Mumsnet Little Italy 6

[Rosa]

Ciao , Hello , Welcome .

Hi Everyone,

I like it Sputnik & FGTH i find it a slower pace than the UK and reminds me of Greek time, things get done by workers/officials when they get done

We are near the Port so nice walks and with the Ballero round the corner it is nice to cook seasonally again, something that is by and large lost in the UK, even the local farm shop there imports

We had a splash of rain sunday and again today first here since April when i arrived tho when i have been up along the coast from Mondello scuba diving it has rained.

Blasphemy i know but, not into buildings but enjoy the feeling of history you get from the buildings facades.

Are you all in Italy?

Hi MatNanPlus. I'm in Rome, sweating! It's sooo humid tonight. How long have you been in Italy?
Ah Franca my ds is in his Thomas phase at the mo. We cant go out of the house without him clutching his 4 trains and Thomas DVD is his favourite thing ever.
Rosa I will have to improve my reading matter if we are swopping - do I spot a fellow Enid Blyton fan in you?? I still read my old Malory Towers etc every so often when I stay at my parents
Hot you are getting really close aren't you!Rosa when I was 6 months everyone I met thought I was about to drop I was so huge!!

Since Mid April Gio71 have had a week in Uk in June and am having 5 weeks Sept to Oct so hoping the weather picks up there.

Cooler here early 30's with lower UV which is not exactly what you wanted to hear but a big difference to mid teens in UK

We had a little rain here too today. Matnan I am just outside Rome.

Rosa you must get your DD aquainted with Peppa Pig now, she is just the right age. We have a lot of Maisy here too, and both of mine like it but I have to say I am finding the narrator increasingly grating ("oh well done Maisy", every 5 seconds). I got DD Bagpuss for her 4th birthday and she loves it, DS's favourite is Shaun the Sheep.

Actually I feel a bit bad as at his age DD didn't even know what a TV was. Then we got her the Muppets and she watched nothing but for 6 months.

Good tip about Decathlon Franca.

Hi, we are in wet London...it rains every day!!!!!!!!
Is Pippi in Italy or Uk, anyone know?
Oh, ,ds' Thomas obsession lasted ages, I hated those books by the end, nothing ever seemed to happen in them, badly written, and so hard to translate because the stories were so pointless, all at the charity shop now, not allowed to soil my home ever again. Did like postman pat, very sweet and english...

Sputnik, ds loved bagpuss as well!!.
I think the first thing ds watched on tv was Maisy, and he cried when it ended, as the last episode was about panda getting ill, which made ds very upset. He was around 20 months I think. I was heavily pregnant, and it was a good way to relax, I suppose.

Yes, hothell, I remember the thomas books with pain. So pointless. I favoured the tv episodes. Also bob the builder's books were rather boring. But i miss nickelodeon jr and the wonderpets.

Matnan, we are in Milan, we moved back to Italy this christmas after 8 yrs in the uk (dh actually 13 yrs)

sputnik lol at well done maisy. I actually find it funny to reconcile the fact that the narrator is the guy from men behaving badly !!!

Ah FGTH Just in time to miss the english summer rain

OH heavens right I will trot off and look for Peppa pig - Dd lives Thomas but I have the activity books and only 1 proper story - I have bought her a Thomas train for christmas !!!I know there is a mag in local newsagent ( Franca do you want on it has 75 stickers in it I think) not sure if will be hitting the town again unless my winter shoes come in that I have ordered!!! So will have to get the rest from Amazon.
Oh GIo Darell at Malory towers was just Fab !!!!! ( confession time!)
I am huge no other way to describe it .barrel, chubby no fat , massive bump , huge bum and can't bend over or reflux kicks in. Have to get docs letter as no airline will belive I am 28 weeks when I fly next week.

I don't know anything about Enyd Blyton

And I have never read a Mallory Towers book. I suppose that is the idea, you get to read somethng you might not otherwise.

My parents hated Enid Blyton to start off with but then they gave in when I used to borrow them on the quiet from the library so in the end I had to get one 'proper' book as well. She was a childrens writer who wrote in a traditional style typical of that era - I want to say round the second world war ish . You haven't missed much to be honest and I can't fit in the roof to get them down to share with you .
Franca do you want the Peppa pig mag as will be going to village in the morning?

There's been loads of threads on Enid Blyton on MN, but I've never read anything by her, I wonder whether she's been translated into Italian.

Rosa, thanks so much for offering , but no worries, dh is going to Exeter in a month time (and I'd love to join him, and I might if my parents can look after the children for 3 days), so he'll be in charge . Or I could do a massive shopping on amazon, there are so many dvds I'd love to own as well.

Yesterday I went with ds to buy his zaino for primary school... and manage to convince him to get a "normal" backpack, instead of the evil gormiti...

Hasn't Enid Blython written La banda dei 5?

I have a vague memory of la banda dei cinque

hot, how's it going?

here it is www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxt_DSwnN0w

i am fine except i have developed an obsession with youtube...and i have piedi super gonfi...

a te ti manca l'inghilterra? will you come back if you cannot sell the house?

