Outside my window there is a beautiful day brimming with sunshine. Chilly and colorful. Temps are up to 5°C / 41°F. I'm still hoping for warmer temps, LOL! Yesterday I went outside for a walk and my teeth started chattering. Brrrr… I am still wearing my pajamas this morning. I should clean the house (tomorrow Marco and Sabine will come for dinner), take a shower (but I'm freezing!), go grocery shopping… and I'm procrastinating! I'm quite good at it. I can honestly say that I sincerely dislike housework. But I'd love to be much better than I am. Maybe one day…

It's BOO day, do you have candy for the little trick-or-treaters? We have, and Zeno can't wait to hand out candies to the little ones. For those who are celebrating: have a spooky Halloween! Wishing you a day full of magic!

Today we woke to a lovely dry and (partly) sunny day. Still freezing cold, but at least the light warmed our hearts.

Today we want to talk about a subject that is not very nice and we also wanna show some pictures that are not nice either, but we really have to do this. The subject is garbage!

Our neighbors' inability to throw away their rubbish properly has been bothering us since we moved here. Our condo has 12 dumpsters, located near the street, not far from the main entrance of the building. They are surrounded by a red brick wall and are distributed in two rows of six facing each other, forming a dead-end corridor in between.

Garbage is taken away (almost) every Wednesday. When all the dumpsters are empty, people start throwing away their garbage into the first two dumpsters (left and right) of the corridor. When the first two dumpsters are almost full, some people start throwing their stuff into the two adjacent ones. Other people are too lazy to walk a little bit more and they keep piling up their stuff into the first two dumpsters so much that the lid remains open. When the second group of dumpsters gets into the same condition as the first one, then another kind of behavior is showed off: people too lazy to get to the third group of dumpsters, who just place their garbage bags on the ground leaning to the first group of dumpsters.

There is also someone (well, a few, at least) that tosses the litter in the dumpsters without bagging it or without securing the bag, which means the dumpsters will smell horrible and foxes and seagulls will get into them and toss trash everywhere.

We tried not to pay too much attention to this, but really, is it so difficult to put one's trash in a bag and stick it into a dumpster? Really? Bloody hell, apparently it is.

As you can see the black bags are very close to the dumpsters. So close, yet so far!

Not to mention the fact that here in Paisley the Council does not even organize the separation and recycling of garbage. In both our hometowns, back in Italy, the Council has organized the collection of a different kind of garbage everyday: one day they collect glass, another day plastic, then paper, aluminum, and organic stuff. And everything is recycled. Besides, those who have a garden (like our fathers) do not even throw away organic stuff, but they use it to make compost. Yes, all sorts of food waste can be turned into beautiful compost to enrich your garden, from vegetable peelings to egg shells. It saves you buying ready-made compost.

So, if you consider that here they do not have the tedious task of separating garbage, this laziness in not acceptable!

In conclusion, we'd like to share with you a video we bumped into while surfing the net: Story of stuff.

The lady in the video is American, so she mainly talks about the problems of her own country, but we think that this is something that regards every single country.

We're off to have a hot cup of tea. Till we blog again…

After the lovely clear blue sky we had yesterday…

… rain and wind are here again. Temps are around 3°C during daytime and drop below zero at night. This morning our home temp was 18°C.

I just turned the heater on 'coz I can't sleep if I have cold feet. I'm not ready for winter, yet! Before dinner Zeno and I wanted to go shopping (he needs a new pair of black shoes), but it was horrible outside, it seemed to be foggy too. We'll go tomorrow, hoping in a better weather. I can dream, can't I?

Yesterday, as soon as Zeno got home from work, we went out for a walk. Just walked around the town. It was so cold we could see our breath, for the first time since we moved here. When we got home, our thighs were red and cold. We made this resolution: try to go out for a walk for at least one hour per day, as long as the weather allows.

This week Zeno is very busy at work. Some of his colleagues are away on holidays, so there's more work to do for who's left in the office.

For this reason, I'm afraid there will be a delay in uploading our Adoption Shoppe and Recipe Corner, since Zeno was in charge of making the layout. Everyone seems busy at work in this period, also our neighbor. I was supposed to meet her tonight, but she had to work.

