As you can imagine, there are Union Flags everywhere around London.

Covent Garden did a very good job at decorating the old market, as the flags are only hanging consistently.



Until I moved to the UK, I always thought that the Union Jack was symmetrical both horizontally and vertically, but of course it isn't because the St. Patrick's cross is not centred.
Therefore there's a right way and a wrong way to fly it. The right way is with the cross of St. Andrew taking 'precedence' over the St.Patrick cross, when you look at the top left hand corner of the flag.

I guess that this doesn't apply to the flag hanging down because it depends on whether you look at line left to right or right to left.

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I am wondering what I should make for the Street Party.
There hasn't been so far much interest in the 'Grand Trifle Competition' so I may make one in addition to Adrian's Anglo-Italian trifle (which I'm sure it's going to win!)

I was thinking of my lethal Zuppa Inglese with the addition of some fruit.

And perhaps some macaroons? I could make the 2 halves red and blue with a white-ish buttercream filling.

I also toyed with the idea of focaccia squares turned into caprese with the addition of tomato and mozzarella.
Adrian said I could add blue food colouring to the focaccia but would anyone eat blue focaccia?!?

We are all looking forward to the 4-day week-end to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Adrian (london1952) and I have been discussing whether we should try and watch the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on Sunday; it's going to be very crowded by the river and it's highly likely than unless we get there a few hours before the event, we won't be able to find a decent spot. Perhaps it's just best to watch it on telly as I don't enjoy crowds anyway.

On Tuesday there'll be a street party organised by the residents' association and that should be fun (fingers crossed that it stays dry although it now appears that storm 'Beryl' is heading for Britain from the U.S. just in time for it).

After the pageant on the river, there will be a fly past lead by a plane that was used in sinking the Bismarck, and the Italian fleet in the port of Taranto.

I've also read that at the end of June, a corner of Green Park will be re-opened after months of construction work. It'll be hosting the Royal Air Force Bomber Command monument.
(The RAF Bomber Command was in charge of bombing Germany, and Italy - mainly Turin, Milan and Genoa, in the war).
The monument will be unveiled by the Queen.

While I am all for remembering the people who died in the war, do we need yet another war memorial? I'm sure that all the fallen are already commemorated on other memorials up and down the country, and this new memorial seems to be more about celebrating the role they played than their sacrifice. Besides, when you bomb a city it's not just the evil people who get killed.
And really what place does that plane have in what is supposed to be a joyful celebration of the Queen's 60 years on the throne? (V-E day was 67 years ago).

I cannot help but wonder if all this is really about honouring the dead or celebrating a victory? Would have they built this new memorial if the RAF bomber command operation hadn't been so successful?

But of course I am of enemy stock and I probably don't understand.
I can assure you that I don't feel any animosity against the Allies just like almost no-one does in Italy. The sentiment has always been of gratitude. Italians have been so used to foreign invasions and wars over the centuries that they move on very quickly.
And it was an Italian who said that 'Il fine giustifica i mezzi' ('the end justifies the means')

Nevertheless, isn't it time that we all moved on? Germany has, Britain not quite so.
They say that history is written by the winners; and the winners certainly seem to have much a longer memory.

The weather has been glorious for the last 7 days and yesterday I spent a large part of the day outside doing the pots in the drive ('lifting' the bulbs and putting in the dahlias - which I had started off in a small greenhouse, and some seedlings).

Adrian (london1952), on his way back from beautifying the communal planters in the alleyway, sneaked up on me with a camera and so you can see me in action.
Oh, how pale I am!

Forget about the silly Olympics, this is the year's most important event: the Eurovision Song Festival!

Adrian and I watched the 2 semi-finals on Tue and Thu nights, and are looking forward to the final tomorrow evening.

The camptastic semi-finals were made more even enjoyable by the two BBC commentators' naughty and funny comments. Last night they even played a game of "he's gay or European" (which is something that Adrian and I sometimes do too)
[Note: the concept of 'gay or European' works because people in Britain don't think of themselves as Europeans].

On Tue evening they interviewed the Italian singer, Nina Zilli and asked her whether she had a message for all the people watching the show in the gay bars. She replied that she's a gay icon in Italy and that she loves the gays.

Well Nina you got my vote. Not just for that, or because you're Italian, but because I love your song.


I don't know how well she'll do tomorrow night. And I have no idea who's going to win. Sweden? Russia?

A country that doesn't want to win is (apparently) Spain Don't win Eurovision, Spanish entrant told"
Pity as it is a great song. I may have to vote for Pastora as well.

It is was all down to the public vote, the UK's 12 points would go to Turkey and Italy would assign 12 points to Romania and 10 to Moldova, but of course now half the points come from juries. Which makes it a bit more unpredictable, and fun.

who after only 5 days of Olympic Torch relay is just sick of hearing about

who carried it: royalty, sportsmen, "heroes", celebrities 
where,
when,
how: on foot/horse/in a submarine/swinging from a chandelier

and feel slightly suicidal at the media bombardment in stock for another 2 months? 

Either that, or I'm officially a grumpy old man.

(And no, I don't think I'll go to see it when it passes through Penge in July).

Some of you may recall that at the end of January I took up swimming and that it was quite a struggle.
I have had so far 12 non-individual lessons (I signed up for the course at the Central YMCA again in April).

Well now after almost 4 months, I can do breaststroke and back crawl (and according to the instructor, my back crawl is excellent. My secret is that I picture myself lying flat on my back in bed! LOL)

Sadly, front crawl keeps eluding me.
It requires just too much co-ordination for me and I haven't mastered the breathing technique at all.

But perhaps it's not entirely my fault, according to Wikipedia.

The front crawl has been in use since ancient times. In the Western world, the front crawl was first seen in a swimming race held in 1844 in London, where it was swum by Native North Americans, who easily defeated all the British breaststroke swimmers. However, the English gentlemen considered this style, with its considerable splashing, to be barbarically "un-European". The British continued to swim only the breaststroke in competition.

Perhaps I'm just too European! LOL!

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In other somewhat sport-related news, today they announced at work that during the Olympics we'll be working revised hours starting at 7:30 am instead than 9 am.
This is because it's going to be very busy on public transport at peak times. 
Knowing how fragile the transport system is, I expect nothing less than a meltdown!

and forget the golden rule of never reading the comments to articles on the net.

I found many of the comments to this article http://uk.news.yahoo.com/gays-still-facing-discrimination-230524878.html revolting to say the least.
And frightening too. So much for an enlightened society.

Oh well, there's always ice-cream!

The other night we had pistachio ice-cream while we were watching 'Shakespeare in Italy' on the telly.

My goodness! The gelato was so good that I'm surprised it is not illegal. 
I love gelato and I haven't had one this creamy for a very long time. And the flavour was amazing: I've never had such a fantastic pistachio ice-cream.



It was only when I googled it, that I realised that Antonio Federici is the company which had some adverts banned because deemed offensive to Catholics.
Well, I'm not offended at all, so here they are.





In the freezer, there is a tub of their Panna Cotta gelato.
Will it live up to my now very high expectations?