Hanno usato kalashnikov 16th settembre 2011

Hanno usate kalashnikov 16th settembre 2011

A couple of weeks ago there was a big delay on the terrible road which connects Siena to Florence. My word it is an absolute dog - small, barely wide enough for two cars, with great big barriers on both sides, a speed limit of 90 kmph and lots of speed cameras. All the colleagues that live in Florence have to come up and down the road either by car or the bus every day. It's not far, maybe 50 km but can take a long time.
On this particular day there was a long delay - of a few hours. A sting had happened, worthy of The Italian Job. A security van was driving down the road. The crooks had stopped a big articulated truck, waving kalshnikovs and blocked the carriageway, then blocked the other carriageway too, stopped and robbed the security van and then made off, although the police did not know in which direction. Not so nice.

http://www.lanazione.it/siena/cronaca/2011/09/05/575426-hanno_usato_kalashnikov.shtml
"Hanno usato kalashnikov" - they used kalashnikovs.
Sweet dreams!

These sporty Italians are crazy 21st Agosto 2011

These sporty Italians are crazy 21st Agosto 2011

There are some strange sporting practices from the Italians. Generally it is very frustrating for the following reason - they never exercise, when they do they spend their whole time doing there hair, plucking their eyebrows and looking in the mirror. And that's the boys. The girls stink the gym out with too much perfume and do no exercise at all. And despite all this they are still really really skinny - go figure - even despite they eat all the pizza and pasta in the world. Gits.

However, some of them do train well, and with any country, especially one as different to the UK as this, there are some strange little things they do and this one is one of the strangest.

I live on a very hilly road - very very hilly. At one point it is 22% inline on a bend - terrifying on a bend, in fact one time recently after a little rain I went into a nasty skid on my bike that I was lucky to get out of. There are no pavements and it is narrow. In the distance you can see mountains, well hills significantly over 900m, not sure if they are mountains by Italy standard but they certainly would be by UK standard (I think Snowdon is just under 1000m). The other end of the road it becomes the "strada biancha" - that is the famous white roads of Tuscany that are unpaved. Here it descends at 27%. Before it gets to that stage it goes through two very very sharp hairpins.
And very so often I see a guy running up and down pushing an enormous barrel. A massive shoulder high barrel. I have no idea how he gets it there, or how he controls it or gets it up the hills but it is impressive. I actually think he might be one of the local cycling shop workers, but I am not sure. I have seen him a couple of times this summer with other fatter people. He is lean and mean and I think that he might act as a personal trainer as these guys are wobbly.

Anyway it is random and another fun quirky thing of Tuscany.
Happy training!

Time time time, see what's become of me 5th novembre 2011

Time time time, see what's become of me

At work, in fact next to my office, there is a swimming pool. Well, I say "is" but really it should be "was". The office was once a very nice 5 star hotel with a Michelin starred restaurant. And a very nice swimming pool. This is/was very deep. For the almost two years that I have been here (really? really two years??!!) it has been a temptation and a source of humour. Never to be used, but full of thoughts for summer - should we fill it with water, sell some cocktails in the summer to make a few extra quid/euros? Well - now it's too late. It is being filled in and will become a garden - although the way the campus is going I expect it to be a car park soon.

Campus is interesting. Based on the grounds of Achile Sclavo's house. Achile was a famous researcher, pioneering work in vaccines over a century ago. His house turned into a laboratory, a few buildings sprang up and it has grown and grown and now has lots of buildings and maybe over 2000 people working in a mix of old buildings like Sclavo's house (maybe 300 years old) and brand new production facilities, research facilities and the old hotel in which we work. So, it is a rare and fantastic place with manicured gardens, a ghost in our building who randomly rings the phone at times, an exquisite old chapel, all mostly falling into ruin. There are also some horsey steps - these are low level steps that were built so that they were not too steep for horses to walk up. This was so that the blood from the horses could be collected and used in experiments. These always remind me of the "Seb Coe steps" - these were steps at Loughborough University which were also very strangely shaoped and hard to walk up, although this time they were too big to walk up normally. They were called something like "the annoying steps" but after I went away for my placement year it was all over everything that they were called the "Seb Coe steps" and had been deliberately built when Seb Coe was at Loughborough University so that he could train his uphill running. I don't believe it and think it may be a little light story telling, and I wonderful if the equally short steps are also a light fib. Who knows? Noone for sure - but I guess it makes a fun story. The campus is amazing with great views over the rolling hills and a stunning sunset. I have tried to take a photo here with my phone but it never comes out well.

Anyway, the pool is being filled in and in true Blue Peter style I decided with my team to make a Time Capsule to leave for future generations. We took a picture on my phone and printed it and signed it. Explained who we were and what we were doing there and put in some example vaccine and some money. This was then thrown in to the swimming pool whilst the filling in man was away. Maybe it will be an amazing artifact in 1000 years time - who would ever know what will happen in time - I wonder what will be there then??
Ciao amore

Another strange wee beastie 1st Novembre 2011

More from the strange wee bestie collection is this oddity. Well, I think it's an oddity but I really have no idea. What it was is two grasshoppers, one little one on the back of another. I don't know if this is normal, if it is parent and child, or lovers, but it certainly is something that I have never seen before.
The photo is pretty poor - but if you look closely you can see it - did my best with the iPhone.

