Author Archives: Andy

Thank the lord ………….

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……………… that it’s over now.

We have a name and, overnight, the newspapers have dropped the coverage to some way down the page (online).

It was driving me crazy.

Woman might have baby soon. Woman starts labour. Woman has baby. Parents leave hospital. Name given to child. Back to normality.

But it all took days. Even my colleague (the one I share coffee with in the morning) kept asking me about it until I turned the tables and kept asking her. Not that I was terribly interested, just to get her to stop bloody asking me – like I had some sort of direct line to Kate!

Anyway, as you were.

Half full

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It’s only half.

But why? I mean to say, a half is almost the same size as a full, since to get the half, the cup is filled slightly higher and, therefore a half of that is just a fraction shorter than a normal short.

So, I see no difference really between a half or a whole.

The benefit is that I get free coffee – a short coffee, certainly, but a coffee nonetheless.

My colleague takes a coffee with me in the morning at about 8.45 and then gives me half a coffee at about 10.20.

Occasionally, very occasionally, she takes a half coffee in the afternoon.

We’re taking a centimetre of difference here.

But someone else has also started giving me half his coffee. But I find this one a bit strange. I almost feel like he’s trying to bribe me. You see, I really don’t like him and he knows this, for sure. To me he is the most ineffectual, overpaid, useless moron. He has, in the past, said things that are simply not true and done things that really show how useless he is.

And, yet, suddenly, here he is on an almost daily basis, giving me half a coffee.

Obviously, instead of ignoring him, I have to say “hello” and “thank you”. I’m not THAT rude. But, still, it really does grate on me. And it does feel like a kind of bribe, as if he’s trying to get me to “like” him, and not even in a Facebook kind of way!

However, since I think this whole “half” coffee thing (if you see what I mean) is weird, coffee is coffee and free is free. So I will just have to put with the “hello” and “thank you” that goes with it. Although the fact that he is a quite useless bastard will, quite obviously, not change.

Earth Wind and Fire – Milan

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I’m certain he hadn’t told me about it until Sunday night but it doesn’t really matter anyway.

I’m sure I saw this band many, many years ago and knew them to be a band of truly superb musicians. And, so it turned out to be. Beforehand, I couldn’t have named more than about two of their songs but as they’ve been going for so long, they do, of course, have many well-known songs.

It’s not a sit-and-listen concert but a get-up-and-dance concert. And, so, we actually stood up, behind the seats and watched and danced and sang along. A wonderful concert.

And, from a different concert in Italy, a few days ago (sorry for the quality but it does give you an idea of how really good they are live) – Boogie Wonderland. Enjoy.

UPDATE:
Now some videos are being posted on YouTube.
The first is with an Italian singer, Mario Biondi who I’ve seen in concert before and who is rather good.

Maybe this will be the last year?

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“If my brother won’t do anything I don’t want to come here any more!”

He goes on to say that the beach place is expensive (which it is) and that he wants to be able to leave stuff in the house without it being moved or other junk being placed (or thrown?) in there all over the place.

I don’t say anything. What can I say? It’s not my house and not my family and not my home town. I don’t have any rights. But I am a little disappointed. But I don’t think he means it, really. I think it’s just frustration coming out. He’s coming down later next weekend, on the Saturday, and then staying a few extra days to do a proper clean and get the grass cut, etc.

I asked if he was going to try and get quotes for the work to be done. He said he wouldn’t have time. As I said to him, I was only asking – it really wasn’t a dig, just conversation.

But, in the event, he is getting the husband of an old friend to come over and give a quote – after the dogs and I have left.

In the meantime, I have finished another two books. This is not quite a book a weekend but quite close.

The first that I finished (weekend before last) was the one I really wanted to read above all, that is, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. And it was good. Absorbing and interesting and, of course, about Tudor times which, to us Brits, was the real “Golden Age” even if the reality was something very different. Now I have to get the next one, Bring Up The Bodies, of course.

Then, FfI lent me a book she said was really good. Which I read, mostly, last weekend and finished it on the Sunday afternoon. Now, I’ve read one of this guy’s books before. And there’s a thing about gay fiction. It’s at once interesting for me and boring as hell. Edmund White is, I suppose, the biggest name in gay fiction and, on the cover, it had some good quotes from famous writers.

