3 rucksacks

Nikon D800 launch prediction

2011-11-09T14:43:00.000-08:00

If you take a look at Nikon’s recently announced, revised forecast for FY ending March 2012, you will see that they have revised down their sales prediction for that period. The revision is 65,000 million YEN ($836 million). Now to me (and I’m no expert) that indicates we will not see a D800 or other FX model until mid-2012. sad face

Note 3 from Flood update::

"We are planning to start production at other Nikon group manufacturing plants and our partner factories in Thailand one after another from December 2011. Production will partially resume from January 2012 at Nikon (Thailand) Co., Ltd., and production of digital SLR and interchangeable lenses will return to the normal level by the end of March 2012."

Read more on NikonRumors.com: http://nikonrumors.com/2011/10/25/the-rumored-d800-delay-is-not-nikons-fault.aspx/#ixzz1dFbzw22J

Wash Your Hands After a Big Decision to Cut Down on Second-Guessing - Science - Lifehacker

2010-05-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

Wash Your Hands After a Big Decision to Cut Down on Second-Guessing - Science - Lifehacker

Roymondo Bookmondo

2010-05-12T03:35:00.000-07:00

I've just created my own online bookstore, why not go and take a look <@:)

ROYMONDO BOOKMONDO!

Travel Rail Maps for Europe

2010-04-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

Go look at this travel map of rail routes throughout Europe::

I used this map to plan my rail trip around Europe. See previous post about our 3rucksacks adventure to Rome from England.. ..all by train.

Details some of the awesome rail links up through the alps too.

Enjoy :)

Visit my Amazon BookStore -->

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/3rucksackscom-21

two rucksacks and snowboards 2010

2010-03-05T07:01:00.000-08:00

me and Toby are heading off to Geneva tomorrow lunchtime.

flying to Geneva and then Ben's Bus to Meribel-Mottaret.

six days snowboarding and lots of fun. hopefully by the time we come back this time Toby will be busting big airs.

laterz <@:)

New Year 2010 - Pyrenees

2010-01-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

the summary
17 hours of driving, 964 miles, three snow storms on the autoroutes and two hours sat in snow and ice.. ..I'm finally home and my head is just inches from my pillow.. ..xx zzzzzzzzz

the lowdown
so.. ..we went snowboarding on new year's eve, the snow came down so heavily during the hour or so we persevered on the slopes, that there was around six inches of snow on the car when we decided to call it a day. I decided it was prudent to put the snow chains on the car (first time ever putting them on so that was a bit of a challenge, with the ...See Morecold wind blowing and snow coming down and covering the instructions every time I looked around!)

Anyway, I got them on eventually and we made it down the mountain to a huge queue of traffic trying to get out of Formigal (the ski resort in the pyrenees). Lots of cars were having problems getting up the hill to get out of the valley and holding everything up. I decided to check the snow chains while we were stood still - it turns out one of the chains had slipped and got a bit mangled, so I had to remove it. That was a bit of a challenge because I had driven over the catch which had to be undone and it took me half an hour to unmangle the bloody thing!

Once that was sorted we made it out of the valley with just the one snow chain - had to pass about twenty cars who were either stopped because they were stuck, or they had slide off into the ditches by the side of the road... ...we thought we were going to have to spend new year in the snow up a mountain!

...and then.. ..as if that wasn't enough! we had to drive home back the day after (after only five hours sleep because we were partying until the early hours).

we drove out of Spain into France and stopped at a little place on the border called Hendaye (and right at the most south easterly point of the bay of biscay). Its an awesome surf spot when the wind is blowing from the west because its quite sheltered. I got out to check out the surf and get changed, but it was soooooo cold that I took one look at the perfect lines of surf and decided that maybe I should get out of the rain, which just started, and take the boys for breakfast instead!

We had a vote in the car and decided to break for the eurotunnel instead of the original plan of overnighting somewhere around Rouen. About eight hours or so later we made it past Rouen and carried on to the tunnel. OMG, BIG mistake! We got within 80 miles of Calais without any problems, then the snow started... ...it was so heavy that driving through it was like being on the bridge of the starship enterprise travelling at warp speed! I thought I was going to have to fight with the snow chains again....

...we made it through that snow storm and carried on for another 30 miles or so, then hit the second snow storm! This time it was down to one lane because the inside lane was covered in a layer of ice and snow! We made it through that one too.

Later, we got within 40 miles of Calais and the snow started again! This time we got stuck right behind a couple of snowploughs clearing and salting the road. Another 20 miles or so at 25 miles per hour. We got past those and 5 miles down the road the traffic came to a complete standstill on an icy road. All the cars had turned off their engines and
stopped all over the road.

At this point I decided to put the snow chain - single :p - back on and wait for the traffic to move... ...about an hour later we started to move again and managed to get to the eurotunnel.

Lucky for us we got on the next scheduled train... ...and got back to England and MORE snow and ice! The roads were pretty clear though, so it was pretty plain sailing back home. 4 am and I finally got to bed!! 17 hours driving and 964 odd miles! Woke up this morning with the most horrendous headache, but finally managed to get myself together, do the food shop, empty the car of all our gear and get some washing on :))...

xmas 2009 part dieu xx

2009-12-27T16:20:00.001-08:00

well, just got into the grottiest hotel you have ever seen. Think the motel in 'My Name is Earl' where they spend half their life.. ..then half the size and add three single beds! oh yeah and the bathroom looks like the one's you find on those ferries to france/spain where they insist you have a cabin - in fact, the whole room looks vaguely familiar...