I spend ages on you tube as well. Do you likecorrado guzzanti?

Do I miss England? I miss my friends in the UK, and those perfect summer days when the sun shines, and I miss our house, and BBC3, bbc4 and E4, the sense of security of living in a small place (which can immediately turn into infinite boredom), the guardian on saturdays and the dinasaur cafe'. I get mad at Italy increasingly every single day, and the government, and berlusconi and the ministro dell'educazione (they dropped the pubblica ffs, it's just educazione not educazione pubblica). It is in a rational way a country where I wouldn't want to live in. BUT, I love being back to my hometown, close to our friends, etc.
We might go back to the UK anyway, as getting a permanent job on dh's conditions is not easy. He has 3 universities who'd hire him, but still don't know whether they have the money to pay him his due salary. che paese!

uuuuu caviglie gonfie. you poor thing.

Gioo I forgot to ask, how was lake como?

Thats right guys it is the famous 5 I had no idea that they translated into Italian .
Franca there has been NO sun in teh Uk this summer well maybe the odd day but I know I will miss this place like mad when we go and despite the weather if dh could get a good job here then I would jump at the chance to move back.However it would be me doing all the working and I want to be a mum to be honest well for a bit anyway and then get back into it.
Swollen feet poor you - gel packs and aloe vera gel might help a bit.I must go and wash dd buggy it is filthy and here I can scrub it and leave it to dry bit hard to do in 2nd floor flat!!!!

My DH (oddly enough) sometimes talks about going back. I then remind him that last year we went beginning of april, then this year beginning of may, and both times that week was the best weather they had all summer. I might be ok with it but don't think he would.

That and expensive, tasteless vegetables that have to be shipped across the planet.

My solution to Berlusconi etc is to be completely ignorant about what's going on. Pre DC's I was a news addict and very at people who didn't follow the news. Now I am one of those people.

I've often wondered whether I should totally ignore the man and his gang, but I can't. I find he is ruining the country for our children. Italy is increasingly becoming a more racist, classist, bigot place, where public coscience seems to have been wiped out. I find him more responsible of this than the left, tbh. (but I might be biased).

So a more rational Franca sees all the advantages of living in the uk. But I feel happier here, tbh.

I try and take comfort in the fact that at some point there will be a reaction in the opposite direction. I really hope.

IMO, Italy is struggling to come to terms with immigration, something that happened in the UK n the 70s. When I came here 20 odd years ago it was really unusual to see foreigners, and Italy has always been very homogenous, witness the thing abut protestants not being considered christians, for example.

Berlusconi and co are riding on the back of this I think.

Do you think it's becoming more classist here? That was one of the things I like about Italy cmpared to Britain, but maybe I'm insensitive to that as I'm not as good at reading the cues as I would be in the UK.

Como was wonderful thanks Franca, loved it and would def go back.
I have put a ban on 24 hour news in the house. I've always been a news addict and I used to work with sky news English (vile wish could get bbc24) or one of the TG sky channels on in the background.After one week in particular of hearing a zillion credit crunch headlines in uk and berlusca berlusca blah blah on Italian plus with a bit of "is the cold war going to start again" debate and not to forget international terrorism scaremongering I felt drained! So once a day in the morn and again in eve and I only tend to really listen if is a big news story.
I have got no desire to go back to the UK now. Italy has got real issues, I detest Berlusca but I was so glad to come back to live here a few years ago. The violence in the UK depresses me, I used to feel threatened walking round the corner to our co-op for milk past 5 in the evening due to gangs of kids hanging around. I agree with Sputnik re the fact issues with racism are probably worse now as immigration is relatively new to Italy. Italy is probably at the stage the UK produced Powells "Rivers of Blood" speech!!
One thing I love about Italy though is that Italians still seem to be so much more political than the Brits. DP can never get over the sense of lethargy with politics in UK.

Exactly Gio, the violence and the binge drinking culture in uk are quite depressing.

When I was a student a friend of mine was beaten on the street in Brighton for looking at someone. He developed agoraphobia.

When I get too depressed about the politics here i try and remember the 3 million people in Rome that came out a few years ago to protest the Iraq war. There were all kinds of people, kids, pensioners, nuns, it was great.

Shame no one took any notice but still

I think that I am a bit more protected in the west country as it is pretty tranquil most of teh time.WHat I do like though is the fact that other races / cultures at least get a mention/ respect in school, or society in general whereas in Italy it is white catholic basically. I worked with conferences and people where shocked when there were doctors, professionals in general that were Indian, black whereas all other nations - germans, french, british etc nobody even blinked
I hate the Friday night uk we must get pissed approach to things .In Italy I agree with all that has been said about Mr B - How people did not see through him and honestly since he got elected what has he exacly done for the nation - apart from protect himself? Dh refuses to vote anymore as he feels it is a waste of time.
We watch the headlines at 8pm on whatever channel and thats it. We get one paper a week and if there is anything happening we log into a Uk paper and an Italian one to get more info. However I do find that in the Uk the news seems to be a bit shallow at times.
All family here for final get together - So thats fun for dd then its back to reality on Tues .