It's been said, I have a ponshon for languages. I don't doubt this, although I have no idea what a penchant is. Being in Italy has awakened my foreign language brain module, but I don’t feel like it’s yet wiped the sleep from its eyes nor stretched the stretches out of its sleepy limbs.
I am troubled by the access to Italian grammar that I have. The LP book contains but a few phrases, useful though they are. We’ve also a tiny Italian phrasebook, with a decent mini-dictionary at the back. But what I really like when I’m learning a language is a nice thorough guide to conjugation, prepositions and other key words like ‘more’ and ‘too’. Without this, how the hell am I going to construct whatever sentences suit my fancy at the minute, such as “Do you have life insurance?” Hang on, the little book might actually help me figure this out… “Ha l’assicuarazione della vita?” Alright!
As I was saying, the mini-dictionary is decent, and does include some verbs and some conjugations, but it doesn’t spell out the rules that I might determine for myself how to conjugate some newly discovered verb. Anyway, this might all be an excuse for me not to immerse myself fully in the oily waters of the Italian language and frolic in the frothy bubbles of the Venetian dialect. Mi piace questo reggiseno! E tuo?
Perhaps I’ll go and join the Potsdamer Institut for Klimaforschung, thus combining my love of languages with my love of institutes. Wifey encourages this development, so long as she gets first dibs on housespousehood. And the child still sleeps. But before any of that could happen, I’d have to establish myself as a bona fide climate scientist, and I’m yet to do this. In fact I have a fear that perhaps I’m only good for studying, not doing science.
The other night I was reminded of a habitual dream I used to dream, in which I am somewhere about a school or campus, and vaguely uneasy, because yes I’m late for, or have completely forgotten to go to German class! Oh no! I’ve actually missed a heap of these classes! Granted, my German has fallen from a great height, so even down here it’s ok. There’s not too much to worry about. But it’s not like me to miss classes! Ah, blast. Hang on, am I even studying German? Apparently so. Sometimes I realise in the dream that I’m not any more. But the dreams have always taken place at a time when I don’t study German. What a strange recurring dream.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Susudio
I may just have discovered Phil Collins' inspiration for this song. The Italian verb Sudare means 'to sweat'. Assuming he had a few problems in translation, the chorus of this song means 'I'm sweat-sweat-sweating'. What a revelation! This could be my career highlight to date.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Springtime in Venezia and the weather is warm. Big surprise!
As I write this, I am looking into the Cannaregio apartment that my family and I have been staying in since last Friday. On the wall in front of me there is a watercolour of a big white cruiseship entering Venice, browns and blues and mustard. To my right, three windows line the wall, and through them I can see old tiles and older tiles, wires and antennae, the odd rooftop deck and in the distance, a hazy blue grey horizon. Rain must be coming, I think, until I look up into the bright blue sky. Just a dirty sky then.
The whole thing is 32 square metres, twice the size of the Saarbrucken apartment I called home for a year waaaaay back in 2000. It feels small because of the design, not the absolute size. The bathroom is a walk in closet, narrow enough to make turning around a difficulty. The kitchen is a kitchenette, fitted out with gas hotplates but no oven. The bedroom is probably the nicest room in the house. No need to make things cramped there. Just a nice big bed, beautifully firm yet soft (how do they do that?), a set of drawers and a wardrobe. There is room for little Saskia’s portacot to sit beside the bed.
The worst feature of the bedroom is the low doorway, against which I have crushed my lovely head at least three times.
We are on the fourth floor, and despite my best intentions I do not foresee any of us (save Saskia) gaining weight this holiday. Not only do we need to drag our sorry carcasses up four flights, but there’s a 7kg baby, a three kilo pram, a variable weight backpack and any shopping we may have been foolish enough to do. Last night this included 18 kilos of water, half naturale and half frizzante. I was comforted only by the though that we weren’t drinking osmium, 22.4 times denser than water.
