Erano anni che non leggevo un libro di Tabucchi. Troppi anni, forse. Oggi ero in barca verso l’isola di Apo per fare delle immersioni. Ho aperto un libro di Tabucchi che ho comprato l’ultima volta che sono stato in Italia. Mi aveva attratto il titolo: Viaggi e altri Viaggi; ma soprattutto una frase nella nota d’introduzione: ‘Ma, a conti fatti, ho viaggiato molto, lo ammetto; ho visitato e ho vissuto in molti altrove. E lo sento […]
‘Terminal 1’, I say to the taxi driver. ‘300 Pesos, sir’, the driver says with a tired look. I put my bags in the boot and leave the Pension Natividad in Malate (Manila). While I was here it has been raining and I thought they were the last hic-ups of the typhoon that reached the Philippines earlier this week. Wed rive long the sea but soon have to stop. The usual traffic jam. We queue. […]
Fa uno strano effetto leggere delle vicende in Libia e di quanto queste tocchino le Filippine, nonostante i 10.754 Km che separano Manila da Tripoli. Il Dipartimento per gli Affari esteri ha diramato un comunicato nel quale dichiara di avere evacuato fino ad ora 1.327 lavoratori filippini. Il numero dei filippini residenti in Libia pare sia di 30.000. A Tripoli la comunita’ filippina e’ numerosa ed esiste persino un scuola privata Filippina. Il Segretario […]
When do you leave?. The question, when asked in English, has a broader meaning than the Italian: Quando parti?, which clearly refers to a trip, a travel, a rucksack which is being lifted on the shoulders to go to a railway station or an airport. I think that Quando parti? (both in English and Italian) has been the question I have been asked the most after: How are you? Is this good? Is this bad? […]
“Welcome,Sir”. “Good evening,Sir”. I take a deep breath. End of today’s trip. I am home. But is it home? No, but these greetings are reassuring and familiar by now. They remind me of the country where I live now when I enter the lobby of the Marriot airport hotel in Manila. I recognise some of the staff as I have been here a few times now. Always arriving in the evening and leaving very early […]
It is 7:00 in the morning. Sunday morning. We have Dumaguete, Manila,Hong Kong, the skies on China and Russia behind us. Helsinki is like a ghost town. As if all its inhabitants would have suddendly left or would have all be taken away during the course of the night by a alien forces from an unknown dimension leaving behind broken glasses, empty McDonalds paper cups swept by the autumn wind on the pavement. We walk […]
We just started our descent into Manila. Pressure is changing in the cabin. This the first leg of the long journey home, or better said to our homelands. We will fly tonight to Helsinki via Hong Kong, then after 10 days we will go to Italy. That will be the first time for Venla who is now 3 and 1/2 and the third time for Olga. Olga has been worried about travelling to Italy. She […]
A soft summer wind outside shakes the huge mango trees and the palms in our garden. It is past midnight and I cannot remember last time I have been so late up working on a paper and writing now in this blog. Headphones throwing ambient music from my iTune radio. Familiar sounds that accompany my home based work. For a second a felt like being back at the university, more precisely in Glasgow. Working on […]
Ho provato un nuovo modo di correre alla sera. Scarpe da jogging, pantaloncini, maglietta, iPod e i podcast di Travaglio. Corro qui a Dumaguete su una pista attorno ad un campo di calcio e quindi dopo qualche giro mi perdo nelle parole che ascolto nelle cuffiette. Ieri ‘e stata la volta del podcast sulla protezione civile e gli interventi (o mancati interventi) in Abruzzo per il terremoto. La prefettura che si svuota alle 23:30 alla […]
It is dark outside the windows of the yellow cab from Ninoy Aquino airport to the Makati district in Manila. I usually have to stay one night here before catching the flight to Dumaguete early in the morning. This time I did not find a room in the hotel where I usually to stay. So I browsed the web to look for a different one and found this London Inn. The traffic is not too […]