HALLOWEEN
Just a couple of weeks earlier...

As work got from bad to worse.
I try to think on the positive side.... It allows me to have fun- well... once I leave the building.
Dancing... Dancing

PIMP & FLUFFY

Eddie Izzard- Death Star Canteen

Cockoo- Gina babau

I assume these pictures require an explanation.
so... flew to Rome to go to wedding, after fight with taxi driver to take me from the airport to the hotel I joined Gina, which was happy wining and dining.
It's understandable that sharing a hotel room with one's mother can be problematic... make the one's mother Gina then it all becomes a bit more complicated.
Being woken up at 8 am on a Saturday, for no other reason apart from:
Sorry couldn't sleep, can we go for a run? there is a nice park around here.
Mum it's 8 am... Saturday... let me sleep.
I gave up about 10 min later, lift the cover, slip out of bed, put feet on the carpet...
screaming started... Are you not wearing sleepers? Come on.. you putting your feet where everybody else's walks.. oh... don't don't it's bad, there are germs...
God... this was going to be a long day, made longer by the fact that Gina thinking was 11.30 decided we should go to the hairdresser.
We had to run back as we needed to be ready by 3. and the 11.30 were 1.30 and she needed to put the 25 creams + make up before going to the wedding.
The wedding must have been one of the most boring experience ever and considering that one of the witness managed to totally colour match and material match both the gold coloured cloth on the altar and the tableclothes of the ceremony, it could have been worse..
Despite the crowd was a very young one compared to Italian standards, it all ended at 12.oo
Oh well... Gina woke me up the morning after, this time after the running as she couldn't work out the door key!
she brought me a coffee...
One of the famous quote was:
Let's buy a ring, as I understood that you won't either get married or give me a grandchild, might as well buy you a ring...
It makes perfect sense doesn't it...
As Gina doesn't like to queue Colosseum was soon removed from the list, well after she stood there looking at the american families taking pictys with the fake Gladiators..
When she said I could stay here for hours.. Let's go now.. But look, is she holding a slice of pizza? hahahah look at the guy is pretending to kill the Gladiator..
Anyway after stop to buy some crisps- her lunch... Because she likes crunchy things and after feeding my sandwich to the pigeons until at the 100th pigeon landing around me I started screaming.. What Gina could say in her defence: look look how they come, they must be calling eachother.
Then it was times to meet my friends:
1st victim - Cri & Max
Max:
nice to meet you
Gina:
Oh! you two will have wonderful kids.. look at your eyes..
Then she obliged them to go through every shop as she was looking for a LV bag ( not even to mention--the only sold out) and a pair of shoes ( which like usual she found but not in her size- 34 that is... (about size 2.5 in UK- included in the kids' tax waiver bracket)
We visited the Parliament as it was open door & we trotted around town for a bit..
2nd victim: Pod & oats
it didn't help that pod mentioned the hysteric pregnancy of maude. It's better to have a kid, dogs require the same amount of attention... ( if only she knew)
Encounter with Oats it's documented here
Is she normal? another famous quote
But the big question I think you have is

What was Gina doing in the wardrobe?

See.. she's quite short, so she can't reach the top of the wardrobe and "those stupid things to put the hanger on- why don't they have normal hangers? " so people don't steal them wasn't a good explanation so she stepped into the wardrobe to have a closer look.
She also wanted me to take a picture of it, because it was a very clever piece of furniture and I should have one built like that....

Fontana dei Trevi was obviously too crowded and all those cobble stones and beautiful buildings amazed her but also made her angry so much to shout in the middle of the street : SEE... humanity has always been cruel, wonder how many slaves died to build them and put those little stones one next to the other. let's go shopping.

One other thing that fascinates Gina is how people understand which way to go in the tube... she also pretends that the people that ride the tube with her ( i.e. me) know exactly which side the door is going to open so she can prepare herself for the exit.

Took Gina to Gigietto as she wanted artichokes and then to pamper her I booked a face massage the only thing she could say was. Na cagata, I bet I still have make up on.

Then she managed to get a chair and sit in front of the sauna door and started staring at me from the outside, I was trying to relax... Then... don't complain I'm difficult!!!

We also went to see la basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli, where the meridian was built.

Pope Clement XI ordered Francesco Bianchini to build a Meridian Line. He chose the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli because of the stability of its roman walls and foundations and its suitable dimension.

Pope Clement XI inaugurated the Great Sundial on October 6, 1702 , the annual Feast of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order, whose statue is in the entrance of the Church.

Locations are expressed in Centesimae Partes of the pinhole's height, and are indicated on the line from 33 to 220. Each of those numbers are related to the zenithal distance z of the Sun at the meridian by the formula CP=100·tan(z). z is also written in degrees on the west side of the Line: 78=100·tan(38°). Stability of the site over centuries is a requirement for high precision astrometry such as the inclination of the Earth axis over its orbit plan. The exact durations of a lunar month and a tropical year were other scientific tasks of this Meridian Line, motivated also by civil and religious exigencies. The parameters introduced by the Gregorian reformation (1582) of the Calendar have been tested with this instrument in the first years of work. Daily solar transits gave the exact time for Angelus prayer at noon ; the instant of vernal equinox, to which Easter is linked was also computable with this Line. Using the Northern Gnomon, Bianchini determined the apparent elevation of the Celestial Pole within 1” different from the true latitude, but they were discovered only three decades later.

Baltic

See what you can do with fridges!!

So?

So? Sorry for the absence, but a combination of factors contributed to the lack of posting.
Where should I start?
What happened?
in casual order
weekend in Newcastle - Baltic,
Pimp and Fluffy
Trip to Milan
Wedding in Rome + weekend with Gina+ Gina meets oats & pod, Siena, Florence
Rubber ball
Assembling furniture
Cut & Paste
Various bureaucracy/ breakages etc etc
Work - What for when the company you work for loses 8bn?? Told you not to buy those shares.. Didn't I?
And the occasional hanging out till morning

ok so...

Anyway.

as I then lost track and bla bla it's now late. But I leave you with a snippet

The Italians have a saying "keep your friends close & your enemies closer" And although they have never won a war and never mass produced a decent car, they know what they're talking about