We made Pasta alla Carbonara (our personal version with zucchini and pancetta) for dinner.

We used the last piece of pancetta we brought from Italy in September. No photo of the pasta 'cos it was so good that we ate it very quickly.

This cold weather has inspired some winter-related graphics. Have a peek in our Graphic Shoppe and let us know what you think about them. The style is unusually "primitive" for us, but we wanted to try something new.

Until next time, happy pumpkin carving!

Happy birthday to my mother-in-law! Have a joyful day and save a slice of cake for us!

Yesterday afternoon, Zeno and I had a medical appointment to get our flu shot. Before entering the Medical Center we were so lucky to see another rainbow! It fell so close to us. I kept on thinking that someone must have a pot of gold in the backyard! I must say I don't think I have seen so many rainbows in my entire life as I'm seeing since we moved to Scotland!

After our appointment, we decided to go grocery shopping at Morrisons (our nearest supermarket, just 15 minutes walking from our flat). Temps were around 5°C-41°F, it felt more like winter than Autumn.

On our way to the supermarket we noticed something moving in the middle of the playground we have in our neighborhood. It turned out to be a red fox (volpe rossa). The fox suddenly stopped, sat down and looked at us passing by. The fox was kinda curious too, it seemed to us. It's nice spotting wild-life near our home, it means that animals are still living in harmony with men. Or maybe, as I was commenting with Zeno yesterday night, it might be due to the fact that here many people are unable to properly throw their garbage into bins and/or dumpsters. But this is a topic hubby and I would like to discuss more deeply in one of our next posts.

At the supermarket we bought plenty of vegetables…

…leeks (porro), a cauliflower (cavolfiore), a small broccoli (broccolo), a small white cabbage (cavolo bianco), a cucumber (cetriolo), red peppers (peperone rosso), tomatoes (pomodori), courgettes (zucchini), a fennel (finocchio), a graffiti aubergine (melanzana) and pak choi. The last one is something we have never tried before. Actually, we have never seen it before!

On our way back home, it was already dark and Zeno noticed Ursa Major - The Plough (Orsa Maggiore - Il Carro) twinkling on the horizon. So we looked at the whole sky and found out that the Cygnus (Cigno) was high at the zenith. It was kind of unusual for us to see it there at this time of the year; usually, in Italy, the Cygnus is in that position during the month of August.

We had a chocolate craving, so we decided to try the recipe of the Coffee Mug Chocolate Cake that Susan sent us weeks ago.

It was the first time we cooked (not just warmed up) something in our microwave. It turned out really yummy, especially if eaten when still warm!

One cake was definitely big enough for both Zeno and me. And it was ready in only 3 minutes! Just perfect, don't you think? Thank you for the recipe Susan, our flat has been smelling delicious for hours! BTW, Susan has this recipe on her website if you wanna try this cake.

I am honored to post this sweet award:

Thanks for passing the Butterfly Award to me, Rachel. I truly appreciate you thinking about me! I'm happy to have met you through blogging. There are many blogs out there that I love to visit (see my blog roll), but I'd like to share this wonderful award with the following ladies: Darylynn, Elizabeth, Jaana, Jessica, Jules, Marge, Nancze, Sonia, Suzanne and Toni. You all have beautiful blogs, filled with positive and hopeful thoughts. You make me smile every time I visit. To you ladies: each of you may share the Butterfly Award with 10 other people of your choice. Go on and spread some smiles around us (left click on the award to grab it).

I better stop rumbling now. I wonder if you are still awake. If you made it till here, I love you, LOL! But now I better call Zeno and ask him to proof-read everything before posting it. I'm so glad at least one of us is good at English. TTFN!

Since it rained most of the night, it was a joy to see a pale sun this morning. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long. It turned cloudy soon. Right now it's cool and crisp with a light breeze. We are still surrounded by beautiful Fall colors...

I've been quite lazy today. After Zeno left for work, I tried to catch up on a few e-mails. But I'm still far behind (143 to go), so if you still did not hear from me, don't despair! E-mails sure pile up fast, don't they?! But it's so good to know that a friend is thinking of you, isn't it?!

