in February, all good things start with i

[the_siobhan]

Apparently there is some kind of stomach virus going around. I found this out because I am stuck at home sick and perusing LJ while spending the last two days mostly glued to the ten feet of house that encompass bed and bathroom.

I am wobbly of legs and spacey of head and I have developed the inexplicable tendancy to awaken wide-eyed and sleepless at 6am every morning, but yet I am undaunted.

That's because I have an INTERVIEW!

Cross your various crossing-bits for me folks.

In other good news; in one week bcholmes and I leave for Italy. Right in time for the winter olympics. No, we did not plan it that way, we are just clueless about all things involving sports. Oops.

I want to go to Vatican city while we are there, just so I can see the Latin ATMs.

I will take lots of pictures.

Comments

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I just got this in one of my media scouring newsletters:

OLYMPIC POTENTIAL FOR TERROR
by Ceri Au
February 9, 2006

Outnumbering athletes six to one, the police presence at the upcoming olympics in Torino is a sign of the times. In the wake of the London bombings last July, radical websites proclaimed that Italy would be next. With an upcoming election pitting Italian prime minister and business tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch supporter of the Iraq war, against an opposition candidate promising to remove troops if elected, fears are brewing that a Madrid-type bombing could be used to tip the election scales as happened in Spain just days before that country's 2004 election.

The National’s Heather Hiscox follows the security preparations in the lead-up to tomorrow’s opening ceremonies and suggests that in future, the Torino olympics may be referred to as the “police games.” The olympics as a staging ground for violent political theatre is not a new concept, with the tragic slaying of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich games a bloody case in point. Yet as Hiscox points out, Italian authorities have been on high alert since last summer, passing a series of new legislations that saw the security budget soar, radical Imams deported and nearly 700 people of interest put under surveillance. For the city of Turin, whose glory days faded with the decline of the auto giant Fiat (the T in Fiat actually stands for Turin), future prosperity may ride the coattails of one of the world’s largest sporting events. As the mayor of Turin, Sergio Chianparino, told the National’s Sasa Petricic, his blueprint for the city’s economic renaissance hinges on positive international attention and the ability to host other high profile international events. Over the next two weeks, millions of viewers around the world will be leisurely tuning in to coverage, perhaps only the politicians know as well as the athletes do, that the Olympics are about a lot more than just fun and games.

Of all the people on my friends list who I would feel confident about their ability to handle themselves in a messy situation, you and bcholmes would both be near the top, but nonetheless, please be careful!

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

We won't be anywhere near Torino, so we should be far from any potential trouble.

But we'll take whatever precautions we can while travelling.