Memoirs of London - 15

15.

Chapter Three 
Leicester Square 

In the  morning, right in that day,  when all the white collars and secretaries in London were already at work, as previously agreed, I called  the Office to find out what would have been my place of work. Lucky gave me a hand: Jim, the guy who led a great selling point had forfeited the day before and that  made  vacant the position he occupied in one of the most important squares around the West End. 

When I got to the shop in Leicester Square I introduced myself to  an  Eastern Arab manager whose  name was Ibrahim.  He gave  a careless glance at my badge and  showed me my positon the back of the store, where I found the machine "Carpigiani", the milk to make the ice-cream, the  cones and some chocolate bars they called flakes to be served as "optionals" squeezed in the cream on top of the ice cream cone.

 In addition I had provided, right next to the ice cream machine, a dispenser with two trays, one for the orange juice and the other for the lemonade that I made it myself with running water and concentrated juice.

 Taken up position at the front of the store and, proud in my white apron, I began my new adventure of ice cream seller  in the Brian Brook Company.

Leicester Square is a square not far from Piccadilly Circus. You get access from there through  two short but commercially important streets: Coventry Street and New Coventry Street.

In the way to the wide  Trafalgar Square, instead, heading south, all  around the National Gallery, in a street called St Martin,  there is another special category of street's traders: the itinerant painters!

Students from the Academy of fine arts in London and from  the High  Artistic schools around the world, amateurs, skilful men  in the art of painting and portraiture; young emerging artists and old decayed artists; aspiring artists or assumed, all converge in this corner of London to offering passers-by the result of their inspiration onto canvas, for a fee that can range from a few pounds for a portrait or a caricature done right there, to much more  expensive  portraits in different  styles and subjects, with the hope  to leave to his descendants  maybe the equivalent of a Van Gogh. Although few tourists, to be honest, had the courage and the business acumen to invest and bet on the pictorial talent of those strangers, anonymous exhibitors;  and not least, it is certain that everyone, including the merely curious, breathed some fresh air authentically Bohemian because, beyond the artistic value of those painters not sedentary, passers-by were to appreciate the skill, ease and freedom with which they expressed in their art their existential anxieties, actual or alleged that they were.   In the more immediate vicinity of Leicester Square there are plenty of  box offices, theaters, pubs, discos, restaurants, clubs, bars and nightspots, bureaux de change and clothing stores; the latter, mostly, are the property of Indian and Pakistani traders, open seven days a week, from nine in the morning until late at night. The presence of several offices of the change machine was a safe attestation of cosmopolitan  London especially for the attraction made to foreigner visitors by this place.
.. to be continued...

Memoirs of London - 3

Working upside of the factory meant an improvement of my mood.

At least I had multiple company.

The Egiptyan guys made a club on their own but the Italians, were an open group.

They were all friendly and nice though outside the factory they had different acquaintances on their own.

There were really some special characters among them.

Arturo, for instance, looked like he were  out of his mind. And actually he was.

Someone told me he had taken too much of lysergic acid ( I never knew if it had been a wrong pill or taking too many pills on the going  time, which got him out of tune for ever).

He worked hardly, nonetheless. he was a sort of stakanovist worker, cause it seemed that his mind could only see the job, with no distraction at all. Only he seemed out of context, except for the strict connections in the chain production.

- "Trolley"- he used to shout very often, showing he needed more pizzas to get inside the oven.

He was a thin, spirited man with hallucinated eyes, almost out of their orbits. He wore a long pendoulos earring which had extended his right lobe;he had small teeth with smoked stains that he showed all the time in a strange, almost silly smile. I never heard him make a meaningful speech though he was still nice and jovial with everybody.He appeared to be happy, but of that kind of happiness producede by the vacuum of your mind.

Also Natale was a kind boy but in a different way. Although he was smoked all the time he never failed a reasoning and was  very brilliant and emphatic in conversation. Like Arturo he had different acquaintances outside the factory. He had two great loves: motobikes and smoke. They have led him to the end too soon.

Erminio and Marco instead were very close friends. They were both from Rome though, as I discovered in the following, they had knew each other in London and showed up to be a very different characters. Marco was a tall and slouching figure, with sweet, brown  eyes and very calm manners; Erminio was quiet a low man, yet strong and well proportionated; he had a clever, quick look in his eyes; he showed to be a nice rogue later on.

Franco was the third good Italian friend of theirs. He was from  Genoa or may be from some other place in Liguria. It was he who told me, later on, when we became close friends, that they had thought I was escaping from someone or something, since I had that long, thick beard and did not talk to anyone but old Jim downstairs.

Marco was the first who approached me, a couple of days after ascending the factory's floor.

- "Do you want to take part to Erminio's present for his next birthday?- he asked me at lunch time.

-" Yes, of course, I do!"- I answered nodding. In my shyness I was happy someone was talking to me.

-" Very pleased!" - he added. " I'll let you know your share. We're going to ask Natale for a small hashish quantity or some green grass. He likes very much smoking good stuff and Natale he's a good pusher"- he added  keep on managing for his lunch. 

- "Do you want a pizza for yourself?" - he asked after a while.

