One of the many great things about France is the infrastructure. The inventors of the TGV knew what they were doing, so it is easier to take the train anywhere in France than to fly. Here’s what it is like going through a snowstorm at 300kmph or so…
Category Archives: Life
NZ 4th best….
In yet another silly survey NZ is ranked ‘4th best place to live’ in the world. France is first, USA 5th, Australia 2nd and the Netherlands 3rd. I wouldn’t disagree that these are all great places to live – I’ve spent at least two months in four of them, lived in three of them and …
More snow…
As requested, a couple more photos from my travels. I am currently in Paris, having just returned from a week in Val d’Isere, where the snow was great and the sun incessantly shining. I finally invested in a ski helmet, which is having a bad impact on my “willingness to do something”/”ability to do so” …
France…
A snapshot of France.. I’m wirelessly surfing the internet in a bar, vin rouge beside me, very polite French folk around me also sipping wine, dogs playing in the middle of it all and right outside in the hallway a patisserie with perfect coffee, croissants and baguettes for breakfast… Outside are huge mountains (this is …
Snow here in London
That’s two cities now – I saw the first snow of the season in Washington DC and now here in London. Next stop Paris…. [Update – sure enough – Paris experienced it’s first snow the day I arrived….]
More skiing piccies…
The Utah pictures ….for those that thrive on disliking my skiing…. Val d’isere is next – I go there Friday Europe time.
Skiing in Utah…
It hasn’t been all work over here in the USA…. That’s skiing in Utah – on a bad snow day!
Housing is expensive. Again.
It seems that it take Kiwi’s much longer to buy a house than it does for those living in the US, Ireland and Canada. (Australia is worse off). The measure used is average price of a house over average income in the region. Three points from the great article: 1: It’s not the lack of …
mia rose – youtube launching new artists..
Mia Rose – could she be the next big thing – and thanks to youtube?? It seems that youtube is beating this year’s US American idol for creating recording artists. The music industry is seeing that our media use is moving online – it’s just a matter of time for advertisers to follow…
Brains and Beauty
Only in the USA. Actually no, but only in the USA would this be so blatant: Wealthy men meet beautiful women event Men are allowed to attend based on meeting income (age adjusted) or net worth requirements. e.g. $500,000+ if you are my age. Women are allowed to attend based on beauty – they submit …
iPhone
The best summary of the iPhone I’ve seen. The device is beautiful, does everything you could dream of and more but is fatally tied (the phone locks out other SIMs) into a 2 year contract with dubious Cingular. To give Apple credit, ALL of the USA mobile networks in are terrifyingly poor – with Cingular …
Amerika
Well I’m back in the USA, and all the differences come flooding in. The homeless guys all down the street, polite greetings, overly attentive waitresses and the stench of disinfectant in my cheap motel and my rental car.. The car itself is bizarrely shaped and barely drivable, while that gulf between poverty and wealth means …
Fly in comfort – check out Seatguru
If you are flying soon check out Seatguru – it gets behind the airlines spin and shows you the actual configuration of the seats on the plane. Use it to see exactly how much space you will ‘enjoy’, and what the best and worst seats are. For business class travel check out the AirNZ 747 …
sports quiz
I’m proud to have scored just 18/50 in the 2006 Stuff Sports Quiz (link will change to weekly quiz). There is so much sport on these days that keeping up would require shelving much of the rest of your life.
getting directions
wises.co.nz – it would be nice if your website driving direction feature actually worked on New Years Eve – after all lots of people are travelling. Multimap is guilty of being down as well – in fact only (strangely enough) Yellow Pages worked right now, which uses Multimap and does provide weird results. It seems …
Lance Wiggs 