Friday Giveaway

First I’d like to apologize to everybody who’s going to read this post thinking that I’m giving away a free holiday to Gran Canaria, a set of Chanel beauty products or a case of Veuve Cliquot bottles or even some Amazon vouchers … I’m not that generous (or rich)! And I’m not trying to draw more readers to this modest blog of mine. I’ve got a genuine reason for this giveaway.



I’m so pleased about the news that I do not have to “invest” £££££ into a new car (yet) that I thought of giving away my latest surplus : a beautiful red Moleskine hard cover diary for 2009. I actually bought for myself but I’ve just received another beautiful diary from my best friend in Italy, so I have to let it go. As much as I like the Moleskine I’d hate wasting it in one of my drawers.

The Moleskine is really lovely, quite big but not bulky, 13 by 21 cm, with a red hardback cover, still sealed, as you can see from the photo. It has 400 acid free pages, an expandable inner pocket with an insert of tabbed pages and 260 labels.


It is the legendary notebook used by Hemingway, Picasso and Bruce Chatwin. Well, not exactly this one…this is mine but it could be yours if you want it.


“It’s a busy world. Schedules, appointments, obligations - how does one keep up with it all? The answer is as simple as a Moleskine Diary. With Style.”


If you’re interested, just leave a message below until Sunday night. If more than one person is interested, I will let Lily the Hamster decide next Monday morning and let the lucky “winner” know. Gosh, now I feel like a Lottery presenter!

Ciao and good luck!

STOP PRESS! My car is saved!

Just a quick post to announce that my super mechanic Peter has performed another of his technical miracles and managed to save my little Punto!!! Apparently it wasn’t the cam belt to have snapped but a pulley and although he had to change the cam belt itself as well, the valves were fine and the engine as well, so the car can keep on running a few more months (touch wood!!!) and I might have the time to look for another suitable vehicle! Unfortunately knowing me, I’ll forget about all this and I will find myself in the same situation in a few months!!!

Giorno della Memoria

Il Giorno della Memoria, Italian for Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is the international day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust and of other genocides. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly to commemorate victims, honour survivors and commit to tackling prejudice, discrimination and racism in the present day. It encourages nations to conquer genocide and atrocity and individuals to stand up against hatred.

HMD is marked each year on 27 January – the anniversary of the date of the liberation of Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

I’ve never been to Auschwitz, but in August 1984 I was with a group of West European foreign summer students of the University of Magdeburg who visited the concentration camp of Buchenwald, near Weimar. Buchenwald was the first death camp liberated by Gen. Patton’s army where 21,000 survivors were still found. I will never forget those images, although it was a lovely warm day we could feel cold and death around us even after so many years.

Going thorough this main entrance I was literally shivering thinking of how many people had entered and never came out again.

The ghastly message at the gate can be translated roughtly as “Everybody gets what he deserves”.

The crematorium (above)...

The pathology lab (above)...

The worst were the photos, the information, the thousands and thousand of records kept by the Nazis about their prisoners. Never would have believed a place could make me feel so miserable. But it did. It was horrible to be here in this camp where the Nazis killed many people. May we never forget...

I leave you with the words of the legendary CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow who described the scene at Buchenwald when he entered the camp after the liberation:

"I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it I have no words. If I've offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I'm not in the least sorry."

You can read the transcript of Murrow’s report here: http://www.otr.com/murrow_buchenwald.shtml

Or listen to his original radio report here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wYVn0hzcSs0

Water glasses

Maybe for some of you this is old news but I’ve just found this video on the website of the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera” and I’m so happy to be able to report some good news for a change. We all need good news, don't’ we?

http://video.corriere.it/?vxSiteId=404a0ad6-6216-4e10-abfe-f4f6959487fd&vxChannel=Dall%20Italia&vxClipId=2524_2cbefe98-df41-11dd-bb3a-00144f02aabc&vxBitrate=300

Professor Joshua Silver – a retired physics teacher at Oxford - began working on eyeglasses that can be tuned by the wearer in 1985. It took more than 20 years to finally come up a design which can be made cheaply on a large scale. His goal is to bring better vision to a billion people worldwide who cannot afford, or don’t have access to, an optometrist.

Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device’s tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.
The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. Apparently the principle is so simple that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription.

(A Zulu man wearing adaptive glasses. Photograph: Michael Lewis)

Silver’s goal is to distribute a billion pairs of his adaptive glasses to poor people by 2020 (the pun in the year is intended, I’m sure). Already, 30,000 pairs have been given out in 15 countries.

Let's hope this won't get Specsavers bust!!!

