Saving the Italian Environment

Greetings from a very warm Barbados and Bank Holiday!

Unfortunately for the kids home school is still going on today so that we can take the whole of Thursday off to spend with Daddy!  However this week's blog is from my favourite Italian American blogger, Mozzarella Mamma and a very worthwhile cause she is supporting.  One that if all countries could do for themselves too would be awesome.  I just hope that people will stand up because it is not just for ourselves but our children and theirs and future generations.

Luca Castellano, Paolo Santalucia and Marco Cuomo are involved in a project called EcoOonda.  The project is aimed at saving the Gulf of Naples and the Amalfi coastline from the risk of massive pollution.  Although the Amalfi coast is a marine park it is under threat from a 30km stretch of coast where swimming is banned due to the massive marine pollution.  They aim to swim th 45km from Positano to Vico Equense over 4 days from the 10th - 15th July 2012.  They are trying to raise awareness of the project and supporters will be supporting them along the way!  You can also join them!

Please support this worthy cause by sharing with your friends and family!

Thanks!

Move

Yay!  We have finally moved house and we love it! 

The day arrived , school work was put on hold and finally on Tuesday we moved into our new little house.  The amazing thing is that it already feels like home!  Hot, but home!  We now have a house the colour of sunshine!  A garden you could almost fit a cricket pitch on and comfort!  No more staff car park, no more avoiding the outside!  Outside is good!!!!!  So much so that on hubby's days off we didn't go anywhere!  Did I mention we have a small sparkling blue pool?  The beach is still 200m across the road from us but we are so blessed!

So sorry peeps, but school work is now finished for the day and the pool is calling....

Swimming with the Turtles

So we got to finally swim with the turtles!  Jessica and Megan's squeals were priceless and they loved every minute of it!

We had been debating for a while should we choose the "glass bottom" boat option or the more sleek and sexy "catamarang" option?  The cats cruise through the bays like a smooth modern sexy beast and we were really drawn to hopping on one, music blaring, drinks flowing and jumping in the water to experience one of Barbados' biggest attractions... sea turtles!  However as this was a family outing we decided on the more family friendly (in our opinion) options of the glass bottom boat! 

The day was overcast but this at least made it a bit cooler and we parked down at Holetown beach and waited to be picked up.  The boat arrived and pulled up onto the shore and we all clambered aboard.  There was a couple on the boat who had just been swimming with the turtles but as snorkeling over a reef was also part of the deal were coming with us to do that as their last part of the trip and our first part of the trip. 

We arrived at the spot and the girls were given life jackets and they donned on their masks and snorkels.  Once in the water the giggles and high pitched squeals filled the water as they were inundated with fish!  Floating over a scuttled barge (not very exciting) the fish are fed bits of bread to attract them to the snorkellers.  I am not one for feeding wild animals etc as I don't agree with them becoming dependent on humans but in this case it is far too late for that and seeing our girls excitement and big smiles I'll forget about it on this occasion!

The team from Sea Spray looked after the girls so well, especially our youngest who when she got tired sat with La Ron and rested.

After we had swum to our hearts content amongst the fish and had seen the finger corals and fire coral, scorpion fish and others we boarded our boat again and dropped the couple off back on the beach before heading out to one of the family of turtles!

This was really special for the kids as none of the big "cats" had arrived and so between ourselves and one other glass bottom boat (who were not swimming) we had the turtles to ourselves!  Soon we had 2 turtles swimming about and were happy to be touched and stared at.  The kids stayed on the surface snorkeling while hubby and I dived down happy to at one with these amazing animals. 

A great day was had by all and whilst the kids enjoyed some Sprite and Cola we enjoyed the famous Rum Punch!  So if you ever find yourself in Barbados this is definitely #1 on the list of things to do!



St. Nicholas Abbey

The other day we decided to combine a few things and made the brilliant decision to visit St. Nicholas Abbey.  No it is not a church but a former plantation house which is now being "preserved" for history!

I highly recommend it!  Driving down the drive you are dwarfed by the huge Mahogony Trees lining the drive.  You receive a fantastic booklet and map of the house and grounds which of course was snapped up by 9 year old who loves to be "tour guide Barbie"!  We made our way around the front of the house and gardens first and found some awsome coloured flowers, a local resident and the "out houses".

The House



Mangoes!



This Chair is as old as South Africa dating back to the 1600's!

The house was interesting but you are only allowed to stay downstairs, a pity as I would have loved to have shown the children how people slept. 

