Tomorrow is finally the last saturday of work. I can’t wait for this week and month to be finally over, September has been so tiresome! In October I will be entitled to stay home 4 days as a compensation for working in the week end so hopefully I will have the chance to relax a bit.
This morning I woke up really late for my standards and feeling this unspeakable will to play, like when I was a kid and I had a new game on my Playstation, except that I don’t have anything new to play. I’ve been a nerd since the age of 10 more or less and I am proud to belong to the Sega Megadrive and Snes generation before Playstation and all and most of the times I miss the feeling that the old games were able to give me. I don’t actually know if the problem is related to the games themselves or directly to me: afterall I am a grown-up girl with totally different priorities in life compared to the 12 years old kid so there’s a chance that it’s me not being able to feel the same about gaming anymore. This thought scares me a bit.
I’ve been missing my blog so much these days… it’s awful when you start enjoying something and then life comes in the way and you don’t have time to do your thing anymore. These couple of weeks have been really frantic both for work overload and house stuff piling up and I literally haven’t had time to start up the pc until now.
Today is the first rainy day in weeks and it really feels like summer’s over now: in my area they say that when it starts to rain in September you can kiss your summer clothes goodbye and in fact we have 18 degrees today against the 30 we had Friday… it feels a bit sad but nothing lasts forever right? I hope we will have a snowy winter at least, last one was very dry and we barely had water in the rivers literally.
So, do you want to know how the wedding of the year was? I took some pictures but most of them are blurry or there are people in the way because the actual pro photographer was kind of “territorial” about the shots… it was hard to find a good spot and in the church I couldn’t go around as he did sadly. But on the other hand it was really a nice ceremony, the church was so pretty and small because it was in a small village up in the mountains and the weather was good. The broadcast was for rain but we had sun and warm weather all day. I really appreciated the fact that we were a relatively small group of people invited, like around 50, it really felt cozy and we all had time to cheer with the newly weds. It almost made me reconsider my position about getting married! Luckily I managed to not catch the bouquet so I’m safe for another couple of years I guess.
We also had the chance to reunite with some old friends we hadn’t seen in a couple of years and that was another good thing, although it felt a bit stiffy in the beginning, you know, like when you have so many things to say and you wonder if the other person is still interested in hearing about them because it’s been so long it almost feels like you don’t know each other anymore. But actually it’s not like that and most of it it’s simple insecurity ; I realized I’ve been missing them more than what I am able to admit and probably I would like to change the fact that we don’t really hang out together but I’m sort of afraid of taking the step. I still believe friendship lasts forever no matter what happens in between and how much distance you can put between you and the others, at least on my behalf; but I guess I fear the feeling is not mutual and so my defensive mechanism of nihilism comes up and I go back to my shell. I know I should change that and I’ve been really trying but sometimes I take steps backwards instead of forward… still working on it.
Tomorrow our last pieces of furniture will be delivered and the house will be almost complete; there’s still the “game room” to be furnished, but for now we are taking it slowly because our wallets are kind of drained at the moment. I’m really curious to see how the couches we chose will fit in the living room! I’ll post pictures of that, I promise, and also of the rest of the house.
…. for a miracle. Or rather, for the carpenter to come since he’s late one hour now.
I don’t think I’m cut for this housewife role. If I’m home I keep noticing things that need to be cleaned or fixed or tidied up…why can’t I simply come home and do nothing for a while like Lorenzo is able to do? Men are really different in these things.I was already worried about developing a compulsive disorder about clean ups and probably I wasn’t so wrong about it…. For example, I can’t stand the sight of unwashed dishes in the sink. The first thing I do when I come home is checking if the kitchen is in acceptable order, and if it’s not then I start to clean it right away. The other thing that really drives me crazy is the bathroom: if I don’t restrain myself, I’m capable of cleaning it every day, because there’s nothing I find more gross than a dirty bathroom.
Anyways, in the end yesterday I went to work normally; a lot of people took part in the strike although I am not really sure whether it was for the economical manoeuvre or simply for the chance of skipping one day of work. Probably a mix of the two. To be completely honest, one day off would have suited me really fine since this month I’m working every saturday and I’m finding it hard to combine all the things I want to do with the things I actually HAVE to do, but since I’m on a short-term contract they let me understand that it’s better to fly down these days. Blackmail anyone?
I’m also very sorry for not posting every day as I promised, but it suddenly feels like my life has become super full in the turn of seven days; I guess it takes a while to adapt, I promise I won’t give up tho!
