KEEP CALM AND PET THERAPY

KEEP CALM AND PET THERAPY

Keep calm and pet therapy is a very nice project proposed by the Cavanis Institute of Possagno in the province of Treviso.

This is not the first time we are chatting about keep calm with reference to the school, do you remember the teens from Liceo Fanti

I tried to contact the Cavanis parish institute but unfortunately got no reply, however their project is published on website. 

The Treccani explains that pet therapy  is an unofficial therapy whereby some psychological or behavioural disorders are cured by focusing the patient’s affection on a small pet: dog, cat, etc.

So keep calm is great, but what about school?

The project took place at the end of classes, from 9 to 12 June, and aimed to combine a reintroduction of the first grade exam, abolished in 2004, with an effective soothing and emotional system such as pet therapy.

Keep calm and pet therapy to face the exam

What do you think?

I would like to take this opportunity to extend the discussion to pets in people’s lives more in general. 

More and more often furry quadrupeds flank bipeds in almost every phase of life.

More and more often we to see dogs in prams.

A few weeks ago, Enac extended the possibility of allowing pets weighing over ten kilograms to travel in the cabin.

So why not at school? 

What is your opinion?

MONEY ROAD coffee temptation

MONEY ROAD coffee temptation

Money Road coffee temptation = 150 euro

We chatted about the price of coffee, dwelling on the more or less significant price increases.

We commented on the gold leaf coffee served in Dubai.

Now apparently coffee is a rather expensive temptation.

Have you had a chance to follow the new Money Road TV show?

I actually watched it by chance as a rerun was being broadcast on free-to-air channel, let’s say, not exactly prime time.

I found it interesting because some time ago I had responded to a survey on a shortlist of names for a new format.

I have already told you that I participate in polls and tests and well without divulging the details, the TV show was Sky’s latest product on temptation.

Twelve people have to go on a rather extreme and spartan trek through the jungle to win a group jackpot, but along the way they encounter very expensive temptations whose price is paid by everyone.

One of these temptations is coffee!

Sure, coffee in the jungle is comparable to a mirage, but would you accept to pay 150 euros for it with the money you share with eleven other people?

Temptation or sacrifice, communion or selfishness, sharing or prevarication?

How important can a coffee be?

Obviously this question is a provocation, and obviously also the casting of the participants was done in such a way as to represent a cross-section of the uneven mass that represents people today.

Anyone could then recognise the similar gender to some of their colleagues, or see the type that reflects a certain slice of the neighbourhood.

Do you think we can transpose the jungle, the group, the temptations into an unvarnished and perhaps even banal metaphor?

How do you relate to other people?

Would you give in to coffee temptation?

GENTRIFICATION OR SUPERMARKETIFICATION?

GENTRIFICATION OR SUPERMARKETIFICATION?

Gentrification we know by now, is the term coined to define urban redevelopment that involves a change in the original social fabric.

The small country gentry, in today’s times we could extend the concept to those who fit the description of middle class? Rich? Fortunate?

In short, ‘gentrified’ urban areas are neighbourhoods converted into areas accessible only to those with the purchasing power to sustain a very high standard of living.

Do you find this a positive or negative phenomenon?

The broken windows theory comes to mind.

We had already chatted about Philip Zimbardo on the Lucifer effect. 

Another experiment, again at Stanford University 1969: originally on two absolutely identical cars, one abandoned in Palo Alto, which remained in place intact, unlike the one abandoned in Bronx.

The breaking of the stall coincides with the breaking of a window of the car in Palo Alto, a prelude to looting in line with the car in Bronx.

As if to say that something that already appears damaged presupposes that it is not taken into account.

An idea later taken up by Rudolph Giuliani for New York City, starting with the underground.

Can we define New York as the epitome of gentrification?

Is your city gentrified?

Vigevano is not, in fact I would need a word for the exact opposite.

Degradation?

In fact, a part of the historic centre instead of being gentrified gradually becomes ‘disqualified’.

Several times I have told you about our province, Max Pezzali in the days of the lire had described it in four words: two discotheques, one hundred and six pharmacies

The one hundred and six pharmacies are still there, the discotheques are not.

And there is no alternative.

Nothing at all for the youngsters, who find themselves left to their own devices, but in constant company of the risk of being attacked and robbed by packs of peers well known to the police.

On the other hand, we have a number of supermarkets that is trending towards infinity as it keeps growing.

By now we are at the level of card collecting, even the ‘double’ ones have become so many.

