13.06.2009 Ele and Paolo's Wedding

13.06.2009

Eleonora e Paolo's Wedding

I must admit, Ely and I haven't had much time to dedicate for blogging these last few days. Unfortunately, we also missed the June's 10 on 10, but we were celebrating our 8th anniversary spending the day in a local spa. It was a fantastic way to celebrate: we needed to take a break, have a rest and dedicate time to ourselves.

Ely has just finished a photography course and she's very happy and motivated to go on with her passion for photography. In my opinion she's very talented! She wanted to make a post and show some of the photos she took during the course on the blog. Maybe she will in the next days. Stay tuned! ;)

Our little kitty Rufus is growing fast and he's becoming nicer and nicer day by day. Sometimes he's a little too skittish and makes some mess in the house...but in general we can't complain.

The biggest event of these last few days was my best-friend Ele and Paolo's wedding on June,13th. It was a fantastic warm sunny day. Both the ceremony and the reception were fantastic. We ate sooo much and the catering was very good. Here are a selection of the photos we took.

The ceremony in the Church

The bride and me

Going to the reception

Digesting in the park

Ely playing

Last but not least...a fantastic wedding cake!

Now they are in honeymoon. Last week they were in New York City, and now they are in sunny tropical Bahamas. Next they will be a couple of days in Miami Beach before heading back to Italy. We'll wait for you, guys...keen to see all the pictures and hear all the adventure you were in.

A new addition to the family...

Last Tuesday Rufus (the cat!) chose us as his new family! How could we refuse him? We instantly fell in love. He's 45 days old and absolutely adorable. We went out for an icecream and returned home with a cat! ;)

He's a very smart cat, but also very gentle and sweet. He adores to be cuddled and, despite the first days he was hiding everywhere, now he is more confident with us and he's exploring the house. At the moment, his preferred place is our rug in front of the TV and under the sofa and his favourite game is playing with a little soft ball and with my bag (you can see it from these pictures! Funny!)

Welcome in our family, Rufus. ;)

When I was a little boy...

Lately I had fun reading in some blogs about the topic "When I was a little girl". I think it was a nice way to remember how we were and share the memories with blogger friends.

So here it is my "When I was a little boy...". Ely will follow with another post in the next days.

• I used to be at the center of the attention of my parents, grandparents and all aunts and uncles, because I was the first born in my family and the 2nd born grandson/nephew. Everybody wanted to cuddle me...how could you blame them?!? Look at this!!!

• I spent most of my summers with my grandparents in Pieve di Bono (a little village in the mountain) in my childhood. I had the best time ever those summers: playing out in the big backyard with my cousins, play with water at the old fountain that my grandparents have in the backyard, make new friends and be free in the nature.

• Once of those summers, I was probably 3, I decided I wanted to break a strict rule and went to play in the laundry room while my mother and the other adults weren't looking after me. In this room my grandmother had stored all the soaps powders and liquids for making laundry and I ended up playing with bleach. Fortunately I didn't drink it, but I just poured it all over the floor and sat down in it. I drove everybody crazy, because they couldn't find me anymore and I didn't answer their calls and yells. I was quietly sat down in the middle of the bleach on the floor. Only after some time, they decided to open the door of the laundry room and found me in that condition. I still remember the red shorts I was wearing: on the back, they turned completely white!!

• My aunt Monica had 3 dolls I couldn't even look at and touch. I wanted to play with them, because they reminded me of my favourite showgirl of my favourite TV show. It was the beginning of the 80's.
  

• Before my brother was born, I used to travel quite a lot with my parents. I loved travelling with them and discover the beauties of my country. They teached me to love art and architecture and take inspiration from them. We also visited some of the most important archeological sites, expecially in southern Italy, and started to love greek and roman history and mythology.

• Until I was 3, I used to take a nap and afterward watch cartoons. My favourite was "Maya the bee".

• When I was in elementary school my favourite cartoon was "the Smurfs" ("I Puffi, in Italian!) and I loved all the cartoons and movies with magical and fantasy elements. On the other hand, I coundn't miss any episode of "Transformers" and "He-man, masters of the universe".
  

• I rememeber the first time my father bought a videotape recorder. That evening we watched all together Disney's "Snowhite and the 7 dwarfs". Loved it.

• I loved when my mother was reading me fantasy stories and tales. I also had records for storytelling with books to follow the story.

• I have always loved playing with water...and made some little disasters at home...ooooops! :)

• I broke a leg in 1st grade during the recess. I had my leg plastered for more than a month!

• When I was 3 I accidentally squeezed my left ring-finger in a closing door. It was so shocking. I only remember the run to the hospital and the fact that I was screaming out loud that I absolutely didn't want surgical sutures. In fact they didn't sew any stitiches...and I still have a visible scar.
  

• I was very skinny and didn't eat very much. Especially I didn't like cheeses, which I had always been forced to eat...I remember hours at the table because I had to finish my cheese...terrible memories!!!! :) Result? I still don't like some cheeses! But growing up I adapted my taste without being forced!

• I was pretty shy, especially at school. But fortunately I have always had good friends anyway.

• I met my best friend Andrea in Pieve di Bono (the village where my grandparents live) when we were about 13. My aunt Monica and Andrea's mother were friends and they planned a meeting at a local videogame penny arcade for us. We played Super Mario for hours and the rest is history. We still are bestfriends and soulmates.

• One of my favourite game was Lego. I had loads!
  

• One of my favourite activity was drawing and painting. And I must admit I was pretty good at it.
  

