I have now finally almost updated by weblog to the current date. So just one more quick post about last week and then you'll again know everything important that's happened to me the past month.
I'm getting a bit frustrated by my work, because they still haven't given me the amount of courses that I want. My reserves are running out and I want to start working full-time a.s.a.p. However, they keep promising me courses but then it turns out the client wants to change to the time and/or date which means I can't teach the course. This sucks, but it comes with the territory, I guess. My amount of courses is growing slowly but steadily, so I suppose I shouldn't complain. I'm just a bit sick of having to deliberate whether or not I really need to spend every single euro I spend (not that I've been doing it for that long, but I just hate doing it). Oh well, we'll see. It will be alright, but unfortunately not as fast as I want it to...
This weekend, Niels and Marielle, Olaf's brother and sister-in-law visited us and they left us again this morning. One of their main reasons for coming was relaxation, as they have been spending a lot of time on their lovely baby boy for the past year and were in need of a lot of rest, rest and rest. So we took things slowly, which was fine by us. We had some lovely dinners, saw some sights and got some good nights of sleep. We also had a lot of time to catch up. And, very importantly, they brought back my completely cured laptop! As they left quite early this morning, we had the whole day to ourselves and I've used today to answer a lot of emails and finally update my weblog. I'm very glad I got the chance to do this, because my blog is quite important to me as it is sort of a diary, a way to express my thoughts and an important way to communicate with all my friends and family far away. And, being the egomaniac that I am, I want you all to know what's going on in my life, even if you don't want to!
Next week, I'm going to be very, very alone. Olaf is going to Cordoba on Tuesday morning for a conference and winter school until Sunday. Also, my friend Belinda left for South Africa last Friday and she will be gone for a couple of weeks. Well, actually, I don't think I'm going to suffer that much but will enjoy my time watching the movies I can't convince Olaf to watch and spend time catching up with friends I haven't seen/talked to/emailed for a long time. And besides, my father is coming over for a visit this Friday and I've finally been able to reserve some ticket's for Leonardo da Vinci's famous fresco The Last Supper!
Have a nice Sunday evening, all of you, I hope to talk to you soon! We're going to a birthday aperitivo of one of Olaf's friends and hope to dazzle her with presents (as I'm pretty sure we will, since we were in charge of getting the presents for the whole group). After that, sweet dreams...
Ciao, Fe
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Notes from a small island
Last weekend we made a little trip to England. Although it was a very good trip and we had a lot of fun meeting up with old friends again, the journeys themselves sucked majorly. Friday evening, we left Milan on the airport shuttle during rush hour and spent about two hours getting to the airport. Fortunately, nobody really gives a shit (or at the very least very little) about the new safety measures implemented to prevent terrorism in Italy, so we were in time for our flight after all. When we arrived at Stansted Airport, we were of course there at the only time of day when there isn't a bus to London every half hour, but had to wait for about two hours in the rain. By the time we did get to London it was 11 pm and OBVIOUSLY this means everything closes, even on Friday night. Fortunately, we found a little off-license supermarket not far from Marike's place and we created our own little party while Marike's fellow students started leaving the common room when we entered because 'it was so incredibly late already' and we were alone by 1 am.
On Saturday, we visited the British Museum and let ourselves be amazed by the Egyptian, Greek and Japanese sections. Especially the Japanese section, was very beautiful and instructive as I didn't know that much about Japanese history and culture. Afterwards we went semi-shopping in Oxford Street and treated the way too posh and way too expensive central London department stores as museums and admired the Christmas decorations. There's a lot one can say about the British, but they certainly do know how to make pretty shiny Christmassy thingies!!!
After that we took the train to Coventry to visit Matt and Anthony. We had a gorgeous dinner at a Lebanese BYO restaurant with them and of course drank far too much wine. According to Matt's calculations the next morning, we had finished 10 bottles of wine between the four of us. Well, that's only 2,5 bottles a person, isn't it? That's not very extreme... At least from my perspective! I've done worse than that! The next day we made a surprise trip to Oxford, a city neither Olaf nor I had ever been before. We didn't really do anything there, but we just walked around admiring the architectural styles of the old building and of course the local department stores with Christmas decorations! After a little dinch in a pub, we went back to Coventry (illegally traveling first class because coach was filled with people) and it was time for us to return to London (this time legally traveling first class because some English bitches had taken our reserved coach seats and the train manager couldn't be bothered to even come and take a look).
