Davidjohn's activity

Thanks to all from this Forum who look at ny blog. It gets up to 70 hits a day at the moment, with around a third coming from this forum, third Facebook, and a third other sources. As usual with these things, the more hits you get, the more you get picked up by the search engines. David

Thanks for the info. I'm being offered 4 points off the interbank rate on an exchange of Euro 120,000. I expected better and am rying to work out if I can get better! David

Hi Penny, I like the 'no sweating' story! I think adolescents everywhere are becoming computer gamers and couch potatoes and Italians are no exception. Figures for participation in leisure activities are conflicting. An official EU survey found 'The Luxembourgers, Finns and Germans appear to be the most sporty of EU citizens, with one in four declaring they regularly enjoyed physical activity via sport or other leisure pastimes. But only 4% of Italians and 5% of Greeks make the same claim'. However recent work by the LTA, following the never-ending quest of trying to discover why Britain cannot produce tennis champions, was quoted as stating that Italian sports clubs, inc. tennis, have around 10% more members than in the UK.  Statistics need careful scutiny as these may or may not have included gym memberships, and I have not come across any free tennis courts in Italy, whereas the UK has the public parks tennis initiative which means you don't have to belong to a club to play. Cinema figures are equally confusing. One recent survey claimed that Italy has 'among the highest attendance figures of any EU country' while other data indicates Italy is below th UK, France and Germany.......Lies, damned lies and statistics! I am glad your experience of the health service has been a positive one at least! David

Hi coseperlacasa, Thanks for your interesting reply. My own emerging theory for some of the differences is still strong family-mother and father input and influence, healthier attitudes to alocohol, lack of dole for umemployed people meaning they just don't have the funds, greater numerical participation in non drinking activities eg around 10 the number of people participating in sport compared to UK and much higher cinema attendances as just some of the factors. We had a similar expereince to yours at Venice Lido yesterday. Some youths playing basketball on the beach let their ball bounce over very close to some sun worshipers and one oldish lady spoke to them upon which they apologised profusely and moved further away. David       David

Hi Penny, Thanks for the book recommendation-I will follow that up! Italian friends tell me things are getting worse, but as a newbie I cannot compare how things were. Here in Padova there are of course groups of youths who drink, but my and my local friends' impression is that this does not lead to the vomiting on the sreet and agressiveness seen in the UK. Italy is not without its problems of course (and some unique 'solutions'). My Italian girlfriend runs a drug /alcohol therapy centre and in Padova ethnic minorities were part separated into a separate part of the city.  Without going into the desirability of this as a policy, this seems to result in a relatively peaceful city ambience.  I moved from Tunbrdge Wells, another place renowned for its standard of living and relatively low crime. That's not to say that adolescents, especialy from outisde the twon, don't come in and drink to excess, more that any trouble is contained within these groups rather than emerging as a more general threat to local people. Another area Italy scores highly in is its health service rated as second best in the world. Does this bear out in practice? I'm very interested to explore all these themes. David    

Hi, I would agree with all that has been said in the technical sense, but what I don't see from you is the overall context for this purchase. You say you are buying to restore, in which case damp-proofing will be part of most/many restoration projects and this process including rendering and plastering will not be the most expensive or complicated part. You certainly need to assure yourself via a competent Geometra that your purchase is structurally sound to begin with and equally importantly able to withstand any planned chages to the living space /room layouts etc. Whether this building is good value vis a vis other properties is more pertinent and of course you would be prepared to be more flexible if this is the house of your dreams. So, in summary, you have been given good advice on the technical aspects of the issues, but these must be placed in the overall context of vlaue for money and your restoration plans. Good luck with everything! David

There was a lovely article-I forget where-on a guy who travels on Ryaniar with no hand luggage but had a specially designed jacket that accomodated a laptop and arund 20 kilos of luggage in special pockets! Rules are for bending and Ryanair are particulalrly strict.It annoys me that their scalesalways over-weigh compared to reference scales but they refuse to allow this either! David

Hi, I don't have any specific information re Italy but I went into Bankers Drafts for receiving funds into a UK bsnk account via bankers draft a year o so ago and nakers drafts are not safe and can be rescinded by the issuing bank. Much safer is electronic funds transfer. Once in your account the money cannot be reclaimed, accrding to First Direct bank, whereas a bankers draft can be cancelled if there were no funds behind it. Hope that helps, David