da daaaa

miei cari, I'm back! Actually I didn't really go anywhere, was simply busy. Last 2 weeks have been a little mayhem, but now things start to get manageable again. Last weekend I went to Naka's place for dinner and we stayed up until 3 something, probably 4, not really sure. We spent the whole time gossiping like crazy, which is actually pretty entertaining. So the next day I didn't wake up in time to go to a colleague's wedding; well, too bad... (by the way, today at work I get a mail from this guy asking me for data. From the honeymoon. I really really don't understand). Then on Saturday there was the Museumsuferfest (I love German, such nice and short words...); basically this is the river party on the Main, Frankfurt's river. The best thing is that someone remembered that it's still sunny so we go really nice and warm weather. There were events, all sort of stands selling junk, places open until late. The best stands are obviously the ones at the end on the Sachsenhausen side, the kind of "alternative" ones with cute electronic music. And then we discovered what Yolanda describes as "the best cocktail bar in town" - best for her for sure, since she lives around the corner... - Needless to say, I came back home at 3 something, probably 4, not really sure. The next day, at 9:30 (in the morning) I was ready on the river to take pictures of the guys in the dragonboat race; they came last, but it was nice. Then I had people over for dinner, then went with Friederike to the river to see the fireworks, got another beer and eventually managed to reach my bed at midnight, probably 1, not really sure.
Other interesting thing is that German mosquitos decided to wake up all of a sudden and meet at my place, specifically in my bedroom. I woke up on Monday morning, nicely hungover, with mosquitos bites:
- on both my feet
- on my fingers
- on both my ass cheecks
- on my face
- and then I can't recall where else.
So on Monday night I take my anti-mosquitos spray from India, spray myself all over and go to bed. I mean, it worked with nice voracious Indian mosquitos, why shouldn't it work with anemic German ones? As you might have guessed, I spent the whole night fighting the fucking things, quite unsuccessfully, so I end up going to the office on Tuesday looking like a Vietnam veteran. Tuesday night I was simply too tired to fight, so I somehow slept and woke up like elephant man (or woman, to be precise). Then on Wednesday I go to Euskirchen, before leaving I decide that I want a nice chemical shit that most probably will cause me some sort of cancer, but, shitty hell!, I need sleep! Well, I can't really find it, so I end up buying this ultrasonic thingy that you plug in and apparently repels all sort of insects by emitting some ultrasound. Well, I am not a dog, but I hear this "tziiiiiiiiiiii" all the night. But, power of German technology, it works! So, apart from this sound, I can eventually sleep. Now I will eat something and then get out of here before I feel too sleepy and decide to go to bed.
Tziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

tomorrow work...

oh yes, tomorrow I will go back to work. I nearly wanted to check mails today, but I thought that working on Sunday when one is supposed to be on holiday is not really good for my nervous system. And at the end of the day this has been the only real week of holiday since I went to India, and that was end of March. In the meantime I worked my ass off, so no work today. So I spent the whole day bullshitting on internet and then cleaning the house (including dusting the shelves, and I haaaaate dusting), so that I can say that I made the full cleaning week. I had Gaborno, Ana and the Comunità Campana (Carletto, Mariella, Giuseppe and Jennifer) over for dinner, in order to feed them with the mum's pesto before it gets rotten in the fridge. Some nice chat and then everyone home. And this afternoon I also gave some wine to my Croatian neighbours. they wanted to invite me for dinner but I had people coming over; I hope one day they will come with some nice filled peppers (I really like the stuff but don't know the recipe). Time to go to bed now and await my hundreds of mails tomorrow morning. Everything is going to work fine...

