bitful

Last Friday, when I read on Techmeme that the Encyclopaedia Britannica is giving out free one-year subscriptions to publishers, including bloggers, I contacted them straight away motivating my application, and did not think much of it.
Imagine my surprise when later that very day I received an email containing instructions on how to activate my free [...]

People often ask me why on earth, being an European Economic Area (EEA) national living and working in the UK, I am planning to apply for UK citizenship.
I usually ramble about how I plan to live in the UK indefinitely, and I consider this my true one and only homeland, and what would happen if [...]

Every now and then life's great tapestry reminds me of the reason why I left Italy and settled in the UK.
My eyes reacted badly to a new pair of contact lenses the other day, so I wore my glasses to work (I am so vain that I normally would not be seen dead in them).
Nobody [...]

Starting this morning at 8am, Big Ben is not going to chime for a few weeks while maintenance work is carried out.
I am told that at night we can sometimes hear the bongs from our flat. But at night I am sleeping and don't hear a thing. And how can Dr B. hear Big Ben [...]

This morning Dr B. bought the adult edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
And I have just come back from Tesco across the road with the children's edition - so we don't mix them up, I claimed, but really it's because it matches the previous six in the box in the back of a [...]

British cuisine is quite special. Often, the name of the dish is the recipe itself. Cheese and beans on toast. Scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam.
Ok, I'll grant you these are not the most elaborate of recipes, but that's exactly why I'm so keen on them.
Today (or rather, on Thursday night, one of the [...]

Yesterday at work I overheard a colleague speaking on the phone about his recent trip to Italy:

Yes, we were in Bologna. How bizarre, you know, people, when they give you change, they don't touch you!

And I knew exactly what he meant. Every business establishment (at least in Northern Italy, not entirely sure about other places) [...]

Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor is a new comedy show on BBC Three. Very funny - and at last a sketch show that does not rely almost exclusively on catchphrases (remember Little Miss Jocelyn? 'It's going to take a looong time').
Best bit in episode 1: Cash Cow, the late-night quiz show.
Best bit in episode 2 [...]

Three days ago (April 5th) was Dr B.'s birthday and I made him a cake in the shape of a Dalek.
By coincidence a few days earlier I had come across a BBC Blue Peter Dalek cake recipe that was just perfect, as it involved no cooking. All you have to do is stick a couple [...]

Every Wednesday, Transport for London emails me information on tube closures for work over the weekend. I am not complaining, I have signed up for it - although I would have rather subscribed to an RSS feed which unfortunately, last time I checked, they do not provide.
This week's email has a slightly different subject line: [...]

I have had a bit of fun asking Google, our modern oracle, to spit out the general consensus on four nationalities I know well.
Here is what I found in the first page of results:

"Icelanders are known for":

their hard work and hard partying
their hospitality, and when it comes to nightlife for their stamina
their hospitality
going crazy for [...]