Little Italy 25

[Rosa]

Greetings, Ciao , Welcome , Benvenuto

what are you getting your dc? (nosey)

Franca, are still yugioh cards popular in Italy? quite efficient if you already bought your dd the Christmas gift ;)

Thinking of watching Homeland too, don't know when it will be on for the first time here, just saw the Tv ad....

Sorry about being abscent had minirosas party yesterday which went well ...and the cake was a success ( phew). HAd a massive aqua alta yesterday morning but thankfully it seems to have all gone now ..its just damp and not cold at all...
Re xmas. They both want the fu real things DD1 the horse and Minirosa the rabbit . The horse is a stupid price but the rabbit not so a hard one here .. DD also wants a DS ( but we have an old one) and an Ipod but we thought she could have my old Iphone... I really must think however as I also need to think for Nonna !!
VAdo in terra ferma al detmatologo and H&M to get minirosa a pair of wellies as hers split ( over use possibly ???)

The lego for ds arrived this morning , I am waiting for dd's gift. So relieved to have decided to get them now, instead of rushing at the last minute (which I will do, nevertheless!)

I think that yugioh cards are still rather popular here, or at least they are in ds' class, he plays a lot with one of his best friends. It is quite amazing, how well they can play for quite a long time.

Glad to hear the aprty was a success rosa, and I am sure the cake must have been delicious. I have seen pics of people in the acqua alta in piazza s marco!

I expect the people in the pics are now in hosp with nasty diseases..stupid is not the word. The water comes up via the drains FGS ...Rat poo, pidgeon poo plus who knows what else... YUCK.
God I have had enough of DH and doing early starts he is constantly grumpy and can't have a decent conversation with him. Well we only have Thursday and thats it until the spring - apart from the odd one.
Well the dds stocking prezzies are fine - I have been buying them in bits since AUgust so am pleased. Dh is doing ok as well he seems to have a few things now and I just need to get him a new towelling dressing gown but I am going to teh Bassetti outlet ..well I hope to anyway.
SO have to think about everybody else now - asked Dh as his reply was 'ma ora di natale'.....Have a new English class this pm 3 kids from 4a elementare. The mother has really battled me down over the price so I am a bit about doing it. Anyway today is free as its a prova but I need to get corraggio and say I really want X a child please....

Permeso? :) Just popping into say ciao, spero vado tutti bene!

Yes, Rosa, that's what I thought too, that water must be full of schifezze!

The scuola dei playmobil arrived yesterday. So now I have to think about dh and my parents. And his parents. .

Ciao Annunziata! Come on in!

Ciao everybody. Congratulations Merlin (the cake looks beautiful!)

LOL at the supposte/bidet thread thing. So many Brits seem to have a bidet-phobia. I remember going to visit some girls off my degree course who were in Italy for Erasmus, and before I went into the bathroom one of them made sure to point out that the sapone intimo/towels near the bidet weren't theirs but belonged to their Italian flatmate, just so I would know that they wouldn't dream of using the thing! Meanwhile a male friend who was there too wondered what it was for and if it was a "women's thing" only.

As for supposte, having seen my DD traumatised by them last winter when we had to keep giving her Niflam (she was 18 mo at the time), I am not sure they're a good idea in young children...but that said, they're not such a big deal in the great scheme of things!

Ciao Spagh, how is the move going?

Rosa, reading your post made me laugh a lot, sorry
I can imagine you battling with italian mums who don't want to pay the right price for their children's education... Did they try to have a discount or stuff like that, as with a vucumprà?
When my mum was a tailor, she always hated people who were trying to give her less money when they went to collect their clothes... that's why she always said 'if they don't respect the agreement (she always told them the price before), I don't want them as clients anymore'. Fair enough!

Out of curiosity, how much do you ask per child? I'm refusing to have any class at the moment, too much to study for uni. I tutored one for nearly three months before the summer and I was drained of any energy after 10 weeks!!

Annunziata e Spaghettina, hello!! And thanks :)

Ciaooooo Quick post whilst the spinach ( shhh don't tell the dds is cooking) Want to try spezele or whatever green gnochi basically .... Have proscuitto in reserve if it turns into a sticky mess--- am crappio at gnocchi!
Hello Anuziata not been over to parlo italianese for a bit scusa.
I charge ?20 for 1 then ?5 per child on top. SO for 3 it should be ?30 ... for friends I do less . For a school class in materna I did ?25 as I loved it !!!!! But private I find more work to be honest .
Offski wish me luck with the gloop...... Have wine though so might try drinking that first before cooking !

Well not so much Rosa then!! What are they complaining about? A private lesson, ages ago, used to cost 30mila lire, which would be 15 euros nowadays!! Here they pay aroun 15 £ for an Italian or Spanish 1-hr lesson (and we're waaayy up north, so less expensive!)

