Russian models...

I have a bunch of Russian models living just above my head! Male readers will probably get excited at this idea, so did Wouter who pictured himself like James Bond in "From Russia with Love"! Well these skinny, anoressic, unpolite girls are becoming a living nightmare. They have no clue of how to behave and I feel that my tolerance's limit is getting close to a dangerous point! They, not only, use my terrasse as an ash tray but they also, accidentally, drop all kind of junk on it! So for some days I collected their cigarette's butts, packages and papers and showed it to the landlady who rents the rooms to them! So for some days things went better but now it all started again...and it got worst! Now they invite boys, smoke joints and then sing load out of the window!! I don't care about boys and smoking but the singing drives me crazy! So I stick my head out of the window and I scream all type on injuries, in Italian, anyway they don't speak a word of French and have a very basic English! Last night they came home around 3h30, laughing in ungraceful way (sorry I have to laugh!!) and then walked in high hills before finding peace around 4am!! My daughter woke up, decided to join me in bed knowing that Wouter was away, and after being attacked by the last survived mosquito, she put a foot against my back!! So I freaked out: I searched and killed the damn mosquito, screamed obscene words to the models and moved "tenderly" my daughter in her side of the bed! This morning when the alarm went on I was so tired that I could cry! This was just a battle and I am not done yet with the "bones bags" upstairs!!

Halloween....trick or treat!

Hi Olg,
Just got your postcard.Thanks for the invitation...I wish.......but hopefully some day we will get a chance to visit you and the beautiful city of Paris. I tried to call you this afternoon but I couldn't get through. It would have been 10:15pm your time. I got home from work earlier, saw your post card and wanted to surprise you with a phone call. Sorry I missed your phone call on Sunday.....I was at work as usual. Just getting ready for my big weekend away. Wow....two whole days without the kids and shopping until I drop since...Some of the stores are open 24 hrs. I have so much to do before we leave Friday afternoon. I wanted to get totally organized for next week since knowing us we will probably be returning late Sunday night and then I have to scrabble to get ready for work and the kids ready for school on Monday....No thanks I have to get it all prepared now. Do you celebrate Halloween in Paris?? Gabriel has a Birthday party to go to on Sunday and was also asked to wear his halloween costume. I don't have it yet!!!!! We wanted to buy them in the states, they always have a better selection of kids costumes. I guess I could always dress him up in last years costume he was Dark Vader from Star Wars and Madeline was Princess Leia. Well, As usual I have to run, Going to pick John up from work then come home and dreadfully decide what to cook for dinner, do 4 load of laundry, prepare the kids lunches for school tomorrow then get them off to bed and unwind infront of the television before I crash on the sofa.I thought you were going to Italy this week?
Thanks again for the post card, hugs and kisses from Hamilton.
Ciao Nancy oxoxoxoox

Nel Blu

We are finally going to Italy. It has been too long since we were there in August and I can't wait to be in Villarbasse to hug my mom. My mom hasn't been well lately and I need to check myself that she is fine. Going home isn't really like going on vacation too me probably because I have such a tight schedule and I end up running up and down trying to do too many things. First of them is going to the hairdresser. Rosy is the only one I trust to cut my hair and do my highlights. I tried couple of times abroad and one time I came home with orange hair and so I promised to myself never, ever to try again! Then I love to do my market on Saturday in Saluzzo, shop at my Max Mara's outlet store in Collegno, see some of my friends (Claudia and Antonella being on the top list), sometimes seeing Graziella, my gynecologist (yes I have the same gynecologist since I was 19!) or Flavia! But what I love the most is to wake up in the morning little earlier knowing that my mom is in the kitchen waiting for me with hot tea and then talking with her about just everything and then waiting for the rest of the family to join us...!
So if you don't hear from me you know that I am in the kitchen, with my mom!

For melancholics only

Have you ever thought that you could fly and touch the sky? Have you ever felt that unbounded joy that is called love? This is what Nello feels for Angela. "Il Cuore Altrove" it's a tender and cruel love story that takes place in Bologna, Italy in the early 1920. The disarming naivete of Nello, and the aching last sequences are extremely touching. The movie ends with Nello singing out load in the streets because it's better to be hurted because we loved that not having loved at all...Is there someone who loved you infinitely and you did not love back in the same way? This and other nostalgic thoughts are wandering about my head tonight...

You are beautiful

Movies and old flames...

