Funny signs 2

An example of polderpoëzie (a word coined by my Dutch language teacher) on a traffic light pole in Nassauplein.

When I look into your eyes
something starts burning in my heart
I find you so beautiful
But I don't know how I can say that
So now I have sorrow

An electoral sign of the Party for the Animals. They won 2 seats in the recent elections. It says Shake The Hague awake now!

Dog lover
If you just leave your visiting card in the letter box, our dog is happy to come by you and crap once in front of your door

Read the Bible, the book for you (Jordaan district)

God does not exist (right next to St. Nicholas church, one of the biggest Catholic churches in town, in the heart of the city)

Unknown canal

One way, except for horses (Bovenkerk)

Who I am, who I should be

A harsh discussion ensued between me and Elisa, triggered by comparisons to other people and the situation described in another post. Her argument was that I could achieve more, but I didn't because I didn't behave optimally, so I should change the way I behave. And I should plan a solid future.

Everything can be viewed from optimistic and pessimistic points of view, just like a half-full half-empty glass. And I am not completely unsatisfied of myself, and I don't completely lack self-esteem. So, if I look back to my life, I see that I achieved something, I can be proud of something, I have enough money to afford to eat every day. And, about planning of lack thereof, I don't see it as disastrous, many friends of mine do even less and are happy, maybe happier than me.

All this leads to a choice.
1. I should not care if Elisa looks at the half-empty glass. I should enjoy my half-full glass. Elisa must not tell that I would be the right person if only... Either I am the right person, or I am the wrong person. Stop. Then you decide.
2. I should re-consider my everyday behaviour, starting from tomorrow.

Looking back to my previous jobs, I actually applied policy 1, with satisfaction. So the natural choice is 1. But there is something which makes me think about 2:
- things to lose. This may sound conservative, but when faced with the choice of breaking up, one is naturally inclined to think about what there is to lose. Only when you have nothing to lose, are you really free to decide. Evaluate what there is to lose is difficult, and so is choosing if losing it is worth it
- many pleasant things that happened in my life (yes, there have been many) happened because at certain points I could break the mould, do something unthinkable one month before
- what Elisa says actually touches me, even if I don't want to show that.

I absolutely need a copy of the book Life: A User's Manual. Why is everything so complicated?

Luck

The company organized a party last Friday. Nice. Lots of people, that was the best part. Also the band playing 70s and 80s disco music was nice. The dinner was OK. Not better than OK, the food was not much, the meat was dry with little salt.

At the party, I lost my umbrella. Not a big loss: it was very broken. So I had the chance to buy a new one. Since the weather here and now is very rainy and windy, a good and strong umbrella is a must. So I indulged and bought an original Knirps. Hey, a self-admitting geek who buys an incredibly expensive gadget which is not electronic!!! Unbelievable! It is waterproof and very resistant to the wind. Unfortunately, it is not resistant to one thing: absent-minded people who keep forgetting their umbrellas anywhere, just like me.

And I lost my camera. But someone at work came to me and gave it back to me. I don't know who told him I lost it (but the office managers knew, I wrote them the morning after, telling them the model of the camera, maybe they did). I discovered that, in the meantime, someone else took photos with it. I don't know if I am angry, because people used someone else's camera without permission, or happy, because I had my camera back eventually.

Happy. Not completely, but happy

I will still work for my present company. This is good. I like my job, and this means that they recognized me as a good employee (they also that in the renewal statement). Yet, it is for one more year. I was hoping for a permanent contract.

Anniversary

Today, I am living in Holland for exactly one year.

Time for reconsidering what happened. Did I regret leaving my job in Italy. No, not at all. Home sickness? Sometimes, especially with bad weather, but not a lot. Feeling like a stranger? Probably a ittle, but, believe it or not, not a lot more than in Italy. Money? Money is never enough, but, in comparison to Italy, I cannot but be satisfied. language? I don't know if I should be satisfied, because I can read it decently, or unsatisfied, because I speak badly and I undertand spoken language even worse. Let's try to see the positive side: I've improved a lot. But the opposite would have been impossible, considering the starting point.

Would I move to Holland again? Yes, definitely.

Regrets? The same I had before: sometimes I feel like I'm not exploiting the opportunity to the maximum. I think I should make more friends, go out more... My eternal shyness stops me. But anyway, looking from the positive side, I'm slowly becoming more social. Or maybe I should eventually become an adult and stop thinking about that.

80s

A new Italian colleague has come recently to the company. Yesterday he invited me and some friends to his home, for an evening together and a dish of pasta.

His history is different from mine. I always tried not to behave as an Italian abroad, therefore I never sought for Italian friendships, rather I tried to mix with the international atmosphere of the company and the city. He, instead, came two years ago and almost immediately signed up in the site Italians in Olanda. This is where most of the people present yesterday came from. Yes, there was the odd Dutch engaged to an Italian partner, but the absolute majority was made of Italians. So, I could really breathe that air of a community, a set of people who share language and culture, but live surrounded by a different language and a different culture, and find their own identities in the culture. Funny, before now I always try to assimilate and mingle with the surrounding culture (with various degrees of sucess).

