Hello again everyone

I thought I should post again, as next week will be busy to the max for me, so probably won't have the time or the inclination to write anything, and I can only imagine how boring your lives would be without a slice of mines to read about.....

After the euphoria of last weeks defeat of Juventus, I went to the match last night against the fascist pigs of Lazio. I don't think alot of them would object to that title either. Genoa are currently in the 4th Champions League place, two points ahead of Fiorentina, who play in a couple of hours. Unfortunately, Genoa didn't really show up yesterday, and we lost 1-0. Because the gap between us and the cheating Florentines is so close, every game is a must-win cup final, to borrow the much used parlance. Therefore, losing is not so good. But, everything crossed that I can cross without serious discomfort, Udinese will do us a favour this afternoon and take some points off Fiorentina. I remembered to take my camera, and even better, remembered to charge the battery, so here's a photo of the Gradinata Nord (my stand):

As you can see, the guy with the flag's a bit in the way, but rest assured there are many flags and other exciting stuff behind him.

Yesterday, my compadre, Crombie dragged himself back to Scotland after 11 months of avoiding work and general travelling. It was nice to speak to him yesterday, and it'll be good to see him in June when I make my return home. Hello Crombie!

And now for the minutia of my life here.

This week's been pretty relaxed, as Monday was a holiday, so only four days of work in theory, with 13 hours of work in practice spread over the whole week. I've yet again been outrageously unproductive and have mostly read and lounged about. In the past three weeks I've worked about 40 hours in total. This was spelling bad news for my pay packet this month, but next week I have 39 hours of lessons. This is the reason I doubt I'll be posting anything. To be honest, I doubt I'll have the energy to post a letter by Friday. I probably won't even have the energy to hide my exasperation when I'm asked again what the difference between 'if' and 'whether' is. Uuuuuuuurgh. It's a valid question, but not an important one, and students should really listen to me the first time I exhaustively (exhaustedly) explain it.

I'll be teaching a group of trainee cruise staff people, who here are called 'animatore'. Imagine my excitement when I was told that I'd be teaching animatore, thinking, not unreasonably I reckon, that they'd be animators and I'd spend 20 hours of my week teaching people whose job it is to make cartoons. But no, they work on cruise ships. I had my first lesson on Friday, and they do seem nice, but they have a reprehensible amount of energy, vim and spirit. It's going to be tough to maintain my usual gloom around them, but I'm sure I'll succeed. I might even manage to break one or two of them, who knows?

My Italian comes along in fits and spurts. Even though I've had alot of free time, as you're probably aware, I am prone to terrible laziness. Therefore, my Italian learning has taken a bit of a blow, but I'm determined to right that wrong today as the weather's horrible. I went to get my haircut yesterday, which merely reinforced the fact that I need to learn the vocabulary necessary for this kind of lark. I'll probably instantly forget it, but at least I'll have made the effort. But then again, I can't really be arsed, and it'll be ages til I get it cut again so might not bother, particularly as I accidentally got a skinhead. Oops!

So, until next time,

That's all folks

Many things too numerous to sum up concisely in a title

Hello chums and chumettes

I realise that it's been a while since I last emptied my brain into your eyes through the medium of internet, so thought I should do that now. It's a beautiful day outside, so I thought it fitting that I sit in my room and mess about on t'internet.

So, what's happened since I last talked at you....

1) Old age
2) Computers must die
3) Thieving scrotes
4) AOB

Starting at the most logical place, number 1), dramatically titled 'Old Age'.

Last Sunday I edged nearer the cusp of the age bracket known as 'late 20's'. To celebrate this, my folks came over to the fair city of Genoa to visit, which was very nice. It was good to see them and to talk to people from back home about all the exciting developments in Edinburgh, which would you believe, amounted to Not Much. It was especially nice to eat in restaurants without paying or having to wear my running shoes. Also, they brought me haggis, which if you know me, and chances are you do (as why else would you be reading this?), you'll know that I class haggis as a Super Food. I've so far shown remarkable restraint and not eaten it, but I know, and I think it knows, it's time is nearing. My dad seemed very impressed with my flat and it's outstanding view of the stadium, which is unsurprising, as it's fantastic.

So, overall, it was very good. One downpoint was that on My Birthday Eve, we went out for a few drinks with my chums in the place that they knew my name but have now apparently forgotten it, La Lepre. This in itself was very good, however, staying up until about 5, drinking and then sleeping on a marble floor meant that the Sunday morning was not my favourite time of the weekend. But I'll never learn my lesson, and repeated that particular trick this weekend....

2) Computers must die

Do androids dream of electric sheep? Can computers die?

I'm afraid that I can't scientifically answer these questions, but have seen Blade Runner, so can say yes. But can you class that as ever really being alive? A question for a more learned and not drivel-fuelled blog me thinks.

My laptop stopped working a weekend or two ago, which combined with my at times sickening laziness, has meant there has been no blogging from me. One night my laptop worked, the next day it didn't. I switched on and off. I ran the battery down. I recharged the battery. I switched it on and off again. I repeated this action about 4 times. I started to curse the laptop and its family. And still nothing happened. In the end I re-booted it, in the process deleting everything I had saved, including my photographic proof of Jesus headbutting someone, Tom Cruise striking children, and my 100,000 word manuscript on why quasars and all else in quantum physics is based on a flawed theory.

Ok, so not all of that's true, but I did have to delete my music. Harrumph. But lo and behold, then my computer worked! Praise be to Allah! Then, the next day, the internet stopped working! Curses! Not being particularly technically minded (see previous technique for making computer work), I gave up. One of my colleagues is very small and French, but despite these impediments was reprtedly good with computers. And lo and behold, she fixed my computer! Praise be to Anais! It turns out that what was stopping me connecting to the internet was my internet protection. Now, I'm all for security in these times of technological chicanery, but seriously, that's taking things a bit far. I was so well protected, I couldn't access the internet at all. So, if you're serious about internet protection, but also serious about being able to use the damn thing, may I not recommend to you using Comodo. Stupid computers.
Happily, my computer and internet are working together like organised crime and bureaucracy! All good!

3) Thieving Scrotes

On Saturday I went to the football to see the outstandingly meritous Genoa beat the lowly, and frankly, a bit turdy Juventus. It was a fantastic match, we won 3-2 in case you hadn't realised, and sent them back to Turin, and the fans back to their homes which are everywhere but Turin. Seriously, great, with not just a a capital G, but full capitalised. GREAT. (sorry for shouting)

After the game I was still so drunk from excitement (and pre-match beer) that me and Craig went out for another drink. By the time we got to town, I was sober (mum) and had my faculties about me. We were walking along a street, and some riff-raff came along and did a weird dance in front of me which is impossible to explain in words. Needless to say it was crap. Then at the end, he held my phone in his hand. How the hell did that happen? I still don't know, as I was wearing jeans, and normally when a guy puts his hand in my trouser pocket my spider-sense kicks in and I firmly but politely ask him to cease and desist. It was all very strange, but he gave me my phone back, which was nice of the ballbag. We went our seperate ways, but it was exceedingly strange, and has made me more suspicious of people who dance in front of me. We went to a club after that, so as you'll understand, I was very stand-offish and alert for any danger. This is apparently not conducive to adding to the vibe on a dance floor.

4) AOB

As any of my Pacorini students (hello) should be able to remember, AOB stands for Any Other Business. When I first started to write this blog I think I did have some, but my infirm brain seems to have forgotten it. Ho hum.

So, for now,

Ciao