Mar
30

THEY are back!

2005 | Filed Under Milan | Leave a Comment

They are one of the least pleasant aspects of living here. They arrive with the heat and attack you when you are at your most vulnerable, that is when you are wearing fewer clothes, like when it’s hot. There are many devices for keeping them at bay. At this time of year, shelves in the local supermarkets start to fill up with a bewildering variety of sprays, vapourisers, creams, candle like things, portable ‘hang on your belt’ battery powered fan type things, spiral things which you burn, geraniums, and last but by no means least (and very effective) little stove thingies which ‘burn’ small rectangles of venom impregnated cardboard. (Sorry, if I happen to have missed a few devices.)

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Mar
28

Cappuccino and non-cappuccino cultures

2005 | Filed Under Culture | Leave a Comment

While chatting with my other half I happened to mention a conversation which had taken place between two students of mine. The subject of this discussion was whether Milan was a better place to work than Rome. One person, who knew somebody who had worked in both cities, was of the opinion that Milan was a much better place to work. The other student, who had worked in Rome, said that he preferred Rome to Milan.

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Mar
27

Stabbings

2005 | Filed Under Milan - My Zone | Leave a Comment

Well, I’m not too sure how to tackle this. It has certainly had a bit of an effect on me and left me feeling a little shocked and worried. What the heck happened? I’ll explain.

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Mar
25

Another birthday prezzie

2005 | Filed Under Me | Leave a Comment

Should I be embarrassed about this? I mean, I am now 40, that’s four whole decades old. So what does my other half get me? Well, er, shall I tell you? Oh Ok, enough dithering, I’ll just go and spit the toad out, as they would say in these parts and tell you. She got me a Playstation (PS2 - one of the new slim ones if you happen to know or want to know about these things).

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Mar
25

The first exodus of 2005

2005 | Filed Under Milan | Leave a Comment

The city was all but deserted this evening. It’s Easter weekend and this means a large exodus of people heading off for the house in the mountains, in the hope of finding the last traces of snow, or driving down to the house by the sea. In this case hoping that the weather may allow them to get down on to the beach or some such thing.

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Mar
25

The tartan army

2005 | Filed Under Milan | Leave a Comment

There is obviously a match on in Milan this weekend, for I spied a kilted man at the supermarket this very evening. As you may imagine, men wearing kilts are not a common sight here in Milan. This particular patriot was stocking up on beer for the pre or post, and possibly during match celebrations or commiserations if the game does not go well for the haggis lovers.

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Mar
24

A communist visitation

2005 | Filed Under Life in Italy | Leave a Comment

Oh dear. I think I offended the bloke who touts the communist rag. My other half is, alas, a bit of a commie sympathizer, bless her little heart. I put it down to her philosophy degree. Here in the living museum, the communists still have a sort of following and even have a political party which never wins enough votes to end up with some sort of power, but can often be found as part of a left wingish coalition, when the left wingish parties here happen to scrape enough votes to form a sort of a cocktail of a government.

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Mar
21

A birthday prezzie

2005 | Filed Under Me | Leave a Comment

It arrived today, it’s black, it’s the size of a cigarette lighter, it’s made by Creative and it goes by the name of MuVo N200. It has 512 megabytes of memory and it sounds absolutely amazing. If you have not guessed already, it’s an MP3 player. I chose it and my father got it for my birthday and sent it over to me. Many thanks dad!

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Mar
19

I is getting on.

2005 | Filed Under Me | Leave a Comment

Tomorrow I will be 40. I am about to leave my 30s behind forever. It’s a strange thought. Birthdays, my own in particular, have never really meant that much to me, mainly because I never really feel that different from one year to the next.

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Mar
19

The marketing miracle or micracle marketing

2005 | Filed Under Thoughts | Leave a Comment

Recently, I’ve watched two films: ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘Any Given Sunday’. On the face of it they would seem to be two completely different genres, and they are. If you are one of the few who don’t know, ‘The Incredibles’ is a 3d animated film about a family of superheroes. ‘Any Given Sunday’, on the other hand, is primarily about American Football. How can they be related? You might well ask. Well the answer is ‘marketing’.

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Mar
18

Spring arrives with a bang

2005 | Filed Under Milan | Leave a Comment

It would seem to be true. Spring has finally arrived and the jump in temperatures is, as usual, phenomenal. Two weeks ago it was zero degrees and snowing. Today, we are at around 25°C here in Milan. I’ve gone from shivering to sweltering. Very odd.

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Mar
18

Every once in a while.

2005 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Now that I’m a father, I don’t get out as often as I used to, but yesterday evening was an exception. One of the master courses I teach on is coming to an end and by way of a celebration all the participants decided to have an end of course dinner in a restaurant here in Milan. They invited me and I decided to make an appearance and I’m very glad I did. I had a whale of a time, drank too much red wine, smoked a little too much and did not eat very much, because I was too busy chatting to all my, all but former, students.

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