AFTER THE MATCH

During the match I didn't drink even a drop of alcohol ... you know ... Ismail doesn't drink ... so I didn't like to carry any alcohol ... after our victory ... I met with my colleagues and friends Kaushik and Budi and we went to celebrate in Dallas ... I was dreaming to be somewhere in Italy t celebrate with my friends ... but even in Dallas I managed to have fun ... of course a lot of beer (for me) and a lot of new friends there ... I also bought some cigar to better celebrate the victory ... here some pictures ... of my evening as a WORLD CHAMPION IN DALLAS ...

... Budi and Kaushik drove me back home ... they basically drop me me to my hotel room ... too much beer for me to do anything else ... :O ... but the party will continue during the week ... I mean WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS and we need to enjoy this moment ... YES ... and we will enjoy it ... WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!

DURING THE MATCH

I went to watch the match to Ismail's house ... he is a colleague and friend ... he is from Somalia ... but he grew up in Rome, Italy ... and he has also the Italian citizenship ... so he is supporting Italy (unless it is playing against African teams) ... also Brian and Nataf (my American - Israeli friends) came to see the match ... we has wonderful Italian food ... I personally suffered sooooooooo much during the match ... I couldn't even speak ... but of course we won ... and that is the most important thing ... these are some of the pictures after the match ... when we finally pulled out Italian jersey and Italian flag ...

... it felt sooooooo good to celebrate with my friends ... really really good ... :D

BEFORE THE MATCH

Today was THE MATCH ... but even if I didn't want to miss it ... I did wake up at the last minute ... and I woke up ... just after the 10th missed call ... BRIAN woke me up ... at 12.30PM ... I literally just put my jeans, T Shirt on and I drove to Ismail's place ... there is where I went to watch the match ... I got there 30" after the match started ...

DON'T EAT THE CAN OF BEER!

Tonight dinner with Brian and Nataf ... my two American-Israeli friends who are living here in Dallas and we went to what is supposed to be one of the Dallas landmarks ...

... for sure I will never forget the dish of the house ... the BERR CAN CHICKEN ... they cook the chicken with beer in order to make it tastier ... and they use an entire can of beer ... and of course they cook it with the chicken ... kind of impressive to see ...

... according to Brian the beer they used (i.e. SCHLITZ ... "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous") ... is one of the cheapest in the market ... he told that even in college if someone shows up in a party with that beer is considered really cheap ... BTW ... in case you are interested ... the chicken was tasty ... and we didn't eat the can of beer ... :D

GEORGE BUSH INTERSECTION

This is one of the intersection of the GEORGE BUSH TOLLWAY (yes ... there is a highway with the former president) here in Dallas, TX ...

... very elegant I would say ... :o

PARADOX

This is a picture I took today in the SHOP of the KIMBELL ART MUSEUM in FORT WORTH, TX ...

... and I particularly like it because ... the only person who is moving ... is the old lady on her wheel chair ... almost a paradox ... of maybe not ...

KIMBELL ART MUSEUM

Today I spent the afternoon in the FORT WORTH MUSEUM DISTRICT ... in particular in the KIMBELL ART MUSEUM ... really nice ... very well designed ... it is in 2 floors ... not too small and not too big ... with a lot of space ... and with a very nice selection of pieces statues ... these in a sequence are from Cambodia ...

China ...

New Zealand (I believe this is from where my roommate Leif copied his hand symbol W) ...

Mexico ...

... paintings for any type of taste ...

... and they have also a very nice garden with a nice fountain ... that you can enjoy during the visit ...

... and if you are a MIRO fan (I am not) in front of the main entrance there is this MIRO statue ...

... if you have the chance ... definitely go there ... it is really nice ... even just to drink a beer ... apparently the bar is pretty stuffed to welcome you ...

... and it is not the only one in the district ... today I didn't have much time so I visited only this ...

PLEASE, EAT WITH YOUR HANDS

I am in Dallas, TX for business ... and I will spend here the next weeks ... and unfortunately I have an hard time to sync up with the local entertainment ... most of my colleagues are married and the few who are not ... have decided that this weekend is going to be alcohol free after the damages done on the 4th of July ... so tonight was really relaxed ... we ended up going to dinner to the Queen of Sheba ... an Ethiopian restaurant ... first time for me in an Ethiopian restaurant ... food was definitely different ... good ... the strangest thing is that unless you specifically ask for silverware ... you don't get them ... you are supposed to eat with hands and INJERA (i.e. a kind of spongy bread) that you use as utensil to pick up the food ... really nice ... I did it and I liked it ... and here a picture of Manoj, a colleague who is trying to hide his true identity ... worried of my blog-comments ...

