Not location specific, No rules: Welcome to ILX heaven

Hi everyone. I am a house guest in a house with no hosts: they have gone to Norfolk for the weekend and left me in London. It's a very lovely, enormous house. It's also very, very quiet.

Shortly I'll be going down to my family's house (they live at the bottom of Putney, this house is about 3/4 of the way up) where it will be very noisy and chaotic. I yearn for a happy medium.

Invite some people over. Like, two people maybe.

Hey, I'm thinking of taking an Italian class at the cultural institute in Dublin. Anyone think it's a good idea? Bad idea?

Learning any language is a good idea, I think.

Why Italian?

Ditto onimo. It might not be the most useful language you could learn unless you go to Italy a lot (and sometimes not even then, as not all Italians actually speak Italian), but it's probably easier than Mandarin.

I am going to Rome in November, and my family might be going on a big group holiday next year to one of those parts of Italy where they don't really speak English.

Also, it seems like it would be reasonably easy, given that I learned French in school.

Doing Italian in uni as part of my degree near killed my French. Be warned of the risk!

I think that you should do the course but aim for conversational Italian. There's no need to learn the verbs etc unless you really want to learn it. The best trick: say the word in English in an Italian accent. It works about 75% of the time :)

Rome again though? Score! Same flat as last time? (OR WAIT IS THIS STILL THE TRIP THAT I CONFUSE MYSELF AND THINK THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN ON?!)

Also the ILAC center used to do conversational exchanges in the evening. I don't know if they're still on...

Hi dere, I is back. Expect ranting about holidays idc.

Also pics of nice scenery and things!

Where were you?

Plz no pics of edible bugs and ting.

^^^ what he says

I just ate chips and I am now sampling a free Frutasia cereal bar - probably not wise. The woman in the canteen asked if I wanted Strawberry or App-rick-it - I eventually worked out she was trying to say apricot but had decided it should rhyme with syndicate for some reason. I picked strawberry. They're a bit crap, like most cereal bars - except Fruesli.

Syndicate was such a great game...

I now need to buy sleeping bag and groundsheet for a festival this weekend. Oh to have one of those ATP-type chalets :(

There was no edible bugs and things so no pics of them. I will do scenery and stuff when I get round to uploading my photos - I kind of need to go to the opticians this afternoon though, because one of my lenses was half dark, half light when I woke up one morning so there's something weird going on with the polarising (plus I'm 6 months late on eye test anyway).

Rhodes was very nice, and/but bloody hot, the ranting is about my parents.

Indeed. I think I still have a copy lying around somewhere. I loved the assassination missions. Drugs, flame throwers and world domination. Classic.

xpost re Syndicate

Oh noes u went on holidays with them after all the ranting when they visited? What did you do to vent?

Onimo, I tried using a copy I downloaded from the Underdogs website. Sadly my PC was too fast so it was nigh on unplayable :( I still remember the old cheat: Choose the Frog symbol for your team and call it bullfrog, I think you then had to hold down the full-stop button to get money. Savage.

I thought they couldn't possibly be that bad on holiday, plus we would have separate rooms for space, plus they could help look after the kids and maybe give us some time to ourselves.

Instead it was like having two extra children, possibly under-fives, who each had a couple of recalcitrant dogs, and were deliberately being disobedient as part of some naughty phase they were going through.

But more on that later, I need to go into town now.

This thread is busy today!

Good morning, good monday. Nice weekends?

Already feeling tired, hope the latte cart is open today.

Take that Italian! I heartily endorse education. (I'm starting my math class this week and want fellow sufferers.)

Hi Ms. M! I'm gonna. But, as Kev-lol points out, the Italian classes in the Italian cultural centre might be a bit full on, so I am getting Mister Monkey to cast about among his colleagues for a more suitable Italian conversation class.

Fair enough accentmonkey, that sounds the best way to proceed anyway!

You don't think they'd be a bit gentle on you? It would seem they're out to serve the community.

BTW, I hate my boss. We just had it out much to the consertation of my co-workers. I refuse to be bullied by his poor leadership skills.

Good woman yourself! Don't start worrying about it or feel you've messed up (that always happens to me). It's up to him to apologise!

He won't. He didn't last time we had a blowout (although that was completely unwarranted on his part). This time I called him on something and he became a little bitch about it. Maybe it's a bit pushy for an employee to call out her boss but if he was a good manager I wouldn't have to. My request was legitimate and I doubt there was anyway I could have broached it without him getting pissed.