We watched Notte prima degli esami, an Italian movie which tries to appeal to two types of people: teenagers (being a movie about teenagers) and people who were young in the 80s
(being set in 1989). Despite having a fair share of stereotypes, and showing young age and high school in a way sometimes too idylliac and unrealistic, it is anyway a funny and interesting comedy. And all the 80s music and fashions (the boys played with a Commdoore 64! Fantastic) made everyone feel nostalgic. Many fashions, fads, singers etc. were common then, and gradually faded out unnoticed afterwards. Now, when reminded, they become something special, triggering surprise and emotion. "Look at how Madonna looked like when she was singing Like A Virgin!", "Look at those telephone tokens!", "look at that Citroën Dyane!".

I realised something about myself: I am an 80s person. It is part of me, of my being, just like my name and the colour of my eyes. I am in 2006, but I realise that 2006 is not my home. I just bought a Transavia ticket to the year 2006, and that's why I am here. I haven't bought the return ticket to the second half of the 80s, yet.

Our host also had a copy of an Italian mag called Max, some glossy-paper mag with lots of half-naked models, something about the trend du jour, and a lot of ads of overpriced luxury goods. But one of the titles on the cover was actually interesting. "Goa, the hippies do not live there anymore". Somebody tell that to my landlady, please.

Fine weekend

On Friday evening, I didn't go as usual at the Heeren Van Aemstel. Instead, I went to the Open Air Theatre with the neighbour, her close friend and Elisa, to assist to a Bertolt Brecht play. Nice, well acted, nice scenes. No curtain, so you could see everything behind the scenes. Or, in a sense, nothing was behind the scenes, everything was part of the show, including the actors changing clothes and changing the set. The language was Dutch, and that didn't help a lot.

Sunday was the turn of a visit to the NEMO science museum. Although most of it caters for a children's audience, it was great fun. It was possible to put hands on a lot of stuff, and experiment oneself. And there was an interesting :) section about sex, which was aimed at young people. There was a video which was forbidden to people older than 18. Imagine doing that in Italy. Not as good as the Deutsches Museum in Munich, but very good.

And today, after a long pause, back to the swimming pool.

I don't understand myself

Sometimes I really, sincerely, utterly admire Elisa. She is good at everything, everything she does she does well, it is a pleasure to conversate with her.
Other times I wonder how I can be attracted by someone who cares so little about how she looks and dresses.
Sometimes I would like to tell her that she should take a little more care in how she looks and dresses (only a little. I hate girls who only care about looks).
Other times I feel that, if I told her so, I would be an insensitive sod who does not really love her and forces her to be someone else.
Sometimes I think that I and Elisa go so well together because we are very much like each other.
Other times I think that we are too much alike, we do not complement.
Sometimes I need more freedom.
Other times I think that, if I had more freedom, I would have more freedom to take wrong decisions and ruin my own life.
Sometimes I am very self-confident. I have qualities, I have some interests, I reached some point of maturity.
Sometimes I feel that I am an annoyance to others, everything I say could harm others or simply bore them, and, anyway, the world can go on if I would not be here, and if I would not be here nobody would care. So I stay silent and tend to avoid human relationships.
Sometimes I take life as it comes, and enjoy the moment.
Other times I think that I should find a determined goal, and live for it. Which is what Elisa does.
Sometimes I like to be alone, independent, and in full control of my life.
Other times I feel that my life is empty without others to take care of, and who take care of me.
Sometimes I am unaffected by bad things that happen, I just bear with them and go on.
Other times I whine about how bad things happen.
Sometimes I complain that nobody understands me.
Other times I think that it is normal. I don't understand myself, so why should others do?

Why am I sleeping so little these days?
Amd, most important, why am I blogging at 7AM?
(BTW, 7AM is very early, not very late)

"I hate my life! I hate everything! I wish I was dead! ...Well, no, I don't, not really. I wish everyone else was dead" (from a Calvin and Hobbes strip)

House

Not so good news about the house.

Some months ago, my landlady, back from India, seemed so enthusiastic about coming back to India, and looking forward to finding some sort of long-term way to live there.

More recently, she expressed the desire to resume her old job in Holland. And she did not want to renew the contract for a whole year. And she told something about coming back to her own home, of course with a sufficient advance notice bla bla. It is not the most reassuring condition I've ever been. Better look for something else. Pity, I love this house (I love her house?).

And, in the meantime, I hope that my employment contract is renewed. Because, despite a crap August with rain virtually every day, I still love this country.

Plans for the future

Tomorrow I will be alive. And the day after tomorrow too. But I don't like to make such detailed plans such a long time in advance

Something new

I did something I never did before: I repaired a hole in the front wheel of my bicycle.

What do you mean, it is not new, and you don't write about anything else? The past times it was the rear wheel!

