An amazing New Year's Eve

After the festivities...here I come, with a new post! I have spent my New Year's Eve in the mountains, as usual! I was in Brusson, a village in the northeast of Italy, with all of my friends! I must say that I haven't had this much fun...in quite some time! And that's impressive, considering that I spent just three days there! One of the funniest things that happened? One day, we wanted to go to Champoluc, a famous ski resort in the area. We had no choice but to take a bus. My friends couldn't read the timetable (it was a bit messy, but other than that...) so they asked a couple who were also waiting for the same bus...and they couldn't understand anything! The tourists they asked were Welsh and couldn't speak Italian, so...only one person could save us all. Guess who?

I also found the whole valley to be popular with tourists not just from the UK, but also from Sweden! So we joked: someone here would be pleased if we ever had to ask a Swede to give us a lift home! :D

 Personal opinion: Swedes drive nice cars, but they are...a bit reckless! That explains many things!

Other than that, I'm posting a few photos from my holiday, and...see you soon for a new post on a topic I already mentioned a few times!

Christmas week

Haven't been posting for a few days. You missed me, didn't you? :D
Honestly, I haven't had that much to say, last week.
Boring, sad days...apart from Friday night, when I had dinner out!
In the weekend, though, things went better: I got my first Christmas gifts and met up with a dear friend! Last night, though...
I went home slightly late, and started watching a new TV series! 100 Code, it's called. It tells the story of an American detective, Tommy Conley (Dominic Monaghan), who goes to the stunningly beautiful city of Stockholm (where else?) to investigate on a serial murderer who, apparently, started killing in New York City and then continued his spree in Sweden. Here, he is teamed up with Stockholm Police detective Mikael Eklund (Michael Nyqvist), whose methods are entire different from his new colleague's...
I've just seen four episodes so far, that is, just one third of the whole series, and I already love it! I'm not giving you any further information...if you're interested, just watch it!
Quite apart from this, I wish you all a nice week, and...see you soon! :)

Calm after the storm

Yes, really! Calm after the storm. Winter has been in the air for quite a few days, but last night...It showed up! There has been a big rainstorm, a couple of months after the last one, with strong winds too. And, up on the hills, it even snowed! Nothing to be worried about, but here, the first snow usually falls in mid-December! This afternoon I treated myself to a 100 or so kilometres drive in the countryside, going up the hills to see that snow. The roads were fairly clear, but in some spots, which aren't exposed to sunlight, the tarmac was wet and slippery, as the snow on it didn't melt properly. Result? If it was a bend, and it usually was, the car started to slip and slide. And, well, I'm not a skilled rally driver, so I was a bit frightened, and slowed down. But no crashes!!! :D
Speaking of rallying, today also marks the 20th anniversary of an important championship win: to be specific, on this day in 1995, legendary Scottish driver Colin McRae was declared, for the first and only time, World Champion. Whereas his story is well known, and his premature death in 2007 saddened a huge number of fans all over the world, I must say that my interest in rallying is in some way linked to him; precisely, around the age of ten, I started playing with a video game, belonging to an extremely successful series that carried his name. I therefore thought it was right to pay him a tribute on this day. Which I did, by means of this Instagram post.

Fjällbackamorden - a series worth watching

Last night, I found myself craving for something nice to watch. I haven't considered streaming, mostly because it takes, to me at least, more time to decide what to watch than the episode actually lasts! So I resorted to the TV set in the living room. And things weren't promising well...
First of all, my dad was keeping on watching idiotic documentaries on how household objects like brooms, chopping boards, even toilet seats, are made. I can't find anything interesting in that. No one else does, I suppose. Adding insult to injury, he thinks that all the crime thrillers that me and my mum like watching so much are crap and only an idiot can watch them. Said the man who thinks it's interesting to see how a toilet seat is made...
The alternative appeared to be a stupid (Yes, for real!) comedy show...that isn't funny at all!
But, luckily, I remembered that a channel belonging to an important and famous publisher, every Tuesday evening, is broadcasting Swedish thrillers! So I tuned on that. And, for the first time in my life, I saw an episode of Fjällbackamorden! The series is based on the novels written by Camilla Läckberg, which I liked very much! 

What makes, then, this series so nice to me? Well, the stories are fine, but the setting, the landscapes...those are simply amazing! 
As the name itself suggests, it is set in Fjällbacka, a small town on the western coast of Sweden, north of Gothenburg. The author was born there...such a lucky woman you are, Camilla!
It reminds me of another series I loved, Morden i Sandhamn, set on the island of Sandon, Stockholm archipelago, also based on a series of novels by Viveca Sten.
Next step? Going there and visiting those places, of course!

A little ride in the afternoon

A warm, sunny afternoon on a Sunday in November? Seize the moment!
It feels a bit strange to find such a nice day in this season, but it's been a good opportunity to do some open-air activities, like cycling! That's exactly what I do in the sunny months to keep myself fit, 20 kilometres every day, in the sun, on country roads! Sunday, of course, has the worst traffic of the whole week, but the back roads remain enjoyable, so I rode for 30.29km, in one hour and 49 minutes. I reckon I could do better, but I admit my pace was a bit...leisurely! It's been nice, though, and that made me happy! I definitely needed it! ☺

A couple of photos are always welcome, so...here they are! By the way, the sign on the second one indicates dangerous potholes: a common sight on Italian roads! even though I didn't really want to capture it!

Looking for something to think about

Quite a boring day, today. Nothing exciting to do, no interesting places to go, and I'm even slightly angry. I went to the train station in Pavia to buy a new monthly ticket, as I commute every day from home to university and back. Last month, weekly and monthly tickets had a 30% discount, as there have been many delays and inconveniences during September. The same happened all over October. But for November, I had to pay the regular full price. That's what makes me angry.
Apart from that, I have found a nice way to distract myself: strangely, it's not reading! I was listening to music, in fact; to be specific, to my favourite song: Right here, right now, by Fatboy Slim. You can listen to it here.
Also, thinking about nice places helps me a lot. I have chosen a photo of a village named Fjällbacka, in Western Sweden, where Camilla Läckberg set many of her novels.
And on that bombshell... (sorry for quoting Clarkson!) it's time to close. Wishing you all a good night and a nice new week!
See you tomorrow!

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!!!