Sabato 1st maggio

Today I shall mostly be talking about animals. Today, venerdi as I start writing this, it is another scorcher. It has been about 25C for the past two days, making up for Tuesday which had a tropical rain and thunder storm with the loudest thunder I have ever heard, the previous record being London in the summer of '96. That time I recorded some of the lightning on my phone to record into a song - this has yet to happen! It was a stinking hot summer in London that year, hotter than I had ever witnessed before and as I walked home from the train to Isleworth with the torrential rain running over the top of my shoes at times, I ended up getting straight in the shower when I got home,in suit and shoes!
So - animals. It has got hotter and suddenly the insects are out in force. We can close the shutters down, well not shutters, but sort of insect screens. This is essential, it never really got cold enough over winter to kill off all the bugs. All the way through winter I kept seeing flies, wasps, bees, all sorts of fun things, that normally a good winter in the UK would decimate.
OK, its been a few days now, and the weather has gone pants again. It's rained the last few days, although today has been nice. It will rain again for the next week, and I just heard that there are some more airport closures in Spain, so maybe the clouds are blowing the wrong way?
The good training weeks have continued, and I have been cycling in, approximately 3 times a week, except for this week with all the rain. Anyway, one time I was just approaching the house, and did my usual stretch, cycling along, arms spread wide, when I felt the biggest big fly into my left hand. It's has now made me a little scared of cycling with my hands spread, and I must try to keep my mouth shut.
On good news, I am cycling to work, and have hit a new record speed - 45.9 mph, in a 50 km/h zone. Heh heh. Actually there are other places I could go quicker, but that is the only place that has good tarmac on the downhills.
Last weekend I went cycling with a friend from work, an aussie, Cambridge Blue, he took it easy on me, but it was nice to cycle from his end of town (he lives almost diametrically opposite to us on the other side of Siena) and thankfully that side it is much much flatter. On my ride to work it takes 3 minutes until I have already hit 30 mph downhill and then have hit an uphill where I am in the lowest cog, and out of the saddle and almost ready to quit. Anyway, we had a good 2 hour spin in the sun, 30 miles, undulating hills, complete with a stop at a cafè bar.
On that evening, whilst driving back from the sea, we ran into something just down our road. It was a porcupine (istrice)!!! I was so excited I screeched the car to a halt, and jumped out and went running after it. It pricked it's spines up and ran away into the long grass. When I got back to the car Dawn told me that they shoot their spines out of their back when they are attacked. These are long, and barbed and are a nightmare to remove. Thankfully I didn't get shot. The time was about 9:30 pm.
Anyway, last night I was driving a little further down the road, at about 11:30 pm and two porcupines walked in front of me in the road, I had to swerve to avoid them! They were much bigger, maybe the one the week before had been a youngster. Anyway, I put the car into reverse and went chasing them off. I saw them running away, well it wasn't running, it was bounding, or hopping. Great fun. They scrambled up a bank and were off. It was too wet for me to look for spines.
They were actually very close to where, last week, straight after breaking my porcupine duck, we then nearly ran over a wild boar (cinghiale)! Double whammy. Wow. The cinghiale was black, like satan's guardian. Apparently you can hit them with the car and the car comes off far worse. The cinghiale idly climbed up a steep bank and was off.
Mind you, they taste good.
On the same road, whilst riding home, I saw a deer dart in front of me, and then also recently, a deer came out whilst I was driving home and just stood and stared, until I beeped my horn and it ran off.
And again, near there, whilst riding home, I saw a bat (pipistrelli), that was just at eye level, flying along at the same pace I was cycling, and I could see his little face smiling at me.
That's all the excitement I can take for one day. Ciao ciao.

domenica 25th aprile

For me a quiet weekend after a very busy week. Work has been hard as ever and I am pleased to say that I have made it to the gym every morning, but that has taken a toll on me too. So, Saturday was a sleepy day and today will be some ergoing and some gaming with Rob. Dawn is going off to explore into the country somewhere.

