Mumsnet Little Italy 4

[Rosa]

Ciao - Everybody Welcome.

Phew Hot was getting concerned. Glad all is ok and that the nausea has gone..see we said it would !!
Glad you have dh with you Franca must make things easier for you all. Also good that ds has new things to look forward to to take his mind off the Uk and his friends.
Domani we go and see another flat it sounds good but it has riscaldamento condominiale which I hate the sound of as anything to do with condominiale apart from the spese for pulizie delle scale as it always means arguments and paying for something you don't get when you want it !!When they said drop your termo to 19degrees ( when there was a shortage of fuel). We decreased the time ours was on but kept at the temp we wanted we had just had dd! NOn lo so Voi cosa avete ???

we have riscaldamento condominiale here as well. Had it when I was living in another flat too. My parents have it as well, and I think their flat is overheated. But yes, I've been to a riunione del condominio once in my whole life and it was hell... .
Hope you'll like the flat, let us know how itgoes.

Franca and Rosa, I am a freelance recruitment consultant working from home , or attempting to, but not that easy now ds is getting a bit bigger and livlier. Deal with the UK market rather than Italian one though
Good luck with flat Rosa, we are looking as well at the moment, it's a job in itself!
Will keep with the bananas etc Franca as you suggested, although am now concerned re hi banana consumption, he is developing an obsession with them. How many a day are too many do you guys reckon....
What do the rest of you do workwise? Am sure you have discussed in earlier threads but am too lazy to look but too nosey not to ask

dd soemtimes eats 2 bananas a day...
I've done some translations, but basically haven't been "really" working for ages. I used to work in PR...

I am a SAHM used to be in management now help DH with his business. Looking for something to top up the housekeeping however.
As for the bananas I would say 1 max 2 a day. Have you tried grated apple? My DD loves it and I let her use the plastic grater when she is a bit off colour tummy wise as it encourages her to eat / pick. She also dunks fette biscottate usually in camomile ( although I cannot get her to drink the stuff !)
As for house hunting I am getting so fed up with it and wondering if I am just wanting too much . Prices are so high and the quality is cr*p. We need to get a new place though as this one needs too much work.

rosa I can't remember, are you looking to buy or rent? are you looking in a specific area?
I think I might be off to bed quite soon, my period started today and I feel really crap...

Buying as renting is a dead end.
Do you still do translations Franca ? Do you do Itl-Eng or vice versa as am thinking along those lines does it pay ok ??

I did a few (english to Italian) for friends (never got my name on them...) and it pays crappola. Did the book (lsat year) from It into eng and it was big big mistake. doesn't pay well.
I'm trying to think what I could possibly do now I'm back here. The job market is actually far from being lively... was thinking of going back to study....

I couldn't study at the moment am not on the right wavelength . Really need to look for something that is flexible can do from home ( don't we all??) Well bed for me now
Notte ( Dh out with his mates so going to bed with a book !)

what would you want to study Franca? I occasionally think about that but am main breadwinner and dp's salary isnt likely to change much so as long as we want to live in expensive Rome I dont think it'll ever be a possibility. And after 2 long years of DP doing crappy contracts here and there for peanuts, now he has finally found a permanent job here I think we're here to stay! After all these years it still shocks me to see how difficult it is for people to get a permanent job here.
Need to hide the bananas I think, DS had 3 yesterday! I am pathetic and weak, after he through his potato slop dinner at me in disgust and screamed for a banana I gave in in exhaustion. He is becoming the boss and I need to stop it but it's sooooo hard.
Rosa am so jealous you are buying. If I see one more greedy bloody landlord refusing to think about negotiating on 1500 rent for a bloody shoebox with a balconcino (emphasis on "ino")I am going to screeeaaaammm. Sono ladri!!!!!!!

I had a mezz'idea of doing an MBA at the Bocconi but alas couldn't afford to stop working for the 16 months it would take to get it (it was a full time course), so I see where you're coming from Gio. TBH I never liked studying the first time around so I suspect a further degree course will bore the pants off me, however enthusiastic I start off being about the content.

Don't worry about the bananas, at the worst they'll bung up his bottom, which I imagine is your aim. I don't think anyone ever died from an overdose of bananas, but I may well be wrong... My granny used to have all these myths about food, like if you eat too many eggs you get "egg-bound", but she never mentioned anything about being "banana-bound"

Rosa, as the others have said translations are very poorly paid. I did loads a few years back as a 2nd job and it was mind numbingly boring for relatively little money (and I was better paid than most!). I worked together with a freelance copywriter and a couple of ad agencies and did a lot of stuff for a famous petrochemical company, as well as ads for cheese and technical specs for handbags. My nadir moment was a website for rubbish compactors. It was around that time that I decided to stop doing them. You should only ever translate into your mother tongue, however well you speak the language you're never going to get the fluidity. I once did a few ads in French when I first arrived (and when my French was still in good nick) and when I read them now they are horribly clumpy. Also translations do take up a lot of your time, so don't think that they can be done around your lo's naps. I used to be up until 3am in order to meet a deadline. Gosh, what an essay.

