We have finally moved!
The last 2 days have been extremely work intensive. We had started ever since we got back from Japan to pack first boxes and sort out things. Then 10 days ago when our friend Angel left our new apartment I had started to move tons of stuff already by car. But today we had some guys with a small delivery van help us out with all the big items and from 8:30 AM until 4 PM we all were under heavy rotation.
But now everything is here, I was able to make our first dinner and then Julius enjoyed very much that I managed to connect Angel’s sat receiver and obviously his account was not cancelled yet, so we enjoyed all kinds of stuff in English (i.e. Simpsons)
Of course, we usually don’t let him sit that close, but these are special days.
As for the apartment and why we moved:
1.) Space: We were outgrowing our old place, Julius did not have his own room (which now he has). Now we also have quite some balcony space, we can dine in the kitchen, so once the living room is set up it should be easier to keep it fairly clean.
2.) Features: Oh, and there is a dishwasher! and a 5 burner stove. And a bigger fridge. We have a spot in the garage which has one of these remote controlled gates. Neat.
3.) Location: We are now closer to Ritsu’s office and also within walking distance (ok, 15 – 20 minutes I reckon) from Julius soon-to-be-school. From here it is also easier to drive to the Langhe region and just on the way are some big shopping centers, which are also now much closer.
Now let’s see we sleep here the very first night … there is a suspicious looking place right across the street ‘Le Streghe’ … and from this article it seems that neighbors complained about noise back in october and when the police checked the place .. well .. I could only read things like ‘lap dance’ … 
But we are also very close to the river and have already seen a playground, which we shall check out soon.
And now the fun days of ‘what is in which box?’ shall begin!
From what Julius tells me he actually wore his costume at school today (of which I guess I will get pictures … hmm .. around xmas … )
But he brought home some goodies to celebrate Carnevale here as well.
Recently Julius keeps playing with MY glasses (which are kinda broken and one stem is only held by tape) so I found these old sunglasses for him to ‘wear’ .. and he loves it.
Seems food looks even yummier in yellow.
As some of you know, we are moving again (locally this time) and fortunately the previous tenants are out already and we can start moving in bit by bit. (The elevators here being tiny doubles the fun)
Julius is very excited about his first own room, though he seems tired … and yes, the walls will be painted before we move in. (Check the wall smudges in the bigger picture)
(It appears that here in Italy the rule is, who comes in, decides and pays for what and if needs to be painted, opposed to Germany, where you have to paint when you leave an apartment)
There comes a time in every kid’s life when they think they can take care of their own hairstyle … and they have mastered scissors … but not the art of hair styling yet …
Seems he thought his bangs were too long … and this is what we got:
I tried to fix it as much as possible, but he ended up looking like a little girl … so, next day I took him to our barber (he remembers the place and know he can eat candy). He sat all by himself this time and overall behaved well. At some point he seemed to fall asleep, so I diverted him with little video clips on the iPhone (also a great tool to make him look in certain directions)
And, tadaaaa … we are pretty much back at his old style:
This is a very interesting article that indicates how ‘much’ Italians love foreign food:
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Italy bans kebabs and foreign food from cities
The tomato comes from Peru and spaghetti was probably a gift from China. It is, though, the “foreign” kebab that is being kicked out of Italian cities as it becomes the target of a campaign against ethnic food, backed by the centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi. The drive to make Italians eat Italian, which was described by the Left and leading chefs as gastronomic racism, began in the town of Lucca this week, where the council banned any new ethnic food outlets from opening within the ancient city walls… …[edit]… There is confusion, however, over what is meant by ethnic. Mr Di Grazia said that French restaurants would be allowed. He was unsure, though, about Sicilian cuisine. It is influenced by Arab cooking. (Richard Owen, TimesOnline.UK) |
The whole article is here, or, once the link goes dead, you can read this pdf file. More over on google, but mainly referencing the same article, with some fun discussions along the way.
While I do understand some of the sentiments against having döner places or bright red/yellow McDonalds signs all over historical sites, this article does reflect the reluctance towards foreign food in Italy.
I still have to find a kebab place that does it right here. Most of the ethnic eateries try to change the flavor to accommodate European taste buds (i.e. most Chinese restaurants offer less spicy, more sweet fare). Sometimes it is even tricky to find soy sauce here ….
Italian food is great and the love for detail and fresh ingredients is commendable … but it is a shame that you cannot get really ‘other’ food here. I keep looking for a döner that is spicy and has lots of garlic and ideally uses lamb .. but no, everyone seems to prefer beef.
Or good Indian food. We have not tried it yet, but reports back from actual Indian people was ‘don’t bother’ …. We frequent one Asian restaurant which is pretty good … in terms of Sushi, everything you find is ‘ok’ …
Let alone the fact that delivery is pretty much unknown .. I guess Italians grow up relying on mama cooking all the time 
related: Italy: Taste for ethnic food rises despite moves to limit outlets @ www.adnkronos.com.
For San Valentino (as it is called here) I took Ritsu to our first restaurant experience in our soon-to-be neighborhood. Rosa Rossa came highly recommended and while everything was quite nice … we were a bit underwhelmed.
