Jul
29

Growing up. Sort of.

2006 | Filed Under Italy, My son | 6 Comments

Our three year old has now officially left his day nursery/creche and will start nursery school in September.  As I think I mentioned before, he used to attend a private and expensive creche before we were able to get him in to the local authority run equivalent.

This is a preview of Growing up. Sort of.. Read the full post (443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
27

That soap which is life.

2006 | Filed Under Me, Thoughts | 1 Comment

Soaps or soap operas are the bread and butter of the TV industry the world over.  However, when I think about it I’ve known a good few ’soap’ situations in my life.  Here are a few of the more memorable ones:

This is a preview of That soap which is life.. Read the full post (224 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
27

Italian complexity, again.

2006 | Filed Under Italy, Milan | Leave a Comment

While I was at the hospital while I wrote this. Seeing a specialist can prove to be a time consuming process here.

This is a preview of Italian complexity, again.. Read the full post (677 words, estimated 2:42 mins reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
26

Lebanon

2006 | Filed Under Thoughts, World News | 1 Comment

I feel sorry for this area and its inhabitants. It sounded as if it had just about got over the last episode of violence. Things were picking up, getting back to normal.

This is a preview of Lebanon. Read the full post (299 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
26

CSS

2006 | Filed Under Technology and Gadgets | Leave a Comment

Do you know what CSS stands for? Possibly, but if you don’t it stands for ‘cascading style sheets’.  What are these things? Well, they are a set of rules, almost like program code which you can use to style web sites - things like making characters bigger or changing the colour behind some area of text, right up to an including building entire web pages, thus avoiding the dreaded ‘tables’.  Don’t worry, anyone who knows a wee bit about the non-wooden variety of tables to which I am referring, but these tables are a bit like the tables you can build in Word and suchlike, only these are used for dividing web pages into a series of boxes into which you can pop images, text and other things.

This is a preview of CSS. Read the full post (399 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
26

The weather blew its top.

2006 | Filed Under Italy, Milan | Leave a Comment

The heat gets to everyone and everything, or so it would seem.  Even the weather had had enough and decided to let a few sparks fly over sizzling Milan.  The sparks came in the form of the usual, here, spectacular lightening show accompanied by the deep bass drums of resounding thunderclaps.  We had rain too.  It lashed down for about an hour and the result was most welcoming.

This is a preview of The weather blew its top.. Read the full post (382 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
25

Honesty is not the best policy, in Italy.

2006 | Filed Under Culture | 3 Comments

While reading the English version of Beppe Grillo’s wonderful blog I found a rather worrying entry, well, more worrying than the rest. Mr Grillo does not paint a wonderful picture of the Italian establishment at the best of times, but this was almost shocking.

This is a preview of Honesty is not the best policy, in Italy.. Read the full post (217 words, estimated 52 secs reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
25

Damn, I miss the car.

2006 | Filed Under Holidays, Italy | Leave a Comment

This time last year I got rid of my car.  I hardly used the thing, so getting rid of it was the right thing to do.  However, we are moving towards the summer break and the idea of hauling child and stuff around on the train does not enthrall me.  One of are options is to go and spend some time with my nice, but older generation in-laws, whose idea of a good time seems to be passing the time of day playing cards or watching some mind numbing Italian TV program.  They are a wee bit different from my own parents who pass the time by going out with friends, messing around in their large garden and, in the case of my 70 plus year old dad, building a car.  As you may expect, I’m a little reluctant to hole up with the in-laws without having some form of transport at my disposal.  This is why I miss the car.

This is a preview of Damn, I miss the car.. Read the full post (359 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
25

My computer is suffering from the heat

2006 | Filed Under Me, Technology and Gadgets, Work | 1 Comment

I used my compressed air to blow out some of the dust from the vents on my laptop, and I even locked the CPU fan with a bent paper clip to stop it from be spun to death by the high speed air.  Good I thought that will sort out the high temperature readings.  Only it did not.

This is a preview of My computer is suffering from the heat. Read the full post (252 words, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
24

Parenting

2006 | Filed Under Me, My son, Thoughts | 6 Comments

We have several friends who have young children, all only have one and are not really thinking about another.  Now, while these people do love their little ones, they find the whole process of child rearing rather heavy, more so than they expected.  The women, all of whom work, are not that fond of the whole process and it has generated more than a few conflicts within relationships.  I have had to deal with a few conflicts too, many of which are down to my, somewhat limited, ideas about bringing up children, which all stem from being brought up in the UK and my other half’s ideas which come from her own Italian up bringing.  We are not alone, I’ve heard of a number of English/Italian relationships actually ending as a result of kids coming along.  Sad but true.  Then again, I know of some Italian fathers who found the stress of fatherhood so strong that they left the home and decided  to become fathers-at-a-distance.  Not good.  I know one should face up to one’s responsibilities and all that, but once you are set in your ways (ie over 35ish), a radical change such as having children can end up being a straw which breaks the camels back.  An unstable work environment does not help either.  This is all obviously bad news for the poor children involved.

This is a preview of Parenting. Read the full post (793 words, estimated 3:10 mins reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
24

Italian websites

2006 | Filed Under Italy, Work | Leave a Comment

While deciding how to promote my little website I’ve been visiting quite a few websites which deal with banner exchanges and all that stuff. I’ve not come away very impressed with the Italian web scene. Many of the sites I’ve been visiting look pretty awful and I would not really like to leave my e-mail address with them. The banner exchanges are a bit dubious too and would, I’ve concluded, detract from the image which I’d like to build. I suspect that if I did sign up for one of these exchanges I would end up with ads displaying pornographic images on my site. This is not something I really want.

This is a preview of Italian websites. Read the full post (269 words, 1 image, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found
Jul
24

Syriana

2006 | Filed Under Films | Leave a Comment

Syriana is a film. It stars George Clooney and Matt Damon and one or two other well know faces. It’s an intelligent film, a bit like ‘Lord of War’. Strangely enough it came out of the Hollywood stable. This is strange because it is not overtly entertaining, but it does do what a good film should, in my opinion, do, that is: it makes you think. One can also applaud people like Clooney and Damon for getting involved in this film because while it is not overtly anti-American, it does not show American big business in a wonderful light. Seeing as Hollywood could well be classified as ‘big business’, it is both odd and welcoming that at least some people from within this environment show they aware that these mega enterprises do not always have the World’s best interests at heart. Indeed, the film seems to illustrate that the World is not run by politicians, but by businesses and businessmen so powerful that they can command the CIA to, literally, eliminate the competition. Scary.

This is a preview of Syriana. Read the full post (556 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Like to dig deeper?

  • None Found

Next Page →