I have been telling Mee that I am busy at work. My manager is on leave again for this whole week. Actually, his absence or presence does not make much difference on my workload because our job scopes are different. It is quite funny when I think about it because there are four of us in a team and all four of us are in charge of different things. So, what happens if some of us are not around? Well, we do know a bit of everything but in some cases, it would be best to leave it until the person on leave, comes back.

While I was in Malaysia, I replied an email sent by my department manager. Immediately after I replied, I received two emails: one from my manager and one from my department manager, both telling me that I do not need to reply any emails while on leave. Hence, I thought it would be best to leave the on leave colleagues alone unless something very important crops up.

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A heart-shaped watermelon is being produced in Japan. And it costs around £105. Nice but pricey!!!

Heart-shaped Watermelon

Source
Japan Probe

So fast, our Italy trip was history. Given the chance, we will still visit Italy again but most probably, it will not be Rome again. Five days were more than enough considering we had a day trip to Florence and Pisa. Hmm… I was supposed to write something about my trip but I was very busy since I came back to work. In addition, I was also organising photos to be shown to my colleagues. I reckon that the easiest way to do this is using Picasa. By using Picasa, I am able to resize the photos, insert watermark and upload the photos to my Picasa web album which is connected to my Google mail account with 1GB storage.

All my photos were 1600X1200 and there are almost 1000 photos that sum up to almost 2GB. I was able to reduce the size of the photo to less than 100MB by reducing the resolution to 800X600.

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Since coming back from Italy, Mee and I have a few things to consider. First of all, we are trying to find a good value health and fitness membership. The cheapest we can get is from a college nearby. However, it closed on bank holidays. We sent a couple of emails yesterday but have yet to get any replies. I doubt that I will get any replies, so I plan to call them after work.

Well, we were in Rome, Italy on the 14th May 2009 and did not have the time to actually celebrate Mee’s birthday. In fact, the day earlier, we hoped to dine out at an Italian restaurant recommended by EasyJet’s Rome guide. Unfortunately, it was closed when we reached the restaurant. We were not even sure if it is still in business. Anyway, we had an Italian lunch on Mee’s birthday.

Our housemate was kind enough to make a birthday cake for Mee and we sang birthday song and Mee blew candle last night.

Mee and cake

Mee cutting the cake

Yummy cake

The three of us

Colosseum (Rome, Italy)

Mee and I were back from Italy last night. The flight was delayed by an hour. Probably because of the weather as it was raining all the way from Gatwick Airport to Basingstoke.

Phew… We had a very hectic schedule during our five days in Rome, Italy; a lot of walking and rushing from places to places in order to make sure that we got the most out of our holiday. The weather was good; well, very hot but still better than raining. It was about 27 degrees Celsius on average and it would be better if it were around 20 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately, Mee and I got darker and the weather served like an ephedrine to me.

Overall, it was a very nice experience and easy to navigate around. Over the next few days, I will be publishing photos and the things that Mee and I did while in Rome.

A walk in town today, I could see lots of people shopping. I went into some travel agencies to check out the foreign exchange rate but they only offer good pound to euro rates of about 1.07 to 1.08 if the amount to exchange is more than £500. Eventually, I went into an independent money exchanger and I was told the rate was 1.08 for any amount. Surprisingly, I was given 1.10 when I went ahead with the transaction.

Apparently, strollers were everywhere; McLaren strollers, Bob stroller, big and small ones, three-wheeled and even four-wheeled stroller. Families packed the travel agencies, browsing through travel catalogues and booking their trips. I am quite glad that Mee and I booked our Italy trip online as we have saved the hassle of being in queue. In addition, we can take our time in searching for the trip that suits us and make decision at any time we like.

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While I was in Festival Place, I took a picture of the innovative chairs provided for customers to rest.

Innovative Chair

Our Italy’s trip preparation is going smoothly at the moment. Mee has packed half of her things while I will pack mine tomorrow. Last night, we booked two tours; an all day Rome tour and Florence to Pisa tour. We initially planned to put a Florence tour into our trip but we find it a bit too rush unless we stay overnight at Florence. I have listed out the places of interest and also print out the map that shows the places of interest. In addition, I have had my Samsung Omnia equipped with IGO8 navigator loaded with Italy map as well as Italian translator. The translator may not be very useful but it is better than nothing.

Internet access seems not to be as easy as I thought it will be. Apparently, the free wireless connectivity requires users to have a mobile number which I do not think that UK number can be used over there. On the other hand, there are paid hotspot services from €2.95 per hour of wireless surfing. Well, we will see how it goes when we get there then.

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Below is the picture which I took on Wednesday while I was driving home from work. It might be the driver forgot about the oil filler cover or it cannot be closed at all.

Forgetful