19/4: to the theater: last time out for... how long?

Saturday the 19th we have been to the theater.
This is going to be last time Anna Maria and me going out alone for... quite a long while we believe.
We went to theater to watch 'South Pacific'.

It was the first time for me I saw a live musical in English, and the second time we went to the theater in Cambridge...
We'll go again... maybe in 2010 or so!?!?

Special thanks to our friends Bonamico, who made this happen by looking after Agnese & Rachele.

12/4: Histon fun day

Histon's shop owners organized the Histon Fun day.
It was a very nice village event, with several attractions and activities.

We first went to visit a wind mill, where the owner explained many details about it (considering the date since when it was first invented, it is a fantastic piece of engineering).
Then we went to meet the fire fighters: Agnese and Rachele could visit the lorry and see what it looks like.

Then we met some friends from the village and we went to see africans bugs... spiders, giant snails, a very big scorpion... (all quite disgusting for me, but not for the kids).

Finally the most important child event: face painting.

A very nice day in the village.

9/4: one year home anniversary

The 9th of April we celebrated... (actually it would be more accurate to say: we realized the very last minute) one year at the current home!
Time really flies!
It seems yesterday that we were excited about contact exchange... then decorating... moving... all in a big rush!
So far we have been in one home for 18 months on average (4 places in 6 years).

This time we hope it would be longer... much longer!
But it looks like that... by nature, we are a kind of prone to the change!
You never know...

23/3: a White Easter

Happy Easter to everyone!
(Or should I say Christmas?).

We awoke with a surprise: snow everywhere!
Until I saw it I didn't realize how much I was missing the snow.
There was none this winter and even this one didn't stand longer than few hours: still, quite nice.

Apparently one of the traditions for Easter in UK is that parents hides chocolate eggs and kids have to find them in the Easter morning. Agnese, having heard this at school probably, wanted the same arrangement. Fair enough.

So at 5:30 she came into my bed asking: "can we go looking for the eggs?".
I can't recall much beside the '5:30' on the watch, but I guess I said politely 'no, is too early'. She must have tried few other times until 6:00. After that, she asked every 5-10 minutes.
(That reminds me of Shrek 2, when Donkey asks: 'are we there yet?').
At 6:30 for some reasons she decided to go without asking, but of course first she awoke Rachele.
At that moment I really appreciated this Easter tradition!
And why search for chocolate eggs silently?
So every 2 minutes one of the two was back, asking for hints.
"Check in the living room".
"Check in the window of living room".
"Check properly the window of living room. For example the curtains".
"Check under the curtains of the window of the living room".

But the real question is: why these traditions (chocolate eggs, Christmas and birthday presents) involves events that ALWAYS happen in the morning of a bank holiday, when other people tell me they 'are going to relax and rest'?

A nice Easter otherwise.

The aXe

March 2008.

It has been a while since I wrote last time.

Everything is fine but last month was quite 'depressing' in a way.

My company is going through a reorganization and half of the people working in Cambridge are going to be made redundant.

The selection process was done very professionally and it took one month to complete.

People were grouped into pools of competences and each one was evaluated by considering a list of skills needed by the company future plans. Everyone of us had three interviews, to be sure that the evaluation was fair.

During this while it was very sad to stay in the office: the mood was lower than ever, and it was very difficult to focus on actual work, since I (as many others) didn't know if I was affected or not by the cut.

Every now and then someone said something about it, and everyone went to listen his/her point of view: uncertainty led to a lot of conspiracy and theories about what and how was going to happen. The result was always a total confusion and nothing more.

This week the process was over and in a way was a relief for everyone.

I am spared by the axe: I am still part of the Cambridge team.

In the picture how the axe works: the cut comes from the top. One piece of wood fall in one side and one in the other. If you are a piece of wood, you cannot do much to decide in which side to fall off.

6,7,8/2: Lugano

I've been to Manno-Lugano, for three days for a business trip at NemeriX head quarter.
Previously I passed by Lugano ten years ago, and slept there one night.
I remembered it as a beautiful place, but not as such an astonishing be autiful place!

