In April, I visited Trento for an EU project meeting:

We stayed in a hotel in Sardagna and had this beautiful view from the balcony. The Grappa was fantastic and I loved eating pizza with freshly cut Speck. See a few more photos in the slideshow.

I visited Toulouse in April to present a workshop paper at the European Conference on Information Retrieval:

Toulouse had a wonderful atmosphere and the confit du canard was delicious. See a few more photos in the slideshow.

Finally, in June, I visited Madrid for an EU project meeting:

A colleague recommended a particular cafe for churros, and we were not disappointed. I also managed to visit some friends and see parts of Madrid that were a little off the beaten track. See a few more photos in the slideshow.

I recently filled in an online request to return my iPhone headphones for a replacement. Apple quickly sent a jiffy-bag containing return instructions, the replacement headphones, an envelope to put the defective headphones into, and a pre-paid return envelope.

For a company that seems to be taking steps to focus on the environmental impact of their products, as can be seen in the Environmental Status Report of the iPhone Tech Specs, the size of the pre-paid envelope is absurd.