Zeno and I are trying to re-open our Adoption Shoppe as soon as possible. We're still busy remodeling and trying to re-organize our adoptions. We'd like to know your opinion about the order to give our adoptions: by author or by theme?

It is kinda late, I have a doctor appointment at 4:40 PM and need to get ready. So I'll close for now. Take care and have a good evening with your beloved one.

We are getting closer and closer to Halloween, but it seems like there is not such a huge emphasis on this holiday here, compared to the USA. And no candy corns in the shops.

Sabine told Kia that a bunch of kids knocked on her door a few days ago trying to sell some candies. We found out that here kids sell candies to collect money to organize a holiday that on November 5th is celebrated in all Britain: Guy Fawkes' Day, also known as Bonfires Day or Fireworks Day.

All over the country people build wood fires, or "bonfires", in their gardens. On top of each bonfire is a guy. That's a figure of Guy Fawkes. People make guys with straw, old clothes and newspapers. But before November 5th, children use their guys to make money. They stand in the street and shout "Penny for the guy". Then they spend the money on fireworks. But how did this tradition start? Who was Guy Fawkes and why do the British remember him on November 5th? On November 5th 1605, Guy Fawkes tried to kill King James I. He and a group of friends put a bomb under the Houses of Parliament in London. But the King's men found the bomb, and they found Guy Fawkes, too. They took him to the Tower of London and there the King's men cut off his head.

This is a busy time for me at work. This week I have to take care of the training of two new hires. At the same time I have to prepare a presentation and some papers for my next business trip. Yep, around November 13th I will go to Germany once again. This time I will go to Aachen.

Yesterday we had a little problem with our laptop. A spyware got installed somehow and it took me a long time to remove it. I downloaded an updated version of our antivirus and installed Windows XP Service Pack 3, which is supposed to improve the computer safety. This spyware program was a tricky one. Once it gets installed on your computer it starts creating fake safety alerts (with a logo that's identical to Microsoft's) and asks you to download AntiSpywareXP 2009 to improve your safety. Do not download anything! It's just a trick to download more spyware onto your computer. We were supposed to sleep one more hour (due to the time switch from the Daylight Saving Time), but actually we had to stay up to save our computer.

Today it has been raining on and off the whole day. But we also had the chance to see the rainbow several times during the day.

Have a nice evening and have a look under "Gifts for you" (menu on the left) before leaving. Scrolling the page you will find a cute li'l witch.

My eyes feel so heavy today. You know, I do mornings, but I don't like them! LOL! I am a night owl. I rarely go to bed before midnight / 1:00 AM for one reason or another. It's even worse for Zeno, since he must get up at 5:30 AM and go to work. We'll both suffer for sleep deprivation sooner or later. I know, it's a bad habit and I should take good care of myself and my sweet precious hubby. Easier said than done, though!

Yesterday, for example, I wasn't feeling well (it's that period of the month again) and I told myself after dinner I would go straight to bed. But what did I do? I just got on the Net, blogging and checking my e-mails (BTW, I still have 157 e-mails to go so sorry I'm such a slow-couch!). Where is my self discipline?! In the recycle bin?

I've always been a night person. Even when I was in high school I used to go to bed after midnight, even if I had to wake up at 6 AM to go to school. During my University studies I usually got 3-4 hours of sleep per night. Yep, not enough, I know. But it has always been at night, when everyone is asleep, that I am most productive.

It's been raining frogs and fishes all morning and early afternoon…

…at some point a gelid wind started blowing and some sort of soft-ice/slush started forming on the street and everything around. And now the sun is out again.

Zeno will be home any minutes, till we blog again…

The colors all around are irresistible. Gorgeous orange, bronze, gold, scarlet... lovely! October is coming to an end and soon trees will be bare and winter will be here. I'm not looking forward to freezing cold temps. It has been raining elephants and giraffes all day long and Zeno got home all drenched.

Just in case you are curious, in Italian we use the following expressions:
Piove a catinelle - it's raining like from basins / buckets.
Piove a dirotto - it's raining excessively.
Piove che Dio la manda - it rains (as if) God sends it / like God gives it.

It has been the perfect day for a good book and a huge mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows. I'm reading the 3rd book of the Chronicles of Narnia and I'm quite enjoying it. Oh, and our recipe corner is almost ready. I'm so excited, hope you will like it!

