Irish wedding

Here is a photo from Ruth and Jeff's wedding. Ruth is Shane's cousin and recently got married in Durrow in County Laois.

The weather on the day was a bit wet but stayed dry at the important times, so I had the chance to wear John. We stayed in a very nice hotel, Castle Durrow, where the reception took place. The food was very nice and I was impressed by the Wedding cake made by Ruth's dad and her now husband!

John

This is John, a friend for Philip!
I got him in John Lewis last week while I was in Reading. It was love at first sight again and I thought that I had to get a friend for Philip who sometimes lamented being lonely in my bedroom.

Now they are happy together and I am glad to see them together and I am really looking forward to wearing them in June and October!

Return to Reading

After living in Italy for almost 3 years, Shane decided to spice life up a little bit and accepted a job offer from the company he used to work for.
The decision was made in very few days and in less than a month we changed most of our habits and we are now "commuting" from Rome to Reading once a month or so.
At the end of May we both went over: Shane to start working and me to look at properties to rent. After a few long days spent running around town to meet up with different agents in different properties, I found some nice flats and finally on Friday, Shane put down his "second" deposit on a flat in town centre, just a few metres away from his work and most importantly for me, a few metres away from the Oracle (shopping centre)! It is a nice first floor flat, quite spacious, clean and let's say new.

After a lot of work for us during all week, we deserved to get some rest and enjoy our stay. So we spent a nice weekend seeing friends (Charlie and Gavin), eating out (Nando's, London Street Brasserie, Nino's). We also visited Tom and Fiona in their wonderful house just outside of town, in Caversham. We also met some of their family: Aonghus, Rory and Alex. No need to say that part of Saturday was spent shopping...and I will add another post about it. On Sunday evening we had dinner at Paul's house, one of Shane's friend from work, and after that we went to the cinema to see The Pirates of the Carribean.

Tori Amos

I bought my tickets in January and finally on 28th May I went to see Tori Amos' concert in Teatro Sistina in Rome.
Here you can take a look at some photos I took and notice the peculiar outfits she wore.....

Saturnia: Paradise or Reality?

A few days ago my parents and I decided to go to the Spa in Saturnia.

My mum had wanted to go there for many years and on Wednesday morning we finally go around to going there. We left the house in the morning and after driving through seemingly endless green Tuscan fields, we finally arrived there. It s just 180 km from home and it took us 2 hours to get there.

We stayed in the Hotel there and I got a single bedroom overlooking the main pool from which the thermal water springs. There was a strong smell of sulfer but after a few minutes you got used to it and didn't smell it anymore.

In the afternoon I tried a few waterfalls and a cardiovascular circuit which both help your circulation and help relax your muscles. In the evening I got a Stone Therapy Massage after which I felt really relaxed and my muscles really enjoyed it. In the evening we had dinner in the Tuscan Reasturant in the Hotel and I shared a lovely Fiorentina steak with my mum. It was cooked on the grill for a bit and then served to us on an metal grill so that we could have it cooked exactly as we wanted.

The second day I got up resonably early, had breakfast with my dad and after taking him to his appointment for a leg massage, I went for a Facial Treatment that lasted 50 minutes! During the morning I went to the waterfalls again and relaxed by the pool. Then I had a barley salad and went off to get a Body Gommage+Placton Treatment which lasted 50 minutes too. Then it was time to pack our stuff and get ready to drive back home.

Luckily enough I didn't pay for anything as I was on holiday with my parents! I forgot what that was like: doing stuff without paying! It was also nice to spend some relaxing time with them as when they are here at home they are always busy with something or other.

Vegetable Garden

This is the first stage of this year's Vegetable Garden. We planted some lettuce, tomatoes and courgettes, peppers and aubergines.

In the last few days we had some heavy rain that flooded our garden. Here is a photo of it flooded. You can also see the supports for the tomato plants.