Olive picking 1st novembre 2011

Olivey goodness, 1st novembre 2011

It's been a good few days. I managed to find what looks like a really good tai chi in Siena, played poker, watched Siena win 4-1 at footy, had a great fancy dress Halloween party and went olive picking. Olives are the second life blood of this region. The first is wine, the second olives. Here the olives are small and so they are only used for oil. When they are ready there is frenetic manual activity. This year it started in the last week of October. We had gone to a great fancy dress party on Halloween and had been invited to help with olive picking the day after, 1st November 2011, which also happened to be a national holiday. Well, it didn't quite go to plan.

For Halloween I was going to go as Spiderman, as usual, but Dawn went as a Geisha, so I decided to put on one of my judo suits, and take some sei and a big samurai sword. Party was winding down after lots of booze, rockband and xbox kinect at about 3am. True to Siena form it proved impossible to get a taxi. The party was out in the sticks, maybe 10 miles outside Siena. Sienese people do not get taxis. They think it is weird when I take one rather than getting someone to pick me up, or drive pissed. Mind you they don't drink like I do! In somma, we did not get a taxi and stayed over. The next morning we were supposed to head for olive picking around 08:30 but we were woken up at 08:30 by a call, still in bed in the wrong house. I ordered a taxi, which amazingly turned up in 2 minutes, and we did the walk of shame - me with some serious weapons and both of us looking like tools.

Quick wash and brush later and we were on our way to Chiusi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiusi
about an hour south, near to Montalcino, home of the famous Brunello wine. We got there and got stuck in. A work colleague has a beautiful house and farm at the end of a white road, with hundreds of olive trees. Picking is simple - hand work mainly, with some magic massive fork that connects to a car battery to speed it up. I was told that the oil comes mainly from the stones by the old grandpappy of the family. I'm not sure if I understood correctly but I understand the crushing process is pretty intense. To catch the olives, they spread out muslin nets under the trees and you just run your hands down the branches and drop the olives on to the muslin. When the tree is done the muslin is gathered up and the olives dumped into a breathable box. The olives should be taken for crushing within 24-48 hours - after that oxidation sets in and the oil can go rancid.
At lunch we had an amazing really Italian meal - spaghetti with ragu and pancetta, spaghetti with fried bread, mushroom lasagne thing, roasted chicken, potatoes, fruit loaf, and sweet chestnuts, all washed down with loads of local wine. The food was amazing and I was sat next to the grandpappy and had some absolutely fantastic banter with him which was great fun. Also shows that my Italian is improving a little too.
To make the liquid gold (as it was called by Homer) they take the baskets down to the local crusher and rent the time so that the olives can be crushed and get the oil straight there and then. In fact, at lunch they had some fresh stuff from yesterday. I made to drink it fresh, as I had done several times at restaurants in Siena, including being served it in a glass at a Michelin-starred restaurant near Siena, but the Italians from Chiusi nearly freaked - more examples of the regionailty of the food.
All in all it was a fantastic day out and a fantastic experience to pick the olives with a real Italian family - I loved it. The weather was great too, pretty hot considering it was novembre.
Here on our farm where we live they pick the olives too for crushing, My next door neighbour says that it takes about 100 kg olives to make 1 litre of the first pressing, and when he sees cheap olive oil in the shops he cannot believe, knowing full well what the man labour is like. And from what I saw it was tremendous.

Happy oiling people!

Dogging time 30th ottobre 2011

Dogging time

Myself and Dawn sponsor a couple of doggies in a shelter in Rome. We have "adopted" them and pay some cash for them to be looked after. A couple of weeks ago we took a trip down to Rome to have a look. It's very sad. 160 dogs in cages, a lot of them having been badly treated. When Dawn and I chose the doggies it was one of the worst nights of my life - there was a binder of all the doggies with a biog and colour pictures. I chose to adopt "ginger" - you can see him in the background of this picture. Poor chap is absolutely terrified of all people. Poor thing. Dawn's is called Fifa and cannot bear to be around men. In fact, the two males of us had to hide outside whilst she went in to see him.

There was also a whole host of littles who had also been abandoned a couple of weeks ago. These are super young and can be found new homes, but for the older/weirder/frighteneder/angry ones there appears to be no hope :(
Horrible to see - we would like to take a dog but we cannot keep one where we live. Maybe this will change?

Ciao

Random stuff from autumn in Tuscany 24th ottobre 2011

E' qui autunno

Autumn is here and it is generally pretty nice. All sorts of activities are going on. Grapes were starting to be picked in the third week of September. This year it has been extremely hot - I recall it being over 35C without rain for most of July and August. Also, the heat went on very late - into September and this means good quality grapes staying longer on the vine, which result in sweeter grapes and a good quality stronger alcohol wine. So - look out for Chianti and Brunello for 2011!
When grapes are done, it is time for olives. This time it is in the 3rd week of October. Plenty of olive groves around here and plenty of manual work to get them off and into the oil.
The animals are getting quieter. Recently there has been a gecko in the office. In my office, that I could not get out. He came in as it was still stinking hot and as much as I tried to get him out it has been quite impossible. One day I will write about the intellectual and behavioural differences between lizards and geckos as the beasts are not only different in the shape of their fingers! But not now...

Palio is over so things start to quieten down in Siena. However, it is still warm. So warm in fact that it is stinking hot during the day - well into the 20sC in the middle of the day in the sun, but not so far off pretty cold overnight. However, after two years in Italy I seem to have changed. I am now wearing scarf, coat and gloves where I would be wearing flip flops and t-shirt in the UK. I have officially gone soft.

The vines and countryside are stunning. Really beautiful as the leaves turn from green to red to yellow to brown. Fantastic view.

The rest of the world continues to go mad. Why do the press continue to put pictures of dead dictators on the front covers of national newspapers - that to me is far worse than any phone tapping - and it would never happen in Italy where family is still very strong.