Mr Hoot

Email from Cheryl. Her email address is avalon52@gmail.com if any of you would like to say hi to your Mum!

Hi David

Sorry we got cut off. I have run out of credit already.
I will try to keep in contact via email.
Well, I am totally overwhelmed with the beauty of Italy. My time so far has been absolutely fantastic. As I said there are 35 Americans and me, but they are fantastic people.
Seeing the Sistine Chapel bought a tear to my eye. By the way, the Pope was out!
Because we are in a group we go right by the hundreds and hundreds of other people waiting in line to see the sights. It makes one feel really good.
The Coliseum – oh boy – standing in there you can feel the history and everywhere you turn in Rome there are remnants of the roman wall.
Pisa and Florence are beautiful. There is so much to photograph I don’t know where to start.
There are absolutely no road rules in Italy and cars, scooters and people all fight for the roads.
My back is holding up really well and lets me know when to stop.
The food!!! Yes I have had pizza and it is nothing like in Australia, but oh so delicious. The Italians do not use garlic at all in cooking. Along with pizza our meals have been divine. Five courses most of the time, so if I thought I would lose weight, yeah right.

I am so glad that I have come. I am laughing a lot and can feel all the stress leaving in the face of this wonderful country. By the way the pace is so slow – no one is in a hurry. The highest temperature so far has been 41 degrees and I have a red nose.

I miss you all but am having the time of my life

Take care of yourself

I just had a phone call from Florence. Well actually it wasn’t Florence calling – it was Cheryl calling from Florence… In Italy…
She said she is having a BALL! Today she saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa – it’s still leaning. And she also saw David – NAKED! (Author’s note: It was a different David she saw not me). ‘Tis good to know that she is having fun. Her back is a bit sore but that’s because she was doing the Can-Can in the hotel lobby last night. I didn’t ask too many questions about that!
And then we got disconnected – probably ran out of credit on her mobile.

Message from Cheryl:

St Peter’s is incredible

Postcard from Michael:

Said lots of stuff!!!

One of my photographs on Flickr passed the 1,000 views mark today. I’m not quite sure why this picture gets so much attention. Sure, it’s a nice photo, but not nice enough to get all these views. The numbers just keep on ticking over for some reason.

Not that I am unhappy about it of course! And this is the photograph…

Message from Cheryl:

Ciao.  Rome is beautiful.  Did city tour.  Thirty-five degrees.  Loving every sweaty minute.  Cheryl.

End message.

Yesterday (Saturday) saw me driving down to Chris‘ house in Frankston with Richard. We all had our camera gear and went on a shooting spree. We started off a Mornington pier where we snapped lots of seascapes, birdscapes and boatscapes. Then, after a bit of lunch at the local Subway, I drove Chris and Richard down to Portsea to have a look at London Bridge, a rock arch. Both of them had never been there before and they had a ball getting their feet wet in the ocean and photographing the surf, sand and stuff.

Chris ended up taking 629 shots, Richard 694 shots and me only a measly 245. It was a great day which we ended up at a La Porcetta for dinner.

Message just in from Cheryl:

Rome baby.  Am tired but oh so over the moon. Luv Cheryl.

Ciao…

In the beginning there was a void. And into that void there came a blog. And the name of the blog was Mr Hoot. In all blogdom there had never been such a blog…

OK, that’s a bit over the top. Just needed something to write for my first post on my new blog. Yes! Mr Hoot is back – this time at dot org instead of dot net.