The crèche and the magi

While I was in Naples last week I went running once only. Unfortunately, after this training around the Royal Park of Naples I had a Bronchitis (I had a shower and I quickly got out while the weather was cold) and consequently I didn’t run the Neapolitan 10 km. race which started the 26th of December. But I saw that race while my friends were running it (photo above posted). Now, if I feel good next week I will begin likely training again.

Here, in my house in Civitavecchia near Rome, the crèche or creb was constructed three weeks ago. The crèche is a depiction of the birth of Jesus and its main part is the nativity scene. But it consists of other characters from the biblical story such as shepherds and the Magi, who will reach the nativity scene the 6th of January. In the Gospel of Matthew, the only one to describe the visit of the magi, it states that they came "from the east" to worship the Christ, "born King of the Jews”.
Although Matthew does not mention their number, because three gifts are recorded as having been given to the Christ Child, traditionally there are thought to have been three Magi. The two photos above posted show the nativity scene and the Magi. You can see crèche’s sheperds in the other images below posted.

Christmas 2009 in Naples

Christmas time is near. We'll go to Naples tomorrow where we stay until the 28th of December 2009. I hope to continue the training in Naples where I'll try to run through the old royal park. Moreover, a 10 km. race will start in a small town near Naples next Saturday. If I'll feel good I run that race.

The typical Neapolitan Christmas cake, which you can see in the photo above posted, has been cooked today. The other photo shows my mother's Christmas tree, which has been made in her house in Naples.
Wishing you a Christmas full of affection and warmed with love.

About Civitavecchia's half marathon again

After the 2009 Civitavecchia’s half marathon I’ve tryed to maintain the long distance training. The goal is the next Rome's half marathon which starts in February. Moreover, running long distance makes me feel relaxed because it gives me an opportunity to see landscape, environment, countryside and old town centre. Meanwhile Stefano has decided to run the 10 km. Fiumicino’s race next month and I'll probably follow him. In the photo above posted I was crossing the finish line of the last Civitavecchia’s half marathon which I ran the 8th of November 2009. While I was running the race I was the number 549.

The other photos below show the happiness of runners who were crossing the finish line . . . in the rain.

2009 Civitavecchia's half-marathon

There were about 1500 runners who took part in the race while the weather was rainy. I had breakfast at 07:10 a.m., about three hours before the race which started at 10:00 a.m.
When the race started the runners ran next to the cathedral and through the port. Outside the port we ran among farmers fields and countryside surronding the northern side of the town and was really nice.

I didn't find the race difficult to do because there were two short up hills only (total up hill distance was about 1.2 km). We run the last 2 km through the town, next to the theatre and the archaeological museum. The distance of the race was 21 km. Time taken: 1 hour, 42 minutes, 44 seconds. Two year ago I ran the same half marathon and I took the same time. While I was running the race it didn't rain. Fortunately it rained 5 minutes after I crossed the finish line, so I quickly came beck home.
This time the loot wasn't interesting. It was a bathrobe. What's more is that they gave me a very small size. But it's important I enjoyed the race.

19 km. training

We began the Sunday's training at 08:00 a.m. while the weather was mainly sunny. At the beginning we ran up hill and down hill outside the town. while we were running next to a green hill we saw a lot of black sheeps. It was the first time I saw black sheeps here in Italy.
During the last two km. we passed through the old side of the town. I was pleased with my training, so I'll try to run the Civitavecchia half-marathon next month. I decided to try the race which starts the 8th of November 2009.

Montalto's running race 10.700 km.

Last Sunday, the 11th of October 2009, Stefano, Umberto and I, ran a 10.700 race in Montalto in support of "Italian Association blood's donors". I was the fifth on the list which includes runners who were born from 1960 to 1964. The loot, which you can see in the photo above posted, consists of two bottles of wine, one bottle of oil, coffee and pasta. Stefano's loot is the same because he was the fourth on the other list which includes runners who were born from 1955 to 1959. Congratulations to Stefano for his ordeal. We are planning to run another 10.00 km. race in support of another social cause the 1st of November 2009.

Cluster-pine trees

During the hot summer we run in this beautiful place where the path crosses a cluster-pine trees forest and wild pigs live inside a big enclosure. You can see it in the pictures posted.

Next week I will likely began to follow a half-marathon training schedule for intermediate runners. It.s a 12-week half-marathon training program which provides 6 tempo run trainings. Tempo runs help you develop your anaerobic threshold, which is critical for faster racing.

