The imponderables of January

At first I didn’t understand why practically every payment and tax is due in January in Italy, or so it has been for me. Then I discovered that Italian workers get 13 months of pay. That last one probably goes on all these payments, although it was probably meant to give them some dough for Christmas gifts, vacations, New Year’s. So that is not imponderable, although it takes me all month to swallow how much money goes out this month even though I only get 12 checks a year.

What nibbles at my mind right now is this; is the lead singer of Tokyo Hotel female or male? Has Shakira had all boney parts replaced with nylon? If you haven’t guessed, I’ll tell you that MTV suddenly went from a noisy fog to as clear as Raidue. Not great, but watchable. It’s strange enough to hear Ozzie Osbourne speak Italian of about the same quality as his English.

It’s also strange, but explicable, to hear Colin Firth speak really good Italian. He lives here with his long-term Italian companion, so it’s normal, but considering that there loads of non-moviestar foreigners who never bother, I was impressed.

It’s still cold where the computer is and there’s nowhere warmer to move it, but I hear that next week we will have a booster station down the road and I will be able to use it to get much faster internet connections. It means I can freeze half to death for 15 minutes instead of 2 hours. I didn’t really understand the entirety of the decision to use only wood this winter. Sure, it’s decent exercise I can’t skip, but it’s a matter of hot spots and icy ones, and the phone and electricity situation the computer needs gives me two choices, both cold.

I got a lot of English language entertainment for Christmas and as a loan. It wiles away the hours. Grey’s Anatomy tops the list at this point, and I have watched all of the three seasons I have three times. Season four is still selling for too much money.

I will be going back to that beautiful apartment shortly, and I hope it will be when I celebrate my monthly diet free day so I can cook. I am thinking pasta, wine and maybe an apple so far. My mind can hardly stretch beyond that.

Eat a fish.