Dec
22

Christmas traffic

2006 | Filed Under Italy, Milan | 2 Comments

The traffic on the roads this week in Milan has been intense.  Everybody seems to be jumping in their cars to head off to look for prezzies for all and sundry.   The guy in a chemists commented that the true meaning of Christmas seemed to have been totally lost and that everybody just seemed to want to splash out on the biggest and best gifts imaginable without giving a thought to the main joy of this holiday which is being able to spend some time with family and friends and to put life’s often too hectic pace on the backburner for at least a few precious moments.  I have to agree with him.

This is a preview of Christmas traffic. Read the full post (262 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

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Dec
22

Gianpietro Carlesso - pure creativity

2006 | Filed Under Art, Italy, Work | 9 Comments

Schema

Gianpietro Carlesso is an Italian sculptor from Bolzano, which is in the north east of Italy. I have just completed another translation for him about the item on the left.

This is a preview of Gianpietro Carlesso - pure creativity. Read the full post (483 words, 4 images, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

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Dec
18

Another niggle

2006 | Filed Under Me, Technology and Gadgets | 2 Comments

Is email getting slower?  It took 3 hours for a simple mail from my dad to get to me.  My old man is in the UK.  Will the day ever come when we go back to snail mail?  Probably not.

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Dec
18

A little niggle

2006 | Filed Under Thoughts | Leave a Comment

My mouse, OK it’s a trackball really, sits on my right hand side, but all my program menus, and the tabs for this here Wordpress system, lie on the left hand side of the screen.   I don’t know if other people think the same, but I would prepare to have all the most regularly used menus on my right hand side.  It just seems more natural and more ergonomic.   Maybe programmers could include an option which would let us decide on which side of the screen we want our menus.  I also think this would be better for websites too, and have noticed that some web sites do have a right hand bias.

This is a preview of A little niggle. Read the full post (144 words, estimated 35 secs reading time)

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Dec
17

The transformation of words

2006 | Filed Under Italy, Language, Thoughts | Leave a Comment

In Italian the verb ‘fornire’ means to supply, which is similar to the French ‘fournir’ .  Both words seem to have their origins in Latin, seeing as one word in Latin which means the same is ‘orno’.  Then one could compare both the French and Italian to the English verb ‘furnish’, which in one of its meanings means something similar to supply.  However, at some time in the past, for some inexplicable reason, English took the word ‘furniture’ under its wing.  This word does not mean anything similar to the Italian or French verbs and even the Italian and French equivalents to ‘furniture’ are very different.

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Dec
17

A frittela

2006 | Filed Under Italian Food, Italy, Milan | Leave a Comment

This is a frittela:

Frittela

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Dec
15

Blogger Power

2006 | Filed Under England | Leave a Comment

The Policeman’s Blog is a blog I admire.  The guy who writes it, who is a policeman in the UK, has been showing just how difficult it is for the police to actually do their real job - that is catching criminals and making society a bit safer for one and all.  He is someone who believes in his work and wants to do it, he does not even moan about low pay, he just highlights how he cannot be a real policeman.  The modern day policeman in the UK appears to be nothing more than an inappropriately trained administrative clerk, at least that is the impression you get from the blog.

This is a preview of Blogger Power. Read the full post (251 words, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)

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Dec
15

Ch, ch, ch, changes

2006 | Filed Under Italian TV | Leave a Comment

Over the years in Italy various journalists and entertainers have been banned and excluded from television, usually because they made claims, often through satire, about politicians and governments which were not at all appreciated by said politicians and governments. Beppe Grillo was one such personality who made himself unpopular. Others are Enzo Biagi, Michele Santoro, Daniele Luttazzi and the actor Paolo Rossi. Not to mention Giovanni Ruggeri who got himself in a little bit of trouble over his written comments on one Mr Berlusconi. Other people had also been getting themselves in trouble too and Italy’s reputation for freedom of the press slid markedly.  Some may have questioned whether Italy was really a democracy and journalists have been on strike a number of times over editorial and journalistic freedom.  The docu-film ‘Viva Zapatero’ was made to try to bring to public attention the level to which the press was being manipulated and censored.

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Dec
15

This made me laugh

2006 | Filed Under Funny | Leave a Comment

If you have children you may find this funny (You could even show it to your children - if they are old enough).  Even if you have not yet been blessed with offspring you might like it.  It’s a 2.1 meg .mpeg file.  Best seen at 200% in windows media player - with the volume turned up.  It’s Spanish with English subtitles.

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Dec
11

Christmas Fair - Sant Ambrogio

2006 | Filed Under Holidays, Italy, Milan | 4 Comments

I went to the street fair twice at the weekend.  First I wandered around with a friend of mine from Genova, who bought a vegetable chopping thingy and a silly scarf stroke hat thing and then other half, my son and myself had another good look round on Sunday.  The weather was also better on Sunday, and seeing as we went during the morning we managed to avoid the sea of people which would have been there during the afternoon.  The new location, surrounding the Castello, is much better in that the numbers of people do not overload the area so much, however the location is maybe not quite as evocative as when the fair and its many stalls packed the narrow streets down near the Cattolica University, next the church dedicated to the patron saint of Milan, Ambrogio.

This is a preview of Christmas Fair - Sant Ambrogio. Read the full post (432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

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Dec
8

A creative day

2006 | Filed Under Holidays, Italy, Me, Work | 4 Comments

After having helped my three year old make some Christmas cards and crackers, which ended up looking as though they had been produced by a three year old as a result of my ineptitude for any kind of real life craft, I decided to work on my annual e-card. I send e-cards for several reasons. First of all I cannot lay my hands on reasonable Christmas cards here in Italy which does not have a card sending culture and also because it’s cheaper and tree-friendly. Then there is the fact that I like messing around with Fireworks, which is my number one graphics program. It is also nice to send something that you cannot find in the shops and you do not have to worry about the post not arriving in time.

This is a preview of A creative day. Read the full post (173 words, 2 images, estimated 42 secs reading time)

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Dec
6

Image * After

2006 | Filed Under Technology and Gadgets | Leave a Comment

This site has a fantastic selection of free photos. Check it out here. Try searching to find what you might want. It’s all copyright free, so you can do what you like with the images and you can use them for business or personal projects. Very, very useful. I use some of the images on my English idioms blog.

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