Ciao dear friends, just a quick note to let you know we have not been able to read our e-mails since Friday night. Dunno why hotmail is acting up, but hope the problem will be resolved soon.

I will be in Scotland for a few days next week, house hunting! And Kia will be at her parents' in Piedmont starting from the 28th. She needs to pick up a few things we need to take with us in Scotland. Plus she will take the time for a checkup appointment with her dentist and family doctor. Just because we don't know how long it will take to have a dentist and a doctor in the new place. I should do the same, but I'm just too busy at work right now.

Thank you all for your tags, have a sunny Sunday! I will be busy eating all these yummy marzipan fruit-shaped sweets. LOL!

They are Sicilian traditional sweets. If you wind up in Sicily, just ask for "frutta martorana". Buon appetito!

I'm having a coffee break with some bread and homemade cherry preserve. I feel better today, just very weak.

I'm trying to get my house back in order. Zeno and I had language classes every night this week and I have a lot to catch up with. It's like a never-ending job and I really don't like it. Fortunately I got the most amazing husband and he often helps me with the housecleaning. My floors are still a mess! We have had lots of rain this week and the forecast says more rain is on the way. But today, finally, is a beautiful sunny day. I took a couple of photos of our flat to share with you. This is our small kitchen...

...and this is our well-lighted & bright living room.

Seems like every time I sit down here to write a post, something takes me away from it. Till we blog again…

Happy Earth Day everyone! This day is intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's environment. But of course we must love mother nature every single day of the year!

To do a brief re-cap, for my birthday I have been spoiled from my sweet hubby with a yummy chocolate cake. We both had a big slice with whipped cream on top. I received lots of goodies and wishes from my dear friends and I will display them soon. Still working on the page. We went to the cinema to see "Nim's Island" with Jodie Foster. It's quite a funny movie, I recommend it if you want to have a good laugh. We also spent some time cooking together: pork steaks with peas and mustard sauce.

I forgot till now to reply to a few of you about English on Italian TV. We do not have any English speaking channels on TV here, and we don't have TV programs in foreign languages. The only chance to see something in English is to have a dish for satellite TV, but it's terribly expensive! Every foreign movie or TV series is dubbed in Italian. Plus, since it takes time to dub all the episodes, here in Italy we usually have one or two years of delay on TV shows. Sometimes I think it would be better to get TV shows in original language with subtitles instead of dubbing; it would be somehow educational. Just a few Italians can speak a second language and I think that dubbing is one of the main things to blame for it. When I was in the USA I used to set our TV to show the captions too. I will do the same when we'll have a TV in the UK. My big problem is that when I try to talk in English and the person I'm talking to does not understand, I just blush, get nervous and let Zeno speak for me. I should be more confident! I just need to practice more often. For example, when in 2002 hubby and I lived a whole month with a few of his colleagues (two Americans and two from Slovakia) I had to talk in English and my conversational ability really improved!

To reply to Amy, the name of the succulent plant in the picture is Echeveria. It's not a Hens And Chicks plant, but it looks a bit like it. We really like it. After our move my parents will give it a new home in their garden.

Zeno has got to start working in Scotland on the 19th of May. On Saturday we bought 5 cardboard boxes and some bubble wrap, just to start packing a few small items. In the next few days we will ask different moving companies to provide us with a quote and will compare them. We also had a look at some apartments on a website suggested by the company in Scotland. The city where we are looking for a new house is called Paisley. It's close to Glasgow airport and also to the job place.

I had a headache all day long yesterday, so I didn't accomplish much, just hung around the house with sleepy eyes most of the day. This morning I felt much better and I met my friend Ottavia in the main square of the city. Since it was raining so hard outside and the roads looked like rivers, we decided to enjoy a hot cup of coffee (for me) and cappuccino (for her) in a cozy cafeteria. We spend a couple of hours chatting about our move and her problems at work, that BTW I truly hope will be resolved soon. It has also been extremely windy today and I got home completely wet.

Well, I need to get going and update my birthday page. I also need to get my kitchen and lounge floors mopped; with all the rain we have had lately my floors are a mess! Hope you are having better weather than I am! Until we blog again.

Good grief, days go by so fast and I haven't blogged in a while! I woke up on Saturday morning and the next thing I know is that the whole weekend is already gone and I did not have the time to do all the things that were on my to-do list. Plus, I'm sick and I have felt drained and irritable the last few days. This rainy and grey weather sure has an awful effect on my mood. Rain… rain… and more rain! Tsz! Will the sun ever come out to stay? This year I did not have the chance to use my handmade jeans purse yet 'cos of this hideous weather.

