Christmas Greetings!

 Tiny family Christmas again.  Lunch with MIL, dessert with Aunt and cousin, home to an alka-selzer cocktail and an evening on the sofa.  In two days Grace is off to visit a friend in Finland for a week and GP and I are following her the 29th for the New Year.  We'll be in Helsinki to see in 2017.  I'm packing the long-johns!  Merry Christmas to you all.  xxoo me

Cute!

GP and Riccardo corking the bottles

Here we go a wassailing  bottling .......  Last night GP took me along while he went bottling with some friends.  As a group they had purchased 4 demijohns of Nebbiolo from an old farmer, (for all I know he's 60 but so pickled looks 80), who produces in very small quantities.  He doesn't have automatized  bottling equipment so the guys had to do it in the good old fashioned way.  I went along "to document" the process.  And drink some wine.  And eat some food.

Old guy with demijohns and stacks of bottles

A tube is used for filling the magnums.

It starts with the demijohns that hold 54 liters each.  A bottle is .75 liters so that is a lot of vino.  We should have had 144 magnums, (1.5 liters or two bottles), but came up short as there was a wee bit of pilfering going on.

After filling the bottles, they are corked and then the label goes on.  Our friend Riccardo had these adhesive labels made up.  It's a picture of (or by) Teomondo Scrofalo, an unknown artist whose painting has been reproduced and sold in poster form to a million bars and hotels.  It is also the name taken by a famous and foolish Italian comic which is why they chose it.  By coincidence, Teomondo Scrofalo also looks just like our host!

Boxing ém up

It was colder than a witch's t** in there so we were all bundled up and had to warm the wine up with our hands before drinking it.  Most irritating but we managed.  We had a little buffet on an old wooden bench with cheeses, salamis, ham and raw sausage.  Yes, they eat raw sausage.  I, however, do not.  I made up for it in bread.

Food!!

By the end of the night things were getting rough.

I'm glad I went to see the process but it's definitely a boys club.  I was in fact the only woman there.  They pretty much ignored me which was fine as they were doing all the work.  Next year GP can go without me.  I'll stay home and warm and await the delivery.

criminal evidence

The night ended with the "breaking of the sealing wax", which means our host, (never did learn his name), brought out a magnum bottled a few years ago.  The wine we bought should be aged a bit before we drink it.  We'd been sipping at it all night but was a little too "fresh".  I forced myself.

The last hurrah.

GP drove home.  xxoo me

Gah!  The Yahoo hacking incident has hit home!  One of GP's accounts was hacked and messages were sent out to many contacts on his list.  They were sent Christmas Greetings and a link to open.  GP's elderly aunt and uncle got one of these e-mails but as it was written in English they didn't know what it said.  They are, as GP calls them, "pew lickers", meaning very devout and involved with The Church.  The evening they received this e-mail they happened to have their parish priest over for dinner.  He told them he spoke English and could translate this lovely holiday message from their nephew.  It was porn!  xxoo me

Friday night was our annual Christmas Dinner with the school.  They go all out and take us to a lovely restaurant with a good meal, wine and a grab bag exchange of gifts.  It's always fun. This year the restaurant they chose is in the low hills in a very exclusive but busy area.   GP and I headed out fairly early because being Friday we knew there would be a lot of traffic.  We were bumper to bumper on a main road for a good part of the way and it being Italy, many drivers had made the road a two laner instead of one lane, pushing and passing to get ONE space ahead.  At one point we had to move to the left because we were coming up on a line of cars parked on the side of the road.  A big Chevy Suburban, (ridiculous in urban Italy), wouldn't let us move over and honked and pushed by us.  GP got rightfully pissed off, opened his window and explained in no uncertain terms,"it was a one lane road and he had no choice but to move over to avoid hitting the parked cars and had she, (because it was a she), a brain in her head she would have noticed that in fact all of the cars ahead of us were letting the drivers on the right in".  He may have added a few choice words in there and a few comments about Italian women drivers.  Anyhow, she pushed passed and we ended up behind her.  We started joking saying wouldn't it be funny (not) if she was from the school!  But then we came to our turn off and she turned.  And then we came to the restaurant and she slowed down and I started to panic.  First she parked illegally in front of the police station, but decided that wasn't a good idea and backed out.  We whizzed past hoping to hide our car far away so she wouldn't see who got out of it but as we were turning into a one way road to park in an empty space we'd seen, she came driving up the road towards us the wrong way and took the space!  All the while I was saying, "shit shit shit, hide the car hide the car"!  It was like a Chevy Chase movie!  We found a place to park quite far away and GP took off his hat and coat before going into restaurant.   I hadn't seen her face to didn't know who it was and GP just kept saying she looked like Morticia from the Addams Family.  I was REALLY hoping she hadn't gotten a good look at GP because he had been quite explicit about what he thought of her driving, (and to give him credit, after watching her parking I agree).   So we went into the restaurant and found friends at a table in a far corner where we could be inconspicuous.  GP scanned the room and found the driver, a lovely woman who teaches ESL, and has always been more than polite and friendly.  This solidifies my long time theory about Italian drivers.  The minute a person gets behind the wheel of a car in this country it's like Jekyll and Hyde.  They become hideous, arrogant, rude and egocentric.  I have seen the sweetest most ladylike women flip people off as they pass them for having the audacity to be driving to slowly.  Fortunately, I don't think Sara, (for that is her name) recognized GP but I guess I'll find out Monday!  (And she does rather look like Morticia...).   xxoo me

