A ray of sunshine - Update on Rachel

A ray of sunshine through the cold snow

Fantastic news!!! Rachel has been doing so well that she been moved out of intensive care into a ward. She responds well to medication and she keeps on fighting very hard. Although she is still intubated and cannot talk yet she is reacting to the world around her and she's been listening to JLS's music. Rachel is a big fan of JLS' and her school mates have managed to get a signed sweater for her with a lovely letter. We are all very impressed by her fighting attitude, her positive spirit and and cheerful smile. Thank you very much to all of you for keeping her in your prayers and thoughts. I firmly believe that's helping a lot. Special thanks to Jane's youngest son who's been praying for Rachel every day! Bless you too!

Frozen Britain

This striking image taken by Nasa's Terra satellite on 7 January shows the UK deep in the clutches of the current cold snap. I have lived in the UK over 15 years and I've never seen a winter ike this before!

A prayer for Rachel

Please please please, whichever is your religion, whatever is your belief, spare a prayer, a kind thought, a bit of hope for young Rachel. She is one of my daughter’s lovely friends, not yet 12 and loved by everybody in the village. She was taken to hospital a few days ago apparently after a serious sinusitis. Rachel is beautiful, lively, kind and generous and now she’s fighting for her life after two brain operations. We are all devastated. I believe in the power of prayers, the power of thoughts and hope. Please please please, think of Rachel and her family.

UPDATE (6/01/10):

Thank you very much for your very warm response. Your prayers

and thoughts are very much appreciated. You may be please to

hear that Rachel seems to respond to her treatment and she has even

given a "thumbs-up" to her parents. Please still keep her

in your thoughts!

Yorkshire Wonderland

It’s been snowing on and off since New Year’s Eve and the result is a beautiful snowy landscape that makes everything look better. Unfortunately the conditions of the roads are not very good and we can only hope that it gets better by Monday when work will start seriously and everybody is going to go back to his/her duties. In our small estate nobody comes to grit or plough the snow away, we don't even have one of those yellow sand/grid container on the corner of the roads. Writing the 100th letter to the responsible council won't help either as they simply don't have enough funds to buy grit for every road here around. Sad reality! For the moment let's indulge in the beautiful Winter Wonderland from the window sipping a hot cup of cocoa and watching DVDs! And let's postpone to Monday our fight with slippery roads and frozen pavements…

January 1st

PRIMO GENNAIO

Ancora stordita da tanto frastuono

la notte sbadiglia perchè è già domani.

Avrà il volto nuovo quest'alba

che spunta neonata speranza d'un anno sereno?

Laggiù all'orizzonte io vedo una luce

più intensa e più chiara,

sarà forse inganno?

Soltanto chimera?

Oppure aria pura è questo l'augurio per tutti quaggiù

Vogliamoci bene, la vita è una sola, teniamola cara

vivendo in amore.

Con tutte le razze da veri fratelli

sarà un'utopia?

Può darsi, chissà!

(Luciano Somma)

JANUARY 1st

Still dazed from so much racket the night yawns

as it's already tomorrow.
Will it have a new face this sunrise that awakens

newborn hope for a peaceful year?
There on the horizon I see a light powerful and radiant

Will it be a fraud?
Only illusion? If not, this greetingis a pure manifestation

for everyone on earth
to love each other.

Life is unique we hold it dear living in love
with all races from true brothers,

will it be utopia?
It's possible, I wonder!

(Translation)

Buon 2010!

What can be said in New Year rhymes,

That's not been said a thousand times?

The new years come, the old years go,

We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,

We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,

We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,

We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,

And that's the burden of a year.

(Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

End of year

Hi, I’m back in the UK. Hope you had a lovely Christmas and ready to "slide" into the New Year. We spent a few days in Italy with my parents, friends and family. It was nice but short and terribly cold. Freezing cold! We had to come back earlier as duty called. VAT, and of year account etc. cannot be completed if we are in Italy enjoying ourselves. The problem is that it's getting more and more difficult for me to leave Italy and above all my parents. They are not getting any younger (who is after all???) and I always leave them with a heavy heart. But we are back here now and all we have got left are a few photos to remember ....

The snow...

My "bestest" friends ...

The town music band in their festive attire...

The Town Hall "wrapped up" ...

A festive shop window ...

Some of my crazy family ...