Bloody Freezing

Obviously, last post's title (Bloody hot) cursed the weather, because the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees immediately after. And the burning sun disappeared behind lots of depressing clouds... And of course, this happened exactly at the moment my Mother and her friend Hennie, came to visit!!! They arrived on Saturday, when we went for a little walk and enjoyed some of the city centre. The weather already wasnt what it was supposed to be, but at least it was still dry.
On Sunday Morning, it was actually rather sunny and we had some hopes for a nice day. Well, at least we had a lovely trip to the antiques market



After our Antiques Trip, we picked up Fedor and went to the Cimitero Monumentale. I had not been there with my new camera, so I took lots and lots of photos (as did my Mother, btw). The weather got a little bit worse and it rained quite a lot when we arrived (oddly enough, the sun was shining as well, which was quite a surreal experience, because it lasted very long), but there were some lovely photo opportunites:




It was a nice visit, but when it was time to leave, the rain finally won over the Sunshine and it started pissing it down. We decided we had had enough and simply retired from sightseeing for the rest of the day. The next day was simply horrible, weather-wise. It rained pretty much all day and it was not very warm either. To make matters even worse, on Mondays, nearly all museums are closed, so there were not many indoor activities to be done, either.... We ended up spending some time in the only Museum not-closed, the Scala Theatrical Museum:

And we spend some time in shops and the Duomo, but we decided to retire quite early again. Post-aperitivo, however, the weather had cleared up a little and we managed to see some more sights. All in all, we saw a lot, despite the weather, and had a really good time!
On Tuesday, they left again and Fedor and I both went back to work and life etc. I have been doing a fair bit of work, in preparation for a meeting I am having on Monday to discuss my second paper and its prospects. I feel reasonably well-prepared to face my professor now, so that should be fine...
Ciao,
OJ

Bloody hot

Well, this week has been the first preparation for a Hot Summer to come. Temperatures rose up to 35° Celsius and it's only May, now!!!

Thankfully, we have air-conditioning at University, so this is simply an extra incentive to do a lot of work. Well, work... After many, many, many requests to join Facebook, I finally did this week. And it is FANTASTIC. I have been able to contact people I havent spoken to for YEARS. For example, when I was in Caliornia, in 2000, I travelled for some time with 3 English people. I have now re-encountered all of them and I will meet up with them next time I am in London. It is such a blast!!!

Also, tonite I met up with my friend Nina, who also lives in Milan. While Fedor went to see Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, we went to Officina 18 and enjoyed the lovely atmosphere there. It was great, and we did a whole lot of catching up, which is always good... However, right now I am a little bit drunk and I don't really have anything else to say (ok, I wrote half of this post before she arrived, and half of it afterwards: see if you can find the split).

Ciao,
OJ

PS Wooohoo ac milan, Champion's League 2007 (in other words, I dont give a fuck, and as it seemed: neither did most of the other people in Milan....)

My camera Rocks

Last week, I finally decided that it was time for me to focus my research on something else for a while. I had been working on the same bloody thing for such a long time: I was completely sick of it. So I have started working on the second topic now. It is (obviously) still in a very early stage, but it basically will be a theoretic analysis of the incentives of individuals to actively participate in civil conflict. Now, does that not sound interesting?
Right, anyway, I think it does and the good thing is that it will be purely theoretical, no data involved, possibly some simulated data, but that is fine... Anyway, I was quite excited about the entire idea of this and I spent a lot of time working on it. The weather was very nice, so I used a few opportunities I had to have some reading in the park, enjoying the sun. And of course, hot weather also leads to bad storms. Like this one:

 

But of course, most of the time the weather was lovely, so we could enjoy our lunches at ARCI, near University

 

 

On Wednesday, Fedor's uhm, sister (sort of: long story) and her boyfriend came to Milan. As we were obviously working, they stayed in a hotel and we didnt get to see them until Friday. When we did, it was obviously a happy reunion for Fedor and they spent all Friday watching Milan. At night, we did our regular trip to La Padellacia and played some silly games at home.
On Saturday, as they had already spent so much time in Milan, we decided that it would be fun to actually leave Milan and go to Como. Also, because it was very warm, and Como is always nice and cool.


