Carl discovers the world

Last night around 11pm the usual Sunday night calm we've become accustomed to was absolutely shattered by the din from dozens of car horns, people yelling and shouting in the streets, and a lone foghorn blasting away.

Not knowing what was going on and suspecting the apocalypse we sneaked a peek outside the front door and not seeing any reason not to go further we gingerly stepped out a bit further.

Silly us, if only the TV was on the right channel we would have known the reason, but no, we were watching the continuing saga that is Spanish Idol, completely oblivious to the football on the other channel.

If we were a little more observant we would have known that Real Madrid had just clinched the Spanish Championship League Cup beating Osasuna 2-1 with a man down due to penalties.

So now we know how the Spanish celebrate a football win. I am certain several of the locals wouldn't have made it to work this morning, at least not if the noise was any indication of the amount of alcohol (cerveza) consumed.

BTW, the locals whether drunk or sober don't pronounce Madrid they way we would in English. They say something that sounds like 'Maahdrih', the final syllable is short with a rolled 'r', and the final 'd' is almost silent. I have no idea if this is just the local Ronda dialect but its fascinating nevertheless.

OK, so as you know we do a bit of traveling, mostly through places we've never been to before, and our trusty printed map isn't working very well anymore. It's a bit wrecked, the pages are falling out and the ink is fading.

So, I've decided to go cutting edge and get myself a GPS system, woohoo, but this is the catch, I don't want one of those tiny little things you stick on the dashboard, I'd actually rather buy one of the USB GPS systems that connect to the laptop, which seem cheaper than the car version anyway.

We bought a Vista powered laptop a few months ago which gets used only sporadically and would be a great use for it for when we go off with our cameras, and since I already have a backpack for it we could even take it off-road on bicycles.

I've been scouring the laptop PC GPS software programs forum over at Laptop GPS World for info, I'm happy to buy the USB GPS system online and have it shipped to me, but finding out what software to use is another matter.

Do any of my readers have any experience of using a USB GPS system, I know some of you in the US probably do, so which software is generally better for Vista. If any of you know anything about European maps, what I need is software that covers western Europe.

I'll go ask in the GPS forum as well but since so many of you live in Germany if you can recommend something I can get from MediaMarkt I'd really appreciate it, I do need good maps of Iberia and the USB dongle.

It seems to be the vogue in Entrecard circles to list your top ten droppers, which spreads a little love and gives them a reason to continue visiting and maybe even make a comment or two.

So, without further ado, here are my top droppers for April ranked from most drops to least. My top three get a short blurb, the remaining seven a mention.

1. Modern Glam. Not only is Modern Glam my top dropper, she gets a special mention for having made some really nice relevant comments. She's also active at BlogCatalog so we bump into each other quite a lot. You should check out her jewelry store while you're here.
2. nofaceberg, aka Danny, a New Yorker who writes some stuff, yeah I know hardly a great review but when you read his site you'll agree with me, can be very funny.
3. MamaFlo's Place, a retired and recent convert to the non-smoking world (228 days and 1 hour as I write this). This lady does a bit of travelling and posts piccies of places she's been.
4. CK Marketing
5. Pixelated Thoughts
6. Search Engine Panel
7. Karlonia.com
8. Dot Com Mogul
9. Wooden Fish
10. Reenashwina

Next month I'm going to switch this up a bit and rank droppers by both the number of drops and the number of comments and give each an equal weighting so it will be interesting to see how many of April's droppers stay in the top ten.

Part Time Couriers Required Now! I'm not joking, this is a great opportunity.

My dear readers, knowing that two of you are bus drivers, three or four of you deliver pizza, one of you operates a taxi, and of course let's not forget those of you who constantly pester me about making some extra cash, how about this for an opportunity, one of the firms I regularly deal with has openings for couriers.

Ever thought of becoming a part-time courier? If you have a drivers license, and you're wanting to earn some extra cash this could be just the opportunity you're looking for. The company is SunStar Postal Service (SSPS), a global freight firm based in LA but offering same day deliveries in the US and the UK.

Many years ago when I was a student a friend of mine did a stint as a courier over the summer holidays and earned enough to pay his rent for the next semester allowing him to concentrate on his studies, man was I jealous, at the time I would have walked over hot coals for an opportunity like that.

But of course being a courier isn't only for the young or fit, in fact some of the best couriers are more mature people who are organized, perhaps you're retired or even a stay at home parent, believe me you can make this work as well, so stop reading what I have to say, if you're interested, click that link.