Sad news from the world of motorsports

No, I am not going to write a post about the infamous Rossi-Marquez clash during last Sunday's race in Malaysia, for the simple fact that I really have no interest in motorcycling and everything related to it.

DARREN COX LEAVES NISSAN
The first thing I would like to talk about brings us to Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. Darren Cox, head of Nissan Motor Corporation's global Marketing and motorsports operations, has resigned after having worked there for eighteen years. Cox is the man behind the company's most recent racing efforts: global relaunch of the Nismo (Nissan Motorsports) brand; the ZEOD RC racing car that took part in the 2014 Le Mans 24 hours as a Garage 56 project; this year's World Endurance Championship LMP1-class entry; development of the GT3-spec version of the Nissan GT-R; and, last but not least, the GT Academy.
It must be said, to be objective, that their efforts in the WEC haven't exactly paid off: the GT-R LM Nismo only entered one race in the whole season, and of the three cars that took part, only one managed to cross the finish line.
Coming to the GT Academy, though, we can truly talk about a hugely successful initiative, that would turn gamers into professional racing drivers; as this is my blog, I would like to admit that I tried myself entering such competition, without getting astonishing results, which I wasn't expecting either; this is not a matter of low self-esteem, but rather of being aware of my own limits. This is not stopping me, though, from trying harder as soon as the next edition starts.
It must be said that, in a world where top-level competition has become so expensive that no one but extremely wealthy people can afford to race, this can be seen as a great opportunity to enter a high-level, factory-backed racing team, without requiring to pay such enormous fees as in, say, Formula One.
Darren Cox, to sum up, has made Nismo great. And all of us enthusiasts can only be grateful to him. And hope for a successor as good as him.

NO MORE WORLD RALLYCROSS IN ITALY?
In 2014, the FIA launched the first ever World Rallycross championship. The season also included a race at Franciacorta International Circuit near Brescia, the first race of such kind to be held in my country in at least 25 years. It proved rather successful, even though rallycross isn't exactly popular, here in Italy. I had watched a few races on TV before that, and the short, action-packed races immediately caught my interest! After seeing them live for the first time, I realised how amazing it is to see those 600bhp, four-wheel-drive hatchbacks battling sideways on half-dirt, half-tarmac tracks and decided, if there will ever be another championship round here next year, I'll be happily there! So...It happened. This year, though, for a variety of reasons, but mostly for the foggy, cold, rainy weather, it had been much less successful with the audience. But, as I had noticed a few years ago, if sideways action is what you want, then rain is one of the best allies you can possibly have. And so it was.
The problem, though, is that the 2016 WorldRX season calendar has been released a couple of days ago. And next year, there's going to be no World RX of Italy. It's been replaced by a new race in Riga, the capital city of Latvia, surely because the sport is a lot more popular up there, than it is here. Understandable, for sure. But it's making me sad. Because, if I ever wanted to meet my favourite drivers again, the nearest race is in Hockenheim. Which is in Baden-Württemberg. Which is in Germany. Anyway, if anybody ever offered me to attend the Norwegian or Swedish rounds of the championship...I simply wouldn't say no! :)
You might wonder: who are your favourite drivers? Here they are:

Andreas Bakkerud, from Norway;
Johan Kristoffersson, from Sweden;
Also from Sweden, my very favourite one, even though she hasn't had yet all the luck she deserves; the stunningly beautiful Ramona Karlsson. I've met her last year, was looking forward to meeting her again this year, but she hasn't raced due to health problems. Would be nice if I could meet her again. Lycka till! ♥

Do I really look older than I actually am?

It happened again. Last night, another person, after seeing me for the first time, was struggling to believe that my actual age is, in fact, 21. So, how old are you? More than 25, I guess, she said. WHAT??????
NO, I AM JUST 21, was my answer. You're lying, was her reaction. Struggling myself not to eff her off, I closed the argument with a Need further proof? Here is my ID!
She refused.
CASE CLOSED.
Frankly, it's not uncommon to hear from strangers that I actually look older than my 21 years of age. In terms of personality, many people have always considered me quite a bit more mature than most of my classmates and people of my same age; I have, in fact, been kind of very serious and not very playful since my childhood (to make an example, I have always hated cartoons and watched documentaries and action films instead), but as far as looks are concerned, I looked exactly like a child of that age.
Now, though, in my early twenties...my seriousness is partly lost (but mostly, it's still there!), but why should one think I am at least 25 just by looking at me? Maybe I should stop worrying about that and look at the positive side of the thing: if I look older than 21, I probably also look wiser and more mature than the average 21-year old. And, considering what some people of my acquaintance have become, I wouldn't really mind if it were so! :D

In photo, me at the age of 9 months vs. 20 years old. Not that I have changed so much...

