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2011-01-20T16:38:00.005+11:00

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2010-12-09T22:30:00.004+11:00

Travels in Eastern Europe- Moscow to Budapest

2010-07-04T08:46:00.003+10:00

5 April 2010 En route to St. Petersburg
We have loved Moscow. It is far more beautiful and accessible than I imagined. I thought it would be full of tall grey intimidating buildings but instead the architecture is elegant and colorful. People are very relaxed although that could be due to it being Easter weekend.
We navigated our own way to our hotel via express from the airport and metro – no mean feat considering there are no English signs but Justin has been studying the Cyrillic alphabet which was lucky. After our first Russian lunch of pelmeni we headed for Red Square. It is unbelievable. It is now officially my favorite square, even more than the great Italian piazzas. Amazing colour of the buildings. And no photos of St. Basils do justice to it. It was crisp but not icy and very sunny so we enjoyed just wandering around.
On Saturday we headed for the Kremlin and spent the morning there. The walls and towers surrounding it are magnificent and it contains the well guarded government buildings as well as The Tsar’s Cannon and Bell and 5 stunning churches.
In the afternoon we went to the Tretyakov gallery of Russian art which was interesting for the historical perspective. Also full of Russian icons which some others of us were particularly interested in.
Gave us only time for the second bowl of soup for the day before heading off to the opera at the Bolshoi.
Yesterday we began with Easter treats of kulich and pashka provided by the hotel then headed off to the Novodevichy Convent which is in the suburbs. 17th century convent in spacious grounds containing the most striking bell tower in Moscow as well as other remarkable churches and buildings. Then back on the metro to the Kultury Park stop which bore no signs of the recent bombing. A long walk up to Tolstoy’s local church was followed by a visit to his Winter House. When we arrived there we discovered that it was closed for a special German Rotary fundraising occasion so we were sent away disappointed. But as we were standing outside gazing forlornly through the fence the guy in charge raced out and invited us back in to view the house which was officially closed because we had obviously come from a long way and should not be sent away.
I’m so glad he did because it was such a full and dedicated re-creation of how he lived. We saw where Rachmaninov played the piano, Chekhov played chess, and most importantly where Tolstoy wrote.
By this time was it was after 2 so were hungry but just stopped for yet another quick bowl of soup before racing off to the over the top and grandiose Church of Christ the Saviour (the largest in Moscow, Stalin had it destroyed in the 30s but it was recently rebuilt with no expense spared.) Being Easter Sunday it was very crowded with high security and TV cameras with dignitaries shortly due to arrive but we paid our respects and left before then to go down the road to the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum. We had to queue for an hour because there was a special Picasso exhibition on and no separate entrance. Gave us a chance to observe the street life. Russian women certainly have their own over the top fashion style. If you can wear all the colours of the rainbow eg bright blue boots, sparkly stockings, pink top, short skirt and shiny blue plastic coat as well as something trimmed with fur you do.
There were some masterpieces in the gallery – a room of Rembrandts was a standout as were many Greek and Roman items (including a full size statue of Augustus which Justin illegally photographed for Amelia). However the European wing across the road had a staggering collection of Impressionist art including the a wonderful Van Gogh I have never heard of before -The red vineyard at Arles..
By this time of course we were footsore and hungry and found a Russian (as opposed to the many other cuisines available) restaurant near our hotel cooking some classics which we thoroughly enjoyed.
Today was raining but we took a quick walk back to say goodbye to Red Square before intrepidly making our way to the Leningradsky Station (again no English anywhere) to find our train to St. Petersburg.