The certainty is that one will come out of each supermarket with some kind of dissatisfaction, as well as enormous nostalgia for that now extinct trade.

I invent the definition: supermarketification.

No doubt we have to eat, but by now the need for nourishment of another kind has also become pressing: cultural nourishment, social nourishment, and the hunger to feel free.

Gentrification or supermarketfication?

Couldn’t we simply progress?

THOMAS O’MALLEY  AND DUCHESS IN VIGEVANO

THOMAS O’MALLEY AND DUCHESS IN VIGEVANO

From 14 to 16 February, Vigevano welcomes lovers who want to spend romantic moments in our Piazza Ducale, and everywhere in general.

Vigevano in love.

I particularly appreciate two things of this event :

– one of the slogans that invites the people of Vigevano to fall in love with their city, something that is urgently needed, given the sudden decline to which we are subjected

– the ‘testimonials’, namely Thomas O’Malley and Duchess from The Aristocats, whom I obviously love.

 

In addition, representing the romance of their crossed tails above the rooftops, Thomas O’Malley and Duchess in Vigevano also introduce International Cat Day, the 17th because Vigevano is also ‘The City of Cats’ along with Rome and Milan.

 

The protagonists of ‘The city of Cats’ are the Disney cats.

Do you remember all their names?

I will write their initials at the end, but I am sure you will have already guessed them before reading.

Did you celebrate Valentine’s Day and/or Cat  Day?

A colleague of mine brought some Baci Perugina to the office to sweeten an uphill Friday and discovered that the cards inside no longer bear the famous quotes

In their place is a QR code and the quote is viewable via mobile phone.

I know, I’m about to admit something apparently tragic: I’ve grown old, I’ll pass.

CATS

Alice in Wonderland = C.
Cinderella = L.
Mickey Mouse = P.
Donald Duck = T.
Pinocchio = F.
101 Dalmatians = T.

Who’s missing?

Yours is missing. What’s his name?

GIFTS, HOW?

GIFTS, HOW?

Gifts, how?

To tell the truth, for me the beauty of presents is the search, the moment when you think of the most suitable thing for the person who will receive it, the instant when you look at the eyes, hoping it will be a surprise, hoping to see joy.

But I also have been so lucky to receive gifts of the kind that

The excellence of a gift lies in its appropiateness rather than in its value.
Charles Dudley Warner 

So here it is:

the illuminated sign

Regali come?

which my husband has already strategically placed in my reading corner.

The bookmark with the cup 

Regali, come?Regali, come?Regali, come?

ready to be with me in reading my next book

Il Caffè della Terra coffee produced in Vigevano

Regali, come?Regali, come?

How about it?

Would you like to tell me about a gift of yours?

A gift received or given, a guessed gift or an embarrassing gift, a useful or desired gift, a bizarre gift or the gift you will never forget.

I generally always take a long time for presents, some people choose a shop and then find everything quickly.

Do you have a strategy or do you rely on chance?

Do you plan months in advance or do you dedicate yourself to presents in December?

Do you ever follow a common thread?

Do you prefer to request gift wrapping from the retailer or do you take care of it yourself?

Lately, many shopkeepers use the logo shopper bag, which is no longer included in the price.

Do you think the anti-waste concept or the surprise is more important?

What if you receive a gift that for some reason you will definitely not use?

Coffee’s ready, sit down and we’ll talk!

MORNING HOURS ARE GOLDEN

MORNING HOURS ARE GOLDEN

Morning hours are golden – do you ever use this proverb?

What if instead of a metaphor it became reality?

Tomislav pointed me to this very special coffee:

How about it?

This cappuccino with 24-carat edible gold is offered as a tasting tour at a price of AED 399, which corresponds to about 100 euros.

Tomislav explains to me that coffee with gold costs about 30 euro, or about 3517 dinars! And, for comparison, he tells me that in some restaurants in Subotica a cup of Turkish coffee costs 70 dinars, or less than 1 euro.

The location is Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates: Burj Al Arab or the hotel we all know for its characteristic sail shape.

The gold coffee appears among the immediate images scrolling down the home page

Where did you pay for the most expensive coffee you ever drank?

What do you think about edible gold?

Apparently it is a tasteless and odourless ‘ingredient’ that also lacks texture on the palate.

Have you ever tasted it?

I would quote a phrase by Erasmus of Rotterdam:
when gold speaks, eloquence is powerless.

Better to let the coffee speak, or not?

If morning hours are gold, what is gold to you?

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