Restuarant tips:

Certaldo: the restaurant in the castle in the old part of town.

Monticchiello: Taverna di Moranda.

 

 

Labels: Well, we're here... I think.

[ 0 comments ]

 

February in Tuscany is surprisingly pleasant. No tourists to speak of, empty roads. It can still be hard to find a table in a hill-town restaurant, particularly at weekends. Many compensations. The strange austerity of the countryside and of course, the cool and pleasant weather. Some don’t like it too hot. Great cloudscapes too. Now those aren’t  too common in August.

 

Labels: Well, we're here... I think.

[ 0 comments ]

 I’m very interested in New York’s advertising hoardings. The humungous ones obviously,  and, also,  the ones that appear to be painted on brick walls. I haven’t yet figured out how it’s done.  I presume it’s some kind of laminate plasticky stuff that’s sprayed, or pressed, onto the brickwork. I don’t  know because I haven’t seen it being done. perhaps someone can tell me.

Here’s a particularly fine example from the Marc Jacobs campaign a year or so ago. I took it in the East Village, in the Autumn. Apart from cropping, no Photoshop. For example, The leaves were as you see them, exactly where you see them. The photo was cropped to exclude the male subject of the girl’s  affections. Nothing against him, apart from ruining the shot.  

Labels: Well, we're here... I think.

[ 0 comments ]

Aviva, the UK insurance people, have just published a list of some of their more interesting recent car claims and are asking customers to vote for their favourite. Here’s one:

‘A zebra collided with my car while I was at a Safari Park.” 

(more…)

Labels: Well, we're here... I think.

[ 0 comments ]

In the UK it was briefly: ‘Ah well, there goes another one.’ All eyes then turned away from P&O toward the next blue chip British company to fall into foreign ownership . Last month Pilkington, bought by the Japanese. Today BOC is truffled up by Linde of Germany. Who’s next? Who cares…..

In the US such laissez-fairiness is unthinkable. It matters who owns their corporations. And if you’re Chinese or Arab it matters a lot. (more…)

Labels: Let me drive....

[ 0 comments ]

It’s a no-brainer isn’t it? You go offshore to get something made more cheaply than you can at home. With luck, those goods - or services - will also be better. (more…)

Labels: Upside down, maybe?

[ 0 comments ]

Pilkington Glass, P&O, the telecoms firm O2, and Mowlem. All British companies unlikely to remain so for very much longer. In the past few days bids have gone in for all of them.

And more foreign predators are hovering around the BOC group, Cable & Wireless, Hanson, Centrica and Gallaher. Lots of activity, but not much discussion about its underlying significance. Whether what’s ‘right’ for shareholders might not be good for the long term prosperity and security of UK plc.

(more…)

Labels: Did you notice a mountain, volcano thing?

[ 0 comments ]

Every time I see George W on my TV I find myself not just listening to what he says but looking more closely at how he says it. (more…)

Labels: When was the last service?

[ 0 comments ]

On Thursday last week the British prison system was just 373 inmates short of being completely full. When it is full it’s forced, at great expense, to ask the police to keep inmates in their station cells. (more…)

Labels: When was the last service?

[ 0 comments ]

Up and nowhere seems an odd way to talk of institutions ranked 3rd and 4th respectively in a poll of the world’s best universities. (more…)

Labels: Turn Left...back there

[ 0 comments ]