Page 34 | Mumsnet Little Italy 9

Rosa · 02/02/2009 12:51

LOl at the patent shoes showing your knickers - Dd has patent boots but she does wear tights !
On nursery forms for dd they did not ask and on teh one for the materna it asked which parish we belong to - seeing as its run by nuns I gues they presume we are all catholic !
I think re teh protest is that they have started so they will continue but agree I read 2 articles each with a differnt angle one re the they Italians taking our jobs and 2 Italians getting less money . But hey isn't that what is being in Europa all about or have I missed something ?
Obama said an intersting point about using all American made materials in products. Well they can't do that in the Uk as they have closed all the factories and import so much stuff now a days .
From Spring in Cornwall the polish come over live in caravans and pick daffodils, then veg as the british workers don't want to do it for the money . I guess its not the only place either.

beforesunrise · 02/02/2009 12:56

the whole workers thing is crazy. thing is though, the economic situation really is atrocious here atm and it really is not surprising that the press and the unions have clung to this issue...

so. i did take the dds out, literally in our (shared) front garden, we made a snowman and came back in. dd1 had fun but she is now comatose again, i hope she'll take a nice long nap...

i am starting to think that my going back to work tomorrow won't happen after all, too many things conjuring against it, snow, sickness, nursery closed...

Rosa · 02/02/2009 13:03

Blimey my spelling and punctuation in my last post is worse than normal ...Sorry ( and I was thinking about teaching English !!!)

Bucharest · 02/02/2009 13:04

BS- can't be worse than the south of Italy though surely? I could see in the Uk at Christmas that things had gone downhill economically- but tbh, it just makes me think "welcome to my world" having been down here for 14 yrs!

beforesunrise · 02/02/2009 13:07

that;s a good point bucharest, however while things are consistently bad in italy, and therefore people learn to live with it, here we've just had 10 years living in la-la land, and i think that's why everyone is so traumatised.

PippiCalzelunghe · 02/02/2009 16:43

precisely BS. It has been quite lala land.

I'm off to read the thing about workers because shamefully I have not heard a thing.

However what hot said is right. we were discussing this with DH last night. almost overnight you get this feeling back of 'forriners out' 'british bulldog back in'. all of a sudden a scapegoat must be found - the banks and the government are somehow too abstract. instead someone tangible, less powerful and around everyone's life, like the foreigner it's perfect to direct the anger/frustration at (banks and government).

gio71 · 02/02/2009 16:53

dp and I had same coversation the other day re the UK and Italy, in the UK there has been this feeling that we were untouchable somehow, that the economic situation would always remain stable so everyone's shellshocked now. Whereas in Italy I think people are far more used to living in crisi so are a lot more able to deal with it.
Very at your snow and snowmen. We go back to UK on Friday for a couple of weeks so am trying to brace myself for the rush of ice wind off the Mersey when I step off the plane in Liverpool!

gio71 · 02/02/2009 17:20

Mad FIL declared the other day that I shouldnt take ds to uk on friday as he is Italian and it may be dangerous.....

Original poster

Brangelina · 02/02/2009 18:49

You may laugh Gio, but someone from my UK office said the same thing to me (that I may want to avoid coming over just in case bit).

I agree with what you say wrt the UK waking up from la-la land. When DP came over for the first time he was astonished at how rich everyone seemed to be as people seemed to think nothing of spending vast amounts of cash on relatively crap banal items (Actually, tbh he was more shocked by £1.15 for a coffee). The shock of the fall from assured prosperity may be horrific but it's quite scary just how quickly people have reverted to primeval instincts of blaming the smaller/different man. This, coupled with the type of jingoism kept alive by certain levels of the UK media has turned this situation into the circus it has become.

Mind you, the same thing does happen here, although not to such a great extent. The fact that Lega got so many votes in the last election was from the classe operaia fearing that their jobs would be taken by "stranieri". Thankfully not many seem to have much issue with workers from a fellow EU country (unless you're Romanian of course), thankfully n° 2 nobody except a few veneti actually listens to Bossi and his ilk and thankfully n°3 blatant jingoism is inexistent in Italy as a whole.

