René's old blog
Whatever I feel like posting, whenever
This site goes back some twenty-five years, so it is bound to be full of stale links and irrelevant information. It is, at best, updated irregularly.
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At the end of the year we’re supposed to reflect on the year that passed. I have found that a bit hard this year, so I’ve decided to leave the reflections to the vaporetto (water bus) platforms of Venice. They…
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Happy Holidays
Happy Holidays to everybody out there, paddling or not.
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Circumnavigation of Sicily
The circumnavigation of Sicily won’t be this time. Progress has been much too slow, and the time I have will not allow us to recover the delay. We’ve done about 125km in a week, and we’ve only just made it…
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Periplo della Sicilia
Il periplo della Sicilia non si fa questa volta. Il progresso è stato troppo lento, e il tempo disponibile non permette di ricuperare. In una settimana abbiamo fatto sui 125km, e siamo appena arrivati sulla costa nord dell’isola. Un altro…
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Sicily Circumnavigation 2010
In March, 2010, I intend to paddle around the Mediterranean island of Sicily, a trip of some 900 km along a stunningly beautiful coastline, where, besides the natural beauty of the coast and the sea, we’ll pass Greek temples, Phoenician…
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The Joys of Being a Foreigner – Paying Online
This is really nothing new, as it has bothered me for a couple of years now, but since I’ve ended up doing a series of Being a Foreigner posts, I can just as well toss in this grievance too. I…
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The Joys of Being a Foreigner – Cittadinanza Digitale
The Cittadinanza Digitale – digital citizenship – is a very laudable project of the City of Venice with the scope of bringing fast wireless internet to all citizens for free. As far as I have understood, the project started when…
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The Joys of Being a Foreigner – Opening a Bank Account
When I decided to stay here in Venice for good, one of the first things to do is to open a bank account. You can only have your money lying around in envelopes for about so long 🙂 I went…
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The Joys of Being a Foreigner – Telecom Italia and Alice
Living in another country always causes problems of one kind or the other. Both public administration and private companies are geared towards the citizens, not foreigners, and justly so. Yet at times you run into problems so stupid its hard…
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Lessico Veneto – Malamocco
I recently found some scanned books from Venice of times past. One of them is a kind of historical encyclopedia from the mid 19th century, and I must say it has its little oddities 🙂 The entry for Malamocco –…
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Skim Kayaks suspends production
I’ve just received a message, in Swedish, from Skim Kayaks stating that they’re suspending production and sales because they’re having problems making ends meet economically. Its sad because the boats are fantastic. I have paddled a Skim Distance around Sardinia,…
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Female Gondoliere
Until recently all gondoliere in Venice were men. This summer a Venetian woman, the daughter of a gondoliere, decided to try the exam, and she passed it as the first woman ever. New gondoliere will start to work as substitutes…