I made it about 10 years ago using an old jeans skirt and some pieces of fabric that my mom had here and there.

I want to share with you a photo of the Lanterna (one of Trieste's lighthouses) that my friend Valentina recently sent to me. Isn't it a beautiful sunset?

I want to thank from the bottom of my heart all the sweet ladies who remembered my birthday. You made me feel very special and lucky for being blessed with so many sweet friends! I'm working at my birthday page, hope to finish it soon. Ok, gotta go, just wanted to let you know I'm still alive! LOL! Will write about my birthday and our move in my next post. A big germ-free hug for y'all! I will be around to visit later.

Here we are, totally exhausted after tonight Arabic lesson. Tonight we announced to the class that we're moving to Scotland at the beginning of May. Unfortunately we will be able to attend just two or three more lessons before we move. Luckily, our Portuguese teacher and our fellow students agreed to meet twice a week (instead of once) in order to do as much as possible all together.

Thank you for all the good vibes and sweet tags about our move! So heartwarming. We started surfing the net to check what kind of apartments are available in the Glasgow suburban area. Most of them have carpeting, not too good for Kia's dust allergy! We are still trying to decide whether to get a furnished apartment (as we did here) or an unfurnished one. In the latter case, we should buy almost everything since we do not have furniture to take there with us. We know many of you already had moving experience. We would be glad to get some hints and tips. We hope everything will go as smoothly as possible!

Here is a photo of one of the item we are still debating whether to carry with us or not. This little hedgehog (riccio) is very delicate and we're worried it may get damaged during the trip.

Even though we did not move yet, a few friends already asked us questions like: "When are you planning to move back to Italy?", "Are you looking for another job to get you back here?". Honestly, we're kind of sick of moving. Don't get us wrong, we like to see new places, make new experiences and meet new people! It's great making new friends! But at this point in our life, we would like to settle down, finally. And we really hope this new job can give us the chance to do so.

To reply to dear Stumbeline, not sure we'll be telling our not-so-kind landlady what we think of her. We must keep in mind she is 75 and we're not supposed to be rude with elderly. LOL! But all depends on how she will react to the news of our sudden move and on whether she is going to give us back the extra money she has taken from us in the past 4 years. She still owes us about 1000 euro!

If you have sun where you live, send us some, pretty please! We had a major thunderstorm today, and temps dropped down again. We really can't stand this weather anymore! Bed time for us. TTFN!

Kia and I had a nice and relaxing weekend, probably the last one like this before our move. On Saturday night, pizza with Tullio and Silvia was very good. I got pizza "Contadina", with pancetta, mozzarella and provola cheese, and Kia got one with grilled eggplants. The weather has been generous with us: it rained while we were in Tullio's car and in the pizzeria; it just didn't while we were walking outside.

We prepared a list of things to do before our move. Oh my! So much to do so little time! Can't wait to know the exact date I must be in Scotland. BTW, to reply to some of you: I don't know if the company will pay our moving expenses. But they will help us looking for a house. When I was at the job interview, one of the guys told me that it's easier to find an apartment once you are there, instead of searching from abroad. The company is big and spread worldwide. It's head-quarter is in California (USA), while in Glasgow (Scotland) they have their European head-quarter.

I would like to ask you an advice on what movie to see next time we go to the cinema. There are two nice movies that just came out here: "Horton hears a Who!" and "Nim's Island". Did you see them? Did you like 'em? Maybe we are going to the cinema on the 17th for Kia's bday.

Gotta go now and get the bus to go to work. Have a very happy Monday and week ahead! Hugs & smiles from Kia and me.

Good morning whoever may be out there! I slept in until 9:40 this morning (I got into bed around 2 AM), got bread and jam for breakfast and decided to sit down with my coffee and write a post and maybe blog hopping to read anyone's news.

I hope you all had a nice start of the weekend. Zeno is chatting on the phone with his best friend Mimmo and giving him the news of the move. Finally rain has stopped but the sky is still full of black menacing clouds. Today is Zeno's Name Day (Onomastico) and we are having coffee and Pastiera (a typical Neapolitan cake) for lunch.

Both my sweet hubby and I would like to make a recipe corner someday soon. We've already chosen the graphics to decorate it. But the problem is that, while hubby strictly follows his recipes, I usually do not follow any recipe, I just throw things together according to the inspiration I have at the moment. Luckily, most of the time they turn out good and yummy. LOL! Hubby says he cooks as a scientist whereas I do it as an artist. FYI, I'm not messy, just creative! ROTFL!

Yesterday, while coming back home by bus after the cinema, hubby and I have been talking about how sorry we are for not being able to finish our language courses.

