I want to move!

After a week in Cornwall and surrounding areas I can only say one thing: I want to move! Yes, I want to move there. Although I like York and Yorkshire I think I’ve finally found my ideal British spot to live. I could seriously contemplate to relocate! The weather was gorgeous and that, of course, contributed to the general wellbeing feeling of the place, but one day there was rain and mist coming from the sea and it was still lovely in its mysterious way.

I’m a South person after all and I’m drawn by the seaside and the beaches, and wow what beaches over there! And the sailing, surfing, fishing, hiking etc….. Ok, there is seaside in Yorkshire as well, but you cannot compared the cold and grey North Sea coast to the beautiful skylike – almost turquoise – blue of the Atlantic Ocean!

What is with my children that they cannot see all this?

Heading South

(Photo of Port Isaac Harbour of Doc Martins' fame)

In a couple of hours we're heading down to Cornwall for a few days. Wish me sunshine, please!

Hope you' ll have all a great weekend and/or a lovely half-term holidays for the UK friends!

Tagging

I don't understand much of tagging, meme etc. but this time I've been tagged not by one but by two lovely ladies and I couldn't possibli ignore them. A Modern Mother and notSupermum, sorry for my delay but thank you for tagging me. Here are my answers:

What are your current obsessions?

My current main obsession is blogging!!! And with blogging I do not mean writing in my blog (that I find rather time-consuming due linguistic issues!) but reading other blogger’s journals, your journals. It has become an addiction. First thing in the morning just while having breakfast I read about you and your lives, I laugh with you, cry with you and learn from you. And not because I’m a “Billy-no-mates” (I’m NOT!!!), but because I’ve been very lucky to find a circle of great people who are so interesting that I cannot live without anymore. Thank you, folks!

What's for dinner tonight?

Chicken fajetas, rice and salad. Fruit salad with ice-cream (Teenage son is working at the fish&chips shop tonight (someone has to get the money in when I’m blogging!) so we can indulge in salads!!!

What's the last thing you bought?

My new car (nothing glamorous, but new and with power steering!) which won’t be ready until the beginning of July and I haven’ paid yet!

What are you currently listening to?

My second current obsession, Coldplay, with Viva La Vida live from their free album LeftRightLeftRightLeft, that you can download here http://www.coldplay.com/ should you be interested.

What are your favourite holiday spots?

Venice, Italy – Carcassonne, France and Barcelona, Spain. I'd love to visit Australia and New Zealand though.

What are you reading now?

I’m almost at the end of The Winner Stand Alone by Paulo Coelho. Quite interesting but not as exciting as I hoped. I love reading but I don’t have much time for it…

Use 4 words to describe yourself?
Emotional, friendly, faithful, overworked.

What is your guilty pleasure?

Decaf Soya Latte (Starbucks) with biscotti (almond biscuits)!

What is your favourite film?
I adore movies, but my favourite of all is actually a TV series, the BBC’s Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

What part of your body you like the most? [this is my new question]

My hands. They are still white (well, pinkish) and soft and I have long and nice fingernails.

What do you fear the most?

Surviving my children.

What's on your bedside table?

A pile of unread books. My watch. My baby daughter’s photo. My nephew’s photo (he died 4 years ago aged 15 but he will always be in my heart), a pen and a bar of Galaxy :)).

What's the best thing you ate or drank recently?

A lovely cocktail called “Sex on the Beach”. Wishful thinking, I guess!

What would you like to be when you grow up?
I’d like to become an astronaut. I love the Moon and I wish I could see it a bit nearer!

The "rules" are as follows. Respond and rework. Answer questions on your own blog. Replace one question. Add one question. Tag 8 people.

I'm tagging :

workthatwardrobe

Littlemummy.Com

Diary of a Yummy Mummy

Bay side to mountain side

watching geordie life

Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman

Italian Cozy Corner

FLY HIGH!

Dear Ladies, apologies if you've been tagged before and if you don't feel like doing it or you don't have the time, dont' worry I won't be offended....Ciao a tutti!

Lost ...

and found...after some erratic driving and waste of petrol... My son is a junior scout leader and, although I admire him for being so helpful and patient with the little “beavers”, “cubs” etc, this entails for me driving him around to take him to the most impossible locations for their hiking, camping etc.

Yesterday was one of those evenings in which he got home in the afternoon and had to meet in the middle of the Yorkshire Wolds to guide a hiking expedition. Now, although I’ve lived in the area for almost ten years, I don’t know the whole countryside around here yet and I’m very bad with maps as well, especially maps drawn by scouts!

So after many miles and many wrong turning up and down the hills I managed to drop him at the starting point. The problem was going back. I hadn’t really paid attention to the different little roads we took in our frenzy to get to the meeting point on time. My daughter and I were all of a sudden LOST! In the middle of nowhere. No signs, no cars or human beings in sight and no mobile phone reception of course!

But then we found this. The Lonely Old (and rusty) Post Box. It’s a rather known landmark around here so we knew we were not far from civilization!
Got home just in time to drive in the opposite direction to pick him up at the end of the hiking, but this time we knew the way!

