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On such a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning...

...how can I not stop to tickle these feet?

I love the way my other half wraps himself up in a cocoon with the duvet, yet has his little feet sticking out... about 90% of the time.

What little things make you smile in the morning?

A night alone

I could have spent tonight cleaning, I could have spent it organising my overflowing cupboard, I could have caught up on some well needed sleep... Instead I spent it like this:

Pizza Margherita, I'm feeling very full right now

Beer, because you have to have something fizzy with Pizza you know! (Plus, this only cost me 1.50Euro instead of 3.50. The guys at the pizzeria love me ;)

Internet and futurama.

The awesome little laptop desk thingy above is the best 15Euro I've spent in a loooong while. It makes using a laptop away from a desk so much comfier!

I have decided that I need a smartphone to be able to live my dream of posting more regularly. It is too difficult for me to get on the internet regularly right now. Maybe when spring comes and I am out of hibernation I'll be around more often?

I am willing the Spring to hurry up and greet us already!

The last week of 2011

We spent 6 days amazing, relaxing and fun days in the stunning Italian Alps over the xmas period. It was made even more special by the fact we were joined by two of our best friends here and it was, in fact, their last week in Italy.

Mr has an invaluable internship starting on Monday in London with a huge design and advertising comapny and Mrs is 5 months pregnant, so it's going to be a big year for them and they decided to move back to the UK, doing what is best for them and their future as a family.









They will be sorely missed, but luckily they are not too far away and we got to spend this amazing week with them and their puppy before they left. I'm so thankful for that! I wish them the hugest amount of luck, I am sure big things will happen for them, they really deserve it.

A Tour of the empty apartment.

The living room from the kitchen door


The Living room from the balcony


Living room floor tiles.

Kitchen from the door (looking right)

The Kitchen from the balcony (looking right)

Master bedroom from the door (looking right)

Master bedroom from the balcony

Second bedrom from the door (looking left)

Second room from the balcony, plus built in storage

Bathroom from the window

Bathroom tiles.

Living on a plain..

...is it better or worse than living in the mountains?

You'd think the rain would have deposited itself back there (points north) over the alps, but no. This is the second HUGE downpour/thunderstorm we've had in a week. As opposed to rain in England, this rain is a relief. It drastically reduces the humididty and is usually followed by gusty winds for a few days which does the same and keeps the summer temps lower.

It has ruined my plan for another bike ride in the Parco del Ticino, but I'm quite enjoying sitting here, listening to the patter of the rain fighting with Nirvana to reach my ears first. The rain is currently winning.

It's getting heavier. And I just saw my first lightning flash to accompany the thunder (it's about 4 miles away now...). But last Friday's storm was immense. There was HAIL in JULY! Let me show you...

HOLY SHIT! It's right over head now... I love that amazing ripping sound you hear when thunder is directly above you. It's as if the sky is splitting apart, right over your head.

That's not rain you're seeing. It's hail, the size of half an ice cube

A nice illustration of them bouncing off the roof. One attacked me after bouncing off the balcony rail. It hurt.

It was so much fun to be out in. I felt like a child, excited by the weather. It spoke to something deep and primordial inside me.

The size of those buggers. Though they had melted some because of the heat. (Please excuse my grimy feet, I'd been running around on the wet balcony in my excitement, but I left them in for reference)

And in the amount of time it's taken for me to upload these pictures and write the captions the storm has headed off to the east, it's some miles away now. It's so cloudy I can't see the lightning unless I look for it and the rain is but a gentle pitter patter in the background.

I love this crazy weather. But not enough for it to do this constantly ;)

ps, it's now a chilly 19 Degrees outside. The first time I've seen it below 20 in the day time since the middle of May!

TFI Friday.

I know I'm not working, so I don't have as much of an excuse as all the workers out there, but I am so grateful that it's Friday. I've had an insane week and have taken 8 train journeys in the past 7 days. I'm so tired and was so pleased when the bf gave into my pleas to stay in Novara this weekend. I can't face another train journey. I hope I find the inner strength and peace to face a life of commuting to Milano. And I also hope I find it pretty soon.

