Something I miss
I was thinking just how much I miss having a garage. In the past, back in the UK I always had a house with a garage. I had loads of tools, a workbench and even a welder. I used to work on cylinder heads, carry out other repairs to my cars and tinker with air rifles. My garage was a great place and I did not have to worry about someone half inching my beloved mountain bike.
Here in Milan I am garageless and there are times when having one would be useful. I could do more odd jobs around the house and even have a go at building a few toys for my son.
I’m in a bit of a catch 22 situation with regard to having a bench, I could make one, but I need one to make one. I suppose I could borrow a bench from someone, but I don’t know anyone who does any DIY. I’ve looked into buying a Black & Decker workmatey type thing, but the choice is just too limited. It’s a bit frustating in some respects. Living in a town can be a real pain.
My dad is an arch DIY expert on steroids. He can even build whole cars and fitting out a kitchen, including building all the units from scratch was no trouble for him in his younger days. He even designed and just about built a house. I say just about because he did have some one put the foundations down and the frame up. Quite impressive really. I’m not quite in that league, but I can do quite a few things with the right tools.
It’s strange how I miss such odd things, but I like to try my hand a just about anything. I’ve even been mulling over the idea of painting a sort of modern art picture for our living room. This is probably not a great idea seeing as I was pretty awful at art at school, but then I see some of the stuff which they call art nowadays and think, hey, even I could do that. Well, possibly.
Am I entering a mid life crisis or something daft like that? Don’t know. Maybe I should go see a shrink!
World cup fever…what world cup fever?
Yes, in football mad Italy not much fuss seems to be being made over Italy's chances of winning the world cup, aside that is from a few crafty sales promotions offering to refund the price of your new TV should Italy actually win. I have the sneaky feeling that nobody is going to get any cash back. Naughty me.
Even my other half, who quite likes footie, is mysteriously reticent about the forthcoming championship and even admitted that she, and a few others by all accounts, don't believe that Italy stands much of a chance.
During the last world cup I was dragged into a bar to watch Italy play someone or other and even I noticed the good natured enthusiasm displayed by all those present. However, this time, nobody seems to have great expectations of the national team. This could, of course, have something to do with the match fixing, etc, scandal which is still unfurling here in the Living Museum. For Italian football fans to continue loving the game, they are going to need to be convinced that the teams are winning through fair means and not as a result of backhanders being floated around.
The football farce is yet another example of phone tapping exposing dodgy goings on, before, you may recall, we had the head of the Bank of Italy being bugged and brought down as a result of his possible involvement in a case of unfair competition. Now it is the turn of the football magnates.
One wonders whether a certain ex-prime minister's attempts to mess with the Italian judiciary may have caused figures inside said judiciary to start making some startling facts public as a form of subtle warning and in order to demonstrate that they have teeth and will bite if provoked. Mr B does seem to have been rather quieter than usual too. Odd, very odd.
Never a dull moment in this fair land.
Schizophrenia
I've just activated a 'widget' which gives me site stats. I had read that WP does not give details of referrals, but this is hogwash. It does! Now I'm becoming like a spoilt child in a sweetshop and the choice between Blogger and WP has once again become difficult. I do like these categories though and after having messed around with some (fiddly) ways to do the same in a Blogger blog, I've decided that WP's modus operandus is better.
Now, can I live with the loss of all my Haloscan comments and the ability from within Blogger to play with the HTML and CSS of my template. Possibly, my attempts to carry out all but the simplest of CSS modifications usually end in technological tears, or something like that.
Time to jump ship?! Not sure, got to sleep on this. Good night.
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