krios82

So many things, so little time..

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krios82

Sep 7, 2013

Spot the difference

5 min read

As some of you may know, at the beginning of last month I moved to the UK.

Since then, "spot the difference" between here and Italy it's become my favourite game

Here are some, I tried to sort them out between "UK" and "This Lovely Little Town".

But there are so much more..

They train you for the new job. Really. I spoke with one of the driver, the bus company I use to move through the city offer all the training and exams you need to be licenced to drive a bus.
Every small shop closes at 5:30pm.
The 24/7 exists, but are only the huge franchise.
Banks are open on Saturdays.
There is a lot of people living on boats on the canal.
It is legal for common citizen to live in a boat on the canal, or wherever else you want.
The only downside of living on a mobile home is that you can't vote.. and probably you will have an hard time with obtaining a citizenship, too, if you do it before becoming a citizen.
A rod licence goes from 20 to 70 pounds for the entire season, depending on what do you want to fish.
The municipality and the entire Nation don't care of where you live unless you owe them the council tax. So good luck demonstrating your residence to the bank in order to open an account.
Papers from the bank, on the other side, are a valid proof of residence. As are bills or council tax papers.
Racism is not even on the dictionary.
Repairing and recycling is not a mark of infamy, it is common sense.
'Fill your house for free' is a BBC program with a lot of public.
You can find very nice things in charity, for no more than your spare change.
You can find very nice furniture abandoned in the middle of the green areas between houses. I need to get a pressure cleaner.
Extreme DIY is not prohibited by law. I have yet to see what are the boundaries, but seem to be very relaxed.
Post offices can and often do include real small supermarket.
Train cost a lot, unless you return on the same day. A return off peak ticket cost usually 50p more than the single.
The sky is continuously shifting. It's astounding.
What here is called rain in my hometown was called "dense mist", and anyhow I have never seen it last more than half a day.
What here is called a storm in my hometown was called "mild rain" , and anyhow I have never seen it last more than a few hours.
I have yet to see a real storm.
When you board a bus, a train or the subway, you first let room for people who are leaving the wagon, and only after you get on board.
Off-Peak costs less. For any service - pool, gym, transports.
People don't cook. They barely put the bread in the toaster, or the pre-cooked dinner in the microwave. And eat loads of chips, chocolate, candy..

This town

The unemployment rate is below 1%.
You greet the driver every time you board a bus.
You cheer the driver every time you leave a bus.
Tickets are issued on board or over the internet, no phisical ticket office exists
As a result of the previous, buses are on time in the mornings and completely off in the late afternoon. But nobody really cares.
The town is spread like butter on a slice of bread too big
If you don't see more green than concrete, you are in a different town
If you can't smell water nearby, you are in a different town
In the swimming pool is not required to wear a cap. Free floating hair in the water!
I'm not completely sure that in the changing areas and borders of the pool is required to use some sort of appropriate footwear. You just have to remove your outside footwear before entering the area.
I don't want to find out if a swimming suit is required. I strongly hope so.

My Workplace

Eating snacks during working hours is considered completely appropriate.
Spring water, coffee, milk and tea are on the house.
Having lunch at your PC is not a problem. Eating something with a strong smell neither.
Flexible hours. Really flexible hours, you just have to do your 37.5 hours a week, it doesn't matter when as long as you inform your boss.
Working from home. For real. Two of us work from their home in Poland and came over every now and then. A third one is planning to move to London (for his girlfriend's job will require her to be there) and will keep working with us.

And yes, in case any of you are thinking "but those are such common habits!", I am amazed of habits we don't have in Italy.

Try to get on or off a subway train in Milan during the peak hours. Good luck. Or buy a ticket on the train. 25 euros fine plus the price of the ticket.

In my previous workplace I had to eat cold stew and pasta because heating it would make the whole office "stink of food, and that's inappropriate, what will the client think, we are a software house not a restaurant!", and still they were somehow relaxed about eating in the office confronted to many other companies.

On the other hand, the concept of basic hygiene is a bit.. different? here. Ahem. I can't really complain as everything else is simply great.

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krios82

Aug 6, 2013

100 Creatures Challenge

5 min read

Rules

Original here
Additional personal challenges:

- "food" cross theme - each will be depicted during lunch, dinner or brunch, according to their tastes

- full background and scenery for each image - not just the plain subject

- storytelling - again, non just the plain subject, but an image that should suggest that there has been a "before" and there will be an "after"

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krios82

Aug 3, 2013

Scanner and challenge

1 min read

Now, lucky me.

I asked my landlord if he knew about some place where I could bring some paper document and have it scanned, and he answered "I have an old printer, it is out of ink but it has a scanner, you can use it if you want".

