long island for a year

I am a huge fan of Chinatowns; up to now I visited more than a couple of these meta-cities and found that each has its own special atmosphere. The one I liked most until now is the one in Kobe , Japan and the one I liked less is the one in Washington D.C. - tasteless. Montreal's Chinatown is a small one, yet very interesting and original. There is a small number of stores and restaurants which might not compare to those in NYC, but the general feeling is that of a very well integrated Chinese, French and English speaking Gemeinschaft. Yes, in Chinatown too streets get cleaned!!! Choosing the most original restaurant Japanese style window, but Chinese food and drinks and for my collection of colorful buildings I took these two pictures as inspiration for one of those things I'd never wish to do, but I'd be crazy enough to try...(cleaning the windows that is!!!!). This might have been at least the 20th floor! ...

Here is a post loaded with positive impressions, one I needed to write for myself and I owe to an old friend. Trying to avoid Independence Day's fireworks (that's one thing that makes me weak, fireworks!) we visited the city of Montreal - a suggestion given by more than one friend of ours. We used the perfect combination of not being able to cross the US border after July 31st and having at least five weeks of appointments we can't miss  and were there in perfect coincidence with the Jazz Festival, a life-time dream!!! When I left I had the blues , so it was also a kind of soul vacation; not a relaxing one altogether, spending two full days in the car, torturing the kids with long walks, late night concerts, warm weather...but one after which you come back with new energies and new stories. Let's start with day one. There are the kids, requesting the three Cs (cookie, cracker, cheerios - pleeaase). Obviously the requests were never fully satisfied all time, s...

I wrote in a prevoius post about how sometimes my parents act nonsense . Well, this time the nonsense is about me. As a parent I am more than once in a while VERY tired: nights are interrupted, no time for myself, appointments to which I might not necessarily wish to attend.  Anyway, there is some project going on to which I can't say no anymore (promise, promise!) and I need that precious quiet time between throwing pebbles in the water and chasing after my little Messner or fighting about just anything with my daughter. So I feel kind of stressed and sometimes this just comes out as a river of tears that I can't really justify - also, listening to some pathetic songs doesn't help. Kids are very quiet in those moments and show their best "Why on hell is this woman crying? Must be because she didn't get the chocolate she so much wanted !!!" sorry look. Of course kids know better. As we were walking to the beach couple of days ago, Carlotta - always looking...

I certainly told before the story of my mom finding many excuses not to come visit. First it was about the flight - she has never gone further than Berlin, so I understand a certain preoccupation. Then it was about my dad and his health - he's perfectly fine apart from some high sugar level. There is also an upcoming wedding (end of August) to keep her busy - she basically has to go to the wedding, after getting dressed. I don't know what she found out next. Maybe the fact that she didn't want to be left alone with me. Who would??? Anyway, after months trying to convince her, I eventually gave up. Just recently I was mentioning how beautiful some of the harbor towns are and how nice it is to be able to go to the beach whenever we please. Well, guess with that I unexpectedly convinced her. It might well be she was a bit sad we are staying three months longer than the original plan and she wouldn't be able to see her grandchildren, but I really had the impression she was...

This morning we spotted three tails under the bushes in the garden... We tried not to scare the little raccoons away, knowing how bad people drive around here. They had probably lost their mom and were looking for a safe place. How sweet!

Given the fact that the settimana enigmistica (the Italian crosswords-riddles&puzzles authority!) is my favorite magazine and that some people used to call me like that, no wonder this title is some kind of riddle. Anyway, since some of you were already laughing at the strange coincidences I experienced during this week, I'll explain what I mean. I had birthday and I had my cousin and her family visiting from Italy for some days. Because they are Jehovah's Witnesses - but also people I like a lot - I decided to leave my celebration uncelebrated on the very day - and keep my daughter distracted enough and forgetful - so that nobody would be offended or hurt. I wasn't hurt: as I said, my cousin is one of the persons I like most and since she is nice, sweet and caring that's no effort. As kids we used to spend quite some time together and she was always a sort of older sister to me, as much as I was the sister she never had. This in spite of the fact that we are very ...

With my birthday approaching (and no wisdom in sight), I have to hear questions like "What do you wish?", "What should we do?", which I can never answer because I don't really need anything special...wait, I DO need something!!! I need my peace: quiet, silence, calm. (Ideally a desert island would do the trick, but I'll be contented with something smaller). That I can never have a relaxed breakfast has been an issue for quite some times now, so it's time to have another breakfast outside .Hooray! It'll be an exception, so let me tell you how an Italian - used to either tea-biscuits (those you can professionally dunk to show-off), rusks or double-baked bread (the messy, old fashioned, tastier version of rusk) in a big bowl of lukewarm milk with pure soluble toasted barley - finds her way in this Country to have breakfast at home. My usual breakfast since we've moved is nothing fancy but a bowl of cold milk and cold cereals with a cup of coffee (o...