Bogart

Me in the 80s

2010-10-11T20:37:00.002+01:00

picture courtesy of Leng

Am I wrong or is everybody else wrong?

2010-06-24T23:34:00.003+01:00

I'm starting to wonder if I'm totally detaching myself from reality, the world, what is so called society

My honest answer is I don't think so, but people surrounding me clearly believe the opposite.

My level of frustration with the world has reached some sort of no way return, I find it humiliating to me, my being, everything I believe into.

Doesn't matter the occasion, the circumstances, the environment, the atmosphere, the people, the timeframe; whatever happens it's always my fault.

In modern society, people are different. They no longer answer questions, they no longer express an opinion, they just talk for the simple fact of picking a sentence and repeating it over and over again.

I can't possible continue like this. I'm not breaking down, I'm broken and all the people that surround me are just breaking the pieces in smaller parts.

Let me understand why, because I don't. Help me stop crying.

Stop humiliating me.

As this year I went to the BFI

2010-03-30T22:52:00.002+01:00

Apart from meeting Rufus, this was the highlight, awesome, funny quirky great.. and they didn't have the popcorns to soothe me

Drool

Squiggy in Wonderland

2010-03-26T21:22:00.002Z

Squiggy in Wonderland

2010-03-26T20:13:00.005Z

A few touches... and voila'

Spave Invader icecubes... Love them

Remember the little man that infiltrated my CV?

2010-03-16T21:08:00.003Z

Yes

I know infiltrated is not an English word... so what??

Well he died.. and in Rome!

Poor little person

2010-02-21T21:07:00.001Z

Pictures courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/skull_bone

Full moon- half moon- total Eclipseeeeeeeeeeee

2010-02-09T22:43:00.003Z

Now...
I used to hate jaffa cakes.. but I loved the ad.. so I started eating them
Then they changed the ad.. and said each jaffa cake had 1% fat...

That was removed as misleading.. as people thought you could eat them on a diet

Now they make the bars..

My question is.. how come that 3 jaffa cakes have 3g of fat and a small cake has 5.5?

Do you remember... the woman

2009-12-30T10:58:00.004Z

that I had to host ( due to my mum request) and she left those drawings here to be resent... Well.. she now claims to be an important fashion designer.. or so the world thinks.. Realistically her creations are not too bad.. some even nice.. but I was reading yesterday her "philosophy"..

And it says...

Il suo cuore batte sempre più velocemente portandola lontano dalla sua famiglia e dalla sua Sicilia: arriva a Londra alla celebre Central Saint Martins per frequentare i corsi di Fashion Illustration Cool Hunter e Millinery Designer e, senza nessun aiuto, trova e inizia uno stage di quattro mesi da Vivienne Westwood. Ritorna in Italia spinta da una determinazione fuori dagli schemi: disegnare, creare abiti è e sarà la sua vita, il suo mondo.

The bit in red... says.. without any help finds a stage of 4 months @ Vivienne Westwood..

Without any help.. my ass...

Thanks to me.. which I begged my friend to allow her to work there.. and thanks to MY FRIEND ( which was so kind to even go in the interview room and translate any word she said as she didn't speak a word of English)

THE WORLD is just unfair... I will never get around to understand that either.

I think I ranted enough for today.. Also.. I can't stay on the computer either.. because that annoys Gina TOO....

Is there another Mum that makes you promise

2009-12-30T10:48:00.003Z

not to start another book while she's here because she can't bear the idea to see me read?

Ok.. that if I like a book I get obsessed until I finish it... but that's normal! no? I mean it's Dan Brown.. how can you stop half way through!!!!

I sincerely don't think we will ever have anything in common.. ever... She's been obsessively walking with pieces of t-shirts under her shoes and collecting dust from the floor every hour.. showing how crazy it is that is always dirty!!!

oh well...

We should spend more time talking.. about what? exactly? cleaning? I don't believe there is any other point of discussion.

I'm feeling empty

New year resolutions... Yes.. it's that time again

2009-12-26T00:42:00.003Z

how does the list go?
stop smoking
stop drinking
exercise
lose weight
go to sleep early
relax
find a new job
be diplomatic

Pointless list really.. never happens..
So I think the only one I'll try to achieve in Twenty Ten is:
Expect nothing from people, so maybe I'll be positively surprised.

And yes the end of the noughties ( or naughties .. ) what will be next ? the decade of the countryside.. let's hope so.

Went to midnight mass last night and I seriously thought, everything else failed, maybe religion will give me happyness. I woke up this morning, unable to move, my back just gave up on me. Maybe God didn't appreciate me exchanging peace with the tranny in the church. Oh well..

Heathrow: advice/tips and discounts

2009-12-23T23:29:00.005Z

As many of you have been at the receiving end of my flight misadventures ( self inflicted or not) Pod in Pisa @ 4 am anybody..

I thought I share a couple of tidbits with you

- If departing from Heathrow T5 - make sure you clock in security 40 minutes before departure, printing boarding pass, even with hand luggage only and going for a fag is not allowed by the automated machine. 39'59" you remain at T5.
Flight missed like this about 6

P.S. at Gatwick crying still works ( succeeded with panic twice)- still you have to make through baggage handling

- When in Heathrow T5 take the lifts not the escalators it's far quicker.. and so much so they now have put a sign to tell you

- As Heathrow express prices will go up to £18 ( a robbery ) and you get no discount for return and really you don't want to invest in a carnet.. this site will save you a couple of £.. but you need a printer ( you pay £14.19)
HERE and no I don't get commissions for helping you

-Last Heathrow express is at 23.25 last departing from Heathrow @ 23.53 or something like that. So if you plan to arrive late, call a cab in advance or you'll cry for a month

-Never take a taxi to Paddington, unless is 3 am.. especially if you are 3 tube stops away.

-If you need to buy a gadget and you are about to fly, keep in mind the cheapest internet price as airports have no tax and it might be cheaper there. ( especially as in Jan UK tax are back up to 17.5%)
and you can shop now and collect on the way back, probably the only service that works at T5.
Also if you are unlike me and like to arrive at the airport with days to spare.. there is also a Waga.. ( I always regret it once I see it ) Gordon Ramsay and whatever you are looking for... and you can feel like pretty woman and get the bags delivered at the entrance of the plane.... and BOOTS is upstairs, before you go downstairs to the gates and the escalator is very long..

-NEVER change CASH at the AIRPORT even if they give u 300 miles.. you can buy a return ticket with the fee they charge you.

I shall do Gatwick in a separate section.. but mainly.. no point in arriving early there is fuck all and the Gatwick express is the most expensive slow train you have to experience.

Merry Xmas

Gina

2009-12-23T00:55:00.003Z

I'm at heathrow waiting for gina ( which was supposed to arrive on the 21st. It's now the 23rd and despite flight eventually landed meatless as that was given to friends to avoid moulding in luggage) she's now stuck in the middle of the pista!!! Being served hot tea by the fire brigade the only workers left @ T5! Now one of the biggest airport in the world doesn't have enough parking space for what it looks from here 12 flights some of which landed @ 13.10 of the 22nd!!!!
They invented a new meaning for the word landed at heathrow :drinking hot tea delivered by the fire brigade in the middle of the runway!
Arrived means you can now leave the plane please and wait on your right and bags arriving you might see your darlings once the only person still working manages to lift one by one the luggages onto the conveyor! And we all know that gina despite having to leave 12 kgs of meat in catania still mastered 70kg comfortably divided in 2 bags of 35 and her fashionable poshette!!
Clearly taking the monday and the Tuesday off was not enough .... a couple of hours and I have to be in that wonderful reassuring and amazing place that's my work!
....
The funny thing is cultures... The English arrive and can't stop apologising sorry sorry sorry I'm sure Gina will rage at me!! Luckily I brought a bag of haribo and some supercrunchy crakers!!

Categories... which one do I belong to?

2009-12-15T23:32:00.002Z

None clearly
The world loves classifications, social status has classifications, friends have too.
Well that makes me think.
Work is shit, that's no news.. I try to mingle with people I spend most of my days with, but clearly I'm different. I don't wear high heels, neither I tart around, neither I sleep with any of them, neither I can have fun talking to them.
Friends, clearly I think differently from them too, because the people I think are my friends, don't like to share their lives with me either.
so.. I just muddle along till life kills me.
that's a nice future plan isn't it.
You can't choose your family, but I came to learn, you clearly can't choose your friends either. Yes yes I chose my friends... but they didn't choose me, nothing u can do about that. Can you?
I shall muddle along still I find why some crazy mind decided to fuck with me and keep me here, till then good night, good morning, good night... the days pass, life passes and still I think the same.
If still not for a solution, I'm looking for an explanation. That will never come either.

2009-11-21T09:34:00.000Z

My new favourite series: DOLLHOUSE

2009-10-27T22:29:00.002Z

DOLLHOUSE

2009-10-26T22:40:00.001Z

Friends... I need your skilled minds

2009-10-22T23:17:00.002+01:00

Gina is coming to London for Xmas... that's no news.. but what's news is that

a) she stopped smoking ( day 3) so she'll have double the energy

b) no Pina

c) she's staying for NY due to airlines hating me and not having any direct flight to sicily before NY

Hence.. what on earth shall we do for NY

ah! M's mum is here too..

Some hints to solve the puzzle

OK so.. It can be London or anywhere else. There are fireworks in London and I have an idiosincracy ( yes another one) whatever you do a NY you do all year.... so you know.. i don't want to chop onions or watch a movie..

Other issues.

a) my mum needs entertainment

b) we want to spend a lovely evening

c) M wants to see fireworks

d) walking on the south bank will be crazy and absurd because jam packed..

d) will be nice to go in a place, but we are not people which will remain there dancing or that will want to spend the evening in a long dress an high heels ( hence posh dinner places are a bit out of discussion

e) my mum would for example love to go to a house in the countryside or stay around with friends- however, my mum unlike yours it's not the type that will give young people their space. she will always be in the middle all night

So far I've come up with dinner at Oxo tower, Medieval banquet or throw a party and fuck it.

SUGGEST SUGGEST SUGGEST

Somebody is boycotting my life

2009-10-21T21:28:00.002+01:00

In the last 10 days, 3 odds events happened to me

1. my boiler ( the new one! ) grow life of its own.. mushrooms

2. my handbag self ignate itself ( caught fire)

3. my cv.. while on my mac doesn't, when you receive it contains a picture of little man and big man ( errrrrrr I actually went to an interview about 6 months ago and I just realised the receiver had the pleasure of seeing that picture)

We have to stop now

2009-10-03T18:41:00.001+01:00

We have to stop now
My new favourite series..
love the concept.

SPACIATE

2009-10-02T20:05:00.002+01:00

the writer: I didn't understand the word spaciate - maybe this is technical but if not, need to use another word

the journalist : sicily .. you succeeded once again to invent a new word.

my boss: spaciate? what you mean? does it exist? I reedited a bit your text, some words didn't look english

oh well.. goes into the dictionary with TURBATED

What do a Jew a Chinese and a Sicilian do on Holidays?

2009-09-30T23:53:00.007+01:00

What can I say.... how much can you do in a week? combine daughter, 10 times more hyperactive mother, a jew and a chinese.. Please don't refrain to make jokes like:
How do a sicilian a jew and a chinese ask for directions.. and all similar things.. we had plenty trials. We didn't spare film.. well as it's digital nowadays, however here you go, a "small" sample for you to enjoy. Sorry about the shitty background music.. but only realised way to late to start the all process again.

Actually I think I'll go to bed and check if tomorrow morning is ready...

From Sicily with love...

YAY.... they made a toy of me! Let's all dance...

2009-09-02T23:47:00.001+01:00

Pandas the most wonderful creatures on planet earth

2009-09-01T05:32:00.002+01:00

China... what an adventure... will give proper details once I organise the pictures... To visit half of it in just 2 weeks was a crazy task... let me tell you.
For the moment it's enough for you to know that I got stopped for quarantine because I was italian, I didn't find the perfect dumplings, Pandas are way better than koalas and climbing the Great Wall is an experience that everybody should put down in their list.