At work, we have had some security issues over the past few months. We share our building with the gym, and we have had some attempted access to our PCs over night. To address this we are setting a honey trap with a sneaky surveillance camera hidden inside a fire alarm - it is very cunning, however, it has taken about 4 weeks for this to happen as we had to get approval from the unions. Ah fun and games.

Speaking of security, I am having another battle with them :) it is a privilege, only for senior company members, to be able to bring a car onto campus which I am pleased to say that I can do. My bike however - this is above and beyond their ken, and my bike has to stay on the horrible bike shed, mainly for Vespas, on the edge of campus, and then I have to totter across campus on my cleats, up and down the hills, like a fool. Because bikes are far more dangerous than cars huh? I'm getting over it now, but at first this really annoyed me - classic Planet Italia.

Of course, as I have always said, some things are fantastic. A few weeks ago we had an issue with our car, the one we own, when the tyre kept getting flat. Anyway, one time it got flat on campus, Dawn tried to drive it to the garage but on the drive through campus it got really flat and she had to stop and called me to come and put the rubbish temporary one on. Before I managed to get their some workmen had spotted her as a damsel in distress and from nowhere a fork lift appeared and they lifted up the whole car to change the tyre - simple, rustic and effect - classic Toscana!

This Thursday we went to dinner for some American friends who are returning to the states. We went to an amazing place about 25 km away from here in Panzano in Chianti. The place is called "Antica Macelleria Cecchini" and is famous for bringing back Bistecca al Fiorentina a few years ago. Essentially it is a famous butchers with a restaurant attached. We had a set menu of 8 courses, with lots of barely cooked beef, and fresh bread, some vegetables, and then a pudding, all including table wine and finished off with coffee (not for me) and Military Grappa of 5 different flavours!! Imagine petrol, with a bit of fruit in, or not, for the plain grappa and you're about there. Agressive. Anyway, 8 courses, all lovely, and all for only €30 per head. Amazing.

http://www.dariocecchini.com/

The only drawback was the car pool. We went with some friends and Dawn didn't handle the windy roads very well and ended up feeling sick before the meal and then having to stop the car and be proper sick on the way home. Poor Dawn!

On Friday evening we went to Italian friends for dinner and we made Italian pizza from scratch, including rolling out the dough and firng the dough and choosing the toppings. Interestingly, Italians have white pizza and red pizza - white pizza is simply without pomodoro (tomato) and is good as you can taste the ingredients much better. The fresh cheeses that go on the pizza are amazing, not just mozzarella , but something else which is stringy and melts on the pizza. Anyway, it was fantastic, and accompanied by Sardinian beer and followed up by Senese sweet wine. Splendid.

Today is London Marathon day - ha, losers. Good luck Stuart and Suzy!

Photos today include sunset from our window, my vogatore (rowing machine) on our patio, fish finger sandwiches and Turbo Guinness at Tannaz and Simon's, Sola's birthday, a beautiful view of the snow tipped alps from the plane, a beautiful house somewhere (I can't remember where!) and Lisa and Gareth with the twins. And a picture of the crazy butcher from Panzano in Chianti.

Ciao for now.

mercoledi 21st aprile 2010

On Sunday, I was outside on my ergo. Which I realise that since I haven't blogged for ages that I haven't discussed. So yes, rowing machines do not seem to exist here in gyms (palestra) - despite me thinking it was an integral part of every gym around the world - not so here in Siena. I looked in all the gyms I could find and eventually gave up. So I committed to the idea of buying one, but that also was very difficult. I was thinking about buying one in the UK (2nd hand approx 600 GBP) and getting my parents to drive over with it - they have talked about driving down some time. But my need was/is as great as my wait, so with the help of an Italian colleague I tackled eBay. Again, it is subtely different. And subtle in ways that I don't understand. There do seem to be some traditional auctions, and some sort of fixed price sales, but I don't get it. Eventually we found a Concept II Rowing Machine (vogatore), for sale in Bologna (aprox 2 hours away) for 350 EUR - bargain. My friend rang him up and he said that it was about 5 years old but had only been used three times, the screen was not working - but due to batteries only, and that 350 EUR was the final price - I snapped it up!

