Time to migrate (again)

The time is finally here to back to my Motherland. It's been 3 (long) months since I've been there, so quite looking forward to go back! Besides all the usual cliches (family, friends, etc) I really miss driving. Just the feeling of driving a car, speeding along , listening to some good tunes (especially this one), oh do I miss that. So in 2 days, room vroom - and on the right side of the road :)

And I'll be definitely be seeing this cute little face lots (and lots) of times! She'll be 6 months on Saturday. 6 months already, can you believe it? Happy half-birthday!! I expect her to be very different from the last time I saw her, 3 months ago. That's a long time in baby-time!!



And about a week from now I'll be attending a wedding! Two very dear friends of mine are getting married (with each other). I've know them for a good 10 years, and they were already together, so about time! I just hope that my weather curse doesn't strike again, or else there will be rain. About 2 years ago, mid-June went to a wedding there, and it rained - A LOT! There was heavy rain and a big thunderstorm. So, my apologies in advance if it does rain on that special day... I'll be positive and predict lovely sunny weather, maybe my curse is still exhausted from all that hard work in Italy! Anyhow, rain or no rain, it will be a really happy day.

Best wedding cake ever!

I hope I don't get asked to read at this wedding. When my other friends got married 2 years ago, I was asked to read a passage from the bible, just a few minutes before the ceremony. Well, somebody forgot to tell me that the lines in bold were meant to be read 3 times with the audience repeating it. Result: the priest behind me, kicking me while I was reading it, until he interrupted me and took over and read it properly. How rude!! :)

See you in a few days ;)

__________________________

Because I'm such a nice guy, here's a little something for while I'm away: 2 brand new Prof. Layton's puzzles :) Remember him? Answers when I get back (or you google it...)

"There are 15 people stranded on a tourist boat which will sink in 20 minutes. Using the one lifeboat, which can carry a maximum of 5 people, move the people to the nearby island. The surrounding sea is full of man-eating sharks, so swimming is out of the question. If it the round trip from the ship to the island and back takes 9 minutes, how many passengers can be saved?"

Hint: Your first immediate answer is probably wrong.

"There are 10 jars each with 50 pieces of candy in them. These have been divided randomly into half, just by eyeball estimation, and then placed in separate bags. This made 20 bags. What is the probability that the average number of candies in one bag is 25?"

Hint: Easier than it seems...

50 (sweaty) days of Wii Fit

Yesterday the cute animated on-screen balance board informed that it was my 50th day using Wii Fit. I bet the question on everyone's mind after seeing it in motion was "Does Wii Fit work?" and after 50 days of "using" it the short answer is "yes, it does".


For those unware of what is this Wii Fit, it's a "game" (more on this later) that comes with balance board that can measure a user's weight and center of gravity. There are four categories of exercises to choose from - Yoga, Muscle Workouts, Aerobic Exercises and Balance games. They're designed to improve your posture, tone your muscles, burn fat and improve your balance respectively. To fully understand it, nothing like seeing it in action:

If you're expecting a great and fun game with Wii Fit, then I advise you to look elsewhere. There are some mini-games included, but very short and shallow.

The Yoga and Muscle sections are completely fitness oriented, you'll only see an rather spooky on-screen instructor (they seem to have no mouths!) and he/she will perform the exercise with you. These sections are, at least for me, what Wii Fit is all about.

Wii Fit Yoga, like proper yoga, is all about stretching your body and maintaining your balance - the difference being the balance board is there to measure performance. Some of the poses I can do quite well, others are still impossible! And it is very satisfying to manage to do a pose and maintain your balance on one that you couldn't at first do.

The Muscle Workouts are more traditional exercises, involving lots of lunging and bending and some very hard press-up sequences. Do this properly and I guarantee you'll feel out of breath (I know I do!) and, if you're not used to this whole fitness thing and didn't warm-up properly, with aching limbs the next day. One piece of advice: go easy on the lunges. I wanted to unlock new stuff, so on my first day did a LOT of lunges. Result: my legs ached really bad for the next few days...

Push-up and single arm stand: you won't be laughing after 15 of these!

The highlights of the Aerobic sections are jogging and hula-hooping. Jogging is what you'd expect, except you're standing on the same place. The cool thing is that you see your Mii on the screen going along a nice park and you'll see and meet other Miis on along the way. It's a laugh to run along my friends, Jesus, Einsten, Miss Piggy even Mariah! Hula-hooping is, quite simply put, a nightmare. Yeah, one minute or so it's fun, you look silly, etc. But doing the 10-min workout (5 each way) is completely exhausting!

