Ziatitina

Good morning Everyone,

did I mention snow earlier on??? Well, this is what London woke up to this morning :) Panoramic view from the office roof.

As anticipated half the public transport collapsed (again!), but we all made it into work this morning. So... better get back to some more important things. HAPPY SNOWDAY!

It's windy again. Well, it hasn't really stopped over the last 2 weeks. London has always been windy, but the last week has been truly weird. Way too much of that stuff that tends to appear whenever you're least expecting it... Yes, we had a storm this week, and a very windy one for that matter. Apparently those two go hand in hand and we felt it. It was not obvious when I first left home on Thursday morning, but when I reached my bus stop the first impression proved me wrong! I was thinking about holding on the bus sign not to be blown away! With the next hours it got worse, to the extend that you could hear the wind blowing around the building and in the lift shaft, our main door got blown open a few times and news of trees on the roads, electricity blackouts and closed roads started to come in. By 4pm some of the main railway stations were closed, all tubes with overland tracks had sever delays and the road troubles were endless. At a certain point even our small road got closed by the Police, no idea why...

Now it's Sunday evening and the wind is still here, much less, but I can hear it while I'm sitting at home. We'll have to wait and see what is coming next...first a tornado in Central London, then the fog emergency just before christmas and now the hurricane. I hope I'm wrong in saying that we'll probably be drowning in snow over the next month! I'll keep you posted.

A few days ago I read a blog of a good frind of mine, who is currently in living and working in Shanghai. He had just returned from home in Milan and shared his thoughts about those places that he considers being home. There is home-home and the 2nd home, there is the away-from-home-home and the home you think of as home, but it really isn't.  It was very strange to read those words, particularly as I have the same feelings for the last 5 years. Where I consider home? I don't really know anymore.... Milan is my town, I grew up there, my parents and my closest friends live there. I do miss them all dearly, but over the years our lives have all moved on. Work, boyfriends, girlfriends, flats, people you once knew don't even recognize you on the street anymore, bars and clubs I once knew inside out have changed name or management, the shops around the corner where I used to spend my pocket money have closed down and others have opened - it's not really the city that I used to know. I love it, nevertheless and every time the airplane is approaching one of the Milan airports I have a smile up to my ears and can't wait to get home.

London is what I call my home-away-from-home. I could not do withouth it anymore. Every day has been a discovery, every month an experience and every year the realisation that... "Wow, another year. I guess I'll just stick around for another one!" :) It's nice to arrive, look at the panorama while the plane is approaching Heathrow (depending on the landing route you can actually see some of the landmarks), walk the short way from Paddington and step through the flat door. Suddenly I'm back in my room and I don't even care if it's raining. It feels right as well and it's weird.....

I haven't made it as far as Shanghai, but... Miky you are just so right. Funny how you adapt so quickly to your surroundings.... you know  which tube exit to take and which tunnel so you can avoid that very long traffic light, or which train carriage to get on the Heathrow Express to get a seat, or where your favourite biscuits are kept in your local supermarket, you have the right change for a pint at your local pub and you don't even worry anymore when getting on the bus, because you know exactly that it's easier to sit upstairs and get up after the curve, otherwise you end up flying down the stairs. You can list at least 5 good bars where to go for a drink, cross roads blindly even if the light is red (that must be a London habit, I constantly give heart attacks to friends visiting me....), tourists ask you for directions and it's actually more fun to do sightseeing with the normal bus and tell stories yourself. I could go on forever.

Enough thinking for tonight, it has been a quiet Sunday and I intend finishing the day how I started it: pillow, blanket, couch and a good movie. And here we go...almost ready for Monday morning? No way!! :)

Tine

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

 Welcome back everyone, I hope you had a really good festive season!!! After my mad December with way too many parties, alcohol, chocolate and whatever else is part of this crazy season I headed to the Swiss Alps on 24th December. For once the flight was actually ok, if I decide to ignore the panic of the previous days when Heathrow cancelled I don't know how many flights due to f-o-g. No comment....

Anyways, after some proper duty free shopping (Yay! The only European country where you can actually do that!) the flight arrived relatively on time, I jumped on a train to Landquart (that's about 1 1/2 hours from Zurich) and then on to the funny red trains to the final stop ( that's another hour and something) - Scuol. It's not a very well know town, but I have spent most of my summer & winter holidays there since I was a little girl. Scuol (website) is near the Austrian border, about an hour from the well-known St. Moritz, but nothing like it really.

The snowy view on the left is from Tuesday morning, shortly before leaving... CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? No snow whatsoever for over a week and it obviously comes down in kilos the night before my departure. According to the latest update about half an hour ago...ladies & gentleman it's STILL snowing. Call that bad luck or what??

Well, there was a tiny-weeny bit of snow, just to decorate the trees in the valleys and a bot of the fields, but skiing was definitely out of the question. Some nutters tried it anyways, but with 20cm natural and a little bit of artificial snow on the slopes...let's say the hospital was overrun with broken bones and the rescue helicopter was flying a lot more than usual. But, no need to despair. Way too many things to do anyways: decorate the Christmas Tree, eat lots of Swiss delicacies (try Landjaeger sausages, they're fantastic), sleep a lot, sleep even more, watch many DVD's or useless christmas telly, go for long walks, hit the shops (???yeah, right...the butcher perhaps!), play silly computer games, read, and so on, and so on :) It was brilliant in every way, and I probably slept enough to cover the next 2 month.

So, what to do to avoid  total boredom? Easy, take a carriage up the mountains, sit in the sun and indulge in a really good lunch. These were our two horses that very bravely dragged us up the mountain for over an hour. You should have seen the jealous looks from those poor sods walking the same path..he he he! It can't really get better than this! Of course...if there would have been enough snow it would have been a sledge instead of a carriage, but... I am not complaining. After a couple of hours the carriage took us back to the valley. I felt a bit like an elderly lady with my blanket, but it was worth it!!!

This is the view on the valley behind the farm where we paused. It was the 31st December and even if we were probably at 1800m height, still no snow. I know I am repeating myself, live with it....it is very frustrating if you have spent a few winter holidays there and always had the possibility of building entire snowman-families without the risk of running out of snow! Enough of this... check out the carriage in the bottom right corner, the dwarf with the red hat is my dad :)

Here you go, a short summary of a perfectly relaxing holiday.

London has me back, I have survived my first day back at work and it is currently raining. It can only get better. So, for the moment I wish all of you a fantastic new year... :)

Tine