Gratefulness

I finally have some time to sit down and write a decent post for the blog. I have had a very hectic ten days, and have loved every minute of it – from the crazy dash through Frankfurt to the begging and pleading I had to do in order to sit next to my fiance on the flight to Vancouver.

I am grateful for the cold dry weather we have a had and the splendid sun shining on Christmas Day. I am grateful that I was able to single-handedly choose the most crooked tree on the lot and triumphantly bring it home, only to have it fall over twice during the night and have to be propped up with rocks.

I am also grateful for my brave attempt at picking up a pair of ice skates after at least 12 years, and braving it on the open air rink in Robson Square, holding hands with my friend.

I am even more grateful for the wonderful walk I had in Heritage Park in Mission as I explained the history of the town to Andrea, who could hardly believe that for us something built at the end of the 1800s is considered “old” – but did not hesitate to whip out the camera to take a picture of a modest house and yard because it was “just like on TV”.

I am grateful that I did not burn the ham and was able to cook it and the rest of my Christmas meal with my family – after nearly TEN Christmases spent apart.

I am so happy that I just spent over two hours chatting on the phone with my best friend, even though she is in Alberta this year and couldn’t come down.

2009 has been a very difficult year for so many reasons – but it has ended so wonderfully that it brings tears to my eyes, 2010 can only be better!

Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone. Sorry I have been so bad with my posts in the last few weeks, but being home as always is busy – but fantastic! I have spent the last week surrounded by friends and family and have had a wonderful Christmas! We decorated the tree together, and prepared a meal. I am so grateful for having had the chance to spend this Christmas at home.

With this, Merry Merry Christmas to all my readers! Thanks for being there, you all mean a lot to me

Home for the Holidays

On Wednesday I am going to Milan to catch my flight back home for Christmas. It has been ten years since I was last home for the holidays. It seems like eons ago, and at the same time like yesterday.

I talked to my mom yesterday who informed me that it was “trying” to snow. I eagerly looked the the long range forecast which had snow until Wednesday…and then RAIN! Ah that lovely Vancouver rain, how I miss you. Fingers crossed though that the temperature will drop just enough on Christmas so I can build a snowman (and pretend he’s Parson Brown ).

I will still be posting from home, but might not be as frequent. In the meantime happy holiday prep to everyone.

Nursing Fallow Deer

Fellow Aminus 3 blogger Earnest asked to see this video, and I thought you might too. I took it in Palla Vicino in Stresa, at Lago Maggiore:

You can also have a laugh at my fantastic Italian accent while I talk to my fiancè, clearly stating the obvious – Look! It’s nursing!

I have also posted pictures about my trip there on my Photo of the Day feature.

Enjoy

Insurance is Fun!

The other weekend I was talking to my mother about my upcoming holidays and she mentioned health insurance. Naive that I am, I thought that, even though I’ve been living in Italy for the last few years, I was covered. Not to mention the fact that I hadn’t even thought about the fact that my fiancè might need some health insurance! Thanks Mom!

So the health insurance hunt began. I went to the local travel agent. He sits me down and says, “ OK, no problem. I can insure you both just tell me the dates.” I do, and he tells me the price – €150.00 each! Holy smokes! I gulp and tell him to continue. He says, “OK, so you are both Italian citizens, right?” “Yes, I say, but I am travelling with my Canadian passport,” (never quite got around to renewing the Italian one). “Oh,” says the guy, “so you are travelling as a Canadian citizen?” “Yes.” “Oh, then I can’t cover you.” !What!?” “I can only cover Italian citizens.” “But I have Italian citizenship too, I’m  just travelling with another passport, I have other docs that prove it!” “Nope, sorry.” Great.

My fiancè says that is a bunch of BS and goes to get a second opinion. Same story. I write the embassy who says “Indeed, you are not covered anymore.” So now what do I do?

Look for private insurance in Canada. Yet there must be another way! Then in a chat with my friend Mel, lo and behold, the solution! – World Nomads! Covers me, covers my fiancè, costs half the price. Yay!

Apparently, the saga is over – for now. But to all those other fellow Canadians, remember once you are out of the country for 6 months, you are no longer covered!

The Best and The Worst

December – the month of the year where most people decide to tally up all the things they’ve done in the past year and see how to change them in the next. So here goes for me – my Photo of the Day. I started posting one picture a day (more or less) in January on Aminus3. I feel I have learned a lot but know I can always learn more, so I ask you, dear readers to help me Could you take a few minutes to look through my photos and tell me which five you like the most (and why) and which five you like the least (and why).

You can either write in the comments section to this post, or under the photos themselves, or, if you prefer privately via the contact form.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

Monsoons and Hot Chocolate

The weather in the last two days has been horrible. Rain, high winds, dropping temperatures. Sunday morning, my fiancè and I braved the monsoon-like conditions to do the grocery shopping and had quite the adventure struggling to the car with umbrellas and shopping bags. Once we got home and had put away the groceries, we changed right back into our PJs and I made hot chocolate. As we sat snuggled up on the couch listening to the howling wind and the rain against the windows, I thought, “Wow, life doesn’t get any better than this!” Of course, such a moment is great for talking and as I ate my hot chocolate (yes, I said ate, not drank) I remembered something my friend Leah said to me a while back. She said she was upset by Italian hot chocolate. Back home, hot chocolate is very liquidy and is often drunk with marshmallows on top. It is also very liquidy and tasty. In Italy it is quite different. Hot chocolate is thick and creamy and is often eaten with a spoon. I find it delicious, I think it is a very unique way of drinking hot chocolate, which does not mean that I don’t like American style hot chocolate as much, mind you. They are just two different equally delicious interpretations of the same thing, and as a chocolate lover, I am extremely happy that I can enjoy the best of both worlds!