The eternal struggle continues.

A story with a happy ending

No post in the last weeks. But the last weeks were not so uneventful. (I should have blogged earlier. But I always did something else instead. Much less useful, of course).

Last week I received a visit from two long time Italian friends, and their daughter, who will turn 6 in a few months. They came with their motorhome. Well, they had to take care of theit girl a lot, so probably they didn't have so much spare time to go around and visit the city. But it was fun. And the girl (and her father) appreciated the C64 DTV a lot. I'm such a geek I appreciate those things.

The last day of their visit (Friday past week) they went to my house while I and Elisa were at work, relaxed a little, checked and wrote e-mails etc. When they came back to their motorhome, which was parked in the same street, they didn't find it. They only found a bunch of glass spliners instead. So they phoned me, worried, saying "The motorhome's been stolen!". I was astonished, I would like to help them in any case, but the only thing I could do was to point them to the nearest police office.

Less than one hour after, an SMS gave relief. The motorhome was at the police. Apparently, a petty thief broke the glass and took a bag (which was visible from outside), but then, maybe seen by people who lived aorund, just flew away, neglecting all the valuables inside the motorhome. The police, in order to prevent more thefts from a motorhome with a broken glass, took it away (without posting any signs of doing that). And the bag was found a few meters away in the street. So, after replacing the glass, everything was back to normal.

They left Amsterdam and headed for the Hoge Veluwe .

Chores

I dared do something very difficult, yet boring, and possibly unrewarding: filling the tax return.

In Italy it was not hard, for two reasons. First, I was (and am) an employee, and taxes are deducted from my salary. Second, in Italy companies employ fiscal consultancy agencies, so employees just talk to a consultant, and (s)he does all the paperwork.

Here, one is on his own. The HR department does not know much about tax forms. And the form is strictly in Dutch. And I didn't find anything in it about the so-called 30% ruling. I would like to have my taxes back, since I didn't have a 30% ruling in 2005 but I have now, but the form says nothing.

On another topic, maybe I'll have to change house. The rent in my current house will increase, and Elisa is not sure she will stay in Holland after January, so this house would become unaffordable for me alone. And that's a real pity, becuse I really like this house.

What you call heatwave, I call summer

When I came, I thought Holland was different from Italy. Well, it is, in the sense that August in Italy is a summer month, while in Holland it has an autumn-like weather. But there's something in common: people complaining about warm weather. If it were for me, summer should be 9 months longer. 30 degrees is the ideal temperature. Instead, people, TV and newspapers complained the whole July about the heatwave, instead of letting the other people enjoy the wonderful weather.

The heatwave is over, it's cold (that is, you cannot go around in short sleeves), it rains, and I severely need a holiday.

Italy won Football World Cup

And I am happy. Because Italy won. And because France lost. Euro 2000's final needed a revenge.

Yet, I think that no World Cup final should end with a shoot-out. In 1982 there was a rule: if the match was a draw after extra time, it should have been replayed. The rule was abolished in 1986. It should be restored.

And, in 1982 (yes, I am so old I remember 1982 World Cup final as it was yesterday) I was far, far, far more happy. Maybe I'm getting old.

Holidays are over

Very short holidays. The nice times of when I was a child and summer holidays lasted three months are over (well, actually I don't think that the times of when I was a child were nice, but there were nice aspects).

First, back to Pisa. Just off the plane, I remember how hot Italy is on summer. I like hot weather, but that humid hot weather was unbearable. Voted for the referendum (luckily, "No" won quite largely, so our great Constitution was not changed for the worse). Then I borrowed my father's motor scooter and I and Elisa went to Sardinia. Even though I am Sardinian, I don't know large parts of it. It was nice, a motor scooter really gives freedom of movement and you can feel the warm weather on your skin.And the natural beauty of some spots was stunning. The island is very little populated (except that the coasts get overcrowded on summer), so there are large stretches of land in which you can walk for tens of kilometers and not see a house.

We arrived to Olbia in the morning, visited the city, then went to some archaeological areas around Arzachena, then to Palau, where we boarded the ferry to la Maddalena. We went around the town and the island, and to Caprera, where we visited Garibaldi's house. It was closed. maybe Mr. Garibaldi was not at home at that time. Jokes apart, it is so stupid to find a monument closed one day a week during the peak season for tourism. Apparently, since museums and monuments are open on Sundays, they are closed on Mondays. Don't those people think that monuments should be open 7 days a week?!? Especially in an island which thrives on tourism!!! After that we visited Luogosanto and Tempio, stopped in a bar in Tempio to see Italy's match, then we hit the road again to visit some churches, and to Sassari. That was our first day. Our holiday was more stressful than our jobs.

We visited Sassari and Alghero (great town, the most beautiful of Sardinia).

Alghero

Then went along the coast to Bosa (almost completely unspoilt coast, great landscape).

