Wilde's passion

This year New Zealand hosts the Rugby World Cup Tournament and hopes to cash and keep it for four years instead of Australia (Seen how the gets are going, I really have slim faith it will not happen).

I follow faithfully Rugby since two years, since my lovely lady brought me in Rome at the Flaminio stadium to watch the Six Nations Tournament match Italy - England.

Since then I'm totally nuts over this absurd game in which you see things  that, outside the game contest, would be immediately sanctioned as aggravated assault and first degree murder try.

To a non informed spectator, the dinamics of this game appear simply crazy. The ball zips on the field, passed behind instead of in front of the palyers. Each two meters, the ball carrier gets stopped by a mob of ten and more that simply smash him to pulp. When they are finished they leave him on the field and go seek the next victim.

The action is caothic and frenetic, but the referee stops it often for reasons he alone understands.Nobody protests, nobody as much as flinches, everybody carries on obediently.

Sometimes, for misterious reasons, 8 players form a tortoise war formation and go ruin their vertebrae against a similar formation of 8 opposing players. The ball rolls placidly on the field till someone collects it and the lynching can start all over.

Oscar Wilde told us that Rugby is a beastly game played by gentlemen and soccer is a gentleman's game played by beasts. it is honestly hard to contradict Lord Wilde after seeing those bulldozers that commit acts against pubblic moral but dare not raise their eyes when they get caught by the referee and as soon they stand up from the bloody pulp soup that the melee is, pat their opponents backs and rendez vous them to the next scrum.

To add surrealism to this sport, the supporters are well on par. They are crazy, coloured, noisy and as spotless as the players.

If they suffer a try or a penalty due to a foul, they do not curse the referee's mother, but instead scream at their defense line. Those are the supporters that, when they feel that the other's team supporter are not doing a good job, support the opposite team instead (You think this is nuts? Didn't read much of what I wrote till now, did you?) and bring their children to the games and teach them that the opponent has to be fought on the field and respected always and everywhere.

At the end of a game there is someone that wins and somene that loses and that even if you score a draw, because inside yourself you know if you gave it all or held back something.

So you have post game interviews that every soccer player should watch over and over again, with coaches that curse their team ( that just won) and players that blame themselves for errors that ( seeing the absurdity above here) would be absolutley human.

New Zealand is far away and as such games are at impossible hours. That said I never got up that happy at 5 in the morn a Sunday as when I have a Rugby match to watch.

Yes... Sunday... 5 in the morning... You still do no get that this game is nuts, do you? :D

To War!

One of the most used clichés that the '80 cinema has left to us is the gear up sequence in "First blood II"

Rambo is ready to start his mission, during a details sequence, we see him tie his shoes, test his weapons and bind his undying headband to his brow.

Around him, people are getting ready, but he is completely focused on his preparation.

From now on, we will find this sequence everywere ( even Arnold did not miss his chance) and as such it is now an accepted writing cliché.
Why does that sequence convey that precise sensation? Because it is, no more, no less, the knight's gearing up before going to kill the dragon.

I'm talking about this because I had a curios experience on the train.

Once a month I have to work on saturday or Sunday and as such I have to take the train to reach the office.

I just had sat down that a girl sits down as well, right in front of me. The train starts to move and after a couple of seconds, my travel companion opens her bag and gets a trousse. Then she starts her make up.

The scene went on for about ten minutes. Nobody commented, neither did I. I just sat there and watched her unable to tear my eyes off. Conquered by the aura of calmness and sureness that that girl gave away.

She noticed my stare, but did not stop nor aknowledge it. She just went on as if nothing could touch her and as if she was simply unreacheable.

Suddenly I understood the reason behind the gearing up. We have rituals.

When we dress up, make up, comb our hairs, we are in fact donning an armour, we are readying up to kill the dragon.

Result is not already written, obviously, but point is that those little gestures prepare ourselves and our minds to the challenge.

The make up the girl was putting on her face is the same as the tie I bind around my neck or Rambo's headband before the mission. Through the gesture, we get ready to the action.

When I arrived to the office i thought back to the fact that my only ritual when i work on saturday morning is having a rich breakfast at the Reanrdy pastry shop. I really do not if it can make me win the dragon, but for sure it gives enough calories to stand up to almost everything :D

Gorgeous...

Because you need just one visit to put my world back on track.

Because you are the last person I hear at night and the first I hear in the morning and you do not care if I spend my time yawning in the microphone.

