1st January 2010 - buon anno!!

Happy New Year all! And a Happy New Decade too! Goodbye to the noughties.

Lazy day today, watched the end of Series 1 of True Blood and James Bond's "On her majesty's secret service". Naturally, it's raining so we're being lazy today. Last night we went to a friend's place and had an excellent meal and some fun party games. Just the four of us and it was hoofing it down with rain so opted to stay in rather than go to the celebrations in the town square.

Last weekend we went to Marina di Alberese, which is a park on the coast about an hour's drive from here. The region is The Maremma and our tourist guide book was particularly amusing about it...
"
The Maremma was long Tuscany's forgotten corner, its coastal plains, marshes, forest-covered hills and wild, empty upland interior having been a place of exile and fear for much of the last five hundred years: unknown, unvisited and virtually uninhabited. "Only the wild beasts that hate the cultivated fields", wrote Dante, "make their lairs in the Tuscan Maremma." Malaria was the problem, combined with bandits in the interior and pirate attacks on the coast.
"
Lovely words. Dante has his point though - it looked to be a largely uninhabited marshland, but the park was amazing, with pine forests, and specifically umbrella pines, running right down to the water's edge.

My Italian is coming along, but slowly. Not helped by constantly talking English, both at work and at play, and not getting a great deal of exposure to Italian. When I have my 1:1 Italian lessons it's usually in the middle of a really busy day - and I really enjoy them but after an hour of conjugating verbs, well actually, after about 40 minutes my brain is in total meltdown. I seem to have a low Italian processing speed - I can pick up Italian words in sentences better now, but it takes me a couple of seconds for them to be processed post-registering, which means that by the time I've worked out what those two words in one sentence were, I'm already another two sentences behind. But I am enjoying it, when I find time, and, hmmm, flashback - "In every day in every way I'm getting better and better". Where is that from - a Pink Panther film I think. Bit of wikipedia I think. Yes it was definitely from a Pink Panther film and said by the nutty Police chief as he gets out of the sanitarium.
And here is the origin - Emile Coue - a French therapist who investigated the placebo effect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coue

Food at the restaurant on campus has amused me this week. I have seen that anything and everything in Italy is fine as long as it comes with cheese. Cheese is offered on top of every dish. And if Italians should for some peculiar reason not have cheese with a dish then they will have balsamic vinegar and oil. Result. And then, this week there has been two classically funny dishes - the first was sausages and beans, again it was the baked beans that I had seen before, but in there was some small fat sausages - reminded me of those beans and sausages that you can get in a can, probably Asda own brand. I didn't choose that dish. The second one that really made me laugh was brussel sprouts. Since it was Xmasish, and I'd not had any I felt obliged to have some. The brussel sprouts were well cooked in a bowl, and unlike the other dishes, these already had cheese on top, without it being offered. So I added some balsamic vinegar and they tasted great. Result. As you can probably guess I am getting Huuuuge out here. However, we did solve the access to the gym issue yesterday and now I can get in, so the only thing blocking me now is my own laziness - I can no longer blame it on the ridiculous amounts of paperwork. Darnit!!

Went to karate for the second time this week. Again I enjoyed it very much. I decided to wear my green belt this time, as instructed to by sensei, which placed me about half way along the class. The dojo is permanent, but quite small, so they have lots of classes, kids, beginners, black belts, are all separated out, so I am in the coloured belt adults class. It's good, but very Italian and I don't have many clues about what is going on. And people just fugger off after, which is fine at the minute. I shall continue. Other than that I have had no exercise since I've been here, not good.

Boxing Day 26th Dicembre 2009

Christmas day was a good un - our turkey cooked very well, complete with potatoes, zucchini and carrots. Christmas eve we had watched "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation" and started the day with "White Christmas" - classic. After lunch we watched the latest James Bond "Quantum of Solace" which starts in Siena. Some fantastic shots of Siena and chases across the rooftops (reminds me of a Corduroy song) and there was only one thing we took issue with which was a shot where Bond jumps onto the roof of a bus - no buses come into the centre of Siena as it is a tight as a twisty turny thing. Good start, but wasn't that impressed with the Bond film. In fact, whenever I was in the UK and I was asked "Where is Siena?" I used to ask to see if they had seen the latest James Bond film - but not a single person I asked had seen the film. Is James Bond crap and outdated now or is it trying to hard to be cool? I don't know, but it wasn't a great film.

