Il fratellino

Piccolo bambino. Babies are so small I had forgotten, but nice to hold they are like little portable radiators.

I got the train back home from Leicester Tuesday morning and got home about lunchtime which was nice. It was lovely to see my family again and especially to see my newest brother Joel!

I held him for most of the afternoon. We watched Hello Dolly and I just sat with him. 

Hello Dolly is one of my favourite musicals, I've only seen it twice but I love the story and especially the songs. 

William likes wearing everyone's glasses. He looks really sweet with them on. 

And sunglasses. Such a cool guy. 

Today I went shopping. Used up some vouchers from Christmas, got a lovely new top and some boots. Sales are great. 

Tried to have a kind of sleepover with Louisa last night didn't go very well she kept kicking me out of bed everytime she moved so I evacuated back to my room. 

Nighttime selfies. 

Today William was crying for crisps at dinner but he had some yesterday so mum said no. He wanders off crying then finds the door stop that makes the pyong noise and started playing with that. Good distraction until nap time. 

Wakefield, Wakefield, Wakefield.

How good to be back. After arriving back Friday evening a rather busy weekend followed which continued onto today, now I get a rest and some time to myself.

Saturday I worked a day in my previous employment covering for my sister who took an absence to play her flute at Nostell Priory for the Christmas festivities. This involved getting updated on all the changes made since I left that employment six months previously and reading copious notes on her children in order to gage what they were all working on. An early start but luckily I was able to take the car instead of the bus. Work began at 10am and we travelled around various centres working until 5.30pm. However it was great fun to be back a lot of the children remembered me from before and said hi which was lovely, I clearly made an impression on them. It was also fun to be doing something and of course to take a wage, a nice little extra right before Christmas.

After work I stopped off at a friends house and we got ready for the ysa Christmas movie night. I was really excited to be going back I had missed Huddersfield's ysa activities, Leicester's are good but it's different when you don't know everyone so I was looking forward to being back with old friends. When we arrived after picking up another friend we discovered that they were about to cancel it as noone had really showed up. But we made a nice night of it with the six or seven who were there in the end, we watched Elf and had popcorn and treats. It was great to have a catch up with those who were there.

So that made a late night, I think I got back and then wound up in bed sometime around midnight and having been up since eight that morning and then working a pretty active day I was shattered. Then to realise that church started at 9.30am not the 1.30pm start Leicester's had so inwardly crying as I realised I didn't have much time for sleeping.

Sunday was pretty fun, it was nice to be back at church in Wakefield and see everybody. Although I did miss giving my lesson to my kids I'm looking forward to being back so I can do my lessons again. It was really strange to be in Relief Society again after being in Primary for so long now. My plan was to have a nice afternoon nap, but then I got invited to go to Chorley to see their presentation of "The Christmas Truce". It was pretty cool, strange they got us singing its a long way to Tipperary at one point in a round with pack up your troubles. That was interesting. It was nice singing the carols though they sound so good when you have so many people singing them together. O Holy Night was my favourite. The Temple looked really good at night though and I'd never seen it at Christmas before the decorations were all lovely. But that was quite a trek and led to a lateish night and then early start today.

Went into Leeds in the morning with my dad for some Christmas shopping, haven't got the train for a long time and had reminisces of college journeys. Had a nice time going round the shops and stopped of at Patisserie Valerie for cake and hot chocolate which was lovely! After we got back I had some paid work to do from home for my old boss. Then rang up a friend and had a good chat with her.

Had a nice family evening and we played a new game I got called "What is this?" where you get picture cards with weird images and crazy captions and you have to pair them up. E.g there was a picture that looked like a plug but actually the caption was "an octopus throwing a stool" it was a pretty funny game.

Tomorrow promises to be equally as busy. I want to squeeze in a run, making gingerbread, work and Christmas shopping and get started on revising some university work. We shall see how far I get.

Wed-Thur-Fri

Freshers week = boring. Apart from free junk it means ridiculous amounts of time to waste in front of the TV. There are only so many times I can go into the town centre and forbid myself to buy anything!

