An update on life in the land of the sun

Hello dear people

It's been the best of times, it's been the worst of times (that has a ring to it, if I ever pull my finger out and write a book that may be the first line). I see that it's been a while since I've written anything on here, but I have a cast-iron excuse: I'm a lazy git. In the next words I'll try and expand on the opening line, and also, you, yes, You, are in for a treat, as I've finally recorded a very rough version of one of my songs, which you can find a link to later on.

So, starting on the positives, the weather here is great. I'm reliably informed that the weather in Dear Scotland is totally humpty, and so it fills me with enormous smugness to tell you that here in Genoa, it was 28 degrees in the shade today, and blue skies all round. Today I went down to meet some friends for breakfast, and walking through the centre in the sun, with a group of buskers playing the "Just One Cornetto" song was a really nice way to start the day. The weather forecast says it'll be like this for a while too, and beach weather has me compelled to do some exercises, so when I'm back in Scotland you may mistake me for a bronzed Adonis. But feel free to approach me, I may respond, if I deem you worthy.

In other good news, I'm all but guaranteed to finish our 5-a-side season as Capocannoniere, seeing as I'm about 20 goals ahead of everyone else. It's not that they're all terrible, it's just that I'm awesome. Unfortunately no video evidence is available to back this up, but trust me, I'm Messi to their Ronaldos (not Fat Ronaldo). I'm deeply competitive, sometimes even racing people on the street in races entirely in my head and of my making, and so this is hugely satisfying. There truly is no feeling greater than trouncing friends in friendly competition. 

She may read this, and so I'm sure she'd appreciate the shout out, so in other good news, Joanna the Wanderer has come back to Genoa after 3 months swanning about in Peru, and it's been very nice seeing her again and hearing her stories.

And now, to the somewhat poorer news. About a month ago, one of my friends here was stabbed in the centre of town one Saturday night. As you can imagine, this was shit. She could have died if it were not for the intervention of a stranger, stopping her attacker and chasing him down the street before stopping him and waiting for the police to meander over. Thankfully, she was discharged from hospital a few days ago, and is back with her folks to recuperate, and seems to be in good spirits considering what happened, so it seems that all's well that ends well. Still, the first couple of days were horrible (and that's just for me, I can't imagine what her family and best friends were going through), and I hoped that it was all just a dream, but unfortunately this was not to be the case. A few nights ago, I, some of her friends, her, and her Mum and sister went out for dinner to celebrate her release from hospital, and it was so good to see her laughing, smiling and talking nonsense with her friends. It really was heart warming.

Right, that's probably enough serious stuff, back to the piffle! Last weekend the scurrilous Samp were promoted back to Serie A, which is good news for the city and for our season, as last year we really missed out on the 6 points we normally take off them. Also, some friends are Doriani, so I'm happy for them too. The centre was full of their ilk celebrating, singing, beeping their horns and daubing graffiti on walls. I passed a group of four young chaps on my way home from evening refreshments, and they thought it would be fun to give me a wee bit of stick for not celebrating with them. This was not entirely welcomed, and I didn't do anything to warrant any aggression apart from saying I was going home and don't support Sampdoria. But yes, this was enough for them to give me a few suggestions on where I might go, and what I might do when I got there. Nothing happened, as I kept walking, but still, charming, thanks for the suggestions!

As you may have read, the north of Italy has been subjected to a few earthquakes recently. Although none have been in Liguria, they were in regions nearby, and so some of the stronger ones have been felt here. My school is in an old building and on the 6th floor, and now I can say with all conviction that earthquakes when you're up high are deeply unsettling. Hopefully there'll be none more before I'm off, as really, it's a horrible, helpless feeling. My old ideas of going to Japan have maybe taken a knock.

I've booked my flights back to Edinburgh for a couple of weeks from now, which to be honest, isn't the most exciting thing in the world. Of course it'll be nice to see folk back there, but it's currently after 8 in the evening and I'm sitting here in my shorts, such is the warmth. This way of living really does appeal to me quite a lot.

And finally, the main event! I think everyone hates a tease, and I've written before about sticking one of my songs up here, so I hope this isn't too much of a let down. Clicking on the below link will whisk you off to Youtube where you can see my ripped physique and hear one of my songs. As a disclaimer, it's a very rough version, and the mic on my iPod isn't the best in the world, but hopefully it'll give you an idea of what I'm about. While fawning praise is more than welcome, criticism is not, so please refrain from this. Also, despite looking pretty red, I'm not actually burnt - what can I say, I'm Scottish and I've been out in the sun, what do you expect!? 

I hope you don't hate it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUQFzMAYxz8&feature=youtu.be

I can't think of anything else to tell you, and this'll probably be my  last post before summer, so if I don't see you, I hope you all have a swell time and a lovely summer!

Chow for now!