For a 40-minute tempo run, for example, start your run with 5 to 10 minutes of easy running, then continue with 15 to 20 minutes of running at about a 10K pace. Finish with 5 to 10 minutes of cooling down. If you're not sure what your 10K pace is, run at a pace that feels "comfortably hard".

http://running.about.com/od/halfmarathonprograms/a/interhalf.htm

Gaeta and the island of Ventotene

After the summer time I will likely begin to follow a running programme. The goal is the next Civitavecchia's half marathon. Now I'm on Holiday and I'm mainly swimming.

Here the world economic crisis caused a decrease of the tourist traffic flow. As consequence the prices of hotels fell by 8,3 per cent during this summer. The tourist traffic flow decreased in Greece and Spain too.

Tourist sector sharply shrank

An Italian financial daily has reported today that people cut expenses for beach holiday this summer. But on Sunday people are crowding beaches which become deserted during weekdays. Although the price of hotels decreased by 40 percent, same Italian towns as Venice, Florence and Rome lost a lot of tourists from 2007 to 2009. Of course unemployment rate rose in tourist sector too. The weakness of U.S. and European labour market, which limits wages and threatens to erode consumer spending, will prolong the recession.

Black Knight Navy members, who Stefano has shown on his blog, are going swimming across the see twice a week.

The situation remains uncertain

As matter stand, most investors want to see signs of recovery. Althought there is more money going in to the market than coming out, there aren't signs of stabilization and unemployment would may rose again. While some companies last week were forecasting a earning decrease in 2009, the German group Arcador, where there are 43,000 employees, decided to go bankrupt. G-8 finance ministers said yesterday after a meeting in Lecce, Italy, there are “signs of stabilization,” though “the situation remains uncertain.”

Meanwhile North Korea said any U.S. effort to enforce international sanctions over the communist nation’s nuclear program would be considered an act of war and be met with military force. The sanctions also call for new restrictions on loans and money transfers to North Korea. We have to think what theese global news mean for the market.

This morning while I was running I saw an old Italian war ship and I took a photo. You can see the old ship in the picture above posted. On the other side of the sea harbour there was an Italian aircraft carrier. Its photo is down here.

“We’re not out of the woods”

It isn't a matter of pessimism or optimism. The 5th of May 2009 I posted something about the rise of the Nasdaq index which generally indicates the major trend in the global stock market. Actually, during the last two months the world's stock market grew more than forecast. For example, the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose by 40 per cent since the March 9th lows and a Goldman Sachs report shows that it, which reached last week the level of 940, won't increase within next six months. Although, China and other emerging nations didn't increase their demand of raw materials, we saw the growth of price commodities as crude oil $ 69 and copper $ 230. We need to understand the behaviour of investors considering the decrease of world's consumer goods and the growth of unemployment rate. U.S. payrolls fell by 345,000 in May, less than forecast, while the unemployment rate hit a 25-year high of 9.4 percent. Meanwhile, here in Europe, Irish unemployment reached 11,8 percent.

In this perspective, actual rise of prices is probably related to an irrational behaviour of investors, who think that stock market has reached the bottom. Next month we will likely see the beginning of the summer drop (traders sometimes say "sell in may and go away"). As soon as the slight decrease of stock markets is remarkable investors will see good shares to buy of course. In my opinion the overall trend since March 9th lows should be up to sideways. We will see a horizontal trend with a result of the prices traveling between strong levels of support and resistance. Most experts said that the latest rally may be a “trader’s rally” instead of a bull market. They added “We still have more problems to be worked out.”

 

The photo above posted shows the delivery of new cars in Civitavechia's harbour.

Distruction of gardens and old houses

After the distruction of eucalyptus trees, which Stefano posted on his blog the 29th of May 2009, our town is going to suffer another damage. Civitavecchia's people are dealing with a new problem because local politics want to built some horrible blocks of flats on a small green area. There are some old nice houses and a lot of gardens with lemon trees in this small urban area which is situated in the middle part of the town. Politics, who are plannig to destroy this part of the town, aren't interested to sustainable development of urban environment.

In this area of the town there are some very nice and old houses which were built in 1920s. Their architectural style clashes with new big buildings. Moreover, If we build new big blocks of flats, the people in this small part of the town will increase and parking places and other public utilities will be the same.

If Civitavecchia's people don't appeal against the major's measure this small part of the town, which is called "La Nona", will be destroyed. A lot of local free associations have already appealed against the major's measure.