LOL about the italianese!! :D

Enjoy your

Ciao a tutti, grazzi mille :)

Rosa that is so reasonable! There is a private school here that is teaching half days Italian and English, people are signing up their DC from birth to get them in... £9000 a term!!!!

Oggi ho capelli ribelli, perque sonu stato sorpreso dalla pioggia. Argh.

Totally reasonable Rosa, I think that now with the crisi everyone is trying to bargain prices...

How were the gnocchi? I love spatzle!

My so called "smartphone" went dead this morning once again. So tempted to get an iphone with Tre, as my "cheap" smartphone is actually crap. Boh.

Bloody hell they worked !!! SO easy as well but my neighbour lent me the grater spazele thing which I think helped !
1 egg, 125g spinach squashed through the strainer but I gave up on that . 150g flour and roberto tuo zio .....Done , Sauce was single cream a bit of wine and pros cotto. I did mix a few normal gnocchi in there as well . Dh ate all of his and the dds a fair bit. Well pleased.
Beeen to Mestre today and got minirosa shoes 1 cheap pair from Pitarello I expect they will disentigrate in the slightest bit of rain. Then a pair of Primigi that better not disentigrate at all until March !!!
Vomit bug is going round here 24 hrs of vomit and febbre - I hope we miss it !

It took me 2 minutes to realize what you meant with roberto tuo zio !

Bene, I will try!

ciao Franca, thanks for asking - we won't be moving until next summer, but we may have found a place to buy. Meanwhile I've been visiting some of Milan's lovelier spots (Brera, Colonne...) and thinking I'll miss the place... but also quite excited about the prospect of moving somewhere different and actually becoming a homeowner (scary though!)

Rosa your prices sound v. reasonable. I know people who charge way more but then again it depends on the local "market". I just heard of someone charging only 8 euros per child (2 kids in total) but in Puglia.
Either way, I really object to people haggling over the price. It's your time and expertise you're offering. Only monkeys will work for peanuts, right?!

I'm not a teacher but keep being approached by pushy mums at playgrounds who want me to teach their kids, or pushing their kids to play with DD as soon as they hear us speaking English. the other day a random stranger asked me if I would consider just "hanging out" with her 3 year old so he could start learning the language before starting full time at the English private school next year. (lucky for some)

It's annoying as they're clearly just exploiting the situation rather than wanting to actually make friends. Has anyone else had this experience?

LOL Spaghettina, this reminds me of countless situations in Italy and abroad too... You've no idea how many of my students asked me if I knew someone they could practise Italian with given that I was moving far away (I'm now living very up north) from June onwards. So I guess many would have approached Italians only for exploiting the situation rather than to make friends .

Oh I love the Colonne, I used to live there pre my move to the uk!

Lol at those pushy mums, they'd do anything!

This morning I had to wake up early as I have been volunteered () to be the scrutatrice for the elections of the consiglio d'istituto of the dc school. Same tomorrow from 8 to 2. I am such a pushover!
To console myself I spent the rest of my time having a huge revival of guns and roses on youtube and I am now feeling slightly hormonal

Oh wow Spagh, you found a property already? There are some nice houses in puglia... Che bello!

I have been asked so many times to do classes and to be honest I have found the class mums of minirosa all willing to pay... Thing is I can't do anything after school hours!
I am glad you all agree with the prices I diddn't think they were too high. Thing is I feel in an hour a week its so hard to make any progress sometimes . One to one yes but with this group of 3 its so hard as they are all at different levels and different capabilities to learn...despite them all being in the same class at achool.

I have just ordered a meat sensor off Amazon black friday deals.. honestly I sometimes do doubt my capacity not to shop !

Yes I agree rosa, re the progress doing only 1 hr a week.

What si a meat sensor?

My 8 to 2, became an 8-19.30 and i am now knackered.

8- 19.30 for free ..I hope they get you a pannetone at xmas!!!!

A meat sensor is a temperature thing that you stick in meat to see if it is the right temp = cooked. I use teh tried and tested method of a knife stuck in but when I did my roast beef the other day it was too cooked. You can also use it for boiling sugar and jam ...Its not really a lifes essential but I saw it and bought it. I also bout some Melissa and DOug wooden things in this black friday deal..... Its bad news. In fact today I am going to do some fatture and then step away and do some manual paperwork with pen and paper and a huge cappuccino....

Nah, not even a panettone methinks... !

Ah, now I see, yes, of course! It is deffo useful!
I love shopping online, I must admit... Too bad!!!

Rosa, I couldn't live without my probe thermometer......

Two years ago I bought the meat sensor you have but I never used it because it's something that I would use for big pieces of meat, like joints.
Conclusion, I never have guests so I never made any roast beef or chicken or turkey, etc. So the meat sensor is still in the drawer LOL

If you find a cheap thermometer to buy, that's a good thing. Especially for food you're not sure when it is really cooked (like anything from the freezer, that it stays cold in the middle )