The capture of Leningrad was one of three strategic goals in Hitlers initial plan, codenamed Operation Barbarossa, for invading and conquering the Soviet Union. Hitlers strategy was motivated by Leningrads political status as the former capital of Russia and the symbolic capital of the Russian Revolution, its military importance as a main base of the Soviet Baltic Fleet and its industrial strength, housing numerous arms factories. The Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade was an unsuccessful military operation by the Axis powers to capture Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) during World War II. The siege started at 8 September 1941, when the last land connection to the city was severed. Although Soviets managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city at 18 January 1943, the total lifting of the siege happened a ... read more

After our brief two night stay in Antwerp we caught the train back to Brussels. A sure sign we were nearing the city of Brussels we passed the red neon glow of the red light district. The girls barely covered in their seductive lace outfits, in a little room, the windows facing the street of onlookers. Some girls just seemed to pace their window while others sat in the corner. Some even interacting and teasing potential clientele through the glass. I found the whole experience not to dissimilar to that of a puppy attempting to impress a shopper through a pet store window. We arrived at the station both fatigued and full of adrenaline. This trip has been pretty much go go go for me, and my prior work stop in Antwerp was no exception. We ... read more

I am currently on a train bound for London on my way back from a day trip out to Bristol where I visited the United Kingdom head office of Roland DG. It has been pretty much my first chance since arriving in London three days ago to get up to date with my writing having just finished ‘Australia: The land of The Crocodile Hunter and Elle McPherson - according to Yankee’ a few moments earlier. The day trip out was great, it was really interesting to see Roland operations from behind the scenes. I was there mainly to meet with their head sales distribution coordinator to do a presentation of the software I have been slaving over for the past three and a half years. As with the stops before, one at Epilog Colorado (Laser Engravers) ... read more

Having fallen in love with the laid back get outdoors nature of Golden Colorado it has taken me some time to adjust to New York City. The two are complete opposites, Golden promotes its outdoor lifestyle and NYC promotes the life in the city; where being close to nature i.e. a window view of Central Park from your apartment will set you back $3000.00 a month. Broadway to me seems a separate entity of NYC altogether. In some sense it reminds me of the Las Vegas strip, with just fewer neons and instead of people handing out cards of strippers and escorts you have people offering you free seats to the ‘funniest standup in town’ (free as long as you purchase a couple of drinks at the show). We arrived into New York rather exhausted from ... read more

Or at least that is the way to get to Golden on the road, which in retrospect would of probably been more relaxing and enjoyable rather than having to put up with our second flight delay in the United States. Similar to the flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas, our United Airlines flight to Denver has been delayed by two hours due to extended maintenance required for the aircraft. I don’t know which comforts me more, the fact that United Airlines are thorough with their maintenance and thus happily taking more time to get it right, or the fact that the aircraft in question requires the extra attention. Perhaps they ran out of duct tape and need more? It is a shame, we are both looking forward to checking out Colorado, it sounds amazing and ... read more