One of the great thing is that the software keeps track of your progress, weight and BMI. Being able to track your balance does add novelty value and provides enough motivation to play Wii Fit every day - sometimes for ten minutes, sometimes for an hour. I don't know how long I'll keep this up for, but I do know switching on the Wii is a lot easier than going to the gym. Wii Fit is not as beneficial, undoubtedly, but a lot less intimidating and cheaper.

So, what about results? After 50 or so days I have to admit that there are no dramatic changes in my body - I didn't just wake up with Brad Pitt's body (unfortunately...). Having said that, and fully aware of the limitations of Wii Fit, I do feel more fit and a bit more toned as well. My weight is more or less the same, but my body fat index has gone down. Suddenly my legs feel a bit harder, my posture's a lot better and some t-shirts a bit tighter! So, I guess it works then :) One thing I know, between sitting on the coach and a session on Wii Fit, I know which one is better for me.

Conclusion: If you go to a gym regularly, then well done, keep doing that! If, like me, you're a bit less inclined to gyms, then Wii Fit can only help you. It's definitely a case of "Doing something is better than doing nothing."

Giving back

"I complained that I had no shoes, till I saw someone who had no feet."

Strange Friday night this was. It started with a bit'o drama, as I stumbled upon Superheroe friend's ubber-secret (from me at least) new blog. He had a post regarding that night in Torino and I finally got to see what he really thought of the night and me in general. As I read that, I felt embarrassed, humiliated and disappointed, a whole new world of drama was starting to ensue.

Coincidentally or not, I decided to watch a special edition of American Idol called Idol Gives Back which is a star-studed event, with the purpose of raising money to help children and young people in extreme poverty in Africa and the U.S..

There were many nice performances, and celebrities and fun moments, but what really touched were these segments they showed of real (and tragic) stories in Africa. And suddenly it hit me: here I am, in my comfortable flat, eating a nice pizza feeling sorry for myself for a stupid thing and some opinion of this guy over me on his meaningless blog. Yet, at this precise moment there are people who really are struggling and fighting for survival, people who lost everything in life.

One of these segments showed a lady (or an angel as Bono rightfully described her) who dedicated her life helping other people, orphans in particular, with AIDS. She had already lost her 3 (yes, 3..) children in the battle against AIDS. Watch this:

This next one with Annie Lennox (who also gave a very emotional performance that night) tells of the amazing story of these 4 brothers who lost everyone in their family to the HIV virus. The oldest of these brothers bears more responsibility and faces more pressure than I'll ever know:

So, waking up (safely) in a hospital or worrying about how I embarrassed myself doesn't seem so important anymore, right? And I could keep going, telling about how a child dies every 30 seconds in Africa against malaria and how a 10 dollar mosquito net could save one life, or how 2 dollars could provide medicine to one person for one year.

Yes, our problems are ours and we suffer with them. But still, in our times of "adversity" it's good to remind ourselves how fortunate and blessed we are.

May I suggest you visit the following websites and donate? Doesn't have to be much, even one dollar/euro/pound will make a difference. Reach your pocket. Feel that coin there? You could probably spare that couldn't you? Then donate it and help saves lives.

http://www.americanidol.com/idolgivesback/

http://www.one.org/

Spread this to all your friends, and there are so many ways we can help.

Mariah closed the show with a beautiful and powerful performance of Fly Like A Bird. And I think it has a really good message, something to remember in my (your) next difficult time or situation:

Text to (funny) Speech

The following should be filed under "very silly"! My friend Sara showed me this very cool website that creates cards, but the difference is that it uses text to speech. In other words, you type your text, choose the language and the character and then you hear your text told by that character.

Whats so special about this? It's HILARIOUS!! The best greeting cards ever! In a very silly kind of way.... We were just cracking up yesterday, typing silly things and then hearing it. Hours of (stupid) fun!

Watch this one (or click here for the actual card), using this text from my previous post about Torino:

" Well, when we got to the club the same body that I repeatedly asked to be touched starting failing on me and that's when the real "fun" began. To make a long story short, there was lots of puking, sweating, puking, unconsciousness and puking."

For obvious reasons, I used an Italian accent :)

And I like to call this one "Naughty Mary Poppins"!! ;) (Link to card!)

If you're as silly as we are and come up with a funny card, feel free to post a link on the comments! The website is called Acapela Greeting Cads, click here to visit it.