[We have seen the Muppets movie trailer on tv Saturday and it brought along a lot of childhood memories!]
Monday again, another thrilling week upcoming.
Just came home after a small shopping trip after discovering that my better half just froze ALL of the 6 steaks we bought saturday. Together. So I’ll have to figure out how to separate them without actually de-frosting them…. meanwhile I got some replacement chicken burgers for today’s lunch. Yes I know most people don’t even consider burgers which aren’t made of pork or calf, but personally I eat only chicken. And eventually turkey. Red meat is not really my thing… I actually tried to become a vegetarian during highschool, but it was too harsh while my mother kept trying to shove any kind of salami and ham down my throat. And let’s face it, I enjoy chicken.
Anyways, the thrilling and excitement comes mostly from the fact that:
A) Tomorrow there’s a big national strike to protest against some of the new cuts coming up withe the new financial move. Basically to stay under the requirements of the European Union, we have to conjure up some 20 millions euro… money that we would probably have if we could find a way to prevent people from evading taxes. I believe we have the highest rate of tax evasion in Europe and the esteem is that if we could get back 1/5 of the amount evaded we could be perfectly in the required standard for 2012. Instead, since it’s impossible to stop people from evading (some people that is, and actually the problem is much more in-depth than this, but right now I don’t feel like going all the way about social justice and revolution) we will cut some more from services, public administration and probably raise IVA (added value tax applied to anything we buy) because that’s likely the only tax people can’t really avoid. Go us!
I haven’t decided yet if I will take part in the strike. I never did since I started working because I didn’t see the reason to hurt my work place when they don’t have part in what’s going on, but this time around it’s a bit different. Things aren’t silky smooth these days (having to work shifts even Saturdays sucks hard, especially considering we are like 4 people per shift and we have plenty of room…) and I might consider it a bit more, mostly to send the message. Although I am under a short-term contract untill june 2012, I shouldn’t be afraid of standing up for the things I consider right.
B) Sunday one of Lorenzo’s best friend is getting married to his forever – fiancée after 15 years of relationship. I’m not very fond of weddings but it will be nice to see some people we don’t have the chance to see often and there will be eating and drinking for free, so I’m game. I’m unsure about bringing my camera to the party, I guess they will have their own professional photographer but maybe we will look back to these Kodak moments with fondness in 20 years… I guess I’m totally going to bring it with me and worst case scenario I can leave it in the car.
Oh man it’s almost 12 and I have to prepare the infamous first lunch in the new house. I already cooked my first dinner last week, but I wasn’t on a strict time schedule like today so it’s better if I get going.
So I haven’t disappeared already from the blogging world, but this week we finally moved in to the new place and we didn’t have internet till about now… everything seems to work just fine! I promise I’ll update you guys tomorrow about how it’s been so far with our new lives…
AWESOMENESS!
So this beautiful sunny morning I went out with my mom for some house shopping.
There were some things missing from the kitchen (like, salt & pepper dispensers, it was kind of dramatic to try and salt the salad from the big salt box….a small frying pan to fry an egg when you don’t want to cook for 6 people….) and some things I wanted to get both for practical use and looks, like a doormat and a kitchen math to put in front of the sink. Also, I finally found some decent “fake” sunflowers to put in the vase on the table so now it’s very much Van Gogh style. I’m very happy with the result of this shopping morning, I’m not used to spend money on this kind of things and I have to admit that there’s something addictive to it: once my brain starts to spin its wheels about what would look nice in the house and I actually start to actively look around for those things, it’s very good for the soul once I finally found them….
I hope to be able to take a small trip this afternoon, since it’s officially my last day of holiday; I proposed to my parents to go a bit up in the mountain to the sanctuary of Oropa and lake Mucrone, or alternatively to go to lake Orta , both places offer stunning view and photo opportunities… we will see.
Took a walk through the city this morning on a photo trip… and that’s how I felt. This song is one of my all time favorites, so simple and yet so true: sun shining bright and the sky so blue, can’t really ask for anything more than being on the sunny side of the street always, just like today!
A gutter pipe going up... is that a pair of binoculars?
This Photo Challenge wasn’t easy… stuck here at my parents’ house on a sunny afternoon, I roamed through the garden and the courtyard to get some inspiration. Might not be the shot of my life, I admit it…. the very bright green stuff that can be seen on the picture is there in reality as well, it struck me funny too.
