Author Archives: Andy

Driving in Italy – Part 199

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Today, as I am driving to work there is another accident.  I crossed the lights and found myself in a traffic queue which, unfortunately meant that I was blocking the traffic traversing the road I was on.  So, in order to avoid the blaring of horns by cars that would come right up to my drivers door, and because I am driving more and more like a Milanese, I turned my car to the right and pulled up alongside the car that had been immediately in front of me (who, incidentally, was also blocking some of the traffic from the right).  So now he wasn’t blocking any traffic, it was only me.

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Question Tags and more on driving in Italy

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OK.  So we all (native speakers, that is) know about question tags, don’t we?  We know how to and when to use them.  We use them automatically, without thinking, all the time for many, many situations.  They open a conversation with a stranger, they give others the chance to show that they agree with us (or not, of course), we use them when we’re unsure about something, etc.  And, depending upon the fall or rise of the tone will tell the other person what we are trying to say (after all, they may be called question tags, but they aren’t always questions that we create, are they?)

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Sometimes I forget just what a great city Milan is!

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Living somewhere is completely different to visiting somewhere.  And, overall, I cant really complain about the life I have here.  Some aspects are good and some not so good.  But, overall, its OK.

However, there are times when things makes make me remember why I am here.

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Teaching English as a Foreign Language – getting a bad name?

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So, I see that they have arrested someone in Thailand who is wanted for a dreadful crime over in the UK and, as he managed to escape to Thailand whilst on bail, has been doing what most people (including me) do when in a foreign country, not speaking the local language and needing money to live – i.e. teaching English.

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The Supermarkets are open on Sunday!

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Updated June, 2010 and again April 2015.

For those of you coming here to find which supermarkets are open on Sunday in Milan, well, now, most of them are.  However, one that is guaranteed to be open every day (including Sundays), except 2 days (Christmas Day and Easter Day) is Esselunga in Viale Piave. Also, from what I understand, one that is open almost 365 days of the year is the supermarket at Central station (Stazione Centrale)

Now on to the original post ……..

Actually, that’s not true.  Until recently, all the supermarkets in Milan were closed on Sunday. Coming from the UK, this seemed very strange, but you get used to anything.

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Nicholas Hellen – a member of the gutter ?press?

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On a few of my links (to the right), I found reference to another blog.  The lady concerned has published a book based on her blog (don’t worry, reader, that won’t happen with mine, especially as there’s no real theme).  So that gutter rag, the Sunday Times, decided that they wanted some sort of scoop and sent an email to her which you can read here.

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Areas of Milan

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On Christmas Day, we had a few people over and during one of our conversations with friends, I tried to explain about a misunderstanding that happened before we moved here.  Of course, without a lot of thought I am fairly rubbish at telling a story, as N pointed out, and V ended up completing the story.  So I will try to be faithful to the version he told, which was far better anyway.

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