Snow again...

It started coming down pretty heavy, but didn't stick this time. As it is it is very wet and miserable! When the wind blows it is soooo cold too! If you go back to March '07 you will see photo's of my kids in the garden in shorts and t-shirts! Antonia went to school in her ski jacket, ski hat, scarf and gloves today!! This weather is so strange! It really should be warming up by now! Normally we would have had a few really warm days by now to remind us summer was coming, but not this year. Actually, not true, two weeks ago we nearly hit 20c...so maybe summer is coming after all!

Still waiting for Antonia's passport. If you are British and now have to apply through Paris do it with plenty of time! Or do it in person in the UK. Only one thing to remember, you can only have white background for your photos on passports done through Paris, in the UK they have to have a grey or off white background as they scan them. We discovered this the hard way with Alex's passport! Sent photos done here with a white background, Steve had to do a round trip to Winchester to pick up new ones with the right background!! :P The same day service is also good if you can hang around in London or whichever city you use with a passport office, for 4 hours after your interview. Also, don't go with anyone, they won't let them in! Only one person per interview/appointment is allowed in the building, not to the appointment itself!! Back to Antonia, it should arrive today - Paris rang me yesterday and gave me the TNT tracking number for it and it is at least now in Florence!! Watch this space...!

Sunday, Sunday.....

Today is the busiest we've been in a long time on a Sunday. We, that is Antonia and I, were up reasonably early as she was invited to a party for one of her classmates at the Palazzo Vecchio here in Florence. This is the town hall but unlike other town halls it really tries to involve the children in its community. So they allow you to host birthday parties there which include activities relatated to the history of Florence and the Palazzo. It's a great idea and they have been doing this for so long now, at least 8 years that I know of, that they have everything worked out pretty well to entertain their audience. Today was based around the secret staircases inside the walls of the palazzo. Firstly the children were told the history of the staircase through a shadow puppet show. They were completely enthralled, which, I have to say, amazed me! I really expected them to be unsettled but they bought right into it! Then we were taken into the wall and up the staircase. A talking mouse puppet then entertained them for a short period before we went back down to the party room for cake and drinks. It was a good way to start the day, especially as it had started early and finished before lunch, unheard of normally!!

Next we went to a Serendipity Sale at the US church. In the UK we'd call it a table sale, so everyone paid for a table then kept the profits on any of their things that they sold. A friend of ours was their with her kids trying to sell some stuff, so Antonia went and played with them while I had a wander. I left with two brand new cardi's, a crushed velvet hoodie by Guess, cakes, tiny little wooden Chinese men, CD's of Britney and the Gipsy Kings, separately that is, a sheep money box and a horse.....I really shouldn't have had that glass of wine after the prosecco at the Birthday party I think.....:P

Coming home we popped into a display of Japanese Kimono's on the square that we live off. We stayed very briefly for a lecture about them, but it was beyond my Italian and Antonia's endurance, so we headed home!! If we'd been around earlier we could have bought a bento box each for lunch!! The hot dogs and scones from the church were pretty good though, as were the brownies and ginger cake we had for tea! :)

The sky is still blue at 6.00 p.m. although it is very cold, but better that than rain! All in all a good day!

So here's the deal....

I haven't posted for a while again, the main reason is I get my knickers in a twist over putting in photos. They liven a blog post and I feel like they make it a more interesting read, but I'm having major problems with getting my photos onto my laptops - yes, I have two, both "cast-offs" of my DH....This one I'm on now has a huge hard drive (for me anyway!) but he dropped it or something so none of the various slots pick-up the photos from my camera, plus I've had a corrupt memory card in my camera for months - I keep forgetting to swap it out! When I finally managed to download a batch of photo's to my other laptop (small memory but working ports...) about 20 photo's were missing - they show up on the card, but not the laptop! I have no clue why and have had to write them off to experience! Maybe it was the fact that they had pictures of a gigantic Michael Jackson head on them that was the problem!! That was from the Carnival at Viareggio...I'm not a fan of the man but his music still rocks!! :)

So I want to carry on with my blog, as I said in my last post, but you're going to have to take it as you find it!! Maybe pictures, but more likely not...

Since my last post we've renewed the lease on the house for the 4th time. The landlady has decided to put some utilities directly into our name. No problem with that except the electricity board reduced the Kw coming into the house! No big deal you would think, I had plenty to start with, but all of a sudden I was like most places here and everything kept tripping!! What a pain!! Turns out it was a mistake and it has now been rectified! I really couldn't cope with not knowing whether having the washer and the iron on was going to trip the electric!! You do become used to things being a certain way.

We didn't see Alex at half-term which also meant he missed my birthday - it was pretty miserable with just me and Antonia, plus I had the pozzo nero cleaned on my birthday which just added to the fun.....:P Anyway, Steve was home last week and I got a lovely pair of fancy slippers in red satin with heels and feathers for my birthday! It's nice to get something frivolous, don't you think??!

I read recently that it is a good discipline to write 750 words every morning when you arise. I won't be doing that but I'm going to try for frequency!! :)