MN Little Italy 16

[TheMysticMasseuse]

I HAVE STARTED A LITTLE ITALY THREAD!!!!

hooray for me!!!

I'd def think about a cake business Rosa... with dd now at materna there's plenty of mothers you can tempt with your cake making skills

lol at instructions in a walkmen . I also remember taking a bus from palermo airport to porto sant empedocle (we were taking the ferry to Linosa)... even dh was scared at the speed!!

Hey ladies. Come over to my thread in Style and help me decide what to wear to a family wedding. It's likely to be a hideous and stressful day, so I must - at least - look nice. Advice needed!

MM - I was also thinking about how nice Switzerland is. I often have Nietzschean fantasies about walking through the mountains thinking wise thoughts. Etc. Do a masters - t'would be fun!

Penthe, I'd go for MP, 3/4 length sleeeves perfect for the weather, if it's all black you just need a red pashmina & clutch combo and hey presto, kaftan as second choice

rosa, I need to try that frozen nutella trick!

so we went to see the houses. set off nice and early, 10 mins in, not even in wimbledon yet, DS starts "are we there yet", winged aaaaall the way! dd was brill on the other hand. anyway, road works/lane closures all the way, then road blocked by accident so we got to the 1st apt 45 mins late. the house was absolutly fantastic, 10/10, in a nice village, close to local primary school, perfect village life. though close to neighbours, not overlooked at all, south facing garden with field with hairy cows bordering, just PERFECT. just a little bit out of our range though, and it also had a separate garage/workshop with play/gues room above...... anyway, the owners were lovvely and spent about 1/2hr chatting so were 1/2hr late on 2nd apt, so estate agent said owner didn't want anyone round - now, this was the house we've been trying to see for months, the main reason for the trip, been on the market for 12 months. but estate agents explained we'd come from other sid of london, stuck in road works, owner put phone down on them!! got to 3rd property, but not really for us. drove to 2nd property anyway, lovely location but looked as if it had a small garden. by this time we were starving, so we drove to Ely as it was to late to drive to the beach. WOW! we've fallen in love witth it! there was a market with gorgeous food and hadmade stuff, everyone looked so laid back and friendly!! so now I think we're set on it! we both felt "at home" (the lovely house was lovely but a bit too out maybe). so at least the trip wasn't wasted as we have a better idea of what we want. now we just need to find the perfect house!

sorry about the essay, feeling very excited...

Sounds great, Camo! It's really good to get a better sense of what you need/want. First house sounds lovely. Way out of budget or only a little bit?

T'would be cool if you wound up nearish me!

Ely is lovely. We go there every so often to wander round the cathedral and down to the river. It's very beautiful. (We are old buildings freaks).

Thanks for the style advice!

that cathedral is gorgeous! I'll never get my mum out of it, even ds liked it!

first house is prob about £30k too much, unless we'd ask pil for help, which we really don't want to (you know the story...), if it'd been in ely or there about we could have considered it, but we both prefer the area closer to ely, plus straight into london

Could you put in a cheeky below asking price offer? Now's the time, etc...

Re: Ely Cathedral (and all other buildings) - You need to get the relevant copy of Pevsner .

Notte.

will look it up thanks!

notte

Oh no, am I too late? Having seen the MP's website, I say the megan park dress!!!

Camo, glad you had a lovely day! First property sounds lovely .

Can I just add one more thing re our earlier discussion that I hate about Italy. Toilets in bars and restaurants!!!!!!!!! Why oh why do they have to be so disgusting???? or is it just Rome??? Been in the centro storico today, went to a lovely Sicilian bar for aperitivi - very well- to -do, in a lovely piazza etc. DS needed pipi,the toilets were FOUL, just held him over the loo and tried to get him to hover as didnt want any bit of him touching the loo! Disgusting, looked like never been cleaned, one toilet for men and women, no loo seat and no toilet paper, soap etc! I would have walked out and gone elsewhere but I knew the next one would have been as bad and ds was ready to wet himself.
Breathe! Feel better now.
Penthe have you chosen your outfit? Another vote for Megan Parks here.
Rosa start with your cake business! Get a load of basics that don't go off sent over from UK so you have stuff in stock. The picture of the train cake you sent me was truly fantastic!
Mmmm cake. I made a great batch of brownies on Friday if I do say so myself that are now gone so am thinking may have to make another batch just to make sure wasn't a fluke

i have this toilet thing too Gio, and it's not only in rome.. actually in Milan you find bagni alla turca everywhere, which are vaguely more hygienic in principle, but they always take me by cmplete surprise! anyway i pee standing up in public toilets (sorry is this TMI?) which is a source of endless amusement to DH...

