James & Vilija

Here is the first tip for our “Don’t be an Eel with Energy” challenge.

Goal - Reduce your energy use by 10%

Cost - $0

Think of all the things in your house that sit there, plugged into the wall all day, every day. Most, if not all of these consume a little bit of power even if they’re not in use. Things like TVs, DVD/VCR Players, Computers, Stereos, Microwaves, Mobile Phone Chargers, Laptop chargers, etc… have a standby mode that allows you to turn them on with a remote control. Whilst in standby, these things still sip power. A little bit of power times 5 things times 24 hours a day times 365 days a year equals a significant amount of power. Estimates put this vampire usage at between 5% and 10% of a households energy use.

If you turn off everything when you are finished using it by unplugging it or turning off the power you can achieve your 10% reduction in one simple move!

Photo courtesy of flickr user lecasio

Whilst the weather has been a favourite topic of conversation of people for years, it has become a little more “exciting” this year. The longest/biggest drought on record… The warmest winter that I can remember… Dinosaurs were killed by global warming…

As people with large egos and big eyebrows sit on their hands talking discussing if the Greenhouse effect has anything to do with the weather, I propose we follow a different route.

As all Australians are aware, over the last several years there has been a big push to reduce the amount of water used through public education programs, advertising, restrictions, financial incentives, etc… Why don’t we try this for energy? Hence the title.

Don’t be an Eel with Energy

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It would be nice to say that we are now fully recovered after our trip to Roma. We are both back at work now and life is pretty much back to normal other than a persistent cold that I have. We can nearly celebrate our three week anniversary! Between you and I, though, the relationship is starting to wear thin. This week, the cold and I enjoyed each other’s company with a hearty cheasty cough. It was at its worst last Thursday where I had most of my colleagues at work fitting ear plugs. Without wanting to jinx myself, as of this evening I think I might be winning. I am weaning myself of cough syrup and even managed to go swimming this morning with Vilija.

One thing that quietly passed under the radar was the official 1 year anniversary since I arrived in Italia last year. The 6th of January is La Befana here in Italia. A public holiday where a nice witch on a broomstick brings lollies and sweat things to kids throughout Italia. Though after a year here, I didn’t make it onto La Befana’s lolly list. Maybe next time? (more…)

Having finished our day trip to Pompei we were sitting at the Pompei train station exhausted after another long day and lots of walking. As if we should have expected anything else, the regional train that we needed to take back to Napoli for the connection through to Roma was running late. This significantly reduced the chance that we would make our connection in Napoli. When it did arrive and took us to Napoli, we were two headless chickens running through the train station in search of the ticket office and then our subsequent train. With a stroke of luck we were on the correct train, complete with tickets in time. Anyone of the bemused locals who had bet on the crazed strangers missing their train lost their bets.

The reason we were keen to be back in Roma was that we were meeting a friend of Michaella’s from Australia who is also living here in Italy. Marco currently lives in Brescia, north-east of Milano and had spent Christmas visiting family in Napoli. Marco has had a lot of the same experiences as us including battling unsympathetic bureaucracy etc… It turned out that we were both planning on being in Roma for NYE and made plans to meet up. (more…)

Some handy hints for those of you planning a trip to Rome: (more…)

After a fantastic Christmas with the OC and family, and the relaxing days that followed, on the 27th a 7.30am train from Genova saw us arrive in Rome around lunchtime. After a few disorientating minutes at Termini train station, we got our orientation, weekly metro tickets (how organised were we!?) and jumped on the B-line that saw us exit right out the front of the Colosseum! I was immediately in awe, I wasn’t expecting it to be looming upon us as soon as we exited our stop. James was a little less impressed, disappointed by the black marks and cracks in this Roman icon caused by years of pollution and the metro system that runs a little too close below. We circled the Colosseum in search for the street where we were staying and were impressed to find that we were staying about a 100m down the road from it, with it sitting at the end of our street. (more…)