Day 26: Market Day

Friday is market day. It takes up three streets nearby the house. All the stuff is interesting but most of it you know you'll never need no matter how nice it looks.

Bea struck some bargains today. A stall was selling Hollister and Abercrombie clothes for €10 each. Most of them were worn, or fake but there were a few good items there. Bea got an Abercrombie skirt and I was tempted by a few t shirts but not entirely convinced of their legitimacy passed. 

We have now nearly finished Bea's English comprehension book! 'The Great Yellowstone Adventure' probably the worst story ever written. 

For dinner we had chicken and chips. 

The men came to fix the boiler so we have hot water again. Though after lunch we packed up to go to the hills so won't really feel the benefit until Monday when we are back. 

Weather forecast predicted rain and thunderstorms for this weekend but so far it's just lovely weather. 

After unpacking at the hills, I played badminton with Federico and then Bea neither of them really got the hang of it and both said they preferred tennis. 

Then Stefano and Fede were gettig Fede's new bike ready to take down to the mechanic. Me and Bea went with them in the pick up. We also picked up some bread and bits and bobs for the house. 

The pick up interior 

Hardware store we went to

I also finished reading Jane Eyre. I love rereading books I find out so many things I missed the first time. 

This was my favourite bit reading it this time. I love Mr Rochester he's my favourite character. I've seen two productions of Jane Eyre the one with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens and the more recent one with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Toby Stephens' Mr Rochester is infinitely superior to Fassbender's. You could put the two films at a par with the two Pride and Prejudices. Stephens is Colin Firth (therefore the best) and Fassbender is Matthew McFayden (the inferior copy, worth watching but in no way a patch on the original). I also found out on research that Toby Stephens is the son of Maggie Smith. 

Ciao. 

Day 19: Pepperon, Forchett, Cortell

Stefano has this funny game he plays when trying to translate Italian words into English. It is basically take the last syllable off. So Pepperoni (bell pepper) becomes Pepperon. Forchetta (fork) becomes Forchett, and Cortello (knife) becomes Cortell. It's quite amusing at times some of the words sound very funny!

Today is market day so we went to the market again. They literally sell everything. I bought some screen protectors for my phone two euros for two screens, or so I thought. When we got back I discovered it was actually one screen for the front and one for the back. Who cares about the back of the phone I have a case to protect that. Anyway it didn't matter much as I absolutely suck at putting them on. What was even more frustrating was the easy four step instruction pictures on the back. It is so hard. I followed them I even used a credit card to smooth it out and still bubbles were everywhere. I gave up and now they are screwed up at the bottom of the bin. Such a good idea but so impossible to do.

In the fish market they had a swordfish and an octopus which I thought was both cool and weird, like who was going to want to want to eat them? The swordfish still has his sword on!

Fede hates shopping, he also hates the smell of fish so we didn't stay long. When we got back after failing to apply my screen protectors I did some more English with Bea. She had finished the required grammar sections in her ridiculously large grammar book, but still had a whole book of comprehension to do. I will never complain about homework again after the amount I have seen them required to do! They have it 100 times worse.

We also went inside the church they worship in when they are in Milan. They have recently been renovating it and it looks beautiful!

Google hangouted my mum and dad before dinner! Which was nice, William waved at me but was more interested in the fact that he could also see himself and kept saying 'baba'.

This afternoon we are going up to the hills for the weekend, unluckily it has been really warm this week but has only today decided to rain! Which sucks as I was really looking forward to going in the pool. Oh well I guess more bike rides and reading books. I have managed to fit 1984, Italian pride and prejudice and Jane Eyre into my bag hopefully that will last me.

Alessandra also loaned me a copy of the Italian 1984 so I can read them alongside each other and compare words. It is a little difficult as the book is already quite hard, and things aren't translated word for worf. For example the opening sentence 'It was a bright cold day in April' in Italian is 'Era una fresca limpida giornata d'aprile' which literally translates as 'It was a cold clear day of April' so little things but enough to make your sentences grammatically incorrect if you didn't check the difference.

We got Mirror Mirror out of the library the movie with Julia Roberts and Lily Collins and Armie Hammer and are taking it with us to watch in ENGLISH with Italian SUBTITLES (hooray for me) in the hills this evening. Incidentally Mirror Mirror is called Biancaneve (snow white) which is the story it's based on rather than Specchio Specchio which sounds a little weird.

Buongiorno.

Day 5: Move to the Hills

Today is very warm again going up to highs of 28-29 degrees.

This morning Alessandra went out for an appointment. So at home I helped the children with their English homework, getting them to read out the English to practice their pronunciation. 

After that I helped Bea tidy dust and hoover the house. Then Bea went out to see a friend, so me and Fede went out to see the mercado (market). 

It happens every Friday in the morning. There are several in Milan but one is very close to the house. It is huge and they shut the roads off to have. It takes up maybe 3/4 long streets and they sell everything. Clothes (I saw some Levi's going for €5 but I was unsure of their genuineness) also fruit and vegetables and cleaning supplies, shoes, cheese. 

We walked up and down labelling things in English and Italian. I found out the difference between pesche and pesce! (Peach and fish). It was very hot though so we didn't stay for too long. 

When we returned, Bea was still out so me and Fede built some Lego models with his Lego bricks. He had instructions for lots of models. We built first an ambulance, a mini castle and cannon and then a transformer dog thing. Which was fun!

Then Fede did his guitar practice the songs are very nice, he can play jingle bells and also Frere Jaques but it is known by a different name. After that we went on the wii again. Then lunch - Austrian gnocchi which is spinach and flour it was very nice! 

After lunch we packed to move to the hill for the weekend. The drive wasn't too long but it is hotter here 32 degrees but it's pleasant. The house is much bigger and the air is nicer to breathe. I have the whole top floor to myself a huge bedroom with an en suite and balcolny. 

Outside they have a basketball court, table tennis and a swimming pool in. The huge garden. The pool is not in the ground and it is deep, it comes up to my waist. The water is very nice and warm because the sun heats it up although in comparison to the external temperature the water does feel cold! 

Me and Fede

I was squinting because the sun was so bright!

In the children's room they also have a football table so we spent a lot of time playing on that. 

For tea we had lamb and polenta. Polenta is cornflour and water I think it makes a kind of potato mash thing but it tastes nice. In ancient times it was a staple of the poorer peoples diet. The Southern Italians call the northern Italians polentini - polenta eaters. 

After dinner I watched some Italian television. I could understand some things they said but it was very hard to translate. But the pictures helped me understand what they would be saying. 

Buonanotte.