January 28, 2008

What a surprise!

Today I went home for my lunch break, and I found a big parcel waiting for me.......
It was from Kelli so I knew immediately that I was gonna like what was inside.....
And I really did..............

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Now Kelli, the question is.......do I have to try ALL the recipes?????
Posted by Gra at 15:47:18 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

January 27, 2008

27 January - a day for remembering

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To the ones who lost their lives in the hope of a better tomorrow.
To the ones who lost their lives in the fight for freedom.
To the ones who lost their lives still believing in the goodness of the human race.
To the ones who lost their lives saving others'.
To the ones who lost their lives for this not to happen again.


We swear, we will never forget.

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There can be no reversing the unique tragedy of the Holocaust. It must be remembered, with shame and horror, for as long as human memory continues. Only by remembering can we pay fitting tribute to the victims. Millions of innocent Jews and members of other minorities were murdered in the most barbarous ways imaginable. We must never forget those men, women and children, or their agony.

—United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, January 27, 2006.
Posted by Gra at 10:13:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

January 25, 2008

Really ashamed of my country today


A legit governement fall due to the senate vote, and our representatives clap and cheer like it's a good thing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7KhQuMDTtU

I'm not saying this was a good leading team, things have gone really bad around here, but this display of childish behaviour doesn't help neither!
Now I don't know what will happen, a new last-minute coalition till the end of the term is quite impossible (three more years), maybe a new election? I must say, at this point I don't really care, I'm old enough to have seen all kinds of politicians, and I have to say no one has impressed me so much better than anyone else.

If you want to have a glimpse of what I'm talking about, of italian policy )at your own risk) take a look at this blog.

We have to rely to some comic actor to really know how things are going around here, how does it sound to you?

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Posted by Gra at 11:13:53 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

January 24, 2008

Heath Ledger 1979 - 2008

38_heath_ledger.jpg picture by GraTosi  I was shocked by the news of his death. He was so young, so talented.

heatrh_ledger.jpg picture by GraTosi He was a father, he had a long life ahead of him, looking at his daughter as she would grow up.

I first saw him in 10 Things I Hate About You but I really got impressed by him in The Patriot.
Therefor, I saw also Monster's Ball,  A Knight's Tale, The Four Feathers, Ned Kelly, Casanova.
And then it was Brokeback Mountain, absolutely amazing.
The Brothers Grimm disappointed me, and I wasn't interested to see Lords of Dogtown, and I can't wait to see his role of the Joker in the upcoming The Dark Knight.
Unfortunately there won't be any more movies to enjoy.
This is what The Times wrote in his obituary, and this is a very well done fansite.
Goodbye Heath, you will be greatly missed.

200px-Brokebackmountainheathledger.jpg picture by GraTosi
Posted by Gra at 10:55:13 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

January 23, 2008

On planning.......

..........Something I'm really good at! 531156h9glx0891k.gif picture by GBarusi

The other day, while out with our friends, we made some plans for the next months to come.
Curious? Here you are.......
- late spring/early summer bike trip to Gran Sasso and  Campo Imperatore
- spring or fall to Turin to visit the just renovated Villa Venaria
- summer bike trip to the Trentino region, choosing between this itinerary or this one
- or a trip a bit longer, to Provence
- spring or fall trip to Ferrara to visit Palazzo Diamanti
- spring or fall trip to Nonantola, near Modena, to visit the Abbey
- spring or fall to Piacenza to visit the Cistercian Abbey
- next winter to Turin again to visit the Stupinigi Residence, when it will be finally re-opened.
Not bad, don't you think?

Plus, Marty and I, we are planning some mother/daughter dates
- in june a trip to Lugano to visit the city and the chocolate museum
- in may a night at the ballet to see the fabulous Roberto Bolle and La Scala Ballet
- in march/april a visit to the Andy Warhol exhibition 

(We'll see what we really did at the end of the year, I really hope to succed in every plan we made)

And between all that, I have to plan next summer vacation, destination still unknown..............

