MN Little Italy 11

[Rosa]

San Remo Fans Unite......
Welcome , Ciao ,

MT??? what is it?

biography I meant!

I can't remember, franca - we passed it, and DH told me about it. I'm very ignorant of that period of Italian history - I only know it second hand through DH. I should read more about it.

LOL Brange: yes, Berlusca has the physiognomy of tyranny!

How annoying, franca!

Malory Towers - Enid Blyton boarding school novels. All jolly japes and midnight feasts.

Though, actually, we did have midnight feasts.

Malory towers

X-post!

I found you! not much time for MNetting, and you've been so busy! keep on missing all these interesting chats so it's taken me ages to catch up...

went around shops in the west end today, with mum. she didn't find anything she was looking for, and after doing 90% of oxford st shops, we only spent on DS... I saw some gorgeous red and black and red high heels .... I tried hinting possible b-day present to DP, but I doubt he'll spend £135 on me ... and really, until I go back to work they wouldn't be used.... though I could even wear them to hang nappies to dry they're so beautiful....

DD was so good, and DS too, a part from when he got fed up with shops and woudn't eat til we took him to Hemley's for the first time as promised (actually, I'm amazed he lasted so long!!)

Before I forget, do you all have your tickets for Sunday? are we meeting up for coffee before? will need to print a map, haven't been to Angel since, 2000!! OMG, it's been so long!!

Oh, found you as well!
Berlusca- definite SmallManSyndrome. (big car, small man, small penis)

I'm very excited as just had call from scuola media about my esperto esterni application- I am apparently second in the graduatoria but the way the woman was talking to me it was a sneaky telephone interview to see a) if she liked me and b) if I spoke Italian because at the end of the phone call she was saying she'd be in touch over the next few days to organise a meeting.

Am ridiculously pleased with myself for understanding the bonkers application procedure enough to even get a look in! (not to speak of the 80 euro an hour which may possibly be within my sweaty little grasp.....)

Has anyone read Can Any Mother Help Me? I started it last night, (dp glued to "his" Milan sigh so couldn't watch SR, although saw Povia (WTF?) and Albano (must admit to sneaky liking of his old songs ) it's a collection of letters, journal entries from a group of women started in the 1930s...a kind of olden time equivalent of Mumsnet (they even flounce!) but what struck me in particular was the description of married life in the 1930s...women giving up work to be housewives, being lonely and having no social life to speak of outside the family.....Hmmm, welcome to my world in the south of Italy 2009!

Rosa, how did you get on with the assegno? I had some maternita thing from the comune with dd, but it was before the new rules..it was something to do with me having worked within the state system, but not for long enough to qualify for mat leave (or something unintelligible)

It snowed here yesterday! And briefly settled. V exciting....

Good luck with the job Bucharest.

Have been contacting the scuole materne near where we are moving to and the prospects are not looking good for finding DD a place for next year, let alone for the rest of this year if we move in May. It pisses me off because we couldn't do the iscrizione as we're not resident, and it's now closed.

Can anyone enlighten me as to the difference between the scuole statali and the comunali ones? Are the state ones considered worse? Are the private scuole materne (not sure if there are any where we're going) all run by nuns?

I can't face 1 1/2 years with both kids at home! Not to mention that I would have to forget working if that happened.

I'm not sure what, if any, difference there is between statali and comunali.....Where I live there isn't a comunali one....I think the main plus point of comunali is that there is usually a nido as well? (my SIL's kids have always gone comunali because of that)

Our privato is nun-run (although her presence is not that noticeable- she does the school run home in the pulmino but that's about it...the maestre are all normal women.....lol) There are a couple of non-nunny private ones here, but tbh, when we went to look at them, the thing that struck me was the money-grabbing attitude....al least the nuns (apart from I presume presuming we tithe out 8 per 1000 to the Big Man) don't bang on about money all the time....and it is cheap really, compared to the UK at least...We pay 130 a month including mensa and 50 euro for the pulmino....

I guess it's different everywhere, here it's all small villages and there's just the comunali ones. For under 3s there are private nurseries.

That book sounds interesting. I am reading Gomorra. It's fascinating but I'm getting near the end and I'm a bit weary of these camorristi by now. Plus I keep thinking "would it kill you to start a new paragraph here?"

Actually I'm finding reading in Italian easier than I thought, I've never read much in Italian, tried Calvino and it was a bit tough so may have been overstretching myself. Has anyone recommendations for Italian books?

Bucharest, Albano?!? You've been in Puglia too long!

I'm not completely sure about the difference between statali and comunali, I think with comunali the comune has more of a say in the running and can choose not to apply govt. rules (such as the famous maestra unica), whereas the statali bear the brunt of all the reforms. You need Franca for that, she's the expert and will be able to explain it better.

