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