Saaga

10 things to see in St Petersburg

1. Church of the Savior on Blood
2. St.Isaac’s Cathedral
3. St.Peter and St.Paul’s Fortress
4. The Bourse
5. The Winter Palace/Hermitage Museum
6. Vorontsov Palace
7. Yusupov Palace
8. 342 bridges
9. Narva Triumphal Gate
10. Trinity Cathedral

10 things to see in Visby

1. Medieval City Wall
2. Gupowder tower
3. Burmeister House
4. Almedalen - Park
5. Stora Torget - Market Square
6. St Mary’s Cathedral
7. Visby vistas
8. The dancing llamas of Visby
9. The llama academy of modern llama art
10. Llama street, featuring llamas

Top 10 things to do in Helsinki

1. Suomenlinna: an old sea fortress
2. Tuomiokirkko (The Lutheran Cathedral)
3. Uspenski Cathedral
4. Esplanadi Boulevard
5. Market square and Market Hall
6. President’s palace
7. Sibelius Memorial
8. Temppeliaukio (Rock) Church
9. Sofiankatu Street Museum
10. Finlandia Hall

Top 10 things to do in Copenhagen

1. Amalienborg Palace
2. Rosenborg Palace
3. Little Mermaid
4. Rådhuspladsen - Town hall square
5. Rundetårn - round tower
6. Free City of Christiania
7. Canal & harbour boat tour
8. Strøget: Europe’s longest pedestrean street.
9. Nyhavn – New harbour
10. Tivoli – world’S oldest amusement park

Top ten things to see and do in Riga

1. The Cathedral Built in the 13th century.

2. The Freedom Monument.

3. Riga Castle: including the Museum of Latvian History.

4. The Powder Tower: a remnant of the city walls housing the Latvian Museum of War.

5. Art Nouveau architecture on Alberta and Elizabetes streets.

6. St. Peter’s Church, which has a 123 m tall tower.

7. The Old City Walls and the Swedish Gate.

8. The Academy of Sciences.

9. The “Three Brothers” collection of medieval buildings.

10. The Cat House.

How often is a second album over-shadowed by its predecessor? How often is a great debut album followed by something that blows it away?
I have had a few conversations along these lines lately and while I don’t have a definitive answer, I can give examples:

Franz Ferdinand and The Killers both had absolutely stellar first albums. However I have been forced to defend the follow up albums of both bands in recent time and have come to the conclusion that (IMHO) the second albums are better.

Arcade Fire is a good example (again IMHO) of the former position. Their first album was absolutely wonderful. Unfortunately their follow up was akin to dog leavings.

Is there a formula? Does a pattern evolve here that I am missing?

This becomes a moot point once the band has a few albums under it’s belt.

We got back from Berlin last night after a great short break. We didn’t do any of the normal touristy stuff in the German capital because we have been a few times before. Our reason for going was really to visit Jay and Cathy on their brief German sojourn and then hang out with Alex’s cousin and his kids.

Here is an action shot of Jay and Cathy:

The touristy stuff we did mostly revolved around the East west split of the city during the communist era. We went tot the DDR museum and looked at the folly and failure that was perpetrated upon a largely unwilling people. Every time I look into the history of partitioned Germany, I can’t help but think: ‘What made the East German government persist.’ I imagine that when they started they thought they were doing the right thing, but when you have to put a wall up to stop your people from fleeing to somewhere better, often at the risk of losing their lives, you really need to have a rethink about what you are doing.
We also took a guided tour of the wall with Martin Bloem. He was an absolute font of knowledge on all the wall related history and I highly recommend him if you manage* to get to Berlin.

The wall tour was also exciting because a bird attacked me. Here he is pecking my foot.

Part of me thought he was cute. Part of me admired his courage. Part of me wanted to kick him over the fence. Before I could find out which part of me was more in control, my handler moved me on.

*Naomi and Chris I am looking at you. You will find him quite soothing as he has a very well developed Nayfro.

I have been painting metal miniatures since 1987 and my painting career goes back further than that if you count spitfires, Messerschmitts*, Hurricanes and Folke Wulfs in 1/72 scale.
I mentions this because in August last year I started playing a new game that my school pays me to play with the kids; called Warmachine. I have been painting the miniatutres and have done a better job than I have ever done before and I cannot work out why. I am older, my hands shake more and my eyesite is going. It is all a mystery.

*Which means ‘knife maker’.

Here is the reverse of the bambino coin:

So if we have a boy, what should we name him?

Here is a picture I took of the white board in my classroom.
A colleague asked the question: Where is this in the curriculum?

I managed to avoid answering her.

The lesson was fun and much learning happened.

It seems that the German’s preferred temperature range for activity is 10-22 degrees. Any hotter and they must all sit around complaining about the heat. I mention this because as I jogged past a pub this afternoon in the sweltering 23 degree weather, a bunch of 55-65 year old Germans laughed at me and made the comment that it was too hot for running. My faltering German was too slow to give a proper reaction before I had gone by them, so I contented myself with composing my reply for when I came back past on the return leg.

Heute is nicht heis. Der Australishe Winter is wärmer als dein Sommer.

It was lucky that I was also wearing my Socceroos* jersey, so as I rounded the corner with my German phrase mapped out, I could point at the emblem on the breast…to find that they had buggered off. Bastards! I didn’t get my breathless revenge, but it is supposed to be 25 degrees tomorrow and warmer by the end of the week, so I suppose they will probably be dead by Sunday anyway.

*I hate that name