We both like Portuguese, it's a melodic language. And it's a pleasure to write e-mails to our Brazilian friends Lu and Wanda Lucia in their native language. Not that we can say much right now, but at least it's a start. Before leaving for Glasgow, we will buy a grammar suggested by our teacher so we can keep studying by ourselves. We also love Arabic! We would have never thought it could be so easy to learn! Don't get me wrong: we won't be able to actually "speak" because it's a short course and it's just basic Arabic. But at least now I know the alphabet and can read it and write it. Right now we are only able to say our name, ask someone else's, talk about the weather… and ask just a few simple questions (what did you eat/drink/cook…?, where are you from?). About the verbs, we only learned the past tense, not yet the present. But that's nice and Zeno and I are liking it. It's a pity that in five years spent here in Trieste we only found these courses now that we are going to move.

The sun just came out and I took the chance to take a photo of the succulent plant we have on our balcony.

We have several plants here in our apartment and I'm quite upset we won't be able to take them with us after the move. My parent's will take care of them, but it's not the same.

One of the things we are gonna miss of Trieste is the fact that we can walk around anywhere in town at any time (even late at night) without worrying for anything and being afraid for our life. We've never felt like this in any other place we have lived in.

The first sweet gift for my birthday has arrived. It's an adorable premade made by my sissie Susan. I just added it to my birthday page (see link on the left). Since our Adoption Shoppe is currently closed, if you'd like to adopt it just mail us and we'll send it to you, ok?

Not much else is going on over here, I've just been hanging languidly at home waiting for spring to come and it seems like it never will. I'd love to go out for a long walk and enjoy this city a li'l bit! BTW, I do have a few new pictures of Trieste to add to our Photo Album, but I haven't taken them off my digital camera yet. I'll let you know when I upload them. Before I say goodbye, I would like to thank my hubby for reading this post and correcting my poor English as soon as he finished his phone call. Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone! Till we blog again.

Finally spring has sprung in our Front Page, even though the weather is more autumn-like here. We're surely longing for spring and warmer weather.

Already Friday, time sure flies! This week has been gray, rainy and windy. But we've been in a good and cheerful mood. Still no news for Scotland, but we're trying not to worry too much! Not easy, though. Tonight we decide to relax going out for dinner. We had focaccia with ham and mozzarella cheese and then we treated ourselves with the delicious coffees you can see in the photo below.

After that, we went to the cinema to see "Next" with Nicolas Cage, one of our favorite actors. We enjoyed the movie, and he is great in it. Last weekend we went to see "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" by Jay Russell. It's a delightful children's movie that playfully reinvents the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. We still have 16 euro on our prepaid cinema card, so we will go to the cinema again soon in order to use the whole card before our move.
Any suggestion for something cute we can see? Going out together made this grey day very bright! We always like to spend time together, we've so much fun and laugh so much! Tomorrow night we'll go out for dinner again, this time with Tullio (one of Zeno's colleagues) and his fiancée Silvia.

Other than that, Zeno's dad just retired. We are wondering if he is going to spend more time at home now (Zeno's mom retired in September, last year). But none of us thinks so! LOL! He will probably spend all his free time working in his vegetable and fruits garden.

Thanks for all your sweet tags and your positive vibes! Reading your messages is helping us in focusing on the positive aspects of our move. Nonetheless, there are still many mixed emotions running in our minds. Better go to bed now, we will be around to visit later. Hope your weekend is gonna be nice and lovely!

Breaking news: we're moving!

Zeno got the job! He is supposed to start working in Glasgow (Scotland) in about one month. Not sure about the exact day he is supposed to be there yet. He should get more info in the next few days.

Anyway, he's going to be a Technical Service Representative for a major company that makes products for research in molecular and cell biology. He's going to help customers to solve any technical problem or doubt they might have about a product they purchased or are going to purchase.

Will tell you more about our move as soon as we know more. Just wanted you to know about this great change in our life. And, yes! We're so excited! Visiting the castles of Scotland and Loch Ness has always been one of our dreams. But at the same time, we are also quite scared! Not only a new job but a whole new country to explore. So much to do so little time! Where should we start from? Oh, well, as our dear sissie Susan usually says: "deep breathes and one day at a time!".

Hugs & kisses from the two of us. And thanks again for the good vibes! And Happy Birthday / Buon Compleanno to Kia's daddy!

This is Zeno typing and Kia is here by my side. Thanks once again y'all for your good vibes. I really appreciated!