Re private materne, here they're all religious, apart from the hugely expensive International School, although in big cities like Milan there are also a lot of scuole laiche. The religious ones tend to be cheap because they're subsidised by the state, although some of the non religious ones aren't too expensive. Again, you need Franca, she put her 2 in a non religious one for a few months when she moved back.

No recommendations for Italian books, I was looking for ideas too. I read a lot in Italian but often translated trashy novels or thrillers. I've done Calvino, got bored of him, also read De Carlo and went off him too, did some Moravia which I quite liked. One book I did like was Il Giardino dei Finzi Contini by I can't remember who. Bassani I think. I've also read some older stuff like Casanova's memoirs and I made a vague attempt at i Promessi Sposi, although it was actually quite good so I suppose I should really go back to it. Whatever you do, don't read anything by that Tamaro woman. You will get anal prolapse from the boredom.

Sunflower, I love the idea of hanging washing out in flash heels. Very bored and rebellious Stepford housewife. You really need a clingy dress which shows off your cleavage as well, or one of those all in one grembiuli they sell at sagre e feste di paesi with nothing on underneath. That'll intrigue your neighbours....

Good luck in your job quest Bucharest, I hope you get it .

Hello, from one extremely pissd off Rosa, you can gather I did not get the assegno della maternita .When will I learn not to be honest? FGS look at Berlusconi such an honest man. We were so completley stupid and trusted our comercialista and we declared all our bank accounts ( one which has my redundancy pay) and so we were over the limit for the cheque.
The lady who did it all also got an earful from me as I huffed ' well that was a complete waste of time '... I said if they had bothered to list if you have more than x money then you can't have it then . She tried to say well all situations are different as some have part paid mortgages etc So do a table on the web for those of us who can opertate a computer so we can see ourselves.- Plus according to her now I have done this form ISE I can get a place for minirosa at Nido and Materna for dd1 - So I took a deep breath and said in my bestest tone ' Ma sei caduta dalle Nuvole signora' or words to that effect??? Nido there are not enough places for babies - Materna I get about 2 points if I am lucky and again there are not enough places in state materne for the children so I have to pay. But seeing as you obviouly know better take me to tuo collega and I will fill the form out now ! ( She then tried the changing tactic well I only got this job a tempo pieno last year lo so e difficile ( povera me)). I said well if you bothered to give out more info before hauling me down here then you could have used your precious time on somebody else. Then BIG MISTAKE - she said e augualle in all EEC - Another deep breath - Child Benefit to all ( no she said da vero ?) housing benefit, houses , free NHS care no % of ticket - seeing as my last ones were Eu47 for blood tests after pg !
Summing up Berlusca and his boys - you know this all already and I SHOUT - BUNCH OF TOSSRS !!!

Right done my ranting now - Bucharest hope you get the job then there will be one of us in the state system !!!
Sunflower hope you get the shoes heels they are a dream only here - I might splash out for minirosas christening - I am thinking of getting a boring suit from Next !
My sis sent me dvds for my birthday ( I smell shopping when Woolies was closing down !!) So I have Notting hill, Casino Royale, Pride and Prejudice,Strictly Ballroom and another but it has gone under the sofa ( dd1 was making a train !)Will share if needed !!!!

You have my sympathy, I have been through this many times in the past. I used to get angry but now just take deep breaths and smile sweetly. It helps if you print stuff off the internet and wave it in their face, but then as you say often the full story is not on the internet. Next time send your commercialista with a delega. That'll learn him to get things wrong.

Brange and Penthe sorry I disappeared yesterday, but my connection stopped working. Again.

Oh Rosa ... I'm so upset on your behalf. Che imbecilli! (ps: are you a 100% positive you won't get a place in state/comunale materna for dd1? That is appalling!) What a waste of time.

Which takes me back to Sputnik: as Brangelina said the main difference between materna statale and comunale, is that the comunali might not choose to apply govt rules (sadly, as I said in the other thread, the council here has just approved the bloody gelmini and they cut the hrs of compresenze next year, to only 2 hrs a day ). Here in Milan materne comunali have more flexible hours than the statali, but of course are less flexible in the admission process as the majority of the "points" (15) are given by the proximity to your chosen school. It'd be worthwhile to look at the materne statali, as they are more flexible with the residenza etc.
And as Brangelina said, my dc went to a lay private scuola materna for six months. It is possible to find them! Obviously the main problems are: the cost and the fact that they might be too far away...here I googled them for you. If you are considering the English school for the dc, wouldn't it have a nursery section as well?

Bucharest fingers crossed for your job!

Sun get the shoes!!!

