Jun
30

Cooling things down

2005 | Filed Under Italy, Language teaching, Me, Milan | Leave a Comment

We had a storm here in Milan and it took the edge of the incredible heat. I was melting, as usual and even started to do my ‘Rambo’ thing of taking the waistband from my bathrobe and wrapping it round my forehead in an attempt to find some way of soaking up the sweat which literally pours from my forehead.

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Jun
29

A messy incident

2005 | Filed Under Italy | Leave a Comment

Last night, in the north of Italy, a group of heavily armed police SWAT team types invaded the house of a guy who had decided to shoot at all and sundry as they passed by. Result: 3 dead and nine injured. This guy, or so it turns out had debts of around 360,000 Euros and was worried about losing his house and belongings. No excuse for taking it out on other innocents. The man also had a number of guns and more than enough ammo to keep himself going for some time (over 2000 rounds). However, despite the killing and all the rest, the Italian press has not yet contained any reports demanding that the capacity of private individuals to possess guns be limited in any way. Oh how different it is here from the UK.

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Jun
28

Rape

2005 | Filed Under Italian news, Italy, Milan | Leave a Comment

It’s not nice and is probably one of the worst crimes anyone can commit, next to being a paedophile that is. However, whereas back in the UK stories about such crimes were quite common place, here in the living museum, such events seemed to be few and far between, or at least did not catch the attention of the media, or, which is more likely, just were not reported. While the last scenario is probable, I have to say that I’ve met a number of women from the UK/Ireland/States that have said that they do not really have any fear of walking home alone late at night. I can understand this feeling, OK, so I am a bloke, but even so, I’ve never seen a punch up in a bar here or had any hassle while walking home from the pub, which is something I can’t say about the UK, where two kind gentlemen once decided to break my nose for me. Considerate fellows. Don’t misunderstand me, punch ups and worse do occur here, only not as often as back home and women, rightly or wrongly, seem to feel safer too.

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Jun
27

Proud to announce…..

2005 | Filed Under Blogging, This blog | Leave a Comment

…..that, finally, a real, and Milan based, Italian has left a comment on my blog. This is great - I really wanted some Italians to react in some way to my blatherings. This real Italian has a blog, here, and goes by the name of ‘bread stick’ - OK so he uses the Italian name which is ‘grissino’, which sounds much better than ‘bread stick’ IMHO. So, if you fancy brushing up your Italian, wander over there. I have and I shall.

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Jun
27

Monday, Monday.

2005 | Filed Under Life in Italy | Leave a Comment

I started the day by drifting on down to the company I had done some urgent translation work for and seeing as everything was OK, I wandered off to meet up with my other half for lunch, only it was a bit too early for us to go off when I arrived, so I decided to go for a little walk, with the vague intention of looking at palm top/pocket PCs, bad idea. No not looking at palms etc, going for a walk. I came back after about half an our dripping in sweat and feeling drained - which I probably was seeing just about all the liquid in my body had sweated itself out of me.

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Jun
26

An interesting week

2005 | Filed Under Italy, Language, Me, Milan, Work | Leave a Comment

In one of the forums I participate in from time to time I go by the user name of ‘Jakofal’, and this is probably pretty accurate. I am a dabbler, have always been a dabbler and probably always will be. I not only like knowing how to do things, but also understanding how to do them well. Lots of things, too many, some may, possibly, and quite rightly, say. Still, I’m getting too advanced in years to start trying to change what I am, so I’ll have to live with it, as will others.

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Jun
23

Slagging off Italy

2005 | Filed Under England, Italy | Leave a Comment

OK, I admit it, I do go on rather negatively about the living museum at times, but warts and all, I prefer Italy to my home country the UK. Why? Well, I thought England was getting too violent, many people who work in the country seem to be on the road to deep depression and I dare not give my opinion about the people purporting to run the country, the language I would use would be offensive. Plus, they might send MI6 after me. Not.

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Jun
20

A quick post

2005 | Filed Under Italy, Me, Milan, Technology and Gadgets, Work | Leave a Comment

It’s hot and humid. Very hot and humid here. (30+ degrees C, but feels like 40 degrees - hot) I’m sitting here in my undies with the fan blowing towards me and the laptop, which has been giving signs that it too is starting to suffer from the effects of the heat.

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Jun
10

A referendum

2005 | Filed Under Italy, Milan | Leave a Comment

This Sunday and Monday Italians will have the opportunity to vote on the issue of ‘assisted fertility’, something which is illegal under current Italian law.

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Jun
9

A game for the kids of all ages

2005 | Filed Under Holidays, Italy | Leave a Comment

Coming to the living museum this summer? Driving here by any chance? Well, if you are you could try this little game. Let’s call it ‘Spot the different types of eateries.’

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Jun
8

Trying to avoid ending up all hot and bothered

2005 | Filed Under Italian Food, Italy, Me, Milan | Leave a Comment

If you’ve read some of the other posts in this blog you may know about the heat which dominates Milan from around June until the end of September. Well, I’ve decided to go on at length about the heat in this entry and what you can try to do to keep yourself from going mad.

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Jun
7

How could it happen?

2005 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

It’s boiling hot here. Putting on a suit for work is a torture. The simple act of putting up three shelves caused yours truly to break out in sweat. So how the blazes can I have ended up with a sort of summer flu? Aches and pains, snotty and coughy. I’m feeling pretty groggy. I just don’t understand how I can end up with a cold right in the middle a heat wave. Must be old age or something and I’m sure the smoking doesn’t help either. Must give up (How many times have I said this?).

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