After some nice food and ice cream, we also decided taht it would be a good idea to take a pedalo out to the lake (a waterfiets). And so we did. Possibly surprising, but we had absolutely loads of fun!!! Didn't realise how much fun it could actually be to go on a pedalo (and how exhausting it is, actually)

And, in the famous words of a Dutch comedian, it is now time for a FILMPJE!!!! (we made our own little disaster movie of some sort, but unfortunately it is in Dutch. May I please add that we were actually sober when we recorded this....)
At night, another dinner and another night of playing games ensued. It was very enjoyable and we were quite sad to see them go this morning. On the other hand, it was nice to have most of the Sunday to ourselves...
Tomorrow, another day of work will follow.
Ciao,
OJ
PS My top banner system is broken, but my Local Provide (aka Jorryt) has informed me that this will be repaired within approximately 20 days (and counting)

Il Duomo

Something else entirely, I went for a walk today and ende up at Duomo. They have unwrapped it a little bit further, finally!!! I took a photo (as I do a lot nowadays, as you can see in my Photo Album, thanks to my new awesome camera. But to the point, when I was putting some of the pictures on my computer, I realised that the Duomo, since the first time I saw it has gone thru quite the undressing.
April 2005:

 

December 2005:

 

November 2006:

 

March 2007:

 

Now (May 2007):

 

Oh well, I thought it was kinda cool.... :-D

Ciao,
OJ

Home Alone

Drama, drama... Months ago, Fedor had booked a flight to the Netherlands for this weekend. He really was looking forward to seeing family and friends and managed to get a day off, so he booked a flight for Saturday-Monday.
However, a few weeks ago, we discovered a large strike had been planned by airline controllers. Of course we were still hoping it may be cancelled, but to no avail it seemed. Friday afternoon, after calling with Ryanair (well, if the flight is cancelled, you may be able to take a flight on Thursday instead) and Bergamo Airport (well, we dont really know anything at all), Fedor actually decided not to go, but to postpone the visit by 3 weeks, when we have a visitor-free weekend. Unfortunately, that Monday, another strike has been announced. 2 weeks later there would be another possibility for Fedor..... and another strike.... Seriously, what are they trying to do????

However, Friday evening, finally, part of the strike was postponed to Thursday (not the Milan part, unfortunately, but still) and we had found some alternative way to travel back to Italy on Monday (by train: now THAT is NOT cheap). He will have to return on Monday for sure, because work is calling (and there are a lot of hours to be missed), so we'll see what happens... At least I hope he enjoys his visit. I quite enjoy the weekend alone: the weather is lovely (28-29 degrees, sunny) and I have done a lot of meandering thru town. Also, there is the Arte Sul Naviglio (a big art fair around the canal behind our house), so that is also very enjoyable.

And of course, there was the Eurovision Song Contest... Some of my forecasts that I made during the show were surprisingly correct (like Ukraine 2nd, Georgia 21th, UK 23rd and Ireland 24th, but I had absolutely not seen Serbia coming... Also, I had expected Spain to do much better and had actually expected Belarus to win. My personal favourite, Slovenia, didnt do too well either, which is really too bad, but I guess I'll survive. Next year another Eastovision Song Contest!!!!

Ciao,
OJ

Wedding...

This week, the Italian government finally issued a State of Emergency due to the lack of water. As we dont have a car, the 500€ fine on washing your car wont be much of a problem for us, but we will see what is going to come of it in the end. Ironically enough, the government's decision came on the same day that it started raining for the first time in ages. And in Milano, when it rains, it pours.... So we have had 5 days of (occasionally) torrential rain, and all-day thunderstorms. But apparently this wasnt nearly enough to recover the lack of rain in the past year or so. And the rainy period has in fact ended again, anyway. Today blue skies, tomorrow back towards 25-30 degrees. I cant say I am too worried about the lack of rain, to be honest: I am just enjoying the ride!
Elsa, whom I work for as a Research Assistant, has given me a huge job to do and very little time to do it in, so I have made a lot of hours on Thursday and Friday (it concerns a repeat exercise in a database, which I will have to do about 3500 times: not quite exciting).
Yesterday, Fedor and I went to a wedding together for the first time! His good friend Belinda was marrying the love of her life Enrico and obviously we were invited. Fedor was the bridesmaid, uhm, I mean, Matron of Honour, so we were quite excited. Not nearly as excited as Belinda herself, obviously...

After the official part (or as Belinda would say: the boring part), and the good old rice-throwing,
,
the party continued on the country side, near Crema, where there was a lovely 120-person lunch, with a whole big bunch of children present.

A whole lot of merry-making ensued and we had a very good time.



It really was a very pleasant wedding-day. Tonite we might be meeting up with them and some of their visitors from South Africa again for an aperitivo, but we are not quite sure yet. Oh well, I am sure we will have a good time. Unfortunately the newly weds are moving to Belgium soon (in fact, Enrico has already departed, Belinda needs to get permission to be in Europe first, before moving to Belgium), so we wont be seeing much of them around. This really is too bad, because they can be lovely when they want to...


Ciao,
OJ