Due to the bad weather, we have not been able to go grocery shopping for days. So, tonight I almost emptied our refrigerator to prepare frittata (in the oven) for dinner. I used leek, red potatoes, courgette and frozen peas.

Luckily yesterday the wet weather took a little break around noon, when I met Sabine and we both went to Paisley Museum to a debate: "Ethiopia - Africa's Hidden Empire". The debate was quite interesting, but I could understand only the 80% of what the guy was saying. After the debate we also had a quick look around the Museum. It's small but quite nice, with lots of info about the Paisley Pattern.

It's late and both hubby and I are exhausted, time for a good night sleep. Nighty-night!

The wind is skirling in the trees outside, tearing away the colorful leaves. It's getting cold and dark. The sun comes up at 8 AM now, and goes down at 6 PM. At least, until next weekend, when the time changes.

It was 5° C this morning. The sky has been clear for about an hour after Zeno has left for work, and then several rainy and sunny moments kept alternating.

We are still coping by turning on the heater just for 15/20 minutes when we have to take a shower. We know it won't last much longer, it will be soon that time of year when you can actually see your breath. We are missing the sun more than ever! Our flat is blessed with large windows that do let the sun in. The problem is that too often the sun is hiding behind these thick, dark, gray rainy clouds! This is why when the sun does come out we rush outside soaking it up, LOL!

Hum.. the screen of our laptop is giving some problems lately, with sudden and quick black-outs. Please, keep your fingers crossed it's nothing to be worried about! Don't think we'd cope being without our 'puter once again so soon! Argh! Only the idea gives us goose bumps!

Probably on Friday we'll go shopping. Having a trip to IKEA always raises our spirits! LOL! We need to get a few household things. Unfortunately we are not allowed to hang anything on the walls in this flat, so it looks a wee bit bare. But we like it anyway because it is somehow homey and we like this special feeling.

Five months have passed already since we moved here. Still not feeling completely at home here in Scotland yet, though we think we could get used to living here. There are a few things we will keep missing about Italy, of course, but we think it's pretty natural. You know, we've met some lovely persons, people with whom we've actually become friends and people who have been very kind to us in general.

Coffee is ready (we had dinner late today), but first a few words in Glaswegian/Scottish dialect:

• Nae, nay or naw - no.
  
• No - not.
  
• Aboot - about.
  
• Dae - do.
  
• Didnae - didn't.
  
• Wuz - was or were.
  
• Tae - to.
  
• Yon - your
  
• Ye - you (singular)
  
• Yez - you (plural)
  
• Wi'oot - without.
  
• Ye ken - you know.
  
• Wean or bairn - child.
  
• Bamstick - an impolite term for a silly or annoying person.
  
• Tumshie - a silly person.
  
• Pure, brilliant - very.
  
• Bloke - guy, lad.
  
• Tattie - potatoe
  
• Haw - roughly equivalent to "Hey" and used to attract someone's attention.

The Italian writer Roberto Saviano and the director Matteo Garrone on Friday won the 2008 Hessische Filmpreis for best cinematic adaption at the Frankfurt Book Fair for the movie Gomorra. Saviano's book has been a best-seller in Italy and in other countries; it has sold about 1.8 million copies since it was published in 2006. The story has been turned into a successful play in theaters and then the movie adapted from this book won the grand prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival and has been chosen as Italy's contender for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.

Gomorra is a description of the Naples' Mafia, called Camorra, and for this reason the author has been under round-the-clock police protection for the last two years. Earlier this week rumors that the brutal Camorra clan had given orders for Saviano and his escort to be killed by Christmas led to the young author (29 years old) saying he was considering leaving Italy in order to ''get his life back''.

We personally think that the author made a tough and brave decision, putting his life and his family at risk in order to unveil unknown facts about organized crime. We didn't read the book yet, but would like to go and see the movie as soon as it comes out in a cinema in our area.

It's raining cats and dogs today and the wind is blowing like crazy. But we won't complain since October (weather-wise) has been so far much better (drier and sunnier) than the whole summer. We stayed at home, relaxing and enjoying good food. Today is the birthday of our Sissie Susan and we'd like to share with her a slice of our homemade Banana Bread just come out of the oven. Happy Birthday and many happy return of the day, sweetie!