Whatever, I'm completely fed-up with him and don't intend to keep trying to work under his crappy, inefficient ways. If he doesn't like it he can buck up or fuck off.

"he can buck up"?

Bit of role reversal there! Isn't that normally the kind of thing that the boss says :)

Exactly. That is the root of our problem. I'm done tip-toeing.

Well done, more power to your elbow!

Sometimes you just need to keep your ground and things will improve. Good luck Ms Miz!

Had a busy weekend but felt happy and relaxed--today is like a massive time-delayed hangover (from way too much fun but no drink, just mounds of Greek food and such).

Stuck at PC trying to write. Failing miserably. Silly internet, why must you have so many distractions??

Unplug yourself.

I beg your pardon!

Easier said than done since you can always plug back in but if you disconnect yourself, it might be easier. Or try writing the old fashioned way. :)

accentmonkey, how much of your French do you recall now? Did you find it easy learning another language? I studied German for 6 years at school and now all I can remember is how to ask where the toilet is.

I had three years of French in high school and two semesters in college, and I was really surprised how much of it came back to me during my two trips to Montreal/Victoriaville. Not enough for extended conversations, by any means, but I could make my way around restaurants and stores.

It comes down to how much you can use it. My German (4 years of high school and some in college) was in really rough shape until I started goofing off on a German MUD. My vocabulary for D&D type weapons and armor grew by leaps and bounds :)

I've managed to keep it up better since then, writing to friends and reading German websites. You can find your way to more than just the bathroom I bet!

I can also tell people I've been staying here for two weeks...

accentmonkey, how much of your French do you recall now? Did you find it easy learning another language? I studied German for 6 years at school and now all I can remember is how to ask where the toilet is.

Yeah, like Patita says, it's all in how much you use it. I don't remember a lot, until I've been in France for a few days, and then suddenly I find I can order things in a cafe and understand little jokes and it's all good. I coast on my accent, though (hence the nickname). I never really realised how hard it is for people to understand you if they're not expecting your accent. So what usually happens is Mister M will tell me what to say, and I'll say it. But it's extremely basic. My vocabulary's not bad, but I can't do tenses at all.

Also like Rock says. He said it too.

The most important thing I ever learned about shopping or going to cafes in Paris is this: always say hello to the proprietor when you come in. Even if you can't say hello in French. People who work in shops there will look up when the door opens, and if you don't greet them then you are RUDE. This advice may not hold true in every single shop, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb.

I chose Technical Drawing instead of French at the age of 13, but I still remember how to ask where the supermarket is and to declare my wish for a potato.

Allez tout droit Monsieur Myoppe!

It turns out the BBC has a really nice little basic tourist Italian class online.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/lj/

It follows good principles of instructional design (as I learned them ten years ago).

I would love to learn a properly useful language like Spanish. Except I think they all sound like slightly challenged stroke victims. Sorry Spanish speaking world, I am an ignorant man.

I chose Technical Drawing instead of French at the age of 13, but I still remember how to ask where the supermarket is and to declare my wish for a potato.

Haha, you are me (except it's German in my case).

Photies.

Somebody couldn't stop picking up the yellow (and other coloured) stones:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00967.jpg

I call this one "Waiting For Grandad (again)":

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00971.jpg

Rhodes harbour is very nice. This is the view from where (allegedly) one of the Collossus' feet stood:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00977.jpg

St Nicholas' Fort saw lots of FITEING against the Turks:

which left bits of it kind of damaged:

Other bits of the City Walls survived relatively untouched:

and with gates this size, maybe that isn't surprising:

It has a pretty square with a lovely fountain:

which Charlie discovered you could do optical illusions with:

and Alex looked aloof over:

It also has (allegedly) the best preserved Knights Inn street in Europe:

Lindos was much hotter, but has spectacular views:

and a fort:

with an Acropolis at the top:

I found a cricket, but I did not eated it:

Can anybody else see the other pictures?

3 picture limit per post in nu-ILX

Ah. In which case:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00980.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00988.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00995.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00999.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01005.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01011.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01012.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01019.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01064.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01067.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01071.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC01049.jpg

Good pictures mate. The kids seem to take turns each at looking like you.

That looks lovely.

Cuet kids! Also yummy lunch etc.

Looks amazing!