Hhell, glad you're feeling better. Did you get any joy on the CVS front?

what does "egg-bound" mean?
Have to say, that I have always loved studying... can't say the same about working, apart from six happy months at IKEA , which have been the highlight of my professional career (I'm joking, really, but working at ikea was fantastic for a university student).
lol at the mba at Bocconi, the other day I was walking by (we live very nr the Bocconi) and had the same thought... but that would be against my nature of being attracted only by courses that guarantee years of disoccupazione, lavoro in nero and crap money.... .
Shall I tell you what I have been considering???
Gio, what's the averange rent in Rome? Is it cheaper than Milan? I thought Rome was cheaper than here, but things have changed. I so want to visit, haven't been for ages. And ds wants to see the Colosseo.

What have you been considering?

Don't worry, my degree was totally non vocational too, in fact I spent the 1st 2 years after graduating bumming around from crap job to crap temp job trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Decided then to take a break and come to Italy and the rest is history. FWIW I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up, my line of work was pretty much thrust at me. There was a period when I really enjoyed it, when I was doign more technical/creative stuff) but now I find it really quite boring tbh. I keep getting the feeling I should be doing something more useful to society, like becoming an aid worker in strife-ridden countries or helping at an orang-utan sanctuary or on a Greepeace ship defending the whales.

Sigh. Do you think it could be middle-age malaise? I just feel that there's something missing and I should be doing "more", though what that more should be I don't know. Perhaps I'm just a bit bored.

Egg bound I think means getting your intestines so clogged up with eggs you can't poo any more. Apparently more than 3 eggs a week does it. Having said that, someone I knew ages ago went on a hard boiled egg diet for 2 weeks and ended up with piles. Do you think granny could have been right?

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
well, Brangelina, I have a laurea in lettere con indirizzo storico... which obviously opened up many opportunities of well paid jobs... my arse... of course. But I really loved it. I am considering the corso per ostetrica, I'm going to the presentazione on the 12th of March. There is an exam to enter, there are only 45 places... I asked if there's an age limit and they said no, but who knows...

Ooh, ostetrica would be interesting. Will you be doing it at the Mangiagalli? All the ones I had there were really lovely. Well, apart from one who was a cow but I'm sure she was the only one.

I remember when doing my non vocational degree being told that those of us with such degrees were in fact luckier than those without as we could apply for a much wider range of jobs than those who had highly vocational degrees. I suppose there is some contorted logic to that....

Brangelina, I was told the same thing! And things like, look at Ciampi, he has a degree in philosophy...

Yes, I think it's partly taught in statale and Mangiagalli.

Oh well thats put me off translating then .I did do the initial interpreters course and TEFAL initial one but then came to Italy tempo pieno so never did another.I just feel that I am starting to rust despite helping dh with his work it is something I can do blindfolded yet its an aspect of his job he finds hard ! . I was the main money earner for about 6 yrs in our relationship until dh got his stuff sorted . Then we went sort of paralell and then I gave up when I had dd. I had no option really as the hours were non flexible and it involved too much travelling . My problem is that due to dh work I cannot commit to a job that does not allow me to be flexible but I want to do something !! Teaching English I would rather knit sotto vasi or do you crochet them ??
Franca go for it you have been talking about Ostetrica for a while now and I think that sotto sotto you are keener than you think.
Oh deary me Rosa needs a job !
And a house. The one we saw this am was lovely but it is a) in condominio and b) piano terra. I really really liked it but having people walk past my kitchen window whilst I am cooking or whatever and being able to hear every word I say if they are outside my window has put me off a bit. It has a garden but it is more rose bushes and not a play area and the list of regole was huge.
Gio we have been saving hard to just to find a deposit to buy and trust me venice prices are similar to Rome High and higher !

sorry about spellings speed got the better of me ( and not the weed type !)

shame it was a piano terra. Being a true Milanese I'd be concerned of burglars (who by the way now climb everywhere here...). However it's always a boost for the morale having seen a house you liked, the next will be the right one!
Venice being such a touristic place I bet there is a huge need of people speaking foreign languages... and probably the council need lots of translations for leaflets etc... the point is how to start... how to get in the "inner circle", like everything in italy

Rosa, can you not be a freelance tourist guide? Sounds a bit cheesy maybe but you could at least choose the hours to suit you. A friend of mine did the corso comunale here in Milan and worked for a while before getting bored of it. I understand about the teaching, it's something I'd do only if extremely desperate.

What we all need is to invent something really simple but essential that requires the minumum fo effort and sit back and wait for the cash to roll in.

I do have the patentino do be an escort ( now that sounds really cheesy ) but I can't spell accompagnatrice !!!! Which I think will be my only option ( It is a bit of a funny giro turismo here and was trying to avoid it one up from knitting sotto vasi ) but now you mention it Franca I do know a guy in the commune so he might be able to give me a few translations . I did enough simple translations for friends in hotels / agencies in the past and the odd web site but it was just as a friend !!
I would need to open a partita Iva and in order to have that I must do a certain amount of work or it will all be for mr tax man !!
Franca Dh said he felt that we were on to the right way for a house as well we will see.
As for sitting back and watching the money roll in know saturdays 6 lucky numbers in the Uk lottery ...............................

Ma cosa pensate di un sito come questo ma x gli mamme italiane ...???

Oh bugg*r I meant le

You know, I was thinking exactly the same thing about a year ago when I was about to chuck in my old job. Non c'è equivalente in Italia, tutti i forum sono piene di "ke belloooo!!!", "vogliamoci tutti bene!!!!!" [Puke emoticon]. But then I thought that maybe this kind of set up wouldn't appeal. Do you think it would be popular in Italy?