recent times

Well things have pcked up at work in terms of hours, which will be great come payday! Although pretty knackering! I had a lovely weekend- went out with some ex-students from MaxMara. None of mine came :-( However, i was lucky enough to acquire a 'fake'student for the evening which was nice! On Saturday i had dinner with Luca, I cooked prawns and chilli with pasta (brave move no? feeding the Italian pasta!) He rought a lovely bottle of port he very kindly bought for me and Sil in Portugal at christmas. It was a lovely evening!
Sunday I got up and had huge breakfast with brioche, coffee, yogurt, cereal- the works! and sat and read some articles in a a trashy magazine (with my dictionary of course!- never thought i'd need to learn 2 different verbs for 'castrate') I went to work (boo Hiss) to prep for MOnday and thenw ent for a drive as the sun was setting. The day had been glorious- sun shone all day and luckily has been doing ever since. Its still cold but beautiful!
Over the next couple of weeks i'll probably just be working alot but i'd eally like to get out and visit somewhere new. Maybe on sunday....

Something special.....

On Dece,mber the 9th 2010 I offically became a resident of Reggio Nell Emilia in Italy!!! I now have an Identity card and everything!!! I was so excited i keep showing it to people, and today i bought a little plastic cve to keep it warm and dry and not crumpled!!!! Small things.......
I went and did a spot of xmas shopping today- the weather was glorious, xmas shopping with my sunglasses on!
I'm lookin forward to coming back to Blighty for a couple of weeks, it'll be nice to see everyone and of course to meet William! It's Amy's birthday on Monday (she'll be 29, and possibly not thank me for broadcasting that but....I figure as i'm always going to be older..) Therefore, as surely as day follows night it'll be my birthday at the end of next week. I'm determind not to be as down about it as i was last year and things are going well at the moment, jobs ok, i'm painting alot which always makes a difference- looking in to ways of exhibiting, different places an such like. Nick has been amazing- we went around several galleries in RE last week and he was there asking all the right questions when i got all shy and lost my nerve....he wants to help me put on an exhibition, which would be great. I dont want to hire a space until i know more about the audience here an dhow my work will be received. We'll have to see.
I havent got any further with the Italian exam cos i've been so busy painting, but my confidence is growing and thats the biggest problem i have with it.
ok tonight, off to Leo's for sing star and games and munch! Lats week we went to Giovanni's place in Carpi for sing star and pizza, was good times!

Dec the halls.....

Sorry- yes its been a while. Rubbish, I know. Well Seville was awesome- 25 degrees!!!! A last grab at sunshine before the dreaded winter Fog in Reggio (frankly it deserves a capital F), we've already had a spot of snow but if you in blighty are reading this then i'm sorry- nothing like the scale you've had it! (although it is forecast for the weekend eeeeeek!)
It was Sils birthday at the weekend, we had a costume party and most folks really got into the spirit, i was wthe statue of liberty, complete with book and torch! We sang, we drank and we chatted and also ate a bit too. Good times.
Before the party i went to Bologna shopping with Luca (yes, the one and the same)(we both have big feet- he knew a boat shop!) I decided to stop thinking so much (shock horror i hear you cry!) A good friend of my mums came over with her a few weeks ago and we talked a bit- she said some stuff that kind of changed the way i was thinking about things. I'm going to ....I AM GOING TO go with the flow and not over think. (If you've met me then you are probably wishing me good luck, probably with raised eyebrows right now.......Ta!) So far, so good.
Amy had her baby!!!!! I am now the proud Aunty of young William Roland Spencer. We were introduced on skype but i cant wait to meet him in real life- his mother says he looks like Winston churchil.......
Oh and i've started drawing/painting again!!!!! going into town tomorrow to try and find out how things work here and if i could potentially exhibit something next year........Wish me luck (again!)

Gay Paris!

