Tag Archives: Strange things

Crisis? Oh, yes, that old thing.

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Apparently, we’re fucked.

Well, on the plus side, at least the Italians (around me) seem to be talking about things. It has always seemed as if ‘the crisis’ was happening elsewhere – some other country in the world.

But, rather than the crisis, per se, the talk is about Buzz Lightyear (Mr B) and how long he can hang on for and who will take over from him.

And there’s the rub. Because, as I’ve said before, there is no one. Neither the Left nor the Right have anyone who has any real hope of pulling parties together to form a government. Buzz, at least, has enough charisma to do so.

I read this on the BBC site.

However, it’s a little strange. After all, even if it is written by an ex-pat Italian, she writes that ‘the school’s walls are covered with graffiti”. Hmmm. Yes, of course they are. And they were before the crisis. It is ‘normal’ here. In the UK, people would be up in arms and the police would go and find the culprits. Here, in Italy, graffiti is on most buildings. It’s a cultural thing.

And, in the time I have been here, I have noticed that the Italians, in exactly the same way as the Brits, complain about the money being spent (or not spent) on schools and hospitals and how the service from both is much worse than a) it used to be and b) other countries (especially in Europe). For that matter, the same is said about public transport.

Anyway, my view is that Aunt Cristina has it spot on. When explaining why Buzz keeps getting voted in, she says:

“It’s not just the pensioners, you know,” she says, jabbing at the air with her fork. “It’s a macho thing. So many Italians think he’s all man.”

That and the fact that there is no one else who could be a possible leader.

My colleague at work suggests that the President (who has all the power of our Queen in the UK) will call for a Technical Government, here. A government that will be full of economists and the like and who won’t actually ‘govern’ as such but just concentrate on the fiscal side.

But they will have a tough job ahead of them. After all (and I might have figures wrong here – but it’s something like this), there are 72,000 cars for officials in Italy compared to 195 in the UK. I think that says it all, really.

Anyway, by the time you read this, Buzz could be out of office, or Greece could have left the Euro or the world could have collapsed – or, more likely, everything will be, more or less, the same.

Speaking Italian is difficult but texting Italian on an Italian phone is even more difficult ……. it seems?????

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Takers. I hate them. OK, so hate is too strong a word. But I dislike it. I dislike it more when the person is supposed to be a friend.

FfI has just moved into a new house in my area – about 5 minutes from me. She wants me to go and see it – but not that badly, I guess.

Having texted to see if she is free I get the following reply:

2.30 my house. Call & I will give you the address,

She never calls. Always ‘doesn’t have enough credit’. But it’s not free for me either and I get a little pissed with it. So, I’ve decided I won’t call until she does next time. OK, I know it’s petty but it’s every fucking time …… call me I haven’t got any credit!

My reply was:

Text address and I will be there

Cant text in italian.phone sucks. That’s why I need you to call. One second.

WTF? I mean, seriously? You can’t text the address but you can text other messages? Are you off your fucking rocker? I mean, street name, number and bell name or number, that’s all!

Since she uses ‘I haven’t got credit’ all the time, I replied with:

Texts are free for me – calls cost. Send on fb

I got:

Not near computer; cant spell street one with this phone: Will contact you later

Sorry, but it just cannot be true. I don’t believe it and if she can’t be bothered then, frankly, neither can I. She’s a strange one, for sure. It’s gone 2.30 now. I guess I won’t be going until she contacts me …….. which won’t be any time soon LOL

A breakthrough?

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We have made some sort of breakthrough.

It’s down to Dino, really, since he looks very cuddly.

Up until last night, the most it has been is a ‘Ciao’ or ‘Salve’ (pronounced salvey = Hi).

The other night she was in the kebab shop, just round the corner from me. She looked excited to see me and the dogs. I was a bit surprised but then an ambulance came by so I was trying to keep Dino from howling, as he does. She asked what was happening and I tried to explain. But then I realised that she wasn’t pleased to see me nor was she (probably) asking what was going on but, rather, was talking to a guy in a white Mercedes cars that are supposed to be, kind of, off-road vehicles but are used for taking the kids to school, etc. I was, frankly, a little embarrassed at having thought she was pleased to see me. After all, why would she be.

However, last night, as I’m walking up to the penultimate corner of our evening walk, she saw us coming and called to Dino. He, of course, was very excited. I told him not to jump. She asked what I was saying and I explained. We chatted for a moment or two, as you do.