Ah Rosa, Been in your position soooo many times at the comune- I think they now have me earmarked as mad-Englishwoman with Tourettes......What I don't understand, and swear to whoever I will never be able to, is why oh why is the information so hard to get at in the first place? I spent 3 hrs + this morning trying to find out (on loads of different sites/googling) when/if/how there will next be a concorso for madrelingua...and although have managed to learn the concorso in question is number c032, the rest of it I'm none the wiser about.....(the last proper concorso I tried to get onto I just gave up with as I couldn't understand the instructions.)

The last time I stropped in the comune was when I was summoned there as an extra-comunitari......(nope, I didn't think I was either, but the comune of the Arse End of Italy haven't updated their EEC map evidently since...er...that'd be 1971 then.....) They seemed to think I was Czech. When dp had a pop at the manwoman behind the county (had bosom but hair in all the wrong places) she called security and said he was insulting her because she was female....I ended up having to call my friend who should have been upstairs working in some dept or other, but as he's an impiegato del comune was, of course, round the corner running his travel agents....

Also slightly misunderstood phonecall this morning, as am listed as docente confirmato (or something) for the second of the two projects at the media...so need a babysitter in 10 days time. Eeeek!

Rosa sways round the room after a valium and vodka !!!
Franca how is dd doing itchy??
Bucharest so the drinks on you then at Eu80 an hour we will all be round in a few weeks then .
Glad I am not the only mad English woman then- I just hate the way they look on you as ignorant when you say something so perfectly logic !! Like my ID card that was my last saga - They charged me for it ( its usually free) and gave it so it expires 3 years after my permesso di soggiorno does
Re the materne - It is not an obligatory school so apparently they do not have to provide sufficient places . Or they can give me a place say on the Giudecca or Lido which they know I won't accept due to the distance and time ( yes it has been done). The one nearest to me has a terrible reputation and they have halved the number of spaces. The next nearest only has 1 classe and I haven't got a cats chance of that one - On calling the secretary said if I don't have x points then I can forget putting them down/ applying ! Hence we have gone for the nun option - which we pay for!

. But don't they give you points for choosing your local school? (mind you, I agree that if it has a bad reputation I'd avoid it when possible...).

Don't worry, it is not just you mad english women... count me in! I'm becoming more and more vocal. ANd you are right, what is really upsetting is the difficulty of getting any information. It is so mafioso, if you think about it.

Dd has lots of spots , but is not that itchy. She is making the most of her illness and watching lots of dvds. I worked this morning so my mum looked after her and, I suspect, spoiled her with chewing gums!

Laughing wryly at the thought of drinks being on me "in a few weeks". I've been told that the school you do the project in, receives the money to pay you, after all the hours and paperwork have been sent to Europe.

So, change that "weeks" to sometime next year, if we're very lucky? I suppose "Europe" wants to make sure it's not just some despotic preside pocketing the dosh and running.....

Pippi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just got the sainsbury's cards thank you!

Bucharest, you are so funny. You should write a book about your years of penury in Puglia (no that title has a bit of a ring to it!). Love the story about your comune friend running a travel agents in his work time. Are there really that many madrelingue in Puglia that they have to do a concorso?

Rosa, chin up (once you've sobered up from the martini), your brush with bureaucracy is over until the next time. I think there are people you can pay here to go to the comune for you - does something like that exist in Venice? It might be a worthwhile investment, not least for your peace of mind. Maybe you could set up such an agency and employ patient souls to do the legwork. I'm sure you'd rake it in.

I have so much work to do by 5.30 and instead I'm on here. Sigh, best get back to the grind.

God, I remember when I first came here finding out the bus timetable was a major undertaking. This was the in same place where the 2 cackling old hags at the post office didn't want to let me pay my phone bill because "chi la conosce?"

Thanks for Googling for me Franca, that's what I've been doing too, there doesn't seem to be much in my area. Not sure if DH contacted the statale one today, maybe we are in with a chance if they are less fussy about residence. We may end up going for the english school option in the end if we have to go private, as ILs want to help with the fees. I know DD would love that, but then I'd end up either feeling guilty about taking her out after a year, or leave her in then feel guilty because we cant afford to send DS too when the time comes. We are going to have to live off lentils as it is.

And who knows if I'll find anything like the super-cheap and lovely (if virus-infested) local drop-in nursery where DS goes atm?

Bah, seems we are just exchanging one set of problems for another by moving. We are supposed to be doing the compromesso tomorrow and I'm feeling a bit ambiguous about the whole thing tbh.

Rofl at "chi la conosce"

I knew you'd have had the sense to google it already !!! I'm just a bit nosey

I'm sorry to hear you are feeling this way. I totally understand, I don't think I'd like to start back again in a new place with two small children. Have you lived already in Rome?
I hope you manage to find a good place for the dc (I don't think I could survive too with two pre-schoolers 24/7 in a big city). We were lucky last yr in finding the private materna, it was quite cosy and not too "pretentious" iyswim...