Smelly Art, Protected Sausage and Italian Salaries

What with the weather picking up now, it's that time of the year when the Mainz marathon takes place. This is similar to the carnival, in that all useful roads between where I live and where I work are blocked off for the most part of the day. This is not very conducive to getting work done...

In Sunderland, an art gallery has put on an unusual exhibition. It's all about smells. Examples include the Hiroshima bomb, the plague, and Cleopatra's hair. It hasn't been mentioned whether they make the smell of a good old fry-up next to the museum canteen...

After the Pork Pie's recent protected status, the cumberland sausage is at it too. Yes, this long curled up piece of meat is fighting for protection from those foreign imposters...

Just before the current italian government goes out of office, it made sure it would be remembered - by posting the salary details and registered taxes of all it's citizens on a webpage. Nice to know that privacy and identity fraud are top of the politician's lists...

Inhabitants of the Greek Island of Lesbos have decided they will take the jokes no more, and are taking the greek societies to court of their use of the name lesbian. Yes, they are fighting for their right (and nobody else's) to call themselves this name. Interesting to see what happens with this, and if the world over people will have to call themselves something else instead. Possible new names on a postcard please...

Well, last night saw the final birthday celebration of Olga, seeing as monday isn't an easy day for most people to celebrate. Visitors to our humble abode included Aline and family, Friedi and Marc, Salvo, the chichinos, Jackeline (Peru), Dani, Beatriz, Carlitos amongst others. It seems that the cheese platters went down well, as none was left over at the end. The salads and meatballs were also enjoyed, but the most successful item had to be Salvo's Guinness cake. Very nice...

So, get your running shoes on and try to get down to the river before the tired marathon runners come back...