One of the rare occasions that Julius demands papa to be his bath buddy!
Time that he learns to cook his own food!
And he seems to be loving it!
Goofing around with one of daddy’s hats just before taking a bath …
Again we set off to the playground, since weather was lovely and Julius was still hoping to meet Mathilda again (no luck this time)
And we were surprised to find a Sunday flea-market within the playground area! Actually quite a nice set-up (despite some nasty cheapo plastic toys)
I did not get around buying anything, but it was possible to look around while Julius was playing, but then he also got into explore mode and found this ancient water based basketball game, which I was very close to get for him (for sentimental, pre-video game era values) … but he has learned very well that he can look at things, try them maybe, but then put them back …
On the other hand I was tempted to get that bottle of ancient Barolo … which happened to be from my birth year … and 25€ for an ‘antique’ did not sound too bad … but then again .. you never drink it … you can just store / display / brag about it and eventually lose it in the next move … so .. I asked if I could take a picture .. and that was enough …
This area here is the epicenter of the Slow Food movement and thus we get lots of food related fairs and events. Today we treated ourselves to a mass gathering of hungry and curious people (called “Salone del Gusto“, checking out something around 500 – 1000 stalls of food, wine, olive oil, sweets … just about everything … a big celebration of food.
In general a fantastic idea. The 2 biggest halls were all about presenting various regions of Italy, while one pavilion was reserved for the rest of the world: There we saw German, Japanese, stuff from Ireland, Norway, Austria … overall a very colorful mix.
With an entrance fee of 20€ p.p. we expected way more freebies … basically “no lunch needed today” … but it was somewhat of a stingy affair … You could spot the freebie sections by an uncivilized gathering of people and it took time and effort to get through and fight for some crumbs of cheese.
We probably liked best the booth of San Danielle ham, where a sad & bothered young man kept slicing and slicing and casually reminding the masses to line up from only one side, please … but we got through that twice (since with all those hams in the background, it made for a fantastic photo op, and Julius really loved that ham!)
There was lots of food, sure .. but very often you also saw that a tasting platter would cost an additional 3, 5, 8 € … so .. hmm .. rip-off ?
I think the general idea to be able to try that many foods in one location is great … but the place got just silly crowded (though we came early and actually signed up with Slow Food, so we only payed 10€ p.p. and were able to skip the line) … I just think that you do not get what you pay for. Or, maybe you can get what you paid for if you stay all 12 hours they were open this Saturday and you are in single combatant mode. This place tested Julius’ patience and we were out after 3 hours. The masses were just getting crazy and by the time we left we saw that even more people came in.
Highly recommended for food enthusiasts who either sneak of on a weekday or have strong elbows and an ‘I don’t care about lining up’ attitude.
Julius was very clear today when he came home that he wanted to go to the playground and since the announced rain for this week never came, we went …
And after a while the little man connected with a 9 year old girl who even had some basic English skills and they totally hit it off.
Julius would not leave until he saw that Mathilda was leaving, so he grabbed her hand and they walked along together, until it was time for her to say bye bye … but she also asked if we would come to the playground again tomorrow, which I guess, weather allowing, we will do.
Three of Julius’ schoolpals (well, their parents) organized a party for the kids at McD’s … I have only watched some of those before back in Fiji … I have never been to one … and it was quite interesting.
The kids were directly taken from school by bus to Micky D and parents were expected to pick them up around 6:30 PM … since I had no idea how that works in general (like leaving our kid in someone elses care, what if he decides to run away?) I showed up around 5:45 PM to catch a glimpse of the action … by that time food was served, Julius was a bit disappointed by the more kid friendly ham and cheese sandwich and demanded a real cheeseburger.
I don’t know if I missed it or if it was not booked, but there was no Ronald McDonald in sight … but who knows what they did from 4:45 – 5:45 …
I also did some video to catch the general atmosphere .. but it edges on being boring .. so .. this probably has only some value for the hardcore Julius fans and McD behavioral researchers …
The ONE thought I kept having was “I am so glad I do not have to clean up this mess!”