12 April 2010 Hello from train to Warsaw.
This is the second leg of our 9 hour trek from Vilnius. Lucky we made it on to the train at all considering that as when I was for paying our hotel this morning I realized that I must have left my atm card in the machine at the foreign exchange bureau at the station on Sat morning. Luckily it had been retrieved at the time and was handed over to me on presentation of my passport.
We had a relatively low key time in Vilnius after the rigours of intense tourism in Russia. We stayed in a monastery/guest house attached to a church. Our room had views of the graceful old gates of the city. Vilnius is very pretty – all cobbled streets, eighteenth century architecture, Baroque churches. We could walk everywhere. All the food was delicious (and cheap). We mostly ate traditional Lithuanian food – dumplings, fish etc. Justin of course had the game stew. On Sat we ran into no less than 5 weddings – the custom here seems to be for the bride and groom to greet the guests outside the church before the wedding. And the guests all bring flowers.
We saw as much of St. Petersburg as we could. At first sight in the late evening it seemed shabby after Moscow. Beautiful buildings but in need of sprucing up.
However our first morning was sunny , we left our very comfortable hotel and wandered down the road to the Winter Palace and could not fail to be stunned. It was a perfect day to see St.P and we took ourselves on 2 of the walks described in Lonely Planet. Too many places to describe fully here. Suffice to say the highlights were wandering along the river, and visiting the Yusopov Palace. We spent Wednesday at the Hermitage which was all that we expected although not as overwhelming as I thought. Hard to say what the standouts were – maybe the Greek pots, the Impressionists, 27 Rembrandts, and just the general décor of how the Romanovs lived. In the evening we went to a brilliant performance of Giselle at the gorgeous Mariinsky Theatre followed by a good dinner at The Idiot which Dostoevsky used to own.
On Thursday we went to the nearby town of Push kin (used to be called Tsarkoe Selo) where the royals had their summer palace. We were lucky enough to go with another couple we met at our hotel. He had actually been born in St. P but emigrated to Italy when he was 16 and then to Israel ending up in LA. He had spent summer holidays at Pushkin as a child so was able to show us around the town including Pushkin’s old school. And his Russian came in very handy when we were trying to catch the local buses there. The palace, known as Catherine’s Palace because it was her favourite was fascinating, not only for the interior decoration but for the historical detail. The rooms that had been the private apartments of Alexander (who died of typhoid) and the deposed Emperor Nicholas were particularly poignant. But the gardens were even more beautiful than the palace, despite the snow and ice.
On our last day we made some pilgrimages – saw Nabokov’s childhood home, where Dostoevsky lived, and visited the Rimsky-Korsakov museum. The latter was in the apartment the family lived for the last 20 of his life and had been kept exactly as it was then. We saw the living room where he entertained the great musicians of the day, the piano that Stravinsky had played etc.
We went to another very interesting museum known variously as the Musuem of Fine and Decorative Arts and the Stieglitz Museum. Not without difficulty. Russia does not advertise its museums. We had read about it in the guidebook and walked up and down the small side street a few times, finding only the Museum of the Siege Of Leningrad, also mentioned. We eventually saw a small sign outside an Art Gallery, walked into it and were told to walk through to the back. It looked promising but the door was locked. We had to use our initiative, put our hand through the wire and turn the key on the inside to enter. But it was worth it. It was Baron Stieglitz’s home (he was an avid collector of beautiful objects) which he left to the Art School so they could have a beautiful environment to study.
Anyway we are off to Poland now. A strange time to be coming in the light of the plane tragedy. They are in the middle of a week of mourning so the concerts we had booked have been cancelled.
14 April 2010 En route to Krakow
We arrived in Warsaw late on Monday evening. Walking out of the train station was a bit confronting after the quiet of Vilnius .It was frenetic and noisy and we were surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of skyscrapers. I quailed at attempting to negotiate the bus so we got a taxi to our hotel in the old Town opposite the Castle.
Next morning however we discovered how beautiful Warsaw was as we walked around the immaculately restored old town. But there were constant reminders of the sad history of the town. So much was destroyed in the war. Building after building had plaques bearing witness to the tragedies that had occurred there. And all this was overladen by the signs of mourning everywhere for the plane victims. There were also multiple memorial church services for the Katyn victims. Across the road from the Polish Army Church where the main service was being held is the very moving memorial to the Warsaw Uprising.
On a lighter note we found a café serving Polish cheesecake of unparalled quality . As we walked back toward our hotel down the main street we had to pass the Presidential Palace where the remains of the First Lady had arrived. The queue to walk past the coffins lying in state had just started to gain momentum. There were TV screens showing what was happening inside. People thronging the streets, everyone taking photos, posters of all the victims everywhere. The queue grew steadily – we could see it outside our window and it continued through the night,
On Wednesday morning we walked through the old Jewish quarter. Little remains other than one wall of the ghetto adorned with pictures of the previous inhabitants.
Greg and family arrived at lunchtime which gave us sometime to show them around the Old Town as well as vist the Castle..
We arrived in Radom at 8.30 pm after spending an unscheduled 2 hours at Wars aw railway station so we didn’t form any initial impressions except that our hotel was quite upmarket.
The morning was warm and sunny and Radom was far more attractive than I had thought.
We wandered down the main street – Zeromskiego which is pedestrianised, full of shops and cafes. Much of the architecture is original 19th century although Radom dates from the 14th. I can see where the Acland Street cake shops had their origins. The percentage of bakeries (known as cukiernias – sugar shops) is high. One of them had at least 20 types of cheesecake. We had to buy Wisnie chocolates (a sort of cherry liquer) of course.
We were in a sort of trance really, imagining our father walking along here. The intensity deepened the closer we came to the old Jewish quarter. We arrived at the Rynek (town square) and it was obviously virtually unchanged from prewar years. We knew from our Melbourne sources that all the streets around it had been Jewish streets but there is nothing in Radom, or on its website to reflect its considerable Jewish past. We knew that somewhere was a Monument to the Jews on the site of the old synagogue but did not know where or how to find it. Even a Google search didn’t help.
Because the area around there retained most of the original buildings, it was not difficult to imagine the Jewish life there but unfortunately also too easy to visualize the violence and death that would have taken place.
Not far from there was my father’s street but it has changed its name, been widened to include a roundabout and it was not clear if the existing number 11 was the original one. We think his house is actually now an empty site but have taken many photographs of the houses surrounding the site to see if a positive id can be made in Melbourne.
Back in the square I noticed the archives, so I went in to see if I could gather further information. The clerk didn’t speak English but after a few minutes found 2 people who could. They were able to tell me where the Jewish monument was which was lucky because it was in a fairly nondescript street that we would not otherwise have come across. In fact the buildings around it were ugly and run-down. At least the empty site where the synagogue once stood has not been built on, but the monument deserved more significance.
We eventually found our way to the library. It is located in quite an imposing 19th century street, obviously the smart end of town. I was looking for a pre-war map so I could go further in identifying the location of the house. The library was quite small and didn’t seem to use the Dewey system but we were able to locate the geography and history sections, as well as the dictionaries which came in useful. The librarian on duty didn’t speak English but she grasped that I wanted an older map but just found me an older street map. She realized that I was looking for more information and indicated that we should wait. A man came (who turned out to be the music librarian) but he spoke English and explained that I wanted a pre-war map (the only one available online dates from 1943 so had all the street names in German). They did have one and photocopied it for me. And we were able to see how my father’s street was before the traffic changes.
I told him that we were also looking for photographs of the pre-war period.
He took us up to their local history room and stayed to interpret for me. The librarian knew her collection backwards and searched for what we wanted. She apologized and explained that there were not many photos taken of what was the workers area. However she unearthed a few books with photographs, the most interesting of which was a book of postcards of old Radom.
It was heartwarming to see how everyone at the library tried so hard to help us. And when we went back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage before catching our train to Krakow they ended up giving us a copy of the current Radom map because I had asked to look at it so many times.
We are now on the train to Krakow. We don’t know quite what to expect . The funeral is now being held there on Sunday with many world leaders including Obama attending so after our experience of George Bush in Jerusalem we wonder if there will be some security restrictions on our movements. We have also heard that there are quite serious demonstrations there against the President being buried in Wawel Cathedral.

18 April 2010 From Zakopane
Our involvement in the Presidential funeral became a little too exciting in Krakow.
We arrived very late on Thursday (yet another Polish train delay - we are becoming intimate with station platforms) tired and hungry but were amazed to discover that we were staying in a former Renaissance palace. It's called Dom Polonii and is right on the main square. It is owned by a Polish Society dedicated to Polish cultural pursuits, run by a real gentleman. Only the top floor is a hotel and we took all 3 rooms. They were huge and furnished in style. Admittedly it was 85 grand steps up.
The downside began on Friday morning when the manager told me that the funeral was not in Wawel Cathedral - a safe km or so away but it in the church in the square prior to a procession to the cathedral for burial. For security purposes the whole square was to be cordoned off and we had to be in our room by 5pm on the Sat and not able to leave till 5 pm the next day. Somewhat problematic as we all had to leave the hotel for our various destinations on Sun morning.
He explained that he couldn't argue with the CIA, KGB and Mossad.
However by the time we returned in the evening it had changed to 8 pm curfew (with passport ID) but we had to leave by 8am on Sun morning. Things were also getting confused at this stage because of the uncertainty over Greg et al's flight home to London on Sunday. They were prospectively on the streets with their baggage with nowhere to go.
By this time the square was filling out with journalists, mourners, police, security, camerals, choir rehearsing etc. All chaos.
We did manage to return in time on Sat night but not long after were invaded by Reuters photograhers checking out the photo possibilites from our rooms. It was agreed that Greg and Tammie's was unsuitable so they were allowed to return their on Sun night because by now it had been confirmed that flight was cancelled.
They are now to return home by bus (24 hours to London) on Wednesday.
This morning (Sunday) the square was barricaded off. We were allowed out only under police escort to a safe distance.
Justin and I went to the bus station and came to Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains which has been a little disappointing so we are heading back to Krakow tomorrow morning to meet up with the others again.
Besides all this Krakow has been beautiful. It deserves all the architectural plaudits - I think it is at least as stunning as Prague.
We enjoyed visiting the Castle and Cathedral. We also spent a lot of time in the Jewish Quarter. Some of our party (Justin and Ellen) visited the Salt Mines and thought they were fantastic.

Library Thing and HIP

2008-11-02T14:07:00.006+11:00

I'm very excited about the possibilities of Library Thing for Libraries and library catalogues.
We incorporated LTFL into our HIP catalogue several months ago and have received much positive feedback from members of the public about this.
I was asked to give a presentation about this at the SirsiDynix conference in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago - see Zoho slideshow on left.
And even better - we have just added the Reviews enhancement. You can read reviews by other Library Thing members or add your own. See this example
Or check out a video of how it works. Thanks to Colleen Medling from Salt Lake County Library for telling us about Jing - a free screen capture program
You can also check out the link that we have just added to further enrich the catalogue.

Photos, and more photos

2008-06-26T08:12:00.002+10:00

We have started adding our photos to Flickr.
Take a look if you like. Many more to come.....