... after that I have been kind of kidnapped and the six of us went to the movie theatre to watch the just released "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" ... a well done movie ... but definitely it is not my type of movie and story ...

JASON IS THE BEST!

In case you have lost the previous episodes ... JASON is my American roommate (the other is LEIF, the German) ... BEACHES is a bar in MANHATTAN BEACH where we are going quite often ... and this is the note that I found on the table when last Friday I got home from Dallas, TX ... it was around 10PM ... and I had already an appointment ... and at the end I didn't make it to BEACHES ... BUT ... this is what I found out the morning after, on Saturday ... Jason, sorry for yesterday ... I couldn't make it to BEACHES ... No problem dude ... I know, I got your text message last night ... How was it? Was Yann there as well? ... Nope! ... Did you go there with a girlfriend? ... Nope, I work at BEACHES! ... What!?!?! ... Here big smile of Jason ... and also on my face, I guess ... Yes, I am working there in the weekends ... and last night was my first night ... WOW! That is awesome ... Really!? ... Of course, this is great! ... But, why are you doing it ... I mean ... you don't need it ... here a small note is necessary ... Jason is an Electrical Engineer ... and is really a cool engineer ... he is designing diplexer (i.e. kind of filters for microwave signals) for satellites ... so you can understand ... why it was strange to me ... I know, but I love it! ... I believe you! ... How did you decide? ... I realized that I was spending too much money in alcohol every weekend there ... so I thought ... I should come to work here ... and I did it ... WOW ... you know what Jason? I think you are the greatest! ... come here buddy! ... and I gave him a big hand shake ... a big one ... and a big hug ... Yes ... now I can stay there all night ... And what are you doing there? ... Security! ... I can't believe it! You are such an *ssh*le! ... Can you believe it? I am staying there all night, drink for free, see my friends, have fun and they are paying me ... So how did you get there? ... You know I bring my CV ... and when they look at it ... they look me in the eyes and they told me ... are you sure you want a job here? ... I said ... YES! ... and I got the job! ... Ohhh man! You know what? Few days ago in the blog I wrote on how sometimes I feel like a stupid fish swimming always in the same fish bowl ... And? ... And ... you just demonstrated me ... that you are not an *ssh*le like me ... you just showed me ... that it is so simple to jump out of the fish bowl .... you are sooo great, and I mean it ... Thanks man ... but let's go to have a coffee now... I need it ... :D ... of course on Saturday night I went to BEACHES (this is when I took the COW BOY TAXI) ... I wanted to see JASON ... and I wanted to take of picture of him ... and here is JASON at BEACHES ...

... so if you will go there in the weekend ... don't forget to say him hello! Funny enough after I took this picture ... the girl in front of JASON (you can see her in the mirror, her name is MELISSA and she is from BOSTON, MA) smiled at me and asked me if I took a picture because I liked him ... we tried to explain her that we are roommates and all the story ... of course ... she said that she didn't trust to a single word of what we said ... and she still believed that I liked him ... so I told her that I was more than happy to demonstrate her that I was straight ... and she start laughing ... at the end we knew her and her friends ... I guess Jason and I found out a good technique to know girls ... :o ... BTW ... I left BEACHES a kind of early ... when I woke up in the morning the door of our house was wide open and when JASON woke up ... when I asked him how was the previous night and if he remember that he didn't close the door ... these were his words ... The door? Who knows! Last night I was soooo trashed ... I a telling you ... if last night I had to throw out someone of the bar ... that was me ... but you know what? I didn't do it ... I had a lot of fun ... and they paid me! ... this is what I call JASON THE GREAT ... JASON YOU ARE THE BEST!

