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

[Rosa]

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

yes dh and i too, as in "you feel me, motherfucker?"

and we keep practicing our "o'hi"

better go shower so we can watch an episode, btw...

Cold Cold Cold

• 2 degrees this morning in milan, and I also have a cold. Basta!!!!

Catching up backwards, so excuse my random musings, but I will start with the fact that caramelised mandarini and ricotta sound extremely yummy (I was thinking about pompelmi with caramelised brown sugar and yogurt just last night), and I have some ricotta that will expire at the end of this week...

For the moment it is a curry-fest here: we've already had it twice and lovely DH has even made naan both times (even peshwari naan, which I love but are a complete pain to make). No results yet though- baby seems quite happy where it is.

The names/ offended non-foreigners thread some of you refer to sounds interesting- anybody care to post a link, please? I am minimising computer time, partly because my mother is here and partly because I get tired sitting at the computer...

Speaking of which, will be off to the kitchen now, need to get leftover curry out of the fridge for lunch....

Franca: sorry to hear about your cold and the weather. If it is any consolation (and I suspect it is not) it is supposed to snow here in London this afternoon.

Sorry for the food-focussed message: dangers of the heavily pregnant posting at lunchtime I guess!

Hmm fancy a curry myself here...

my last meal before dd1 was fish and chips whilst at the beginning of labour, unkown to me, the one before dd2 was curry.

Hello SG! Glad to hear your mum has arrived and that you are eating lots of curries!

Oh, I had fish and chips the day before the birth of dd too!
I can't remember what I have before ds.

I'd love a curry myself. Friday night me and dh were child free and really fancied a curry in front of the tv... but we had no idea where to get a good takeaway. So, we had to make do with Chinese and 2 episodes of the wire

I find my curry comes in a sauce jar as just doing the spices in the pan stinks the place out for days ! There is one place that does very good curry but it is a trek to go and get it and it would be cold by the time it gets here.
SG glad mum has made it and enjoy the papmering.
Second house was a dump. I even told the estate agent to stop telling me cr*p as I have had enough of basic lies just to get me to see the place.
Franca sorry about the cold a curry would probably do you good right now.
I dread my heating bill it seems to be on all the time . Usually it goes off 8.30 and then we can keep it off until 2-3 ish depending on if the sun is shining . NOt a hope. AGain it turns off at round 8.30pm but we are finding that we are turning it off when we go to bed...

I have that problem in our flat too Rosa as it's all open plan.
If I make a curry I just add a bit of garam masala right at the end, but iot's not the same.

My cold's got worse, so I wouldn't probably feel even the spiciest curry ...
We don't have riscaldamento autonomo, sadly. Plus we are in a very old building so lots of draughts, that make the heating even less efficient.
Uffa, we are having a lovely pasta al forno, and I won't be able to taste it!

made your arrosto Franca (lovely) and am joining you with a cold! Had it last week, thought had gone and sore throat started again now. Sick of illness this winter!
Not a curry fan at all. Was the embarrassment of all my friends when was in Manchester, whenever we went to the renowned "curry mile" in Rusholme to eat I would be the saddo eating English food or toying with a korma which would always request extra mild

Sorry to hear you are ill again gio, it's awful, isn't it?
I'm here sneezing violently and with red eyes, red nose, etc.

re the curry!
Off to watch mcnulty...

Think I'll join you Franca.
Sorry about all the illnesses.
The heating is one huge plus about moving into Rome, I have to say.
Even if we didn't put it on at all we would actually be about as warm this time of year as we were in the old place if we spent about 100 euros on gas a week. No exaggeration!
Although we do have a termocamino (+ gas) up there, which is nice to sit in front of of an evening (but also a pain to light, feed, clean etc.)

hello ladies!

