Three things

OK, here goes:

Three names you go by:

Alex
Papa
Dee

Three screennames you’ve used:

Jakofal
Allroad
AlexR (Sorry – very boring)

Three physical things you like about yourself:

my eyes
my legs
my scars

Three physical things you don’t like about yourself:

my chubby tummy
my hairy shoulders and back (which I don’t get waxed, by the way)
my height (too short)

Three parts of your heritage:

Italian
Irish
English

Three things that frighten you:

Tax bills
Italian drivers
Politicians

Three things you’re wearing right now:

Black polo shirt
Dark green trousers
Socks with holes in them

Three of your fav bands or musical artists:

The Who
The Jam
The Tom Petty

Three favorite songs:

Who are you?
Going underground
Into the great wide open

Three things you want in a relationship:

lots of mind blowing sex
love
fun

Two truths and a lie?

I’m untidy
I’m boring
I’m a hunter

Three physical traits that appeal to you in the opposite sex:

a pear shaped bottom
a nice voice
a sexy walk

Three of your fav hobbies:

Playing with PC’s
Cycling
Reading

Three things you want to do really bad right now:

Be in bed with my other half
Ride a motorbike at insane speeds
Go for a crap

Three careers you’re considering:

Astronaut
Rock guitarist
Writer

Three places where you want to vacation:

A nice planet in another star system
The US of A
A motor racing school

Three kids names you like:

Rachel
Martin
Zak

Three things you want to do before you die:

ride a Ducati
travel at many times the speed of light
Write a book

Three ways you act like a girl:

I like to dress well (When necessary)
I get uptight
I like dancing (not that what I do could be called that)

Three celebrity crushes:

Joanna Lumley – in her ‘New Avenger’ days
Jolene Blalock – T’Pol – Star Trek
Ines Satre

Three people who need to take this quiz now:

Caesar
Paul
Janey

And you can blame fellow blogger Christian Ventrello (Who writes a damn good blog, IMHO) for this silliness. (Which I needed, it’s been a heavy week)

A translation

First let me say that I find translating quite difficult and it is rarely as straightforward as one may think. To do the job well, you need to have an in depth knowledge of the subject of the text which needs to be translated. Now, I am quite good at ‘on-the-spot’ translations, that is readinf something in English and roughly translating it into Italian. I can usually do this well enough to give my listener, or listeners enough information for them to understand the sense of the subject matter.

Last week a friend of a friend asked me if I would be interested in translating a text for a sculptor friend of his. I gamely said yes, but added that I would like to see the text first to see whether I would be capable of doing the work. The text was sent and on the face of it, seemed quite straightforward. Then I got down to doing the translation and discovered that it was riddled with rather complex philosopical concepts and references. It is here that I have to add that my knowledge of philosophy, of the linguistics of thought, is, to put it mildly, somewhat limited. Fortuneatly, my other half has a degree in philosophy and so she was able to explain the meaning and concepts behind the words. This, I have to say, was a great help and without her assistance, I would have found myself in deep water. There was even a word in the original Italian text which was difficult for Italians to understand and which made the task even more of a challenge.

The internet can be a useful resource in these excercises, as you can test the validity of sentences by searching for them to see if anyone has used such a structure before. If they have, then you are on the right lines, if not, you need to go back and reformulate until the result becomes something close to ‘natural’ English, or whatever language you are working with.

Anyway, despite the difficulties, I’ve finished the work and it will accompany an exhibition of this sculptor’s work in that beautiful part of the world which goes by the name of Slovenia.

I know of people with a much higher knowledge of Italian than my goodself who steer clear of translating, possibly because they have not yet realised that it is more or less essential to specialise in a particular area, otherwise you find yourself trying to translate and interpret ideas with which you are not familiar and becoming an overnight expert in ‘quantum physics’, to use an extreme example, is nothing if not difficult. If, of course, you have studied or are familiar with quantum physics, you will find it much easier to translate from another language, with which you are familiar, into your own. I hope you get the idea.

You can try to use internet ‘machine’ translators, but the results, which may point you in the right direction, are often odd to say the least. The Italian goverment once dropped a clanger by using a machine translation on one of its web pages. The result was, depending on your point of view, either hilarious or dreadful.

The difficulty is ensuring that in translating, you retain the original sense that the author intended, and this at times can be frustrating. It is all too easy to interpret one word wrongly and end up with a sentence that destroys the meaning intended by its author.

Moral of the story: Only translate if you are familiar with the subject matter of the text you are working with and that you have an in-depth understanding of the language you are working with. Oh, and you also need to be able to write well and accurately, too. Simple. Not.

An inventive punishment

This is one for all those fathers out there who a having problems with teenage offspring. When your son or daughter gets all teenage stroppy, as happens from time to time, how about banning them from going to school? Original. However if my father had said ‘Son. You are not going to school today as a punishment for nearly destroying the sofa with your gunpowder experiments (Er, don’t ask…).’ I would have outwardly looked good and peeved, possibly, but inside I would have been jumping for joy.