Because you take care of my health even if it is you that is sick and you spend your time trying to be healthy so that I do not worry

Because you teach me new things just walking with me.

Because even a cappuccino becomes sexy in your hands.

I miss you a lot love.

See you in two weeks :)

Suddenly, a penguin...

First time I met him it was a simple and pure disaster.

Half of things did not work, hardware support was a nightmare, buying a card was hellish.

Each time you connected a peripheral to the PC it was a gamble, maybe it would work on your PC, but it will fail on the same PC of your neighbour.

A graphic or sound card required you almost to write yourself your own drivers and you could forget about three quarter of the software outside there, but Hey! We got Tux racer, so it was allright wasn't it?

Nonetheless that little, battered OS had talent, it had potential, it had style and it was hungry.

It was hungry and was fueled by our anger of having to defrag disks almost daily, Word that crashed with misterious error messages, Blue screens of death by tons and virus and spywares that reinvented Darwinism inside your HD.

We started with Red hat, Debian, real men installed Slackware, masochists (later) Gentoo. Then came the average Joe distros, Mandrake, PC Linux and the ambiguous Lindows.

Finally Ubuntu, the Linux distro that freed the penguin and that actually powers my mom's PC (and believe me, it rocks)

I installed, used and crashed more distros I could name. I inspected each part, always learning a little more each time. Linux taught me that there is nothing such as an unsolvable problem, just solutions that need to be found.

And even if now everyone uses it and nobody even bothers, deep inside me, I know that Linux is the way it is because we had the curiosity and the will to make it that way. Because we looked for each others and together we tackled the problems and because I did not gave up at the first error message and pigheadedly I kept on trying.

Happy birthday Linux

Sushi

First time I tried it I did not even like.

I found it bad, an unclear taste, hard to chew and difficult to swallow.

Since then I evolved in a full fledged fanboy of this recipe that mixes perfectly raw and boiled ingredients in tasty morsels.

I always saw Sushi like a special treat, like Pizza. Something you eat on accasions and that becomes quickly a social moment with friends and family.

I suddenly realized that in know how to bake Pizza and I actually do it for friends and family. So, why not Sushi?

Photo Monsieur tout le monde

Google is your friend

Few clicks are enough to learn the basics (I suggest you check the how-to videos on Youtube) after that you are ready to start. You will need:

- Rice
- Sushi vinegar
- Nori seaweed
- Toppings


Rice

Believe it or not, Japanese rice is actually originary from Italy, so you can use italian rice. choose Arborio or Roma rice ( depends if you like larger or smaller grains).

Rinse the rice in a bowl, throw the water and repeat till the rice becomes translucent.

To cook it follow this simple rule: 1 cup rice+ 1 cup water+ 1/2 cup water. If you use two cups of rice, then two and a half cups of water are needed and so on.

I have a cooker, but if you use a pot, bring it to boil, then lower the fire to minimum and leave it simmer 20 minutes. After that put a lid on it and leave it for 20 minutes more. DO NOT PEEK!

Sushi vinegar

Vinegar has to be sweetened a little; You can find sweetened vinegars, in that case no problem.

In case you could not find it add to one teaspoon of sugar each 4 tablespoons of vinegar and use 4 tablespoons of vinegar each 3 cups of rice ( you do the math).

Pour the vinegar on the rice after its twenty minutes rest , cover the bowl and put it aside to cool off.

Nori seaweed

It is usually sold in ten sheets pack. you use to give a little extra bit of taste. Useful, but not necessary.

Photo Monsieur tout le monde

Toppings

Except for meat, everything goes.

I saw vegetarian sushi, some with fruits. Here in Belgium some put some fresh cheese in it to give a creamy note ( before you start screaming, many japanese use mayo that for)

You can start using Salmon ( raw or smoked), shrimps, Surimi, tuna.

Some possibilities:

- Salmon+ cream cheese+ fresh dill
- Shrimps+ cream cheese
- Shrimps+ Surimi
- Salmone+ cucumber
- Tuna+ Cucumber+ cream cheese+ fresh dill

Just be creative and have fun.

Some plain soja sauce will pair nicely, but try put some olive oil in the Soja sauce and you'll have a nice surprise

Enjoy your meal :)

Photo Monsieur tout le monde

It's been a long time...

Almost one year?

To quote Billy Crystal in "When Harry met Sally" what's the statute of limitations on apologies?

In this last year I did not write a lot for a series of reasons, many of them quite personal and as such, if you excuse me, I will not talk about them here.

I reassure you, I did not work extensively on my house, so you did not miss much.

