turned out to be a real hotel. It also turned out to be relatively close to the metro, and so with only a small amount of time I pressured my still sick wife into going to visit the Colosseum.

Upon emerging from the Colosso Metro station the first image that greets the eye is the vast Colosseum.

We walked around the exterior in the blistering mid-day heat, before deciding to go for it and join the semi-eternal queue.
After waiting in the queue for about 5 minutes we decided to take up the offer of skipping the queue by signing up for a 3.50 Euro tour. It was well worth it, and the tour was pretty interesting, although it was advertised as "English" I'm not entirely convinced that it was all English.

An amazing place, well worth a visit, although I did find it slightly disturbing to think of all the people killed for sport in that location.

View

Today I stopped down the lane from the villa to get a snap of the view over Orvietto.

We also took a drive tonight around some of the cool windy roads, and after some encouragement to just drive on we ended up in someones back yard. It was picture perfect, the traditional old Italian lady dressed in blue and sitting in a chair, and an amusing old man smiling at us - presumably this happens tourists from time to time. The old man ushered us to turn in his yard, smiling in amusement all the time. Great.

We got turned, exited, and while we were on a roll we turned in another lane following it for hundreds of metres to find that it brought us back out onto a real road. It was pretty cool, it took us past the vineyard we had intended to visit if SWMBO wasn't suffering from tonsillitis.

Since our roll was continuing, we decided to go on past our villa on our lane. We travelled the 1.1km to our villa and continued on past while the lane narrowed, and wound past several more homes. Finally with the grass growing in the middle we ended up in someone else's yard. We quickly turned before some guy came out with a shotgun, and made our way back down the lane. A pretty cool lane. Must have been about 2 miles long.

Pitigliano

The second town we visited was Pitigliano. This is another mountain-top town, and fortunately we took a wrong turn on the way there, which afforded us some spectacular views. Once there we went for a random walk around, and then tried to find some food. After looking through all the sandwich shops, we stumbled upon a small pizza place, set downstairs off the street, and completely inset into the rock.

The outdoor area was completely roofed by a series of intertwined vines, complete with hanging grapes. We were thoroughly astonished with the setting as we waited for the meal, if you are ever anywhere near I would highly recommend a visit.

It turned out that the food was as good as the setting - everyone had a great meal.

On the way back home we spotted some more of the huge sunflower fields that seem to be common in Italy, so I snapped one.

Bolsena

Today although SWMBO continues to be unwell we decided to attempt a drive around a couple of local towns. The first was Bolsena, a gorgeous lakeside town with a nice harbour, and a not-so-nice beach.

Driving into the town there are excellently kept streets, and seemingly perfectly symmetrical patterned flower and tree arrangements. Truly worth a visit.

Orvietto - walls

Today we visited the town again, more ice-cream, more coke, and more nice views.

The caves

Reading the Italy rough guide book informed me that there is a large network of caves below Orvietto, so we enquired about visiting that today. We were just in time for a guided tour, and quickly joined up.

The tour was ok, not as spectacular as I had hoped, but interesting nevertheless. I suppose my expectations to see lots of the cave network could not ever have been realised, and the few we saw on the tour were interesting.

Apparently lots of the houses and shops have caves or networks of caves below them - how cool. I think if I was building again I would definitely specify at least one cave!

Orvietto

This morning we made a trip in the local picturesque town of Orvietto. There is a spectacular view of the hilltop town from about half way down the lane is super, and as you approach on the small roads, it just gets better.

Parking at the bottom of the town, we walked up through the narrow cobbled streets, with beautiful sandy coloured buildings towering above. The entire town has been kept original, no non-traditional development seems to have been allowed at all.

Walking through the streets towards the Piazza Duomo with the Duomo itself towering above the rooftops as it gets revealed, certainly overpowering. The facade is intricate and highly decorative, with a weird black and white brickwork around the rest of the building.

The heat as usual was mad. Absolutely roasting. Great.

Sunday - a day of rest

After a hectic couple of days we decided that it would be a good idea to have a good quiet day here at the villa.

Well, I couldn't manage to spend a whole day in one place, so I headed out for a drive around the countryside, where there were some spectacular views. What a cool country.

How difficult can it be?

Today we continued in our theme of having trouble doing basic tasks. We successfully checked out of the hotel, and got the Metro back to Termini station.

From there it took us about two hours to find the car hire place, and stand in the semi-eternal queue to hire the car. But never fear, in the end we were driving through Rome, trying to find a motorway. Eventually we were heading North, towards Orvietto.

In the mid afternoon heat we arrived at the train station where we had arranged to meet the owner of the villa. From there we followed the car along a crazy series of roads finishing off in a lane over 1/2 mile long, and very steep up to a cool rustic villa on a hill.

Pleasantly set above a lake, with a lovely blue swimming pool it looked like a great villa. Now, lets find the air-con controls.....

St Peters Basilica

Today we decided to have an early start and visit the inside of the Basilica. It was truly spectacular, I think that perhaps First Dunboe has a lot to live up to. Perhaps a few statues would be in order?

We also did the spectacular climb to the top, to see the fantastic panoramic view, apparently unequalled, of Rome.

When we were walking back to the hotel it seemed like there were thousands of people in the street. It became clear that they were not just loitering, but were in fact in a queue for the Vatican Museum.

St Peters Square

After checking into our "hotel" we decided to go for a walk to see what is around locally. A short walk around the Vatican wall brought us spectacularly into St. Peters Square. I had been warned about this one - I was told I would not believe the sheer magnitude of it. Can you understand my disappointment when upon seeing it I clearly did believe it? Anyhow, it was still quite spectacular, and well worth seeing. We spent some time wandering around it, and viewing the various monuments and buildings.

Afterwards we went for a Coke to cool down in the blistering heat. The rest of the family then went for a rest, and I went for another walk. After the kids went to bed I went out again, to see St Peters in the dark, and at 9:30 in the evening the bus loads of tourists were still arriving. A pretty cool day.

In Rome you can park anywhere : it seems that if you run out of road to park along, a zebra crossing can be used too!