How I fell in love with the English language

So...here we come to the long-awaited moment in which I explain how I fell in love with English, and why we will live happily ever after!
In order to thoroughly understand my situation, we must go back to when it all started, that is pretty early in my life, around 5-6 years of age: back then, I remember that I had learned a couple of very simple words and their meaning, and repeated them in front of everyone who, in my opinion, might have been interested. That, if I'm honest, was really uncommon among children of my age, and it made me feel - how can I say? - cool and awesome (can't think of more fitting words than those!) in front of the adults (who clearly appreciated it) and my classmates who, instead, considered me as the usual annoying nerdy and asocial boy - but that's another story.
Then I arrived to the second year of primary school (7 years of age), when, finally, English became a regular subject of my studies.
Back then, my curiosity was simply unbelievable, and that gave me a lot of motivation to take that language seriously, helped by the fact that my teacher was very good, and she even wanted us to call her teacher instead of maestra (the Italian equivalent), thus giving us a taste of what a serious language class should be: trying to communicate as much as possible in the language that's the subject of the lesson.
An even deeper immersion came with the middle school, thanks to another excellent teacher (who also held the German classes I liked so much): starting with the second year, we even had a few lessons with native speakers, namely Janet from the UK and Dritan, an American of Albanian descent. That left me with a good knowledge level, after the final exam; there has even been a time when my English grades were substantially higher than those in Italian! (Seriously! That was because of my Italian teacher, it's not making me a bad Italian speaker!)
Then came the secondary school years; we can basically divide this period in two parts, the first two years and the other three.
In my first and second year, I had been so unlucky that I had had quite possibly the worst English teacher in the world: a woman who was more interested in treating a class of teenagers as if we were Kindergarten children, which is bloody annoying, and also wasn't doing much in terms of favouring the use of English during her classes; in fact, she was speaking Italian all the time, and even when she decided to watch a movie with us, her choice went for Pirates of the Caribbean. DUBBED IN ITALIAN. How pointless is that?????
On the other hand, she acknowledged that my level was much higher than my classmates', which left her wondering whether I had any English teachers or native speakers in my family. Which I don't. In fact, I think I am the only one in my family who can speak English on a good level; my sister has been studying that for years too, but I never had a chance to have a chat with her! (And we still live together with mum and dad. Whose English begins at coffee and ends at thank you.)
From third year onwards, things improved. Dramatically.
My new teacher was really doing everything that was in her power to make us realise how important it is for us to speak English, especially as I was specialising in information technology and EVERYTHING related to computers is in English. She was also giving us motivation, pushing us to do our best. And while most of us understood her efforts and paid her off, others were simply too closed in their mentality and too careless (but that's not my cup of tea, neither is it my teacher's fault). We also had a mother-tongue lecturer, a Scotsman named Alasdair, who simply...wasn't as serious as he ought to be, but that wasn't stopping me from doing my best and getting equally good results.
At the end of the fourth year, I got the PET language certificate (92% was my final score), whereas at the beginning of the fifth and final year, I spent a week with school in Winchester, Hampshire, with a host family.
My host family was a mid-aged couple, both of whom are retired teachers. On the day I'd arrived, something really surprised them: my English, of course!
We've had a long chat, talking about various topics, from education to cars to taxation in Italy, and they were pleased to hear that an 18-year old had interest in such a wide range of topics! In that occasion, I also started building one of the pillars upon which my continuous improvement of English is based: watching a certain TV show that goes by the name of Top Gear. Yes, you might have already spotted the fact that I am a great fan of Jeremy Clarkson, but really, when I began watching that show with such interest and good will to improve, my motivation really got a massive boost! I have learned more by watching TV shows and films in a few months than many other people have in several years, but that's another story...
Having scored 15 points out of 15 in my final English test, I confidently entered university and, on my very first semester...guess what was one of my core subjects?
The English course was divided into three modules, of which the grammar module was held by a native speaker from Australia. Needless to say, the Aussie was also impressed, and when came the time to take the grammar exam, I completed my test in less than 19 minutes. Out of 45 available. Scoring 30 points out of 30. With a classmate who even asked me to help him cheating on the test by saying I know who you are and I am close friends with your sister (I can only think of one fitting word for this kind of person. Except it is the C-word and it is extremely rude to use it.)
30/30 also was the average score of the other two English tests, as well as, predictably, my final score.
More recently, my Erasmus experience gave me a lot of satisfaction: many people were so impressed with my accent, they even struggled to believe that I was an Italian! (Not one thing that could be said of the other Italian students I met in Salzburg. And they were simply too many.) That was just the beginning of a series of amazing friendships which I want to last for many years to come.
At this point, how could I possibly forget to mention that, when I first entered into contact with a young racing enthusiast (and regular reader of this blog) from Sweden, she immediately pointed out that my English is very good for an Italian? I do realise that, unfortunately, we are widely acknowledged as generally bad English speakers all around Europe (the exact opposite of the Scandinavians, to be brutally honest), but so many people who acknowledge me as the opposite...well, that's a big personal pride!
Now, it's fair to say that this is not just a chronicle of my relationship with my favourite school subject ever; I'd rather call it a love story. A story that I want to last. Forever.
And, if I may, I can't think of a language that sounds more attractive than British English.

