Frankfurt Pig

the longest post in the history of frankfurtpig - and the last one

2009-02-16T22:06:00.000+01:00

miei cari, today you are going to read the longest post in the history of frankfurtpig. Why? Because 1) a lot happened in the last 2 months 2) I was a lazy bastard and I didn't write anything 3)Gaborno tells me that I could do better 4) I didn't have internet for the last 3 weeks 5) most of you know it already but I have moved to Belgium, so this is actually going to be the last post of frankfurtpig. Feeling sad? You shouldn't, since you can follow the adventures of your favorite Italian on bruxellespig.blogspot.com :)

So let's get started

I moved to Belgium
As a lot, if not all, of you already know, I moved to Belgium as of the beginning of the month. This is something that I wanted to do for a long time, it took significantly longer than I had expected but overall everything OK. I am sad to leave the people in Germany, it will be hard without you guys. Which means that you need to visit often! By the way, I was very surprised that you guys didn't figure out that there was already another blog, the bruxellespig one, for some months. Kudos to Paritosh not only for finding but for becoming a supporter:) So you can start reading that one as well, even though there is not too much apart from random ranting (soooo strange, considering the high standard of literature that you are used to from here...).

Why buy a car if you can get a Dobló?
This is actually a post that I wrote more than 1 month back and then never published (OK, the move was a bit hectic, but what the hell...) So I got invited to Toscana for new year's eve. I take little Jean Jacques, 12 bottles of prosecco, 1 full sopressa (which is sort of a salame but muuuuuch better) and start driving. It was interesting because it had snowed quite a bit so I was driving with my little sardine's tin of a car on the roads and you could see this nice thick layer of ice of the edges of the street. Interesting. Anyway, in one way or another I arrive in Toscana, in the Chianti region and I meet with my friends. Then we had to go buy some food and one of the guys proposes to get his rental car, which, ladies and gentlemen, is a Dobló!Basically this is a car that is usually owned by electricians, plumbers, wine makers, whatever. And he could rent it. Fantastic. So the Dobló became the theme of the evening, and dutifully so, since it managed to take us to Siena for midnight - but more of it later. Anyway, before we left for the night in the town I think we managed to scare the Belgian/German neighbours: we arrived there completely drunk to offer them a bottle of prosecco, with yours truly as head of the delegation, holding a bottle of prosecco on one hand and 1 wooden spoon with lentils crusts all over it to knight them. Well, so we decide that we need to go and celebrate midnight in the square of Siena, not that we cared too much but we got to know that Antonello Venditti was signing there and there was no chance to restrain Nicola from wanting to see him. And if you wonder who Antonello Venditti is, I can tell you that if you don't know him it simply better for you so you shouldn't care (and if you are unlucky enough to know who he is, then for sure you will appreciate this - e se nasce una bambina poi la chiameremo RRRoooooommaaaaa). So off we go in the Dobló, with Marco(s) driving - and being christened Mr Dobló - and us singing. We arrive in Siena, we try to get to the main square where Venditti is singing, obviously we can't manage to get there because it was full of people singing the junk so we decide to be nice, we start kissing people right and left and since we have way too much panettone for our group we start throwing it on the crowd: people tend to react when you throw things on them, but then they understood that it's only panettone and they were fine with it (or at least I don't remember that they told us anything, not that I would remember stuff anyway, but so is life). Then Venditti stopped singing (aó!), took his leather jacket and his red piano off the stage and people started throwing fireworks in the square - and all a sudden I understood how a soldier in Kabul must feel every day. So we just stayed there on the side, drinking our magnum of Bellavista (aó!) and then decided to go into this fantastic place called Barone Rosso (or something similar), where you would bump into 23 people every time you tried to move a finger, and we stayed there dancing a bit. Then we decided that we are old farts, wanted to go back to the dobló and go home when we found this other bar with dj, we stormed inside, stayed there dancing with the people looking at us, then suddenly left, got into the dobló. went home and had our nice pane, salame and gorgonzola as midnight snack (more than midnight it was like 4-5 in the morning, but whatever). And then all to bed to collapse.
So, lessons learnt:
1. Toscana is a really nice place, and you should go to Siena because the square is fantastic
2. people from Toscana are really nice because they didn't crack our ass open when we started throwing panettone at them
3. prosecco is pretty good
4. GET YOURSELF A DOBLÓ!!!

What is the theme of this year's Herr Der Baum?
But it is Herr Der Umzugsbaum, natuerlich!! And if you want to see pictures of my beloved flat mate, you can go on Facebook (where else) and become a fan of Herr Der Baum. By the way, I am also very happy to announce that 1) Herr Der Baum now has his own bedroom so he doesn't need to have his privacy invaded by all sort of people 2) Herr Der Baum will continue his tradition of Herr Der Baum's bday parties every December, so you should feel honored if you will get invited (now that I have a bigger house we can fill even more people!!). I will not bother you with stories about the Herr Der Baums party of 2008, you can look at Gaborno's pictures (and for those of you who have a strong stomach, also to Colin's ones, he posted them without tagging because we looked completely ridiculous). But I was told that it was a good party, people finished all the risotto and the stew and overall we finished nearly 3 liters of gin (most of it drunk by me and Gaborno while cooking and stewing Gaborno's hand and at the end with the commonwealth committee while playing drinking games).

Who has the greatest friends (especially the ones with best taste)?
ME!!!! So I made a goodbye party before leaving Frankfurt and guess what? I got F A N T A S T I C presents. First of all, not only all of them came, but also our Blanquita, pregnant of 9 months (to the point where I was a bit scared that she would give birth right during the party) showed up. Then they gave me this book of recipes that they wrote: this was simply fantastic (and Gaborno, you should actually bring me the original one, still waiting...). Basically this is a book in which each one of them (or nearly) wrote something typical from their country, including great pictures. So now I know how to make a schnitzel, how to make knoedel, how to make a lot of other stuff (tastyyyyyyyyy). And then they gave me a full bag with loads and loads of Rosenthal things - since they know that I don't really like Rosenthal, oh no I don't... So I loved my presents, took them with me here in Belgium and have already drank my morning coffee in all the Rosenthal cups (just to see if the taste changed from one cup to the other, you never know). And regarding the party, apparently it was a good one - not that I remember very much of it after some time-. I rented this place in Hanauerlandstrasse, which I like a lot (and also the people, I would assume, I hear that other people want to rent it as well) and I had around 70-80 people coming. We all danced, thanks to dj Carletto's music, and had fun. Actually I was thinking that I should rent it again in the summer and we can use also the place outside - thoughts? Anyway, I loved it, I loved to see all the people I cared for there with me having fun and it is definitely one of the best moments of my 5 years in Frankfurt (now I get sentimental... getting more and more sissy with age...).

OK, enough from now - assuming you managed to read up to here.
As I told you before, go visit the new blog.
And miei cari, I loved my time in Frankfurt, I loved meeting you all, I loved sharing what was happening in my life with you (whether you liked it or not, and actually it was better face to face), loved the random gossiping, loved the partying, loved the lazy weekends, loved the cooking, loved the catan, loved the travels, loved the rants, loved to see you getting married... Now I guess I can spare you from reading another 25 pages of what I loved and come to the point: I am simply lucky for you having you all. Thanks.
And don't forget: LET'S MAKE A LAKE OUT OF SWITZERLAND!!

boooring

2008-12-08T20:53:00.003+01:00

miei cari, i am on the bloody plane that is supposed to take me to barcelona. And it should have left the bloody airport 1.5 hours ago. Uff. So what happened this weekend? Friday i had 2 parties on the same night, with somewhat devastating effects on my liver

turkey de luxe

2008-11-30T23:40:00.002+01:00

miei cari, so yesterday night we went to the Seidel's place for Thanksgiving. Every year they invite nearly 20 people and they feed us huge quantities of food - not because they are bastards and they want to make us fat like cows, actually they only try to buffer with food the horrendous amount of alchool that their guests inhebriate themselves with -. So what was the food about? Turkey (surprise!), actually 2 of them, stuffed with a looooooot of nice stuff. Then pumpkin soup. Then all sort of different breads, then potatoes (baked and mashed with sweet potatoes), then Bruxelles sprout, red cabbage, cranberries and then I cannot remember anymore. And I took my tiramisú, so at least I know what I am eating (for some reason Germans believe that you need to use cream and that you need to use Amaretto, bleargh). And then did I mention the alchool? Well, so at a certain point we end up with Peter, Naka, Sven, Zuzi and the brother of the neighbor. And before you start making all sort of comments, I would like to remind you that German guys are sort of shy in general, and this guy is a shy German guy, so it is already a miracle if he talks. Jesus. Anyway, I do not exactly recall what happened, until I saw myself in the mirror brushing my teeth with Peter's tshirt on, and Naka showing me the bed. So today I stayed at their place, vegetating on the sofa (and not even feeling too bad about it, since they were vegetating with me), eating the left overs and eventually coming back home to work (arghhhh).
So, all in all, nice weekend. And I have a pair of super flashy stockings:-)
ciaociao

Alba fotografa l'alba

2008-11-27T22:13:00.002+01:00

which means: Alba (me) takes a picture of the sunrise (alba, in Italian).
Sometimes I am so poetic that I nearly scare myself.

hell that was early

2008-11-26T22:01:00.002+01:00

miei cari, as you might have noticed I am not exactly creative with the titles of the posts. That could probably be explained by the fact that this morning I woke up at 3:30 to catch a plane. So where the hell was I? I went home, and the best thing is that I went there for work:) I had to go to my university to recruit - it actually went quite well, considering that I work for a company that sells diapers (among other things) so the kind of goods that are not exactly the dream of your average engineer. Apart from the presentation I also had a chance to meet with Alina, who has been growing her hair really long (which probably tells me that I haven't seen her for way too long). And then I bought some dvds and dutifully collapsed on the sofa at 9:30 watching a movie called corporation, which looked interesting but made me sleep after 10 minutes. The best part of the trip, however, was the drive to the airport on Monday afternoon - it started snowing like crazy and it was pitch dark, so I felt like the guy at the end of 2001 space odissey, with all the snow flakes coming out of nowhere and flying straight in the window of poor Jean Jacques. Too bad I didn't have the hair soundtrack otherwise it would have been quite psychedelic. So now I am completely tired and need my bed badly. Ciaociao

hell, this is early

2008-11-23T10:13:00.002+01:00

miei cari, what the hell am I doing up so early? Good question, so since I am awake anyway I will tell you what happened in my weekend. So Thursday (which is not exactly weekend, but whatever) we went to the kooks concert. The concert was pretty good, even though I fear we increased the average age of 5 years. It was really funny to see all these teenage kids (read girls) going crazy for the band - but at least it is an improvement, since at the same age we were going crazy for junk boy bands. After that, and after around 4-5 beers, we decided to end up in Sachsehausen for some drinks, as if we needed them. After the drinks, the guys decided to go home (all of them live in Sachsenhausen) and I start looking for a taxi. After 2-3 minutes it dawns on me that I have 1 euro and 30 cents, and no ATM card with me. And that I don't have the phone number of any of the people I was with. So, after considering some possibility, I decide that I am young enough and it's not too cold, and I walk home. Thanks god I was intelligent enough not to go through the red light district, that would have been funny. Anyway, Alba 1 : stranglers/rapers/robbers 0. And I met a girl called Alex, a friend of Luke, who makes really nice handbags. Go see her online, nice Xmas gifts.
After that, on Friday my friend Gió arrived from Duesseldorf, nearly escaping a snow storm and we got ready to go see the Foals. Ladies and gentlemen, they are GOOD. It was an extremely nice concert, they play really well and it was a proper rock concert - with people stage diving and jumping. The only problem is that apparently all of them, and especially the guitarist, were drunk like cauliflowers. So at a certain point, in the middle of the song, the guitarist pukes on stage. And, ladies and gentlemen, he keeps on playing and jumping. Rock 'n'roll!!! Well, the only bad thing was that the concert was short, 1 hour or something like that, probably they figured out that they would have collapsed on stage and decided to call it a day. But still, go see them if you have a chance. After that we went to Naka's place to drink some wine and then went to bed because it started snowing. Then yesterday it was a nice quiet day, I took Gió to DOM and Kontrast and I bought all sort of junk (a pig-mask, a plastic inflatable Xmas tree, a form to make skull-shaped ice cubes, a pair of very white and very large sunglasses, ...). And then we ended up cooking at Gaborno's place but we had to leave early because Gió had to start driving back to Italy this morning early (that's why I am awake so early, unfortunately no big stories of weird nights out).
Well, I assume now I will go back to bed. ciaociao

the kookiest thing you have ever seen

2008-11-20T23:08:00.002+01:00

emotion dancing bondage embarassing misty

someone wants some cheese?

2008-11-15T01:21:00.002+01:00

miei cari, yesterday I had Jack and Jasmina over for dinner to eat the stinky French cheese. Problem is that I bought so much that I still have the fridge full of it, so I assume we need to make a "stinky French cheese night 2" pretty soon. That said, tonight I went out with the girls to get sushi at an event called Frankfurt in motion. People were nice, even though we ended up chatting with the girls and talking about tit-lifting bras and what I am supposed to wear: Maria suggests that I lift my tit nearly to my chin, hence the discussion about the tit-lifting bra. Well, I assume I will just go for some high heels, the kind of stuff that after you wear them for 2 hours you want to amputate your feet. And perhaps I also go get a nice massage. And some books. And some dvds. Whatever.
Next week it's going to be concert time: for some reason, we are having decent groups coming to play in Frankfurt. So on Thursday I will go see the kooks (funny name, given the circumstances, really) and then on Friday the foals. And since I am at it, I also want to go to the hairdresser on Friday, da daaaaaa, so perhaps I take half a day off.
ciaociao

the cheese is stinking, long live the cheese!

2008-11-10T23:00:00.003+01:00

miei cari, I have decided that this Wednesday I will invite everyone over to gorge ourselves on stinky French cheese. You might think that I am an extremely nice girl for inviting everyone to eat at my place, but the reality is that this morning I opened the fridge and I nearly fainted for the horrible smell that came out. So that's it for the culnary experience.
So what happened this weekend? As you know, we went to visit Preeti. She had cooked a full wok of cauliflower and peas assuming that the guys were coming as well so she thought she would have a lot of left overs. No no no noooo. I think we probably left 1 pea, which just proves that it was extremely good. And our Preeti looks very good, and actually went to bed last or nearly - probably helped by the fact that being pregnant she could not drink the outrageous amount of wine that we drank. So it was very nice, good gossip, nice atmosphere. And we are going to get a little Preeti soon!!!! We felt pretty bad about Sameer though, with the house full of girls. But it's not our fault if the guys decided to stay home.
So what happened after that? Pretty much nothing - uff
ciaociao
by the way, answering to the question from Gaborno on how I figured out that Paritosh has a blog: simply, he is my follower! So basically the other day I open my blog and I see that I have 1 follower. I don't know why they define them as such, but it gives you this nice feeling of Alba the emperess of the universe:)

get off my way bastard

2008-11-08T12:49:00.002+01:00

miei cari, i am in the car with jasmina, yara and simone and we are stuck in the second queue of the day on the highway. Is it possible that there is a baby boom in germany and all of there guys are going to baby showers? Possibly not, so i don't know what the hell they are doing on my way. In the meantime yara is trying to find some normal songs on my ipod, poor girl... Good thing that we bought sufficient junk food so not only we will be late but also fat. The girls do not feel like sharing their thoughts with the world so that's it for today. Preeti, we come!!

Paritosh has a blog!!!!

