19 posts tagged “bristol”

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...

And now that they have gone what is left...? A messy room... (but empty...and therefore sad) and the memory of 3 amazing days...

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...!!!!!!!!!

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

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...

Few minutes before saying goodbye to my dad (we where already at Pisa Airport) he asked me "How do you feel (by now), going back to England? What are you sensations every time you have to leave Italy?". That was a good question...and it was something I asked myself sometimes...Florence is my city, and it will always be where I will eventually go back; at the moment though most of my life is in Bristol. My job's here, many of my friends are here, all my stuff is here...I feel here to be my place...3 years are not a lot...but enough for me to say that.
In the beginning, every time I had to come back to UK, it was like I was going somewhere where "I had to go", where I was doing a great experience but still a place that in the very end I was not familiar with. It was a sort of burden...even though it vanished as soon I was boarding the plane...Today I am no longer crossed by this sort of perception, but I rather feel I am going back home...
The flight was OK apart from a the most noisy school trip ever...straight to work from the airport...and then back to Hughenden Road late in the afternoon...to get some rest after a tiring weekend...

...AKA Bristol - Milan Malpensa this afternoon...and then a week-end travelling around Italy. A night near Varese, a wedding (the second in two week) on the Lake Maggiore and a dinner in Milan on Saturday...and finally at home on Sunday early morning...Just 24 hours and it will be time to go back to Bristol (from Pisa this time) on Monday morning...It will be tiring...but usually when is tiring is cool...cos there are many things to do...

I usually don't like to mix things up...but I have to say it today...!!! WELL DONE FIORENTINA!

Is it worth to wait an entire night, awake, to see a snowfall?
I bet you think it is insane. I bet in fact every one thinks it is insane. Well...not me...!
No one can understand...I know...but this is something that really gives me emotions...big emotions...
You can give snow a few hours of your sleep, cos what you get back is priceless...
The days before...the beauty of the wait...checking weather charts, checking every possible update, looking for confirmation from different models... until the hours before the events come, when it is time to look at satellite images and rainfall radar...and eventually out of the window...in silence...concentrated...ready to spot the fist flakes falling from the sky...and then another one and one more...and a smile appears...and you feel happy...I just love all of that...
It started to snow at around 5.20...and stopped at 7.15...Minutes before 6 the snowfall was impressive...really really heavy...Roofs and cars turned white in few minutes...not the streets and pavements unfortunately.As soon as it started I took my camera...and in few seconds I was walking around Clifton...smelling the snow in the air...feeling flakes brushing my face...

Wait a second...you got it completely wrong...!!!
I haven't actually got married...it wasn't "my" wedding...but the first one I attended in England...
Catherine and Stephen, two friends from Bristol got married Saturday in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham.
It took 3 years before going to a wedding in England but I have to say it was interesting, and beautiful. Indeed.
I was mostly curious to see whether there were differences from a typical Italian wedding and what they were...! Well...there are some, of course...!
Everything here is much more formal...maybe also too much...less spontaneous I'd say...Not big differences...very many little things...I was astonished seeing the bride and the groom, with their parents get in line and welcome, shaking hands and briefly exchanging few words, all the guests, from the first one to the last one... What a patience!!!
Italian weddings  are definitely more noisy...but I bet anyone is surprised of this... :) Also the dinner in Italy lasts hours...while here was quite short...Nevertheless the salmon and the cheesecake selection were absolutely delicious...! The party with live music and dancing was really funny...! Anyway...I am not here making a list of differences in wedding habits... and it is also hard to describe if you have not been to one before...
This was the first wedding for this year...5 more are already scheduled from now to September...

In the meantime...while I am here writing my blog...Stephen and Catherine are at the Maldives Islands...Lucky them...! :)

 

My little Twingo made it...! Today just off Monmouth, South Wales, she (yes because it is a she) reached the 160000 km...amazing...!
In 11 years she brought me everywhere really...! A lot around Italy...a lot in the UK...and hopefully there is more in the future...!
I remember many great drives with her...Of course the main is the one that took me here...from Grassina to Bristol...all in a go, with no stops...23 hours and 15 minutes...to go for 1785 km across Italy, France a England...Few years before I drove to Zianl, on the Switzerland Alps; an 8 hours drive with 4 people on board and luggages for 4...The Twingo is never too small and always comfy...she is surprising every time...! Another good one was when me and my friend Antonio went up to the Abetone, 1388 m over sea level, at 2 am, in icy and snowy condition with no snow chains...crazy! And how to forget when we went to Venice to watch Fiorentina, and she almost lost the number plate, or when I took Dao for the first time to Trento and the next day we went for an amazing tour on the Dolomites, just after a massive snowfall...Stunning!
I could tell lots of stories, lots of drive...lots of little nice anecdotes from 1997 to today...most of them are in my mind anyway...and there they stay...and I will not forget...!
I love my car...I say thanks every time after a demanding trip...and she appreciates it...I think she likes me as well...and even if she doesn't say it loud I am sure sometime she thinks Cheers Drive :)

 

I survived the first two days of mum's attack...but there are still 5 to go...The house is already clean...
washing machines done...we had to go to the bookshop to buy her a book...otherwise she would have get bored...
Dad meanwhile took possession of my armchair and my TV...hard to have it back until next Wednesday... :)
Time's passing by quite rapidly...Yesterday I went to work...so we spent only the evening together...
Today it was bank Holiday (Good Friday) therefore I was the whole day with them...
We went a bit around Bristol...a bit by car and a bit by foot...It is very very cold in these days...we have not been lucky with the weather...In the evening we had also couple of wintry showers...it wasn't proper snow...it looked more like icy water...no hail though...

Around lunch time we stopped for a cappuccino in Whiteladies Road...before wondering around the afternoon...until 5 o'clock...
Dinner was a cooperation between me and the boss...but the kitchen "is to small" for two cooks...
Nevertheless...we managed to prepare a great fish dinner...Prawns cocktail and Avocado as starter, Seafood Tagliolini, and Salmon in the oven with potatoes.
I wanted to take some pictures...but I miserably forgot...!
I am quite happy to have them here...cos at the end of the day, in the last 7 and half years we haven't lived together...while in this week we have time to talk a lot, to go out together, make the shop, cook together...and stuff like that...which is a bit unusual...but really funny...It's only matter of a week...not too much...definitely feasible...
Today mum said that she would like to move here for a months or two...cos she loves staying here, and she could help me out with everything...
Dad was enthusiast of the idea...
I was not.