Fly away

Infine ti ho lasciata andare. Anche se il vuoto rimane tutt'ora incolmato. Anche se il dolore mi scava lo spirito come un verme. Del resto mi hai dato un perche', mi hai dato il motivo che cercavo. In modo molto chiaro e duro: ti facevo sentire sbagliata. Un ottimo motivo per andartene. Poco importa che sia in contrasto con tutto cio' che mi hai detto fino al giorno della tua partenza. Poco importa se quel perche' e' una bugia o fosse una bugia tutto cio' che e' venuto prima. Poco importa che tu abbia fatto di me uno spergiuro. Poco importano le conseguenze e chi le paga. Hai avuto cio' che volevi e questo spero sinceramente sia cio' che e' meglio per te. Ognuno dovrebbe pagare il prezzo delle proprie scelte: io sto pagando il prezzo per aver deciso di amarti.

Finally I've let you go. Even if the void is still unfilled. Even if the sorrow still carves like a worm my spirit. All in all you have given me a why, you've given me the reason I was asking for. In a clear and blunt way: I made you feel wrong. A good reason for leaving. It doesn't matter that it denies all you said me till the day of your departure. It doesn't matter if the why is a lie or a lie was all that came before it. It doesn't matter that you have made me an oath-breaker. It doesn't really matter what the consequences are and who pays for them. You have got what you want and I sincerely hope that that's the best for you. Anybody should pay the toll for his own choices: I'm paying the toll for having decided to love you.

What if I say I'll never surrender?

I'm the voice inside your head

You refuse to hear

I'm the face that you have to face

Mirrored in your stare

I'm what's left, I'm what's right

I'm the enemy

I'm the hand that will take you down

Bring you to your knees

So who are you?

Keep you in the dark

You know they all pretend

Keep you in the dark

And so it all began

Send in your skeletons

Sing as their bones go marching in, again

The need you buried deep

The secrets that you keep are ever ready

Are you ready?

I'm finished making sense

Done pleading ignorance

That whole defense

Spinning infinity, boy

The wheel is spinning me

It's never-ending, never-ending

Same old story

What if I say I'm not like the others?

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

You're the pretender

What if I say I will never surrender?

What if I say I'm not like the others?

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

You're the pretender

What if I say that I'll never surrender?

In time our soul untold

I'm just another soul for sale, oh well

The page is out of print

We are not permanent

We're temporary, temporary

Same old story

What if I say I'm not like the others?

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

You're the pretender

What if I say that I'll never surrender?

What if I say I'm not like the others?

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

You're the pretender

What if I say that I'll never surrender?

I'm the voice inside your head

You refuse to hear

I'm the face that you have to face

Mirrored in your stare

I'm what's left, I'm what's right

I'm the enemy

I'm the hand that will take you down

Bring you to your knees

So who are you?

Yeah, who are you?

Yeah, who are you?

Yeah, who are you?

Keep you in the dark

You know they all pretend

What if I say I'm not like the others?

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

You're the pretender

What if I say I will never surrender?

What if I say I'm not like the others?

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

You're the pretender

What if I say that I'll never surrender?

What if I say I'm not like the others?

(Keep you in the dark)

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

(You know they all pretend)

You're the pretender

(Who dares)

What if I say I will never surrender?

What if I say I'm not like the others?

(Keep you in the dark)

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

(You know they all pretend)

You're the pretender

(Who dares)

What if I say I will never surrender?

So who are you?

Yeah, who are you?

Yeah, who are you?

London yesterday and today

As I am now generalizing a period of my life with the object of clearing my way before me, I can scarcely do so better than by at once completing the description of our usual manners and customs at Barnard's Inn.

We spent as much money as we could, and got as little for it as people could make their minds to give us. We were always more or less miserable, and most of our acquaintance were in the same condition. There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one.

-Great expectations, Charles Dickens (1861)

Let Me Bring You Down 29

Too often we assume the wrong thing...

Just a lullaby

9/11

For fast his fall may have been, he was plenty of time for thinking...

Per quanto velocemente sia caduto, ha avuto molto tempo per pensare...

A Journey To Iceland

Three little nigger boys walking in the zoo airport;
A big bear hugged one forgot his passport, and then there were two.

Two little nigger boys sitting in the sun aeroplane;

...

Wait a moment: are three again.

No, he wasn't allowed on the aeroplane, and then there were two again.

After all night spent in the airport "sleeping rough", you can't realise only at the security point that you have forgotten your passport. But it happened. So one of us (guess who) rushed back to London. Mission impossible. Slightly impossible. He missed the flight by some ten minutes, no more, and wasn't allowed to embark even though the aeroplane was half an hour late. "I'm so sorry for your friend", a hostess said to us. Be positive, people keep telling me, so I replied: "Looking at the positive part, there's more room for us", who were sharing three seats in two. And so the journey to Iceland began.

Iceland, a land with more sheep than people.

Where Winter is not as cold as at my home place, but you need the right gear to wear anyway if you don't like freezing.

Driving in Iceland is simple: the few roads are straight. Something the English are not capable of dealing with despite all the Romans' attempts to teach them the usefulness of the straight line. The road signals are even fewer than the roads and very small. Till you come across one of these... and then you are lost. 

The bare beauty of this land is stunning...

...but apparently, not everybody is able to appreciate it
and someone prefers sleeping.
It looks like, but it's not kidnapping, trust me.

A journey all along the South coast, from West...

...going so close to the glacier we could smell it...

 ...to East.

Okay. I've arrived. Leave me here.
You can go back without me.