So, I have a scanner and I decided to try the 100 creatures challenge by soothness.

I don't expect to be able to draw a creature a day, but I will try my best to keep the updates at least one per week.

The scanner is pretty low quality (it is an old thing anyway) so all the entries will come back to Italy with me, be re-scanned with my own scanner and be re-uploaded as soon as it is possible.

On other news, I will be able to restart with my silly comic soon, which to be readable doesn't require as high scanning quality as full grayscale pencil drawings..

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krios82

Aug 1, 2013

Settling

1 min read

And I finally made it.

I'm in the UK.

I am in the evaluation period of my new job.

I have a room in a nice household, with a great live-in landlord and a lovely dog.

I didn't expected a few things, though.

I didn't expected to catch a nasty cold, or a flu, not sure, as soon as I landed.

I didn't expected my boss to ask me to start Monday, the day after I landed.

I didn't expected city shops to close at 6pm.

I didn't expected the city to be so huge and sparse.

I didn't expected to forget home my graphic tablet's pen (although I am not sure about this last one, seem highly probable, as I can't find it anywhere in my room).

Anyway, everything is slowly settling.

I expect to start drawing again this week or at most the next one, while I look for a way to scan my drawings and maybe to replace my pen..

Whohooooooooo!

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krios82

Jul 1, 2013

Long travels and sketches

1 min read

Today I won't upload last issue of my silly comic.

The reason is that I had a really challenging trip on Wednesday and Thursday (I spent more or less 17 hours between trains and planes) and an alchoholically challenging wedding this weekend, for the rest of the time I collapsed in my bed and I am starting to recover only today..

In the meantime, some of the live sketches I did during the trip here. I hope to get through the issue as soon as possible.

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Featured

Spot the difference by krios82, journal

Spot the difference

Sep 7, 2013

As some of you may know, at the beginning of last month I moved to the UK. Since then, "spot the difference" between here and Italy it's become my favourite game =) Here are some, I tried to sort them out between "UK" and "This Lovely Little Town". But there are so much more.. UK They train you for the new job. Really. I spoke with one of the driver, the bus company I use to move through the city offer all the training and exams you need to be licenced to drive a bus. Every small shop closes at 5:30pm.The 24/7 exists, but are only the huge franchise.Banks are open on Saturdays.There is a lot of people living on boats on the canal. It is l

100 Creatures Challenge by krios82, journal

100 Creatures Challenge

Aug 6, 2013

Rules 1. Copy the List, and a link to this deviation into your journal so people can see that you are in the challenge. When you have done one of the themes you can put a link to your deviation right next to the creature's name so everyone can see which themes you have done. 2. You can interpret the themes how ever you want. 3. You don't have to draw if you don't want to. It can be photographs, poetry, stories, crafts or whatever you want, as long as it's made by you. If you do photomanipulations using art made by others you need to have permission and give proper credit of course. 4. One creature for every picture/photo/whatever. 5. The

Scanner and challenge by krios82, journal

Scanner and challenge

Aug 3, 2013

Now, lucky me. I asked my landlord if he knew about some place where I could bring some paper document and have it scanned, and he answered "I have an old printer, it is out of ink but it has a scanner, you can use it if you want". So, I have a scanner and I decided to try the 100 creatures challenge by soothness (https://www.deviantart.com/soothness). I don't expect to be able to draw a creature a day, but I will try my best to keep the updates at least one per week. The scanner is pretty low quality (it is an old thing anyway) so all the entries will come back to Italy with me, be re-scanned with my own scanner and be re-uploaded as soon as it is possible. On other news,

Settling by krios82, journal

Settling

Aug 1, 2013

And I finally made it. I'm in the UK. I am in the evaluation period of my new job. I have a room in a nice household, with a great live-in landlord and a lovely dog. I didn't expected a few things, though. I didn't expected to catch a nasty cold, or a flu, not sure, as soon as I landed. I didn't expected my boss to ask me to start Monday, the day after I landed. I didn't expected city shops to close at 6pm. I didn't expected the city to be so huge and sparse. I didn't expected to forget home my graphic tablet's pen (although I am not sure about this last one, seem highly probable, as I can't find it anywhere in my room). Anyway, everything

Long travels and sketches by krios82, journal

Long travels and sketches

Jul 1, 2013

Today I won't upload last issue of my silly comic. The reason is that I had a really challenging trip on Wednesday and Thursday (I spent more or less 17 hours between trains and planes) and an alchoholically challenging wedding this weekend, for the rest of the time I collapsed in my bed and I am starting to recover only today..In the meantime, some of the live sketches I did during the trip here. I hope to get through the issue as soon as possible.