Ever visit a web site which insists on getting you to register just so that you can (regularly) consult its content (and consequently receive tons of spam on a regular basis)?

Just in case you can’t think of one, the Internet Movie Database is a perfect example.

Then check out PookMail.

Pretty simple to use:

1. When requested by a site, enter an adress such as onetwothree@pookmail.com
2. Visit pookmail.com and login using that very same mail address
3. Retrieve your registration confirmation or any login info relative to the site your interested in
4. That’s it!

Just “nipped” down to Lignano to pick up Sarah from her language camp. A mere 550km per way.

I was actually looking forward to this great little trattoria we found there, La Vecchia Finanza, but it wasn’t to be: thousands of mad Italians decided to meet up on the freeway and attempt to kill me in the most violent manner possible.

They’re quite cunning those people: in order to ensure that they can catch you, they slow you down by insisting you pay a couple of Euros every now and then. It took me 2 hours just to get round Milano, which was more than enough time for them to perform their dastardly deeds.

But, and more due to luck than my expert driving, I somehow managed to escape; which allowed me to ponder…

Does Italy hold Europe’s record for road deaths? Are they so used to see burning wrecks and dismembered bodies that they’ve become totally immune?

So I went looking.. And found these figures for 2005:

Road Fatalities per 1’000’000 Inhabitants

Netherlands: 46
Norway: 48

Sweden: 49

Great Britain: 53

Switzerland: 56

Denmark: 61

Germany: 65

France: 80

Austria: 94

Italy: 97

Ireland: 99

Luxembourg: 102

Slovakia: 104

Belgium: 106

Portugal: 119

Estonia: 125

Czech Republic: 126

Hungary: 128
Slovenia: 129

Cyprus: 140

Poland: 143

Greece: 146

Latvia: 191

And the winner is Lithuania with a whopping 221!!

So my conclusions can only be:

a) It is a personal grudge they have against me

b) I’ll add Lithuania to my TomTom’s list of “places to avoid”.

c) I might just revise my opinion about Slovenia!

Found this great freebie online utility (actually Tom told me about it).

OnlineTVRecorder.com allows you to record your favourite programs online before downloading them and watching them at your convenience.

For the moment it only works with (mostly) German-speaking channels, but it mentions ABC, NBC, etc.. becoming available in the near future.

Forgot to tell you that I got one of these navigation thingies, a TomTom One.

Or rather: my darling wife bought it for my (belated) birthday present. Something to do with the way I stubbornly refuse to ask for directions when hopelessly lost while giving her the blame, I suppose..

And I love it! At first I simply couldn’t justify the cost of buying one; I mean: it’s not everyday that you find yourself at an intersection with a stunned look on you face, is it?

But having spent a large part of July on the road, ferrying various daughters to their respective language camps, before discovering Slovenia and parts of Austria that even Heineken couldn’t refresh, I wouldn’t give it back!

Although I sincerely considered doing so upon approaching Munich on the way home:

"Ooh, Munich!" said the wife.

"Let’s go and visit Karin (her cousin)" she suggested.

"Ooh, yes, let’s!" I didn’t think..

We finally agreed to let old TomTom make the decision: if we would have been more than 15 minutes away, we would have pressed on. We weren’t, so we didn’t.

Still, I did end up driving home with a crate of Franziskaner Weissbier in the back: it WAS great to see you, Karin!

Following our week in Solvenia, and with another 4 days to spare, we simply headed north..

Originally we had decided to spend a couple of days by the lake in Bled, but it turned out to be overloaded with tourists.

So we crossed the border to Austria and arrived in.. Kernten, home of the alledgedly famous Wörthersee. Obviously I’d never heard of it, but it somehow seemed to tickle Pina’s fancy. So we drove around looking for an appropriate place to stay… and found the FAAKER SEE!!

Oh joy: 4 days of lying on the hotel’s private beach in solitary splendor..