But, for me, it leaves something to be desired. It’s not quite as brilliant as it had been made out. And, although the storyline was quite good, the last chapter was a complete let down – as if he’d HAD to finish it and didn’t really know what to write – and so he did it in a hurry. The book was “Jack Holmes and his Friend” and, personally, I wouldn’t recommend it.

In addition, I finally got a book that I should have ordered a couple of years ago. It’s by a friend of a friend and, I think, is self-published (which, to be honest, doesn’t bode well). Still, I’m supposed to recognise some of the characters. We shall see. I don’t think it will be my “next book” but we shall see. The book is “Quinn’s Way” by Steve Gray. As far as I know, it’s his only book. Well, I’ve bought it now and, at the rate I’m going through the books I did buy, I will need it.

But, next, I’m thinking of Dickens. That should slow me down a bit because it’s not really “light” reading although I do like Dickens and his stories and descriptions are always good.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter. The forecast for this weekend (in Milan) is somewhere near 37°C – which is very, very hot. Luckily, for much of it, we shall be by the sea, where it will be considerably cooler (I can’t believe I’ve just written “luckily”!!!!!) and much better for the dogs.

And it’s less than two weeks till the holidays :-)

Gay Marriage is IN but not in IT

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Just so you know, this afternoon the Equal Marriage Law in the UK got it’s Royal Assent.

This means it’s now the law.

I’m in Italy. We’re still waiting but, on the basis that a member of Parliament here can liken a Minister of Government to an Orang-utan because she is black and still not lose his job, I’m guessing we’ll be waiting here for some time yet.

Put it this way, I’m not holding my breath.

This weekend

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I’ve spent the last three weekends in Carrara – enjoying the sunshine on the beach, eating at F’s parents or the sagra, taking the (very excited) dogs to the pineta, relaxing.

But this coming weekend is different. This coming weekend, we are going together. F will be there too. And the difference is immeasurable and, for the first time, I am really excited about going down.

We may have breakfast at the café in Marina di Carrara where the cakes (fro breakfast) are particularly nice. Certainly we shall share the dog walking. Then there will be someone to talk to on the beach (not that I don’t talk to anyone – but almost everyone speaks only Italian so the conversations are much shorter.) And we shall be together, which I really enjoy.

The only downside is that, after working so very hard for so many weeks it is likely that F will get some ailment – which often happens the moment that he stops working. Ah well. At least he will be relaxing a bit.

So, for the first time this year, we shall be going down to Carrara together. The car will be clean (obviously), the dogs are brushed and we will leave, more or less, at 5 p.m. on Friday – which also means pizza with asparagus and lardo (for me). Yay!

My niece is wonderful.

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Last night I had dinner with my niece (Ay) and her boyfriend (Aa).

It was lovely. She has grown up into a beautiful young woman and i am so proud of her.

There is a possibility that she will come to Venice for 3 months in September to teach English (she’s been offered the position but other factors may stop her). In the meantime, Aa has got himself an engineering apprenticeship with Rolls Royce. Good for them.

And it was a really enjoyable evening. She is so confident of her abilities, which is good. she is a real lady.

Obviously, for those of you who have read this blog for a while, you will know that she is not, strictly speaking, my niece but, rather, the niece of V. However, she continues to call me Uncle Andy and I derive a great deal of pleasure from that.

They wanted to go to the beach whilst they were here, so after some discussion with them this morning, I’ve just bought their ticket to Liguria so they can go on Monday. It’s the sort of thing an Uncle should do, after all. And I am so happy that I could do this thing, especially as I only get to see her for a few hours when she comes over.

A Free eBook and my very first purchase of another eBook. I am moving into this century … albeit, slowly!

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WARNING – This post is wrong – see update below!

This morning I downloaded 2 ebooks from Smashwords.

This is, in my opinion, an incredible site.

The first book is Given Away, A Sicilian Upbringing, by Marianna Randazzo.