I like chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeesssssssseeeeeee

2009-08-08T15:52:00.000+01:00

I like chiiiiinnnnneeeesee

2009-08-08T02:11:00.001+01:00

Budapest

2009-03-27T20:05:00.003Z

So...
We have been in Budapest for just about over one hour and guess what?
it's already an adventure... Despite.. I booked hotel and left nothing to adventure... i'm now sat in a different hotel room from the one I originally chose, in the grandest budapest hotel and the music and the atmosphere.. it's very like TATIANA all over again.

How did we get here?? I'll tell you when back in London

ah! and i can go to the nearest club just opening the balcony door.... can just pop in in socks!

Catherine Hall - you are an inspiration to the world

2009-02-07T20:50:00.001Z

I love you

you make me laugh and you make me cry

this opened my heart and made me weep

This is really funny

2009-02-07T19:09:00.000Z

PLAYBOY - Women of Wall Street

2009-02-04T23:37:00.002Z

Le Duc, I expect your coverage of this. Yes I know it's not your favourite choice... but hey it's still your field.

I'm sure some of you will find this funny

2009-02-04T21:05:00.000Z

I hate my job.. or better the people I work with

2009-02-04T20:44:00.002Z

“Oh, you hate your job? Why didn’t you say so? There is a support group for that. Its called EVERYBODY and they meet at the bar.”

Well.. all my friends love their jobs.. so if I go to the bar I just meet additional tossers.

How lovely....

2009-02-03T21:34:00.002Z

New Year....

2009-02-03T20:26:00.010Z

The resolutions... well let's say they are still work in progress.

The preparation

The WIGS

The midnight fire jumping

Let's get this party started... Sicily at the decks... the other pictures are not for public view...

The skiing --- swish swosh swish swosh

The Grappa.....

The 4 o'clock reunion.... just before the fall...

Just because I decided to go swimming after a year

2009-02-03T18:50:00.005Z

snowed for the first time in 15 years..

now 20 cm of snow.. and London was gridlocked.. also because Gordon Brown decided to sell the snowmachines to Yorkshire council as he needed money and London didn't need them !!! haha

another good decision..

Oh well... other reasons why I hate my job ( if I didn't have enough!) is that

a) now we are only allowed to have 1 napkin each!! so we are now back at using the back of our hands.. and

b) the entire city was playing with the snow and I was sat in the office.

I also had to run up and down for flipping British Gas people... because guess what... flipping boiler broke again...

Yes I do hate the world today.. more than many other days.

Watched a nice movie last night "killing me softly" but got told by the critics... that's shit and wasted my time.. still I liked it.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

2009-01-30T11:20:00.002Z

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act..... yay eventually women get paid the same as men.. well.. or at least on paper... and just in the US.

But well done OBAMA

DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?

2009-01-29T06:37:00.004Z

The world of banking has changed....but one thing will always remain the same the sentence

DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?

the theme is recurring and the answer to the question is always the same

A PRICK- especially if the person in question is wearing round glasses, pinstripe suit and such a odd feature... a GOLD safety pin to hold his tie...

the best story was obviously by same person... saying that.. the reason for the financial crisis is that banks have a back office and pay for it... clearly.... the 1m spent in useful people compensation, that's a crime, 1m to renovate an office.. totally normal...

Nobody really important, will ever ask you that question, especially because if you are really important... they always make sure you have a name tag.

Went to an interesting due...

creme de la creme of banking -60 individuals- number of women 4- number of women which made it to the pub 1- guess who? well clearly only me. Number of women which were not in HR 3 - number of women which didn't work for the boss 2

What amazes me... you can be the biggest investor in the world.... and still didn't manage to learn to type with 5 fingers...

oh well... knowledge is really something from the past... the only way of arriving to the top is and will always be one

WHO is your father, hence your surname and the university he bought your degree from, all the rest... is irrelevant.

well need to go to work now... already late...

Welcome to the Year of the OX

2009-01-27T19:48:00.005Z

Kung Hei Fat Choi! (Happy New Year!)

Quite funny to appropriately find this picture...

A delightful evening, with paper packets, delicious food, money bags... and lots of red.

Such year as 2009 year of the earth Ox has a straight and unprejudiced nature though sometimes reveals hidden secrets without due thought, inadvertently hurt someone's feelings and offend others. It should turn out to be the prosperous year for those hard thinkers and active planners who believe in and relay on a teamwork, running own business or work independently.
Some of the favourites are Ox too... not me.. I'm a fire snake!

Barack Obama, Catherine Freeman, Heather Locklear, Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Juliette Lewis, Margaret Thatcher, Meg Ryan, Meryl Streep, Princess Diana, Vivien Leigh and George Clooney.

The red envelope ("Hong Bao"), also known as lucky money (cash or check) holder, is like the Chinese wand of hope, and it often carries boundless blessings. The lucky red envelope with money inside is given out to signify good fortune and good energy, especially when the money notes are crisp new notes with fresh new "chi" energy. The amount of cash inside the red envelope is usually an even number. More here

The last time the earth Ox was seen as the ruling influence was January 29, 1949 - February 15, 1950. The world suffered a recession in late 1948 and early 1949. The world economy recovered during the year of the ox due to rational decisions and careful planning. By 1951, the recession was over. Many will be searching for a quick solution to the current economic crisis, but the ox favors a well planned, consistent path that will take more time but lay a foundation for long lasting results. The strong earth influence of this year favors a strengthening of the housing market, but risk takers will not find this year favorable. Those who look for long term benefits, have a well thought out plan and are willing to work to see results will find great success.

Baby boomers who were born the last time the brown earth Ox ruled the zodiac celebrate their 60th birthday this year. Those who are influenced by the Ox will have experienced many years of good fortune if the planning, hard work and discipline of the sign were heeded. Those who failed to plan are given a new opportunity this year. If the lessons of the past are integrated, the future brings harmony and good fortune at home and in business.

Also went to see.. Monkey Journey to the West

2009-01-24T19:21:00.002Z

Despite the place was freezing it was magnificent

Ok so Xmas!

2009-01-24T18:38:00.005Z

Gina was here for Xmas ...

by the arrival at the airport she knew anybody that was on the flight, she had 4 phone numbers, somebody holding her coat, somebody watching her luggage.. And.... she smuggled 35 kg of sicilian delicatessen

38 meatythings skewers

25 sicilian sausages

1 kg of mince meat

2 falsi magro ( rolled up meat with egg ham and mince)

3 massive piece of meat for broth ( in case Filippo doesn't mould the tortellini!!)

10 salami

5 kgs of parmesan

chilli jam ( very nice)

5 jars of pistacchio powder and pesto ( the new frenzy! she has one every year- this year, pistacchio pesto, pistacchio powder to bake potatoes etc etc etc

anyway she was in top form

Obviously Mamma Mia ( the musical) was shit and the movie was better, at least the wonderful Streep was dancing ( despite, surely wasn't her!)

ice skating... no... she could have broke a leg...

and the usual... more kids presents to buy more attempt to buy carpet, to buy piece of furniture for the kitchen and blablabla

Xmas was spent with the Obers, wine was flowing, cigars were lit and food was no stop.

Mike was nicknamed the kitty fairy, Gina wore wings and various other outfits

but Xmas will be remembered for the horrible necklace she brought over for me

the black Santa I received as a gift, the fake snow machine inside the church at the Xmas mass ( attended for her joy by everybody)

but least and not last the super present... from the usual friend... it's impressive... she loved it so much, she bought it in Milan, brought it to Sicily, gave it to Gina, which took it to London

and here it is.... The useful.... tool for the ultimate traveller ( apparently)

it even says eXtra Large on the side

and you all know how tall Molly is!

Merry Xmas happy new year welcome Obama etc etc

2009-01-23T19:43:00.002Z

Elo, apologies for lack of posting, but life as well as financial times can be hard on you.
I still got a job, which is impressive considering the decimation which happened in the last few days and months... and I don't even want to get into how hypocritical, false and absurd it all is... apart from obviously unfair.
I think I can summarise it with the following event. Our ex-Ceo, fired yesterday after 3 months on the job ( heavenly paid 40m$).. Fine, he "saved" us from collapse.. but he also spent 1.2m $ to refurbish his office, 80k only on a persian carpet.... and people paid less than that for a year, got fired today, young smart people, the cheapest, the future, while the idiots useless old farts are all there.
End of work- start of the weekend.
I thought I'll join the rest of the world in blogging about Obama. This is my tribute:

M is here I gonna hop.. promise I'll continue soon
I'll just leave you with a snippet of what's to come

Gina ......fly.......ing

What do gay people have to do with Crunchy nuts???

2008-12-27T00:21:00.003Z

I mean... yes I know.. I'm supposed to write about Gina, Elaine, Xmas and all that.. but it was a bad day... Mamma mia ( the musical ) didn't go down that well and ice skating in Somerset house is a stupid idea... so... I was reading the blogs... Despite... I'm not supposed to stay on the computer.. and blablabla... ( said computer now also has a missing key, due to attack of rage the other night... fuelled by Gina)
Gina also met M. she loved her... if only she knew.. anyway... she even said.. la Cina e' vicina! she even taught her how to put eyeshadow properly for her shape of eyes..
Done the Xmas mass too which included Mike with saddled shorts and cycling shoes, humming snow machine ( yes in the church) and all that..

Anyway.... reading the blogs I learnt that our dear Pope hates gay.. ( or abnormal people as Gina calls us... well you ... ) so I googled it.. to find.. this bizarre book and the comparison between gay and crunchy nuts...

Merry Xmas

Hideous pictures of usual hideous presents from Gina and her friend will follow... they even managed a black Santa candlestick holder ( but that's fashionable this year!)

Anyway on a different note... why do people want kids ( well.. and here many of you can answer that question.. so please do )

Can somebody explain to me life?

2008-12-10T03:14:00.001Z

Dutch people have a spanish tall pirate as Santa Claus

2008-12-05T18:58:00.004Z

I discovered today that Dutch people believe in Black Peter, which comes by steam boat to bring presents to dutch kids.
Magic mushrooms must have been popular far before we imagine!

Before elves and eight tiny reindeer, St. Nicholas had a much more menacing assistant. Named Black Peter, this companion was the physical opposite of St. Nicholas. Tall and gaunt with a dark beard and hair, Black Peter was associated with the punitive side of Christmas. Traditionally St. Nicholas would hand out presents to good children, while it fell to Black Peter to dole out coal (and sometimes knocks on the head) to children who misbehaved.

Black Peter, or Zwarte Piet in Dutch, began in Holland in the 15th century. His dark appearance is supposed to suggest a Spaniard, a reflection of Spain's occupation of the Netherlands at the time. Black Peter was also associated with pirates, a common threat to naughty Dutch children was that he would take them to a pirate's hide out and beat them. He was often represented holding a large stick for this purpose. The large bag that he held was rumored to be used for stuffing children in for the trip back to Spain. At the time "Black Peter" was a euphemism for the devil, and it was thought that St. Nicholas, being a representative of God, had beaten the devil and made him his servant. Thus it fell to Black Peter to hand out the punishments, while St. Nicholas dealt with the more pleasant sides of Christmas.

While the Dutch St. Nicholas has always been represented in much the same way, similar to the original saint in long robes with a staff, tall mitre hat, and white beard, Black Peter has been depicted in many different ways. Originally a stereotypical Spaniard in pirate garb, due to the political situation in Holland at the time, his later incarnations would also reflect popular politics. In the nineteenth century, at the height of imperialism, he was alternately portrayed as an Indian and an African in traditional dress. Rather than the devil that had been made a servant of St. Nicholas, Black Peter was now thought to be a slave who had become the willing servant of St. Nicholas. Many of the illustrations took on racist symbolism, often showing Black Peter in shackles and tattered garments. Peter's job was to remove the hay and carrots from the shoes that had been left by children underneath their chimneys, and to drop candy and gifts in their place. If the children had been bad, Peter wouldn't remove the hay and would leave a rod in place of a gift.

In parts of central Europe like Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, the character of Black Peter was a more like a monster, with horns, long hair, and a red tongue. He was known by a variety of names: Klaubauf, Krampus, Grampus, Bartel. St. Nicholas sent naughty children to him to be beaten.

Nowadays there is still not one universal image of Black Peter, but he has lost his large stick and is usually dressed in a Renaissance page style costume with short pants, stockings, and a cap with a large feather. He has not lost his connection to Africa; he is still always portrayed by a person in blackface, and often wears gold earrings.