The service was nice, but could have been snappier; the food was nice, could have been more interesting; the price was ok, could have been cheaper
It is hard for me to write about so-so restaurant experiences. I love trashing places or on the other hand share my joy about really nice food … but the middle part is tricky …
Let’s see .. The setting is in the historic part of Moncalieri, which is very beautiful, especially at night. A friend had said earlier that this is a place for a romantic date, not to bring Julius. But the table next to us had 2 girls, one of which would have been perfect for Julius.
Ritsu started with carne cruda (nice, but we had better .. e.g. @ La Pace) and I had a mixed hot appetizer platter. All was nice, some of the appetizers were sweet, like dessert (pastry filled with apple sauce?) .. interesting. Then some pasta with mushroom sauce. And as main dishes we had some huuuge steak and rabbit with polenta.
With a bottle of nice Roero Arneis the total damage was 84€ … not bad … but again … the place did in no way blow our minds or taste buds. The location is nice and sweet, but compared to other offerings we had so far (and we might find in the future) I am not seeing us going back anytime soon.
Just to be clear, there was nothing wrong with the place or the food … it is probably a good recommendation for regional food, but it did not really offer anything that would make me want to come back (like i.e. the zabaione @ Bel Deuit)
One thing I spotted too late was that they have a plethora of bottled sauces to go with the meat (everything you can imagine, even some Asian hot sauces)
Another thing .. this is one of these places where you don’t get menus, they just tell you what they have tonight and you can try to memorize all that .. we later saw that there was ‘a’ menu at the entrance, but I think this is more like ‘this is what we can do, when we feel like it’ … e.g. they did not offer Zabaione that night. (Full Menu)
I think the steak I had is called ‘Finanziera’ … can anyone explain this?
Yesterday we met with Daniel and Martin. Two papas with their sons exploring all kinds of playground items, talking to ducks, playing soccer.
While it was a fairly cold day, the sun was out and the kids had a great time.
Julius brought this home from school … I heard before that Catharina is his new big love at school … he keeps talking about her.
He also told me that he gave her a similar picture and that he kissed her … there you go young man! Make papa proud
Happy V-day to everyone, go and hug your special someone!
Look what I made at school today
Last Saturday we were invited to a housewarming party of Ritsu’s colleague Fabio and his brother Antonio. A beautiful place on via Po, top floor, with a fantastic view.
Julius was the only kid there and it was way past his bedtime, but he enjoyed exploring the new place, played waiter for a bit and brought food to everyone (now he needs to learn to pour drinks and safely deliver them!) … But best of all was riding all over the place on Antonio’s back.
I hope to add some more pictures later, as soon as Fabio puts them on facebook. (aaaaaand .. here they are .. seems the party got much more intense after we left )
After a week of gloomy rain’n sleet weather the sun finally came out again and we went up to the parco della rimembranza to enjoy the air and the view. But we did not expect to still find snow there (and we were not dressed accordingly).
But Julius still had fun, wanted to make a snow man, but the leftover snow was too wet to have fun with.
Who would have thought, but there is actually a Japanese language school within the International school here in Turin … and after hearing about it, we went for a brief try-out session and then long discussion with the teachers and board of parent representatives. I can’t say I got much from that conversation as it was all in Japanese, but I was very happy about Julius’ conduct in a totally new school-like environment.
While he did not participate that much in that short time, he stuck to what he knows: drawing, and otherwise sit still and trying to be attentive … he did not run around distracting the other kids like some other boy did.
Half of the kids appear to be 100% Japanese while the other half seems to be mixed, but most of them already have some language background in Japanese. So, this is a great chance for Julius to dig in. I guess we are going to start seriously in April.
That time of year again when cold and dry air attacks the skin … but this time around Julius is willing and able to apply Nivea by himself.
Julius was eagerly awaiting his friend Andrea to come over (we had arranged that after yesterday’s Francesco tantrum) and he had set up this wonderful wooden city to play with:
But one can imagine how long that kept looking like that once 2 boys that age collide. After an initial wild-phase and thoroughly spreading all toys all over the living room, they also got into role playing, looking at books together, playing train … overall they had a fun time. But it really seems that in general boys play rougher than girls.
I even had set up a webcam so that Ritsu and Andrea’s dad could watch the kids while they were still at the office. But the boys outsmarted the camera by frequent relocation or just moving faster that the speed of the shutter.
Today, after school, Julius was very determined to go out to play with ‘Francesco’ … I am not aware of any of his friends called Francesco and after much debate and thinking that a walk would be nice, we left … Julius lead the way and I was wondering what he was up to. At times he really surprises me with his sense of orientation and maybe there is some Francesco in the neighborhood he knows from the school bus. Or maybe he just wants to go to the playground …
But no, he lead us all the way across the river, though I frequently reminded him that we have to walk all the way back, that it is cold, that he must be tired … but he went on.
When he finally realized that he has no further clue where he was going (and probably also that he was tired and cold) he first switched into donkey-mode (‘i am not moving until Francesco shows up here’) and then I had to carry / drag him back, against his will, crying all the way. I stopped from time to time to talk to him, but he was overly tired and would just not snap out of it. By the time we reached home, we both were very exhausted …
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