Wednesday and Thursday I was in uni, more information picking up, got my timetable and got to meet my tutor. Also we had a guest lecture by Professor Norman Hammond on Maya Pre-History. If you read that and thought pre-history? What is pre-history? (As I did) Because surely history includes all of the past and what can be pre the past? Well I soon discovered that history refers to things known so pre-history is the period we don't know a lot about. For example we know the Mayans as temple building wealthy sacrificing people but what were they before they became great? We don't really know. And that my friends is Maya Pre-history. It was a really interesting lecture and made me feel quite sad that my course is limited to ancient Greece and Rome only. My ideal history course would cover so much stuff it would be like a mega degree. Some areas that I am sad I wont get to study are: Native Americans, The War of the Roses - you'd think Leicester would offer a course on that - well they are kind of I got a leaflet for it that I can sign up to later in the year but it focuses naturally more on Richard the third rather Elizabeth Woodville and Edward.

Bought a Latin dictionary it looks very complicated.

My timetable is pretty good. Not a lot of contact hours, though I am rather annoyed about the random lecture on the middle of Friday. It would have been perfect if that was earlier in the morning or even just on another day. But can't complain I got a pretty good deal.

So a lot of free afternoons/mornings which is good and makes it easy to travel.

Today I booked tickets to go northward got a nice funfare deal on National Express cost me under £20 for journey both ways. Three weekends time I shall be gracing Wakefield with my sunny presence. Clear your weekends you northerners I'm returning ;)

More exploring in town, I found the central library and joined it. They give you two library cards, one normal sized one and then one for your key ring which I thought was a clever idea because if you forget your purse with your card in you're most probably going to have your keys with the other card on!

I also found Highcross shopping centre I was feeling hopeful that they might have krispy kremes. No such luck, only Millie's cookies which were disappointingly priced. 99p for one cookie. Well I shall visit Sainsbury's and get 5 for 75p which taste exactly the same. Lots more shops in there and they had...a disney store.

I never understood why everyone loved the shop so much...until I went in it and then I wanted to buy everything. EVERYTHING. The Little Mermaid is basically my all time favourite disney movie, it's also my favourite fairy tale and just everything and they had so much little mermaid stuff. Ariel dolls and squishy toys, a squishy Flounder and Sebastian. Ariel mug and cup and dinner plates and cutlery. An Ariel costume (which actually looks as though it might have fitted me! The advantages of being small) It was so much fun to be in that store! However I didn't buy anything :( Poor me on a student loan, but my plan is to save and go back haha! Because it is quite pricey.

After that I went and shut down my Halifax bank account which I never use and received a grand total of 26p. Oh windfall for me. Went into That's Entertainment (bad decision) and came out with three DVD's (I budgeted this into my accounts so it was okay!) The Proposal - cannot beat a bit of Sandra Bullock, The Tourist - mmm Johnny Depp and Bridal Wars - never seen it but I remember wanting to when it came out. All together not bad.

Then went to purchase my NUS card from the student union and picked up some bits from morrisons apples and milk and stuff...oh an a birthday cake for me!! Seeing as I'm not at home for my mum to make me one. I chose Mr Kipling's battenburg yumm-y! My mum said it should last me a few days....but the equation goes like this Maria + battenburg + five minutes = no battenburg. And I'm not talking about the mini five pack, I mean the big loaf! At least I can stick candles in it although it is going to kill me having it sat in my room not allowed to eat it until monday!


Plans for tomorrow? Hmm I think I'll call it sleep in and not do much. All my washing is done, nothing to prep for Monday. Maybe I'll make a start on some of my course texts. Get ahead of the game. I also have a gym free day pass to use up so I might go burn some energy there. And it's right next door to where I was born haha I pass the Royal Infirmary (which by the way for non Leicester people is a hospital, where I was born, not an infirmary for the infirm of mind) everyday on the bus to university. Circle of life or something.

And So September Ends

The last day of September 2014. Tomorrow we roll into October hooray! Which means 5 days until my birthday and lectures start - bad crossover. But it's five days until my birthday. Maybe this year I will feel more grown up because my 18th didn't seem to do the job.

Today involved a lovely lie in followed by a trip to uni to get my course induction which basically involved picking up my id card and picking up a course handbook and information. Met another girl who was on my course so we went round the freshers fair together basically picking up more dominos vouchers and free stuff. They don't seem to even mind that they have given you it before they just keep giving you it. The free sweets and bags were the best pick ups.

