DOES FART GET TRAPPED IN AIR FILTERS?
Impossible not to think such things when you are travelling AlItalia from Cairo and the plane is jam packed. 3x3 seats in economy, some 30 rows, that is at least 270 bums – add to that the crew and business and I think you reach gaseous saturation.
Now, the fact that most passengers are men - bigger builds, more gas space inside? - and that the vast majority is Egyptian – so eat fuul, i.e. squashed beans, even for breakfast – gives me reason to worry.
I have the little cooling air jet full blast but the terrible stench remains. It seems the expulsion power of my neighbour is far greater, and mostly accompanied by a sigh…
ELP.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
A BIT OF FOX-PRINCIPI KNOWLEDGE
- Men who have longer hair than their wives are German – de facto.
- Irish men only get in the sea when the clouds come out.
- Twenty family members from Ancona sitting at the same table make a hell of a lot of noise.
- Julia-the-screaming-baby does not scream.
- Pooh pooh pooh – Ale, do you need to pooh? – replaced the pipi frenezy witnessed in Chens sur Leman in August.
- Blackpool and Porto Recanati share the same need for newspaper coverage.
Engrossed in a book.
Luigi follows suit, adopting Cristian's reading technique.
Doggy is doing it on the table...
Kate trying to convince that it is not cold.
Julia, the screaming baby who never cried.
- Men who have longer hair than their wives are German – de facto.
- Irish men only get in the sea when the clouds come out.
- Twenty family members from Ancona sitting at the same table make a hell of a lot of noise.
- Julia-the-screaming-baby does not scream.
- Pooh pooh pooh – Ale, do you need to pooh? – replaced the pipi frenezy witnessed in Chens sur Leman in August.
- Blackpool and Porto Recanati share the same need for newspaper coverage.
Engrossed in a book.
Luigi follows suit, adopting Cristian's reading technique.
Doggy is doing it on the table...
Kate trying to convince that it is not cold.
Julia, the screaming baby who never cried.
Friday, September 23, 2005
AND THE SURPRISE GUEST IS…
Guess who I met in Rome????
De Chiara! Remember, a guy named Luigi.
I also bumped into Doreen Zitkovich of IUCN. She thought she could get away incognito with a long minibreak in Rome with her Serge? No. She had to bump into me, just as we were looking for shops and getting strategically muddled as to where was right and where was left and was there a garden in the Quirinale and should we not be eating our sandwiches standing up in the bar like any other sane roman? But who said Romans were sane?
Picnic time for teddy bears up against the Quirinnale wall...
Mag was not the surprise guest, we knew she was coming all along. What did come as a surprise was the amount of aperos she managed! Here is one at Harry's bar on Via Veneto, Roma! (... ok, she was having cappuccino)
Several random tourists in Cortona.
Recovering at home.
Guess who I met in Rome????
De Chiara! Remember, a guy named Luigi.
I also bumped into Doreen Zitkovich of IUCN. She thought she could get away incognito with a long minibreak in Rome with her Serge? No. She had to bump into me, just as we were looking for shops and getting strategically muddled as to where was right and where was left and was there a garden in the Quirinale and should we not be eating our sandwiches standing up in the bar like any other sane roman? But who said Romans were sane?
Picnic time for teddy bears up against the Quirinnale wall...
Mag was not the surprise guest, we knew she was coming all along. What did come as a surprise was the amount of aperos she managed! Here is one at Harry's bar on Via Veneto, Roma! (... ok, she was having cappuccino)
Several random tourists in Cortona.
Recovering at home.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
80+ KM TO GO TO THE CINEMA. WILL GEORGE CLOONEY COME TO CORTONA INSTEAD?
With little left to do on a Saturday night which was supposed to be dedicated to “un rinfresco” – i.e. what we would call a drink, but would here be complemented by lots of food of all description, not just the meaningless nibble, more like the fully blown pasta and meat and 3-veg-equivalent – but that was cancelled, I was on the verge of pouncing down to the shop to rent out a DVD (should I add that it was raining? Maybe not since it has been raining every single weekend for the past months) when the phone rang and Luca and Barbara confirmed that they were up for the cinema (nearly a whole blog here in one single sentence). So it was decided that no, it was not a stupid idea to drive all the way to Chianciano Terme (where they do the drinking of the spring water to improve the health of the liver amongst other things) which is over 40 kilometers away, in the pouring rain, just to see a film… I played at dodge the frog along the way (lots of amphibians around this area, so it must be environmentally friendly) whilst Cristian enjoyed getting lost several times and increasing our drive by a fair few kilometres.
yes, no, not in Cortona yet...
