Travel and Technology

As we get ready to head to Singapore and then on to Australia its’s time to charge up all my electronics. So what do I take with me when we travel…my iTouch (which provides me with videos for the flight, games, for when I am bored and Wi-Fi connection so I can get email on the road) all in this small package. And you can leave it in your handbag going through security

Then I have to have all the right chargers and adaptors – I like my iGo charger as I can use one charger, with different tips to charge Nokia cell phone and iTouch.

Then I like this adaptor from APC (which is small and flat - unlike many other brands, and very ingeniously constructed.
To keep my iTouch charged on the plane I also have an empower kit which, plugs into the airline in-seat power (which hopefully will be working) the one disadvantage with this is that it gets VERY hot, so you can only run it for a while. So I do carry supplementl battery power for the iTouch, so I can watch my movies on the nearly 20 hour flight (with layovers in Seattle and Tokyo)
When we arrive in Australia we will buy a local SIM card for our phones, and they are very generous with minutes and we can even call back to the USA, at a cheap rate.
So my carryon does get a bit full with all these electrical accessories – which sometimes causes a search at the airline security checkpoints.
The good thing, I am not bored, nor out of touch for too long!

Signs.....

A dry spell?

Car Park full???

Stockton, California

This is where David & I were judging last weekend. The organizers were kind to me, as I judged inside each day in the morning and then moved outside in the afternoon when the weather was gorgeous. David was not so lucky, and it was pretty chilly and foggy in the morning (hard to see across the ring, I was told) We came home on Monday night and have been able to relax for a few days before getting ready for our next trip, we leave at the beginning of December.

Photos from Genoa

Thanks to one of the other judges, who had his camera with him (Jeffrey Pepper) here are some photos of the beautiful city of Genoa

Dog show in Genoa

Last Sunday was the all breeds show, I was judging just all the poodles - and my goodness they not only divide them by size (4 sizes) but by color also. Which meant in an entry of 35 or so there was not a lot of competition in some of the varieties. But as usual there were some very good ones and some not so great. I finnished judging in time to go and watch the beagles be judged and as I was all finished I could socialize with the exhibitors - some of whom we had met before and others who were new to us. The main winner of the weekend was Paola Nuciari and you can see photos of her BOB/Group winning girl on her website. Other exhibitors were Paolo & Sara of Dell' Etruria ; Graziella Cava of Hera Bay who had made a VERY long drive, just to come and meet us! and Gabriele Vadi of de Fonti Posca . The judging panel was also full of Beagle people as there was Marion Spavin from Britain Dialynne; and Joachim Eberhardt of Germany also a beagle breeder from the past.
There are only a couple of photos on the website for the all breeds show - more to come apparently, so check back if you are interested.

Genoa

I am not sure why Genoa is not covered in great detail in all the guide books, as we loved it and would be happy to return again and probably will, perhaps in Spring or Autumn, when there are more things are available to see and do, as a lot of the tourist cruises end with the end of the good weather. Although I have to say we had fantastic weather the whole time we were there, which did help us to enjoy the city. We stayed at the Hotel Bristol, An elegant turn-of-the-century palace in the centre of Genoa famous for its staircase.

The street outside the hotel has large colonnades on either side with mosaic tiled pavements, which apparently represent each of the 4 seasons, and there were all the designer stores and boutiques, for window shopping.
Saturday say me judging the Purina Pro Plan Cup (obviously was sponsored by Purina) to help promote the breeding of better dogs in Italy. The breeders were able to enter up to 2, of the best dogs of their kennel and as judges we had to grade them on 5 parts – head, structure, movement, coat & condition, and overall quality – each part had a possible score of 100, so overall they had a possible high score of 500. The dogs were never judged against each other. There were 3 different judges for each dog, one from the USA, one from UK and one FCI, the organizers totaled the scores for each dog and the highest scorer was BOB, and went onto the group, where again there were 3 judges and this time we just graded each entry out of a possible 100 – and there were 3 placings. At this point I guess I did not play the game the right way, as I judged them as to the quality I saw in front of me, but obviously in some cases the judges marked some dogs very low (or high scores) to undermine the results! Then for Best in Show ALL the judges gave their rating out of 100 – this was very hard to do, as you just looked at the dogs from the other side of the ring and I don’t see how you can be legitimate on grading a Pekinese from 20 feet away! So I think they need to make some changes to the system overall. However it was a fun day and I enjoyed it. And it is a day and scheme full of potential, but needs some tweaking, to get it to be fairer.