We watched a movie dating back to 1904 of an English man arriving in Barbados and our 9 year old found it really interesting.  Back then they arrived by boat which took 3 weeks from South Hampton to Bridgetown and then they would have to be lifted down to the boat that would row them to the port.  Everyone wore hats as it was considered very impolite not too!  The movie also showed the plantation and how sugar cane used to be crushed and then boiled to form the molasses.  On our journey around the plantation the girls even got to sample some, they were not impressed!  Us adults on the other hand got to sample some fine rum and bought the beautifully engraved bottle which is numbered.  Honestly you buy it more for the bottle with the engraving and mahogany stopper than you do for the rum! 

It was however a great morning out for the family and I highly recommend it!



An exciting event!

Apologies!  hubby is off work on holiday and so we are taking the time to explore and relax with the kids! I will have lots of lovely things to blog about the island over the next few days or weeks (hubby only goes back to work on Friday)!

The most exciting thing happened a week ago on the island!  Telephones buzzed!  E-mails were sent and if you had a boat or a yacht or something that floated you were on it!  For my part it started with a telephone call from hubby at work:  "Guess what?"  me "uh no, what?"  him "there is a boat on fire" me "no way!? seriously!?  where?!" him "out on the water!  there is a thick plume of black smoke!"  You should come down and see"  me "well I am busy making pancakes but hey, we'll go take a look"!  Of course human nature being what it is, I downed pancake making tools, grabbed the kids and the camera and went straight to our neighbour to tell her of the excitment!  Of course she too downed tools, in her case make up tools as she was on her way out, and grabbed her camera!  We got down to the beach and lo and behold there on the horizon was the black smoke. 

Of course we couldn't help but speculate what it was.  Suggestions from people on the beach ranged from yachts to container ships!  Of course a container ship would have been far more exciting for me as I remembered the sinking of the MSC Napoli in 2007, the containers washed on shore and people's scavenger instincts kicked in.  They were grabbing what ever they could, including BMW Motorbikes and no that wasn't me!  By the time we went to investigate the police were everywhere and no one was allowed near the beach where the Napoli's containers had started to wash up on!

Later that afternoon we heard it was a "super yacht" or perhaps I heard million dollar boat and added to the speculation of it being a "super yacht" we have a few that moore here including the largest in the world.  THAT would be disastrous for someone but still not as exciting as a container ship in my opinion!

Of course being on an island a third of the size of Cape Town everyone knows everyone and it turns out someone or actually quite a few someones we knew were on a yacht when they heard the mayday.  They dashed off as fast as their yacht could take them as the owner of the yacht's son was the captain on the boat that was going down!  Turns out there was an explosion on the million dollar deep sea fishing boat and all 8 people were successfully rescued!

People are still talking a week later of this and it  has been great excitement for all those on the island!  Praise the Lord no one was seriously injured!

Visitor's to our garden

Recently we had some visitor's to our car park garden (I call it that because we currently live in the middle of the staff car park!  Have I told you that before?) !  The kids were excited and Jess come running in yelling "there are monkeys in the garden"!  I was upstairs at the time, I can't remember now what I was doing, was I cleaning?  no... brushing my teeth?  no.... OH yes, ensuring I grab all the coins on my new Ice Age game on my Ipad! 

Green Monkeys were brought from West Africa aprox. 350 years ago.  They can be found over all of the island but tend to stick to the parishes (ie county, province, etc.) where there is more vegetation.   However we have a good  few troops in St. James and you can often see them playing on the golf course.  No matter how old you are or where you come from it is so entertaining to watch them bound around the golf course and pounce like children onto one another and then run as fast as you can so that you are not caught.  Then get distracted by a bit of twig while your buddy takes a running leap at you! Kids and adults alike stop and watch.  The only annoying thing that really irritates me are the hoards of tourists in the tour cars which take them around on a tour of the island.  These cars stop and encourage the tourists to take photo's while they entice the monkeys to them with food.  This is something I completely disagree with and has been known to create problems with little old ladies walking home with her grocery bags!  Yes I know you want to laugh, you've got an image in your head now havn't you?  Poor old lady walking along and her bags are grabbed and raided by the monkeys!   

Anyway, back to the monkeys.  They have incredibly long tales which are a yellow / olivy green colour and the girls constantly comment on their tails.  Our encounter in our garden caused great excitement as 4 monkeys scouraged through the trees.  They look for birds nests and raid the eggs.  We watched and snapped a few pics of them at one stage I thought one was going to jump to us but then they were gone! 