Coast between Alghero and Bosa

We shortly visited Bosa, then went further south through nice villages and unbearably hot weather, we reached the archaeological site of Tharros. We spent the second night in an agriturismo with nice Tuscan people.

Tharros

This is not Far West, but the village of San Salvatore near Tharros

The third day we went to Cabras, Oristano, Sanluri, Cagliari and then the final destination by the south coast. And the real holiday started, and lasted a few days.

The return trip was all in one day, along the east coast. There are incredible landscapes. At one point, the road which runs closest to the coast reaches an altitude of over 1000 meters.

Su Gorruppu gorge seen from the road between Baunei and Dorgali

On the ferry back to continental Italy, we watched the semifinal Italy-Germany. At the end people were about as happy for Italy's victory and for Germany's defeat. Apparently not many people in the world love Germans.

Then, I am back to Amsterdam. I shaved for the first time in about 10 days. The weather is much sunnier and warmer than when I left. It was so nice that, last Thursday, I and the downstairs neighbour had dinner in a park, on the grass. Geweldig (as they say here).

I miss Italy

When I came, I promised I would have never said so. And I maintained the promised for a very long time. But now that time has come. Why? Obvious reason: the weather. Not too bad in winter, in the sense that it's not worse than in Italy. But now, it's definitely colder. First half of May has been great. Second half of may has been dismal. I was afraid autumn was already started, even before spring was over... Luckily, first days of June were great again. Then, again, cold weather came back... Will summer ever come? Well, yesterday and today were not bad, let's hope the weather improves.

In fact, I don't miss Italy. Here one can see all World Cup matches on TV. In Italy, you have to subscribe to a particular pay TV.

A post cannot be a post without mentioning the bike. Now it has new pedals. The rest is old and battered, as ever. No new holes, this anti-leak tyre is working.

And the language: I still suck. As for writing, I never write in Dutch, maybe I should start in order to practice. I am not fluent at all at speaking, and my vocabulary has enormous gaps. I can understand non-Dutch people speaking Dutch (mostly). Well, I understand English better when spoken by non-English, too, and this could be a sort of consolation. But it is not enough. Anyway, who wants to learn a language which includes the word "onafhankelijkheid"?

Time for exams

Long time with no posts. It's because the bike works too well. Actually, after replacing the rear tyre, the rear wheel needed to be replaced because of a small accident (which cost me a fair amount of Euros). So, with completely new rear part (actually, I don't know if the tube was changed), the bike is going as well as ever. And the blog is more silent.

Time for exams. Next Friday I have the company 's performance appraisal. I am actually a little scared. It's not like a university exam, there is nothing to do in the last days, only what I did in the past almost seven months counts. But did I do what they expected me to do?

And soon, don't know exactly when, my landlady is coming back from her long holiday for a few days (after which she will go back to her holiday place). She will see the house, and maybe judge me for how it is maintained.

I am not really worried, but I am actually a bit uneasy about those two occurrences.

Also, the weather is like it's autumn again. Maybe it will be autumn until December, then winter again. There's something missing somewhere. I should be content to have had some weeks of spring some weeks ago, but somehow it doesn't seem enough.

Bad, then good

Things started to go really bad.

Yesterday I realised I lost my bag. There was just one valuable thing inside, but there was one. It must have been on Friday night. So I went to the hotel where the company's party was

While going there, the rear tyre of my bike got its sixth hole. The same day as when I repaired the fifth one. Damn glass splinters left on Utrechtsestraat after Queen's Day!

The people at the hotel found nothing.

Before going to sleep I thought I could have left my bag in the place where I and some colleagues had falafel after the party. But it was midnight, too late to ask.

Today is 1st May, but I went to work. It is not a holiday here. This is the only country in the civilised world where you have to work on 1st May (in the United States it is not a holiday either, but, because of death penalty and the war in Iraq, I have doubts about it being a civilised country).

At lunch time, I went to the falafel place. They told me to try on the evening. I lost every hope.

It started raining. It's May! May is in spring, you know! It's supposed to be sunny!

I went home pushing my bike and riding the metro along with it. Just before coming home, I realised the chain I lock it with was not there.

So I brought the bike to the repairer, asking him to change the rear tyre complete with tube, and replace it with an anti-leak tyre. The conversation started in Dutch, but I was unable to understand his second or third sentence, so we switched to English.

Luckily, after 15 minutes and some tenths of euros, the bike was ready. This blog will become much more silent now. Or at least I hope.

Then I took the metro (it was still raining like hell, better not to use the bike) and went to the city center. I found the chain just where my bike was parked. It must have fallen off just after I unchained it.

Then I went to the falafel place again. My bag was there! And all its content!

Let's hope tomorrow is sunny and warm!

Queen's Day

Yesterday was Queen's Day. It's 30th April every year. What do you say, yesterday was 29th? Well, apparently there's a rule for which, if 30th April is Sunday, Queen's Day is on 29th that year.

