18 Hughenden Road

Off to Italy again...tomorrow, early morning...hopefully...(Easyjet flight to Pisa has been has been canceled today, so touch wood...). Once again it is wedding time, "la Vale" this round...with whom I took classes and studied for 5 long years at the University...

As usual the weekend looks already pretty busy...as I said, tomorrow morning the wedding near Pisa...which is a good way also of seeing some of the guys I went to Uni with...But this is only the beginning... in the night I am gonna have a dinner with the old classmates from the high school...I am pretty excited about that...cos some of them I haven't seen for ages really...definitely not since I have moved to England...So it is indeed a good chance to catch up on things...and talk and laugh together a bit…

Sunday morning 11-a -side football match, then Fiorentina for the last match of the season...and then dinner with the guys I used to play Basketball with...over 10 years ago...And again there are some people I haven’t seen for years...for years... It is all so exciting...especially if you live far from everybody...and therefore you never really have the chance to see them... I do not what they are doing, how they are doing...but at the end of the day these are the faces I have spent long good years with…Cool...I can’t wait...!

Finally...the spring has come...or, as they said on the radio, "the first summer day"...
Sunny all day long, warm...beautiful...really beautiful...!
Temperature up to 23 degrees...of course the hottest of 2008 so far...I also had my first ice cream of the season...! :)
Funny that these days always come when you have to spend the whole time in...We just come from 3 days at home...3 dull days with some rain as well...
I have taken a picture from my window just a minute ago...now though I am going to enjoy the sunshine at the Downs...

Bbbbbyyyyyyeeeeee...!!!!!!!!!

Summer Time

A month ago...just a month ago...on the 6th of April it was snowing instead...

In many countries, May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, which celebrates the social and economic achievements of the labor movement. Not in the UK...
Here it works different...bank holidays are not fixed days...it is bank holiday It is bank holiday Good Friday, Easter Monday, the first and the last Monday on May, the last Monday of August, plus boxing day (26th of December) and the new year's day (1st of January). Bank Holidays get their name because they are days when banks are shut and therefore, traditionally, no other businesses could operate.
So that, today was a day as all the other of the year...! We are not so unlucky though...we will have bank holiday next Monday...Looking forward to it...!

...and straightaway under pressure...! Poor my little car...I think she might hate me...! I collected her form the garage on Friday afternoon...and I drove to the Peak District (North of England) directly from there...Almost 700 Km in 2 days...but that was a good test to see that she is still a great car...! The response was brilliant...! Maybe from now on long distances will be banned anyhow...just for the need to preserve the car...
I am too tired to talk about anything else now...

dal tuo (quasi) zio...!!! :)

Eccola che arriva...

The visit to Glasgow was good...! Maybe the match was the worst part of it...but even if it was a short visit we had really good fun...
We got to Glasgow at 4 pm ish. The city centre was busy, most of the people were showing football colors...definitely all the over 2000 people from Florence...but most of the local supporters as well...
The welcoming and the atmosphere was really cool...Rangers supporters were wishing good luck, Celtic fans instead we encouraging, (almost begging) us to beat their reveals...!!
Ibrox Park is a great stadium...it is really beautiful inside, with an amazing view of the ground...as usual in British stadia...
The walls of the stadium are all made by red bricks...The cool thing is that you can engrave your name on them for just £35..."be a part of Ibrox forever". You can write there whatever you want...your name, a phrase, some greetings...and it will be recordered forever...
We got there slightly before 6 o'clock...on time to have a walk around Ibrox, take some pictures, have a chat with some Rangers supporters and visit the official store...
We got in at 7 ish...45 minutes before the kick off. To be honest though...I was expecting local fans to be louder.True that when they started to sing it was hard to talk to the person next to you...however it was not continuosly... Goodison Park (against Everton) was much much more impressive from this point of view.
As said before the match was probably the worst part...Rangers with their ultra-defensive, anti-football tactics didn't let Fiorentina play...therefore we didn't found many spaces to create them problems... 0-0 is the worse of the good results...I am a bit disapponted we did not get an away goal...now we have to be careful in Florence. I am confident we can do it though...
After the match we say good bye to Tommy and Lorenzo and made our way back towards the city centre for another walk and a pint... Not for too long though...the alarm was set at 6 o'clock , just time for a shower and a quick breakfast...there was a plane to catch...and another long day ahead...