From me to me

Because I'm worth it!

So bad it's good

Don't forget to watch after the credits ;)

The Italian Job P2

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Right, Part 2, the AH period... You know those episodes on some TV shows that start with something strange and unexpected and then they show the "16 hours before" and only then you see what led to that situation? Well, that's exactly how I felt.

The "strange and unexpected" bit here was me waking up in an hospital in Torino, 7.30 am. I woke up, very confused and disoriented and the first thing I saw was the IV line on my arm. Then this very nice nurse saw that I was awake, and started talking to me (in Italian, but fortunately then in English) and I only remember thinking that the nurse was one of the girls I'd met the night before. I thought "what an amazing girl, how does she manage to go out and drink and then come work as a nurse?". Obviously, it wasn't the same girl... Then Superheroe friend came to pick me up and take me home. I only noticed how his clothes were different from what I remembered and then I realized I didn't actually remember much! The last image in my mind was when we were about to leave for this club at around 1.30, 6 hours before. The rest? A complete blank!

So, I woke up at around 2 pm, still couldn't remember a thing. I was feeling perfectly ok, had my "morning" yogurt, noticed a couple of bruises on my leg but nothing else. What happened between 1.30 and 7.30? I was about to find out....

6 hours earlier:

The last thing I can remember is when we were about to leave and walk to the club. It was a 20-min walk, and from what I was told I:

• took photos
• sang Touch My Body
• started chatting with some random Spanish girls
• sang Touch My Body
• sang Touch My Body (see a pattern here??)
  

Yep, these are the real locations (although that's not really me). SH actually took me to all these places, a real trip down memory-loss lane :)

Well, when we got to the club the same body that I repeatedly asked to be touched starting failing on me and that's when the real "fun" began. To make a long story short, there was lots of puking, sweating, puking, unconsciousness and puking (on me and on others...), not to mention a world of trouble and worries for the poor people who had to take care of me.
Around 4am, after an hour or so of lying on the club's men toilet, SH friend decided to take to the hospital. Carrying me was like carrying a dead body (or so I was told) and to make matters worse there were some exciting stairs to get to the main street level!

From there, I patiently for SH friend to arrive on his car to take to the hospital. Feeling a bit under the weather, I decided to lean on railings on the sidewalk for some "support" (the actual description of this is that they put me against it and so I stayed there "folded like a book", legs on one side, upper torso and head on the other side... just resting my eyes!).

Next stop: the ER (but without George Clooney...). From there on I stayed there, slept for about an hour, getting my IV and that brings to the waking up in the hospital scene!

Suffice to say that the next couple of days were not the ideal holidays, but that's life! What really happened to me remains a bit of a mystery.

The amount of alcohol I had was by my own standards nowhere enough to cause such a strong reaction and the drinking bit of the night took place in controlled environment, not like there were loads of drinks. The consensus seems to be that I had digestion process stopped (my puke "revealed" this) and the vodka made it a lot worse and everything was a mess in my body and voila! A trip to the hospital and a horrible night for everyone! On hindsight, we were watching a Madonna special on MTV while we were having dinner, I think that was the cause for the digestion problems, thanks Madge!!

Maybe these guys could help....

P.S: If any of the people who helped that night happen to read this: Thank you!! (and sorry...)

Mariah is (not) Dead!

Before I continue the Italian saga, I just want to share this strange dream I had today. In this dream Mariah Carey suffered a terrible death in a swimming pool. Apparently she was having a night time swim and then it started raining so she opened her umbrella (while still in the pool). Somehow (and remember it was a dream) a piece of fabric from the umbrella got stuck in her throat and she suffocated.

What followed (in the dream that is) was me finding out these tragic events and being absolutely devastated. I even remember in the dream seeing the cover of a newspaper and the article describing her death and starting to cry.... I was with some friends at the time and what to we do next? We go to the shopping centre, naturally, to mourn her death! There we find lots of other people doing the same. After this it gets slightly fuzzier, but I do remember going to MacDonalds and I was crying, the waiter was crying, everyone was crying...

I woke up very upset and the dream was vivid that I couldn't actually be 100% sure it wasn't real! Still sleepy, I rushed to my laptop and went to mariahdaily.com and the website was down! In that split-second I assumed the worst, but then went to CNN and phew! nothing there! Mariah was is still alive!

