Still here

So I haven’t blogged in a long. Hey it’s not the “in” thing anymore. Facebook has definitely taken over the time I used to spend writing here BUT (that’s a big but) now it seems Facebook is getting old. Thank god I dropped Farmville and Mob Wars. Those games really can be addicting a take over too much of your free time. Now I’m back in my routine. Going to the gym 2 or 3 times a day and play soccer 1-3 times a week. That’s good use of my free time. Not much is new here though. I still have only 2 cats. I still have the same Italian girlfriend. I’m still in the same apartment with the same car. I feel something has to change. Change I can believe in! Oops getting too close to politics there.
There is some bad news. My pizzeria (L’Antico Sapore) closed for August and is not going to reopen, ever. It really hurt when I found this out. The place seemed to be an institution in Brindisi. It was one of the last wood fired pizza ovens. That may have been part of its downfall as it can’t be cheap to run a wood fire every night. There is oddly even a new place down on the sea that has a wood fired pizza oven and it’s a chain restaurant called “Fratelli di Bufala”. The other night I went to a new place (called “La Pizziaola”) that is now the closest pizzeria to my apartment. The pizza is actually pretty good and they have a Margherita pizza for only 2.50 Euros, which is amazing these days. The new place (new to me that is) still just doesn’t have the character like my old place. I guess nothing lasts forever. Still it makes me worry what other businesses I like that may go away unannounced. That reminds that I heard Blockbuster is gone in the USA but I think most people could see that coming a mile away. Shoot pretty soon CDs and DVDs will be a thing of the past. You’ll have everything in electronic files and streamin’ it. I remember when you had to have a cabinet for all your VHS tapes and the older and more tattered the box, the better the movie.
The good news is the Italian politics keeps me entertained. The big news this summer is one of Berlusconi’s key allies Gianfranco Fini has decided to break from PDL and this would mean that Berlusconi has lost the majority and there will be new elections. But wait!! Somehow even with “Fini and friends” leaving the party, Berlusconi still has the majority. Some say he bought, I mean found, enough Senators to just make it. And to add to the situation now there are these strange dealings that Gianfranco Fini’s brother in law did that are just now becoming public. Could it be anymore obvious that Berlusconi has been holding on to this little gem and when Fini decided to do his own thing then Berli let loose? I wouldn’t be surprised if Berli doesn’t have something on everyone!!!! And this scandal is something about a house that Fini’s brother in law may or may not own in Montecarlo and how he paid for it. It’s not even about Fini. Need I remind you that Berlusconi’s lawyer was found guilty of taking a bribe….from Berlusconi? And Berli won’t even think of stepping down for that…
All this and my poor dollar is taking a beating again. I have written in my agenda, “On July 6th TD Securities broker Shaun Osborne says that the dollar will be $1.13/ Euro on October 1st and $1.08 by the end of 2010.” I wrote this down because the article said he was the best forecaster of the currency markets and I really hoped it would come true. Well he’s WAAAYYYYY off. Back in July the dollar was around $1.21 so instead of gaining on the Euro the dollar has gone South. This is good for US exports so I can’t get too mad and it reminds me way I shouldn’t make any big purchases here in Italy.