Leaving Italy

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Details: Written by: Richard_McKie; Parent Category: Travel; Category: Europe; Published: 21 October 2015; Hits: 48812

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This heading should say Perugia, our next stop for a couple of nights.

Perugia is rather too far for a day trip and so we had intended to spend a couple of nights there before flying out, leaving Italy for places elsewhere.

But this is where our plans came unstuck. Wendy's mother was hospitalised. She's almost 90. An alarming message was received. Airlines were called. How quickly could she return? Perugia was out of the question. I spent an extra night in Florence then flew to Berlin.

Wendy had already left for Sydney.

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Malta

Almost everyone in Australia knows someone who hailed directly from Malta or is the child of Maltese parents. There are about a quarter as many Maltese Australians as there are Maltese Maltese so it is an interesting place to visit; where almost every cab driver or waiter announces that he or she has relatives in Sydney or Melbourne.

Fiction, Recollections & News

A cockatoo named Einstein

A couple of days ago a story about sulphur-crested cockatoos went semi-viral, probably in an attempt to lift spirits during Sydney's new Covid-19 lock-down. It appears that some smart cocky worked out how to open wheelie-bin lids. That's not a surprise - see below. What is surprising is that others are copying him and the practice is spreading outwards so that it can be mapped in a growing circle of awareness. The cockies are also choosing the red (household rubbish) bins that may contain food, disregarding yellow (cans and bottles); blue (paper and cardboard) and green bins (garden clippings). Yet, now they have also been observed checking-out other potentially food containing bins.

One has even been observed re-closing the lid - presumably to prevent other birds getting to the food.

Back in the 1950's I was given a pet sulphur-crested cockatoo we named Einstein. I was in primary school and I didn't yet know who Einstein was. My father suggested the name - explaining that Einstein was 'a wise old bird'.

Opinions and Philosophy

More nuclear medicine

As a follow-up to my radiation treatment for prostate cancer, that I reported here as: Medical fun and games, I recently underwent a PET scan, to check that all is well.

When I first heard of them I imagined that a PET scan was a more generic all-encompassing version of a CAT scan - perhaps one involving dogs and rabbits; or even goldfish?

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