Being in an in-love-with-Great-Britain sort of mood, how could I not choose my usual closing photos accordingly?
From above: a typical Cotswolds village, the Goodwood House near Chichester, West Sussex, the town of Oban, in Scotland, Suzanne Stoddart's birthplace, and the Black Mountain Pass in Wales.

My relationship with foreign languages

My dear friends,
I am now here writing about foreign languages. Don't you think, however, that this is going to be some sort of linguistics lesson! I'm absolutely not qualified for that kind of things!
What I am qualified to talk about, however, is my personal experience with languages other than my native Italian. In my opinion, it is very important, for a young person at least, to embrace a global-minded philosophy which, predictably, implies the knowledge of at least one language other than their own native one. At the moment, I can speak two of them: English, which I have been studying for many years, and German, which I encountered later with much enthusiasm; and honestly, I am so enthusiastic about speaking German that I have chosen to do my Erasmus in Austria!
Of course, my nature says three languages aren't enough for you! You should do more!
Don't worry, I have already started to try learning some Swedish (coincidence? I think not!), which may or may not be useful in my future (I'm hoping for the former, by the way!), and my dream would be to learn Japanese as well, always for the sake of being a great fan of Japanese sports cars and visiting related events.
Of all the above mentioned languages, though, only one is worthy of a special mention, a mention as special as the relationship between me and that idiom; but that will be revealed tomorrow!
Pictured below: the Hohensalzburg fortress in Salzburg, Austria.

Dedicated to my readers

My dear readers and friends,
My first week of blogging is now over. Of course, this has been just the first week of a long adventure, in which you will all get to know me better than you already do, even if you think you know me well enough, there will always be some traits and shades of my personality that you weren't even suspecting! :) (all of which are nice things, don't worry!)
I have already started planning some of the topics I will treat in my next posts, but I don't like spoilers, so...stay tuned, it's just matter of a few days!
Looking at the stats, the top five countries by number of contacts are Italy, the USA, Russia, Sweden and Britain, and I'm more than satisfied with the number of contacts, which has been more or less steady during the week.
What makes me happy, most of all, is the fact that I already started receiving compliments from my regular readers, and that's exactly the kind of thing that gives you motivation, that persuades you to do more and better; thank you, from the bottom of my heart!
All things considered, I promise that I won't disappoint you with my upcoming contents, and if there's something you didn't really like, just let me know; a little criticism never killed nobody! :D
To close this post, I have chosen this picture of a bridge at sunset; I don't remember where it has been taken exactly, as it's not my work, but it puts me in a good mood. And that's exactly why my choice went for it.