Back in London we met up with Marike again and went on a mad hunt for any place in London that would still serve us alcohol at 10.30 pm on a Sunday evening. We had to take the airport shuttle at three o'clock again, so it was really no use going to bed in the meantime. As it was also quite cold, warming ourselves with alcohol was the only solution and we really didn't feel like waiting outside for hours. We found one lovely restaurant near Covent Garden that would give us one bottle of wine but were not very subtle about us having to leave quite soon again. So, after having chucked down the bottle of wine and being chucked out of the restaurant, we went on the hunt again. Marike took us to a lot of pubs she knew and thought might be open until late, but we were completely unsuccessful until we found one place that was open for 24 hours a day. After some bottles of wine and nibblies, however, we were told that they wouldn't serve us anymore because they were going to close at 1 am. Apparently, these Londoners hadn't completely grasped the concept of a 24/7 pub. As we still had more than two hours to kill, Marike was sweet enough to offer to stay up with us and to take us back to her place again for a little repetition of our private party of two nights before. She lives in one of these very old dorm buildings with creaking floors and squeaking doors where there are always sounds you can't explain and people generally assume they are haunted. For this reason, being all alone at night in the common room amid all these sounds was kind of scary, but also exciting because it felt like being inside a horror movie! Anyway, after saying our goodbyes to Marike, we managed to find a taxi and went to the airport.
As our plane didn't leave until 6.30 am we decided that taking a little nap on the bus had refreshed us enough and that we would continue drinking at the airport. Amidst people desperately drinking coffee to stay awake, we had a lovely bottle of wine and slept like a rose on the airplane and on the bus back to Milan. Poor Olaf had to stay awake to go and give renewing his residence permit another try (which failed again, evil Italians!), whereas I didn't have to work until that evening and had already prepared those classes the week before, so I jumped right into bed. That morning, prompted by Marike, we realised that we hadn't taken any pictures that weekend, so unfortunately no pictures of rainy England on my blog.
Getting a bit rested was exactly what I need, because that evening my Dutch friends Maartje and Edin were arriving. Fortunately, they had already been traveling through Italy so they were quite beat themselves. We didn't really too that many exhausting things but just spent the time catching up and walking through Milan a bit. Tuesday evening, we did get a bit drunk, however... Here are some photos.
A gangster and his bimbo!
On Saturday, we visited the British Museum and let ourselves be amazed by the Egyptian, Greek and Japanese sections. Especially the Japanese section, was very beautiful and instructive as I didn't know that much about Japanese history and culture. Afterwards we went semi-shopping in Oxford Street and treated the way too posh and way too expensive central London department stores as museums and admired the Christmas decorations. There's a lot one can say about the British, but they certainly do know how to make pretty shiny Christmassy thingies!!!
After that we took the train to Coventry to visit Matt and Anthony. We had a gorgeous dinner at a Lebanese BYO restaurant with them and of course drank far too much wine. According to Matt's calculations the next morning, we had finished 10 bottles of wine between the four of us. Well, that's only 2,5 bottles a person, isn't it? That's not very extreme... At least from my perspective! I've done worse than that! The next day we made a surprise trip to Oxford, a city neither Olaf nor I had ever been before. We didn't really do anything there, but we just walked around admiring the architectural styles of the old building and of course the local department stores with Christmas decorations! After a little dinch in a pub, we went back to Coventry (illegally traveling first class because coach was filled with people) and it was time for us to return to London (this time legally traveling first class because some English bitches had taken our reserved coach seats and the train manager couldn't be bothered to even come and take a look).
