Piz Gloria Website Launched Five Years Ago Today

It's party time here in Oz as PizGloria.com was launched five years ago today.  During that time there have been over 15,800 visitors which is really pleasing.  The number of visitors in 2016 (3,380) is slightly less than 2015 (3,995) however I made several significant changes to the site in 2015 and the film "SPECTRE" was also released in cinemas, two reasons I attribute to the slightly lower patronage in 2016 but still great numbers nonetheless.

As usual here is a brief analysis of the stats below:
- The average number of pages viewed per visit has remained almost the same with 6.84 in 2016 compared to 7.06 in 2015
- The overall number of page views for 2016 was almost 40,000 which is less than 2015 when there were over 46,000
- The average time spent on the site during a visit in 2016 was 3:00 minutes which is half a minute less than 2015.  In 2012 the average was 4:40 minutes per visit/session

Year 1 - Jan 24, 2012 to Jan 23, 2013

Year 2 - Jan 24, 2013 to Jan 23, 2014

Year 3 - Jan 24, 2014 to Jan 23, 2015

Year 4 - Jan 24, 2015 to Jan 23, 2016

Year 5 - Jan 24, 2016 to Jan 23, 2017

So in summary I'd once again like to thank everyone who has taken time to visit both the Collecting Piz Gloria blog and the PizGloria.com website. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

"The Spectre Trilogy" Slipcase Arrives

Today I received "The Spectre Trilogy" slipcase in the mail containing the three Ian Fleming novels featuring the fictional "criminal organisation" Spectre.  Published by Vintage Books, this James Bond box set was released around the same time as last years Daniel Craig film of the same name.  It is as close to a movie tie-in for the last Bond film as we are ever likely to get.  Fortunately the parcel was well packaged too after its journey from the UK.

SPECTRE Released On DVD And Blu-Ray In Australia

On March 9 the latest James Bond film "SPECTRE" was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in Australia.  Strangely I don't recall any ads on TV or radio promoting the release, however I did see lots of bus stops and phone booths featuring this poster.

And the local JB Hi-Fi had this free monthly magazine... 

and display stand...

Today, almost a month later, I visited the same JB Hi-Fi store and managed to pick up some of the advertising material they no longer needed.  I gained part of the aforementioned display stand...

As well as two of these cardboard cubes.  One is a little damaged at the top but they both look pretty cool.

They also gave me several of these posters which hadn't been displayed.

So obviously I was pretty stoked after picking up all this Bond stuff.  Now I just have to find somewhere to put it in my Bond room ! 

Two More Bond Books Acquired

I've just managed to purchase two more Bond books.  The first is a US proof copy published by Harper Collins of "Trigger Mortis" by Anthony Horowitz.  I've been trying to find a copy of this book for several months now.

I had the second book on order at Thesaurus Books for a couple of months and fortunately it's arrived.  This omnibus published by Vintage contains the same three titles as "The Blofeld Trilogy" published by Penguin in 2010 ("Thunderball", "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "You Only Live Twice"), but the title change suggests this book will be the closest thing we'll get to a movie tie-in for the latest Daniel Craig - James Bond film "Spectre".  It even has an introduction by Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. 

The cover image is also reminiscent of the Vintage 007 Series.  So far I've been unable to identify the cover artist though.

And finally, for those readers interested enough to read the whole of this blog entry, these two additions bring to total number of covers displayed on PizGloria.com to 599 !

Further Additions To My Bond Book Collection

Last week I received two Bond books in the mail.  Both were "Dr No" movie tie-ins published by Pan books in 1962.  However unlike the existing copy of the same UK movie tie-in already in my collection, these two both display "Great Pan" on the cover instead of "Pan".  There are other differences and further details can be found on the Slight Cover Variations page of PizGloria.com under 11.  Here's a photo of the books (with many thanks to Alan T).

I also visited a couple of book stores selling new books.  The first was Thesaurus Books in Brighton where I purchased two books: "The Man With The Golden Typewriter" which is a collection of letters written by Ian Fleming and edited by Fergus Fleming, and a copy of "Goldfinger" published by Vintage to accompany the release of "Trigger Mortis" by Anthony Horowitz.