Not having read it, I can’t tell you if it’s good or not. But, for a short time, using the code SW100, you can get it for free! And, with Smashwords, you can download it in so many formats that you don’t have to have a Kindle to read it. In fact, I have downloaded it as an rtf file, meaning a Word Document (in effect) and it’s an experiment as with this file, I can read it on my phone – so I can read it on the beach :-)

A second book that I have actually paid money for ($4.50) is The Final Straw, by Ted Taylor.

I haven’t read this one either BUT – Ted Taylor is the guy who wrote The Death Guide To Life – which he put up on the internet and which is in my eBooks section on the right. I really liked it and liked his style so I didn’t mind paying something for this.

Again, I’ve downloaded it in rtf format with the idea of reading it on the beach.

Now, of course, on my phone it will be quite small and, if that becomes a problem, I have two options. 1 – wait until I am at home and read it on my computer OR, 2 – buy some sort of reader or tablet and read it that way.

I have a feeling that, as I really need to replace my phone very soon, I might find myself getting a tablet …… finally :-) Maybe, I can get some sort of special deal if I do the two things together.

We shall see.

Anyway, even if you don’t have a reader, do purchase the free book I’ve mentioned above. After all, it’s free (with the code) and so you’ve lost nothing, have you?

UPDATE. Mr Ted Tayler (the guy who wrote The Final Straw) has pointed out that he IS NOT the author of The Death Guide To Life – which is completely down to me not paying attention and having erroneously “come to the conclusion they are the same person” some time ago – I didn’t check it before I wrote this. However, the book I bought seemed interesting anyway. I hope it is!

Ah well, we all make mistakes.

Why isn’t there a LOT of shouting about it?

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We’re bored with the Snowden thing now, aren’t we? I mean the chase has, kind of, stalled. So nothing to see here – let’s all move along.

Except, of course, it really shouldn’t be like this. From what I understand, the UK Government has issued a Section D (I might have this wrong) notice to the British Media – effectively stifling what they can report about it.

Hence, it’s no longer really headlines. Of course, the headlines SHOULD be asking difficult questions of the Government. Asking how come GCHQ (and NSA) are collecting all our data. Asking them when it’s going to stop, etc.

But, don’t worry at all. After all they’re not collecting ALL data. Only the metadata which, by all accounts, doesn’t actually tell you anything much.

Except that’s not even true.

If you have a Gmail account, you can, actually try it (partially) for yourself using Immersion.

And you should. See how your connections are made. Who you email most – how they connect. Of course, you’ve nothing to hide, have you? So it’s not really important, is it?

Well, no, of course not.

But, follow the logic and think about the fact that they’re not just collecting the metadata from Gmail but from all your email accounts (people often have more than one – e.g. a work and a private account).

But that’s OK because if you have something to hide you will just use the telephone.

But, they collect the metadata for that too!

And for the web browsing history you do.

And anything else you do on-line.

It’s a much fuller picture they have of you now, isn’t it?

Are you comfortable with that, ‘cos I’m not?

To see how someone has analysed the Immersion program, go to this rather good piece, here.

Also see the original article, from where all this came, in the Guardian.

But, of course, this is all being done by the “good guys”, isn’t it?

Well, watch the following video:

And now tell me that you’re not just a little scared?

Becoming a hermit has never seemed such a great idea until now, eh?

I wonder when (or even if) Governments will be hounded to do something about it?

In amor, vince chi fugge!

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Apparently.

It’s a saying, here, in Italy although, having spent a little while to get the correct translation, I found that it is from Henri Matisse, the French painter/artist. So, in spite of my original thought that it was one of these strange Italian sayings, it turns out not to be so.

A rough translation would be:

In love, the one who runs away is the winner

I was asked if I agreed with it. Of course, that entirely depends on what you mean by “run away”. If it means “playing a little hard to get”, then yes, within reason, I agree.

If you mean to escape to somewhere else then that depends on a) the type of love and b) what the future would have been.

Still, it’s something I’d never heard before and I thought I would share it with you.

But if it’s meaning is the first I mentioned then, yes, I would have to agree, since that is how I “played” it with F and it seems to have worked out OK so far :-)

And you? What do you think?