I don’t expect anyone to actually sit through this, but at http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/ I found an hour and a half lecture of Douglas Adams (Hitchhikers guide…). If you have a kebap and a beer settle in an enjoy!
BTW best Aussie impersonation I’ve heard since Tomi 😉
Tomorrow Matteo is bringing me the TeleTubbies in Italian…for my learnin…do you think the Italians figured out that that one was gay? 😉
So just to clear up the Vespa story from the other day…
Matteo and I looked up prices for a fender (used) and front light lens online and it would come out to about 50€ to replace all the parts that were damaged on the Vespa. Since the front fender was a bit buggered to begin with I wasn’t worried about trying to get the guy to pay for installation as well since I had already pondered replacing it. I was happy just to have him pay for some parts. Matteo called the dude on Friday and we agreed to meet and just get 50€ off him and call it good.
sidebar…I had to tell my story about 10 times on Friday as news apparently travels fast 😉 I had a mosquito bite sized bit of skin damage to show off so the story really wasn’t that compelling. I did figure out that the first couple times I told the story I left out important elements…the third time I got it down and the fourth time I was able to tell it with gusto, but after the fifth time I got bored and after a couple more times the story just sort of retards to “yeah…something happened, but I’m fine”. Let’s talk about the weather or something else…This is why all my stories inevitable end up getting a rating of 1 (out of 10)…I just don’t really tell stories.
so that was the wrapup.
Today went to a couple scooter shops and got directions and then a quote. Went back out a bit later and go to this Vespa only shop near here. It was closed the first time I went by, but it’s open now. The guy was super nice. I was just hoping for a blinker lens as that seemed most critical at the moment.
He ended up hammering out the fender, gave me a new lens cover, greased everything up, adjusted the brakes, fixed another minor electrical problem etc.
After all that I asked for a price of a used seat, so he goes upstairs and comes back with a different used seat and a seat cover. I just took the cover since the other seat he had was also a bit wankered. All in all he must have spent at least 30 solid minutes just working on my Vespa. He was waffling over naming a price and as I only had 60€ on me my only concern was that it would cost more than that (which was fair in my mind). He consults with his daughter (approx age 7) on how much to charge me. She was shy so he just says tredici (30)…I was a bit surprised and told him to take 40. He wasn’t going to but when he opened his wallet he had a 1o€ and 50€ note…so he gives me the 10 and waves his hands around about not having change and says “OK 40, but you come back later for 10″. I won’t. Nice guy.
In the time I was there several other Vespa owners came up, so I guess the place is actually a Vespa club and stuff. Everyone was pretty nice.
Towards the end he asked if I was english? I said american and I think he asked me where in America (in Italian). Since he didn’t say dov’e I didn’t know what he was saying.
I gave him the confused look…he says in english ‘New York, Miami, where?” I said Portland, but he didn’t know it so I said near Seattle…I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know where Seattle is, but I’m sure he’s heard of it.
It’s funny cuz now that I’m thinking about it I think a lot of Italian men have said to me “New York, Miami…”? I’m now of the opinion that a lot of older Italian men only know about New York and Miami…
On the way home from work I had a minor incident on my Vespa. Some dude was pulling his delivery van out of a gas station. Made like he was gonna go and then slammed on his brakes. He was halfway into the street and there was some car passing me. I think he did a half pull out, didn’t see me and then stopped hard when he saw a car that was passing me. I had to lock it up and turned sideways and after the awesome power slide ended up hitting his door at about 5kph. Smashed a turn signal, dinged my front fender, and tweaked the handlebars. Driving into non moving large objects is cool!
I had to call a colleague to translate for the guy, but I guess in the end alles klaar. No major damage done, but he will fix the fender and light. No insurance involved which is Ok with me as I’m a foreigner…immigrant life dictates that one must stay out of the system whenever possible 😉
I figured out why the Merlo was looking odd to me…cuz I was looking at pigeons for the last 3 years in Frankfurt.
Pigeons rock! They just bob their heads and spin in circles for 22 hours a day. So different than hophophop…wait!
There was a French couple at the Focacceria tonight…Their Italian was a bit better than mine, but not by much. I guess they have an unfair advantage over me tho…cuz they’re French…one of those surreal moments where you come across something for the very first time. I like those moments…
Anyways the woman had hand talking down and I must respect her for that. I often order stuff by pointing and grunting. It has worked so far as I seem not to be starving…
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I meant….
So now that it’s warmer I sit every day outside and eat my lunch. There’s this particular bird called a “Merlo” in Italian that is always in the grass outside the cafe. Since I have time to observe I’ve noticed that it seems to have very peculiar (to me) hunting habits. It sort of reminded me of a cat as it’s almost stalking it’s prey. It sort of makes 3 hops and then freezes while I guess it’s waiting for some kind of movement. Hops…waits…Hops…waits…
Not sure why, but I’ve not seen this sort of behaviour from any bird in the states. Or maybe I’m just extra alert and/or observant whilst eating my Pasticci Riso and Red Bull for lunch…
I’m not sure I spelled Pasticci right….
I think it’s time for a focaccia.
…took a walk today to the end of the jetty or the entrance of the harbour or…whatever it was…20 minute walk to get to nowhere…File under “things to do in Carrara”…
It’s extra funny cuz people will google “things to do in Carrara”…
…also amusing me lately is the use of “bloody fucking” by non native speakers as an adjective…I use “bloody”…the people closer to the queen use “fucking”…I’m going to draw the parallel of my use of “mate” and the queens people using “dude”…I stopped using dude immediately after walking out of the theatre after “Baseketball”. Two guys saying Dude to each other for about 2 minutes just killed the word for me…however taking my cue from the non native speakers I’m just going to start with “doodmate”. You heard it here first…
also amusing me at the moment is that my weather widget says today it will be between 11° and 18° today, while also stating that it is 25° currently…yeah…it’s closer to 25°. I might have to extend my awning and buy a fan one of these days…consider this part 1 of me complaining about the heat in the “Italian Riviera” 🙂
Looks like I’ll be meeting 2,0 in Munich for a few days in June. I was there once for one day. This should be fun.
I think we finally hit 20° this week. Except for a short thunderstorm today the weather seems to have taken a turn for the good. There’s a guitar festival down the road this weekend. I’ll either try to hit that or take some other short road trip to Cinque Terra or something.
C.W. Stoneking on tour around Europe this summer…I saw him in Frankfurt a couple years ago…great show. Great music! Who’s up for a road trip?
I’ve come to two conclusions this week…
The Vivident Cube gum flavour “Ice Blue Mint” is my new favourite gum.
and
Bees are very fond of “Ice Blue Mint”
What’s worse than a bee buzzing around your mouth? I had a bee fly into my mouth after having Bulmers once. That was a bit scary. I had visions of getting stung in my throat and having to shove a pen down my throat to breathe (I assume it would have swollen up). Luckily the bee flew out of my mouth right away, but I don’t mess around anymore. I’ve just decided to run away and squeel like a girl if a bee happens to be around my mouth. I’m sure that doesn’t look very cool, but it has to be better than trying to make my own breathing tube. I wonder how many people a year die from bee stings in their mouth every year.
What’s with stuff that’s got a label that’s half english and half local language???
Vivident Cube con Xilitolo – senza zucchero – Ice Blue Mint – con microcaps – Long Lasting Freshness –
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