You reach it crossing valleys and looking at the Alps and suddenly you are driving beside Lake of Lugano.... that you eventually cross...
The landscape is as beautiful as it could be with mountains covered by snow at the tops, houses climbing on the hills, the clear water of the lake reflecting the sky.
In the office I felt continuously attracted by the mountains view, with the snow getting pinkish during sun set (yes, and my colleagues asking me to pay attention at the topics we were discussing inside the office :-).

Simply beautiful.
On Monday I was back at Cambridge office.... not a bed view neither: in one side of the building we have the rump-up exit from the A14 high way and in the other side a parking spot... all flat...

In the picture, someone well known for her love for the Alps.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

(Click on "comments" to leave a greeting message).

21/10: VI years of wedding (@ Oxburgh Hall)

The 21st of October we celebrated VI years of wedding anniversary.
This is the second time we celebrate it in UK.


We visited Oxburgh Hall, an estate looking very much as a castle, in Norfolk.
Between all the rooms, there was one to be considered as a modern "study room". The amazing thing is that the desk is facing the window with a wonderful look on a wide section of the garden and water on the middle (the wall palace is surround by water).
I wish my office to have the same view!
(Maybe at the moment I could just change desktop background to improve my 'view').

A very nice place, for a nice and relaxing sunny afternoon.

5/9: Agnese goes to school!

The 5th of September was a remarkable day: Agnese begins her school life!

Here in the UK they starts school quite early (in the month of September after the child turns to four).
The first here is called reception and it is essentially an "advanced Kinder garden", where the pupils play but where they also learn how to read and write.

I had a short break from work to assist at the entrance... but it was very quick since Agnese greeted us quickly and run inside the classroom!

She was looking forward to it since months and especially much more in recent time, when her uniform was ready inside the wardrobe.

This morning, Sunday, Agnese was sad... asking why I got this answer:
"I'm sad because today the school is closed".
How long she will keep this enthusiasm?
Mail me to bet!

27/8: Hedinhgam Castle

We spent a lovely sunny afternoon together with a family of friends at Hedingham Castle, a medieval Norman building from XII century.
There was a special event in that evening: "Jousting Knights".
A company of brilliant riders was entertaining the crowd with a middle age tournament play.
They were clearly having a lot of fun, but honestly they were not the best actors I've seen (=polite form).


After the play we went inside the castle, where Agnese e Rachele were appointed ladies by Queen Matilda, who named them: "lady Agnes" and "lady Rachel".
At the end of the ceremony Agnese had a crown in her head and Rachele a woman veil.
Then Rachele asked for the crown and her small head slippered quickly inside it.
(I would like to promise to publish a video about the ceremony, but I know that it won't happen in a decent time).

10-11/08: Derbyshire

We went for a two days trip to Derbyshire, having a look around the National Park of that region.
The weather was wonderful and the surrounding landscape was beautiful too.
The first half day we visited Kedleston Hall, an old mansion with a big garden and park. Unfortunately the house itself was closed for a wedding, but it was very pleasant to have a walk around there.

In the afternoon we visited Matlock Bath, a very nice village placed inside a narrow valley crossed by a river. I was really captured by it.... well, I really miss the mountains! :-)

Finally we went to the B&B we booked the day before: Manor Barn, which turned out to be in the middle of nowhere, surrounded just by sheep and close to a lake. It was absolutely lovely, highly recommended.

The day after we went to Ilam Park and then we had a walk in Dovedale, a site of the national park where it was possible to have a long walk beside the river. Since it was warm and sunny, it was really crowded. Still, it was beautiful to be there.


The most enjoyable part was probably the "stepping stones", a kind of path - of stones - to cross the river. All kids where enjoying it (as Agnese in the picture) and several had fallen in.

Finally, with half destroyed kids, we took the way home, but not the most sensible one: we decide to climb up the hills to admire more that landscape. We were surrounded by fields limited by fences made of stones (a kind of Brave hart scenario).

It has been a really lovely trip!