I continue to be amazed by our little girl Evie. Just now she put herself back to sleep by plunging her head down onto the recently abandoned dummy lying in her cot. She has been sluggish this morning and is covered in mosquito bites, the poor thing. Dio mio, for a fly screen. The day before yesterday she rolled over for the first and second times. The first time Rebecca and I both missed, as we studied our phones with new sims intently. I looked down, saw Evie on her stomach, nonchalant as you like, and gasped in shock and delight. A few hours later, the scene was repeated, fortunately I saw the whole thing. Sadly for Rebecca, she was in the can at the time. Even worse, her parents saw the whole thing too (Evie rolling, not… you know).
Evie charms and woos people wherever she goes. I can almost see her ego swelling as she fells one stranger after another with her knockout smile. It has been hot and I hope she’s not suffering for it too much.
Venice is an amazing city, in a totally different way to how Saskia is amazing. It’s like a golden rock rolling downhill into a bottomless chasm, onto which hundreds of thousands of people keep flinging themselves. It’s hard for me to imagine how this charming, difficult city has a future.The people grow old and the local population wanes, the city gets dirtier and dilapidateder, supplying it with food and energy gets costlier, tourists demand more and more, but contribute little to the infrastructure needs of the town. And if those crazy scientists are right, sea level rise is a’coming too. But I love the lack of cars.
Today I’m off to the Ludoteca, an ye olde church being used for an art exhibition by some Aussie artists. I’m supposed to bath Evie before we go, but it’s getting on and I don’t want her to go totally psycho and still be 45 minutes away from Rebecca.
I’m finding myself more and more in harmony with the Tao these days, though of course having said that now I’ve thrown it off balance and it’s disappeared. )Incidentally, I also discovered there is no Tao on airplanes.) I’m thinking of my family and friends. I’m wondering if the Bulldogs beat the Dragons.
The whole thing is 32 square metres, twice the size of the Saarbrucken apartment I called home for a year waaaaay back in 2000. It feels small because of the design, not the absolute size. The bathroom is a walk in closet, narrow enough to make turning around a difficulty. The kitchen is a kitchenette, fitted out with gas hotplates but no oven. The bedroom is probably the nicest room in the house. No need to make things cramped there. Just a nice big bed, beautifully firm yet soft (how do they do that?), a set of drawers and a wardrobe. There is room for little Saskia’s portacot to sit beside the bed.
The worst feature of the bedroom is the low doorway, against which I have crushed my lovely head at least three times.
We are on the fourth floor, and despite my best intentions I do not foresee any of us (save Saskia) gaining weight this holiday. Not only do we need to drag our sorry carcasses up four flights, but there’s a 7kg baby, a three kilo pram, a variable weight backpack and any shopping we may have been foolish enough to do. Last night this included 18 kilos of water, half naturale and half frizzante. I was comforted only by the though that we weren’t drinking osmium, 22.4 times denser than water.
I continue to be amazed by our little girl Evie. Just now she put herself back to sleep by plunging her head down onto the recently abandoned dummy lying in her cot. She has been sluggish this morning and is covered in mosquito bites, the poor thing. Dio mio, for a fly screen. The day before yesterday she rolled over for the first and second times. The first time Rebecca and I both missed, as we studied our phones with new sims intently. I looked down, saw Evie on her stomach, nonchalant as you like, and gasped in shock and delight. A few hours later, the scene was repeated, fortunately I saw the whole thing. Sadly for Rebecca, she was in the can at the time. Even worse, her parents saw the whole thing too (Evie rolling, not… you know).
Evie charms and woos people wherever she goes. I can almost see her ego swelling as she fells one stranger after another with her knockout smile. It has been hot and I hope she’s not suffering for it too much.
Venice is an amazing city, in a totally different way to how Saskia is amazing. It’s like a golden rock rolling downhill into a bottomless chasm, onto which hundreds of thousands of people keep flinging themselves. It’s hard for me to imagine how this charming, difficult city has a future.The people grow old and the local population wanes, the city gets dirtier and dilapidateder, supplying it with food and energy gets costlier, tourists demand more and more, but contribute little to the infrastructure needs of the town. And if those crazy scientists are right, sea level rise is a’coming too. But I love the lack of cars.
