saluto a OSte'

My friend OSte' kindly asked me to say hello from the page of his favorite blog. Leccaculo:-)

I'm turbo, darling

what better evening to forget the shitty plant data I just got than having Jasmina over for dinner, finishing the cigarettes, going to the trinkhalle in front of my house and getting acquainted with the "turbo folk" music?
Well, not that the music is that good... Anyway, check out the lady Ceca, who apparently is one of the biggest music stars of the Balkans. Well, I don't know whether it's because of her music (from what I heard tonight probably not), of her cleavage (getting close) or of her marriage with Arkan, this nice guy who is suspected of war crimes. Funny how little we know of a place that is on the other side of the Adriatic sea (kind of). Now I go to bed, 4 hours of sleep per night are not making me look any prettier. And in the meantime, listen to this (cool, grande Ali); the proof that a shitty song can become bereable.

el coche is ebooked

miei cari, today I nearly completed the preparation for Blanca's wedding in San Sebastian next Saturday. I rented a car for the whole week, it was cheaper than renting it only 1 day from Barcelona to San Sebastian, also considering that we found out on Friday that I will have to be in the plant on Monday morning, which means that anyway I have to travel back to Lerida on Sunday (and lose 1 day of public holiday, shit). Which means that I can pass by Zaragoza and pick up Maria, assuming that I can find her phone number again. I also changed the plans for the outfit, now no more white sondern red stuff. Good news is that I already have shoes (bought them yesterday:-) ) and bag. Not so good news is that I have no red shirt, which will require some emergency shopping on Thursday and/or Friday. And also some pedicure, since the shoes are open and after 4 weeks of plant shoes (i.e. steel toe) my feet look scary.
Tomorrow I will be again shipped out to Euskirchen, the amount of travelling this month is reaching new peaks, but at least I expected it.
On top, I am considering going to Milano at the start of June (last public holiday of the summer), yesterday I talked it with Jasmina and we were thinking about going there together, but considering the amount of stress that Jack has I believe that it's safer if I plan it on my own. Obviously you are free to join, we could either go by plane or show our nice middle fingers to the Swiss police while they search Jean Jacques at the border.

sex crimes and the vatican

Please give a look at this BBC report (part 1, 2, 3 and 4). This report is about the scandal of Catholic priests raping kids and being covered up for that. It might be true that in other institutions this phenomenon is spread as well, and perhaps not everything in this report is objective, but even if only half of it is true this is a disgusting crime. SHAME!!!
This is horrendous, and fucks up all the very good work that decent, human, not criminal priests are doing. I remember being tought how to study by my philosophy teacher, Rocco, a priest, who was good, professional and fair. I remember being taken to the juvenile prison to see what kids might face in life, and how we can help them; and this was done by priests. I remember the priest that took care of the prisoners in San Vittore (Milano's jail) and the humanity that he showed. These are simple examples of people who decided to devote their lives to try to improve that of someone less lucky than us; and these fucking son of bitches are screwing it up. SHAME!!!!

Jean Jacques sans antenne

today was a good day. I worked only half a day and then went to the hairdresser. I parked my little Jean Jacques in a parking of the city center, among tons of shining BMW, mercedes and assorted bullshit that Frankfurt bankers like to show off in (one day I will explain to you my mum's theory of the Compensatio Penis Piccolis Vaginaeque Scarsae). I come back, pay my nice 6 euros for 2 hours parking and find out that SOME FUCKER STOLE THE ANTENNA OF JEAN JACQUES. Now I wonder, who the hell could have the insane idea of stealing the antenna of a little Peugeot 106??? Well, this means that now we will see if the antennas of BMWs and assorted crap fit on my poor little JJ.

can anyone cut my head please?

My head hurts. I have a whole mix of alcoholic shit in my blood; yesterday night I went with Patricia, and this is the result. The people with us were very nice, but unfortunately I had woken up at 4 in the morning so I was not the most sociable person in the world.
Today is public holiday in Germany, so I assume I will go back to bed and sleep my hangover off. Even because the weather is shit anyway. And I need to go pick up Jean Jacques, before the bastards of the ordnungsamt decide to take him for a ride.
Next year I want to go to Mexico.
Amen.