The character gained popularity in the twentieth century and St. Nicholas's and Black Peter's annual arrival in Holland became more elaborate. During World War II, it was thought that the tradition would be suspended, until Canadian soldiers offered some of their tanks to use for the purpose. It didn't seem to make sense to have more than one St. Nicholas. So on one of the tanks rode St. Nicholas and one Black Peter, while multiple Black Peters rode on the other tanks. The tanks, with Canadian soldiers at the helm and Black Peter sitting on the back, traversed the countryside, handing out candy and gifts to children who waited by the roadside. The practice of more than one Black Peter stuck and has continued since then.

Today the negative associations have left Black Peter and he has become more of an elf-like figure, an assistant to an overloaded St. Nicholas who helps to hand out gifts every December 5th, St. Nicholas Day in Holland. The Dutch continue to stage elaborate arrivals of Santa Claus and Black Peter. In the weeks before the feast, Santa and Black Peter arrive by boat, supposedly from Spain, and are greeted by ever increasing crowds of excited children and adults.

F.U.C.K.

2008-12-04T23:57:00.001Z

It's not a swear word. It's not rude, it's just obeying to monarchy. It comes from the expression

Fornicate
Under the
Command of the
King

Credit crunch is affecting blogging

2008-12-03T20:47:00.003Z

well not all blogging which has increased exponentially, but my group of friends' blogging.

Well all of us have been working harder than any other time, traveled more than any other year and after all that... a wall. Solid wall.

The strange thing is that instead of being sucked by the various systems, politics, people and so on, we could all use our talent to suck the world. Still don't understand why we don't, but there are many things that my mind can't justify.

BTW next time anybody mentions the Mafia in relations to my motherland, I won't refrain to mention Wall Street.

The only positive thing about the credit crunch is that eventually dining out has been replaced by dinner with friends.
Food is 10 times better, you can stand up and walk around while waiting between courses.
You can sip different wines and drink 10 bottle of prosecco at the price of one.. ( because you know you get 40% off at the off license). Nice no?

ah cool.. see writing a blog.. it's good. Made me found the only positive note in my life at the moment... apart from getting spot on view on the latest market view ( but that's boring for you).

Went to one of those dinners last night... Wonderful...

Welcome drink:

Passion fruit & champagne cocktail

Starter:

Scallops with chilly sause on a bed of spinach leaves

Main:

Duck filled with asparagus, heavenly mash & rocket

Dessert:
Merengue with strawberry foam.
& dessert wine.

10 bottles of prosecco
3 white wine
6 red wine

And the host tests gadgets.. So.. it was heaven for me.
The night ended with vibrating massage device session, to spot what was the best.
Other funny moments included travel electronic skipping ropes...and running up and down stairs with walkie takie.

Now.. tell me if that is possible in Nobu?

Anyway she rocks..

Meredith : The Dollar Dominatrix ( the market is at her feet)

"Listen, people. I know you all think Citi is on its last leg, about to be cast into the scrap heap of corporate history. However, I received some intel this morning which leads me to believe your worrying is for naught ("intel" = New York Post article). Meredith Whitney gave an exclusive interview to the paper in which she, not surprisingly, tore open Citi's rectum via her 8-inch spiked heel (this time not at their request). " ( from dealbreaker)

And... shall we want to compare animals here....

While searching for something else...

2008-11-24T22:50:00.000Z

While searching for something else... I came across this

Love is.....

2008-11-24T22:44:00.001Z

Count us in too!

I eat anything.

A. hates garlic, olives, capsicums, aubergine, salmon (as its a 'stupid' fish), lamb, british beef and she doesn't eat off stripey plates...

Haven't laught so much in a long time

2008-11-19T22:06:00.004Z

highly weird and reccomended

Video has been removed to avoid annoyance

the show is wonderful and extremely funny. La Clique

2008-10-26T11:33:00.001Z

Italy is waking up to Facebook and I hate it

2008-10-21T20:16:00.002+01:00

Well I left Sicily for a reason, I don't call my primary school mates for a reason, and it really pisses me off receiving those stupid messages as Hi- do you remember me? oh! do you live in London ? but is it you? we were at primary/secondary ( delete as appropriate) I'm now married, I have kids and I'm still studying at Uni.

Well yes, that's my picture, no I don't look like that in normal life, but there is no point of putting an ugly picture of me on my profile. yes it's me, yes I live in London, I have a job I'm about to lose and I'm as unhappy as I was then and to add to it, I even complicated my life adding a couple of twists here and there to unsettle my mind even more.

Investment banking in a nutshell.. The more Starbucks the more your country is fuked

2008-10-21T19:48:00.003+01:00

My colleague gets fired, the other steals the Nurofen from his drawer as soon as he's out of the door...
Charming...

Very interesting article... or at least it proves that people can find analogies and correlations for almost anything

Remember Thomas Friedman's McDonald's theory of international relations? The thinking was that if two countries had evolved into prosperous, mass-consumer societies, with middle classes able to afford Big Macs, they would generally find peaceful means of adjudicating disputes. They'd sit down over a Happy Meal to resolve issues rather than use mortars. The recent unpleasantries between Israel and Lebanon, which both have McDonald's operations (here and here, respectively) put an end to that reasoning. But the Golden Arches theory of realpolitick was good while it lasted.

In the same spirit, I propose the Starbucks Theory of International Economics. The higher the concentration of expensive, nautical-themed faux-Italian branded frappuccino joints in a country's financial capital, the more likely the country is to have suffered catastrophic financial losses.

It may sound doppio, but work with me. This recent crisis has its roots in the unhappy coupling of a frenzied nationwide real-estate market, centered in California, Las Vegas and Florida, and a nationwide credit mania, centered in New York. If you could pick one brand name that personified these twin bubbles, it was Starbucks. The Seattle-based coffee chain followed new housing developments into the suburbs and exurbs, where its outlets became pitstops for real-estate brokers and their clients. It also carpet-bombed the business districts of large cities, especially the financial centers, with nearly 200 in Manhattan alone. Starbucks's frothy treats provided the fuel for the boom, the caffeine that enabled deal jockeys to stay up all hours putting together offering papers for CDOs, and helped mortgage brokers work overtime processing dubious loan documents. Starbucks strategically located many of its outlets on the ground floors of big investment banks. (The one around the corner from the former Bear Stearns headquarters has already closed).Like American financial capitalism, Starbucks, fueled by the capital markets, took a great idea too far (quality coffee for Starbucks, securitization for Wall Street) and diluted the experience unnecessarily (subprime food such as egg-and-sausage sandwiches for Starbucks, subprime loans for Wall Street). Like so many sadder-but-wiser Miami condo developers, Starbucks operated on a "build it and they will come" philosophy. Like many of the humiliated Wall Street firms, the coffee company let algorithms and number-crunching get the better of sound judgment: if the waiting time at one Starbucks was over a certain number of minutes, Starbucks reasoned that an opposite corner could sustain a new outlet. Like the housing market, Starbucks peaked in the spring of 2006 and has since fallen precipitously.

America's financial crisis has gone global in the past month. European and Asian governments, which until recently were rejoicing over America's financial downfall, have had to nationalize banks and expand depositors' insurance. Why? Many of their banks feasted on American subprime debt and took shoddy risk-management cues from their American cousins. Indeed, the countries whose financial sectors were most connected to the U.S.-dominated global financial system, the ones whose financial institutions plunged into CDOs, credit default swaps, and the whole catalog of horribles, have suffered the most.

What does this have to do with the price of coffee? Well, when you start poking around Starbucks's international store locator, some interesting patterns emerge. At first blush, there's a pretty close correlation between a country having a significant Starbucks presence, especially in its financial capital, and major financial cock-ups, from Australia (big blow ups in finance, hedge funds and asset-management companies; 23 stores) to the United Kingdom (nationalization of the nation's largest banks). In many ways, London in recent years has been a more concentrated version of New York—the wellspring of many toxic innovations, a hedge-fund haven. It sports 256 Starbucks. In Spain, which is now grappling with the bursting of a speculative coastal real-estate bubble (sound familiar?), the financial capital, Madrid, has 48 outlets. In crazy Dubai, 48 Starbucks outlets serve a population of 1.4 million. And so on: South Korea, which is bailing outs its banks big time, has 253; Paris, the locus of several embarrassing debacles, has 35.

if you want to keep reading

Propose career change ideas

2008-10-16T19:24:00.001+01:00

So far I have

Olive picking and looking after Maremma

Apple pie making ( maybe I could expand the business and go into apple smoothies)

Suggestions please...

It's here, it's now... The new MACBOOK Pro

2008-10-14T23:01:00.003+01:00

yay

See here

Back at work: my rage is in full swing

2008-10-14T18:49:00.003+01:00

CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE FIND ME A JOB?

PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAASE

and no I don't want to move to Geneva or to Singapore or to China

London

Why does everybody complain if I remove them from my distribution list, but nobody ever ever is willing to help me.

because I'm not diplomatic.. Fuck that.. Diplomacy doesn't tell you what moves the market

I do...

pww

Generation X

2008-10-13T17:58:00.003+01:00

Hello me again... long time..
managed to pack in quite a bit of activities since I last wrote.
Wednesday saw A, his first visit since his move to Milan ( about a week earlier)
Met the community at this new( to me) place in the hood, where the chef apparently cooks food only produced within the M25 ( my taste buds were disappointed and my stomach upset)
Anyhow Thursday wake up at 4 to live from Milan the market crash. Highlights were
theatrical show imitating me the Sicilian ( starred by 10 of my clients)
me falling asleep dressed in my hotel room
lunch cut short by Bank of Italy asking funds for liquidity
me arriving 1 hour earlier at client appointment ( due to abuse of alcohol the night before)
Friday- surprise arrival at Gina's. She was so delighted, she cried.
Lasagne from Pina were awaiting.
Morning after, shirts were already washed dried ironed and folded and stored in plastic sleeves.
A cake was immediately baked in my honour by neighbour, dinner invitations proposed already 7. Consider I arrived at 10.30 pm and this was only 10 am.
Only had 1 hour for shopping in my favourite shop, still managed to grab few things. Also discovered that the nice lady from the shop dumped the husband to " rumour in the street say" engage in a lesbian relationship with one of her shop assistants... Thrilling...
so...
Anyway it's now Monday, the world is a safer place and I'm back in London and once again need to unpack and tidy up.. this seems to be a neverending job. Why do I spend half of my life tidying up and my flat looks always like a bomb exploded, it's always beyond me.

On the flight back I was reading an interesting article about Generation X, basically me.. well.. and the majority of people I know.
We are basically defined as a generation that loves organic, has divorced parents, it's sad and doesn't have sex.
Let's start with the study about sex, because you know, this is a subject I have particularly at heart.

For the baby-boomer generation, sexual opportunity was opened up by the pill. Those born after 1985 are rediscovering sex as sport largely because of the internet. But, according to Edward Laumann, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, the emergence of Aids and the divorce boom gave Generation X insecure emotions and more restricted sex lives.“There was a backlash against their parents’ attitudes, a crisis of confidence,” said Laumann, author of The Social Organisation of Sexuality, a college text-book in America. His study, based on thousands of interviews, is expected to be released next year. “It’s clear that, while Generation X has sex, obviously, it’s probably not as much or as varied in styles as their parents or today’s teenagers and students,” he said. ( can somebody please find me the varied styles previous generation used to entertain with??) . According to Laumann’s preliminary findings, about 30% of Generation X-ers have distinctly different sexual habits from their parents or today’s Generation Y; they have “substantially” fewer partners and reject adultery.

I know feel a saint.

Gen X-ers are those born between 1964 and 1980 and they can be divided into 3 main categories:

Cruisers here are those fun-loving free spirits who relish in living outside of the mainstream, like their '90s-era TV heroes. They revere Nelson Mandela, abhor McDonald's and the Pope, and have a predilection for urban, independent and specialist brands. And it looks as if Cruisers are still trying to relive the glory days. They like partying and casual relationships and, the study found, only 34% of respondents who fit into this category are happier now than they were at 18.