Going on through my life I think I can now understand when I can push and when I have to sit back and rest.

Last year was a "sit back and rest" year, but now it is over.

House sleeps from too much, I am not what I used to be last year, but she is there. Unaware of it. It has to stop.

This Blog was like my house, fixed in time, running on a routine that does not work anymore with me.

But this blog is the window from which you can see my project evolve and as such. it is time it evolves with it.

Here are the relevant changes to it.

- Graphic theme is lighter. I took off whatever was unnecessary and messy and now it looks more clean and readeable

- I always loved to have some music playing under my posts, but it seems that not everyone agreed whit that choice. So I compromised. Cd of the month is still at its place, but now starts only if you click on the Play button.

-I will not have always new things going on in the house that are worth a full post but I will not leave you without info on this project. Right this page you will find the Twitter and the Tumblr updates of yours truly. Feel free to follow them here or to subscribe to the feeds.



- If you own a smartphone, be aware that the "mobile" version is up and running, as such if you enter the Blog adress you'll be authomatically redirected to it.

Those are the main changes, but more will follow. A new Logo is worked on and I will rearrange the Tag system making it easy to find the post you are looking for

Works start again this Weekend. Stay with me.

I have so much to show you. :)

In cervogia veritas

I already told you about my craving for handmade pottery wich compells me to search on the net for new artist whose work I can acquire.

A while ago I told you about Brandon Phillips' Support your local pottery site and of his wonderful tankard.

Brandon's purchase has paid off indeed and I still use it gladly, loving the heaviness in my hand and the smoothness under my finger, without discounting the well adjusted handle.

What I once said stays true, but...

But?

Why yes, there is a but.

The tankard narrows in the middle and this, nonetheless it gives it that elegant hourglass shape, is a real problem when you pour some beer in it.

The frothy lady always "jumps" over the "bottleneck" and transforms itself in pure foam.

This technical issue has forced me to use that wonderful tankard only for Cider and low body density beers such as blond and white beers.

It was important to find a complementary piece that could fill in for the rest of the beers this lovely country has to offer.

Thanks Heaven there is no shortage of gifted potters on the net, making the search queite easy and the choice absolutely hellish.

So, after much scouting I met Sofia's Dad.

It's clay Jim!

Jim Gottuso is an Italian-american potter located in Kentuky were he lives and works with his family.

You can follow his day by day work his lovely Daughter Sofia ( codenamed The bug") his dogs and his legendary car on his blog "Sofia's Dad pots".

You'll find a hard working, steady artist with a coherent project that delivers high, ethereal shaped vessels with sunny and intricated decorative patterns.

Jim works with thrown porcelain and this alone already gives an idea of his technical level, since, for who does not know it, this white earth is the hardest to work at all.

If you compare it to the heavy, soft, fat mass of stoneware - which requires strenght indeed- porcelain is as easier to manipulate, but only for a few seconds.

This clay, rich in vitrous component that gives it its smooth, glassy almost transparent body, is quick to drying and hardening and seeing the regular tall forms of Jim's pots is a sure proof of the high degree of control this artist shows working with such a nervous earth body.

This potter does not stop to the form though, a long, patient work of decoration (mostly done with a brush) gives his pieces an astounding richness and a striking visual impact.

Such intricated are the patterns that you cannot help but be suprised each time you take the pot in the hand. Suddenly noticing a detail that you did miss the last time.

Nunc est bibendum

When Jim announced on his Blog he would start creating Beer mugs ( his cousin might have pushed him in this) I put myself in stand by and patiently waited for his kiln to deliver.

As soon said kiln opened, I was from the other side of his mail account placing the order.

Jim was leaving for an expo in Chicago in those days, but nonetheless he was so kind to send me some photos so that I could choose and took one of the mugs out from his catalogue so I could have it.

And here is the little one.

Beer I poured inside run flawlessly and the foam stays firm and does not overflow. Naturally the test has been enlarged, as every friday night with sausages, cheese and radish :)

Thank you Jim, your mug is already my favourite.

If you ever drop by bring your mug. I'll fill it up ;)

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny

When I started creating the interior design of my house I forced myself to find solutions that used each single inch of space without interfering with the peculiar way the light works inside the flat.

Working inside a tiny space is a challenge inside the challenge, because the less you waste the more you have to use.

Allow me to introduce you to a colleague of mine in this quest.

Gary Chang lives in a flat of 24 rooms in 25 squared meters.

Impossible? Take a look:

Wherever you are I want you to know that you are my hero Gary. I'd have so much to learn from you.