Dutch people go mad on that day. People on streets, live music in stages all over the city, orange clothes (Oranje is the royal family. And also the colour of the football's national team).

In many places, including around where I live, there was the free market: everyone could sell thier used objects. It was more of a dump than a market, with old and useless stuff for sale, but it was fun. Also, stands with food, books, children plays...

Then I and Elisa met in Leidseplein with some of her colleagues, nice people. We strolled around the crowded streets, until finally we got to the Jordaan district and stopped in a pub.

People in boats in the canals

The wise man does not piss in the wind (a Latin inscription near Leidseplein)

A guy who charged 1 Euro to have eggs thrown on him. But very few could hit him

It was very hard to find a place to eat, but, after a long wait, we did. And, after that, we went home with the metro (as there were no trams and buses in the centre). A very fun day.

Maybe I will learn this bloody language (eventually) (in 10 years, or more)

I found an ad from a man wanting to exchange Dutch lessons with Italian lessons. So I answered. We exchanged some e-mails: mine were written in Dutch, and his in Italian, and we corrected each other's mistakes.

On Thursday we met. His name is Gert and he is very keen to learn Italian. He already writes very well, and speaks it slowly but correctly. I also tried to speak, and discovered (as if I didn't know before) that I still speak in a terrible way. Slowly, without knowing the indispensable words, and with completely wrong word order. .

But I found the evening very useful. Practice is definitely what's needed. If he is patient enough to bear with me and my horrible Dutch, we both will benefit.

Five

Another hole in my bike's rear tyre. The fifth one. My neighbours tell me I should throw away the bike. Maybe they're right. Surely, a visit to a (trustworthy) bike repairer is necessary

Leaks

Last Thursday I fixed a leak in the rear tyre of my bycicle. It's the fourth time since I'm here. Maybe this blog should be renamed to The eternal struggle of one man against one bike and only report about leaky tyres. There would be enough material to fill a blog, although it would get a little repetitive.

Visits

After being in Italy for the elections, I'm back to Amsterdam. So I spent Easter in the Netherlands. Many tourists came here for the holidays, so the city is much more crowded than usual.

Among those tourists, two former colleagues of mine, of the time I worked in Turin, with their respective girlfriends (one of which works in the same place). It was a pleasant experience. We first met on Friday evening, they let me and Elisa (who didn't know them) in their hotel room (note: they were not use to Amsterdam's steep stairs), then we had pizza together (real Italians! We dared eat one of those touristy, un-authentic, mozzarella-less pizzas! Not so bad though) and had a little walk. On Saturday we did probably the most touristy thing we could: a boat ride through the canals. It was the first time for them, and for us too.

The six bridges over the Reguliersgracht

A house-boat for sale. Anyone wanna buy?

Then everybody came to my house, including a Dutch friend who studied in Turin for his Erasmus, and now studies in Delft. Italian food galore. Actually, not so much, it was the first time a dinner was prepared for so many people. But everybody seemed satisfied. Overall, they've been two great days. Let's hope my friends could visit the Anne Frank museum (when they tried, the queue for the tickets was just too long) before coming home.

Forza Italia!

Now I'm proud to be an Italian. Again.

Funny signs

No alcohol (in the Oosterpark)

No noisy thingies. Also no grilled meat (or whatever is that in the bottom right) (in the Vondelpark)

Danger, birds! (on the road to Marken)

Some years ago, in Eindhoven, I saw a "No pissing" sign, which is even weirder than those.

Het is lente

It's spring! The weather has suddenly changed (all weather changes are sudden here) for the better, and it's more sunny. But, most important of all, there are more daylight hours. Also, the daylight saving time, although it forces to wake up earlier, means that the sun goes down one hour later, and that's such a pleasure.

I'm getting ready for my return to Italy. On the 9th, there are general elections. And they are very important, because they are a unique chance to pose an end to the Berlusconi premiership. Berlusconi is a great liar: he lies, but in a very convinving way. He points out all the opposition's misdeeds, and he never cares about his, which are exactly the same, only 10 times greater. His government is very much committed in laws that influence him directly, yet he is very good at shifting the focus away from that fact. He loves to choose as government partners some very conservative, when not outright racist, people, which have a great deal of influence in government policy, yet he is the frontman, so those people can act unseen and undisturbed, while he gets all the attention himself. And he simply does not care about the reputation of clown he earned abroad, because those people do not have right to vote in Italy.
I don't think his opposition is the best possible opposition, but i do think that things would improve tenfold if he stops being the prime minister.

Back from CeBIT

CeBIT was great fun. Lots to see, colourful, huge, yet not too messy.

On Friday, I and my colleagues arrived in Hannover, and most of us went to the hotel, very far away from the fair (about 10 km) and even farther from the central station. Then we went to the fair. Since there was no room at the company's booth for our luggage, we went to the garderobe, which was just outside the fair's turnstiles. After that, the turnstiles simply refused to let us in again. It was a mistake from us: we should have told the security personnel we were temporarily leaving, so the intelligent turnstiles would have let us in. But we didn't know. And the turnstiles were not intelligent enough to figure that. And the security woman was really, really German, and just told us "You used your ticket, so you can't get in again. Stop". Luckily, with some phone calls and help from another security woman, we could get in.