Monkey's tail

Checking out our neighbour's balcony!

Is he or isn't he going to jump?

What?

So what did we do today?  Not a good day!  Joys of being an expat in paradise is not easy.  Days go up and down, emotions can run high and with that a good dose of frustration too.  Right now there are quite a few that come to mind but one of the best has to be this:

We have showered every day for nearly 5 months.  I would love to take a leisurely bath, I actually can't remember when I last had one of those.  However when we moved into the house the bath was not working.  How?  the lever that is supposed to stop the water from going out was corroded and needed to be replaced.  No big deal they would order them for us and fix it!  Yay!  4 1/2 months later the problem has finally been resolved.  Our lovely maintenace man looking after the house arrived on Tuesday morning and voila.... a rubber plug was stuck in and tied to the handle of the lever!  Wow, words fail me. 

Ahh well, at least I learnt how to make an awesome crusty loaf of bread.  Pop a pan of water in the bottom of the oven when you are heating the oven up.  This creates steam so when you pop your bread in to bake and is ready, it will come out with a nice crusty top!  Wait 5 minutes, slice up and slap on a dollop of strawberry jam.  Delicious!

4 1/2 months in the making

Crusty home-made bread.  (I don't use a bread pan anymore)



The Search is on.

So what did we do today?  School has started again and I am and the girls are taking it gently this week!  Today Daddy is off and after school (short school day!) we are once again house hunting. 

So I will come back later and tell you all about it! 

Moving and then not

So what did we do today?  Should be more like what did we do during the week?  Sorry I have not blogged but what a roller coaster week.

I won't go through all the details but in short we moved and then moved back again.  Long story but now we are house hunting again.  This is interesting in Barbados as security is a huge thing out here.  For instance the house we liked and moved in and out of had the kitchen knives in the drawer next to the bed!  Personally having grown up in South Africa this made me laugh out loud!  Crime is not at the level it is in SA but Bajans take this very seriously! 

During house hunting you must ensure that there are adequate security bars on the windows and doors, given this was one of my pet hates in SA and one of my many "excuses" for leaving a beautiful country, here I am again having to face bars blocking my view.  This however does not seem so bad when the weather is always good and the sun is shining 99% of the time!  You are more outside than in!

The other thing that Bajans love to do is have a "LIME"!  No I am not talking about green citrus fruit that we use in our Mojito's!  But here the term "LIME" is to party!  On the bad day of moving twice we went out for a lovely dinner at Zacchio's which is on the beach to forget the stress of it all!  Yummy crispy and tender calamari to start with Aioli for hubby and the girls, crispy coconut chicken strips for me followed by kids food of burger and chicken goujons and for the grownups veal with a marsala mushroom sauce (me) and ribs (him)!  We came home after dinner to face what we left - a house of grocery packets stuffed with food and other things, suitcases of clothes and boxes of books.  Closing a blind eye we put the kids to bed and sat outside for a night cap!  Off to bed to face the lot the next day and try to make the house a bit more liveable!  2.15am the LIME kicked off.  It was so loud it sounded as if it were in the staff car park next to (and around) the house!  Hubby in undies and shirt bolted outside to find out what was going on.  Only we discovered that there was a street party down the road in Holetown and it was so loud we could hear it!  And of course the police did nothing about it as the story going around is that the DJ is well connected!  The kids, of course, woke up and do you know they are so resilient!  They were also very quick to point out that the DJ kept stopping the songs in the middle and talking as loud as he could!

I would say that this experience gave us a great excuse yesterday to do nothing and nothing is exactly what we did! 

Okay that is all for today!

Buona Pasqua!

Very belated Easter Greetings to you all!

So what did we do today?  I love Easter, even though my other half is working hard Easter alwasy reminds me that I am blessed to be here!  I trust you all had a fabulous weekend too! 

A Bajan tradition at Easter time is to go kite flying after church on Easter Sunday.  I was soo excited for this and pictured thousands of kites flying in the deep blue sky from the white sandy beaches!  Kites are sold all over the island, on the side of the road and in the shops!  Beautiful hand made kites from paper with gorgeous patterns and a long pieces of fabric for the tail!  Tempted as I was to purchasing one of these I remembered that learning to fly a kite with young children means that the beautiful paper kite would more than likely be destroyed on it's first attempt! 

