Buona sera!
Well… What a slow couple of weeks! My productivity appears to be getting worse and worse. Still, I’ll have a stab at making it sound productive none the less – here goes:
Furbo il Signor Volpe – I bought the Italian version of Fantastic Mr Fox second hand when I was in Italy for the cruise earlier this year. I read the first couple of chapters on holiday but I was getting bogged down checking the dictionary every other word. However, I decided to ban myself from using the dictionary in the interests of actually reading the thing rather than analysing it! Quite liberating really. I’m pleased to say, even if I didn’t know the story and even without Quentin Blake’s wonderful pictures, I think I would have got a relatively reasonable understanding of the story. What’s helping is my recent work on the past, present, imperfect and whatever tenses… You can’t look these words up in the dictionary (well not mine at least – you need to have worked out what the “infinitive” version of the verb is which isn’t always easy and then you just need to inherently/rote know how the verbs are all conjugated). I’ve been trying to teach Lee (Lee is a fabricated name. It doesn’t sound very glamorous, does it? I think I’ll go for Fabrizio in future, though I’m not if that’s a real name) the verb endings with I think some ground breaking and novel ways of remembering them. I’ll have to write them down sometime. Anyway, this whole grammar thing really does make it a million times easier to know who’s doing what and when. I also did a bit of studying on “pronouns” the other day – I’m finding them almost as impossible as the “past tense” vs “imperfect” conundrum.
Italian – in other Italian news, I’ll be around er, Fabrizio’s family’s place on Saturday. His Italian uncle will be there so will attempt to get some practice in.
Electrician – let me tell you how my “test” went… I heard NOTHING. I relented last Friday and emailed him to ask if he was still interested and yes, yes, he assured me, he’ll get back to me today. Today! Pah! It’ll be a week tomorrow and I’ve still not heard. DESPITE emailing him AGAIN yesterday to ask him AGAIN whether he’s still interested. I might start an offshoot manifesto blog that outlines in detail what I will do with tradesmen when I become Prime Minister.
Inland Revenue – HMRC’s website is actually quite useful for tax bits & pieces. I mean, I know that should probably have been obvious but well, I was expecting it all to be completely confusing. It’s not. It’s just mind-numbingly dull so I’ll read it properly and précis it on a separate page at some point. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/faqs_general.htm#7
Trapeze – I missed my final trapeze class tonight. There was only 3 of them! Alas, I was motivationally challenged this evening and anyway, I don’t feel like I shall end up a world famous trapezist to fund my Italian plan so I shan’t be updating the Grand Plan on this occasion. However, Contemporary Basketry is booked. Rock ‘n roll.
I think that about sums things up, so until next time…
Sogni d’oro,
x
movetoitaly 
Well, that saves us catching up over brunch then!