Ah, that tedious time of the day when his ever getting longer mane needs to be dried … but he is taking it like a … like a … hmm .. lion ???
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… still offline … still no phone … still nobody knows anything and nothing is happening …
I kept wondering why it is called ‘running an errand’ … well .. Julius took it very literal and ran all the way to the pharmacy with me.
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While we had a fun / busy day .. the pictures are not that great .. but heck .. can’t always be ..
Since Ritsu had a super tough week last week (like work from Sunday to Saturday .. leave 7:30, come back after 9 PM) .. she now had some ‘work from home’ days … and we used that chance so that she could also have a glimpse at Julius’ swim class (once again, even with zoom and highest res .. pics not that great)
Next we went to Le Gru, initially ‘just’ to get some more hangers at IKEA .. but as it turns out, sale is still on .. and we got very lucky.
I got even more lucky at IKEA .. I had been looking at a new office chair since I broke my last one after 3 years of heavy use (the metal juncture to the back rest just broke, not by accident .. the metal just wore off and tore) … and ever since I had this one chair at IKEA in mind … nice high back rest .. but at 179€ not really cheap .. But today I was determined that now it is time to get it … and on the way to pick it up, we passed this ill-lit, hidden room of discarded, forgotten, marked down, end of line items and display leftovers … and guess what … my chair was there … down 31% .. and in top condition !!! and while saving 55€ is great … I am even more happy that it is already assembled !! That would have taken me another 2 hours …
We also got a Carnival costume for Julius … knowing that he can be quite picky about what to wear, we stayed in the lower price range … it is not such a big thing here anyways, just one day at school … He was willing to try it on, but not too show-offy when I came with the camera …
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He used to love my Turkish meatballs .. I have no idea why he ate so little today .. other than he had a big afternoon snack at school ..
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Just why, oh why did I make so many ???
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Today we met Sarah, Jan, Sebastian and Jonathan at our regular Asian place for lunch, and the kids (together with Lucy and Martin, the resident children) were having a ball. Chasing each other around the place and Lucy showing off her toys.
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Our ongoing exploration of Turin’s playgrounds brought us to one close to Ritsu’s office (after we dropped her off at work … yes, on a Saturday) and also close to the river … since it was fairly early and the sun had little chance to heat things up, there were still some icy patches and the slides were completely wet.
But everything else was good and lots of fun.
And here some video:
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Getting some smoochie time with mama has been a rare commodity in the last week, since Ritsu was very tied up with work and had to leave early and came back late … but as soon as she came home, lil’ J was all over her.
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As grown-ups we tend to forget how tedious even the smallest of daily tasks can be …
Good that we have the little ones to remind us of it:
It appears that the shirt is way easier than the turtleneck …
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What is it with little boys and mounds of sand and rubble ?
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… zzzz …
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Today’s meatball explorations bring us to the country formerly known as Yugoslavia, where as a 10 year old I would demand those oblong shaped Ćevapčići pretty much every day. The trick seems to be to be only using garlic, onion and Hungarian paprika to spice up the meat, and then grill them over glowing charcoal (which I was kinda out of at the moment, not that I felt like creating a fire hazard in our minuscule kitchen anyways.)
Julius liked them, but I could see from his expression that they are not on the top of his list … well .. for next week I have planned Turkish, see ya then, fellow meatball lovers.
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Here a little video clip from today’s trip to the parco della remembranza. While it was very foggy in the morning, and still gloomy when we left, on top of the hill it was beautiful sunshine and we had a great view of the mountains (with Torino still hiding in the fog underneath us)
We did not walk around too much since Julius was fascinated by running around the statue on top of the hill, chasing other kids and surprise some sun bathers with his jumping skills.
