Not lazy - just busy!

I was soundly 'ticked off' by friend Judith (in Umbria as was...) because I had not posted here for almost a month - and very little for the previous weeks either. Judith commented " Hey, Carole! It's time to get off your rear end and post something, so I am tagging you". So that put me firmly in my place.

But these last couple of months have been (to use an old fashioned word) fraught with pitfalls and problems. Nothing mind boggling or World stopping - things of that genre started passing me by some years ago (thank goodness).

No, I have been busy with visitors (Heather and John) who were over for two weeks - which was really nice. Apart from the fact they chose to come for the last two weeks in July. Yeah OK - I understand that most Brits lately have been convinced that they were heading for Mount Arrarat, but here we were resembling (or I was anyway) a piece of well done roast beef! The day I went to pick them up a Linate was one of those days - blo*dy hot! Their flight had been delayed so while I tried to find a parking place near to the exit the temperature soared in the shade to a mind shattering 40°C (104°F).... there was nothing to do but await their call from the baggage hall to say they had landed OK. So instead of leaving Linate about 4.45pm we didn't get away 'til nearly 6pm. Straight into the Milan rush hour around Sesto and Monza. To be (generally) avoided at all costs! We finally got home at 8pm, resembling three bits of rag that needed to go through the spin dryer. Then there was (almost) a fight on which two of us would get the showers first....

But long story short - their two weeks flew by - holidays have a habit of doing that and they departed on the 30Th. But not before John showed me how to cook an authentic curry, using the wonderful set of Indian spices they bought me back from their holiday in India last November. I had mango chutney and had found poppadoms - add the basmati rice from Lidl and I was (literally) like the proverbial 'pig in sh*t'.... Oh the utter delight in savouring a real Indian curry for the first time since November 2004!

While they were here we also went to eat at 'Il Capretto' where Heather (tentatively) tasted goat for the first time. John had tasted it years ago in India where he grew up. He is Anglo/Portuguese. While there I noticed that they had some new benches in their garden. The owners brother-in-law makes them. I enquired if he made them for sale - he didn't - but he offered to make one for me (at a price). Well I jumped at the chance and he delivered it this week and it now has pride of place on my terrace....















But also during this last few weeks I have been working with a new partner (old friend) and we have set up a 're-vamped' website. She had started a free website in April (I was an administrator with her) and it had caused so many problems and had continued to 'crash' so often that we decided to get a web design company to provide a customised version of one of their designs. That was done and when it was downloaded something went wrong and the new site was not complete and in addition it crashed my partners PC too. Well the designer stepped in VERY quickly and solved all the problems and on Saturday we (finally) launched the brand new version of our new genealogy site:
"Gente di Mare Genealogy.com"
http://www.gentedimaregenealogy.com

So if searching for your ancestors interests you, we do have a small - but increasing - team of research experts who are willing to either help, or guide anyone who is researching their roots/background. Be it for citizenship or just to build a family tree - here you will find help. They are building up a large surname database and Italian State Archive data base which is growing by the day.

Do come on over and have a look. You never know - we may even tempt you to delve into your family's past too!

So as you can see - I've not been lazing on a sunny beach somewhere with a dry martini in my mitt...but I have been rather busy!

Now for the next 'summer milestone' - in just 14 days Debra (aka Pia), and her husband Joe (who I met via 'Expats in Italy'), will be here with me for 10 days holiday....I don't know who's more excited - them or me!

posted by Carole B @ 3:02 PM