Civitavecchia's landscape

In theese days local politics of Civitavecchia, where I've lived with my family since 1991, are trying to attach importance to the surronding landscape. I posted an image which gives a picture of the territory above mentioned. It is now in a wild state. Local politics suddenly think it may be used for biking, running, riding, trips to the mountains, archaeological tours (there are some Etrurian ruins), etc. It's a great idea. Fortunately they don't try to build something or detroy this beautyful landspape.

Nowadays, economists and ecologists say that landscapes, which are a part of global environment, are considered as commodities, goods and rights. We have to shrink the environmental impacts of urban areas. Although global environmental problems are typically considered part of national and international decision-making, it is now much more important to consider the environmental impacts of urban areas, because a rapidly growing proportion of the world's population lives in cities.


This week I've found a terrible environmental crime in my town and there's a personal liability too. I've posted the following image of this environmental offence which consist in water pollution. But I think that our European legal system concerning criminal sanctions linked to environmental offences is not certain and dissuasive. I hope politics will decide to develop environmental law to protect the equilibrium of natural system and human health.

Panic selling

Most people say that stock market has reached bottom. Although it has seen a strong rally since the March 9th lows, it is still in an overall bear market trend. So we can forecast that the market, after a small decline (I hope without panic selling), can move higher. Therefore, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, which consists of 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity, and industry group representation, will slightly try to incease its volume surge. The Standard & Poor's 500 resistence level of 935 - 945 would may mean a rise at 1045.

We can all have the same information about the world stock markets, but people act differently on the same information. Anyhow, it isn't easy to distinguish something that is signaling a real breakout from a new trend.

development of the green economy

Halfway through last year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was falling 10 percent, the green energy shares rose 30 percent. And during the two "panic selling" bottoms of October 2008 and March 2009 all the shares linked to renewable energies climbed easier than the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. In this perspective, most people think that the economic phenomenon called green economy will gradually cause the new speculative bubble of global stock markets (http://personalfinanceandinvesting.com/).

Although some green energy shares are actaully overweight I think that the environmental sector of the global economy will increase. Nowadays United States and Spain are the most important makers of renewable energy in the world. Next year a new big photovoltaic station will be built in Australia (Mildura). Four photovoltaic stations will begin to produce renewable energy in the U.S. Mojave desert in 2011. Moreover, there are important projects about the production of photovoltaic energy in South Afrika (Upington) and Israel (Negev desert).
The UNDP report on green employees shows that the jobs linked to sustainable development and "green economy" in the world are 2,3 million of which 670,000 jobs in photovoltaic sector only. The development of "green economy" may increase the employment because it needs technicians, installation firms and designers. Of consequence, the growth of employment, which improve consumer spending, may give strenght to the global economy.
In the U.S. stock market there is one of the most important company which makes photovoltaic panels. The name is First Solar and since May 2008 its share price have fallen from $ 317 to $ 130. General Electric and the Danish company Vestas are the world leaders of the wind turbine. In the end, in the green business of stock market there's the Swedish company Abb.

Chinese gold reserve

A survey of Xinhua News Agency shows that chinese government increased the gold reserve by 75 percent from 2003 to 2008. The chinese gold reserve has grew during the last five years from 600 to 1054 tons. Other asian countries increased their gold reserves too.

Of course, on the basis of the law of supply and demand, from 1999 to 2008 the price of gold rose from $ 250 to $ 900. But recently in the first three months of 2009 the price of gold fell. In a picture of financial volatility, investors think buying gold may be interesting against the uncertainty of stock markets. Moreover, some asian governments will probably decide to increase further their gold reserves.

Nasdaq index will probably rise next weeks

After the double bottom in October 2008 and November 2009 charts show that Nasdaq index will rise next weeks. Although experts don’t see a trend changing we can analyse others interesting signals in the stock market. Nasdaq index begans to rise, comodities prices have grown and stock markets of emerging economies have revitalizes. Under this perspective, the resistance level of 2050 of the Nasdaq index would may mean a changing trend in the global financial markets. In the past others stock market indexes like S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial followed the Nasdaq index growth.

A lot of economists think that a strong increase in the global financial markets would cause a problem concerning inflaction control. The fluctuations of stock markets, that always anticipate all financial phenomenons, will probably give a danger signal linked to growth of the global inflaction.

old toys

I've find some old toys (small cars). This website is helping me to sell the old toys http://www.subito.it/vi/5610314.htm
It.s unbelievable: a lot of people have asked the small old cars.