12-19/7: Alghero

After a very stressing period at work (let's also why there were no posts for a long time), we had one week of vacation in Sardinia.
It was the kind of vacation that you don't dream about doing, until you have kids :-)
We spent most of our time at the beach and we were really happy to have such a lot of time only between ourselves.

We have been dwelling at Hotel Mistral, and we were happy about the choice.
It was very warm during the whole time and for 8 days we didn't see a single cloud!

Agnese and Rachele had a lot of fun on the beach and Agnese learned to swim by herself with the help of the inflatable arm supporters (who knows how they are called!).

Alghero is a pretty lovely town, with a lot of Spanish influence, well kept walls and other old point of interests.

We have also been by boat to Neptune Caves.

It was a very nice excursion and Agnese and Rachele were really curious about their first experience in a cave. These were discovered during XV century and therefore are quite damaged or, better said, dead, meaning that the stalagmites are not growing any longer.
But they were really beautiful.

And clearly, as probably in any place in Sardinia, the sea water is fabulous!


We had a wonderful time!

First picture: sun set in Alghero's harbour.
Second one: Neptune Caves.
Last one: a coast landscape.

16/6: Lavenham

We have been visiting Lavenham, a cute middle age village.
One of the ancientest building of the village is the "The Guildhall of Corpus Christi", now turned into a museum.
What it is particularly interesting about this village is that there are many old buildings, out of which very few (....or maybe none) are standing in a straight position!
The top floor is very seldom aligned with the ground one.... and one has the feeling that the roof is going to collapse as soon as you turn the corner.
We visited the Guildhall inside and the floor was pending in every room, in some one even about 20-30 centimetres, or more.
Coolest than what I could imagine, the furniture is adapted to the floor: so you'd see tables with four different length legs, wardrobes adapted to stand in a slope and so on!
And I'm sure there must also be a convenient way to wash the floor....

In the picture one of these houses: although the fuzzy-shape effect is not so evident, look at the orange building top floor.

23-30/5: in Italy!

From 23rd to 30th of May we have been in Italy for a wonderful event: the Wedding feast of our friends Marco & Michela!
It was a very nice ceremony and day and we were really glad to be there.
We wish to them a wonderful life together.
During this day we managed to have taken a picture of the all four of us: last time that happened was in September 2005, at the wedding party of our friends Mario and Rosa Elena (is the picture in the first post of this blog).

During that period there was the "Palio di St. Eleuterio", a fest in my village, Cupramontana, which I never had seen before!
It is a very recent recurrence , which was introduced I believe six years ago, when I had just left Italy.... a nice to see one!

We also managed to go once on the beach, since the weather was really good.

A good trip, beside the very bad start: our Ryanair flight got cancelled because of Alitalia personnel was under strike again. The only way to be on time for the wedding was to divert to Forli' the day after and leave from there again (after having paid for Ancona, which is more expensive). It is a bit hilarious that every time Alitalia workers go on strike (well, not really workers, since by definition workers are at the working place) , people are wondering: "would it this be the last strike before the company goes in bankrupt?". The answer is always "no", they'll always manage to strike again!

30/5: Agnese is four!

Agnese is four!

She speaks a "brilliant" English, according with her kinder garden teacher.
She is very interested to the "proposed activities" and "very obedient", again, according with the teacher.
(Especially about last point, we may have something different to tell...).

She has been growing up a lot, and she shows interest for many different things, but it is difficult to say if there is something where she is really committed to.
Between the funny things she likes, there is the Opera (which I am very happy about :-).

She spent her birthday travelling back from Italy (we were there a week for a wedding and the whole holiday was shifted of one day, with many thanks to Alitalia always-striking personnel).

We had a party for both of the girls on Sunday the 3rd.