I need one of these ...

…and possibly the big one. My car broke down last Sunday in the middle of a busy road in the centre of York (of course, it has to be a busy road in the centre of York!) whilst I was taking my daughter to Sunday school. I thought I was doing my good deed of the day but apparently Him above thought differently. I was towed back by a very amused AA man who was so pleased to tell me that the cam belt has napped and that my little Punto, being already so old, was over and done with! What? Old? My lovely little silver Punto? My lovely faithful little car I’ve had for longer that my lovely daughter? I was not ready to hear this. Especially because I cannot afford a new one right now.

Anyway, now the little car is at our local garage awaiting a verdict. I have to say that I’m not passionate for cars and I would happily do without one if I didn’t live in a Yorkshire village where the public transport has been reduced to one (usually overcrowded) bus per hour (if any) that takes you in the centre of York, rather far from my usual supermarkets. My local shops are an overpriced Co-op and an even more expensive farmer’s shop where last time I had lunch I found a living slug in my salad and that put me off it for life! So whilst I’m waiting for Peter the mechanic’s verdict I’m contemplating a Tesco or Asda home delivery…What an enticing prospect!!! And the kids’ extra-curricular activities have to wait until this week. Wish me luck!

OBI THE ONE

I couldn't help "borrowing" this clever cartoon from the genial Livio of Torino per immagini who does not only take beautiful pictures of the "gran Torino" but he's also a brilliant satirical cartoonist. I think this cleverly summarize the tasks awaiting "our" new President. Let's really hope that the Force will be with him!
P.S. Thanks Livio.

In Obama We Trust

Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair's Editor, wrote in his magazine a few months ago:

“In less than a year the Bush administration will strut out of office, leaving the country in roughly the same condition a toddler leaves a diaper”.

Now that the time has come and all our hopes and enthusiasm are focused on Barack Obama’s inauguration day, we must remember what a terribly huge task Mr President Obama has taken on. We must remember that changes do not happen over night and that one man only cannot do miracles. He will need the full support of his administration, of the Congress and of all his country. He will need the support of everybody all over the World.

That’s why among all this hype about President Obama, I’d like to remember him like he his in the photo below, a man, surrounded by the love of his wife and children. God bless him!

And the world keeps on watching ...

"The main UN compound in Gaza was ablaze today after being struck by Israeli artillery fire and a spokesman said that the building had been hit by what was thought to be white phosphorus shells." (Reuters)

Sorry if I’m getting on your nerves by now but it seems that the situation is totally out of control.

What will be their excuse this time? That Hamas terrorists were hiding in the UN building? That it was just another "tragic error"?

If these atrocities were carried out by any other middle eastern country there would be sanctions and possible military intervention. The international inaction on this matter reveals something very sinister in western democracy.

Not Fireworks

Whilst we were probably enjoying our New Year’s Eve fireworks, the people of Gaza City were witnessing and suffering this kind of flares and smoke.

Israeli military spokesmen deny that their forces have used phosphorus in Gaza, despite photographs and film of munitions showing similar characteristics to the potentially lethal shells.
Phosphorous shells are not illegal if they are used to create a smokescreen or to illuminate targets, rather than as a weapon against people, military experts and human rights campaigners said yesterday.

White phosphorus produces layers of thick white smoke when exposed to oxygen, but phosphorus from an explosion will cause serious burns that can melt flesh to the bone and kill. Its use as an offensive ammunition is banned by the chemical weapons convention. Israel used phosphorus in the war with Lebanon in 2006.

This is 10-year old Palestinian Loay Soboh, who lost his eyes in an Israeli air strike, at Shifa hospital in Gaza before being taken to Saudi Arabia for treatment.

Children make up more than half of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants, and as such have found themselves in the firing line since Israel began its offensive against Hamas.

According to recent UN figures, more than 265 children have been killed and over 1,080 wounded.

The war on Gaza is not a natural catastrophe like the Tsunami: this is a man made disaster that deepens while the world watches.

Are we watching? Are we listening? Are we talking about it?

What are we doing?

Crying for the little souls of Gaza

Some days ago five Palestinian sisters were fast asleep when a night-time Israeli airstrike hit the next-door mosque in Gaza. One of the walls collapsed on to their small asbestos-roofed home and they were all killed in their beds. The eldest sister, Tahrir, was 17 years old, the youngest, Jawaher, just four.


I do not usually do politics (and I do not think this is politics either)…but when children, innocent people are slaughtered this way, I cannot keep my mouth shut. A blog should entertain but also express the blogger’s opinion. I do not care who started this conflict, I do not care where the faults lie. THIS HAS TO STOP!


