In the words of Meatloaf

Nil out of three ain't bad...

Today, I simply should have stayed in bed, I think. The first look out of the window should have warned me that this was not going to be a good day: Somebody stole the church!!! (and in fact, stole the rest of the world as well....)

After realising that the rest of the world did, in fact, still exist, I went to Uni and did some work. And considered that of the 3 important things I was going to do today, a success rate of 2 out of 3 would really be quite satisfactory. In the morning, Marta and I went on our search for a shoemaker. This actually succeeded in the end, but he was not willing to repair either of our pairs. Marta's were too fucked and mine were too cheap to spend money for repairing on (his words). That really sucks, because the shoes are only 3 months old and the bottoms have all but disappeared (I admit they were really cheap). So with that first part of my daily mission failed, I was really going for it this time at the Questura.
I brought Idil with me this time, because I had udnerstood that I would not have to wait very long and I trust her Italian more than my own.
That second statement is still true, but the first is not. After waiting for 2 1/2 hours, I was told once again that my Permesso di Soggiorno was NOT FINISHED. So, after my EIGHTH visit, I still do not have my fucking permesso!!!!! And as it took longer than I had expected, I also failed to be able to fulfil the third goal of the day: go the bank to change my address. This, also, is not easy, especially because the bank is far away and opening hours of Italian banks are erratic. So, all in all, 0 out of 3. FUCK
I did manage to buy a new pair of shoes for less than 1/3 of the price that it would have cost me to have my old pair repaired!
Goddammit. fcking Italians.
Ciao,
OJ

Deadline met

A week of hard work. I had a deadline for a conference in Izmir and I really wanted to finish some draft of my paper, which I finally managed today. If I remember how to upload documents, it will soon appear in the "research downloads" section of this blog... For the rest, there is little to tell. And little time to tell things as well... Last weekend, we went to the Certosa di Pavia (the monastery of Pavia), which was absolutely stunning, even though the weather kinda sucked.


During this week, we also had a bit of winter, but since 2 days, spring is back. The weather is simply gorgeous! This is very pleasant for Maartje and Steef, who are visiting us right now... Together with Fedor they have strolled through the city yesterday and today, before leaving again tomorrow morning VERY early... Today, as it was the last weekend of the month, there was also the antiques Market again of our suburb. I LOVE antiques markets!!! Especially if the weather is lovely, like it was today... I only had time for a quick stroll , before going to Uni to finish my paper, but it was very, very good!


Now I can start focusing on some other things and try to decide which is going to be my next paper topic.
Ciao,
OJ

Not much

My Uni-friends were all quite impressed with the apple pie I baked to celebrate my birthday last Tuesday. Of course it came as quite a shock to them that there are actually things in the Dutch kitchen that taste good... And apple pie is a really traditional Dutch dish, so I improved our name in that field a little bit. I also received some lovely presents, including a trip to Florence (from Fedor, in 3 weeks), a subscription to the Economist (from my parents) and among other things an electric chocolate fondue set (we now have 3 chocolate fondue sets, but this is the first electric one).
And from my brother a book with 100 things to do on planet Earth (similar to Hillman Wonders, but with quite some differences. My tally for Hillman was 23 and for this book it's 27! And poor Fedor went down from 24 to a mere 17... We will have to work diligently to finish both lists during this lifetime!!!
The arrival of this last present, btw, also made me wonder about the Italian mail system again. On Thursday, we received 3 things from Holland. One christmas card which had been on its way for a month. One Newyears card which had been on its way for 3 weeks and this parcel, which took a mere 2 days. You really cannot trust the Italian mail...
Anyways, if the weather is good tomorrow we are going to go to the Monastery of Pavia, because we actually didnt go last time we were in Pavia and it is supposed to be superb!
Ciao,
OJ

Questura VII

Bastard Italians!!!!