When inside, we just forgot to have lunch. There was so much to see. And I got my indispensable calories from candies many booths were giving away. Strangely enough, many big names were not present or not so visible (Sony, Motorola, Philips). But there was IBM, Siemens (playing home), Microsoft. Not many Linux companies, what a pity. Novell dedicated a very small area of its booth to Linux. And there was even Commodore, which was so important in my teenage, when I used to spend all my free time in front of a C64.
For dinner, we went to a carefully chosen restaurant: it was the first Greek restaurant we saw just before the tram stopped by it. It turned out to be very good, a lot of meat, tasty. And the atmosphere among colleagues was so nice. It is good to have these moments, otherwise the only relationships among us would be work.

The day after, it was a little colder.

My colleagues waiting for the tram at the tram stop (reached through a shortcut) on Saturday morning

I remembered I am a Telecommunciations' engineer, and I stayed pretty long in the telecoms area. It is nice to see all the acronyms studied at school have some practical significance (almost all of them, some are long-forgotten). Since I don't work exactly in the telecoms field, I am behind the latest technology achievements. But it was fun.

The return journey was more exhausting than expected. We knew the train from Hannover would not have reached Holland, and we would have to take a bus from the border to the intermediate station of Almelo. What we didn't know was that that train would have left Hannover with 1h15 delay. I am reconsidering my bad opinion on Trenitalia... Luckily we caught the last train from Almelo. Living in Amsterdam has some advantages, as people living farther away would have to make complicated train changes, and one missed connection would have meant sleeping in a station. But I hope everybody went home safe. Tomorrow we'll discover.

Get lost!

Last Saturday it was nice weather, so I and Elisa decided to go to Muiden by bicycle. I brought my TomTom One to find the way.

So, a bike route sign told us to turn right. The TomTom told us to go straight, so we went straight. Suddenly we met a road with no bicycle lane, and the TomTom told us that it was the right way. What should we do? Elisa thinks that, this time, we should not follow the TomTom, so we turn right. Guess what? We get lost in a plain with little human presence, and still covered by snow from the previous days.
The plain, fortunately, had lots of signposts, so we eventually found our way. And, when in Muiden, we found that the castle was closed.
We had lunch in a typical Dutch bar, furnished with a lot of wood, and with a rug as tablecloth (yes, a rug! I wonder how hygienic it is...). The lunch was not bad, Dutch cheese and worst (sausage).
On the way back home, it started raining. Clouds must have realised we were by bike.
And on Monday I discovered the rear tube had a hole. Again! This time, remembering the past experience, I didn't take off the wheel, I managed to repair it by just removing the external tyre. No more rip-offs from bike repairers!
On Tuesday I voted for the municipality and district elections. As an EU citizen registered as living in the Netherlands, I have right to vote for local elections (not for national ones) automatically. It was fun. The voting offices are much more relaxed than in Italy, no police outside, and they didn't even ask me for a document!

And tomorrow is CeBIT day! Yippie!

And you thought spring was near

Yesterday night snow fell on Amsterdam. This morning the city was covered by white. And it was a sunny day, so the sights were so pretty.

My bike is the third from the left. No wonder today I went to work by tram

Will I ever learn this bloody language?

I am a little behind in posting, so today I am posting about what happened on Wednesday.

The company Dutch lessons have eventually begun. Once a week, every Wednesday after work. The first lesson was fun. We were two classes (beginners 1 and beginners 2) merged together, since one of the teachers couldn't come. Unfortunately this reflected in the fact that some were starting absolutely from scratch, while some others could put some words together. We presented ourselves and interviewed each other. The funniest moment was when one (an English guy) revealed that his Dutch girlfriend is not so happy he cannot speak Dutch after living there for some years (6, I think). He was among the best, however.

They say practice makes perfect. I hope these lessons help do some practice. But 1.5 hours a week are not enough in my opinion. A week earlier, Kees, a colleague of mine who is very fond of Italy and often goes on holiday there, accepted giving me a private lesson of Dutch in exchange for a lesson of Italian. Unfortunately he is leaving for a long holiday. Pity. I need to find some other Dutch willing to learn Italian.

Ajacied

Last Sunday, my neighbour invited me to the Ajax match. It was a lot of fun.

Despite it was not a particularly important match (the opponent, RBC Roosendaal, is the last one in the standings), the stadium was almost completely full. It is good that many people go there. In Italy the stadiums are almost always half-empty, and in general they are a dangerous place, because of the violent supporters (not enough is done to contrast them. Rumours even say that in some cases they are encouraged by the teams' administrations). Here it is nothing like that. Supporters are noisy, colourful, but not dangerous. Also when I and other Italians went to watch Netherlands-Italy last November, the Netherlands supporters screamed "Pizza" at us, hugged us, let us take photo of them and us together, and never did anything that could hurt us.