This is one of those stories I will tell my grand-children when I will be an old, wrinkled, distinguished lady and they will not believe that, once, I also had been young if I don't show them pictures. When I was 23 I went on unforgattable trip to Mauritius. It was a special offer for Travel Agents, the only people who dared to fly over critical aereas such as Egypt, during the Gulf War. A 12 hour flight brought us from cold Zurich to sunny and warm Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius. Before leaving I was told that Gerard Depardieu was filmimg the movie, Mon père ce heros, on the island, ant that the crew and some actors were staying at our hotel. Wow actors, exotic location, little bikinis...everything seemed so easy, so possible, so reachable! We could not wait to be there!! Beaches, scooter trips, boat excursions, shopping, little restaurants...our days went by with this rythm till one day when I was at the reception of the hotel when a man in his thirdies asked me if I wanted to joim him, later in the afternoon, for a cocktail at the pool bar! Well not really a date but just a drink! "Why not?" I said to myself. So on one of the most beautiful sunset I ever seen Marc told me that he was the first director's assistent and that he was filming with Depardieu...and that his previous work had been with Win Wenders! He got my full attention! Some of you may not know that back then I was attending University to become a movie critic...so you can imagine my total excitment of being able to talk with such a person!! I was asking him questions, trying to be funny and smart and I guess I succeded because he asked me if I wanted to go to dinner with him and the rest of the crew. Mr Depardieu would not be part of the group but nevertheless everybody else would be there so I could not resist! He kindly extented the invitation also to my gilfriends but they declined because they thought it was "dangerous" to hang around with these people! "Dangerous?? What the hell!!" I said to myself so I decided to go on my own. I walked along the beach with Marc and I have to admitt that I was little scared and maybe the thought that my gilfriend were right went through my head but I made it to the restaurant safely. When we walked in at least 12 other people were already there and I was introduced to everybody. And it was in that moment that I saw him.He was sitting on my right. He was suntanned and his curly blond hair were smelling like the sea! I was not really paying attention to him and this got little to his nerves so he said something in French that sounded quite musical so I turned towards him " Tu fais quoi dans la vie?? What do you do in your life??" He looked at me and " Je joue dans le film avec Depardieu! I play in the movie with Deardieu! Je suis le copin de sa fille dans le film! I am the daughter's boyfriend!" No fucking way! A young actor was, actually, flirting with me!! I don't know what got into me but poor Marc paid for my dinner and I run away with Patrick! We ran through some woods and the only light we could see it was the moon reflecting her rose face in the see. We stopped and kissed. We laughed and we run back to the hotel. We decided to do something wild..and totally dressed we jumped into the hotel swimming pool! Splash!! Yes, everybody turned their heads and all thought that we were nuts!! We laughed, and hugged and kissed! Then wet till our bones we went to Patric's room to get a towel and dry up a little! Anyway what I saw when I came in his room, just besides his bed, it was the movie's script and just like that all my sexual fantasies were gone and all I wanted to know was how he prepared for a scene, and how many times they had to shoot before the director was satisfied, and the role of photography and etc.! The poor guy just gave up! I missed a night of wild sex over a script!! Can you believe it?? I really can't!! I saw Patrick the next day and the day after and when it was time for me to leave he asked me to stay till the end of the shooting, to share his room, to make some appearences in the film as a ...but before leaving for this vacation I had just signed my first working contract and I did not have the gutts to stay! I left Mauritius thinking that maybe I missed I big occasion of my life and that probably I would never seen Patrick again! When I got home I could not stop talking about this amazing vacation and about Patrick. One afternoon when I was out he called me from Mauritius! I was on a pink cloud! Patrick called me!! So I made up my mind that I had to see him again.I organized a weekend in Paris: with the plan that I would visit Miky and I would meet Patrick! And so I did. I took hours in getting ready that day, thinking what to say, thinking what to wear, and thinking if he would have showed up!When I saw on my watch that he was 10 minutes lateI knew that something was wrong! Then I saw him! He crossed the road and I could just hear my heart beating and I had no saliva in my mouth. He was there. But he was with a friend! Oohh!!The magic was gone! We spent sometime talking in a bar about the movie and the vacation but it was just not the same. I waved him good bye and I went back to Miky's place! The next day, for the first and only time in my entire life, I missed my plane!! But this is another story!

Canada in our minds....