• I took piano lessons for years. I can't play anymore and now I wished I didn't quit learning piano. The last time I played was in high school.

• When I was little I always needed a light switched on during the night and the company of my mother until I fell asleep because I was frightened by "monsters".

• I always had a passion for old castles. Fortunately here we have many and my parents took me visiting some, when possible. I still like them.

I could go on and on with this list...but I'd better stop here. It's nice to remember...I must admid I had an incredible childhood. I was really spoilt! ;) And the 80's were and incredible time to be a child!

10 on 10 : May with friends

A month has already passed since we made our last post. These last 30 days were tough enough especially for Ely, who lost her beloved grandfather Enrico 2 weeks ago after a fast but very aggressive disease. May he rest in peace. Furthermore, for me it was a very busy month at work...with pushy deadlines that made me work even during weekends...

The weather is getting better and better and today we took part at the birthday party of my best friend Eleonora. She's getting marriend in about a month...and we are really looking forward to it. This party was also a good occasion to see other friends, have a bbq all together, catching up, sunbath and have fun. Perfect!

Even here in Italy today is Mother's day. So...best wishes to all the moms, expecially ours , Clelia (Mario's) and Adriana (Ely's).

Happy 10 on 10 everybody!

01 - The morning tea at home (this Starbucks Coffee mug is a souvenier, as we don't have any Starbucks Coffee in Italy...)

02 - Happy Mother's day!

03 - Taking care of our bonsai

04 - Ely just arrived at our friend Eleonora's birthday party...

05 - Some friends around the pool waiting for the bbq

06 - Syd, Eleonora and Paolo's dog (it's a Rotweiler, but she is sooo sweet!)

07 - After the bbq...Tiramisù and little donuts. YUMMY! Happy Birthday, Ele! :)

08 - The biggest coffee machine I have ever seen!

09 - Back home, Ely studying for her next Law School exam.

10 - In the evening, Ely's cousins Sara and Giulia visiting us.

10 on 10 : Easter in black & white...

....with some colorful particulars! Happy Easter everybody!

1- Our chocolate Easter Bunny...

2 - Gardening...

3 - Cleaning the house...

4 - Shopping at the grocery's store...

5 - Ely's bestfriends came over for a cup of tea...

6 - Listening to some good music...

7 - Ely's Grandfather (Nonno Luigi)...

8 - Baked an original "Pastiera Napoletana", the traditional Easter cake of Neaples (YUMMY!!)...

9 - The "evil" cat of Ely's family...

10 - Going to bed...with a 70's spirit (but she was born in the great 80's!!!).

Japanese dinner

Tonight it was sushi time!! We prepared all the maki rolls and the onigiri with shrimps, avocado, cucumber and egg. We also prepared japanese noodles, teriyaki chichen and japanese green tea. The japanese dinner turned out to be fantastic and super good...have a look!

Cooking the teryaki chichen, maki and onigiri

The tables set

YUMMY!!!

I ♥ London!!!

London was fantastic as ever and unfortunately, now we are back home. I would never leave London. Every time I wish I could stay more and more. But I must say that I was missing some of my home facilities like a comfortable clean bed, a bidet and a sink with only 1 tap to mix cold and hot water again for a bearable temperature. So this made it easier leaving my favourite city!

The Tower Bridge

Buying tea at Fortnum and Mason

For my parents it was quite an adventure! They were very tired at the end of the vacation, because I made them walk very very much and visiting London can be very tiring and stressful. I showed them all the different sides of London: The institutional London, with the political landmarks like the Parliament, the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and so on, the cultural London, visiting some of the main museums and galleries, the amusing London, with its lively noisy crowded pubs, its great shopping and the wide range of theatres and the alternative London, with its markets from Portobello to Camden, from Borough to Covent Garden.

With my family at Hyde Park's Peter Pan statue
British Museum
Borough Market

We also enjoyed the many parks of the city: Hyde Park and - my favourite - St. James Park among the others. The weather wasn't very good. We had mostly rain and cold wind, but sometimes the sun came out to warm us up. Fortunately we skipped all the G20 fights in the city and we remained out of the areas where the protests were held. I could also meet my dear friend Ursula, who has been living in London for almost 2 years now, and we didn't have many opportunities to meet before this time.

St. James Park
Guard changing
Mamma e papà at Buckingham Palace

Ely and I really did a lot of shopping. London has great shops and now the £ (Pounds) and € (Euro) are almost 1=1 so shopping was much cheaper than usual. We went visiting the biggest Mall of Britian (Westfield) and we couldn't not go to the best shopping streets like Regent, Piccadilly, Oxford. We ate a lot of Muffins, Krispy Kreame Doughnuts, great cupcakes and we drunk a lot of Starbucks coffee (my favourite is Caramel Macchiato!) and tea....YUMMY!

Piccadilly Circus

Playing at Hamley's

A tea break in Camden

Last but not least, we found a lot of interesting japanese shops, and we bought some things to prepare sushi at home. We also tried some strange japanese sweets made with rice dough and we ate a lot of sushi! YUMMY!! Also my family tried sushi, but then they decided it wasn't their cup of tea, and they returned back home from the restaurant and ate dinner again. Ely and I ate all the sushi instead! hehehe. Funny moments to remember!

Japanese sweet

Ely and I went to watch the English Premiere for "Monsters vs. Aliens" at the IMAX 3d. Incredible! And very funny movie! And we also went to see a West End musical. This time we chose "Dirty Dancing". Great show!

At IMAX

Musical advertising in the Tube

We still miss London and we can't wait to be back there. Hopefully soon.

The city

;)