More travel tips
+ WhatsApp is the only way to call internationally. Use it on Wi-Fi from your hotel. It’s free — for voice and video. Or use it with your cellphone data. That will cost you data, but much less than rip-off international cell phone calling.
+ Uber can be great. It can show up on time. It also may not show up. Then you can’t cancel or get another Uber car. Best to have other ride-sharing apps on your phone and use them. I have also now loaded Lyft, Bolt and Curb.
+ The best family vacation is an African Safari, preferably in Botswana. Every moment of the day is programmed and set in stone. No one has any ideas for activities or trips or whatever. It’s all planned. You do what you’re told. No one has time to complain.
+ On trips, I carry two identical laptops. If one busts, I have the other. This time, I used one for connecting Netflix to the TV in our living room. And the kids watched kids movies. Next time I’ll carry an HDMI cable for connecting my ThinkPad X1 carbon to the Samsung TV. Luckily, I was able to bum one from our hotel.
+ Madeira is the friendliest most fun tourist trap ever. The weather is perfect. We stayed at Reid’s Palace where Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemmingway and other luminaries (like us) stayed. There’s plenty to do. They grow delicious tropical fruits. Madeira is not what you expect from a volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic. Madeira is paradise. ‘m in love with it. They now have non-stop flights from the U.S. I’m coming back.
This is a selfie of me with the president of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque.
I met him at the Christmas market in downtown Funchal, the capital. He asked me how much I liked Madeira. I said I did — a lot.
This is the view of Funchal bay from our room at Reid’s Palace. I didn’t crop the photo because of the gorgeous moon in the top right.
This is my favorite Munger quote
This is where Putin banished Alexei Navalny to
This prison gulag is above the Artic Circle. Google Maps doesn’t have any directions to get there from Moscow — bottom left.
Navalny tweeted:
The Economists were wrong again
They all predicted a recession and a crashing stockmarket in the second half of 2023. They had reasons.
This is what happened:
I’m coming home on Wednesday, which may be tomorrow. — Harry Newton
