Little Italy 23

[BananaGio]

Siamo qua!

Culture Club, who are they?

Now I want a tooth fairy letter for DD, she has a very wobbly tooth.

they do those on that site I posted Sput here

Can you not write a letter impersonating the Tooth Fairy or Father Christmas?

I forgot

Yes I saw them, that's what made me think of it. However I'll make my own as I don't want to pay 5.99 enjoy the creative challenge.

YEs I saw the link to the portable North pole and have signed up for an e mail when its active. We will also be tracking santa this year .
Happy Birthday Buch and as for Bacon and formaggio francese ......I am glad you enjoyed it !
LOl at the toilet comments- DD so far is pretty calma about it all but we are getting the giggles when anybody says a bottom related word. Mind you when anybody farts in our house minirosa says ' popples' and starts laughing it really is very funny !
Culture Club - I saw them at the Birmingham NEC years ago and my mother came !!!!!
AM now looking for a furgone to take to Ikea next weekend ( 10 days time ......) Oh the planning !

Indeed Sputnik.

Rosa: at a furgone trip to IKEA... we want a list of all the things you'll be getting!

And how were the CC live? (intrigued)

Totally Fantastic .....Boy George was electric on stage !
Ikea - Bjursta table not sure on chairs though. The bathroom stuff is the white and aluminium ( towards the end think it starts with an L ) Another bit of Trofast. Probably a Traby Tv table and unit and then some Traby shelf boxes. We also need to do something about the computer table but it might eb a second trip.The bank has to approve the loan before hand however ...... As I can't spend our money until I know we are getting more in !

How exciting!!! I love IKEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Me and DS were at Ikea this morning, he really loves it. They have all their xmas stuff out btw. We got a couple of magnet boards, they seemed seemed pretty magnetic. They are for the DC's room, there is not enough space on our fridge anymore for the creative efforts of both children.

I know!! me and dh dashed to Ikea on Sunday afternoon (it was mad, thankfully the children were at friends' otherwise we'd have lost them!) to get one IVAR, and I saw all the Christmas stuff... I need to go back with my mother, it's a little routine of ours, going to IKEA for the christmas things!

I think Little Italy should deffo organize a meet up at ikea, perhaps the one in Bologna???

Good afternoon to all of you sparkly 22 year olds on LI! (That does not include me of course, I am still 19).

Lol re: meet-up in Bologna's IKEA (I personally prefer Padua's ). I heart IKEA xmas decs, but I am not sure I can justify a trip to Gorizia for that. I like Coin's decs, although I am not sure whetehr that makes me officially middle aged.

BTW, I have started looking at schools options for DD in teh UK, and I am already thoroughly worried. Is it really that hard to get into a decent primary or is everyone on MN being a bit precious (honest question, really...)?

Happy Belated Buch!
Started Picking Olives and then was travelling yesterday! So very limited internet.

You don't look it at all my dear! Share the scecret won't you?

Just laughed out loud in the middle of the office re toilet and willy speak. And can't tell the them why. I just shrugged off as an email from a manager.

DS had a period where he spoke about his willy and played with it all the time. ( makes me wonder why i fret so much over things and yet he seems to get over them and i forget all about them very quickly). At the time i used to be so embarrassed when he came out with ' my willy gets big sometimes but not as big as papa''s, to anyone who will listen; in both languages. Or 'mummy why are you breasts and bottom so big' while in the underground.

Re religion, DH and I are of similar mind to most. I like the community aspect that comes with some Churches and do believe their is a God out there. But not very big on the whole organised religion bit. No one tell my father! I suppose it's also the tradition of having grown up in a Vicarage to a Vicar father. My dad is quite liberal and when i was 16 he told me it was my choice if i wanted to go to church or not because he believed i had to have my own relation with God if i wanted one rather than a faith imposed on me.

Anyway, out of tradion, I have had both my children baptised and will leave them to make up their own mind when they grow up whether or not to believe.
Dh and I just had the catecheism conversation over the weekend and he doesn't want to talk about it now because he hated it so much when he was a child and hates the no question asked type of beleif he was subjected to. Don't start him on why no cuts have been made on catholic religious education, while all other parts have been cut.

I just don't want my children to feel different from others because they already have enough to battle with and they know and trust our knowldge enough to doubt any propaganda fed to them by the school.
Anyway we have put off discussing catecheism for as long as we can.

