Weekend sojourn

After settling into London, I spent a long weekend bouncing around central Italy. Pics are few; stories more plentiful. First stop was Umbria for catching-up with the Advisers and introducing them to A. Three rarities occurred: Andy was effusive in his praise of another human being (but then, it was a very likeable human being), A found some professors he actually liked, and the children were well behaved!

Then off to Arezzo, where A was talking to the local officials about the possibility of opening a Hub there. Another trifecta of rarities. First, the municipal officials of Arezzo revealed themselves to be an incredibly dynamic, worldly, progressive, intelligent, and responsive bunch. Visionaries, really. Not what one expects from sleepy Tuscan towns. Second, a small, sick falcon was found and rescued from the streets behind the main piazza, only to be declared a swallow by the veterinarian. Third, after a boozy lunch some novelty duck-shaped gin bottles were purchased. Ok, maybe that one isn’t much of a surprise.

Then, after a direct and efficient journey down to Maremma, we met up with the girls for an evening of eating and filming. They left much to soon, leaving us to our own devices. These turned out to include a whole lot of sitting around and admiring the wonderous landscape, idle games, improbable cooking, and laser eyes. For hours. Hard to go wrong with that!

Been a long time coming

Well this has been quite the saga of bureaucratic annoyance. But now it's all in the past. Moving swiftly on!

Backlog: here and there

I've managed to borrow the cable needed to download the pictures from my camera (my cable is in London, you will recall) and so I've been going back through my latest wanderings. I'm afraid they are not very extensively documented, in part because I "lost" my camera in a jacket pocket for several weeks. But a few snippets were found.

There was a trip to Bologna in which many fun things were done and seen.

Old stuff:

Just like Florence, innit!

Hidden Canals:

Le Coq:

Former university haunts:

We also happened to catch the Mille Miglia, so there was lots of proper nostalgia.

Some of the spectators had clearly seen many a race:

There was some time cultivating the savage Maremman hills.

(these photos courtesy of Hober)

There was some time in Rhode Island, hanging out with the locals.

This is some sort of eco-juche look...

Because RI is the social capital of, like, EVERYTHING, I naturally attended a number of functions, ranging from yacht club garden party to backwoods bbq "smokeout." The latter involved a contraption called "grillzilla," 42kg of meat, and new culinary discovery: the "bacon explosion"--sausage wrapped in several layers of bacon and then grilled.

And of course there was some of the usual New York tomfoolery. These people just came from a Goth club:

And the city has its charms.

Plenty of things were, of course, not pictured. Meeting BFF Mags. Maremma wineshire. Rome. Probably a lot of things I'm forgetting.

So I've been making do. But it really would be nice to have the visa so one could move on with one's life. Oh well.

It's coming!

Third time's the charm

I know I've been bad about blogging lately. I will again blame the British government, since the cable I need to download pictures off my camera is in London, while I am not.

On that point, yesterday I sent in the latest iteration of my visa application. So now we wait some more.

To demonstrate what consequences might ensue should I be denied again, this afternoon I used my long distance telekinetic powers to nudge the ball out of the English keeper's hands and into the net during the US-UK match. Let this be a warning to ye.

What now?

The saga continues. Now it seems I won't be able to apply for the new kind of visa until June 11th at the earliest, because I am required to maintain a balance over £800 in my bank account for 3 months prior to the application. This condition will be met one month from today.

What to do in the meantime? I can't go to the UK for fear of arousing suspicion of circumventing the visa process. Milan (where I am now) certainly has some nice advantages, though co-habitating in the Hub is not really an ideal living situation. Ditto Brooklyn. Ditto pretty much anywhere. So, what to do with myself for the next month? Suggestions welcome.

Plan C

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

Not there yet, but might happen.