Allow me a question though.

Behind wich wall can I find the loo? ^_^

One year

I live since long ago in rarefied periods of time and I realize that it is never the same.

I'm almost two years in my house it has been about five years since I moved to Belgium and I'm one with her since a year, but it's so untrue.

In reality I've been exiled from centuries, just months that I have a home and seems like a couple of hour ago that she entered my chat room for the first time that morning in April.

Being apart is not easy and we have really little time just for us. As such our first year sums up to few, precious weeks together.

We learned to go along with it, enjoying at the best those precious moments stolen from our everyday life.

Thus it was important to me that our first anniversary was special and with the help of Karim and Raphael, my flemish coworkers, I started planning a Weekend in Antwerp since February

The town has everything to please, its monuments, museums, its rich and full past. But it was not enough, I wanted more.

Karim, having been a student in that town, directed me to the floating hotel "Diamond princess" ( a old line ship converted in hotel) and to the "Docks" one of the most famous fish restaurants in town.

Our hotel had a long list of fans on the net, but a couple of them were more than explicit in denouncing the noise that the disco club on board made and that forbid you from sleeping.

I was adamant (twice) in my request of a room that was far far away from said disco, and where did they put us? Right under it.

One fight at the reception later and me and my Lady enterd the starboard suite. Confortable and silent room with a lovely sight on the harbour.

Raphael did show me the "Lakonia", a wellness center that gives you private artificial islands for your sole enjoyment and hidden from other's sight.

Both choices were well appreciated and the restaurant of Karim, with its steampunk setting, right out from a Jules Verne book were in par with the rest of the day.

Second day has been spent raiding town, its museums, its story, its restaurants (slurp) all under a bright sun and a clear sky as rarely seen in this part of Europe ( you got to get lucky sometimes).

All beautiful, all short, too short.

One year has passed and I count the days till our next gathering, already knowing that they will be long as months as much as our days together count for minutes.

Happy anniversary Love.

GRMBBLLLLLL!!!

First Murphy's law: if something can go wrong and so on and so on.

Being the origin of the problem does not help the least, so I should not complain since it is me who forgot my camera at my brother's during the last visit.

And I would not even have a reason for, hadn't I sold my mobile phone before leaving and being as such unable to report next week's house modifications in any way.

Bad? Wait, it goes worse.

The HiFi system I was expecting for last week has been sent back to the production chain, since, apparently, a new European Law made it's use unsafe ( I bloddy cannot believe it).

As such the living room cannot be completed till end of the month. Joy.

Oh well, I suppose I could do something else if I ever can get hold of a camera.

Honestly... -_-"

Elefant's graveyard

Although is quite true that my veneration for Ikea is bordering dependency, not all my furnitures were made in Sweden.

When I arrived in Belgium I was simply broke so nonetheless that my first furniture was bought ( the couch) for everything else I had to find somewhere else.

In Belgium, as much of the rest of Europe ( except Italy) a solid tradition of flea market and second hand shop is well established. Just as an example almost all I used to have in the kitchen, chairs included, was second hand material and if I did not buy them, the street itself lended me a hand.

How?

Easy, remember the old TV rolling table?

Help yourself

Once I built the new furnitures, the old one was simply useless. Not even parking it in the cellar would have helped.

Here in Matonge you simply put whatever you do not need anymore on the street with a label "Help yourself".

All of my furnitures in the living room arrived like that and the old closet as well. In fact this is the second table I find for my living room.

As such arrived all of my first furnitures and that is because in our society, we get rid of things not because they are broken, but because we do not need or like them anymore.

That said, if I do not like them anymore, it does not mean that someone else could not use them. Thus many put their former belongings on the street this way.

Do not believe that they get wasted though, at worst one hour after everything is gone and someone is placing its new furniture in his or her house.

After all, if you do not need it, why not share it?

Hosodo!

I'm weak, I know.

But it is so goooood ....

Let's clean this up

The arrival of his majesty in my living room has started the workseason for this year.

My old TV furniture was simply not anymore up to the task and something new was needed. Besides my DVD collection was shamefully squatting inside my library and thus a new solution was needed.

Just a furniture?

Just one, easy peasy, maybe two or more elements combined together, but really nothing more.

Childplay.

Coupled with some amplifier for the TV set and some shelves, this is all that will be needed to fill up that room side.

That was the idea till I realized that my bank account will not be able to cover the amplifiers this month and that the Gordian knot of cables was way past being out of hand.

