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Published: July 29th 2012
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Hello again,
Sorry for leaving you all without a post last week, but I was forced to go ‘au naturale,’ as there was no internet either on my Mac or on my phone. It was so horrible not having any contact with the outside world (A.K.A Facebook) as I like my daily fix of everyone else’s misery!!
So let’s start at the beginning of the last two weeks of my life, because according to Julie Andrews ‘it’s a very good place to start…’
We’ll it’s Saturday and I’m finally at the grandparents house in San Felice Circeo right on top of the beach. We left the hotel in Muggia at 7am and arrived at 4.15pm, massive trek especially when all the kids decide to throw a tantrum (at the same time). It’s very nice here and relaxing, but also extremely hot.
One thing I’ve learnt from all my road tripping around Italy so far, is that instead of having ketchup and mayo on the tables in the restaurants and at the petrol stations, they have olive oil and balsamic vinegar! Also on the way here we saw a mountain shaped like a sleeping woman.
This evening
we went to the beach, which was nice the kids were so excited and it was sweet to see them all playing together in the sea. The area of the beach we go to is called ‘Le Streghe’ which translates as ‘the witch’ (love it!) and guess what there was sand, no stones (finally)! I paddled in the sea, but it was way to cold to swim in it, although I did find lots of shells. I’m so sad I haven’t been to the beach in 4 years, so I was super excited.
That’s about all there is to report right now, the mum’s sister, husband and her 3 kids are here with us until Monday so it’s going to be pretty noisy and chaotic for the next day and a half! All anyone wants to ask me questions about is the Olympics, is it bad that I don’t give a s**t about the f**king Olympics?!
It’s Sunday and I got woken up at half 7 this morning to go to the beach!! Bear in mind we had to get up very early yesterday to travel here, spent numerous hours in the car and we didn’t end up
going to bed till very late last night, I was not very happy. Not to mention that when I unpacked my bags I discovered there had been a shampoo explosion in my bag, so also had to deal with that (that’ll teach me for stealing the little bottles of shampoo from the hotel).
Anyway we had breakfast at the beach, which was nice and it was already boiling hot when we got there. Of course I had to start the day with a cup of tea (I’m so English), so there’s me sitting on the beach at 8am in a bikini in the 20+ degree heat drinking a cup of tea (I must be mental)!!
Spent the morning making a massive sand city (oh yeah a city, NOT a castle), with two of the older kids (check out the pic, we even had a sand Collosium) and it was really sad when we had to destroy it after so other people could sit on the beach. I also got introduced to an Irish family today, who they have known for the last 4 years and they said I look very Italian so I was very happy (just need
the tan now). Also saw a little black crab on the beach today, so going to have to watch where I step in the future.
Today at lunch all 6 kids decided they wanted to surprise the adults by preparing lunch and the table all by themselves. It was so cute they cut some flowers from the garden to decorate the table with and made everyone a menu, mine was in English (with a few small spelling mistakes). It was all going well until they knocked the tray of ice cream and cake all over the floor, but never mind no use crying over spilt gelato. At dinner I tried octopus, wanted to scream out loud when I felt the sucker in my mouth, definitely not repeating that experience, was way too chewy.
Today is Tuesday and at the beach we found a massive dead jellyfish, it was literally the size of a dinner plate! Then I had a competition with Margherita to see who could collect the most shells, I lost with only 316 and she had 530! We used the shells to write our names in the sand it looked really cool, here are the pics…
The sand here gets so hot that every time we go to and from the sea you have to sprint, I think I’ve lost about 30 layers of skin already from the bottom of my feet. It’s great being paid to wear a bikini all day (in a non-stripper kind of way), but the sun and sea water are running my skin and nails. I’m so dry and scaly I look like a tanned lizard, however the water here is so clear you can see the fish!
The girls have some friends who also come to the beach every year for the summer who are from Rome. Today one of them asked me how old I am, when I told her to guess she said “37?” Fantastic, obviously the sun and sea are doing more damage to my skin than I first suspected.
Good thing that I’m on holiday with two doctors, got a little infection on the back of one of my legs where I got bitten by a mosquito and then scratched the bite. Luckily I got an immediate consultation and they had the cream I needed with them (the NHS service is England has
a lot to learn!).
The two little girls from Dublin, who have been hanging out with us a lot, taught us a new card game. They’re really sweet, they’re twins but not identical and they come to this beach for 2 months every summer. I’ve been teaching my kids all the card games I learnt from my Nana, passing it on to the next generation. My Nana also taught me to knit and the kids like watching me do it, they also showed me how to make bracelets out of the left-over wool. They tried to show me how to make Scooby-doo’s, but it was far too complicated for my liking, although I did make some cool bookmarks using left-over wool and shells from the beach.
Well today is Friday of the first week at the beach and it’s been a pretty eventful day. Firstly I’m a little bit burnt and then my Havaianas broke (for the less fashion conscious, they’re flip flops). I’m so sad R.I.P. guys we’ve been through so much together! Today I had the most amazing doughnut ever, it had nutella in the middle of it and was truly the best 1 euro and 30 cents that I’ve ever spent (so good in fact I had another 2 after this! Nom nom nom).
