Not Nice

March 24, 2008 · Filed Under Milan - My Zone · 1 Comment

Yesterday I was out with our dog when I noticed another dog on the other side of the road. It was off its leash and appeared to have wondered into the road. The owners were a Chinese family, mother, father, and child in stroller. Unusual, I mused, you don’t see that many people of Chinese extraction with dogs.

Anyway, I continued, thinking for a moment that maybe a dog with a tendency to wander into the road should not be off its lead in a city. Oh well, it’s their dog, hopefully they know what they are doing, I hoped. Read more

Tags: accident, animals, car, cars, child, chinese, city, cost, dog, dogs, Italia, Italian, lead, problem, problems, sad, situation, town, vet, vets, white

Milan’s Ecopass Not Working

February 1, 2008 · Filed Under Milan · 2 Comments

The Milan section of the La Corriere della Sera newspaper is carrying a couple of perturbing articles today, one of which states that the Ecopass anti-pollution traffic charging system does not appear to be having any real effect. Apparently PM10 and the levels of other noxious pollutants are still far too high.

Another article, which is more worrying, especially for those of us with children, is that around 100,000 children in the high risk under 14 group are having pollution related health problems. Admissions to casualty departments in the city triple when pollution levels are high. Not too good. And I am worried about my son, especially as he has a weakness that means that he is more likely to have respiratory system related illnesses.

Solutions? First, and most painful. Extend the Ecopass area outwards. But before this can be done, new car parks need to be built near all metro stations on the periphery of Milan. The land is there, well, at the Famagosta and Cascina Gobba stations there are plots of land that could be turned into car parks, and I know of other areas. And many plots have been vacant for years, and a compulsory purchase system does exist under Italian law.

Even if car parks cannot be built next to metro stations, they could be built just about anywhere and served by shuttle buses taking commuters to nearby metro stations. Reducing taxi fares would also make a difference.

Funding for all these changes could come from the Ecopass revenues and parking charges, plus increased public transport income.

I’m under the impression too that the number of cars within the Ecopass area is increasing, and even if the cars are low pollution models, they are not zero pollution models, hence, most probably the negligible changes in pollution levels.

Come on Moratti, if you have real power, use it. Think of the health system savings and lost productivity due to parents taking their children to the hospital. Not to mention the cost of dealing with long term health problems that all this pollution is bound to be creating. Asthma, and allergies, all take time and money to treat.

Tags: car parks, cars, city, Corriere della Sera, cost, ecopass, health, Italia, Italian, law, Milan, My son, parking, pollution, pollution charge, problem, problems, traffic

New Fields

January 28, 2008 · Filed Under Work · 1 Comment

This is interesting. Well, it is for me. I’m putting together a short English course which will revolve around the theme of sports management. This is a new ‘field’ for me, but through the magic of the world wide web, I’m starting to get an angle on this quite specialist management discipline, and, more importantly, just what aspects of the English language people working in this relatively new environment will need to know.

That is the challenge for me. First I need to obtain an overview of this sector, and once I feel I’ve more or less understood what I think I need to understand, I can then boil it all down into what should be the most useful elements. I already have a standard game plan, which I have developed over quite a few years of observation and as a result of working out what works, and what does not. But this standard game plan is not going to help me on this occasion, at least not much.

I’ve yet to work out the specific goals, if you’ll excuse all these terrible puns. But what I have learnt is that sports management is not solely a case of maximizing income for football teams and their players, oh no. It also has a community related function, and the targets are not always financial but quite often social. As you may realise, playing sport can have quite a few social benefits, such as reducing obesity and all the associated medical costs, and if someone is doing some sport or other, he or she may not be tempted into petty crime. This keeps people out of prisons and can make the streets safer for everyone.

Of course, there is a big difference between the personality driven sports businesses and the business of encouraging people to take up sport, and a line between the two types of sports business probably needs to be drawn. Professional sports revolve around income, just like any other business, whereas amateur sporting activities are more like health education programmes. At least I think so. And at an amateur level although business practices can be used to run things in the background, for those on the field, the business aspects need to be kept well hidden, so as to keep all sporting activities as interesting as possible.

I shall be interested to discover how many of the sports management course participants are going to be focusing of the business side of sports as opposed to the social aspects.

This is going to be an interesting new course.

Tags: Business, challenge, cost, English, health, interesting, learn, Me, People, Sport, team, Work

Exclusive! Full English Breakfast in Milan, Italy!

November 24, 2007 · Filed Under 4-4-2 Pub, Milan · 3 Comments

Yes, it’s finally here! As you can see from the (not wonderful) camera phone shot I took this very evening, the full English breakfast down at the 442 pub here in wet old Milan is about to go live!

Tomorrow, from midday on, this scrumptious brekkie will be ready to be ordered and eaten. And you can pick up a plate of these goodies from noon until two in the morning on both Saturday, tomorrow and Sunday. This probably means that this will be the longest English style breakfast ever! And I will be down there with my wee one, and we shall be tucking in.

Tonight’s trial run was tried and tasted by Chris, all round good bloke, and English 442 regular. His verdict: ‘It’s the best full English breakfast I’ve had outside the UK!‘ - High praise indeed and I agreed with him. Wonderful!

Finally an ex-pat can find a decent breakfast that is a wee bit more substantial, and enticing, than the cappuccino and cake that is the usual offering here. Cholesterol overload, here I come.

The cost of this extravaganza? A mere 10 Euros, and this special offer price, includes coffee, tea, and toast. After Xmas you will still get the same, but the price will be 12 Euros. Still not an exaggeration when you consider that brunches in Milan can cost from 16 Euros up.

And you can blame me for the sausages. Check them out, I don’t think you will regret it.

Be there, or be hungry!

Here’s to the 442 and extended British Breakfast euphoria!

Tags: 442 pub, blog, breakfast, cost, eat, English, english breakfast, English style, good, Italian Food, Italy, Me, Milan, order, pub, sausages, wonderful