SG,, had maaaaaaaaaaaaany curry nights with DS, he still was 10 days late... quite fancy one now though....

mum's busy with the dc, but she has lots to do still - mainly curtains as usual - and being stressed and stressful self (you know, anything that happens to anyone in the family happens "to her", so my DB being tamponato has turned into "capitano tutte a me"... followed by "why haven't you done that, and that and that" maybe because it's difficult to build a house with a toddler wanting to be bob the builder!?)... otoh, it's nice to have nice food - have been on a diet of speck most nights since she got here!!

sorry about the cold, bananaGio & franca...

heating here been on a lot more too, and the tumble drier as well... problem here is that it's an old house which is quick to heat up, but gets cold aas soon you turn the heating off. sick of the rain, though, more than the cold

Camo, is your mother my mother???

Hello there! I have been directed to this thread as we are considering moving to Italy for 6 months and maybe more.

My DP is Italian, came to UK when very young but speaks fluent italian. He is a plumber. I am learning italian at the moment (very hard!) DP is from Sicily, but I dont want to go there as too hot for me and no work for DP.

I was thinking of northern Italy, has anyone got any recommendations of places to look at, Ive been to Bologna and liked the size and feel of that but think its quite expensive, would also like to be fairly near the sea.

Does anyone know how easy it is to get plumbing work over there?

And is it complicated to rent an appartement or house there?

Any input gratefully recieved!

Hi everyone!

Just been reading through the last couple of pages and I had to laugh as I have 3 names (used to have 4 but managed to lose one 2 passport applications ago). Very pseudo-aristocratic British type of thing, aka my family thought they were related to the royals. Mind you, DP who is 100% milanese and has 3 names, so it can't be that unheard of here, no? DD has 2, the plan was one English and one Italian but we just ended up with 2 Italian. I actually think it odd to only give one name, but then I've probably been brainwashed by anachronistic values.

Anyway, what is that names thread? Anyone got a link? I haven't been on here for ages so have probably missed loads of contentious threads, which no doubt has been good for my soul. I did pop on a few weeks ago and saw a thread about Perugia, so scuttled back off pretty quickly.

Ooh curry. I got given a whole load of Indian spices for Xmas (a really good present) and have had a spate of making weird and wonderful curries. I do miss having a handy takeaway around, when I lived in Milan there were a few nearby but alas Chinese is about as exotic they get in Monza .

Anyone got any suggestions for where to go for a settimana (corta) bianca? I know more places that are family friendly in the dolomiti but it would be better if we could keep it a bit closer to home. DP is fixated on Madesimo but ever time I've been there I nearly got blown off the mountain by the wind.

Hi Brange!! ..missed you!

Talking of names there isn't a day that I am not kicking myself for not having called dd2 like your dd! It sooo would suit her.

How's life?

Hello Slightly, how exciting!

Bologna is a great city and is the capoluogo (the administrative city) of one of my fav Italian regions: Emilia Romagna.

Emilia Romagna is quite a wealthy area and lots of money was invested in the past to offer good public services: good hospitals, schools, nurseries etc.
I've no idea about the cost of renting, as it varies from city to city, but there's plenty of lovely city/towns in that area, such as:
Parma (where Parma ham and Parmesan cheese are made...)
Reggio Emilia, Modena and closer to the sea Ravenna and Ferrara... and if you want to be very close to the sea there is Rimini (though it gets very busy in the summer)!

We are still in economic recession in Italy, but I think that it'd be quite easy for a plumber to find work in northern Italy.

at settimana bianca, even a corta one!

No idea.

Oi Brange, good to see you!
Where, where in Milan is a good indian take away?

Slightly I didn;t mean to ingnore you. will think about it.

name thread

hi brangelina! nice to see you! yes, the perugia thread was a broken record...

name thread - had a nightmare coming up with one name, never mind about 3!! but up to my parents generation I think it was a legal requirement to have 2 names

slightlystressed, sorry, can't help much as I haven't a clue about prices etc in italy, but I'm sure other italian residents will be around soon

Franca, you say that often, maybe they're related, didn't you have some treviso connection?