As a biologist, specialized in molecular neurobiology, I've been studying proteins involved in processes like learning and memory (both in Italy and in the USA). Once back in Italy, I move to Trieste were I've been working on proteins involved in Parkinson's disease. I would like to keep working as a researcher, but this way doesn't seem to give many opportunities. This job in Scotland I applied for would allow me to keep working in a scientific area. If selected, I would become a Technical Service Representative, that means that I would give other scientists advices on how to use properly the products supplied by the company. That would be nice, because I love helping other people in solving their problems.

While waiting for a reply from the company, I'm trying to spend a relaxing weekend, nothing exciting planned, just studying Arabic and Portuguese with Kia. Tomorrow we're finally going to the cinema to see "The Water Horse" by Jay Russell.

We ate a lot today. For lunch we had pizza and ice-cream. Tonight we had a delicious dinner, a dish we enjoyed more than once this winter: pork stew with chestnuts. I'd like to share a picture of it with you. Doesn't it look just yummy?

After dinner we talked on the phone with Kia's parents. Her mother is still suffering some pain with her left wrist even though she had her cast removed on April 1st. Her arms is still swollen. They told us that they are planning to leave on April 20th for a cruise in the Mediterranean. They will visit Barcelona, Alicante, Gibraltar (Spain) and Lisbon (Portugal). They are going with a couple of cousins but unfortunately none of them likes to take photos. I hope my mother-in-law's wrist will be completely recovered by that time.

I better be heading to bed now, so nighty night & happy Sunday.

This is going to be just a quick post. You might have noticed that we uploaded just today the post that Kia wrote yesterday, but wasn't able to put on-line because of the big thunderstorm that hit our area.

I'm back from Scotland, safe and sound. I participated in an Assessment Day for a position as Technical Service Representative. Besides me, there were three more candidates. It has been a long and intense day, but fortunately not stressful. The company will let us know their response within a week, so I will keep my fingers crossed. Also I would like to thank all the people who wished me luck and sent good vibes my way. I will let you know how things go as soon as I hear from them. So far so good! Have you all a good night!

In memory of Pope John Paul II (1920 - 2005) - A Father in Heaven.

I am so looking forward to the weekend! It has been a very busy week and I really need to relax and spend some quality time with hubby! And I need to walk 'cos since Zeno has left I have pigged out all day! In the photos below you can see my healthy (not!) lunch: coffee, biscuits with dense chocolate sauce and… well, I ended up not eating my apple.

And this is my recent snack (a teaspoon of peanut butter) Zeno and I bought in the USA in Fall 2005.

It's April already, my fave month, with many "special days". Happy Birthday to our 54 years-young friend Sergio! Save a slice of cake for us, please! And many dear wishes to Bente that's gonna have her birthday party tomorrow.

I was chatting on the phone with a dear friend of mine yesterday. All of a sudden she said that once she was so bored that she scrubbed the kitchen floor with a toothbrush. What?! Whose?! I know she is a cleaning-maniac and she was not joking. Of course I replied she can come and scrub my floors anytime she likes! LOL! I hardly get bored, but I'm pretty sure I would never decide to spend my free time doing some extra cleaning. No way!

Did you have a funny April Fools' Day yesterday? Anyone got tricked? Here in Italy, April Fool's Day is called "Pesce d'Aprile" (April's Fish). This tradition was imported from France thanks to the commercial trading with the city of Genoa. It's tradition to hang on someone's back a paper-fish very discreetly, or even to send him around looking for any kind of objects impossible to find, making him run around as a "fool". This day is especially celebrated by kids in school.

Talking about being tricked, I'm pretty sure you heard about the "stupid" things our government has been doing lately. Just to mention some: the contamination of mozzarella cheese with dioxin and the temporary block of its exportation because of the lack of proper and prompt controls; the tons of trash piling up in the streets of Naples because the politicians took extra money to solve the problem, but let the mob take control of the situation; the attempt to sell Alitalia, the National Airway company, which is near to bankruptcy. I'm kind of sick of the painful impression that Italy is giving of itself. I know things are not great in other places either or even worse (just think of Tibet, Iraq, etc.)… but that is not such a consolation.

Better move to a different topic… as you know my sweet Zeno is in Scotland for a job interview. I'm anxious to hear how the interview went! Fingers crossed! I really hope to settle down soon, so finally we will be able to seriously think about enlarging our family.

Talking about family, please, keep Lieve and her family in your prayers. She has lost her oldest son a few days ago. He was only 34. My thoughts are with her, her family and friends in this difficult time. I wish I could take her pain away… also send good thoughts to Stumbeline's mom and Cristina's mom to solve their health problems.

There is a bad thunderstorm here right now, so I better turn off my 'puter immediately. TTFN! ((HUGS)) and smiles your way.