These people don't have road signs!  I was TRYING to get over the hills, from the city to the villages behind them, but missed my usual turn off so took one of the other roads up.  The hills here are as high as many of our mountains in Maine and are covered by literally hundreds of narrow, twisting roads that are just as likely to turn back on themselves or dead end or become impassable as they are to actually take you where you want to go. GPS doesn't work up there because IF there's coverage, all you see is a mess of lines with NO NAMES and they don't have ROAD SIGNS!  Honestly, I was driving around for 45 minutes, up and down past farms and high stones walls that practically scraped the sides of my car, into private driveways and out again, and do you know where I ended up?  Two blocks from my place.  NOT where I was heading.  That was Saturday.  Sunday GP dragged me off to climb another damned mountain. 

Yup.  There I am.  As beautiful as the mountains are, I would much rather be on a beach.  I hate getting up early in the winter when it's cold and dark.  I REALLY hate wearing all the necessary clothing that one has to because they're soooo comfortable and flattering.  And it simply kills me to go uphill at those altitudes.  Yesterday I wheezed and panted and clutched my chest.  I had to stop to catch my breath and stop to keep my head from spinning.  I had 90 year olds passing me in sneakers and walking sticks for Chrissakes.  And they looked at me in pity!  Between my low blood pressure and shallow breathing I am not meant to go much above sea level.  I'm smiling in this picture because I was heading DOWN.  If I had any money I'd swear GP was trying to do me in.  xxoo me

It's a four day weekend!  Yesterday was Immaculate Conception Day or some such foolishness, but it gives me days off so I don't care.  It is pretty funny though when considering how much Italans go on about the separation of Church and State here.  Every Tom, Dick and Harry is a Saint and gets his day, many of them are National Holidays.  Speaking of senseless, last Sunday I voted for the first time here.  It was for the referendum that would have streamlined the government, reducing the number of seats in the two houses and cutting all sorts of other waste. (Italy has about 950 parliamentary members to our 535, with a forth of the population).  It didn't pass.  Why would it?  It makes sense.  I give up.  I'm still on no news mode though snippets do sneak in.  They are all terrifying so I'm going to keep this up as long as I can.

GP and I took MIL out to lunch.  Monday is her Saint's Day (Patron Saints are more celebrated than birthdays), so we went for a drive in the country and to a lovely restaurant in the wine region.  I was gluttonous and ate and drank too much and now feel like crap.  At what age will I achieve self-control I ask you!!??  I spent all day on the sofa reading and doing online crossword puzzles.  I am a bum.  Tomorrow I'll make up for it by being very productive!   My bed is calling me....I must obey....  xxoo me

Ah geesh...someone let him use the phone?  See what happens!  And not even president yet.  This is why I've given up the news.

View of Cerisola

Looking towards the sea

Cerisola has two Roman bridges

Their pride and joy

On our wander

Last weekend GP and I drove and hour and a half to a tiny village called Cerisola in the Maritime Alps to help a friend pick kiwi and persimmons.  Her husband's family is originally from the area and still has property and vacation homes there.  Unfortunately the decrepit great uncle who owns the fruit trees forgot to tell her that he had had them pruned way down last fall and this would be a "no fruit" year.  We took the opportunity to wander around.  The village is mostly empty now with only 80 full-time residents.  It sits on the Mediterranean side of the mountains, tucked into a crevasse shaped valley.  In the summer it's a haven for people escaping the heat on the plains as it's high and gets the sea breezes but winter must be pretty bleak.  All of the residents seem to be ancient and yet they still survive with few modern conveniences.  There are no shops, actually no businesses at all,  little TV or internet reception, and if it snows, the road in and out impassable.  They still grow much of their own food, heat with wood and make their own entertainment.  It's like stepping back in time.  We came home to a wonderful lunch cooked by C's husband and then took a long nap!
                                                                                                   xxoo me

Thanksgiving was NOT a good day.  First it rained cats and dogs and a few other animals as well and the parking lot at school is gravel and had lots of very deep puddles.  Then there were all sorts of PTA ladies, (I do not like PTA ladies who are mostly non-working American moms from Michigan who vote Republican), running around school all day preparing for the annual Thanksgiving dinner that I decided not to go to this year because Grace isn't here and because I am a little disgruntled with the US right now.  So these cheerful mothers decorating, organizing and chatting really pissed me off.  I left my favorite sweatshirt in the gym after Pilates and then had a rotten lesson with the 2 girls I tutor who were not being cooperative.  To top it all off I stepped on my best earphones and snapped them in two.  Yesterday was better for me but Northern Italy is under water.  The weather has been unusually warm and dry so after 3 days of rain the rivers are over-flowing and the little snow in the mountains has melted and adding to the problem.  Bridges have been wiped out and low lying towns are cut off by flooded roads.  There are two "tour boats"on the Po river in Torino that take a handful of Japanese tourists up and down about a mile each way on Saturdays but apart from that just sit tied up to the bank.  Whoever is in charge of them obviously didn't think to secure them for the flood because they broke loose and headed down the river for the falls but were stopped by a bridge.  The fire department tried to raise them but failed miserably when one of the boats sort of imploded and was sucked under the bridge and swept away.  Guess the Japanese are going to have to find something else to do on today.  I made a mini Thanksgiving dinner last night for GP and MIL.  Somehow just isn't the same without the Macy's Day Parade and cold Maine weather and the smell of turkey that's been cooking so long it's permeated all the furniture and curtains, and mostly family!  So I guess it was just dinner.  I'll be in a better mood later.  xxoo (poor)me