And Marco, my neighbour, really becomes someone else during a match. He a wife and two children, yet he screamed and yelled every time Ajax scored. And he kept complaining all the time Ajax was not doing as good as it should. After 70' it was ahead 2-0, but that was not enough. Only in the last 20 minutes, according to Marco, did Ajax played as it should have done for all the match. It must have been so: Ajax won 6-0.


Yesterday, Ajax did not so well against Inter (2-2 home, it is almost like losing).

Maybe I should resign from being a Cagliari supporter. If my favourite team were Ajax, at leasy my team would win some matches.

The two of us

A few days ago, Elisa joined me in the Dutch adventure. It's the first time we live together: ironic, we had to move so far away from home...

There are many reasons to like her: she knows everything so there's always something to talk about, I like the fact that she, despite being Catholic, can be critical towards the Pope and Church's excessively old ideas about ethics...

We are very similar. That's the main reason why we are together. Sometimes I think that maybe we are too similar, we do not complement each other. And she already plans to come back to her home town (actually, she plans everything about her future), while I do not like to plan forward and tend to take things as they happen. So, if I don't get fed up about Amsterdam (and Amsterdam does not get fed up about me, which is more likely), why come back?

But the thing I am most afraid is myself. Living together can give infinite satisfaction, but it also requires some sacrifices: keeping the house tidier, giving half of the bed space to someone else (three quarters, actually, judging from the first days)... Will I be able to overcome my selfishness and put up with those, and get the rewards?

This is Amsterdam

Do you know, when you park your car in a busy place, and, when you pick it up, find an ad leaflet under the windscreen wiper? Yesterday, when I came out from work, I found an ad leaflet hung to my bicycle's handle.

Spa baths: they should be required by law

Belated post about weekend. Last Saturday I went to Aachen, in Germany but just 5 km from the border with the Netherlands, to visit Francesco, a former colleague of mine.

Some background info: I joined Philips Italy, as a "research scientist" (this title really sounds good! My current title is not even close to that), in 2000. Francesco had started doing his internship as a graduate student one week before. Our research group turned out to be very good. We were using Bluetooth about three years before it became a trendy gadget present in all high-range mobile phone. And, most important of all, we were having fun doing what we were doing, with slack deadlines and quite a lot of freedom in choosing what to do. Francesco (who later on graduated and became a full-time employee) was a volcano of ideas, while I was more of a geek, focused on Linux and C programming (I still am, although no more so Linux-oriented. What a pity).
In 2002, Philips Research went under a restructuring, which involved closure of the Italian lab. So we were kindly "invited" to find another job. Motivation in all the lab employees plummeted. Our job became sending CVs, downloading songs from the Internet, watching movies during work hours... And we were paid for that! Not forever :( About one third of the people were moved in the lab next door (which, about two years later, underwent the same fate...). The others found jobs elsewhere, inside or outside Philips. My job was outside Philips, while Francesco joined Aachen's Philips research lab.

The weekend was a lot of fun. In Saturday Francesco introduced me to the Carolus Thermen, which are simply marvellous: hot water, cold water (much better than I expected), open-air pools with spinning water, sauna... Then we went to a pizzeria with some colleagues of him, mostly non-German. Then, one of them was having a party at his home, so we went there, had fun and drank quite a lot. Then, Francesco insisted we go to a bar, but I reached my limit, so I sat on a sofa and fell asleep...

On Sunday, we went to "les Trois Bornes", the point where Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands border. 5 meters from that point, there is the tallest point in the Netherlands (327 metres above sea. Yes, they are flat). A pretty nice spot, woody hills, perfect for a weekend trip. Then we spent the rest of the day around Aachen, jumping from a tourist spot to a bar and back, and drinking spa water (bleuch...let's hope at least it's healthy). Then, back to Heerlen, in the Netherlands, where I caught my train. Actually, I missed my train, so I waited for one hour until the next one.

And no, no photos. I forgot my camera at home

Sense of humour

Dutch can have a very sharp sense of humour, very different from Italians. An example is this note posted to the window of a ground-floor flat close to my house.

People who do not Dutch need a translation. But I don't know Dutch either... Here is the best I can do (look Mom, no Babelfish!)

Dear burglar,
After 3 burglaries in 18 months
There is really nothing more to be taken.
Otherwise make an appointment in order to come and look
[a mobile phone number follows]

Sad news today

The father of two of my dearest friends, Chiara and Claudia, has died this morning. Chiara is a friend since the beginning of my university years, and she is also the mother of Tito. Claudia is the one I have to thank for the beautiful house I'm living at this time, she is a world traveller, and she introduced me to people of any race, colour and creed.

I wish I could have spoken to either of them, in order to express them my condolences. In times like this, all the people who are suffering for the loss of a person cannot but stay closer together, in order to support each other and help each other bear the pain. And, ironically, in moments like this, one really sees how beautiful life is.

