René’s old blog
-
A day in Palermo
A few days ago I went for a walk here in Palermo, and I took some photos along the way. The road was from Piazza Don Bosco towards Piazza Noce and back. A funny bending fence A nice calm sidewalk without parked cars This is where mafiosi shot down Cesare Terranova and his driver Lenin […]
-
Italian Commercial Neologisms
Italian shops are often called something ending in “-eria”. A bookshop is a libreria, from libro which means book. A pizzeria makes and sell pizze (plural of pizza), a gelateria sells gelato, icecream, and so on. An osteria sells hospitality, literally a “hostery” like in “host” 🙂 Since the scheme is very simple, it is […]
-
Mobile phones in Italy
I have understood from a previous post that Wendy travels without a mobile phone, and hence have limited internet access. Here is how you get a mobile phone with internet access in Italy. There are three mobile phone operators in Italy: TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile), Wind and Vodafone. TIM has a red/blue logo, Wind is […]
-
Team paddling experiences
The four weeks I paddled in Sardinia is the longest kayak journey I have been on so far, and the first time I have travelled for so long with somebody I knew so little.
Things went very wrong between Wendy and I, and I have quite naturally given it quite a bit of thought as to why. I’m not sure it necessarily had to end like that, had we been able to handle some problems and situations better during the time we travelled together.
All interpersonal relations are inherently complex, and it doesn’t get less complex by placing those relations in a context of sea kayaking in unknown territory for long hours each day, occasionally in difficult weather conditions, while living primitively on beaches and the like. The physical and psychological stress induced further complicates matters.
The following are my thoughts on some of the areas where I think Wendy and I didn’t do very well as a team.
-
Pentax Optio W30
-
My Pentax Optio W10 is no more
My camera is dead. It’s been a bit flaky for a while, the flash stopped working a while ago, and after my paddle with Francesco Ravasio on Friday it wouldn’t turn on anymore. I’ve tried everything, but no go. It’s been a good friend from some 1500km paddling in the last year or so, taking […]
-
TIM Prepaid Mobile Internet Warning
As mentioned previously, I have had some problems with my Telecom Italia Mobile prepaid mobile phone account. It ran out of money, I put in €50 and was told my account was still at €0. My assumption was that the payment had somehow failed. I spent hours on the Internet and on the phone to […]
-
Telecom Italia Mobile customer “service”
I have a TIM sim card in my mobile phone here in Italy. It’s a pre-paid card, so I have to ‘recharge’ it regularly. I did that today. I bought a €50 card, scratch the field to get the number, call the service and enter the number. I get a message that it went well. […]
-
Vodafone Wi-Fi Hotspots
I have the dubious pleasure of using a Vodafone Wi-Fi hots at the Jolly Hotel at Cagliari. It must be the lousiest hotspot I have ever used. I am consistently thrown off every few minutes and association attempts fail three times out of four. It makes it bloody hard to do something with the time […]
-
My Sardinian journey ends here
I have decided stop my journey around Sardinia here in Fertilia.
My primary reason for embarking on this trip was to recover from a depression I had after a marital crisis last year. I wanted to get away from everything, try something new, have fresh impulses in my life and hopefully come back a fitter person, in every sense of the word, ready to take on the challenges of a ‘normal’ life again.
Over all the journey has fulfilled its purpose. I have seen new places, met new people, gotten new friends, learned much about kayaking and the sea, and about team paddling. It has been a very refreshing experience, and I’m very happy that I took on the challenge when the opportunity presented itself.
Unfortunately, the paddling partnership between Wendy and I didn’t work out as expected. In the end, our relationship grew so sour that it became detrimental to my stated aim with the journey, to recover from my depression.
-
Team split
Wendy and I have for some time had disagreements, mostly on questions of time and speed. Our disagreements has proven irreconcilable, and yesterday at Porto Ferro we decided to go on separately.
Wendy left before me this morning. I have no information on her whereabouts.
I’m currently at Fertilia just north of Alghero. Tomorrow I will have to do some shopping at Alghero. I have no maps and no map-case. I will also need a paddle float, and I have no tent pegs for use with my tarp. I have no tent either, but it is hardly worth buying a new tent for whatever remains of the circumnavigation of Sardinia. I’ll try to manage with the tarp.
Blogging will probably be more irregular now. My old (non-sponsored) internet tablet doesn’t charge the battery any more, so it will soon die on me, and Wendy has (as far as I know) no mobile phone for internet access. I charged my internet tablet battery on Wendy’s tablet, and she used my mobile for internet access.
I’ll try to blog as often as possible.
