I've moved in!

Week one in the new house.

So I moved in on Saturday morning and the first thing I discovered was that I had been giving people the wrong address. Noooo. I had been telling people I lived at number 27 instead of 127. Mad panic that all my letters and things will be going to a different house. So we took a trip to number 27 but no one was in. We picked up a card from a newsagents wrote a message inside explaining the mistake and left my email so they could let me know if any post came. Then we popped back later in the evening to see if they were in, they were and they were really nice about it all! Though as it turns out, the post came to this house anyway. Although number 27 was on the same road it fell under a different village/town thing so my birthday cards still managed to get to me :) Now I have four cards waiting to be opened! Roll on Monday 6th.

Saturday after unpacking we spent at my aunt Natalie and uncle Nathan's house. I have some family over from Australia so we had a big meet up with all of which was fantastic to see them all again. They had a big bouncy castle in the garden (with no age limit) so that kept us busy alongside entertaining the smaller cousins. It was just so good to see everyone again. Then had first night at the new place, couldn't sleep so I watched the lego movie.

Early start. We were all going to my grandparents church which started at 9.30am and was a 15 minute drive from where I was living and where my family where staying. Fun fun fun, I got picked up at 8.30am. Way to early, so we got a tour of the pork pie libraries in Leicester to burn some time.



Definitely looks like a pork pie. And one of them is on a roundabout called Pork Pie roundabout.

So after church we all went back to my grandparents and had another family day which was nice. Then my family dropped me off at my house before driving back to Wakefield.

Today was a bit of a mad day. Exploring Leicester centre and seeing where the buses go. Went in for the freshers fair got some freebies and signed up to a load of societies - most of which I can't remember and will probably not carry on with. Oh well. So that was one bus to uni and then a walk. Then another bus into the centre. Had a walk around the shops to see what was there. Then another bus to Fosse Park where they have a giant Asda picked up some chicken for my tea on Wednesday and apples and chocolate. Then another bus back to the bus station and another back to home. I figured there must be an easier way to get around so I asked the lady at the bus station and she gave me a load of bus timetables and told me which ones to get so hopefully it'll take quicker the next time I go - tomorrow morning.

Cleaned out the oven when I got back as I wanted Jacket potato for tea and it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a very very very long time. Took a while but it's in pretty good condition now. Cooked jacket potato and beans for tea. Then sat back a bit after being on my feet for most the day and watched some tv.

Tomorrow I think that I have to be in for 9 so that'll be an early start. But it is departmental induction so I should hopefully get my ID card and timetable which will be good.

Mixed Week.

Ups and downs but overall it has been a pretty good week! Came back from Italy, got my hair cut. I now have a fringe again!
Then on the saturday I got to see one of my oldest friends get married :) Such a beautiful day, it was really lovely to see her getting hitched.

So nice to see everyone again and have a good catch up! Congratulations Mr and Mrs Garland!

This week has been good so far.

On sunday I had church, nice to see everyone I hadn't for the whole summer. Said my testimony in testimony meeting. Very scary as I hadn't said it for so long but it was good to say what I felt! After I went to a friend's surprise leaving party for university. It was really good fun, we had a nice afternoon laughing with all of his friends.

On Monday I sorted out some more stuff for university found out that a bus pass is going to cost me £360 for a year and will cover the immediate Leicester area. Also tried to sign up for an nus card. Finished my application for Leicester University. So much to do!

Tuesday I took William to the library he was very excited about it. Unfortunately I asked him at 9.40 if he wanted to go he then zoomed off to get his shoes before I got told that it didn't open until 10 so I had to distract him for twenty minutes. We went and I got a book out to read also, William decided to unstack all the kids chairs, choose every book in the tub. I had to sneak some back into the box when he wasn't looking. Then he dragged me to tescos where he picked up some milky buttons and I got some flowers for my mum and dad as a late anniversary present. Went into town to deposit my savings from Italy and had a look round the shops. Nothing tempted me to buy though. Why is it when you have money to buy things there is never anything to buy? Actually that is a slight lie I bought a DVD. The Help. I bought and read the book in Italy and it was so good so I can't wait to watch that!

