James McDonald

Reducing Fractured Concentration

Recently I've been divesting myself of mailing list memberships and commercial email subscriptions. Why? - Because every email that hit's your inbox is a distraction. With mailing lists, it's usually a question which doesn't become an answer until the end of the email...

Some Notes on Germany

Germany Stayed at a friends house in semi-rural germany Moers (I think). Went to a Roman ruin nearby and saw almost identical architecture as to what was in Rome. Truly the Roman empires reach was colossal. Cologne has a huge Cathedral it's a good walk to the top and...

Some Notes on Italy

Sights. Colesseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill. €12.00 well spent. truly amazing for it's time. So many sports domes look so much like it (Colosseum) now. Pantheon: Loved it. Looking a bit dicayed outside but inside splendid. Still amazed how they managed to raise 20...

Blog Fail

I have attempted to Blog about our trip 'as it happened' but moving around and not getting WiFi at convenient times has meant I'm not going to. Anyhow I've made some notes and should be able to post it when I get back to Terra Australis. Hong Kong Airport is huge and...

Cologne Germany

Currently in Cologne Germany visiting friends. Wife is shopping. I am sitting in Starbucks taking advantage of the free WiFi. Just climbed to the top of a big church. It's 157m high. Amazing stonework and stained glass. Going to find my wife and her friend now she...

Praiano – Terraced Plantings

Praiano is nestled on a hill on the Amalfi coast. Its all Terraced gardens and rendered stone houses. I now understand more the way the expatriate Italians in Aus build because I've now seen so many examples in Italy. Went to Pompeii yesterday. Very extensive well...

Croatia Day 8 – Dubrovnik

Well worth going to. Dubrovnik has a massive Castle and a stone work Town inside. It is bordered by sea and is uber picturesque. Caught a bus from our accommodation overlooking the Ferry Port for 10KN each. For those with an engineering background KN is _not_...

Croatia Day 7 – Korcula

Korcula. What a suprise! From Hvar we were treating Korcula as a necessary stop on the way to Dubrovnik. And so only planned one night and then leave on the bus in the morning. But Korcula is lovely. A small Promontory which houses the old town and ancient buildings...

Croatia Days 4 – 6 Hvar Island

Go Hvar! Via the magic of the internets we booked accommodation at Villa Zorana while we were in Split. Finding Villa Zorana was a bit of a challenge. Apparently Hvar has only just recently named the streets so even people that spoke English (which just about all do...

Croatia Day 3 – Split

From Plitvice - We caught a coach to Split. The interesting thing about the coach is that it takes a very circuitous route to get to Split so instead of taking 3 hours it takes 6. This was fine for us because it gave us a chance to see the country-side. Especially the...

Croatia Day 1

Just arrived off the train to Zagreb Croatia from Ljubljana it's 11:31AM. Ironically we are staying for one night in "Hotel Central Zagreb" not to be confused with Hotel Center Ljubljana which we stayed in whilst in Ljubljana Slovenia. Haven't looked around at the...