Wedding Dress Woes

As many of you know I am getting married, and one of the most important things about a wedding is the dress. Now why, you ask is she worried about the dress, when there is still plenty of time? Well, I answer, a couple months ago, I decided to just start looking around, expecting to take a gazillion years to find the dress that just screamed, “I’m the one!” Unexpectedly, I found it, at the second shop I went too. I was in love. But it needed a few modifications to fit me properly, of course I told them to take their time with it since I was getting married in June. Well, after a few fittings, all was well and the dress was cleaned pressed and ready to be delivered. And this is where Italy shows its best – anything that is simple, must, by some strange stellar calculations, become complicated.

The woman from the store calls me on Monday and tells me the dress is ready to be picked up. Well the store is in the vicoli, which means you cannot get at it with the car. AND it is also pretty far from the closest place I can park (at a very high fine risk). So I asked if it could be delivered. No problem she says, where do you live? I tell her all the details and she says, I’ll call you this afternoon to tell you the exact time. I had of course already told her it had to be in the morning, since I work in the afternoon.

In the afternoon I hear nothing, so I call her myself, she proposes Friday morning and I cancel a lesson I had organised. In the meantime, I call my friend who, saint that she is, is keeping my dress at her place until the wedding (the man is not allowed to see it until the day of…OK I’m just a little superstitious), and we get organised.

This morning I wake up and start making the house…presentable, and the phone rings…Sorry I can’t deliver it this morning, can I bring it to you at work this afternoon, or can we meet this evening after work (I finish at 8 and just wanna go home!) How about next week? I ask.  NO I want to deliver it this week, she replies. Call my friend waking her up get organised, call my fiancé, vent a bit. Then come up with the alternative solution. She takes the dress to her house tonight, I go Saturday and pick it up and bring it to my friend’s directly, with my car. Everyone is happy, except me, because I wanted to relax on Saturday, and maybe my friend because she doesn’t know I’ll be stopping by quite yet….

The point of all this is, why the heck does it have to be so complicated!! How hard is it to deliver a dress? How many phone calls do I need to make in order to organise this sort of thing? Clearly one or two are not enough. Let’s see how it goes on Saturday.

 

The Weather Blues

Today will be a post about the weather. Yes, such a boring, mundane topic which should be spoken about only in elevators and at bus stops. But lo and behold, I have decided that my beloved blog is the right place to talk about it, because, well I am feeling depressed, listless, unmotivated, sluggish and a number of other adjectives that communicate the same idea.

Reason: grey skies, cold weather, DARKNESS AT 3:30!! I get up and it’s dark. It gets imperceptibly lighter as the day goes on, but what happiness the light may bring is obscured by – rain. And when it rains in Genoa it’s really bad, because it is also windy, so umbrellas are useless….on a classic rainy-windy day you see many an umbrella carcass discarded on the side of the road. Sorry, got sidetracked…so the day gets lighter and is a bit rainy. Then I go into the office of artificial light and sit in front of the computer all day. Then I leave the office at 8 pm and it is pitch black and possibly rainy.   Then it is Friday and I get all excited because the weekend is upon us and I am NOT on call. I sleep in on Saturday pull up the blinds…and scream! Guess what? It’s raining!!

Now,you ask yourself, why on earth is she complaining so much about the rain? Did she or did she not grow up in Vancouver, where it rains ten months a year? Yes I did, but I was young and full of mirth at the time, and when I go back I am on holiday and am therefore full of bubbly happiness. Also places are well heated, and dry, not humid and cold.

Maybe because everyday life has been stressful lately, I feel like I have a permanent raincloud over my head. Here’s hoping I can find the silver lining , unless, of course, I am a Rain God* in which case, I am destined to be studied and become a famous circus freak

 

* Reference from So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, Douglas Adams ( a recent read…)

The Invites

Andrea and I are getting married on a budget…a very tight budget I might add…so, in order to save some money and to satisfy my creative spirit, we decided that I MAKE our wedding invitations. Of course, I wanted them to be a little different than the usual invite, in order to reflect the strangeness of us as a couple. So I put my googling skills to good use and looked at hundreds of different invitations on the web, and tutorials on how to make your own invitations and everything, but was still not quite satisfied. So I looked up cardmaking tutorials on youtube, and found what I was looking for! (Unfortunately I can’t remember the link to the site, but as soon as I find it, I’ll post it!)

So I gathered all my materials and am now very slowly starting to put them together. They are not even close to being finished yet, but I’ve had a few people asking me how they are coming along so I took a few pictures:

So far so good I’d say. I ordered the plain white square envelopes online and using a stamp and embossing powder, I made them look fancy. I also made a little map that I am going to glue onto one of the flaps…and in case you were wondering, yes I did spend afternoons folding 12″ x 12″ paper so that it would look like that I’ll post more pictures as soon as they are done!