Christmas presents were good. I had been shopping the day before in Siena and got a few things from Dawn and was pleasantly surprised when all the shops wrapped them - for free. And as a nice touch they put a sticker over the price tags and a bow on top. Result. Especially as I am a nightmare at wrapping. My parents had sent some parents over with me when I left which was a lovely thought and very well received. Hooray for Christmas! And we had Christmas socks on and had Tannaz's tiny pink Christmas tree and the Charlie Brown Christmas tree on the table too.

The weather in Siena was entertaining - whilst we were hearing tales of a white Christmas in the UK and treacherous conditions it was quite warm and a bit cloudy in Siena. Around midday the clouds came in, the sky started rumbling and before we knew it we had a huge thunder and lightning storm breaking above us, complete with another biblical hail storm - probably doesn't count as a white Christmas though :)

My parents had packed some Christmas crackers so we sported our Christmas paper hats all day. So much so, that when we went for an evening stroll around central Siena, we kept our Christmas paper hats on. I am not aware of every culture of the world, but from what little I know, Christmas crackers are another little ritual peculiar to the British Isles. As such, we looked like the King and Queen of Siena walking around Siena with our Christmas hats on. And, rather like the reaction that my little buddha has, the Italians were exactly the same again. EVERYONE was staring at us, one of the less subtle groups made an open comment which sounded, as it was said in Italian, like "look at those fools in the crowns" and not "look at the King and Queen of Siena" as we'd hoped. Siena was fairly busy, not very busy, and not many restaurants open, but plenty of people strolling up and down. Pleasant evening.

Vino di giorno was some rather nice prosecco, and post-walk it was back to the fizzy red, you can't beat lightly sparkling red grape juice!

Today I am liking the company disclaimer, certain phrases have been omitted to protect the identity of the individuals:

The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "can," "potentially," "could," "will," "suggest," "potential," "plans," "suggesting," or similar expressions, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals for xxxx, potential production timing and volumes for such vaccines or regarding potential future revenues from such xxxx. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements.

I like it and intend to use it oft if not always :)

In the office today - very quiet, the only one in in my department. Gives me chance to catch up on basic training and deal with some admin. In the New Year I need to move desks to allow some new people to join.

Today's photo is of some wine I spotted yesterday in Coop - 5 litres for €7 - bargain. Wonder what it tastes like??

So, no big plans for tomorrow beyond eating and drinking. Will be the first Xmas that I've not seen my parents. Will see if I can get some Xmas movies off my hard disk as Italian TV is still not doing it for us. I am however, listening to Radio Siena in the office today, and they had an Italian language version of "White Christmas" which is the first Italian Xmas song I've heard, well, heard and recognised it as a song about Xmas.

Well, better crack on. Merry Xmas all. Stay warm if you're in the snow-bound UK.

Mercoledi 23rd Dicembre 2009

Been another busy week, one more day till the end of school - yay! We are staying local at Christmas - having to work in the week between Christmas and New Year - for the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE arrrggghhhh (except for holiday jobs!)!!!! We thought about going up to the snowy mountains an hour and a half away but we're told it gets super busy over Xmas so we're going to stay local and look for some fun to be had up the hills at New Year.

Did the Xmas shop after work tonight - I've been asking all the Italians recently what they're planning to have for Xmas dinner - and it seems to be standard Italian fayre, and lots of it. So no special foods, like fish, or turkey or anything like that, just pasta and lasagne and spaghetti and proscuitto - all the normal Italian stuff! We have been looking for a turkey for ages and couldn't find one but amazingly we found a turkey in the Coop so we have a result. Bought some prosecco and one of the panaforte cakes too. Couldn't find custard anywhere though! We're really not sure if any of the shops will be open at all over the Xmas period - the opening hours of shops and restaurants doesn't bear any resemblance to what they say on the doors at the best of times - so we have stocked up with waaaaay too much food.