This morning while I was brushing Meggie's hair before bringing her to school at 8h30 at I had this little conversation with her:
Me: " Do you know who is coming in 2 weeks??" showing my hand in a victory sign.
Meggie : "Roos??"
Me : "Not Roos!"
Meggie: "Sela??" she asks with with her big eyes wide open!
Me : " Yes, Sela is coming in 2 weeks with Jesse, Bjorn and Evelien!!"
Meggie giggles with joy and then she look at me and she askes : "Why is she coming??"Me : "Because she loves you!" I tell her immediately!

Meggie takes a moment and then she tells me " Allora prima andiamo da nonna e poi andiamo da Sandra" (first we go to nonna and then we go see Sandra!)."E' lontano ma prendiamo l'aereo" (it's far away but we take the plane)! So we talk about Jophes (she can't say Joseph) and Stephanie and also about Tiger, their cat!
I guess Meggie associeted in her mind love and visiting...we visit the people we love! And even if it's far, and it's expensive ...these are the people we love, we remember and we want to see again. Meggie still thinks of amica Sandra...

Canada is far away but Meggie is right : it's enough to take a plane...!

Classics Dance Night

Voilà voilà a photo taken during the Classics Dance Night in Veghel, Holland in Mid October!! Evelien (on my left) has been my only friend and refence during my stay in the Netherlands, she has helped me to survive through the long winter days and she had always a smile for me. She visited us when we were in Italy, Spain and she already came twice this year in Paris. Next time will be in two weeks. Evelien you can trust blindly, you can tell her a secret without worries and she shows understanding and sensibility in all type of occasion, also the strange ones!! Meggie and her daughter Sela are best friends since they met in Villarbasse when they were only six months old! They have a very special bound and we try to preserve this friendship through the years! Kilometers are not the real distance, is just in the heart!

The frog...

Hi Olg,
I did an afternoon shift yesterday until 1000pm, then came back for a day shift this morning at 700am. I didn't mind, I prefer day shift. I have 20 minutes to go before I get to leave. Everything OK??
Meggie doing well in Daycare??
I started reading the Blog on that girl who lives in Paris (I can't remember her name right now) very interesting...she talks alot about the FROG.
Hope you and Wouter are well, big kiss to Meggie, Ciao Nancy

fiori selvatici...

First day in High School. Micaela represented what I imagined "feminility" was because she was not only beautiful she was sensual, warm and elegant. Sometimes I thought that she did not belong with us, that she was a sort of superior being dropped on earth on a special mission. I decided that day that she had to become my friend. Not easy target, though, because she was very selective and very demanding. I tried to impress her but I have to say with little success. It took me a while but I succeded it and it's still there and definitely more strong than when it started. I was 14, Miky was 16. We will celebrate Micaela's 40's birthday this coming November in Venice. Our friendship lived through our lives, was not touched by the distance or by the few confrontations we had and it has been for both a pillar on which we could lean, with no fear! Miky is going through a very challenging moment of her life. Her relation with Francis came to a decisive crossroad and some important decisions have to be taken with no longer hesitation. It's not easy and it will be very difficult ...the road to "re-building" it's the most demanding one but also the most rewarding when you succedd. She will be reborn from her ashes like the Phoenix and she will fly again...and the sky will be no limit. She is a flying attendent after all.

Holding hands

On my return flight to Paris, on Friday, I took a seat besides a couple in their sixties. They looked friendly and I considered that they were the right choice for the day as "travelling compagnions". I kept myself busy skimming the pages of Vanity Fair while our plane was accumulating delay. When the airplane's engines roared to get us on the "landing field" the man searched out for his wife's hand and held it while we flew into the sky. They did not speak to each other. She, gently, closed her eyes and he kept reading his newspaper. It was like they didn't need words to be together. They simply were together and their being together was effortless. I wandered if it had always been that simple between them or it had taken years of explanations, of joy and pain, of screaming and laughing to get to that point? My mind took off following its thoughts and it was just after the Mont Blanc, around Dijon, that the plane started its descent to Paris. This time the woman reached for her husband's hand just before the plane stratched the ground with the wheels. They turned, faced each other and smiled. A little tear made his way on my face and embarresed I reclined my head knowing that this is what we all search for. Here on earth and sometimes in the skies.