Yes, bagni are hideous in Italy in general, with some fine exceptions

Me too MM, never seat on a public toilet... and if it's clean enough I make what in my family is known as the "tappetino" with toilet paper... .

@ horrid public toilets.

LOL @ tappetino!!

I've been in some shockers in Greece, too. It's more the "rustic" nature of them which gets me - the hole in the ground...

Must say, though, it's only in the last few years, I reckon, that you can just about count on finding a half-way decent loo in the UK. For some reason unknown to me they have improved of late.

Thanks for the advice about the dress. Perhaps I will take the Megan Park dress and the kaftan and decide when I get there - quick change in the car!

Eek - first day back teaching/lecturing tomorrow. I'm so not ready...

I've seen some shockers in the UK too, especially in pubs (vomit was involved more than anything else). But in general public toilets in airports etc are much cleaner in the Uk.
Cleanest public toilets I've ever seen are in Croatia and Slovenia.

Penthe, coraggio!!! I'm sure you'll be fab!

Yes, bring both. Whatever you do, don't do a franca and buy a new pair of shoes... but in the wrong size, like I did 2 weeks ago...

good luck tomorrow Penthe. First day back always the worst!
Yuk at hole in floor toilets-I see the hygiene arguments but I can't physically manage it! Cannot stand up and pee! (TMI sorry)Am also a tappetino maker

i think only italian women can master the art of peeing standing up (not that hard honest, i am sure you can learn Gio!!!).

Penthe good luck for tomorrow!!!!

Look at this! coni per fare la pipi' in piedi!!!

DP'd say that the best toilets are in italy - to be fair, wherever we've been they've always been clean, even at the beach (not so when I was little). experienced good and bad in both uk and italy, but always hated turche. worst by far the one we stopped at on the motorway in austria [brrrrrrrrrrrrrr].

penthe, good luch for tomorrow. btw may I just say you have great taste!

franca, point break AND dirty dancing on tonight here!

notte a tutte!

at the cones!

notte, see if I can get some W&p in my head!

Camo, what are you doing reading w&p with dd and point break on? I would set the remote on fire by changing canals frantically !

Good luck Penthe!

at toilet conversation- I can't pee standing up- my socks get wet. Worst ones I ever used (and my digestive system let me know about it for months afterwards) were in Thailand on backpacking holiday....."things" could be seen actually swimming through the rivers of you-know-what that passed beneath the holes....By the end of the holiday we'd had enough and treated ourselves to 3 nights in a place with a tiled bathroom (height of luxury) and a proper sitty downy toilet.

Mind you, is it not true that there are more germs on your average chopping board than your average toilet?

First reunione genitori tonight.... From 4.30-7.30.....(apparently it's "molto importante signora, si deve parlare pure dell'influenza!" FFS. )

lol at influenza meeting. Good luck! Ours is next Mon. Am very re our maestra this morn. Loads of kids were crying (amazingly ds not-til he saw the others were!) and I saw her grab the arm of one little boy, say basta con questi capricci in a pretty harsh tone and pull him into the classroom knocking his arm on the door frame as she did! Now I know I maybe have a tendancy to be over protective but this really pissed me off! These kids are 3 FFS, there is a difference between being firm to keep control blah blah and what she did. No?? Is it me? I was talking to another mother outside the gate and she said ma dicono che questa è tanto brava- but didn't seem convinced herself.

oh and at peeing on socks and at Thai toilets!

love Ely. Know everything about the cathdral by heart as studied it for my first architecture exam at uni. I'll def come to see you camo.

we do the 'tappetino' as well!

Gio I'd be as well.

Buch oh good luck with meeting. wish I culd come and have a laugh.