BANANA BREAD

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
3 mashed medium ripe bananas
1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecan and brazilian)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch of salt
1/3 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons milk

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl mash together bananas, butter, milk and eggs. Add the banana mixture to dry ingredients and stir until no lumps remain, then add nuts. Pour batter into two greased and floured loaf pans in order to obtain two thin loaves. You may use just one loaf pan if you prefer a taller loaf.

Bake at 170°C, about 350°F, for 40 minutes or until a toothpick pierced into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Let the loaf cool down before removing from the pan. Slice with a thin knife and enjoy!

Note: you can use all whole wheat flour and also add some cocoa and/or cinnamon.

Laura Ingalls Wilder was so right saying: "It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all".

Sorry for not replying yet to all your questions about Italian food. We're thinking about opening a Recipe Corner where to share our fave recipes (Italian and not) but also talk about Italian cuisine in general. This is something we wanted to do long time ago, but maybe now we are on the good way to do it for real. Gotta go now. We have to start preparing lasagne for dinner. Easy way, using ready sheets, so we just need to make the sauce (with minced pork and peas) and besciamella sauce.

Enjoying a simple Fall day around here, with a hot cup of tea, a mini toffee apple muffin and a lovely poem by George Cooper. Isn't it just gorgeous?

We took advantage of the sunny afternoon to have a long walk around the town and to go grocery shopping. The new items for "What's Your Price?" are out, and we uploaded our prices (see link on the left). Hope you'd like to play along. BTW, we had to correct the prices for gas and milk for last week meme since we realized we had used the wrong conversion from liters to gallons.

Did not have the chance to go blog-hopping in the past few days, but will try to visit y'all next week. Till then, take care and keep smiling.

Aye, bad blogger again, I know! But life gets in the way sometimes… and PMS too, LOL!

BTW, "aye" is commonly used here in Scotland instead of yes. Another curious thing I've learned lately, is that "knock up" has a totally different meaning than in the US. It means to wake someone up. Oh, and the last letter of the alphabet is Zed, British dislike saying Zee. It's common to hear "Ta!" for thank you and "wee" for little. You will hear "no bother" instead of you're welcome, as a reply to your thank you. The most frequent greeting is "cheers!", pronounced in a very strange way. And forget zucchini and eggplant here, people won't understand (or will act as they don't). You must say courgette and aubergine.

I have a lot of stuff to tell you and too little time to do that, so I'm taking it slow. Be patient with me and enjoy the new photographs hubby and I just posted: Arizona! I am beat, so going to hug my pillow. But first Happy First Birthday to Ryan, Darylynn's grandson. Nighty night!

Lately we're getting kind of emotional. It must be the aging, or maybe the economical crisis...

Three years ago, by this time of the year, we were touring some of the National Parks of the United States. Going through the photographs we took back then, it's almost like travelling again through those colorful places. While recalling those joyful times, we put aside some photos to share with you. Join us in this journey.

From now to the end of this month, we will add some shots to our Photo Album to show you some marvels of Mother Nature. To begin our voyage we have chosen Colorado.

We've read all your messages (Haloscan Comments and e-mails) and will reply to them all, of course. Just bear with us a little. Till we blog again…

Happy Sunday y'all! Hope your weekend is going well. Our started with a lovely sunrise…

We can imagine what Kia's dad would say looking at this photo: "Please, not another dawn! They all look the same!".

On Friday we had a very pleasant evening with Dorothea and Sandro. We made Pasta alla Carbonara (actually our personal version of the original recipe) and a chocolate and coconut cake. The cake was a little too dry, but still tasty. As a starter we had a few slices of goat salami (salame di capra) that we brought from Italy laid over rye bread (pane di segale) spread with butter (burro).

