September 20, 2009


  • Thankfully I have been feeling much better today, although walking is still a bit of an issue. I decided it would be better to stay at home, especially as it being Sunday means that nothing would be open. So instead of going out, I took the opportunity to watch a bit of Italian TV. I love how even watching TV now counts as “homework” as it’s “good practice”!

    Dominating the first programme I watched (a sort of Sunday chat show) was the loss of 6 Italian soldiers in Kabul. There was a debate about the so-called ‘peace campaign’ in Afghanistan. Quite interesting to see it from the perspective of another country, and clearly as this was a big loss for Italy (the biggest since they went to Afghanistan in 2004) it has provoked a massive reaction nationwide – the tricolour is flying everywhere and tomorrow there will be a huge state ceremony for the funerals, with all the major leaders present.

    Later I watched the news itself, which covered this and also the end of Ramadan (linking to it various stories such as protests against the Burkha which took place in Milan today, leaving somebody injured, and the story of a Muslim girl who was killed by her father because she was in love with an Italian). The presenter then noted that Muslims in Italy had also prayed today for the Italian soldiers killed in Afghanistan...

    Some lighter hearted items informed me that today is Sofia Loren’s birthday and that Wednesday will see the start of fashion week. There was also an item about bikes which reminded me that I need to go to the hire place to see about getting one myself while I am here...

    The news programme itself was all very odd. Some guy in his seventies was reading off sheets of paper that he was flapping around all over the place (what happened to autocue?!). He was the most uncharismatic presenter I have ever seen, and he didn’t really seem to know what was going on anyway. Perhaps the Italians love him?! Anyway, he certainly didn’t have one of the infamous Italian TV girls running around making the screen look pretty.... although he did occasionally turn to some women sitting down for more information. Quite bizarre in all respects...perhaps I was watching the wrong channel! (Our TV is fairly limited in what it will/won’t receive though).

    Oh, they also talked about swine flu/seasonal flu and a DIY kit that may be available in a few days (to see which type of flu you are suffering for), while we wait for a vaccine programme. At least after being forced to wear a mask all day in hospital yesterday (because clearly my temperature indicated flu and I was lying about not having any other symptoms...) I now have it in case I do need it at a later stage!