Well that’s another Christmas gone…
It was good fun once we were there though including a game of Trivial Pursuit in which me and HP started terribly: our opponents requiring only two wedges when we hadn’t even got off the mark. We caught up and were on the verge of securing a dramatic late win when everyone else (probably sensing the impending shame and humiliation) decided we should it call a draw because they were tired/bored. Hmph. Not fair!
Categories: Uncategorized
Little Miles is poorly… according to HP he hid under the bed all morning and hasn’t eaten.
I hope he’s just missing his dad.
Categories: Cats
Yay! I’m flying home tonight until 11th Jan!
It looks like it is going to snow today. In fact it’s already snowing heavily in a town about 30km west of here. I hope it stays clear until my flight. After that it can snow as much as it wants but I must get out of here today.
Categories: Italy
My shopping trip to Rome was unexpectedly good. When I left Fabriano it was freezing cold but the sun was out in Rome and it was about 10 degrees warmer. A gorgeous winter’s day. I walked for miles and the streets were not so crowded so it was possible to appreciate my surroundings a little more than I would be able to in summer. I didn’t get to the Vatican but I’ll save that for another trip.
A bizarre thing about Rome (for me), and this will seem stupidly obvious to anyone familiar with the place, is that you’re in a big, busy, bustling modern city and can turn a corner and there in front of you is some structure that’s thousands of years old. Amazing.
I took some photos which I will post here if they are any good.
The Xmas shopping wasn’t so successful as Mandarina Duck didn’t have the desired handbag (for HP, who I hope hasn’t discovered this blog!).
Categories: Italy
In the middle of January Ryanair will change their timetable between Ancona and Stansted. For me personally, the new times could not be more inconvenient.
At the moment the only flight from Ancona to Stansted leaves at 21.30ish. The return flight leaves Stansted at 18.00. This isn’t ideal but as it’s OK for me to use a work day for travel (as long as I make up the time) it means I can have a weekend at home and be collected/dropped at the airport by HP.
The new times are abominable. The flight now leaves Ancona at 15:15 (good) but arrives at Stansted at 16:30 (bad). This means HP can’t pick me up and if she could she’d have to battle the rush hour traffic on the A14 and M11. The return flight leaves at 11.15 (not too bad) except on Sundays when it goes at 6.55 in the morning (arse). So now, to have a weekend at home I have to miss a day and a half of work and have to get a taxi to and from Stansted. Bollocks!
Looks like Forli or Roma from now on. Both are about 2.5 hours drive from here but I can live with that.
Categories: Travel
I hope I’m not tempting fate here but it looks like we might just achieve our target…
More than 20,000 employees from 22 countries loaded into our new SAP HR system in less than 6 months. Interfaces to update the central system from 7 country’s legacy systems ready to go in January.
We all deserve to put our feet up over Christmas. Except the ******* in the UK who are so negative and obstructive that they should be made to work on Christmas Day!
Categories: Work
On Saturday I’m taking the train to Rome to do my Christmas shopping. There is one particular thing that I must get or I’m history! When we were in Milan, HP saw a Mandarina Duck handbag she liked but it was a bit on the expensive side, so I’m getting her that. I bloody hope I get the right one! After that I can safely buy all sorts of crap as stocking fillers.
Now that we have Miles, the kitten, I have to buy a present for HP from him too! Maybe he can buy her a matching purse…
Categories: Italy · Uncategorized
We had our project team dinner last night at a small agroturimso place just outside Fabriano. I have to say it was a lot more fun than the department “do” – where the fun seemed a little forced.
Food was good and plentiful. The wine was average and plentiful. The beer was plentiful (can you get bad beer?).
I won the wooden spoon for the UK being the worst country involved in the project! Yay! Technically not true but there are no representatives from France or Portugal in the team.
Categories: Italy
The nearby town of Gubbio sits at the foot of a big hill/small mountain and every year they make this huge Christmas tree!
Categories: Italy
Last night was the DSI (that’s the IT department to you) Christmas dinner.
It was held in a small, pretty castle-ish place near Gubbio. Very small portions of pleasant food were followed by the usual display of bad dancing. The amazing thing about Italians is they will dance like nutters and even form a conga while being completely sober!
I realise that while my Italian is non-existent, I will always be excluded to a certain degree at events like this. This doesn’t really bother me. But I can’t help feeling that even if I were fluent, I’d feel like an outsider, a fish out of water… the cultural divide is that big.
Categories: Italy
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