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Here is the email I just received...

From: ATM PAYMENT CENTER
Date: Tue, Jul 5, 2008 at 5:46 PM
Subject: ATM FINAL NOTIFICATION
To: undisclosed-recipients

DEAR BENEFICIARY:
An ATM Withdrawers card worth 6.8 Million Dollars has been credited in your
favor contact Mr Richard Smith and Provide for him the info below for
claims:

Name:
Address:
Country:
Age:
Sex:
Direct Phn No:

Send the above information to Mr Richard Smith Via his personal info below:

Email: mr.richard_smith234_claimsunit@live.com
TEL NO:+2348076664709

REGARDS
SENATOR DAVID MARK
ONLINE CO-ORDINATOR

So in case I do not update the blog any longer it is because I might be in some tropical island enjoying the beach sunshine... :)

But not only...Also Nevada, Utah and Arizona! Deserts, mountains, hills and beaches, a bit of everything in my next holiday, this summer. I am going with two friends, Frenky and Bj (AKA Franco and Bjoern). We don't want to plan to much, we just have a rough idea of what we want to see and where we want to go...but that's it... everything will be decided on the day... We fly to S.Francisco on the 22nd of August, after the week-end we will begin our tour towards Napa Valley, Yosemite Park, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Zion Park, Monument Valley and Grand Canyon...

From here we will have a long drive towards the ocean, where we want to spend few days between Santa Barbara, Pismo Beach, the Big Sur and Monterey, driving north along the Highway 1, towards S.Francisco, before boarding again on the plane destination London. At this point it will be the 8th of September...

 

Back to normality after 2 special days. I had fun preparing the little things to make the blog look nicer and that is what it is all about really. Everything is nice when you enjoy it.
144 visitors in two days (98+44) and 412 page views (270+142), big numbers.
Now 18 Hughenden Road is back to normality, the song is no longer in auto-play, color have gone back to standard as well as the background picture. Just in case someone missed the beautiful Florence Edition here is a little screen-shot. The blog as it used to be...

24th of June, St. John the Baptist, Saint Patron of Florence. It is a feast day in Florence. The day of the final of the Calcio Storico, the day of the fireworks, dei fohi. Thus I took this occasion to make something a bit more special. A way to say thanks to my city, a way to feel closer to it. I bring it always with me but at the same time I miss it lot. It is eight years by now that I left, first in Pisa, then in the UK. It is eight years that I don't live my the city anymore, but every time I come back I try to find sometime for a walk in the city centre, or on the surrounding hills.
You can't describe Florence, you can't explain what it is that makes it so special, that move you, deeply, every single time you see the places you have seen a hundred time. Every corner, every street, every place has its own story, in a city which is full of history, every where you go. This is what makes it so beautiful, what makes its people so proud of it. I apologize for the English readers, but I would like to paste something that my friend Tommy wrote (some time ago, in Italian) about Santa Maria Novella, one of the most beautiful Church in Florence. For everyone instead I made a little slideshow with some terrific pictures I have found on the web (actually some are mine as well :) ).

I titoli a volte si scelgono per catturare l’attenzione di lettori distratti o pigri che selezionano così le poche righe sulle quali spendere il loro poco tempo di webnauti.In questa italica riscoperta di miti un po’ impolverati e forse per questo ciclicamente riproponibili, il titolo del cavallo di battaglia di quello che sembra essere rinato come l’idolo delle ragazzine di mezz’età, mi è sembrato un ottimo catalizzatore per gli assonnati occhi dei miei due o tre lettori di poetica memoria.E’ sabato a Firenze; stranieri con improbabili magliette corte e cartina in mano, i banchi di S. Lorenzo che aprono i battenti e le urla becere e condite di fiorentina “sacralità” dei garzoni del mercato centrale. C’è già un po’ di viola nell’aria con le civette quotidiani che già ammiccano ad una partita teoricamente abbordabile. E’ sabato a Firenze e nonostante il lavoro chiami, ho deciso di passare per un attimo in piazza S. Maria Novella.Per il viaggiatore che giunge a Firenze ed esce dalle austere e razionaliste forme della stazione, di lei vede solo l’imponente e cupo tergo. Finestroni enormi e paramenti di pietra forte. Dovrebbe incuriosire trovarsi davanti l’unica chiesa che invece del suo volto bello ti mostra le spalle, come una donna civettuola d’altri tempi. Fai via degli Avelli e cerchi di guardarle i fianchi, capire se val la pena fare altri 50 metri e farle svelare il viso. Entri in piazza e capisci che Leon Battista Alberti era uno che, primo, voleva bene a Firenze e secondo, era innamorato della bellezza della geometria. Qualche raggio di sole esce dalle nuvole e rende immacolato ciò che molti direbbero “bianco”, meraviglioso qualcosa che gli stessi direbbero banalmente “bello” e l’occhio innamorato di un fiorentino qualunque si riempie di orgogliosa commozione.Mancano pochi minuti all’appuntamento ma cedo alla tentazione di entrare nella pancia di questa meraviglia dove, solitario ed unico, Giotto ha appeso la sua eterna preghiera a Dio: l’immagine di un uomo affisso mani e piedi ad una rigida croce, morente e misteriosamente trionfante. Il capolavoro di Masaccio e Masolino, lì accanto sembrano quasi una lieve appendice a tale bellezza.La nostra città è così, è un luogo dove capita di camminare distrattamente accanto ad un pezzo di muro dipinto per il quale a New York, solo per quello, costruirebbero un immenso museo. Firenze è così, è lo scrigno più grande riempito delle più belle gemme e pietre preziose che attende sempre l’occhio di un fiorentino qualunque che lo guardi non con bramosia ed interesse ma con amore e desiderio

