Romania= a laughing stock!

Gosh, I shook with laughter at this news! : ) It really made my day : ) Have you heard that Romania sent troops and 2000 tonns of humanitarian aid to Tahiti instead of Haiti?! : ) Of course it was a mistake.

And this was the comment of Gabriel Oprea, the Defence Minister of Romania:

"Haiti, Tahiti, Mahiti, Papiti. Damint, they all sounds simlar!"

hahahaha : )

And this was the picture which immediately appeared on the Net:

On a different note, a funny situation happened to me a few days ago. I was with my bf in a clothes shop as he desperately needed a pair of jeans. While he was in the changing room and I was waiting for him to try on a new pair, I overheard a conversation between a young man (he must have been in his late 30's, I believe), his gf (who was just listening at that time, but whose presence is crucial for the bottom line) and a shop assistant (also a young girl, the boy's contemporary). He was looking at the jeans he had just tried on and which he liked a lot, asked for the price and having received the answer (the price turned out be be really high, sth like 200euros), he was considering buying them or leaving. The shop assistant admitted that yeah, the jeans cost a lot but they are really worth it. This is the best brand, the best quality, they will never shrink, nor change their colour, by and large they're the best in the entire world. In the end she added:

- You just need to ask your Mum to wash them inside out and they'll remain perfect forever...

Hahaha! Yeah, another Italian Mamma's boy... : )

Last but not least, I would like to thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH for the comments on my last post! I feel so much better being able to open up with you : ) You're the best! : ))

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My first Halloween party! Yaaayy! : )

Guys! It was great! In my humble opinion, we all did a great work! First, the decorations. I spent the last whole week googling and searching the right pictures to print and hang in my appartment. I saw some great banners in the Carrefour store so I took them too. And then the funny bats I scattered all over the table... Looked quite original.

And OF COURSE working at the American University meant there had to be some pumkin curving activity organised too! These are the results!



About the costumes... well, as always we're so lucky! On Saturday, we went to my bf's parents to have a lunch together and complained about the lack of ideas. It turned out my bf's Dad was in Turkey some years ago and he bought there the original Turk clothing! Wow! The only problem was that the head hole in the male costume was too small for my bf and so as you can see in the pics, we switched the roles! : ) And here I would like to thank Al, who several months ago sent me the Bandit moustache which came in SO handy! : )) So that means we got our costumes sth like 6 hours before the actual party!

As for the menu, I prepared typical Eastern Europe winter food: We started off with pea cream-soup and then passed to goulash (gulasz in Polish).




And we couldn't do without a dessert! My friends brought nut and chocolate cake and my friend made these delicious cookies : )



Everything we perfect! : ) I'm sure that from now on we're going to have many Halloween parties together : )

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Hectic week(end)!

This whole last week was fast and furious : ) Let's start from the very beginning. On Wednesday evening, I decided to decorate the appartment of our British-American couple of friends who were coming back (after 6 months) from the US to Sicily for the winter season to get rest after the taxing summer (they own an agrotourism back in the US). I asked my very crafty and talented friend to help me a bit. And this was the result of our efforts:

Then on Friday evening I made these for dinner : ) Real Bavarian sausages rolled in puff pastry. Easy and tasty : )

On Saturday we went to the cinema to see UP. I was absolutely thrilled to see it (together with hundreds of people aged 2-14) and to my amazement, it met my high expectations! : ) I cried 3 times during the film. And you were right it's both for parents and children : ) Well, I don't belong to neither of these categories but I loved it the same : )

In the end I went to do some shopping on Sunday morning: ) I bought a skirt, a long-sleeved top (by Esprit) and a pair of black leather shoes.

In the evening we went to our boy-friend (actually it's a colleague of our friend, who became our very good friend) who invited us for dinner. We had paella.. and lots of fun. Take a look at the beautiful decorations he chose for the evening! They even match the colour of the walls perfectly! : ) that's not a small thing for a single! Speaking of which, do you remember Ania, my Polish friend who came to visit me in Sicily in August this year. Well, she's single too... I have some ideas... : )

No, he didn't make this cake. It was bought in a local pasticceria and was absolutely delicious (chocolate and pistache)



And this is what we saw near our friend's appartment. In the autumn and winter, cats love to lie on scooters which has been just rdden and still have a warm engine.. : )

Have a wonderful week everyone!