Nesters are those who delight in a cozy life filled with a smaller group of friends than the Cruisers, and are focused on chic home furnishings, design and fashion. They like aspirational brands and lionize Madonna, Audrey Hepburn and ET.

Super-breeders are the ones who honestly believe that their children will change the world, and for such reasons, go to extreme odds to protect their loveables from perceived threats (such as sugar and TV). They're also the ones always talking about all things "green," "organic" and "sustainable." They want brands that live up to their ideals of a perfect world. ( I know a couple of these... but they have not bred yet! )

I must say, no idea which one I fit into, maybe the cruisers... ( more in another meaning) because you see despite I'm not happier than I was at 18 ( or for that matter at 4) and I like Spiderman and don't really live outside of the mainstream ( I'm actually drawn in it).

oh well I'm back.. and you must be happy I have only mentioned briefly the financial crisis ( even if this weekend will remain in history.. but you get bored of it).

A couple of days have passed

2008-10-06T23:31:00.005+01:00

well.. it's late.. but I thought I update you on the latest couple of days. In maybe sort of chronological order since Friday:

Broke my front tooth.. again.. while at work... they say that banking is not dangerous.. And no.. don't worry didn't end up in a work fight, was eating a chip while typing ( maybe was the punishment for me getting more and more similar to an arancino) and answering phone and all the rest, and half tooth just broke...
Panic, dentist, £45 later, superattack applied and 10 minutes later I'm back at the desk. I clearly chose the wrong career
Game night where I got absolutely drank playing some advanced model of pictionary with etch a sketch or itchy sketchy as I refer to, and trivial pursuit.. and blablabla... you know that apparently scrabble is back in fashion and the latest frenzy after sudoku it's online scrabble.. mind you still a better game than using numbers like chickens and making feel people as if they are learning math.
oh well...
Saturday was moving day, M found a flat.. it's sad, not the flat, but that it means going back to the sporadic time together.

60 boxes later, from storage to van from van to 2nd floor, Wish was awaiting. superhero night.
Very cool people like usual. Wow 10£ can buy jumping of toilet queue and 2 people in the cubicle.... credit crunch... well
Sunday didn't leave the sofa really. H came by with IM and we watched the X factor, playing a bit with the arieal, as thunderstorm had really eliminated digital images, on guess exactly which channel..
Monday... back at work.. another massive fall in stock, new record since 1987, soon will exchange COD for Euros instead ISK and there you go...
Hamleys ,the floral shops ( i.e Monsoon, Oasis et similar) Iceland ( the frozen peas shop) Harvey Nick, West Ham football club, House of Fraser and 250k savers...just in the UK.. Yes, because Iceland, was a great country model, small, ticking along, a success, well till ....
this week... This week proved globalisation wrong, because makes the world more prone to systemic risk, it's like promiscuity really but at market level.
or all started way before when the greedy decided.. oh well Iceland is small, let's destroy it, a bit like Risk.. but takes time and you start with the small ones.. I mean notice that choosing S. Marino or Lietchestein ( or that is the artist... nevermind, you got it) it would have been a bit ridiculous, the Vatican, would have been unfair, after the Pope today said the only solution is praying, also he's runnyin a bible reading marathon, people in turn read a page of the bible... apparently it takes 2 weeks.. It was unclear to me if they stayed awake for 2 weeks or what? F must know the answer, I wouldn't be surprised if she was joining in for a page or two with a thermos of broth.
I also received a message on facebook from my desk mate in secondary school.
Married with kid. I pressed delete. Couldn't cope with the hi how are you what are you doing now. .......and bla....
Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllll can you reply to my texts. It's two weekends that I try to invite you to cool places and you never answer.
Roll the dice.. Let's see whose round is next in the world demolition.
Yes it was boring I know... try to do better next time, not in the mood today... but found a cool cheery picture for your amusement.

Wanna play BUSH saving the DOW?

2008-10-03T19:54:00.002+01:00

CLICK HERE

Mesmerising

2008-09-30T22:13:00.000+01:00

2008-09-27T20:51:00.001+01:00

Good bye

2008-09-27T20:42:00.003+01:00

Afternoon delight The hippy sisters.

2008-09-25T22:56:00.002+01:00

Save the world? Hank just didn't have a clue

2008-09-25T19:39:00.001+01:00

The staggering incompetence of the US Treasury Secretary is now acknowledged - and is a disaster for George Bush

Anatole Kaletsky- The Times

The Emperor has no clothes. If you want to know why American capitalism is on the brink of disaster, but also want to understand what will save it, then log on to the C-Span congressional website and watch the interrogations of Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, by the Senate and House banking committees.
Until last week, I was in a minority of one in arguing that Mr Paulson was personally responsible for suddenly turning the painful but manageable credit crunch that had been grinding away 18 months in the background of the US economy into a global catastrophe. Mr Paulson's appearances on Capitol Hill, marked by the characteristic Bush-era combination of arrogance and incompetence, are turning my once-outlandish view into conventional wisdom: Henry Paulson is to finance what Donald Rumsfeld was to military strategy, Dick Cheney to geopolitics and Michael Chertoff to flood defence.
Mr Paulson may be a former chairman of Goldman Sachs, but as US Treasury Secretary he does not know what he is doing. His recent blunders, starting with the “rescue” of Fannie Mae, have triggered unintended consequences around the world, resulting in the death-spiral of financial values. But last Friday Mr Paulson outdid even these Rumsfeldian achievements, when he demanded $700 billion from Congress for a “comprehensive and fundamental” solution to the global financial crisis, without apparently having any idea of what he would actually do.
The good news - before I return to the perils of Mr Paulson - is that his blunders no longer matter very much. There will still be a huge US government bank bailout, which will probably avert a disastrous slump in the US and global economies. But because Mr Paulson has lost the political initiative, this bailout will now be led by the Democratic leadership in Congress and will be structured around its priorities - relief from mortgage foreclosures, restrictions on bankers' pay and big government shareholdings in US banks. For President Bush it is a disaster, dashing his last faint hope of having a tangible achievement to his name before he leaves office.
How did things come to such a pass? When Mr Paulson announced his $700 billion “plan” last Friday, everybody in the financial world (myself included) heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, it seemed, the US Government was going to do whatever it takes to stabilise the world financial system. The universal assumption was that Mr Paulson would present a detailed plan of action over the weekend, putting a safety net under the value of homes, mortgages and related assets. Yet all that appeared by Saturday evening was a three-page legislative outline, with no hint of the mechanisms to be used. The only substantive clause in the draft was a swaggering demand for untrammelled power: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to this Act are non-reviewable and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
When further details of the Paulson plan failed to appear on Sunday it was assumed that the details were being untangled in late-night political negotiations. When there was still no plan on Monday, the view was that Mr Paulson must be holding back the details for his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee the following day. But then, to everyone's astonishment, Mr Paulson turned up to the committee on Tuesday morning with only the briefest opening statement, which simply repeated what he had already said the week before: the sky was falling and the only way to stop it was to give him authority over $700 billion in public money, to be spent in unspecified ways.
And suddenly the sky did fall down - not on the world economy, but on Mr Paulson. Consider the reactions from American politicians, including Republicans: “Stunning and unprecedented in its lack of detail”... “a $700 billion blank cheque to Wall Street”... “neither workable nor comprehensive”... “foolish waste of massive taxpayer funds”... “eerily similar to the rush to war in Iraq”. Best of all was John McCain's comment: “When we're talking about a trillion dollars of taxpayer money, ‘trust me' just isn't good enough.”
At first, nobody could quite believe Mr Paulson was incompetent. Was it really possible that the Treasury Secretary had no idea of what to do with this unprecedented financial firepower? Perhaps his silence on crucial issues such as what he would pay for the banks' “troubled assets” was just a tactical ruse.
But as the cross-examination rolled on, and Mr Paulson just waffled - “we will ask experts to advise us”, “we will get the best and brightest financiers to suggest ideas” - the terrible truth dawned. There was no such thing as a Paulson plan. Not only did Mr Paulson not know what he was doing. He did not know what he was talking about. When pressed to offer at least some basic principles for his rescue, Mr Paulson had no answers. When challenged about limits to executive remuneration and taxpayer stakes in future profits of participating banks, he brusquely rejected all such proposals - on the amazing ground that they might discourage some of the stronger banks from taking advantage of government support!
Could he really be so clueless? Surely not. Why, then, has Mr Paulson failed? His inability to think seriously about solutions to the present financial crisis probably has deep ideological roots. Just as Mr Rumsfeld could simply not believe that US foreign policy might be misguided, Mr Paulson simply cannot believe that markets can be fundamentally wrong. He therefore cannot imagine, for example, that government judgments about the value of bank securities may, in some circumstances, reflect economic realities more accurately than market prices. Since some such recognition of market failure is fundamental to any understanding of banking crises, it is not surprising that Mr Paulson finds it difficult to come up with a credible solution.
The ideological pendulum is now swinging but what is needed to avoid future crises is not necessarily more regulation. It is better-quality regulation, managed by people who understand and respect markets but do not worship them. Markets are usually right, but sometimes they are dangerously wrong - and they need to be managed with decisive and competent government intervention.
The people who do not understand the role of government should not be regulating markets any more than they should be fighting wars or managing flood defences. P.J.O'Rourke, the conservative writer, once remarked: “The Republicans are a party that says government doesn't work - and then get elected and prove it.” This should be the epitaph for the Bush Administration - and Mr Paulson.

Auntie Bettie forever

2008-09-24T20:51:00.002+01:00

Between the marvellous people of Vermont many remained in my heart for different reasons,
but a special place must go to her. The unique.. Auntie Bettie.. there is no picture of her on this post, because she was the atmosphere, the peace, the place, the house in which she lives, you'll see video evidence later on... yes yes.. I'll be banging on about this trip for a while.

Anyhow, like anything in this holiday, I didn't know what to expect...
So we leave the hippy/happy farm to go to the aunt ( well the auntie bettie name, was my creation)
Hop we cross the river

to arrive at her wonderful house, where I snatched some pictys as if a was in a museum...

The lunch was delightful, had the first tortilla soup ever and it was delicious, to be prepared again. Must be said that Auntie Bettie also had a swimming pool in the middle of nature...

I want to live there.. and travel to the apple factory!

Then we all left the porch and the lovely museum house to go and welcome the first male in the house.. ( well after the groom) and auntie bettie gave us a couple of old wistles to do it in style. Even the train station was cute.

This seems made for me

2008-09-23T20:48:00.002+01:00

this number 17 is starting to piss me off

2008-09-22T22:10:00.004+01:00

17:17 voicemal
sorry they chose to hire a trader not you, give me a call if you would like to discuss further

I won't need any help to write a resignation letter

Went to see a Gerhard Richter opening, 4900 colours. Yes mesmerizing, also Frank Gehry's pavillion at night time and at a second look, looks a masterpiece.
Killed my sorrows in the beauty of art and cycling through London on my new bike ( yes I'm learning to love it, still haven't learnt my way around, but that will come).
M bought me flowers and tidied up all the house for me. That I didn't deserve, but it was an amazing gesture.

No dreams of my new job, stuck in that shit. Tomorrow another day, still no time or money to repair the heating or hot water, duvet is back on the bed.
I'll think of Vermont and dream.

Armageddon? No mum Goldman complained

2008-09-19T20:21:00.003+01:00

WHAT GOES UP MUST NOT COME DOWN- THE FINANCIAL MARKET VIAGRA..

Woke up this morning,

it looked like Armageddon, it was dark and cold this morning and I must say was still drunk from last night.. because yes I needed a drink. Wanted to say goodbye to the tots before the italian adventures and wanted to dance a bit.

Arrive in the office.....and guess what?

As mummy Goldman was upset that people made her stock go below 100$ she called the Fed & the treasury and all her rich friends and said.... you have to stop this..

as I said in previous posts, in Sicily they kill you for less.

Guess what did they do after that?

- They stopped people from short selling financial stocks.... i.e. you can only buy them, or to be clearer it's now illegal to sell if you don't have the stock first...

So if you are short what do you do? you buy and if you are long and you can't sell what do you do?

you buy

- They also stopped money market funds from going below 1$ and causing money market mayhem

Every possible equity index rallied the most in history! the ftse the most since inception in 1954, the minisp was halted for trading as limited up, every single stock got halted because was going up to quickly

and guess what.. mummy goldman went up 50% today ( or at least at one point)

But that wasn't enough... the Treasury decided to step up in buying mortgages..