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Jordan to Jerusalem

2008-05-17T18:37:00.006+10:00

We left Petra on Sat morning and drove to Wadi Rum (Lawrence of Arabia country). We deposited ourselves at a Bedouin camp and then headed off for a 2 hour jeep drive across amazing desert scenery. We saw the Seven Pillars of Wisdom and some spectacular rock formation and gorges.
Then headed back to the camp to while away the late afternoon before climbing up the nearby massif to see the sunset.
We were served a wonderful buffet dinner and entertained by gorgeous young arab males in traditional white dress doing some typical dancing.
Next morning we were dropped at the Jordan Israel border after a brief look at the Port of Aqaba and paddle in the Red Sea.
After all our fears we walked through the border in 15 mins without our baggage even being checked or subject to any security measures. So we arrived at Eilat airport 2 and half hours early for our flight to Tel Aviv which was lucky because it was a complete shambles and took us that long to check in. Bizarre and totally random security procedures.
Our friends collected us and drove us to Jerusalem to the YMCA building where we stayed. It is a beautiful Art Deco building from 1931 which was designed by the architect who did the Empire State Building. After a reviving drink they then took us up to a hill top view of the old city where a friend of theirs who is a professional tour guide pointed about all the sites and gave us an insightful potted history. This was the perfect introduction for us to the city. They then took us to a rooftop Kosher Italian restaurant for dinner where we could enjoy a view over the Old City.
On Monday we went up to Temple Mount first thing and saw the area of the Dome of the Rock (which we can't enter as non-Muslims). The exterior is very beautiful however and there was much else to see.
We then raced down to the Jaffa Gate to go on a 3 hour walking tour of all 4 quarters (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Armenian) of the Old City. This included visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall.
We then spent the rest of the day wandering around the Old City.
The next day we went up to the Mount of Olives where we had another great view of the Old City. Visited some of the churches there which are very significant to Christian pilgrims. Walked down to the city walls and had a delicious lunch of pita, falafel, hummmus and salad in the Muslim Quarter. The was followed by a walk through East Jerusalem to the iconic American Colony Hotel which though grandly colonial was quite welcoming.
For a complete change of scene we met our friend in Mea Sherim the ultra-orthodox suburb that resembles the shetls of Eastern Europe. This small group are intensely devout, eschew modern life, are almost anti-Zionist and have managed to arrange that they are exempted from taxes and army service.
Still on the go we visited the Israel Museum of which the highlight was the Dead Sea Scrolls.
On Wednesday we went to Yad Veshem the Holocaust museum. Obviously this was very moving but its purpose seems to be to inform, not to distress.
Next day was our last day and we just wandered around the Old City after visiting the Italian Synagogue and Art Museum. This has been recreated from the dismantled interior of some Baroque synagogues in Venice.
Here are some initial photos of our trip. Many more to come.

Travels in three countries

2008-05-10T15:54:00.005+10:00

We had a lovely last day in Istanbul (including buying a new camera). Overwhelmed in the Grand Bazaar but escaped to the nearby Rustem Pasha Mosque which I had really liked the first time around. Then walked down to the water and over the Galatea Bridge up to the Galatea Tower and along to Istiklal street which was described in our guidebook as the most elegant in Istanbul. It was - full of Art Nouveau buildings and some very fashionable shops.
Finished up the day by meeting the rest of the group down by the bridge to say goodbye and then eating fish dinners off the boats on the water before heading off to the airport for our late night flight to Damascus.
Damascus exceeded expectations as the oldest continuously inhabited city. We stayed at the Beit al Mamlouka, a restored 17th century house of some wealthy family, built around an inner courtyard, all honey coloured limestone and dark basalt, fountain playing, orange trees, bougainvillea, curiously wrought copper lamps in niches, sprawling cushions on low divans, you know -- the kind of thing from Sindbad in the court of Harun al Raschid, on a slightly smaller scale, but just about as expensive. And elaborate breakfasts of fresh fruit, 3 kinds of olive, white and yellow cheese, cheese pastries, hard boiled egg, hot spicy eggplant, spiced yoghurt, bread and jam (choice of cherry, rose petal, apricot), slice of plum cake, petits fours, all washed down with good coffee.
Thus fortified, ventured into the entirely medieval streets, rather narrow, sometimes buildings meeting overhead, construction either in stone or pine posts in plaster, all of indeterminate age. Not too many cars, luckily, because you often need to press into doorways to let them pass. Suddenly noticed an archbishop in full golden regalia striding along leading a small procession of children. We followed them into the Maronite churchyard; it was a First Communion. and the children in robes were each carrying a lily, to the camera-snapping of proud parents. Thus our introduction to the Christian quarter of the city.
Continued south till we came to the Street Called Straight, or so it is described in the relevant epistle of St Paul, or is it Acts, where there is the account of him being struck down on the road to damascus, and taking refuge in a house of a friend in a side street here. Actually Straight Street was the Roman decumanus, or main east-west street. It was all being dug up, which meant dust and big machines, and rubble underfoot, but in the midst of the confusion there were a small group of Damascene archeologists scraping dirt off a pile of huge sections of ancient fluted columns which had been unearthed in the process or road building. The street was lined with the most fascinating little shops with silver jewellery, astrolabes, oil lamps predating Ali Baba, and so on. Thence by devious ways to the truly grand Ummayad Mosque, built from a former basilica in the early 700s by a sultan determined to put the new capital of the Caliphate on the world map.
The Souk was much better than that in Istanbul. David and Kathy joined us on the second day which was great. The food was even nicer than Turkey - interesting flavours and amazingly cheap.
We took a day trip to Palmyra on Tuesday -the ruins did not disappoint.
The next day wasn't been so good. A nice driver picked us up and we got over the Jordan border without too much hanging around. Our new driver is not so nice. But we had a good visit to Jerash (Roman ruins from 2nd century) and our guide there was excellent.We then went to Madaba which seems to be a bit of a hole - other than some Byzantine mosaics.
Thursday was much better. We went to Mt. Nebo where Moses espied the Promised Land which did not look to us to be to the land of milk and honey. But then we diverted to the Dead Sea which was very beautiful. Justin tested the waters and did indeed float. The landscape in this part of Jordan was much more interesting than we had seen the day before. We then came to Karak castle - a huge and solid Crusader Castle
built on top of a hill. We enjoyed exploring it.
Finally arrived in Wadi Musa which is the village near Petra.
Yesterday we spent the day at Petra. The weather was perfect - not hot with sunshine and a cool breeze which was lucky because we had to do so much walking.
Petra was magnificent. When we came upon the Treasury I almost wept. I realised that it was the best place I had ever seen in the world. It is impossible to do justice to it all by description. Hopefully the photos will tell the tale.
today we head off for a night in the desert at Wadi Rum.