140.gif picture by GBarusi
 

Posted by Gra at 15:46:08 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |

January 22, 2008

One month

Yesterday has been one month since dad passed away. It's a very strange feeling knowing I won't worry about him never again. I hope he's in a deep, peaceful, painless state, up above looking after us all.

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Posted by Gra at 08:41:31 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

January 21, 2008

Last week

So, as you might have seen, the trip to Milan for the Vivienne Westwood exhibition has been made.

My 2nd book of the year has been finished, I've already started the 3rd one.

My salmon was very good (with few changes from the original recipe)

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And we finally managed to go to visit a couple of friends on saturday afternoon.
She broke her leg 4 months ago, now she's out of bed with a cast, and after two surgeries, now she can start to make some exercises to walk again.
We provided the cake and they the tea, we had a nice time.

ConLeMele.jpg picture by GraTosi
Posted by Gra at 12:21:02 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Foggy (but enjoyable) sunday

Yesterday it was a foggy, wet, very cold day. But the weather can't stop us!
So, at 10.00am we met with friends, headed to Fontanellato a few km outside Parma, well known for the church (it's very charming in the fog, isn't it?)

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The main reason to go there? We have this friend, who's singing in a choir and yesterday she was singing at the celebration in this church.
When we got out, we took some time to go around the place, enjoying the view of the castle

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among the local sunday market

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We (the women) couldn't resist and bought a few things (I bought a nice black leather bag). It was really cold and we started to feel hungry, so we drove toward the city and stopped at the "Alla Fontana" restaurant, where we had some very good dishes, such as bruschetta

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rice with mussels

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spaghetti "allo scoglio" (with crustaceans)

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rice with prawns and zucchini

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and one of the best choice of desserts ever!

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With all that food in the stomach, we were ready for the cold once again. So we decided to take a look at the Saint Agnes Festival in the little village of Felegara where we enjoyed a old bikes race

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with some of the partecipants dressed like scots men of the Highland (it seems that the village is partner with a village there - maybe because of the fog?)

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Inside the local oratory, there was an exhibition of old models, ranging from the '30 to the '60 years

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We had a great time with our friends, we had good food, and even if today I have a bit of sore throat, I'm really grateful for the gift of other memories of good time spent together, that I can store away.
Posted by Gra at 09:09:24 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

January 18, 2008

See you next week

My weekend will be full of friends, as usual. Updates coming soon......

389r4e7j1a4iu.gif picture by GBarusi
Posted by Gra at 12:46:15 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

January 16, 2008

A day trip to Milan

Yesterday I took a day off, and with Marty, we made a short trip to Milan and this is what we did in pics (some of them are mine, others from Marty camera).

It was a 1 1/2 hours trip by train, early in the morning. The train was full of commuters and students, most of all, we spent the time reading (me) and sleeping (Marty). Finally, Milan Central Station

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and the first thing we saw going out was a big, giant, ad of the opera Rome&Juliet, with a pic of the great Gimmo!

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We took the metro, yellow line

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directly to the Duomo and its square full of pigeons, not a bit disturbed by the people

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As you can see, it was a tipical grey winter day in northern Italy! So, we decided to do some shopping. First stop, the Vittorio Emanuele Gallery, obviously.

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the gallery itsels is worth a visit

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but the prices were so high.....we run away......to the megastore Rinascente

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Too crowded. We leaved for the 7th floor, we noticed we were a little hungry.....

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We had lunch at De Santis, two little but delicious sandwiches....

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At this point, we were ready for the real reason we were there, the Vivienne Westwwod Exhibition that was held at the Palazzo Reale

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in itself worth a visit

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and here is a glimpse of what we saw

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Outside it was still raining, so we went to the Mondadori Multicenter Shop at the other side of the square, 5 stores of books, dvds, hi-tech and gadgets

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I bought a calendar and a novel, Marty a little diary.

Maybe the weather, maybe the long hours standing on foot, maybe those sandwiches were really too small, we were hungry again. But near there was a Spizzico store, so........

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It was time to go back home.
Same routine, metro, train and bus to home, still under the rain......tired but happy we had a nice mother-daughter day!
Posted by Gra at 17:05:36 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |
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