René’s old blog

This site is some twenty-five years old, and it contains lots of ancient stuff, much of it utterly dated and useless.

Sorry about that.

If anything, I post very unevenly, and about whatever occupies me.

Some featured posts

See all featured posts.

Most recent posts

  • Narwhal massacre in Greenland

    Narwhal massacre in Greenland

    The Danish press has reported on a narwhal massacre in Greenland recently, where 42 narwhals have been killed, for their tusks and a limited amount of flesh. The rest of the whale were left to rot on the shore. The remains of the whales were discovered by a boatful of tourists on August 17th. The…

  • Voga alla Veneta

    Voga alla Veneta

    Today I’ve had my baptism at Voga alla Veneta. I went with Enzo, who has a small garden near the Camping San Nicolò where I stay, to the Circolo Canottieri Diadoro to try to row a bit with him. I had about half an hour on the water with Enzo, before his next appointment showed…

  • Voga alla Veneta

    Voga alla Veneta

    Tomorrow will be the basis of another anniversary. I have just made an appointment to have my first lesson of Voga alla Veneta, or rowing Venetian style, tomorrow.

  • Anniversary

    Anniversary

    Today is my two years anniversary with sea kayaking. I did my first sea kayaking course at Kajakhotellet in Copenhagen, Denmark, on August 19th and 20th, 2006. Since then I have paddled almost 2500 km, circumnavigated the Mediterranean island of Sardinia and started a kayaking business in Venice, Italy. This is the most recent photo…

  • Terra di San Marco

    Terra di San Marco

    I’m back in Venice now, in the camping getting the last things ready before a group of Danes arrives on Sunday for a week of magic Venetian paddling. I was lucky enough to find myself a vacant window seat on the right side of the plane. The airport of Venice is built on the edge…

  • Berlusconi covers up Truth – literally

    Berlusconi covers up Truth – literally

    When Berlusconi became prime minister recently, he chose a new backdrop for press conferences. His choice fell on a 18th century painting by the Venetian artist Gianbattista Tiepolo called “Truth unveiled by Time”. It is an allegory showing Time, in the form of an old bearded man, undressing Truth, a beautiful young lady, while Lie…

  • Opus

    I clearly haven’t been following the news properly in the last few years, if I could overlook the return of my all time favourite comics character, Opus. The strip runs in Salon.com, among others.

  • Beagle Paddling

    Beagle Paddling

    We took our beagle Jamil paddling one day in Venice, just to try it. He sat in the rear hatch of my Rockpool Menai 18, with his own little canine PFD on. There are a few photos below. Beagles aren’t usually fond of water, but he was calm enough for a short paddle. After about…

  • Adventure Kayak editorial

    Adventure Kayak editorial

    Tim Shuff has an editorial titled “Apologies to Everyone I’ve Ever Left in my Wake” in the summer 2008 issue of Adventure Kayak magazine, where he discusses the problem of mock waiting when paddling, based in part on my account of the things that went wrong in Sardinia in October last year between Wendy Killoran…