.. .: :: Francesca's delirium :: :. ..

I am already fed up with soccer (or I'd better get used to saying football, since in less than two weeks my new life in the UK will start!). I just say that I will always support Juventus, and that's all. And Alex Del Piero and Pavel Nedved are my heroes now.

There are so many more important things I should think about! First off, August 10th is coming soon and I guess I'll end up packing just a few days before my departure. I still haven't realized that I am going to move to London. I hope it will not be a too big shock for me when I figure it out :)
Anyway, my good old laptop is with me, I will be connected to the world, I will go on working at my websites, I'll call mum every day, so I'll feel much like home *LOL*

In the last days, I'm working a lot at my websites. I made some improvements, I cleared some html code of my manga/anime fanlistings, I created some new banners for some of them... And I also created a new (approved) fanlisting! Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to announce that the Ashita no Joe Fanlisting is finally online!
I know it's not a shoujo manga, and the story is too violent and sad, but well a great work is a great work!
And I am happy that the fanlistings.org approved it :)

Even if I want to work hard as a webdesigner when I'm in the UK, even if just for a hobby (well, for the moment...), I am trying to update my sites as much as possible before leaving. Unexpectedly, my dear Cecilia sent me some stuff to update Orpheus no Mado Encyclopaedia. I'll work at it as soon as possible!!! Thanks Cecilia, who is on holiday in wonderful Calabria (Oh... I miss it bad!!!).

Well, now I have to write something about my last crazy addiction. Well, I have always thought that Japanese TV drama is not for me. I even waited for a long time before having the courage to watch "Garasu no Kamen" the TV drama. Valinor and other crazy fans persuaded me to watch the first series, and then I became an addict and couldn't wait to download each episode of the second series. And now, I am still praying Saint Awrittensin to sub the special ending :)
It seems that there is a sort of magic spell about anything related to Garasu no Kamen... It never ends :)
Anyway, I confess that at the beginning I didn't like it. I couldn't really consider the actors believable, I even laughed at scenes that should have been serious hehehe
But well, I can promise that after a while you enjoy it... Maybe because of some sweet scenes between Maya and Masumi, maybe because volume 43 is still a dream, anyway I ended up loving even Seiichi "Hayami-san" Tanabe :)
Too bad the production was very cheap, but I'm happy the scenes were almost completely different from the original plot. This made it something just interesting and enjoyable for crazy fans like me :)

I thought my TV drama experience was over after "Garasu no Kamen".
Well, for several reasons I have recently decided to download "Ace Wo Nerae!". My brother wants to kill me, but I promised him that the hard disk of our home PC will be free from all my files before I leave.
I think will bring some CDs and DVDs with me hehe

Let me say something about the second TV Japanese drama of my life.
First off, you have to know that the manga (which I read before) unexpectedly disappointed me. So I didn't expect much from the drama.
Then, that I don't know anything about other Japanese or Asian drama, so I can't judge in an objective way the quality of the only 2 I have seen. I wish I'll be able to see some other ones, but I don't think I will be able to download them when I am with my au pair family in the UK, and I don't have a DVD burner in my laptop, which makes things even more difficult.

Said that, let me express my opinion.
Warning, there are tons of spoilers!
And... Warning, you might not understand anything if you don't know Garasu no Kamen and Ace wo Nerae! (And maybe even if you know both! LOL)