It rained last night... we got caught in it on the way back to Porta Nuova station in Torino. It wasn't fun, but it seems to have helped to cool down the day... in fact it may rain again. The clouds look heavy.

I'm sitting on my front doorstep (suprised? ;) And the lovely white and brown micio (little cat) is sitting on the far end of the balcony, ears twitching as I type. I wonder if he wants more food or if he just wants to hang out...?

As you may, or may not know, I went to London earlier this month and had a great time with my sister's two eldest children. I took my niece to Madame Tussauds and we got a bunch of cool pictures with various wax works. Seeing as I haven't posted a picture in a while I thought I'd share some with you...

Yes, I may have a little bit of an obsession with Mr. Depp.

And yes, he tasted goooooood ;)

(although my face does look terribly ridiculous, heh)

ARNIE! I first went to Madame Tussauds with my Mum when I was about 7 or 8

and had my pic taken with Arnie as you entered by Staff. We paid for the pic and I

still have it. It's one of my favourite childhood photos. I'm so glad he's still there :)

David Cameron. The British PM. I loathe him and his slimey tory ways.

I couldn't pass up this opportunity. Funnily enough there was no queue

to have your pic taken with him...

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. Another tory toff who always

looks as if he's just rolled out of bed. Another with no queue... do we

see the pattern forming here boys and girls?

*cough*down with the tories*cough*

Me and Nick Fury looking AMAZINGLY cool. Though I'd rather have

had an eye patch than those 3D glasses. They were really uncomfortable.

But after our first 4D experience, my niece and I decided it was all pretty cool :)

I'll have to dig out that pic of me and Arnie from many moons ago and scan it. Oh the joy of memory ;)

Have you been on any fab day trips or adventures lately? Do you have any planned??

Spoiler alert - For the boyfriend only ;)

There is a cool shop in Lyon called Pylones, it's got similar stock to Octopus in the UK. I've only been in a couple of times because it's often really crowded, but I went in on Monday and bagged a couple of cute bits...

One of those cool hook thingies so you can keep your bag
secure under the table at a cafe or restaurant... or on a
train too I guess. Well, anywhere with a table really.


These cute little book marks and peanut erasers which will be gifts.

And these awesome eggcups. I'm sure the bf will love them too.
I couldn't resist their cute design and bright colours :)

Yesterday I had to buy clothes for my work experience placement, I went a little overboard, but I love everything I got (haha, as if I wouldn't) It's all very casual, but I really love the little shoes I bought, so maybe I'll do an outfit shot in the near future to show them off ;)

Have you purchased anything funky lately? Or do you have your eye on something or maybe just an awesome shop you should tell me about? You know I need another excuse to spend money ;)

Monday Musings

This is an odd sort of update... nothing of real substance, more of an excuse to show you some pics I've been hoarding ;)

I haven't really been dressing up, it's far too humid to wear tights and my legs are not ready to be disclosed to the world yet. Also, if I don't wear tights, I can't bike in my dress... so that's a definite no-no. But I miss my dresses :(

Here is one of my much loved outfits of late. I really love the lacey tights, these are my peach/nude coloured ones, with my peach dress. I wore this to go sunbathing at the lake a week or two ago. I got many stares and realised this dress is just a little too short to bike in. But I did it anyway (with one hand on the handlebars and the other holding the hem of my dress).

And here are my nails. I got really bored and decided to repeat the leopard pattern I attempted before, but using this nice mint green colour I picked up in Primark over my 2 day trip to London.

On Friday I decided to go with curly hair. My hair is really fine and has a really annoying wavy shape to it. It's not wavy enough to be nice, it makes waves in weird places and if I just leave it to dry naturally it's rubbish. I managed to get some quite nice curls this time though, which is rare for me because curls usually fall out pretty easily in my hair.

I towel dried my hair and then just twisted large sections around themselves and pinned them into little coils close to my head. When they were almost dry I undid the coils, combed my fingers through the sections to define the curls, scrunched them with wet hands and gave a final spritz of hairspray.