A SCARY FEELING

After 4 days at home ... having fun, surfing, drinking, partying, dancing, watching Italy victory and doing other things which is better I keep for me ... this morning the alarm clock started buzzing @ 5.25 (I had to catch an early flight to DALLAS, TX ... where I am now) ... and when I realized it ... I had this weird feeling ... something I didn't feel since decades ... I felt like when I was a kid and in the middle of September ... after the summer spent with my friends having endless bicycle rides, football matches, running anywhere and playing to anything possible and eating juicy watermelons and climbing trees ... I had to get properly dressed, get a backpack and walk to that huge building ... THE SCHOOL ... where I had to stay seated for hours and hours looking to the teacher telling us strange things ... and writing other non sense on the blackboard ... yep ... today I felt like my first day of school after the summer .... really scary... :o

YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS!

After the GERMANY - ITALY match ... the BBQ at Yann's place ... the MARGARITA WRESTLING … we headed to HENNESSEY’S on the HERMOSA BEACH PIER … and of course more fun and laugh and beer were waiting for us …

… but not only that … so it went like this ... Justin … what is that stuff? … It is salt! … Salt? You mean you are going to powder your nose with that stuff? … Of course, and not only that … Oooooohhhh man … YES! … OK OK … I can’t miss this … this is going to be hilarious … let me take a picture of this …
... dude … don’t you know this? … Mmmm … NO … This is the STUNT MAN … I am teaching you something today … OK, tell me … so it works like this … you have to sniff this strip of salt … squeeze a slice of lime in an eye … and drink a shot of tequila … one after the other … in a sequence … WHAT!? Squeeze a lime in the eye? … are you going to do it? … I can’t believe it … Dude , I can’t do it … I have contact lenses they … they are going to melt down in my eye … No worries dude … I have them too … it is really painful … but believe me … nobody ever died for it … and contacts will be OK … Are you sure? ... 100% sure! … OK … but you do it first … Forgot to tell you … if you can … try not to blink your eye after you squeeze the lime … otherwise the lime juice will go in between the lens and your eye … and that is gonna hurt even more … OK … here you go with the first 4 crazy stunt men …
… Justin did it twice … at the end he decided that everybody had to do it … And now dude it is your time … I can’t do it … I have a dentist appointment in 5 minutes …:o ... NO NO NO … you have to do it … you are wearing an ITALIA Shirt and you have to do it now … OK OK … lets’ go for it … they gave him this half black straw … and … I did it… and it did hurt soooooo bad … bad bad bad …salt was painful … and once you have it ion your nose … and you feel the grains … and the high feeling … you don’t understand anything … and you don’t why … you run to grab the slice of lime … and you squeeeeeeeeeze it … aaaahhhhhhh … and you blink blink and blink and you can’t see a sh*t … and only with one eye open … you grab the tequila shot … you drink it but actually you can’t even feel it … after all that sh*t in your nose and in your eye it is like you are drinking a shot of tab water … you only feel the salt in your nose burning and your eyes dying … like if someone squeezed a fuck*ng lime into it … and you realized you just did it … but for some reason … when you see your friends in the same sh*tty situation you feel good … I mean not really good … but better …. here a picture a friend of us took after the magic triplet …
… such a blast … believe me … you have to try this … and at the end of course we ended up chanting our favorite song of the day … IITALIA ITALIA ITALIA ITALIA ITALIA … what a day guys … what a day … when we left the pub we also had a wonderful sunset over the HERMOSA BEACH pier …
… a ride with the bicycle ...
... some more beer, fireworks, packing my luggage for my early flight to DALLAS … some more fun after that … and there you go 4th of July is over … what a pity … but what a day …

MARGARITA WRESTLING

Of course yesterday wasn’t only the day of the World Cup Semifinal … here in US was also the 4th of July … Independence Day … and this is the day you want to be in US … and if I can suggest you a place to be … this is HERMOSA BEACH, CA …a lot of really really happy and wonderful people around you … yesterday when with my friends I was riding my bike on the strand … still kinda of drunk and happy and ecstatic for the football match … I was daydreaming that all days could be like that … and of course if you get to HERMOSA … you have to go on the strand in 2nd Street … you will assist to the World Wide Wild … MARGARITA WRESTLING … :o …

… after a while it is getting a little bit too much … and boring ... the funniest part was when one of the referee splashed into the water...

