Subprime exposure and the rest of Germania

After visits to Munich and Dachau, on the third day, it was time for a little vacation, away from my vacation on my vacation.

At the suggestion of Kathrin, two buses, one train ride, a nearly missed tram and three hours later, I arrived in Terme Erding, the name of a town 30 minutes outside of Europe, and also the site for what is claimed to be, with an area encompassing 12,000 square meters, Europe's largest natural hotsprings (and also quite possibly one of its largest ripoffs - they charge by the hour, and where they really get you is by making you wait a full 30 minutes after eating before going back in the water).

The gauging began when, entering the locker room, I noticed that people were wearing "bathing suits," a practice very normal in the United States and several other western countries.

But why should this hot spring be different from all other hot springs? Well, as Kathrin had assured me the previous night, at this hotspring, everyone "hangs out" in the buck.

Briefly reconsidering my trip, I thought to myself, wait a minute, I can do this, I lived in Japan for over three years, where bathing in the nude with other men is ritual and something I grew to love (well, not in that way, but you know what I mean....alright, get your mind out of the gutter, come on).

But Germany, or at least Terme Erding, would be different, because at this hotspring, there would be no separation of milk and meat, of church and state, of damen and herren. All would rise (or not rise, as the case may be) in their nekkendess together, free at last free at last!

Was I really ready for this!? Only one way to find out?

But WHY was everyone heading to the showers in bathing suits!!? I was ready to buck all trends and go for it in the buck!

Well, as I later learned (guess Kathrin had also told me this), only the "sauna" portion of this disneylandesque spa cum amusement park replete with waterslides and all, was for those to bare all of their assets (in some cases liabilities).

I was advised to head over to the nice little gift shop, where I was assured I could buy a bathing suit for about 10 euro. Well, as it turned out, the prices were more like 30 euro and up for euro suits that did not really leave much to the imagination anyway.

So, I decided to do what any reasonable American tourist would do under the circumstances; head into the fray sporting boxers!

But at least they were black and somewhat resembled a bathing suit.....maybe.

When I got to the hot baths(which were not really that hot, except for one) portion of the place, everyone (as expected) was donning bathing suits, and I thought, huh, no big deal.

But there were tons of screaming kiddies, and this was not really my idea of a relaxing vacation away from a vacation of a vacation, and so, I took one brave step forward in the direction of the naked saunas.

What I then saw and experienced over the course of the next several hours, nothing could have prepared me for.

Nakedness.

Of men, women and children (nobody under sixteen), and lots of it. And I'm not talking about a top off here or there, I'm talking about lots of flapping around and no shame in any of it.

Admittedly, it took me more than a half hour of false starts to finally brave it in the buck and head into the sauna in all my glory.

And once you enter the sauna, though you have a towel, nobody (I mean nobody) covers up. It's almost against the rules.

Perhaps only by fully derobing yourself are you fully absorbing the experience...and to tell you the truth, after getting over some initial qualms, it turned out to be quite liberating. And nobody stares....that is, except for the occasional bewildered American tourist ;)

The next (and last) day of my trip to Germany was spent in Schrobenhausen (below) and Ingolstadt, a neigbhoring town. Check out how good the bread looks at this local bakery!

In Ingolstadt, I mainly just walked around the small town in the freezing cold, before enjoying a light lunch of some weisswurst (the famous Munich white sausage) with sweet mustard, a pretzel and heffeweizen (not pictured). Also, could not leave Germany without a photo with a waitress in (modernized) traditional Bavarian garb.

Dachau

Hard to know what to say in this post. Can't really sum up a trip to Dachau in a few paragraphs or with a few photos.

What I can say I guess, is that by being there, in the cold, on the same grounds that thousands of Jews and other oppressed people were starved, beaten, tortured and often murdered, I experienced feelings of sadness and rage.

The museum at Dachau, the former concentration camp that saw more than 60,000 prisoners between 1933 and 1945, walks you through a year by year account of German and world history from 1919 through 1945, beginning with the Germans' defeat in WWI, through political unrest ultimately evolvling into a highly nationalistic state, to the imprisonment of Jews and others in various concentration camps throughout Europe.

Dachau served as a model for all other concentration camps, and its name is synonymous with torture and cruelty.