Photos here

It was interesting to see breeds that I had not seen before – Czechoslavakian Wolf Dog

Spanish Mastiff

and the lovely Russian Shepherd

Home at last

Today was a loooong travel day - we left Munich at 9:15 this morning (00:15 Brush Prairie time) and arrived at our house at 9pm tonight. With only one layover in Washington DC. The dogs were thrilled to see us arrive home, tomorrow is a day for catching up on chores (including telling more about the trip in tomorrows issue of the blog).

Freising

We got out of Genoa successfully (no airline strike) and just in time as the weather turned overcast and drippy. We are now near Munich staying in a lovely town - Freising, it is cloudy but dry (and chilly)
We are about to go out to dinner.
One of the other judges who took a lot of photos of Genoa will share them with me and I will post them, when they are received.

long days

Saturday and Sunday were very long, busy days - judging and official dinners. And I only have my iTouch to write on, which is tedious- so longer report when I have a real keyboard and computer.
The other news is a potential airline strike..and so need to make sure we can get to Munich .

Genoa

Today was spent walking around the old town, exploring the pedestrian malls, full of wonderful shops filled with an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish and cheese,nuts and herbs. We passed some palaces and churches but did not linger anywhere as the wind was strong and chilly. No rain, though. We went to a restaurant that was recommended as featuring typical Genoa cuisine - we had an antipasta of local fish followed by ravioli filed with pesto with a walnut sauce - for David and I had pasta with pesto - yummy!

Rain

it was raining when we left Portland and it's raining here in Munich, where we have a couple of hours to wait for our plane to go to Genoa, where the forecast is for rain.
And I have discovered that the breed I am judging is Poodles...

Packing again

Who is this above...it's Christopher Columbus and we are heading to his birthplace on Wednesday...Genoa, Italy. Our flight takes us through Dulles and Munich and then onto Genoa where we are staying at the Bristol Palce Hotel I am judging for Purina and they have chosen this very classical hotel as our home base. What breed am I judging? - "Barboni" Not sure what this looks like , then watch this space!

This is what it's all about.

This is one of the 2 rosettes Herbie won.

What an Exciting weekend!

On Saturday Herbie shown by David (bred by Carrie) won Best in Show and became the first red/white male in the history of the breed to win a BIS...then he surprised us all by winning BIS again today - making it Back to Back Best in Shows - definitely a first, no other Red/White beagle has won 2 Best in Shows before in the USA.

Unfortunately neither Carrie nor I were at the shows to witness this historic event - where were we...well we had gone to a Rick Steves day of lectures about travel to Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovinia, Slovakia, Poland, England and then we attended his slide show and talk on his recent visit to Iran which was really interesting.

Today is.....

Election day in the US.........

but

in Australia it is Melbourne Cup Day which is Australia's most famous Tuesday. At 3.00 pm on the first Tuesday in November, Australians everywhere stop for one of the world's most famous horse races - the Melbourne Cup.
It's a day when the nation stops whatever it's doing to listen to the race call, or watch the race on TV. Even those who don't usually bet, try their luck with a small wager or entry into a 'sweep' - a lottery in which each ticket-holder is matched with a randomly drawn horse.

The winner this year is shown above on the inside rail - his name is "Viewed"

Oh yes, there is also a very big dog show held in Melbourne on this day also - and all judging ceases while the race is run.

New puppies

Another halloween litter for us (that's 2 years in a row!). Terri PC is raising the litter for us (and is a co-breeder on the litter) We have 7 puppies and there are 2 boys and all are tricolored. You can watch them as they grow up by going to this page