I'm in France now for at least a week. The weather here is much cooler than in Italy and it's nice to get some decent, non-sweat-drenched sleep... although I'm missing my bf immensely. I'm going to go into Lyon city centre when the shops have opened after lunch. I need to get my brother in law a bday card, I also need some shampoo and conditioner (nearly 5 Euros a bottle at the supermarket around the corner!!!) and I wanted to look in some of my favourite shops here, but just window shopping ;)

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend, I start my work experience this week, so I'm sure my updates will be even more slack than ever ;)

Shirley's adventures.

So a while ago I think I mentioned discovering a couple of small lakes near Cameri. They're about a 7 minute bike ride away. I could look up the Km, but I'm to lazy :P

I came to the realisation yesterday that I've never published the pics, which is a shame as it's a beautiful place. Also a great place to sunbathe.

These need no explanation. A small little pocket of wonderful peace and beauty. I also love the poppies that have seeded everywhere in the countryside... even in towns and between train tracks. Sadly their season seems to be ending, I see less and less of them everyday. I desperately want to pick some and have them in a vase, but I know they are infinitely more beautiful by the side of the road, or between train tracks.

w00t!

Ok, an impromptu post to tell you a little about yesterday....

I got the call in the afternoon on my Italian cell phone. I knew it was about the job because I'd only given my number to them... I was nervous, really shaking, I was sure they were going to tell me that unfortunately I didn't have the job, but I was wrong! I jumped silently around the room as the firector talked to me and I'm going back into Milano on Monday to finalise everything and get my letter of intent to employ (so I can sort out all my documents here). My contract will start and be signed in September, but my training will probably be in June. I'm super excited, but also really nervous. Ack, I have such terrible confidence, I get nervous so easily!!!

Anyway, so the job is at a Reggio Preschool 'One to Three'. I went to the school in the centre of Milano and it's so nice! I love the Reggio approach to preschool education, it seems so creative and nurturing. I'll be a prechool teacher, which is a job I've wanted to do for some years now, but short of studying for an NVQ in the UK, I wasn't going to get the job there. I'm going to have a pretty nasty commute in the mornings, but it's totally worth it! I was made for this job :D

It's actually handy that I won't start until September, it means I can tie up all my loose ends in the UK, bring a bunch of stuff back to Italy with me (again) and try and pass my driving test there. The sad part is that I won't see my beloved for some two months and I likely won't be there during August which is when a bunch of people were planning to visit :( But it's really important I get my licence... unless I attempt to do it here?

Last night my beloved took me out to a really fabulous sea food restaurant and I quickly snapped this pic before we went. Don't mind the awful poses or the insane mess behind us, we were rushing out of the door to make our reservation!

Neither of us are used to drinking anymore and a bottle of wine between us took a lot of effort to drink. All we did when we got home was complain about our bulging stomachs and our wine induced headaches. That'll teach us ;)

Bluebells rule my life

I waited a long time for the bluebells in our garden to come into bloom. I spent most of April in the garden wathcing them gorw and watching the green buds developed.

And then the cloud came and we've been suffering without sun for what seems like an age. But the bluebells have been in bloom for nearly a week now and I've been aching for some sunshine so I can photgraph them on my 35mm camera.

Today was that day it seems. I snapped some on my dying samsung to share with you all as well.

Some forget-me-nots for good measure.

All the others I took were terribly out of focus (poor camera) but I'll see if I can get anymore tomorrow. Fingers crossed for sun people! (and for a non Tory government)

*sob*

Well, the horrid day came. I took my bf to Victoria station so he could get the train to the airport and I don't know when I'll next see him :'(

I had to cheer myself up and I nearly bought the softest pj's/lounging clothes ever from Primark, but I resisted. I did however buy some new nail varnish, which I've been wanting to do for a while.

Collection 2000, £1.79 each, but were on offer at 2 for £3

I quickly tried them out over my chipped red nails and the pictures weren't any better than the rushed job I did, so maybe I'll show you better pictures when I've taken the time to paint my nails nicely.

