Amalfi, Italy

On Tuesday we are going to Amalfi, Italy for a short (9 day) holiday, and to attend the wedding of two close friends.

Andrea is really looking forward to it. We are renting a car so we'll be able to go to lots of places in the Amalfi coast, Salerno and Naples area.

Photograph 2005-09-01 by fisticuffs

Amalfi References:

• Wikipedia
  


• Google Images
  


• Weather
  


• Map - Naples & Amalfi Coast
  


• Map - Naples & Amalfi Coast
  

Paula Lenahan

As you may have noticed from links on these pages, Paula has at last got her own web page, and a blog, and an online photo gallery, all hosted by Bebo. Check it out:
   http://plenahan.bebo.com/

It remains to be seen how often she will update it! (Kevin got one too, ages ago, but never posted anything.)

Out Sick!

I have a terrible head cold, again! Cough, blocked nose, head aches, body aches, runny eyes, dizzy. I'm hoping like the last time it is a one day thing I'm supposed to be in London tomorrow.

Malaysia Trip

I'm home. Feeling a bit groggy today, but I slept for 10 hours last night. That was too far to travel for three days work! I didn't sleep well on either flight, but I slept well when I was out there, the Soujana hotel was very nice. The work went very well. Also, I had some beers with my colleagues in Bangsar as planned, and I had a great time.

Home at last and having a slightly belated Birthday. Thanks to everyone who sent me a card.

While I've been gone Andrea has been busy blogging and taking delivery of dozens of Asian horror films. Combined with the various Anime box sets we got recently (such as Rune Soldier and Sergeant Frog) we have about 22 DVDs to watch, that's about 30 hours of video! It looks like we won't be renting any time soon, or even leaving the house for that matter.

Malaysia

I'm only just back from Atlanta (last Thursday) and I have to travel to Kuala Lumpur, for 3 days, on Tuesday. It is a bit much!

I'll be in Malaysia for my 35th birthday, much to Andrea's disappointment. I'll celebrate properly next weekend. While in KL, I might go to La Bodega, Tapas Bar in Bangsar Baru. I was there once before and that bar, and that whole area, are a lot of fun.

With all this traveling I'm surprised I am not more tired. At the moment I'm OK, I got two good nights sleep since I arrived home, and I slept well in the US, so maybe this whole jet lag problem is something you can adapt to. Or it might be the Melatonin supplements - though I expect they work through placebo effect. The effect of Melatonin is very gentle, they make me feel like it should be night time, and get rid of the disconcerting feeling you should really be awake or that the sky should be bright outside. Essentially their effect is psychological without actually making you groggy. Safer than taking Tylenol PM I think.

More Calories for your Buck

I always try and make it to Denny's when I go to the states, or maybe IHOP.

Nobody does breakfast like those boys. This time I had to find the nearest one to my hotel near LAX using Google maps, and walk about a mile and a half. But I had an hour to kill between last checkout time and my ride to the airport, and I was hungry.

So how much food can you buy for $8 in America?

3 pancakes, 2 slices of toast, 3 or 4 slices of bacon, 4 sausages, fried potatoes, and 2 eggs

Did I mention I was hungry?

I'm going to USA again on Sunday, this time to Atlanta for four days. Since I can only eat a meal like about once a month and hope to live until my eighties, I afraid I'll have to give Denny's a miss this time.

LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/

This is an interesting online network site, similar to Orkut, Bebo, MySpace etc. but for grown ups. So far, after only a day or two, I've exchanged contacts with people I literally haven't seen for years. The success and usefulness of this type of system depends largely on who is on it already, and getting a critical mass of contacts. Some are just better in certain regions. From my point of view LinkedIn beats Orkut hands down. I actually preferred the Orkut user interface, it just seems that LinkedIn is where the 30-something I.T. crowd are. Sad really if you think about it.

If you want to join and I know you then you can invite me using the email address ml444@irlbrl.com. My profile is at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/marklen

Thanks to Andrea for putting me on to this (sorry Dave, Andrea actually told me first.)

This all reads like I'm desperate to find friends. I suppose if I made even a slight effort to be nice to people I'd have kept these contacts in the first place... No, feck it, I'll stick with what I know.