The Sun‘s distance from the Earth is about 400 times the Moon‘s distance, and the Sun’s diameter is about 400 times the Moon’s diameter. Because these ratios are approximately the same, the Sun and the Moon as seen from Earth appear to be approximately the same size: about 0.5 degree of arc in angular measure.
I didn’t know, but this relationship is what actually allows us to witness total solar eclipses. I discovered it watching a documentary on Discovery Channel (yes I’m a total documentary addict, I just love knowing things) and it totally blew my mind.
Like, isn’t it a miracle that they fit perfectly together? I’m not a huge fan of the “creation of God” theory, but what are the chances that the Big Bang created this in a complete random way? Food for thoughts.
If the moon or the sun were closer or farther away, we couldn’t be hit by the shadow of the eclipse in the same way, or maybe the moon wouldn’t completely cover it (except for the solar ring, as it is now), or it would appear to be larger than the sun, covering the ring. Instead, they are perfectly matched and allow us to witness one of the most peculiar shows: I’ve witnessed only one total eclipse in my life, more or less 10 years ago and it was totally fascinating. The thing that impressed me the most was the fact that, as the sky grew darker and darker, the birds and the other animals would stop singing and complete silence would crawl above everything. It was like if my garden as I knew it before was slowly fading away and being replaced by a darker, scarier place. Dark blue sky above, grey grass under my feet, complete silence around except for the sound of my footsteps and a big, flaming ring in the sky watching down on me. I sort of totally understand were Tolkien took inspiration when he came up with the idea of the Eye of Sauron:
The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.
But, hey I have a fascination for odd and scary things so I was totally hypnotized by the magic of the eclipse… I would gladly become one of those “eclipse chasers” and travel all around the world following the next show; a bit like a groupie let’s say but without the drug parties.
My vacation from work is ending in 4 days. (Awwwwww of compassion appreciated)
Apparently, summer at my latitude will follow my work schedule and finish approximately this week end: the wild heat wave will be over and we will be back to our september kind of weather, with fresh windy days and colorful sunsets. I’m looking forward for some fall photography, although I’m well aware I won’t have as much time on my hands as I’m having now. I hope I will actually get some more ideas in my head about the photo competition, because so far it’s been kind of hard to find a good inspiration.
The bedroom stuff has finally arrived and the kitchen table too, so technically speaking we are ready to move out. God knows if I’m scared! My own place. Food to cook. Clean ups. Bills to pay….. And well, actually living with someone else other than my mom & dad. That’s the part I’m mostly worried about, because my parents know me well enough not to freak out too much if I want to be alone, writing or knitting or reading or simply staring at the walls and thinking, while Lorenzo is a very caring type of guy and will probably be puzzled at the least. And on the other hand, me too I’m a bit worried about not leaving him his own spaces. He never asks for much, but I’m a lonely child used to be in the spotlight at all times while he has 2 siblings so he’s less self – centered and I really hope the unbalance won’t end up in mayhem.
I’m trying really hard not to think about going back to work, because i have 4 full days to live in the sun before going back to the darkness. Next vacation will be in November for All Saints, very cheerful, and I’ll have one additional week towards the end of that month, so I guess I’ll just have to hang in there and survive while I’m looking for a better job. For those who wonder, I am a modern version of a tailor: I sew knitwear together for Ermenegildo Zegna, Gucci and Tom Ford brands on a special machine that looks like this:
In this picture they are closing up one sleeve but there's a variety of things you can do with the machine
It’s a rare kind of job which is getting lost because the new generations tend to try to find a desk job rather than working in a factory. I don’t dislike the fact of doing a manual kind of work although sometimes it’s really tiresome especially for the eyes and the back, but having to work with alternate shifts from 6 am to 2 pm or from 2 pm to 10 pm can be kind of annoying, mostly because since they are alternate my body can’t really adapt to one time-table or the other. Also, the salary is among the lowest in Italy, being around 1.1 k euro a month, and that’s due to the fact that the textile industry here gets the lowest retribution fares compared to engineering industry workers or metal workers.
Also, it’s a totally different job from what I studied and from what I did before; I could probably try to get a desk job for international marketing or something, to take advantage of my skills in foreign languages, but the work scene it’s been kind of depressing after last international crisis so I’m sitting tight for the moment. But it doesn’t mean I can’t look around!
Wild Pinguistrella 