Probably the best oranges I ever tasted

The other day a box of Oranges suddenly arrived, next to our old coffee machine at work. A bit like a clever drug dealer, one of my colleges, had placed the box, to offer the first one free (not the first box, but the first orange). After about an hour he had orders for about 100 kg of oranges, well also because these boxes only comes in 10 kg boxes.



So what's the point of this post. Nothing I guess, just a short reflexion about the wonders of fruits that has matured under the Mediterranean sun, and not having to endure the truck ride up north. Because there is a lot, I eat them a bit like the Japanese tourists which tries to eat a "ristet hotdog"( a hot dog with everything) in Dk - with great wonder and in need of a shower afterwards. These juicy jewels are impossible to peal, but are great to eat, and somehow the natives manage to eat them without a problem.

Have a nice weekend, here its sunny and around 15 degrees.

Curious sign at the English Babingtons tea room in Rome

Right next to the Spanish stair in Rome, there is the famous ( at least among the Romans) Babingtons, which is an English tea room that have been open since 1893 (not completely sure about the year, but late eighteen something). The place is very nice, and usually a peaceful oasis in the middle of the tourist hell around "Piazza di Spagna". But it will cost you, course this tea place is so very expensive.

But imagine my surprised when I arrived in front of this sign in the mens room ( later I had it verified that there was a similar one on the ladies rooms.)


(Sign says: "Please use waste paper basket under the sink")


What is it exactly I should do in the paper waste basket under the sink. Here I was standing here just wanting to pee, so it would probably not smell to bad if I used the basket, but what if there was another English speaking person that need to go number two - under the sink?!?!

In Italian it says please put the paper in the basket under the sink, but in a small piece of england, you would expect them to use at least a little bit of the overpricing to get their signs translated correctly.

Alone what they earned on the scones we bought, should be enough to make new signs and translations.

The pope claims to be censured.

Back when papa Ratzinger (the popes name between people here in Italy) was just a cardinal, back in 1990, he expressed some opinions about the trail against Galileo in 1633, saying that it was "rational and just".

This incident, along with countless other examples of the pope working against natural science community, has led 63 professors of "La Sapienza", along with a number of students, to protest the planned appearance of the great pontiff at the ceremony for the opening the new academic year at the largest university in Europe, "La sapienza".

The really funny part of this story is the initial response from the Vatican. They responded that it was an attempt to censure the pope. Coming from the leader of a society that usually hanged people for saying something different, it seems absurd. Is it, at all, possible to censure anybody who owns his own radio channel, and thousands of people who work for him? It would be like asking Berlusconi to be quiet at a tea party.

In the end the pope has canceled his appearance, to the great disappointment of the very Catholic students of La Sapienza.

So its yet another night at the home office for the papà


Personally I think that the pope is very fundamental Cristian, and as an outsider thinks that he is pushing our world in the wrong direction. I understand that for the Italian (non believers) its a great victory, that he had to drop his speech. But should all voices and opinions not be heard?

The other day sitting in the metro, Sara and I was reading an article about how the pope used his authority to try to convince people that Veltroni ( the mayor of Rome) had neglected his duties. He does this because he supports the right wing politics and not the left which Veltroni is part of (It is of course more complicated then this, is also about the mayor not putting unmarried that lives together in jail (well people like me), not being against gays and lots of other problems from our present world, which is generally not considered to be a problem). Doing such things, its only fair that we drew horns on the picture of the pope. This let to very angry outbursts of the women standing close to us, angry glares and very loud discussions. If the general person next to you in the metro is this passionate about the pope, there is of course also people which is just as passionate against him. I was the last ones the won this last battle, but its more or less the first in a long time.

This is the christmas three at the saint peters piazza.

Nobody really appreciates the dangers of blogging

Share your pictures

A simple small quick little video about why you should backup your pictures on the net, and share them.

Online Photo Sharing in Plain English:

The last year

- I should warn you, this is a poor attempt to recap 2007, during 10 minutes of my lunch break. -

Italy was largely unknown to me until a few years ago, until I went here on holiday, and traveled around. Now a series of events has led me to live here. I think that is going to be what I remember 2007 for - as the year where I moved to Italy.

Its funny how things change, mostly in directions that you never would expect. I for one, would never have expected that by signing up for a Italian course for beginners in 2005 I would end up with me living here two years later. But that is how it all started. Then I meet a wonderful girl - Italian, which volunteered to help me with my Italian homework. With a strange stroke of luck I was sent to do a project in Rome for 3 months for the company I worked for at the time.

This trip took a bit of the horrors of my imagination of moving to Italy, because it really wasn't that bad living in the eternal city. So after some consideration we decided to move down here.

That was when I started this blog. Since I could now fulfill one of the most important prerequisites for having a blog, namely having something to write about.

This is how I looked the weekend I moved to Rome:



2007 was quite eventful for me, besides moving to a new country, 2007 was also a year where I started a new job. I had to find a new favorite cafe bar, new favorite bookshop and make my Scandinavian furniture coexist with Italian (/south American) furniture and paintings(okay I didn't bring that many). I had to live through a very hot summer even for Italian standards. speaking a new language. adapt myself to the Italian way of living, which is different then the Danish, in so many ways, and then again, not so much. Had some incredible slow workman reconstruct our bathroom, in the apartment we are living in. And so many other things.

2007 was a great year, I hope that 2008 can live up to it. Here I am again, back in Denmark


but only for a short holiday, home for Christmas. Funny, that after all that have happened in 2007, I more or less look the same.

In 2008 I hope to
- Enjoy life more
- Change the world
- Read at least one Umberto Eco book in Italian
- Understand the "il congiuntivo" ( italian grammar) used when you are not stating facts, but beliefs. Like "Spero che tu capisca tutto questo" where the verb capire is in its congiuntivo tense. Or in short learn Italian better.
- Learn to dive.
- Teach our dog, to cover himself with a blanket without my help.
- Travel to a place I never seen before, preferably a place where I understand the language.
- Learn a new programming language.
- Start running again.
- Not buy more books than I can read. (or maybe just read the ones I already bought.)
- Enjoy what I have.

Better stop here, otherwise there wont be any for 2009, but now there is also enough to be sure I wont make all of them. which is the way it should be.

Happy new year.


Okay, actually that wasn't how it all started. It started with me getting drunk with Thomas and Kasper where I decided that I should go to Oktoberfest and Italy with Thomas. When we arrived in Italy, with large Oktoberfest hangovers and my clothes having the perfume of the litre of beer somebody poured over me just before we had to run and catch the night train, I met Sara.