I keep wanting to ask her how business is. It’s a bit cheeky but I am interested. She’s tall, with legs. Not amazingly attractive but not ugly. Kind of smartly dressed, in a tarty way. Usually something to show off her legs. Like a shop window shows off the stuff that will entice you in. Which, of course, is what the long legs are for.

And I see cars stop often – inquiring about the price I suppose.

I’ve never seen it so blatant anywhere in the UK.

But, now we’re chatting. So maybe, eventually, I will get chance to find out if business is good. I don’t know why I’m so curious to know – but I am.

As I said, it’s a breakthrough, of sorts.

SHOCK! HORROR! We make the Daily Hate Mail ?????

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I was shocked.

I mean, Italy doesn’t make the Daily Hate Mail pages unless it’s for another scandal about Buzz Lightyear or because those “Lazy Italians” are meaning that the UK has to spend a fortune bailing them out as part of the Euro.

So it was nice to see this:

Towers of Trees (officially Vertical Forest)

And I go past them every day. They don’t look like they do in the picture right now but they should do and that is nice.

Although Milan does have a LOT of trees and greenery and a lot of apartment blocks do have roof gardens. It’s nowhere near as drab as you may think :-)

Do the work and wait ……… wait ……… for the money

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I read this, from the Independant (which I got from Twitter or Facebook or something – I’m sorry, I forget now).

Interns, from what I can understand can expect no payment for any work they do. It is supposed to be treated as ‘work experience’. The problem here is that it rarely leads to a full-time job. Instead, Interns go from one ‘unpaid job’ to another.

It will surely become a problem given the current crisis. With no hope of securing a full-time job – why bother?

Which then leads to unhappiness. Which, in turn leads to restlessness. And then, when there are enough unhappy, restless young people, something is bound to happen, isn’t it?

However, the really damning bit (for me) comes towards the end of the piece, namely:

But it seems that even people hired by the magazine cannot count on being paid. The Independent spoke to one person who was recruited this summer by Flash Art magazine without pay on a two-month trial basis. After a successful trial he continued working but was told there was no money to pay him a month later.

“Of course it’s immoral,” he said. “If they haven’t got the money to pay the staff they need, then they shouldn’t be in operation. But it’s hardly the only company doing this sort of thing.”

The Flash Art controversy followed the magazine’s recent call for new interns for eight to 10-month periods – even though using someone as an intern for more than six months is illegal in Italy.

I have known of other people who haven’t been paid – either for a very long time or at all. Worse still, if you’re on some sort of term contract. I cross my fingers that I didn’t have too much problem getting my money when I was teaching (although there was one, how should I say, ‘near miss’).

Part of the reason it’s like this is the Italian way of thinking. Mummy and Daddy can always take care of you, it seems. And, because Italians have the highest savings rate in Europe (maybe the world?), it is (I guess) assumed you have plenty of savings to tide you over.

I’m sure I would have a much stronger opinion about it if it had ever happened to me but it is wrong, isn’t it? I mean, in a civilised country within the European Union, how can this possibly be right?

It’s a sign of a wider problem. That of not really giving a shit about anyone else [that’s not either family or important to you].

And things that I do, as a Brit, sometimes get misconstrued by Italians. I remember somebody who got a ‘job’ through someone else. They thought it would be a really nice idea to take their new boss to lunch – if the guy were in the area. But the friend who had done the recommendation became something akin to a Tasmanian Devil and the vitriol and hatred that spat from a (normally) very nice, pleasant, Italian woman was more than a little shocking. For her it was this person ‘going behind her back’.

She now lives in the UK. I wonder how she gets on over there – where, to be honest, this kind of situation is not something to be bothered about.

We don’t all have some ulterior motive other than ‘to be nice and respectful’. Here that does not always seem to be the case. Not giving a shit about people seems to be the norm – and it does annoy me a bit.

Some guys doing an eating tour of Italy in an Ape

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Eating is a bit of a pastime here. And so it seems only right that if you’re going to tour anywhere, with the main purpose of eating stuff, it should be in Italy.

Of course, you could do it in style or ……………….. you could do it in an Ape. This is a teeny 3-wheel, moped-engined ‘vehicle’. Of course, to do a ‘tour’ in an Ape is crazy but, amazingly, it’s being done.

I know this because of the following email. Follow them through their trip (of course, they’re only going up one side of Italy – so missing out on half of Italy’s good food :-) )

Hi,

I came across your page and thought you might be interested in writing about two brothers who are currently on a food road trip through Italy.

They will be constantly documenting their journey, so will be able to supply you with daily info/images/videos.

Please feel free to write about this journey, embed our videos/images and share it with your friends.

