My Perfect 10!

From the moment she was conceived she gave me problems. It wasn’t her fault but I was ill for most of my 8 months’ pregnancy. I had very bad migraines, digestion problems and in the last few weeks pre-eclampsia. My GP and the hospital staff managed to push me right at the end of the 36th week but no further. Then I had to have a caesarian section. It wasn’t nice, but she was finally there, my little bundle of joy that I had wanted so much! She was very small, but already very feisty. She was my little victory that I had fought for against all odds. That’s why I called her Victoria, my victory. And since then she’s never been anything else than a great victory for me. She’s the light of my life, the little hands stretched towards me when I’m sad or ill, my reason for getting up in the morning, my happiness when I see her smiling. And today she’s 10, a big girl who’s almost as tall as me, who’s got a huge social life, lots and lots of interests and friends, but still has time for her little mum.

Happy Birthday, my darling Vicky, from your mamma!

Thumbs-Up for BT!

(My last roses in the garden)

I don’t want to be too hasty but it seems that where AOL failed for almost two months, BT made it good. My new BT Internet Hub arrived on Tuesday and, although I didn’t manage to set up everything on my own, the BT technical support on the phone helped me to configure my network and all the rest. It took them quite a while, but the helpline is free so I didn’t mind too much. I must have spent a fortune on the 5p/minute AOL helpline in the last few weeks, not to mention the upset I had to endure talking with their representatives. To be fair not all of them were so bad or patronising, but mostly the female ones yes! I cannot understand why. Why is it that when you’ve got a female sale or support centre representative on the phone, it has to end up in tears? My tears. Maybe it’s only me. Maybe I’m oversensitive, as my husband says, but where has the female solidarity gone? Disappeared from all call centres?

I’d really like to know your opinions or experiences if you have any on this matter.

In the meanwhile, I seriously pray that BT won’t let me down! Or else.

The Mocking of Dorian Gray

I’d have a lot to say about this. But I’ll try to be concise. I was very much looking forward to seeing the film “Dorian Gray” as the book “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is one of my favourite works in English Literature and definitely Wilde at his best. But yesterday night when I finally managed to get to see it I was totally disappointed. It had a lot of potential and didn’t start too badly (apart from Dorian not having his blond and soft curly hair!!!) but then it degenerated in a cheaply horror approach that wouldn’t be out of place in a kids’ horror series. The acting was ok (Colin Firth is excellent as usual as the Mephistophelian Lord Henry Wotton) but the characters just seemed very 2D and I didn’t feel emotionally engaged at all. Ben Barnes (the boring Prince Caspian from the second Narnia film) tried his best to portray the transition from innocence to decadence and debauchery but the result is rather wooden. The screenwriter/director clearly decided to interpret Wilde’s classic book his own alternative way, cutting off and changing scenes even the timing of the story to his liking, but this wouldn’t have been too terrible if he had managed to keep the essence of the book. He didn’t. Just wait to see the cheesy B-movie horror ending! The only consolation is that I saw the film on an Orange Wednesday offer (ie. 2 for 1) otherwise I would have even dared to ask for my money back!

(PS. I’m still having Internet connection issues, but I’m hoping to migrate to BT Broadband next week and maybe it will get better. Fingers crossed!)

Still "unconnected"

I'm not gone AWOL but I've got Internet connection problems again. Now I am connected tomorrow I canno be sure! This is terribly vexing for me as I rely on the Internet/email for my work. Hope the BT engineer will get here soon to sort out my issues! Until then....Ciao!

The Untouchable

"The Untouchable” is watching you from the streets of New York. "The Untouchable” is in this case none else than Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s controversial prime minister whom everybody’s got to know now due to the news spread out all over the international papers, of the despicable forced resignation of Dino Boffo, the editor of the Catholic Church's daily, L'Avvenire. Boffo announced his resignation following a campaign against him in Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by the Berlusconi family. With this resignation, Berlusconi was able to claim the first scalp in his rapidly escalating battle with the church and the media, which began when a string of sex scandals struck Berlusconi himself. I don’t usually like talking about politics in this modest blog of mine and even in private unless something really strikes me hard. For years now my country has been putting up with this disgraceful individual that is ruining the dignity and pride of his own nation.
But he was voted with a significant majority at the last elections and he seems difficult, if not impossible to get rid of. A friend of mine who lives in NYC saw one of these posters scattered around the city and emailed me a photo. Nobody knows exactly who’s behind this campaign. But it’s good that Berlusconi’s true colours are revealed abroad as well. Who knows, maybe sooner or later the untouchable might get what he deserves, exactly as it happened to Al Capone to whom this poster is inspired.

PS: Another friend of mine from Italy has just told me that these posters are already all over the Italian papers. So it wasn't a "scoop" after all!

Different views

My daughter never takes “normal” photos when we go around. She’s not very interested in monuments, scenery etc. but she likes taking pictures of what she thinks it's a bit unusual. Here are some examples of “different” views of Edinburgh.

The sign of a Scottish pub.

At the top of too many steps we had to climb to get from Princes Street to the Royal Mile.

The "Grey Lady" at the Fringe Festival on the Royal Mile.



Bagpipes, of course!!! But in a frame...

And she couldn't miss any kilts, of course, lot and lots of them... Tempting, but no!

And a seagull resting on this (for us) unknown statue...

Another street entertainer at the Fringe....

I assure you, we saw much more than this in Edinburgh, but these are Vicky's memories!

Spooky Tour

For our Bank Holiday Monday we decided to go for a day trip to Edinburgh by train. It only takes 2 ½ hours from York and the train journey is pleasant as you go through Durham and its great cathedral, Newcastle and its impressive bridges, along the breathtaking Northumberland coast, through Berwick on Tweed and finally Edinburgh. Although I’ve been to Edinburgh many times, I always find it fascinating and I discover something new each time.

One of new experiences in Edinburgh this time was to go on the Real Mary King’s Close Tour. Beneath the City Chambers on the Royal Mile lies Edinburgh's deepest secret - a warren of hidden streets where real people lived, worked and died between the 17th and the 19th centuries. Now a new attraction allows visitors to step back in time to walk through these underground closes and witness some of the dramatic episodes and extraordinary apparitions from this site's fascinating and historically rich past.
These buildings were inhabited during the Plague, and a lot of people died in the close. This has led to many ghost stories, which the guide was brilliant at explaining to us.

You are guided round the old houses and work buildings, which are still mostly intact - it's amazing to see the different rooms in the houses, and the old work-places. These have some (scarily life-like!) models put in to help you imagine how people lived. The atmosphere is brilliant, very electric, due to the huge number of recorded ghost-sightings. This is helped along slightly by the guide - at one point the tour were ushered into a room, in pitch darkness, and a ghost story told, along with sound effects – it was rather scary!!

The celebrity of the close's supernatural resident is Annie, a ghostly pre-teen who (so the story goes) scared the daylights out of a Japanese psychic in 1992. This lady had been unimpressed by the tour until she arrived at one of the many small rooms. There she was suddenly struck by an overwhelming feeling of sickness, hunger and cold and, when she tried to leave felt the ghastly tug of a ghostly hand on her leg. Poor Annie's spectral life has now been fleshed out and it is believed that she had been left to die by her family. Since then, people from round the world have come to "Annie’s room". Many have told tour guides of seeing impressions of the spirit in the room; some visitors, treating the room as a shrine, have left gifts for the little girl out of affection.

This was an absolutely fabulous tour, definitely one not to be missed if you're going to be in Edinburgh. And if you wish to listen to the audiotour in Italian, well, that's my voice!