Back in London we met up with Marike again and went on a mad hunt for any place in London that would still serve us alcohol at 10.30 pm on a Sunday evening. We had to take the airport shuttle at three o'clock again, so it was really no use going to bed in the meantime. As it was also quite cold, warming ourselves with alcohol was the only solution and we really didn't feel like waiting outside for hours. We found one lovely restaurant near Covent Garden that would give us one bottle of wine but were not very subtle about us having to leave quite soon again. So, after having chucked down the bottle of wine and being chucked out of the restaurant, we went on the hunt again. Marike took us to a lot of pubs she knew and thought might be open until late, but we were completely unsuccessful until we found one place that was open for 24 hours a day. After some bottles of wine and nibblies, however, we were told that they wouldn't serve us anymore because they were going to close at 1 am. Apparently, these Londoners hadn't completely grasped the concept of a 24/7 pub. As we still had more than two hours to kill, Marike was sweet enough to offer to stay up with us and to take us back to her place again for a little repetition of our private party of two nights before. She lives in one of these very old dorm buildings with creaking floors and squeaking doors where there are always sounds you can't explain and people generally assume they are haunted. For this reason, being all alone at night in the common room amid all these sounds was kind of scary, but also exciting because it felt like being inside a horror movie! Anyway, after saying our goodbyes to Marike, we managed to find a taxi and went to the airport.
As our plane didn't leave until 6.30 am we decided that taking a little nap on the bus had refreshed us enough and that we would continue drinking at the airport. Amidst people desperately drinking coffee to stay awake, we had a lovely bottle of wine and slept like a rose on the airplane and on the bus back to Milan. Poor Olaf had to stay awake to go and give renewing his residence permit another try (which failed again, evil Italians!), whereas I didn't have to work until that evening and had already prepared those classes the week before, so I jumped right into bed. That morning, prompted by Marike, we realised that we hadn't taken any pictures that weekend, so unfortunately no pictures of rainy England on my blog.
Getting a bit rested was exactly what I need, because that evening my Dutch friends Maartje and Edin were arriving. Fortunately, they had already been traveling through Italy so they were quite beat themselves. We didn't really too that many exhausting things but just spent the time catching up and walking through Milan a bit. Tuesday evening, we did get a bit drunk, however... Here are some photos.
Doesn't Edin look like a gangster?
A gangster and his bimbo!
Aren't we cute?
Madonna! We stole this umbrella from Marike's apartment building. It's completely pink and has Japanese girls printed on it.
My lips are sealed...
More to come, I'm on a roll!
Ciao, Fe
B'day pictures!
Obviously, blogger didn't allow to post anymore pictures in my last post because it sometimes just does that for no reason, but here they are...
Enjoying ourselves immensely
Sexy move... 
Inside joke... 
Enjoying ourselves immenselySexy move... 
Sandwiching da Olaf!!!!!
Seriously, what is she going to do with that mouth?!?!?!
So, was Olaf cheating on me with Henning?
Oooh baby... Let's show those Italians how you're supposed to dance!
Inside joke... Aren't Stephie and Henning cute together?????
My b'day weekend
Ciao tutti,
It has been a long time but today is update day! There is an account of my wonderful birthday below. But to start off with:
After many requests for photos of Fabrizio, our new beautiful hat-and-coat stand, voilĂ :
There is no way I would be able to live without my little dressboy anymore. He is just tooooo gorgeous!
Anyway, I didn't really know what to expect of my first birthday celebration in Milano. I've met a lot of people since I started living here, but not that many people I'd celebrate my birthday with. Additionally, I felt a bit strange because we had some visitors I didn't know very well. Stephie and Henning are twoGermann friends of Olaf's who I had only met once - and very briefly at that - in Groningen. As a result, I had decided not to celebrate my birthday that weekend, but to postpone it to a weekend when we wouldn't have any guests. Stephie and Henning turned out to be very lovely people, of course (and how could they not have been - being friends of Olaf's), and we had loads of fun. They are an incredibly sweet couple (see pictures). We did the Milano tour (Castello, Brera, Cimitero Monumentale, Duomo, High-Tech), took a lot of pictures and drank fair amounts of booze. We also discovered that the view from the roof of the Duomo is amazing at sunset...
The night before my birthday we went out for aperitivo with several study mates of Olaf's and when they (especially the girls) found out the next day would be my birthday, they decided we absolutely had to party that night. And this accidental birthday party was very, very lovely. I called my friends Belinda and Enrico and we started out with a couple of glasses of champagne at our place. Unfortunately, Nina and Antonio couldn't make it, because Anto has recently broken his leg playing football and isn't really able to move around a lot yet. However, we met up with Olaf's friend at Le Trottoir, the same place I went to after the last teacher meeting, and danced the night away while drinking some very tasty cocktails. It felt amazing, as if I was back in Dio and could do anything. I didn't hold anything back but partied like one should on one's birthday. When I recall all the steamingly hot sexy moves (male/female, male/male, male/female/male etc.) we showed the Italians present, it's a wonder they didn't throw us out...
