Kindness counts

We have booked for Canada. Just Robert and me. It is just too expensive right now for us to take the kids (there are family reasons too but the main reason is money). The kids understand and are all up for us to go but I am so sorry they aren't coming with us. They want to see the world and while Robert keeps telling us that visiting his home town isn't like doing the 'Canadian Experience' it would still be pretty cool. But today we had a conversation - there is a tiny tiny chance that he and his colleagues will get a bonus this summer - they are 0.5% (yes, half a freaking percent....so close) off making budget with one week to go - and while he was telling me this on the phone he also slipped in that if they get it we could afford to take the children to Canada .......it probably won't happen and to be honest I know he would rather just the two of us went (he fell in love with me after all and the kids came too - he didn't fall in love with the children and then find I came in the same package), he hasn't been back for 16 years so there is a lot he wants/needs to do but as he said on the phone - "it would make you happy'. And it meant masses. (and I will be sleeping with my fingers crossed too....)

Action on ice

A few years ago we managed to go skiing for a few days - or rather we went to a ski resort, spent a shed load of money on equipment and the like and then faffed about trying to pretend we could ski/snowboard. In all honesty the skiing side of the holiday was not great but I loved the holiday in itself - the resort was perfect, we had great weather and it was lovely being able to get away with the children (it doesn't happen often - but that's another story). I remember us all feeling so knackered at the end of the day (which seemed to be around 4.30) but at the same time we all felt the benefit of having been so active. Leo is not a particulalry active chile when we are at home - he enjoys his room, reading, listening to music, doing stuff with his computer, Ipod etc and if it weren't for all the major activity he gets with the Scouts it would be worrying. When we were in Switzerland he really did not enjoy the snowboarding bit - he hates being too hot and, as you can see from the first two photos he is the only one on the mountains in a cotton t-shirt - he had just had a massive hissy fit (which still makes me laugh when I think about it - he went ape - a real stamping his feet, thrashing around sort of tantrum trying desparately to strip off his ski suit (which he did) - and he was 9 - not a little 3 year old who knew no better. I think this idea of over heating on a mountain in Switzerland in Decemeber has stayed with him - his Dad tried to persuade him to go skiing with them last winter and he refused outright - he is a very giving, generous child but there is no way he was going back up a mountain to 'ski' for anyone.

But on that holiday he found one of his favourite activities - he loves ice-skating - he had tried it the year before (in Bromley of all places) and at last had found an activity where he was way better than Thomas - it doesn't happen often, Thomas is a brilliant student, an all-round sportsman and generally a top kid - but he can't skate to say his life - and over the years we have watched as Leo has carved out his own niche areas -areas where he shines - acting, music, the kid at school that absolutely everybody knows and generally being an incredibly easy going, generous spirited person, he has his place - but the first time we really saw his joy at doing something Thomas couldn't, was here on the ice rink in Anzere - he loved it - it was the thing he wanted to do everyday and coming back down the mountain he couldn't wait to get over to the rink and start skating - I love these photos, (there is a video too but I thouhght that would be overkill) - I love seeing how young he still looked, I love the enjoyment and concentration on his face - and it makes me want to go back there all over again.

ps what the hell has Blogger done - changing the layout and function of the new post page - I might just have to emmigrate back to Wordpress...........

"No such thing as bad weather......

just bad clothing and poor preparation" - or at least it goes something like that. No, the weather here hasn't suddenly turned bad again but as I was clearing out the camera after all the photos from Leo's show I found some photos that Robert had taken of the boys (taken from inside the flat it has to be said.......Canadian my eye!!) during the snow. I love the photos of Thomas as he was clearing our neighbour's path - in shorts!! He couldn't bear being out there in long trousers - all those years of scouting have left their mark. When he started scouting I was horrified to find out that they wear shorts all year round - in all weathers and in all temperatures - the logic being if you get wet and cold it's a whole lot easier to change a pair of socks than is to walk around in sopping wet trousers - and my boys clearly live by that!



And then there is my very own snow angel .........

digging his way out.....