The snow has gone from here, it has been cold since the snow came on Friday but we've had no more, despite freezing conditions across the rest of Europe. Yesterday it rained all night and we woke to find the snow had completely gone, from 3 inches to zero overnight - reminds me of Jules's skiing t-shirt "hero to zero in 2 seconds" - but that's another story, and don't mention the horny one. So, yes, snow has all gone, and today it was a little windy, but 14 C - so very pleasant. I read the weather forecast in Italian lesson today and it's likely we will have lots of rain and wind for the next few days, but no more snow. Boo.

Work has been intense as ever, but good intense, despite the recurrent HR issues, IT technical issues, paperwork issues. I now have a BlackBerry and have found a sneaky way to synchronise it properly and also get around them hiding the internet explorer icon. We had a "Town Hall" type event the other day - really was very Italian. Quite an outpouring of emotion during the Q&A section at the end, and some almost tears - really quite the Italian emotional experience. After the town hall experience there was panaforte and prosecco but it was quite strange...I shall explain. The Italians have this different way of drinking coffee to what I'm used to. In the UK we drink coffee...well, I'm going to let wikipedia phrase it a lot more skillfully than me...

"Though Charles II later tried to suppress the London coffeehouses as "places where the disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and his Ministers", the public flocked to them. For several decades following the Restoration, the Wits gathered round John Dryden at Will's Coffee House, in Russell Street, Covent Garden.[citation needed] The coffee houses were great social levellers, open to all men and indifferent to social status, and as a result associated with equality and republicanism. More generally, coffee houses became meeting places where business could be carried on, news exchanged and the London Gazette (government announcements) read. Lloyd's of London had its origins in a coffeehouse run by Edward Lloyd, where underwriters of ship insurance met to do business. By 1739 there were 551 coffeehouses in London; each attracted a particular clientele divided by occupation or attitude, such as Tories and Whigs, wits and stockjobbers, merchants and lawyers, booksellers and authors, men of fashion or the "cits" of the old city center. According to one French visitor, Antoine François Prévost, coffeehouses, "where you have the right to read all the papers for and against the government," were the "seats of English liberty."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_house

From the late 1600s, in the UK they really were where things happened in the UK. Nowadays we use them to chillax, shoot the breeze, gossip for hours on end - especially in the workplace. For the Italians this is very different - the coffees they drink are very short and the coffee bars don't have chairs - they tend to stand and nail a cheeky short coffee for a super quick hit and then crack on with life. So - back to the post-town hall - they we were in the coffee bar of the restaurant, loads of the panaforte cake, loads of prosecco and all the staff stayed for a couple of minutes and then went back to the office. However, as those of you who know me well will guess, I was there till the end, with a group of ex-pats (pretty senior company people too!), no Italians, and think I'd seen off 6 glasses of prosecco. Schweeeeet.

Work is still intense, late evenings still, 12 hours days most days, but I'm enjoying it and the CrackBerry makes things easier.
On Tuesday evening we went for a drink with the guy who has been ad interim boss of my department. We started at the Irish bar as it is on the edge of town and easy to get to. It's not great, and the beer is quite pricey, about €5 a pop, but it is handy and it is a bar, not a restaurant. We were going to find somewhere to eat, but a lot of the bars bring out food often. There the nibbles are EXCELLENT - great olives, sun dried tomatoes, pizzas, crisps, bread, artichoke hearts - great food for free, you know that has my vote!

Currently we are trying to buy a car as Dawn's company car is on short term lease and runs out soon. Naturally there is the usual Planet Italia level of paperwork required - insurance is amazingly complicated, requiring proof of residence and loads of stuff. We are buying a car off an ex-pat and again this is very complicated, lots of paperwork, and requiring a notary to acknowledge this. Exciting times though. Cars are much more expensive here and insurance is harsh too.

One thing is constant here - English Xmas songs! They are constantly playing in the shops, and all the old English language favourites, including Mariah. I haven't noticed any Italian Xmas songs and the girls in the office are only humming English ones all the time.

Photos are of the grounds of our house and road by the house from Saturday just as sun was setting. Swimming pool is proper frozen now! And the two people are our next door neighbours - Giuseppe, who speaks excellent English, he lived in London for a while, and his wife whose name we have no idea baout and doesn't speak a word of English.