Christmas is definitely coming

ARRGGHHHH

Christmas is coming, and I have not finished shopping for Christmas presents, nor cards nor anything else. If you do not get anything from Santa this year, it must be because you have been naughty - you must have added 20 mins to your parking coupon or didn't hold the lift for someone rushing to come in or said you had no time to do something when actually you just didn't feel like it... and you THOUGHT nobody was watching...

That is just my excuse for not sending out all my cards and stuff in time.

Anyway I am STILL trying to buy cardboard and poster paints to do that thoughtful little craft project which I said I would.. Paint Christmas cards for my family and friends!! This of course all depends on the feasibilty of it all given that I am still trying to buy the right kind of bloody paper.

Also promised Massimo an Advent Calender covered with pictures of Olga and Camilla.. Still struggling with my box to put photos on it. Also Promised to make Char Siew for Elaine and Marco. And of course I have a work deadline due in 12 days - my own advent calender has started...

You know you can take me out of all my long list of commitments in Singapore, put me in Italy, and what do I go off and do? Go off and over-commit myself again - Fwaghhh!!

some dog gone days

Some days it just aint' worth getting out of bed. Today seems to be one of them.

Due to a variety of administrative/logistics issues and unforseen circumstances, there is Absolutely No Cash in the house (save for some loose change). I am really grumpy because many places (like the market!) are cash-only. However, before you rush out to send cash and food packages, don't worry - we'll live: it is only an 8 hour liquidity crises, and everything reverts to normal once Fabien comes home and we go to an ATM ...

This may seem like a morbid reflection the earlier post about being a sucker to beggars, but I really wonder how would we cope if (touch wood) by some catastrophe, we lose all our money? There but for the grace of God go I seems to be the sentiment at the moment.

We take so many many things for granted. And we think we need more to live than we really do. But simple pleasures in life tend to be free. Like playing with my best buddy Olga:

Remembering Poetry

One of the things I enjoyed about studying Literature at A level is having to my mind a fount of random quotations that bubble up when I least expect it.

This one is from Robert Frost on friendship:

When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.

Lovely isn't it? Just thought I would take some time and share it with you.

Move aside Martha Stewart

Uncle Andre and his wife are visiting Turin. They are staying with Uncle Giles and his wife, Damienne. Giles is Fabien's godfather, who by a stroke of luck, is an expat in Torino also. Damienne and Andre are Fabien's mother's siblings. So much for genealogy - back to the story...

Tonight there is apperitivo for everyone in our humble house, and this is the menu:

Cold Stuff: Mozzerella and tomato skewers, Veggie crudities, Gristini, Platter of parma ham and diff kinds of salami with new potatoes, pickled onions and gherkins
Hot Bits: Deep Fried Spring rolls and Mini Croque Monsieur

I had to be physically restrained from planning some more food. It must be my Singapore paranoia of having not enough food in the house when you have guests.

I am going to put up the photo of the foods when they are finished tonight. AKAN DATANG on this blogpost and you will see the results of my efforts.. Who needs Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver when you have Sharon taking over the kitchen! MUAHHAhahaha (*diabolical laughter fades away*)

Fab says if he sees an explosion from his office he will know what happened. He hopes that he will come home to see the house still standing...

follow up post on this issue

These are the promised photos - sadly, you only see the cold foods becos the hot stuff was still in the oven.

Social conscience of the Sucker

One of the most annoying things about being in Europe (which conversely is something I miss about Singapore) is the presence of beggars on the streets and in the markets.

Being a liberal bleeding heart, I cannot but help to give spare change to pregnant mothers, grubby children, gypsys and anyone else who gives me a stupid excuse and pleading look.

Fabien and I have had countless discussions on this point, with the conversation usually begining with the words "you are not helping them you know" YES i know they mostly don't need it/earn more than I do/use the money to buy drugs/alohol etc...

However, unlike him, I have not been hardened through travelling through India on less than 3 USD a day, besieged into numbness by suffering humanity.

So today, when I went to the market, and the usual pregnant woman comes to me asking for money (I must have the word "sucker" stamped on my head), I decided to try something equally compassionate but not involving a cash donation. I opened my shopping bag, and let her pick up from my own fruits and veggies whatever she wanted- she took some baby tomatoes, carrots, a banana and an apple.

It may have cost me more money than giving her the loose change in my wallet. But I felt generally better for it.

It's snowing!!

Yay! It is snowing today.

Little flakes drifting down just outside our window, creating wet puddles on the concrete that you can jump into. The fact that it is snowing in Torino city centre in November is actually not so common, because it tends to rain or sleet rather than have perfect little fluffy icicles coming down. It will snow more in Jan and Feb...

Given its rarity, I am justifiably excited about being able to see snow in November.

Life's little ironies

I went to the ILO today on Maestri del Lavoro. It is part of a UN cluster of buildings in Turin, together with UNICRI and a small UNESCO office, so the whole area is within a fenced up compound.

I realise that in most protected places in Turin, if you look not Italian/North European, you may get asked for your ID by the security guard at the entrance. I don't know what it is like at the other UN compounds in the rest of the world, but in this one, it works the other way around!

Due to the UN hiring quotas there are a whole lot of black/asian/women and other minorites walking in and out of the compound everyday. I have never been stopped to be asked for ID, but Fabien (white, male and therefore an endangered species) is always stopped at the entrance whenever he comes to get me.

The first snow flake of the year

This weekend was spent quietly. It was pretty cold so we didn't get out of Turin, instead we tried to finish up our wedding "Thank You for coming to Aubry" cards...

We went to an exhibition of René Magritte (1898–1967) and Paul Delvaux (1897–1994). Very disturbing, and I love it. The perspectives are so warped and wierd and acid-trippy! Never thought I would enjoy surrealist art... But never say never eh?

Fabien and I discussed a whole bunch of stuff, the details of which will not be posted here, but sometimes it is just nice that you know the fact of something happening without necessarily knowing the details - Except the most important one:-

Mush Moment Alert
We are so blessed with a great marriage, wonderful family, friends so we are grateful...Toi qui aime ce que qui aimez...

Less goey and random details - you can stop throwing up now..

The temperature is really starting to plunge this week (brrrr)...
The first Snow Flake of the year may fall this week!

It is a good enough cause as any to get all excited about...