I finally got around to getting a password management utility program. There are so many passwords I have to remember these days that I'm losing track of them all! The memory ain't what it used to be. Found this one called KeePass (http://keepass.info/download.html) which is open-source, free and uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) (128-bit block cipher using 256-bit key). It is very easy to use which is the way it should be considering all you want it to do is store your username and password and encrypt it.
OK, I know that some tech-head will tell me that there's something more secure out there but 128-bit is pretty good and its much more secure than the method that I was using previously! :)
Public Holidays are known as Bank Holidays in the UK and there are two of them in May and another one in August. Other than that they don't have many more which explains why the standard annual leave per year in the UK is five weeks and not four like it is in Oz. Well on the second May Bank Holiday Denise and I booked flights to Helsinki Vantaa Airport (Airport Code: HEL) and we would also be going to the nearby Estonian capital of Tallinn.
The three main logistical components of any trip are: Flights, transfers and hotels.
Transfers can be something you overlook if you assume there are trains and buses going from the airport. Likewise when you get cheap Ryanair or EasyJet flights you may not realise that it is going to the city's secondary airport (a la Melb's Avalon) from whence there are no readily available public transport and so are forced to take a cab. This works out to be a false economy since the difference in airfares is spent on a cab when you could have spent the same amount flying into a decent airport close to the city. It all depends on what your airfares cost.
Similarly it costs a little more to fly out of Heathrow compared to Stansted but you can just catch the Tube out to Heathrow and pay £1 extra on your travelcard and not have to catch the Stansted Express which costs £16 (£24.00 return).
We flew a budget airline to Helsinki but leaving Heathrow and there were a couple of bus options from the airport; the Finnair bus and the public transport bus. We landed at about 10pm because of the two hour time difference but there was so much light around it did not feel late at all!
As things are quite expensive in Scandanavian countries like Helsinki we only got a basic hotel and also because we'd be leaving after breakfast for Tallinn, Estonia via the ferry.
There are a few ferry options to Tallinn. We opted for the quickest one at 1.5 hours. Since the Baltic sea is frozen during winter time, the traffic varies a lot between summer and winter. In winter there are only the big and slower boats, which take about 3 hours. During summer faster boats can operate. Would have been cool to be on an ice breaking ship in Winter!
I think Tallinn was a much more interesting and picturesque city than Helsinki. Oh, and I had bear meat at the Olde Hansa restaurant - it tasted like beef but with a bit of a liver aftertaste. Helsinki had all your typical European city things but when its not your first European city it doesn't elicit the "ohs" and "ahs". I was glad we decided to do both cities in the one long weekend even though it amounted to a lot of travelling. I would recommend to others that if flights are comparable they should fly into Tallinn and take the ferry across to Helsinki. That way you can spend more time in Tallinn and surrounds. Or perhaps fly into one city and out of the other one.
I was really displeased with the service at one low class joint in Helsinki as we waited 20mins and then found out that they had forgotten about our orders! I was bloody hungry as well!! The other places we ate at in Helsinki redeemed the city (even though one was a McD's! Well, we were on the cheap with this trip, no restaurant like Gil's for us this time).
Managed to get back to London mid-afternoon on the Monday as we had a midday flight and also because of the two hours that we got back due to the time difference.
I went to see The Lord of the Rings theatre play at Theatre Royal Drury Lane a few weeks back. Being a fan of the movies and read all the books in the Tolkien trilogy I thought I had better go and see it before it finishes its run. After being the most expensive theatre production in history in terms of set up, the £12.5million production of Lord Of The Rings is set to close in July after a 14-month run. Apparently it might go on a tour to various cities and possibly Australia but who knows.
The whole thing was quite good and I would give it a 6.5/10 as there were some totally amazing things. Like when Bilbo disappears and, later on, Frodo in the Prancing Pony tavern. I have no idea how they did it as its all on stage with real things and not CGI! The sets, stage, lighting and effects was just out of this world! No pun intended. The visuals were just stunning and they were able to move from the woods to Saramon's tower in such a graceful and seamless manner. In fact they did all the scene changes in a totally amazing way. I couldn't help but think they had been influenced by the imagery from the movies though instead of interpreting their own vision from the books.
The did have to cut out some things and it seemed like the whole of the Two Towers was taken out but it was forgiven considering it was already a 3hr play (plus intermission), and any more I wuold have probably fallen asleep! They had the actors in the stalls as well and not just on the stage for specific scenes such as Boromir scouting the way forward in crossing the Misty Mountains and the orcs roaming the aisles for something else.
Where the play was disappointing was in the acting and music - quite critical in a theatre musical! The songs were not catchy or memorable and the acting by the hobbits and Gandalf was downright cringe-worthy. I suspect this is why it is ending early and not going on a 20 year run like Les Misérables.
If you get a chance to see it I would recommend that you do so and marvel at the technological wizardry of it all and besides you already know the storyline. The acting is sub-standard and that is why it only gets 6.5/10. On a positive note we got upgraded seats and had a fantastic view! There were a lot of empty seats so the cheapest tickets we bought were promoted to much better ones which made me glad I didn't buy the dearer tickets in the first place!