Sprawling food market

Part of Camden Town called Little Venice

Grace at Hampstead Heath

GP and Grace at the food market

Saturday in London.  It was wonderful.  Grace played tour guide and showed us all of her favorite places which are off the tourist maps.  After a visit to her school we went up to Hampstead Heath, a very wealthy burrough where my boyfriend Benedict Cumberbatch lives.  It has a village-like little center with upscale shops and galleries, a huge park with a wonderful view of the city and gorgeous homes.  I told Grace that's where she needs to buy her mummy a place there when she becomes rich and famous.  She likes it because all sorts of musicians have homes there and she's hoping to meet them just wandering through the park. Then we went to Camden Town for lunch at the Camden Market that has food stalls representing countries all around the globe.  There were so many wonderful smells!  Having skipped breakfast (as I was ordered to do) I was going nuts!  I ended up getting a plate of Colombian "street food".  I'm moving to Colombia.  Grace and GP went for Venezuelan.   Then a pint in the pub and a sweet from a bakery stand.  I could do that all day.  Really.  After lunch it was up to the top of Primrose Hill for the best view in London.  There were the Christmas lights in the major shopping and tourist areas and a visit to a humongous Christmas themed fair with rides and games and lots and lots of people.  The fair had come all the way from Munich!  I can't imagine the logistic of it.  This was all topped off by a pub dinner with the prerequisite beers.  That Grace had us hopping on and off buses and the tube all day.  By the time we got back to the hotel at 9ish my feet were throbbing and my legs ached.  I was sure I'd lost 10lbs.  We checked what we'd done for mileage and it was about 20k!  Unfortunately that only translates into 1000 calories.  The beers alone covered that.  London is one of those cities where I never feel as though I've seen or done all I want to see or do.  I'll be back!  xxoo me

Well it's been a week and a day since I last read or watched the news and though it's been difficult breaking the habit, it has done me good.  I still have to stop myself from pulling up my NPR web site as soon as I get up in the morning.  It goes so well with my coffee!  Any bits and pieces I'm hearing secondhand are disastrous so I'd rather play ignorant.  I do try to keep up with the Italian chronicle though as it's usually so ridiculous.  There are constant reports of robberies and crimes that make no sense.  The other day a guy held up a supermarket at gun point and demanded NUTELLA! You read that right folks!  There is the gang of Albanian's who installed a bunch of fake ATM's and stole CC and Debit card info from thousands of people before they were found out.  Then there is the long going scandal of trash removal.  The mafia runs the largest companies that dispose of non recyclable trash and hazardous waste.  For years, they have charged the industries in the north to haul off and "legally" handle the disposal of their waste and then dump and bury it illegally somewhere in the rural south.  Now there are thousands of cases of cancer, underground fires spuming noxious smoke, contaminated water all around Naples and various other southern cities and towns.  Poor people.  The American military has even created "no live zones" for it's staff and members. 

ARGH!  I just heard that Trump gave top secret clearance to his family members like some South American dictator!  "This is Jose my nephew.  He like pretty girls so I'm letting him run the women's prisons.  And my youngest son loves making paper airplanes so he gets the Air force."   Jesus!  Next it will be Sarah Palin as Foreign Secretary!  Oh, I forgot.  That goes to his pal Giulliani!!!!!  WTF?  OK.  THIS is why I'm not listening!  Blah, blah, blah, blah..I can't hear you!

Calmer now.  I'm off to pack a bag.  GP and I are going to London to see Grace and enjoy the rain.

  xxoo me

Well here's an interesting one.  GP just got home from a week in DC.  (Yes, DC, THIS past week.  But I won't go there.)  He had just gone to take a nap when he got a call, that he was considering not taking, from a colleague.  Massimo needed the translation for "kidnapped".  That's when I came in the room to listen to the conversation.  Seems his 23 year old daughter had a child with a Moroccan immigrant who has been arrested for drug trafficking and has received his deportation papers, though he has so far avoided the police so is still around causing problems.  This daughter, who obviously has a few issues of her own though not many brain cells, agreed to go visit relatives of his in Leon, France which breaks all kinds of laws considering he's a fugitive and has never legally recognized the child.  Shockingly when they arrived in Leon, he took her phone away and she and the kid are now essentially being held captive.  She managed to get a message to her father who is now driving like a mad man, ex-wife in tow, 7 hours across northern Italy and the Alps into France to track them down.  One of the many problems here is that they are holed up in one of those infamous Muslim ghettos that are all around the cities in France.  If Massimo, who's like a bull-in-a-china-shop on the best of days,  goes in there yelling and screaming and carrying on they'll trounce him.  Then there is the fact that he doesn't speak French or English, thus the translations, so won't be able to communicate with the local police.  We said we'd be on call tomorrow for translating and in the meantime sent him a bunch of phrases like, "Held against their will", and ""Wanted fugitive".  Geesh.  And I thought tomorrow was just going to be morning at the market and dinner with MIL!  Off to research my criminal activities vocabulary.  xxoo me

Well this is what I have decided.  I have a choice, so I'm going to disassociate myself from the States.  I'd like to say for the next 4 years but that's unlikely.  Like all expats I imagine, I always have an eye and an ear or what's going on at home.  No more.  I'm taking my various news sources off my "bookmarks".  I simply cannot listen to or watch that odious man.  School today was bizarre.  The American teachers were all walking around like zombies.  We'd look at each other with wide-open, desperate eyes.  Our British counterparts kept patting us on the shoulders and saying, "And we thought Brexit was bad!".  I've had two offers of sponsorship to Canada.  I may take them up on that.  Though not far enough away.  Enough.  I am ABROAD and that's all I'm going to think about!  Good luck you left behind!  xxoo me

I do not have enough expletives to express my shock and horror.  This is the beginning of the end of American supremacy.   I guess we'd better all start boning up on our Chinese.