After that I went home dropped all the stuff off had some lunch and then planned to go out to the New Walk museum in Leicester. Got on the bus okay, got off at the right stop. Then here comes the bit that went wrong. There is a museum called New Walk and there is a museum called Newarke. The bus stop was inbetween them both. Instead of turning left to New Walk I went right following signs for Newarke, having never seen the name written down having only heard it, it was an easy mistake to make. Luckily google maps helped me out and I managed to get there.

 

It's a little embarrassing how I managed to get lost seen as I have been to it several times before - though in those instances I have always been with relatives who know Leicester. Had a little nosy around the displays it was quite empty and some of them had changed since the last time I was there. It's nice because it is free though they ask for donations suggested at £3 but being a poor student I just slipped £1 in hopefully that will do something.

After that I walked back into the centre and popped into the tourist information centre to pick up some leaflets and also to ask them where the nearest argos was turned out to be about another two minutes down the road. Spent £9.99 on an airer only to find that when I got back the guy whose house it is had found me one out, so i'll be taking it back to argos tomorrow! Saves me some money.

Annoyance with the banks today. Wanted to cancel my switchover to Santander because they were taking so long about it and I needed to have access to my student loan. Found out that I had had a letter posted from my current account saying with switchover details except the name of the account holder was definitnely not my name. Luckily they sorted everything out for when I rang up, so I rang up Santander and got them to cancel everything. I'll be sticking with Barclays I think.

Cooked pasta/tomato passata/tuna/onion thing for tea. Boiled the water then added pasta, chopped some onion, drained a tin of tuna, salt, pepper and herbs. When the pasta was cooked I drained it and added the passata and tuna and other stuff. That was the point at which I realised I was pouring my onion in raw! Silly me forgot to fry it first. So that made for quite a spicy tea with the black pepper I had put in as well. To make matters worse? I made too much so half of it is in a tub for another day. Well played Maria. On the plus side I get to have a free pizza with one of the vouchers I got, only valid until Sunday so maybe I'll have that for Saturday tea. I can't remember if it was pizza hut or dominos I got so many.

On the 85 bus today I did notes on where all the stops lead. So now I know that stop 4 is a tesco express and stop 6 is pizza hut and stop 7 is Aldi - hang on these all sounds like food? YUMMY.

Walking around trying to find New Walk I found some cute little places, all the streets lined with Narnia lamposts as well!

Funny thing today, on the bus on the way back form argos a woman got on and sat next to me. About halfway through the bus ride she pointed at my airer and said "I should get one of those". Then she proceeded to have a full on conversation with me about why she needed an airer, her relatives, her son at univeristy, her boyfriend in France who wont talk to her and pretty much everything else. It was weird because I've never met a random stranger before who pretty much tells me their whole life story but maybe she needed to get something off her chest. As it happened the bus ride was more enjoyable for it!

Week 8: Return to the hills

Sunday:

I think this was the first sunny Sunday we have had all summer. It normally rains. I went to church discovered that the trains I normally get back are cancelled due to the summer timetable so I had the option of waiting two hours after church finished for the next train or leave early...I left early. Alessandra picked me up and then we went to see Fede and Stefano race in a motorcross competition. Though actually none of them ended up racing because it soo began raining heavily and the pitch was too dangerous to drive on. 

Monday:
More homework with Fede much to his disgust. Though we managed to get through quite a lot of pages. Played some board games too.

Tuesday:
More homework and board games. We also went to Voghera to the huge supermarket with shops and went shopping. I bought some flat shoes from H and M. They are peach with scallopped edges, very nice. I saw some Vans in footlocker but decided against them, Bea bought some black Nike Air Force. Which are apparently the height of fashion but as Alessandra said they look like orthopedic shoes.

Wednesday:

In the morning Alessandra and Stefano needed to go to Milan for work so I stayed back with the kids. We did more homework and games and watched t.v. In the afternoon when they returned we went back to Voghera because Bea realsied she had bought the wrong shoes. She meant to get the low nike air force and she took the high ones. So I went with them and decided to take the Vans! I got red ones and they are very comfortable.

