Christmas!!!

On the 23rd December a good friend arranged for Father Christmas to pay an early visit to her house. As you can imagine this was very popular with the children that went! Even my 13 year old got a little present, which I think went down well!!

My friend's husband does all the cooking in their house. His speciality is soup. On this occassion we were treated to a thick Ribollita. It was very good. He also make amazing onion soup with cheese in it which I replicated, successfully I think, at New Year.

This is all the children, apart from my son, who feels too old for that sort of thing now, who wanted to be with Babbo Natale.

Christmas Day! I have more photo's but most of them have gone onto my Facebook page - I've listed the name to look for on Antonia's blog if you are interested. Antonia asked for golf clubs, here she is opening them! She also got Winx dolls and a dress-up Winx costume plus other bits and pieces.
Alex got games and books and a Warhammer model to make. But you can see his main interest was the choccies he found in his stocking!!! He went through a Kinder stocking with 12 bars in it, 3 bags of chocolate coins and still found room for his dinner and Christmas cake, bought for us by Stephen's business partner from Mr. Tesco!! It was very good!

Unfortunately we all suffered with colds and flu over both Christmas and New Year. Alex was on anti-biotics before Christmas, Antonia was asleep Christmas Day evening with a temperature, then Alex started again New Year's Eve! During this both me and Stephen had a cold. Mine developed into something more flu like on New Year's Day which has had me in bed all yesterday afternoon and today - must be feeling a little better in order to have done this, but it does explain my subdued tone.

Happy New Year everyone! May you all have good health and fortune in 2009!

WInter arrives!

Last time I posted we had been to the zoo in Pistoia in light weight jackets and cardigans! This is only a month ago but today would seem ridiculous! There was a zoo trip arranged with a local church group about 2 weeks after our trip, it was cancelled due to the snow and freezing temps up in Pistoia! My heating is well and truly on all the time now.

The worst part is getting up and going to school in the morning. I admit we don't make every day, especially when it is torrential rain outside. A mile walk to school in the heaviest rain falls in 20 years or something is not my idea of fun, I'm afraid!! Luckily this is still Asilo, so it isn't obligatory for Antonia to attend, when it is I will have to get my act together! Driving, even if I had a car, isn't really an option as the school is the wrong side of a huge one way system, so it takes longer to drive than to walk!! A scooter would be more practical - we shall see!

The up side to winter being here is that everything is starting to look Christmassey! The tree is in the main square in Florence, the lights are, on the whole, up and on. The tree man has arrived on the corner of the viale with his dozens of real trees. I'm waiting for next week to get one!

Next week!! Alex is home for the holidays, 3 whole weeks! Yay! Another reason for not posting is all the sickness we have ALL had - Antonia and her constant colds, then the 3 of us, at different times, with a really nasty stomach bug! Alex has just had it at school this last week - it was one of the worst times of my life! He just wanted to come home, but apart from the logistics he wouldn't have been allowed on a plane throwing up and once he started to feel better school said he had to stay!! I thank God for Face Book! We were constantly messaging through it while he was sick, as well as talking on the 'phone. Now he is better - nothing! But that's teens for you! School has it's own infirmary, staffed 24 hours by nurses with doctors on call, so in the long run I felt he was better where he was. If it had turned into something more serious they would have just sent him straight into a hospital, which I would have done here too, but at least there we can work things out in English! The idea of a sick child, the worry and trying to deal with it all in Italian doesn't even bear thinking about!

Anyway, assuming I won't post again until after Christmas and Befana ;) - Happy Holidays wherever you are!

Pistoia Zoo

We finally made it to the zoo! Ever since my darling OH and son went ski-ing via Pistoia and told me there was a zoo there, I have wanted to visit it. However, the two chaps were not over enthusiastic, it being a zoo and all. My son came on board when he heard there was a polar bear, Antonia just wanted to go anyway, but I didn't really want to do it with just the two of us as it was quite a big day out. Not having a car, and not wanting to hire one just for the zoo, it meant getting a train and then a bus to get there. It wasn't too bad and probably took about an hour in total to get there. Both kids thought the train was a treat as it was one of the double decker ones! We had to go and sit upstairs, of course! The bus was pretty much a mini-bus, but driven like a rally car! The return journey was actually quite scary! The driver (female) was definitely suffering from road rage and was pretty abusive to anyone that got in her way! Plus I didn't know a mini-bus could corner on two wheels - I do now!

Anyway, back to the zoo! It is in the process of extensive renovations. Some parts are already complete, so where the lions, tigers and jaguars live are of a reasonable size and full of trees, pools and greenery. In fact it was quite difficult to spot the lions and tigers! The jaguar pen was a little smaller so they were much easier to see. They are also building a large environment for brown bears to roam in. The wolves almost have an entire forest to themselves! But then there were still some sad remainders of a "traditional" zoo. The much anticipated Polar bears were in an area much too small for them. It looked dirty and old. I really hope it is a temporary situation for them. The bears were quite young or maybe they were stunted in size, I hope not! The giraffes, elephants, hippos and zebra's were in small areas too, but the animals seemed reasonably unstressed, although they could just have been so bored they didn't care anymore! One strange thing is that there were pellets sold in machines to feed to the giraffes and elephants! As you can imagine this was very popular with all the kids there - and the animals too! They were very enthusiastic in their efforts to be fed!

I like to visit zoos. Not because I am some kind of animal sadist, but because I really do believe that done properly they have a very important job to do. In Britain we are lucky in some of the zoos we have there and the work on conservation that they are able to do. That a small town like Pistoia really wants to bring their zoo up to these kind of standards should be supported. Having visited a few others in Europe the trend does seem to be moving towards a more scientific approach, which in turn means that the animals benefit from better facilities. The move is away from displaying animals for public enjoyment and towards conservation and dignity for the species involved. To rid the world of the zoos where it is still about display we have to support those that want to do it better, especially where near extinct animals are concerned. I genuinely believe the only hope for some animal species is in captivity, like it or not. Here endeth the sermon! Some photos:

The (Fairy) Frock!!

 

I know this is the one you have all been waiting for ;)! Giving it a post all to itself. Whaddya think?!