ABSOLUTELY ridicolous..

"moral hazard" - this is destruction of freedom.. this is

a) absurd

b) it is basically saying - take as much risk as you want we bail you out

c) unfair ( because if you really wanted to organise this massive scale joke, why there are those poor lehman employees in the street ? why did you not do this earlier?

d) they just killed lots of hedge funds that are based on arbitrage

e) made the option market illiquid because who on earth we'll make you a price if they have to hedge against an index and not against a stock

f) it's dictatorship

g) kills freedom of judgment, if you believe a company is managed badly you sell as well as you buy when you think it's well managed. It's like giving all kids a+ ( like they do at a levels in England)

I can probably arrive to z. I agree that like in every financial discussion, you can take the opposite view and think that this was right and preserved the remaining wealth instead of killing the system, but think about this

no hedge funds, no profit for banks. who they gonna sell their crap to ? the original norwegian pension fund that bought the cdo of the cdo? forget it

no ripping people off no profit

and preserved the wealth of who exactly?

this made the rich richer and the poor homeless

and with the money of the poor.. because you think that the big swinger have got money sitting around in a cash account at Halifax? no they are in some deserted island with no tax and they pay less taxes than a fiat employee

ridicolous.

the problem is not solved.. it's just shifted..

and...

after all.. why do you think that people were selling goldman stocks?

they wanted them to pay for destroying the other banks, as they were the ones selling the stocks and at the same time driving cds of the same names through the roof..

and guess who adviced on this bailout plan?

Goldman and Pimco..

Lehman should sue the Fed. This is fascism.

Today was also quadruple witching i.e. a day very well know for massive share drops as indeces, futures on them, options on them and everything expires.

Hope all the people that exercise their options and get the stock will sell it on Monday to stop this joke..

For you blog readers it's ok.. your bank account is safe.. you might not be able to have 20 credit cards, but only 3 as there are about 3 banks left after this, but hey.. you can sleep well because stocks are rallying.. and mind you.. nothing absolutely nothing has changed since yesterday..

with all that, but midday it was also sunny in london ( apparently the Fed can buy the sun too)

The Fed however didn't give a job to the poor Lehman employees which lost everything they had, didn't replenish the pensions of normal people just taught many that there is no point in learning.. you just need to know people..

Therefore parents to be.... make sure you are rich enough before you have a kid, if you can't buy your kid expensive friends, either you live happy in a hippy family or just don't do it.

It has been proven to me than money don't make happyness, that the hippy family exist and all, but really even there, why did the hippy family have to sell part of the beautiful place that they created if not for lack of money?

Disgusted.. but I think today really convinced me that truly really and beyond you have to use your intelligence to manipulate people.

From monday anybody can be in banking, you just have to tell people... buy stocks, they can only go up... 10 years from now.. we will be studying why there is a bubble.. they will create new products.

So charity people.. go ask goldman for money.. if they have a inch of heart left have to ridistribute in some way. I bet bars will make fortunes and we will read that somebody has been tipped 10000$ dollar or one of those goldman w@nkers have paid 50k for bj, while probably some of the lehman employees will just jump off a roof.. Why them? It wasn't timing...

After all today was Lloyd Blankfein's ( ceo of GS) 54th Birthday and the Treasury wanted to apoologies for making him cry last night..

he real secret to Goldman's Success, has just been demonstrated. If you don't like the rule, ignore it until inconvenient then change it intermittently so nobody every quite knows what the fuck is going. The quietly big a hole out back, and dump all your shitty assets in it.

on another note.. Hillary might still be in for vice presidency.. if this happens.. I'll explain you why... some of you got my email today..

but just to prove how many fucking idiots there are in the financial world.. here is another story, which got lost in the middle of the mayhem

the government-owned KfW bank sent funds to Lehman on the same day it filed for bankruptcy
“Germany’s Dumbest Bank,” were the headlines on the newspapers..

PREORDER NOW... you don't want to be left without

2008-09-16T23:38:00.002+01:00

PREORDER NOW

DAYS OF GRACE THE MASTERPIECE

if you are quick I get you a signed copy!

and the financial meltdown continues

2008-09-16T22:11:00.003+01:00

and the apple factory looks so more likely my next job!
Oh well..
Don't say I didn't tell you!
I thought all this all along, but hey, didn't make me rich ( actually I lost 90% on the shit shares they gave me and more to be accrued on the ones I that didn't even vest yet!)
actually it made me more frustrated, many people lost a job, some didn't deserve it, the ones that did, clearly found a new one just because they know somebody
and the saga continues.. the irony is , now I do actually work 14 hours a day for achieving no money and maybe keeping my job
if my company wasn't a joke already, it just got bought ( we don't know yet ) by some company which is even more shit with a ceo which will regret more than his sins having a dream of being a hero..
anyhow.. while typing another ( the biggest insurance company in the world might have been left to go bankrupt)
apple factory here I come!

Restore the breeding barn.... have a little cell for us.. where babies can stroke us and they can even guess ( which poo are you?)

let's get down to business.. TATIANA

2008-09-13T00:34:00.010+01:00

Saturday night... Brighton Beach... I think the best word to describe the ride there, the place, the atmosphere and all the rest.. is SURREAL

First of all.. some of us were dressed as Pimps with bling... some other bought hen night presents... many just arrived very late...

yes I know what happens in brighton beach stays in brighton beach, but still... some pictys are totally needed..
the place was a posh restaurant for russians ( which I think are totally nuts) - the food was amazing, the vodka was flowing.. but the show was definetely the cherry!

Just had this memory of somebody singing a song in Russian or something with an old guy playing...

But let's conclude with Tony Manero on rising stage and the lampshade

and back to the shit normal life

2008-09-12T23:16:00.003+01:00

oh God... what a difference makes...

Back home, heating needs to be flushed (1000£ ) lights blew up, stock market crashing, one less investment bank in there, another 2 waiting to go and with that my job too.

Only highlights of the week were

a fabolous dinner ( hosted by me) with invaluable contribution of lovely M&M without them

would not have been possible... thank you love you both dearly.

and the Soros and Alain de Botton talk - inspiring

Now it's friday night, too exhausted to go out, to depressed to think. So... let's remember the jolly good times of heaven- i.e. the past week. What a wonderful experience....

Let's start from NYC, still not convinced I could really live there but hey! those 3 days were amazing ...

Funnily enough... look what I found in the picture collection... and probably what would really remain of it very soon

And you can already buy Lehman parafernalia on Ebay ( just to remember the old times) !

The best week of my life

2008-09-08T10:58:00.002+01:00

and.... Bucolic it was..

The most amazing place I have ever been to, the most amazing people and the most beautiful holiday of my entire life.
I haven't complained despite becoming St Lazzarus after mosquitos attack and despite spraining my ankle.
I don't know where to start either... as I have 500 pictures in my camera... ready to be downloaded and I'm sure another 5000 on the go.. the housemates had to even buy a new hard-drive to store all the evidence.
There are no highlights, every single moment of it was wonderful.. and the wedding... wish any couple such a wonderful wedding..

I even woke up early and run two mornings in a row
I'm still weeping, I don't get nostalgic when I leave Sicily, but I cried when I left Vermont.

I could probably live picking apples, peeling them and making apple pies..

But back to reality... 1 hr queue at Paddington, no hot water as my boiler decided to break once again and.... workkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ( the dreaded evil).

Photos will come.. once iphoto stops crashing....

but no worries.. I'll bang on to this for at least 10 posts... ( I'll make you beg for depressing posts!)

U.S.A be ready I'm coming

2008-08-28T21:08:00.002+01:00

And me too I will be in the bucolic surrounding of Vermont...

Who will crack first?

The challenge :

PC obsessed vs Me

I haven't been to the States for quite a while now, not sure a lot has changed, but all my friends report back highly and they would actually consider swapping NY for London.

The way I see the States ( still open to be surprised on this trip ) as opposed to Sicily is the way you are brought up.

In Sicily, if you see somebody doing something he shouldn't, authorises you to do it as well.

In the States, if you see somebody doing something he shouldn't you report it, so nobody else will ever do it again.

If you report it in Sicily ( even in kindergarten, all the kids will circle you and they'll start chanting... Chi fa la spia non e' figlio di Maria ( meaning, he who spies is not the son of the Madonna)

Cultures... Let's face it... if I was born American I would have probably been electrocuted by now. Which really wouldn't have been a bad option either.

Waiting.. waiting for godot

2008-08-27T21:23:00.006+01:00

Yup! always waiting for something that never materialises..

They are not dreams, you can't write a little letter to father Xmas to send things to you also because father Xmas only comes down chimneys and I only have a stupid fig tree

yes yes I know.. you can make things happens.

I know you couldn't care less. I know you will always remain of your opinion, I know you think I'm wrong and blablabla..

Birth? Coincidence? Luck...
X grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and counts among his ancestors, a rogue colonist who, in 1676, launched an unauthorized attack on Indians that briefly led to his controlling most of Virginia. His father, ran the North Carolina real estate operations of both Prudential and later Merrill Lynch & Co. When his father eventually remarried, it was to the sister of a man who was fast becoming a Wall Street legend: Julian Robertson.
He is the middle of three sons. His brothers, graduated from local public schools, he, in his junior year, ventured out of town enrolling in preppy Episcopal High School, by coincidence Robertson's alma mater. Students at Episcopal were expected to work hard and had to sit in study hall during free periods and evenings. Only in the afternoon did they get a few hours outdoors, to play football or other sports. He didn't seem to mind. One afternoon I passed through study hall, and there was him, grinding away, recalls Lee Ainslie Jr., the former Episcopal headmaster and father of Lee Ainslie III, manager of the $4.5 billion Maverick Capital hedge funds. Most other boys would have been happy to be outdoors playing.

An aficionado of Ernest Hemingway and Nathaniel Hawthorne, he cultivated his love of the outdoors in the bucolic surroundings of Vermont. Southerners at Middlebury stuck out like sore thumbs, recalls classmate Christopher Brady, who heads money management and advisory firm Chart Group and is the son of former Treasury secretary Nicholas Brady. He hunted a lot, skiied incessantly and studied.
Still, there were some early signs of the future financier: During the summers following his sophomore and junior years, He worked as a clerk for New York Stock Exchange specialist Walter N. Frank & Co. and met Frank after working on his deep-sea charter fishing boat off Montauk, Long Island, during the summer of 1976.
An early influence was Paul Tudor Jones, who was sharing an apartment with Charles Johnson, a former roommate of Zack Bacon's at the University of North Carolina. Jones, who had started out as a cotton trader, was then working as a commodities broker with E.F. Hutton.
He soon headed off to get his MBA at Columbia University, where he used his student loan as capital to continue to trade. To his chagrin, he lost it all - and had to work odd jobs to make up the difference.
From this experience, he learned how to handle risk, he landed at Shearson Lehman Hutton in 1983 as a futures broker, trading on behalf of some of the biggest names in the hedge fund world. For a 27-year-old, he deployed a powerful Rolodex. Jones and brother Zack, who deployed landed at Soros Fund Management as head trader, threw plenty of business his way. He quickly became a top commission producer.
He was very fortunate to be right in the middle of that network, notes Charles Stockley, president of Stockley Asset Management, a futures trading firm, and a childhood friend of Jones's. You can't say that his career is a story of someone starting at the bottom and clawing his way up. But he took the ball and ran with it, and ultimately he surpassed them all.
His gilt-edged client list had another advantage, in addition to the hefty commissions: By trading on behalf of Soros and Jones, he learned their investing styles.
By 1986 he had acquired enough of a reputation to start managing other peoples' money. The following year, while still at Shearson, he set up a small fund . Right off he hit a home run. He correctly anticipated the stock market crash, going short S&P futures and then shifting to a long position just as the market bottomed.
By the end of the decade, he had established a strong track record, and he decided to move to a bigger stage

That first year, the fund was up 86 percent, thanks largely to his decision to short the Nikkei index just before the Japanese markets collapsed. He also anticipated Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and went short stocks and long oil.
As he set out to raise more money, his task was made easier by his friendship with Jones, who had decided to close his funds to new money. In a letter to investors, Jones recommended they invest spare capital with him. Jones also introduced him to Busson, who had helped him raise money in Europe.