Cappadocia

2008-05-02T19:22:00.005+10:00

I spent the rest of Tuesday afternoon wandering around the lake whıch was idyllic with its mountain backdrop. Meanwhile Justin and most of the rest of the group went on a bike ride which was later described by someone as the most dangerous thing that they had ever done. They had to come back on steep potholed roads in the dark, no helmets wıth thunder and lightning all around them!
On Wednesday we headed off early to travel to Cappadocia which has to be the most amazing landscape that İ have ever seen. Peaks and caves made of soft volcanic ash that people have hollowed out to build houses out of. İt ıs weird and white and ghostly - like landing on another planet. We stopped on the way to look at an underground city. There are 200 of these over Cappadocia and were first settled by the Hittites more than 2000 years ago. We went down 55 metres I think to see complete houses - they lived underground to hide from theır enemies.
We arrıved ın Göreme late afternoon. Our hotel was high up in this amazing village with wonderful views from our bedroom and the terrace.
Yesterday we visited the Open Air Museum which contained churches from the earliest days of Christianity which had been hollowed out of the rock, several with beautifully preserved frescoes. In the afternoon Justin went with the others on ATVs - 4 wheeled motor scooters, tearing around the slopes. And this was after he had begun the morning with a hot air balloon trip.
We all went to a Turkish Nights dinner in an another village - set up for tourists wıth folk dances and belly dancing. But it was fun abd we finished off the evening smoking water pipes at the Flintsones late night dive (built into a cave of course).
Today we go to Ankara to catch the night train to Istanbul. We shall be very sad to leave the rest of our group.

Coast to lake

2008-04-30T01:07:00.001+10:00

We have arrived in Eğırdır which ıs an unpretentious town by one of the largest lakes in Turkey, set in the mountains.

On Saturday we drove to Kaş, whıch a very very pretty town on the southern coast facing the Greek İslands. You can see our hotel and the vıew from our terrace. It is stıll early in the season so it was lovely to while away the afternoon there. As is usual for this part of the coast there are Lycian tombs scattered around the town and an ancient Hellenistic theatre backing on to the seafront.

The people are so friendly and unhassling. We had lunch at a cafe at the edge of the harbour and when I went back on my own for a cup of tea which he made for me in an un Turkish way - a proper sized cup and with a slice of lemon, he wouldn't charge me for it. And this morning we stopped at a petrol station on the way here. Everyone was buying snacks - it was a 5 hour journey and I bought a small loaf of bread. With my very limited Turkish I was looking for a packet of butter or cheese to go with it and the assistant there sliced it in half for me and buttered it but said it was a gift for me.

The waiters in the place we had dinner at on Sat night were also incredibly nice to us. There was an important soccer match on and the whole town seemed to be watching it noisily.

Yesterday we drove to an even smaller and more picturesque village further along the coast - Uçagız. We spent the day cruising around the Mediterranean, stopping at islands to explore more ancient ruins. Out boat hosts cooked a lovely lunch for us on the boat, followed by dinner at their home in the evening.

The day was somewhat marred however by our camera falling overboard. I was going to jump in to retrieve but the captain said it was 6 metres and Justin said the camera would have sunk to the bottom. We tried to fish for it but no luck. So we have lost all the wonderful pics that Justin had taken so far. Hopefully we can get some pics from others in the group later but they won't be the same. The other bad news of the day is that I have developed a severe allergic reactıon to a plant I brushed against on the hike. Luckily Angela is a skin specialıst so I am receivıng good medical care.

Nevertheless we are continuing to have a very good time.

Pamukkale to Kayakoy

2008-04-27T15:02:00.005+10:00

Today has been really good. Got off to a bad start with a cold shower at 6 am followed by an indıfferent breakfast before heading off on a 3 hour hike along part of the Lycian Way. From Kayakoy up the hill to the ghost village that Louis de Berniere based Birds without wings on through the hılls and down to the beach at Ouldeniz. Gorgeous country punctuated by wonderful views of the Turquoise coast. İt was a spectacular walk.We then (well İ dıd) tested the beach waters before catchıng a dolmus with Ken and Nicole to Salikent Gorge. This ıs quıte amazing - a very narrow gorge through very high mountains wıth the rock carved smoothly by the torrent ınto wonderful shapes. You have to wade knee deep ın the rushing torrent, opaquely grey. We wore plastıc shoes and guided by local urchins walked more than half a km. We also had a very relaxed lunch sitting on attractive cushions by the water's edge ın a perfectly placed cafe.
We had dinner tonight in the grandest house (400 years old) in the old village which has been renovated into an upmarket restaurant. Very fine food indeed.
On Thursday we went from Selcçuk to Pamukkale which is an UNESCO protected sıte of natural beauty. Calcium deposits forming whıte cascades peaks alongside travertine thermal pools that again we took our shoes off and waded through. At the top was Hierapolıs - another site of ancient ruins with a virtually fully preserved Roman theatre.
Yesterday we came to Kayakoy vıa Fethıye. There was an earthquake whilst we were waitıng to change buses - 4.8 on the Richter scale but we didn't notıce much. Fethiye is a typical seaside harbour town but still very pretty. We had lunch there and wandered around for the afternoon. The best sight was the Lycian tombs carved into the hillsıde.
The scenery as we drıve from place place is fantastic. Hilly, fertile, rural. Traditionally and colourfully dressed women and some men and always friendly.

Istanbul to Selçuk

2008-04-22T14:31:00.012+10:00

Istanbul ıs wonderful. Lookıng out across the waters to the poınt where Europe meets Asia wıth mınarets scattered on the skyline everywhere you feel as if you are in one of the world's timeless great cities.
We arrived early on Saturday and met up wıth the group after lunch. The And Hotel ıs perfectly situated.We have a wonderful view of the Aya Sophia from our wındow and the vıew from the roof terrace restaurant ıs spectacular. The group ıs great and our leader ıs Turkish whıch ıs such an advantage over an Australian leader.
The first afternoon we took an orientation walk, starting with the tomb of Mehmet İİ. We have all become old hands now at removing our shoes and donning headscarfs when we walk into mosques and other holy buildings. One of the highlights of the walk was the Rustem Pasha Mosque, hidden away in the old spice market. Not big, but full of beautiful blue tile work. Then we wandered down to the water and over the Galatea Bridge, finishing up with the first of many great meals. The food so far has been universally great. Perfectly grilled and spiced meats, fantastic eggplant dishes and other vegetables etc. Gözleme whıch ıs a traditional specialty of thinly rolled pancake like pastry stuffed with what you want - spinach and feta in my case.
Sunday mornıng (after breakfast on the terrace) we went to the Aya Sophia Museum. İt was a 6th century church that was turned ınto a mosque after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire and then Ataturk restored it as a monument to both traditions in the 1920s. Visited also the Blue Mosque (too big, too many people)and the smaller Aya Sophia whıch we all preferred.Again very exquisite tilework. İ am actually becoming really keen on mosques (which is lucky in the circumstances).
Justin and İ went to Topkapi Palace in the afternoon. İt is at least as big as any other palace we have seen - even Windsor Castle(land size anyway)İ think. The harem quarters were amazing. Room after room unfolding with increasing degrees of decoration until you reach the inner sanctums.Tile work of such elegance and beauty. The afternoon was topped off by walking to the edge of the grounds and having tea at a cafe on the terrace overlooking the water and across at İstanbul at the point where the Bosphorus meets the Golden Horn and flows into the Sea of Marmara. An absolutely timeless and great city of the world.
And then we walked back along the steep winding old cobbled streets, gloriously colured tulips everywhere until we found a fish house for dinner.
On Monday morning we took the ferry to Yalov and then caught a bus to Bursa a large and wealthy town with a main street like anywhere else except for some very fine mosques of various styles. The highlight of the evening was seeing the Whirling Dervishes in action. The performance was fascinating and had to be seen to be believed. It immediately had the 2 drs in our group analysing the physiological reasons for being able to spin non stop for 20 mins. This was followed by a trip to a late night dive and some of us (not me) indulging in water pipe smoking.
Yesterday we spent most of the day on a bus from Bursa to Selçuk which is a really lovely and ancient village in a stunning location. Sitting on the terrace we look out over hills and ancient ruins.
We wandered around the town checking out the ruins from as long ago as Roman times. There are giant stork nests on top of old aqueducts guarded by the graceful big birds.
After a delicious dinner on the terrace the whole group headed of the Haman (Turkish baths) where we all rinsed ourselves in the communal bath and then lay on a large marble slab in the middle of this hot steam room. Then we were scrubbed down and given soap massages by the masseurs followed by oil massages. Amazing.

