The Pool
So, the Italian adventure is over and here we are in Liverpool. Not quite the scenery or weather that I’ve grown to love in Italy but it definitely presents the same challenges with regards to the language!
As I’m sure you all know, it is the capital of culture this year and I think it is realy trying to do lots of interesting things in the city. We are lucky enough to have a flat (although I keep wanting to call it an apartment – I haven’t lost the Italian yet!) right in the heart of the city, so we’re just a stones throw away from all the excitement. All I need now is a job and I’ll be able to do some of the things that are on offer at the moment!
How Long’s It Been??
It seems that I’ve been extremely rubbish about posting recently; I have no excuse other than that I’ve been pretty busy and I’ve had other bits and bobs to worry about. Unfortunately this post may not relight my passion for blogging but it will serve as a recap of what’s been happening. Since the snow we’ve had some amazing sunshine and everyone was amazed ow early summer arrived. What we didn’t realise was that we weren’t going to get any more! We’ve had rain pretty much every day for the last 2 months! It’s dull, cold and dreary. So, you can imagine, I’m not feeling too excited about our coming holiday (3 weeks cycling around Italy)! I’m hoping that the rain will stop at least. Besides weather we’ve had a few more guests, expecting the next one any minute and then preparations can really start for our return to England. It’s all a bit scary and exciting but there’s far too much to do before I can even start thinking about any of that! Apart from the weather life here has been pretty good over the last few months; teaching has slowed down and we’ve been getting out and about on the bikes.
Well, that’s it for now. I’m not going to promise a whole load of photos because my laptop is so slow that I can’t be bothered at the moment. I can’t wait to get the laptop back when we get back to England. Maybe then my computery side will start to shine again!
Ski Fun
I went skiing for the first time ever two weeks ago and I absoultely loved it! It was great! After a little look at the funds we decided to go back again last week and I’ve now accomplished the art of parallel turns, I feel very swish. However, I can’t walk – my legs ache so much and I feel very old! Ah well, let’s hope that with more skiing the legs get better as I’m hoping to go back again. Photos to follow.
Lent’s Over?? Who Knew!
We had a smattering of guests over the Easter period, so tied together with the fact that I had to work lots, I forgot that as well as Easter eggs, Easter brought with it the end of lent. I can therefore officially watch TV again! I’m pleased to say that I didn’t really miss the box and I’m definitely in the habit of doing other things to relax before I think of watching something. Although this wasn’t necessarily the point, it’s nice to know. With that said I’ve just asked A to start downloading the next episode of ER. he he!
M.I.A
Sorry I haven’t been around recently, I’ve had a bad case of gastroentiritus! (That’s what the doctor called it anyway.)
It’s been a horrible few days but I did accomplish one thing, I have now made my first trip to an Italian hospital. It wasn’t as awful as it could’ve been as I had a great friend to translate but it was pretty miserable.
Anyway, I’m feeling much better now, so a normal service will be ressumed shortly!!
Playing the Guitar
I bought a new guitar and it is really beautiful. I’d been saving for a while and I’m really pleased with it. The only problem is that I haven’t been able to find much time to play it. I don’t know why because I’ve cut TV out of my diet for lent and I haven’t taken on anything new in the last couple of weeks but neither have I played much. Strange. I think one problem may be finding music that I like that is both playable and written well. Sometimes on the websites that show chord charts for other people’s songs, they have not been translated (I can’t think of the musical term at this moment) very well and therefore sound…how can I put it….well, just wrong! I am playing my own music too but I haven’t written anything new for a while and don’t seem to be able to find time (or motivation) at the moment so there’s only so many times you can play the same songs. Therefore all I’ve got are other people’s music. Any ideas? Any good tabs/chord charts out there for music? I also, don’t like the sound of the guitar with the capo on. To me it sounds really out of tune. This creates a problem if the original song is written for a man or a woman with a different range to me, as I can’t sing and play at the same time. For me, this is part of the fun, so I have to use a capo to change the key but it just sounds so bad! What to do?
Well I’m looking at her now (Penelope the guitar that is) and the act of writing this post has made me want to play. I might give her a little strum. Don’t want her to think that I don’t love her anymore!
Recipe Book
I bought one of those books where you can write in all the recipes that you like and want to remember. Or, you can stick in recipes and bits and bobs that you find and create your own, personalised recipe book. It’s really cute with pictures of ‘castagni’ (chestnuts) on the front and all the sections are labelled in Italian. Now all I need to do is find some time to transfer all the scraps of paper that I’ve been collecting into it. I can’t wait. I’ll never forget how to make custard from scratch again!
Homebase Advert
I’m making an effort to keep our apartment clean and tidy in an attempt to make it feel more like our home rather than just a base for the next 5 months. It was getting me down that nothing felt like my home but just stuff I’ve borrowed from someone else (which is exactly what we have done when renting a furnished apartment!) so have been putting up pictures and buying flowers etc. Whilst doing this the same phrase keeps jumping into my head and it’s become almost like a type of mantra. It took me a while to work out what it was from and 5 minutes ago it came to me. “Homebase – make a house a home”. Adverts, you’ve got to love ’em!
Sunshine
It’s amazing the difference that sunshine makes to my day. When I wake up and the bright light is shining through the windows and I can open the shutters and let it all in, it makes me feel cheery. Today it’s cold. There have been no streaming sun rays this morning. If there were any they’ve gone back to sleep, knowing that today was going to be hard, tiring and cold. The sun rays didn’t want to get involved and be associated with the rubbishness of today. Let’s hope that spring is on it’s way. No, scrap that, I’m going to hope that the full-blown summer is just around the corner. I love the sun.
Which fruit?
I went to the ‘fruitivendola’ this week to buy all the fruit and veg that we might need. I always check which out of clementines and mandarins have pips because I can never remember and I don’t like the ones with pips. This week however, I was feeling brave, so I filled my bag full of ‘clementini’ and headed to the checkout. Today I ate my first one and there were 31 pips/seeds (whatever you call them)! 31 in one little, tiny clementine!!! I think I got the wrong type. Next time I’ll ask.
Crunch Corner 