Moving (again)

Regular readers will know that I moved from the UK to southern Italy in December 2007.
This was a trial move to see if we liked the area to live in as much as we did when we just visited for holidays and to see if we could survive on our fairly small pot of money.
I have to say that I’ve absolutely loved my time here but mainly because of the horrors now emerging about the banking system my Sterling Shilling just doesn’t stretch far enough for us to stay here any longer. The exchange rate against the Euro is a third down on what it was when I did my sums so doing them now tells me to cut and run before my pot is empty. Sad but true.

I’ve now got to go through the nightmare of getting the cats back to the UK. Definitely not using British Airways, of course, after their last fiasco. See my archive “British Airways screw me again!”. This time I’m trying ThomsonFly from Naples to Manchester direct. I’ll keep you informed how it goes.

The cats have loved it here as well. From being not allowed out in the UK they have become outdoor cats in a big way. We had one of the Maine Coons with dark brown hair had to be shaved in the high summer to keep him cool but the silver one didn’t need it.

They even became friends with our new dog, Mishca.

Wolf’s hair soon grew back for the winter and he will be returning to the UK with his warm coat firmly on.

Just an update.  The cats travelled back to the UK with ThompsonFly on Friday the 3rd April and got back safely.  A long trip for them.  2 hours by car to Naples airport with a THREE HOUR wait there – presumably to make sure they didn’t blow up or some such security threat check – a 2.5 hour flight and then another one hour delay at Manchester airport -  presumably waiting for their bags to come around the carousel and then a one hour car journey back to their UK home.  I wonder what they are thinking now.  I know I’m missing them already!

Lightroom2

Now hands up all those who’ve updated to Lightroom 2.  Good, well done and you can put all your hands down now.  Isn’t it good?  I think it rocks seriously well.  I love the graduated filter and have also started using the quick change buttons as they work like f stops in a way I can understand – cos I’m old!

A trimmed Wolfie

We just had one of our 4 cats trimmed for the summer heat.  He’s the biggest Maine Coon weighing it at 9Kg and he’s had a Lion Cut.  I must admit he looks a bit strange now but he’s much happier and gone back to trying to hunt again.  His hair was very matted before the cut with grass seeds stuck in it as well.  He’s such a softy he wouldn’t let me brush him at all so we had to do something.

slow broadband

I think I’ve found out what could be causing my slow broadband connection . .

This pole is about 100 mtrs from my house.  The cable has been tied up into a tree so obviously the telecom man has been to repair it at some time.

I know adsl lines are sensitive  to conditions so guess that is what is causing the really poor speed.

Don’t suppose there is any chance of getting it sorted this millenium!

I will try to blog more but I’m just so busy at the moment and then can’t spend over an hour downloading and uploading files ….

Image taken on the Ricoh GX100 (of course) It’s all I carry unless doing a paid for job!

The cats are settling in well.  Had to have their bug treatment now they are going off into the long grass amongst the Olive trees outside.  I promise to take some images soon!

British Airways screw me again!

I hate British Airways! First of all they insist that you have to book a passenger flight before you can book cat’s onto that flight.

So I did.

I wanted to travel from Manchester, UK to Naples, Italy. BA fly that route but some times go via Gatwick. I book the flight and apply for the cats to go Cargo.

British Airways then said Cat’s have to wait at Gatwick 4 hours before they can do an onward flight and the changeover time between the Manchester Flight arriving and the Naples flight departing was only an hour so the cat’s wouldn’t be able to do that. (my cat’s are big and could walk that distance much quicker than 4 hours!)

OK, no problem I thought. My wife could drive the cat’s down to Gatwick and just catch the flight from there with them but was then told if I cancelled the Manchester to Gatwick part of the journey the whole flight ticket would be cancelled including the return and I wouldn’t get compensated for that loss even though it’s British Airways fault!

