2009 going, going, gone.

2009 is history. Roughly 12 hours to go. A year with ups and downs as always. Last night watched "Brothers" a good way to say farewell. Welcome 2010 and bring us health, joy and happiness.

A travelling working year

2009 will be the year of the travel. Concluded with three in a row: Prague, Cairo and Kiev.

Happy that the holiday season is coming up.

Candy - Paolo Nutini

What a song and the trembling voice of Paolo makes it just so delicate. A top talent without any doubt who is able to set a diamond in the long list of juiceless songs of this moment.

I lost a part of me......

For the first time in my life I am not 100% original. One of my wisdom tooth is gone !!!

Riga and the Antichrist

Three great days in Riga. It was good, good fun to be in Latvia with our friends Claudia and Kenneth. We enjoyed everything: the food, the architecture, the dry (no rain) weather, the beach, the cocktails, the flights, the hotel, the ladies :-), the Lebanese, the movies....yes the movies.
The Antichrist will surely stay in our memories. A shocking movie certainly the last 30 minutes.

Sofia..Utopia...

A troublesome day. After landing in Prague and having the first meeting there I headed for the second part of the journey: Destination Sofia.....but Boeing did not think so. Luckily on the ground they found some problems at the plane so that we switched to another one...2 hours later......Landed in Sofia I have been ripped off by a taxi driver.....

Places I have been

Elisa, Marianna, Stefania, Marco

Back from the summer holiday where we had a lot of experiences and saw lots of places I cannot do anything else than dedicate this space to the people mentioned in the title.

Sometimes life can surprise you. You think you know your friends but still they can astonish you as Marco and his wonderful family did. They let us feel as king, queen, prince and princess in an incredible way.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to the 4 of you.

Hot weather in Bratislava

At 22h00 the temperature was still of 27 degree Celsius. Strolling around it feels like being on a Mediterranean summer holiday location. All restaurants fully packed and beautiful surroundings.

And then came the time that Luca hit the road again

Last Friday we honoured Luca's decision to move again. Luca once moved from Italy to Holland and now he will be flying over the ocean: Destination Brazil. There he will join his wife and little daughter. This was a good opportunity to celebrate at Carlo's CookStudio in Den Bosch.

Manlio, Erik, Luca, Giovanni, Carlo, Marco, Carlo, Claudio, Giuseppe, Little Samuel, "George Matteo Clooney" and myself.

It was a truly pleasant evening with seafood and Manlio's white wines (the Soave was top).

Michael Jackson

He was not my idol, neither my hero. However there are many many songs I like and he was an incredible showman. One of a kind, I would say. Universally successfull but it always looked like he was leading an unhappy life. God bless him.

Balla Bella, balla ballerina

I thank God, Allah, Buddha or just the fate because today I saw my little girl dancing.

Long Live Gisele (Bundchen)

Dolphins, seals, warlrus and so on

Today we had a wonderful sunny family day out in Harderwijk.

Cairo - Culture shock

WOW. Three days but it feels like three months. What a roller coaster drive it was. I could start from the Pyramids and the Sphinx but what really hit me was the chaos, or as I want to call it, the "Linear Chaos", yes because Egyptians experience it as Total Order. I see chaos as a curved, spaghetti-alike kind of plot but they bend it so far that it becomes straight again, the "Linear Chaos" and they just live with it. For an European, even a South European like me, an odd experience.

Al Hussein Mosque, another stunning 10 minutes of a culture so different from ours. I will never forget it.

The Taxi Drive, felt each second of it as being the possible last one of my life (when trying to wear the belt, the driver told me not to do it or my shirt could get dirty !!!!).

Khan El Khalili. The Bizarre Bazar.

Milito, Milito, Milito game over sul Derby, impazzisce Marassi

Tomorrow

I turn 42.
Somehow I feel it today. It was a hard day at work with quotations for Cairo Airport and Wroclaw Airport plus a couple of meetings. Additionally we had to put all the furniture aside to allow the painting of the house tomorrow.

On the other side I know that in one week time we will fly over to Italy to RELAX.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Today I have managed to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine. This is the only salt mine worldwide functioning from the Middle Ages until today. It is quite amazing with several sculpture left behind through the centuries. These works of art have been initiated by the miners themselves and more recently this job has been taken over by artists. This is a UNESCO protected site and one of a kind.

Preghiera per l'Abruzzo, Italia. Aprile 2009

Pochi minuti di riflessione su un'altra tragedia che ci zittisce, ci fa guardare gli schermi come in trance, ci fa ascoltare la radio con il pianto nel cuore. Una parte dell'Italia è in ginocchio e tutti noi siamo in ginocchio con loro, e per loro. Fiumi di parole (le mie tra le altre) saranno scritti che mai eguaglieranno i fiumi di lacrime che tantissima gente versa e dovrà versare. Si sentono testimonianze incredibili di dolore, eroismo, paura, coraggio, forza, tenerezza.

La nostra impotenza esplode in tutta la sua nudità, guardando le fotografie vedo un enorme timore negli occhi della gente che mai e poi mai riuscirà più ad essere quella di due giorni fa. Sono sempre gli occhi quelli che cerco perchè non mentono, a volte una bocca sconvolta da un urlo o sfigurata da una smorfia mi fa deviare ma gli occhi alla fine mi raccontano tutto, mi raccontano il momento. Incredulo anche mio figlio di dieci anni che ieri dopo averne parlato si è trovato accanto a me a guardare il telegiornale ed ha capito solo allora l'ampiezza e la crudezza di quanto era successo.

Io non credo ma la preghiera è un qualcosa che mi aiuta, una preghiera che per me non è una filastrocca imparata da bambino, un testo imposto ma semplicemente un momento di riflessione, una pausa, queste poche righe. Per capire. Se mi leggete per favore pregate, come volete.

Lisbon - Nice to meet you

Good evening. Yesterday me and wife came back from a long weekend in Lisbon. We had 4 marvellous days full of different experiences.

The Weather: it was sunny all the time.
The City: very surprising and exciting (surely the Alfama hood at night....)
The Food: Casa de Linhares, Casa do Alentejo, Restaurante Via Graca. All of them with something to remember.
The Monuments: Well, the cloister of the Jeronimos Monastery in Belem left us speechless.
The Oddities: the Santa Justa lift
The Hotel: Olissippo Castelo
The Sport: up and down the hills
The People: Politeness
The Kiss: An old lady gave me one

So if you get bored, take a plane a fly to Portugal.