Please check out all the information below and contact me if you would like to know anything else.

Thanks,

Jess

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Travel Dates: 09/10/11 – 04/11/11

3 days in Piedmont/Lombardia – other odd things

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There are things that didn’t really fit into the other posts.

1. The Alps. On our way there, on Saturday, we went via the motorway. It is noticeable here, that motorway lanes are much narrower than in the UK. As a result, the trucks sometimes have difficulty staying in lane. I am amazed that there aren’t more accidents. But that’s not really what I want to talk about.

The river Po runs across the top of Italy from the left to the right. It’s an important river with important cities and towns on the way. It has a huge, flat, wide area around it – and I mean totally flat and very, very wide. I don’t know whether it is a flood plain – but it’s certainly plain.

However, surrounding it on both sides (more or less) is hilly or mountainous territory. To the North are the Alps. From Milan we are heading South-West to Turin. In my head, because Turin seems closer to the Alps, we should be heading North – but we’re not. And yet, as we drive along the motorway, the Alps are always there, to our right and, as we approach Turin, the Alps curve in front of us, heading South.

It is quite beautiful, really. Some mountains already had snow on them. There is a peak, directly in front of us, behind Turin, that is taller than its surrounding mountains and very pointy. Of course, Turin Airport is one of the main airports to come to if you are going skiing in winter.

2. The hills to the East of Turin. Is where we stayed. Mountains are beautiful – at a distance. Hills, for me, however, are wonderful close up. It reminds me a little of Herefordshire. Except there are more of them and they tend to be higher. Oh, yes, and Italians built towns on the top. On the Saturday afternoon, on our way to the Abbey, we passed and stopped in some of the hill-top towns. It always seems a peculiar, Italian thing. Some are pretty. Some seem busy with shops and restaurants. Some are as dead as a doornail. Nearly always the road is as twisty as hell and sometimes, very steep.

In these hills and valleys, there are a lot of little woods and forests. A LOT of trees. I often feel like I want to stop and take a walk – but you need the dogs, really, for it to be really interesting.

3. Agriculture. On our way back to Milan on the Monday, we drove through more of the Po valley. I noticed two things. a) They don’t do hedges here. I miss hedges. I like the way hedges make things more interesting. I suppose they didn’t have the ‘enclosure’ thing we had in the UK. Not only are there no hedges but there are few walls either. And b), there are fields that seem to be ‘dug out’ or sunken. This is, probably, because this is, according to F, a great rice-growing area. As I said to him, I was never told, at school, that Italy grew rice. From my school days I would have ignorantly supposed that only Japan and China grew rice and that all the world’s rice came from them. The downside to producing rice would be mosquitoes in summer.

In general, it was a very agricultural area. I’m guessing that besides rice, a lot of wheat (for pasta and bread) is also grown here. But there are also lots of groups of trees (woods and forests). I wouldn’t say the Po valley is really pretty but it’s quite nice.

I still miss the hedges.

4. Driving. I do all the driving. F doesn’t really like driving very much. He is also a crap passenger, getting quite nervous, quite often. However, I was grateful that, one time, as I turned from one small lane to another small road, he reminded me that I am supposed to drive on the right. You’d think, after all these years and the many kilometres that I have driven, I wouldn’t still be driving on the left (but it only happens on small roads that are hardly big enough for cars to pass, thank goodness).

5. Cappuccino drinking. As everyone should know, one should NOT drink cappuccino after about 10.30 or 11 a.m. This is a shame because cappuccino is nice. If I am with people, I drink macchiato – espresso with a dash of milk foam so that I have some milk (otherwise, I have to have about 6 sugars). The one thing I love F for (amongst many things) is the fact that he will have a cappuccino at any time of the day and, so, I can join him. Really it’s because he doesn’t like espresso that much and always has it with water (cold) or milk (which he doesn’t drink and doesn’t really like apart from with espresso – he IS a bit strange, I suppose).

That’s all I can think of right now.

p.s. 6. Ladies on the road. I use the term ‘ladies’ advisedly. We would be driving along a fairly main road in the country and then, at the side of the road, sitting in a folding chair, apparently sunning herself, would be a lady. She would, invariably, have long hair and be dressed as if she were just going to, or returning from, a disco. Her skirt would be short and her top would leave a lot exposed. Sometimes, there would be a lady each side of the road.

It’s a part of Italy that I’ve never quite got used to. Moreover, my main thought was – ‘I wonder what they do in the winter?’

I only saw one car ‘driving away’ from one of these ladies. It sped away as if it didn’t want to be caught by me. I wonder why?