back from holidays :-(

miei cari, unfortunately for me (obviously) and for you (because now I start writing again) I am back from holidays. Was it sunny? Yes. Am I tanned? No. Relaxed? Hmm... I spent the whole week cleaning my new house, next time I build a house I also pay a freaking cleaning company. You can't imagine how nice it is to clean all the little shitty white spots on the tiles; next time, on top of the cleaning company, I also get a nice whip and dutifully punish the painters. And, to be honest, you probably noticed that I like ranting every now and then (really?? meee????), but it was a really great satisfaction to see the house eventually clean with all the stuff shining (have you ever put wax on a brand new parquet? No? Then get a cleaning company for that as well, I talk from experience here). Anyway, the house is finished and now, at last, is clean. It is also pretty empty, apart from my bed and my bed table with lamp. Kind of minimalistic. Now, since I am not Japanese and don't give a holy shit about minimalistic style, I am just waiting to get my next salary and then I will raid ebay. Or perhaps it's a better idea if I simply save the money and get myself a kitchen, you can be as minimalistic as you want but a lonely microwave is NOT a kitchen. By the way, you probably remember that some time ago I bought a big, super red, Kartell lamp. The lamp is now in the kitchen and, my dears, it is simply psychedelic. You switch it on and you feel like starting singing Aquarius (leeeeet the sunshiiiiineeee), since everything turns bright red; therefore it has been nicknamed "Il sol dell'avvenire" - which is kind of complicated to translate, basically it was a catchphrase used by the then PCI , aka Italian Communist Party, to denote the "sun of the future" that would have awaited the proletariat after the successfull revolution against bloody capitalism (funny, in a sense, considering that I work for an American corporation)- During the week it was also the village party (sort of), and it was nice to go out after the whole day cleaning and enjoying a beer with friends. Perhaps a couple of beers. And some prosecco. And some wine. Whatever.
I also had my little adventure while on holiday. I came back home one night, went to bed to read a book and, on the verge of collapse, I heard some voices. I thought that it was some drunken guys from the village party, and then I figured that, drunk or not, the fuckers were in my garden. So I wake up, open the window, see 2 fuckers downstairs doing something and I start shouting like a baby eagle when its mum doesn't bring a worm. The fuckers escape through the garden and, intelligent as I am, I start believing that I am wonder woman, so go to the bathroom, grab the hanger where you put towels to dry (well, something heavy, I cannot bring my bedtable lamp, for hell's sake), go downstairs, go out (that's why I am saying that I am very intelligent, I go out alone in the middle of the night with 2 unknown fuckers that could have still been in my garden, for all I knew) and find out that those 2 idiots were trying to steal the stuff that you use to lock the window shutters (i ferma antoni, for those of you who know Italian). So I stay there with my towel hanger on the porch, hands on my hips, chest out, chin up and nasty look on my face; basically the idiotic blond version of Mussolini from the balcony in Porta Venezia; with the only difference that instead of addressing the crowd, I simply started swearing really loud. Then, after 2 minutes, I realize how stupid I look (not how stupid I am, mind you), so I go inside, get a screw driver, get my cigarettes and start putting the lockers back on the wall. All this, may I remind you, signore e signori, in the middle of the night with a nice, big, dark garden in front of me. After the successfull completion of my screwdriving, I figure out, eventually!, that I am an idiot, so I go inside, lock myself up, put a chair in front of the door (well, there are 4 doors but I only had 1 chair) and go to bed with my beloved towel hanger and screwdriver next to me. And, the power of prosecco, I fall asleep and I sleep like a baby until 10:30 next morning. Amen. Now, what did I learn from this experience? 1. that I am an idiot (not a big surprise to most of you, but good to remind myself sometimes) 2. that the 2 fuckers must have been from the village, since they escaped from the easiest way, they knew, in the dark, how to get in and out from a garden with a big hole in the middle. So the next day I started telling all the people I know how, when my former American boss took us out to shoot with a rifle, I managed to get 3 clay pigeons out of 12. And, my dears, those clay pigeons were much, much faster than the 2 fuckers. And that my dad was a hunter, so he still has his rifle. In a nutshell: you fuckers, do you really think that I have been building and cleaning my house for you to come steal?? I shoot you, oh yes I do. And in the balls, and then you can go to the surgeon and ask to have one of my lockers transplanted, must be nice when you pee.

vacanze!!

miei cari, as a good Italian, the 15th of August (ferragosto) is approaching and therefore I am going on holiday!!! Only 1 week in Veneto, but it should be enough to move in the new house. Now I have to pack, I want to leave early so that I can hopefully avoid all the queues on the highway (hmmm).
ciao!

promotion night at the Seidels'

It was funny how Naka and I got promoted. We are pretty close, probably because of a similar way of approaching work and situation (i.e. working a lot and being very open about our opinions, we should hire more Southern Europeans for fuck's sake); and we also like Alessi a lot:-) So my bosses tell me that I am going to get promoted, and I get out of the room feeling very nice but also kind of scared because Naka has been doing a pretty good job and she deserves a promotion as well and I wasn't sure whether she would get one. So we start 1 week of bullshitting, because I didn't know how to start the conversation and tell her, and she the same (because, thanks God, she got promoted the same day). Sometimes I hate it in this company when everyone knows something but you are not allowed to say. Anyway, all's weel that ends well. As said, we get promoted the same day. So we decide to to make a party. I organize a night at Zur Sonne, she couldn't come because her parents were visiting. So she makes a barbeque on Sunday. It was really nice and I could practice some German since her husband (hello Peter! you bastard;-) ) tells everyone to talk to me in German. Which is fine with some people, less with people that I cannot understand, like her neighbour. Then I start playing some drums. And then I figure that I should get back home because tomorrow is the official announcement day, and I'd better look like a human being. Nice steaks. Nice beers. And we are good:-)

save Freddy!

Freddy needs you!

no he can't, he's a pig

I was elected to lead

waiting for the man

no no, I haven't started with drugs (Velvet Underground anyone?).
We are just waiting to figure out where Gaborno is, haven't seen him for the whole day and tonight we are supposed to go on the river, there should be the river-party. And, ladies and gentlemen, someone figured out that Germany is in the northern emisphere and that it's August, i.e. summer, so today we had... (drums)... SUN!! I couldn't believe it. I still cannot belive it. Anyway. Today I woke up early, went to the post, found out that when they leave a letter saying that you should go pick up something I cannot wait 3 weeks because they send it back (and now the mistery: what the hell was it? boh), then went to Metro, bought all sort of stuff to clean the house, then went to the Zeil, got my mum the books she asked for (and some for me as well, .......), then eventually found Mr Suicide, then found sales at Benetton (that is always power shopping, I go in, get the M and get out). And now I am back home. By the way, this week I got promoted (about time), so yesterday we went to Zur Sonne to celebrate and then to Sachsenhausen for some beer. All in all, life is beautiful (depite working an average of 14 hours per day, shit).
I leave you with a quote from the book I am reading now, "Absurdistan" by Gary Shteyngart (don't know yet if it's good or not, only started it this morning):
"That's ridiculous," Alyosha-Bob said, "You can't just disappear an entire German".
"There are 80 millions of them, and they all look fairly alike"

ciao