I can picture running on the beach (me) to get the kite in the air.  Hmm not a pretty image given the exclusivity on the beach!  Still I thought as we are celebrating Easter in a new country let us try to enjoy their traditions.  Two plastic kites were bought, this way I could be sure that if they were to hit the ground, a rock or in this case large pieces of coral.  A torn plastic kite would not be a big deal. 

We headed off mid morning for a swim on our local beach before heading off to do the kite flying.  Prior we had heard of all the warnings to those who wanted to fly kites in the no fly zone - being near the airport.  Okay so I thought I would ask a Bajan where does everyone go to fly their kites?  The answer I am afraid was a bit disappointing - everyone heads to The Garrison.  Don't get me wrong I know where The Garrison is but my image of thousands of kites being flown from all the white sandy beaches popped like a bubble!  Still we thought we would give it a go. 

Down on the beach we watched rain out at sea and prayed that this would not come our way.  It is great when it rains as everything is cooled down but those clouds were quite dark and gloomy out there.  We swam, we sat, we bumped into friends, sand castles were built, large holes were dug, kids were burried and before we knew it 6 hours on the beach had past.  Not one kite to be seen (ours were still in the car).  So as Easter Sunday came to a close I thought perhaps next year we'll get those kites out and fly them on The Garrison but it was a very relaxing day in the sun and enjoyment was still had by all!

Blog endings.

So what did we do today?  Apologies, yesterday was a "time out" day.  A day spent with the family, snuggling in bed before bouncing up and heading off to ... the Dept. of Education!  Well that was me anyway, hubby stayed snugged in bed and the girls took to the laptop downstairs!  Well the Dept. of  Education and I are good friends now and as I stroll down those cold grey corridors  and open the door I am greeted with "today is not your lucky day"  Guess I'll be back there on Tuesday!

It has taken me a while to think of what to blog about as certain personal challenges have arisen and I sat here with the guilty feeling of promising myself to blog every day (not always going to happen) and just not really feeling up to it.  I sat here a bit heavy hearted and decided to read other peoples blogs to give me a bit of inspiration.  What I discovered was a world of peoples stories with no ending.  How could that be?  Bloggers enthusiastically stroking the keys day by day taking their readers on journeys into their world (in this case I was looking up all the blogs I could on Italy) and then there was nothing.  No more entries.  No more news no more recipes no more pictures.  These blogs sit there sad with no ending.  It's like going to the movies and half way through it stops.  A blank screen.  What happened?  What caused them to stop writing?  Was it all too much?  Well peeps that got me thinking what if someone was reading my story  would I want them to think I had just stopped?  So whilst today I don't have any of my story to write about and only because my head is not in i.  My heart still is. Tomorrow I will tell you about the great Chicken recipe I made and the awsome big waves at the beach today. 

Come back tomorrow and I promise I will still be here.

Tired...

So what did we do today?  Hung around waiting for the Dept. of Education to call. Called Dept. of Education. Waited some more.  Went and paid bills.  Went to Dept of Education.  1 hour later and I have to go back tomorrow.  Nothing more to say today. 
P.S.  Dinner was yummy, pork schwarmas - stir fried pork with yummy spices, stuffed into a pita with Hummous, Lettuce, Toms, Cheese & Tzatziki!  Night!

PPS - this photo has no relation to paradise island but is in fact in Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy where we would go and do our shopping... sigh.... they have so much nicer vegetables than paradise island!

Easter Bonnets & Sausage Rolls

Hot. HOt. HOT.  After being away from the heat for 3 1/2 years I never thought I would want a bit of snow!  So while it is gently snowing in Northern Ireland and Scotland I am melting ... melting .... melting.....

Heat aside so what did we do today?  Easter bonnets & baskets,  crinkly soft tissue paper flowers, stickers, glitter, glue and painted eggs!  Easter Tree - Done!  Baskets just waiting to be filled with Easter Treats and all the colours of the rainbow and filling my house amongst the boxes still waiting
p a t i e n t l y to be moved to their new home!

So now on to dinner, yes home made sausage rolls!  Pork mince flavoured with salt, pepper & sage (no onion my daughter yells!) wrapped in puff pastry, squished gently on the side with a fork and there goes the oven alarm... sorry dinner is ready ... go to go!

