Oh my goodness! The Trailer Park Boys Christmas Special was hysterical! It follows the antics of Ricky, Julian and Bubbles at the Sunnyvale Trailer park. This is a must see for fans, because it is a prequel to the regular season shows. It airs multiple times through December on Showcase so you have a pretty good chance of catching it if you haven’t already.
Archive for 2004
Why must it be so difficult to deal with help desks for your telephone and internet connections? I realize that 90% of the questions they get are probably from untrained people who may not understand what’s wrong with their computer. But for those of us, who can identify that the problem is definitely “outside the home” and due to some specific event (such as, say upgrading the DSL package caused the dial tone to disappear), having to wade through the scripted responses from the “Level 1″ technicians is cruel and unusual punishment in the extreme. When the problem is “Your technicians killed the telephone dial tone when they upgraded the line to the 3 Mb DSL), why on earth should “What operating system are you using” have any bearing on anything? It took about 45 minutes to determine what I knew from the outset — a repair guy had to check the line at their end… Arrghh
Well, it looks like George W. has won the election. Barring a miracle, he seems to have won the popular vote, and the electoral college votes.
Everything else aside, this must bode well for Canada for two reasons. First, the U.S. dollar will continue it’s nose dive, strengthening the Canadian dollar (The first day after the election, the Canadian dollar hit a 12 year high of 82.9 cents!), increasing our trade power. Secondly, with the U.S.’s phenomenal deficit, and incredibly lacklustre domestic policy, Canadians should be able to reverse the “Brain Drain” as skilled professionals will “get the hell out of Dodge” over the next 4 years.
This is a continuation of the previous post because there are a lot of photos! In this section I focus on other parts of Syracuse, Sicily.
Museo Archeològico
This museum has a huge array of prehistoric, Greek and Roman artifacts from Siracusa and the surrounding area. Many of the artifacts were recovered from places like the Teatro Greco, Pantalica,and Megara Hyblea. While the artifacts are fascinating, the museum is surprisingly dated with uninspiring captions (some on cheap cardboard) and fading photos. Normally, I am fascinated with artifacts from ancient times, but the presentation in the museum was so poor that the visit was pretty much a waste of time
Below is a sample of some of the artifacts at the museum
Santuario della Madonna delle Làcrime
One of the newest buildings in Siracusa is the huge sanctuary and
basilica that houses a painting of the Madonna that supposedly wept
for 5 days in 1953.
Basilica di San Giovanni
This ruined basilica lies on top of one of the largest necropolises
in Sicily. Unfortunately no photography was allowed in the necropolis
or in the Tomb of San Giovanni
Ortigia
The oldest part of Siracusa is the island of Ortigia. Easily
defended in ancient times with protected harbors on the east and west
sides, Ortigia has been inhabited since prehistoric times.
Around Town
| Looking north to mainland Siracusa on Lungomare Vittorini |
 |
Newly restored hotel. | |
 |
Fishing for octopus (polipi) in the west harbour |
 |
Rally for the Communists! No really. The CGIL. |
 |
 |
Harbour | |
 |
Via Landolina |
 |
Entrance to a courtyard. |
 |
Laundry time |
Piazza del Duomo
The largest piazza in Ortigia is centred on the cathedral. As well the Municipal building, the Bishops palace, and the church of St. Lucia is there.
 |
The Municipal building and corner of the Duomo (cathedral) |
 |
The Piazza at night |
 |
A children’s fashion show sponsored by Renault in the Piazza. |
 |
|
 |
Watching the horses go by. Sitting by the Cafe del Duomo. Across the way is the Bishop’s palace |
 |
The Piazza at night |
The Duomo
 |
Facade of the Duomo. |
 |
The Duomo at night |
 |
Central wrought iron gate, looking back out over the Piazza del Duomo |
 |
Interior shot |
 |
North aisle look back towards entrance. |
 |
View of the pews and the chancel |
 |
Teeny tiny stain glass windows. Small windows are typical of the early Norman era churches |
 |
South aisle, showing a good view of the Corinthian columns that were originally part of the Temple of Minerva, 4th century B.C. |
 |
View of the stone work in the front entrance. |
 |
Wedding at the Duomo. |
Fonte d’Aretusa
 |
 |
Piazza Archimede
 |
 |
 |
|
Alla Giudecca
I stayed in the heart of Siracusa on the island of Ortigia
(Or-TI-gee-ah in a residence on Via Artagona. Recently
renovated, the building lies on one of the oldest know Jewish ritual
baths, or Miqwe.
In the heart of Ortigia on the narrow street Via Alagona is a Residence and Villa named Alla Giudecca. The apartment had stone tile floors, dark stained wooden ceiling and doors windows facing east and west. On the top floor, the apartment had a long balcony with walkout doors to the living room and the bedroom.
 |
View of the main entrance from inside the courtyard |
 |
My bedroom. |
  |
|
  |
|
Again, this is not a new entry, but a consolidation of my web stuff. This is a vacation I took in 2002. I had just bought a Canon ELPH S200 so I took a lot of photos.
November 2002 Long overdo, I decided to take a nice long vacation following the completion of my Ph.D. I had saved up some money and decided that I was going to splurge a little. As it was getting late in the year, I wanted to go somewhere warm and I wanted it to be somewhere in Europe. I settled upon the southernmost point of Europe, in the island of Sicily. I left on Oct 6 and return Oct 21. Read the rest of this entry »