The story is for me and it's not for you.. also because you get bored of reading things like this I omitted some pieces and some names.

It's not luck... it's not coincidence... yes you have to be great, but somebody has to give you a chance...

Waiting to hear what's the excuse this time..

I close my day with some thoughts

2008-08-19T23:37:00.003+01:00

The world appreciates more people that recycle and donate to charity than people that respect others.

Wish one single individual in this planet could understand that diplomacy it only serves the purpose of using your intellect to manipulate people.

I offer them the choice to say no, I give them the opportunity to have their opinions.

However that's wrong, because human kind prefers to be manipulated and pushed to do something, as long as that's done in a nice way.

That's an additional reason why there is no reason for the existence of human kind on planet earth.

You can now use a service so that their phone calls don't reach a number but manipulate the system so that you can just leave a message into the answer phone, that's for people which haven't got the courage to say what they think not even on the phone.

As people only like nice unchallenging people a new software has been developed and you can't even tell that's not a real human, it's just a nice smiling good looking diplomatic one ( i.e. the equivalent to the hologram that speaks in front of you).

Diplomacy can be replaced by a computer, thinking and opinions can't.

But that's just a point of view, which will never be shared by unthinking individuals.

I was born turbated and I will die deluded. Doesn't matter, I can't change the world because I'm fair, people rather have Hitler burning them alive.

He made history after all.

Gina home alone

2008-08-18T19:08:00.007+01:00

Errrrrrrrrrr.

11.10 : Hello... Anna... lights blew up. There is no light in 1/4 of the house.. including the fridge.. the braciolettine will defrost, what will I do with the meat?

11.12 Mum... I have been living in the house for nearly 3 years and that has never happened to me. Also... just 1/4 of the house? How is that possible?

Let's rewind.. Where did you clean? What did you open?

11.15 Nothing nothing nothing

well to make a story short, she manages to short circuit a part of the house while attempting to charge her mobile phone. How that's possible... not sure really!

Thanks to John ( the caretaker of the building, which loves me due to my slitty eyes connection and because when he used to have the keys of my flat used to perve on M's seminaked pictures from the photoshoot )

Anyhow.. Gina made him coffee, he switched the light back on. Bless him

15:00 ring ring .... I found the brush ( that's to clean the carpet) how do you say flour in english?

19:00 back home-

there are objects on the shelves as they looked empty and M's scarf is properly ironed and packaged in a little plastic sleeve - because you know, Gina lives in that world in which in the morning, before wearing a scarf you remove it from the plastic unfold it and wear it, at night time you fold it and replace it in the bag

Come come... look what I bought? beautiful, useful... ( it's a brush to clean the floor on the balcony) I wonder how I lived without one till now

Gina bought Heinz tomato soup instead of chopped tomatoes, flour ( which I already had)

the nevermissable crisps ( the crunchy ones... )

I really don't know if my mum is like I'll be as an old woman, or as the creature I will put in the world. I think after this experience, I really learnt that no I haven't got the patience for it.

Clearly.. as she hasn't talked all day... we have already touched the world domination the 100 rules of cleaning and the principles of cooking.

She also said she hasn't stopped for one sec. Do you know what? I believe her.

- I don't find these drawers suitable to keep cooking pans

- you should have allowed me to send you the sitting steps ( i.e. a small ladder which can be used as a seat) so she could reach the top shelves

- How do you clean the gas bits??

If I had a calculator to know how many carbon emissions she generated by using cleaning products I think will be more than a flight to NY.

Tomorrow I'll hang a stepcount to her belt... let's see how many steps can she go through in a day in the house. I buy 10k

Saturday: Wycombe - the caves and the trekking tour

2008-08-17T21:31:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Diana for the patience, the choice of trek and for spending a day with Gina and me.

I must say it was wonderful. As you could see from previous post.. not enough to tire Gina but it was wonderful to see her happy and not complaining. She even said : You could not have chosen a better day! Bliss... what happened to that bliss only god knows..

As the original plan of walking 16km was "too easy" for her, she started the walk with a jog!

Sorry forgot the photographic evidence of today

2008-08-17T21:25:00.004+01:00

When I say... it's like having a kid.. I'm not kidding

I also forgot ( not sure how... to recount the amazing day we had yesterday in the countryside...) but photos of that and full story to follow- yes.. yesterday was a wonderful day with Gina and Diana, but today everything got wiped out. I'm now certain that Gina suffers from ADD and that must be hereditary ( not sure that's an english word)

It was the the first Soho pride in history with the sunshine and I missed it

2008-08-17T18:55:00.006+01:00

I have been trying all day to say to myself, there are many Soho prides there is only one Gina.

Still it was the only Soho pride with the sunshine since I seem to remember.

Spending time with Gina is how I picture having my own kid, with the difference that a kid

a) might find some other interest than nagging me

b) you can shout at the kid and tell him to shut up

c) kids sleep a couple of hours a day or stay quiet in front of the telly or a videogame

8 am : Gina could no longer stay in bed, hence she decided to get up and start going around the house, making noises and doing things

8:30 : I could no longer stay in bed, too much trotting around

9:00 : Mum please, it's morning, could you kindly stop asking questions till at least I have a coffee.. it really takes 10 minutes for me to have a coffee, can I read my emails and have a coffee and then we can talk

9:00:01 Ok then I tidy up the drawers then.

9:00:02 Can I throw this away?

MUMmmmmmmmmm

9:00:05 Can you check if this is expired?

9:00:07 Where shall I put this ?

well in the flipping same drawer you took it from

9:00:10 Do you need this?

9:00:20 Do you need all these stick things ( chopsticks!), you already have so many

9:00:30 blablablabla...

i started smoking fags

9:01 you are not washing your hair again are you? It's going to fall off if you keep washing it

9:03 Can we go running?

Mum I really need to read some stuff, could you please, please be silent for 10 minutes

9:05 What is this for?

9:06 and this?

then she started hoovering.. and guess what.. the subject fell again on the infamous flipping carpet, the ugly horrible heavy extremely expensive white shit that she decided to deliver to my office on my birthday last year ( after months of discussions on the fact that I wanted a dark carpet) .. anyhow.. carpet now needs washing and she wants to attempt the flipping task with a toothbrush..

Can you not do something more useful? No...

anyhow...

I wasn't allowed to read, I ended up tidying the drawers and loading the washing machine

at 11.30 we eventually went out... destination : running trainers shop

Together with trainers, she must have tried 20 tops, for which I had to provide smaller bigger, smaller, let's try this again size. 2 hours later she's the owner of a new pair of running shoes ( still not convinced of why she can't use them to the gym too or why they can't be waterproof or why they don't make them black)

It was painful, really painful beyond painful... including translating every single writing on every single t-shirt in the David and Goliah shop, trying every single tea in the tea shop and so on and so forth, like finding fridge magnets red phone shaped, finding a present for a kid, find a pair of trekking trousers like mine, despite she doesn't ever go trekking.

Arguments of the day were

once again the carpet, as tomorrow, while I'm at work, she'll attempt to lift it ( it weights 30 kgs) find a shop that washes it ( she doesn't speak a word of english and she gets lost)

and... TATTOOs the addition to the insults today was that clever people don't have tattoos... I really truly honestly don't understand how certain ideas radicate in her mind.

Anyway tattoos are for stupid and the only thing is acceptable is a small little flower on your hand ( now that's a fucking idiot ).

After I managed to stir away from the "capricci della natura" akas gay people all day, on our way back we bumped into a group of trannies.

Gina : Where are they going dressed like that?

me: today is soho pride

Gina : what's soho pride?

me : it's a street party where people dress up, there is music all day and when gay people are proud to be gay

Gina: Does A ever dress like that?

me : no mum he doesn't.

Gina: can we buy a brush to clean the carpet?

I'm now home, I missed pride, I missed the sunshine, didn't buy any of the things I needed to, didn't read anything I was supposed to, I feel exhausted more than when i don't sleep for the entire weekend, I almost want to cry and to make it worse, the weekend is gone, tomorrow is work shit again.

Still can't switch on the telly because she doesn't understand it ( how on earth can you translate word by word the X factor???? ) and still I have to decide what to eat... I want a beer and a pizza but can't say that either.

I feel hopeless. I never ever have headache, today I have, I honestly feel drained.

If I ever decide to have a kid, please friends, make sure I'm never allowed to make him feel the same.

Gina

2008-08-15T22:32:00.006+01:00

I just noticed how appropriate the picture is!

Well I wanted to post about the olympics, but can't really find pictures or I can't lie saying I watched them, however I'm very proud of the water polo girls... ( more so because I used to play with one of them) and on this I could go on a tangent and start thinking what if I was there... But I must say I always wish I was somewhere else or doing something else, but I wouldn't switch my frustrating banking job for water polo olympics. Don't know why, but that's the way my brain works..

Let's switch onto the Gina subject.

Gina landed Thursday, went to pick her up at the airport, despite with fever, she was there smiling and happy to see her little baby ( me ) with a sporty handbag, trainers and a 29 kg suitcase containing:

7 salami

4 kg of parmesan

30 skewers of braciolettine messinesi

1 whole calf fillet

6 sausages

and more...

and before you ask.. no no rabbit this time.

The way I define my mum : she says I'm lazy and for those that know me, that makes them imagine a tasmanian devil little person which never stay stills..

Let's start from this morning.

I took the day off, to spend time with her and it was Ferragosto in Italy, so work would have been dull anyway and as none of my clients were there, no damage could have been done by my colleagues.

By 8.30, time at which I opened my eyes, Gina had already made the coffee, washed the floor, cleaned the windows...

9.00 G: did you have a shower? I thought we were going running! Me: errrrrr no!

9.45 the Zatorski guys arrive, including their little baby ... to deliver the 2m x 1m lamb...

Despite the wife tells Gina that she speaks Italian and despite I tell her that they are the artists of the lamb. She said and repeated a couple of times " What's that? a dead animal? what do you have to do with a dead animal. that's not a painting... that's a picture of a dead animal. But is it really dead?? " the only thing Z+Z could reply was: "errrr.. there is also a bird in it.. and it's alive"

Anyhow... we couldn't hang the picture because as we discovered it weights 23 Kg and english walls, even my picture railings are not made to hold such a weight, hence the hanging is to be rescheduled.

11.30 Gina and I leave the house : direction Borough market, where Gina tasted every possible thing and asked me about every individual food... as queuing doesn't exist in her vocabulary we couldn't eat in any of the places there, because people are just crazy that they queue to eat, so we bought some fresh mozzarella, some parma ham, begged the bread guy to cut a ciabatta for us and made a panino... this without .."ask the guys where he gets his mozzarella from, there is diossina in Italy".

however despite she didn't want to queue, she wanted to know what all these people were queuing for, so at every stall, we run to the front, she put her head almost in the pan and then left...the same for every shop... particular attention went to the fishmonger.. where she run to the front of the queue, asked me for every single name of every single fish to then scream : This fish looks very dead to me.. like more than a couple of days..

What's that?

ostrich

blaaaaaaaww che schifo

( have you seen how many guys died in Italy with drugs.. you know london is at the first place do they take pills or they sniff! - Ludovica said she never smoked a joint )

Sorry that's what she's saying while I sit here typing.

Borough market bored her, so we walked a bit, then it was sunny so i decided to sit in the sun, where it was wonderful ( being off work, relaxed on a sunny day it was wonderful and I was happy to be with Gina too ) .. she basically took the piss out of every single individual passing in front of us- the executive summary was that Italians have more piercing than Anglosaxons..