We dropped Grace off at the airport EARLY this morning and then headed up to the mountains to take a short hike.  We were already one with nature by 8 am.  It was a beautiful day but had rained yesterday so I ended up on my ass once and had to catch myself multiple times.  No harm done.  I bounced.  We were in the lower mountains and hiked through hardwood forests where parts of the trail were covered in chestnuts, a prickly, spongy bed.  We collected a bagful for MIL as the old timers still love to boil them and eat them with salt.  Our destination was a log cabin built by the Canadians for the 2006 Winter Olympics.  The cabin was put up in one of the squares here in Torino and was used as the Canadian visitor's center.  When the Olympics were over, it was donated to one of the local Alpine Clubs who then moved it to the top of this low mountain as a base for rock climbers.  The Canadians built the cabin from diseased trees that would have had to come down in any case and then the Italians recycled it into this hut.  Very green.  On the way down GP didn't follow my advise and took a wrong trail turning our 2 hour hike into three.  Tomorrow he takes off for Washington for the week and I'm on my own.  I'll hang with MIL.  xxoo me

November hike near Pinerolo

very slippery rocks!

View from the top

The Canadian Log Cabin

The rock climbers practice rock

My very lazy vacation week at home with the daughter is coming to an end.  We take her to the airport early tomorrow.  But considering that we'll be in London for the weekend in 2 weeks, and that she loves it there, I'm good.  I can do this.  I am a strong independent woman.  Now it's my chance to shine!   Think of all I can do for ME!!!  I DO have a life outside of my kid!  I DO, I DO!!!  (This is what I have to do to booster my courage.  So sad.)

Anywho.   This election has made America and Americans the question mark of the moment.  At school non-Americans ask me all the time basically", "WTF?".  To which I have to answer that I just don't know!  I am so shocked, amazed, flabbergasted, horrified, confused, incredulous, that this guy has made it this far, and may be the next president of the United States!  I feel like I'm walking around with my mouth agape.  Europe is very worried.  I am very worried.  I may look into real estate in the UK.  WAIT!  Brexit!  Damn them!!!!  My EU passport won't be worth anything there in a few years.  Shit. 

So as you can see by these last two paragraphs, my state of mind is wobbly at the moment.  This next week I am restarting my Pilates and upping it to 4 times a week, I am going to the spa on Tuesday and out to dinner with friends Friday, and have decided to book 1 evening out with girlfriends a week.  This is my plan.  I'm sticking to it.  xxoo me

More earthquakes.  Poor central Italy.  The politicians are saying, "We will rebuild it all!", but all disaster funds have already been spent on the refugees.  It's so sad to see these beautiful little villages, centuries old, completely destroyed.  GO and I visited the area last year.  It was lovely.  The residents of the villages affected are being bused to the coastal resort towns and put up in hotels.  Between these poor folks and the refugees there will be no place left for guests! 

And speaking of disasters, what is this I hear about Trump gaining over Hillary in Florida!  Jeb get out there and DO SOMETHING!  Today is Halloween.  I suppose it's a good day to have the pants frightened off me.

xxoo me

Yesterday morning I had a real Italian experience.  When I went to my car to go to work, a van had blocked me in.  There were various trucks and vans around as they are renovating something across the street.  Of course this guy had no qualms about parking right behind me, cause this is each man for himself country.   GianPiero was just heading out to work too so he stopped.  He was in his ballbreaker mood so ripe for an argument.  I had to honk my horn for about 10 minutes before the guy came out.  But before he did some neighbors popped out, yelling back and forth at each other about whose van it might be.  Others opened their windows and joined in.  A painter in his work overalls came running down a driveway, afraid that it was his truck (he was also blocking someone) and GianPiero jumped all over him.  The guy said it wasn't his van. GP said he wasn't accusing him, which of course he was.  Finally the guilty driver showed up and there was much yelling and waving of hands and rude gestures....just another morning in the hood.

Today I'm preparing for my baby to come home for the week!  I pick her up tomorrow at the airport.  I just spent the morning at the supermarket buying all of her favorite things and stocking up on fresh fruits and veggies as I don't know how much she's getting over there.  London is one of those cities where you can find anything if you look but the average supermarket is a sad scene with only a few pale, plastic wrapped cucumbers and apples.  For good fresh produce you should go to a market or one of the high-end supermarkets, both of which cost a flipping arm and a leg.

