This website was never really meant for public consumption - if you strayed here by accident then I can only apologize as I'm not going to bother with a huge explanation and (trust me) you probably won't even notice half the jokes. The point is, in 2002 I was lucky (?) enough to tag along with a bunch of medical students on a choir tour round Italy. This is a website I wrote for peope who went. They'll appreciate it. The rest of you can bugger off.
Hurrah for Bologna! Hurrah for statuery in dubious taste! Hurrah for big...castle-like...buildings built in large numbers for purposes unknown (possible intense rivalry with neighbours across the square?)! Hurrah for Italians who charge you for going up a tower which (a) looks pretty dodgy to start with, and (b) sits next to an identical tower which has already fallen down...
Incidentally, what is it with Medaeval Italy and tower building? I think gravity must have been working at a slightly different angle back then. None of them are straight. Forget Pisa; Venice has more towers than you could shake a pointy tower replica at, and they're all wonky.
On the whole, I think no hurrah for the rather scary park attendants who smashed bottles on the pavement for no apparent reason. Instead, hurrah for Italy's begging community, its high standards of hygiene and its excellent taste in clothes. Man, when I'm a bum I want to dress like that. In fact, I want to be able to dress like that when I'm that age whether I'm a bum or not. Although hopefully I'll still have both my legs.
Anyway. Hurrah, too, for concerts which rehearse dreadfully and then all come good! Damn but we were fab. Hurrah to Surjo, for the first tantalising signs that he might actually have kittens before the end of the tour, and hurrah to not having to sing the bloody awful Old Mother Hubbard song.
Extra hurrahs from Bologna: Hurrah for youth hostels, where the simple act of opening a window presents you with a stark choice; either sweat a stone off your body weight, or make yourself dish of the day for the local wildlife. Hurrah, too, for the fires of youthful passion under a starry sky, and extremely selective rainclouds (with very red hair and/or extremely loud laughs)...
 And they put this in a public place! |
 This, sadly, was also in a public place |
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 Is Lucy trying to look regal, or has she just done a line? |
 ...oh. Well, she's flying now... |
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 Now everybody's doing it! |
 Well, nearly everbody. Say no to cocaine - snort bananas instead! (Incidentally, this is why photographs of me are not allowed) |
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 And while we're on the subject of unnatural acts... |
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