So, returning from a weekend in the UK, of karate and sparring (back in Hitchin club - wonderful to be back in the Hitchin club and I felt sooo comfortable - it felt "right" if you know what I mean), two fry ups :), hair cut (I'm still not brave enough to risk an Italian hair cut - I'm sure it would involve glitter or grease, or probably both), a 30th birthday in the O2 which was great and involved drinking and eating my body weight in meat at a Brazilian BarBQ, and fighting and passing my combat course, despite getting thoroughly beaten with proper bruising and cuts, and fish finger sandwiches and TurboGuiness - which T-bone actually liked! and then getting up super early to catch the stupid early flight (up at 3:30 am!) I arrived in Italy on Easter Monday and Dawn came to pick me up at a half way point for us to drive to Bologna to pick up the ergo. However, the Easter Monday traffic was mental, poor Dawn it had taken her 3.5 hours to do about 70km to get to me, I was super tired and eventually we got to Bologna. I managed to find the guy, who spoke no English at all (how very dare he!?) and it was indeed practically unused, I took along batteries and the display worked fine, and 350 EUR was the price. Absolute bargain. Drove back, a little quicker but still not great.

I digress, Sunday I was on my ergo. On the terrace. About 6pm, in the sun, when our neighbour Giuseppe came for a chat. It was "cold" for him! I was walking around in my lycra - hotter than hot - at 6pm. He took me around the garden, around the onions and chillis, and potatoes and herbs and bean and everything (it's quite large) and he explained how the ground was cold and all his plants were at least 6 weeks behind where they would normally be. "It is strange" (e strano) he said. He has never witnessed weather like it - he is an outdoors worker so I know he has an affinity for the weather, but it looked and felt great to me!

Also, he showed some damage wear the cinghiale - wild boar, had got into the garden and eaten a few things and smashed down the fence. I would love to see one and maybe eat it like Obelix on a big wooden plate :) Giuseppe keeps giving us stuff from his garden - cabbage, garlic - all wonderfully delicious!

Last Friday Isma came around and we continued our playing, we have selected some songs - some Italian and some International and it is great fun - really enjoying it. Finding it hard to understand the Italian music reading though - instead of A, Bm, C# etc they have Do, Re, Mi- - e strano!
I have attached the pictures from the visit to the oldest bank in the world - Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Talked about it last time.

Lunedi 18th aprile 2010

Well, the volcano has caused a mild amount of chaos for us - work-wise mainly, with shipments grounded, as well as people stranded, on holiday and at work. This week I have been on call and in demand almost constantly for a site audit in Finland, meaning that all normal work goes out of the window. My only solace (apart from constantly having that Monty Python song in my head "Finland Finland Finland, the place I'd quite like to be" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5gdx1c6xdo), is that those people causing the rumpus are now stranded in Finland. My colleagues who were there from Germany have taken a car to the coast, a ferry over to Germany, and then hire car again to get back to near Frankfurt - fairly easy for them. However, our drugs stuck in the UK that we have worked very hard to get ready for our patients all over the world are now stranded in various European destinations which is a nightmare!

This weekend was cycling down at Marina di Alberese - a sort of flat (yay!) umbrella pined park, on the coast, with horned cows, green fields, some sort of white egrets, and the odd Hoopoe or two. Lovely cycle ride, Dawn giving her bike a good road test, afer I'd fitted her very expensive handlebar extender on to it, and my trusty Claude Butler mountain bike, just about staying in one piece despite all it has been through. We cycled the nice cycle paths and into Alberese for some food - a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere - and chose what we were eating, had it all sorted when I realised that I had forgotten my wallet. The guy though, bless him, told us to pay later, which we did after we had cycled back, Dawn had fallen in a bush, and we were driving home. As I've said previously, so far, the Italians have been overwhelmingly nice, by and by.