I have all of next week off too and I'm thrilled.  Still don't feel settled in here.  We have a lot to do including spending a day at the MIL's place cleaning.  Some years ago she finally agreed to get a cleaning lady to come in once a week.  She is in her late sixties but MIL refers to her a young.  It's all relative I guess.  Anyway this poor woman just had a stroke so MIL is temporarily without help.  (She says she'll be back after a week as she's so young she'll recover quickly.  Hmm.)  I volunteered Grace and I to go over and clean for her.  There are a couple problems with this plan.  One is that Grace doesn't know.  The other is that MIL is such a fanatical clean freak.  (She cleans before the cleaning lady comes and them follows her around pointing things out that she missed.  She probably caused the stroke.)  I'm worried that she'll harass me.  I, by the way, am a lousy housekeeper as I don't give a crap about dust.  As long as my bathrooms and kitchen are relatively clean and my sheets get changed weekly, I'm good to go.  MIL will have me on my hands and knees with a toothbrush.  Well you know what they say about Good Intentions...

I'm off to make Grace's bed.  Yippee!!  xxoo me

Well here I am.  Presently parked on the MIL's couch trying to keep my eyes open.  Got in late Sunday as our flight out of London was delayed by 5 hours!  But it was worth it to have the chance to see Grace for a couple hours.  She already seems more grown up!  This week has been a blur of work and unpacking.  I can't wait to have a day to sleep in and putz around the apartment.

While we were gone, our neighbors to the right have also put in bars.  And a fancy magnetic lock cover for their front door.  (Unfortunately every time she tries to open the door it sets off an alarm so we're jumping out of our socks a few times a day.) There is a type of key used by our eastern European thieves called a Bulgarian key.  It can open most of the complicated locks over here so people are taking all sorts of evasive action.
 We also have a hotel full of newly arrived Eritrean refugees.  In the industrial area not far from us there WAS a Holiday Inn Express that had already lost a lot of business due to the Nigerian prostitutes who hung around nearby, keeping warm with fires in big metal bins.  They look sort of like a bizarre turn on the photos of bums on street corners from the depression era.  Only these gals are very black and mostly naked.  Anyhow, this Holiday Inn has now been occupied by Eritrean refugees.  The owners of the various businesses in the area are not particularly happy.  I find it all so sad until I have to wrestle my shopping cart back from some guy trying to get the half euro coin in the return slot

Work has been hectic.  Missing a month does that....  But having fun setting up my library and reading with the kids who remain equal parts adorable and annoying.  Being with all these little critters all day long makes it easier to come home to an empty apartment...sniff, sniff.

As GP says, MIL is beginning to "skip a beat".  She is, after all, 84.  She keeps speaking to me in Piemontese, the local dialect that even after 30 years I haven't learned.  She'll start out fine then switch on me so I'm getting about half of the conversation.  I predict the day will come when I never understand a word the poor woman is saying to me! 

More later, me

Tomorrow we fly off to London.  Poor Grace is bored silly.  All of her friends are off at school already.  She is probably counting down the seconds to go and I'm dreading every passing day!  Last night I booked a parent's weekend for GP and me to go to London.  My excuse is that he will not yet have seen Grace's university.  In reality I don't want to wait til Christmas before seeing her.  We're going 3rd weekend in November.

It has been so damned hot.  Last weekend we tried to escape the heat, 96 degrees, and get outside so Grace and I went to a royal hunting lodge called Racconigi, (check it out at: http://www.ilcastellodiracconigi.it/eng/) with enormous woodsy grounds.  Alas even in the shade it was an oven and it's not the humidity as I thought, which is actually lower than ours in Maine, but the complete lack of air.  There is not a breath of breeze, not a leaf shimmies, not a cloud blows across the sky.  Nada, niente, zilch!  The trees were all dusty and dry with late summer and the only movement we saw were the lizards skittering all over.   Off to cool, drizzly London!  * Let me rephrase that.  Just checked the weather in the UK and it will be 90 degrees tomorrow.  Really?  xxoo me

Holy Mother Of God I always forget the humidity!  My first day back was my first day at work, lugging books and shelving to my new room and sweating bullets.  Gone are my ocean breezes and mudflat smells.  Here I have pig shit and wood smoke and 90% humidity.  I awoke to a train whistle and the neighbors arguing instead of seagulls.  Ah, well.  I won't be shoveling snow in April. AND, I have my month off from mid September to mid October in Maine.  Yippee!  There is another good thing.  I have spent 36 hours without the mention of Trump.  This weekend will be unpacking and such and school officially starts on Monday.  There are a couple new teachers this year and they're Americans married to or "with" Italians so more folks to commiserate with.....  Will write more late.  Dinner and bed!  xxoo me

I haven't written much lately because I simply haven't had the gumption.  It's not that nothing has happened, in fact a lot has happened, but I get home and just feel like vegging with a book or TV show.  We have had a lousy spring with rain, thunderstorms and hail almost every afternoon or evening.  It has hampered our outside eating experience which is a great rite of spring for us.  GP gets all excited come April when it's time to bring the BBQ up from the garage.   The outside table and chairs go up and the little garden gets cleaned.  We've probably eaten out a dozen times max since then.  It's been either too cold or too wet.  At school we are going into our last week.  Yippee!  Our fearless leader, the great white sloth, has announced his retirement.  It's a big joke as he hasn't been at school since the 12th graders graduated and his protector , the head of the board of directors and father of one of grace's classmates, announced he'd be leaving.  Sir Sloth has been pushed out.  We know it, he knows we know it, it's all a big farce.  Whatever.  This weekend I'll be packing and cleaning and generally getting ready to fly home on Friday.  I am most impatient.  Today after school I'm going to a "baby shower" for Rosie, our little she-devil of a Pilates instructor.  The baby shower is to be held at the home of one of her Brazilian compatriots and will be attended by the entire South American clan from the school (lots) who will be mostly watching the soccer game between Italy and Sweden for the European Championships.  I expect it will be less baby talk and more booze and cheering.  I'll be happy with an exotic rum drink and some sunshine!  These days the news here is either about football or Brexit.  The UK votes next Thursday whether or not to stay in the EU.  Just our luck they may leave the Union the year our daughter will be attending university there as a EU citizen at a reduced rate.  I very much doubt it will change much for us right away but you never know.  So off I go to do some errands.  xxoo me