before I forget

our friend Sascha is making sure that I don't get sleep tonight so I'd better go keep on writing...
- the hostel Kabul is Barcelona is a nice place, people are friendly, it's very well located and decently clean (at least the girls' bathroom, Gaborno didn't seem too impressed by the mens'). But don't buy the towels, they leave little shitty red thingies all over you.
- the bar tender in the hotel said that the best ice cream in the world is from Greater's in Hyde Park in Cincinnati - yes, the world is small.
- the same bar tender said that there is an urban legend of the company I work for having a secret tunnel below the I-275. This needs to be investigated.
- I was having a shower and then I walked out naked in the bathroom (I mean, girls' bathroom in the hostel). The other girls looked at me as if I was weird and I suddenly realized that I have become germanized.
- there is a stupid game called something like "the crazy pilot" (free translation from what sounded like Swedish): we need to buy it.
- Petero is writing on his blog like crazy: at last!!
- there is this neighbourhood in Barcelona called El Born which is reaaaaaaally great. It's one of these places where I could really see myself living.
- France has a new president (well, if you are stuck in the airport for 3 hours you read magazines...)
- the paper of the cover of Wired is really nice.
- the kid in front of me in the plane was really cute, the first kid that didn't cry when taking off and landing.
- I bought a skirt for Blanca's wedding, at least I know what to wear for 1 out of 3 (or 4, depending if Carletto and Mariella invite me for the wedding) weddings that I have this summer. There were also 2 other very nice dresses but they were 1,500 and 2,500 €, which is way above my purchasing range/willingness.

And if my friend Sascha was not enough, now they are starting with the fireworks.

could have ended better

the weekend, I mean. As you know, I was in Barcelona with Gaborno (aka Gabuerno) and today I had to come back to Frankfurt. Everything went fine until I had to leave. First of all I had left my luggage in the lockers in the bus station, and when I had to pick it up I was late so I got a taxi but for some unknown reason all the streets around the station were bloked, so after 5 minutes going around I left the taxi and went to the station by foot. Then I grabbed another taxi to go to the airport and I manage to find the slowest taxi driver in whole Spain. To make it short, I lost the plane. As the Fratelli Riguera used to sing: Vamos a fanculo, oh oh ohh oh oh! - for some reason it sounds different....
The only good part in this mess is that I found this super kind lady from Lufthansa that booked me a flight as cheap as she could (but still my new illy collection is postponed, shit) and she managed to put me on the 6:50 plane by harrassing the people on the gate because I was initially on waiting list. Another good point is that on Friday we figured out that some of our beloved raw material vendors simply forgot our order therefore tomorrow I don't have early shift in Euskirchen and tonight I can sleep in my nice little bed. Well, I still have to wake up at 6, but better 6 in my bed than 4 in a hotel.
Apart from this not so successfull end of Sunday, the day today had started really nicely. In Barcelona it was sunny and warm. Gaborno and I decided to go to the Palau de la Musica Catalana, which is a super cool place in pure art deco style. Reaaaaally beautiful. We get there and they tell us that we cannot get in for a visit because there is a concert. We start swearing but then we see that the tickets for the concert were only 10€. So we buy them, get inside, look at the place, make pictures (with the lady that caught Gaborno because you are not supposed to) and also listened to some nice music. It was the final of a pianist contest: there were 3 people in the final, each one playing a sonata for piano and orchestra. I liked the guy playing Ravel, Gaborno liked the girl playing Liszt. There was also another girl but she was going to play the same Ravel so we left. Best thing, and most surprising for me, is that Gaborno kept the tickets, approached 2 turists and sold them our tickets. And he's been living in Germany for years now! Amazing... Then we went to the Sagrada Familia, Gaborno seemed to like it a lot, I don't too much but for sure it's going to be great the time that they complete it (hopefully when I am still alive, considering that I didn't see much improvement vs. last time I was there, and that was the 2nd year of university).
Now I am here in Frankfurt, apparently this weekend there was the night of the skyscrapers, people told me that it's very beautiful but compared to Barcelona... Anyway, now from the window of my bedroom I can see - and unfortunately also hear - Sascha playing. Very nice that they make concerts in the big place that is in front of my house (perhaps at the end they really don't build anything). Hopefully though next time it's someone better than this shit.
ciaociao

Barcelona!

miei cari, I am in the hostel with Gaborno (also called Gabuerno, despite he hates it even more than Gaborno...) and he managed to fix internet so now I can write a little bit. We arrived yesterday night, me from the plant, Gaborno from San Sebastian (and he seems to enjoy very very much). We went eating, then walking alongo the rambla, then somewhere else with a lot of statues (dont know where, but I liked them , Gaborno not that much). Today we managed to wake up early and we went around the whole day by foot, so basically now we are on the verge of collapse. Or perhaps we are just getting old and boring, that's all... Anyway, this city is really nice, we went to some cultural stuff, some Gaudí, some shopping in cool places (I got the skirt for Blanca's wedding, thanks god). We aso the pleasure to see a girl half naked (i.e. with only her underpants on) putting vernish on her toes from the roof of the Pedrera, Gaborno tried to convince me of this theory that if you dont see the face the picture is not worthy, bu honestly it sounds like bullshit;-) Now there are some people behind me shouting something in some sort of not better understandable language.
adeu