ICE BAR

After a long day that includes a flight from Paris to Milan, a presentation of the hotels in front of an audience of 20 people then another meeting and last but not least an official dinner with all the Italian management...my only wish is to go to bed and read a book before falling in Morpheus's arms, but this time my colleguas decide that it's too early and we have to go out! We are in Milan!! "Ok, ok" I say in a totally unconvinced tone! So to "animate" me they decide to give a try to the ICE BAR! Brrrrrr!! Ok let's procede in order...you have, first, to enter this city hotel where you are welcomed by a young guy who tells you how it works then after paying 17€ which includes entrance and cocktail the guy puts on your head a thick coat with black gloves attached as you were going "bear hunting"!Then he opens a door and leaves the clients closed into this "preparation room" that cools you down before entering the ICE BAR! "If we have to do it let's do it!!" I scream ! We open the door and "WOW" we say in unison! The place is really surreal, you are transported in less than one second into this fairytell world...at -7 degrees! I know that for my Canadian's friends and sisters this it's nothing nasty but going from 20 to -7 degrees it's quite a shock!! We choose from a list of Absolut Vodka's cocktails that we drink in less than a blink! So with a "reindeer's spirit" we decide to end our evening at the ROIALTO! And I was the one who wanted to go to bed...early!

Turning the pages...

I am not sure how I crossed, one day, Petite Anglaise 's path. Now that I come to think about it, it might have been via the site Expat. that I was visiting when I was still living in Holland and dreaming of my return to Paris. Few lines and I was totally seduced by the writting and the story of Ptt Anglaise. I could not stop, I had to know more and I checked, many times per day, to see if she would have updated her blog or just to read the new comments. She became part of my life. It was, a ritual. Still is. Every morning I would sit at my computer, drinking hot chocolate, to read her blog. I would continue my day with "fulltime-mothers duties" but sneaking sometimes to go and load her page. I dared, few times, to leave a comment with the nickname of Eau. Then my life took a new challenging turn. I moved back to Paris. A new job and a different life. Even in the extremely busy months I always found a moment to read Ptt. Maybe by printing her posts and reading them in the metro. Then on April 1st I could not resist and I asked if I could join at the bloggers meeting that Ptt was organizing in Paris. I had to go and I had to see her. I arrived quite early and briefly met with Ptt. She was, definitely, different from what I had imagined : more shy and more reserved than what she could have appeared in her blog! Blond long hair, porcelain skin and a cute dress! Very Brittish! She looked almost ethereal. The evening went on smoothly and I met Dongurigal and Lapagefrançaise. It was a mild night and I was happy to be part of something that I did not understood fully. Then Ptt disappeared. I mean from her blog: I was really concerned that something bad had happened but readers were giving no clue apart that Tadpole, her daughter, and she were fine. Then the come back with some posts about "dating on Meetic" which I thought weren't her best. But they were a diversion. Then the news about being dooced. I had appointment that day with Dongurigal and Ptt was also on the list of our topics. Then an apartment for Ptt and some other lovely posts. And then the BIG news!! The book deal! I always knew or sensed that this would happen, but not like this! Not so dramatic! How crazy life can be..and how exciting, a real rollercoster! I can't wait to hold Ptt's book in my hand and finally turn the pages...

My beautiful laundrette

I never thought that I would enjoy going to the laundrette...and most of the time when I leave the appartment at 9pm, with my luggage full of wet cloathing like I am going on a trip, I am grouchy and tired I wish I had place for a dryer but nevertheless while I walk down the boulevard, I breath and look around and try to find some motivation. But it's only when I open the door that I realize that I have, finally, some time on my own. The laundrette's light has an opaque, veiled brightness and I look strangely pale and other people's faces look also different, more greenish! While I charge the machine I hear a lot of lunguages and I love when I can hear some conversations indisturbed. When I go late there is a couple with a little child who is in charge to clean up the place. She feeds the baby and he cleans the washing machines :they are so sweet and I feel a moment of tenderness for them. I sit on the cold chair and I read my latest book or write in my little notebook the list of "what I have to do", I check, sometimes, with the corner of eye, the cloathing turning in the dryer, after 2 cycle of 6 minutes each, I put a hand in the machine to feel if everything is dry and the heat warms up the place. I fold then Meggie's little shirts, get the socks paired, pile up all underware and I am off to the apartment, again. It's my little bohiemien moment, my little " Moulin Rouge" à moi!

It gets colder...