It has been a while since I wrote last and I have had all sorts of inane things to say, like how my husband dragged me off to yet another hike up a mountain and this time we were in the clouds and climbing past glaciers and I froze my ass off (alas not literally) and we saw a small herd of Fallow Deer (looked that up) who are MUCH better scurrying over the snow and ice than I am.  Or how I have been filling my non working time since Grace returned to the States with museum visits ((fantastic Asian Art) and trying new cuisines (Persian - yum).  But then Grace messaged me about Orlando.

What the Hell?  He was on the FBI watch list and yet was allowed to buy an automatic weapon???  He was described as "unstable and violent" but was given a license to carry a gun.  There is something so wrong with our country.  How many people need to die before we get guns off the market?  Yes this guy was nuts, a terrorist, whatever, but if he hadn't been able to buy a frickin' AR15 or any other automatic weapon, like soooo many others who have committed mass murder in the US, it would have been just that much less deadly.  There will always be crazies.  Do we have to make things so easy for them to do so much harm?  Sad sad day.  xxoo me

We are having torrential rains.  There is massive flooding in France and Germany and parts of Italy.  The only thing protecting us a bit is the Alps that seem to be holding some of the weather back.  I'm glad it held off until after graduation.  It is a good thing that's raining actually because I've had to be on the phone all afternoon with the IRS.  AGAIN!  Every frickin' year!  No one knows what the hell is going on in that place.  I was sent from office to office with no one answering my questions.  Excuse me for my lack of sensitivity but one woman was an immigrant with such a heavy accent I could barely understand her, (when I got angry about being sent to yet another office she told me maybe people would help me if I were more polite), the next person was a woman with a bad speech impediment!  I kid you not.  She stuttered so badly I was chewing on my sleeve to stop myself from screaming, "Shut up!!!"  And the worst part is NO ONE was giving me any answers.  The stutterer told me to fill out a form that I know for a fact is the wrong one and didn't know the difference between a citizen and a resident!  WHERE do they FIND these people?  If everything in the States functioned like the IRS we'd be in ruins.  They tell you to use their web site to fill in forms but don't provide the information you need on such web site.  As in it's actually blank.  The line beside Italy's  tax treaty exempt number is BLANK.  But I need it.  They can't give it to me.  I need to go to the web site.  AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRREGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!  I'm going to call my accountant who has just returned from a vacation in Alaska hunting mosquitoes or something.  God give me strength.  xxoo me

ho hum

with friends at the dinner

Well that's it.  My baby is a graduate and my full-time parenting job is done.  Crap.  The ceremony was fine though it has been such a problematic year with Grace's class, the speeches were "interesting".  They were all about overcoming differences and hardships and coming out a better, stronger person etc etc.  A bunch of bull because the issues were never resolved.  Thankfully most of the kids are/were friendly and they are the one's who celebrated with all of us last night.  After the ceremony there was a dinner/party that I helped organize with 3 other moms.  The picture above is of our 4 girls.  It went off without too many hitches.  We did have one mom, (wealthy Italian), whose group came an hour late to the event and bitched because there wasn't a table for 5 just waiting for them.  We hadn't made seating arrangements as it was a buffet and we thought groups would mingle but alas the teachers all sat together, the Germans took one table, the Africans another, the Italians another and so on.  The kids were fine as they all went out on the terrace but the nationalities tended to stick together just as they do socially outside of school.  Anyway this woman had a hissy fit because we hadn't reserved a table for her group and said if we didn't accommodate them they wanted their money back.  I wanted to tell her to take her money and shove it but my more diplomatic friend and colleague did some maneuvering and found them space all together.  There was another bitchy fit from yet another spoiled non working rich wife which peeves me because none of these people offered to help organize in any way.  At least now that graduation has past I won't have to have anything to do with them.  Not being a classroom teacher has many advantages, one of which is not having to have contact with parents!  Ah well.  Time for bed.  I still have a month of school!  Sob.  xxoo me

When it gets to the point where we can live outside, our little apartment doubles.  Normally that's by the end of April, but this year Spring has been chilly and only now are we eating and sitting out for any length of time.  This is also the time of year when there's the greatest difference between here and Maine.  We are easily 2 months ahead and often three.  Spring here is wonderful.  If it weren't for the fact that we are winding down our full-time parenting as well.  Grace has just a few days til graduation and flies back to the States 2 days later.  She finished her final exams 10 days ago and spent last week with a friend in Sardinia.  Sunday we had a lunch with grandmother to celebrate.  I came home and slept for 3 hours.  I cannot eat a big meal and drink wine during the day.  I'm completely useless after.  When I'm not sleeping I'm spending a lot of time sitting and staring at Grace til she gets tired of me and tells me to leave and shut the door behind me.  I foresee a frantic reorganization of the apartment when she's gone.  I clean out closets and cupboards when I'm stressed.  I may paint the whole place too.  It's small.  Won't take me long.  My mood is leaning towards black but I don't think that would go over well with the hub.  Heavy sigh.  xxoo me

I spent 24 hours in Verona this past Friday with Grace and a friend and her mother.  Grace and E went to a concert in the evening which was the principle reason we were there.  It felt sort of full circle.  In her freshman year, Grace went to her first concert at the arena in Verona.  She has gone to a dozen or more since then.  And here we were back in Verona for her last concert of her high school years.  Sniff, hiccup.