Only being there in person, looking at the evil countenances in the photos of the Nazi commanders, the sallow faces of the prisoners, listening to the audio accounts of survivors, looking at the propaganda posted on the walls, walking through the cells used for medical examinations, lashings and other unspeakable crimes against humanity, could I begin to get an inkling of just how awful it was, and how horrible a time in human history.

Over 20 million people have visited Dachau. For me, it was an experience that I will never forget.

What's this stuff made of anyway?

Walking around later in Munich, I came across a jewelry store with some nice pieces.

When I asked the guy in English what one of the watches was made out of, he just shook his head disapprovingly and pointed me in the direction of the sign outside the shop.....

Of course it was.......

Munchen - part two

After lunch in Munich, I decided took a bus tour of the city.

Winding down the streets on our double decker, covered due to cold weather and imminent rain, our driver explained, first in German, then English, the significance of each of the sights marked on our maps.

Numerous times, the words "Third Reich" and "Hitler" came up in her discourse and often in a matter of fact manner......oh yeah, this was Hitler's main office....this was where he organized rallies, etc.

It was chilling to be in this city, the epicenter of atrocity only such a short time ago in our history. History does not even seem like the right word, because we are talking about mere decades, really the present.

In any case, I disembarked from the bus on the fourth stop, near Marienplatz and saw the new city hall with the glockenspiel, as well as the old city hall and a church (St. Peter or Paul....?).

But, what was really moving was the synagogue.

Reaching completion only two years ago in 2006 (!), it already has more than 10,000 congregants.

One of the more beautiful synagogues I have seen, and also one of the most eerie. As I told my brother on the phone, I am used to synagogues being old...because they are supposed to be old, smell musty and have a certain Jewish mystique that can only be developed over time.

But this synagogue was brand spanking new, and in some ways resembled more the lobby of a five star hotel. It is a beautiful thing that there is such a nice new synagogue in Munich and a shame that there is not an old one.

On the walls entering the main part of the synagogue were inscribed the names of the Jews from Munich that died in the Holocaust.

Munchen - part ich

I arrived in Schrobenhausen on Sunday night, via Munich (really miss that umlaut right about now....) and Pfafenhoffen, where Kathrin picked me up and took me to a local brahaus (one of Germany's oldest!) for a light dinner (see pics) of sauerbraten with some potato bread and berries, washed down of course with a heffeweizen.

Also is a picture of Kathrin enjoying her "colaweizen." Yep, that's right, cola and beer mixed together...apparently it's legal...at least at some establishments.

Lucky timing for me, Kathrin's roomate was out of town for the week, so I had a whole room to myself in her flat in the town of Schrobenhausen, population 20,000 (although maybe a gross overstatement by her estimates).

After sleeping soundly, the next day, I found my way to Munich to do some exploring. But not before making a train stop at Ingolstadt, a neighboring city. I realized I was in for something different when I could barely recognize two things on the dinner menu the previous night, but, not being able to tell which bathroom was Men and which was Women....well, that was really a trip.

What about you? Are you an adept enough linguist or savvy enough traveler for that matter to determine which is the boys' room and which is the girls?? Go ahead, give it your best shot.

If, in the absence of pictograms, you deduced that "Damen" sounds like a boy's name, so it must be the Men's room, and "Herren" has "her" in it, so it must be for ladies....then you are absolutely.....WRONG!

Fortunately, I was able to hold it long enough to wait for a man to come out of the Herren's room...and should have realized (silly rabbit), Damen's for dames....duh!

Okay, bored already? Thought so. So, here is another picture of some food. My lunch in Munich. Sauerbraten, again (yes, I did eat other things), only this time not as creamy, and this time with a pretzel, kraut and a whole different type of knodel (not really sure how to describe....think matzoh ball, but with leavened breadcrumbs).

Return from Deutschland

Ciao ragazzi!

After nearly a week in Deutschland, I am back on home soil....well, home Italian soil. You know what I mean.