After this stupid dream I couldn't help but wonder: why would I be so sad for someone who I don't really know? Mariah obviously has no idea I even exist (unless she remembers waving me at the concert in Madrid, but somehow I don't think she does), so why would her death affect me so much? I don't know the definite answer to this question, but maybe it's just because she's been playing a huge part in my life since 1995 (I was only 15!). Not one day goes by that I don't listen one of her songs, some have inspired me in challenging times, other helped when I was down, and others just make me happy and sing. Why her and not U2 or Beyonce or even the ultimate cliché Madonna? I don't really know. I just know that I want Mariah to be alive for many, many more years. So Mimi, please be careful when around umbrellas, 'k? :)

______________________________

On a related note, I think I know why I had this dream at this particular time. Mariah is currently in Hawaii shooting the video for her 3rd single of E=MC2, I'll Be Loving U Long Time. When I read this, it immediately brought back memories of Aaliyah's terrible death when she also went to Hawai to shoot a video. In August 2001, just after finishing filming of the "Rock the Boat" video, Aaliyah and various members of her record company died on a plane crash. She was only 22.

Here's one of my all-time favourite songs (still on my everyday playlist) Try Again:

The Italian Job: Part 1 - Dolce Fare Niente

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Charles Dickens was probably looking into the future and describing my recent trip to Turin when he wrote this famous opening line for A Tale of Two Cities. If he was, he was right on the spot!

There were 2 completely distinct periods during my short stay in Torino: BH and AH (that's Before Hospital and After Hospital...). For the time being let's just focus on the BH period, ok?


So I went to Turin a couple of weeks ago on holiday and also to visit a friend who live there (who shall refer to as Superheroe friend for privacy sake). Seemed like killing two birds with one stone, visiting Superheroe friend and eating some nice italian food. Of course, me being one of the luckiest people alive (note: sarcasm), just the day before I got a nasty cold sore and the weather forecast was for rain for all 5 five days (yeah, in Italy in late May...). I thought that was just bad luck, but little did I know that was nothing compared to what was heading my way... But I digress.

It all started with what seemed like a really loooong day: I worked all day (having just returned from Birmingham), came home to get my luggage, went to London where I had a date with a guy I'd met the previous weekend (yes, with luggage trailing behind me and I don't travel light!). Then stayed at Tatiana's house, where I slept for a couple of hours and then headed to Stansted airport (which is just horrible during the night) and got on the plane to Turin. Met Superheroe friend just outside the airport in Turin and from then on I was on holiday, yay!

After settling down, I was treated with a guided tour around Torino and what a beautiful city it was! This was also the one morning when it was warm and sunny and everything looked even better. One of my favourite spots was Piazza Vittorio (future set of humillliation, but lets leave that for later), such a large gorgeous plazza with a river nearby.

Piazza Vittorio: beautiful and look, they're setting the stage for my "performance"

He also took me to this very cool place called Eatily, where I bought the biggest breadsticks I'd ever seen to bring back to office (and they absolutely loved them, disappeared in one day!). Another treat was some of the best ice-cream I've ever tasted, so creamy, so delicious! Of course being me, I made a mess eating it (yes Sara, napkins, napkins...) as it was huge and it started melting all over my hands, face, arms, well, all over! These are just some of the highlights of the BH period. Of course there were more sightseeing, some shopping (under lots of rain) and partying as well, just as holidays should be. What went wrong then? Lol, cliffhanger here, stay tuned for Part 2! In the meantime, some more Turin sights, enjoy!

It's alive, alive!!

This blog seems to have more lives than a cat, it's back yet again! During this hiatus period there were a few times I wished I was still posting here and a few events that I wanted to share. So I decided to bring it back from the dead.

One of the things that made me kill this blog a couple of months ago was that I somehow felt the need to write new post on a regular basis. This (along with me actually being very busy) made posting a bit of a chore instead of being something fun. For Life #3, I'll only be posting when I feel like it and when there's actually something I want to write about :)


Now that we got that out of the way, let the fun begin! For my first post (well, first for this after death period) I just wanted to share this video of MCC (that's Mrs. Mariah Carey Cannon.... *sigh*) throwing the first pitch on a baseball game in Japan. This video got more than 2 million views on Youtube in just 4 days and it's so damn funny! No matter how many times I watch it it always cracks me up!

Oh Mariah, you're hot tranny mess! There's actually another video where Mariah's practising the throw where she did a lot better. Other higlights include her warning the baseball player player that she wont' catch the ball because it will "wreck her nails". Watch the video for more over-the-top Divaness: