Thought of the Day

I don't believe in morality, but I believe in ethical conduct as set out by His Holiness the Dalai Lama: "Ethical conduct = a way of behaving that respects others’ right to be happy".

Monday 23 July 2007

2 weekends 1 post

A penny-less but spiritually rich weekend in company of with my Italian friends: Federica (from Perugia), Gianni and Paolo (from Milan), was followed by a sweaty weekend.

With Gianni in town, I went shopping. But it was a different kind of buying experience: it was a hunt for new ideas and inspirations. He works of Ferre and was in London in search of new (street) trends. I am already missing Federica's irony, Paolo's sweetness and Gianni's unbounded creativity.

Under Federica's suggestion, we visited the Pollocks Toy Museum, which she said reflected her personality.
As she had described it beforehand, some parts of it were sweet and nostalgic, others sinister and rather scary. It was an old house in the middle of the west-end, full of toys memorabilia from all over the world, dating from nineteenth century. The bedroom filled with dolls was truly disturbing. To freak them all out a bit more, I could not resist telling them my *weird doll story* which had haunted most of my childhood’s summers! Their appalled faces were priceless!

At the last minute S. and I went to the PROMS at the RAH, in the exclusive Thomson box, fronting the stage. PROMS stand for promenades, i.e. easy to follow classical music concerts, sponsored by the BBC and advertised as the most popular classical music festival in the world.
As many other old men around me, I fell asleep for a few minutes - our way of appreciating quality (bedroom) music.

And last Saturday I made it! I ran my fifth Race for Life, each for each year I have been living in the UK. It went okay, in that I got to the end alive in a respectable 36.5 minutes, but I wouldn’t say that I saw much improvement from the previous years. Ah well! I hit my target of collecting £160, and this was the greatest reward. Thanks again to all my sponsors! The race was followed by a lovely pub lunch with Maga, her amigos latinos, Vale and S. We concluded the day with a delicious meal offered by Vale in her south London luxurious pad.


I limit myself to talk about weekends as not much has happened in between. I am working like a mad chicken (and things are slowly coming together!), yogaing and reading. I am also gradually getting ready for my long-awaited summer holiday stocking up beach readings, booking a wax (paura!) and spray-tan sessions and frantically looking for a black, elegant swimsuit... in vain so far...

Weather is crazy in this country: one moment we have torrential rain and floods, the next is sunny and bright. I go dressed like an onion, mixing and matching improbable combinations like sun dresses with boots or flip flops with wool scarves... I am ready for some extreme heat - talking by extremes is becoming our contemporary language.

The weekend ahead is reserving for me exciting prospects: tonight I am going to my company’s summer party, tomorrow night 4 of us will go to this dita-von-teese type of club and Saturday a BBQ at Clare’s is planned. Sunday morning, cinema with nutty Ale! Love my weird habits!

I still have to post some of the highlights of my cousin’s stay, including some of the crazy photos we took together… Siate pazienti!

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