The train ride from Italy to Germany, and back, was fantastic. The mountains (Swiss alps...?) were snow covered and it was really cool making our way through each small town, during which time, other than gazing out the window, I was able to complete a few books....all three recommended! The End of Food (already discussed), Confessions of an Economic Hitman = former economist ("hitman") describes how he greatly contributed to the U.S. "aiding" other countries with large amounts of capital to build infrastructure, only to saddle them with unpayable debt and add another nation to an imperialistic realm. Perkins' claims are debatable, and some may be unreasonable, but, regardless, plenty of food for thought about our political system and foreign relations. Third but not least, Mountains Beyond Mountains, a book my mom left for me in Piemonte, and has asked a few times already if I have read, so, yes, I have...well, not all of it, but so far great! It is about a true hero, a doctor by the name of Paul Farmer, who has dedicated his life to eradicating tuberculosis as well as other harmful diseases, focusing on the geographic regions (at least thus far in the book) of Haiti, Peru and Russia. Anyway, I am not making a compelling case for this one by any means of a vivid description, so you'll just have to trust me....or trust the NY Times Bestseller list...also for Confessions of an Economic Hitman.

But, you are not reading this blog for Oprah's book club recommendations, you are reading it (I hope....) this time because you want to know about my trip to Deustchland! So, in the next few posts, I will break up sections of my trip, for the sanity of all of us, and also to separate the different days and locations visited......

Über Deutsch

A quick shout out from Deutschland...

I am headed back to Bologna tomorrow and will try and post with some photos before the weekend is out, but for now, you will just have to leave to your imagination all of the beer, kraut, pretzels and apple strudel...also some pretty interesting non-food related stuff in this country, which I will write about a bit later.

Now, I am waiting for the train in an internet cafe in Ingolstadt, not far from where I am staying in Schrobenhausen.

Since this will be one of my last opportunities to type on a German keyboard before returning, I might as well take as much advantage as I can of the standard "ü" and "ß" on the keyboard....not sure how these characters will transfer over blogger, but, they are so great I think we should annex them into the English language.

For example, each time you would normally write a word with a double s, like "class," you could instead write it "claß." Do you have any idea how much time that would save? The poßible benefits to the economy are practically immeasurable.

And for emphasis, as in "über," you could always use the ümlaut instead of just a normal "u." Like when you would normally say "I love you," or "I am really mad at you," instead you could say "I love yoü." Yeah, doesn´t really get the point across in the spoken word, but in writing it could be very poetic.

Okay, I will save the rest of the good stuff about Germany (including the photos) for the next few posts.

Until the, hope that yoü are having a good day and we will talk soon! Ciao!

Nach Deutschland!!

Okay, ragazzini, I know, almost another whole week without a single post, so here I am reporting live from West Nile Caffe on Saturday at about 8:30 PM.

Unfortunately, I was a bit under the weather for the first three or four days, and, as a result, did not do too much at all.

Not a ton to report and no interesting photos....did buy a few good books, or at least one is good, called The End of Food. It is one of those apocalyptic reads, so, if you never want to eat again, I highly recommend checking it out.

In all seriousness, the book is well researched and offers tremendous insight into not only the U.S. food system, but that of the entire world.

The central theme is how we are going to feed 9.5 billion people by 2050, when we have a food system now that can barely support 6 billion. There are strong arguments and political reasons for transgenic food (it's not just for transgenders anymore!) and opposing positions for sustainable agriculture.

The other book is Confessions of an Economic Hitman, which I have heard is great, will let you know.

I will have plenty of time for reading tomorrow on my seven hour train ride to Munich! Yep, Oktoberfest is over for the tourists, so now it's my turn to enjoy some beer and pretzels since I felt I was not getting enough carbs over here ;)

From Sunday through Friday, I will be staying in the town of Schrobenhausen, in the heart of Bavaria, about 70 km from Munich. I will stay at my friend Kathrin's (from the language class)house, and make trips during the day. I plan to go to Dachau, which should be worthwhile, and while it doesn't sound right to say "I am looking forward to it," I am glad that I will have an opportunity to make the visit.

Fortunately I am over my cold in time for travel, and, I will arrive back in Bologna next Friday just in time for a Halloween party, though I need to figure out a costume......open to any suggestions you might have.

For now, enjoy the rest of the weekend and I will report from Deutschland! Ciao!

Gavi di Gavi

Ciao ragazzi!

There are a bunch of posts below, in which I describe the events of the last week here in Italy.



I had a wonderful visit from Adam, Robin and my mom, and I am so glad they made it out.



Below is a photo of the Ostelliere, our home base for a little less than one week. The albergo (hotel) is located in the foothills of the Piemonte region in a small town called Gavi.