Cheesecake

Strumenti
---------
Tortiera
Pentolino
Frigorifero

Ingredienti
-----------
Gelatina
Vino
Ricotta
Mascarpone
Buccia di un limone
Zucchero
Biscottini Gentilini o Digestive
Burro
Opzionali: Cioccolata fondente, pinoli e mandorle

Preparazione impasto
--------------------
Ammorbidire la gelatina nell'acqua.
Riscaldare il vino in un pentolino e aggiungere la gelatina.
In un recipiente mettere ricotta, mascarpone e zucchero.
Mischiare e aggiungere la buccia di limone e la gelatina.
Mischiare bene e mettere in frigorifero per 30 minuti.

Preparazione base
-----------------
Frullare o rompere biscottini.
Per arricchire la base si possono aggiungere pezzettini di cioccolata, pinoli o mandorle a piacere.
Riscaldare il burro e mischiare il tutto.
Formare la base nella tortiera compattando i biscotti e mettere insieme all'impasto nel frigorifero.

Completamento
-------------
Spalmare di burro i bordi interni della tortiera e versare dentro l'impasto.
Rimettere in frigo per altri 30 minuti.
Guarnire con fragole poco prima di presentare.

Biscotti

We found the following recipe for Biscotti and decided to try it out.

Here's our translation of the recipe:

Ingredients for 4 people:
300 G Flour - 180 G Butter (or Margarine) - 70 G Sugar - 1 Egg - 1 Bag Vanilla - 1 Pinch of Salt

Mix the butter with the sugar, add the egg, add the flower and the vanilla.  Roll out some of the mixture and cut them into your desired shape.  Place on a baking tray lined with some baking paper. Cook in the oven at 180 degrees for up to 5 mins making sure that they do not go brown, just golden coloured.

Hat Mission successfully completed!

Last Saturday Shane and I went to Dublin to pay a surprise visit to his dad who is celebrating his birthday this coming Sunday. Jennifer, our knowing accomplice, came to pick us up at the airport with Isabel (second accomplice), Arthur and Linus. We reached the town centre and hit every possible hat shop. After a bit of looking around and after having a beagle, I bought a dress in Powerscourt Townhose in the Little Black Dress. After looking at some hair accessories nextdoor we finally enterd the Design Centre, a paradise displaying Philip Treacy hats and bags. After dreaming about hat for a while weleft and visited a few bookshops- the usual suspects of Hodges Figges, Waterstones and Easons. It was time now to get back at Jennifer's for the surprise!There was also Ellen and Seb who arrived at Jennifer's and after playing for a while with Isabel and Arthur Shane parents came in and found all of us waiting for them in the living room! I can't describe Seán's face so surprised and without words a part from saying: What!???The first day ended with a nice dinner and a trip for us back to Shane parents.

On Sunday Shane and I left Portmarnock to visit some more of the bookshops and eventually found some nice and hopefully usefull books for my thesis. Lunch was again at Jennifer with Ellen and Carol contribuiting too. And again we went back to Portmarnock.

Monday was the busiest day. We spent a good few hours in the Trinity College Libraries researching/photocopyng books about Pleasure Gardens. While waiting for some texts to be delivered to the Library, I decided to have a look around for some ideas about hats. We walked again towards Powerscourt Townhouse and when in there I succumbed to the temptation of buying a Philip Treacy hat. I decided that if I could find a pair of shoes and a bag to go with it, I would go back and get it. Seizing upon this decisiveness I run outside of Powerscourt Townhouse and walked into Brown Thomas shopping centre where I eventually spotted, with Shane's help, a nice pink bag and a pair of matching shoes! After less than 10 minutes I left Brown Thomas with bag and shoes in my hands and run again to the Designer Centre psycologically ready to buy the hat I was earlier. Once in there, the final look at it convinced me that I had made the right decision.

