Mr Posh

I think that it's an April fools joke and they have waited untill now.

indiebird

Hello Have you all missed me?? I'm not really sure what happened. I just have been trying to get on with real life I suppose. Plus I have a couple of new students which is great but not only do I have to teach them I also need to plan lessons and clean my house too! I never thought teaching would involve that!! So..... what's everyone else been up to whilst I've been 'away'??

Lorna at Vicenza

How are you Indie? If you ever need any exercises for your students I have a computer full of stuff that I can forward by email and you can just print out.

It might save you a lot of time searching the net for printable lessons, photocopying from books or making up your own lessons.

indiebird

I am good thanks Lorna. Things seem to be settling down on the school front. Not perfect but liveable. How are you after you're gas debacle??!! It's that kind of thing that worries me here as I would have no blooming idea who to phone! I might have to take you up on some of the exercises you have. I'm going to be running a free lesson at my language school once a week from January too. I'm a bit about it as it's going to be a mixture of levels in one but I guess that as it's free and I'm marvellous then it will be okay Are you ready for Christmas yet?? as you can imagine, I am not...

Lorna at Vicenza

Glad to hear things are going ok Indie. Free English lessons? Very kind of you. If you do need anything just shout, I have stuff for all levels. It won't cost me anything to forward stuff on and then you can decide yourself whether it works for your students or not.

Christmas - I'm slowly getting things done - very slowly. I've got a list in my head of things I still need to get. I used to start getting tings ready and in the suitcases a couple of weeks before we left but over the years I've realised that we don't actually need to take that much. Clothes can all be washed and dried at my sister's or I'll just go out and buy new, cheap clothes for the kids. I don't buy many presents here anymore to take back thanks to Amazon and Ebay, I get stuff sent directly to my sister.

Apart from Christmas things are pretty much the same here ....... school, homework, dentist, football and choir. Me rambling on and muttering to myself, swearing at the tv adverts. I already loathe 2 adverts.

One is for the annual Italian Christmas film. It will be the same annual mixture of bouncing boobs, sleazy innuendos, skimpily dressed girls and ogling older men. Not that I'll be going to see it. The advert is bad enough.

The others are adverts for washing machine tabs. For years 'they' have been trying to brainwash us into buying the best powder .... now it's all talk about how we have been wasting powder for years and losing half of it down the drains and we need to start buying tabs. Tabs and liquid tabs have been out in the UK for years haven't they?

Like I said, rambling and muttering to myself. Gas is fine thank God. No final bill has arrived yet. Ages ago the old thermostat broke down so OH just stuck an old on/off switch to the boiler until he 'had time to sort it properly'. Of course he never sorted it so I told him he had to go out and buy a thermostat that can be pre-set in advance because I do not want to come back to a freezing house again this year. He came back with one that cost 110 Euro !!!!!!! Jesus ! If I'd known the price of them I would have left the neighbour a key and asked her to flick the switch to 'on' the day before we fly back.

Chloe's choir is giving a carol concert at an old folk's home about a 35 minute drive away up the mountains on Sunday afternoon. OH is home this weekend and he has aready been told that he is coming too and must not try to get out of it in anyway. Apparently half of the old dears are deaf or hard of hearing but they like to see the kids sing. After going to all but one of the concerts last year I know that there are things I'd much rather be doing on a Sunday afternoon but it has to be done. I might take a flask of mulled wine along with me

Well, that's my ramblings for now.

duffer

Didn't realise you were away.

duffer

F**king carol singers buzzed me at 9.30pm last night. Good job they were out of range from my balcony otherwise I would've lobbed some rotten oranges at them. I bought a plastic pre-weighed crate of oranges from the local Interspar and only at home I found that 8-10 were mouldy.
Is there some type of etichette for carol singers? ie don't go making a racket after 9pm? I would never call or go round to someone's house uninvited after 9pm. I'm sure they avoid the houses with massive German Shepherd guard dogs barking outside. So they are discriminating against me 'cos I don't have guard dogs!

Lorna at Vicenza

You didn't give them any pennies then

duffer

no way, I don't give to beggars so what makes carol singers any different?

Lorna at Vicenza

They sing for their money and they're usually kids?

duffer

either way, the money both the kids and the beggars get goes into the fat filthy hands of some fat bloke who no doubt will do no good with it.

Lorna at Vicenza

Scrooge.

duffer

Don't give money to carol singers. You'll be financing organised crime if you do and you'll burn in hell! Or something like that.

indiebird

Not really kind of me. This is for the language school who have helped us learn Italian for free so it is 'giving something back' iyswim... I've also been told that I am totally allowed to take on any private work for money that comes out of it so it's not a totally selfless act really.

I am coming to the same conclusions. I buy chocs and alchohol here and take that back with me and the rest is Amazoned etc and sent to the MIL's in the UK... I always go shopping in the UK for kids clothes anyway so no point in taking loads of clothes from here is there??


yes they have.... I tell you what annoys me about the Christmas adverts is the ones for £50 bottles of perfume. They cost them about £5 to produce en mass and then the other £45 goes to paying whatever posh bint they got to do the advert for them.... are people so stupid that they think they will become beautiful just by using a load of water and chemicals in a glass spray bottle??

God how I've missed you Lorna.xxxxxx


If I were you, I'd put pure vodka in that flask.... you're going to need it!




We had this with trick or treaters. I presume it is a cultural thing as they are probably only allowed out to do it after dinner which is stupid o'clock here... Jamie and I turned the lights off and pretended we weren't at home as I probably couldn't have resisted telling the poor little gits that where I'm from you don't go round buzzing on buzzers after 6pm on a school night....

Pecora Nera

Ahhhhhh my poor fingers.
I was removing the metal clothes maid that was balanced on top of the stufa while we tried to dry some clothes when the Bl**dy thing collapsed in on it's self trapping four of my fingers on my left hand. I managed to shout AHAHAHAHAh to my OH who looked at me and said what what what what? She came and rescued me as I managed to shout Finnnnnngerssss.

Bless her she tried to release my fingers by pulling on the wrong legs of the maid thereby squeezing them just a bit more.

Typing today with my right hand and one thumb..