A happy weekend

Time to make a little balance. Yesterday, as I have told you, I visited one of Europe's largest classic car exhibitions, and, honestly...couldn't really understand what all the fuss was about. Not that it has been a complete disappointment, but still, it's a bit far from what I would call exciting. I have been to several other similar exhibitions before, and after reading a lot about this one and its previous editions, I wasn't really expecting to see that most of the exhibitors (at least, the Italian ones) were pretty much the same as anywhere else; there were lots of cars on sale: cars of every kind (small family saloons, hot hatches, convertibles, sports coupes, big luxury cars...) and price range (from a few grand to a million euros and more), but there were so many things you couldn't see them all in just one day! And of all the cars on show, which were considerably less than those on sale, none of them really caught my eye, as I had already had the opportunity to see them in other occasions (and not just on static display!).
Today, though, I woke up after a good sleep, happy and healthy, and the second thing I did was...helping mum with making some kind of cake! It's one thing that always puts me in a good mood, just like cooking anything else! And, hopefully, it's going to taste as good as it looks!
But I must not forget that, however good it's going to be, I shall not eat too much of that or my fitness efforts will be pointless :D (and as you know, I'm very happy with my fitness efforts as they are starting to pay off!)
That said, I wish you all a happy and pleasant Sunday and...catch you up tomorrow! New week, new contents!

Week goals and weekend plans

Another week is coming to its end. A week full of satisfaction, indeed! At university, nothing special happened, except that the trains were late every single morning...but in eight years of commuting I realised that it's pretty normal; enormously annoying, but normal, down here!
My fitness plans are also going quite well: this week I achieved my goal of training for five days in a row, and also found out that I have lost 3,7kg in ten days! That boosted my motivation!
Now, my weekend plans: the local historic motoring club, of which dad is a member, has organised a trip to Padova, where we will visit one of Europe's largest classic motoring shows: in the past few years, there have been some pretty awesome cars on show, like the Audi Sport quattro (pictured below on a frozen lake in Sweden with 1984 World Rally champion, Stig Blomqvist; please note, in case you didn't know, that I am an Audi hater, when it comes to the new ones, but like very much those rally cars from the '80s!)
I am pretty sure that I won't be able to post anything tomorrow; updates will probably come on Sunday. Speaking of which, I think I will go for my usual drive in the afternoon; in the evening, Skype chat with a dear friend from England!
I'm leaving very early tomorrow, so, my dear readers, have a good Friday night and enjoy your weekend! :)

The pleasure of driving

As you might have spotted from yesterday's post, I am extremely proud of being one of the few remaining young people who still enjoy the pleasure of driving a car. According to my parents, as well as many other people who are at least a decade older than me, back in the olden days, the most eagerly awaited moment in a teenager's life was their eighteenth birthday, for the simple fact that it meant becoming an adult and, therefore, being able to apply for the driving licence.
Throughout the years, I've had the opportunity to see many sports and racing cars, but sadly, never had the opportunity to drive one. Clearly, I wouldn't miss it if anyone ever let me do so! What I can tell for sure, is that one of my favourite leisure activities, if not my very favourite one, is taking my car on a Sunday afternoon and going for a drive on the hills! I like that kind of roads, twisty, narrow, where all you need to have fun is a car that handles well, even without having much power! (Mine has less than 85hp, and it's a small hatchback, which is absolutely not meant to be a performance car in the first place!) That said, I can confirm that if I ever had the opportunity to attack a mountain road (pictured, Black Mountain Pass in Wales, UK) in my favourite rally car ever (early model Subaru Impreza WRC), even if it has quite a lot of power (around 300bhp, more than three times as much as I'm used to and with two more driven wheels)...It would really feel like heaven!!!

Foggy weather (and its implications)

So...here we are, on a typical autumn day in Pavia! Many people joke about this fact, by saying that this town, as well as its surroundings, in this season, feel more like they are in England, rather than Italy! I must say that I have been to England twice: the first one in 2012, as part of a project endorsed by my secondary school, that involved spending a week of late September in the beautiful town of Winchester, Hampshire, attending language lessons and brief internships at local businesses: I had been placed in an estate agency, and liked it! Considering the season, the weather wasn't much worse than it usually is down here: rather cold, foggy, rainy; business as usual! The second time was in 2014: to attend the amazing Festival of Speed in Goodwood, West Sussex; an event I still fondly remember for a variety of reasons and I hope I'll be able to attend it again! It was the last week of June...but I wasn't really expecting to mostly have sun on the four days of the event! (A small sprinkle of rain came in the last day...While I was on my way to the hotel, so...)