However, as pictures speak louder than words...
It has been a long time but today is update day! There is an account of my wonderful birthday below. But to start off with:
After many requests for photos of Fabrizio, our new beautiful hat-and-coat stand, voilĂ :
There is no way I would be able to live without my little dressboy anymore. He is just tooooo gorgeous!Anyway, I didn't really know what to expect of my first birthday celebration in Milano. I've met a lot of people since I started living here, but not that many people I'd celebrate my birthday with. Additionally, I felt a bit strange because we had some visitors I didn't know very well. Stephie and Henning are twoGermann friends of Olaf's who I had only met once - and very briefly at that - in Groningen. As a result, I had decided not to celebrate my birthday that weekend, but to postpone it to a weekend when we wouldn't have any guests. Stephie and Henning turned out to be very lovely people, of course (and how could they not have been - being friends of Olaf's), and we had loads of fun. They are an incredibly sweet couple (see pictures). We did the Milano tour (Castello, Brera, Cimitero Monumentale, Duomo, High-Tech), took a lot of pictures and drank fair amounts of booze. We also discovered that the view from the roof of the Duomo is amazing at sunset...
The night before my birthday we went out for aperitivo with several study mates of Olaf's and when they (especially the girls) found out the next day would be my birthday, they decided we absolutely had to party that night. And this accidental birthday party was very, very lovely. I called my friends Belinda and Enrico and we started out with a couple of glasses of champagne at our place. Unfortunately, Nina and Antonio couldn't make it, because Anto has recently broken his leg playing football and isn't really able to move around a lot yet. However, we met up with Olaf's friend at Le Trottoir, the same place I went to after the last teacher meeting, and danced the night away while drinking some very tasty cocktails. It felt amazing, as if I was back in Dio and could do anything. I didn't hold anything back but partied like one should on one's birthday. When I recall all the steamingly hot sexy moves (male/female, male/male, male/female/male etc.) we showed the Italians present, it's a wonder they didn't throw us out...
However, as pictures speak louder than words...
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Finally, the photos!
Arghhhh... It took me ages to get blogger to upload these pictures. Anyway, here they are, just as I promised!
We had a real good time!
Moeders (mama), however, preferred to watch and see what woud happen...
Jolien appeared to be able to handle her fucile...
But then again... it's always a mistake to give a girl beer!Gotta run now, more updates about my birthday and the last few weeks will come shortly.
Ciao, Fe
Sunday, November 05, 2006
The weekend of 10 visitors!
Ciao tutti,
I haven't posted anything for about two and a half weeks. You must have been thinking I had died or had an accident or something. Well, none of the above. I've just been quite unable to get hold of a computer for enough time. You see, I'm currently deprived of my own comp and have to use Olaf's but unfortunately he's rather obsessed and is very loath to let it go (I try not to call him an addict, but it gets harder every day...).
So what happened to my computer? Well, it's ill and currently recovering at the computer hospital in Holland. Seriously, how was I to know it would have an allergic reaction to the glass of sticky white bubbly I fed it?! I drink the stuff all the time! Anyway, the emergency team thought it was better to take custody of my baby away from me and put her in the care of a computer doctor in Holland. I suppose they thought that being a happy drinker (not an alcoholic!!!) made me an unfit parent... Fortunately, the damage isn't that great and she will be back by my side in two weeks. Diagnosis: permanent disfunctioning of several external sense organs. Prognosis: will be able to function perfectly again but will need prostheses for the rest of her life (external keyboard).
So, what has happened in the last two weeks of 'the emotional rollercoaster which I laughingly call my life' (Angelina Jolie in Playing by Heart)? Well, as you may have been able to deduce from my last post, we had some visitors. My mother, brothers and sister-in-law came to stay for the weekend and we had loads of fun. We drank too much, slept too little, ate a lot and even managed to see some sights. Of course, as different people have different desires, we often split up and let everyone do as he or she pleased. However, there is one thing that must be mentioned specifically: on Thursday we went to the awesome birreria La Fontanella (after having had ridiculously large pizza's at La Padellaccia - literally 'The Bad Pan' - before), where we of course had fucili - large glasses in the shape of an 18th-century rifle - and every single one of us became covered in beer in no time, and Olaf managed to smash two of these 50 euro glasses against each other. Fortunately, only one broke...
