Il Nittalope

It's been a tough 2/3 weeks. Shitty weather, shitty health, and worst news. I cannot deny that's been hard. Simply walk around and enjoy normal stuff like friends and hail has not been easy, for example. And last week has been the worst. I spent it at home, constantly sick and sad. To make it short, I've been listening to Johnny Clegg , I found one of my old CDs and the whole world today has changed. It's still quite gray, but light gray, not dark... it's a change.

Amsterdam at it's best. Or better, the Netherlands and it's crazy weather. Last Saturday we had sun, clouds, hail, sun again, rain, sun again and again hail in one day. Well, technically in one afternoon. It's been even worst on Sunday, when at one point there were snow too. It's been spring, summer, autumn and winter in the same day. In no specific order. This is the weather in the Netherlands. Today, a week later, it's sunny. Not warm, but sunny and the spring is blossoming. It's still winter in my mind.

  Today a good friend died. She was a stubborn girl. She would not back away from a decision. She was stubborn and one of the good people on Earth. What I am now, where I've been, I own all of that mostly to her. She chose me to work in her team, with no clear good reason other than she understood I would be good in a thing I've never done. She was, evidently, right. She would have help you with all of her hearth, she would have been bluntly straight and clear in her words. She was kind and gentle and sweet. Those have bee so sad news that I'm still stunned. I've got the feeling that it's not right. She left her husband, kids, friends. She deserved more. She deserved to get old and grumpy. I was organizing a trip to visit her, because I learned she was sick and wanted to meet her again. But who cares? She should have lived longer and more happily. Fuck it, Life.

I don't know if you know who Louis C.K . is.I hope you do, because if you do your life is a better life. Who is he? He is a comedian. This is an easy label. And quite wrong, but helps to start understanding. He is a comedian, actor, director, producer, editor... and the list goes on. Ah, and father. And divorced. And ginger. Don't know if this explains something more. It's a bit more precise, though, and detailed. But even the above list leaves something out. One thing it leaves out is that he is a fucking genius, the second is that he is an innovator. I discovered him by chance 2 years ago. I was watching a show of Robin Williams (sadness...) on youtube and in the videos on the right he appeared. I discovered that he is incredibly funny, clever and has a unbelievable insight on human condition and psychology. Usually comedians got this, but he got it at an extreme high level. I looked for his shows and discovered that he was offering them, DRM free , on ...

It's been a while. Happy Christmas and Merry New Year and all those sort of things... I'll talk about football, if you don't mind. We all know that's the most important part of my life at the moment: playing football. After the 3 weeks intermission during the holidays (as per above) this week 2 tournaments started again: the 7 a side (Mondays) and the 6 a side (Tuesdays). You would notice that there is a 0 days break between one tournament and the other; a thing I am so happy about that you would not believe me (and, please, don't believe it, because I am scared and worried about it). So, Monday we played, 7 against 7, and we lost. We had no substitutes, they were slightly better, but we simply lost 4 - 2. Not bad. My ankles didn't enjoyed the match as much as they would have liked, mainly the left one, as the opponents enjoyed kicking it from the early start. I didn't play particularly well or particularly bad. Simply it was difficult to run...

Dan Carter was already a legend in his own rights. Already the top scorer in the game by far, already considered the best fly-half of of the modern era (and possibly of any era), good looking and whatever you want to say, he got it. But entering this Rugby World Cup he was at the end of his career, coming back to a World Cup after having lost all but the first games in the previous one. He got injured during that World Cup while he was at the top of his career and missed the rest of the competition. Then ruptured his Achilles tendon in 2013. Already new players on the rise took his place in games during last years, so his position was not the one of the big star that no-one can doubt. Then the competition begun, the matches went on and he was playing his game, good composure, on target with the kicking. Everything was going well, even if the All Blacks were not crushing every opponent as expected, but simply winning. And then a quarter final against France started, and New ...

I am waiting for to go to the station and catch the train to work. I am kinda late, really late, but there are not so many train. So lets use this time for something completely useless. Monday night, another football game of the famed team Notti Magiche . We are up 4 - 0 after 10 minutes, than we let them come back, because we are kind people. The match begins to turn to a grind, though game. We are still up 4 - 3 in the final 10 minutes of the match, they mainly try to score in counter attacks (don't ask, please don't ask how a team that is up by one is pressing high instead of waiting for the opponent to come... don't ASK!), but we are managing quite well to control. They started to make faults, we started to receive them, this is a usual pattern. For once I am not complaining that much with the referee, since he is controlling everything quite well and when he sees a harsh tackle he has no problem on talking to the player and tell him to quite down. Finally. The...