A lapse

Oh dear, I’m sorry to have to report that I smoked two cigarettes this evening. Bad blogger. Weak willed, I was. Someone insisted while I was at a bar and I gave in – but I have not bought a packet of ciggies, which is usually what happens after these incidents.

I’m not good at being a non-smoker and Italians don’t help either; it is quite acceptable to ask complete strangers here for a cigarette and this is bad news. In the past I have stopped smoking and then re-started because I felt guilty about scrounging cigarettes from others.

Funnily enough, I don’t feel any craving for another puff and hope to start not smoking once more………

Write 1000 times – “Smoking is bad for your health and your wallet.”

Sharm El Sheikh and bombs etc.

Two years ago my other half went off to Hurgharda, which is in the Sharm El Sheikh area – ie the Red Sea – for a brief holiday. She had a great time and we've been thinking about going back there or checking out Sharm El Sheikh with our two year old son. Not now.

For the moment the terrorists have got their way and put me, and quite a few others off this area. This is a great shame for Egypt which was getting itself established as a good holiday destination. However, the old favourites of the Greek Islands and the Spanish islands should do quite well out of this nasty incident.

Sharm El Sheikh had become a number one, and very fashionable, holiday destination for lots of Italians in recent years, a bit like Tenerife is for English people. Sadly, the popularity of the destination has been damaged by the acts of the blinkered few. The tourists are not the ones who will suffer in the long term, oh no, they will find other places to spend time and money. The populace of Egypt in the Red Sea region, which had been pulling itself slowly out from the grip of poverty, will suffer. And I'm not sure that they, the Egyptians will view those who have halted their progress with particular kindness. This act will not do much to raise the popularity of Mr Bin Laden and his cause.

If I were to be an arms dealer, or one who holds shares in a security or arms company in this period, I would probably be rubbing my hands in glee. Everyone wants protecting and therefore everyone wants guns and related security equipment. Makes you wander whether it is not really in the best interests of certain people for Mr Bin Laden to be brought down. After all, he is creating a nice healthy climate of fear and this means countries will spend loads on arming themselves, not to mention keeping populations so occupied with worries about bombs and the like that they will overlook ever increasing prices and ever more incompetent leadership.

Forget I wrote the last part, after all, it cannot be right can it?

I have not smoked for over a week!

It’s true. I’m becoming a non-smoker, again. I even resisted when surrounded by other ‘orrible smoking types, too. But ciggies can be useful – as you can see from the pic.

Back to the UK

Next week I, or I should say, we, will be flying back to the UK. Not London, which is where most people here think most English people come from (I guess most English people think Italians all come from Naples or Sicily), but the deep and darkest north of the UK. A stones throw away from those that shoot haggis and very near the place coal used to come from, otherwise known as Newcastle.

I have mixed feelings about going back to the UK. I return so irregularly that I now feel like a stranger there, weird but true and it is not unusual for me to break into Italian at times. Heaven only knows what others make of this. My parents, who are the reason for our visit, seeing as they, or rather my mum would like to see our little sprog, were a little unsure as to what language to use with our son and seemed to think that they needed to speak to him in Italian. The concept of bilingualism is a bit of a difficult one for my mum to grasp, possibly, or my mum was just having a slight ‘brain fade’ moment and engaged mouth before selecting brain – probably.

England for me means getting some sleep. My parents live almost in the middle of nowhere and it is pitch black and virtually silent at night, in stark contrast to brightly light Milan with its disco pubs on your bl**dy doorstep. It will also be cool.

I know that my other half is questioning her own sanity with regard to agreeing to go back to the UK in August. She is, justly, unsure about the famous English climate and would far rather be spending her time on some sun drenched beach than sitting on a lawn in the UK. However, I hope that I may be able to surprise her and that the weather will help me out a little. I’m going to take my other half and baby to Bamborough (the photo shows the castle which dominates the village) which is on the coast of Northumbria and it has the beaches, if not the weather, to rival some of the beast in the world, at least it does in my memory, as I was last in the area many moons ago, but for some reason and despite having seen other incredible beaches overseas, these beaches in the middle of nothing in the UK still stick in my mind. And they were empty, quiet, silent and relaxing – not the organised chaos you find over here. Italians flock to the beaches in the summer and the beaches as a result, are crowded, busy places and, for me, about as relaxing as the M25 in rush hour. Not my kind of fun. I guess I’m just boring, or you can blame my parents for this. They always did their level best to find the most out of the way places they could – on person within 100 yards meant crowded in their books and while I’m not that extreme in terms of tolerance for others, (OK I can put up with three people within 100 yards!!) I still find that quiet beaches keep me much happier than noisy ones.

My other half, instead, can live with all the chaos. She is not bothered by it and her level of tolerance is way above mine. If our tolerance were to be compared to mountains, hers would be Everest and mine would be Ben Nevis.

Anyway, back to the UK. Apart from the unsung beaches, I’d like to show my other half the most of the castles which can be found in Northumbria and the Lake District. It should be fun – as long as the weather is kind. Fingers and all other crossable things crossed.

Creative juices

Trying to design activities for teaching people how to use English in meetings and discussions situations. Coming up with something original, enjoyable and effective is not at all easy, I can tell you. Thinking of using football as a theme in some way. It’s difficult to find an Italian who does not like the game, so you can play on this at times to get, all male, classes talking for hours. And they do do all the talking. I know sweet nothing about the game, apart from the fact that you use a ball and that people quite like fighting about it. Bit like religon in some ways, is football. Good excuse for a bust up. I digress. Anyway using footy as a subject is just about a dead cert in terms of gererating interest. Think I will explore this avenue. Puts thinking cap on.

Then there is the fact that my mind seems to grind to a halt once the temperature soars over 35°c, which means the interface between the thinking cap and my dear old grey matter gets all sweaty and all those creative impulses disappear down the waterfall that is my forehead.

Time to entertain the baby. Must go.

Pocket PC’s and giving up smoking

I’ve given up smoking, again. Only this time I’ve come up with a wacky scheme to keep myself off those bad for your health and expensive smoke sticks. I’ve bought myself a pocket PC. Don’t know what one of these things is? Well, in simple terms its a digital diary, only it can do just a little bit more. My new PDA – personal digital assistant – has a fast CPU – the processor – 624mhz – which is faster than the first real PC I built a few years back which sported a hyper-fast 400mhz CPU, wow!
Anyway, the thing cost me just over 400 euros, which means that I have to go for just over 105 days or 3 and a half months without smoking to pay for it. I figure that if I can go for this long without a puff, then I can probably do without the things for the rest of my life and save myself around 1,400 euros a year (at current prices) in the process. Of course, if I should manage to go the course, I shall become a vehement anti-smoker and preach the benefits of giving up to anyone who’ll listen.

So far, so good. I have had no real urges to go out and grab a packet of ciggies, although writing this is not proving to be a great idea, as the craving is starting to creep back into my mind. Not good news. I’ll waffle on about the PDA another time, have to go, got to distract myself. Now, where did I put that pocket PC. The thing is so damn small I can hardly see it.