Azlan

He has finally arrived. I went on Monday morning to the Isle of Wight to collect him. We arrived in plenty of time to catch the hovercraft but as we were about to board I realised that I had left the breeders details in the car! We decided to board anyway and call somebody the other end to look up the details. It was the first time that I had been on a hovercraft, what a strange sensation. It feels like being in an aeroplane in fairly heavy turbulence.
The breeder lets the cats have the run of most of the house. They were everywhere. It was really lovely to see. OH adores him and had no idea that I was getting him. Azlan is so affectionate. He and Bella are not seeing eye to eye at the mo. Hopefully that will change in time.

Horsing Around…

I am still in shock with a silly grin on my face! OH is buying me a horse. It all started just over a week ago when my riding instructor called me to say that he had found me a horse that would be suitable for both OH and I. We were not even looking for one. He is from Belgium and had been over there looking for horses for other clients but just happened to find one that he thought that we would like. Vasco is a Belgium Warm Blood and about 16 hands high, I think. Anyway I said that I needed to talk to OH and would let him know. I contacted him on the Sunday with the view to looking at the yard he is going to rent and talk livery charges. I went to the yard on the Monday, which is fab and discussed livery. Vasco would be on a working livery for £300 per month, which inc a lesson a week for me. OH and I were due to ride the following Thursday (Thursday just gone. I am still walking funny lol) so I said that we would let him know then. It was only that morning that OH said that I could have him. I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am. He is due to arrive early next year. As soon as I have a pic of him I will post it on here. I have not even seen him yet!!

Shopping!

Oh boy, have we shopped today. OH needed to replace his skis and ski boots, so we decided to go to a fantastic shop Snow and Rock. Thankfully MIL called at 8am to see if we wanted to leave the kids with her. Good job we did, we ended up being at the shop for THREE HOURS!!!!! As well as choosing the boots and skis he wanted, they had to be set up/fitted correctly. Anyway I cannot complain because I have got my very first pair of skis!! OH also treated me to a new jacket, which is gorgeous. Check out the fluffy pair of pink slippers!! Skiing is OH sport and horse riding is mine. As OH has taken up horse riding, I feel obliged that I should make more of an effort with “his” sport. We also brought Olivia her first pair of skis for Christmas; she is going to be so chuffed.

Vroom! Vroom!

On Wednesday OH had his works do at Palmer Sport and I was invited along (wooooo, hooooo!). Palmer Sport has four road car circuits and one off-road circuit. I had the most fantastic time.







Our team drew the short straw because we had the FPA cars first thing. The track was wet in places. I did not enjoy that very much. We then drove the Land Rovers on the off road circuit. That was great fun. What a fantastic car. The Jaguar JP1 was next. 370 bhp!! That was very scary and I suffered a little from motion sickness so came in a few laps early! We then had lunch but unfortunately my stomach could only take vegetables, so I missed out on the lovely pud. We then could drive the Caterham 7 Superlight but I sat that one out because I wanted to save myself for the Porsche and Clio Cup. We then moved onto the Porsche and Clio. I went out in the Clio first. It took me a couple of laps to warm up and get the hang of it all. What a fantastic little car. I just wish I had longer in it. The Porsche was next. I want one. It has paddle shift to go up and down the gearbox. So when you are accelerating you do not have to lift your foot off the accelerator, just pull the paddle to go up a gear or two! I was really buzzing after driving those two cars. Lastly we had the Jaguar XKR, which OH fell in love with. Motion sickness caught up with me again and I had to end my stint a little early. All in all a really fantastic day to remember. Everybody had a great time and wants to go back. Some of the other teams had been 12-18 times before!!!!

My results are as follows (75 people in total)-
Porsche 911 JP3 40th Which I was very pleased with. OH came 34th.
Palmer Jaguar JP1 45th Not to bad considering I nearly wet my knickers!
Renault Clio Cup 54th I am sure I could have improved with a couple more laps.
Jaguar XKR 67th Must try harder next time! OH came 14th!
Caterham 7 Sat that one out. Will have a go next time.
Land Rover 42nd I was pleased with that.
Karts 70th I hang my head in shame. I was not giving it my all.

Overall I came 70th, which at least is not last I suppose. However OH came 8th, what a boy!

Remembrance Day

A day to remember those who lost their lives in war. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 the guns of Europe fell silent. After four years of the most bitter and devastating fighting, The Great War was finally over. The Armistice was signed at 5am in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiegne, France on November 11, 1918. Six hours later, at 11am, the war ended. That is why on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month we observe a 2-minute silence.

Olivia takes part in a Remembrance Day march every year with the Badgers and Cadets from St John Ambulance. I stayed and watched this year. We arrived at 10 am along with hundreds of other cadets from various organizations, British Legion etc. It was lovely turnout. The march was scheduled to leave at 10.30. At 10.30 the heavens opened, sods law! Thankfully it only lasted about half an hour but it was long enough for some of the children to be soaked through. We then had a service at the war memorial where Olivia and another Badger laid the St John poppy wreath, which was a very touching moment.