Not too dissimilar from the Napa Valley, there are plenty of golf courses and wineries. However, I must say that we have to chalk one up for California in the food department, as the culinary delicacies of the mountainous region were several strokes over par (remember, high score = not good).

















If it is Sunday and you are reading these posts, get outside and enjoy the warm weather. If it is Monday, put off sending out those client e-mails and take fifteen minutes to sip your coffee and get up to date.

Either way, have an excellent week and I will be in touch....ciao ciao!

Robbie and the chocolate factory

Thank goodness for GPS, otherwise our 1.5 hour drive to the chocolate factory in the hills of Piemonte might have taken even longer (even though it was allegedly only 20 minutes from the hotel).

Though the debate is still open as to whether it really counts as a "factory" since they are importing the chocolate from Belgium, I would personally contend that there was enough confectionery assemblage taking place to warrant the title.

You can see how scrumptious the hazlenut bars look, and I almost had my mom fooled that you really are allowed to dip your fingers in the pot to sample the melted chocolate.







Evidently, the oompa loompas were showing their solidarity with the railway workers' union by joining in a not so uncommon "sciopero" (strike), so we had to settle for meeting the owner and his small crew of chocolate assembly people.

This last photo is of Robin and my mom (in the mirror), in the small town of Novi Ligure (just a few miles from Gavi), in her quest for a pair of stivali (boots). I personally liked the Kate Middleton (remember, Prince William's gal?) look of the ones below, but, evidently my opinion did not prevail and her search for Italian leather may end up coming to a conclusion at South Coast Plaza.

Not for the faint of heart......

For my 32nd birthday dinner, the four of us headed to a charming restaurant in the hills of Piemonte. The name of the restaurant was Girasole, or, sunflower, and, such was the theme, as the interior was complete with sunflower paintings including a faux Van Gogh and other such decorations.

I had a really good feeling about this place, and (before eating) Robin even said she could picture me proposing to my future wife in such a locale.

But, if so, I had better do so before the main course, or shortly thereafter before indigestion sits in, because our meal at Girasole, in spite of the kindly host who explained each dish in great detail, was....well, let's just say that its only hope of attaining a Michelin star would be due to the fact that the meat resembles used tires.

Though my mom appeared to be content posing with this plate of salume, the rest of the culinary experience did not match up.

Robin's ramen like spaghetti was not worthy of a photo, but if for nothing more than a few colorful snapshots, here are some photos of what Adam and I consumed. I'm pretty sure that Adam's main course was a full plate of head cheese, and mine, although it looks a bit like chicken tikka masala (or maybe lamb rogan josh?), was actually cinghiale (wild boar) with polenta. The boar itself was gamey and the polenta with pinenuts was like a lead weight.

Fortunately, in the small town of Gavi, we were able to find the lone gelateria that was still open, to help make my 32nd birthday one with a sweet finish!

The road to Hana....I mean Portofino

The drive from Gavi (small town in the mountains of Piemonte) to Portofino (small town by the oceanside of Liguria) should have only taken an hour and a half, but, after a few minor detours, the mandatory bathroom stop(s) at the Autogrill (think Hwy 5 truck stop but with panini and espresso), a police escort and 20 kilometers of crawling through a Lombardesque roadway that could barely fit our minivan but also managed to simultaneously accommodate a transit bus, our little afternoon drive to the seaside turned into a half day adventure just to arrive.

Rather than show you some photos of my mom as she hyperventilated into a paper bag, I will post a few snapshots of this lovely little oceanside town.



The views alone made it worth it, even though my birthday lunch at Delfino (shame on you Frommer's) turned out to be nothing more than an overpriced tourist trap.

Again though, you go to Portofino so you can snap a few photos and say, "Hey, look where I was, wasn't it absolutely beautiful and aren't you jealous of me?"

So ragazzi, by reading this blog and looking at these photos, I have saved you a trip to Portofino. I may get some major pushback on this, but would say the same for Cinque Terre....just buy the postcard instead.


And since this post is mainly about the photos, I will leave you with a nice one of the four of us....Robin and my mom were focused on another camera at the time, but I think it's a keeper all the same.

A few good photos......

And what would a post be without a few good food photos?


Well, here you go. The first one here is of a storefront near the Piazza Maggiore (main square) of Bologna, and you can see how good all of the fresh pasta (with some background ham) looks.