While the girls were swooning over a boy band, my friend and I walked and walked and walked.  It really is a beautiful little city.  The riverfront reminds me of Florence and the Architecture is Venetian.   It has lovely hills and a miniature Colosseum, (the Arena-concert venue), plunked down in the old center.  Here's a peek.    xxoo me

dinner!

the girls before they escaped

lakefront walk

breakfast

a view from the hills

Just a couple of pics from beautiful Vevey in Switzerland.

Last weekend I spent two days in Switzerland.  Friend Peter and I drove up to see mutual friend Bette who worked at the school a couple years ago.  It never ceases to amaze me how you drive over the border and the difference is immediate. It's as though the entire population of Switzerland spends their days scrubbing and mowing and trimming and sweeping.  And again I thought how lovely Vevey is.   But reality payed a visit when we went out to eat and spent 100 bucks for a Vietnamese curry and a beer each. (that's for only 2 people, people!)  It’s all relative as the Swiss are paid so much more but for one traveling on an Italian or American paycheck it can be shocking.  5 dollar coffee, 500 dollar skirt…. And then there is that Swiss mindset.  I prefer the Italian “who gives a shit”.   We parked in a well defined spot in front of B's apartment building but the front tires of the car were just touching the white line. We were told to back up or get ticketed.  Wait..WHAT?  In Italy, if you can fit it in there backwards, upside down or sideways – more power to you. The lines on parking spaces are just a suggestion.  Anyhow.  Had fun, spent too much, came home.


The IB exams have started and the stress level at home and school is very high.  At home Grace hides in her room studying and only ventures out to eat – maybe.  At school the 12^th graders are having their exams in the assembly hall and taking breaks in the library where I can watch them pace and sweat.   I can actually feel the nerves vibrating off them.   I brought in oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for snack Thursday.   I thought sugar might help.  I don’t envy them.  For the kids going to the states it’s not as bad as they have already been accepted to their colleges.  For those going to the UK, Grace included, their acceptances are provisional.  Each school has a required point total and they’re high. Average IB score is 24. The schools where these kids are applying are asking for 32 and up with extra points in certain subjects. They won’t know until July if they’ve passed!   It’s frightening. We are making plans as though she is going, but if Grace doesn’t get the required scores she’ll have to re-sit tests in Sept and start in January.  Ugh.

Last night we went to a Cinco de Mayo party even though it was the Seis de Mayo.  It was hosted by a Venezuelan friend and she had various Mexican friends attending so there was a lot of really good food!  They were all school families and the littlest kids couldn't get over seeing me outside of the library.   A Mexican/American dad told us that Cinco de Mayo isn't a big deal in Mexico.  It's celebrated more in the States as a Hispanic heritage day as opposed to the celebration of some obscure battle against the French during the fight for Mexican independence.  Who knew?  GP says that Corona and the lime industry probably started the US fad.  Oh well.  Happy Siete de Mayo!  xxoo me

Went to pick up our spring wines from a producer we go to.  GP found their stash of crosses used for the Easter procession.  Villagers walk with lighted crosses through the center to the main church where Easter midnight mass is given.  These crosses were stored behind a pile of old bottles.  He's a natural no?  xxoo me

Monday was Liberation Day, (liberation from the Nazis), and a public holiday.  GP and I went hiking in the mountains.  The day started out with a few mishaps.  We ended up in the wrong valley, (HE insists on GPS, I use maps, HE got lost), were stopped by the police for tailgating, (I always keep a safe distance), then backed into a plow, (not his fault as "there was a blind spot", but had it been me....).  Anyway apart from these not so auspicious beginnings, we ended up in a most beautiful and bucolic valley this side of the Alps from Nice had we driven straight for 5 hours.  We were on the anchovy route!  For hundreds of years anchovies were caught on the coast of France and transported over the mountains to areas far from the sea.  In fact they are the only fish in traditional Piemontese cooking.  Along the way, the merchants would buy or exchange fish for salt mined in these mountains.  The salt was used to pack and conserve the fish.  Anywho, that aside, we decided to try to get to a sanctuary on the border of France.  We were high enough up that not all of the ice had melted and a huge slab of ice/snow, rock and trees had slid onto the road.  Road crews had carved a tunnel through it but we didn't want to risk being trapped so we parked there, (this is where the plow comes in), and walked up.

Where we dared not pass.

 It was a beautiful weather.  Just like spring in Maine.  There was a fresh, chilly wind.  It was about 50 degrees which felt damned warm going up but a wee bit chilly coming down.  After 6 hours of hiking I'm still tired 3 days later.  How sad..... 

