At some time in the near future I’ll settle down into giving myself just a little bit of time in order to write on my blog. This entry is a sum up of a few events that have happened since I last wrote.
Four memorable things have happened in last couple of weeks.
1) Radek and I went out kayaking on the lake, we kayaked from Menaggio to Cadenabbia which is about 3.5km in distance, so we actually kayaked about 7km in total. Our arms weren’t too bad considering that we were really trying to get back to the hostel quickly as we thought that it was later than it really was.
2) One evening at the hostel, the Carabinieri (one of the police forces) arrived to speak to the employees. The showed us a photograph of a woman who had been found dead in the lake. The photo was a close up of her face and it was possible to see that her throat had been cut. The woman was unidentified and therefore they trying to identify her. A week later it was published in the papers that the woman had been Swiss and murdered by her husband.
3) I went on a hike up to the Menaggio Rifugio (refuge). The refuge is about 1400m above sea-level. There was lots of snow at the top of the mountain which make the hike a little longer; but, it was sunny and warm. It was a very clear day and visibility was absolutely fantastic. The views were breathtaking. I must have walked about 20km that day as I decided to walk all the way from the top of the mountain down to the hostel.
4) Just over a week ago I had pains in my kidney (I knew straight away that it was a kidney stone, as I’ve had them twice before). I went to A&E and then gave me an ultrasound and confirmed that the kidney was completely swollen due to being filled up with urine. They told me to go away and if it gets worse to go to another hospital which has a urology department. Over the next couple of days it wasn’t so bad, I thought that the stone was passing just as it had the previous times. Unfortunately on the following Monday, I had terrible pains again and I went to hospital again. They kept in me and I had to have an operation as the stone was too big to pass.
The operation consisted of having an endoscope inserted into the end of my penis, up through the bladder and into the uretera where they lasered the stone. For the next 24 hours I had two catheters, which were far too uncomfortable. I’m out of hospital now and recovering. I have to go back for a check-up on Thursday.
Right now I’m packing all my things for my move this weekend to Menaggio for my new job as part of the management for the Youth Hostel there. I’ve almost finished packing, still got a few things to finish; but, nearly done in the grand scheme of things. It’s realy quite emotional to be doing this. I have so many fantastic friends here in Milan, leaving will be difficult; however, this is a job that I can’t miss – I know it’s something that I’m really going to love doing.
it’s hard, hard not to sit on your hands
and bury your head in the sand
hard not to make other plans
and claim that you’ve done all you can all along
and life must go on
I went to the casting yesterday. It turned out that although the building was the same as Magnolia’s, it was a differnt company called “NEO Tech Srl”.
They also weren’t looking for someone to be an elvis impersonator! The program is based upon famous people from the past and fake situations. For example, maybe Paul McCartny was a cult leader.
I had to act the parts of different people who knew Elvis. There are lots of different shows in this series and they said that even if I’m not chosen for the Elvis show; I have a high chance of being used for another show.
I’ve just been called by Magnolia again, the same company for which I recently acted in a pilot/demo. They have asked me to attend another casting on Monday for a show called “Almost True” – I have to act the part of an Elvis impersonator!
Should be a laugh, I’ll have to watch some videos of Elvis on youtube and learn a song or something ready for the casting.
I had been growing my beard back again; should I get the part, I’ll have to shave it off again… unless Elvis ever had a beard. I did a quick google search and it seems he only had a beard for a film, not exactly what he was known for.
You might remember that last November/Decemeber I wrote that I went for a casting with a company called Magnolia. Well, if you didn’t, I went for a casting for a pilot of a new reality cooking game show, where couples from England come to Italy to learn to cook, at the end of the series the winners receive a restaurant as a prize.
Magnolia want to sell the idea to the UK and needed to provide a demo/pilot so employed british actors. I was finally given the info on the shooting in the last week of January and filming started on the 1st of February.
Early on the 1st, we flew from Milano Linate airport to Napoli…
In January I wrote that I had lost my job due to changes within ENI, the company where I taught English.
Well, I’m no longer unemployed. I accepted a job offer a couple of weeks ago, I just hadn’t had the time to write on my blog due to manically trying to finish some webdesign for a friend.
I’m going to be part of the management team for the Menaggio Youth Hostel which on Lake Como about 85km away from Milan. This means that I’ll be relocating as I’ll have onsite accomodation. Apart from the general running of the hostel, minor maintenance, reservations etc, I’ll also be responsible, with the other female manager, Valentina, for promoting and running additional activities, such as kayaking, cycling, sailing, climbing etc etc.
I’m excited about the new job, it’s going to be a fantastic opportunity; but, I’m also a little nervous to leave Milan as all of my friends live here. I’ve lost too many friends over th years through moving cities and countries and to lose friends again would upset me. Luckily, I’ll be close enough to visit my friends every week on my days off, or they are also welcome to come up to the lake to get away from the pollution of Milan. If you didn’t know it, Milan is Europes MOST polluted city! It’ll be good for my health to get away
Here’s a video of the youth hostel where I’ll be working:
Today is Shrove Tuesday. Tomorrow is “Ash Wednedsday” the beginning of lent. Shrove Tuesday is traditionally a feast day because Ash Wednesday is traditionally the start of fasting for the next 42 days (minus Sundays). I won’t be fasting; but, I’ll still enjoy some pancakes today
Here’s how Delia suggests we make pancakes:
Ingredients
For the pancake mixture:
110g/4oz plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
50g/2oz butter To serve:
caster sugar
lemon juice
lemon wedges
Method
Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve held high above the bowl so the flour gets a airing. Now make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Then begin whisking the eggs – any sort of whisk or even a fork will do – incorporating any bits of flour from around the edge of the bowl as you do so.
Next gradually add small quantities of the milk and water mixture, still whisking (don’t worry about any lumps as they will eventually disappear as you whisk). When all the liquid has been added, use a rubber spatula to scrape any elusive bits of flour from around the edge into the centre, then whisk once more until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream. Now melt the 50g/2oz of butter in a pan. Spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a bowl anduse it to lubricate the pan, using a wodge of kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake.
Now get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium and, to start with, do a test pancake to see if you’re using the correct amount of batter. I find 2 tbsp is about right for an 18cm/7in pan. It’s also helpful if you spoon the batter into a ladle so it can be poured into the hot pan in one go. As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter. It should take only half a minute or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it’s tinged gold as it should be. Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife – the other side will need a few seconds only – then simply slide it out of the pan onto a plate.
Stack the pancakes as you make them between sheets of greaseproof paper on a plate fitted over simmering water, to keep them warm while you make the rest.
To serve, spinkle each pancake with freshly squeezed lemon juice and caster sugar, fold in half, then in half again to form triangles, or else simply roll them up. Serve sprinkled with a little more sugar and lemon juice and extra sections of lemon.
This morning when opening my email inbox I found an email from my boss… it did not bring good news.
The school for which I teach/taught had one very big client. The client is ENI, it’s Italy’s largest company. They deal with all things petroleum. Last year ENI had been promising lots of work this year to my school, the contract between the two had been a long standing one; but, just last week they informed my boss that they have decided to start a contract with a school that can provide language lessons in every country in which ENI exist.
This wouldn’t have been a problem for my school within Europe; however, it is not viable to for my employer to provide teachers in places like Iran and the Congo.
This means that all of the teachers from my school are now unemployed and we’re all searching for new work.
