Thoughts on Venice...

	I love a window seat when flying over Europe. During the night the clusters of lights below look stunning. The reflection of the full moon off rivers and lakes sparkled below. Sunrise on a plane is very special as it creeps across the land below.
I really enjoyed sitting here in my window watching the passing boat traffic and people on the other side of the canal. I stayed in a house that was a little off the main pathways and seeing other puzzled tourists wonder where they were amused me greatly.
	Yeah, Venice is a bit of a postcard city. I didn't like it a hell of a lot. It was everything I expected it to be including disappointing. Ok, I'm being a little harsh... I'm sure couples and newly-weds find it a great place.
Yes, I know I can only smile with half my face. I'm aware of it, but thanks for pointing it out. No, really, I don't mind.
	One thing I did like about Venice was the range of fresh produce in the Markets. The variety of vegetables available in Europe always impresses me.
Best time to sightsee: 7am. Most of the tour boats are just puling in and the passengers are still eating breakfast on board. The streets and squares are quiet and the city actually seems like a special place.
	New fave Australian Artist: Shaun Gladwell. He is Australia's official representation for the Venice Biennale 2009. His work MADDESTMAXIMVS can be seen at the Australian Pavilion in the Giardini.
Freakin' cool personalities in the door bells in Venice. Most of them looked a bit stunned. :)
	Our host, Melinda from the MCA in The Rocks, met Judo and I at the wharf as we jumped off the taxi. She walked us to the house we were staying in and we passed a bar/cafe where she says served the best spritz in Venice... I concur... for sure, yes, word, right on, hell yeah, absolutely.
The canals of Venice are not as lifeless or as polluted as I was lead to believe. There is a lot of fish life and actually the was no stinky smell. Ok, yeah there was a smell on the first day, but I'm putting that down to some sewage problem somewhere.

Some pics from the trip...

are up on Flickr.

I love the anti-splash guard

in the urinal at my local pub. If your aim is good you can pee right into the hole in the bottom and a cool stream of bubbles pop out the top two holes.

And I'm back from holidays.

Am about to head off...

for a bit of an adventure. I am one excited man. This holiday will be a nice mix of culture and adventure. I'll start with culture : The Venice Biennale.
I'll end with adventure:

Well, that was unexpected...

and now it hurts. But only a tiny bit. I think I was inspired by the previous post and decided stitches were the hip fashion item this season so I just had to get my own set.

Actually, I had a quick trip to my GP yesterday morning because I had a little mole (which I shall call skanky mole from this point on) that had suddenly decided she wanted to change. My GP is a bit of a nutter. He's the sort of man that still wears a bow tie to work and thinks reciting Keat's poetry during a consultation is cool. Anyhoo, he decided that skanky mole was weird and that I needed to see a specialist immediately. This just happened to be one of my busiest days at work as I need to get a few things completed before I go on leave later this week. But alas, he would hear none of that and called a few clinics until he found one I could get into straight away. He is a strange man. While he was on hold he scribbled down 8 medical terms and looked at me and said "I shall write a bit of poetry with these words while I'm on hold. It's what I do"... Oooooookaaaaaay.

To cut a boring story short, I went off to the clinic and the skanky mole was cut from my chest. The nurse in the surgery was great. She was mid thirties, kind of looked like Jenny Morris and had a fantastic sense of humor. She helped me tweet about this during the whole experience and kindly offered to take the above picture for me when my own aim was a little off. She did say that was a first for the operating table. We discussed the details and merits of removing the stitches myself next week. However, because of their location this is a task I will set for Judo.