Joe's Blög

Today I was taking a drive to Lerici to visit a friend and missed my turnoff…whilst turning around on some side street I see this city (if I can call it that)…I’m not sure the pictures do it justice, but there’s little villages (ok…that’s a better word) scattered all over Italy in the hills. I think it’s pretty cool. I didn’t have time to go there…nor do I know the name of this place, but I might have to go back on the next free weekend I have

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So busy few days…went to La Spezia on Thursday for a lovely dinner.
Friday met Leo in Florence to go to his parents country house and a small party…So I’ve never actually been to a “country house”…The first thing I’ve learned is that there are many many many insects, bees, spiders, etc (are spiders insects?)…always check your pillow cases for wasps …This was how I woke up on Saturday morning…to a wasp buzzing inside my pillow…I may have possibly screamed like a little girl
But it was a good time…good group of people and friends.
A frenchman told me I seemed quite European…I took this as a great compliment

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So I got up on the 26th, planning to take the bus to the station and hop on…Unfortunately after hanging out at the bus station for 20 minutes I realized the bus wasn’t running that day (or that morning) (expletive!). Walked to the bus station and arrive about 2 minutes after my planned train leaves (expletive!).
Go to the ticket counter for assistance, and she seems to give it to me. I pay her 28€ -  which is about half of what the website showed. Cheers lady! You’ve been very helpful (take back on expletive!).

hang out for half an hour and catch the next train.
Text Berger to tell him I missed the train and we can either meet in Mestre (original plan) or just go to Trieste. He’s on time so will decide later.

About 6 hours later I get my ticket checked…dude informs me that I am not holding a ticket, but just a timetable (double expletive!). Telling me that I only have to pay for the ticket and no fine (“no fine. It’s Christmas. See, I am nice man”)…so I shell out another 18€ for what was the remainder of the trip.

Finally arrive in the evening and meet Berger in Trieste…It’s really cold.
He immediately informs me that he screwed up and our plan to leave in the morning to Zagreb is no longer valid. There is only a night train (more expletives!) and it arrives at 4:20 in the morning…(do’h)…so here’s lesson number 1…the timetables shown on the train websites are not always accurate.

We just hang out around the Trieste train station as we have about 4 hours to kill….it’s about 7pm. We go to a pub near the station and after sitting there for about 15 minutes we hear a loud noise and think nothing of it…about 2 minutes after that some dude staggers to the toilet with blood running down his face. Apparently he had just taken a bottle to the head…it’s 7:30pm and even though we’re still in Italy it’s starting to feel like eastern europe. Great! This is just the thing we’ve been warned about by friends for the last few days (Pete: “Keep a low profile” and “don’t step on any land mines”). There are only 6 people in the pub. Berger comes up with the genius idea that if we run into trouble we should just knife fight each other to distract whoever is giving us problems.

We eventually catch the night train and arrive on time…Step off the train and realize I haven’t felt cold like this in a very long time. I just started shaking after being outside for 10 seconds. The train station isn’t really open yet, but we can go in and there’s one room that’s semi-heated.
Stuff opens up at 5am so we didn’t have to wait long to get something to eat and drink. Our host is going to pick us up at about 8. We chill in the station and long for some sleep…

Andy picks us up on time and takes us home. Have some tea. Meet Poppy (his father in law) and then lay down for about a 4 hour nap.
Wake up with a headache and we all decide to catch a bus and go to the top of a mountain. Bus drivers in Croation are a bit crazy. Especially when driving up a snow covered mountain…but I guess he knew his chicken cuz we made it.
Walk around…take pics, have some gluhwein…then end up in the ski club restaurant…Andy knows the owner so he ends up sitting at our table for a few hours…When he finds out we’re going to Budapest he says (with thick Croation accent) “In Budapest anything is possible…heheheh…..ANYTHING…hehhehheh”. I assume he’s not talking about getting stabbed on the street…

We made friends with the staff…got lots of free food and drinks and then at the end we’re late for the bus and have to run to catch it…ummmmmm….never make the cripple run. My legs were sore for about 3 days after this. I would be creaking like an old man for the rest of the trip
My favourite part of the run is when Berger decided to take a shortcut and run through the woods…I just saw some dark figure in the woods…wasn’t sure who it was until later.

After all that we went to meet Barbara (andy’s missus) at an Irish pub and then some late night food…was quite an eventful 24 hours.

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x-mas in america…
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/11/alt-text-black-friday/

and some italy stuff not related to x-mas

Burlesque Tony rocks
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/08/bunga-bunga-scandal-threatens-berlusconi.html?obref=obinsite

volcanoes also rock from time to time!
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/20/should-scientists-probe-the-massive-volcano-under-naples.html

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Cheers Leo for belonging to that photo club

You’re photo taking skills are beyond exceptional! CTFD!