Drawing is still Julius’ most fun thing to do these days (on occasion he wakes up in the morning and his first words are ‘I want to draw’) … and recently he started copying everything that he sees … like his toys or Saturday’s lunch:
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One of Julius’ best friends at school is Ogarit and as posted earlier, I have been in touch with her parents for some time now to set up a play date.
The idea was to drive a bit more than an hour to some lunch place in the middle of nowhere. We avoided the highway and took more picturesque side streets to get to Pecco, which is close to Ivrea. While a mountain area, the restaurant that we went to specializes on seafood.
Julius was invited to drive with Ogarit and we quickly switched his car seat, and as we followed the car, we could see the 2 kids play, turn around, wave at us.
Pecco is really a small village in the hills and we got lucky with the weather, we checked out the nearby playground, collected chestnuts and then we could sit outside and enjoy some welcome cocktail while the kids were drawing.
For lunch we went inside (The restaurant “Attiko Cafè” does not look like much from the outside, but the dining room inside / upstairs is very nice) and we enjoyed a fish appetizer, pasta with shrimp and the 2 mixed seafood platters, one grilled, the other fried. All was very tasty, the only caveat being that the medium sized fish had a lot of bones, which made it tricky to eat, especially for the kids, but on this occasion I learnt that Julius is aware of fishbones and able to sort them out when he detects one in his mouth.
We had more food than we could eat, I think they cooked for 6 grown ups. For desert the kids had some ice cream and we tried some Arrancello (Like Limoncello, but made from oranges. This region is famous for its oranges and the town of Ivrea is having a festival every year which includes an orange throwing battle … terrible waste of vitamin C if you ask me, but sure fun to watch)
Overall a fantastic day and we are looking forward to do something similar again soon. Especially when good food is involved.
And here are the pictures
And I also have a bit of video footage, which is especially interesting as we do not get to hear Julius speaking Italian that much. But around his school pals he switches and it is fun to watch.
We had fantastic lunch there in March and had always said we wanted to return during truffle season. But we ended up with the tasting menu, which was pretty much the same as last time and thus stayed truffle free.
| Reason for that being some confusion about the pricing and said pricing being a bit too much. The only indication of price was a yellow post-it saying that they charge 30€ per grating. And we watched on neighbor tables that this grating was indeed a pretty generous portion of freshly shaved truffles over the dish they recommended. So if you pick a basic pasta dish and have it truffle-fied, this dish would cost you 40€ … if my speculation is correct. |  |
The menu was the very same and equally yummy with a few changes: The amuse gueule was a slice of pancetta in olive oil and balsamico reduction, there was no happy-mountain-cow butter with the bread this time around, and when desert time came, it appears they had run out of the panna cotta, so we could freely select form their desert menu. Ritsu picked a very fancy multi layer thing with raspberries and I had a mini apple / pear tart with calvados and ice cream.
Compared to last visit the total damage was only 1€ more (the wine was 13€ this time) and it was well worth it. I keep wondering if the price of this one grating of truffles will go down as the truffle season has just started … We saw many people around us getting this grating and at some point I want to try this too.
Julius behaved and focused mainly on drawing, he tried nibbles from us and then ate my whole pasta.
It is fun to prepare dinner with Julius together and making meatballs must be a little boys dream. And his meatballs came out pretty well, without making much of a mess.
Ever since he had enough hair, Julius had pretty much the same hairstyle (in various lengths) … so .. why not try something else for a change?
(This is still a ‘work in progress’ picture, I will show the end result once I get a good photo.)
Once again a 3 generations of Nacken men picture. (like here and here.)
For my dad’s birthday we went to a nearby typical German restaurant (with some Austrian influence, e.g. I had some lovely chanterelle mushrooms)
After a small sulking period Julius actually showed quite an appetite, ate all my pasta tried some meat from everyone and especially loved the shredded carrots from our salads.
Happy Birthday Dad!