Today I’m off to the Ludoteca, an ye olde church being used for an art exhibition by some Aussie artists. I’m supposed to bath Evie before we go, but it’s getting on and I don’t want her to go totally psycho and still be 45 minutes away from Rebecca.
I’m finding myself more and more in harmony with the Tao these days, though of course having said that now I’ve thrown it off balance and it’s disappeared. )Incidentally, I also discovered there is no Tao on airplanes.) I’m thinking of my family and friends. I’m wondering if the Bulldogs beat the Dragons.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
human kindness
sitting, huddled over his computer, perpy tapped away at the keys. with his beak. for perpy was a bird! but in fact, perpy was, like you and me, a robot. bruce got to thinking - if i can't snap out of this funk then i'll never achieve my goals in life. and if there's one thing i want to achieve in life, it's my goals! perpy pecked a hole in bruce's teeth until bruce cried with pain. stoppit! it was all too much so perpy went to bed, and bruce followed her. as is so often the case these days, the bed was cold, so perpy warmed it up by releasing body heat. for this bruce was thankful and bruce thanked perpy in the usual way - a five star salute to the dog star sirius, using only a teaspoon and some bubic. they were so tired - dog tired - that they very easily entered a state of almost dreaminess, and this was a real pleasure.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
a sports guy
In which we realise the folly of predicting the future, and pass judgement on all 16 NRL teams.
A frequent way of gauging how a team is doing is to check out how their opponents have fared. Lost to team x? Well that's ok if team x has been on fire lately. Beaten team y? So what, so have everyone. Only problem is this doesn't seem to have been very informative thus far. Or to be more explicit, my tips have been unfailingly failing of late.
Eels - turned the corner or just lucky to run into a Cowboys team that did the opposite of turning the corner (Took a step backwards? Nah, too cliched. Let's say the Cowboys turned around, headed back to the corner they'd just turned, saw the Eels lying face down in their own vomit, picked them up, nursed them back to consciousness and then drank the dregs of whatever it was the Eels had been drinking)
Cowboys - doing shocking, but you can never write off a team with JT, Matty Bowen and Aaron Paine. Hang on, sure you can. Good things to miss the semis. Which reminds me - have you noticed how somehow Cooper Cronk has snuck into Melbourne's elite four? Everyone keeps saying you can't write off a team with Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and... Cooper Cronk. What the? From now on I'm calling Cronk Ringo.
Sea Eagles - assuming Brett Stewart returns in 10 weeks, Sea Eagles are hoping 20 points is enough to sneak in to the top 8. Because they can't lose with him and can't win without him. And I still think he can win top try scorer of the year.
Storm - remind me of the Bulldogs of 2007. Gutted by a bad loss to end their season, they never really got rolling. They kept promising to... but never did. Still, any team that's got....
Titans - remind me of the Titans of 2007 and 2008. They need to tank a few games now so they can turn the corner in the second half of the season.
Rabbitohs - I hate to say it, but I don't think they can win with Jason Taylor as coach. Sure, they've got a stack of other problems, but the comp's pretty close this season and a good coach makes a big difference. He's helped make them competitive again, but like Ivan Cleary with the Warriors, doesn't appear to be capable of getting them over the hump from threateners to genuine contenders.
Sharks - I've tipped them more times this year than they've completed sets. Surely they've gotta pull together for Sticky and pull out a win against (...checking their next game...) the Panthers. At Penrith. I am definitely tipping the Sharks to win that one.
Roosters - Brad Fittler, wonder coach. I just wanted to see what those words would look like together. The Dogs have got some good players coming through this season, so the Roosters are looking specials in 2010.
Knights - ever noticed how the media is suddenly taking them seriously, and pretending that they've taken them seriously since the preseason? And that Brian Smith is a good coach again? For Smithy's sake, I really hope they don't tank in a grand final qualifier.
Broncos - I had them down as the only consistently good team this year til they stunk up the joint at Novacastria. Only team I would bet my wife's savings on to make the top 8.