2008-11-06T22:23:00.002+01:00

NEWS OF THE DAY: I have just found out that Paritosh has a blog. Now the question is: why didn't he tell us?? Anyway, very well written and very interesting, so go give a look. By the way, I have added his blog in the links on the right for you to check it regularly.

back from Frooonce

2008-11-06T21:29:00.002+01:00

miei cari, I have just arrived back home from Froooonce, or, for those of you that don't know how to pronounce things properly, from France. So what did I do there? Work. But this time I will tell you something about what happened because it was pretty entertaining. So my colleague and I arrive in the middle of nowhere near Dijon (pronounced Dee-joooooooon) yesterday night and this morning we go to visit the equipment vendor. We arrive there and we are welcomed by the German sales guy - anonymous guy whose existance we will forget immediately - and then we get introduced to the owner. You might imagine the owner of a family-run company as an older man with gray hair thinning on the sides, white shirt and perfectly ironed suit. Well, being Froooonce, you would be completely and utterly wrong. So the guy is probably 45 years old, with long greyish hair, long sideburns, shaved last time 3 days ago, wears jeans and some very pointy cowboy boots. Basically, we go to talk to the owner and we end up with the twin of John Lennon. And then we go see the machine and the guy starts playing with it while smoking a gitane without filter. So after lunch we wanted to buy some fromaaaaaage and he takes us to this place, he tells us which cheese to buy (so now if I open my fridge I become blond again from the smell, this obviously before chocking to death) and then, since we wanted also to get some wine, he disappears and comes back after 10 minutes with 2 bottles of pinot noir grand cru from 1999 from his 3000+ wine bottles collection. This is life, madame et monsieur.
That said, tomorrow I will see how tired I am and then decide whether I will make a fool of myself or not. And then saturday we go visit our Preeti!!
ciaociao

getting better

2008-11-01T12:29:00.002+01:00

miei cari, eventually I got over the loss of 250 euros. How? By getting a new pair of shoes:) They look pretty hippy, apart from the 9cm heel that would have caused breakage of both ankles in case I decided to go to Woodstock. Very nice. So what did I do this week? I was in Spain for a mega meeting with all sort of people, which meant working a lot and then at night being very sociable (everything somewhat fuelled by 1866, which is a very good brandy). So basically I slept an average of 4 hours and now am in deep need of a manicure, a pedicure and a massage.
What else? Well, there are the US presidential elections, and I am very curious to see if they will really elect a black guy - I remember once being in a bar with some plant guys in Wisconsin and the comments they had... But better than voting for the lady, she is pretty clueless. Talking about clueless, yesterday night I was reading some old comments regarding our (i.e. Italian) minister for equal opportunities and the fact that apparently our prime minister was recorded on the phone saying that the lady gave him a blow job - which could explain a loooot of things.
Now I go get a shower and then meet with the guys in the city.
ciaociao

fuck fuck fuck fuck

2008-10-26T11:27:00.005+01:00

as you might have guessed, today I am FUCKING UPSET. So what happened? This morning, at around 6:30, I hear some really loud noise coming from the street in front of my building. At the beginning I thought that perhaps they were taking away the trash, then I thought that they don't take away trash on Sundays so I got out of bed and looked out of the window. And there I see a policewoman - from now on, for simplicity reasons, called "the bitch"- and a guy - we can call him "the motherfucker", always for simplicity reasons- that was putting my poor little Jean Jacques (my car) on the truck to tow it away. So I open the window and shout at them, but obviously the motherfucker and the bitch were too intent in their sadomasochistic pleasure that they didn't hear me. So I rush downstairs and I manage to stop them before they start the truck and take Jean Jacques God knows where. They tell me that they tow the car away because of the marathon, which, dear readers, passes at least 50 METERS from where Jean Jacques was parked, but Germany is Germany and when they do something they do it properly, ja. And I tell them that OK, fine, we all know that Germans need to run because otherwise they don't digest the 4 wurst mit senf they had for breakfast, and we are very supportive of sports, but now can you take my poor Jean Jacques down from the truck? Ja, klar, says the motherfucker, and then presents me with a bill of 249.99 euros. I repeat, TWO HUNDRED, FORTY NINE EUROS AND 99 CENTS. Since my poor baby was already on the truck, I didn't really have that much of a negioting power, so I had to go to the bank, get the 250 euros and give it to the motherfucker. And then, since Germany is Germany and when they do something they do it properly, the motherfucker had to go and ask around, i.e. to the bitch (because at 6:30 in the morning there is noone around, because normal people are at home sleeping without thinking that a bunch of retarded fuckers will try to steal their car), whether she had 1 cent to give me back, because, you know, after they STEAL 249.99 euros for nothing, 1 cent makes a difference (I can fly to India and get me a roti, perhaps). Then the motherfucker takes Jean Jacques down the truck, nearly crashing it on the ground and says samething in German, to which I don't even look at him, or the at the bitch, for that matter, get into my poor little baby, open the window and shout at them figli di puttaaaaannaaaaaaaaa, which means sons of a bitch (and daughters as well, because we don't want to be sexist) - I have no clue whether they understood it but at least there was the satisfaction of shouting at them in my own language.
And the best thing is, I am POSITIVE that when I parked yesterday at 2PM there was NO sign. But go explain it to the motherfucker and the bitch when you see your Jean Jacques on their fucking truck.
So, my dear readers, now I get ready because I have a flight to Spain in 4 hours. And, obvisouly, since my car is now in front of Jack's house and the Germans are running on my street, I won't even be able to get a taxi (assuming I could afford it after this morning) so I will have to carry the luggage and everything for 500m to the nearest public transportation station, among tons of sweaty people.
And, let me tell you, dear marathon runner: unless you are African, THERE IS NO FUCKING CHANCE THAT YOU WIN IT, so just stay home and let me live my life!

By the way, if you look at my post of October 2007, you see that there is a recurring theme of me vs the marathon. But at least that time they didn't steal money from me. Fuckkkkeeeerrrrrsssssss.

desperate housewife

2008-10-25T13:06:00.002+02:00

miei cari, I am happy that you read this because it means that I tricked you with the title of the post. So now you are wondering: is the kid (me) going to reveal the latest and greatest secret of the tv series? No, because I don't watch it. But you could still come and help me clean the flat (hence the title).
That said, this week has been sort of hectic. First of all, I look at the work that I am supposed to do and it's not really a lot; still, I end up staying in the office pretty late every night - which could mean that a) I am completely inefficient b) I have wrongly estimated the amount of work I need to do c) both of the above. But this week I had a moment of great fun when I presented "how to work with Italians", people seemed to like it a lot and it was great fun to prepare it (OK, this could account for some of overtime). Apart from that, I went out every single night and slept an average of 4.3 hours per night, which could also explain why I look like a truck has just run over me and why yesterday night after talking Gaborno home I had to drive with windows down (and, may I remind you, dear reader, this is Germany so that is not exactly plesant) with music booming off my car and me singing and dancing while driving, so that people at the traffic light thought I was coming from Quarto Oggiaro (which is the Milan equivalent of Offenbach here in Frankfurt) - still, the good side effect is that the drug dealers in the railway station area probably thought I was already loaded with whatever and didn't bother me.
So what am I doing in the weekend? I have no clue, apart from having to clean the flat (invitation to come help still open, by the way).
ciaociao

engineer explains pina colada

2008-10-19T02:05:00.003+02:00

miei cari, tonight, if the 2+ bottles of wine allow, I will share with you some insights about scaling up of liquid mixing. Sounds engineering, doesn't it? Well, kind of... So, how do you you make a pina colada ( I don't know where I can find the spanish n with the little worm on top symbol so you just have to cope with the wrong spelling). So you take 1 part of pineapple juice, 1 part of coconut cream and half or a bit more part of ron (which is rhum for those of you that you don't know that the real name is ron, like me 1.5 weeks ago) and some ice. So you look at the weird consistency of the coconut cream that you get in German stores, more like a very viscose paste than the white liquid with coconut suspension in it (the one that you can almost chew) that I saw in Mexico, and you try the recipe only for one - you don't want to throw away so much ron-. Given the promising results of the first batch, you decide to increase the quantities. Maybe some of you are not that familiar of what a batch is: a bacth is a system where you put the ingredients, mix or do whatever you have to (like heating, cooling and so on) and get a finished result, and if you want to do it again you have to follow the same procedure all over again. Basically: put, do whatever, get result - as opposed to a system where you keep on putting, keep on doing whatever you have to and keep on having result, which in engineering terms is called continuous system. So after seeing that the first batch of pina colada was good, I decided to increase to quantities to make 3 glasses. Wrong. I did not figure out that my stiring system - my little Braun thingy - was not supposed to handle so large quantities of junk. So I ended up washing myself and half of the kitchen. Shit. Well, lesson leant. Anyone wants some fake German coconut cream?

buchmesse!!

2008-10-16T22:18:00.002+02:00

miei cari, I figured out today (or yesterday, I am getting old and confused) that the Buchmesse is this weekend and not last as I thought (as said, I am getting old...). So Sunday we will all meet at my place for brunch at 1 or something like that and then go buy a shitload of books!!!!! ciaociao

I am siiiiinging in the fog

2008-10-13T22:17:00.003+02:00

miei cari, as you have probably noticed, I am back in Germany. So this morning I wake up, look out of the window and didn't see anything because of the fog. Considering that 2 days ago I was looking out of the window and I saw a clear blue sea, you can imagine how happy I am.
Anyway.
So what happened in Mexico? I have already told you about my encounter with the barracuda. After that, I decided that even snorkeling was too much for me and decided to just lay on the beach and get properly roasted. So now I have a very red nose (peeling) and a very red back (not peeling - yet). We also went to Chichen Itza, which is a big Maya site. This place was fantastic, and eventually I found a bookstore that accepts credit cards so I could get some junk books. One in particular was a nice piece of shit, basically saying that Mayas were a unique civilization because of the design patterns they used. And up to here it is an opinion and you can agree or not but it is still valid (and actually I liked the designs a lot, so I would also agree). The guy then starts ranting about the fact that the uniqueness was derived by the fact that the designs were taken from the patterns on the skin of snakes - he also calls it crotalic movement. And up to here it is still an opinion, a bit more bullshit than the previous one but still OK. The real problem is that he then starts arguing that because of this crotalic stuff the Mayan civilization has a much higher number of motifs than any other civilization. And, my dear, you just need to go to a mosque, a baroque church or a whatever Hindu temple and you find out that the guy most likely smoked a couple of cactuses before writing the book.
Anyway.
We also went to a natural park and while resting I nearly got killed by a treacherous coconut falling from the tree.
And we saw a really handsome guy, we started following him and we lost him, and ended up in the same club with another teenager trying to chat me up (and that made 3 of them).
And despite having 4 Spanish speaking people around me, after 1 week they were talking Italian (with Fernando nearly rapping on Caparezza) and the only Spanish I learnt was ahorita and quesadilla con queso y chiles (ahhhhh I love it!!).
So tonight I came home to do some washing and had the bad idea of buying an avocado to make a sort of guacamole. But I forgot that I am back in Germany, so the avocado was nearly as hard as the coconut that nearly crashed on my head and I dutifully trashed it.

saludos desde playa del carmen

2008-10-08T02:54:00.003+02:00

miei cari, as you have probably figured out by now, I am in mexico for holidays. The very good news is that eventually it stopped raining so I can get tanned. Which actually means that I got told that the sun here can really be harmful so I decided to get protection 25. Unfortunately, I sort of forgot to put it on my ass and yesterday I went snorkeling, with the result that my ass now looks like the reversed Japanese flag (as Ferndando very rightly defined it). That said, and that hurting, I am enjoying myself a lot. Yesterday we went snorkeling in Cozumel, which is this island in front of Playa del Carmen. The other guys decided to went diving but to be honest I couldn't be bothered so I just went for the easy one. It was nice, even though at the 3rd immersion I was already complaining (mentally, since if you try to talk you drink 1/2 ton of water with some fishes inside) that there should be some music so that it really starts looking like the old computer screensavers. Anyway, I saw a lot of fishes, like the yellow and black ones that looked like the ape maia (or biene maia if you are german), then some super colorful ones and some very edible ones (and I was thinking that next time I come with a net and then I cook them with potatoes). Then at a certain point I saw this big fish swimming away alone and looking sort of bored. I was nearly going to go there, give him a pat on the fin and offer him a piña colada when the instructor started going away and so I had to follow. We arrive on the boat and the instructor turns at me and asks me "so, you've seen the barracuda?" And I, since I am an ignorant "no, was there one?" "sure, the big fish that was swimming alone" and there came the moment when I wanted to go back on the island and never set foot (or piece of ass, which probably given the size is more appetizing) in the water again. So, ladies and gentlemen, Alba 1 : barracuda 0. Today we went to a natural reserve and swam in some sort of lagoon. And got eaten by mosquitos, but that's another story. Tomorrow we will go to see some ruins (so that you don't think that we only swim and party, even though there would be nothing wrong with it).
Best 2 things so far:
1. quesadilla con queso are very tasty, especially when I fill them with a ton of green chiles.
2. party life in playa del carmen is quite good, which should increase our chances of getting a lot of points (I will explain this story of the points another time).
ciaociao

areolinea taca taca

2008-10-03T13:34:00.002+02:00

miei cari. I am in madrid in the airport. Apparently i am on a charter flight, with half of spain on it... Ciao

intellectual evening

2008-09-29T22:57:00.002+02:00

miei cari, tonight I give you some hints on some nice books I am reading/read (yes, obviously I had Jasmina over for dinner and I am sort of drunk, otherwise you would get some nice random crap as usual)
first book is called some like wikinomics (don't know where I put it anymore so you just have to go with a random description): this is a book written about new (kind of) ways of doing economy by sharing - hence the name. The book has some nice parts and some are really boring, because, dear author, if you write saying that things are changing so fast you also need to consider that if you write your book in 2006 by now most of the stuff is old anyway - ah, funny. Still, it is nice to know that you can actually make a living by writing about wikipedia, myspace and facebook, so if one day I get bored I can turn into a writer. And there goes the business plan, dear readers.
second book is called the tiger that isn't. And this, as far as I can tell (because I haven't finished it yet), is a nice book. Basically it is a book that forces you to remember that every time you hear a number you should switch on you little bullshit-detector fuse in the back of the head and start thinking. Example? If a government, let's say the UK one (and here I am copying shamelessly from the book), tells you that they are going to invest 300 million pounds to create 1 million childcare places over 5 years, should you go down in the streets chanting and dancing and prasing the government? I mean, 300 million pounds is a significant shitolad of money. In reality, when you think about it, you should take 300 millions and divide them by 1 million (the places): this gives you 300 pounds per place. The you take 300 pounds and you divide them by 5 (the number of years) and that gives you 60 pounds per year. Then you take your annual 60 pounds per place and divide them by 52 (number of weeks in a year) and you end up with little more than 1 pound per week per place - which is far less than what a normal person would spend on a weekend out with friends and by far not enough to have some proper childcare. So what does it mean? That they are bullshitting us. And this is the simplest of examples. Now, I understand that you might think that this is a nerdy book to read. And you are wrong. Numbers are nice but they can cheat you badly (not the numbers themselves, but whoever massages them and boasts them and tricks them to fool you). Think about it next time your boss gives a salary increase, and you start wondering. I assume I need to go to bed. Peano rulez!

zzzzzz

2008-09-27T16:12:00.002+02:00

miei cari, I am in Italy at my parents place and I am falling asleep. Because I went out too much yesterday night, you wonder? No, because I am old. So now I will go back to the sofa, read half a page of a book, fall asleep like an idiot and then wake up (hopefully before tomorrow morning) and go out with friends. Or could just skip the whole sofa experience, get my ass out of the place and go around to wake up - which probably is the best solution. Anyway, I will come back to Germany tomorrow night, then 4 days of work and then MEXICOOOOOOO
ciaociao

feels like 15 again

2008-09-23T23:20:00.002+02:00

miei cari, I am having a complete trip back in time. First, I find a lot of my high school classmates on facebook (and yes, I confirm the post from yesterday, the new version sucks). Then I am finding some nice groups to listen to. Unfortunately I am not 15 any more so tomorrow I will look like a piece of organic matter formed after digestion (see how polite I am, I didn't say shit - shit, I said it! shit! ah, again!! shit!!!). But anyway, who cares, long live whoever invented make up. So mark your calendars because on November 21st we go see Foals - still have to understand why they actually decided to come play in this town, but I shouldn't complain. And if I find something else I keep you posted.