Yesterday we went to the ruins of Ephesus whıch must be one of the best preserved ancient cities. It has a history dating back from 1000 BC to maybe 500 AD and has remains of Byzantıne, Greek and Roman civilisations. Amelia - your hero Augustus visited in 29 BC. The grandest building was the Library (as it should be) which was built to rival the one at Alexandria and the original facade is still standing.
Some of us followed this up in the afternoon with a visit to the Ephesus Museum which contains much of the contents of the excavated houses. We also walked up the hill to St. John's Basilica which was built in the 500s by Emperor Justinian to honour St. John the Gospel. Our own Justin has been fighting a losing battle by trying to explain to everyone (guide included) that this is not the same John who was a disciple of Jesus but they all persist in thinking he lived to 120.
Our group took a dolmus up to Sirinçe which is an old Greek village ın the mountains wıth very unusual domestic architecture. İt is famous for fruit wines and our guide took us to a wine house to taste many. They were not to my taste but others imbibed freely and a very relaxed group headed of for dinner ın yet another rooftopcafe wıth an unbelievable view. The group has relaxed now and we have some very amusing people so there is much banter and fun. Our own Prince Harry is obviously wasted ın the British Army. And the food continues to be delicious if somewhat predictable.

#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

2007-11-18T14:29:00.000+11:00

I was always positive about the 23 Things concept but working through this program has exceeded my expectations. I have discovered more useful tools than I had thought possible, started new initiatives for our library service, had fun, but lost sleeping time.

I’m so glad I understand rss feeds. I have become quite dependent upon Bloglines for keeping up to date so I am constantly exposed to new library ideas and possibilities. My blogines feeds include Technorati and podcast searches.
I use Del.icio.us all the time. I search by my Rollyos when I want information on medicines, to locate an art image or to find a recipe. I will continue to upload photos to Flickr but more importantly use it as a very valuable image resource. And of course I love image generators. Library Thing is now part of my own profile as well as being a useful bibliographic tool. YouTube has given me more laughs than anything else for quite a while. I am now in the habit of storing vital documents on Zoho for easy retrieval.

At our library we have started uploading our data to Library Thing to test whether we can use their Libraries product. We are using contacts found via library blogs to add code to our catalogue that will allow users to add rss feeds from updates.
We are planning on starting a staff library blog as a communication means. We are exploring online book clubs and are also looking at wikis.
We would like to offer podcasts of our author talks and much much more.

And following (yet again) the example of Vampgirl, the next step is Learning 2.1.

#22 Audiobooks

2007-11-18T09:37:00.001+11:00

As someone who listens constantly to audiobooks whilst walking, cooking, driving etc I was quite excited by the prospect of a new trove of titles to plunder. I was even thinking of seriously asking the red suited man in the sky for an ipod. From a personal point of view I was slightly disappointed with the range of titles offered on World eBooks and Gutenberg although they do offer some great classic titles. And I liked the fact that on the Audiobooks for Free site you could listen to a sample prior to downloading. Nevertheless I now feel inspired to discover what might be available via subscription sites.
Some public libraries offer downloadable audio titles for limited loan periods. Pretty canny - they automatically delete off the listening device when the loan period expires.
I would like to explore offering this service at our library. SirsiDynix have a product that does this. However at the moment it is limited I think because the titles cannot be downloaded to an ipod. When they resolve these licensing issues, we would certainly consider purchasing it.

#21 Podcasts

2007-11-17T15:17:00.000+11:00

I decided to see how easy it was to make a podcast myself so you can listen to what I found out about podcasts whilst doing this exercise.
Listen to my podcast
To do this, I downloaded Audacity to record my spoken words. I also had to download an mp3 encoder to be able to export the file as an mp3 file. I then had to register with Box.net to store host the file online so it could be shared with the word via this blog.

For my fellow IT persons in libraries

2007-11-10T18:05:00.000+11:00

#20 Down the Tube

2007-11-06T18:13:00.000+11:00

Yet more byways in which to lose oneself.

I spent more time than I had on YouTube. I was looking for a genuinely funny video about libraries and chose this one for what has to be the most morale boosting line for librarians battling with 2.0 = "Dewey is like Google for smart people".
Another close contender was "The Professional Librarian" dealing with correct returns policy. Also worth a look are the YouTube Salute to librarians and clips from Monty Python and Mary Hartman.
Of course there are some serious videos where libraries are using YouTube for promotional or training purposes that we could adapt and adopt. I would especially like to explore offering a YouTube clip on the catalogue that would engage users with our databases so they could find the resources they wanted to when they really needed them.
Something else that I discovered whilst doing this exercise - YouTube has an amazing diversity of material. I hadn't really expected that it could also be such a powerful information repository, despite its searching limitations. Quite by chance in a search for "London" and "library", I came across some footage related to concentration camps during the second world war. My father was a victim of several so I started looking for some shots of any of his camps in what I suppose is a continuing search of mine to make up for the conversations I never had with him whilst he was alive. I was marvelling at the depth of resources when I came across some very powerful footage that was accompanied by a glorious Bach cantata and I realised that this clip was actually a celebration or worse of the Holocaust. This was very chilling and I ceased these explorations.

So moving right along and nothing to do with libraries- this clip is for other baby boomers who started watching television in the late fifties.

#19 Weaving the web

2007-11-04T15:13:00.000+11:00

Working my way through these Web 2.0 winners could take some time. Lucky it's a rainy Sunday. There are some wonderful tools for people and libraries to use, but gosh some people do just have too much time on their hands, leading innocent bystanders like me into temptation. I have resisted, yet again, the urge to sign up for an organization tool Backpack. Seriously though, does the world need sites that look for True Stories in one sentence or a tool for sending emails with all your corrections in it? And more self-publishing in Lulu? I am reminded of Martin Luther: The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing; every one must be an author; some out of vanity, to acquire celebrity and raise up a name, others for the sake of mere gain. Table Talk, 1530s.
So thought I'd focus on some tools for libraries. Library Thing we already know about and love. I looked at Biblio which is a rare and second hand book finder that I wasn't aware of, and will use again. I like the fact that some of their profits are donated towards communities in need.
I thought I would look at some other searching tools and was sidetracked by Swicki. I couldn't resist adding my search for food and cooking videos widget on the left. Just enter a search term and it will locate relevant videos for you. I might even like it more than Rollyo but I will have to explore further. I definitely want to add some of these metasearch tools to our website.
I was most impressed by the tools that rely upon collaborative knowledge eg. Listdump, Craigslist, Yahoo Answers, all of which I have used. And I was very taken with Boxxset which is a tool for bringing together different media eg. blogs, videos, fan fiction etc all on one topic. Would be particularly useful for cult titles and TV shows.
Google Maps I already knew about and have used quite extensively. They can be added to library sites where appropriate and I have even annotated the maps using an image generator. (Thank you Thing #5)
I might just have to go and play with a few more tools now. But I will leave you with this link to the Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future and a tip for those who still have time to live a real first life. Go and see Death at a funeral. It will have you laughing out loud.