- "Yes, thanks; it's very kind of you!"

He was very skillful handling upside.

After a couple of days, when it was supposed to be the Erminio's anniversary, I asked Marco how much money I had to give for the common present. He smiled at me and told me Natale didn't want any money for a good piece of black pakistani he had presented to Erminio himself.

- " Why don't you come alone this evening? We have a party in my place, for Erminio, 'you know?"

He gave me the adress and I decided to go. Though I was not interested in smoking (as a matter of fact I   had never smoked at all any other thing but cigarettes) I decided to go to the party. 

When I arrived it seemed the party was already going at his top. A girl opened the door and I only said "Erminio", or some words with it. She let me in with a smile and told me to follow her. I entered a large room. There were a lot of people over there. It was all much unconventional, with people sat on the floor or lying in the carpet which occupied the centre of the room. Every body was drinking, smoking  and  laughing. I could not see Marco or anyone known. The girl who had introduced me told she was going  upstairs. I notice some going up and down from the stairs.  I took a sit in a sofa closed by the central carpet.

There was a lot of smoke inside and a pleasant yet tough smell. All around  I could see some people passing each other a strange cigarette.

Everyone, after aspiring deeply once or twice,  passed it away to the next, often   without looking at; it was a mechanical gesture, though all the rest seemed so spantaneous and natural.

I wondered if I was also going to  be passed it and what  would do in that case.

Without thinking too much on it I decided to do as the others. It was not way to break the chain and there was no reason to do differently.

After smoking in that voluptous and fast way I've already tried to describe I start hearing a soft music an the background; I also could hear a cheerful murmur of voices that I didn't heard before.

I started focussing around me; I could realize and appreciate some particulars did not noticed before: the dress colors; some  funny expressions of face; strange movements of the bodies on the carpet; tune of voices; but all in astounding way, as if everything was slowed by a camera.

I felt my throat was dry and I decided to go upstairs; I was hoping to find my friends and something to drink. I found both things upstairs.

"Come and see Erminio"- told me Marco after serving a frsh glass of beer.

We went to a small sleeping room; there were two bunk beds at the side of the room; I sat in  the lower right bed. In front of me I saw Erminio; he cheered me laughing and gave me to light a smoking thing he had in his hands: - This is from Natale, 'you know? Can you light for me, please?"

So I did, and I passed it straight to him after  a quick shot.

Then I lay in the bed. I woke up the  day after, which  was a saturday. I only remember a lot of laughing and a great sleep. 

3. to be continued...

When scientist must shout

The overwhelming consensus among climate scientists is that human-caused climate change is happening. Yet a fringe minority of our populace clings to an irrational rejection of well-estabilished science. This virulent strain of anti-science infects the halls of Congress, the pages of leading  newpapers  and what we see in TV , leading to the appearance of a debate where none should exist.

In fact, there is broad agreement among climate scientists not only that climate change is real, (a survey and a review of the scientific literature published say about 97 percent agree) but that we must respond to the dangers of a warming planet. If one is looking for real differences among mainstream scientists, they can be found on two fronts: the precise implications of those higher temperatures, and which technologies and policies offer the best solution to reducing, on a global scale, the emission of greenhouse gases.

For example, should we go full-bore on nuclear power? Invest in and deploy renewable Energy – wind, solar and geothermal – on a huge scale? Price carbon emissions through cap-and-trade legislation or by imposing a carbon tax? Until the public fully understands the danger of our present trajectory, those debate are likely to continue to founder.

This is where scientists come in. In my view, it is no longer acceptable for scientists to remain on the sidelines. I had no choice but to enter the fray. I was hounded by elected officials, threatened with violence and more, after a single study I co-wrote a decade and a half ago found that the Northern Hemisphere’s average warmth had no precedent in at least the past 1,000 years. Back in 2003, when asked in a Senate hearing to comment on a metter of policy, I risponded that “I am not a specialist in public policy” And it would not “be useful for me to testify on that.” It is not an uncommon view among scientists that we potentially compromise our objectivity if we choose to wade into policy matters or the societal implications of our work. But there is nothing inappropriate about drawing on our scientific knowledge to speak out about the very real implications of our research.

If scientists choose not to engage in the public debate, we leave a vacuum that will be filled by those whose agenda is one of short-term self-in-terest. In fact, it would be an abrogation of our responsibility to society if we remained quiet in the face of such a grave threat.

How will history judge us if we watch the threat unfold before our eyes, but fail to comunicate the urgency of acting to avert potential disaster? How would I explain to the future children of my 8-year-old daughter that their grandfather saw the threat, but didn’t speak up in time?

Michael E. Mann from International NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/if-you-see-something-say-something.html?_r=0
If you want to know more about Distinguish Professor Michael E. Mann and about the subject please go to the link below

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/michael-mann-climate-change-deniers-must-stop-distorting-150312836.html?.tsrc=Yahoo

You can also found an italian translation by Angelo Ruggeri in the blog: http//albixpoeti.blog.tiscali.it

10 Spanish Words Kids Learn from Watching Dora the Explorer

Pint-sized, animated seven-year-old Dora Marquez has been coming into living rooms since 2000, teaching children her signature blend of morality, adventure, and Spanish vocabulary words via the hit cartoon series Dora the Explorer. As one of the most successful children’s shows on television today, Dora the Explorer has generated an estimated three billion dollars in merchandise around the world and won the hearts of a generation. If your little one is a Dora fan, here are 10 of the Spanish words he’s likely to learn from her.