With little left to do on a Saturday night which was supposed to be dedicated to “un rinfresco” – i.e. what we would call a drink, but would here be complemented by lots of food of all description, not just the meaningless nibble, more like the fully blown pasta and meat and 3-veg-equivalent – but that was cancelled, I was on the verge of pouncing down to the shop to rent out a DVD (should I add that it was raining? Maybe not since it has been raining every single weekend for the past months) when the phone rang and Luca and Barbara confirmed that they were up for the cinema (nearly a whole blog here in one single sentence). So it was decided that no, it was not a stupid idea to drive all the way to Chianciano Terme (where they do the drinking of the spring water to improve the health of the liver amongst other things) which is over 40 kilometers away, in the pouring rain, just to see a film… I played at dodge the frog along the way (lots of amphibians around this area, so it must be environmentally friendly) whilst Cristian enjoyed getting lost several times and increasing our drive by a fair few kilometres.
yes, no, not in Cortona yet...
Monday, September 19, 2005
A NEW AMBITION
Careering round a village in a tractor with a sheet draped over it – that is my new ambition. Next year I am going to put my name down for the Festa del Vino at another one of those very beautiful Umbrian villages.
The brass band of Pozzuolo was there so we dutifully went to watch, only to be blown away not only by the wind but also by the fabulous floats that were going round the village (the tractors with sheets over them).
A true festa del vino with no wine (too cold) and charts with no vision!
Careering round a village in a tractor with a sheet draped over it – that is my new ambition. Next year I am going to put my name down for the Festa del Vino at another one of those very beautiful Umbrian villages.
The brass band of Pozzuolo was there so we dutifully went to watch, only to be blown away not only by the wind but also by the fabulous floats that were going round the village (the tractors with sheets over them).
A true festa del vino with no wine (too cold) and charts with no vision!
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
MISSING SEATS
Should you fancy venturing down to Calabria, remember to take a toilet seat. After Naples, toilet seats become extras rather than normal additions to the loo. There were none in the flat we stayed in or in the posh restaurant where the wedding reception took place. In fact, I am starting to wonder if people nick each others seats, sneak out of bathrooms clutching it or hiding it under their t-shirts. Maybe it is a fashion statement not to have seats? And maybe the lack of seats is positively correlated with the Italian obsession of intimate hygiene products (fanny soaps)? Or maybe they are creating a new hybrid between the squat and the fully-fledged porcelain basin? The mind boggles…
Hoola Hoop.
Should you fancy venturing down to Calabria, remember to take a toilet seat. After Naples, toilet seats become extras rather than normal additions to the loo. There were none in the flat we stayed in or in the posh restaurant where the wedding reception took place. In fact, I am starting to wonder if people nick each others seats, sneak out of bathrooms clutching it or hiding it under their t-shirts. Maybe it is a fashion statement not to have seats? And maybe the lack of seats is positively correlated with the Italian obsession of intimate hygiene products (fanny soaps)? Or maybe they are creating a new hybrid between the squat and the fully-fledged porcelain basin? The mind boggles…
Hoola Hoop.
Monday, September 05, 2005
KARAOKE – NOT IN JAPAN
Surprised is the least I could say I was when the bride grabbed the microphone and started belting out love songs. Then came the groom, then the brothers, then the uncles who unleashed the 80-odd cousins. By the end of it, most guests either had their heads in a bucket or where outside trying to find sharp objects to cut their veins with… I understand wedding are about love but to have 6 hours worth of it, trickling in honey, was a bit too much.
Another sociological factor that I wasn’t expecting was the success of Latin American group dances. Who needs the tarantella when you can have a Ricky Martin remix?
Husband and Wife, aka Andrea and Antonella
Nice fern.
Julio Inglesias or the brother of the bride?
Boys, looking the part before the wedding in Calabria.
Surprised is the least I could say I was when the bride grabbed the microphone and started belting out love songs. Then came the groom, then the brothers, then the uncles who unleashed the 80-odd cousins. By the end of it, most guests either had their heads in a bucket or where outside trying to find sharp objects to cut their veins with… I understand wedding are about love but to have 6 hours worth of it, trickling in honey, was a bit too much.
Another sociological factor that I wasn’t expecting was the success of Latin American group dances. Who needs the tarantella when you can have a Ricky Martin remix?
Husband and Wife, aka Andrea and Antonella
Nice fern.
Julio Inglesias or the brother of the bride?
Boys, looking the part before the wedding in Calabria.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
THE TRAGEDY OF THE DIESEL SUNGLASSES
They were there, basking in the shade, under the towel, minding their own business. All of a sudden, hit by extreme pressure they tried to endure (my bum) they gave way and snapped. The fate of the diesel sunglasses was sealed on the 2nd of September. Why, my question is, could it not have been the fake pair of chanel that hurt my head anyway?
Da Enzo - place of the crush
They were there, basking in the shade, under the towel, minding their own business. All of a sudden, hit by extreme pressure they tried to endure (my bum) they gave way and snapped. The fate of the diesel sunglasses was sealed on the 2nd of September. Why, my question is, could it not have been the fake pair of chanel that hurt my head anyway?
Da Enzo - place of the crush