You know they showed this woman in italy with 3000 piercings and another one with nails long till her feet

Left the bench, after I manage to swig a beer and we went to the Tate, from there onto the Millennium Bridge, St Paul's, the outdoor shop where she wanted to buy those amazingly comfortable chairs, then Bond street, Oxford street ( at night time window glasses look very clean... how do you clean on top of the wardrobe? )

While I was queuing for my new Iphone.. yes couldn't resist to get the 3g 16g .. Gina, obviously not made to wait, went in and out of the shop searching every single shop around... she even managed to go to Body Shop ( her favourite place and convinced the woman behind the till to hold her stuff till my arrival).

then selfridges... because Gina likes 3 things in life... dried fruit ( of which we bought a massive selection of in borough market) Louis Vitton bags ( for which is absurd she has to queue) and body creams ( I think we stayed about 40 minute at la praire place, and she even managed to get samples out of the woman)

9.20 cab home

10.30 dinner

Dinner discussion:

Would you sleep with a man if you knew he went with a gay guy? Those guys are just ill.. like the ones that sleep with kids

you know f and a don't look gay when they walk, does f not have a boyfriend? why not? does it not sleep with anybody? does it not tell you guys??

Mum ... maybe the married men that go with gay men, have always been gay but maybe they were constrained by parents like you not to show it and marry a woman..

No.. they are ill

Ok mum

Can you pass me the parmesan

Gina is now walking naked around the flat, to go and weight herself... 23.14 she might be tired and maybe go to bed. ( i'm sure she'll call over in a sec to ask something)

Shhhhhhhhhhh Gina is asleep...Ops.. no! It's cream time...

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

2008-08-11T19:22:00.001+01:00

WeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeGOAPE

CUIL pronounced cool- more crap than anything else

2008-07-31T22:03:00.003+01:00

www.cuil.com
there is a lot of fuss about this lately, they reckon to be the biggest search engine in the world. They obviously would like to scoop some of google's success if not to "Appannete it".
Well, if you are a 10 year old looking for some stupid research, or if you have never used the internet, look marvellous, good, organised and beautiful, if you type google for everything including finding a street, stick to our beloved GOOGLE.

CUIL... try to get smarter first... you couldn't even find the address of my favorite club, mind you any important thing.
RIDICOLOUSLY CRAP. Searched for 10 things, couldn't find any...
Amatorial crap..
It doesn't even make suggestions.

Really 2008 must be the year of going backwards... in everything

rock me sexy jesus

2008-07-27T21:04:00.001+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSVR94c0bqM&NR=1

The last famous words.....

2008-06-17T19:39:00.007+01:00

My boss: What's Friday 13th to Italians?

Me: lucky lucky lucky you can even buy lucky charms with the number 13 on it

I hit a black swan.... and it shit on me.. against all the odds..

Friday 13th Sunday 15th

that was the so planned Maremma's weekend... you can see the angelic pictures on Tot's blog....

but I shall tell you the not told...

Summary:

flights booked 2 flights missed 2

people fainted : 1

people bleeding : many

people slapped : 1 twice me

picture for Gina : 1

13th

15:37

M: at waterloo now. Going to catch a cab to liverpool street. Where are u? what's your ETA at liverpool street?

me: no idea i'm superbusy

M: see u at stansted

16:00 launch of passport and e-mail to colleague to check me in - Failed

16:45 Leave the office

16:53 liverpool street ( missed stansted express by 35 seconds)

17:15 stansted express

17.27 M: where are you?

Me: I think I won't make it

17.57 M: boarding flight on time

18.00 I arrive at check in desk, gate closed.

18.05 Go to customer service beg woman which calls to see if they still accept me- Failed

18.08 Any places on the Pisa's flight? - booked. discover as 1 hr delay

20.10 boarding to pisa's flight F: you are a c*nt

23.00 pisa's airport

23.10 pisa's station pisa's station pisa's station- weird people no train -me myself and a bottle of gin and vodka

01.20 eventually board the 00.50 train - the famous TORINO-VILLA SAN GIOVANNI animal carrier.. famous for people with card board boxes and live chickens.

trot to seat 25 carriage 3- 6 people box closed- reserved sit occupied by feet of snoaring unedentified individual- lights off

01.40 ticket man wakes up gives me my seat

01.45 woman on left dirty talks in mobile - man in front snoars

02.40 grosseto where exhausted m f & j wait for me. Punishment: holding maude

4.00 eventually reunited- wine, cheese, salami

F J & M got even stopped by police... AND THE CHINESE??? Tot F almost accused of smuggling immigrants...

12.00 wake up - no sun no even Swadowy -go back to sleep

brilliant afternoon looking at the tree.. taiching in the landscape. drinking drinking. occupy restaurant, dry their supply of prosecco and order monstrous amount of food.. which we asked to be saved in a doggy bag... ( see we are so recycling people now.. that we won't waste food either..

night... research of party - by mistake rock up to wedding anniversary of posh old couple which almost called the police at the sights of the tots..

Reserve, hit the right party- neat bottle of vodka downed one- people drunk - all - M never even made it to the party as stayed in the car.

Slapped by F - twice.

Lying on street - once

Sunday.... angelical cooking with waves of sunshine and crunchiness as F cooked crackers... yes crunchy tasty and with rosemary from the queen of broth.

Anyhow time to leave already... on board.. of Mina... we by luck reach the first airport but Fiumicino is packed solid, get off, run to pee, get in a cab, 40 minutes later, we haven't moved. 1.5 hr later, still there.

Return flight missed.

Call F actually J ( as F's phone drowned during the weekend) they are in Fregene...

Taxi man takes M and I to Fregene..

errrrrrrrrr.

The errrrrrr gets worse as there is the sea... and clearly one two three... skinny dipping ole' - annoyed owner of boat club surprised by our presence chuck us out of their place...

back in the car, restaurant food alcohol

back to Rome... where they forget me outside on a road with me not knowing where the house actually is..

Anyhow... start searching flights.. nothing available.... sleep

wake up proposal to take train to Pisa and flight from there : rejected

We rock to Fiumicino hoping for a last minute flight... they don't exist.. we go through terminal a b and c... nothing...

end up booking return flight ( and yes... we will be back on the 11th for more).

hang around Rome airport for about 4 hours, buy wine and similar... take flight to Milan... Security steals our wine... for some absurd reason... The last drop... THE WINE NO... NO... NO... M stops talking.

London Heathrow... plane too near to exit... so help was called to manouvre plane and passengers 35 cm backwards..

11 pm of the day after HOME.

And I now have a picture of my new boyfriend on my phone- so Gina can be happy too.

PS. The insurance doesn't cover such events... so .. why on earth do people buy insurance??

how many ridicolous things can people tell at interviews

2008-06-02T20:50:00.003+01:00

Dear reader, you know that between my hobbies there was going for interviews.

Well that was till I was actually looking for a job.

A while back I decided that I would only change to do what I want to do, not what people need me to do.

The latest excuses I had to sit through ranged between you will get bored to do that job and you are a woman and women are irrational therefore you can't trust them ( I think they must have wives with terrible PMSs)

Anyhow last weekend they reached the top!

Let me start from the beginning

Saturday arrived at the famous Terminal 5 to discover that despite I had a ticket and a reserved seat, BA didn't have any recollection of me traveling ( apparently another of my bright colleague doing, as she forgot to issue the ticket)

Nonetheless.. for once in a lifetime I was early at the airport, so after a couple of emergency phone calls was on a plane, and after a bit of fighting, was also sat next to M. Because you know, people have issues if you go to them and say - sorry would you mind to sit in business class and I take your on the wing middle seat.

Anyhow reach Milan and then train to Turin where Andrea & bf, Gallo, Mazzola gf and Davidone were waiting for me for a party.

Andrea surpassed himself as the best host in the planet, welcoming me with home made lasagne and all the different things I love to eat.

All sprayed with bottle after bottle of champagne and few treats. Result: woke up the day after at 8 pm, to visit his new amazing shop, meeting Cri & Max and learnt of the new baby to come ( that seems to be the latest fashion- babies... seems that more the economy is fuct and people miserable, more they have kids- must be true, something you can't understand till you have them!)

Anyhow Monday morning, wake up... after 3.5 hours of train we arrive in Lugano- yes, I'm ready to move to this smiling little boring postcard town, in order to get the job I like.

After 4 hours of interview eventually meet the big man. Obviously they had in mind a different job for me. As they like the way I deal with client, my knowledge of financial markets and blabla bla. they would like me to market their fund across Europe, Us & Asia and take care of existing clients which seem to have become more and more picky in their request for explanation of products and trading strategies..

Well... I wanted to execute their trades, i.e. a step down for me, but with open potential for eventually trading....

So I propose: I'm prepared, to move in dump town, travel the world, raise your funds and if I reach the target you set I would like to, then ... start executing your trades. And we are talking about raising 1 bn $, something you certainly don't achieve in a day!

Do you know what the answer was?

- we have found that anglo saxon people are better at developing relationship on the phone, therefore we prefer to have an English person executing our trades ( 80% of the company including the founder are Italian!)

- We find women irrational!

And last but not least excuse: YOU ARE NOT JESUS CHRIST- if you are good at raising funds, you can't possibly be good at executing trades ( mind you- I only have about 8 years experience at doing this - and the reason why I actually got an interview was because they appreciate the job I do.)

I stood up, said goodbye and left the town- back to Milan , smuggled M in the hotel to lie on heavenly bed, with heavenly pillows, washed my hand with soap with heavenly wheatgerm ( what I pile of heavenly flipping crap) and went for a kilo of fiorentina which wasn't on a bed of heavenly rocket, because I fucking hate rocket.

On my way back BA kindly lost my luggage- delivered 2 days later by angry unspecified individual..

Morning after.. get phonecall from headhunter:

I have a great opportunity for you - a marketing role in Geneva...

I don't think he will call for a while.

Stop 3 Gaudi is a genius, why they don't make his chairs

2008-05-22T22:28:00.005+01:00

The great hotel where they don't like to give customers the window handles.. just in case the jump off!! Well it was a bit embarassing to take the lift 16 floors down to ask for the handles and be told that nobody is allowed to have them!!! oh well

Cokoo.. who's the behind the sofa babbau??

Look what a happy place... they have smileys on the street

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh`!

The egg...

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGG

2008-05-22T19:10:00.004+01:00

Wish I could make those angry faces as pfrap on her blog ( which I really love, but unfortunately in years now haven't managed to post a comment into.. ) - the buying the HD tv to play videogames... well that's something I would do too..

anyway... I know I said I'd stop ranting.. but really had another very bad day at work- I'm starting to wonder if I had a good one since I joined.
Anyhow.. today I got called again by my boss for a meeting.. I stepped again on their head ops.. truly.. but he eventually explained how the politics inside my workplace works.

Basically if you have a problem or an idea or a complaint you go to your boss ( I have 3 at my desk- yes not even the credit crunch got rid of them- mind you we fired tons of people- but the good ones, the lazy ones are all there).

Anyway if your idea is not listened to or your problem solved you are, under any circumstance, allowed to talk to anybody above the 3 guys about it ( even if they 3 don't understand what I'm talking about).
The additional accident apparently happened on Friday.
This is what happened, after a dinner with a client ( where my boss took me as he can't hold a discussion about the markets) we met the boss of my boss of my bosses outside a pub, we stopped for a chat and as I expressed my wish to trade our option book he said he will meet me on Friday. ( to give you a short bio - he used to work where I was before, left to run a hedge fund, sank it, lost all their money and took it to bankruptcy, so he got hired as head of our trading desk)
Friday I met him - his answer was you are sales why should I spend time getting you to trade our option book.. so why did you agree to meet me in the first place anyway? ( hence additional depression on Friday)
While I was there I asked him about other stuff and what he thought about it.
Today my boss ( boss1) called me to say that I wasn't allowed to talk to him about potential ideas to make money for the bank ( mind you all valid points) as that meant stepping on them.
Now same ideas were written to boss 1 2 and 3 previously, discussed previously, and so I was told raised previously... so.. I didn't see the issue there.

So boss 4 instead of looking at the numbers and acting on some potential great business wasted his time to go to boss 1 2 and 3 and say why that was raised by me and not by them...
so today was called in to say if they don't do something I just have to go back to them and ask.. what about that ? what you think of this? are you raising my point?? Am I their flipping nanny??? you know me... don't you think I would have already asked that about 100 times???

Then I was given an example which I think I'll never forget for life.
If our CEO walked in the corridor, stopped and asked you something, you are not allowed to say that something could be improved, because that would bring the entire team that looks under that thing into scrutiny.
And I said well.. that's the all point- proving that you really don't need that team because they are lazy and stupid..
ooh well.. no.. your ideas have to remain hanging there so that everybody can lazily trot along. In any other place, ideas and good business opportunities are looked in and rewarded.