As we were cycling along, in the lovely sun (approx 21C I would guess) there were a lot of cracks in the cyclepath and kamikaze lizards kept jumping out of them and doing their best to get themselves run over by us. Actually, they were rubbish kamikaze lizards as none of them got squished but it always seemed so close. Lizards are everywhere - but I don't think I will get used to them - funny little things! These ones in the Maremma were two coloured - green bodies and blending into an orange tail. Some of them had tails missing of course :)

Dawn has been given a new car, courtesy of the company. Well, she gets one for a month, then another until the end of the year, and then next year she gets to choose. It's quite a nice perk, but the car that we have now is just odd. Super Italian - I think it's called a Lancia Mura - although I'm not sure. It looks like it's a small car, but is actually quite large but has these tiny tiny wheels. And some gerbils under the bonnet. Actually the gerbils are quite good. The most frustrating thing is the foot space. I can't get my foot from the accelerator to the brake pedal without taking my foot right back and around and then on to it - it is the smallest foot pedal cavity that I have ever seen!

Since buying a Concept II rowing ergometer (vogatore) a couple of weeks ago, I am trying to get myself back into shape. Since I have been here, I have had several good weeks on the training front, but no great weeks, and certainly no good 2 weeks, but I hope to change now. Had an excellent week of training last week - cycled in 3 times, went to the gym 5 times, cycled on the weekend and 90 minutes on the ergo last week. Hopefully, I am turning the corner on the grassottello (chubby!) front, but it will take a lot of work, as I had managed to let things slip, well not slip, tumble, slide, erupt, into a very state of decay. But, I am happy that if I can keep the consistency of training it will be fine, and considering how much work I have last week, and that I managed to train well, I am buoyant that I am moving in the right direction.

Saturday night was RockBand night at Rob's. Great fun after a long time away. Well, not only RockBand but Guitar Hero too. Great stuff. Played "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden over and over again. Fantastico.

On Tuesday this week, the expat society, well really our Italian teacher and HR, took us on a tour of Monte dei Paschi di Siena. This is the oldest bank in the world, having been established in 1472 (although the ledgers say 1471 since at that time, Siena was still using the old calender that didn't recognise a new year until the 25th March). This was amazing, the bank is well known (although I had never heard of it) and is the other big employer in Siena, plus it owns huge amounts of land and buildings, and does give quite a lot back, charity donations, sponsorship etc. The HQ is in a nice square - Palazzo Salimbeni, but it really is surprising what lies behind the doors. It really is very innocuous for a huge banking powerhouse to be HQed there. We had a wonderful tour given by dottore Tasso (Doctor Badger!!!!) who had an equally wonderful white moustache. The bank was originally the home of the Salimbelli family, but really is now part of, and at times, the guardian of Siena. The bank has many amazing works of art, including pictures of the palio in times before the spaniards came in and cut down all the 80 towers in the city, and when it was more of a bull thing than a horse thing. Of course, most of the history focuses on the many battles between Siena and Florence over the years, largely the Florentines won them all, except for one big battle, 7 centuries ago. There are ledgers from every year in the museum, great leather bound works detailing all the accounts, and also the first piece of paper detailing the establishment of the bank, and also the world's first ever traveller's cheque, from around 1660! The finale was the family tower, with the best views all over Siena, better than the tower in the Plaza di Campo in my opinion, as you can see all directions at once. One of the viewing galleries was quite funny. The artist who was commissioned to paint the walls and ceilings, decided to paint well known Siena prostitues and drunks on the walls in positions of authority rather than the usual expected people -family people, bank people, Dante etc. We were very lucky to get a tour of the bank, very few people get such a privilege and I certainly found it amazing.
Right, week 2 of being fit, fingers crossed - incrociamo le dita!

Sabato 10th aprile 2010

Good day today. After waking up with a shocking stinking hangover after drinking too much at Rob's birthday celebration in Monteriggioni last night we spent the afternoon at our neighbours place. Dawn had made them cookies and I had picked up a welcome to your new home card, since they had been in another flat whilst ttheirs was being renovated. They liked this and got Dawn a flower and me some interesting herbal teas. Then Isma came over for a guitaring session that we had planned and we stayed at our neighbours place playing Italian and English songs and having a really good time. And I got to go on Giuseppe's 28 year old vespa and now I really really want one. Sunny day too - probably 21 C.
Tired again now. I'm never drinking again etc.