An Italian view of the Knox/Sollecito Appeal result.

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There’s a programme on TV called Porta Porta. It’s like a discussion programme. F likes watching it but it usually goes on too late for me. Also, it’s quite difficult to follow (for me).

The night before last, they were covering the Kercher murder case/Knox/Sollecito appeal.

Last night, at the restaurant, we (F and I) had a discussion about the result of the appeal. I really wanted to understand why the Italians (and I am generalising here) think Knox and Sollecito are guilty and the appeal came out wrong.

Obviously, we are fed different biases by our media (TV, newspapers, etc.) and I understand that but here are the results of my little survey (of 1 person, I know that, but it’s the best I can do at the moment).

The problem seems to be, that if the result of the original trial was so certain, the Italians question how the appeal could have completely overturned the original result. F said that a woman on the show (that he respects) had said that either the judge in the first trial was sleeping or there is something wrong with the appeal.

I tried to say that the problem was with the DNA evidence (the way it was collected, analysed, etc.) – but this was ignored by F. I said I didn’t understand why the mobiles discarded in the garden weren’t checked for DNA as they had belonged to the two Italian girls also sharing the house. He told me they were Kercher’s phones. I need to check. [Update: I have checked. One belonged to one Italian flatmate – but she had lent it to Meredith. The other was Meredith’s UK phone]

He believes that the police did a good job (outside of Italy, of course, we feel that the police did a botched job at best). He believes that they are guilty (Knox and Sollecito).

But the main problem is that – the first trial having been so decisive on the guilt of the two, Italians fail to understand how it could be that an appeal could have completely overturned that. To them, something stinks. And, whilst it stinks, then the pair are still guilty.

I wonder if we’ll ever really know the truth.

Once upon a time, according to the Daily Mail ………..

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I don’t know about the UK TV but it was all over everywhere, here, last night.

The aquittal of murder of Knox and Sollecito. I could talk about how it was the right decision, given the atrocious evidence or the wrong decision, given that Amanda admitted being there and then changed her mind.

But I won’t since it is being written about ad infinitum.

And, in any case, I only get to know about the evidence that the papers wish to tell me about. And, so, I can’t really make a judgement on that.

I will say, though, that Rudi did a runner, whereas Knox and Sollecito did not. Rudi makes more sense than the other two. Especially Knox for, if I had done it, I would have been on a plane to the States before the body had even been found.

And, perhaps there was a really good reason why the mobile phones that were discarded had no DNA. And, anyway, what Italian leaves their mobile phones at home when they go away or, even, out to the supermarket?

No, it’s all very strange and impossible for me to say if the verdict was right or not but that is not the point of this post.

The Daily Mail Online, of course, wanted (as they all did, I’m sure) to be first with the reactions and quotations after the verdict. So, as with obituaries, they must have written it in advance and, since they didn’t know the verdict in advance, one has to write two versions – 1 for guilty and 1 for aquittal.

Fair enough. At the end of it, you have to do this and just fill in the odd blank at the time.

The Daily Mail said, in their online version that when Amanda realised what the judge had said she “sank into her chair sobbing uncontrollably”.

Apparently they quoted the prosecutors as saying that ‘justice had been done’ (as an actual quote).

Both Knox and Sollecito said they would appeal.

Confused? Well, yes, that’s understandable.

There’s a picture on the page explaining how Knox’s parents were ‘distraught after the verdict was read out in court’.

Apparently, according to the Daily Mail, ‘both [Knox and Sollecito] will be put on suicide watch’ and that this was ‘normal practice’.

Of course, the whole thing was a terrible mistake. The headline read: Guilty: Amanda Knox looks stunned as appeal against murder conviction is rejected.

Whoops! Someone may get fired over this. You had, even without any thinking, a 50/50 chance of getting it right but it seems the wrong one was put up.

OK, so everyone can make a mistake and the idea that most of the article wouldn’t have been written before the verdict is laughable – of course they wrote two and I don’t have a problem with that.

However, what I DO have a problem with is the direct quotations littering the article. Some even inside inverted commas – which means they are supposed to be the actual words said. This was, quite obviously, not true. It was impossible. The prosecutors were NOT happy and DID NOT say that ‘justice had been done’.

And this, I have a problem with. Not that I ever thought the Daily Mail told the truth but, to have quoted someone without them ever saying the words leads me to wonder if any of the quotations they use are factual and have actually been said. Or if any of their stories are other than complete fairytales.

In fact, perhaps it is better to preface each Daily Mail story with:

Once upon a time, according to the Daily Mail ………..