I’m not quite sure why I always seem to end up involved in Engineering. I don’t like it and I don’t really find it interesting. Sure, I can talk the talk and interact with Engineering people but it’s just lumps of metal (or plastic, or some other material) which are eventually put together to do a job. My real interest is only in the fact that the ‘job’ gets done.
Maybe I am just a grumpy old git.
Man of Roma tagged me for this meme. It is the first time I’ve ever been tagged. I’ve noticed other people have done this sort of thing before and always wondered what it would be like and if I would do it, not being mad on the chain-letter type of thing. However, I thought I would give it a go.
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It’s an age thing. I feel I ought to be able to say something profound with the experience I have. But there is nothing to say.
Ah well.
I must apologise for my lack of posts this month. There have been many times that I’ve started to write something, been distracted or ran out of gas halfway through and they just never get finished.
I have wanted to say things about the events in Tibet; gay people; drink/driving; immigrants; and many other things but they just haven’t made it to the blog.
I’m just an ordinary, simple kind of bloke. I like food, beer and wine, the sun, relaxing, reading, watching a good film, having good times and conversations with friends, etc.
I don’t like football, ignorant and bigoted people, bad food, driving, smelly people, etc.
I don’t have hidden depths. Scratch the surface and there’s just more surface, nothing else.
As those of you who read my blog from time to time will know, I’m a bit of a fan (other words could be fanatic or, if you want to be really mean, nerd) of Tetley tea bags – and I don’t even get free supplies from them!
And, thanks to J (again), I have a huge (well 160) pack of said tea bags. Actually it’s really a pack of 80 but with 100% EXTRA FREE which makes it a pack of 160 in my book.
I’ve been using these for years. I don’t know how many, but it was when we lived in Woonton so at least 6 or so.
And they have come in the same blue pack from, well, as long as I can remember. In fact, I cannot remember life without these tea bags or the blue pack that they come in. Mind you, I am now approaching the age where I forget most things that are, let’s face it, completely unimportant.
One of the “features” of the pack is that the top, once opened, folds back and there is a strip of tape (for want of a better word – well, I do want a better word but I have noticed that, these days, I seem to be losing any skill that I previously had with the English language – the great shame being that my skill with the Italian language is not increasing at anywhere near the same rate as the decrease in skill for English – whoops, I probably shouldn’t have said that in case I want to teach English again) on which the words in title are printed. It’s sticky tape and on this latest pack it is clear tape (apart from the words printed). Oh yes, it also says “LIFT HERE” on the other part of the tape and has an arrow pointing to the edge of the tape which, I guess, they need now that the tape is transparent.
What a wonderful invention it is. You can open your pack of bags as many times as you like, take out a tea bag (or, if you don’t have any boiling water, sniff the contents in the hope of getting the same high) and then re-seal it.
Only one slight problem. The sticky part of this sticky tape works only for so long. If you’re really lucky, twice. But normally not even once. Thereby making the whole thing a waste of time, money and, in particular, effort on my part, to stick the opening down.
So, message to Tetley – either put some real sticky stuff on the tape or just don’t bother. What I find really annoying is that, in spite of the fact that I know it does not ‘stick’ anymore, I still attempt to stick it down every time until there are only about 5 tea bags left, at which point, there really is no point in trying to keep the tea bags fresh.
Having said all that, the rate at which I am going through them I shall have finished them all before the freshness inside notices that there is chance to hot-foot it out of there.
On a different note, it has been a beautiful day today. Quite warm and reminding one of Spring. But don’t be fooled, I’m sure that next week or the week after there will be a cold snap with frost and snow. At least we are out of the 10 days of rain which is something.
Now, of course, I’m feeling hungry. At the moment, as I write this (it’s 2.15 p.m.), my mind flicks over between a nice panini (of course, I should correctly say panino since I am only thinking about one…..no, come to think of it, my mistake was putting the word ‘a’ in front of nice panini) to a plate of pasta. And then, A, bless her, has suggested we meet with her and another friend, B, for a Thai next week (and by that I mean, of course, dinner in a Thai restaurant – not some random person from the Thailand).
