Mumsnet Little Italy 4

[Rosa]

Ciao - Everybody Welcome.

Brangelina: we have to be organised really, as we are going with at least two other families, and it's not easy to find accomodation for all of us last minute! Therefore you are more than welcome to come with us . Ages range from 6 to 1 (the children, adults well....)
Pippi thanks will check the website.
Ciao Ernest! I'm ok, drawning a bit in waves of bureaucracy.... I'm trying to get all the applications to primary and nursery schools for september sorted. Other than that I'm fine!
Have you still got my mobile number? Ring me, we can meet. I can also give you a list of places where you can take the dc... I can help

Earnets well you have a fun holiday to look forward to can you not use it as an excuse to re furnish the flat or maybe start sizing up the shops in Milan . Or will you ahve all teh dc in tow as well in which case I would say call Franca !!!
Brangelina can't you get your dp to go on holiday even in Italy with you ??
Franca will you be ok for the jabs now that the dc are ok ? There is varicella going round nipotinas asilo at the moment dd has had the injection but not taking any chances at the moment. Gotta go and do some ironing A dopo chaps

Blimey talk about spelling mistakes...SORRY !

pippi she might not stop speaking italinan to you,ds used to speak mainly italian till about 2, then he told me that only ladies speak italian and he is a boy. His italian does come out in abundance when we are in Italy. It seems that as long as you speak to them all them time, the language is there even if they don't want to speak it.

DP doesn't think we should have a holiday as it might offend stepson. Never mind that stepson had arranged to be elsewhere the week we planned our holiday, so we ended up not going anywhere. Same thing at Christmas, and because stepson couldn't come (no room in tiny house for that extra person plus he had already organised to go elsewhere), DP decided that for us to go would be an affronto . At that point I just booked and DD and I went on our own. DP spent Christmas on his own doing DIY and spent far more money taking his ds skiing for 2 days the following weekend.

I can see problems looming again this year. I think I'll just book something for the 3 of us and present it as a fait accompli. If he wants his ds to come too then he pays for that extra room, but he won't because he's stingy. FFS, the boy doesn't want to come on holiday with us, and between grandparents and other rellies he gets more holiday than all of us put together (and PILs haven't seen our DD since last May but that's another story).

Sorry about the rant, but you did ask. So be careful...I may well take one of you up on your invitation. I can cook (albeit vegetarian) if that's any good

can i hijack for some advice?
Me, dp and ds are going to sardinia for 2 weeks in april. Booked an old farmhouse near Chia in the south. In laws are coming for a bit but are keen to spend sometime by themselves for a w/e as well. They don't speak italian. Are they better off going to Alghero where it is more touristy and better set up for English only speakers or would they be okay in Caglari?
love and thanks

Hi , Chia is lovely but it is a bit quiet and off the beaten track. I Love the beach there! Cagliari is lovely but can be very very hot is the summer and you would wish you were back at Chia. If they could cope with driving there some lovely places up the coast - again small town villages with a bit of life . I have not been tO alghero but I believe it to be busy but I would not have thought that much more than Cagliari to be honest.

Brangelina see what you mean about your dp what a bummer how old is this stepson he sounds big enough not to give a toss and if your dp can still say go sking with him or maybe do a mans hiking/ biking weekend away then maybe that could be a happy medium ( easier said than done right ??? )

Sardinia must be stunning in April, withcandchips! All the trees in bloom and not too hot! Unfortunately though the last time I was in Sardegna was in 1980... therefore I don't have many tips... I don't think that Sardinia is going to be that busy in April though, given that Easter holidays are at the end of March. Both Alghero and Cagliari are supposed to be beautiful, but yes, possibly alghero is more geared up for british tourists.
Now,, where did you find the farmhouse near chia????

Brange, I think I agree with Rosa. Teenagers usually don't like to go on holiday with their parents/family. fact. I would book a holiday for the three of you and then your dp could take him for a long weekend doing some bonding male activities...

Have been trying to speak in Englsih to the dc, guess what ds asks? mamma, perche' parli in inglese?

LOL at 'only ladies speak italian and he is a boy'

I have slept from 1.30 tp 4pm !

ernest what do you mean no morning sickness with 4 pg???????? super

whitchandchips Never been to Cagliari but Alghero is lovely and yes very catered for english. we went there twice in the past two years (got married there in 2006) so if your ILs decide to go I can give you some tips.

Bran I'll ask too, how old is the boy?? How can it be an affronto if he doesn't want to be on the first place? As long as he is invited and knows he could come... oh what a bugger. Do book it and present it with the receipt and details, that's the only way with men. Please do come with us, I won't even ask you to cook, DH does everything on holiday and we might have the MILs with us for a week as babysitters (it worked a treat last year!) [exploitation emoticon ].

bran please rant away (and all of you lot) otherwise I feel like I am the only one with the cinderella life and barbablu husband !!

brangelina looks like you are booked with us mumsnetters in august and september .

anyone?

Eccomi qua! sorry, had to go get DD then do dinner then go to kickboxing. Get this, there is a girl who won't be my partner in boxing because I once vaguely brushed her on the nose apparently, and since she had her nose redone in Finland she doesn't want to risk it. I was quite happy because I prefer training with the guys but pleeease, did she think we were a flower arranging course???!!! Daft woman.

Anyway, thanks for your kind messages, looks like I'll be taking lots of holiday time. Stepson is 13 and it's only recently that DP has been fixated with this not offending him, before that we used to go on holiday quite normally, just the 2, then 3 of us. Hopefully it's just a phase, maybe the current planetary alignment is to blame? I don't mind the concept of his ds coming with us but I hate being messed around. Also DP is too stingy to pay for a separate room or a b and b and I'm not sharing a bedroom with an adolescent (I'd have to wear a nightie). I've offered lots of bloke time weekends when I've been away or busy but somehow it's never convenient for stepson, even when it was our weekend to have him. Oh well, I give up.