19/5: Rebels and Redcoats at Wimpole hall

We have been in Wimpole hall again, this time for a live acting of Rebels against Redcoats, showing what happened around 1750 (I may be few years off).
Redcoats was the name given to the English King soldiers, and they were wearing red to hide their blood during battles.
Rebels were Scottish allied with Jacobins.
It was very nice. What impressed me most was that the actors were volunteers and they were obviously enjoying themselves very much. They were very kind about giving information to visitors, about the historical context and habits, but they were having fun on the while... one soldier told me: "be careful about your camera if you see a Jacobite... and about your kids and wife too... you know they pretend to be nice...", and it went on again and again.

Then we moved on the Jacobine camp and it was definitely non in order as the soldiers one (the discipline gap was very remarkable). While they were drinking they launched hurras agaisnt the king and so on...
Then the was the battle... it was quite instructive about their military strategies.

We moved then to the farm where the girls loved to watch from close little lambs, pigs and many other animals.

18/5: Rachele is two

Rachele is two years old!
She is... so much different from the sister at first...
She speaks a little, not much, and is quite funny that she always asks for a confirm at the end of her confused sentence, saying "OK?".
She has a quite destructive attitude, especially towards her sister items...
She is also very affectionate and always seeking for hugs.

Two years and... she has been living in three different houses already. I'm quite afraid that one day she will have her revenge on us :-)

15/5: one year @ NemeriX anniversary

We are quite plenty of anniversaries this month:
. 2nd: one year since our first landing into UK (for the house searching)
. 11th: one year since I moved into UK
. 15th: one year since I started in NemeriX
. 26th: one year since the rest of the family moved into UK
And most of all, soon will have Rachele (18th) and Agnese (30th) birthdays as well!

One year at the current work place. I have to say that it went very quickly...
I have been working in two major projects/technologies and just started the third one, plus several minor ones.
I have learned a lot, and it is still on going, which keeps me very motivated.
My colleagues are very nice people and the overall experience has been very positive so far.

The only negative side is that long working time keeps me far from the family... that really annoys me sometime, but it should/could be better soon.

Enjoy the cake!

6,7 / 5: Camping in Southwold

The 6th and 7th of May we had a Camping in Southwold, which was organized by my colleagues.
Actually we were supposed to go there by the 5th, but the night before Rachele didn't feel well enough.
After many days of sun and warm weather, that particular weekend was the unluckiest choice: cold and raining...
However we had fun enough on Sunday, when we had a walk on the village (very nice), a barbecue, and a walk on the beach and the pier.
Than we face the first night in a tent for Agnese and Rachele: both enjoyed the experience.
In the early morning started raining, with a short pause to give us time to warm milk (lucky!) and then it started again and again and never stopped.
We went for a very English breakfast in a close place in the harbor: it was nice and typical "harbor -like"...
Then we bought fresh fish (in a harbor shop) and the girls enjoyed an aquarium.
It was still raining: we dismounted the tent and went home.
The weather had obviously a negative impact on the experience: it is not so nice to camping with small children under the rain, especially if your tent is small and meant just for sleeping (our tent was the smallest of the group, meant for 3).
However, overall it was a nice weekend with friends.
We are thinking to do it again... maybe later in the summer.

9/4: We are moving! (again)

The 9th of April we moved into the new place.
That was almost one year later our last move... and the fourth time in less than 6 years of marriage.

It was tough, but comparing to last time, this moving was a "piece of cake", mainly for two reasons: at first we started to do it little by little and we have essentially no rush to finish in one day; secondly both of my parents came here to help and therefore we had someone to watch after the girls too.
We were excited to the idea of going as quick as possible to the new place and more, we wanted to leave the old tenancy even because it was not "meant" for guests, meaning that we were really tied with my parents along.
So after dinner, we went all there to sleep on Monday the 9th. The four of us slept on the floor, as training for the coming camping (will hopefully happen in May).
Than Tuesday we completed the actual moving (almost completed actually).
During the first days we had time to remind ourself the "pleasure of little things", like:
. appreciate how comfortable is to sleep on the bed;
. appreciate how pleasant it is to go out from the shower knowing exactly where your underpants are located;
. open a kitchen door knowing that there is food inside, rather than having to explore the whole furniture to find something... and so on.
So we are in, still plenty of boxes all around, but definitely enjoying the new sweet-home.