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My birthday, my presents, and some update! : )

This will be quite a long post...

I know it took me a while, but here I am, finally! : ) I have started to advertise my lessons, especially among people who work in the tourism industry who, as you can imagine, are a big part of the population in Sicily in general. Some of them have already responded, and so I'm getting really busy: in the morning I'm (still, for the last 4 weeks) in the office, and then from 5.00pm I work as a private tutor. I love it and I don't have time to waste! : )

Anyway, girls, I had a wonderful time during this little gathering with my "second family" and my closest friends : ) I think these pictures (some of them are not of a perfect quality, we forgot to take the camera with us, so used Ra's IPhone) speak for themselves:

1. Some of my invitees, i.e. all the people I care about most when in Italy (unfortunately not all could be here with me that day):

I had a problem with the ONE wish I had to think before blowing off the candles.. there are so many of them these times...




3. And then... PRESENTS time!!!!


The necklace from my collegues:

and in this little box...

I found this little beuty from my bf... :)


.. somthing for the senses by Coloniali from my dearest friends:


and a bag from Benetton from my bf's parents, sister and her husband:

Aprt from those, I received also a beautiful plum coloured coat by Benetton (together with the bag) that you can see in one of the pictures above and a violet shawl for colder days. from another colleague of mine. I love all of them!

Then, yesterday, we went to Ragusa, a little town in Sicily, where we participated in the "Buskers Ragusa Ibla" event. Travelplan website describes it this way: "Since 1994, Ragusa Ibla’s streets and squares have been invaded by street artists from all over the world every October for a week: jugglers, acrobats, clowns and others all perform in exciting shows." It's a wonderful occasion the city gives to local artists to exhibit their works and present themselves to the public.


.. I just couldn't resist this Dalmatian with a red ribbon (on the right there's a real fortune teller..at work!)...



... and we also performed! : )




You should visit the website for some wonderful pictures!

And in the end, when ironing at home, we had some rain here, and then, we spotted this:

Mother Nature.. isn't She great?!

That's all from me, my Dears! Have a wonderful Sunday! : )

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Knock Knock! May I come in? : )

My Dearest Blog-Friends!

It's been soo long since I put a post on my blog! You know I was on a 2 week holiday in Poland and before that, my Polish friend, Ania came to visit me for a week and we left for Poland together. Of course, I'm not going to lie to you-I had wonderful time! Let's look at some pics, I'll be glad to comment on them for you.

Let's start with Ania's stay in Sicily. Unfortunately I couldn't dedicate much time to her, I was at work until 4.00pm everyday so I tried to organize her days the best I could to make her feel comfortable and to let her visit as much as she could during this short holiday.

During weekend, though, we found time to go to the beach:



I was elated when my Italian friends offered some help (they took her to Catania for example) and together we had wonderful evenings and "Italian style" dinners.

Ania, who loves frutti di mare (seafood), took pictures of almost every dish we had these days!

...then she also prepared some typical summer Polish plum cake for us:


... and OF COURSE we went for a pizza with her!




Ania OF COURSE was astonished about how the Italians park their cars... Well, I got used to it.

Then we went to Poland together. Of course I couldn't miss the Manufaktura complex, which I find absolutely amazing! You can do absolutely everything in there- there's a big commercial centre when you can indulge yourself with shopping, you can go to SPA, go bowling, watch a movie in the cinema, go clubbing in the evening, eat delicious meals in more than 40 various pubs and restaurants, I love it!





Of course I was meeting my friends for some... Italian coffees... in fancy new cafés : )

and I was walking a lot in the park close to my house:


...and then one day I decided to have my hair cut:


... I visited some of the furniture shops with my Mum since she's considering buying a new coach to the living room... Sometimes I saw really strange things like this....



or that....



... but in my opinion the beauty of simple things always wins...

During the second week of my holiday, I mostly... worked... yeah, I worked as a translator/interpreter during the International Nature Film Festival that is held every other year in my city. It's a great honour and pleasure for me to be invited to work there.

And that's all for me. I'm back. I'm happy, relaxed and ready to move on. But now I need to catch up with all your blogs!!! : )))

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