Of course, this is entirely all of my own doing – me feeling hungry, that is. I have noticed that, in the last few years a number of things are happening. None of them are really good but I put a brave face on them by saying something like ‘well, I am quite old now’ or ‘at my age why should I bother about that’.
I lie, not only to myself, but also to others, including V but V never reads the blog so I can mention it here.
So, I am not eating anything for lunch. Now, those of you who know me and, in particular, have worked with me, will know that I never really ‘did’ lunch. Lunch was for wimps. Actually, so was breakfast. The only time I ever did lunch was when I had to for business purposes and the only time I did both was when I was on holiday or stayed in a hotel for business purposes.
Not a new thing. I started this at the age of 14 (so more than a couple of years ago). You see, by that time I was hooked on the smoking thing. And, at 14, we moved to a new house and so, to a new school. The fantastic thing about this school was that, at the start of each week, we were given money to purchase tickets for lunch (we used to call it dinner money – strange that, since it was for lunch and not dinner).
But, of course, I soon learned that if I didn’t use the money for dinner I could go into the town and buy something that I really wanted – so that would be cigarettes, then!
And that continued for the rest of my life until …. we came to Italy and, more specifically, when I started this job. The problem was that I used to teach here. I used to do a class in the morning and another after lunch and they gave me free lunch and, since most of my classes seemed to revolve around food (important for both me and every Italian), the offer of a free lunch in the canteen here was really not something I could (or could be seen to) pass up. The other problem is that, on some level, it is still like I’m on holiday – but all the time.
And now I work here. And the canteen is good. It’s not a five-star restaurant, but G (the cook) does fabulous meals.
So, I always have the pasta course and the main course.
And there’s the rub. Because then I go home and we have a meal similar to those we had in the UK (in terms of the amount, not the quality).
Unsurprisingly, I have gained a little weight. Well, that’s true up to a certain point. Not only have I gained a little weight but it seems my body has decided to redistribute itself. Weight (fat or muscle, it’s difficult to remember what it was really) from my top half is going with gravity whilst weight from my bottom half is defying gravity.
They are meeting in the middle. Not really very good. This wasn’t supposed to happen until I was, say, about 70! And others can say that I don’t look my age, but when I look at myself and the redistribution that has occurred, I think only of my grandfather who is (was) always in his 70’s – in my mind. He had the same problem – but, then, he was 70+, for God’s sake!
So, now, I’ve gone from not having lunch (well, hardly ever) to having lunch every day to not having lunch every day. Providing that I don’t go anywhere near the canteen and cannot smell the food cooking, I am fine (more or less).
This week I have done really well. I had lunch on Wednesday. This was a determined effort by me since last week I ended up having lunch every day – and my stomach didn’t shrink. So, this week only Wednesday. To be honest, Monday was easy, Tuesday less so and Wednesday I gave in.
S came back from lunch and said that the lunch was OK (actually, Friday is not my favourite day, the choice is not so good) and I felt rather proud of myself that I had only had one lunch this week. And then that made me think of food and then I felt hungry. Oh yes, and I can’t get rid of the pictures of the very nice salami that is currently in the fridge and I even started thinking about having lunch tomorrow by having some of that salami!
People here have suggested that I only have one course in the canteen or have a salad. But I just can’t do it. G and P are so nice and although I have managed to get them to give me less, it is impossible for me to say no.
And this has been the most dreadful, rambling blog post that I think I have ever done. For which I apologise.
P.s. as I’m posting this, S has just offered me a small piece of chocolate, which, to be polite, I did not refuse ;-).
And the weather was truly fantastic. On Sunday from about 11.30 a.m. for about 3 hours or so, we sat outside a café, in the sun, without coats, watching the lake and the people, Rufus lying at our feet (having had several long walks already that day).
Like Second Life, the blogosphere (the world of bloggers) is not real life. It has similarities but is almost like some sort of game to many people. The trouble is that many of the Real-Life people don’t actually know about this Blog-Life. But, it can be compared to the old Wild, Wild West. Laws (and by that I mean the ‘rules of living together’) have yet to be fully defined.