Barcelona, I'm ecoming!!

miei cari, just a little update because it's nearly 7:30 PM and I've been in the plant from 5:50AM this morning. After sleeping 3.5 hours, of course, since restaurants open at 9, you finish eating at 12, you walk back to the hotel and you just manage to put your ass on the bed when the alarm clock rings (or so it seems).
Anyway, tomorrow I will go to Barcelona with Gaborno. Since all the people in the plant go away at 2PM on Friday, I assume I will go sleep on some beach south of Barcelona, then drop the car at the airport and then somehow go to the city center and try to find our hostel. I am really looking forward to it. The weather here is extremely nice, warm and sunny (so I was told, there are no windows on the line). The food is always great. I so much stink of garlic that I could avoid the appointment with the hairdresser, since every time that I breath I become blonder. So Gaborno and I will go evisiting Gaudi' houses, eshopping, eeating and enjoying.
And then next 2 weeks in Euskirchen.... :-(

Tanzhaus West

tonight it was the night of the museums in Frankfurt. Last years there was a lot of people, music, party. This year it was really quiet, not to much going on. Boring, in a word. So I went to a bar in westhafen (the houses there look soooo nice) and then I went with some people I'd just met to this place called Tanzhaus West. The place is pretty cool, they have live bands playing and rooms where they play electronic music (good one). Another nice place found.
And now I am so hungry that I could eat my mum. And I also left my poor Jean Jacques in Sachsenhausen, hopefully those bastards of the ordnungsamt won't kidnap it again.

found it!

miei cari, I was looking for a video of the afterhours concert on the 1st May in Roma, since I read so many nice comments.
Eventually I found it, however for some unknown reasons I cannot post it directly from the freaking you tube, so you have to click on the link.
The song is called Dentro Marilyn, from the album Germi.
Listening to this song reminded me of my university years. I had just met Alina and she was telling me about this great group, afterhours. At the time they were playing Bianca, which was - and still is- a pretty crappy song, so I thought that Alina was a bit insane. However, after a bit I figured that she had nice taste in music, so I decided to go to my first afterhours concert with her. And this was the first of a long series, including the one at the leoncavallo where we drank a whole bottle of sangue di giuda (renamed sangue di tito), then I took twice as needed drops of the anti-cough codein-based bomb and ended up fainting during the concert, waking up on the front of the car with a Pakistan guy which woke me up with the tons of garlic he had eaten; and while I wanted to get back in he first offered me a coke, then "something special" which I kindly denied. This as the first one of a long series of interesting meetings I had during concerts, including the crazy kissers in front of us and never forgetting the Zio Fritz (why don't you come to the toilet and give me a hand job? ehm, no, thanks, but I can give you a cigarette if you want).
Basically, this group has been one of the soundtracks of my university years, never exceeding Marlene but getting close. And I also remember that interesting girl talk with Alina and Paulette coming back from Trezzo about maracas and fingers.
Basically this proves 2 things
1) they are playing great music, since the song before is from 1995 (12 years ago)
2) I am getting old

May 1st

Cari miei, today it's labor's day and, as a good worker, I woke up at 7:30 to learn how to iron shirts. I was nearly writing that ironing is the most boring and annoying job in the world, then I figured that perhaps if I had to pick dog's shit from the streets every day instead of working in front of a computer wearing my nicely ironed shirts I would rather appreciate coming back home and ironing. Well, all is relative, it seems.
My parents were here for the weekend (hence the ironing lesson), it's always nice to have them around. We went to the Palmengarten, I had never been there in more than 3 years, and it's really nice. We also bought some tons of beer, so that if it keep on not raining in Italy at least they don't die of thirst:-) They arrived safely at home and as usual they left some ton of food in the fridge, despite me explaining that I will spend the next 2 months all over the place (Spain, somewhere else in Germany, US, I don't know where else) so all this stuff is likely to get rotten in the fridge. I assume when you get a child part of your DNA changes and then stays like that forever, I will be 60 years old and they would still come and try to fix stuff in the house and make sure that I have enough food to feed an army. It's sweet - especially now that my mum does not try to "tidy up" my flat, meaning shifting everything and then it took me months to figure out where things were.
Today in Roma they have the big concert of the 1st of May. Obviously I cannot watch it, since I don't get Italian channels on my tv in Germany, but hopefully someone will be so kind to post something on utube or somewhere like that, especially the afterhours concert (apparently it was very good, or all the people on the blog on repubblica are their fans).
Now I go to bed that from tomorrow the rollercoaster starts.