PS yes, as usual it will be me and Gaborno because my friends are OLD FARTS (do you feel challenged now??)

alba vs. technology - part 200

2008-09-22T22:27:00.003+02:00

miei cari, as you have probably noticed facebook now has a new layout (this assumes that you are registered in facebook, which probably you are not since you are spending time reading this instead of getting the newest and bullshittiest application). That said, I've just arrived home and I wanted to check what happened when the bloody thing starts crashing miserably. After the 10th time I try to make it work I decide to change my status to Alba says: this new facebook SUCKS! But, misteries of technology, an error message prevents me from posting it. Strange, eh? As the zeppelins used to say (the led ones, not the baloons): ooooh it makes me wonder...

small Thai lady - big pain

2008-09-21T16:18:00.003+02:00

miei cari, yesterday I decided to go for a Thai massage in the city. So I go there and meet the lady who was going to give me a massage. She was no more than 150cm tall, no more than 35kg in weight and very quiet and smiling. So I thought that it will be a relaxing 45 minutes and I prepared myself on the bed. And all of the sudden she starts with a massage and I thought that she was going to tear my muscles away. I also checked whether instead of the little, quite and smiling lady I was actually getting massaged by the twin brother of Mike Tyson. After some minutes I try to grunt that it was a bit too hard but my German is bad and hers was even worse so she understood that my muscle was a bit hard and she kept on cracking it for the next 5 minutes - which was a good learning, so for the remaining 30 minutes I just shut up and let her massacre me. That said, the massage was actually good so now I feel more relaxed. I still prefer the ayurveda massages that I got when I was in India, they were far more gentle and still very good. The only disadvantage is that they covered me in oil and at the end I had to wash my hair 5 times to manage to get rid of the oil.

so when do I get my 2 free dinners?

2008-09-20T12:40:00.002+02:00

miei cari, yesterday night we went out with Jasmina, Tina and Gaborno to a really nice thai restaurant. At a certain time our man Gaborno decided to bet with me. First time he was saying that Nutella for sure was invented in Germany and I said that it was invented in Italy, so we decided to bet and I won (Ferrero is Italian, my dear Gaborno, and it comes from a region full of nuts - fruit and people). Second time he bet that the nose of the elephant was called trumpet while I said that it was not, and I won this one as well. So now Gaborno owes me 2 dinners: 1 is for sure schnitzel, since he is very good at them. For the second one I think he is trying to find out whether they sell elephant meat anywhere, to be honest i hope he doesn't find because it sounds slightly gross. And apparently if you are jew or muslim you are not even supposed to eat it - not that we care but you never know. Apart from this what happend? Nothing. So now I go get myself a manicure and pedicure and if I manage also a thai massage. Ah ah.

Gaborno, I've got it as well:)

2008-09-14T22:09:00.006+02:00

I saw this on Gaborno's blog and I liked it a lot

Only problem is that I don't know how to make it bigger... (me ignorant, ja)

bollywood, here I come!

2008-09-14T17:42:00.002+02:00

to clean the toilets, perhaps... Miei cari, today Maria, Ana, Betty, Sofia and I went to this bollywood dancing course and it was great fun. We could also learn and dance (well, sort of) a whole 3-minutes coreography!! At the beginning the teacher was a bit tense, especially after I stopped exercising a turning move because after doing 3 times I thought I was going to puke my soul off after yesterday night's party at Naka's place (more on that later). But then we started bullshitting and at the end everyone enjoyed it a lot. I am still wondering how can people move the head right and left, after trying for 2 hours I could barely move it 2 cm per side with the very painful feeling that my neck was going to break. Well, anyway. I really want to find more of these courses, they are a great way of spending a Sunday, especially when outside it's getting cold like hell. So then yesterday I went to Naka's place for her birthday party. Peter had catered a cook to cook (which sounds a bit like an oxymoron, however lately cooks seem to spend their time on tv sporting fancy hairstyles and giving the impression that they couldn't distringuish a pan from their grandma) and the food was very tasty. The wine was also pretty tasty, which basically means that I ended up shit faced with people wanting to steal the keys of my car for fear that I would drive home and kill myself. So I made this perfect plan, like "pretend that I go to bed, wait until noone sees me and then sneak out of the place". Unfortunately I felt asleep the moment I touched the bed (welcome to the world of old farts...); the good thing, at least, is that after not even 2 hours I woke up to go to the toilet and was intelligent enough to put the alarm clock, otherwise I don't think I would have made it to the bollywood dancing course. Highlight of the night, apart from the great eintopf and roasted pig, was a discussion on cultural differences on the topic "should a man do the first step and chat up a woman or is it also OK if she goes and basically puts her pussy on a silver tray in front of him" - well, perhaps we didn't really say that way but it sounds like a effective summary-. The majority declared that it is OK for a woman to go chat up a guy and basically put her toungue in his mouth. Obviously the majority was German. Being the only Italian, I was looked at like some sort of only living survivor of an exint ancient civilization, when I tried to make the point that a man should make the first move, for fuck's sake. At least this. The audience really did not seem to even slightly comprehend what I was talking about. Depressing.

new meaning of the word overworked

2008-09-08T23:11:00.003+02:00

miei cari, as you might have noticed, I haven't been writing here for a long time. I would like to pretend that I had extreme adventures in far-away lands with exotic and charming men that prevented me to keep you updated, but unfortunately the sad truth is that I am working like a slave. And the weather sucks, too. That said, I have just figured out that we are in full ramadan - which seems to be a more plausible explanation than the ones I had defined to explain why the muslim center 2 houses down the street is full of people from the last week - no, I am not becoming paranoid, I was thinking they had some sort of olimpic games of the muslim nations or something like that, then tonight I figured that they are singing and, since they are not allowed to drink alcohol, I started investigating alternative solutions. Anyway, I have been told that I need to let you know that Jack and Jasmina are in Italy and they are enjoying it a lot, even though they (well, Jack at least) complain it's expensive (surprise!). Jack is also saying that Napoli is dirtier than Beirut (surprise!) - well, might be dirty but at least you don't get a missile on your head while you are walking down the street. I am pretty sure that he is taking trillions of pictures, so I will just wait to see those. And now I end with the news update and go to bed. ciaociao

I am happy. I am sad.

2008-08-25T21:50:00.002+02:00

miei cari, no, you don't actually need to call the psychiatric hospital to get me locked away. It's always the same: when things are about to change I am happy. And I am sad. Now, if I was a poet I would write something artistic. If I was a musician I would get high like the sunflower and write some monochord piece of crap and pretend that it's very artistic. Being me, I go get the stuff out of the washing machine.

di da doo di da doooo

2008-08-24T11:23:00.002+02:00

miei cari, this weekend is the music weekend. So yesterday I eventually got the dvd on the life of Ian Curtis. Very nice movie (a bit disturbing, but really nice), it's called Control if you want to get it. And this morning I have been listening to the new album of Kings of Leon, reaaaaaaaaally nice. And then I was looking at some new stuff and found this Ida Maria lady. She has a song called I like you so much better when you are naked - which is a general statement that is usually true and if it's not then you really do have a problem with your relationship. That said, the other songs are pretty crap. And now let's see if I find something new from css. ciaociao

oh well

2008-08-23T16:47:00.002+02:00

miei cari, I am at home reading all sort of interesting stuff from internet - helped by the fact that when I wanted to shut down the computer and head out I heard a big thunder outside and it started raining (surprise!) One nice thing that I found is this sort of blog called bitch, really interesting.
Anyway, this weekend I really have nothing to do. I thought I would go to Wiesbaden to see a rock festival but then I found out that it is next weekend, and next weekend I will stay in Frankfurt to see the museumuferfest (or whatever other fest there is on the river). So basically I will try to find something, like for instance rent the movie about Ian Curtis and watch it or in general getting whatever other weird dvd.
Now it stopped raining so it's a good idea to get out of here before God remembers that this is Germany and send snow.

wilkommen in deutschland

2008-08-16T18:22:00.001+02:00

if I was a man I would be scratching my balls right now

2008-08-16T13:34:00.002+02:00

Miei cari, I am at home and I am not doing anything (apart from writing here and sneezing every now and then). I was supposed to go to Irem's place at 2 with a pasta salad; then she called me saying that we will meet at 4 and I don't need to bring any pasta salad. So probably every other person would feel energized by these 2 hours more and would go out and do something. But, being lazy like I am, I just cherish the idea of doing absolutely NOTHING, until the moment when the lack of nicotine will make me feel crazy and force to get out of the place. Even though I could also smoke the cigarette butts... hmmm...
So now I assume I will have to find some interesting and deep topics to lure you into reading ahead. I could start talking about the Olympic games, but I don't give a holy shit and haven't watched one single game so far. If I don't care about skeet (which apparently is shooting clay pigeons with a rifle, so I don't know why they don't call it just like that) for 4 consecutive years, why should I start now? I could talk about my trip to Mexico, but since it comes in October I will have plenty of time to talk about it (note the nonchalance with which I drop the information and make you envious). So I am going to talk about the books that I read lately. There is this guy called Michael Connelly that writes thriller books. And, my dear readers, they are pretty good, so go buy them. It is refreshing, for a change, to find someone writing interesting thriller books, the ones where you have to read until the end to understand everything. Then I read a sort of anthology about serial killers: the book itself was sort of repetitive and mainly focusing on US serial killers, but one interesting fact is that it says that nearly all the serial killers showed 3 behaviours when they were kids - 1. they peed in bed even after being 12 years old 2. they like setting fire to stuff 3. they are little sadists (like torturing animals and the like). The pee in bed part of it is what I don't quite understand. As I also don't understand why I read this kind of books. Anyway. And, to finish, I read an Italian book called Ali di babbo from Milena Agus. It is a very nice book, which I recommend (to the Italian readers at least, I don't know if it is translated).

Ferragosto

2008-08-15T16:09:00.002+02:00

miei cari, today is ferragosto. Ferragosto is the biggest holiday in Italy therefore, despite the fact that I live in an uncivilezed country where they don't have holidays for ferragosto, I decided to take a day off from work. Now, usually at Ferragosto it's damn hot and sunny, so you go out with friends and family, eat a lot and get completely wasted (which, apart from the seasonal weather variations, is what you are supposed to do during every holiday). This year, however, I decided to stay in Germany, so now I have my little sweater, the sky is gray and it doesn't look as if it's going to get better any time soon. So, in order to fight depression, I decided to:
1. get a haircut: now I have some sort of a bob, it looks ok, but let's wait until the first time that I wash it and dry it myself before the final judgment.
2. get a manicure and pedicure - not that I like getting a pedicure, actually I haaaaaaaaaaate it, but I felt ashamed of my feet in the last 3 days. So now I have very red finger and toe nails and I look like a woman again (in contrast with the truck driver you would have taken me for if you had seen my feet yesterday).
3. buy a very pink sweater - there is something with me and pink lately, I fear that suconsciously I am trying to transform into a pig.
I am also very proud of myself because I did NOT buy a bag for 230 euros. The bag was very furry and very pink (surprise!); unfortunately it was also very expensive. And there was also another one, very plasticky and very pink (surprise!!), but it was even more expensive. So let's wait for sales:) Or, knowing myself, for the next time I pass in front of the shop:(
So now I will clean my flat (perhaps) and then go out (assuming it doesn't start raining...)
ciaociao

bc (before collapse)

2008-08-10T00:35:00.000+02:00

a good reason to marry

2008-08-09T14:29:00.001+02:00

they did it!

2008-08-09T13:46:00.002+02:00

in bayern

2008-08-09T09:46:00.002+02:00

miei cari, this weekend i am in bayern to attend the wedding of our CHP with Angie. The trip to arrive here was sort of adventorous, especially because we did not trust the gps and we nearly had no map. At the end it turned out that the gps was right and we somehow managed to get here. Here meaning burghausen, which is this town at the very bottom of bayern, some km more and we end up in austria. Yesterday night we did a quick tour of the town and it looks very nice - ok, perhaps if you live here and you are 18 you commit suicide, but it looks cute and quiet. So now i have to get ready for the wedding: i'll try to get some pictures and post them on the go, we are supposed to have a fancy stuff in a castle.

da daaaaaaaa

2008-08-03T14:46:00.002+02:00

miei cari, i'm glad to tell you that lousy internet connections and shitty computers will not prevent me anymore from bothering you with the blog. Despite the fact that i cannot easily access the blog (hey, developers, why the hell only o2??), my beloved cell phone manges anyway. Alba 1: technology 0

how to get stressed without working

2008-07-31T21:29:00.002+02:00

miei cari, in the last 2 days I have been quarrelling with the shitty computer that I have at work. Just imagine coming back from holidays, seeing pages and pages of red mails and not being able to open a single one because the bloody thing would crash. And getting phone calls from colleagues because I don't know what my calendar looks like. So this morning I went to our IT desk, where after a thorough (?!!) analysis, the guy told me to "disinstall everything and install it again". So I am actually considering to quit my job, pretend that I am a plumber and when a distressed lady calls me because the washing machine doesn't work tell her to unplug it and plug it back in. All with a very professional tone so that I can charge her 150 euros. There goes the business plan. So I disinstalled and installed everything back in, which took me 3 hours (not considering the 3 hours before to back everything up) and left me with a working mail but without archive. So tomorrow morning I will go to the IT desk again and ask Einstein to make my archive appear out of nowhere. And if it doesn't work I am very ready to wear my plant shoes and start kicking him in the balls. Then, assuming that everything starts working properly, I will have a weekend of passion (like the one of Jesus) trying to finish everything before Boss Square comes next week.
Apart from that, my new phone is giving me a lot of satisfaction, which probably means that the bill will take away half of my salary. And Jack and Gaborno tell me that it is the perfect way to catch guys, since it is a neat gadget. This assuming that I want a nerd...
Now I assume I will have to go to bed early so that tomorrow morning I am fresh like a rose.
Alba 0 : Computer 1
merda

I'm back

2008-07-29T22:08:00.002+02:00

miei cari, I have just arrived back from Italy. Next time I rent a flat I will either rent it on the ground floor or with an elevator. I had to go up and down 6 times to carry all the stuff. And I live on the 4th floor. So what happened in Italy? Pretty much nothing. I had to stay at home for basically 2 weeks waiting for the police woman to come and check that you can really live in the house, otherwise the taxes would have gone waaaaaaaay up. So the bastard came last Friday, basically screwing up any plan I had for going to the beach. I became the perfect housewife/gardener, cleaning everything, cutting the grass, planting cucumbers, cooking lunches and dinners, doing endless washing machines. I don't really understand how anyone would want to stay at home, if I had to stay another week without doing anything I would have gone crazy. So now I am in my flat with packs and bags and suitcases everwhere, basically I have to jump around to manage to move. Which means that now I will stay in front of the computer to download the manual of my new cell phone, it looks as if it's nearly making coffee for all the buttons it has. Too bad the manual that came with it is in German...
ciaociao

holidays

2008-07-12T09:02:00.001+02:00

miei cari, I am leaving today for holidays. Since my new cell phone didn't arrive in time, I assume I won't have access to internet for at least a couple of weeks (unless I find another way). uff...
So see you soon!

