Yesterday I went to the Melbourne Museum to the  exhibition of A Day In Pompeii. As some of you might know Pompeii was buried under the volcanic ash and pumice produced by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD. There were about 12,000 living in Pompeii, about 2,000 died there he other 10,000 fled the scene.  Pompeii was rediscovered as the result of intentional excavations in 1748. The excavations  revealed many intact buildings, wall paintings and other objects. More than 250 objects are shown at this exhibition. You are taken in a tour of what life was in this ancient town. Jewellery, marble sculptures, painted frescoes, furniture, wine jars, cooking pots are all there to be appreciated.

There is a 3D  theatre presenting what happened in those terrible 48 hours before Pompeii was buried. The few minutes film is very impressive showing the eruptions that devastated Pompeii. I was also impressed by the statues, they are made of marble. I don’t know how all these objects survived buried under ash for  more than  1800 years, some of them are in excellent condition.

It is a great experience! The exhibition finishes on the 25 October 2009. Don’t miss out on this great history display.

See you soon.

 As many of you might know eBay banned the digital delivery of eBooks sometime ago.

At first numerous people were in uproar. Some even suggested to leave eBay and find some other auction sites that still permit digital delivery.

 After the initial shock many marketers welcomed the idea of delivering their eBooks on CDs or DVDs, converting them to physical products rather than digital products. I would say that thinking of holding stock, packing and posting the CDs and DVDs did not appeal to many people.

Well, this is were Kunaki comes in. This service allows you to duplicate your CDs and DVDs for a low price of $1.95/unit (at the time of this writing). They will make a copy of whatever you download to their system, so you will need to have your CDs or DVDs in a format that can be read by your computer or your DVD player.

Once you have downloaded your product to Kunaki you are ready to take orders from your customers.

After taking the orders from your customers you go back into Kunaki and enter the recipients’ names and addresses. Kunaki will do the rest, they will make the CD or DVD, and pack and post your order. Nothing can be easier than this.

I know this might sound confusing but I want to give you a free tutorial called “Quick Start Kunaki” published by Lee McIntyre. You can’t go wrong with these instructions.

 Here is the link again.

Talk to you soon.

Good luck.

 Well, did I have a tough time or what?

Internet Banking has become a way of life, more and more we are depending on it.

Here is my story.

My son went to the US for seven weeks and he had a bit of a problem coming back to Australia and ran out of money.

He rang me at 2:30 am on a Monday to ask me to transfer some money into his account so that he could stay one more day in the US as the flight was cancelled. Guess what? The Internet Banking wasn’t working.

I tried transferring some money on the phone (here in Australia is called BPay) but they told me his account wasn’t linked to mine for phone transactions only for Internet Banking, so I had to wait until 7am to do the transfer. Luckily at 7am I was able to transfer the money through the internet.

Well, I have to link my sons account to mine through BPay, I don’t want to go through this problem again, I was panicking as I had to go to work and didn’t know when the Internet Banking was going to be online again.

If you have children going overseas you better make sure you have at least two options of transferring money to their accounts, you never know what can happen.

C ya.

 Enough is enough. Finally I decided to put an end to these Telemarketers. They ring every day and at the most inconvenient hours.

I wasn’t aware until today that here in Australia you can register your telephone number on something called “Do not call register”. You can access that website by clicking here.

The following is an excerpt of the website:

“How does the register work?

Under the Do Not Call Register Act 2006, telemarketers can check their calling lists against the Do Not Call Register. If a telemarketer calls a number on the Do Not Call Register, they may be in breach of the Act, and may face penalties.

When will calls start to reduce?

From the time you register your number, it may take up to 30 days for individual telemarketing agencies to recognise your registration, and stop calling to your number.”

 If you are sick of the Telemarketers I suggest you jump into the website and register you telephone number.

You can do that by clicking this link.

Good luck.

Speedy has been on a diet for the last 3 months because last time she went to the vet we were told she was obese. She has lost weight since then and I think she is now on her goal weight. Good on her!!!

Starting from today I am going to start feeding her properly, I can’t stand her meowing any more.

The below photo was taken sometime ago. She was behind the kitchen window and she was spying on us. How cute is this!!!

Talk to you later cat lovers out there…

Many people have turned to landscaping with stones to cope with the water restrictions.

But landscaping with stones needs not to be boring. I am presenting here three ideas  you can explore to spice up your imagination.

In the photo below an unusual and pleasant retaining wall has been achieved  by combining blue stone with white pebbles.   The drought tolerant plants on top of the retaining wall complete the purpose of this arrangement.