I also bought some postcards from paperchase to send to my beloved when he gets a more permanent address. It's going to be poo without him. I'm going to fill my time with learning and planning and lists. Yes, lists sound like a good way to keep busy, I'm going to get started!

Feeling sorry for myself.

I have a few things to be sad about today.

1. The sun is not really out. There is too much cloud, a forecast of rain and I am worried about the future of our summer.
2. I am ill. I had a really nice weekend, but by the time I got back ot London yesterday evening my throat was really painful and I'd had a stuffy nose on and off all day. This morning confirmed it. I'm ill. Some hideous viral infection, I hope it goes away quickly.
   
3. My lovely boyfriend is going to Italy tomorrow. Indefintiely. For-ever. I will be visiting him soon, and eventually moving out to Italy too, but it saddens me. There are so many things I wanted to do with him here in England before he left, but sadly we have run out of time.
   

So, I'm feeling sorry for myself. I emphasized this by eating chocolate for brunch. I'm holding out for mum's roast dinner, so I doubt I'll eat anything in between (which merely adds to the pathetic state of mind right now).

Apart from being a little pathetic, I actually had a really fun weekend. We spent a lot of it with our friend Don Michele. He picked us up on Friday and drove us to his home town, and drove us home again yesterday too (Thanks again!!). We went to Cricklade, first town on the Thames. We saw the Thames in it's tiny stunted form and Michael took great delight in saying "HA! We have the same river as you!" before I told him that where I live, we actually have a different river as I don't live anywhere near the Thames.

We took a really nice walk from whitehorse hill to weyland's smithy and spent a peaceful half hour or more talking about life. We also visited 80% of Britain's Snake's Head Fritillaries. They are a really beautiful flower, but my camera doesn't do them justice.

We met new people and we played Lord of the Rings boardgame which was really fun. I don't like things that are competitive, but this is a co-op game and I want to play it again, but with the expansion packs :D And maybe a 5th player so someone can be Fatty. (yes, there is a hobbit character called Fatty).

Sunday evening was a little rushed as I threw on my heels and bombed it to Leicester sq with the bf to have dinner with my sister and her bf. We went to Abeno Too, which is a fabulous restaurant serving okonomi-yaki and various other Japanese delights. I only care about the okonomi-yaki, so I kinda glaze over the rest of the menu, although the teppanyaki chicken my sister had looked great.

We were planning on going to Brighton for the day today but I woke up feeling like shit and the bf didn't feel much better, so we decided to stay here and chill out instead. I hope we're not missing too much sun on the coast!

Shopping (again)

(From yesterday)

Well, I didn't go in Next because I knew that pretty dress would tempt me, but I had to return a dress from Primark and I wanted to see if they had that nice grey biker jacket in my size.

I went with my mum and we happened to have a look in Dorothy Perkins, another shop I never go in, for similar reasons as next. Trust me when I say that I wasn't looking for a bag. I have a beautiful handmade clutch that I have my eye on, but I wasn't looking for a handbag at all... however this one found me all by itself. My mum also really liked it and offered to buy it for me. I didn't refuse...

I also had a look at and tried on some shoes. Something I don't usually bother doing because it's a hassle, but the shop was empty and I was wearing easy on-off plimsoles. I tried a gorgeous dusky pink pair of peep toe courts that had pretty pink lacing on, but they were just that tad too high for me. Then I saw them... the shoes of my dreams. I tried them on, they were a little too big, but they didn't have a smaller size. I tried them both on, I felt so glamourous. I ummed and ahhed about them and decided to get them. They are just a dream.

On top of all that my mum paid for those too!! Thanks Mum!!!!!!! <3

They didn't have my size in the jacket, so I tried on a 12 and it fit ok, if I don't mind not being able to zip it up (which I don't incidentally) and I'm shrinking so I bagged it along with a second pair of black skinny jeans. For the shoes you see.

And amazing and cheap day of shopping, that made me smile no end. I also had some pretty, pretty post waiting for me when I got home, which only added to my smile.

(And yes, I'm wearing the shoes as I type!)