Tomorrow after school I'm off to Vevey Switzerland with friend Peter to visit our ex-colleague Bette from 2 years ago.  I'm looking forward to two days of cheese and beer.  Peter wants to do CULTURAL stuff.  Geesh.  xxoo me

Final destination, Santuario Sant'Anna

While waiting for GP to get off his train I watched this amazing kid, a backpacker, play the piano in the main lobby of Porta Nuova, the old train station.  The station has been renovated to include a high end shopping area and this piano is available for anyone who wants to give it a go.  This kid was amazing.  He ended his performance by playing the beautiful piece that is used as the theme music for Downton Abby.  Had me in tears.

Today was a lovely day for a number of reasons.  It is warm and sunny and dry so I could spend all day playing in my little garden.  It is a long weekend so tho Sunday, it feels like Saturday.  And best of all........wait for it....... we just heard the news that OUR WACKO NEIGHBORS UPSTAIRS ARE SELLING!!  Joy!  Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord!  Of course before a sale goes through and they have actually left the premises, months could pass.  But when I get back next fall they should be gone!!!  More good news is that the people who seem to be buying it own a good restaurant close by.  I am going to be VERY FRIENDLY to them.

Off to Grandmother's house we go for dinner.  Tomorrow the mountains for a hike.  xxoo me

I have had two REALLY bad days.  Work is making me nuts.  They've decided that the library has to be moved NOW even though it is "Book Week", the one week of the school year that the library has center stage.  Our space has been taken over by the new Art/Design center and we've been denigrated to the third floor, (less than 1/3 the space).  Yesterday I threatened to quit, very loudly I may say, when they said that they wanted to take even more space from the library for the "Art office".  The guy who is in charge of all of this is the friend of some bigwig on the board of directors.  He isn't a teacher, has NO experience in education and his idea of art is to take photos of chicken feet.  Dead chicken feet.  He wears sunglasses INSIDE and dresses like a 20 year old hipster.  He is a long way from 20 years old by the way.  I thought I was going to have a flippin' coronary when he said he needed more space.  We are in a closet for chrissakes!

Then after work I had to pick Grace up from tennis two towns over.  The road I take was built for horse carts and in parts is so narrow cars have to pull to the side to let others by.  Some A@#%! came flying down the road in a huge SUV, (there is NO place where a SUV is less useful), and forced me over to the side of the road where there were bushes that scratched the side of my car all up!

To top this all up, tomorrow is Grace's last day of classes.  She has a week off to prepare and then 2 weeks of final exams.  She graduates the 28th of May but has time off beforehand.  She's off to Sardinia with a friend who has a house at the beach there.  Tough life.

I am not a happy camper.  Thank God for wine.  xxoo me

I am in a wee bit of pain from pilates today and yesterday.  Our dear Rosie, that sweet little Brazilian, was on a tear.  She is 5 months pregnant and has only put on 1.5 kilos.  That a little over 3 pounds.   I've put on more weight since Christmas than that!  That aside, I love her classes.  I sweat out a lot of stress!

Speaking of stress, we are discussing putting bars on the front windows of our place.  Burglaries are become more and more common.  A lot of the problems come from the fact that there are so damned many immigrants that are unregistered, unemployed, and are here for nefarious reasons.  Many of the newly arrived people who have come are from Syria and Afghanistan and are escaping horrible situations.  They deserve all the help we can give them.  Unfortunately there are also Eastern Europeans, Africans and innumerable gypsies who should be sent back where they came from.  It's getting a little scary.  Everyone has stories.  There is a law in Italy that if the victim of a robbery, even a home break-in, injures or kills the thief, they can and often are charged with a crime!  A referendum is coming up soon to overturn it.  I'm signing it!  Today a friend told me that she had been helping friend's move house and during the fifteen minutes it took to carry some things down from their apartment to their car, someone climbed in the bedroom window and rifled through the drawers and closet.  Bars.  xxoo me

I will say it again.  Aging sucks.  I just spent a horrible afternoon shopping.  I'm looking for a dress/outfit for Grace's graduation as it's quite a big deal and all of my dresses have been hanging in my closet, mostly unworn, for years.  Those that I can still fit in, (few), are too short now as my knees have become repulsive.  I came home and decided to get rid of everything I no longer wear because I can't for one reason or another and am delusional if I hold on to them much longer thinking..."well, if I just lose a few pounds"....  Ya, that'll happen.  I was in the city with two girlfriends who grew REALLY tired of me saying, "Ah!  Shoot me now!"  every time I tried something on.  So as of Monday I'm on a diet.  Right now I'm drinking a lovely cold white from the area around Naples and soon I will break out the Reece's that I've been saving for a rainy day.  That'll teach 'em...  xxoo me

Well THAT was totally unexpected.  I had my meeting with the big guy yesterday and one, I've got a job next year and two, I am to design my own job description 'cause evidently I am so vital to the running of the school.  I'm even getting a raise.  I asked for a month of unpaid leave between September and October and he agreed!  I wanted to ask him what he was on but decided to slip out quietly lest he become violent.  Sooooo.  I have nothing in writing and until I see that first paycheck I believe none of it but  at least I know we'll be able to cover college costs!

Here are a couple photos from my Rome trip last week.  Would you look at that weather!  xxoo me

This is the view from the roof of the hotel.  Yup, that's the Vatican!

The ballroom in Mussolini's little shack.

I REALLY want this guy in my garden.

They had bunnies in the lobby of the hotel!!