Talking about Italian pasta, let us just make a comment in order to clarify something we had read on several websites: Fettuccini Alfredo is not an Italian dish, it's just an Italian-American invention (probably an elaboration of a recipe used at the restaurant Alfredo in Rome, which BTW uses only butter and grated parmesan, but no cream, no mushrooms, no shrimps, no chicken or whatever it is added to it); if you ask for it when you happen to be in a restaurant in Italy, don't be surprised if you are looked at with a strange face by the waiter; in Italy nobody knows what Fettuccini Alfredo is. And please don't call us fusspot, but it is supposed to be written and pronounced "fettuccine" and not misspelled "fettuccini". We're not saying it is not good (we tried it once and it was not that bad), but it's just not Italian. One more thing, and we'll stop complaining, LOL! In a famous Food website we read that garlic bread (pane all'aglio) "will complement any Italian meal". Really? Where?!

Since yesterday was one of those rare sunny days, we spent most of the day outside. We had a few errands to take care off (we went grocery shopping and to the Post Office to pay our first bills for gas and electricity, how exciting! LOL!) while also walking around the town. We also passed by the Central Library to pick up a book that we had ordered from another library. We were surprised by the fact that with only 37 pence you can get a book from another library in case it is not available in the one you are subscribed to.

Autumn colors in downtown Paisley...

For dinner we had been invited by Marco and Sabine. Marco prepared some Piada, an Italian dish typical of the town of Rimini, and it was very good.

Time to share one of our recipes with you, finally. Since our neighbors liked the Bônet that Kia made on Wednesday, we decided to start with it. It is a typical dessert from Piemonte (Kia's region). It's a budino al cioccolato (chocolate pudding) with amaretti, Italian cookies made with almonds, sugar and egg whites.

And now, rolling drums, please…

BÔNET (or Bunet)

Ingredients:
4 eggs
50 gr. amaretti cookies
1/2 liter milk
6 tbsp sugar (plus 2 for the pan)
5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup strong coffee (that corresponds to an "Italian cup" of coffee)

Save a couple of amaretti for the final decoration and soak the rest in the milk. Separate the yolks from the whites. Mix thoroughly the yolks, the sugar, the cocoa, and the coffee using a wooden spoon (or with a mixer, if you prefer). Then add this to the mixture of milk and cookies. Beat the egg whites until firm (add a tiny amount of salt to help this). Gently fold the egg whites in the rest of the liquid mixture.

Caramelize 2 spoons of sugar on the bottom of a baking pan (you may use a plum cake mould). Pour the mixture on top of the caramelized sugar in the pan. Put this inside a larger pan that you will have filled with water (at a level such that it arrives at about 3/4 of the height of the baking pan with the liquid mixture inside). Put this sort of double pan in the oven (preheated at 200°C, about 390°F, or 180°C if your oven has a fan), for 40 minutes. This whole procedure of cooking is called "a bagno Maria" in Italian, which literally means "in the Maria bathing way".
Let it cool in the fridge overnight. When ready, gently pass a knife along the borders of the pan so that the bônet detaches from the pan, then flip it on a dish. It should fall out of the pan very easily. Grind the amaretti saved at the beginning and sprinkle over as a decoration. Serve cold.

Note: instead of half a liter of milk, you can use a mixture of milk and cream, or even only cream to obtain a creamier dessert. Somebody likes to add 2 tbsp of rum to the coffee or instead of the coffee. Instead of using a pan to make a big dessert to be sliced in portions, we usually pour it into small cups to obtain single portions that you can flip on a plate or eat directly from the cup.

We are glad that Suzanne sent out a new "What's Your Price?" meme (see link on the left menu). We always like to compare our prices with other counties'. Till we blog again...

Happy Birthday - Buon Compleanno to our friend Stella! 100 di questi giorni, dolcissima! And if we won't be online during the weekend, a very Happy Birthday to Darylynn (12th) and Stumbeline (13th). Many happy returns, ladies!

Yesterday has been a windy and rainy day. I don't like windy days at all 'cos they give me headache.

I should be used to wind, though. As many of you probably already know Trieste (where we lived for 5 years before moving to Scotland) is a windy city and it's famous for "la Bora". Its name derives from the Greek mythological figure of Boreas, the North Wind. It's a strong wind that swoops down from the North and hits the city, especially during winter. It's been known to gust up to speeds of 150 km/hour.

This is a postcard (cartolina) you can find in many shops in Trieste and it gives you an idea of the Bora.