What about creating some doodles on your front yard? This photo is a good example of creativity. Look at the curves of the black stones which complement the retaining wall and the driveway’s concrete.

What about  big pots and stones? This layout is one of my favourites. Notice how the grey stones, the pinkish pavers and the black big pots perfectly combine to produce an incredible landscape.

 If you have some ideas for our drought problem don’t hesitate to share them here.

 Hasta la vista.

They are located at the East Gippsland region in Victoria, Australia.

The two more beautiful caves are the Royal and Fairy caves. Tours are offered every day of the year except on Christmas Day.

The creation of caves is and extremely long process. Evidence has been found to suggest that cave development in the Buchan area started about forty million years ago.

All sort of limestone decorations are featured in these caves. They include Straws, Flowstone, Columns or Pillars, Shawls, Helictites, Pool Deposits, Cave Coral, Cave Shields, Cave Pearls and Rockmilk (or Moonmilk).

Photography is permitted and the best results are obtained from flash or digital cameras. Video cameras are also welcomed provided the tour is not delayed.

The Buchan Caves Reserve contains also well maintained barbecue and picnic facilities. It is a great destination for campers and day visitors. Australian-made souvenirs are available at he visitors centre.

And here is this magnificent place.
Enjoy!!!

Tazumal is considered the best preserved archaeological site in

Tazumal comes from the Quiche dialect and means “place where the victims were burned”.
It is located in the town of Chalchuapa in the department of Santa Ana, about 60 kilometers from the capital city San Salvador.

The ruins consist of a main pyramidal structure of about 24 meters high. The bottom part of the pyramid is still buried.
Artifacts found buried at this site are displayed at a museum close to the ruins. These include objects used in performing rituals.
There are also some adjoining small pyramids. 
The below video will give your a preview of this Mayan construction.

Have a great day!

A very cool feature of Google is their translation service.

In this internet era there is no need for you to feel intimidated by another languages. You have the translation services of Google 24/7.

You can use this feature if you want to buy something from eBay or any website that uses a language you don’t understand.

Let’s say that you want to buy something from eBay.es (Spain). So you log into eBay.es and find the text you want translated.

Then log into Google.com by typing www.google.com in your internet browser.

Now click on the link that says Language Tools. You are presented with some headings on the screen. One says Translate text and another one says Translate a web page.

For our purposes we are going to use the one that says Translate text.

Copy from ebay the text you want translated and paste it into the box that says Translate text. Underneath that box there are another three boxes. The one on the left hand side is to select the language you are translating from, the one in the middle is to select the language you are translating to.

Once you have selected the languages click on the box on the right hand side, that says translate and …voila!, your message appears to the right of the box that says Translate text.

It’s that simple.

Give it a try.

Talk to you soon…

Hello my friends, I hope everything is going well with you.

I started collecting Swarovski figurines about 3 years ago. From time to time I buy something for myself but many of them have come from my family.

I receive the figurines as presents for my birthday, mother’s day or Christmas.

From my point of view these crystal figurines have magic on them. When I look at them my soul is transported to a fantasy world (maybe I am living my childhood again).

Anyway, I am subscribed to the Swarovski newsletter and the other day I received a survey from them. Between other questions they wanted suggestions about new figurines.

I suggested  an exotic bird that lives in Central America called Quetzal. This bird was prized by the Aztecs and Mayas for its amazing feathers which were symbols of wealth and status.

I received a very interesting answer from Swarovski. Here it is:

All suggestions are collected to a central database, and regularly forwarded to our team of designers, who are highly trained experts with years of experience in crystal design.

As soon as the designers receive the suggestions, they check them for feasibility. Crystal is a particularly complex and difficult material to work with. Even if a design initially seems promising on a piece of paper or as a prototype, it does not automatically mean it will go into production. There are many factors to be considered.

It is a long, difficult path from the initial idea to the final piece. Our team of designers is currently working on pieces, which will not be coming onto the market for another two years; this means that the planning process for today’s new items began at least two years ago. The path to the completed article is paved with draft designs a host of prototypes – and sometimes we encounter failures, which result in abandoning of the whole project. With a little luck, however, the process is crowned with the creation of a stunning new piece of Swarovski crystal.

I never imagined the creation of a crystal piece would take two years.

Surely we learn something every day!!!

You can find the Swarovski shop at Sharovski. Next time I receive notification of items on sale I will let you know. The above link is not an affiliate link but you might enjoy some of their products.

Cheers and have a great day.