OP posts:

francagoestohollywood · 02/02/2009 19:15

It took me ages to catch up

Well, hello from a fellow leftie too, who, however, has a thing for posh hairdressers...

We just visited two schools when ds had to start primary in the UK, a private one (just to really see what's this British thing about private school is about) and the local one (CofE, which we thought was going to be better than Catholic). We picked the local one, which was 3 mins walk. We are lazy.
Ditto with the school in Italy. Also, who knows whether they'll want to go to Oxbridge? Or even the uk? And what the world is going to be like in 20 yrs time?

Gosh, the situation in the Uk seems grim enough. As Gio said, we, in Italy are probably just used to be in an economic crisis (the last 15 yrs...).
Having - unfortunately - never lived in London (and I'm very of dh who studied and lived there in the yrs of "cool Britannia ) I've never really enjoyed the yrs of plenty. My impression of Exeter was that it was considerably less wealthy than any town of the same size in northern italy . And still more expensive !

francagoestohollywood · 02/02/2009 19:17

ANd it snowed here all yesterday night and until this morning as well! Was really tempted to buy a flight to the Canarie this morning.

beforesunrise · 02/02/2009 19:19

whoever was reading Revolutionary Road... there is a thread about it in adult fiction if you are interested...

monkeysmama · 02/02/2009 19:55

Hello from snowy London!

It is beautiful here . We took dd to the park at the end of our road today (dp couldn't get to work) and made snow angels which made her laugh loads. It has been one of those lovely, happy days we'll remember for a long time with a smile! We all need those kind of days sometimes don't we.

MM

francagoestohollywood · 02/02/2009 20:13

Thanks BS I'll go and check it out.

MM and everyone in the UK: I saw footage of snowy London/England, so beautiful

PippiCalzelunghe · 02/02/2009 20:15

damn I forgot about snow angels. luckily there's still loads of snow so we might make them tomorrow. dd1 is ill however.

agree on people here buying loads of crap and spending what they didn't have. in contrast was always surprised at how restrained my italian friends seemed in re to buying and spending.

francagoestohollywood · 02/02/2009 20:23

Mind you, personal debt is increasing in Italy too.

What's wrong with dd1? I hope she'll be well enough to enjoy the snow tomorrow!

hothell · 02/02/2009 20:28

i am always surprised at how italians are fixated at buying everything new, especially for the kids, i find the brits more relaxed.

lots of kids with fever, i see....

francagoestohollywood · 02/02/2009 20:47

Beforesunrise, I liked your post about Revolutionary Road.

Yes, the Italians have this thing about their children being neat. And warm of course. They are more relaxed on other issues though

francagoestohollywood · 02/02/2009 20:48

sorry, after the warm there should be a , as we have discussed a lot about Italians being obsessed by children being "coperti" .

PippiCalzelunghe · 02/02/2009 21:06

I liked both your posts. franca you should be writing book reviews. I wish I'd read it now. that's it I'm going off line to start the book.

has anyone read Something Happen by Joseph Heller?

francagoestohollywood · 02/02/2009 21:29

Pippi you are too kind!
No, I've never read it, what's it like?
There is nothing on tv tonight, and I can't get into x factor, like Brange

hothell · 02/02/2009 21:29

BS what is your professional opinion of the economic crisis?

Will schools in London be open tomorrow? I love ds to bits, but I need a day without constant chattering...

hothell · 02/02/2009 21:37

don't know joseph heller either, must try R road.

PippiCalzelunghe · 02/02/2009 21:38

dd's nursery is closed again tomorrow and I'm happy as she's not well and I feel as if she's about to go to uni tomorrow (as already said).

Franca I'm serious. That book is about the life of an american well off white collar. also here the thought and emotions are so honest and row that makes you vomit. thoughts that one has but could not admit it yourself. the description of R.R. made me think of it. I read it ages ago but the feeling it left is still vivid. quite a miserable read iyswim.

francagoestohollywood · 02/02/2009 21:38

Ups forgot to say Sunflower I'm shocked by the school letter counting your ds assenze!