Thursday:

We went to the Lake of Garda to visit the sister of Alessandra and her family. Also Alessandra's father and wife were there and her brother and his wife and her aunt so it was a little family get together. It was a beautiful place and the weather was good. We ate dinner at a restaurant, walked round the lake and spent the afternoon in their large outdoor swimming pool which though unheated was still warm nice. Me and Fede had races and a competition to see who could hold their breath the longest. 

Lago di Garda

Meal at the restaurant

At the Lake

The outdoor pool. I'm in red at the front. 

Friday:

A sleepless night led to a trying day. I managed to coax Fede into completing four pages of homework and the reading of two pages of the English book. I also read some more of Alice in Wonderland with Bea. I played monopoly with Fede, twice. The first time I was winning until he swept the board clear of all the houses and figures. He wanted to play again and this time he won with 562,500 lira. We spent the afternoon in the pool. And it began to thunder in the evening. 

Saturday:

Today Bea went horse riding and Alessandra dropped me of at McDonalds so I could use the wifi to update my blog and email people hooray! I bought a chocolate frappe it was very nice.

In the evening a family, friends of Alessandra came for dinner. We had a barbecue it was very nice. And the smoke kept the mosquitos away from us. 

Day 18: Andiamo

Last night I was woken at about 5.30am by the sound of an alarm probably a house alarm that was so loud and would not stop. It felt like forever but it was probably only five minutes but even sticking my head under the pillow didn't cancel it out.

As I result I overslept a little to compensate but even then I spent the day running on sugar.  

I did another hour of English with Bea, this morning it was all on modal verbs 'must' and 'have' etc. more revision of what I've studied the past two years. After that, me and Fede went to Elga's house to tutor. Same structure as yesterday except today France finished his exercise book so I'm going to have to think of something else to do with him!

They also read through the books very fast. Both of them have finished two books in three days. I am going to have to get some more out of the library. 

Fede stated for dinner at Elga's they were having lentils which he likes. Me and Alessandra went back home. I started reading 1984 again but then Bea asked if I wanted to watch 'Bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue' which is a film of an Italian novel of the same name. 

It's a sad film and I cried. You can only watch it in Italian but luckily they had English subtitles so I could understand what was going on. If you have seen the movie Charly I'd say it's kind of similar to that everything is fine and them boom a bombshell is dropped and yore a wreck for the rest of the movie. The title in English incidentally is 'White as milk, red as blood'. 

We stopped for lunch and the continued it afterwards. 

After lunch I went with Bea to pick up her friend Bianca and we went to a huge department store called 'Coin'. It has eight floors and sells everything. Although after a while I began to notice that it sells expensive everything. Even in a 40% off sale things were still hundreds of euros. We also went to a Milanese make up shop called Kiko. They also had a sale on as it is now July. They sell loads of different types of nail polish. I got one called 'cupcake' which is a solid colour with spots of other colour in it. 

After that we went back to Bianca's flat. They wanted to make over me. So I acquiesced. Probably not the smartest decision, it started out okay but the green eyeshadow was bright and garish and I don't really like eye shadow. Then came mascara, if I ever wear it it's very little because my lashes are so long it coats my face when I blink. I had lots of black lines on my face after that! Next time I will say no. 

We came back and had dinner - risotto. Someone in another flat was playing Lana Del Rey which was so good to hear! Four of her songs in a row! 

I am so tired after that early awakening this morning I am going for an early night. It's a constant struggle to make myself reopen my eyes after blinking. 

Ciao. 

Day 12: The hills are alive with the warmth of sunshine

Last night got quite cold, the fog came down just after we arrived it was very thick. By morning though it had completely disappeared and it has been a warm and lovey day!

Fog last night

Same place this morning 

In the morning we just chilled out. It was warm but still quite breezy. We drove into Santa Maria della Versa to buy some garden canes. Alessandra has a vegetable garden and needed them to prop up her tomatoes which were taking over the ground. After that, we went to the town hall in Rovescala to drop off the details of the water consumption for the water meter so if they have paid too much they get money back or too little and they will get a further bill. 

Fede likes drawing and writing his own stories. Currently he's writing one about motorbikes. He designed his own circuit. 

Fede

The circuit 

After that we had lunch. It brightened Up afterwards, so me Fede and Bea went on a bike ride around Rovescala. It only took 15 minutes though it was quite far. There were lots of downward hills though where you don't need to pedal so that took off a lot of time and effort. 