This is why I pushed amplifiers and shelves to next month and modified a little the original project on the furniture.

Nothing too fancy, relax! just a couple of planks, some paint, more metal Ls, couple of screws, steel cab...

Right.

I'm back to being myself again ^_^

Here I go again

Main issue of multiple soket outlets is that they use a lot of space. Main issue of cables is that they never stay put.

As such they have both to disappear.

Only method I could come up with is to hide them behind the furniture, that said leaving them on the floor would have been a terrible solution. So I came up with an "extension" of the furniture.

The structure is made by three Ikea Besta elements ( I'm really going to bill them the commercials I do, I swear) screwed together.

It is a stable and solid solution and the elements are quiet sturdy ( and heavy, as I found out bringing them up the stairs).

The two side elements would have wooden doors and be assigned to DVD storage task. The central element will host the geeky goodnes of DVD player, gaming consoles and so on.

Central element has glass doors, that to allow the remote controls to work even when they are closed.

Let's go to work

Before fixing the three elements together I planned the heights of the inner shelves, since I would have to cut a dent to allow cables to pass through them and since a hole behind would have been necessary for the cables to pass through.

I then screwed the furnitures together and found a fail in my plan.

In fact the router will be inaccessible in the future, so I had to bore a second hole in the left furniture to be able to access with my hand and reset the bugger in case of need ( the wooden doors will hide the uglyness of this solution).

Since everything was working I started the extension.

INT check, failed

A bad mistake I made was to use some plain wood planks instead of MDF wood, so, nonetheless I chose the planks with uttermost care, I found that they were slightly curved.

That will be needed for the TV set cables

This asked for more screws, some bending and a lot of filler.

Once sanded and painted it is far from perfect but quiet acceptable.

Seen that the sockets will be lost once the furniture is in place, might as well exploit them now.

That for, two wide, multiple sockets have been bound to the furniture using steel cable. I agree it is crude, but it works and I could ask for nothing more.

Once all cable were bound together here is the first result.

Work in the living room starts again next month as soon I will be able to afford the audio system and the shelves.



Let's see how I can busy myself till then :)

Wonderful, no, really, I mean it...

... That said enough is quite enough.

Starting off the season

Here we go, season has started again.

This year would have been a finition year, no big works, foundation have been made, thus just some fine tuning would have done.

This is what I was thinking until the first days of January, when I noticed some colored points in a corner, top of my bedroom.

Since I did not paint it was pretty clear that it could not be colors and as such...

Return of the memesis

When I used to live in Pisa, as a student, mouldy walls were a recurerent problem , since my flat had three outher walls and Pisa was a pretty moist town.

One thing I suddenly realized is that here in Brussels I pretty much live in the same situation and so when I started to move the furnitures, I found an alien life form that looked at me quiet surprised.

Two days of bleach and curses later the walls were clean again, but the issue remained.

Were is this moisture coming from?


A quick check outside the house answered only partially. It is true that the concrete that holds the red brickworks is ruined, but there were no traces of water to be seen at all.

Should we open a window?

To be true the issue was easier than thought. Living five under a roof for two weeks, heating always on, shower running and nobody that opened the windows ( Yeah right, it was -8 Celsiu funny guy!) did the trick.

Proof be that since I live alone again, no trace od mould appeared again on the walls.

That said I decided that playing safe would have been for once good and after quick consulting with the southern Lord of concrete ( would be my father in case you did not get it) we decided to cover both internal walls.

Isolation will be provided using panels of extruded polystirene or corck ( harder to find, but more natural) covered by a layer of either wood planks or plasterboards.

Woood would have the advantage of being at the same time warm and nice to see ( and chuckable... If you'd be able to chuck wood) but plasterboards would have the huge advantage to be able to be painted whatever color I would choose.

We'll see. Everything will have to wait Juni since we will need complete dried walls to start or it would be all for nothing. It is as well possible that in May we start covering the sides of the external wall with bitumen squares, whish would mean Yet more isolation.

That's it?

No, not really. There is a lot of time till Juni which will allow to finish the living room.

Yep, because I hardly informed you of the arrival of His Majesty.



Thanks to a series of financial helps and after months and months of doubts, the penguin's lair has gone Full HD, which means I have to finish the second wall of the living room and find a solution for the cable junkyard once and for all.

Arrrrrgh! The horror!!

In September it will probably be time to attack the corridor and decide if I want to redo the floors as well.

A couple of minor issues in the kitchen (sigh) and bedroom will fill the remaining time.