Raiders - they are good things to put together a run at some time this year and have Matty Johns tell us how they are going to dominate seasons 2011-2014, once their young blokes get some experience. Someone remind him no one good has stayed in Canberra into their prime since Clyde, Sticky and Tooley (look up Roy and HG's State of Origin commentary).
Panthers - equal 7th, in the 8 on for and against. A couple of losses away from Elliot getting fired. Wait, they re-signed him? For two years? I love my footy!
Dragons - Dragons fans are shitting themselves because everyone expects them to play consistently now they have Wayne "Zen Master" Bennett as coach. I don't think the rest of the comp minds StGeorge being favourites now either. That's ok, because even if they don't win this year, Wayne's building something very beautiful.
Warriors - everyone's tip to go on with things this year after their spirited finish last year. Just blew games against the Dragons and Storm because they have too many Kiwis in the side. Is there a player with a higher games odometer than Steve Price? It's more than just first grade games too, this guy hits it up and tackles and charges down and still plays rep footy, what, five years after leaving the Dogs? Unbeeeeeelievable.
Bulldogs - preseason good things to miss the eight this year, once again no one in the media admits surprise at their form. To be fair, they haven't set the world on fire, but they're topping the table despite losing two points in the Penrifgate. Was anyone else suckered by the write up a few weeks back in which Jamal Idris was touted as a potential 100m sprinter? Maybe after lap band stomach surgery. Patten made a bust, passed to Idris only for Idris to pass back to him. Would Usain Bolt do that? I don't think so.
Tigers - Is Tim Sheens a master coach? I'll have to do some research and get back to you on that. In the mean time, I'm scared by the parallels between Taniela Tuiaki and Matt Utai. And Tank goes much better with Tuiaki's name too. Let's hope he catches a few bombs before he becomes a head case.
Eight rounds in, and I don't think we've learned too much. No one is quite looking premiership material yet, but a few have ruled themselves out. In fact I can state quite confidently (i prefer to make confident bad predictions rather than unconfident bad predictions) that the table has settled into two rough groupings. The upper half (ending at the Warriors) and the lower half (Cowboys down). Don't expect much movement between those two groups.
In a side note, foxsports is reporting that Tim Sheens (or the all mighty and all powerful selectors) has showed loyalty to the Kangaroos side that lost last year's world cup final, by picking them for the anz test. Am i missing something, or is loyalty normally shown to victorious sides? I can just see Sheens informing players who missed out. Yeah, sorry mate, but Lockyer played too poorly in that test last year to be dropped on poor form this year alone. Good, I knew you'd understand. Now can we just quickly go through your lines for the media tomorrow? "Mate, I just gotta keep playing my game and not worry about the selectors." Perfect. Alright, catcha later...i love you too.. catcha". Click.
I love my footy!
A frequent way of gauging how a team is doing is to check out how their opponents have fared. Lost to team x? Well that's ok if team x has been on fire lately. Beaten team y? So what, so have everyone. Only problem is this doesn't seem to have been very informative thus far. Or to be more explicit, my tips have been unfailingly failing of late.
Eels - turned the corner or just lucky to run into a Cowboys team that did the opposite of turning the corner (Took a step backwards? Nah, too cliched. Let's say the Cowboys turned around, headed back to the corner they'd just turned, saw the Eels lying face down in their own vomit, picked them up, nursed them back to consciousness and then drank the dregs of whatever it was the Eels had been drinking)
Cowboys - doing shocking, but you can never write off a team with JT, Matty Bowen and Aaron Paine. Hang on, sure you can. Good things to miss the semis. Which reminds me - have you noticed how somehow Cooper Cronk has snuck into Melbourne's elite four? Everyone keeps saying you can't write off a team with Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and... Cooper Cronk. What the? From now on I'm calling Cronk Ringo.
Sea Eagles - assuming Brett Stewart returns in 10 weeks, Sea Eagles are hoping 20 points is enough to sneak in to the top 8. Because they can't lose with him and can't win without him. And I still think he can win top try scorer of the year.
Storm - remind me of the Bulldogs of 2007. Gutted by a bad loss to end their season, they never really got rolling. They kept promising to... but never did. Still, any team that's got....