Mine and Fede's bike

Bea

When we got back me and Bea sunbathed it was gloriously warm! Fede was going to go in the pool but the flies kept attacking him so he didn't in the end. It was nice just relaxing in the sun and listening to music. I've been to busy to listen to music these past weeks so it was great to hear it. 

At about four we all drove into Stradella and some of the smaller villages to pick up various supplies. Paint, groceries, electric wires and plug heads. We also got ice creams, I had raspberry and cream. The raspberry was a very strong flavour and very nice. 

These are the giant watermelons. 17kg for €8 which is 0,49€ per kg. They are huge!

We stayed out till about 7 and when we got back we had tea. I played Fede at chess and checkers. I won the chess game! But he beat me at checkers. 

Alessandra has a different way of cooking courgettes. She cooks them like chips in the batter/oil thing sliced up in long rectangles. They tasted really nice. She also did the flowers which were okay but I wasn't fond of them. 

I started reading the Book Thief. It's a different book and it ist making much sense at the moment. Hopefully it will in a bit. I think Death is narrating the book? But I can't be sure. 

No tragic sunburn so far just a little redness which I think is more from being hot than burnt. Success I am tanning. 

My legs hurt so much from cycling. As well as going down the hills you had to go up them too. Wow my muscles are sore! 

Oh and whilst we were in town we bought my train tickets for Sunday for getting to church. 

You buy them from an automatic machine in the station. They are printed out with the date of travel and the stations too and from but not the time. This is because on Sunday I'll take my ticket to Piacenza and place it in machine which will activate it and make it usuable for five hours after. Same on the way back, so it's valid for that day but any time. It's very clever. 

Ciao. 

Day 10: Buses, Trains and Trams

Last night it was throwing it down with rain and this morning it still was. It was so heavy and thick it was like a wall. We had planned to explore Milan in the morning but it was too wet and thundery and lightningy so it wasn't very safe.

Instead we spent the morning inside. I plaed chess with Fede and read English books with both Fede and Bea to help with their pronunciation. I taught Fede how to tell the time in English and quizzed him on it throughout the day also. 

After lunch it had brightnened up, we went to tutor Elga's boys but only Alessandro today. After the tutoring we went into the centre of Milan to sight see. 

We took a bus to San Androgomo which is a Romanesque style church from the 900's. Parts of it are much newer though. They expanded it during the renaissance and their are baroque side chapels and tombs in other styles.

You can use the tickets for bus, train and tram. When you get on transport your ticket is dated and timed by a machine and it is valid for use an hour and a half after your first use. 

San Androgomo

I couldn't decide if this ceiling was painted or stone worked?

Mosaic behind the altar

Medieval fresco

In the church you could go down into the crypt. They have the skeletons of three saints buried there it was a little freaky they were in a glass coffin so you could see all their bones. 

After the church Alessandra took us to the university she studied law it, it was opposite. Also nearby was the Milano monument for the dead unknown soldiers of World War II there are about 5 thousand soldiers buried in it.

We arrived there too late because sometimes it is open and you can go in and look round it.

After that we walked into the centre of Milan. They have a huge shopping centre full of extremely posh shops. I saw Louis Vuitton, Versace, Cartier, Prada etc. they also have Abercrombie and Fitch and more high street shops like H and M. 

The buildings of the shopping centre were very big and beautiful. There were frescoes above the shops and huge mosaic floors. 

Glass roof and a fresco

The crest of Milan as a mosaic on the floor.

After looking at the shops we went to see the remains of a Roman Imperial Palace that was once here. The diagrams show it to be huge but all that is left is pretty much rubble. 

Also, like at the castle we visited last week there were lots of the protected cats around enjoying the sun.

We went into a bookshop to pick up something for Bea to read. They had an English section! After much deliberation I chose to get the Book Thief over the Fault in our Stars. It promises to be a good read! My first purchase in Milan. 

After the bookshop they took me to see a famous theatre and opera house called the Scala. It's well known for it's ballets and orchestra but it has been clasped for two years or so for renovations to the inside. Opposite the Scala there was a statue of Leonardo da Vinci who helped design and build it. 

Leo

The Scala. 

In the evening lots of Mosquitos come out, so they put out boxes with candles I to keep them away they also look very pretty. 

Buonanotte