Little Italy 23

[BananaGio]

Siamo qua!

That is so true Franca. Case in point: DH's parents, they moved back to their home country when FIL retired, to their own house they had rennovated, shipped furniture over to etc. After a couple of years they couldn't stand it, sold the house and came back. Mind you, their home country is a rather depressing place, sadly.

Hi all!
Minerva, that is a bombette. Although I have that conversation with dh at least once a year. Usually nearer christmas.

I try to bring back christmas with me fron E every year. I buy fresh cranberries and make my own cran sauce. Its so easy and qiuck. Buy crackers and make malled wine.
As I live in both countries at the moment. I miss very little. But the things that make me want to uproot family back to E are: lack of work (hence my euro commuting), lack of choice, provincial thinking,
Italian tv (don't own one but would love to watch some good tv once in a while) berlusconismo,racism, sexism, cost of children's things, fixation with designers clothing, and recently a big fear of racism on my children, sexism towards dh because he is a SAHD,
What I do like, the space we have that I could never afford in uk, food, the love of children by the italians, scuola materna and elementere(despite my issues with ds italian teacher, I like the system), I like that we are 10 walk to the beach and hour drive to the mountains; my children are happy with freedom they have.

Its a tough one. One day, I'll be able to kake the decision.

Why is it that you all say you can afford nicer houses in Italy than the UK and I live in a ripostiglio???? Must be because I'm from the provinces (and the northern ones at that) in the UK. My Mum's lovely big house with massive garden and double garage has been valued at about a fifth of the price of the buco I live in here.....

I went to visit a new baby yesterday, who was gorgeousness itself, one of the scrummiest newborns I've ever seen, because contrary to what they say on MN, not all babies are attractive, some of them need paper bags over their heads. It was an enlightening cultural moment as well, as I was the only one not to have worn a panciera or had a c-section so I learned a lot (and was told off, obviously, par for the course) for the panciera and how my organs were obviously "all over the place" and how now it was "too late to get them back into position". Then they all looked at me sadly and carried on comparing scar tissue.

I'm knackered, must stop staying up to see news from Taranto

Buch, so has your liver moved south and your spleen west? That would make an interesting clinical case . I know I know... It's a variation on "il colpo d'aria", although the c-section situation is shocking (and I speak as someone who would have gone for one if I could have... But it was too late).

And yes you should stop watching Taranto news. I did. And I feel marginally better.

Thanks all for the opinions re: Italy vs. UK. It seems that we broadly agree on the pluses and minuses of living in one place or the other. DH and I have spoken about it and we have decided that we will start looking into the school situation for DD (one of the minuses of moving to the UK). In any case we would be looking at 2012, which will still give us some time to plan and think it through.

LOL Buch - Our flat that we have just bought is worth as much as a house in my sisters street ( not hers as she has a huge thing) but a hell of a lot more than what we have here. MInd you if we went to the mainland then our Euro would go much further. What no panciera how could you - you sinner. I know of somebody still wearing one 18mths on!! To be honest I couldn't do mine up and only wore it when I was on night walking duty with both of them and I had backache! Now I wonder where that has finished up it hasn't come out of the woodwork yet for the black bin bags - I think donating it to Caritas is a bit much !
Went to the Coin today to discover that my friends and family voucher was for yesterday . Still bought a coat with 20% off!

I think house prices depend a lot on where you live both in Italy and the UK.
I don't think that properties where Rosa live are any cheaper than the expensive areas of London (but that's because she lives in a unique place ), and Milan is certainly more expensive than were we lived in the UK (where it wasn't exactly cheap for a small city with not a great wealth of jobs etc). Other areas of Italy are deffo cheaper than Surrey etc. Boh!

I haven't followed the Taranto news on TV. I read that Bruno Vespa even made a replica of the house (he did the same with the Franzoni murder... ). Poor girl, how tragic.

Actually we haven't been watching tv full stop (therefore missing some interesting stuff, like Report etc) because the aerial is broken, and dh wants to get rid of the tv set and only use the pc and dvds, but so far he hasn't really done anything. So we just watch dvds.
Dd loves Nanny McPhee at the moment, I watched all the eps of Extras, that I bought ages ago on amazon.

Ah, no one told me about pancera when ds was born (he was born in Italy). And I agree, southern Italy has a shocking rate of C section. I read somewhere it is because lots of people choose cliniche private, and state hospitals get more refunds if they do c sections grrrrr.

Apparently the best region to give birth is Trentino Alto Adige.

I haven't heard of panciera either.
We unplugged our TV 5 years ago and never looked back, tbh. Think about it from time to time though.