The proudest Mum/family around

They were supposed to do Richard the Third but only 2 boys came along to the drama club so in the end they opted for Women in Parliament by Aristophene - it was a 'revisted' version which the kids wrote themselves and it was fantastic!! The production was put on at a local theatre, the kids have been working on it since Januray and they were even given 2 days off school for the last 2 (full) days of rehearsals. As there were only 2 boys they obviously were the stars of the show and as Leo is , well, Leo he was the star of the stars - he is a natural - and it is not just me - he had kids waiting outside the stage door and he even discovered some sort of Faceboook fan club (which fortuantely he finds hysterical). Thomas came down to support his brother and so did his friends from school - it was simply a top, top night. He has been saying for some time now that when he leaves school he wants to become a comic actor and after last night I can see it happening - what star!!!!!

Italy is not just Rome.....

Blogger is very annoyingly not putting my photos in the order I want ...... but hopefully you get the idea and hopefully when my memory has completely given up the ghost they will help to remind me of how we spent a couple of days over Easter 2012. Rome is beautiful, so is Florence, and Naples......I just never knew that Vittori Veneto and Treviso were also so stunning......

Treviso.......(He hates having his photo taken and he's not well but I need people in some photos at least.....)
Treviso ....

Vittorio Veneto.....

Vittorio Veneto..
Treviso..
Treviso..
Vittorio Veneto...

and I just like this photo of the boys -as they sit on the train at 6.10 in the morning on their way to Rome...... just to see them both smile at the same time makes my heart sing!!!!

The whys and the wherefores

I wasn't plannng on writing a post but then as I was replying to Kellogsville in response to her 'why do we blog' post it was getting so long I thought I might as well write it here ......... so why? I began so that Robert's family in Canada could begin to have an idea of what his/our life over here is like (he hasn't been back for 16 years), it didn't work out because other people began to get narky that I wasn't writing about them - so, being bloody minded like I can be at times, I just stopped - which turned into a cutting off my own nose to spite my face sort of thing - I lost loads and loads of posts that were a record of 18 months of our life. Then I started up again but didn't tell the person who had got narky the time before - this time however someone who 'knows' me (know in inverted commas - not blogging buddies but friend of a friend) read a post and made not one but 2 completely wrong assumptions - and that just plain pissed me off - so, I stopped again, and then, maybe too late in the day, I sat down and thought about why I had actually enjoyed blogging - and it wasn't really about the family in Canada or the so-called friends (again no reference to other bloggers) - I wanted to blog so that in years to come there is some sort of record of what life here in Via Saporetti has all been about - yes, I could write a diary and keep it private but I enjoy the fact that I have made new blogging friends - people whose blogs I read (this is Thomas's) and others who kindly leave comments , words of encouragement and advice - some I turn to for advice - for their completely objective advice and opinions. I have been lucky enough to meet such lovely, kind and wise people out there in the blogosphere - and their words have helped me on more than one occasion - and I hope mine may have too. So I guess what it all comes down is I do it for us, so that in years to come I will have some sort of record of what life is like with the boys (yes, I am already suffering some serious empty nest syndrome even before they move out), I do it to try to look on things positively - when I write I try not to bitch about life - and I do it for the friends I have made. Happy Easter to all of them - and to you.

Will a seascape do??

Last August we managed to get away for a few days - the main part of our holiday was in Slovenia, calling in to Trieste on the way home for a couple of nights - we had boooked in a hotel Robert had stayed in a couple of times for work and although he told me it was fine he kept sort of trying to under play the whole thing - it's true, the drive into the hotel isn't the best - it's about 3 km outside the city on a really really busy road - it was hot (very), the roads were pretty crowded and we were there over the busiest bank holiday in the Italian year - Ferragagosto - you can bar humbug me now - Italians love this holiday but I don't, I seriously don't - the roads are terrible (one year it took me 2.5 hours to drive 6 miles at 3 o'clock in the morning!) , don't even think about making onto a beach - if you do, you will get inundated with water bombs, you can't get a drink at the bar (on the beach) because of the crowds and, by the time the middle of August comes round I have usually had it with the summer - I want a jumper, jeans and normal service to resume (even now, trying to get anything done in Italy in August is a trial.....) - anyway, last year, on August 14th we pulled into the hotel drive - for those 2 days we had our own private terrace, with our own private cormorants, we walked to the same restauarnt on both evenings and while Italy was heaving with all those tourists we enjoyed this....... it was perfect (and the photos do not do it justice - but just looking at them makes me feel better......).