MN Little Italy 20 ........Buon Natale !

[Rosa]

Here we are then ........

Keeping fit resolutions impressive- especially given they involve swimming and jogging- both of which I find quite boring. Or rather: swimming in the sea is lovely (esp in Mauritius, Franca!), doing so in the pool much less so, esp as, just like Franca, drying unruly hair is such a bore and takes ages. Before pregnancy I used a gym machine that simulated mountain walking- apparently it gives the same benefits as jogging in terms of cardiovascular workout, while at the same time working bum and abdominals. Doing that with the ipod on, as well as some powerplate and swimming, was all I did in the gym. Bum: agree gyms are unpleasant places- I would much rather exercise alone, in silence and outside: ideally I would just ski offpiste 12 months a year, but sadly that is incompatible with working in London... At least once the baby is born and hips are back to normal we will be able to go for long walks in the park...
Which brings me neatly to healthy weight for a 1.70 woman. Never having met, but assuming that we are roughly the same build (i.e. average/slim Italian woman) 55-60 sounds in the right ballpark, I would have thought [hopes weight police from other threads never discovers this]. If you are quite muscly or more womanly, then prob also a bit more. Lots of interesting info [here www.sinu.it/larn/energia.asp]-it appears the recommended BMI in Italy is 22, which allows a bit more than you or I suggest...
I think it depends, within reason, on the build/frame and lifestyle. E.g., for me (slightly shorter than you, sedentary job, lean build, reasonably healthy lifestyle but no fitness fanatic) something in the 53-56kgs seems where I settle if left to my own devices, eating what I like and doing what I like (which means long walks on Sundays, as much skiing as can decently be fitted in when living in the UK, swimming at the beach, some gym, you get my drift). That delivers a BMI of 18.5 to 19.5, which is at the lower end of the normal range but, to be blunt, fat weighs less than muscle... If I had less boobs and hips and more muscle for the same volume, I would probably weigh more. But I am quite happy with the way I look and the lifestyle I lead, so...
Thank you for the encouraging noises re work- I know I ought to be more optimistic, but there are so many horror stories out there. I work in a very niche sector in the City- will leave it at that, if you do not mind, or I might as well post under my real name...
I wonder how many times this post is going to appear- every time I hit “preview” or “post” I get sent back to the Talk homepage and the message does not appear on the thread. Then again, perhaps the site is being maintained and it is reasonable to think that most people have better things to do at 6am on Saturday morning. But I cannot quite face making a start on my tax return yet.
Not sure whether you will be interested, but fell asleep while reading LI on the ipod last night (was absolutely shattered- this happened at 9.30ish) and as a result had the weirdest of dreams, populated by my mental images of you all.
Have a good weekend everyone!

Alleluja! Changing browsers was clearly the answer.

SG I also can't face my tax return. In fact I am not going to do it this weekend -am having a weekend off!
I dream of being 55 kilos (tries to think back as to whether I was EVER 55 kilos or if I just went from child to what I am now). I agree with whoever said that it is ridiculous that people assume that 55 kilos means eating disorder!! Def seems to be un pc to say that it is better to be slim than not these days and to do so invites full scale MN pack attack. However MM agree with you on the weekly weigh-in being somewhat and the sense of disappointment and disgust at the weight gain on that thread I found slightly disturbing. Surely at that age returning to normal active lifestyle and healthy food would mean it would come off naturally without any great fanfare being required?
Anyway what are we all up to day? I just hope the rain holds off so I can take my Uggs out for a walk
SG keep us posted if any movement..... How exciting

Good morning Gio! Glad to hear I am not the only who still has to do the tax return. I think mine needs to get done this weekend- just in case...
So, the very attractive weekend plan is: tax return, dismantle Christmas tree and presepio ( a bit late, but have been tired), pick up various stuff from a curtain shop (which managed to make the blinds inside out ) and try to come up with a playlist of music for labour. Any advice there would be greatly appreciated- I do not know where to start.

And hopefully tomorrow it will not snow because we are supposed to see some friends who live in the country for lunch and I am really looking forward to it...