And finally, I also visited a Dymocks store where I saw a copy of the new Ian Fleming omnibus "The Spectre Trilogy" for sale.  I would have purchased it but I already have a copy on order.

Spectre Billboards

I've seen a few billboards promoting "Spectre" around Melbourne but haven't been able to snap any photos until now.  Here's one my wife took this morning of a billboard just near the Tullamarine Freeway.  Sorry it's a little out of focus but we were travelling at around 100km/h.

I've also seen some advertising on the side of buses so I'll try and grab a photo of one of those too next time I see one.

Quick Book Hunt + Omega Lifetime Magazine

I visited a couple of second hand book stores today that I regularly haunt.  Both are in Caulfield South and are almost opposite each other.  

The first was "Out Of Print Books etc".  As usual Ken greeted me as I entered his store and the Bond books were sitting together on one of the shelves.  There were several new Bond paperbacks in stock compared to my last visit and the Triad-Granada copy of "Dr No" shown below was in such a nice unread condition I couldn't resist purchasing it.

The second store was "Syber's Books".  Ever since I started visiting this store I've never found a James Bond paperback on the shelf and I suspect they're all held at "Penny Syber's" book store on Chapel Street.  However today after navigating to the back of the store, through the maze of shelves and boxes of books, I managed to find one Sebastian Faulks and six John Gardner Bond hardbacks as shown below, all reasonably priced too.

Finally, while in Singapore last week I managed to acquire two copies of the latest Omega Lifetime magazine; the "Spectre Edition".  I have since given away one copy to a fellow Melbourne blogger Teeritz who writes The Teeritz Agenda which often features blog entries about Omega watches and James Bond.  His blog is always a great read and thus I thought he might like a copy of this magazine.

Here's some photos from the Omega Lifetime magazine:

 

 

 

And in return Teeritz was kind enough to give me an Omega booklet which was available during the release of "Casino Royale".

Trip To Sri Lanka + Spectre Released In Oz

"Spectre" was released in Australia on November 12.  The film opened in the UK on October 26 so I'm not really clear why it was released so late here in Oz but it was.

My wife and I were in Sri Lanka on November 12 (last Thursday) for a wedding and returned on Sunday.  Thus I only managed to see "Spectre" for the first time on Tuesday night with some mates.  I snapped these four photos during the screening before settling down to watch it.

In Sri Lanka the film was released on November 6.  Here's some photos of it being promoted outside a cinema in Colombo.

 

While in Colombo we visited one book store near the Cinnamon Grand Hotel.  This is the shop front but I wasn't able to grab a photo inside.  They were selling a complete set of what I call the Vintage 007 series as well as paperback copies of Anthony Horowitz's "Trigger Mortis".

We did see several small second hand book stalls while being driven around Colombo but our visit coincided with a public holiday on one day, then we did a day visit to Galle, and then the next day in Colombo was a national day of mourning (after the death of Buddhist leader Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha) so they weren't open while we were there.

In Galle we found this bookshop. It was opposite where our driver had parked and the roads are crazy in Sri Lanka so we almost literally risked our lives crossing the traffic to take these photos.  Unfortunately they had no Bonds in either English or Sinhalese so our deaths would have been in vain.

 

In Kandy there were two book stores next to each other in a shopping centre. They both had paper back copies of "Trigger Mortis" but no other Bonds.

Whenever we visit a hotel I always like to check out the library if there is one.  This is a photo of our hotel library in Negombo but alas no Bonds.

And finally, here's some non-Bond related photos of the Maldives...

... and Sri Lanka: 

A Hindu temple in Colombo

 

A section of the road near Kandy with less traffic than usual

Roadside views while driving from Nuwara Eliya to Kandy

Typical occurrence on the roads in Sri Lanka.  It may look like the car on the far right was parked but it was moving... just not fast enough for the bus driver.  We had to slow and pull over a little further to the left to let the bus go past but that's just what all the drivers do in Lanka

Temple Of The Tooth, Kandy