h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You'd think the title was about the recent media-fest that was the United States election...you'd be wrong. I just came back from Italy and on the flight I had a choice of watching an iffy-looking Bruce Willis film foillowed by the Harry Potter film I had watched on the plane out, or listening to the audio channels. One of the channels was a Duran Duran special. You just can't argue with that. Does anyone remember Arcadia? They were a Duran Duran spin off who had a song called "Election Day". For some reason Arcadia sounded pretty odd in the 80s, which is interesting as in the 00's it sounds very, well, generic 80s. But hurrah! Duran Duran are back back BACK! All of them, three unrelated Taylors and the other two. Is it wrong that I want to buy the new album? The thing is, I never owned a Duran Duran album in the 80s. I had a tape of "Vertigo" from a schoolfriend but I was too busy listening to Spandau Ballet and Aztec Camera to care. How is it that so much of the cheesy 80s pop that I never gave time of day to at the time now makes me want to jig around the room and break out the leg warmers?* Anyhoo...Italy - Pisa to be precise - was as beautiful as ever. WIth tremendously good food. I was fascinated by the fact that the tower is not the only leaning building in Pisa (although, my, does it lean!). After a while you begin to wonder if spirit levels are officialy banned in the city. Still, at least now I have an excuse for my photos to look all wonky.

And are we going to talk about the election debacle? Absolutely not. But I did see that there have been record hits on the Canadian immigration website since election day. Me, I'm thinking of Switzerland, they are neutral, they understand chocolate and they have small knives with useful attachments. I wonder if Duran Duran ever had a hit there?



*I don't actually own leg warmers. Please believe me.