Here clearly not...

Argued with a client too. and blablabla...

but you don't care.. because as Bill Gross said today in his last report "We have for so long now be willling to be entertained rather than informed, that we more or less accept majority opinion"... "it's Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum folks and all good fun, but the hordes are crossing the Alps and headed for modern day Rome - better educated, harder working, and willing to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow. Can it be any wonder that an estimated 1% of America's wealth migrates into foreign hands every year? We, as a people, are overweight, poorly educated, overindulged, and imbued with such a sense of self importance on a geopolitical scale, that our allies are dropping like flies."

Oh well... I'm day after day approaching more the thought of really quitting, worse come to the worst I go and live with Gina - well life really must hate me if we have to come round to that.

OK OK you want to see some pictures now- I really tried to upload you.. swear it didn't work!

Stop 2

2008-05-20T21:16:00.005+01:00

Together with little Heidi- taking one of the London walk to visit a well known place, but discovering it..
We even did our little bit to help the community and help an old lady crossing the street with a shopping trolley!

We started with Chalk Farm and the graffiti ( my little old favourite)

We then proceeded with a little photoshoot, taking in the views, finding a very posh pair of D&G sunnies and visiting some landmarks..

And walking through the Zoo, discovering this amazing floating Chinese restaurant and walking through Camden the same night it burnt into high flames.

Apparently keeping a diary

2008-05-20T20:58:00.004+01:00

relieves from depression.. Or so some stupid website stated..

So.. as there are lots of picture missing and many of you complaining about lack of fun things..

here you go.. You have to be patient.. as have a lot to catch up and my memory is a bit blurred on the events.

Let's start from the beginning....

Training for the Himalaya- the training turned out to be far more physically demanding than the climb itself.. but the training like many things didn't last very long and soon resumed the vodka and redbull and fag lifting

But here you go..

Stop 1

Val d'Aosta - the introduction of the Ciaspole - the weird shoes to walk in the snow..

I was crying for the pain and for lack of of a summit to reach. Just white snow on white snow on white snow..

But it was beautiful. Courtesy of Cri, Max and the walkie talkies that buzzed all the way!

The holy grail

2008-05-17T01:00:00.004+01:00

Sometimes it feels like I'm looking for the holy grail in life.. Honestly it does
What I ask for it is just some comprehension, something... I don't know ... a minimal thing that goes the way I want.
Friends which are faithful and coherent, a job which doesn't depress me, a lover which understands what hurts me, but I came to the conclusion that it must be me. Either I accept life and people for what they are and I adapt to it, or I don't.
I tried, but I can't, I just can't believe that everything can be so wrong for so long.
I didn't want to be in this world, I am and I will never cope with it. I think that it's a skill, which I don't have and I don't seem to be able to learn, unfortunately they don't run an MBA on it, if they did I couldn't afford one anyway.
I think today I officially gave up, whatever happens next I truly don't care.
See I'm tempted to leave my job for the day of my birthday, the first only beautiful amazing present I ever received for my birthday, but that means I will have to leave the place where I live, the only thing which I can go back to, the only door in life of which I have a key for, the only thing I actually created. It's material, I know but it does exist, it's the only comfort I get, the only thing which doesn't change its mind, unlike people. Giving it up it will be like giving up everything. Yes it's sad, but that it's the way I live, waiting for somebody to understand me, unfortunately only walls can, however I don't fully own them, because you know in life you also have to be lucky enough to be male white posh and rich otherwise it's the equivalent of being thrown off a cliff, just that unfortunately they didn't, so they kill you slowly to make you stay here and keep being a hamster.
I'm even too coward and too fed up to end it all, I'm so stupid I'm waiting for people to do it for me. But my existence is killing me slowly eventually it will all end, and as I want it to be quick it won't, it will be a slow destroying pain.. just please write on my grave

Born turbated, died misunderstood.

If I could just not see tomorrow, that will be such a relief.

Probably you wish I never came back to blogging, but then do you really care?

Jumper- I liked it

2008-03-22T11:27:00.000Z

JUMPER

I could easily call this "Stream of consciousness"

2008-03-15T03:44:00.006Z

I know I haven't posted for ages and probably 3.50 in the morning is not the right moment to do so, but I have to start from somewhere, considering that's since Xmas that I kept some nice pictures for my readers..
However what I gonna write is not going to be clear to anybody but it's some sort of catharsis because I have to at least speak to myself from time to time to try to understand what goes on in my mind.
February has always been historically as not one of my great months and people don't like to hear winging, they just want to laugh and go on.
But see things like the graph above do really have an impact on my life especially when people don't believe in what you'r saying.
Oh well it was a long day but exciting at some level.. how it should be, but for me to have a busy fruitful day it does take things like this because in the majority of other cases it's just down to stupid politics.
I'm glad at uni didn't just learn theoretical subject but how to source what you need, and life often teaches more than an obsolete textbook..
However goodnight. This week really killed me, i have to learn to sleep, but unfortunately that's not part of any curriculum if not life.
I shall post soon with clearer posts and entertaining pictures than this one.
In this moment I feel like this!
It I don't find a spelling mistake in this post it's a miracle, so forgive them as I wouldn't really make a difference to repost.

We went out tonight, to gramophone, a venue which I'm so much more used to with different settings.
However it was fun and let me think a lot. Just I so wish everything would be different. But would it ever be? I'm not sure. The odds are too high to make a bet even if it's an ego generated one.
I really feel stuck in a limbo, how aterall I have been feeling for the lifespan of my life.
What would make me happy?, that's one of lifetime question and now for first time in my life, I really don't know how to answer that question.
Probably my issue is it's just "I want to be happy" and i don't care how and why, but just some sort of holiday from the whole being.

Hope all my friends now believe me

2008-01-24T19:25:00.000Z

when I say that the majority of them is a bunch of fuking idiot.

If I was wrong, how on earth, somebody could have hidden 5bn losses without anybody realising..

BECAUSE THEY HAVEN'T GOT A FUKING CLUE

And the funniest thing is... and nobody will tell you that... the Fed, ( which is the federal reserve of the USA, i.e. the most powerful financial body) come back from US holidays (generally dead market days) on Tuesday and realised that the financial world didn't revolve around them anymore and had to cut rates 75bps.. ( Ben Bernanke's elicopter..- yes, dumping money on wall street) because the stock market tumbled. Why did it tumble? because some french rogue trader had so many long futures on that he had to sell them, bringing the market down..

So france 1 USA 0

Jérôme Kerviel, a 31-year-old Frenchman, who joined SocGen in 2000 and worked on the Delta One trading desk on the bank’s Paris trading floor amassed massive positions in the European stock index futures markets that backfired.
The revelation of the fraud is a massive blow for fragile investor confidence in the banking sector, which is already reeling from multi-billion dollar writedowns at many of the biggest investment banks on Wall Street and in the City of London.

It also raises serious questions about banks’ risk-management procedures and their ability to control their own trading positions. One analyst said: "This news will cast a dark cloud over the already troubled European banking sector."

SocGen said the “exceptional fraud” resulted from the purchase of huge long positions in “plain vanilla futures hedging on European equity market indices” that were “beyond his limited authority”.
The bank said it had no more exposure to the trader’s positions, which were identified and analysed on January 19 and 20 and then unwound just as stock markets crashed unexpectedly around the world on January 21.

Mary Schapiro, chief executive of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the US regulatory body which oversees broker dealers, said: ”It is quite surprising that positions of that magnitude would not have been monitored much more closely in this era of enhanced risk management." again... people haven't got a clue..

”One would hope that every time something like this comes to light everyone redoubles their efforts at risk controls. There is always a possibility of a rogue trader at a bank so risk controls have to contemplate that possibility – that is why you have built in controls.”

The bank said the fraud was based on simple transactions, but concealed by "sophisticated and varied techniques".
The losses are four times greater than those made by Nick Leeson, the rogue trader who brought down Barings Bank.

Leeson was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail.

Speaking to the BBC, Leeson said he was not shocked that the latest fraud had taken place - only its scale.
"Rogue trading is probably a daily occurrence within the financial markets," he said.

"What shocked me was the size. I never for one moment believed it would get to this degree of magnitude, this degree of loss."

But the bank did confirm that the trader was a Frenchman in his 30s who joined the bank in 2000 and earned a salary and bonus of less than 100,000 euros. They were expecting him to make 20m this year.. ( now... why somebody which makes 20m should only get paid 100k, that might seem fair to you, and it would seem illogical for people which are dying of starvation.. but 1ook for 20m is a robbery)

The bank said the trader responsible for the fraud had "in-depth knowledge of the control procedures resulting from this former employment in the middle-office".

that means that the rest of the bank didn't have a clue on the procedures...
see.. knowledge is important and what last year and this year are uncovering is the absolute lack of it inside the financial sector..

"The transactions which involved the fraud were simple - taking a position on shares rising - but hidden using extremely sophisticated and varied techniques," chief executive Daniel Bouton said in a letter to the bank's customers. If it was so simple.. how come they didn't realise it? IDIOTS

The bank said that the trader had confessed to the fraud and was being dismissed. His managers were to leave the bank as well.

"Because the scale of the fraud is so large, there must be a complex explanation... For Societe Generale, it's an unprecedented event," he added.
Yes.. stupidity

But please visit this amazing list made by wikipedia of the most famous trading losses

here

I decided to trek the Himalaya for charity!

2008-01-23T21:12:00.000Z

Can you believe that?

I will be doing :

the Samthar Trek, a 6 days trek (1600m) to raise 2000£ for the charities of the year at work.

Even trekking the Himalayas... just not to stay 6 days at work??? somebody might argue

Oh well, for those who know me the two biggest challenges won't be the jet lag or the trek, but

day 4: we wake early today to the sound of chirping birds and to see the sun rise.. ( Another fuking sunrise)

And to avoid escaping at night time in search of opium cultivations!!

As there shouldn't be any reception-Gina can only contact me for emergencies via a satellite phone. I'm sure she'll start sending pigeons.

Petpeole

2008-01-21T23:19:00.000Z

Pet People by Tim Lewis

I think the best artistic representation of the way I see humanity.

Despite only had one hour to browse, the London art fair was an educational experience. Should learn to go to bed before 11 am next time!

Feeding F's obsession

2008-01-13T17:38:00.001Z

Eugene Mirman (heidi's friend)- Canada

Walking through the streets of London

2008-01-10T20:10:00.000Z

Beyonce - Proud Mary - 2005 Kennedy Center Honors

2007-12-30T18:19:00.001Z

Hot

2007-12-30T17:43:00.000Z

"Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom is not truth.
Truth is not beauty.
Beauty is not Love.
Love is not music.
Music is the best."

There is always a first time

2007-12-12T20:10:00.000Z

I assume that's the basis of our relationship: arguing..
Not sure if it was a moment of pity or you just couldn't allow such obscenities in writing. But thanks pal. Really appreciated.
The use of words...

Darlings... what I'm referring to is the annoying task 3 times a year to fill a review.
It's a time consuming task, that becomes my worst nightmare.
Diplomacy is not my skill, despite I understand how my relationships with people will improve exponentially, I'm just not capable of it. My stupid reasoning for it is that being diplomatic is using one's intelligence to manipulate others.

Now that I start believing that being diplomatic is actually more rewarding than knowledge, can't really master the art.
Hence - this place is shit, people haven't got courage ( because you see.. you also have to rate people on courage) .... needs to get translated into something like, it could be helpful to blablabla.... the blablabla takes me weeks to figure out , still reads very undiplomatic.... so... i always ask for help.

I can have a symposium on why reviews are a waste of time, mine, my friends' and everybody else's.
But they are useful, because companies are then allowed to fire you, managers which being lazy haven't got a clue on what people they manage do and get a clearer idea , it's also a mean via which you can sell yourself, well you have to, otherwise they think they can get away with giving you a bunch of worthless shares at the high price of the year, which you have to keep for 4 year be taxed 40% on them, well they are like a 1/4 apple rotting in your pocket. Still they lose billions and get away with a couple of hundreds milion...
Oh well.. I shall stop.