... and if you want more info ... I think they are on the web site (www.margaritawrestling.com) but believe me … 5 minutes spent there are really worthwhile … see you there next year … please be my guest … I will be more than happy to be your host … we have enough room to sleep and enough beer to make you feel really happy …

HAPPY SMS

During the GERMANY - ITALY match I did SMS (i.e. TEXT MESSAGE) a lot with my friends … of course a lot of fair play with my German friends … but the best I sent during the match was the one to my Israeli friend AVI who was anxious to see an Italian goal … so I wrote him … Pray your G-D for an Italian goal, please … and after less than 2 minutes … we scored … definitely … the most powerful SMS I ever sent … and the best I received was the one from my Swedish colleague MATS at the end of the match … This is one of the days I wish I was Italian as well … soooo good to read it … I felt special … really ... and it so good to have friends … thanks guys for being my friends and for supporting Italy and my SMS addiction … :D

GGGOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLL

GGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLL … we had to wait for almost 120 minutes …we had to wait until the last seconds of the overtime … but at the end … we did it ... GGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL … such a great feeling … I never felt anything like that for a football match … I just remember jumping off the couch … hitting something with my left foot (still hurting, but who cares!!) …jumping and jumping and shouting and jumping and hugging all my friends … and almost going flat on the hardwood floor because of something (beer?) that spilled off … and going out in the porch and trowing some plastic chair in the air … incredible … and going back ... seating on the couch and again … GGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL … and at that point I felt sooo good … I don’t know … it was just perfect ... probably it was the great setup we had in my place ... the fact hat we did watch the Spanish Channel rather than ESPN to have more the feeling of the match … my friends … I think we were 15 or so … all supporting ITALY and what a support … incredible … here some of the them at the end of the match when finally we did pull out the ITALIAN FLAG in the porch ...

... a lot of beer (and of course here my friends had been really nice and they did bring Italian beer MORETTI and PERONI) … Grappa (Italian hard alcohol made fermenting grape) … and a lot of chanting … personally I was already kinda of drunk during the 2nd half … I have this memory of the bottle of beer in my hands … and no strength to drink it … and when we scored I really don’t know what happened to it … was such a blast … again the best best best football match … and yes … GGGGOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL … of course I am really sorry for all my German friends … Leif, Hans, Silke, Andrea, Andreas, Renate, Martin, Celine … but like I wrote to a couple of days ago to one of them … everybody want to win … but if we loose and a friend wins … it is acceptable … I guess … and YES … now we will try as hard as we can to win the final also for you … we want to get the Cup ... we don’t want to let any French hand to touch it …

__

Almost forgot ... thanks again guys for cleaning up at the end of the match ... I didn't have any strenght to do it ...

HIGH LIFE

In Hermosa ... I went to the beach to check the waves ... they are poor and the tide is low ... I decided to go surfing at noon ... and to take a relaxing breakfast in the porch ...

... in the background a JOHNNY CASH CD ... my neighbours are passing by and are asking me where I have been yesterday and why I didn't go to their party ... I did surf almost all day ... you know on Wednesday I need to fly back to Dallas, TX ... not many waves there ... they understand ... we will see each other tomorrow ... tomorrow is the judgement day ... the World Cup Semifinal .... Germany - Italy ... but I don't want to think about it ... and I don't want to think that on Wednesday I need to fly back to Dallas ... I am just trying to enjoy this moment ... this is the life that I love ... :D

DEVIL

Saturday I got an other ride (*) on the COW BOY TAXI ... this time I am alone ... I am going to BEACHES in MANHATTAN BEACH where JASON is waiting for me ... no STAR TREK music this time ... and as soon as I step in it ... I wonder if I want to tell him about the post I did on him ... after few seconds of uncomfortable silence I decide to speak to him ...