DD gone to gym she is sooo happy...MR napping for the next 5 mins and I am dreaming of even seeing 65kg at 1m70!
Due to my build I was told that 65-70kg was appropriate for me in my dreams is all I can say.
On dropping dd off I looked longingly at the Pilates classes but I don't think that I will be able to do them maybe after september if minirosa goes to materna but I am thinking that it is best she goes in Jan when she is 2....BOh !
Raining again oh how I am digging at DH seing as we saw rain for about 2 hrs in the UK ! We did see snow, ice and a biting wind however....
Pension I have to contact the DHS so I can pay my contribution for 2009 this is so I get a state pension from the UK. I contributed for 20 years whilst working so I don't see why I should loose the whole lot so I keep paying in .... This is a very sore point for me and I get cross every time this comes round as they don't tell you automatically despite asking it is as if they want me to forget so they can keep all my money !
Good luck with your tax returns they scare me but as I am no longer working then I don't do one !!!!!!!!!!!
swiss timing my 5 mins is up!

Morning all!

Rosa, I pay in the UK as well, for the same reasons you state....luckily the work I currently do over the summer covers me with NHS contributions for a whole year, but I always used to have to remember to pay them when I wasn't earning that much in the summer.

I had a go on my cousin's Wii at Christmas and my BMI was 22. I'm 5ft 10 and weigh just under 10 stone (don't know what that is in kilo) But my age was 57.

Afternoon everyone!

SG: lol at your little Italy's dreams... quite curious of the mental image you have of us.

It's raining heavily here and has done so for 2 days now. I wanted to go to the market (we have a lovely one on saturdays 2 mins walk from our house) but it was too wet.
This afternoon me and my aunt are going to take the dc to the Auditorium as there's a concert for children. After that, we are taking them to my parents as the children asked to go there for the night (yeeeeeeeeeeeeessssss!!!). So I hope to go to the movies with dh. There's the ken loach movie I want to see.

Disclaimer: we are not going to Mauritius in the near future. It was just me loosing time on the net and basically day dreaming

Is it looking for eric franca? Its brilliant you will love it!!

Sg, tell us what we look like in your dream

Yes, I so wanted to see it! It's "Il mio amico eric" here. Sadly it'll be dubbed .
Movies in original language are shown 3 times a week in Milan, Mon, Tues, Thurs, but we never manage to go as we rarely get anyone to babysit during the working week.

Well I don-t know about down in Rome but the weather up here in the mountans is absolutely foul, been raining solidly all day and getting colder. We had half a plan to go sledging in Terminillo but it must be snowing like mad up there, maybe next week.

I-m pretty sure that 65kg for 1.70 is well within healthy BMI range, so anything lower would be just for asthetics really. Like Rosa I would be happy with that for myself atm, at least for starters.

Oh that's a shame about the sledging Sputnik. I think sledging is one of the most marvelous things one can do

After having seen the concert, I'm feeling tempted to take up piano lessons.

I went to Mauritius on honeymoon..... I would go back domani Franca it is worth dreaming about ! Have a lovely night dc less!
Temp dropped here might have stopped raining but not looking outside.......

Oh did you rosa? ... perhaps I should start saving

wrote a long post yesterday, but not here... anyway, hope all ok, quick pit stop as we're busy making the place decent for mum...

quick Q - anyone had DC vaccinated for swine flu? any side effects? we have dd's booked for tom but still undecided....

Hi camo, no mine weren't vaccinated for swine flu.

Masseuse, we didn't get to see the ken loach movia , but we saw the Cohen Brothers one, A serious man, which is rather enjoyable.

Not vaccinated here either.

DS had his first session at his new nursery today, he seems to enjoy it, I stayed with him a while but then left for over an hour with no problems, so next time I might actually get to go home. Next week we'll see how he copes with a full day. Hopefully it'll go better than his last nursery where he cried quite a bit and wouldn't eat lunch.

I found an english speaking place for him in the end, very small and friendly. In 2 minds about it really as in theory I would like to send him to scuola materna in sept if he gets a place, but on the other hand he doesn't even speak english yet so not sure introducing another language at this point would help. I think that was also one reason he didn't like his last nursery.

I am also not sure sending DD to scuola materna was a great success either really, even after 2 years she was really unhappy every day I took her, compared to now: she couldn't wait after xmas to get back to the english school. She never fitted in with the the kids there either. So now we have the opportunity I'm not sure whether sticking to english would be better.

Just thinking aloud really, I guess we are unusual living here but only speaking english at home.

