Rigatoni al ragù

New Year's Eve 2009, Bologna.

Waiting for P & S

Place: Geneva airport

White mulberries

Walking in the corridor, a distant memory hit me like thunderbolt out of nowhere. I remember that back in the days when it was summer and we had 3 months of holidays, it was the season for different fruits and one, which I miss a lot among others, was white mulberries. The small fruit shops used to make a big pile of them in the store and have a electric fan just beside them blow away all the flies and bees. Buying them in a plastic freezer bag, taking them home and wash them properly with cold water, rinse them in colander and...simply enjoy them. the smell, the taste...oh man! Some were really ripe i.e. greener, a bit harder to bite and less taste, some were really sweet, very soft (almost too soft) and creamy color...ah those summers!

Juicy, eh?

Date: 2008-11-18

Time: 12:50 local time

Place: Tampa, USA

Ode to Kli-pache

O' you Kli-pache
You blow my mind!

You look so grotesque
And yet I never get tired of staring at you...ever!

You are the definition of beauty at the peak of hideousness
Or the other way around

You smell so bad
And yet I enjoy being beside you beyond imagination
I want to spend the rest of my life with you

You have so many mysteries, so many dark and bright facets
And I don't want to explore any of them like Columbus
I just want to absorb you as a whole
Slowly and fast
With endless greed
And by doing so
Literally see my veins clogging of Cholesterol
Oh damn you Cholesterol!

O' Kli-pache
You simply blow my mind
So bad!

Best 11.56 bucks I've ever spent

Time: 12:15 local time

Place: The Original Philly's, Seattle, USA

1 month's posts in 1

1.

One month of silence caused by some "minor/major" incidents and above all, lack of inspiration. In other words, I basically let my brain to surf freely on the waves of sloth (oh I am so disgustingly poetic now!) and it felt...well...I don't know...not that bad! However, I have to admit that I have been dealing with a little bit of guilt, thinking I should be doing something (else?), be somewhere else but hey, I guess we all have that tickling, one way or another, throughout our trivial lives, right?

2.

I find myself again in a place that I was 4 years ago and I feel...simply apathetic! and don't ask me why cuz I simply don't know! Man...it sure was a b--ch getting here...almost 30 hours door-to-door, 2 hrs on the train, ca 15 hrs waiting at different airports, 10 hrs flight, ca 3 hrs bus ride...still quite short of my all time record of 52 hrs on the bus but almost equally exhausting.

3.

I have recently reached new horizons in the Cuban cigars...amazing stuff...thanks to "Che...The movie" which by the way is really great movie...thanks Steven Soderbergh! I have got to analyze that sometime, for the moment, I just enjoy watching it. I was smoking these stuff before but not to this latitude I guess. I have to come back to this more in the future.

4.

It takes more than one hell of determination for me to finish Marquez' classic "100 years of solitude"...I have started it but I am struggling with my laziness.

5.

"Hero no more!"

I have been banging my head really hard trying to understand why my former hero did that...that destructing rage...man he had failed before, just exactly when I needed him to be the strongest, the most discrete but he failed back then (under that pressure) and left me disappointed deeply. For about 2 weeks I was devastated and everything had shattered to small pieces but fortunately, things turned for the good much faster than what I expected and I was temporarily relieved. I guess despite that saying "Le temps détruit tout - Time destroys everything", the time did some good at the end of the day. Je ne sais pas...je ne sais plus...

6.

Montreal doesn't feel much like Canada, it's more of big french town other than Paris than a big city in Canada. The food has been great so far though...period.

Xmas in Italy

Here's the past days in recap:

Delays...Italians are not that punctual but if you find yourself in their families, you find them very sincere and hospitable but don't even think about learning that funny language, it's so difficult...they rip the tourists off, who doesn't?...illegal immigrants, how this mess can possibly be solved in this country?...the Christmas shopping mayhem in the last minutes...questi milanesi, do I have to say more?...dinner with family on Christmas Eve...wonderful spaghetti with muscles and good wine, mamma mia...exchanging presents...good espresso in the mornings, now I know how to treat my new mocha thanks the tips from Franco...I am getting addicted to cheese, amazing stuff...Mantova is small and very nice town, didn't know that it gets foggy in the winter which is no wonder when you think of the humidity that I experienced in the summer last time I was here...man it was 5 years ago...

More to come...hopefully!

American tradition

Being here during one of the most "American" occasions and festivities, I saw/felt/experienced the following...the American way! I am just giving a few words representing the highlights of the past days and needless to say, there are many stories behind each and I am too lazy to write them down, so...here it is:

- NBA game, the high quality of basketball, the ongoing entertainment, the cheerleaders
- Washington monument, WWII memorial, Lincoln memorial, the White House
- Thanksgiving and all that eating, turkey, gravy, mash potato, stuffings, apple pie, the subsequent coma!
- Air and space museum, air crafts and space suits
- Black Friday and the shopping mania, sales and discounts, headache and fatigue
- Buffalo chicken wings, Bison (buffalo) burger, donuts, miller light
- Facial treatment, hand treatment

and many more...