Will’s View

It may sound like something out of an old-time movie. Well at least my romanticised notions of it certainly were, but walking across the border was rather cool. Sure there wasn’t really a border to speak of, and any posts checking cars and such had been long abolished, but there was a certain inescapable element of old-school about it.

The border was between Slovenia and Italy. The border was drawn just outside the town of Gorizia after the Second World War (when Slovenia was still a part of Yugoslavia) . It was apparently often said that the two towns tried to out-do each other in the quality and attractiveness of their buildings, but I’m not sure how true this is. Back in the day the border was quite an imposing thing apparently, but ever Slovenia implemented the Schengen Agreement, the nature of the border has become somewhat lackadaisical.

Nonetheless, cross the border on foot we did, because no trains ran at times which suited us. I almost felt like an ultra-cool spy, crossing illegally from country to country. Despite how far from the truth this may be. I think the only photo I actually took near the border is this one but I will endeavour to see if I can find some more.

--> It may sound like something out of an old-time movie. Well at least my romanticised notions of it certainly were, but walking across the border was rather cool. Sure there wasn’t really a border to speak of, and any posts checking cars and such had been long abolished, but there was a certain inescapable element of old-school about it. The border was between Slovenia and Italy. The border was drawn just outside the town of Gorizia after the Second World (More...)

This particular brand of incident actually happened twice on our trip, but this was the first (and therefore more entertaining) instance. Whilst in Venice (photos) we went on a day trip to the island (ooh, sorry, archipelago of islands) of Murano. Murano’s main claim to fame (as I understand it) is the glass that is manufactured and moulded out there. The glass manufacturing was apparently moved to Murano originally because it was a rather dirty process and people didn’t want that kind of stuff happening in Venice. The official story is that the risk of fires was too high. Yeah right.

Anyway, I digress. We set off to Murano to see what there was to see about glass. As with most places that have a specialty, there is a museum in Murano dedicated to glass. “Great,” we thought, “we’ll get a bit of culture in whilst wandering around.” Unfortunately though, this particular museum was closed on Mondays, and only Mondays. And, you guessed it; we visited the Murano glass museum on a Monday.

I really didn’t get that. Why should it be open all weekend, but not open on Mondays? Wednesdays I would understand, no one really likes Wednesdays, but a Monday? We did manage to see some glass sculpture though, which almost made up for it. However, the lesson still stands: Check ye the opening hours of a museum before ye venture forth unto said museum. 

--> This particular brand of incident actually happened twice on our trip, but this was the first (and therefore more entertaining) instance. Whilst in Venice (photos) we went on a day trip to the island (ooh, sorry, archipelago of islands) of Murano. Murano’s main claim to fame (as I understand it) is the glass that is manufactured and moulded out there. The glass manufacturing was apparently moved to Murano originally because it was a rather dirty process and people didn’t want that (More...)

For me, there are two defining moments in pop culture about laundromats. The first is a scene in Mr. Bean where he somehow manages to get his washing mixed up with a woman’s, and has to wear a long brown dress instead of his traditional pants. Unsurprisingly, hilarity ensues.

The second comes from the movie Die Hard With a Vengance. John McClane (after surviving a subway crash) walks into a bank, and when the security staff baulk at his state of dress, he explains “It’s laundry day”. And that’s usually what happens to me (minus the subway crash, clearly). By the time it comes to laundry day I have usually worn all my somewhat-good looking clothes, and am down to the traditional trackpants and torn tee shirts.

Except the last time I went was somewhat different, I went to the laundromat because I didn’t have any clean trackpants. You see I’ve been in the middle of exams, and therefore walking around the house (and uni) in trackpants and torn tee shirts. So I actually had to head to the laundromat in nice, somewhat decent-looking clothes. This led me to wonder if laundromats have an implicit dress code. Did I stand out and look like a fool because I wasn’t wearing trackpants? Or did I just have too much time on my hands while waiting for the end of the spin cycle?

--> For me, there are two defining moments in pop culture about laundromats. The first is a scene in Mr. Bean where he somehow manages to get his washing mixed up with a woman’s, and has to wear a long brown dress instead of his traditional pants. Unsurprisingly, hilarity ensues. The second comes from the movie Die Hard With a Vengance. John McClane (after surviving a subway crash) walks into a bank, and when the security staff baulk at (More...)

I’ve been cycling for a while now, almost a year I think, and I was quick to notice two things. It’s hard to cycle into a headwind, and it’s easier to cycle into the wind if you’re behind some other poor sod. This became particularly relevant on the way home yesterday whilst I was battling against a headwind the entire way home.

After a while I got fed up with getting nowhere, and so I started free-wheeling. As a large number of people take the same route home that I do, it was unsurprising that I was passed rather quickly by another cycle-commuter. As a side note, it is interesting to see the different people that cycle home. There are the hardcore biking nuts that have all the lycra, and the bright yellow vests and the super-expensive helmets, and the flashiest accessories. And then there are the people who have just hauled the bike out of the garage and are just hoping like hell it gets them home. I was passed by one of the former.

Anyway, it suddenly struck me that it would be nice to just cycle behind this guy and get a reprieve from the wind. A couple of other people caught on too, and before I knew it there was a trail of cyclists taking advantage of the ol’ laws of fluid dynamics.

The question I have, in terms of cycling ethics, is this: Is it okay to deliberately slow down so that the person behind you gets fed up and overtakes you, so that you can draft them?

--> I’ve been cycling for a while now, almost a year I think, and I was quick to notice two things. It’s hard to cycle into a headwind, and it’s easier to cycle into the wind if you’re behind some other poor sod. This became particularly relevant on the way home yesterday whilst I was battling against a headwind the entire way home. After a while I got fed up with getting nowhere, and so I started free-wheeling. As (More...)

Being a student, I’m often wandering around with my head in the clouds, trying to figure out the latest thermodynamics problem, or thinking about what’s for dinner. Today I found myself doing just that, whilst standing behind a group of people waiting to cross the road.

I was then suddenly disturbed from my reverie by the `tink tink’ (that’s what they sound like in Australia) of the crossing indicators. Almost instinctively I started walking across the road. But alas, the noise was coming from the adjacent intersection and not the one at which I was waiting. No one had pressed the button, so the light phase had gone straight through the section dedicated to pedestrians. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, because one can normally J-walk safely across anyway. Sadly however, with this intersection this was not the case, so I had to wait through another light phase.

Sure it wasn’t much skin off my nose. Who cares about waiting through another light phase? I just went back to thinking about dinner, after pressing the crossing button for the intersection. But it got me wondering how often this actually happens. And why? I have always found it somewhat rude when someone comes up and presses the button for a crossing when I am already standing next to it. It is like they are insinuating that I am incompetent and incapable of pressing a button when I want to cross. But in this case everyone assumed that the first person had pressed the button, but they had let the side down.

Maybe we’re all justified in making sure that button is pressed. I’m not really sure. Either way I should really go cook dinner. It’s been marinating in my head all day.

--> Being a student, I’m often wandering around with my head in the clouds, trying to figure out the latest thermodynamics problem, or thinking about what’s for dinner. Today I found myself doing just that, whilst standing behind a group of people waiting to cross the road. I was then suddenly disturbed from my reverie by the `tink tink’ (that’s what they sound like in Australia) of the crossing indicators. Almost instinctively I started walking across the road. But (More...)