Hurrah, at last someone appeared!!! ! I'm stuck at home with dd, who was sick yesterday night and didn't sleep that well and I'm getting bored, despite having performed various stepfordy activities

Sput, I hadn't realized that no Italian at all is spoke in yr household!

hello!

had to postpone jab anyway as DD has a cold, but still undecided. is the sf jab only offered to at-risk groups in italY?

does you dd speak any italian now. sput?

franca, hope dd gets better

(what's with all these weight threads all of a sudden? ) better go back to tidying up, as usual DP decided "his" tidying up was more important, so haven't started mine (by which I mean the putting away everyone's stuff!)

No we only speak english at home, DH does speak fluent Italian and mine is pretty good but it just doesn't come naturally to either of us to speak it to DCs, so we haven't. DH grew up here but spoke english at home, his parents spoke arabic to each other. He went to an english speaking school and learnt italian from his friends there and from the TV.

DD does speak italian, but not as much as you would think after 3.5 years at nursery and school! Hard for me to asess as she doesn't like speaking it in front of us. She had a real refusal of all things italian for ages, sending her to english school seems to have cured her of it (or maybe she is just growing up) and she now talks about her italian lessons and talks to the other kids in both languages.

Franca: sorry to hear about your DD, I hope she is getting better and that you are less bored. Has it snowed there? Here it did overnight, but very little, only a spolveratina.

Yesterday on the other hand we went to the country and DH went sledging, while I sat by the fire chatting to other non-sledgers. BabySG moved further down and according to the midwife the wait might not be very long now, so have had another manic afternoon trying to sort out tax return, finances generally and, now, preparing playlist for labour (having absolutely no idea whether I will want to listen to anything, and if so, what).

Camo: I had the vaccine for swine flu in November. No side effects other than a slightly sore arm- but nothing more than the usual soreness from vaccines. Friend's toddlers had it too and were fine.

Masseuse: how is it going now the girls are there? Have you made them a proper Swiss hot chocolate yet? We always used to go back to Italy with 1kg pots of Caotina and even now I have 1.5kg of the dark chocolate Caotina downstairs and have one most afternoons (after all need to keep calcium levels up).

For anyone planning a long-haul beach holiday: Mauritius is fantastic. We went there on honeymoon too, like Rosa, and loved it. Skied and sailed every day, gorgeous weather and lovely food- and we played so much sport that despite eating loads and spending hours reading and sunbathing we both came back considerably thinner and fitter. The hotel we were in most of the time also seemed to have a great kids' club, so happy to recommend it if anyone is interested.

Camo, I think that here in Italy paediatricians offered swine flu vaccine to children in risk groups, yes.

Sputnik, it really looks like your dd didn't take to scuola materna. It happens.
So happy to hear she's settled well in her new school. Yes, growing up thankfully helps a lot , but perhaps she really feels happier in an environment where her main language is spoken.

Hello SG, it looks like things are moving on !

Dd seems much better, thanks for asking. She's been eating well today (but in bianco) and seems quite perky (they are having their english lesson now... they hadn't seen their teachers for weeks, and are now OVEREXCITED )

What have you put so far in your playlist SG? I didn't think to bring any music for labour and delivery, but the midwife switch on the radio when I was taken to my room (I was in full labour and gave birth one hr later) and guess what was the song? It was Freedom by george michael. I rofled in between contractions

Oh Mauritius seem a very far off dream. Which hotel was that sg? My lovely portinaia is from M and told me it is possible to rent bungalows for very little money.

We have been told the rooms have Ipod speakers and that it might help with relaxation/getting into the right mood.

So far I have some Mozart (arie from Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflote, Don Giovanni), Verdi (Traviata, Rigoletto), Puccini (Turandot) some De Andre', Gufi, Dalla, Brel, Baez... A bit of everything that I like, with no particular rhyme or reason... What do you think? Too much of a mish-mash? Do you think there will be music I will not bear to listen to again as a result?

Sounds good SG . I have to say that I've no recollection whatsoever of what the radio played after Freedom .

I have to say music was the last thing on my mind durig labour and childbirth, so cant help either. Allegedly gwineth paltrow laboured to sigur ros... that would have done myhead infor sure.

Its going ok here... Am abit depressed really. My girls are their usual happy and vibrant selves, which helps. I feel in limbo. Not helped by snow everwhere and ear infecyion that mean all sounds reach me totally muffled... I gotta be patient i guess.

Minerva!!! How did it go? Did you kick ass??

Sui how will you let us know when babysg arrives???!! So excited. In bocca al lupo