Many buildings in Trieste have stones on their roofs to prevent the roof tiles from being blown off. Chains and ropes are occasionally stretched along the sidewalks in downtown Trieste for people to hang on to.

The Bora usually lasts about three days. Sometimes longer. If you are a foreigner it's gonna drive you crazy! But, believe me or not, all the natives kept telling me how much they love it! Anyway, one good thing about the Bora is that usually it clears out the smog and clouds, leaving a sparkling blue sky for you to enjoy.

If you're wondering what happened with the gym, I just want to say that this time, if we're not going yet, it's not my fault. They didn't call us back yet, even if we left our names and number twice. More time for me to read! Dorothea leant me "Chasing Harry Winston" by Lauren Weisberger, the same author of "The Devil Wears Prada".

Gotta go, tonight our neighbors will come for dinner and I still have to go grocery shopping and clean up a bit. TTFN!

This week is a busy week at work. That's because some of my colleagues are away (on holidays or business trip). But even if my work is getting busier and stressful, I really like it and I'm happy with it.

Yesterday, as soon as I got back from work, I went out for a walk with Kia so that we could take advantage of a rare sunny day. During our walk, we found on the sidewalk some nice leaves turned reddish and we picked some to add to our center piece.

The chestnuts we collected on Sunday are turning rotten, probably because they were kind of wet when we picked them. Probably I have to underline that they're not real chestnuts. They belong to a variety of chestnuts called horse-chestnut (ippocastano or castagna matta) that is not edible.

Even if it has been a sunny day, we had some moments of rain. Kia took a picture of the rainbow she saw from the window of our living room, and we would like to share it with you.

At the moment I'm reading two books at the same time. This is something that my father does all the time, and I always thought I couldn't do it, but now that I'm doing this for the first time I have to admit that it's not so difficult as I thought. The first book is "Uscita per l'inferno" which is the Italian edition of "Roadwork" by Richard Bachman (that is actually Stephen King, as you probably know).

I received this book from Kia a few days ago as a gift for our anniversary. The second book is "Wintersmith" by Terry Pratchett, a British author. My colleague Marco lent me this book saying that he liked it a lot and also it was interesting to learn some Scottish words, since some of the characters have a vaguely Scottish way of talking.

My sweet wife and I have been a little lazy lately and let our e-mails pile up. Sorry for the delay, we'll try to get back to you ASAP! We spent most of our on-line time trying to find a website where it is possible to watch some American TV series. Unfortunately we found out that starting from this year it's not possible to watch any episode if connected from outside the USA. What a shame! Now that we finally have a broadband connection!

Thank you, ladies! You sent the sun my way, indeed! Thanks very much, I am having a lovely day and I'm in such a good mood! I've been able to keep my windows open and get some nice fresh air in the house. And wasps too, argh!

My bônet is almost ready, I wish you could sniff the smell that's coming out from the oven. It's a chocolate dessert, a budino (pudding) typical of Piedmont, my region.

I'm on my way out for a walk, will be back home at dinner-time. After dinner my neighbor Dorothea will come for a chit-chat, so I will write more tomorrow. Oh, Look at that! A rainbow! Of course I took a picture, will share it with you later.

It's so dark here this afternoon, and it's raining hard. But I don't mind the rain today. It is soothing and peaceful. It's a good day to hit the books. I have finished the Sophie Kinsella one and I am gonna start The Chronicles of Narnia. I wanna read the whole series of seven fantasy novels. I know it's been written for children. But it's not considered a classic of children's literature in Italy, and I have never heard of them and C.L. Lewis before "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" movie came out on 2005 at the cinema. I will spoil the little girl that's in me! LOL!

I won't make this a long post, I'm just leaving a paw print. What else am I doing today… not much of anything, really. I plan to relax and enjoy my hubby this evening. Till we blog again…

UPDATE: Zeno and I have just added a few new photos of Paisley in our Photo Album. Good night!

WEATHER: after the lovely and sunny Sunday that we had, it's getting chillier again and right now it's pouring outside. It was only 7 Celsius degrees (45F) outside when I woke up this morning. I was so glad for the warmth of coffee and the yummy taste of toasted bread with pink grapefruit marmalade. After dinner we turned on the heating for the first time. Just for half an hour, to get rid of the humidity.

