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Well, its been some time since I returned from The Turkish Delight and its time to recount some of the tale. We flew from Joburg to Rome via Frankfurt and had a wonderful trip. Frankfurt Airport was superb and it is officially my favourite airport. Once again Rome Airport was a disappointment.

We had two days in Rome to allow our luggage to catch up with us and we made good use of it by having a look at a few old favourites in Rome as well as a few things that we haven’t done before. We started with a walk to St. Peters Square and the Castel Sant’Angelo. For our first day, it was fantastic to find a Geocache in Rome, unfortunately it turned out to be the only one of the whole trip.

Day two in Rome included a very lengthy walk round the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. It was fabulous to be able to go in to the archaeological dig and to explore the ancient Roman history – all the way back to the mythical beginning.

After Rome we departed for Civitavecchia which was the location of the Roma Cruise Terminal. Here we swiftly embarked Royal Caribbean International’s Navigator of the Seas. The Navigator was a mammoth vessel and we had fantastic staterooms. This ship is so big that it has its own street: The Royal Promenade!

After just over two years (almost to the day), I have finally upgraded my thawte Web of Trust status to Notary. It was a painless if not time consuming exercise and means that I can now issue points to other people iff they prove their identity to me. I can currently issue 10 points. (Your require 50 to become trusted, 100 to become a notary.)

As an aside, there are a number of people at Rhodes who may be willing to notarise you. The Notary Map on the thawte WoT site will give you details.

It is testament to the genius which is The Dark Knight, that it has shot to become IMDb’s top movie of all time so soon after opening. The story for me wasn’t so much about Batman, or his awesome gadgets, or his action-hero role in Gotham City. It is all about Harvey Dent’s quote: “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

For me, the story was really about how both Batman and Harvey Dent fall prey to this simple statement – in a captivating story sewn together by The Joker. At two and a half hours, it is a very long film, but it did not seem (at any point) seem that long to me. It is all comic-book hero, in a way which a comic book could never be.

The story, superb acting, set and makeup and the ever cool Batman gadgets make this the must see film of the, well ever.

After offering this very easy riddle to my Com Sci 3’s this week:

Where I live, I have a calendar but no clock (as it is always wrong). Where do I live?

I felt compelled to make a far more difficult one. This was the result:

Where I stand, I see the East to one side and the West to the other. Below me runs the Ox-ford. On what am I standing?

Feel free to post comments with the answer…

Well, the festival has finally wound to an end. Today I saw my final two performances, which included the Festival Finale – The Festival Gala Concert.

But first. This morning I followed up brunch with Ten Bush a play about witchcraft and deceit in a small African village, the village of Ten Bush. It was an excellent performance, with its limited set design and raw stage feel of the Box Theatre. It did have its slightly explicit moments, and left one feeling slightly odd, but was really made by the voices. I am going to be hearing “Ten Buuush” (not that this does it any justice) for ages to come.

This was followed, finally, by Richard Cock’s Gala Concert, which included The Orchestra, some Opera, some Sax, and even Audience participation. It was also a tribute to the Festival CEO who has retired after being at the helm of the festival for many years.

The performance was a superb mix of classical and modern music, all chosen because of some significance to the year 2008. Unlike the performance yesterday, Richard Cock continuously addressed the audience and the whole occasion was less formal. (Indeed he was an a bright yellow shirt!) The grand finale was The 1812 Overture which made use of the audience and paper bags to create the cannons. An effect which worked quite well. For an encore, they performed (almost to my horror) the song NAFG – or National Arts Festival, Grahamstown. Richard Cock claimed that this had been commissioned for the festival, but it turned out to be the YMCA.

Quite appropriately, the sun was just setting over the horizon as we left the monument. A builtiful red and orange orb to place an air of finality on what was a wonderful celebration of culture.