Anyway, drove for nearly fourteen hours so i'm past caring for now! tomorrow is indeed another day :)

zzzzzzz nite y'all

love you all x x x x x

yes, especially YOU!

tel aviv - November 2009

2009-11-22T14:19:00.000-08:00

well i didn't get much time to update the blog during my travels but here's a quick update on the trip to tel aviv.

landed in tel aviv and had my pick me up :) met an israeli princess for the first time, wish it was slightly different circumstances but life is life. ha ha, now that reminds me of that old song by Opus na na nana na.. .. life is life - opus -- there's a line in there.. ..Every minute of the future, Is a memory of the past. true true...

the weather was fantastic, and there was surf too!

sima introduced me to some fantastic places to eat and drink in the evenings and I spent most every day on the beach or looking around the city. surfed twice and met a guy in the surf school at the dolphinarium - such nice people.. ..i'll be back, you can count on that.

the best way to see what i saw is to check out my photos..

for now, laterz. xx

Pisa, Visp and beyond..

2008-07-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

well, what a night! I'll tell you more about it in a minute...

...it was quite an uneventful journey up from Roma, to Pisa. We managed to hike to the leaning tower and take the customary comedy photo - the two boys made a friend. Some guys giving out red elephants for money - he only spoke french and kept telling the boys that if they drink coke they'll have along life!! Mad, eh? anyway, we took a photo with him for all to see.

We then caught the trains up to Milano Centrale and on to Visp on the Cisalpino. We turned up in Visp in the Swiss Alps at about 9pm and the place was like a ghost town... ...we couldn't find anywhere open to eat (except the McDonalds of course!) We got to the 'hotel' and it was a converted catholic church, run by nuns! Toby made a friend of the sister who checked us in (in french, german and sign language!) Then the nun tried to get him in a head lock! :o)

We couldn't wait to get out of that place this morning, but we had a lovely trip up to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn, loads of photos and video on the way up. Its one of the best stretches of railway i've seen.

Then we caught our connections all the way through to Neuchatel, plus a minor detour, due to the train we got on at Bern splitting in half with us on the wrong section!

Anyway, we are now in Neuchatel and about to carry on the Martigny. Then its off to Mont Blanc tomorrow.

back soon x x

fontana de treve'

2008-07-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

yo yo yo
today we went to go see fontana de trevi - it was awesome, it had a 50 ft statue of Zeus! it was absolutely magnificent! we also had some yummy ice cream lol o_o i had 2 scoops (default) of banana and ciocollato (chocolate) whilst Toby had a spagnola (cherry ripple) he then dropped it in a fontana which was a recreation of (i think) a boat??? after we got some food and headed home (hotel/apartment). we are planning on using the food for tomorrow morning -Ben

update Roma, Italia - Colloseum!

2008-07-26T13:32:00.001-07:00

hey hey hey!

well i'm sat on someone's doorstep in Roma - we found an open wireless network with the iphone, wandering along after dinner in a bar on via sistina. Time for an update me thinks....

We trekked across London, me, two boys and three rucksacks - I ended up carrying all three rucksacks most of the way on the tube to the Eurostar! But, hey, we made it eventually.

Got into Paris, Gare du Nord at about lunchtime and then after much moaning from the boys, I managed to convince the concierge of the hotel we are staying at in paris, on the way back, to hold onto a bunch of our stuff. So we bought a new bag, emptied all non-essentials into, and will pick it up on the way back. So, with rucksacks much lighter for the boys we managed to make it to Paris, Bercy for the overnight sleeper.

Toby made a new friend on the train, we had a 6-berth sleeper with two non english speaking french guys and one guy who spoke perfect english, on his way to live with his girlfriend in Rome. Oh yeah, Toby managed to knock my new video camera on the floor and broke the screen, nice! So, the camera still works, but I can't see if we have anything decent recorded yet!

We made it to the colloseum today, WOW! The boys loved it, its such a shame we couldn't get down into the gladiator areas, but you can see right down in there. Check out the website for the pictures. 3rucksacks.com has the link.

Gotta go now as Toby is falling asleep on the street! Catch you later! One more day in Roma, then its off to the Swiss Alps... ...yeah baby! Its 40 degrees C here by the way... ..it'll be much cooler in the mountains, be nice to take a break from the heat by then I think.

bye x x

the night before the day after

2008-07-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

well well well, tired am I young Jedi...

everything is packed up and wrapped up; tickets, passports and everything else seems to be all in order. new video camera, charged up my other two cameras, nintendo DS on charge, all the phones on charge (including my iPhone 3G of course!)

looks like we're all set.. ..and Benjamin just cam in sleep walking and talking.. ..something along the lines of 'the skin of the shorts needs sorting out' ??! wierd...

anyway, nite nite all x x

Roy, Benjamin, Toby.

3 days to go until Rome

2008-07-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

hey hey !
Three days to go and I need to get all my crap together. All the rail tickets have arrived and I've completed the itinery... ....I'll post that just as soon as I get five minutes to convert it to HTML.

I'm just trying to work out which SDcard video camera to buy for the trip. Up until this evening I had my heart set on the Sanyo Xacti HD1000. However, I just saw a review on simplydv of the panasonic hdc-sd9. Wow, I think I will have to shell out the extra £120 and go for that instead. Just as soon I get some footage I'll post a link to my web gallery.

Catch you later x

travel blog initiation

2008-07-10T03:19:00.000-07:00

hey hey hey!

this is the start of something beautiful!

I plan to post all our travel trials and tribulations to this blog, and try to keep it up-to-date as we go.

our first trip is a train adventure to Rome and the Swiss mountains.

watch this space!!