I am older but not much wiser

2008-07-06T23:00:00.002+02:00

miei cari, so yesterday I turned 29. Which means that I got the first phone call from my mum at 8, telling me that 29 years ago I was 59 minutes from being born. Then she called at 8:15, saying that 29 years ago I was 44 minutes from being born. Then at 8:30, saying that ... whatever, I think I shouted at her. And then she decided to send sms, followed by all her sisters. The bad thing about relatives is that you can shout at them, but that simply doesn't stop them from harassing you very early in the morning. Anyway. So I decided to roll out of bed and went with Betty, Jasmina and Jack to get food for tonight. We got half a pub in Sachsenhausen to celebrate, and I think it went pretty well, at least for what I can remember of it. Then at a certain point, I found myself in a car, possibly Maria's, and somehow managed to arrive home. Next thing I know was that I woke up at 3:30PM today, had probably 3 liters of water, read the newspapers, nearly died of starvation and then St Jasmina decided to cook some filled paprika and feed me. Thanks darling. Funny thing is that I was a bit ashamed because I thought that I had left the pub without even paying, but apparently I did (or I robbed someone on the way, one way or the other I got more money in my wallet). And I think I have decided to get myself a Strawberry, which is the way I call the Blackberry, since eventually someone realized that they should put some color on them and anyway the iphone is not out yet and wouldn't be available for my cell phone provider. Let's see.
And I got authorized to publish here another important news: our Blanquita and Johannes are expecting a baby!!! Well done guys!!

back from Espain

2008-07-02T22:03:00.002+02:00

miei cari, I have just come back from Espain. This time nothing fancy, no Radiohead or something like that. I had to go there to work. Still, it was pretty nice to be there to watch the final of the Eurocup, as you all probably know Spain won against Germany and they made a pretty decent mess all the night. After that, i.e. after sleeping 4 hours because of the mess coming from the streets, I locked myself in the plant for 2 days, so nothing really interesting. This morning I woke up at 10:30 (considering that I left the plant after 3 I think I was entitled to sleep longer), just in time for breakfast, then got the car and went to Stiges to get a bit sunburnt. This time I also put sun protection and actually I stayed under the sun for not even 1 hour; still, I managed to nicely burn myself, even though so far nothing hurts. And I really like having some color on my body, after a German winter I started looking like a rotten mozzarella (white with a tendency to green). So now I will go to bed, read a bit and tomorrow morning back to the office. This Saturday Maria, Betty, Jasmina and I will make a cumulative bday party, so if by chance I forgot to send you an invitation just let me know.

we get a small Preeti!!!!

2008-06-21T13:44:00.003+02:00

miei cari, these last 2 days I had Preeti visiting. The very good news is that she will have a baby in December!!! I can't wait to know whether it's a boy or a girl (hopefully a girl, but whatever it is I don't care), so that I can getting all sort of junk for him/her. I am very happy for her and for Sameer. We should start thinking about embarassing names for the kid:-)
That said, here in Germany we are in full european championship frenzy. First of all Germany managed to kick out Portugal: too bad for Portugal, but to be honest if you are on average 15cm shorter than the other team you should really rethink yout strategy of trying to score with the head. The misteries of football... And then yesterday night there was an extremely boring game, Croatia vs. Turkey. It became interesting only in the last 2 minutes of the additional time, when Croatia scored, after 1 minute Turkey scored, they went to penalties and Croatia made a disaster (2 balls out and one blocked by the Turkish goalkeeper). So now next Wednesday there is going to be Germany vs. Turkey as semifinal, which could easily evolve into a civil war here in Germany. I assume I will leave my car in the company parking lot, before someone decides to scratch it (or burn it, you never know). The funny thing is that some extremely intelligent German newspapers are already boasting the fact that Germany will beat Turkey, which proves that the Germans really do not understand the basic rules of bad luck - while I assume Turkish people know them very well, I would like to know what kind of voodoo they made in the last 3 games to win like that - In the meantime Italy managed to beat France (thanks god), it also was a pretty boring match, even considering that the only decent French player cracked his knee in the first minutes and we got a penalty because a guy tried to kill Luca Toni in front of the goal - as if he would have scored...
And tonight we have Maria's bday party, with the clear objective of getting wasted completely. I think we can do that.
ciaociao

entrepan amb fromatge

2008-06-16T00:13:00.002+02:00

miei cari, I've just come back from Barcelona, and Turkey has just got qualified for the second round of the european football (the real thing, so if zou are American please read soccer) championship so there is a huge mess in the streets right now.
So what happened in Barcelona?
1. obviously! If you see a girl walking at 2 in the morning, when it's not very warm and they have washed all the streets (so you walk and you very likely end up in a pond), with a short dress, sleeveless, shivering from cold but perfectly made up, with perfect hairstyle, made by passing a hot iron for hours to make it straight - well, where does she come from? The US, obviously! If you see guys going around with an invicta backpack, making idiot comments - well, where do they come from? Italy, obviously! If you see a guy on the beach with a Borat swimsuit (or whatever you want to define that atrocious garment), making pictures and playing football with his balls banging right and left (and let me tell you, that is NOT sexy) - well, where does he come from? England, obviously! (even though we were thinking also about Australia and/or New Zealand, for very stereotipical reasons, like guys getting cheap beer and getting embarassigly drunk).
2. a chupito (trasnsation: shot) for free after you first drink is not a good idea. Especially if the first drink is a mojito with a shitload of alcohol inside. And the second drink, after the chupito, being a gin and tonic with way more gin than tonic.
3. after living 4-something years in Germany, you need to remember that your skin is not used to sun anymore. So you MUST put some sun protection. Or you end up with completely burnt legs (and tomorrow at work I will have to wear a skirt otherwise I cry for pain every time the fabric touches the back of my legs)
4. tattoos and piercings are cool - well, at least some of them - the question being: how can you have piercing in you lower back? You had a transplant?? Brrrr, scary
5. how do you make a tortilla de patatas (hopefully it is spelt wthis way)? I am not telling you, but now I know how (thanks Leire!!)
6. I bought the most fantastic and useless watch in history (looks very cool but you cannot read the time if it's not dark).
7. you are very wrong, as wrong as a coocoo hur from Switzerland. Because, dear ignorant readers, coocoo watches - those annoinng watches where a bird comes out making all sort of stupid noises every hour - is not from Switzerland but from the Schwarzwald (which, my dear super ignorant readers, is in Germany)
8. never bet when you are drunk (this is a lesson taught, not learnt, since I learnt a loooong time ago)
9. tomatoes need real sun to be good - so I am sorry my dear Dutch readers (assuming any Dutch people read this), but your tomatoes SUCK
10. my goal keeper has hands and feet like paella pans (and there goes your penalty, lousy Romanian player!)
11. it is painful when you figure out that you should have saved some money to go see Radiohead before - because, my dear readers, they are simply good.
12. it is too late to get a third earring on your left ear when you are nearly 29. Or also, if I anyway decide to get an additional one, I'd better get it far from the other 2 (good excuse that I have small ears).
13. bocadillo con queso, also called (in Catalan) entrepan amb fromatge (or, in English, sandwich with cheese) is f a n t a s t i c

I go to bed. Go, Turkey, go!!

obviously

2008-06-15T02:24:00.002+02:00

miei cari, I am in the hostel in Barcelona. Gaborno is waiting for Mario to answer back and perhaps meet later tonight, unless he collapses.In any case, we did a lot, including getting sun burnt (can hardly walk). And we started betting on the nationality of the people we see on the streets. We started with a guy after the radioead concert. The guy had all sort of tags of drinks hanging from his jeans. Gaborno and I see him, then a taxi passes by and the guy, pissed drunk like hell, says something in pure English accent - including "chap". So where does a completely drunk guy come from, when he is hanging out in Spain and shouting at taxi drivers? England. Obviously.
Let´s see what happens.
ciaociao

hit me baby one more time

2008-06-09T23:09:00.003+02:00

miei cari, I am getting worried about quoting britney shitears so many times. Well, there goes your popular culture, you morons. Anyway, Italy lost 3:0 with Holland. I was suggesting we got mine their dams, but all the people were light hearted. No big deal, we enjoy getting hurt (also another very goood song from NIN'- aka nine ince snails). Whatever - and I am not trying to write here since I am sort of drunk - e la moglie di van basten fa la troia ad amsterdam.
shame... shit...

German charme

2008-06-08T23:18:00.002+02:00

miei cari, I would like to go to bed right now but Germany has just won the match against Poland and they are making a mess with the cars, so I could stay in bed looking to the ceiling and swearing at them (it's the first match of the European championship) or stay here and write. Guess what I chose. I guess Polish people right now are cursing whoever was at the government 20 years ago, since the guy who scored both goals for Germany was born in Poland and his parents emigrated around 20 years ago. Life is strange, sometimes. That said, tomorrow Italy plays and I am getting nervous.
Anyway, yesterday night we went to a wine fest somewhere close to Mainz. The place was really good, and the riesling was also OK (considering that we drank no less than 5 bottles and this morning I could still get out of bed without feeling like I had to puke my soul). Moreover, I once more experienced the charme of German men: basically we were at a table with our bottles of riesling in front of us when this old guy comes to me and starts whispering things in my ear. When I asked him to repeat, he came up with "when you have riesling in your blood, you fuck like a turkey". What made me wonder is: why like a turkey? Wikipedia does not seem to offer any solution to this doubt that has been tormeting me ever since: so, dear readers, if you have any clue why a turkey's sexual intercourse is so remarkable, please let me know.
And now, crazed Germans permitting, I will go get my deserved rest.

warm and sunny

2008-06-01T22:07:00.002+02:00

miei cari, this weekend the weather has been extremely good (well, yesterday morning it was pouring rain, but then the sun came out and everything was fine). So we went out with the Italian gang, then Carlo and Mariella stayed at my place - overcoming the disgust at the mess that I have in my flat with a generous portion of pasta with my mum's pesto - and then the plan was to go to the erotik messe. So we arrive there, lured by the posters announcing the presence of Donna Colada, who google tells us has starred in a masterpiece movie called Spermabad (something like a bath of sperm), whose cover shows her with a very open and silicon-injected mouth with some sort of white liquid inside. Perhaps the weather was hot also when she was shooting the movie and she felt like having ice cream. Or maybe not. Anyway, we arrive there and we find out that the ticket was 25 euros, so we decide, with extreme sadness, to postpone our encounter with Donna and to go to the river instead. And also because the entrance had carpet on the ground, and for some reason I started believing that I could get all sort of diseases. Well, all in all better like this, so that I won't get disappointed by the comparison (and I am talking about men, my dears, not myself). So now I am at home waiting for the 3rd washing machine to finish and then go to bed that tomorrow I have to go to work (argh).

ops, I did it again

2008-05-25T23:12:00.002+02:00

before my dear readers start thinking about something weird, I would like to specify the title: yes, I am nearly going broke this month as well. So, miei cari, as you know I spent the last few days in Milano. So I got a new hairstyle (not so sure that I like it, but whatever) and then I went furiously shopping. So now I have 4 new skirts, 3 new tshirts, a shitload of books (19 to the last count, but I am sure I forgot some), some new dvds and some cds. Highlight of the weekend was the Afterhours concert on Friday. While I was driving there I remember that I went to the first concert of them around 10 years ago. This tells me 1. that I am getting old 2. that they are getting old as well (ha haaaa) 3. that there is still hope if a good group manages to survive in a country that exports all sort of pukable shit like ramazzotti (the singer, not the liquor) and pausini. Anyway, the concert was very good and the most amazing thing was that not only the place was completely full (and we are talking about a bigger place than normal, probably 7-8000 people) but that the public sang all the old songs as well. Well, if they decide to make an international tour this time as well I strongly recommend that you go see them.
Now I'd better go to bed that tomorrow I have to work...

short week and metaphisical considerations

2008-05-20T21:46:00.004+02:00

miei cari, some could wonder how Germany can still be on the top 10 of the industrialized countries with all the public holidays that we get. But, since I live here, I couldn't care less about the financial situation of the German state - as long as they keep on paying my salary and the state is more serious than in Italy. Which, unfortunately, is becoming easier and easier each day: please find above a picture of our minister for equal opportunities, Mara Carfagna. No, it is not a joke. And I took a picture where she is dressed. Santa Madonna. Now, it could be that she kept all her intelligence and expertise hidden and will be the best minister in the history of the Italian republic. However, given her first public speeches, I am getting more and more afraid.

Now back to important matters: tomorrow is the last day of work, then I will fly to Italy and hopefully meet with friends and have a manicure, a pedicure, a haircut, buy a shitloads of books (because yes I am reading this shitty business books but hell they all say the same thing), go to see concerts and possibly remember some of it. And try to understand if the situation is really as shitty as it seems.

In the meantime, let me tell you what happened last Saturday at Rodrigo's party. First of all, he got engaged!!! Very well done and we are happy for him. It is a bit strange to think of him as engaged, when he moved to Frankfurt we would have never guessed it. Secondly, next time I see some high heel shoes , with high averaging anywhere between 15 and 20cm, I'd better consider that being 1.74m tall I would feel like a giraffe and think twice about buying them (eheh, there goes your saying about short Italian women: kiss my butt! and you don't even have to kneel down). Thirdly, I had further proof that the world is full of weird people. Fourthly (I don't think this is English, but who cares) the clubs where bankers go suck, which makes me long for Berlin (or for any other town where less than 60% of the population is working in a bank, for that matter). And then on Sunday I had my first bicycle tour ever since I moved to Germany, Ana convinced me that it would make my hangover go away. Which sort of worked, apart from a terrible pain in my butt the next day. So overall everything OK and today I could also walk straight thus avoiding all sort of unneccessary gossip at work.

ciaociao

dolce far niente

2008-05-17T14:31:00.002+02:00

miei cari, in case you still haven"t learnt Italian (shame on you!!), the title of this post means something like "how sweet it is not to do anything". So basically today is Saturday, I am at home and, you would never guess it, I am not doing anything. Well, apart from writing here. Then I will get a shower, go meet with the Seidels, go around to see who has the biggest head and then tonight there is Rodrigo's bday party. But without hurrying.
So what happened this week? Basically nothing, apart from 2 considerations: 1) having my own laptop at home is becoming freaking addictive, I come back home at 11PM and still I turn it on to see what happened in the world. This has to stop (that's why I am writing here...) 2) I was taking the piss off Jack for ages because he reads this bullshit business books. Well, I am reading them as well. It still hasn't reached the emergency point, however this has to stop (that's why I have the art of war for women" next to my bed...). But, apart from this, everything is OK.
ciaociao

back from Belgium

2008-05-12T11:34:00.002+02:00

miei cari, this weekend I was at Nancy and Tom's wedding in Belgium. The weather was simply fantastic. The whole wedding was extremely well organized, which is surprising especially considering that they have been living in NY for the past months. So on Saturday we first went to the city council to have them officially married, then we were taken around on a boat while being served all sort of nice food and wines. Then at night there was another cerimony and then a fantastic dinner. The meat course, beef layered with goose liver and truffles, was simply unbeatable. And then we started dancing until collapse. The next day we were taken on a tour of Gent, which I had never heard of before but is a beautiful town. And then we decided to come to Frankfurt - still haven't quite understood why, since today is public holiday in Germany and the weather is fantastic.
So today I will do my washing and perhaps go out later.
All for now. Ciaociao

lullaby

2008-05-04T23:35:00.002+02:00

cari miei, I am here writing on the computer: my mum is sitting on my sofa (which is my bed in these days, my parents are sleeping in my bed) and is watching some sort of crappy pride and prejudice dvd. Why was I so stupid to take her to bloody Saturn? There is this lady Kira-whatever-her-name-is that right now has some sort of pearls on her hair and is jumping around with a bad looking short moron. Well, anyway. Today I finished reading this extremely nice book called Lullaby from Chuck Palahniuk. OK, if you like sort of she meets the guy of her life and after a lot of adventures and perils they are eventually together for the rest of their life, ehm, then perhaps think again about buying this. To be honest, I could sell it to you as she meets the guy and, after a lot of adventures and perils, they are eventually together. It would be true however slightly misleading. Anyway, it is a really nice book, so read it read it read it (and if you are broke ask me and I lend it to you).
What else happened? Well, we had the surprise of our lives when last week we received a latter from Eugenio and Maike saying that they got married 3 days before. Since I haven't had a chance to talk to the guys, I will suspend any further comment until the chance occurs.
And when I was writing the title of the post I figured out that I didn't tell you about the The Cure concert I went to probably already 1 month ago. Shame on me. Well, will be for another time.
I think the bloody Kira-whatever-her-name-is is in love with another guy. Well, at least this one is not short. Che pallllleeeeeeeeeee.

competition

2008-05-04T11:54:00.003+02:00

miei cari, I figured out that my new intelligent laptop doesn't need cables to download the pictures, I just need to stick in the memory card of the camera. So this is one of the best pictures I took.

