Thursday, March 11

found the fun factor

Well, I'm always having fun, right!?!

But we went to Milan yesterday. The weather was beautifully crappy... snowy, wet, but not too cold. We were going there to get a new passport for Punkette. I tried to add as much excitement as possible to the adventure by filling out the application in the car on the way there, realizing that I didn't have her social security number nor did I remember the address of her emergency contact. Weee!!!

And getting into the embassy was SO MUCH FUN!!! You can't bring ANYTHING in with you. Seriously, we had to go find a Mailboxes Etc. to lock up my purse for an hour. Punkone had to put his chapstick in a little locker. Ok, they did let us keep our clothes on and enter with only the (incomplete) application and our passports. It was a riot.

The guys on the inside were soft (wiggle, jiggle) as jello though. I was really expecting much more of the third degree, but they were all super nice and let us get away with all kinds of silliness. I think they've got the guards fooled as to what really goes on in there.

And I made this goofy video. No, nothing remotely related to the embassy... I really wasn't interested in finding out what might happen if I attempted something like that. No way. It's just some fun randomness and discovery. Hope you like it.


12 comments:

  1. I love your video.

    But I do have to say -- winter is long where there is winter. sending you early spring from CA.

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  2. Piano stairs!? I'm thinking that would be a great addition to the house when the boys hit their teens.

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  3. A really fun video. Love the musical stairs.

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  4. Am jealous.

    British passports do not include nice day shopping in Milan. Have to send the stupid thing to Rome.

    Although the good news is this one will not sport a "pregnant fat face" photo.

    Just an "old and tired face" photo.

    Not much of a gain, but still...

    Really must get round to this before I make all my other paperwork fall off the computer or something equally awful and have to spend the next ten years queueing in various statale offices trying to exist again.

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  5. Anonymous7:39 AM

    Ya, everything government related these days feels like you're heading for prison. I'm really looking forward to airport security tomorrow! Not.

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  6. How very cool!

    Where did the steps lead?

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  7. Ah ! Talk about security ! It borders on the wierd !

    I thought we were alone ! :)

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  8. Ahh....I loved Milan.....

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  9. Thank you for the CA spring Kitty, I think it worked.
    Captain, piano stairs will may serve as a temporary distraction.
    Thanks Bobbie... I try to never miss an opportunity for fun.
    Sarah, how ironic. I know that we prefer Rome to Milan.
    XUP, hope you're sitting pretty in some Paris cafe right about now (not in airport security)
    Jeanne, we stumbled on them coming out of the underground, so they led to Piazza Duomo in Milan. The cab ride actually came after.
    Kavi, You should know that things are wierd all over.
    Braja, Milan loved you too.

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  10. "Sarah, how ironic. I know that we prefer Rome to Milan"

    Well apparently I now have to go to Paris.

    UK peeps in Italy have to go via Paris for a new passport.

    ....ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG !!!!!!

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  11. Hahahah! Sorry, I know that must be frustrating. How does that work exactly? What if your passport has already expired? I guess you may not technically need your passport to travel from Italy to France. What the hell... why don't they just make you go all the way back to England?

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  12. The skies can be gorgeous in Milan, too! Deeeeeeeep blue, with and without white puffy clouds. Lots to see and do. For one thing: don't forget to plan ahead, and reserve your place to see Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" at Santa Maria delle Grazie. What else? The area around the Duomo and La Scala (yes, THAT La Scala), the Visconti-Sforza ducal castle (partially rebuilt in the 19th century), some of the oldest churches in Christendom, bits and pieces reminding visitors of its period as the de facto capital of the ancient Roman world from about 275-402 A.D., bits and pieces of its medieval and Renaissance past, things heat up from the mid 16th century post-Protestant Reformation onwards (one of Milan's homegrowns, Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, was a biggie in implementing Italy-wide the admonitions published by the off-and-on-again Council of Trent), and splash open with the economic burst of the period of industrialization and Unification of Italy as a single nation, from the late 19th century onwards. (May I also mention the marvelous "time capsule" of an aristocratic Milanese mansion, still furnished as it was in the late 19th century with its Italian Renaissance art and furniture, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, http://www.museobagattivalsecchi.org, where I work? Love it so much, just couldn't resist the temptation!)

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...and you may ask yourself, well...how did I get here?