Titans - remind me of the Titans of 2007 and 2008. They need to tank a few games now so they can turn the corner in the second half of the season.
Rabbitohs - I hate to say it, but I don't think they can win with Jason Taylor as coach. Sure, they've got a stack of other problems, but the comp's pretty close this season and a good coach makes a big difference. He's helped make them competitive again, but like Ivan Cleary with the Warriors, doesn't appear to be capable of getting them over the hump from threateners to genuine contenders.
Sharks - I've tipped them more times this year than they've completed sets. Surely they've gotta pull together for Sticky and pull out a win against (...checking their next game...) the Panthers. At Penrith. I am definitely tipping the Sharks to win that one.
Roosters - Brad Fittler, wonder coach. I just wanted to see what those words would look like together. The Dogs have got some good players coming through this season, so the Roosters are looking specials in 2010.
Knights - ever noticed how the media is suddenly taking them seriously, and pretending that they've taken them seriously since the preseason? And that Brian Smith is a good coach again? For Smithy's sake, I really hope they don't tank in a grand final qualifier.
Broncos - I had them down as the only consistently good team this year til they stunk up the joint at Novacastria. Only team I would bet my wife's savings on to make the top 8.
Raiders - they are good things to put together a run at some time this year and have Matty Johns tell us how they are going to dominate seasons 2011-2014, once their young blokes get some experience. Someone remind him no one good has stayed in Canberra into their prime since Clyde, Sticky and Tooley (look up Roy and HG's State of Origin commentary).
Panthers - equal 7th, in the 8 on for and against. A couple of losses away from Elliot getting fired. Wait, they re-signed him? For two years? I love my footy!
Dragons - Dragons fans are shitting themselves because everyone expects them to play consistently now they have Wayne "Zen Master" Bennett as coach. I don't think the rest of the comp minds StGeorge being favourites now either. That's ok, because even if they don't win this year, Wayne's building something very beautiful.
Warriors - everyone's tip to go on with things this year after their spirited finish last year. Just blew games against the Dragons and Storm because they have too many Kiwis in the side. Is there a player with a higher games odometer than Steve Price? It's more than just first grade games too, this guy hits it up and tackles and charges down and still plays rep footy, what, five years after leaving the Dogs? Unbeeeeeelievable.
Bulldogs - preseason good things to miss the eight this year, once again no one in the media admits surprise at their form. To be fair, they haven't set the world on fire, but they're topping the table despite losing two points in the Penrifgate. Was anyone else suckered by the write up a few weeks back in which Jamal Idris was touted as a potential 100m sprinter? Maybe after lap band stomach surgery. Patten made a bust, passed to Idris only for Idris to pass back to him. Would Usain Bolt do that? I don't think so.
Tigers - Is Tim Sheens a master coach? I'll have to do some research and get back to you on that. In the mean time, I'm scared by the parallels between Taniela Tuiaki and Matt Utai. And Tank goes much better with Tuiaki's name too. Let's hope he catches a few bombs before he becomes a head case.
Eight rounds in, and I don't think we've learned too much. No one is quite looking premiership material yet, but a few have ruled themselves out. In fact I can state quite confidently (i prefer to make confident bad predictions rather than unconfident bad predictions) that the table has settled into two rough groupings. The upper half (ending at the Warriors) and the lower half (Cowboys down). Don't expect much movement between those two groups.
In a side note, foxsports is reporting that Tim Sheens (or the all mighty and all powerful selectors) has showed loyalty to the Kangaroos side that lost last year's world cup final, by picking them for the anz test. Am i missing something, or is loyalty normally shown to victorious sides? I can just see Sheens informing players who missed out. Yeah, sorry mate, but Lockyer played too poorly in that test last year to be dropped on poor form this year alone. Good, I knew you'd understand. Now can we just quickly go through your lines for the media tomorrow? "Mate, I just gotta keep playing my game and not worry about the selectors." Perfect. Alright, catcha later...i love you too.. catcha". Click.
I love my footy!
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