I'm Norwegian and my husband's Italian. And together we live by the sea in the south of France. Not always easy living but it's getting easier by the day. Don't hesitate to leave me a comment or send me message, I love hearing from you! :)
Our trip to Sardinia was just relaxing which was also mostly due to the fact that Lorenzo's parents were spoiling us :) Apart from one excursion we didn't do much other than reading, walking, sleeping, taking photos and going out with L's parents' small canadian boat along the beaches and bays nearby. So in the next few post I'd just like to share a few photos with you. L's coursin with wife (Ciao Cri!!) and their beautiful little son Giovanni were also in Sardinia and we met them one afternoon. (By clicking on the photos you can see them in a bigger format)
The sofa turned out to be so much nicer than we expected!! We're thrilled. Long boring story very short; we basically picked it out from an online catalogue which is something I would never, like never, normally do with such an important piece of furniture. But it turned out to be spot-on what we needed and wanted in our now cosy livingroom.
Our friends decided not to come because of the bad weather we have had, and still have here in the south of France. When is the sun coming back??
Just a little note to say that we're back. The cat too. All three of us are feeling better and more relaxed and full of renewed homesickness - remind me why we live in France again???!
There are some completely uninteresting news I'd like to share. With this blog-thingy going on you're in for the worst and the best right??! In sickness and in health... you get the drift!
One: New Sofa is being delivered tomorrow. From Italy. But since nothing is ever just straight forward I need to rent a van and pick the sofa up in Cannes, as in Cannes Film Festival city, as in 120 (x 2 = 240) KM from home. Lorenzo working = me driving and picking it up. Note to self: Practice tonight that blond and cute attitude to charm the trasportatori to off- and on- load sofa into my van.
Two: Friday is Monster Cleaning Day. Our friends are coming from Milan to see us! Yeah! Since living in across the border in France is like living on the other side of the world for the normal Italian, this is a big event indeed. Why monster clean you ask? Well, our normal standards are high but in these bathroom renovation days, the house is a mess. There's a ever present white dust covering everything and even though I wipe it away another layer has formed within an half-hour. What's a little bit of cleaning when you get to spend a weekend with good friends?? :)
Three: I've almost forgot what it's like to go to the cinema. Seeing Brad Pitt or Harrison Ford speaking French just doesn't do it for me. I don't even know when I last went to the cinema even. So the point is: we're going to the cinema to see the new Indiana Jones film. In English. Which means we need to go on an excursion to Aix en Provence or Marseille. Something we've never done before, just for a silly film.
Four: My father in law is a genius! By the end of June we'll have (hold on tight now!!) a satellite dish giving us English, Italian, Scandinavian and French TV channels. FIL has been working on this for weeks, making a motor so that the dish will rotate to find the right satellites when we press the remote control buttons. The best?? : All these channels are completely subscription free.
Conclusion? : If I am to draw a conclusion from the above four points I will turn into a couch potato watching VO (Version Original) TV from my brand new sofa sending my friends to the cinema and calling someone (from the comfortable sofa) to come clean the house. I have nothing but a bright and comfy future ahead of me.
In a few minutes Lorenzo will be here and we are off to Genoa to jump on the night ferry to Sardinia. Ahhh... don't you just love the rumble of the big engines and the small waves that help you sleep?! Sardinia will be in flower now and the best: we will probably be alone since the tourist season hasn't started just yet.
The cat will be dropped off in her private hotel in Cuers - luckily the Pension owner is a veterinary assistant as well and don't see a problem in nursing my little (fustrated) kitty. Since she doesn't eat paté, I have cooked enough chicken to last her a week but strangely enough, bringing our own food doesn't give any discount at all... Anyway, the important part is that our cat will be fine there and we don't have to worry.
My poor kitty is quite ill and is walking around with a cone on her head.
The vet found a big abscess full of red pus (not blood) next to her bum. In his words this abscess was enormous. But the worst is that he didn't find out why she had developed it which means it might return.
The funny part here is that before Lorenzo could take her home from the vet yesterday, they had to re-disinfect her and my (slightly sentitive to gooy stuff) husband almost fainted holding the unhappy cat down on the table. Bless them!
To say the least, Topolina's not happy. She keeps on scraping the cone along the floor, banging into obstacles and doesn't understand that the cone is there to prevent her from cleaning herself. She also have to take antibiotics for the next 10 days which isn't all that great since we are celebrating our anniversary in Italy the next 5 days and we have to leave her in the Cat Pension.