Anyway, back to the lousy weather concerns: the thing I hate the most, when the weather's not good (and it happens often, down here...) is that EVERYONE WHO'S DRIVING LOSES THEIR MIND AND EVEN IF THEY HAVE HAD THEIR BLOODY LICENCE FOR THIRTY YEARS THEY STILL START DRIVING AS IF THEY WERE LEARNERS. And that annoys me.

It may be needless to say, but I am one of the few young people who still enjoy the pleasure of driving, regardless of the weather. Of course, I do realise that it is safe to reduce your speed if you drive under a downpour (and I always do so), but doing 60km/h on a road with a limit of 90, just because it's starting to pour? It's a bit excessive, don't you think?

That said, I have never experienced road rage incidents and always drive as safe as possible. 

Closing, here are a couple of photos of Pavia in the fog: quite a common sight to me, but if that's stopping you from visiting it...be aware that in my opinion, it's part of its charm (on the other hand, has anybody ever thought that London is an uninteresting place just because of its weather?)

Postcards, part 2

I admit I slightly cocked up my blog over the last few hours...that means I accidentally deleted my last post! Don't worry, it's coming back!
Here are my two favourite postcards ever! They are so special to me that, instead of keeping them in a box or indeed, anywhere out of my sight, I've put them on display on the shelf above the desk in my bedroom! ☺
Above: the town of Salzburg, where I spent five months on Erasmus (will be back on that topic later); sent to my family by me.
Below: the harbour in Gothenburg, Sweden, by night; sent to me by a dear friend who lives there!

Postcards

Here I come, now talking about my recently found love for...postcards! Now, in a time when the social media are replacing, at an impressively fast pace, the traditional means of communication, it might seem a bit old-fashioned that a 21-year old still likes that! It's more than that, actually: let me put it straight, I use and appreciate all of the most popular Internet services, but I think that letting a friend know that you have been to a particular place by means of a postcard has an entirely different meaning than doing so with, say, Snapchat or Instagram; a card is something that's supposed to be kept, to be preserved, and has a load of feelings that no social network will ever be able to replicate. Of course, as this is just my personal opinion, I respect everyone who thinks otherwise!
Talking of postcards, I have found a nice collection on this website (their origin is no coincidence!)
No pictures to end this post, I would have posted one of my collection of cards...but I won't! :D
See you all tomorrow!

A good read

Hello, my dear readers!
As you might expect, I like starting my days with a good read during the journey from home to university! A couple of days ago I finished reading Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy for the second time, by far my favourite novel series ever, as well as the one that sparked my interest in Swedish crime thrillers, or rather, pretty much everything related to Sweden! Now, though, I'm taking a little break from thrillers by moving on to another of my favourite journalists and writers:
Jeremy Clarkson. Yes, that one! Specifically, I'm reading the latest of his books, What could possibly go wrong..., a collection of car reviews, written in his own style, which you may love or hate...I personally think it's funny, a bit vulgar and inappropriate sometimes, but entertaining nevertheless! On my first year of university I had to take an English exam, which also involved analysing a text, and I opted for his review of the Nissan GT-R, one of the things you dreams are made of! (Never driven one, though)
Pictured: the city of Stockholm, one of the places I am definitely looking forward to seeing!

Hello!

Following advice from several people...here I am, starting my own blog! If you know me, then you won't be surprised by the contents I will post; if you don't, let me (briefly) introduce myself! I am 21 years old, live in a very, very small town in northern Italy and I'm currently a Communication Studies student at the University of Pavia. On this blog I will talk about a very wide range of topics, being interested in such a variety of things, from my great love for thriller novels (the Swedish ones, especially), motorsports (rally, rallycross, GT/endurance racing), cars in general (you will get to know about my penchant for Japanese sports cars...), as well as travelling, good food, current affairs, and, why not?, even my everyday life! I will post exclusively in English, so that everyone (well, almost...) can read!
Hope I haven't already bored you without even starting! :D
See you soon at my next post!
Faithfully Yours,
Tommaso

(To The left, Swedish racing driver Johan Kristoffersson, I am the shorter one to the right! Photo taken yesterday at Franciacorta International Circuit, During the WorldRX of Italy)