I love your taxi. I took it a couple of weeks ago with my friends.
Ah
Yep ... we were a bunch of us ... we took also some pics
Too many people on this taxi ... I can't remember ... sorry
No problem ... I know ... anyways ... I made a post on my blog about you
What is a BLOG?
A Web Log ... you know ... like a diary on a web page ...
Aaahhh ... is a computer think?
Yes ...
Suddenly he turns his head and looks at me in a way that I didin't expect ...
Did you put my picture on it?
Mmmmm ... no no no ... only the taxi
He turns again and looks to the road ...
Aaahhh ... I don't have anything to do with that machine ... it is the DEVIL
What is a DEVIL?
The computer and Internet and all that stuff ...
What do you mean?
You know that the 3 first letters of any internet address make 666 in the Kabala
You mean WWW!? ... I didn’t know ...
Yes ... and of course you know what 666 is ...
To me it is just a number
No ... it is the DEVIL
Silence
And you know that if you sum up the letters of the word computer you get what?
Again 666?
No you get a number which translated back to letter makes EVIL in hebrew ...
Interesting ... but I don't think DEVIL and EVIL exist ...
He turns again his head and looks at me ...
You don't know what you are saying ...
Probably you are right ...
But you know what!? ... I lived in Israel for a while and I heard a lot of Kabala stories about numbers and letters ... and numbers ... to me it is just a way to scary naive people with nonsenses ... I can make a number out of anything and demontrate anything ...
In Isreal? ... are you Jewish?
No. I am catholic ...
So what did you do in that bloody country?
I did work there for 3 years ...
What do you think about Israel?
It is a long story ... put it like this ... I love the people and the country, I hate the government policy ...
I see ...
BTW ... are you Jewish? Why are you so into the Bible?
No no no ... I am not Jewish
But you do read the Bible, right?
Yes ... but there are a lot of b*llsh*t in it ...
Ah!
Yes ... you see ... I read with a grain of salt ... I take only what is right ...
The TAXI stops ...
Here we are ... this is BEACHES ... it makes $7.20
I give him $10
You can keep the rest
Thank you man
Thanks to you ... can you give me your phone number?
Sure ... 310-XXX-YYYY
BTW ... what's your name ...
Cow Boy Taxi
Of course ... sorry for asking ... :o
Have fun ...
You too ... have a good night ...

244 MONTEREY BLVD FINAL

ITALY defeated Australia (sorry Stu, Kevin and Paula) and Ukraine ... GERMANY defeated Sweden (sorry Peter and Mats) and Argentina ... so here we are ... one of the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup will be GERMANY - ITALY ... such a classic in football ... in Italy we like to remember the time when we defeated the Tudesc (this is the way we call the Germans in the dialect of my city, Bergamo) ... I guess in Germany they better remember the times when they defeated us ... it will be a tough game ... I am sure ... personally I can't wait ... I am pretty confident we will make to the final ... but I SMS with Leif, my German roommate who is now in Germany, and he told me that he thinks they will make to the final as well ... so we realized that this match is really the 244 Monterey Blvd FINAL (*) ... here a picture from the last party with the 3 flags of the house ...

... in this World Cup ITALY already played against USA ... we tied but US didn't make to the next round ... and now ... an other match with an other roommate ... I have to say that it is really exciting ... it will be Tuesday 4th of July 2006 ... uuuffff ... I can't wait ... and yes ... we know that for the rest of the world this is a semifinal ... but for us ... this is really the final ... we are trying to build a big group (I believe the best part of this sportive events is sharing your passion and feelings with the people around you) ... so if you want to join us and watch it together ... don't be shy ... let us know ... :o

__

(*) This is where the 3 of us (Jason, Leif and I) are living

WHAT THE HELL BRAZIL ...

Slept in this morning ... call my best friends back in Italy ... joined Jason in the living room up just to watch the overtime and the penalties of ENGLAND - PORTUGAL ... and I have to say that I felt sorry for my former boss Tim ... England ended up in the dust as usual ... Portugal is in ... I went surfing with my friend and colleague Richard ... caught some good wave but nothing terrific ... and came back just on time to see the last minutes of the match BRAZIL - FRANCE ... what I thought was going to be an other victory for Brazil ... I thought they were going to defeat France ... but it didn't happen ... in a way I am happy ... because we will have a new World Champion this year ... and in a way I am sad ... they have the nicest players in their team ... but apparently this is not enough ... Jason was particularly disappointed ... and look what happen at the end of the match to the Brazilian jersey he was wearing during the match ...

... no offense here ... we love you guys ... nobody wants to offend this great jersey ... this great country ... and all its wonderful people (especially the girls) ... but ... what the hell Brazil ... everybody would love to see Brazil play as much as possible matches ... and so we do ... but I guess we will wait to wait for the NEXT WORLD CUP ... or for some NIKE ADVERTISEMENT to see some magic ... :o