All the way up high there is still some leftover snow from the light snowfalls over a week ago …
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Someone is getting too big for those seats in the shopping cart … (but this way he is so much easier to control)
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Initially I had planned pasta for tonight, but while J and I were walking around the neighborhood, getting some last minute grocery items and enjoying the setting sun, he spotted a little girl with a happy meal box … and seeing the golden M, he immediately shouted out ‘Cheeseburger’ …
So, once back home I had hoped he had forgotten about it, we snacked on an apple … and when it was dinner time, I told him that I was about to make him his favorite pasta …
Silence …
Then a glint in his eyes … and with big eyes looking at me: “Cheeseburger???”
Gladly I had everything at home to make a pretty decent burger, including fresh tomato slices, real cheese and whole grain toast (the ends of the loaf make a pretty good bun) … and he was very happy about the result.
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Trying to get the kid to pronounce a proper TH … not that easy, but he seems to have fun with it.
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This is a great example how little J has no issues getting water right in his face … he even does it himself when he is in charge of the hand held shower (a rare occasion I am slowly introducing)
It does not look like it, but the camera actually stayed dry … this time …
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… And here is why I am not going to buy it:
Ever since I heard the rumors of Apple developing a sub-notebook, I have been very exited … Actually, I had dreamed up my own version of it way before that time … And now the rumors have come true and all I can say is ‘eeee, yep, nice … Not what I wanted … But it might be great for the frequent traveling, back pain having Ritsu’ …
To illustrate why I am not totally enthralled by it, here is what I wanted:
a) a screen smaller then the current macbook, but wide-screen … 12″ or maybe even 10″ as long as the keyboard is still full size.
b) the power and features of a macbook pro, so that this sub-notebook can actually replace my main machine …
c) price to go with the size
On all 3 counts the macbook air does not deliver … Yippieh, it fits in an envelope .. Great .. Why would I do that? It is missing firewire and has only one usb port, which would probably always be occupied by an ethernet dongle since most hotels, IF they have internet connection, still go cable. The battery is not user replaceable (In this not even 2 year old macbook pro I am typing from, I have now the 3rd battery .. The idea that I have to part with my main computer to ship it somewhere to replace the battery, one of my worst nightmares)
I also think that the macbook air is too expensive (since it would never be my main machine, just a nice to have travel pack, and since I am not traveling THAT much .. No thank you)
But let’s look at the things I like and I hope they will soon show up in new models of the macbook pros:
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- The large trackpad and gestures. Very cool and very useful - The move to SD cards for solid state memory - The environmental aspects of building the whole thing (yeah, as if I ever throw any of my old computers out) - The lack of an optical hard drive (remember when laptop had floppy drives? Now it is time to throw out the CD drives and offer them as external packs. I have not used the optical drive on my macbook pro in a very long time). Which reminds me, does anyone know if this new ext. opt. drive will work on other macs? I’d love to have one of those. |
That being said .. Apple has shown again that they can build wonderful little machines with a bunch of cool new ideas … And I can just hope that they come along with something similar, more along the lines of what I want…
There is still a cool rumor out there that there will be an iMac looking docking station for the macbook air down the pipeline .. We shall see.
On Friday Jan 4th Fastweb cut us totally off. No phone, no internet.
Since then we have been trying to talk to people at Fastweb and Telecom (the ‘new’ provider I had signed a contract for transfer to faster, cheaper service with back in November). Both parties deny talking to us, claiming they have no records of any account or new contract. This is a very strange feeling .. In the US and even in Fiji, I was always able to find someone to argue or to reason with … Here it is just ‘sorry, you are not in our system, we cannot help you’ (Actually, in Fastweb’s case, you cannot even pass the automated voice system without a recognized customer number)
The only thing that keeps me from going nuts (and helps me to keep doing updates here) is some unprotected wifi network which the wind waves in from a house across the street late at night for less than an hour .. But even this is highly unreliable.
We have employed the help of some Italian colleagues of Ritsu, and even with fluent Italian language knowledge, they have not gotten an inch further. Instead we keep hearing horror stories from people about each and every ISP here in Italy and what kind of dis-service they are rendering to their ‘clients’ … and this in a country that counts itself to the developed ones …
I hope this issue is resolved soon. I have not been able to call my brother nor my mother to wish them Happy Birthday because of this … It really sucks !!!
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