Hi Olg,
I'm at work on my lunch break and I finally have a second to write to you.
I can't believe how nuts it gets around here. I just started a shift of 7 days in a row (Sun until next Fri). It's Thanksgiving weekend here and the Fairs are on this weekend, there is one in Rockton (on your way toCambridge) and one in Vineland ( just after Grimsby) and I get to miss them both. I guess we could go after work and walk around for a bit, I love seeing the fall crafts and pick up a freshly made apple pie for thanksgiviing dinner. St. Jacobs is nuts this weekend. I'm sure you remember St. Jacobs its as nice as Niagra-on-the lake. Sandra and Jerry are having us all over for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow afternoon. So as you can see that we are all busy but we try hard to still get together once in a while. I wanted to thank you for the beautiful print you sent me. You are always going out of your way for us. It was kind of cool to have received something from PARIS.Norma's birthday is December 5th. Why, are you planning on coming over for a party???
It wouldn't surprise me. VWoulter and Meggie would love it here in the winter. Come to think about it I don't think you ever spent a winter here with us before. You have to come and experience the cold Canadian winter. It has already started....It gets colder at night already and its only October. So you could just imagine our winters if it startes in October and lasts until late April. Well knowing you, I can just see you arriving in Hamilton one cold winter day. Maybe November 30th??? Just in time for John's B-day (Dec 1st), Norma's B-day (Dec 5th), Gabriel's B-day (Dec14th) or maybe for Mamma Licia's B-day (Dec18th). Well I'll leave it up to you.
Did I mention December is a crazy month for us??? It's ok though, it's what family is all about.
Big Hugs and Kisses to all,
Talk to you soon,
Nancy
xoxoxoxo

Fall in Paris

It's Automn in Paris. I felt it, for the first time, this morning. Leaves were covering the streets, sandals and colourful dresses had left place to much warmer outfits and Meggie and I shivered a little when we opened the door and rushed to school just before the grouchy lady closed the gate. Woof we made it again! My legs were weak while I walked back home to have my breakfast. I treated myself with a healthy breakfast with sliced kiwi, some musli and greek yogourth. But not even this and DolirhumePro have beated this nasty cold that has been with me, now, for more than a week. I have been feeling tired latey and I have the impression of loosing grap on my life and the sensation of running all the time. I run to school, then I run to work, I run to get a bite, then I run to get the metro and then I run home again. The next day it's the same running again all over again! It's just like in the movie "Groundhog Day" with Billy Murray.
Don't get me wrong, I don't start to regret to be back in Paris, absolutely not, and I don't want to complain for being a working mom, asbsolutely not...but sometimes it's just too much! I just wish I had more time to spend with Meggie and to do the little things I love to do...! It's Automn, and I feel like the falling leaves a little lost in the air.

Steam boats and old stories...

Often it is important to know where we come from, for a fuller sense of direction in life, in participating to a larger general design. All those who contributed to our genetical map are in a certain sense still living inside ourselves, wherever their physical existence took place. You may answer many personal questions with a bit of undigging in your family's past, in the history, behaviours, customs that your parents passed on to you, and that you maybe unconsciously are transmitting to your children. There's a special reward when you find something that seemed lost forever, and maybe would, if you had not cared. From the dusty, crumbling papers of documents people who belong to what you now are come out of the mist of time and look at you silently, affectionately, waiting for you to decipher their stories, rescue them from oblivion and pass their as yet forgotten names and stories on to the next generations.

There are some old stories that I love to hear!
This is one of those stories : this is Licia's dad story!

This summer, after Sandra's marriage, Licia went on a trip with Gigino to Nova Scotia and New Foundland. Just a trip up north to get to know a little more of this immense and beautiful country. But this was not the only reason. This trip was also a quest through old volumes in the port of Halifax, searching for a sign of her dad. I can just imagine her excitement and heart beat when some records of her dad were found...

Many, many years ago on November 6th 1927, Licia's dad, Emidio Di Pietro, disembarked from the ASCANIA steam-boat (photo above) at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He had left Vallinquina, Vallecastellana (Teramo) in Italy with 25 "soldi". He had crossed the Atlantic ocean with the dream of making his fortune in this unspoiled country called Canada.
He had travelled then, by train, from Halifax to Hamilton where he found a job at the steal company Stelco.

Many, many years after Licia and Luigi...followed Emidio Di Pietro's steps and started a family in Hamilton, where Emidio had lived for some years before coming back to Vallinquina and marrying Esterina, Licia's mother...but this is another story.

Detail...