A mysterious man, ex-Davis cup player, who had an accident when he was young and had to abandon his successful and promising career, starts following closely a pretty young female student, just because he heard her say that she belongs to the female tennis club of a certain school. He turns up to be the new coach of that tennis club. Maybe you didn't realize it, but it's obvious that he is the secret son of Chigusa Tsukikage and Ichiren Ozaki. Just consider this: he is going to die soon, he wants to hand down his passion for something he had to abandon because of an accident, he is a weird talent-scout: he could choose an already trained and talented student, but he prefers an absolute beginner, just because of a certain light in her eyes (it would have been too easy to train a tennis pro like Reika, ne?). Can you see some similarities? And this is not all. The way he trains his students... He was not sued just because it was a TV drama! Well, at least he didn't close Hiromi in a fridge-room *LOL*.
Anyway his pupil Hiromi can't be compared with Maya. Maya showed that she's independent and talented. Hiromi is constantly supported and loved by her warm family and lovely best friend, and she is just an always crying being who gets a very special training... Forgive me, her school mates should have killed her. Favoritism shouldn't be accepted >_< I understand that they had to promote Aya Ueto, and that the heroine's dream is the one to come true. But what about all the other poor normal beings who have been practicing since they were young? Well, there's plenty of room for them in the world: the best ones will help Hiromi to represent Japan as an international tennis player, teaching her what they know! The other ones can always teach children to play tennis and hope to become good coaches. So, please... Don't bother practicing too much, because a one-in-a-million person will show you that efforts were just useless! And if you really love tennis, you'll just let that elect aim for the ace!
Everything is absolutely lame from the beginning of the series (Hiromi falling from a tree on Todo who was lying on a park bench... Nobody is even lightly injured... I envy Hiromi, I would have killed Todo and broken the park bench)...
What about the last moving scene where the beautiful Reika "Ochofujin" Ryuuzaki plays Oka in the final match?
She already knows she is going to lose... But why on Earth? Dear miss Matsumoto, even if you changed your name from Megumi to Rio, I recognized you, and I have to say that I prefered you as Ayumi Himekawa... The new role is almost identical, but Ayumi was not a loser! And, forgive me but you never understood Ayumi's character, otherwise you wouldn't have accepted two identical roles... This won't help you in your career as an actress! Ayumi would have known that!
By the way, even Reika's father knows that Hiromi is destined to win (Mmmh... I got it!!! Hiromi's father is a yakuza, ne?), that's why he made possible that Hiromi would take part to the final selections even if she didn't pass the previous ones! *_* ... Father and daughter talk about it. Reika wants to give up but her father, who prefered Hiromi to her beloved daughter, tells her that she has to be proud of herself! Hiromi started playing tennis just to imitate her! Wow! I wish I was Reika! *_* So Reika does her best during the final match to teach Hiromi as much as possible for the Grand Slam.
How touching.
Some people complain about the not-developed love story of Todo and Hiromi, but I think it's even more developed than in the manga, so I can't really complain about it! And the coach's feelings for Hiromi are even clearer in the drama, and this would make it a perfect triangle love story... Welll actually Chiba is in love with Hiromi too... Poor Chiba, he is so nice :) But nobody cares about him, after all, he can always take photos of Hiromi :)
And Munakata's confession to Todo is one of the scenes I love best. We can understand the real reason why he chose Hiromi at first sight, and maybe the suspects that we had at the beginning, that he was just a maniac bothering underage girls, were not too unfounded :)
And after that confession, I wonder if it's true that a tennis player can't have a boyfriend/girlfriend.
Or if it was just an other pathetic excuse Munakata used to keep Todo away from Oka. Hehehe
Well, we'll never know that.
What I am disappointed at is not the love story between Hiromi and Todo, but the one between Reika and poor Yuu Ozaki. Please anybody tell me what's in Reika's head! She finally talks to him only when it's clear they are both losers?
Well I could go on writing lots of stupid things that the most of us will never read and/or understand (and nobody could blame you, while I would be worried for the few ones who can read this all and even undestand them hehe), but I want to surprise you:
after all the things I wrote, would you believe that I truly enjoyed the whole drama?
The actors are beautiful... Munakata is so handsome in his spiderweb-patterned kimono! And Todo, Ozaki and Chiba are all good looking! I won't say anything about the actresses, they are probably idols and top models!
I think that the brands always in the foreground (embroidered on the player's training suits and shoes) made the difference between the production of Garasu no Kamen and this one. Incredible special effects during the tennis match compensate for the fact that you are not really watching a tennis match, just some flawless poses of cute actresses who are sexy even when they play tennis...
Even if I found the most scenes absolutely lame, I was really involved, and I laughed, cried, suffered and definitely enjoyed the story. I would definitely recommend it to my friends :)

I changed layout again. The previous one was an absolutely useless experiment, and I need something to celebrate a happy moment... So that I can forget what happened to my beloved Juventus, and other teams, except a certain Milan, who knows why... I can't believe that man is so powerful that his team will remain in Serie A even after all!!!
Anyway, once again, I want to be positive. And I want to be proud of Italian football players. And now, I have to think of my new life in London.
I bought the one way air ticket, I will leave on August 10th. And I'll meet my lovely au pair family who lives in Caterham, in the South of London. They called me twice and we talked on the telephone! They seem very nice and I do hope we can get on well together! I will do my best to be flexible so that I will not have to change family. Because it was very hard and tiring and it took me a lot of time to read ads, to put ads and answer to families who read my ads, to exchange info with families by email, to choose the best ones for me...
I think this family is very good for me. I talked to Graham and Anna and they are really nice. And I saw the photo of their little Julia, who is absolutely lovely!!!
I can't wait to leave, but before that I have to think about annoying things like insurances, medical stuff, packing bags (which is terrible for me!)...
And I can't wait to meet my lovely Cristina who helped and is helping me so much with this au pair thing!
Well, I will be allowed to use internet (broadband) so I will not miss my pen pals and my web sites! The only thing I will miss is manga, but I will ask my sister to buy the volumes of the series I started buying, and I think I will fly back to Italy for a few days in December, so I will have to read them all in those few days! ^_^
Well, have to go now.
The biggest hug ever to all of you!!!

CAMPIONI DEL MONDO!
CAMPIONI DEL MONDO!
CAMPIONI DEL MONDO!





I don't know what will happen to my beloved Juventus, where my heroes Buffon and Cannavaro will play next year, I don't want to think about sad things now.
Let Italy celebrate the national team!
Azzurri needed to win at any cost, and they did it!
I suspect that the next layout of this blog will be dedicated to Azzurri :)
Pessotto, I hope you're toasting with your loved ones :)

La vita è bella





Grazie di cuore ragazzi perchè ci state regalando un sogno!!! Siete fantastici! Forza azzurri!!!!

E le grandi vittorie di questi giorni non sono solo sui campi di calcio...
Forza Gianluca!!! Non sei solo! Siamo felici di riaverti con noi!!!!
Parola di irriducibile juventina, commossa fino alle lacrime per i messaggi che ti hanno scritto le altre tifoserie, compresa quella viola (ragazzi, siete dei signori!)



Scusatemi ma dopo 90 minuti + supplementari sono completamente fusa... Stavo già vivendo l'incubo dei rigori e nei pochi minuti finali ho recuperato i 10 anni di vita che stavo perdendo :)