Dear me

What sort of people send themselves postcards while on holiday, eh? Well, I do, as I confessed a while ago to the always understanding nmj. And now that I've booked myself an Easter break in Ljubljana, I'm wondering what sort of groove I'll be able to send myself from there.

So just for the sheer wackiness of it, here's a taste of previous missives to myself.

8 August 2006, Hilo, Hawai´i

singing frogs; tropical rain; red mustangs, pick-up trucks

31 July 2006, Vancouver, Canada

condominium blocks; street life (in all ways); Bohemia; trolley buses!!; coffee shops; microbrewery beer

29 July 2005, Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Fantastic! A place to retire to!

25 July 2005, Lugano, Switzerland

Tik und tak und tik und tak. Here and now .... mmmm.

29 December 2001, Castries, St Lucia

Simply relaxing under a palm tree!

Alas, the wonder of Iceland (August 2001) had me so utterly gobsmacked that all I could manage from Reykjavík was a blank.

Beginning to belong

Is it true? Am I really becoming part of the Flickr community? Part of the wider web world? I substantiate this tentative suggestion with three pieces of Flickr evidence.

1. A photo of mine from The Butchart Gardens, British Columbia, has been invited to not one but two invitation-only image groups. This may be normal for established ether dwellers, but it's definitely a unique twitch on the line for a first-time fisher king.

2. A web journalist has requested permission to use another photo of mine, this time of a sculpture in Vancouver, in an online news item. Groovy!

3. An artist has selected yet another photo of mine, this time of Akaka Falls in Hawai´i, to form the basis of a piece of fabric art that they're working on. Distinctly cool!

so hey now chillin', happenin', surfer-type web dudes: i is the thing arrivin', man, innit?

To tip or not to tip

With theatre-person happeningfish heading for Canada this week (bon voyage, h:fish), I have been reminded once more of my own North American adventures over the summer.

One thing that I really had difficulty getting a handle on was tipping. The people in Canada were just so wonderfully and sincerely friendly that it seemed on the verge of rude to then pay for the service relationship with a waiter or tour guide. I think I even offended a couple of bar staff by suggesting that they should add the cost of a drink for themselves onto my tab. Apparently that's not how it's done. But they were so helpful in giving large denomination banknotes as change that it was impossible to find an accurate 10% or 15% in cash.

Even more embarrassing were the coffee houses (I preferred the local Blenz to the imported Starbucks), where the glass jar by the cashier's elbow showed clearly how miserly one was being with the huge piles of one-cent coins that it was impossible not to accumulate.

Things were slightly easier in Hawai´i. At least they gave change in small denominations, making it easier to count out the tip. In addition, the service, though friendly, was not as personal as in Vancouver, and so it was easier to peg it down as a professional transaction and leave the 15% behind.

Of course, there are always exceptions. I fondly remember the waitress in Hilo, at Cronies, who told me that I had a great smile. It was fortunate that we were already half way to the exit, because I had just finished the most wonderful Mai Tai and would have left her my entire wallet! But, being a soft European, I just grinned sheepishly and dived out through the door.