As a mother I feel for every child who has died in the Gaza region. As a Christian, I don't believe Jesus would argue who is right or who is wrong. He would simply weep and state, "Love God and love one another as you love yourself". He would then ask "how are any of you loving me and one another through this violence”.


I feel impotent and angry at my impotence. I look at my children and I feel ashamed because I cannot do anything. I signed a petition at
http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace but who really reads petitions? Not our politicians who are too wrapped into themselves and their arguments to listen, not Israel or Hamas who keep on firing missiles and shedding innocent lives in the name of what?


So what else can we do apart from crying and praying for those little souls, those little angels of Gaza?

Award time

A couple of days ago I received not one but two awards from the lovely Jackie of Glasgow Daily Photo and from notSupermum. Thank you very much, ladies, I’m honoured and thrilled to accept them! Pity I wasn't presented the awards by the fab George or Gary Barlow would have done as well (notSupermum, what about all your connections??!!)!

Anyway, it is my pleasure now to pass them on to the following journals:

Jeannette of Outsidelookingin, because you are my blog mentor and the first ever journal I’ve ever had. I really hope you’ll never stop writing for us!

Sandra of Tales From Sandra`s Scribbles, you’re such a gentle and kind lady and it’s so interesting to find out what's happening in your life.

Sugar of SUGAR SHACK, because of your courage and commitment to Call for Support blog and because I love your tags.

Indigo, of Scream Quietly, you're one of the smartest and most courageous lady I've the honour to meet in this 'quasi' virtual world!

The great Fabrizio of Torino Daily Photo for his beautiful and creative photos of my beloved Turin (just jetted off on holiday in the sun, lucky him!!!)

The gorgeous Valeria of VERONA DAILY PHOTO for her interpretation of Romeo and Juliet’s romantic town.

Mo of Fresh eyes on London for offering us unusual and fresh views and curiosities about our Capital City.

Beth/Cassandra of Newcastle Upon Tyne Daily Photo for their unusual (and usual) insights on the life in one of my favourite British cities.

La Belette Rouge and Diary of a Yummy Mummy because you make me laugh (and you can’t imagine how much I need it at the moment!) and to Belette also because because of Lily (you know why!)…

And maybe I’m going against the “rules” but I’d like to bestow the Butterfly award to notSupermum because she IS indeed a Supermum and to Ruby of York Daily Photo, because she is another supermum without knowing it.

And Hilda, My Manila, I know you have already received the awards from Jackie, but please accept them also from me. I've learnt so much through your journal and I cannot wait to read your next instalment every day!

Thank you all, guys, for making my life more cheerful and interesting!!!

Epiphany or Befana Day

The Feast of the Epiphany, celebrated January 6 with a national holiday in Italy, and the tradition of La Befana are a big part of Italian Christmas celebrations. Epiphany commemorates the 12th day of Christmas when the three Wise Men arrived at the manger bearing gifts for Baby Jesus.

Italy's traditional celebration includes the tale of a white-haired good witch known as La Befana who arrives on her broomstick during the night of January 5 and fills the stockings with toys and sweets for the good children and lumps of coal for the bad ones.

According to the legend, the night before the Wise Men arrived at the manger they stopped at the shack of an old woman to ask directions. They invited her to come along but she replied that she was too busy. Then a shepherd asked her to join him but again she refused.

Later that night, she saw a great light in the sky and decided to join the Wise Men and the shepherd bearing gifts that had belonged to her child who had died. She got lost and never found the manger.

Now La Befana flies around on her broomstick each year on the 12th night, bringing small gifts (as she’s old and poor) to children in hopes that she might find the Baby Jesus. Italian children hang their stockings on the evening of January 5th awaiting the visit of La Befana.

My kids did hang their stockings tonight as La Befana usually comes and visits them here in Yorkshire as well. Will they find some little gifts tomorrow as well? Just wait and see.

The Purple Man of York

Although The Purple Man of York had been featured before in other blogs (Ruby's York Daily Photo and the The JollyGreenP Images of York too) I could not resist to post this photo in his festive “theme”, ie. carrying Christmas gift whilst biking swept away by the wind of York. For £1 donation I was “allowed” to take this shot and even found out his name, Michael. He’s been entertaining in Stonegate for quite a while now and, although he changes his poses and themes every now and then, his main features are always his bike and the colour purple.

I do not think he can make a living out of his daily donations in the streets of York, but he is always nice and polite and jokes with kids and adults alike and has become a part of York tourist attractions!

Here is Michael the Purple Man in his summer version.