Twenty quick facts about me

I'm baaaaaack!!!!!
Tell the truth: were you all thinking I could have given up with my blog? Well, I haven't! I have decided to come back with twenty quick facts about me! (Maybe a couple more than that...)
Let's start now!
Full name:
Tommaso Zurli
Birthday:
31 May. Will be my 22nd this year, so...
Languages:
Native Italian speaker. Fluent in English and German. Trying to learn Swedish.
Do you like travelling?
Absolutely yes! Would do it more than once a year...If I could!
Countries you've been to:
Spent five months in Austria last spring as an Erasmus student: loved it! Also been to Spain once, England twice, driven through France, been a couple of times to Germany and Switzerland, one week in the Czech Republic.
Most beautiful places you've been to?
Salzburg, Vienna, Munich, London, the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex.
Dream holiday?
Sweden först och främst! Norway would be equally great, just like Australia and New Zealand. Also, wouldn't mind a third (fourth, fifth...) trip to the UK.
Favourite books?
The Millennium trilogy by S. Larsson.
Favourite TV shows?
Top Gear (the original British one!) and Morden i Sandhamn.
Favourite colours?
Blue and yellow.
Favourite food?
All kinds of fish and seafood.
Favourite sports?
To practice, gym training, cycling and trekking. To watch, rallycross, rallying and endurance racing.
Favourite drivers?
Petter Solberg, Andreas Bakkerud, Colin McRae, Kimi Räikkönen, Ramona Karlsson...and many more.
Dream cars?
Nissan GT-R Nismo, Subaru Impreza WRC, or even pretty much everything built to RX Supercar regulations! (600bhp, four-wheel drive, 0-100 km/h in less than 2 seconds!)
What kind of person are you?
It's not always easy to become friends with me! It all depends on how one approaches me, and if I find them interesting in any way, like having common interests and so on. Once I get along with someone, I always tend to put a lot of energy in our friendship, caring a lot about the other, trying to be as helpful as possible, listening as much as I can...and it usually works! I almost always know what I'm doing, and if I set myself a goal I really care about, no one will ever make me change my mind! I've always been a nerd. I love reading. I hate fashion. I will never be stylish. I don't care about style!
Love stories?
Might sound a bit embarrassing, but...I haven't had one yet! Nor am I in love with any girl, at the moment. There might be one I kinda like, but nothing serious! (Before you start wondering, she lives not far from here)
Blondes or brunettes? You prefer...
Blondes! And redheads.
The first thing you look at, in a girl?
Everything has to start with the eyes, then the rest of her face. Everything else is less important. But her personality is foremost.
Would you get married?
Of course I would! I'd also love to have one or two children.
Any nasty habits?
Well...I don't drink or smoke, but my worst habit is to hate on people who've been mean to me.
Got anything else to say?
At the moment, no!
A final greeting, before closing?
Lycka till, mina kära vänner!

Things I have learnt in one and a half year on Instagram (plus something else)

Ah, this week...
All the courses and modules in this semester have come to an end, so this week I am completely free! Before you start thinking that's awesome!, please keep in mind that, for me, there is nothing as boring as having nothing to do and staying at home!
I have, then, decided to write a new post. Something funny, not serious! So here we are.
The subject I have chosen is Instagram, the popular, photo-based social networking service. 
For a long time I thought Instagram to be absolute rubbish; but then, some friends persuaded me, and I joined it in August 2014.
Almost one and a half year after opening my own profile, I can say I have learnt a thing or two about the people who populate such network. Some of them, like the enormous number of fake profiles, are pretty obvious. Others aren't.
Here are the funniest ones, according to me: (NO DISCRIMINATION INTENDED!)

• As a social network, it doesn't offer much, in terms of actual communication between members, but still, some very good (amazing, actually...) friendships have started from there;
• There is a huge number of people around my age who still have an interest in cars and racing, a lot more than I expected, but still less than the bloody hipsters (and then they wonder why I hate fashion...). Of those racing enthusiasts, the majority seem to be girls, which is not bad at all (unless you are a sexist twat);
• Most of the above mentioned girls seem to be Swedish or, more generally, Scandinavian (other not bad thing);
• There are people who look like they are kind of obsessed with my profile: they like every single thing I post, from beautiful landscapes to nerdy stuff, EVERYTHING! And they are girls, so...can it be that they are secretly in love with me? :D (one of them is 6 years younger than me, so I definitely hope NOT; the others...I have no idea!);
• #throwbackthursday is a nice thing to me;
• The algorithm they use to give you suggestions for the people to follow is RUBBISH, as it thinks I might be interested in following footballers, socialites like Kim Kardashian and, even worse, MALE FASHION BLOGGERS! Can't possibly find anything farther from my tastes and interests;
• Last, but not least: those who kindly asked me to open an Instagram profile, promising that they would have followed me...well, they've been the first to ignore me! Okay.

Having discussed my Instagram experience, I would also like to talk a little about music: in the last few weeks, (too) many people in Italy have strongly criticised British singer Adele, whose new single, Hello, had just been released. It seemed as if, in those people's opinions, Adele had reached the lowest possible point, in terms of quality, in the whole of international music. First of all, I think that, while she is not my favourite singer and I do realise that her songs are not the happiest of them all, she is not as bad a singer as they want us to believe! To me, the lowest point in music has been reached by those extremely successful (an undeserved success, I believe) wanna-be rappers, the most influent of whom is the one who is also a judge on the Italian edition of The X Factor. If you are Italian, then you certainly know who I am referring to. If you are not, don't even bother: they REALLY are rubbish!

Weird dreams

It's not the first time, nor will it be the last one. Last night, after having watched Fjällbackamorden, I was having a very good sleep. Then, all at a sudden, I started to dream. A strange one.
Let me describe it.
I was attending a high-profile rallycross event on what appeared to be an improvised track (seriously? Professionals racing on an improvised track in world-class cars? Can't be real! And it wasn't.)
A heat was about to start, and one of the teams found itself, for no apparent reason, without a driver, so...They started looking for a replacement...among the audience! A member of the audience was about to be randomly selected to compete in the race!
Weird.
And, of course, that one was me. Don't ask why.
I lined up on the starting grid, don't remember which car I was in. Full throttle, anti-lag system on, green light, off we go. I was, APPARENTLY, racing against the likes of Petter Solberg, Johan Kristoffersson, Timmy Hansen and others. Me, a 21-and-a-half year old who's never driven anything faster than a Toyota Prius. Can't be real.
A couple of corners into the race, while trying to defend my fourth place, I spin. Sixth place out of six. But I keep pushing. By the end of the race, I manage to get to P3, behind Solberg and Hansen. And there I stay, till the chequered flag.
I repeat, once for all, that it all was A DREAM. I would also like to specify that I hadn't drunk anything else than water before going to bed.
But still, I wouldn't mind if anyone ever gave me a chance to drive in there...
One for the closing photos,  the one with the sunset, is mine. The other isn't, and therefore belongs to its rightful owner.

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...