To be honest today I was a bit annonyed and surprised as the 10 year-old told me that she is on a diet. She’s not really fat, but she’s not a skinny as her two sisters. What is even more worrying is that she told me she can’t eat bananas because they have too many carbs and she can’t eat grapes because they have too much sugar. I’m sorry, but it’s FRUIT!! How can it be bad for you? There is no way that a ten year old girl should be encouraged to start worrying about her weight at this stage, surely it’s just a down hill slope to anorexia from here. If the mum thinks she needs to diet, god only knows what she thinks of me (she’s probably going to try and throw me back in the sea soon)?!
Speaking of food, as someone who hates seafood with a passion, since I’ve been here I’ve eaten prawns and swordfish for dinner. I’m pretty impressed with myself and I think my dad will be pretty happy as well as he’s been trying to get me to eat fish for a while now. Also been reading Matilda in English with the youngest one of my kids, not sure if she understands it but she seems to be enjoying it.
Well we’re on week 2 of 3 now, and it’s raining! Spent the day indoors making snowflakes, bracelets, puzzles and playing cards (it’s amazing how much you can do with a ball of wool)! I’m looking forward to getting back now to my old routine and also to get my bags ready for London. The Olympics start on Friday and everyone here is pretty excited about it, don’t know if I’ll get a chance to watch any of it but hope I can catch some of the gymnastics or dressage.
Oh yeah and about the Italian, over the last few weeks I’ve been away he’s made pretty much zero effort to stay in touch with me. The first week I messaged him because I thought maybe he didn’t want to text me in case I wasn’t in Italy, but the last two weeks I’ve stepped back to see if he would text me and nothing! (I guess it’s true out of sight, out of mind). To be honest before I left I’d pretty much worked out that he was a timewaster (29 and still living at home??!!) so not really too bothered to be honest. If they make it obvious they’re not interested then I’m not going to waste my time chasing them, because there’s going to be someone who is (yeah I’ve seen ‘he’s just not that into you.’). So c’est la vie, life goes on! Is it so much to ask to find a guy who like to travel, watch films, is interested in photography, isn’t scared by PDA’s and doesn’t live at home?!
Tonight is Wednesday and we thought it would be fun to guess what colour outfit The Queen is going to be wearing to the opening of the Olympics, my guess was yellow, whilst the others guessed pale blue, salmon, green and fuschia. Now we will have to wait until Friday to see if anyone was correct. Tomorrow we are going to ‘the rocks’ to have a swim there, it will be early in the morning so the water will be very cold. The girls like to jump into the water from the rocks, but think I might just watch from a safe distance.
It’s Thursday today and as if the infected leg wasn’t bad enough I also now have conjunctivitis (perfect way to end the holiday)! Luckily my on call eye doctor was at hand again for an immediate consultation and they also happened to have the eye drops I needed. Really annonying my eyes are so itchy I’m going crazy, plus I’m also really screamish when it comes to my eyes, so the thought of having to put drops in 5 times a day makes me suicidal. I just hope it goes before next Sunday, I’m letting nothing ruin London for me. Plus to top it all off I also have a cold, been sneezing and sniffing all day (well they say bad things happen in 3’s, I guess that includes illnesses?!). Today it was so windy and the waves were massive, but it’s surprising how much fun a 9 year old can have with some waves.
It’s Saturday today and the holiday is coming to an end. Last night I stayed up to 1am watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics (and even when I went to bed it still wasn’t finished). It was so weird watching it from Italy as this time last year it hadn’t even crossed my mind to get a job as an au pair. Truthfully it’s the first time I’ve ever watched it and I was surprised how many made up countries there were (I still don’t understand why Africa need 80 different teams?).
When each country was called the prime minster/president from that country stood up and danced and waved, but when they called Great Britain what does The Queen do? Oh yeah! She’s on camera playing with her glove, she briefly acknowledges the fact that our athletes are there and then remembers how interesting her glove is. God save The Queen! I’m still waiting for them to make hula hooping an Olympic sport (gold medal here I come).
Also The Queen was wearing Salmon as correctly guessed by Marianna, so she was happy about that. Tomorrow we’re leaving early to travel back up North to Ivrea, I hope the journey isn’t too epic. Said goodbye today to all my new little children friends here, been like the Pied Piper the last two weeks, with all these little kids following me around calling out ‘ciao Sophie.’ And lastly bye bye beach!
We’ll it’s Sunday and I’m back in Ivrea now and I can’t wait to smother myself in coco butter. Also my previously polished nails are now chipped and broken so a pedi is definitely on the cards. So excited about going to London next Sunday, I hope this week goes quickly, although sadly I finish my Italian lessons this week.
Anyway lots of unpacking and then re-packing to do, so I’ll see you all soon.
Ciao bambini,
Soph
XxX
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