#18 Tragic but true

2007-10-30T22:12:00.001+11:00

For my dedicated readers who have been eagerly awaiting my next post. It's a bit difficult to maintain interest in the blog when one's library server and associated systems eg. catalogue, remote patron authentication server, email, network drives are deleted as happened to this unfortunate soul.
So much for VMware.
We are now able to offer to offer a basic library service again but no reservations, catalogue or access to online resources. And we have lost 36 hours of transactions so you can imagine the mayhem that can cause! Anyone who has coped with similar scenarios - feel free to share your strategies for coping with the data issues.
So where does Library 2.0 fit into this scenario? Using Zoho writer I have chosen this font to closely resemble handwriting as my small protest against reliance upon computer systems.
More seriously though, I have now used Zoho writer to store some vital documents eg. Outlook contacts and some IT documentation online, so I will have those resources to fall back on next time there is a system disaster. I really like the concept of web based applications for document storage and sharing, and for collaborative work. It all enhances mobility. I am looking forward to using all these new tools next time I travel. The only concern I would have here relates to security. It would also be very useful for our public access users without USB drives as well.
I liked Zoho Writer more than Google Docs. More similar to Office and very functional.
I was quite captivated by the Online Planner and will come back to play with it when I have more time. Except of course for the fear that one shouldn't become too dependent upon IT or online systems be cause they could all be deleted by a simple keystroke!

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

2007-10-27T12:32:00.000+10:00

I think the late nights working on Learning 2.0 have addled my brain. Yesterday morning I told a borrower at the circulation desk that she had a book still out called "Overdue Still Out". It was only as I remarked upon the coincidence of the title and looked at her bewildered face that I realised what I had done. And they leave me in charge of the system?!
I added our library and my blog to the Favorites list. See below.
More signs of an addled brain. I could not get the syntax with the brackets right. Somehow we were supposed to enter it so the title of our blog appeared rather than the url but no matter what variation I tried it always displayed both within the brackets. The only way I could get it right was to go in to the source and copy the html of someone else who had done it successfully. Will someone please tell me the secret?
I enjoyed reading the Favorite Books blog and added my own entry recalling treasured children's books, inspired I think by rhumage's paean to school stories.

Byway without the Blog

2007-10-25T13:23:00.000+10:00

So I'm home from work feeling less than healthy but I thought I should just pay a bill and maybe check my work email in case there was anything urgent (the addictive personality never rests) and all of a sudden I'm adding more books onto Library Thing - 223 cookbooks at the last count. And then maybe a little peek at my colleagues blogs when I was sucked in by the clever Flickr slideshow generator I found on Anthony's blog.
So how could I resist adding a live slideshow of more of my china (which may have meant dragging the camera out)..... So gratify me and take a look - its down on the left. I haven't quite worked out how to show the full picture but that's because I have to return to my sickbed with my book (Chameleon's shadow by Minette Walters) which is very gripping by the way.

#16 WIKI is for World Individuals Knowledge Initiatives

2007-10-24T14:47:00.000+10:00

I had become, albeit relunctantly, a convert to Wikipedia. It can be the quickest way of finding a certain level of information (no definition for “shinboners” though). I am also impressed by the constancy of the updating. In looking at the entries for two authors yesterday I noted that each had been updated within the previous 48 hours. So I thought I understood the concept of wikis but after reading through some of the resources I realised that there was so much more to it.
I liked the Princeton book reviews. I thought we could host one of our book clubs via a wiki. I was amused to see that ratings of titles on the catalogue could also be considered as wikis. (Sort of like the Just Returned trolley). The idea that one can contribute’s one own ideas or information for posterity is tempting.
But I think the real value of wikis for library professionals is not just in the sharing of information but in actually capturing it. As a systems person I am a subscriber to various lists which share technical information. The challenge has always been to store it so that it can be retrieved when it is needed. This is where the wiki would be invaluable. A perfect example of this is the CODI SQLWiki. Codi refers to the Customers of Dynix who have been emailing SQL queries to the list for years and we have all been madly saving them on our own PCs, sometimes never to be seen again. Now they can all be accessed via a simple taxonomy in one location.
The Australian CODA group also used a wiki when planning our recent conference – cuts down the stream of emails and allows everyone to edit. I only wish I had known about wikis when planning my mother-in-law’s 90th birthday recently. It would have lessened the angst and drama of the flurry of emails amongst family members.
Cindy Boke’s presentation on wikis was so effective I had to restrain myself from setting one up instantly (well it was late at night).
Another good resource is the Wiki Toolbox 30+.
And The Cataloging Wiki for our intrepid cataloguer Dogsister.

Who is Pearl Bay?

2007-10-24T10:11:00.000+10:00

The world is divided into those who immediately recognise the significance of the allusion and those who have no idea where Pearl Bay comes from.
It is the imaginary location of my most favourite TV show ever.

Blogging and Byways

2007-10-23T12:05:00.000+10:00

A wonderful thing about this course has been the diversions down the laneways of the blogosphere. Quite randomly I came across Stephen Fry’s blog. (I think I was checking out a Rollyo search constructed by Dogsister) and he was so amusing and erudite that I had to subscribe. Imagine my surprised and sort of gratification yesterday when the subject of his “blessay” (his combination of blog and essay, not mine) was Addiction. I felt he must be speaking to me, considering it was the subject of my own post earlier that day. I couldn’t resist making a comment (yet another registration!). I have been impressed with the thoughtfulness of the many comments.
And in my frequent reading of Dave Pattern's blog - see last post, I thought I would also share this amusing cartoon found on his blog but sourced from Salon, about how the Dewey system in Libraries is destroying publishing. Have a laugh.
And lastly, in today's update of Tame the Web Michael Stephens talked about his excitement at his prospective trip to Australia. Apparently he will be running a very relevant sounding seminar called "The Hyperlinked Library".

#15 Library 2.0

2007-10-21T12:35:00.000+10:00

It is a sign of these digital times that there is no dearth of material about Library 2.0. But what to extract from this for ourselves and our libraries?
We have to decide (again)what is our core purpose and use Web 2.0 Tools to achieve those goals. Our focus should be on adding real value to the user’s experience.
I know only too well (see last post) how easy it is to become sidetracked by the range of online stuff that one can do. How do we preserve the balance between enriching one’s life with online engagement and forgetting to have a life altogether?
So if our core goals are loosely based around notions of providing access to the resources and knowledge that people want and need, we need to focus on applications that contribute to those ends, not just do something clever because we can.
Be user centred – thinking about the tools that we have used so far on this course, I have become even keener to offer rss feeds from our catalogue, and the capacity for users to add their own tags to it and also to have the opportunity to engage with other readers via a blog or wiki.
I have been really impressed by what Dave Pattern in Yorkshire has done with his catalogue. Users can subscribe to rss feeds, email alerts, contribute ratings and comments and more. He uses the same Horizon Information Portal as do we so I emailed him to find out how we could do this but was crestfallen to hear that he used a second server, and some technical programming. Still I am pursuing the conversation with him.
And similarly with Library Thing for Libraries – they responded to my email query but again we do not have the correct database structure to easily do it. However, they are prepared to experiment with other ways.
So, the core goals can be there,and the will to change, but technology can let you down. The challenge is to try not to be daunted and to persevere.