1. “¡Hola!” – This friendly greeting, which translates to “hello!” in English, is one of the many words that kids pick up from the gregarious Dora.
2. “Amigos” – Dora’s friends, or “amigos,” are by her side through all of her many adventures, helping her to achieve her goals and complete her quests. Boots the Monkey is Dora’s best amigo, offering his assistance in solving puzzles and figuring out clues.
3. “la Familia” – From her cousins Diego the Animal Rescuer, Daisy, and Alicia, to her beloved Mami and Papi, Dora Marquez’s family is a big part of her life. Diego has proven to be such a popular member of Dora’s familia that he became the star of his own show, Go, Diego, Go! in 2005.
4. “Abuela” – Abuela, Dora’s grandmother, is featured prominently in the show as Dora visits her often. Because Abuela is Mami’s mother, she isn’t Diego, Alicia and Daisy’s grandmother; Abuela is one of the recurring characters popular enough to be the subject of merchandising in the form of toys and books set in the Dora universe. While kids learn the Spanish word for their own grandmothers, they’re also learning a bit about family dynamics and relationships.
5. “las Estrellas” – Spanish for “stars,” Backpack’s Star Pocket stars are referred to as Estrellas on many occasions. Kids also learn the Spanish word “¡delicioso!” from Backpack, who receives items placed inside with the phrase, “Yum yum yum yum yum, ¡delicioso!”
6. “¡Espera!” – The Spanish word for “wait” appears in Dora’s vocabulary quite often, ostensibly because rushing headlong into her many adventures would be reckless. Children that are big fans of Dora are likely to learn “espera” early on, and use it often.
7. “Azul” – The first Spanish word taught to English-speaking audiences by Dora the Explorer was “azul,” which means “blue” in Spanish. This word began Dora’s tradition of helping kids learn basic vocabulary along with the action verbs that are her trademark, seamlessly integrating Spanish words in a way that helps kids who are already learning basic language skills absorb foreign words alongside more familiar ones.
8. “¡Lo hicimos!” – English-speaking parents are often baffled by the phrase uttered in Dora the Explorer theme song; kids know that she’s crooning “¡Lo hicimos!” which means “we did it!” “Swiper, no swiping, Swiper, no swiping (oh, man!) Dora the Explorer, ¡lo hicimos!”
9. “¡Cuidado!” – Another cautionary word from our tiny, animated adventurer, “¡Cuidado!” loosely translates to “look out!” It’s no surprise that Dora and her amigos need to warn each other, as they traverse the landscape to complete one quest after another.
10. “¡Vamonos!” – “Let’s go,” indeed! Dora spends a lot of her time on the go, and teaches all of her viewers that speak English as a first language how to get people moving, too. In addition to teaching kids the importance of doing the right thing and helping those in need, Dora’s enthusiasm for seeking out physically active adventures emphasizes the importance of getting off the couch and into the world. Dora Marquez definitely doesn’t subscribe to a sedentary way of life!

Dora, along with her best friend Boots, cousin Diego, and the antagonist Swiper have starred in more than 140 episodes of Nick Jr.’s highly-rated series, and have helped millions of children around the world acquire second language skills. Interestingly enough, Dora only helps children in English-speaking countries learn Spanish; in other countries, she’s accepted as an American girl, with the majority of dialogue in the country’s native language and her Spanish-language beats substituted for English.

P. S. This post was  proposed to me for publication by Carol Watson.   I'm therefore publishing it by her invitation and under her permission. See also the link below fore more information:



 http://www.nationalnannies.com/blog/10-spanish-words-kids-learn-from-watching-dora-the-explorer/

Caput Mundi

I'm staying in Rome for a couple of days. Actually I came over for my daughter's Key-Pop flash mob: something which has to do with Korea and Korean contemporary music; nevertheless it's always a pleasure to be in Rome: yet you get too much hot, too much confusion, sometimes even people cheating on giving the wrong change of the money (and that's big shame for Italy e for the Italian people; as usual, a few cheaters make the impression of all Italians being like that; but obviously that's not the truth).

As for the weather you can defend yourself entering one of the many churches; through which you also win over the confusion: being or not a believer you can stay sit down for ten minutes watching the pictures at the walls or meditating on the meaning of the life; as for the cheaters you can be careful when shoppers give back your money on change: check it out very carefully and don't be ashamed to make them notice the mistake; they will just apologize to you.

I'm guest by one of the most ancient hotels in the centre of Rome, in front of the Basilique of Santa Maria degli Angeli, a splendid Church not very far from Colosseum and Fori Imperiali Sight.

For the rest Rome is still very fascinating: one of the best towns in the world if not the very best one: Caput Mundi, as matter of fact.