SKY WATCHING: I had the chance to enjoy the sunrise this morning. This is a photo I took at 7:15 AM.

FRIENDS: on Friday Zeno and I had an aperitif at our place with Marco and Sabine. She got here at 3 PM in order to study a wee bit of Italian/German together. He arrived at 6 PM and I started preparing a few appetizer (crackers, toasted sundried-tomato bread, mini portions of various cheeses, green olives, cherry tomatoes and cucumber, Italian salame, mini chocolate muffins). As you probably know, the word aperitif is derived from the Latin verb "aperire" which means "to open." It is usually served to stimulate the appetite before a meal. But the four of us have eaten quite enough, as if it was a dinner. Anyway, I had the impression I forgot to put something on the table. Yesterday I finally remembered what: the dips for the veggies! Argh! Anyway, it has been a very pleasant evening and our friends have been here till after midnight, chatting and laughing with us.

I enjoyed spending time with our new friends (whom I'm really thankful for) while my beloved hubby was in Germany. Dinner at Marco and Sabine's was really good. Marco is a good cook and he made salmon with salad and bruschette. Also my evening with Dorothea has been really pleasant. She is amusing and can speak so many languages. And just try to imagine my delight when Sandro arrived with a bag of goodies for me: a scone and a muffin, yummy! I had them for breakfast the next morning. Both of them, yes! I admit it, I'm a sweet tooth, LOL!

BLOGROLL: it has finally been updated. BTW, if you did not notice it before, just click on the hedgehog on the left, the one with the book.

READING: Dorothea leant me "Remember me?", the latest book by Shopie Kinsella. Her previous books have had me crying with laughter! If you like hilarious but also romantic stories, I'd also recommend "The Birds and the Bees" by Milly Johnson. This is a book you won't put down! It's great fun and very well-written. I'm looking forward to read her other book "The Yorkshire Pudding Club", it should arrive next week at the local library. Yay!

LANGUAGE BARRIER: I know that British English is different from American English, but these Scots are really exaggerating now! A couple of weeks ago I asked for pants (instead of trousers) in a store and the sales assistant looked at me like I had lost my mind. Here pants correspond to the American "shorts". Well, now I know, but she should have understood anyway, no? I admit I had a few seconds of dismay the first days in the US when I heard Zeno looking for a cab (instead of a taxi) and talking about faucet (instead of tap). But English is not my first language, so I feel excusable! LOL! Anyway, new words I learned lately: antenna = aereal; wash cloth = face flannel; trash = rubbish.

ACCENT: Zeno and I took an "accent game". It's a test to see how clever you are at recognizing other peoples' accents. We have not been great, although I got more right accents than Zeno did. If you want to try, just click here.

As you may notice going through the pages of our blog, we have inverted the order by which our posts are displayed. From now on, every new post will be added on top of the others rather than to the bottom of the page. We have to admit that we preferred the other way, but since this new way is the one used by almost everybody on the net, we thought it would have been better to comply with this common habit.

After a gray and rainy Saturday, we had an unexpectedly nice and sunny Sunday, so we decided to go out for a walk. We thought it would have been nice to walk away from the town center and be heading to some peripheral area where we had not been before. Off course we took our camera with us.

At first we went through a wide residential area with some nice houses here and there. Gradually we ended up in the colorful countryside.

The sun was so hot that at some point we took off our jackets. On the hills there were some cows going around.

There were different kind of trees along the way and there were chestnuts and acorns scattered on the sidewalk. We picked up some of them and took some pictures of the acorns, berries and flowers on the trees.

The crows were flying from a tree to another and then landing on the grass, looking for something for their nests.

At some point we decided that we had gone too far, so we headed back home. We have been walking around for a total of three hours. Once home, we put together a sort of center piece on the table, using the chestnuts and the acorns collected during our walk, and a little cute pumpkin we purchased yesterday at the supermarket.

When Zeno was in Germany for his busyness-trip, in one of the three hotels where he stayed, he has been given a nice card with a quote from Salvador Dalì that we would like to share with you: "At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since".

Good night to everybody and have a nice week ahead!