Ah, spring is in the air. It’s almost feeling balmy in Milan at the moment, as winter starts to drift definitively away.
And I wish the problems with my hosting service would drift away definitively too. I did not manage to post anything to this blog at the weekend. Partially because of family stuff, and partially because my dear old hosting company has been having some major problems, which meant visitors would have been greeted with a cold message saying something about the server, which many would not have understood anyway.
For the moment, even if the server problems still have not been resolved, it looks as though I can write, though for how long, I have no idea. Actually, I have no idea whether anyone will even see this post, but I’ll write it anyway, on the off-chance that someone does. And I have not written about Milan’s good old 442 pub in a while either.
The Rugby
A friend of mine from Genova came up on Saturday, and off we went to the 442 pub to see the Italy v Scotland rugby match.
Italy, alas, had its nose firmly rubbed in the mud by Scotland, who won by 26 points to Italy’s measly 6. No, it has not been the greatest Six Nations performance by Italy, this is true. Still, Italy is relatively new to this level of the game, and the team will improve over time.
Rugby certainly has its fans in football-dominated Italy, and soccer scandals, hooliganism, plus the overly commercial nature of football have all contributed to upping the number of Italy’s rugby fans in recent years.
Personally, I prefer rugby to football. More happens in rugby, and more points are scored. In football the players spend much of the time running back and forth, but rarely managing to actually pop the ball in the net. Still, truth be known, I’m no great fan of either football or rugby.
However I do like the fact that rugby matches are rarely marred by violence in the same way as football games tend to be. Football, for some reason, seems to attract people who want to kick thinks off the pitch, whereas rugby fans are quite happy to watch noses being bloodied on the pitch.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Football and rugby fans seem to get drunk in different ways too. Football freaks go over the top and turn violent. The rugby crowd, which is not at all averse to the odd pint or three, tends to drink and then become a little more boisterous than normal, but not, as a general rule, violent. No idea why this is the case.
The Pub and Sausages
Ah, the good old 442 pub in Milan. I have not been making it down there as often as I did, but it’s great to know its there, and when I do go, it does not disappoint.
Good beer, good people, and that good old English breakfast – complete with sausages. Not mine, alas. I tried, and did help out for a while, but then had some problems finding good sausage makers, and found the whole sausage venture was taking up far too much time, was not really producing a great return, and was becoming complicated by the need for permits, and then my dodgy cash flow helped put the scuppers on things too.
A shame, I know, but I might resurrect the sausage project, and I know of someone who would like to have a go a making the things, which, at the end of the day, went down pretty well.
Better to have tried and failed, than not to have tried at all, as the old saying goes.
Ripped jacket
On Sunday, one of my son’s little friends got a bit grumpy, as little ones do from time to time. Ours certainly does. Anyway, one thing led to another and I ended up with one badly ripped jacket. It was a little long in the tooth, so no real harm was done. I’ll have a look round for another jacket to knock in around this afternoon, or dig another jacket, which I do not like as much, out of the wardrobe.
This Blog
If you can read this, then the problems with my hosting service mentioned at the start of this post are being resolved, although I’ve no idea how long it will be before snags hit once more. I am, though, taking steps to ensure that such a period of down time will not occur again, if I can help it.
So, there you have it. A good and bad weekend. I hope you had a better weekend!