Well, this is not how a teenage daughter took to her being banned from going to school. She actually escaped from her house, made it to the bus stop and got to school. Her father realised what was going on, probably when he discovered that she had done her history homework or something, hopped on his motorbike and rode of to his daughters school, where, having apprehended his runaway daughter, he tried to drag her back to the family abode. A teacher and classmates intervened and the police, who usually hang around on traffic duty outside the school, where called in.

Don’t know what will happen to the father. Never ever heard of anyone actually preventing their children from going to school before. My, Italy is a complex place.

Star wars…in the park

Yesterday, as you may remember, was still the weekend. For baby, other half and myself this often means a trip down to the park. The park in question is Parco Sempione and it is located right slap bang behind Milan’s castle. As parks go its not too bad, a little on the small side and, now, rather well kept.

This oasis of green in the midst of all the pollution attracts hoards of people at the weekends, especially when the sun comes out. This it did yesterday and hence everyone tootled off for the park, including us. As we were wandering around heading for our favourite coffee kiosk, I noticed a person dressed up in Star Wars garb. Behind this said person was a huge poster publicizing the latest, greatest and possibly final episode of this long running and well loved saga. We walked further and this time there was another person sweltering, no doubt, in Star Wars gear. Further on there were a couple of Imperial Storm troopery types and more and more characters from the films, including Yoda. It was all quite fun. Now, as we had noticed lots of kids with Star Wars bags, we decided to locate the source of the goodies, which was right behind our favourite kiosk.

After a coffee, can’t do anything before a good dose of the stuff, we trotted over to the stall which was handing out the goodies and willingly contributed something to the charity collection (For the wonderful clinic in Milan where my son gets treated for swollen eye problems), there. And got our bag and an envelope. This envelope contained a clue and was part of a treasure hunt which had been arranged for the day. You had to find the character named, solve a little word puzzle and then utter something like ‘May the force be with you’ to one of the sweaty people in costume. They then replied and told you where to go next. Great idea and great fun judging by all the kids who were hurtling back and forth around the park – pursued by tired looking mums and dads.

My other half muttered that nothing like this would ever be arranged in Genova and she is probably right. Milan is very good at setting up little events like this; even if it is not so hot at telling anyone about them, which is a shame. Forza Milano!!

Fluff is in the air

It's that time of year again. This always seems to happen in around May here in Milan. The air is filled with small white pieces of fluff. There are billions of the things and they even have their own little get togethers. While I was down in the courtyard having a quick puff, I noticed a snow ball sized collection of fluff. It was whizzing around in the slight breeze and many others were drifting down and joining this odd melee. One could almost be fooled into thinking that it was snowing and quite often you will see sheltered corners covered in a fluffy white carpet about two or so inches deep.

The city is being harmlessly, but comprehensively, invaded by this fluffy stuff. And that's enough for tonight. No more shall I write.

The Chinese Dragon

The news here in the living museum has been carrying a lot of items about the flood of imports from China recently. And finally the dear old politicians have been getting a little worried – better late than never.

I happen to live in an area of Milan which is often referred to as ‘China Town’, due to its high percentage of Chinese immigrants. They don’t get on my nerves, but some Italians find their presence unwelcome. This could, in part, be down to the fact that are taking over most of the shops in the area. No sooner does one Italian owner shut up shop, so to speak, than a new Chinese outlet for cheap clothes opens almost immediately in its place. The area is riddled with shops selling cheap jeans, underwear and just about any other clothing item you can name. Not only this but there is a huge number of Chinese supermarkets too. And even Chinese newspapers. However, many of those who buy the cheap clothes are not Chinese. The market stall owners know a good deal when they hear about it and regularly come round here to stock up.

The strange thing about all this is that Italians (according to the TV news – not the most reliable source here) are getting a little uppity about the Chinese who are making a quick buck, but no mention is made of all those Italian businesses that have been making use of production facilities in China for some time now. Nor is the fact that many businesses are doing better as a result of having low priced products to sell . You sell something, you make money, simple and much better if your profit margin is good and high.

The West was over the moon when China started to abandon its communist ways. Capitalism won again. Only the Chinese are taking everyone at their own capitalist game and beating them. This was not supposed to happen. What was supposed to happen was than western business would move into China, make things at knock down prices and continue to sell them at high western prices. That profit margin thing. But, the Chinese are a bit too clever, and they want their piece of the action, and they are getting it. Much to the disdain of Italian and many other business men, I imagine. Talk about turning the tables.

One suspects that this is why there has been so much anti-Chinese press recently – a few big Italian businesses are starting to feel the fire which is coming from the dragons mouth and burning. We are often reminded by the media that Chinese products are inferior in quality and can be unsafe. It’s a form of anti-marketing, I suppose. It would be rather embarrassing to hit Chinese products with import taxes, as many of the companies making things in China are not Chinese as I said before. This is a bitter pill and nobody is quite sure who is going to swallow it and come up with a solution – if there is one, that is.