As you see it will be a funny year

For you

For me 't will be jes' work ^^"

Pennies /1

Chatting with the one I love:

Me: Do I make an ass of myself if I say that I would sell my home to be in bed with you right now?

Medusa: I would buy your home to be in bed with you right now as well

Me: I see some kind of interesting solution here....

New year's resolutions

It was a wonderful Christmas, like few you will ever have in your life.

I spent it in Brussels with my whole family ( except for sister in law wich stayed, sick, in Italy and was sorely missed :( ) and she whom I do love.

Many things happened, many memories were made and will probably never leave me completely.

The Christmas tree that my lady conceived and sketched ( and was built by unworty myself)




Its trembling candle lights that filled our cold, snow colored nights.



The new ethanol fireplace that took the place of the old furniture and after a couple of minutes of perplexity has quickly become the love affair of both my parents ( which spent every night after the eve looking at me like "Well? What about some fire son?" )



The Christmas market on St Katrien's Square, were I have found my ususal food interest and have found out in the worst possible way that my beloved is freightened by heights ^_^

Guess were I did find out?

The food slaughters at lunches and dinners, with both my parents that reached the conclusion that "too much" was not even "nearly unsufficient" ( which led us to some interesting Python like digesting session punctuated by moans and groans)

Grand Place, that was clad in the most brilliant light vest and whose blue lighted Christmas tree was better seen reflected in my lover's eyes.



Last year's night, spent fighting a polar cold on top of Mont Des Arts while we waited for the most incredible firework show I ever attended to.




Now I'm home alone again, everyone is gone and the silence I hear feels somehow oppressive, while I miss the voices and the noises of my guests.



I look outside the window at the snow that covers the roofs and enjoy the last hours of freedom before monday morning and before going back to work.

The idea is not too frightening and I'm looking for a new year in your company.

My house starts 2010 with a schedule filled of works and renovations, triggered by some curios incidents ( more on that later)

Stay with me.

You will not regret it ^_^

Holy MacGyver

Buying things is easy.

If you have money there is really nothig that is impossible and it is one thing I'm painfully aware each time that I need something for my house and cannot afford it.

Rememebr the chasm that the new windows left in my bank account? aforementioned canyon brought me directly to a a little, nevertheless necessary acrobatic backflip to solve an issue in the kitchen

AGAIN?!

I know, you're right, you're right, I know you're right.

But that kitchen is unfinishable, there is nothing I can do about it.

It's my nemesis, my arch enemy and, more than all, I REFUSE to give up on it.

Rememeber the hole I left by the oven?

Probably not, so here is a quick recap. Please note the two sliding shelves, they will be needed later.

A quiet annoying fact about my kitchen is that it is the realm of of wall cabinets, but has not a single drawer to put spoon and forks in.

Till now they were all kept outside of this room leading to very funny situations when you sat at the table and suddenly realized you did not have a knife.

That is why I had already planned that that empty space would be used for that purpose.

Ikea?

Sadly not, main issue of that kitchen is that it is custom built and not a single kit furniture of Ikea could fill the space left by the lead builder ( I'm talking of my father in case you were wondering).

That is why I had to design a furniture from scratch.

I was ready to build and, even if quite complex it was a promising structure.

Sadly the windows typhoon arrived and beat to pulp my dreams, leaving me with the problem but without solutions.

Let's give up then.

Yeah, right,

In this home we try new paths, find daring solutions and try to cover ourselves in most utter ridicule.

Money out? Enter improvisation.

Under the guide of St MacGyver I started to ponder and fell on the furniture in the living room.

This furniture was an old bar with a rotating platform that could transform it in a table ( and that was what I was using it in my old home in fact). Structure was almost intact and it was there waiting to be used in some way.

So all that remainde was to collect the Swiss- kni... The tools and get to work.

Let's keep it short

Right, and there goes the sides of the table, shortened to allow the furniture to enter the narrow space.

The final result had to be movable, thus I changed the bottom and set it on wheel.

Weels have inbuilt brakes, so, if I need it, the platform can stop and stand firmly.

That done it only remained to reduce the turninng table to follow the body.

One issue was that said table was sustained by a steel leg that had to go at the beginning. it was substituted by two pivoting steel triangles that allowed minimum used space.

Once all is patched up it looks like that.

It is small, but once opened gives a wide surface to prepare food on it.

Just for the eyecandy a quick color swap took place.

This is the last intervention in the penguin lair for this year, next one will be end January in the living room.

Can barely wait :)