An enjoyable Saturday

Hello everybody,

First of all, what a fantastic weekend of sport! Yesterday (Saturday/Sabato) there were three big matches of the sport we call football. Man U v Liverpool, Hibs v Hearts and Cagliari v Genoa. I'm naturally a bit pessimistic about these things, as I've learned through wearily bitter experience that the more I anticipate something good, it inevitably turns out to be bad. So, I had steeled myself for, at best, two draws and a loss. First, I watched the pitifull Reds of Manchester crumble under the awesome force of the glorious Reds of Liverpool in a mixed state of irritation and awe. Irritation because we watched the game on t'internet and had English commentary. Although he didn't say this during commentary, guest 'expert', Iain Dowie would apparently like to marry Cristiano Ronaldo. Even though the Portuguese goon didn't play very well, Dowie lavished him with praise. Liverpool were ok, but their four goals were difficult for Dowie to see as he was so constantly dazzled by Cristiano's radiance. Still, 4-1, great start to the day.
Almost simultaneously, Hibs were beating Hearts thanks to a sublime piece of skill by Fletcher - not many people have mastered the 'shoulder-er', but now he's one of that select list. Skill, not at all luck. 1-0.
Finally, Genoa made the journey to the rolling hills and sheep loving people of Sardinia. As is so often the case, Genoa scored late on, and won 1-0 thanks to a header from 'Il gatto di marbo' (think that's right). This means the cat of marble, and is not an overly fond nickname for Ruben Oliviera. Still, a wins a win, and there should have been more for Il Grifone.
All in all, 3 wins out of 3, a perfect Saturday! I love football! (Until next weekend probably)

Now that I've' been welcomed into the warm and comforting bosom of technology (TV and internet), I thought it'd be churlish of me to solely read about football on t'web. So, I've watched a wee bit of TV. Needless to say, mostly programmes about football (of which there's an abundance, but very few that actually show any action. They're mostly just old men shouting at each other). However, I have watched two programmes that I've deemed worthy of mention here. The first is called 'Porta a Porta', and seems to be some kind of topical news talkshow. Talking heads talking about the burning issues and most important items of the day, etc. So, last week, there was one, with the title, 'Matrimoni misti quante vittimi?' Admittedly my Italian is not great, but the translation of this is not too difficult I think: 'Mixed marriages how many victims?' I know, I didn't think that marriage had a victim. Maybe they should make it illegal? But I digest. One of the talking heads was Alessandra Mussolini. She's, I think, the grandaughter of the other Mussolini that you may have heard of. Given that he was a fascist, and as far as I know they aren't down with mixed races integrating, I was surprised that they'd have her on. Although she's not as ardent as he was, she still leans in his direction. A range of opinions is important, but this seems a bit far.

Part of the staple diet of every TV station here are gameshows. Even more than Britain, they just run on and on until some old men come to shout about football, or the news starts. One of the gameshows that's on all the time is the Wheel of Fortune. The glamour girl who is qualified in standing beside a big screen and pointing at numbers is Victoria Silvstedt, who's a model type from Sweden. She is very striking, but in a crucial oversight can't speak Italian. But she's very striking. At seemingly random moments they play music and everyone starts to dance. She is always wearing little more than a nighty, and unfortunately, all of the cameramen are either midgets or NBA players. When she's dancing all of the shots of her are either veeeeery low, or from above her head. I've seen her pants more often than I've seen mine, and her boobs quite a lot too. Great TV, if a little far from the culture that Italy has a reputation for.

Sampdoria are at home today against Roma and apparently just scored, which is good for Genoa. When I sat down to spill this bilge into my computer and in front of your eyes, the fans were milling about like tiny foolish ants. Coincidentally, if, like me you're interested or amused by the collective nouns for groups of animals, a group of ants can be described as:
A) an army
B) a colony
or C) a swarm

The internet is truly a wonderful invention for pointlessly filling in blocks of time. Without it I may never have known that a group of jellyfish is called a 'smack', or that larks are afforded two nouns: either an 'ascension', or an 'exaltation'. Brilliant.

On that educational note, that's all for now folks,

Ciao