Hat, shoes and bag in my hand, it was time to have a quick snack with Jennifer, Larkin and Linus in Fallon and Byrne. After this little break, it was time to go back to the Library where books were waiting for me! Shane helped me photocopy some texts and later that evening we returned back to Portmarnock for dinner with Seán and Carol.

The next day, with books, photocopies and of course the hat, we flew back to Rome unfortunately with Shane having a bad dose of the flu.

Rugby Time

March has seen me busy supporting the Italy Rugby team. I went to see the rugby guys playing at the home matches and I also went to see their training sometimes.

I got the chance to take some photos with them and also had a chat with some of them. They are simple and friendly guys.

Here there are some photos.

The first one below on the left is of me and Mirco Bergamasco (very friendly and talkative). The one on the right is of me and Ramiro Pez (friendly enough unless there is no milk after the training!)

The next one below on the left is of me and Paul Griffen (very friendly and happy to talk in English he he). Then, on the right is of me and Roland who turned up at the bar one morning for breakfast then proceeded to break Irish hearts by scoring with the last play of the game!

Irish and Italian supporters before the italy- Ireland match held in Rome on the 17th March 07

Let's begin with thesis

Yesterday I got good news: one of my Prof. accepted my request to do my thesis about London's Pleasure Gardens with her. Finally I know not who I am going to deal with for the next few months: Prof. Colombo and Prof. Salvini.

Thesis or Rugby? Or both?

Exam done, but thesis yet to begin! I went to talk to the Prof. who I wanted to supervise my thesis, but sadly found out that she has moved to another university in the North of Italy (Venice). I found myself a bit lost in the crowd and now I do need to find someone else who can supervise me while doing my research.
Shane and I went to see the Italian Rugby team during one of their training sessions and eventually took some photos with my favourite players.

Last exam done and dusted

February was quite a busy month for me, the highlight of which was sitting and passing my last exam. Despite getting the flu 2 days before before, I managed to pass the Linguistics exam!

The Rugby Six Nations Championship started on the 3rd of February. The first game I went to see was Italy - France, but for Italy it didn't go so well, infact we lost: Italy 3-39 France. There was a good atmosphere at the Stadio di Flaminio and I really enjoyed the afternoon under the warm sun. The next game England - Italy wasn't that good either for Italy (20-7), but the big surprise and joy for the Italians Rugby supporters arrived on the 24th of February when Italy beat Scotland 17-37!!!

The end of the month saw me doing some retail therapy to cheer me up after all the studying for the last exam.

Important facts happened in January

My New Year started with a busy month.
As you know, I went to Dublin with Shane to visit his family and did a lot of shopping, especially books and shoes (what a surprise eh?!) and also had the chance to spend some time with Isabel and Arthur.
Well, after coming back I've been busy studying for my last exam which will be in mid February. It's a Linguistics exam which can be sometimes interesting, but other times extremely boring!
Let me summarize a few important events that occured during this month:
Isabel and Arthur welcomed a new little brother, Linus Seàn, on the 19th. He was born at around 9am;
we celebrated Shane's 28 birthday on the 20th ;
I made a Strawberry and cream cake for my mum's birthday which was on the 28th.
Phew! It makes me tired just thinking about everything we got up to.

Courgette, Speck and Saffron Pasta

This evening's dinner comes from here and is entitled "BUTTERFLY with ZUCCHINI, SPECK AND SAFFRON". Our take on it was as follows:

1. 400g Short pasta - recipe calls for Farfalle (Butterfly shaped pasta) but we used pipe rigate
2. 3 courgettes sliced in discs
3. 3 tsps olive oil
4. 1 small onion chopped
   
5. 150g speck thickly sliced into strips
   
6. salt and pepper
7. 1 packet saffron (approx 1 tsp)
8. Paprika (optional)
   

1. Boil a pot of hot water, add salt and then the pasta. Cook until al dente.
   
2. In a large frying pan, add 2 tsps of oil and the courgettes and some salt.
3. When they are cooked and golden, remove from the pan
4. Add the last tsp of oil to the pan followed by the onion and speck for 2 - 3 mins
5. Remove from the heat, then add the courgettes, pepper and saffron to the speck and onion in the pan
6. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan. Mix and add the paprika if desired.
   

