Lox - Archived Entries for 2007 / 10

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Dear God (All over Again!??): [29th October 2007]

Dear God,

My name is Lorenzo, but you probably knew this already, and I am writing to you because I have had enough. I am writing to you about my right knee, the one that got operated two years ago, after I broke the cruciate ligament.

Yesterday, you might have noticed the strange peak of the blashperometer due to a sudden increase of blasphemies uttered near Florence around 22:15, even if I decided to go "easy" on the poor articulation, I had another shitty injury.

The knee kind of "moved" in a unnatural fashion, while I was jogging (not even running for fuck'sake!) and today I have some problems walking and it hurts.

Although it doesn't seem as serious as the previous incident, I really hope that I have seen the last of these crippling injuries, I really had enough.

Ok, one might argue that it's my fault for wanting to play football in poor conditions, but pleasepleaseplease will you cut me some slack and let me enjoy the remaining years of my youth doing the things I will not be able to do later? Is it too much to ask? This year has been pretty tough, and even now it's not like things are easy, so please how about a truce?

Kind regards,

Lorenzo
[5 comments]
Car Woes continue: [Tuesday 23 October]

As some of you know I have been away for quite some time, upon my arrival back in Pizzaland the problem of the stolen car was once more on the headlines for me.

I assumed that my grandmother could simply lend me her car again, after all it's not like she's able to drive anymore and the helper that stays with her all day doesn't have a driving licence...

Well, that "DOESN'T", become "DIDN'T"...

It appears that the person that was attending to my grandmother needs has been fired on the charges of being a thief. If that might appear shocking to all of you, it has to be said that it is the fifth person in three years that gets fired on these accounts.
My grandmother has a nasty habit of hiding things in places that she now doesn't remember anymore.

Then when she doesn't find a certain key or bag she blames it on the people that are in the house. Eventually this stuff comes out, but of course the nurse has been fired and a new one is already there.

To make a long story short, a new nurse has been hired and apparently this person CAN DRIVE!!! Tragedy struck me on Sunday when I realized that I had to borrow Chiara's car, a very old Opel Corsa, that is about to buy the farm...

Well it bought it today when I was driving to work (classic)...

Basically the exhauster fell off when I was climbing a speed bump, but it didn't completely fall down, it is still attached to the bumper so I could hear a strange noise of metal grinding on the asphalt. Fortunately a colleague of mine was passing by that area, so I called him and he could pick me up to go to work.

When I was parking the car of course I have had a further incident, the exhauster that was dangling from the bumper got stuck in a hole of the road and physically worked as a lever that lifted the rear end of the car. Eventually the car came down, now the exhauster is stuck on the other side (still firmly attached to the bumper), so the car cannot move at all.

I managed to park it allright, and got to work.

That brings us to the insurance company troubles. As you know my car was insured against theft. I hired a solicitor to deal with the garage owner, but he is also taking care of getting the money from my insurance, that he said "was going to be the easiest thing"...
Well it appears that it's quite the contrary, my insurance received all the documents more than two months ago and still NOT EVEN A LETTER to say anything.
We then decided to sue them, but at the present time we still haven't got a reply.

By the looks of it there is my money will still take a long time to come which means that I cannot buy a new car, but since the situation is so dire I will probably have to take a loan or something, and hope that the interests will be paid either by the insurance or by the garage responsible for my stolen car.
Having said that, in Italy, there is no certainty with lawyers, it might happen that nobody will cover for this additional damage that I am experiencing...

So that's it. At the moment I am considering buying a AURIS (Toyota) or a 308 (Peugeot). If any of you readers have any recommendation/info on the cars please feel free to post them.

Of course I have to hope that they will ship the car soon, but that's another story....
[5 comments]
A new Friend: [Friday 19th October 2007]

A new friend was added today to my technology list, the CANON IXY 910IS, a marvellous piece of hardware that it's going to replace the camera that I had before (CANON IXY 750, if I remember correctly) that was destroyed while jumping a fence in Ragusa this summer in Sicily.

