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.