The IT Man Cometh

I have noticed that the attitude of Italians to weather is identical to the British. When it’s cold, it’s too cold. When it rains, the weather is depressing and they cannot wait for the summer to arrive. Now it is scorching hot in Milan and everybody is (surprise, surprise) complaining that it is too hot to sleep, work or do anything.

Actually, I have to agree with it being too hot, but I do not complain because it was the same in the UK – being really hot is not actually that much fun when you are in work clothes. At least the air conditioning was much more effective when I was in the UK. We switched on the air conditioning in my Italian office and took it in turns to stand near the thin jet of cold air that did nothing to cool down the room temperature. If you were unfortunate enough to read my huge ranting blog post previous to this one, there was mentioned a meeting which was not too good. During the “heated” meeting, the air conditioning blew the electrics. This is a common thing in Milan. Electrics cannot cope with too much, the same happens in my apartment and I have not even got air conditioning (I cannot use a kettle while the washing machine is on). The air conditioning in the office has broken due to this electrical issue, so now everyone is sitting in pools of sweat and complaining all day. When the power went off, someone muttered to me “welcome to the Summer”.

It has now been 2 weeks without air conditioning with an average temperature of about 34 degrees Celsius and rising. This hotness is compounded by the giant 24 inch Apple Macs that we all use that block the new fan from blowing cold air in my face. I am now the sweatiest on account of my seating position. I am under the air con vent, but that is not good in these troubled times!

I am wearing less and less clothes at work each day. Soon I will have to start wearing my best Calvin Klines in order to remain cool and presentable. Going to lunch at the local restaurant will still remain a challenge.

Where is the bloomin’ rain when you need it!

After the festive snow, this is another weather related post (so British!). Unfortunately it is raining a lot in Milan at the moment (ironically there is a load of snow back in Britain now) and that means being approached every 5 seconds by umbrella sellers – even if you are holding an umbrella! Why would I buy an umbrella while I am currently using one?!

Actually, while I was in Venice last week, it was raining. So I bought an umbrella and it broke as soon as I opened it – I will remember to bring my usual brolly with me next time.

Venice is a beautiful place – no way I could live there, but great for a holiday. There are so many great places to visit here in Italy. I hope my Italian improves quickly – I am a lot better than when I moved here a few weeks ago, but still a long way off being fully competent!

I have been spending more time having fun than thinking what to write in this blog, but that is good I suppose. I really need to start building my personal website a bit more too, but no rush.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all! (corny I know, but it had to be done).

One problem with living abroad is that you cannot easily avoid travelling at one of the worst times of the year – Christmas (that is if you want to spend it with your family). Not only is it busy, but the weather (in northern Europe) is often a problem and it’s ridiculously expensive to boot!

So, it all started a bit stressfully. Getting the last available flight before Christmas began with a rush-hour bus journey from hell – everyone and their cousins were on this one bus and the traffic was slow. Finally, after much bodily contact with Italian strangers, we got to the train station which takes us to the airport. Things were looking better, the train was on-time and not too busy. On arrival to the airport, we needed to get a bus to transfer us to another terminal. There were many people waiting for this bus, including an irrate American girl who was effing and blinding about how rude people are (she did not like the fact that people had “got in line” – this was apparently rude because she wanted to get on the bus first). Actually, there was no queue, you just position yourself near to where a bus door may be and you get on quickly. The American was not first on, despite her aggressive tongue.

Bearing in mind that there had been a lot of snow in Europe at this time, many flights had been cancelled due to the weather. We only had a 15 minute delay (or so it seemed). It was time to board the plane and the slow queueing ensued, always a pain for this budget airline. A nonsensical approach to boarding which never works well. While waiting in line, the woman in front of us started falling like a felled tree and landed on us (I think we saved her life by breaking her fall onto the marble floor). After lowering the woman gently to the floor, my medical knowledge was exhausted. Thankfully, some bilingual ladies sorted her out and got her back on her feet – I am glad someone knew what they were doing!

On the plane, 15 minutes late as advertised. But what’s this? The airport staff have got their paperwork wrong and there is a further delay. In the end, we were over an hour late and it was nothing to do with the adverse weather conditions, but just some bad paperwork! This was made painful by a looping soundtrack of the same 2 Christmas jingles being played over and over again for an hour!

Despite all that, once I had arrived at my destination, all was forgotten and the eating and drinking could commence.