Just that really.

Or better, there would be so much more to tell, but I cannot. I believe that the self censorship might be lifted soon, maybe a couple of weeks, hopefully..

It's quite frustrating not being able to write at full blast, but it's a pain that I have to endure I guess...

[No comments]
Struggling for Rest: [Friday 5th October]

It wasn't before late afternoon that Stalflare managed to reach the city that he saw in the distance. Tired from many nights spent in the wilderness Kevin soon realized that some rest would have been great... He started dreaming about spending a week, maybe two, doing little else but eating, sleeping and generally resting, trying to catch up with the news and more importantly understand where the long wander in the forest lead him to...

As the city drew closer Kevin realized that he had to adjust his plan, from a "little two weeks holiday" (because while walking he got convinced more and more that he needed it) to a mere "let's hope I can sleep in a proper bed TONIGHT".
The size and quality of the houses were clearly below standard, there weren't enough buildings to call the place a city, but rather an "overgrown village", it was clear that the little harbour drove a very rapid and uncontrolled expansion on the coast, with houses and structures that literally climbed over the thick defensive walls to continue their growth outside the perimeter.

The smoke that Stalflare saw from distance wasn't the usual chimney or peasant burning some field for the crop rotation, it was part of the external buildings that were set on fire and now where cooling down after the flames did their job.

It was clear that there had been a battle quite recently, two or three days at most, and it was clear that whomever attacked also withdrew from the field, leaving a little present for the citizens to deal with and a lot of tracks on the fields in front of the walls.

The gate was intact, although it had been attacked with a ram or a similar device, guards and citizens were scavenging the area for remains. Kevin decided to proceed, "at least one night in a real bed and some warm mulled wine will suffice", this thought was driving his aching muscles to move on.

As the first citizens started to turn their gaze towards Stalflare, a guard rushed inside the walls and when Kevin arrived closer to the field he could make out a rather corpulent and bearded figure walking briskly out of the gates followed by two guards who had some issues with keeping the pace and avoiding the clutter that was spread all over the ground.

"Welcome to Lordschaft stranger. I am Franz Kleinhat, ruler of the city. Identify yourself!", said the man in a very calm and clear voice....

[No comments]
A city: [Wednesday 3rd October ]

Stalflare managed to get out of the forest just in time, it had been more than one year since he entered it in search for that safe heaven that he was promised before the beginning of the trip.

It was quite unlucky that the adventure did not turned out to be anything near what he expected and regrettably he had to come to term with the fact that he could not stay any longer because there was no safe heaven to be found at all.

He never gave up on something before, he thought he could never "loose", even if he could find a lot of possible "excuses" and "causes" for the debacle.

It was time to leave, anyhow, his robes were torn in places, revealing scratches and injuries suffered in the forest, a big chunk, thanks to the strong wind, was flapping on his right tight.

A new direction, that's what he needed, a new direction towards new experiences, new faces.

Up ahead in the distance he could make out some fumes climbing to the sky and getting lost in the atmosphere, a city, a new beginning?
[14 comments]
Reunion: [Saturday 30th September]

It seems that from the end of September we finally managed to reunite all the friends that are part of the group that usually meets at weekends for various activities. It was a good thing, last time we were all together it was almost three months ago, and in a way the occasion marks the beginning of winter.

Nothing special to report, we ate a lot and paid almost nothing, this is because the owner of the pizza place is a friend of one of us (incidentally the one who organized the event, Giovanni).

Lots of talking, I even managed to meet Giulia (finally), Ivan and Angela's daughter.

That's all really, quite a "normal" dinner...
[3 comments]

Lox, Lorenzo... ME!!: A little introduction about the author and the blog itself. Plus contacts and CVs... You never know!
Pictures: A Selection of the best pictures that I have taken all over the world during the years, all nicely indexed by year and geographical area. Jolly good!
History of this Blog: A collection of all the articles that I have wrote so far, divided by month/year.