And now the competition: which one is the worst looking embassy in Berlin? Send your answers, the winner gets a free dinner (together will all the others) at my place.

ich bin ein berliner (mit marmelade)

2008-05-03T22:28:00.003+02:00

cari miei, I am eventually back in my flat after spending a couple of days in Berlin with my parents (being their 40th anniversary, I decided to have them do a German tour and meet them in Berlin). To be short: I LOVE BERLIN. And I haven't even been to the *cool*
places. Last time I was there was 2 years ago for the final of the world championship (really cool) and I strongly recommend going there. I used to moan about having money taken from my salary for the unification tax; after being in Berlin and seeing what they are doing with my money, I am very happy I gave it. The town is fantastic, full of history, nice things to see, nice people around with nice hairstiles and nicely dressed (which, being Germany, is basically a miracle), loads of bars, cafes, restaurants, art exhibitions and so on. Right now it comes first in my personal list of town where I would like to move. Fantastic town. I want to go back. And I also found a really cool radio, motor fm.

And for the non Germans or non-living-in-Germany: the famous sentence ich bin ein berliner was said in I don't know when by JF Kennedy. Unfortunately, though, noone told the guy that a berliner is a pastry, usually filled with marmelade (what in Italian we would call a krapfen). This to prove, once more, the truth of: good or bad, as long as they talk about me.

Alive. And in New York:-)

2008-04-27T07:02:00.003+02:00

miei cari, after 2 weeks of complete silence, I decided to give you a proof that I am not dead (despite the level of cholesterol after 2 weeks in the US). So what did I do in these 2 weeks? I worked. I shopped. And then I worked. And then I shopped. And, guess what?, I worked. And, surprise!, I shopped. So now that I assume you got the point, let me tell you what I bought (since I don't think anyone is interested in my job, and even if you were, I would have to kill you after I told you, which becomes a bit tricky over internet). So right now I am writing with my brand new laptop: I was going around in the electronic shop and saw this thingy there, all alone, all black and shiny. And who am I, a bastard bitch, to leave it there all alone to face his destiny?? No. So I bought it. As you can see, internet seems to work pretty fine. I simply don't have Office, but at the end of the day who really needs to write a letter? Then I bought a camera, since we had decided to spend the weekend in NY. Then I wanted to buy an i-phone but they were all sold out where I wanted to buy it, so now I have to blackmail the next person that goes in the US to buy me one. Then I bought a shitload of books, a candle holder made of carton (really cool, and also enviromentally friendly, unless the candle starts burning the carton and then the house down, I assume that would be counted as a significant increase in the carbon footprint), a couple of pots (they are cuuuuuuuute), some clothes and some other random crap. So basically I am so broke that probably the guys in my bank will send interpol after me.
So what did I do in New York up to now? I walked like crazy, basically I cannot feel my feet any longer. And since I walked the whole day, right now I am a bit tired and will go to bed. In my room. On 3rd street, in the middle of Manhattan. On the 21st floor, in front of skyscrapers. Hahahahahahahahah. OK, I think I won't have friends anymore when I come back...

100 EUR = 157 USD

2008-04-13T23:55:00.002+02:00

miei cari, don't worry, the title of this post is not intended to introduce a dissertation on international markets or something like that. It is simply my cry of joy (and my credit card's cry of pain) for the fact that tomorrow I will fly to the US for work and for some significant shopping. So I will spend the first week in Cincinnati and the second one in Delaware, which is extremely good because they have no sales tax (yuppppiiiii). So I have already prepared my 2 biggest luggages, almost empty, to be ready for the adventure. And I am also pretty happy about some serious travel again, it is been a while since my last big trip and I started to miss it - basically had to compensate with a lot of personal travel, which is always good however expensive and also doesn't give me the chance of getting to know places forgotten by God and civilization. To prepare for my trip I had a nice weekend: first of all I got new glasses (my beloved pinky ones got broken in the park 2 weekends ago when Carletto and I decided that baseball was too nice for us and nearly started a rugby fight), then I got a manicure (so now I am typing with very red fingernails). Then we went to Wiesbaden to dance to some East European music and to try to pull some guys. We didn't pull a crap, but I enjoyed it a lot, danced a lot and really liked the place (well done, Ute!). And today, after ironing, Gaborno invited us to taste his pulpo a la gallega: that was very tasty and I am very happy that Geborno is discovering his culinary talent. So now I will go to bed, try not forget my passport and the chocolate for Heather and here I come!!

Potter Puppet

2008-04-12T03:57:00.001+02:00

Tre allegri ragazzi morti - Il mondo prima

2008-04-08T00:36:00.001+02:00

found it! found it!
era bello il cielo d'inverno come i tuoi denti
era bello sentire le tue mani fredde cercare qualcosa di meeeeee
era bello i tuoi piedi sopra le cosce un po' come fossimo in moto
ma distesi sul letto mio fresco
quasi come guidassi tuuuuuu
(ok, I tried to translate it but in English it sounds like crap, so either you don't understand it or you learn Italian)

ti ti dodo ti ti ti-dodo

2008-04-08T00:07:00.004+02:00

miei cari, after a long silence I am here, completely tired at past midnight and tomorrow I have to wake up early. Shit.
Anyway.
I will take more time another time to write properly what happened in the last 2-3 weeks. Right now I would like to share some advice on 3 songs that I keep on listening to in the last weeks. And I don't even know why - why I keep on listening and why do I give you advice.
Whatever.
song 1: Il mondo prima from Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti (the name of the group means 3 happy dead guys, just to give you an idea). This is probably the best love song in years.
song 2: We and Dem from Bob Marley. I just can't stop listening to this.
song 3: Baudelaire from Baustelle (which, despite the name, is an Italian group). A man that can dance this properly is the man of my life. Disclaimer: this is the only decent song from the last Baustelle album, in case you want to download it.
Disclaimer 2: for years I thought that Hey Boy Hey Girl from the Chemical Brothers was a perfect making love song. Just to warn you.

hey

2008-03-23T17:59:00.002+01:00

miei cari, I am sort of drunk and at my grandma's house. So, what happened in these 2 days? I have bought a lot of books, a lot of skirts, I came here yesterday and now I am sort of drunk ( as already mentioned). SO everything OK. Apart from my parents having a crappy computer with a good connection and my aunt having a good computer with a crappy connection. So bear with me another week until I come back home to my sort of nice computer with a ssort of nice connection and then I can tell you all. Now I sort myself out and try to drive to my house. ciaociao

kids, so noone of you wants to come see radiohead? Well, I won't have internet connection anyway, so who cares

music weekend

2008-03-16T13:32:00.002+01:00

miei cari, as said yesterday in the other post, this is going to be a musical weekend (ab out time). So yesterday night we went to this HR3 nacht thing, where basically this German radio (called HR3, surprise) organized a full blown series of concerts everywhere in town. So first we went to see Zascha Moktan, who is this girl with very nice voice, very big tits and pretty shitty music. If she finds someone to write music for her and to teach her how to be a bit more bitchy on stage she could become famous (not that I would go see her again even she does, but it would be beneficial to her bank account). Then we went to see first a guy called Clueso, who had nice music and a very nice t-shirt. Apparently the guy is sort of famous, since people were actually singing his songs. And then this girl, Maria Mena, with very nice voice and a famous song (I didn't know that it was her). Probably she had a couple Jaegermeister too many before the concert, but she could still stand and sing and entertain the public.
And now I am getting ready to go see the Cure! (Yes, they are still alive).
And yesterday I bought a pair of extremely pink sneakers, and the guy in the shop is probably the most handsome guy I have ever seen in Frankfurt - OK, perhaps a little too many tattoos but you can't be perfect.

and life goes on

2008-03-15T12:15:00.002+01:00

miei cari, eventually I am at home, alone, having my 4th coffe of the morning and writing here. So what happened in the last week? Well, as you might have noticed, last weekend I went to Greece with the girls (Maria, Ana, Blanca, Betty, Eli). I have learnt some spanish, meaning now I know a lot of swear words. Very good. Then on Tuesday my dad and my aunt (my mum's sister) came to visit me. I need to say that the first 2 days were sort of hard, especially because my aunt is sort of high-maintenance. And, on top, she snores really badly all night. That said, the last couple of days have been better, we had some nice talks (just needed enough "fuel", i.e. 3 bottles of wine each night) so everything went fine. Then yesterday night we met with another uncle who was passing by Frankfurt on its way back home to Boston. I have never really liked the guy, however yesterday night we went for dinner and I was pleasantly surprised, for once in my life, because the guy seems to be more mature than in the last 20 years. So, as they say, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Only bad thing is that this morning he called us at 7 because he thought he had lost his credit cards. So for 2 hours we were running around, calling police, calling the restaurant, checking every single cm2 of my car to try and find the bloody credit cards. Then he calls us back to tell us that he ahd actually found them in the hotel where he was staying. No comment.
So what happens now? First, I assume I will go back to bed, then have a shower, then go out, then take Jackko to the airport and then out for the night, apparently there is a concert night or something like that. And tomorrow I go to the Cure's concert:-) So, all in all, everything is OK. And I think I will get blond again, this brown color is a bit boring...

sto tizio e' un coglione

2008-03-14T11:12:00.001+01:00

Intervista di Daria Bignardi a Giuliano Ferrara. Allucinante.

guacala

2008-03-09T14:53:00.002+01:00

miei cari, I am in the hostel in Athens. We have just said good bye to Eli who is flying back today still. I have a red nose and a shitty red neck following my tshirt line. So far the girls weekend in Greece has been really good. One negative point is that we figured out that greek men are not exactly handsome. Well, that simply leaves more time for gossiping. Now I assume we are going out again, the weather is fantastic. The food is also extremely good. (the girl next to me is typing likre crazy)
ciaociao

living abroad: the proof

2008-03-02T12:00:00.003+01:00

miei cari, yesterday night we went to Carlo and Mariella's place to watch the final of the Festival di Sanremo. You might wonder (especially if you are not Italian): what the hell is the Festival di Sanremo? Well, it is supposed to be this song competition where the "best" Italian singers/authors go and perform. Sometimes there are very good songs; most of the time, though, the songs are painfully shitty. In general, the chances that you can find a good tune are around 15%; so the question arises: why the hell do you watch it? And here comes the sad truth: if we (meaning myself and the other Italians that were there in front of the tv yesterday night) were still living in Italy, most likely we would rather prefer to be raped in the ass by Rocco Siffredi tripping on acid than watch the festival. However, when you live abroad you seem to develop a sort of nostalgia for all sort of crap that comes from your home country, like the Festival di Sanremo, Porta a Porta (a shitty TV program) and so on. Well, anyway, the winner was a completely shitty duet; second place was a girl that is around 20 years old and looks like my grandma. Third place I don't even remember. There were a couple of good songs that obviously didn't even make it in the first 5. And the highlight of the whole Festival was Elio e Le Storie Tese: they are great musicians and completely idiot. During the final they went on stage dressed like people from the 18th C and sang a piece from the Barbiere di Siviglia. Fantastic. And they made a great show in the days before making fun of all the shitty songs (and singers) of the Festival. Simply great (Tatangelo; Tiromancino; Meneguzzi; Tricarico).
That said, last week was pretty good. As you know I was in Paris last weekend. It was very nice, we went around, had food from Benin cooked by a friend of OStè, went around in the sun around the National Library and overall enjoyed a lot. The only that I really did not like is the trip in the train. Last time I took the train I was in Italy: you get in and after 15 minutes you know all the people sitting near you; after 2 hours you are good friends; after 4 hours you start sharing all sort of advice and crap. This time I get on the train in Frankfurt, find my place and say hello, as simple hello, to the lady sitting close to me and she looked at me as if I was Jack the Reaper. And then, since people hardly breathe not to disturb the neighbour, I started listining to music and I was just moving my head along the songs and I noticed that people started staring at me really badly. After that I mummified myself in my seat. In simple words: that was booooooooooooooooring.
Then on Tuesday we went to watch a Espanish movie, Tapas, which was pretty nice; only bad thing is that I cried like a veal. I am becoming a sissy.
And I really start to believe that I am an idiot. Enough said. Update: I am at Jack and Jasmina's place and they confirm that I am an idiot. Porca di quella puttana stratroia.

shitty French keyboard

2008-02-23T13:50:00.002+01:00

miei cari, I am in Paris and am writing on OSte's computer. I thought the German or American keyboard was painful, but this is waaaaaaaay worse. Now, to make you understand, I will type blindly as if it was a normal keyboard so you can understand the pain.
So westerdqw ze zent to Vinicio Cqposselqµs concert qnd it zqs reqmmw good. The guw is qs crqyw qs q flozer in zinter. I discovered thqt there qre q lolt of sonfs thqt I donµt knoz. Now the translation: yesterday we went to Vinicio Capossela's concert and it was really good. The guy is as crazy as a flower in winter. I discovered that there are a lot of songs that I don't know and decided to get them next time I go to Italy. Now I am very sorry that this shitty keyoard is driving me crazy, I will write more when I come back home.

tomorrow holiday!!

2008-02-21T22:07:00.002+01:00

miei cari, tomorrow I will be on holiday!!! And I can tell you, I am really ready for a long weekend. So in the morning I will go to the hairdresser and then hop on a train to Paris to see Vinicio Capossela (since OSte kindly bought the tickets). So what happened this week? Well, last weekend was sort of funny. Irem and I decided that we wanted to have a cocktail dinner: the idea was to have more cocktails than anything else, but I got energized by eventually getting my EC card so I bought salmon, shrimps, martini glasses and I don't know what else and started cooking. Unfortunately I also had the idea of getting some gin&tonic: I know that this thing is toxic for me, but still I can't resist. So basically I ended up shit faced, Eugenio decided to shower himself and also to water my Frakfurt pictures with the second try of Cosmopolitan (yeah, you really need to hold the cap of the shaker...), then we (Irem, Gaborno, Alessio and I) went singing karaoke, then I only remember sitting on a stool in a doner place and then nothing else until the next morning when I woke up on the sofa. The very good thing is that the guys are so well trained that they stayed and washed all the dishes - or at least so I am told, most likely I was sleeping on the sofa by then. I somehow managed to have breakfast with Irem and then collapsed in bed for the whole Sunday, feeling miserable and reading Agatha Christie (she really wrote nice books). On Monday I went to have some thai food with Irem (well, I wanted Indian but of course the Indian restaurant in freaking Bad Soden is closed on Mondays), on Tuesday the Stammtisch, yesterday volleyball (I am getting a bit faster!!) and tonight eventually home. And tomorrow holiday!!!!
There are also unfortunately some not so nice news: first Jorge and Leire will be back in Espain - Leire is already there, Jorge will move on Saturday. This is sad - however most likely it is a good choice for them, going back home and building a future. I don't know, I am a bit puzzled. And anyway this means that we will have people to visit when going to Barcelona:-) Then on Tuesday we found out that Eugenio is leaving to go work in another company; the good news though is that he will stay in Frankfurt, so we will keep contact easily.
Well, all for now; now I need to find some books to read on the train and charge the ipodo.
ciaociao

5 things that makes you say "shit! I'm getting old"