Am laughing Bran over your partner at Kickboxing with a fancy nose ...Silly woman does she fancy one of the chaps and wear sexy shorts or something ??
Franca get the English dvds out for the dc or when you get sky ( if you get it) put all the channels into English ( They do jump back sometimes). make them read english books..anything to try and get them to hang on to what they have learnt it will be so much easier for them when they start to officially study it at school.
Its effin raining here again . I had a shopping list and list of things to do outside as long as my arm and am stuck in.
Oh guys I have a confession to make. I needed to get dd a pair of lightweight shoes for the canarie. I bought a pair of trainers in the Uk but could not face the queue in clarks for a pair of doodles ( canvas ones). So I go to shoe shop and she shows me ones with ' occhi' but they were more like asilio pantofole things ( Ok so it is winter) and she bought me out a pair of those lelly kelly canvas shoes with sequins on . DD said 'isssimi ( bellissimi). So she now has her free gift of burro caccao in the shape of an orsetto and a borsetta and I cannot believe I bought a pair of those things !!!!

at Lelli Kelly. I am dreading the day DD demands to be bought stuff like that. Franca, does your DD like them? I'm trying to figure out the age at which they start veering towards these things so we can take a sabbatical on a desert island until it tides over...

It's raining and cold here too. They cancelled my train so had to go the long way round and get the tube and it's taken me ages to get into the office. And to think I was so organised, I was at the station 10 mins before the train left this morning (that never happens, I'm usually leaping across the tracks and grabbing the tail end of the train as it pulls out of the station. Like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 1 but in reverse.

Franca, we should have an English day once a month maybe. You know, very British activites like an English film at the cinema (I think Mexico or Anteo does the odd children's film matinée, but maybe that's changed now), or splashing around in the park in torrential rain with only a t-shirt on (can you imagine the reaction of passers-by?!), then back home for English food and cakes. Maybe make the food soggy so it's reminiscent of school dinners (did your DS have school dinners?). We could also fine the children part of their future inheritance for every Italian word spoken, no?.

Let me know and I will take the train with dd in her Lelli Kelly sequins ( well what will be left of them when we get back !!) and of course in bare legs and a pumino ( thats what I saw in the Uk !)
I am still suffering from shock ...they are pretty though !!

However much did they cost? All the ones I've seen have been extortionate.

Lol at the bare legs, must have been in training for the marbled leg and white stiletto look in her teens (yuk!). I did see a little boy on the beach in a short sleeved t shirt and woolly hat. Took me a while to realise there was something not quite right about the look...

When are you leaving? I went once to Tenerife in November, weather was lovely, not too hot and just right with a breeze, but the sea, it was like the North Sea of my childhood only prettier. I think there's an Arctic current that flows by the Canaries, bit like the one that flows past the Channel Islands (with cold).

They were Euro 32 should have been Euro 39 but they were last seasons and I am a regular client. This shop looks old and tatty from outside it has shoes in rows and you go in and it is floor to ceiling shoe boxes with the odd shoe on display. The lady is fantastic she always measures feet and gives them a good testing. Bit like Clarks.How she knows what she has is a miracle in there as I have never bought anything that is on display BUt she sells them with room for growth and does not try to sell you summer sandals when you buy 'spring' shoes incase they run out !!
Still raining here and it was raining in the Canaries. [sad ]I am sort of packing things that can be layered- cotton bottoms like t shirty things for dd with the odd cotton l sleeve top , then cardigans and hoody top and a wind proof jacket. Temp seems to drop in the evenings she will be wearing her Lelli Kelly shoes with everything !!!!

there're shop like that in pg. they are unbelievable how they know what they have and exactly where the shoes are.

when went to italy my friend was telling me of 'scenata isterica' her 7 year old daughter did in one of these shop because she wanted some high heelled boots. she ended up with some lelli kelly cowboy style when she went with her dad.

I must check them out as not sure how they are. those cowboy boots were cool, L'd have bought them for myself!

I'd buy these and the bottom ones for myself

rosa if like them I bet she said 'issime... bless

Ciao I'm home and soaking wet, but managed to do lots of things (included the certificazione isee, don't ask ). It seems I have brought the exeter weather back to Milan... I know I shouldn't complain as the water is much needed ... but.... The true is that I can't stand all these whimpy Italians with their umbrellas !
Brangelina, yes yes yes to an english day once a month (even twice a month... I desperately need them to practise their english. I have been given the number of a very brava english teacher who charges 25 euros an hour per child wtf! and it seems that the fashion among the well to do milanese families is to send their children to English schools so I feel like rebelling...). Yes yes, lets scandalize them by splashing in muddy puddles wearing sintetiche t-shirts. and lets wear summer lelly kelly too .
Rosa, dd started to be particular about her look right before the summer. she only wants to wear dresses and favours pink, purple and orange. We arrived here in Italy without proper winter shoes and went to buy a new pair in early January. she chose some winter lace ups (the look like all stars, same round shape but more pesanti) in silver with brillantini sulla punta .
I noticed that the italin children are all very elegant. a bit boring. It doesn't surprise me that italians don't have that many children if they want to dress them like principini... (I am polemica oggi )

like this

I cant remember which without looking but they have 2 occhi .. She diddn't have all these in the shop or I would have been stumped and so would she.

When she showed them to daddy he said try them on and she said NO !!!

Franca it has rained here all day as well..Not been out !