Confessions of a Not So Secret Addict

2007-10-21T09:15:00.001+10:00

How will I ever get to the next exercise if I don't stop playing with my fonts and colours? I'm being sucked into a vortex again - is that the real meaning of Web 2.0? One becomes more tangled in the spider web and is eventually consumed?
Or maybe it is just because that's what I am - an addict -whether it is to eating chocolate, or to buying china on Ebay (and it's possible I have slightly slipped off that wagon), or cataloguing more cookbooks on to Library Thing.
I've had to become a lifetime paid up member so that I can add more of my collection. I became so carried away last week with adding books that I neglected to tag them but I am glad to report that I have found that it is possible to add tags in bulk after the event.
Addictions has its upside. Look at how lovely this Paynsley Jug with Tulips looks this morning. You can see more of my china in the slideshow on the left.

#14 Technorati trails

2007-10-18T21:58:00.001+10:00

I had already stumbled across Technorati or rather it had stumbled over me (see 2 posts ago) but I was amazed to see how extensive the blogosphere was. Technorati seems to be a great tool for mining the wealth of other people's thoughts, knowledge and ideas.
I proudly claimed my blog. I carried out the comparison searching exercise on Library 2.0. The results seem consistent with any keyword vs. more targeted search but what a treasure trove of blogs I found! I restricted myself to adding feeds for only 2 of them but just fancy, quite coincidentally one of them was Helene Blowers. I looked at the adding of Technorati tags stuff but decided it wasn't strictly necessary as my blog had already been sourced on it.
Some great widgets under Tools. I added My Favorites above - you can even search it, and a button suggesting people (which people I'm not sure) add my blog to their "fave" list.
I will use this again when searching for the sort of discussion that you would find on a blog. I am most likely to search the Blog directory for the more dedicated blogs. Must go and add Technorati to my Delicious bookmarks.

#13 Delicious or not?

2007-10-17T23:26:00.000+10:00

I was thinking maybe not so delicious. I had been looking forward to this exercise - bookmarks I could access from anywhere instead of sending them to all to my hotmail address and having to trawl through to find them, but I was initially disappointed and somewhat confused.
It did not seem not user friendly, maybe if I had looked at the PCML example first as suggested it would have been better but I assumed I understood the principle behind it. So my first mistake was to rush in and import all the bookmarks from my desktop at work.
Suddenly I had 10 pages of uncategorised bookmarks! I couldn't see how to delete them en masse so I had to delete my whole account.
Feeling really out of the loop I looked to vampgirl for guidance. I began to see what you might do with the concept of tags and bundles and then carefully imported some bookmarks folder by folder. By the second folder I realised it was sensible to change the "Imported" tag before importing.
It is still possible I am missing some crucial point of elucidation because the only way I can get it to work effectively for me is to give the tags the same name as the bundles - my tags.
I think I will find it very useful but only if used in a disciplined way. For me the 2 basic rules will be: only use it for sites that I will use when mobile, and tag each bookmark in an organised fashion. (Well, I used to be a cataloguer.)
I'm not convinced of the usefulness of the the networking angle so maybe I'll explore that when more time.
And I think it's possible we could use Delicious to enhance our reference work, if we put some work into creating an rationalised bundle.
I've added my Delicious links to my page on the right. I also added it to my Facebook profile but it doesn't show up there so it seems a bit pointless. In fact Facebook generally seems a bit pointless to me but more of that later.

#12 Rollyo - sounds like Rolo to me but I just love chocolate

2007-10-14T14:58:00.000+10:00

Did I say last week that I was now a free spirit who was less addicted to her computer? Hmn....Perhaps before I started making searchrolls. I think these are great and would be useful from both a personal point of view and also on the library website.
I asked various members of my family what they might search for regularly. One suggested art works, and the other who is interested in health gave me some good medicines sites. And following the self-indulgent food theme, I made a recipe finder, just in case there was something I couldn't track down in one of my cookbooks! (142 on Library Thing at last count.)
The challenge, especially with the artworks, was to choose the right part of the site to locate the desired data eg. images, recipes, whatever, and not extraneous material. This perhaps goes against what the Rollyo site said about going to the top of the domain always, but I think it is more useful. You can do a test search yourself - see black link on the right.
Library websites could offer some of the customised searches for users - rather like the pathfinders that we learnt how to build in our library courses.

Self-indulgent sidetracks via StatCounter and Library Thing

2007-10-14T08:52:00.000+10:00

In the pursuit of narcissism I installed StatCounter (thanks to the talented Jewinda ). In following the links of who had looked at my blog from Alabama, I discovered I had been included in a Technorati search on the term SirsiDynix. This repository could be very useful to me at work so I have now added this rss feed.
Getting sidetracked again, I saw that someone had clicked on my blog via Library Thing so I found that the perfect late night activity was to start looking at who else had many cookbooks in common with me. I found people who had really similar libraries to whatI had on my real shelves so this prompted another flurry of uploading my books. And to crown this timewasting self-indulgence, I have started editing the entries where Amazon couldn't find a cover to find the appropriate cover from other people who have scanned the image and uploaded it BUT I AM NOT GOING TO START SCANNING!

#8++Making life even simpler - integrating RSS with Email

2007-10-12T09:22:00.001+10:00

Becoming even more streamlined - I have discovered I can import my RSS feeds from Bloglines into my Outlook account.(We are on Office 2007). I like being able to see any updates at a moment's notice. To do this, go into Bloglines, under Additional Features choose to export subscriptions and save the file. Then right-click on the RSS Feeds folder in Outlook and choose to import an OPML file. I can also add any new feeds directly into Outlook.

#11 Cooking up Library Thing

2007-10-09T21:33:00.000+10:00

OK I've been having more fun, and following the theme of this blog it's been all about self-indulgence and addiction. I have to confess to owning nearly 400 cookbooks (out of a total library that runs to thousands) so I thought I would catalogue my favorite 50 or so. These are all cookbooks that I use - from the trusted friends that taught me to cook and which I have used constantly, to some shiny but very carefully chosen new ones. And I have to admit to being something of a cookbook snob. Yes it's nice to have pictures but the more enduring classics eg. Jane Grigson, Elizabeth David, Claudia Roden ,Elizabeth Luard, Marcella Hazan .... teach you about food in its context and how to really cook. For those other addicts among you you can see more of my collection at
library thing.
I don't really think though that I would use Library Thing much in relation to my personal collection but more as a bibliographic tool. And I would love to add tags to our library catalogue. I've emailed Library Thing to try and set up a test of this.

#10 Generating Bob

2007-10-08T22:50:00.000+10:00

Yes, I can see why this is called play week. I made a movie clip! See Bob Dylan pushing Learning 2.0 and this is is how I did it. It's sooo easy and I had fun.
Dylan Message Generator

#9 Finding feeds - it really DOES make life simple.