2008-02-11T22:21:00.000+01:00

miei cari, this last weekend I was in France to buy champagne and chat with OSte. I bought a pretty good amount of champagne - the process how they make it is pretty interesting: you take 3 wine sorts (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and another Pinot that I cannot remember nor pronounce) and they mix it after a first fermentation. Then they put some sugar and yeast, then put it in bottles and leave it there for a long fermentation. At the end of this the yeast is dead and they put the bottles on wooden planks and slowly incline them until they get vertical: in this way the sediments get into the bottle neck. After that they put the neck inside a very cold solution so that the wine inside the neck freezes, and the sediments with it. Then they open the cork, the pressure of the wine kicks out the piece of ice with the crap, they put some more sugar (depending on what they want at the end) and close it with the classical champagne cork. The caves where they keep the wine are pretty impressive, we went to visit the Pommery caves and they really look nice. Also, it is amazing how they have invented a money-making machine: you arrive there and everyone tells you how good champagne is, how complicated it is to make it, how expensive it is (so, my dear, you shouldn't be surprised if I ask you a bloody lot of money for a bottle). OSte and I were actually wondering whether the whole region actually produces anything but champagne; we couldn't find an answer. Well, good for them.
We were also talking about a song that apparently tells you that you are getting old if you have 3 symptoms: 1) you start getting a belly (that could also mean too much beer, but let's assume the singer is right) 2) you start having kids 3) you have to pay a mortgage for your house. I think there are 2 other signs: 1) you find your first gray hair (what a great way to start your week) 2) you have a freaking back ache because you didn't pay too much attention to how you were lifting the champagne cartons, therefore cracking a muscle in your back - it's always interesting to find out that we have muscles hidden in every freaking corner of our body. So basically now I am in serious need for a hairdresser and I have greased my back with a thick layer of Voltaren, which most likely was expired since I don't even know when I bought it (or perhaps my mum gave it to me when I moved to Germany 4 years ago). So , my dears, I score 4 out of 5, and it's not that I am too proud of it. Porca puttana.
Anyway, in 2 weeks I will go to France again, apparently Vinicio Capossela is playing in Paris (why? I have no clue), so OSte hopefully got me a ticket, since I have booked the train already. If not, I will just squat his house while he is seeing Vinicio.
All for now. ciaociao

priorities

2008-02-04T00:53:00.000+01:00

miei cari, this weekend I had some nice party -in Mainz for carnival, really funny - and some moments to think about serious stuff. The party was good, everyone gathered at Luke's house - and found out that the guy had shaved his head completely, you good, man:-) - and then we went to a big place where everyone started drinking and dancing. Cool, really. And Saturday night we had a dinner at Jack and Jasmina's place, really great food. And tonight I got invited for some great chicken at Yolanda's house.
Then, on Saturday and Sunday, in the moments in which I wasn't cleaning the house, I was reading the book about terrorism in Italy in the 70's. Actually, 2 books and some stuff on internet. This made me thinking a lot. Since right now I am kind of drunk and need to go to sleep, I will tell you more specific episodes in the next posts. However, there is one simple message I want to get across right now. And that is: the priority for a "normal" and "civil" state would be to take care of the real victims, meaning the wives and kids of the guys that were killed like dogs on the streets by terrorists. It is disgusting that so much effort is spent on trying to find solutions and work for former (I hope so) terrosists, while nothing is done for the real victims. We should be ashamed.
And that's all.
ciao

Vota Antò Lo Puerc!!!

2008-01-31T22:32:00.000+01:00

Cari miei, vista la situazione politica in Italia si suppone che prima o poi verremo chiamati di nuovo ad eleggere una mandria di idioti. A questo punto la soluzione é chiara: votate Antò Lo Puerc!! Nei prossimi giorni mi informerò se sia possibile eleggere un porco (vero, leggasi suino) in Parlamento: nel caso preparo la lista ufficiale e si inizia con la campagna elettorale. E con i contributi ci facciamo un festone per i senzatetto - almeno spendiamo i soldi pubblici per qualcosa di intelligente. Il gruppo su feisbuc è sempre lo stesso: diffondete il verbo!

ANTÒ LO PUERC: UN VOLTO, UNA GARANZIA.

back from Espain

2008-01-31T21:42:00.000+01:00

miei cari, I have just finished reading Gaborno's blog, bloody hell when the guy starts writing noone can stop him. Bravo Gaborno!! As you might guess from the title of this post, this week I was in Espain, just came back. I practiced a bit of Spanish (I am baaaaaad) and enjoyed some proper food. Yesterday night we decided to go to my favorite place, Casa Josè: this place has a single menu, stuck on the wall, full of very interesting things. We ate like little whores (my dad's copyright): we started with snails, then navajas (kind of long seafood, ahhhhh they are good), gambas, more gambas, merluza, scampi, calamarcitos (fried and a la plancha), all sort of muscles and I can't remember what else. I loooove the place. The day before I had night shift so during the day I went shopping - wanted to buy shoes so I ended up with 1 skirt, 2 pull overs, 1 t-shirts with little white roses stuck on it and underwear. Then I bought a guide of the best Spanish wines of 2008, found 1 producer not too far from where I was and went there. I arrives to this little village, obviously noone was around and there were no signs. So I just waited until this car came, I approached the guy (who could only talk Catalan), I somehow explain to him that I wanted to buy some wine, the guy called the wine producer on the cell phone and told me to wait "there", pointing at a not better defined house in the village. So I just parked the car and waited. The wine producer eventually came, gave me a tour of the cellar, basically told me that I am sort of the first private person that comes to buy small quantities of wine (weird) so I ended up buying 4 bottles. Then today I asked the lady in the plant to give me some bubble wrap, sealed the bottles as best as I could in the parking lot (with the operators passing by and making jokes) and managed to ship the bottles - intact! - back to Germany. This together with 2 liters of olive oil and 3 pots of olive paste. I think a car tour of Spain is now required, so that I can ship back some proper quantities of wine. And I bought my first Spanish book, "en el nombre del cerdo", which means "in the name of the pig": when I saw the title I knew that it was the book for me :-) Now I'd better go to bed, I am a bit tired...

here I am

2008-01-26T16:34:00.000+01:00

miei cari, after a long slience here I am. The last couple of weeks have been a bit hectic, but overall good. I have now a new ipod, the big chunky 80Gb one. I have transferred around 1/4 of my CDs and I nearly used 10 Gb already. Thanks God I didn't buy the small fancy one, otherwise it would be full by now. You might wonder: why the hell did you buy an ipod? First, because they look good - even though the idiots don't produce white ipods anymore, ipods should be white and not this freaking rainbow of options they give you - but I assume this is what they call customization. Second reason: I was utterly bored of having CDs flying around in my car, so during the Xmas holidays I changed the radio in my car so that I can plug the ipod in and carry that alone instead of the CDs. Third: the exchange rate is so good that I felt idiot not to buy it. I am not sure about buying a cover for it (because since it's not white but silver it will get awfully scratched). We'll see. Other news is that the Italian government fell, so now there is a huge mess. And why did it fall? Because the Minister of Justice was nearly arrested, together with half of his family, for corruption. This is just to prove once more the points I was making in my last post. So after his dimissions there was a huge turmoil and his party did not vote for the government anymore. It is still unclear what will happen. We have 2 options: 1) they make another government, with a different majority, and let's see how long it lasts 2) we go vote soon. In both ways we get screwed, because sooner or later we will have to vote and our friend Berlusconi will win again and make a mess as usual. Amen. Other news is that last weekend we had a lot of visitors: Preeti and Sameer from Antwerp, Petero, Tina and Ahoo from Geneva. It was good fun and it's great to see that they are all OK. Other news is that Gaborno eventually decided to start writing on his blog again (about time!) so that I am not left alone. And now I'd better go get a shower so that I eventually leave the flat and stop putting stuff on the ipod. Ciaociao

hmmmm

2008-01-09T21:38:00.000+01:00

miei cari, I am at home and I decided that I have worked enough for tonight so screw the report I want to write on my blog.
In the last days I had a chance to think and talk about what is happening in Italy at the moment. It all started when I was driving back for the holidays: I was in a queue outside Milano and was listening to the radio, a pretty big one. They played this "Xmas" jingle, in which a speaker was basically saying that the state is shit, politicians are shit, people cannot make ends meet, and so on. At the beginning I thought it was some kind of political commercial, but then I figured that it was for real. I arrive home and listen to the news, with the "emergency" (which has been going on for years now) of the piles of rubbish in Campania (the region of Naples). Then I bought this book called "la casta", of which I had read a lot. Basically the 2 journalists that wrote it describe how Italian politicians became a caste (hence the name of the book), and that theit highest political goal is to steal money and go unpunished for it. This all over the country, North, South, East, West, all the same, without anyone even feeling slightly ashamed for what they do. You read it and you want to take your car and go straight back to Germany - by the way, not that I think that in Germany you don't have corruption, but it seems less spread and when people get caught at least they show some shame. Then I come back to the office and Giulia sends me this link to the phone call between Berlusconi, our previous prime minister, and Saccà, the president of RAI (the state TV). This phone call shows a level of corruption and ass-licking that is simply embarassing.
Now, it's not a big surprise that most of our politicians are a pile of stinking shit, they have always been - I remember jokes about politicians stealing money when I was a kid, so I don't see a big difference now. Still, in the past it seemed as if people were considering it as a nuisance to overcome in a way or another, without getting as angry as now. And it is not only about politicians: people are angry about foreign people (before it was Muslims, now it is Romanians, tomorrow who knows), about not having enough money, about not having a stable job that gives them sufficient money - to give you an example, a friend on mine, who is a vet, told me that if you want to practice as a vet there are some clinics where they will pay you between 7 and 11 euros/hour, which is less of what my mum gives to her cleaning lady. You read the newspaper and there are only bad news and naked girls. Now, the worst thing is that noone is proposing anything to get out of this situation. People wait for the new "emergency", they get upset like hell and it ends there. I've just finished reading this book, "the time of the rebels", about the youth movements in East Europe (Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, ...) and I found it very inspiring. Unfortunately I don't think any of it is applicable to Italy. First of all, all these movements were non violent and we cannot even handle some garbage or enjoy a football match without someone getting hurt. Second, the movements that already exist in Italy either are made by an ex tv comedian (Beppe Grillo, who is as old as my mum and I would say less honest) or are completely politically biased (if you can read Italian go to the Indymedia site and look at the difference in themes and wording between the Italian version and the other ones). What I fear is that this is the perfect situation for a "strong" guy to come and get hold of the country. If someone came and said "guys, give me 5 years and control of the police and the army and I get rid of foreigners, make out towns safe and give you all steady jobs" he would become prime minister with 70% of the votes (which, by the way, was the same thing that Berlusconi said and he won big time without even asking for more police power and with half of the country hating him because of his not-too-clear activities). Then we would really be screwed.
So the question is: why the fuck did I write all this thing if at the end of the day I am not able to propose anything? Good question. Let me think and if I come up with something intelligent perhaps next elections you can vote for me:-)

2007, 2008

2008-01-06T14:21:00.000+01:00

miei cari, I am back in Frankfurt and to an internet connection. Holidays have been good, I eventually managed to sleep a lot , as needed. It's going to be funny tomorrow going back to work after getting used to go to bed at 2 and waking up at 12 or later. I read a lot, had fun and learnt some new recipes.
As for every year that ends, it's time for some little recap. 2007 has been a decent year. Some highligths: my friends, here and away, always there for me - you are great. The trip to India - fantastic. All the weddings I have been to - wow, that takes guts ;-)
I have been asked what are my resolutions for 2008: to be honest I have no clue, apart from a strong feeling that things will change. How, when and what exactly is still to be defined, but the feeling is there. For the past months I have been in this undefined mood, in which things were not good but at the same time they were not bad; in simple words I was just getting bored. And when I get bored I get frustrated and nasty, which happened already in the past and didn't lead to anything good. So, my friends, cope with me for some months until I figure out what I want to do and then the fun begins:-)
So, some minutes into the new year, with fireworks cracking in the sky, bottles of merlot on the table, I was jumping with my friends, hugging each other and being stupid, listening to some songs from Hair. As said, things will change.

in Milano

2007-12-23T12:33:00.000+01:00

miei cari, I am in Milano and managed to have access with the super crappy old computer that belongs to my mum. These last couple of days have been nice; I have already bought all the presents so won't need to go crazy in the town. Yesterday I went to check out the design museum with Giorgia, it is OK, een though the 70's exhibition was better. The night before I managed to get one dinner out of Andrea (so he still owes me only 3) and I also got a really nice bottle of wine. Then we went to a club in the middle of nowhere with Giorgia. Alina is nowhere to be found, I am getting worried. I also bought a "how to learn Spanish book" and this morning I figured out that they have 3 different conjuntives, which sort of freaked me out. At the end I don't know whether anyone actually uses all these different forms, hopefully not. So now I will go back to my book, study a bit, eat something and then perhaps go out and go to some other museum. All in all, I am slowly getting adjusted to not doing anything and, man, it feels soooooooooo good.
And yes, we still need to make a lake out of switrzerland.

Merry Xmas!!!

2007-12-20T10:15:00.001+01:00

miei cari, I will be travelling today to Italy. Since I am not sure I will have internet connection, I would like to wish all of you Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo (guess what it means??)
A kiss to all of you and see you next year

I need some holidays

2007-12-15T08:44:00.000+01:00

miei cari, I am in serious need for some holidays. These last weeks have been kind of rushed. Now it's Saturday early in the morning and I have to go help with a move. Yesterday I had the xmas party with the volleyball team; since noone is not German (apart from me) it becomes kind of tiring after the first 1 hour, always having to pay attention to understand what they are talking about. Next week eventually I will leave, go home, sleep a lot, read a lot, see friends and relax a little bit. I am loooooooking forward to it.

sundayyyy morninggg

2007-12-09T20:10:00.000+01:00

well, OK, it's nearly 9 at night, but I wanted to pretend that I have some culture and put a title of a song with sunday in the title and could come up only with the velvet underground - no, sunday bloody sunday was not a choice... -
Anyway, this weekend has been entertaining. On Friday we had the xmas event of the company; obviously, being an American company, you cannot mention Xmas because you might offend whatever sensibilities, so it was called "Holiday event". Perhaps next year I can ask them to have another event before I get holidays, I don't see why my private, very un-religious holidays should be discriminated and go without a company event. The mysteries of political correctness. Anyway, the party was OK, it was in Offenbach in a theatre. The food was pretty good. The music sort of, but we danced anyway. And I can still remember everything so hopefully I didn't manage to make a complete fool of myself. Then yesterday I woke up, had my triple coffee, felt like a piece of crap, went around in the streets close to the railway station (no, they are not nice) because I wanted to find something Indian to put on my Xmas tree. Background: I bought my Xmas tree 3 years ago and then I figured that 1) I live on the 4th floor and I am too lazy to take the tree up and down to and from the cellar every year 2) I have no space in the cellar to store the Xmas tree - so, basically my Xmas tree stays in my flat the whole year, and every now and then changes outfit. So every year I make a Xmas dinner for my friends and, since I am very political correct, I call it the Xmas tree birthday party, in which Herr Der Baum (which is the German for Mr The Tree) shows a new outfit and people have to guess what the year's theme is. End of the background. This year I wanted to make the Herr Der Indische-Baum, but I went to all the Indian shops in Frankfurt and couldn't find anything, not even a little Ganesh to put on top. So I bought all sort of spices and then I was feeling all this wine from the night before going up and down and decided to have some Indian food, which helped a lot. Then I had to rush to go to the supermarket to buy food for Herr Der Baum birthday party. I wanted to make this beef stew with beer and I had asked where I can get some proper meat; so I diligently go up to this mall outside Frankfurt, spend half an hour to park, another half an hour in a queue and get this meat which was supposed to be good. Well, I arrive a home, start cooking it and it becomes a piece of concrete. Shit. The other stuff was good though, made some pizza dough rolls with emmenthal and olives, some bread with caramelized onions and duck's breast and the usual goat cheese. Then unfortunately we had the bad idea of trying to use the chocolate fountain that Eugenio brought and ended up having these big blobs of chocolate on the table. Not nice, but the pictures are entertaining:-) So today I stayed at home, cleaned the mess, relaxed a bit and then was ready to go to Eugenio and Maike's house to have some Mexican food when I realized that I had to finish something for work so ditched them, did my homework, 2 washing machines and now I write here, then have a yoghurt and go to bed that next week is going to be another disaster. Perhaps I should start calling this blog "dear diary". Sorry...
So, what ALL of you were waiting for: who won the "What will Her Der Baum wear this year?" context? The winner is Gaborno, who guessed right about the India stuff - doesn't matter that I couldn't find anything Indian to put on top, he still wins. And what does he win? Nothing, so he learns about not coming to my place for New Year's eve, and now one by one people are saying that they are not sure and blablabla.
And what was Herr Der Baum wearing this year? Since I couldn't find anything Indian, I figured that this year 4 of my friends married so I decided to make it Herr Der Hochzeit-Baum (Mr The Wedding-Tree). It took me 1 hour to find black balls and then people thought that it is the mourning Baum, so I assume I will change it soon. The worst thing is that I have started thinking that it represents my feelings lately, which probably means I badly need a holiday - or a drastic change - or both.

back home

2007-12-02T21:54:00.000+01:00

miei cari, I am eventually at home in Frankfurt after 1 week in Belgium. Today we woke up early, like at 1:30, and Preeti and Sameer decided to treat me with some breakfast, which, surprise, was really good. After that we chatted a bit and then I decided to start driving back home. It has been raining all the way from Antwerp to Frankfurt, plus up to Koblenz there was this bloody wind - I had to get fuel for Jean Jacques, I stop at the station and the wind nearly takes away the door, on top of showering me while I was filling up Jean Jacques, I was nearly getting frogs in the car (since it's French anyway:-) ) - Again, Preeti and Sameer were wonderful hosts, and our Preeti is a great cook. Which means that I will gorge myself of great Indian food when I move there. Coooooolllll!!!!