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So someone had the bright idea to go bowling last night…I won 2 games out of 3. Not because I’m any good, but I’m slightly less bad than everyone else

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So it was supposed to be a surprise party I didn’t expect that many people to show up tho. Good turnout considering the mail just went out yesterday…Thanks Giadda and Daniele for organizing it.

So dinner at some little place up in the hills. Food was great!!! People were great. I got gifts (see hat in picture).
Afterwards Daniele, Enriqo and I went to the Jolly Roger for “just 1 beer”…(I think we had 3 – and shut the place down). I walked home and they left…I was slumbering peacefully when my doorbell starts ringing repeatedly…I thought I was back in Frankfurt again what….4am…doorbell ringing! wha…!!! I ignored it for a while, but it didn’t go away.
anways, Daniele lost his house keys and needed a place to crash. I made him clean my place before he left

So Thanks again for everyone that showed up!!!! Really great!

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So apparently a friend was trying to organize a dinner party for me tomorrow (without telling me about it). A colleague says to me something like “I would like to come to your party but I’m not sure I can make it…”
I guess that was when I knew…anyways organizer says later in the day something about planning a party and only inviting a few people, but then someone invited someone else who invited someone else and now I guess half the office knows about it…awkward!!!
but cheers! I’m looking forward to it.

Who among us doesn’t love a good blurry photo…

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so this week I saw a doctor and an optometrist…Apparently Italian law dictates that if you have a job the company has to handle getting you an eye exam and a half-physical at least once every two years…ummm OK….The only thing I can think is that if you go to your own Dr. for a visit there’s some kind of  Dr./Client privilege, but if the company handles the arrangements then the company gets to know what the doc finds…Okey Dokey…the optometrist was not interesting, but the GP type doc was pretty cool…he’s some kind of crazy hippy. He spent 5 minutes talking with me and then listened to my heart, lungs, asked me to Aaaahhh while he shined a light down my throat and did the same with my eyes. I’m not sure how that really benefits the company…but allright…I was being paid for the visit since it was during the workday.

I’m seeing Mel in Florence this weekend…that’s pretty cool. I’m excited…Mel’s a friend from Frankfurt (via Oz)…

My favourite opening to a song that I heard this week:
Frida Hyvonen: “One day I wasn’t drunk and the sun was shining straight…”

That’s one of my favourite opening song lines ever!!! That’s awesome…

In America democracy is the tyranny of a half minority (old white folk)…(as opposed to the idea that democracy is the tyranny of the majority). Man I dislike America…Of course with Burlesque Tony’s antics (fucking 17 y.0. whores…and I suppose 18 y.o. whores, and 19 y.o. whores…etc… – as well as his general crookedness – changing laws for his own benefit etc) I couldn’t exactly say I’m fond of Italian politicians either…Maybe the Greeks really did have it right…picking random people to run for offices…i.e. Pick random people off the street to run for Senate, councils, prefectures, firemen, judges, engineers etc…
I’m sure I don’t have that exactly right but go with it…
pick 100 random people off the street (non-politicians) and let the voters choose between these 100 random people as to who would be the best fit for a particular office…no career politicians here…

In fact I think I proposed a long time ago that there should just be some kind of questionnaire/test that determines your fit-fullness for office and just give voters the scores and details of that test (to determine tempermant, openess to new ideas, willingness to compromise, conservativeness,  etc) without identifying the name of the person they’re voting for or how they feel about certain specific issues…Just vote for the person who you think would be best for a specific post based on their test scores…
No politicians (what kind of loser actually wants to be a politican anyways?), no BS, no campaigning…

“The people” might actually end up with the Best and Brightest of society instead of pandering, unthinking idiots…but then again if we were voting according to my plan then most people would just continue to be ignorant and vote according to what their TV, or religious figure, or boss, or neighbours told them too…
I guess that means I can conclude the problem isn’t the people running for office, but the people voting for the people running for office…You suck americans!

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Went to the comics and animation fest in Lucca. That was cooler than I expected. I want to go next year for halloween there…that’s my plan…There were many pics to be had, but unfortunately I wasn’t properly prepared most of the time.

Cheers Matteo for letting me crash and for the hamburgers !

Left for Florence on Sunday to hang out with Leo…we ended up going to a midnight showing of Rocky Horror…It was less rowdy than I expected…Only a few people yelling at the screen and dancing etc…but it was pretty fun! I took no pics in Florence, but I had some great wine…thanks Leo!

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