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS WERE OKAY

So what did we do today?  Let me start at the beginning....  When we decided to move to an island in the Carribean almost 1/6 th the size of Cape Town I had the idea to home school our girls.  As I would not be allowed to work I thought I would take the kids education into my own hands!  Best idea ever!  I would sit and plan each week with extra worksheets ensuring that the girls were given sufficient practise and I have been bursting with pride when they remember what they have learnt or use their knowledge!  However I always knew that there was one little challenge to overcome.... the official application to the Dept. of Education to home school.  I had time.  I couldn't apply until the work permit for my hubby had been approved and so I continued.  Then the work permit was ready and I put my application in and waited for a call.  Nothing. I called and left messages.  Nothing.  I called again and again until one day early in the morning I received a call!  Yippee!  I need to meet with the permanent secretary to discuss the application.  Great! The day arrived and off I went, ensuring I was wearing the appropriate clothing to a government department (no stringy shirts, sleeves and long trousers).  What a lovely meeting and yes they will approve my application!  They could see I had a good schedule and that I had activites (ballet, swimming & violin) for the girls and extra tutoring once a week for English & Maths!  Praise the Lord.  How easy was that!  I would receive my letter and apply for the visa - everything was on track!

Today I still don't have the letter and our visas expire on Thursday.  I thought I would go ahead and I headed off the Dept. of Education  to get the girls visa forms stamped, I thought well surely they can check and see that the letter is on its way....... no.....sigh........  I have to now go back on Wednesday!  They don't have a record of a letter or my interview taking place and sorry the permanent secretary is in a meeting and they will have to come back to me! Or I can get back to them tomorrow afternoon if I have not heard from them.  Guess it is to be continued....

Oh yes and don't even get me started on when we are supposed to be moving..... that is for another day!

Hi Peeps

Another hot day on sunny Barbados!  Too hot, I never thought I would say that but it is literally melting out there! 

Took the kids to the park at Folkestone Park & Marine Reserve they raced around on the see-saw, double slide and anything else for their size!  Gives me a moment of peace to sit on the bench and read my latest library book - Extra Virgin by Annie Hawes, amongst the olive groves of liguria.  Yeah it was published way back in 2001 (which was the same year the Giant African Snail was introduced in Barbados and is now such a pest apparently the government pays 50c for every pound you collect).  Any hoos we took a stroll on the beach to get the feet wet and cool and was heading for the park when I said we need to wash the sand off our feet.  My youngest daughter then proceeded to wet her entire body to cool down!  Ah well, wish I could have done the same thing!

My oldest on the other hand is way upset today.  Why?  Well this is part of the "expat" frustrations of  living in a developing country - the wifi not working properly.  Probably because the Green Monkeys are swinging on a wire somewhere and this has caused our wifi to go to pot for the past 4 days.  Also we are supposed to be moving house and the excitment is too much as we are about to have our very own swimming pool!  This way when the waves are too big at the beach we can still cool off in the clear waters of the pool.  Hopefully we won't need to share the pool with the many toads & singing frogs we hear at night!

So this is it!  The first of my ramblings about where we are, what we are doing and the Love, Life & experiences that go along with it!  First a bit more about us!  We currently live in Barbados, yes I say "currently" as we have lived in a few places, most recent Northern Ireland the complete opposite (weather wise) of Barbados!  My husband works in hospitality and so did I until a year ago when I decided enough was enough and that my place was at home.  After attending a village school in NI we decided that as we were moving to an island, home schooling was a great idea!  This is one of the many experiences I am sure I will chat about on here!  Another will be the Life of an expat living in Barbados or where ever we may be!  And Love?  Well that is the Love we have as a family, the love of new experiences, the love of God whithout whom we would not be here and the love of Italy we share.  Yes deep down inside I am Italian, not in my bloodline and not in language (I don't speak Italian) but in my imagination I am an Italian Momma who takes care of her brood and cooks up a storm in the kitchen!  All these things will appear in this blog for sure.   So what did we do today?

Today the girls and I had a PJ Day!  We love these days where we laze around and don't venture anywhere outside, hiding in the coolness inside with the TV on watching reruns of NCIS, Pretty Woman and anything that catches our fancy!  I sit and watch the girls make recordings of themselves singing various songs and squealing (my youngest could break wine glasses with that squeal) with delight and watching themselves over and over!  We eat bread rolls stuffed with BBQ crips for lunch and our favourite Easter mini eggs follow.  Tomorrow is another day and one where I promise myself to use much more energy, eat healthily and have more fun!  Happy Saturday everyone!

P.S. Welchman Gully Hall, where we spent all our energy yesterday!