Gasthaus Rupp
Homburger Str. 6
61352 Bad Homburg – Ober-Erlenbach
Deutschland
Telefon: 0049 (0) 6172 42484
Telefax: 0049 (0) 6172 41928
… at least some day in the future.
Julius just LOVES Hamdi, some neighbor’s cat who wanders around and judging by his (her?) size, he gets food at every house he stops by. Hamdi (probably not his real name, but this is what he has been called here for years) used to be terrified of Julius and well, Julius was too little to understand how to deal with cats … but he has learned.
And the little man was overjoyed when I brought the cat to the bedroom to say good night. And to our surprise, the feline snuggled up with J … at least for some pictures … as soon as I got up to leave the room, the cat would follow me.
| Of course, next morning, Julius had to immediately digest his cat-in-bed experience by drawing it: |  |
While yesterday was very sunny, today it was a bit foggy / gloomy .. but that actually created a perfect autumn atmosphere as we were taking a stroll through nearby fields and woods.
The apple trees here are totally full right now and judging by apples on the ground, no one seems to be too eager to go pick them. But sure it was big fun for Julius and a good work out for his papa.
We also met a dog and some cows and marvelled at the changing colors of the leafs.
Today was part 2 of the duty roster for this trip: paper work. I had lost my driver’s license last winter and since I can only imagine the discussion with the Italian police when they see my (still valid) Fijian license, I had wanted to apply for a replacement.
I was very positively surprised with the overall friendliness and efficiency of the 2 offices I had to visit.
The weather was beautiful so I took Julius out first for a stroll to a little church (of course, a geocache was involved) and then later we went to a nearby playground.
Gladly we also had the chance to do some videochat with Ritsu.
Behold the pictures of random goofiness and cat encounters:
Today was mainly occupied by 2 doctor appointements which took a very long time (driving to, waiting and such) … overall Julius was a trooper… only towards the evening he shut down and became a mess …
Still walking on online stilts I share as much as I can
Tiranë is the capital of Albania, which I heard is the poorest country in Europe. Before I came, I didn’t know what to expect…
Although it’s supposed to be “poor”, the country is aiming at joining the EU.
| When I arrived, I was positively surprised that the city is very lively with tons of cafés and restaurants. The weather is just gorgeous, sunny and dry, and I heard they have more than 300 sunny days a year in Tiranë.
Completely different from Fiji! |
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We have arrived at Frankfurt airport on a pretty late flight from Turin, full of sad and tired business men. We are here to visit grandpa and will stay for his birthday (while Ritsu is in Albania right now)
For reasons totally unknown to me I have not managed to get my own computer online here yet. I have the feeling that some network specialist has, out of general paranoia, totally closed this network with whatever means possible …and even with knowing passwords and such, I can’t go online … so I am using my dad’s macbook (smart purchase papa!) but of course I am missing a bazillion of tools and I keep messing with the German keyboard.
But at least I can share some pictures now.
Mama had returned yesterday and having had a busy week + jetleg, J and I let her sleep in.
And since it was a sunny day we strolled down to the usual playground, but explored a bit more. This playground is actually where the old Torino Zoo used to be and there are some sad, worn down remnants of that (some day I go and take many pictures and put them up on flickr … if anyone has any pictures of that zoo in its hayday, like pre 1987, that would be awesome).
I love this candid shot with the 2 ladies in it …
Around 12:45 we thought it was time to wake up mama, but first Julius demanded gelato … We then went together to our semi-regular kebab place, which again was very crowded, and had very nice lunch, followed by another round of gelato.
A new place Ritsu had discovered after some business dinner. Very nice and quite different from the usual 50+ flavor gelato places one can find in Torino … it seems their goal is more to have very specific flavors .. like vanilla .. but with vanilla from Madagascar … gelato for gourmands … Their greek style yoghurt gelato is to die for! And they have a weekly changing menu.
It is a bit of a hole in a wall location off Piazza Castello … need to get back to you with an address … maybe this helps.
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