Low Fat Banana Muffins

Here's a recipe we found and made the other day with a few modifications. They turned out quite nicely and we ended up filling 8 muffin cups rather than 12.

There's a link to the original recipe below.

LOW FAT BANANA MUFFINS OR BREAD
1 3/4 c. white all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 c. sugar
1 egg or 2 egg whites
3 tbsp. corn oil
2 tbsp. skimmed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-2 bananas, mashed

Mix dry ingredients. Mix liquid ingredients. Combine. Fill greased (Pam) muffin pans 3/4 full and bake 350F/180C for 20 minutes. If making a loaf, bake 45 minutes to an hour. Serve warm. Makes 12 muffins or 1 loaf.

Cooks.com - Recipe - Low Fat Banana Muffins Or Bread

Farfalle with courgette pesto

Since I have been on Weightwatchers (home version) for 2 weeks now, I though that it might be nice put up some recipes which I have been experimenting with in the last few days.

Farfalle with courgette pesto (allegedly serves 4 - more like 2 big portions, or 3 medium ones if you ask me)

400g courgettes
250g (uncooked weight) short pasta (recipe calls for farfalle, but I didn't have any)
some vegetable stock
1 clove garlic
Handful of basil
1 tbs oil
2 tbs grated cheese (I used Parmesan)
salt & pepper

Bring your water to the boil, add some salt then put in the pasta.

Chop the courgettes in wedges (0.5 - 1 cm thick). Heat a pan then add
the courgettes, a bit of vegetable stock (about 1 - 2 ladles) and salt & pepper to taste. Cook until al dente. Towards the end of the cooking, chop the basil and the galic clove and add them in.

Put this all in the blender and blend slighty, so you get a chunky paste. Add in the oil and the parmesan.

Drain pasta and mix the pasta and the pesto together in a box, then serve and enjoy!

I didn't add the oil and parmesan to the pesto until it was on my plates, that way we could tailor the meal to as many points as I wished :) 250g of pasta is about 5 points in total.

I added 2 tsps of parmesan and 1 tsps of oil, had about 150g of uncooked pasta (about 225 cooked) so that worked out at 3 + 1 + 1 = 5 points. The only points in the pesto itself are for the oil and cheese.

It makes a lovely fresh tasting pesto, so would recommend it!

Touristy Trials and Tribulations

On the 3rd January I went to Viterbo, a town about 100km north of Rome in order to take an exam to get a licence to become an official Tour Guide (Accompagnatore turistico). The exam took place on the morning of the 4th in a public school in Viterbo. There were about 560 people taking the exam. The questions about laws and regulations were quite difficult. Due to other study and work priorities I didn't really study much for this exam...but I decided to go anyway to see what it was like. There was a huge diversity in the people taking the exam, aged from 20 to 60. Most of them had already sat the exam a few times previously.

Anyway, it was good to spend almost 2 days away. I managed to do some good shopping in the sales just before I got the train back to Rome on Thursday. On the way back I wrote a letter to Santa to stick on the "Albero dei desideri" (Christmas Tree of Wishes) in Termini station in Rome.

As well as a picture of the tree, I also took one of an old man trying to look up information on the train timetable. I took the photo as I thought it was a good spot of daily life. Not everybody has good enough eyesight to see the new signs.


On the morning of Friday 5th Shane and I tooka flight to Dublin in order to go and visit his family and have a late "Christmas Lunch" altogether with his parents, sisters and their families.

I plan on doing some more shopping here!

While we are in Dublin, my friend Maika will be moving to Bruxelles in order to start a new job. I'm very happy she's taking this opportunity, but at the same time I will be sad to see her go as I will miss her a lot. Good luck Maika!!! See you soon on Skype.

That's all for now.