I have spent another 2 1/2 hours in the cold (today being the coldest day of the week... Friday the forecast is saying 18 degrees! Today just 7 degrees though) in order to finally make it into the (side-entrance of the) police station.

NO PERMESSO

"Please return in two weeks"

This is good, because I have nothing else to do in my life. It is not as if I have some significant deadlines coming up, or just want to spend time to work on my research... No, not at all. I really prefer to spends hours at the GODDAMN police station trying to get a fcking permission I do not even want anymore!!!!

ASSHOLES.

Ciao,
OJ

Step into...

I have had some good news the past week. I have confiscated an office that was left empty by a departing visiting student, so I finally have my own office. Even better, it is (for now) even a private office: an amazing luxury in a space-starved University (they say the new building will be finished in August, but I don't believe them). Furthermore, I have finally got some results from my research! And they are very, very promising!!! In fact, they are very different from what previous authors have said, but I am able to prove they were actually wrong! So, suddenly, my PhD actually starts to make sense! My supervisor, whom I spoke to today, was also very content with the results. I am now spending a lot of hours at Uni trying to actually finish my (first draft of a) paper about this topic so I can send it to some upcoming conferences. Oh well, I guess I'll see whether or not it is going to work out. Furthermore, I have been doing some work for others as well, and proctered a few exams (why can I not say NO to people, when they ask me for that? Although I did enjoy sending 3 people out of their Macroeconomics exam...).
On Friday, we went out for aperitivo and dancing at Le Trottoir: that was definitely enjoyable. The rest of the weekend, Fedor and I relaxed, did some work and tried whether we could watch the entire Lord of the Rings in one weekend. Unfortunately, I must admit we failed and we still have another 1.5 hours to go... We only managed to finish about 10 hours or so...
Ciao,
OJ

2007

Well, well, that was quite a celebration for New Year's Eve. We flew to Holland on the 31st, together with Edith and Rob. Poor Edith had a horrific toothache and wasnt happy at all... We celebrated NY with friends of Fedor in the center of Nijmegen. Fedor was very happy to see them again and we had a good time. The next day, we were happy to find out that one of our appointments got cancelled, so we only had to see one couple with a new flat, and Fedor's father. All in all a good January 1st. The following day, we went to my parents for lunch and continued to go and see BarDs new house in Groningen, which was very lovely. After dinner at my brother's, we went out with Jorryt and others. It was quite a lot of fun, but I must admit I am starting to run out of friends in Groningen! I guess it didnt help that we were there during the holidays and about 80% of my acquaintances appeared to have gone skiing...
The next day we had another reasonably early start (considering the late finish, anyway), because we went to Utrecht to go and see Wouter's new flat. After that, we continued to Rotterdam, where we met with Joost in Café Rotterdam. We enjoyed a lovely meal (and randomly ran into another friend of mine from Groningen) and got updated on Joost's life again. We stayed the night at the house of Ellen and Kim, who were kind enough to let us stay there even though they both had to go to work really early the next day.
Thank god, we didnt have to and we took it very slowly. In the afternoon, we returned to Nijmegen and went to another appointment with Ilse, who also had a new gorgeous flat. After a lovely dinner with Margo, we ended up at Café Van Rijn, where Fedor had invited all his study friends. His friends obviously do not go skiing as much as mine, and nearly all were indeed present. Friday morning, we managed to get up in time to have a last lunch with Jolien, before returning to Milano.
I must say that I did enjoy seeing everyone again in Holland, but honestly: it is really exhausting... People should simply come to Milan to see us. That way we have more time for each other and we are able to talk much more thoroughly than having to repeat the same questions again and again.
Oh well, next time it will be the same again, I am afraid...
Ciao,
OJ
PS The sales have started and today I went for some real shopping. I finally managed to buy 2 pairs of trousers, which I have been trying for nearly a year... And I bought a new winter coat: thanks to global heating (or something), my old winter coat was actually too WARM. So I am happy to have a new one, which is a bit thinner...