I haven't posted anything for about two and a half weeks. You must have been thinking I had died or had an accident or something. Well, none of the above. I've just been quite unable to get hold of a computer for enough time. You see, I'm currently deprived of my own comp and have to use Olaf's but unfortunately he's rather obsessed and is very loath to let it go (I try not to call him an addict, but it gets harder every day...).
So what happened to my computer? Well, it's ill and currently recovering at the computer hospital in Holland. Seriously, how was I to know it would have an allergic reaction to the glass of sticky white bubbly I fed it?! I drink the stuff all the time! Anyway, the emergency team thought it was better to take custody of my baby away from me and put her in the care of a computer doctor in Holland. I suppose they thought that being a happy drinker (not an alcoholic!!!) made me an unfit parent... Fortunately, the damage isn't that great and she will be back by my side in two weeks. Diagnosis: permanent disfunctioning of several external sense organs. Prognosis: will be able to function perfectly again but will need prostheses for the rest of her life (external keyboard).
So, what has happened in the last two weeks of 'the emotional rollercoaster which I laughingly call my life' (Angelina Jolie in Playing by Heart)? Well, as you may have been able to deduce from my last post, we had some visitors. My mother, brothers and sister-in-law came to stay for the weekend and we had loads of fun. We drank too much, slept too little, ate a lot and even managed to see some sights. Of course, as different people have different desires, we often split up and let everyone do as he or she pleased. However, there is one thing that must be mentioned specifically: on Thursday we went to the awesome birreria La Fontanella (after having had ridiculously large pizza's at La Padellaccia - literally 'The Bad Pan' - before), where we of course had fucili - large glasses in the shape of an 18th-century rifle - and every single one of us became covered in beer in no time, and Olaf managed to smash two of these 50 euro glasses against each other. Fortunately, only one broke...
It's so easy to make boys happy...
(There will be some more pictures here, but I'm having some trouble uploading them)
On Saturday we were joined by Olaf's parents who finally arrived after a disastrous voyage from the Swiss border. Firstly, their telephone turned out not to work in Italy, secondly they got lost driving through Milan without a map and thirdly - to make matters worse - they had a flat tyre in the middle of Milan (che deja vu! Olaf and my father had a flat tyre with that car in Milan two months ago, even though those tyres are supposed to be indestructible! Can we smell litigation...?). But fortunately everything got sorted out in the end and they were finally able to start enoying their visit. For both my family as for Olaf's parents it was the first time they had visited us in Milan. We had some lovely meals and drinks and Olaf took his parents to see all the sights on Sunday. On that same day, our next two visitors arrived, Bard, Olaf's friend from Groningen, and his friend Marlous who we hadn't met yet. As a result, we were quite a large party that evening, so we just had to go to my favourite aperitivo place La Ringhiera (because that is the only place with enough space to accommodate large groups). And Marlous turned out to be a lovely girl! A bit strange and completely bonkers perhaps, but then again, so are we...
On Monday, my family and Olaf's parents left again and it was just the four of us until Wednesday. Unfortunately, I was already so tired I'm afraid I wasn't able to appreciate Bard's and Marlous' visit to the fullest nor did the copious amounts of alcohol and short nights have a very good influence on my teaching abilities. But this was to be expected. Even though I really like having visitors, 7 days in a row was just too much...
As this was the week before my birthday, I of course got a lot gifts! Just to name a few:
- a router (from my inlaws), so we will finally be able to enjoy the comfort of wireless internet, that is, after we figure out how to plug it in...
- a towl rack (from my brothers and sister-in-law), which was much needed
- Fabrizio (from my mother and her boyfriend), a human-sized hat-and-coat stand in the form of a man. I actually think he looks a bit like Fido Dido. I promise, there will be a picture of him on my blog soon...
- A really cool corkscrew from High-Tech (from Olaf), which will hopefully finally bring our useless discussions about which kind of corkscrew is superior to an end... (aren't we pathetic?!)
- Loads of very sweet cards, emails, texts and e-cards. All of you who thought of me, thank you so much!
- Kanis & Gunnink coffee. Yummieieieieieieieieieie!!!!!!!!!!!
Talking about my birthday, there are a detailed report of the party and (hopefully) some photos coming up...
Ciao,
Fedor
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