The last few days my little Topolina has been behaving strangely and she has been sleeping a lot. When she came to sit on my lap I got even more worried because she never, never seeks that close contact. (Now I know she was cold and needed to be warmed up, poverina!) So yesterday evening we called the veterinary on call to ask advice as she hadn't been eating or drinking all day long either. He told us it might have been caused by ze bird she caught the other day and to bring her in this morning for a check-up.
It turned out she had 40 in fever and had an infection of some sort around the tail/bum. He couldn't tell before she was sedated and he could touch her without causing pain. I felt guilty for not having noticed she had such a high fever but her nose and ears have been just the right temperature the last few days. The vet calmed me down saying that in some cases that 'trick' doesn't work and the nose stays cold and wet regardless of a fever or not.
When I left the clinic I heard her mewing loudly, something she never does either. It was hard to leave her there but hopefully when I pick her up later this afternoon Dr. Vet would have figured out the why's and how to cure her.
One year ago, more or less to the minute, we were standing on those steps overlooking the bay in Sestri Levante. If only we could do it all over again; have another glass of Ferrari, dance a little more, eat a little more of that lovely wedding cake... Aaaah, it was all so good. It was a day where my happiness felt like the bubbles in a champagne glass - they just floated to the surface in a continuous stream... And they still do :)
In march I told L : Look the allergy hasn't bothered me this year! Maybe it has gone again??!
Fat chance!
The spring was just a bit later this year and this is the third week where my nose is itching, eyes are sore and just to make it more fun it is even causing a bonchitis. Though I'm still crossing my fingers that I'm wrong, the signs are the same as every other time. Slight sore throat, dry discomfort causing a minor cough and then it keeps on moving down to my lungs and becomes a lot nastier...
Despite my allergies I do love the spring. Yesterday evening I was out walking and took these photos. It's simply the best time of the year when nature comes back to life and there are flowers everywhere.
While Astrid's off making dinner I zought I'd say a few words. Yez I know, you all zougt cats couldn't write but zen I'm no ordinary housecat... I am also pretty, my fur glows in brown in ze sunshine, I'm a princess on my street among all zose male suitors, I make sure I'm never too accessible nor do I ever appear needy - and lastly but not least, you can look but not touch. ' You touch, I bite ' is my motto. Ozzerwise I have to wash my fur again and again! We french kitties have a reputation to keep up you know. Anyway, back to ze point:
After monz of training I finally caugzz, *ehem*, caught a bird. Yup. At first I managed to catch a few butterflies, zen a few double deckers and after zat a lizard. What did my owners say? Yuck! Zen zey tried to convince me zat I had done a good job as a cat - but zeir horrified faces don' fool anyone. So I stopped taking zem into ze house. But zat's not ze worst - no no. Zey didn't get ze message : I wanted a change in my diet!!
Zey have been feeding me home cooked chicken for monz. You zink I should eat zose filzy patés in a box? HA! You zink again! However zey can't go on zinking I can feast on the same zing over and over and yet over again.
So today I caught a bird. My first. A red eyed, black and grey feazzered bee-yootiful little creature. I played. He died. And zen I played again. Zen I showed him off to everyone. Oh, and zen Astrid came out - she winced, said "yuck", checked if ze bird was still alived (I so didn't like being pushed over like zat!) and walked back in again to phone Lorenzo. After 5 minotes she petted me and said I was a good girl following my cat instincts. Of course I am - I never doubted zat!
But ze best?! I am getting home cooked fish for dinner tonight. Zey have understood - finally!!
Since I'm sooo pretty I will add a picture of me in my hunting mode. Ozzerwise I risk hearing you all say... Aaaah, she's cute. But I know zat already. Now you all go taking care of your own kitties and remember that a little cooked ham or fish will make zem even happier. But of course zey will not show it...
Isn't it strange how one unexpected phonecall can make the rest of the day seem brighter and happier? A friend of mine from Italy, well I guess she's still just an acquaintance, just called me to have a chat for no particular reason.
It really made my day!
I've met her many times of course but she's always been the girlfriend of L's friend. And most often they remain just that - someone's girlfriend. I hate it when some people expect you to get along with someone's wife or girlfriend because your husband is a friend/colleague with the other part of the couple. Attraction and connection is not automatic...
