Ciao Italia

Well, I've been in Italy (again) for the past week.
I donàt like Italy that much anymore. If it wasn't for the food I would actually think Italy would be a waste of time.

Went to Florence this weekend, and I've realized one thing. Tourism-based cities loathe turists. I don't like them either, especially when they are american or english, as they tend to be patronising gits when they come out of "civilization" and travel around Europe. But I'm a tourist as well, ain't I? In Italy I don't see myself as one, maybe because Italian and Portuguese cultures are so alike.
That's why as well, I can recognize this kind of rude treatment towards tourists. We see it in the Algarve very frequently - "let's take advantage of these bastards" - they don't speak the language and have plenty of money to spend.

In Florence, a waiter at a cafe we went to, referring to my friend Julie, said to one of his colleagues, "Has this one payed for her coffee?" - This one. This one? I was so f**king outraged by that treatment, that I had an argument with the waiter. He had thought we didn't understand Italian and was very apologetic, but nevertheless, I felt so angry, cos I was getting that kind of disrespectful and antipatic treatment during the whole day.
So Florence, instead of the beautiful artistic city every one loves and talks about, became the symbol of the touristic city I don't to go back to. Venice will probably be the same.

Anyway, we're going back to London tomorrow. Can't wait.

little britain

Julie and I went to HMV today for the release of Little Britain's First Series on DVD. We had to queue up for more than an hour, but it was worth it. Why you may ask....
Because Matt Lucas and David Walliams were there to sign our copies. They got there dressed as Emily and Florence, two ladies, and spent an hour signing DVDs and Little Britain script books always in the character - they were absolutely brilliant, as usual.

The thing is when it got to my turn I was so nervous that I just said "Hello" and they looked at me and replied "hello" and I couldn't say anything else, and all I did was smile like a fool. But it was worth it.

popstarz was good

Quite good actually. Went to queue up at 10.20 (cuz you get in for free before 11) and met Davide, Adam, and Aidan there. And then Jonny from work with his mate Chris, who were both pissed by the time they joined us, so were a bit too high for us 4, but very very funny and lovely guys they are.
I had a great time, especially because there was the Le Tigre giveaway and I got their new CD, whose cover picture is in the previous post. It's really good!

They didn't DJ as I wrote, I thought they were gonna but they didn't. This friday they are actually gonna be there for a concert and all the gays love a good riot-punk-grrl band. And you should see the lezzies :) they do get wet. I'll be there :)

Italy again

Going back to Italy, for a week (or maybe a little bit more) on the 17th. Phase 2 of the project we were working on before at a major Italian company involved in a major money scam.
The 3 months I spent there were amazing, especially the food. In the end it felt too much time away from home. Well, wherever home is, it's certainly not Italy. I can't wait for more prosciutto, cheese, good pizzas and pastas. And to go and spend another thursday at Parma's Dadaumpa. Great fun and good dance-y music. Cheap and european-measure drinks and very good looking people. Although generally, they are quite superficially interesting (i.e. cute as f**k but dull dull dull), they are good for a quick social 5-minute chat.

It's good that I'm going with Julie - we're gonna have fun I think. And if we get to stay for more than one week we can use the weekend to go to Florence and see our friends Clare and Sherry, who were with us working on phase 1 of the Project, but left the company to Florence to study Italian and try to change their lives from grim Essex to Italian landscapes.

Going out tonight to Popstarz - Le Tigre will be DJ-ing there and next week they will be playing live. The music is usually good, and I like to move from floor to floor depending on the mood. There is a choice between Indie/Rock, Trash-Pop and R&B, so it attracts a different crowd of people, which is nice.


Tomorrow I'll probably end up working at the Retro Bar, as Wendy asked me to cover for someone and I really enjoy it. I worked there on Wednesday - mad busy karaoke night with 2 girls filming a documentary on Leonard Cohen, so there were a few Leonard Cohen karaoke tracks - which was weird, in an interesting way. Leonard Cohen mixed with Girls Aloud, Frank Sinatra, Morrissey and others. No plans to go out tomorrow - need to rest.

And the BingoBangoChart is coming back - I'm trying to finish it this weekend to have it ready for monday, but can't confirm it yet.

Yawning at work since there is nothing to do, but we still have to come in to look at the computer, chat, read and have coffee. It's nice for one day, but not for a whole week. I'm applying for an IT Support job here at the company, better paid and more useful for my brain I think. We'll see how it goes.

I'll keep you posted as usual.

from miss-shapes to tate modern

So, indeed Davide and I went to Miss-Shapes. Brilliant night - the music was great, the crowd was good as usual.
I even met this absolutely gorgeous guy from Glasgow.

It's been dry season for me. Haven't met anyone interesting in a club or pub in quite a while, so when a cute guy is interested I get interested as well. We chatted a while, and after exchanging phone numbers, I had to go home (working the next day). We arranged to meet on Saturday and there we went for a nice art walk along Tate Modern's bits and pieces, nice coffee in Covent Garden and a falafel in Soho's Old Compton St.
Quite nice Saturday afternoon I must say, althoug I think the interest wasn't balanced - as usual I end up more interested than the reciprocated. He is a lovely and interesting guy and I think and hope we can be in touch.

Dates are great but they also bring to the surface all our insecurities. I always feel like a mediterranean version of Woody Allen on a date.

Saturday night went for Jonathan's birthday party in Greenwich. Jonathan is a friend of Davide's that has become kind of a friend as well. So it was his b'day party and never expecting much from house parties, I already had a Plan B just in case - if the party sucked I could leave and go to Wigout and meet some other friends there. The fact is that it didn't suck at all - there were a lot of interesting multi-cultural people and I had a bit too much to drink and ended up there until 3.30. There was this guy, Jason, piano teacher, quite interesting. So we're going to meet for a drink this week, although I have that weird thing when it comes to pianists (see "Nuno Lopes").

Não há fome que não dê em fartura. :) Same as "when it rains it pours"

Sunday, last day of my friend Atalaya in London. Nice chat over a coffee about plans for the future. She's going back to Santiago in Galicia to continue her museum studies, but left totally in love with London. It was nice having her around, although we only met twice in the last month. I reckon she'll be back soon.