Last week I read another book from Chuck Palahniuk, "Choke". Again, very nice. How can you stop reading a book if it starts with

If you're going to read this, don't bother

I'm getting old... so I'd better write before I forget

2007-12-01T21:28:00.000+01:00

miei cari, this last week I was in Brussels and then I went to visit our Preeti in Antwerpen. Brussels was really nice so I think I will give it a serious thought (and I think I wil buy a flat there anyway, since it is really cheap). And now I am in Antwerpen, in Preeti and Sameer's flat. Their flat is extremely nice, in a nice part of town, big, new and with a great kitchen (I asked Preeti if I can move there, it is so big that I assume a sleeping bag will fit easily). Since I am a moronic idiot, I came here without anything, but now I know what to bring next time I come - and it's going to be soon. Preeti has treated me with some really nice Indian food. Yesterday we had salmon curry, and tonight an amazingly good chicken biryani. And since I am getting old, I'd better write down what was inside so that I don't forget it. First, you take away all the fat from the chicken breasts, if they have some. Then you put a lot of yoghurt, salt, turmeric (the super yellow thing that apparently will heal your wounds if you get cut), chilli, garam masala and ginger/garlic paste. Put in the fridge for more than 8 hours. The next day you cut a shitload of onions in slices (until you start crying like a small fontana di Trevi), put some oil in a pan and gently fry them. Once they are sort of collapsed, put some salt (not before!!!! Preeti told me) and then you put chilli, turmeric and then 4-5 tomatoes in dices. Once it becomes a sauce, which basically means that your muscles will hurt for 1 week because of stirring for 1 hour, you throw the chicken inside, then you put some ginger/garlic paste and some spices for chicken biryani (which I am told you can find in every decent Indian shop, so hopefuly I can find them also in Frankfurt). Once the chicken is cooked, you put some half cooked rice on top, without mixing, you turn off the heat, cover and wait some time so that the steam finishes cooking the rice. And just before you serve it a little bit of fresh coriander on top. I have just read the stuff to Preeti and she told that I got it right, which means that I am going to make it soon. In general, what she told me is that with Indian cooking you can put a lot of stuff, but if you put salt, turmeric and chilli you will never go wrong. Roger. Today we also went around in Antwerpen, the town is really nice, we went walking around, bought a lot of chocolate, visited Rubens' house and went inside some sort of gallery which lookeed really great, with golden things on the ceiling, a really cool bar and a bookstore where I bought a guide of Belgium. And there are a lot of cool design shops.
Tonight Jack decided to have his birthday party despite me telling him, waaaaaaaaay before, that I was coming here. I am offended. So I assume he will have to fix my wireless connection before I can forgive him:-)

Italy is a republic, and we like it that way.

2007-11-25T17:49:00.000+01:00

miei cari, today I have been staying at home, reading, watching a movie, listening to music and reading newspapers on internet. Too bad I am not a man otherwise I would have also scratched my balls.
While I was reading the newspapers I found out that our so-called king and his semi-demented son have sued the Italian state for something like 250 million euros because in 1946 we made a law forbidding them to come back to Italy. The law was (unfortunately) abolished some years ago, and now they claim that they were phsicologically damaged by the exile. By the way they talk you might think that the poor guys were living for some 50 years under a bridge, having to sell rosted chestnuts and/or ass to pay the rent. Well, actually the truth is that they were living in Switzerland, full of money. You may wonder: where did the money come from? Well, during the second world war, when the Nazis were getting into Roma after conquering the north of Italy and slaughtering people all over, our brave, noble and especially tall king Vittorio Emanuele III (the grandfather of today's idiot) decided to flee from Roma to Brindisi, give himself in to the Allies (which were Italy's enemies up to 2 minutes before), taking everything he could get his hands on on the way and leaving the army without orders and the population to the Nazis. Obviously, being very responsible and brave, it took him 5 days to communicate to his people that, ops, ehm, you remember the Germans? Like the allies we had? Well, ehm, you know, they sort of are not our allies any more... I mean, ehm, no bad feelings, but these American and British chaps look sort of friendlier, and, well, not that we liked wurst too much, to be very honest. And since he was very brave, on top of being very tall, he sent the marshal Badoglio to tell us, perhaps he was too busy having a manicure. Needless to say, the Nazis got slightly pissed and massacred us, i.e. the poor idiots that were not part of the fucking royal family and had no connection to escape. It took us 2 years and some more thousands of people killed and cities destroyed to manage to get out of the war, with a country that had been half demolished, economy in ruins and every family with someone missing (especially in the North). After that, our noble, brave - and did I mention tall? - King figured that he wasn't exactly popular so he tried to bullshit us by putting his son as King. After that, in 1946 we made a referendum, became a republic and managed to kick the bastards out of the country. Enough? No. You might wonder: why the hell you guys went into war to start with? Well, in the 20 years before we had this fancy little dictatorship called fascism, headed by the guy that Gadda, Italy's best writer, rightly called "Mascellone" (big jaw, to compensate for the small brain), i.e. Mussolini. And, you might wonder again: and who the hell allowed Mascellone to get the power? You guessed right: our noble, brave and especially tall King Vittorio Emanuele III. The fucker not only did not send the army when Mascellone made the march on Roma, but also gave him government. And when Mascellone's guys killed Matteotti, a socialist MP, do you think our noble, brave and especially tall King kicked Macellone in the ass and threw him out of the window? No. Even because, being so tall, probably he could have just perhaps managed to give Mascellone a blow job, certainly not a kick in the ass. And, let's see if you guess right, who did NOT oppose Mascellone's racial laws against jews? Yes, our fantastic King. So that all of sudden the Jews, which were nicely integrated, were thrown out of their business and after some time they also started getting deported - at least the ones that we didn't manage to hide, because, for fuck's sake, if our neighbours are nice people, they can be Jew, Catholic, Buddhist and also aliens, but we don't give them to the Nazi because Mascellone decided that we should become Hitler's inflatable dolls-. And then our King decided that being King was not enough; no, he had to become Emperor. So we went and conquered Albania and Ethiopia. And since the Ethiopians for some strange reason did not really wish to become part of the Italian Empire, our noble King allowed our army to go and gas/burn the guys, women and kids included. OK, you say, but why should you punish the sons of the mistakes of the father? Right, his son and the heirs have no fault if the King was an idiot. So, theoretically, it was right that we let them come back in Italy. The only point there is that idiocy seems to be part of the genes of the Savoy family. The so-called King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele "Prince of Naples", the guy that is asking for the money, was the guy that in the 70s was getting bored on his yatch (again proving how horrible was the "exile") that he decided to get his rifle and start shooting randomly. Too bad that he shot a 17-year old kid. Then some time after he made comments about the racial laws his granddad did not oppose during fascism, saying that, at the end of the day, they were not "that bad". And after having allowed him back in Italy, after not even 4 years he got thrown in jail because for corruption, prostitution and I don't know what else. And in jail, not knowing that he was being tapped, started saying that he had bullshitted the French judges that had convicted him for the murder to the 17-year old kid. So my point is: do we really need more idiots in Italy?
So, there are 2 things we could do:
1) ship them to Switzerland, close them up in their villa in Geneva and make a lake out of the country.
2) every Italian that was in any way damaged by the Savoy family should sue them back for 250 millions. You want to get greedy? We can be much much worse.

on the road

2007-11-22T22:28:00.000+01:00

miei cari, as of tomorrow I start another of my usual wanderings. So tomorrow morning I will have to wake up at 4:30 (which probably means that I should be in bed now and not in front of a computer) and I will fly to Milano. The best thing is that I am going for work, which is pretty much amusing. Saturday morning I will go to the plant, then my dad comes to pick me up and we rush to the airport to go back to Frankfurt. I wanted to stay until Sunday, but there is the Thanksgiving party at the Seidels' and I have already missed it 2 years. Then Sunday big washing day and on Monday I take my little Jean Jacques, drive to Euskirchen and then from there to Brussels. Then on Friday I will leave to go to Antwerp to visit our Preeti in her new flat. And she promised me that she will cook some chicken biryani... tassssssttttyyyyyyy:-) After that I assume I will be back in Frankfurt, even though never say never.
Other news: last weekend OSte was here in Frankfurt visiting. We didn't do a lot, apart from going around, getting very drunk (me at least) at Yara's party, then going to the museum of modern art and then to the Ethiopian restaurant, where OSte fell in love with the waitress. And then we got Jean Jacques from the dark corner where we had left him all alone for 1 day and we rushed to the airport because OSte has this theory that you need to be at the airport 1 before the flight for domestic flights, 1.5 hours for international flights and 2.5 hours for trips to the US. Weird. So obviously he was super early and he had to enjoy the nice service of the German duty free while he could have arranged a marriage with the waitress instead. Shame on him:-)
Other news is that in the last 2 months I was told that 2 guys that I thought were good looking are actually gay. Obviously I started freaking out. Now there are 2 other guys that are tasty and I am just waiting for the moment when they introduce me to their boyfriends... In simple words, I am going paranoid.
OK, now I really need to go to bed otherwise tomorrow I will look as if a truck has run over me. Which is nothing unusual, but unfortunately it triggers all sort of questions from my mum which I am not too willing to answer.
ciaociao

I'm back - and on facebook

2007-11-10T00:34:00.001+01:00

miei cari, after a sequence of small little shitty posts I am back and writing - even because I went to the "Mexican" restaurant with Jasmina and the freaking spinach is coming up and down from my stomach.
I joined facebook, since everyone is on it anyway. They have all sort of weird thingies you can add. Let's see how long it takes before it becomes boring like everything else. One of these applications you can add is called bookshelf, or something like that: basically you go on amazon and search for a book you read or you would like to read. When Carletto sent it to me I thought it was great. Then I found out that most of the books I read are way too weird for amazon to list, so I added around 40 before getting bored. Now, since I have my old little beloved blog, I can write here about what I have recently read. This week I read 2 books, one about food and one about wine. The food one is called "cuochi si diventa" ("you can become cooks", meaning that you don't have to be born with the gift) from this guy called Allan Bay, who, despite the name, should be Italian. It is a book about what to cook and how to do it. Some things are interesting, like a veal stew that I will probably cook - even because now I can start cooking nice heavy food, it's getting cold like shit in this country. He also has some nice tips on the soffritto (the cooked onions + other vegetables, sometimes, that you use as base for the food), about taking the alcohol out of the wine before cooking with it and about broth. Some of the dishes, however, sounded slightly shitty, especially the sort of "Indian" ones he proposes. Let's see. The book about wine is called "Elogio dell'invecchiamento". It is interesting, especially when he describes what you learn in the sommelier school in Italy and how some people can really look like idiots when they start tasting wine (I assume everyone has the friend that believes that if you don't throw everything into a decanter and then don't sip from your glass as if you were a cow, sound included, you are an ignorant). He also describes some wines, some of which I have never tasted, some of which, given the description, I think I won't be that eager to taste anyway. Net, the topic and themes of the 2 books are interesting. Unfortunately, they are written with the ass - expression from my dad that means that they are written pretty poorly. I find it strange that noone could check them before; sometimes the sentences are embarassing for how badly written they are.
Now I started reading "... ma l'amor mio non muore" (... but my love doesn't die), a book about "origins, strategies, documents of the 'alternative' culture and of the 'underground' in Italy". Basically something that amazon doesn't have for suuuuuuuuure. Some parts are really interesting. Some parts I cannot even understand: "la tendenza gauchista a fondare una teoria scientifica e legittima dell'apirazione del proletariato alla vita non c'interessa. Il tema della decolonizzazione e' gia' discorso sulla illegittimita' della carcerizzazione" - "we are not interested in the gauchist tendency to build a scientific and legitimate theory about the dreams of the proletariat. The theme of the decolonization is already a discussion on the illegitimacy of jailing" (could be that some of these words don't even exist in English; I have some doubts that they actually exist in Italian to start with). I find it interesting to read books written in the 60s and 70s, their Italian is the most convoluted shit you can get your hands on. Or, if you want to see it from their point of view, probably we are becoming so ignorant that we cannot understand a sentence that is more complicated of "Fini ancora papa': la findanzata 35enne è incinta" ("Fini - a politician - to become dad again: the 35 years old girlfriend pregnant again"). Probably, as usual, truth is somewhere in between.

Trier is nice

2007-11-04T09:18:00.000+01:00

miei cari, I am right now at home with my parents visiting. Yesterday we went to Trier, very nice town, with an historical center, all sort of nice shops and very cute buildings. If they have a Xmas market we should go there, much better than Frankfurt. All for now. ciaociao

if I shot them in the ass they'd run faster

2007-10-28T11:48:00.000+01:00

miei cari, this morning I eventually managed to come back home after 1 month on business trip. I was very eager to get home and then the taxi driver told me that I cannot because there is the fucking Frankfurt marathon. So basically now I am at Jack's place, at least someone gave me shelter. I would like to understand: is it fucking possible that these mutherfuckers block out all the city and I cannot go home????? Is it fucking legal?????????????? And for what? To see a bunch of freaking starved men and women sweating their asses off?? Fuckerrrrrrrsssssssssssss.
This on top of the guy sitting next to me on the plane farting for 1 hour, I was going to ask for a gas mask.
I want to go hooooooooooooooooooomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

memoirs from the exile

2007-10-20T00:08:00.000+02:00

miei cari, end of week 3 in the US. I am still not homesick (or not more than normal) but I am tired like hell. I have been waking up between 5:15 and 6 every morning to be able to be in the office at around 7, so that I can work with the guys in Europe. I don't know how people here can live like this. I have a colleague that comes at 6 every morning. This is simply insane. Apart from that, everything is fine. Yesterday I went for dinner at Adam's place and he (actually his wife Wydalis, hopefully it's spelt like this) cooked this marvelous Puertorican dinner with plantanes. Very very tasty. Tonight we go to a Peruvian restaturant with Patricia, Naka and Patricia's "friend" (yeah riiiight). And I found a really nice Mexican place, not fancy but the food is really good. Basically I am making the culinary tour of South America, which is good because it is tasty and without all these freaking sauces and crap. I have eventually found the last book of the autobiography of Maya Angelou, I was looking for it for ages and it's good. Now I pack and go buy some more books that I have only 1 left. And perhaps tomorrow Randy can organize a massage for me, my right shoulder aches like hell (shitty lab).
ciaociao

new link

2007-10-15T05:08:00.000+02:00

miei cari, I found this blog that is really interesting about road trips for book lovers and I added it to my links. They also are against big bookstore chains coming to town and crushing the little indipendent shops. Right right right. Like when I was at university and I could go to my little man with glasses and he could give advice on what to buy and so on. Then obviously they closed down the shop to open a feltrinelli where the shop assistants most likely have problems spelling their names, let alone knowing what they are selling. Fuck. Go give a look. Buona notte.