But, be careful not to touch the produce, as you can read for yourself what might happen.

I can attest (as can my brother) that this goes for Torino as well as Bologna, as we saw a woman almost lose an appendage after learning that chestnuts roasting on an open fire, though a nice holiday tune, are not for sampling with your fingers without asking first.



Here is another food photo of a gelateria down the street, though not my favorite one , boasts some spectacular flavors and is where we purchased an ice cream cake (think Baskin Robbins, but totally different) which was almost entirely consumed by Paolo, the father of Stefano and Michela, after a welcome lunch consisting of spaghetti with meat sauce, lasanga a la bolognese, pigeon (one for each person), vegetables and wine...may be forgetting a few things.

Yes, they do eat like this every day....okay, maybe not to such a degree, but the pranzo (lunch) usually does consist of a pasta course, followed by some type of meat, then vegetables.


As you can see in the picture below, Robin was in no condition to walk after her first three meals in Bologna, and Adam was more than happy to oblige by carrying her down the cobblestone streets of Bologna without even so much as coming closte to stumbling.

Visit from la famiglia

Ciao ragazzini.....! Wow, a whole week (or maybe even longer) without a post. Are you still around....?


In any case, posting was a bit difficult since my family was here and we were in the mountains with limited internet access.

I guess where we left off was last Saturday, right before I went to Stefano's 30th birthday party. The picture below is of Stefano and his girlfriend Mirela, who came out from Amsterdam to celebrate.

It was a great party with excellent food, of course, the majority of which was made by his mother (homemade tortelloni di zucca (squash), lasagne, meats and a few different cakes). I must really be turning Italian now (not only because of my white belt to match my white sneakers) because I am able to drink an espresso at midnight and still sleep. That being said, when the family was out here, we discussed a notable difference in the after effects of wine as well as espresso, both of which seem to be a lot more subtle here...as for the wine, not too sure why, but apparently the way of making espresso out here relies on a different type of drip mechanism that lessens the effect of the caffeine, or such was our hypothesis.



On Sunday, Adam, Robin and my mom arrived, though unfortunately my dad could not make the trip out due to this little financial crisis taking place in the States (and worldwide for that matter). Here is a picture of the three of them, looking quite good only hours off the airplane. Amazing what a pizza and espresso will do for you ;)














After lunch, Adam's good friend Vittorio and his wife Chiara came from Vicenza (1.5 hours by car) to visit us for a coffee and share some wedding pictures. I may also visit them in Vicenza some time over the next few weeks. Here is a picture of the four of us below.

I am going to break this post up into a few different ones due to the size of the photos, and so you can read one at a time if you like. So, for now, go ahead and have an espresso and I will be back in a minute with the next post....ciao!

Ready for the weekend!

Amici, state bene? I hope so!

Today is Friday in Italy, and it looks like the markets have taken another big tumble in the States, and for that matter elsewhere in the world. Without having followed the chaos closely, I am not qualified to make any intelligent comments, but, what I can do is report on what is happening in Bologna.

I thought this was a nice picture of the street located near my language school. You can see that the leaves are starting to change, though it has been quite warm the past week. The little stand with the green awning is a flower shop, where I bought a few bouquets for the teachers today since it was our last day of class. They really treated me well and I am sure that they work for very little, so I wanted to get them something to say thanks....they were very grateful.

I really enjoyed my little class, meeting the other students and teachers, so to put an end to this brief chapter was bittersweet. I feel like I learned quite a bit of Italian and am definitely glad to have taken the one month course. For the remainder of my stay, I think it will be a question of practicing and learning more vocabulary since we covered most of the grammar. Fortunately, there will be plenty of time to practice!

Other than that, no huge plans for the weekend. Tonight, I am going to meet up with Mario, my Colombian classmate, with whom I may also travel a bit later during my stay.

We will probably grab a beer or three and see what is going on. My main partner in crime, Francesco, is out of town, visiting a friend in Ireland until Sunday. In any case, we may also meet up with Alessandro and some of the other Siciliani.

Tomorrow is Stefano's 30th birthday, and he has invited 50 of his closest friends over for dinner and drinks....should be a lot of fun and I will be sure to snap a few photos. Speaking of which....Stefano and I had lunch the other day, his treat, as I am helping him translate his web site from Italian to English.