I'll never learn this bloody language

I've living in Amsterdam for two and half months now, and still I'm very far behind in knowledge of the language.

At first, I thought "Easy, as I already know a foreign language, just learn a few words and the basics are there". WRONG. Building a large vocabulary is indispensable, and it takes time and patience.

What I am doing is try to read a lot, with a dictionary on one side, in order to build a large vocabulary. This worked for English, so it should work now. Yet, getting to the point when the general sense of one sentence is clear even when some (many) words are unknown took a long time. And, still, my gaps in vocabulary are abysmal.

Reading and writing...well, I never practise these. Theoretically, I have a lesson book for that. Practically, I dedicate too ittle ltime to it. And I never speak Dutch, because most of my colleagues are not Dutch, and the ones who are know English very well. But, most important of all, sometimes I did try to speak Dutch. The problem was, they understood me, so they replied in Dutch. And I couldn't understand one word.

This leads to the lowest point: understanding spoken language. Every morning, Radio 1 wakes me up. The speakers are very good, they have a clear pronumnciation. So, I understand some words and, at times, even what some sentences mean. But not being able to understand most of it is frustrating.
Listening to the radio makes me believe "Hey, now I really understand!". Then, frustration ensues when real-life people actually talk to me. As soon as the conversation becomes more complex than "Goede morgen", "dank u wel" and "alstublieft", my reaction is always a perplexed face and a few words in English, begging the other to repeat in English...

I realise I will never learn Dutch when I think about all the irregularities, and all the words with different meanings. "Waar" means "true" and "where", "weer" means "again" and "weather", "zijn" means "to be" and "his"... But then, I think that Italian uses the same word for "time" and "weather", and suddenly I forgive Dutch people for speaking Dutch.

The truth

After inspecting thoroughly the house where I live, and considering the furniture, the picture hung at the walls, the Indian spices in the kitchen, the presence of a wok in the kitchen cupboard, and the amount of incense sticks in the closet, I have discovered the truth: my landlady is actually an East Asian, enclosed in the body of a Dutch woman.

P.S.: the bike works great again. Next time I won't lose any hair trying to repair it myself. Also, this has re-established some trust in Dutch bike repairers.

Ripped off

A stereotype common in Southern Europe (and maybe elsewhere) is that Italians tend not to be trustworthy, and try to rip off others as much as possible, while Northern Europeans tend to be more honest. In the past I was convinced it was true to some extent, now I am not. The responsible for this is a bicycle repairer.

Some days ago, when I took my bicycle to come back home from work (and the Friday night beer with colleagues), I realised the rear tyre was flat. The following weekend was sunny and perfect for going around by bicycle... So, I went to the repairer closest to home, but it was closed (the sign said 18:00, but there was nobody at 17:50). By chance I found another one, open, and I brought my bike there.
One day (and 6,50 €) after, the tyre was inflated, but not at high pressure. I inflated it myself at home. I inflated myself again the morning after, and I went to work. Guess what? After work, the tyre was flat again. There can be an explanation, maybe something in the wheel caused another hole, but I tend to think that the repairer just inflated the wheel without repairing it.
So, after marking that repairer as not worth coming back, I decided to do that myself. It is much more difficult than expected. I even phoned my father in Italy to ask for advice. Eventually I disassembled the wheel and fixed the hole in the inner tube. Then, today, I spent almost the whole morning putting the wheel into place. After lots of swearing, dirty hands, and a kind neighbour who helped me invaluably, the wheel was in place, but not perfectly straight, and one piece of the brake was missing. So I did what I should have done in the first place: go to the repairer closest to home. What will come out? Only time will tell.

Back to Holland

Christmas holiday time is over, sooner than I was used to. The 6th of January is a bank holiday in Italy, so it is common habit to make holidays last until that date. But in the Netherlands it is not :(

I enjoyed my Italian holidays. I enjoyed much less the Italian weather. Many say Italy is the country of the sun. Obviously those people have never been to Italy in autumn and winter. It was terribly cold, it rained most of the time, and one day (29th December, I think) it snowed. The biggest snowfall in twenty years.

note the snow covering the roofs and the lawn

So, on 1st January I woke up with a cold, cough and fever. But my plane tickets were not refundable, so I travelled back to Amsterdam nevertheless. The day after the fever, cough and cold were even worse, therefore I stayed home all day.

As soon as I recovered, I introduced my neighbours and my colleagues to the joys and delights of panettone and pandoro. They are two typical Italian Christmas cakes, almost impossible to find in other times of the year. Everyone appreciated.

After that, two Italian friends of mine came to Amsterdam at two different times (holidays last longer in Italy, lucky them), and I introduced them to the joys and delights of poffertjes and oliebollen (two Dutch cakes. The amount of sugar, oil and butter in them makes them absolutely unsuitable for people on a diet and those who care about their health. That's why I like them).