Wednesday I woke up with a list of jobs for me to do, looks like these three weeks are going to be busy! So I hoovered and washed up and tidied up the car which looks like it hadn't been cleaned the whole time I had been away and had an impressive collection of chocolate wrappers. In the afternoon I took off to see a friend of mine who is leaving tomorrow for university in Newcastle. We had a nice afternoon, played mario kart on the wii at which I got sorely thrashed by both him and his sister. I was shockingly bad! Then I got a really nice treat! He took me to his dad's house and I got to play on the drum kit! It had been so long since I played so he had to show me the basics again but it was so nice to play on them. I hadn't realised how much I missed playing them! After that we went into town to the DVD/CD shop. I managed to pick up a TingTings album for 99p and an Arctic Monkeys for £3.99 so that was good! Then we took a grind. I had never had a grind before and it was actually really nice. I got a sherbert milkshake the flavour wasn't particularly strong but it was nice! Unluckily we hit the traffic on the way back but it didn't slow us down too much. Also he let me borrow The Hobbit part 2 so I am looking forward to seeing that as I missed it in the cinemas last year and the last part is coming out this year!

Downer on the week - my iPhone broke. In short terms: 1. I took it to Italy and used an italian sim. 2. I put an english sim in when I got home. 3. It wouldn't let me update my apps. 4. I reset it. 5. It won't let me reactivate it. Guess who is back on their tocco lite! Thank goodness I kept it. Apple is so good when it works but it is a nightmare when it doesn't. Made an appointment to go into the apple store on Tuesday so will see if they are able to do anything! Hopefully it can get sorted without too much cost.

Day 2: Milan

It was raining this morning, but not heavily, it was nice and refreshing.

After a jam on bread breakfast I went with the children - Bea and Fede - and their mother Alessandra to the dentist for their appointment. After that Alessandra went off to work and so I returned home with the children. 

We stayed for about half an hour then decided to go to the library which was not far away. It had a children's section and mature readers but also some English books. Unfortunately when we got there it was closed as something had gone wrong with the checking out system. So we went back home. 

Alessandra was coming back at about noon so we had a few hours and practiced some English. We used the letter tiles from their board game scarabeo, which is like scrabble, to make words in Italian to translate into English and vice versa. E.g 'orso' is 'bear' 'piatto' is 'dish'. It was fun trying to see who remembered the most! We also used the children's box of paints and crafts to label Italian objects they use in English e.g 'matita' is 'pencil'. 

For lunch we had pasta pomodoro - tomato pasta which was delicious. They drink a lot of sparkling water do the Italians, I don't like it so they got some natural water for me. They have incredible fruit. A funny variety of plum which are small like cherries and taste lovely. Also the watermelons are €0,39 per kilogram!! And the smallest you can buy is 10 kilogram they are humongous! England has extremely small extremely expensive watermelons. 

After lunch we took the tram into the centre of Milan. The tickets you buy from the tobacconist shop and it's €1,50 for a ticket valid for an hour and a half and you can use it on the buses or trams or subway. If you travel with a relative and are under 14 you don't have to pay! I like this system better than England's! 

We went to see the Duomo which is the big church/cathedral in the middle of Milan. It was so big and beautiful! They started building it in the 13th century and it took 50-60 years to complete. And they are always working on it because it is so big. It's made of white marble so they are always cleaning it, once they do one bit they move onto something else. 

They had a big statue of Napoleon Bonalarte opposite the Duomo also. 

We also went to see the Castello. Which was the home of the Sforza dukes. It's also huge and very old. And now a feature of art exhibits, there were giant plastic swallows all over the place. 

After that we went to a shop called 'Tiger' it's like a miniature Ikea. It is so random and sells so much stuff but I really liked it! It's also not too expensive. I wish they has that in England. 

We got the tram back after that. I was going to take the children home whilst Alessandra went to the supermarket but then her husband Stefano called to say that I had to go to the police station with him. 

In Italy when you move to the country if you stay over one month you have to declare yourself to the police. There are forms to be filled and signed. However they had already filled the forms and got the necessary documents but the police weren't happy with it. So I had to go to the station too so they knew who I was and that I matched my passport. Police stations in Italy are different, when you go in a booth to talk to the police the door stays open and people just walk in and out and chat to the officer whilst they are working. It's very strange. To get to the station the father took me on his motorbike. It was fun but very windy and a little tiring. Because of all the tram rails the bike vibrates a lot and so my legs turned to jelly. But it was fun I'd never been on one before and they can go very fast! 

For tea we had hamburgers and green beans which actually went quite nice together though it did remind me of when I went to France and they served pizza with green beans. They make really nice salad dressings! 

We went to the park. Alessandra bought us ice creams from a partisserie shop where they make it themselves. Proper ice cream cones that don't crumble and really nice proper Italia ice cream. I had mandarin and lemon I've never had a better one! At the park I met some of the children's friends. One of their friends mother asked if I would come and help her son with his English for an hour everyday and she would pay me. The family I'm with gave permission, so now I have another job! 

Buonanotte!