So, I organise someone else to take the cats to Gatwick, my wife will keep her original plans and fly from Manchester with the cats meeting up with her at Gatwick.  Fine ….. apart from British Airways then say, with only 2 weeks to go before the travel date, that the cats can’t go on that flight because it’s going to be full of mail so they can go on the earlier flight at 7.30am!!!!

Ok, what about my wife’s ticket – she has to be on the same flight because someone has to meet the cats in Naples and I will be driving and can’t be sure I’ll be there – British Airways won’t refund the flight or change the ticket even though it’s their fault – they insist on me having to buy a ticket before I can book the cats as freight and then when they say they won’t get the cats on that flight they say my ticket is worthless.

After throwing a wobbely on the phone I eventually spoke with a supervisor who said he understood how silly it must sound and that he would re emburse the money for the first cancelled ticket and change the second one (the return flight for my wife for the 14th Jan.)

Perhaps British Airways have seen sense at last, so I thought.  The guy changes the booking while I’m on the phone – it pops up on my screen at home and I print out the confirmed booking on my inkjet and off we go.  Suprise suprise – we get to the airport for my wife to return home and there is nothing on the computer terminal so she can’t get the flight without paying £230.  Two hundred and thirty pounds for a ticket that we had already bought for £65 but had to cancel because we didn’t catch the outwood bound leg because British Airways cancelled the cats flight!!!

The supervisor had told me he was giving me the ticket because of the loss we had had with them cancelling the first flight but he didn’t – all he did was “book” the ticket and I still had to pay for it but at the day of flight price – which is the most expensive way of buying a ticket.  BASTARDS .

I think British Airways are crooks and vagabonds and if they want to try to sue me – bring it on.  While we are in court they can explain why they are cheeting bastards to the Judge and let him or her decide what is fair.

The cats made the journey although 2 have had to go to the Vets because one caught a cold and the other got a form of systitus but I don’t supose I can blame British Airways for that.

D3 and Wolfie again

Another D3 image of one of my cats. This time using flash with a diffuser on it. The SB800 is a clever little unit with a power that is certainly bigger than it’s small size alludes to.

Does anyone else have a cat that crosses it’s legs when sitting down?

Nikon D3 is the Cat’s Whiskers!

Still playing with and learning about the Nikon D3.  This image was taken with the 85 f1.8 lens. 1/40th sec f2.8 at 640 Iso.

Even at 640 ISO it’s so smooth.  This is just from the jpg without any further noise reduction. If anyone wants the full size file just ask.

For anyone who’s interested the cat is called Wolfie (Highland Wolf) and is a four year old Maine Coon.  Weighs in at just under 2 stone so he’s a big brown boy!

So much to do.

There are so many things to do getting ready for my move over to Italy from the UK.

One of the things, or should I say 4 (?), is getting the cats their passports. We have had them micro chipped last week and then vaccinated for rabies and we have to take them to the vets after 30 days to have blood samples taken so the anti rabies count is then logged in the passports. We got the vet to make a home visit to do the injecting and she almost ran out of the room when I brought in Wolfie.

He doesn’t look very big here but he weighs in at about 22lbs and is just a big softy really.

Evie is a bit smaller but more fluffy.

Daisy Lou is smaller still – but she’s only 2 years old where as Evie and Wolfie are four!

And then there’s Polly Pocket. (sorry if she’s breaking someones copyright – she didn’t know) Polly is just mad. She is a Ragdoll that was the runt of her litter but fortunately for her there was a nursing Maine Coon mum in the same room as her and she latched on to the Maine Coon mum. I guess that Maine Coon milk must be better than RagDoll milk as Polly grew to be a fine kitten after everyone giving up on her at first.

She never stops chasing things now. She carries table tennis balls AND full size tennis balls around the house, dropping them at your feet so you can throw them so she can fetch them like a dog!

MAD!

Well, they didn’t take too kindly to getting vaccinated so we have to take them to the vets soon for the blood samples to be taken. The vet didn’t want to risk coming to the house again!