I admit I watch the news the 5 mins on Canale 5 or Rai 1 about 7am. Then possibly again round 8ish. I think its habbit more than anything else. DD1 watches cartoons in English when she wakes up for about 20 mins and then again in the evening normally for about 20 mins as I am doing dinner. Then she is on the computer. We have dvds but there are arguments as to who wants what ( yep at 23mths Minrosa wants piggle piggle and that is that !) We do have sky and I do watch stuff in English -Location , Location and Jamies Kitchen. I can't tellyou the last tiem I watched other than the news anything on Rai1,2,3 Can5,4,6 or La 7! I think we are going to get a bigger parabola if we can find somewhere to attach it to and get SkyUK. In which case I wil become a telly addict!

In fact I had no idea about the Taranto thing either, so obv. had to go and google it, so wish I hadn't.

I want dh to subscribe to megavideo, so that we can watch stuff on streaming.
Ah! Dh promised he'd try to get sky uk nearly 3 yrs ago!

Grim, eh?

Not heard of panciera for people our age either. I thought it was for the elderly who were worried about getting cold abdomens (yes, really...).

Franca, to watch streamed stuff could you not subscribe to lovefilm? They do free film downloads (well, free if you also rent DVDs from them, but the minimum package costs v little, something like £5). If you are interested, let me know and I can send you a discount card they sent me (have no time to watch DVDs, so have cancelled subscription before DS was born).

Do they really Sui? Awwww thanks, I'd be interested, yes . I miss our lovefilm subscription.

Yes, before I cancelled my subscription you could download films instead of getting them in the post and usually you used less credit for downloading. I will send you a message on FB to get details.

I'll check their website

SO I was loading my basket from the british corner shop ( rather like an amazon wishlist) . I saw curly wurly yum I thought clicked. Then I saw it was 60 not 1 ...Erm I saved the basket !

.............. I thought dd could give them to her friends and the mums could have a nice quiet coffee whilst they all chewed away.......

We really only watch Sky here too, but only for 30 mins in the evening as we have no time so I reckon it's not good value... I am starting to fancy Bear Gryllis though.

Re: housing - not mega cheap here but not nearly as bad as London (probably about half the price). Probably an unfair comparison, but if we went back to the UK we would most likely live in London (SIL lives there, easy access to planes to visit family, lots of friends, easy job for DH etc).

7 mins to go and then I can go home...

Rosa, you could hand the curly wurlys out and then ask your dentist for commission, thereby paying for them too!

Dp is unfortunately a telly addict, not rubbish, but the politico/debate stuff.

Apart from GF (fratello, not Ford ) I do like Quarto Grado (even with the Taranto story taking up the last few weeks) I have a grudging respect for Palombelli.

Most of my Tv is UK tv via dvds though.

Ahhhhhhhh Ladeeeeeez, I've just eaten massive amounts of Mexican food.....mmmmmmmmmmmmm (moos)

Lol agree with you aout baby look Buch! I i saw one on the plane today on my way home that needed a bag but stopped by a friend who's now 2 month old is adorably. Made me a bit broody.

Was told about panciera when dear ds was 4 months old by his peadiatra . I ignored him. I probably should have listened to him. I wouldn't still look pg 4 years on from last pg.

Housing here where i am is much much cheaper than London but definitely more or equal to some places in the mIdlands or north of England. Sil just bought a 4 bedroom house in the midlands(she can't stop bragging about it) that cost less than our 2 bed hole here.

We don't watch any Italian TV. Just DVDs, mostly English ones. I read about the Taranto story in the guardian this morning.

Who's Palombelli?

Rosa I would think the mums the would be love you for sharing the curly wurlys with their dc.

Mmmmmmmm to Mexican food. I want some now.

I think the wrath of mn could descend on me. Ds has been invited to dinner at a friend of his, I went to pick him up at 9 (already late for the mn standard)... started to chat with the other 2 mums... we came home 20 minutes ago

Sui, we can't use Lovefilm, as the service is only for UK residents

Eurocommuter: Barbara Palombelli is a journalist. I've no idea where she works at the moment.

so if i had had a panciera I wouldn't have this big overhanging gut?? Bugger! Is it too late if used it now??
Taranto story too depressing for words, everything about it - from the murder, to Chi l'ha visto, to the fact that people are visiting area to have their photos taken where it happened.
Bad Mum Franca . Ma chi se ne frega! It's the weekend.... (says the mum who has been known on occasion to have ds in restaurant still at midnight running around playing with his mates.....)
lol at Rosa and 60 curly wurlys! Set up a business! Bulk buy and sell to curly wurly deprived Brits!
DP also a telly addict- football, politics, football, TG, debate shows, football, films and more football. I watch either that or Jim Jam / Yoyo with ds apart from the lovely evenings when DP is out, ds in bed and I have a DVD box set session.
House prices- would never be able to afford our flat in Rome ever ever if were to buy whereas my UK house still very affordable. Would rather be in central Rome than outskirts of Manc though so will live with it