How's the Twingo then...?
Well...it looks like she is still alive...and that already a good new...
Yesterday I was quite worried that I had to say goodbye to my little car...but today I had a phone call from the garage and they say they fixed the problem and the car is working again...!!! :)
It was a bit expensive to fix it...but at the end of the day I didn't have very many alternatives...
On Friday I will go to collect the car...and drive straight away to north of England...she will hate me...!
BTW...the problem was caused by the water pump...bloody water pump...

I called it a month ago...and here it is...the Twingo broke down today...!
The thing is...(cos I am lucky of course) that I was in London, or to be honest, on the way back from London...and I had to leave the car in Winsdor...next to the royal residency...!!! If the Queen sees it tonight maybe she will fall in love, I won't get my car back ever again...!!! :)
I heard a weird sound coming from the engine when I was almost in London...but I understood straight away that it would have been hard to take the car back home...
On the way back as soon as I got on the M4 the weird sound got louder and the water temperature warning light started flashing. I got off the motorway and pulled on a side... I remained calm, maybe because I was expecting it. There is a moment though in which you really don't know what to do...and it seems you are unable to think anything...but fortunately that was just one...
The first thought was to call the recovery service...but then I decided to wait for the water temperature to decrease a bit and drive to the closest garage... Luke, on the phone, told me that there was one just 2 miles away. Slowly I drove there, and park the car in the vicinity of the garage. Tomorrow morning I'll borrow Bjoern's car and go there.
Fortunately Ilaria with Alessandro and some other friends were behind me, so I got home quite easily.

This is the second time in 11 and half years that the car broke down...so I cannot complain...it just happens...sooner or later...

Broke down

no matter how many times you put your hand in your pocket
you still have only eighteen cents.

no matter how many times you dial the cell phone number
you still hear a busy signal.

no matter how many times you turn the ignition
you still get the grinding sound and then the click.

no matter how many times you turn your head
there are still no cars on the empty street.

no matter how many times you look up
you still see the face in the window watching.

Words by James Reinbold - Images by David Reinbold

(http://dr-jr.blogspot.com/)

I got up this morning at 9 ish, not really sure about what to do before going to Franco's for lunch...so I decided it would have been nice to go somewhere for breakfast...
Deco Lounge is a little nice, cosy cafe...perfect for something like that...
People around me are having English breakfast...and I have to say it looks good and it smells good as well...maybe next time...I didn't fancy it today...
The guy next to me is surfing with his Mac...with its enlightened blue apple that you spot as soon as you get in... Someone, no need to mention who  :-(right Carlo...???, right Fra...??? :-) think this its cool...but my old Acer do as well...despite its age...!
It's raining...usually it happens often...a sunny weeks which turns into rain as soon as the week-end starts...
It's unfair...it's a shame...I would have liked to go around with my camera to take some pictures...

Finally I can say it loud...I was keeping it for myself, just to wait for Tommy to confirm that
he got hold of the tickets...for the UEFA Cup semifinals. It will be a quick visit to Scotland...flight to Glasgow on Thursday afternoon...football match in the night and back to Bristol on Friday early morning...ready to go straight to work...!
Jena and Franco will come along... there we will meet Tommy and Lorenzo AKA il Norfo...
Ibrox Park is one of 27 European stadia which have UEFA's 5-star rating. This enables it to host finals of the UEFA Champions League and the European Championship. It will be amazing the atmosphere there...

I can't wait... I can't wait...

Ibrox_Park