But Fc, now that has to last as long as it can in our house. Dh dresses up as fc. The Scuola materna have asked him to do it for them 2 years in a row because dc have been raving about fc coming to the house on christams eve. They asked mey who it was and I told them, so now he does it for the school. DC get very excited because the same fc who comes to school is the same one who comes to the house. Although ds has asked why papa' is never there when fc comes .

back

I think there is some over preciousness about schools on MN. First of all, you'll have to decide if you want to go private or state.
It is true that house prices get higher in good school's catchment areas.
But Hotmed, for instance, (she used to post on here) was really enthusiastic about her ds's school, a small school in SE. Pippi is very happy too, I believe.

I think you could start a thread asking some advise, there are some Londoners who are very sensible.

Eurocommuter, lol re your dh being FC. My dad usually dresses up as FC on Christmas day, but I think my dc are now too old and they'll spot him!

there are ome Londoners on MN

Gosh, my internet is slow today, must be the rain...
I too love Ikea and for the past few Christmases some of my presents have been jazzed up with Ikea straw decs hanging off them.

I am trying to get dp to go to Ikea as I really want a "mobile" or even a cameretta for dd's tat precious belongings. We are getting to the stage where I have no floor space because of toys, and though we have shelves in the bedroom where her boxes and stuff are, they are polvere magnets (despite dp saying they would still attract polvere in cupboards

I think, even more than precious-ness over schools, is the precious-ness about teachers...the slightest perceived slight to one's child and it's get the dogs onto the poor teacher. (and the sort of know-it-all attitude about what should be taught/how/homework etc. Pah)

Talking of homework, dd has had to do a commento on a poesia today, with intro, main body and conclusion and consideration.....(and of course I will take great pleasure in posting about it on the next weekly (seems like) "I think our children are sent to school to young in the UK, why can't be like the continentals......sob sob, junior has five words to learn this weekend and he's my ickly biddy baby still, wah wah" thread....

EC- I have just fried up a big pan of "olive dolci" to have with fish tonight. I'd forgotten about you and your olive picking!

Minerva- good luck with the schools....London must be an absolutely minefield to try and find schools in....

Oh no don't please tell dh that Ikea is full of Natale stuff I will be baanned from going.....Now do they do nice big trees as well ? Our smallish one has had its last Xmas and I want a big one this year . We go for fake and then I do pine table decorations so we have the smell of pine in the house as well !

A bit precious is probably true but reality is it's tough out there. . It is true that house prices go up according to how good the local schools are. That made us move choose Italy as I could not bare the schools around us. We could not afford to live where the good schools where and options included lying and using my parents address. So here we are.

I have a love/ fed up relationship with Ikea. But i spend a lot of time there when i fly into Ancona. Dh loves it!

Did buy a lovelt Wardrobe their and everyone thinks I bought it somehwere else made to measure. It fits one whole wall of our bedroom perfectly.

Wow Buch, writting poems already. I can bareley get DS to read.

Yes, I agree Bucharest, there seems to be not much sympathy for teachers on here... I really don't understand this attitude, as, even if I had reservations on starting literacy at 4.5 for ds, I found ds school in the UK being really wonderful.
And again, here is another reason why I think there is a general preciousness: the school ds attended in the UK had a "good" OFSTED report, and wasn't the state primary of choice for our town's middle class (which seems to be favoured on here and by parents in general), but it was a lovely, cuddly, inclusive school.
Therefore, I think it is important to look beyond appearances and always have an open mind. I think UK primary schools are in general really good. Secondary schools are scarier, but it is the same here in Italy, unless you have a very academic child at classico or scientifico.

Eurocommuter, friends of ours made the same choice as you. They were in London, but their primary had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to go private, nor could afford a house in a different area.

Minerva, I've just remembered, I've got a lovely (married to a vicar and the epitome of what you'd want a primary school teacher to be!) primary teacher friend on FB, who is in London. Other friends frequently ask her advice about schools and she reads between the lines of the Ofsted reports and seems to really know what she's talking about. Just holler if you want any info!

Thanks to all re: reassurance about schools. Truth is the educations thread are so "charged" that I am going to have to think hard before I post something(coward, moi?). I would be happy with state primaries (Dh had bad experience with UK schooling so is a bit more sceptical), but coming from abroad it's harder as you have to prove you live in a certain council at a certain time. Our flat is only close to schools where you need church attendance anyway or privates (not particularly good ones either). So we would probably rent out somewhere (Clapham/Dulwich as I prefer going South than West) and then start from there. But I am glad I am not the only one who thinks that learning 4 words for homework is OK

What are "olive dolci" Buch?

They are the opposite of dolci is what they are lol....they are the black olives that haven't been cured yet? So very very bitter? You fry them with slivers of onion and eat them with fish. An acquired taste, but I quite like them now. They made me puke at first though.