2007-09-30T21:06:00.000+10:00

It's just like Flickr - the more I find out about RSS and setting it up for myself, the more I like it. I have been experimenting with search tools, as well as just going to some of my favourite sites and looking for rss links.
I liked Technorati. I used it locate some blogs on Masons Ironstone China because even though I am no longer using Ebay, my original passion for the china remains. I got a surprising number of results. I think I have found a blog with some genuine enthusiasts, not just a marketplace but time will tell. Along the same theme I ventured back into Ebay to test out the rss possibilities (just for the exercise you understand). I did a harmelss enough search ie. not one that would lead me into temptation, for Masons lids and discovered how easily a rss link for that search could be saved. Using Firefox makes this so easy. So I added that to my bloglines.
I tested Topix. Initially I couldn't quite see how to search but I found it eventually and have set up a feed for "public libraries and catalogues" .I may have to narrow it down more.
I really didn't like Feedster, or maybe I was just doing something wrong. I did a search for feeds on a public figure (whom I have a distant connection with, funnily enough via someone I met on Ebay) but there was no rss link in the results. Eventually, I added it by just copying the url.
I used Google blog search just for testing purposes to see if I could locate one of the Live Journal communities (Australian watchers of House) that my daughter belongs to, and it did, so I think this would be a useful tool as well.
And finally, (for the moment anyway)I have added an alert from Library Journal via the ANZ Ref centre database for new articles discussing library software .Very relevant as we have to look for a new LMS soon.

#8 Making life really simple

2007-09-30T08:52:00.000+10:00

I think this is consistent with my last entry and newly declared intention of reclaiming some of life back from the online world because it channels anything I might be interested in to one spot. I had been trying to achieve that previously to Learning 2.0 anyway by using the links bar in my browsers etc but this is a much more efficient of staying up to date on work and other interests in a less time-consuming way.
I set up a bloglines account (and I am beginning to wish I had set up my blog using Bloglines because everything really would be in one spot). I used some of the options from the directory like BBC, a couple of library ones and Salon. I also used the Communities option to enter my daughter's Live Journal - very simple to do, just put in her user name - but she wasn't happy so I had to remove it. For the purposes of the exercise I added my own flickr account and I also added a tag update for the Glasgow School of Art so that I will know when anyone uploads a photo of one of my favourite buildings. I added the blogs of some of my colleagues as well as Davey P. a wonderful exponent of Library 2.0 from Yorkshire that I have come to know via the SirsiDynix Horizon list.
I was amused last night after the Grand Final to click on the BBC headline - their angle was that Aboriginal players were now dominating football. Interestingly, I can't find a trace of this story now.
I have added my public bloglines account to my blog profile but it is still constantly changing.

#7 Technology - random musings

2007-09-27T18:41:00.000+10:00

There have been 3 separate strands of thoughts running through my head this week in relation to technology. Working in systems in the library, I'm clearly committed to it but I think there can be TOO MUCH of a good thing. As I've said previously,I really enjoy many of the tools, I've been relying on online resources not only for work, but for managing my life generally, but I think you can get seduced into a bottomless pit. This fairly pedestrian observation has come noticeably to the surface for me this week as a result of giving up my ebay habit. I don't turn my home computer on as much (ie the second I wake up, or come in the door). And I have found that I have a lightening of spirit or something because I am free now to do other things. I have become too easily sucked in to checking my email compulsively or doing random google searches. So that's my new resolve - to stay away from the computer more!
Something else that I have been thinking about is how important it is to have a realistic attitude to technology. It doesn't always work. Expect things to go wrong.
We have been trying to set up a new public access network at one of our library branches in the past few weeks and it has been been plagued by many problems. These have all been much more bearable because firstly I always double the projected time for any new installation, and secondly the staff have had a relaxed attitude. Things don't work any quicker by having dramatics!
The final thing that I have been thinking about is people's fear of technology. One of the great outcomes of this Learning 2.0 course is that many library staff will become more comfortable with trying new things and solving problems. People often have the tendency to cry for help immediately anything unexpected happens without trying to resolve the problem themselves. They don't want to take responsiblity for thinking about the issue so they continue to be scared of technology. I wish I could convince people to try to work things out themselves -it really isn't rocket science - because once they do, the whole weight of fear of something going wrong with the computer will fall from their shoulders and they will feel wonderful!

#6More Flickr Fun

2007-09-26T21:38:00.000+10:00

Well,I didn't really have more fun. Maybe you have to be in the mood. I've seen some very clever flickr fun on other blogs. I think it would have to have a purpose for me ie. marketing or for a funny birthday card.
What I do love about Flickr (this is my learning summary for the week) are the resource sharing aspects as I said below. I also think it is a wonderful search tool - better in a way than Google images. For example,last night we were talking about the statue of Goethe in Frankfurt airport that we had seen in a jet lagged state 3 years ago,and by using Flickr, we were able to locate several different pictures of it (to settle an argument).

Secret addict gives up

2007-09-26T08:07:00.000+10:00

I need to have it on the public record that I am no longer looking at Ebay for china!!!
What seemed like a harmless diversion is becoming a dangerous "habit". No more. I will only buy china if I come across it by accident.

Maryborough

2007-09-24T22:01:00.000+10:00

We went to Maryborough for the weekend. Mark Twain described it as " a railway station with a town attached" and that's a pretty fair description. The photo doesn't really do justice to it. Coincidentally, after we had booked, I discovered that there would be an Antique market held on the platform on Sunday and I can report to all my readers that I had a lucky and inexpensive china find.
But the real find of the weekend was Melville Caves in the Kooyora State Park. Huge granite boulders with "caves" forming in the cavities in between. A peaceful and beautiful spot for a picnic on a fine Spring afternoon.

#5 Flickr Again

2007-09-24T21:41:00.000+10:00

I love Flickr! What a wonderful way of resource sharing that is open to everyone. I have just put a few travel photos up so far Photos but I really like the way I can click on the tags that I have used, to see how others have photographed the same place/thing etc. And you can speed up the process by downloading the Flickr uploader tool. Flickr tries hard to make the whole process easy. It automatically prompts you to save to a Set and I also like the way it offers you a list of all the previous tags that you have used to save retyping.
I'm going to find it hard to move on from this exercise. I want to upload more photos....

#More on Flickr

2007-09-19T22:28:00.001+10:00

Well I didn't learn from last night and press the off button when I should have. Or tonight.
I have finally worked out after far too long how to insert a photo from Flickr into the blog. Last night my post only had a red cross. I have just cheated by re-editing and changing the link. I was using the url from "share your photos" in flickr. This time I just right-clicked on the image to get the correct url to insert. And I also have a flickr profile but more on that later Photos on Flickr. The good news is that my life is not totally being drained away by the internet. I did a real librarian type thing tonight and went to an author event at Readings to hear Patrick Gale in conversation. How to describe his novels best? Written by someone with a deeply subtle way of getting inside his characters's hearts and minds. Cressida and I spoke to him afterwards -he was unassuming, compassionate and just really nice.
The bad news is that I haven't had any time to check new Ebay listings tonight.

#5 Flickr

2007-09-18T22:15:00.000+10:00

I'm not going to have time for a life anymore - will I ever be able to leave the Flickr site?
So many photos, so many tags...
My first shot (ha ha) is above. Note there is some attempt at relevance. This was a gorgeous old library that we visited in Prague.
What have I learned tonight? Find the off button on the computer before I am dragged inexorably into it.

#3 First post

2007-09-14T16:56:00.000+10:00

I think this is all going to be fun. As my title says - an excuse for self-indulgence. The desire to talk about oneself and publish is obviously innate, judging by the plethora of blogs in the world.
A word about the photo. Romantic image of self - wandering down cobbled streets in old English town in search of second hand bookshops and antique china. The Shambles is the oldest street (medieval?) in the city of York in England where I was earlier this year indulging in various of my passions. I may use this journal to record some of my experiences as an Ebay addict. As well as of course to record my Learning 2.0 activities and consider how we could use Web 2.0 to enrich the library catalogue and more.