visiting family and friends

Its been a lovely day of meeting friends and family. We collected Francesco's mother from the hospital where she had stayed overnight with one of his aunts who had an operation the day before. Getting back to Monterotondo took about 20 min, yesterday the same stretch of road from the hospital had taken over two hours to pass because of bad traffic... can you imagine!!!
Then we went to a supermarket to buy Pandoro and wine for gifts, and then to two of his really good friends. The last stop was his Nonna's house. She showed us all he family photos and a stack of postcards from all over Italy. Back to his home, ate some dinner with his mom...and that's it, a lovely day. I really want to learn Italian now, it would be lovely to be able to understand what everone is saying. I pick up the subject of the conversation but that's about it. Well, it will take some time! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I'm looking forward to learning all about how its done here! Love to my dear family!

lights and ancient buildings

It was really good to be out of foggy london, since monday, west london has be coverd in dense fog. Arrived yesterday and went around the city today. It was really beautiful seeing all the lights and the old cobbled streets which wind and criss-cross in every direction. It was truely breathe-taking and awesome seeing the ancient buildings like the colosium and the ruins and all the fountains and churches. I want to write more in detail but i am exhausted, enjoy the photos!

louise bourgeois

I don't have any images of my own today again, but i have been scanning some picture from a Louise Boursgeois book i borrowed from the library. Its all part of getting into the workbook process again, so its good. Tomorrow i will add a page from my workbook instead. I was also checked out some animation sites and am adding to my links steadily.

I always seem to be leaving this as the last thing of the day and then i am too tired to put anything more in. Well, have a good day!

on second thoughts, the server seems to be slow now and i really need some sleep...so just one pic!

really cool pavement art

this is the work of Julian Beever, someone sent this pic to me. I think it is really amazing... click on his name for more.

have a good day!

christmas cake - continued

So this is how it turned out... all good, i am surprised i have not baked to a recipe in ages. normally when i bake cakes, i just mix in whatever comes to mind or is available in the fridge or cupboard. i never fully expect them to be a succes and there is nothing to really measure their success against. they are experiments. however this cake had to be right and fit in with the tradition. it had to be mixed by hand because i don't have an electric beater, so i was doubly worried. I am taking it a christmas gift for francesco's family, that is whay it really had to be right...and breathe!