I came back this time...
...regretfully...

...driving again from East to West...

...passing by the locals...

...some of them really witty

(ask a German what GUMMI means)...

...till Reykjavik and then beyond,
heading off W-NW...

...until the west peninsula with its lighthouses.

The lighthouses have been a bit disappointing:

I expected them much taller and impressive.

But you can't have everything.

Okay! This has been the first sample.

More details will follow (soon?).

Don't want to live in a world that's dying

I want to die in a world that's living.

Mankind is developing a technological dependency with their emotions waning. Survival is at stake...

For who's like me

Dedicato ai miei simili

Getting rid of you

Cancellati altri due numeri telefonici, ieri sera. Aspetta... erano tre. Neanche mi ricordo chi fosse la terza persona :)

Deleted two more phone numbers, yesterday evening. Wait a moment... were three. I don't even remember who the third person was :)

Provocatio

Ho sfidato Dio. Ed ovviamente ho perso. L' Universo non ha dovuto fare altro che opporre una costante resistenza passiva ad ogni mio tentativo di autodegradazione. Come Giona mi sono rifiutato, ma non c'era alcuna balena dentro cui nascondermi. Cosa mi rimane ora? La strada per Ninive? E lungo la strada raccogliere i pezzi della mia vita per rientrarne infine in possesso? Ma nonostante sia stato sconfitto non riesco ancora ad arrendermi...

I challenged God. Obviously I lost. The Universe has just needed to oppose me a passive resistance to any attempt of mine to self-degradation. Like Jonah I resisted, but there wasn't a whale to hid in. What's there for me now? The road to Niniveh? And along the road picking up and putting the pieces of my life back together? But even thought I've been defeated I'm not able to surrender yet...

#bloodyinterviews 3

It's pretty much what I did at my last interview...

...and I got the job.                           

The Funny Side of English Language 3

The Funny Guy

Even if that guy is funny, you shouldn't trust him 'cause he's really funny. And it's funny he didn't show up this morning, saying he was feeling funny But I will not get funny because of this funny business. O! Are you getting funny with me? Very funny!

Wordreference dictionary

Funny is an adjective with more than just the obvious meaning. It refers to something that causes laughter and amusement, but it is also used when something is strange and curious, or suspicious and deceitful. Informally it also means 'slightly ill,' and in British English it can be used to talk about someone who is a bit crazy.

Example sentences

He's such a funny guy. I always have a great time with him! The washing machine is making a funny noise. There's something funny about that man; we shouldn't trust him. Jennifer was feeling funny, so she didn't go to work. Grandpa started getting a bit funny as he grew older.

Words often used with funny   funny business (noun): something suspicious. "I saw James in a restaurant with a woman who wasn't his wife. There's some funny business going on there if you ask me." very funny (interjection): used ironically when something is not funny at all. "I spent all of our money at the casino." "Very funny." get funny with someone (expression, UK): be insolent. "Don't get funny with me, young lady!"

Additional information   The funnies are the comic strips in newspapers.

Did you know?   Funny can be used to describe something strange, but not too serious. Because it can also mean 'amusing,' people might be offended if you said a strange accident where someone was seriously hurt was funny, but you can use it for anything that didn't have any harmful or upsetting consequences: "It's funny that he didn't show up to the party; he said he was coming." Or "We studied at the same university, at the same time; how funny that we never met!”

Veritas

Non e' che mi abbia mai mentito. Hai semplicemente sempre tenuto la verita' per te.

It's not that you lay to me. You simply kept the truth always for yourself.

The tragedy that sparked the 999 service

Ever wondered when the 999 emergency phone line launched? It goes back as far as 1937, and it has its roots here in London.

It all started on 10 November 1935, when a fire broke out at a doctor's house at 27 Wimpole Street, Marylebone. A neighbour spotted the fire and attempted to dial through to the local telephone exchange. In those times, calls usually had to be connected manually, and such was the case at the local Welbeck exchange. For whatever reason, the caller had difficulty getting through to an operator and the fire continued to rage. Eventually, the brigade were alerted by other means, but not before five women had lost their lives in the burning building. These were Julia Franklin (55), Elizabeth Caroline Dunkley (55), Lillie Hannah Brook (47), Alexandrina Lamont (22) and Evelyn Hardy (15).

The hero of the tragedy was a fireman called Leonard Tobias, who carried on searching the smoke-filled building 'long after his men had collapsed'. Tobias emerged unscathed and was commended by the coroner, only to be badly injured in the line of duty two weeks later. The luckless hero was later killed by a bomb blast in 1940. Along with the fire victims, he too deserves to be remembered.

The tragedy on Wimpole Street might have been averted had that early telephone call got through. Fireman Tobias might have reached the victims before they asphyxiated. Clearly, a more efficient system was needed. On 30 June 1937, the Assistant Postmaster General Sir Walter Womersley was able to announce the inauguration of the 999 service — the first emergency telephone number in the world. The House of Commons greeted it with short-sighted derision:

Despite parliamentary lambasting, the 999 service was deemed an immediate success. A year after launch, an average of 8,000 emergency calls were being logged every month. In the Postmaster General's antiquated vocabulary, the service had "obtained remarkable results in securing the arrest of malefactors and saving precious minutes in summoning the doctor or fire brigade". It remained a London-only service until after the Second World War, when 999 was rolled out to other major cities. Somewhat surprisingly, it would not become UK-wide until 1976, with the arrival of automatic exchanges in all parts of the country. 80 years after the tragedy that sparked it, the 999 service is still very much at the core of emergency response. 

Original article