Below is a close up of our dish, tagliatelle alla bolognese (meat sauce), the most typical and famous dish from Bologna, appearing in Italian restaurants throughout the world.

It was really good, especially when accompanied by a mezzo litro of vino rosso between the two of us (which, unfortunately did not make the translation easier). I was this close to having an espresso or two after lunch, but my previous afternoon espressi followed by sleepless nights reminded me why it was not such a good idea.

Other than that, my family arrives on Sunday and we will spend two days in Bologna before heading to the mountains. Sunday we will also see Adam's good friend Vittorio and his wife Chiara, who are driving from Vicenza to spend the afternoon with us.

Have a great weekend and we will be in touch........ciao!

Battle at the Lavasecco

Ciao ragazzi! It's Wednesday in Bologna, and a muggy one at that.

The weather out here has been quite strange; was cold for a few weeks, then started getting warm again......go figure.

So, I am fighting what appears to be a losing battle with the dry cleaners. I will spare you all of the gory details, but suffice to say, my argumentative Italian has gotten a lot better.

At this stage, I have received four of the five shirts they owe me (from two weeks ago), but am still missing one shirt and two "golf" (sweaters).

I'm not sure if pulling rank is protocol, but figured it did not hurt to mention that a good friend of mine here in Bologna is a lawyer...which is sort of true (i.e., Michela's dad Paolo, though non practicing).

In any case, they have until tomorrow to find the goods (evidently, the machine broke and they can't find anything; tried to give me someone else's shirt the other day), then I place a call to the owner.

Other than that, laundry is going pretty well. I am now washing with both detergent and softener, though I have learned that color guard is not standard, and have socks that are both clean and soft.....but alas, charcoal grey. Next step - bleach.

On the having fun front, last night we did appetizers at Alessandro's house.

My simple task was to bring three critical p's - prosciutto, parmesano and pecorino. That was easy, compared to some of the things prepared by Alessandro and Francesco, including a savory tart filled with prosciutto, spinach and mozzarella, three spreads -1) red pepper, 2) Sicilian pesto with tuna and 3) baked eggplant and scamorza (smoked mozzarella; not pictured below, because it was still in the oven).

This was all supplemented with some pizzette and other baked goods, and of course, copious wine.

If that wasn't enough, Franceso felt compelled to re-visit rum shots, because hey, after all, it was Tuesday.

Step 1) take sliced orange, dip one side in sugar, other in coffee, Step 2) eat sugar and coffee covered orange, Step 3) shoot rum, Step 4) try to look more like Monica and Alessandra (nostre amiche polache) in the "before"" picture, than Francesco in the aftermath (his eyes actually stayed like that).

Studying is going well....have had private classes two out of three days this week (Sebastian, the Colombian guy) decided to show up one day.

We are making really good progress one-on-one, and tomorrow we will delve into the ominous subjunctive. Truthfully though, the grammar is very similar to Spanish, but just different enough to throw a few monkey wrenches into the mix.

On Sunday, my parents, brother and Robina come to Bologna, and, shortly thereafter, we will head to Piemonte for the week. Really looking forward to that! Hopefully my sweaters and shirts will also make the trip.

That's about all for now...about to head to the gym to squeeze in a workout.....hope your Wednesdays are going well and we'll talk soon....ciao ciao.

Smile, it's lunedi

Ciao amici, I hope all is well and you are weathering the storm of the tumbling market. Kind of hard to ignore the fact that the financial system is in a state of total disrepair, but hopefully we have bottomed out and the new administration can begin to pick up the pieces.

It is a bit strange to be removed from all of the chaos and only read a bit on the internet, and I can only imagine how hectic things are back home. I am sure of one thing, that I chose either the absolute best, or absolute worst time to leave a job in the financial services industry....but either way, am happy with my decision and am still enjoying things here in Bologna.

And what would a Monday post be without a few photos? I got some positive feedback on the German Shepherd photo, and thought I might post a few of my two pets, Kato (name of the cat) and Poppy Junior.

Since it is almost midnight and I am about to get thrown from this internet cafe, I will finish up with a few more photos from dinner last night at Osteria dell'orsa, with Francesco, his sister visiting from Mantova and Alessandro.

Tomorrow night, we are all gathering at Alessandro's house for some aperitivos, so I will have some more photos to share....hope your Monday is/has been a good one! Ciao for now....

s