Michael Clayton and the horses

2007-10-15T04:30:00.000+02:00

miei cari, I am still in Cincinnati and today I decided to go to the movies with Naka. We ended up eating some pretty disgusting nachos (assuming that you can define that stuff as nachos) and watching Michael Clayton. This is the new movie starring George Clooney. The plot is nice, however the movie is a bit too slow for my liking. And I still haven't quite figured out what the horses mean, I thought they had some profound meaning but also the idiot who wrote the complete plot on Wikipedia doesn't seem to know. The strange thing is that this movie got all sort of really good reviews, but I don't really think it's this great masterpiece. Mah.
Yesterday I also decided to have a pampering day, meaning starting with manicure and pedicure and then getting a massage in the afternoon. The massage lady however had a flat tire so I ended up significantly damaging my bank account at TJ Maxx. Shit. But I bought this really really nice Andy Warhol bag, I really like it. And in the afternoon we went to the zoo with the Seidels', I had not been to the zoo ever since I was probably 4 years old, and I am not too keen to see all these animals caged, especially all these weird cats, bloody hell cat's piss stinks horribly. The monkeys were really nice looking though, Naka took some pictures and I will post them as soon as I get them.

I am the only one in the office

2007-10-10T00:43:00.000+02:00

this is not to say that I am proud of it, but simply that I have just finished all this pile of shit that I had to do today and now I wait another 10 minutes and we will go to the Indian restaurant (also went yesterday, I loooooooove this food). Yes, I am still in the US, in Cincinnati. Last week was sufficiently stressing; now it is slowly getting better. Tomorrow night we wanted to go see Bad Religion in concert, but I cannot find tickets. So probably we will just show up and see what happens. Apart from that the weather here is simply amazing, around 25 degrees and sunny. Last weekend I cooked pumpkins; I thought that, given that they have so many (Halloween is coming) they must be tasty. Wrong. They tasted like watery nothings. Thanks god I had also bought some ricotta and amaretti so at least the sauce tasted of something. I am still unsure about what to do this weekend, I cannot find anyone who wants to come to Tennessee with me to buy some ridiculous boots and shirts and listen to country music. Don't know why, really... And I will need to find a good hairdresser, my blond is surfacing more and ore every time I wash my hair. And next week I want to go get a massage from Randy's massage lady, last time she was really good (OK, not as cheap as getting a 1.30 hours ayurveda massage for less than 10 euros, but noone is perfect). And given the astounding exchange rate I am thinking to buy a camera and/or an i-pod. Can anyone tell me how you play the ipod music in your car? I read some comments but couldn't quite understand what I should get. All for now. Hmmmm, Indian fooddddd....... (for those who might get worried for this craving for Indian food that I have. No, I am not pregnant. Simply, I cannot take proteins anymore. Welcome to the US).

in the US

2007-10-03T12:46:00.000+02:00

miei cari, right now I am in my hotel room in Dover, Delaware, getting ready to go to work. I flew in yesterday and will stay in the US for around 1 month. As for the rest, not too much to say. Last week I went to the Engish Theatre with Gaborno to see Cat on a hot tin roof, really nice. Then on Friday I went to Milano because I wanted to cheer for my dad (it's his birthday in October but I am in the US so decided to go there before). I arrive there and find out that my mum was sick the night before, vomiting her stomach out. I got the same thing so I passed part of Saturday night and all Sunday throwing up my soul. Not nice. Especially I strongly recommend not to take a plane when you are sick, especially considering that someone at Frankfurt's airport should really take care of cleaning the toilets, even if you are not sick you feel like vomiting. Anyway, now I feel OK. I hope I will be able to start eating normal food again, it would bother me to come here and not eat seafood.
Now I go to work
ciaociao

I looove this band

2007-09-22T12:16:00.001+02:00

a couple of weeks ago I was desperatly bored in Euskirchen so went to Media Markt to see what they had to amuse me. There I found this dvd, "American Hardcore", which is a movie I badly wanted to see some months ago when I was in the US (but they started playing it in the movie theatre 2 days after I came back to Europe). I thought punk in the US would be an interesting mix, something like serving wild boar stew in a vegan restaurant. The movie was actually nice. And there was this group, Bad Brains, that simply shone out of the rest. So now I will have a shower and see whether I can find more of it.

Gwen Stefani? Already seen. In 1979.

2007-09-22T12:02:00.001+02:00

miei cari, yesterday night at dinner we started talking about music from the 80s. And I remembered one night at university when we went out to a sort of club where they were playing this kind of music. And all of a sudden we see this guy wanking while dancing. The song that was playing was Kobra by Donatella Rettore. So this morning I decided to look up some videos from her (for the first time in my life), and found out that this woman looks really like Gwen Stefani (or the other way around, to be more precise). With the only difference that the songs are better. There you go.

welcome to Germany

2007-09-19T22:53:00.000+02:00

miei cari, today I went to my 3rd volleyball lesson. First of all, I can't remember anything. Well, I'll learn again. The other funny thing is that the showers in the womens' changing room did not work, so we went to the mens' one. And obviously there were also men. And, since we are in Germany, they all got naked and went under the shower, I mean men and women alike. And since I am a modern girl, I thanked god that I had shaved this morning and I went as well. Weird. The funniest part was thinking what would have happened in Italy in the same situation.
Then I decide that I want some sushi to bring home to eat. So I go into town to get some. OK, it was 10PM, but there is the huge car fair so I assumed that bloody German restaurants would stay open longer. Mistake. At 10 sharp they close. Farewell to sushi.
And then I arrive home, starved like a stray dog, I open the door of my building and find myself face to face with a policeman. He asks me on which floor I live, I say 4th and start swearing in my head because I thought that someone had done something to my flat or that they found all the fines that I didn't pay. Then he asks me whether I know of a Romanian neighbour, I say no and walk to my flat. There are other 2 policemen on the 2nd floor, so I realize that the weird woman that was living there was probably who they were referring to. Funny thing is that some days ago I was talking to someone, can't remember who, and told him/her that I thought that this neighbour was a prostitute. Hope she didn't get beaten up.
And now I am waiting for my minestrina to get cooked...

bloody printer

2007-09-17T20:19:00.000+02:00

my dears, I am still in the office and I hate the printer. Iwas ready to pack everything and call it a day when I remembered that I had sent some things to print. So I go there and obviously I find out that the printer was out of paper so now I have to wait another 5-10 minutes (because it's also slow).
Anyway. This weekend was pretty good, altough completely exausting (I want to go hooooommeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee). On Friday we went to Jack and Jasmina's place to arrange for the present (pictures will come soon). Then we went out, came back at 3 something, bullshitted around the house for another hour and then decided to go to bed. On Saturday I woke up at 8:30 because I had to finish stuff for the present. Then went to the newly-wed house, finished everything (thanks Maria for coming and helping) and then went to pick them up at the airport. Apparently they enjoyed the presents and they also didn't get mad at the confetti all over the flat. Then I went home, stayed a bit, then back to their house (we had decided to meet with everyone there), then directly to Naka's place for her birthday party. The party was cool, but I was so tired that I ended up begging for a bed, got it and collapsed into it. Next day we had breakfast, then went walking and then I ended up in the city walking along the river with Jasmina and looking at flats to rent in Westhafen. OK, I need to get an expat contract to live there. Anyway, then we went pick Jack and Estelle up from the IAA and went to watch a DVD.
Needless to say, I am pretty much tired and need my bed badly. Fucking printer.

Macedonia!

2007-09-10T20:51:00.000+02:00

miei cari, I am just back from Macedonia (and Italy), so I assume it's time for the summary of the past (long) weekend:
- on Thursday I woke up really early, somewhat tried to clean my flat and then took the plane to go to Milano. They upgraded me to business class (which, being the plane really small, means I could sit in the first 2 rows). The flight was uneventful, and I arrived in Milano in time, with luggage. Apparently not all the people had the same luck: Alitalia decided that Petero and Tina didn't really need their luggage and decided to leave it somewhere. Anyway, I arrive home, I bullshit around a bit, I install my dad's internet connection to go online and for some reason this screwed up all my settings. I don't know exactly how I fixed it now, I hope I haven't screwed up all the settings on my computer otherwise tomorrow at work it's going to be funny... And I went to the hairdresser, for more details read the other post.
- on Friday I was pretty much desperate because I had nothing to wear over my dress. So, as a last resort, I stop at this outlet on the way to the airport and I manage to find a little nothing with exactly the same colours of the shoes. Still have no bag, but you can't really be perfect... I meet Gaborno and Estelle at the airport and we fly to Macedonia on this small little plane named after Giulio Natta, so I could show off because I know who the guy was. Well, my department at University was named after him, so it wasn't really that complicated, but still people looked kind of impressed - or just kind to me, who knows :-) We arrive in Skopje, at the airport Alexander The Great: that sounds kind of funny, as if the airports in Milano were called Giulio Cesare and Ottaviano Augusto. Anyway. The weather is kind of shitty, raining and cold, and we start wondering how we will manage to survive with our little summer dresses. We get our taxi and drive to Ohrid, with the driver thinking he is some sort of Schumacher and Estelle nearly feeling sick next to me. We arrive there, get to the hotel, really nice, meet the the other guys and get out for dinner. Some of the others decide to go have some drinks after dinner, but I am feeling so cold and tired that I go back to the hotel and try to fix my nails.
- on Saturday morning we get a town tour, really interesting (thanks Jamina for organizing this!). And, m i r a c l e, there is sun and it's not so fucking cold anymore. Then at 1 we have the appointment to the hairdresser. I tell the girl to make my hair down, and I mean DOWN. So after she is done I had this monstrous bob, but I could stop her before she put some hairspray. And then the guy really made it down, so that was safe. Then next door there is the lady who puts make up, never had anyone putting make up on me so I decide to go and ask her for something "natural". Probably the lady's idea of "natural" is slightly different from mine, so I end up with a half cm layer of fundation, really heavily kajaled eyes and a rainbow on my eyelids. Funny. And once Gaborno downloads the pictures I will show you what I mean. I go back to the hotel and we get ready for the wedding. First we go to Jasmina's house, really nice, right on top of the amphitheatre, a really cool location. We have a little garden party,with a band playing some traditional songs, all together with some really nice food and wine. The garden is really nice, Jamina's parents must have really worked on it because it is perfectly organized and taken care of. After that we get some buses and get a bit outside Ohrid to this old monastery. We first have a small blessing, which was kind of funny because the priest (or whatever an orthodox priest is called) reads this passage where it says that the wife should always obey the husband. Reaaaaally funny :-) Then we go to this big place and the party really begins. We get some food and some yellow fluid in small jars. It didn't take long before we found out that it was rakja, and we are told that we should sip it slowly. Which we do, for the first 2 glasses. Then we start having shots of it, with Petero leading the group. And this rakja was really good quality, because next day we didn't have headaches. Then we start dancing: the dj mixed some traditional Macedonians songs with some "normal" stuff for the guests. The traditional songs were really cool, basically you had all the people making big circles and dancing together, the locals knowing what they were doing and us foreigners trying not to screw it up too badly. The first one was easy, 3 steps on the right, kick, one step to the left, kick and the same overandoverandoverandover. The second one was more complicated, the lady next to me (then we found out that she is a professional dancer) was telling me that it is really easy, like 6 steps to the left, kick, 3 steps to the right, kick, and so on. And I really thought I was already drunk like a piece of shit, because I was always out of pace. Then the second time that they danced it I was sitting down and I found out that actually it is 3 steps to the left, jump, another 3 steps to the left and so on, not 6 consecutive steps. So I celebrated this new revelation that I am not really completely unable to dance by downing another couple of glasses of rakja. Ale'! Then there was a third dance but after staring at it for 10 minutes I still couldn't figure out what the steps were, so I didn't even try. It was fast with all sort of jumps, kicks, right foot forward, left foot backwards, right, left. A mayhem, basically. But you really appreciate these dances, especially when you figure out that they are a perfect way to cheer and at the same time burn all the alcohol. Cool. Then we had more food, more dances. Jasmina was dancing like crazy, she really looked beautiful in her dress and still I can't understand how she could dance all night and not rip the dress in pieces. Jaccko was also dancing, we couldn't manage to get him really drunk, we will do when they come back :-) And also Jack's sister was dancing like hell, it was actually really nice to see her dancing Arabic style (well, a sort of censored Arabil style, you know, with your parents watching you...). And at around 3 something we got back to the bus and went back to the hotel. It took me 3 times washing my face to kind of get rid of all the make up. Interesting.
- next day we wake up early to go for breakfast and then we go out for a coffee and for some shopping. I got my tomatoes and cheese. And of course some rakja :-) even though I left it in Milan so that my parents can get a taste of it as well. Then we get our bus and go back to Skopje to the airport. The plane was late, Petero and Tina lost their connection and the fuckers from Alitalia didn't even want to pay their rental car to go back to Geneva (Petero had to fly to Dubai in the morning). I assume they won't fly Alitalia ever again in their life, and honestly it is perfectly understandable. So I go home with Blanca and Maria, we try to get some pizza but it was already closed, so we just cooked some pasta and went to bed.
- this morning we woke up, I took Blanca and Maria to the metro station so that they could enjoy some shopping, then managed to meet with Alina, had a coffee and some gossip and then took my plane to come back to Frankfurt.
and tomorrow Euskirchen :-((

NEWS: I am not blond anymore

2007-09-06T22:11:00.000+02:00

cari miei, this great technology called DSL reached my parents' house so now I can surf freely; apparently even faster than in my own house, which probably means that I need to change contract. Today I went to the hairdresser and decided that after more than 10 years as a blond (with a little punk red, turning pink, and light brown intervals) I was going to get draker than I have ever been in my whole life. So now I am dark brown and it looks really weird but not bad. And at the end of the day it's better to be tall and dark haired if you live in Germany, makes you somewhat recognizable. And I can put all sort of weird waxes to make my hair look shiny without looking shitty dirty.
Apart from this pretty significant change, I have also, for the very first time in my life, realized that there are a lot, and I mean A LOT, of non Italians living in Milano. Realllllllllyyyyyy a lot. And they all talk really nice Italian; which is probably due to the fact that noone talks any other language, so if you want to survive you'd better learn it. Amazing.
And also it always takes me 1-2 days to not get shocked by the mess Italian people make when we talk; you know, you come from Germany where people look badly at you if you breath slightly harder, and then tonight on the bus this girl from Sardegna was shouting at her parents because she wanted some bullshit to get recorded from TV - "Ho detttto premmmi la errrre - dove? - si', sulla destra - EIA - si' premmmi quelllllo". f a n t a s t i c o
And today I bought the new Economist where Google is on the cover. The article shares insights on the past and some ideas and concerns for the future, like people might not really like the kind of BigBrother approach. And tonight I log on my blog and everything - surprise! - is in Italian. Scaryyyyy. Gaborno, I am sure you would love this shit.
And Pavarotti is dead and every single news report is on him (including the one my mum is listening to right now, most probably she is sleeping on the sofa). To be very very honest, I did not like the guy. I liked the way he sang classical music. I found the rock-pop music hideous. And I really didn't like the fact that the guy did not pay taxes and then, since he is fucking Pavarotti, he gets a discount on the fine and signs it in front of TV cameras with our idiot Finance minister grinning (you idiot! do you know how much money he stole??? what the fuck are you smiling about!!). That said, passing over is not that nice, and doing it because of cancer is pretty painful on top. So, dear Pavarotti, I thought and still think that you were a great tenor and a slight dickhead when alive, but I wish you all the best wherever you are. Amen.

Tomorrow to Macedonia!!