It is very well known that summer in England is not as good as it can be somewhere else...and for many aspects this is very very true...there is one thing though that makes me love this period more than others during the year... The dusk is very very late, almost at 11 o'clock, if not later. I took a picture from my window at 23.07 GMT, pointing NW. The sky is still a bit clear, but in few minutes it will be completely dark...Tomorrow morning, before 4 o'clock dawn brakes...it is another day...

Finally I made up my mind...It was long time I wanted to get one...and from today I have a new Mountain Bike...wheeeyyy!!!! No that there are very many mountains here to be honest... :) I hope I can use it a lot in the summer (is there a summer in England? Today max. 16 C°, overcast, another dull day) to go to work, and also maybe to go for a ride around the city...My friends go often...so hopefully I will join them soon. To get it I use the cycle to work scheme...a government scheme to encourage people to use bike instead of cars. Basically my company bought the bike for me, and now they are going to deduct the cost from my wage in 3, 6, or 12 months (up to me the choice) but before taxes, so I end up paying 20% off the full price. On top of that there is an extra 10% off for a convention between my company and the shop...which bring the total save up to 30%...not bad at all...
Now let's wait for some sunshine to enjoy it properly.

... aspetta e spera...

                          the card             the cake            the champagne...

...I should get a haircut soon or it is a good idea to let the hair grow and flies in the wind...? (last time I got a haircut was beginning of February... ihihihihihihihihi)

...have improved a lot in the last weeks...Since Matt moved out, everything is finally different, more human I would say... For over a year it was 3 people living in the same house and completely ignoring each other...no talks, no relationship whatsoever...Everyone living in his own room...as if it was a refuge where hiding from everyone else, where everyone was free do whatever he wanted...With Jamie things started to change...and when Biri moved in...finally...the flat came back to life...Now we spend much more time in the living room, we planned together some developments for the house...something to buy for common use, we even had dinner together yesterday night...It was since I was living with Carla and Emily that I didn't have dinner with my flatmates...two and more years ago...
Moreover...the flat is much more livable...everyone helps out and try to keep it tidy and clean...I couldn't stand things as they were before anymore...

Once in a while it is nice to spend a week end in London...and it was quite a long time now that I didn't do it...I got there by bus yesterday early morning, and got a lift form Alessandro tonight on the way back...
City centre on Saturday afternoon is just crazy...you can't imagine the amount of people walking on the pavement...holding shopping bags of every size and color... running from a side to the other side of the street...from a shop a shop to another one... I stopped for few minutes in one of the busiest street just to watch this spectacle...you see people of every race, every color, every nation, every age...each one different form the other one...who talks on the mobile, who chats with a friend or partner, who laughs, who smokes,who, on his own, is lost in his deep thoughts...all of them walking fast toward their destination...I was thinking that in few hours all of those people would have been in a different place...far from each other...and the street would be left pretty much empty...everyone disappeared...until the next day... when different people will do the same...and that's the same for every single day of the year... London is just like that...busy...always...
In the afternoon I went to see something else that was worth a visit. It is something called the telectroscope...basically a tunnel that from London runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean and ends up in NYC allowing you to see people in NYC (by the Brooklyn Bridge) and people from there to see you by the Tower Bridge in London... What a cool idea...!!! What a cool city...!