Easter Holidays

I haven't posted for a while as my husband and my son, Alexander, have both been here. Antonia celebrated her 4th birthday - I'll post photo's directly to her blog- and we finally had a week's ski-ing holiday up in Courmayeur at the foot of Monte Bianco.

It's been busy for other reasons too. Alex has his exams at the beginning of May. If he passes he will be going to Winchester College in September, if not, he'll be back here at the International School. His heart is set on Winchester. Imagine our dismay then, on receiving his latest report, in discovering that his teachers are concerned with his efforts in some areas. Consequently, what should have been a nice relaxing 4 weeks, with some school work thrown in for good measure, turned into a boot camp and us nearly not going away. When we did, the work came too! As concerned as I am, my heart goes out to him and I really hope that this is what he wants! So far every long holiday has been disrupted by something - I can't wait for the long summer holiday when he is between schools and we can really kick back!!

The view from our apartment balcony. It was very clean and new looking and I would recommend it as a place to stay. They were called "Appartamente Ancien Casino".
At the top of the ski lift.
The three skiers!
Going home.
Alexander won't be here for his 13th birthday next week, so we celebrated a week early. I'm going to stick something in the post to school too, and try and arrange a cake for school. Note the watch on his wrist, that was his pressie!

Ski-ing and My Birthday

Having been back at school after Christmas for precisely two weeks Alex returned home for a weeks half-term holiday! The more you pay, the less they are there for sure! Anyway, he and his dad arrived home on the Friday night and Saturday morning we picked up a hire car and set off for Abetone near Pistoia for a weekend's ski-ing. For Antonia, below, it was her first lesson ever - this photo is afterwards - she looks pretty confident doesn't she!

This is Alex's 3rd year of ski-ing and the second season he has been to Abetone. He also had a lesson but apparently it was more a fun thing for him, at one point the instructor was ski-ing down on one leg!! Not sure what that was teaching....

He looks very cool doesn't he?

When we returned on Sunday Antonia was exhausted and came down with the 'flu that week. She still isn't right now. We were supposed to ski again Thursday to Saturday but with her being ill and Stephen injuring his knee on the weekend ski we called it off.

We did, however, get to IKEA! The photo is to show what a gorgeous day it was, not of IKEA, honest. Even here in Italy you can't escape its clutches. I came home €300 lighter in the wallet!!

Anyway, instead of ski-ing we hired another car for the day on the Saturday and set off for "The Mall". This is a very small discount designer shopping centre. It was definitely worth a trip, as you can see from all the bags! The bargain of the day had to be my Ferragamo ankle boots - €85! Yup, and they are the real deal! The Sixty shop was also great value. Their brands include Miss Sixty, Energie and Murphy and Nye. T-shirts started at €8 and jeans from €25!

Finally, this is me and my cake. Note only 2 candles. Can't remember if my birthdate is on my profile, but I'm not about to announce my age! You can either think I look good for an old bugger or I've had a hard life! With two kids of vastly different ages and having had my first older than most, you can keep guessing! A small hint is the fact I will have been married 22 years this year..

As a Gadget Girl I was highly delighted to receive my wish list request of an i-touch. The i-phone isn't on contract with anyone in Italy yet and I don't make enough calls to warrant one, so this was the next best thing and boy, is it cool! I have already made purchases off i-tunes with it, downloaded audio books onto it, TV episodes, short films, photo's and of course music and music videos. I only have the 8GB one but I seem to have packed a lot on and still have over 5GB left! If it had a camera attached it would be perfect! Stephen also got me a pink silicon sleeve for it. Pink for 2 compelling reasons - it's Antonia's favourite colour and now Alex can't knick it without removing the sleeve ;)! Didn't stop him surfing YouTube for Top Gear though...