The first days

The first days of the new year presented themselves with a rare opportunity: both Alessandro, my best friend, and myself with our girlfriends in Rome. Now, it has always been a problem for Susanne and me to go out with others. On one side, most of my friends in Italy are single or have their girlfriends abroad, making going out together unpractical, on the other hand Susanne doesn't have many friends in Mainz and in any case, germans in groups have this unfortunte habit of talking in german (which is true of italians as well, if you consider they speak italian rather than german, but Susanne speaks italian).

Seizing the chance, with Ale we decided to take them at a concert the 1st evening, a Strauss Gala along the line of the yearly concert held in Vienna. So it was that, after the traditional immense new year's lunch, we took our time to dress up and I must say the results were, obviously on Susanne's side (I'm hopeless in any case), astounding. Thanks also to a mantle lent to her by my mom, she had this perfect "Princess Sissy"'s look, much appropriated for the occasion. Monica, Ale's american girlfriend, looked superb too, making us the most eyed people at the bar during half time break.

The concert was in the main cavea of the auditorium, the music was good and accompanied with all the classical "jokes" between the director (who happened to be the russian Bolshoi's one), the orchestra and the public that Vienna's concert got used us to, the soprano that sung some of the pieces was good (even if she sung rigorously in russian, which was a bit strange), but the ballet part was absolutely ludicrous.

The late hour the concert finished and, admittedly, the need of recovering for the past day's late hours made us part early, with promises, that eventually never came to fruition, of meeting again in the next two days.

The 2nd was indeed a day all devoted to relaxing, reading and all around recovering, culminated in a movie, Eragon, at the cinema theatre near my house, a run to a stylish bar for a glass of red wine and then back home, where we eventually got to see another movie, "Sliding Doors".

To be noted that while the second was in english (and we both struggled with the heavy londonish accent of the charachters), we saw Eragon in italian... just to point out to what level Susanne's italian has risen in little more than 18 months. Much to my shame.