Saturday, June 23, 2012

The bus drivers strike

Yesterday I went to an Italian restaurant. We wanted to have a real Italian dinner. We went to "La porchetta" in Holborn. It's a really nice and friendly place. The waitress and the manager were both Italians. It didn't take too long for us to become best friends! We had some italian red wine: 1 litre actually! It was really good. Also the "bruschetta" and pasta were really good. And finally the "tiramisu" and italian coffee. Good! I was missing all that.
After that we want to the Sway Bar that is not too far from the restaurant. Again a nice place. There were two dance floors with different music. We had some fun there for a couple of hours. When it was almost two o'clock we decided to quit. Valentina took a ride to Willesden Green and I started to wait for the N207. But it didn't took too long before I understood that it would have never come. I still didn't know why. Anyway I decided to get the first bus towards west in order to try to reach Acton with some other routes. In the bus I discovered that there a were a strike! The first after 30 years!!! Fuck! The bus drivers are complaining because for the Olympics they want them to work more but they don't want to pay them more. They are absolutely right! But the point is that people needs to get home in some way during the night and there aren't so much alternatives. So I got off the bus at Marble Arch. Still far from Acton but a little bit nearer. There I waited for the 390 and I reached Notting Hill Gate. And then I found myself stuck! Fuck! There where no more buses towards west!
Don't ask me how... actually here it's something that happens continuously... I met a Californian girl with his boyfriend: an half Finnish half Italian guy with some punk style hair. And after one minute another guy came and the minute later the four of us we were sharing a taxi to Ealing Broadway (that is beyond Acton). It was a really strange situation on the ride to Acton. Talking with this people... really crazy. I don't know how to explain the situation. It was like a movie.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

A month later, still in London

It's been a month since I updated my blog. Really a lot of things happened and I didn't had the time to write it down all nor a little of it.
So let's start from the end.Yesterday I watched the Italy vs Ireland match. I went to Mattia's house with his colleagues. I took with me the champagne I won singing at Roadhouse, so now it's gone and I need to go there again to win another one! The evening was amazing: we had some real Italian typical food from Naples and Rome. Just to name one we had some original "taralli".
Sunday, the 17th, I went to Lovebox. It is a concert in Victoria park with a lot of artists and three or four different stages. I went there to see Mika. He was amazing as usual but he just played for half an hour. So bad! I saw also Grace Jones closing the event and some other more or less known artists. I stood up for ten hours and now after two days I don't feel really good yet.
Friday I went to Guanabara! When they told me the name I was thinking it was a joke. In Italy with my friend we usually do word games like this just to name a place that we don't remember the name or doesn't exists at all. But trust me, this is the real name of this place and it exists! It's a Brazilian club near convent garden. It's a really nice place and I went there with some cs friends. There where a Brazilian band performing at the beginning and after 11.30pm they started with the disco music. I enjoyed it and had some fun. After the disco we went to Mc Donalds just to get back some energy. It was 3am and really cold. When I managed to get back to Acton it was 5pm but there where so much light that it did look like a 9am in Italy.
I'm really starting to get busy and it' just two month that I'm here. It's good of course but it's a little stressing.
A couple of weeks ago I bought a bike and now it's more than a week that I'm going to work riding my bike. They call it commuting, but don't ask me the meaning of this word. I'm lucky because it's really just a few miles but it's all uphill. I always thought that London was plain but again I was wrong. Of course when I go back home it's all downhill so it gets really relaxing.
The job is going pretty much good. After the initial couple of boring weeks now it's getting more interesting and I'm starting to work on something I'm more used to. I'm also starting to better understand people, even if I still have some difficulties when they speak fast or have strange or unknown accents.
I was thinking about going back to Italy on September for an holiday to see my friends but I got intrigued by a colleague proposal to go to a really interesting place... I need the passport!