Woohooo! This week me and Robyn completed our first set of lego minifigs. The lego peeps have been selling these individual minifigs in unmarked packets for a month or two for people to try and collect a complete set. We started out quite strong but then started coming across lots of duplicates. Luckily by this point all the other geeks of geekwad corner at work had also been bitten by the lego bug and it wasn’t long before Dan had tracked down an online cheat sheet which when combined with the barcode scanner on my phone could ensure that me and Robyn could complete the set quite quickly (and cheaply)…..Genius! I love photographing these little lego doods and the diverse nature of some of these characters is gonna provide some comical setups I’m sure. I can’t wait for series 2 to come out as apparently it includes a lego disco~stu!!

I have a theory that you can tell lots about a person about what apps they keep at their fingertips. Admittedly it’s not a very scientific theory and one that I have not invested any time into but thought I’d share and try and stimulate some discussion and just take the opportunity to find out what apps you (dear reader) use heavily.

Smartphones are all over the place these days and more and more people have one about there person (even my mother has an iphone!). Most of these phones now offer the user the ability to organise apps and widgets so that the things you use most can be placed to the surface of the user experience for quick access. So whats at your fingertips? what do you rely on most?

The picture above (click to enlarge) shows the home screen of my android based HTC Magic. The screen in the center is the default and main home screen and then I can swipe left and right to access the other 4 screens. You will see on my main screen I have easy access to about 6 apps that I would class as communication and social apps (seesmic- twitter, facebook, gmail, flickr, contacts-phone, handsent – sms) and the rest of the apps are focussed around productivity  (google search, got to do – task manager, dropbox – file access, greader – feed access, andricious – bookmark access, evernote – note taking).
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This TV show came up in conversation at work today. I used to LOVE it. I wasn’t born when it first aired but it must have been repeated whilst I was a young lad as I have really fond memories of watching Napolean Solo and Illya Kuryakin fighting the corrupt forces of thrush (yes I said thrush!). If you’ve never come across is before then I suggest you head here for more details. I think I might have to start looking for the DVD box set. The pictures below are all courtesy of The Man from UNCLE image library. Looking through them reminds me how visually stunning it was…just something very cool and a little different. YUMMY. I might have to do an UNCLE inspired photo shoot real soon.  Enjoy!

OK well after doing quite well with the travel log updates until the middle of the week I lost my way towards the end. I guess I was too busy relaxing and enjoying myself to get blogging and in fact I took less pictures also. It seems a little silly doing separate posts now I’m back at home, so I’ll just fill you in briefly on the tail end of the week in this single post.

Thursday started with Chloe not feeling very well after the long hot day in Verona but we had already planned to have a lazy day so she was able to spend some time resting and recovering. I took the opportunity to walk into Peschiera on my own with the laptop and found a cafe and some wi-fi time so I could check my inbox, bank account, have a quick skype with sime and update blog posts etc. It was quite good fun being out on my own trying to get little jobs done with only a phrasebook and my rubbish level of linguistic skill. I then returned to the apartment to rejoin the girls and spend some more time in the pool with Robyn. That afternoon Robyn and I boarded a small ferry from Peschiera across the lake to the town of Sirmionie which is a small peninsular that steps out into the lake and is covered in historical buildings and beautiful scenery. Chloe and Penny met us there in the car and we mooched around the shops and had a quick ice cream before returning back to base for an evening meal on the balcony.

Friday marked Robyn’s eighth birthday (oh how time flies) so we had already planned a trip to movieland aquastudios for a bit of water based fun. It was a great way to spend the hottest day since we’d been out in Italy and Robyn really enjoyed herself. It was a mixed day though as we were all fully aware this was our last day in  Italy. I think we all really enjoyed ourselves and were not to happy about the prospect of returning home. We finished off the week with a lovely meal out and an ice cream by the river in Peschiera. Although it was nice to return home on Saturday to glorious sunshine I’m going to miss Italy and hope its not too long before we can return. A special thanks have to go to Penny for putting up with us for the week and making the trip possible.

Well didn’t get chance to blog last night as was very tired after a full on day in the beautiful city of Verona…visited lots of places but I’m currently blogging live via wifi at a riverside cafe in Peschiera so rather than bore you with details I’ll just give you some photos to enjoy…some are tourist snaps and some are more about what I liked about verona in a disco stylee…more soon!