I just got back from Paris (if at first you dont succeed...) it was great! Christen and landed and arrived in \Paris about 2pm (its so nice not to have to think about time differences and changing money) the weather was grey but it stopped raining and so we did what we do best- we walked! We saw Place du concorde, The obelisk ( i have no idea how i should spell that) the arc du triumphe in the distance at the other end of the champs elysees. We also went to the jewish quarter and ate Falafel, which was awesome and then some pastries we were stuffed and shattered.
We took the metro back to christens apartment and collapsed. Christens Grandmother live in the building next door and so we went to see her around 7- she warned me- she will talk at you and she did!
Georgette Dupont is a 90year old Parisen who has lived in the same apartment since the war, both apartments date form the 40's and the character of the place is unmistakeable and fabulous! Her appartment still has the 40's blue shiny paint on the kitchen walls and knick knacks of every concievable variety on every surface. She was an artist before christens mother was born and her husbands paintings cover every wall in the living room and then in stacks- they are amazing all in oils, mostly of Paris and Venice. There are several busts dotted around the place- all done by Madame Dupont herself, friends from art school and even her teacher! So i find myself sitting in an apartment on the edge of Paris listening to a Parisienne, answering in Italian (my head said foriegn language-italian was the response) and having an American translate. She asked lots of questions about the Queen (a big fan- especially Princess Di) and we managed to work it out with lots of help from Christen. She is brilliant- well both of them actually! I'm not really doing the experience justice, but its only because i'm so tired. I've had a fab weekend. Before we caught the plane back we went to see the Eiffel tower and i took loads of photos- the weather today was cold but sunny- gloriously sunny with clouds billowing across the sky. I'll try to post them on facebook this week. Now i've got to go to bed- i'm done in and this at work will i suspect be hard. But next weekend is a long weekend off, and so Chris and I are off to Seville!

Epic Fail

Ok, so September has vanished leaving in it's wake colder weather (needed a coat for the first time today :-() but sunny days and the first yellow and red leaves are floating to the ground.
I had to end things with Luca- i knew we wanted different things but as we were we probably had the shelf life of an egg. I care about him but the difference is insurmountable and so... when the opportunity arose for me to go to Paris for the weekend with Christen I though hurrah! I can get away and clean out the cobwebs- not be mopping around Reggio. Perfect timing! I hurried booked my ticket on friday morning and merrily st off to the airport at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning, only to discover that i had infact, booked my ticket for the 23rd of October not the 9th. Sono Scema. I began to make my way back to Reggio, Via Bologna. I decided to hang around in BLQ for a bit, it was fun, i went to the international bookshop and looked around for some art shops as the art teacher told me to buy some bigger paper- which i successfully found after asking and following directions in italian so i was quite pleased with myself.
There was also the small incident of driving the car out form MaxMara just as it ran out of Petrol..... just not my week

Back to work...

So it's the end of my second day back at work and so far so good. I'm glad to be back at work- stops me thinking too much. I'm enjoying the teaching again an its really nice to catch up with my students. its been great to catch with all the other teachers too and also gli fratelli Angiulli (missed them) we've all slowly been getting back into the groove. Sil's friends Mattie and Loz came for the weekend and we had a blast, went to lake Garda, to a place called Lazise and laid on the worlds smallest beach. Where the boys went swimming, i didn't but i was tempted...maybe next time if i'm feeling brave!

It's Sunday today, I don't feel too good and I'm having second thoughts about committing this to the internet, i hope in a few hours I'll feel distinctly better. So far, I'm here in Italy and so are Katie (teacher form last year) and Giovanni (of Angiulli fame) and my Italian teacher (Paola) and Luca (The Italian of Newquay fame). I went out for dinner with Luca last night- I had sushi for the first time (last time I only ate cooked stuff). It was good, the dinner and the company. Although my stomach is tender this morning, and not generally happy. Other than that it was lovely evening, except at the very end when i needed to establish how we were to be in Italia- Both London and Newquay were fantastic but holidays, small pockets of fantasy. Now we are in Italy and this is real life for both of us....
Unfortunately he can't be what I want him to be, and I can't be what he want's me to be and so abbiamo fatto. I know this is the safest decision for me, (If i don't look after me, who else will?) but that is my head talking, everything else however....
I'm sure i'll feel better tomorrow.