Cuba libre

We are lucky. Whenever we feel like it we can switch on our PCs, fancy laptops, notebooks etc and write in out blogs, read other people’s journals and comment on them. It's all easy for us.
Now please meet a lady who doesn’t enjoy this freedom.

Yoani Sánchez, 34, webmaster and journalist of Desdecuba.com, lives in Havana and has become famous all over the world for its blog, Generación Y (http://desdecuba.com/generaciony) which she is able to publish despite censorship in Cuba by e-mailing entries to friends outside the country, who then post them online. She’s been listed by Time Magazine in the directory of the one hundred more influential people in 2008 stating that "as one of the under the nose of a regime that has never tolerated dissent, Sánchez has practiced what paper-bound journalists in her country cannot: freedom of speech”. She is a strange kind of dissident, she does not speak out against anybody, attack or blame the Government but simply writes what’s like living in Cuba today. From her blog a book, Cuba Libre, was published in Italy by Rizzoli and will be soon translated into more languages. Yoani was invited to attend the International Book Festival in Turin, an invitation arranged by her Italian Translator, Gordiano Lupi, but permission to travel was denied.

My cake

Thanks to all of you for the very kind birthday wishes. I spent a lovely day with my family and some friends, although the weather was cold and rainy!

I'd just like to show you the cake that my daughter made for me. It took her two days of work and secrecy and a bit of help from her dear friend next door but she did it! She was so proud to give it to me. Please not the little ant on the leaf, a little joke about how my friends abbreviate my name! Unfortunately I cannot offer you a slice, not even virtually, as it's gone completely !!!

As time goes by ...

So it's true. Since half an hour I'm officially one year older. Or maybe not. I was actually born at 4.30 pm, as my mum always reminds me, so maybe I'm still the same age for a few more hours...Who am I actually kidding? As if a few hours would make the difference...
Another year has gone. I don’t know what I have achieved in the past year. Probably nothing. Just another year getting along. Or maybe not? Maybe I did achieve something. Being alive!
I have to learn how to enjoy, or rather savor, my days one by one, as I am much luckier than so many people around the world. Unfortunately I don’t always realize how lucky I am. Why do we always look up at people who are wealthier, slimmer, better looking, more famous and never at the less fortunate than us?
This year’s resolution will be to try to be happier and to make the people around me happier too. Carpe Diem.

Quant'è bella giovinezza che si fugge tuttavia! Chi vuol essere lieto, sia:
di doman non c'è certezza.

Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492)

[How beautiful our Youth is That’s always flying by us!
Who wants to be happy, let him be so:Nothing’s sure about tomorrow.
Trans. A.S.Kline]

Writing Therapy

I’m not a professional book reviewer although it would be fascinating (and interesting) to be one. I sometimes write a movie review or two but it has become more of an exception than a regular assignment. It would be a long – and boring – story to tell, so I’d better leave it out. So I won’t review Tim Atkinson’s book “Writing Therapy” but just tell you my reader’s opinion. When I “bumped” into Tim’s blogs BRINGING UP CHARLIE and Writing Therapy and I found out about this book, I was at first fascinated by the title and very interested to find out how writing could be a therapy for a troublesome teenager. After reading a couple of reviews though, I feared it would be a bit too complicated for my lazy mind, as I don’t have time to read and I read just to relax. I thought it was something between “Sophie’s World” and the BBC TV drama “Waterloo Road”, a sort teenager journey through the world’s wisdom and secondary school’s semi-dramatic events. Don’t get me wrong, I liked “Sophie’s World”, although I thought the continuous philosophy lessons got a bit boring after the first hundred pages, and I like Waterloo Road, too, although on a different level. But I’m digressing again!

Writing Therapy is none of this. To put it very simply it’s the story of Sophie/Frances, a young woman who, because of her family background and life “accidents”, ends up in an adolescent psychiatric clinic who are trying to heal through different therapies and Sophie finds that writing is an excellent way to help herself to exorcise her own demons. She actually believes to be the central character of the books she’s writing! But I don’t want to tell you more and spoil the plot.
I was a bit worried that Tim’s book would have been too cerebral for me to read, especially at one o’clock in the morning after spending the whole day concentrating and translating other people’s words. Fortunately it wasn’t so. It’s a clever read but it flows easily and it’s terribly compelling as it’s beautifully written. I recommend you to read it but I won’t give you my copy as a free giveaway this time! It’s signed by the author and IT’S MINE!

Anniversary

I can hardly believe it. 15 years! I apologize to everyone who thought this would be my wedding anniversary. It’s not. Or rather it is, not with my husband, but with York. It’s been 15 years since I moved to York, to England actually. Where has all the time gone? It seems impossible to me. It seems like yesterday. How quickly the years have gone but at the same time how much has happened in those years!

We moved house three times, my son, who came here as a baby, is now a gorgeous and slightly naughty teenager. My daughter was born here and has become a true Yorkshire girl. I manage to establish my business and I’m working for myself as I have always wanted. I met some lovely people and in spite of the very changeable and often disagreeable weather, I’ve had some great time here. Although I will always be a foreigner here, I can say with pride that York has become my home. And what a beautiful home! Maybe not forever (whatever it means, anyway), but surely for a bit longer, who know? Thank you, York, for all what you've given us!

(some pictures of "my" beautiful York)