In this case though, our friendship have grown over many years and quite a few parties. Even when we lived in Milan I didn't have much contact with her but we always had a great time together those few times we met.
I have just been so busy lately that I haven't had time to post anything yet about my henparty weekend in Norway or my weekend trip to Italy and on top of it all it's just been a long weekend as you all now with extra days off and we have people working on our bathroom... Are you out of breath after this long sentence with no punctuation?? That's how my life has been for the past weeks - just doing going doing and not being able to catch up with everything.
I'll start with the henparty. Why on earth is it called a henparty anyway? The organisers didn't like the name of it either so it was quickly renamed Foxnight which you have to admit sounds a lot sexier.
Couldn't resist Jimi Hendrix' lovely tune with a memorable playback interpreter...
So once in Oslo I met up with my friends and we did some last minute shopping before the bride herself was flown into Oslo from Glasgow. Her instructions were to bring hiking boots and bikini - and she did seem a little worried upon arrival.
Friday night we had nothing particularly planned as the Saturday would be pretty charged so we just went to an Indian restaurant and some pool afterwards.
Saturday morning started off with an early breakfast - all 9 of us, before we headed to a military sport complex. On the way we picked up Hilde, our instructor and former participant on the Synchronized swimming national team! That's one sport I'd never thought I'd get to try!!
With the Bride dressed up in a sparkly, twinkly green bathing suit we entered the pool with a lot ofgrace energy. It was incredible fun and it required a lot of strenght. The illustrated picture is what we more or less should have done and the real pictures from the event, show one flying girl with 4 unstable, wiggly and giggly girls holding her. With four more holding gracious pose around us. If you google (image) synchronized swimming you see a lot of the things we tried to do.
After this wonderful experience we jumped into the cars and started out trip towards Valdres. Destination: mountain wood cabin with an outdoor Jacuzzi! The road was long and the girls had made plans for a lunch stop with sport activities - and again: A sport I'd never thought I'd try - Archery!
Armed with bows and arrows and some protection gear (that didn't work too well) we did an hour training. And Holy Cow! was it painful when the bow slid out of your grip in the moment you let go of the arrow, and the cord hit the arm.
When the Champagne bottles were empty and the great Norwegian lunch eaten, we headed off into the forest. Time to go hunting with our newly acquainted skills. The animals, a wild cat, a bear, 2 deers and a wolf were waiting rigidly among the trees ready to be shot bytipsy and giggly bloodthirsty Norwegian Vikings.
Apparently I had a real talent and the instructor was afraid my Latin husband was living in fear of me. I seemed to hit the animals in the groin constantly... (Yours truly is placed to the right partly concealing Robin Hood)
The drive to the wood cabin took some time but it was totally worth it seeing the sun setting over the snow covered valley and our flat mountains. This is why the Norwegians are so good at country cross skiing ;)
Well installed in what seemed to be a wood cabin bigger than our home in France we took out the champagne bottles and celebrated our arrival. The Bride to be got pampered with foot baths and creams, while doing a wine tasting test as she has previously been working for a wine importer in the States. After a late but super good dinner (Avocado salad, tuna steaks with rice accompanied by French rosé wine) the Bride started opening her presents - some 'serious' and some for keeping in the bedside table ;)
It was close to 3 am. when we decided it was time to jump into the outdoor jacuzzi. A friend and I had shovelled a snowy but walkable path from the livingroom. By the time you could jump into the bubbly bath you had absolutely no feeling left in your toes. Thank goodness that the water temperature was above 30° degrees Celsius. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to sit out there, almost too hot in the water but still breathing the fresh mountain air looking at the stars and seeing the daylight coming back - and of course with a glass of champagne in the hand!
(Quality of this photo is bad to say the least but serves as evidence of one of wearing a Russian fur hat while in the jacuzzi!!)
Just before I dragged myself to bed I took this photo of the valley and the moon setting - the light was just so beautiful. It's taken from the livingroom window with a pair of shaky champagne hands but worked out remarkably well anyway. A little cropping would do it well but it's to show you all how beautiful Norway can be if you decide to stay up all night long...
Synch. swimming picture is borrowed from this website. Archers x 3 - taken by Reidun the 19/04/2008 - all rights reserved.
