The Perpetual BetaMatteo Balzani’s weblog

Yesterday I went, with other colleagues, to Luciano’s housewarming, in Utrecht.
Weather was shitty, as usual.
In the train I was, apparently, the only one without an iPhone, which is hard to stand :)

We had some drinks in the house, and some nice chatting about different languages and different cultures. As usual there were at least a dozen nationalities, from Brazil to Bulgaria to El Salvador. As usual too many Italians…

Then we went to a gay disco (don’t ask me why, it was Luciano’s idea!), but as someone said, it was “etero-friendly”.
It was good fun, even if the good music started at 2.30

At 2.40 we decided to go home, since the next train to Amsterdam was at 3.06, but we got lost and we ended up taking the 4.06 train instead :(
I went to bed at 5ish and now I’m illegally sleepy.

Now it’s time for a huge pancake!

Update: pictures here

Well, it’s not exactly the game that I got to love.
The fact is that outside our office now there’s a booth where every night you can go and see the games together with the colleagues. And you have free beer and food!
Isn’t it amazing?
I just found it out today but if  I  had known I’d have been there every night :)

Tonight was great fun, because Italy was not playing and I could tease my German colleagues, who lost against Croatia.
And Friday I’ll be flying to Italy during the match, so nobody will be able to mock me.

I love football!

A wealthy old Gentleman decides to go on a hunting safari in Africa, taking his faithful, elderly Jack Russell named Killer, along for the company.

One day the old Jack Russell starts chasing rabbits and before long, discovers that he’s lost. Wandering about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.

The old Jack Russell thinks, “Oh, oh! I’m in deep doo-doo now!” Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap, the old Jack Russell exclaims loudly, “Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?”

Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. “Whew!”, says the leopard, “That was close! That old Jack Russell nearly had me!”

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes, but the old Jack Russell sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up.

The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard.

The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, “Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine!

Now, the old Jack Russell sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, “What am I going to do now?”, but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn’t seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old Jack Russell says…

“Where’s that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!

Moral of this story…..

Don’t mess with the old dogs…age and skill will always overcome youth and treachery! BS and brilliance only come with age and experience.

“Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose girl”.
The priest asks, “Is that you, Dicky?”
“Yes, Father, it is.”
“And who was the girl you were with?”
“I can’t tell you, Father, I don’t want to ruin her reputation.”
“Well, Dicky, I’m sure to find out her name sooner or later, so you may as well tell me now. Was it Mary Walsh?”
“I cannot say.”
“Was it Teresa Brown?”
“I’ll never tell.”
“Was it Margaret Doyle?”
“I’m sorry, but I cannot name her.”
“Was it Anne O’ Neil?”
“My lips are sealed.”
“Was it Catherine 0′ Tool, then?”
“Please, Father, I cannot tell you.”
The priest sighs in frustration. “You’re very tight lipped Dicky, and I admire that. But you’ve sinned and have to atone. You cannot be an altar boy now for 4 months. Now you go and behave yourself.”
Dicky walks back to his pew, and his friend Tommy slides over and whispers, “What’d you get?”
“4 Months holiday and five good leads!”

A fireman is polishing his fire engine outside the fire station when he
notices a little girl next door in a little red cart with little ladders
hung on the side and a garden hose tightly coiled in the middle.

The little girl is wearing a fireman’s helmet and has the cart tied to a
dog and a cat.
The fire-fighter walks over to take a closer look:

‘That’s a lovely fire engine,’ he says admiringly.

‘Thanks,’ says the little girl.

The fireman looks closer and notices the little girl has tied one of the
cart’s strings to the dog’s collar and one to the cat’s testicles.

‘Little colleague,’ says the fire-fighter, ‘I don’t want to tell you how
to run your fire engine, but if you were to tie that rope around the cat’s
collar, I think you could probably go a lot faster.’

The little girl pauses for a moment, looks at the wagon, at the dog and at
the cat, then shyly looks into the fireman’s eyes and says:

‘You’re probably right, but then I wouldn’t have a fu ** ing siren, would
I?’

Arthur is 90 years old. He’s played golf every day since his retirement 25 years ago.
One day he arrives home looking downcast.
‘That’s it,’ he tells his wife. ‘I’m giving up golf. My eyesight has gotten so bad that once I’ve hit the ball I couldn’t see where it went.’
His wife sympathizes and makes him a cup of tea. As they sit down she says, ‘Why don’t you take my brother with you and give it one more try.’
‘That’s no good’ sighs Arthur, ‘your brother’s a hundred and three. He can’t help.’
‘He may be a hundred and three’, says the wife, ‘but his eyesight is perfect.’
So the next day Arthur heads off to the golf course with his brother-in-law. He tees up, takes an almighty swing and squints down the fairway.
He turns to the brother-in-law. ‘Did you see the ball?’
‘Of course I did!’ replied the brother-in-law. ‘I have perfect eyesight’.
‘Where did it go?’ says Arthur.
‘I don’t remember.’