So Proud

Both of my girls have made me feel sooooo proud today. Youngest daughter was celebrated at school today for “being such a kind, helpful and friendly member of the class”. You get a certificate in assembly and have to stand up in front of the whole school to collect it. It brought a tear to my eye when I read the certificate in the school playground.

Eldest daughter is having a poem she wrote published in a book. I entered her poem in the Young Writers competition ages ago and completely forgot about it until I got a letter in the post this morning. Of course I will be buying a few copies of the book. The poem is as follows-

Dolphin Dolphin

Dolphin dolphin swim in the sea
Dolphin dolphin sing with me
Dolphin dolphin wiggle your tail
Dolphin dolphin swim like a whale

Chi Sono?

Sono musicista. Sono Americano. Il mio marito e Inglese. Ho una figlia e due figli. Sono molto bella. Io abito in centro di Londra ho tanti casi in tutto il mondo. Sono la ragazza di materiale! Chi sono?

The above is my Italian homework for this week. I feel so pleased with myself. However I cheated a little and got OH to help me when I got stuck. I will have to read it out in class tonight and see if they can guess whom the famous person is. It will be sods law that OH gets held up at work and I miss my lesson.

New Kit On The Block

OH is very disappointed that Bella our cat is not a lap cat and wants to spend most of her time with Olivia our eldest. So as a surprise I am buying him a Main Coon kitten for Christmas and birthday present. He is a little boy at the mo but the breeder thinks that he will grow to be a big boy. Look at the size of his feet!! How cute is he? He is 7 weeks old in the pic. I am sooo excited. I am going over to the Isle of Wight on December 10th by hovercraft to collect him. I am hopeless at keeping secrets and am fit to burst. I do hope that OH has no idea to what is going on. The breeder is Kassoro www.kassaro.demon.co.uk We got Bella from the same breeder, who is lovely and very helpful.

Viva Italia Show

The Viva Italia Show is currently on at Olympia in London. OH managed to get the day off, so we spent the morning there. Mother in law had Luca while the girls are at school. We have never been to this show before so was not sure what to expect. It was much smaller then La Dolce Vita show that is earlier in the year. However it was fantastic. The new Fiat 500 was there, which OH quite fancies. He has said that he only wants to buy one that is left hand drive and the correct plates i.e. Italian! I forgot to take my camera, which was a pain. The food was gorgeous and the people welcoming and friendly. We found a stall selling Italian vegetable seeds and bulbs, so we treated ourselves to some. Sounds sad but I cannot wait to try our own produce. I have never grown my own food before. I know the kids will enjoy the whole process. At least it gives us a bit of practice before the move, as we hope to grow plenty out in Italy. I also discovered a fantastic company called Piral that sell the most gorgeous cooking dishes. I managed to come away with one! Oh and the cheese, don’t get me started on the lovely cheese! We went by bike and the panniers were straining under the weight of all our shopping!

Shattered Dreams……..

Our house is not selling (sniff). Since we put it on back at the beginning of August we have had three viewings. I am not impressed. The market is not good at the mo. We have even dropped the price by 10k and still that has not generated any interest. So we have decided to take it off the market and put it back on in the spring next year. By doing this it will give us a chance to decorate a bit and hopefully the market will pick up. However it also means that we will not be moving in the summer of next year. I do believe that things happen for a reason (so I keep telling myself!). So we plan to move into our new completed house (yet to be found!) the beginning of summer 2009. It sounds such a long time away. Doing it this way also means that we can sort out middle daughters health before the move and also it might mean that OH can sell the business before the move so that we can all relocate together. So I am trying to put a positive spin on it but it is hard when you have set your heart on being in Italy next summer. Life is never easy…….

First Day

Amber started big school today. My little girl is growing up. Poor thing was ok for the first few minutes but then started to cry, which then started me welling up, followed by OH. He said that it was the worst thing he has ever had to do. He took it worse then she did. I collected Amber three and half hours later, hop, skip and jumping her way out of school. She said that she had a lovely day (phew!). Lets hope tomorrow goes well =-)

Messing Around On The River…..

We had no plans to go away this summer but OH felt he needed a break. So I booked four nights on a narrow boat (OH was not impressed about this bit, as he wanted a cruiser! Hee, hee!) on the Thames. Weather was a bit iffy but other then that we all had a lovely time (apart from poor OH not getting any sleep due to the size of our bed!). We went from Reading to Maidenhead and stopped overnight in Henley-On-Thames. It is another world on the Thames. The properties on the riverbank are amazing. I could have brought every one of them. Thankfully Mille the dog was the only one to fall in. We will defiantly be going back =-)

Just Like Mumma....

Stuffing your face and on the phone!!!!! This is not what I do all day, honest.

Before And After.....

This is prob having my poor Dad turning in his grave. I was not allowed to cut my hair for ages and certainly not as short as Olivia has just had it! My view is that it will grow back and besides it is sooooo much easier to keep the head lice under control when it is short. Note typical English village high street in the background inc pub!!

Hair Raising!!

We have a plastic slide in the garden that generates a lot of static, as you can see!!

Lego Land

The weather was great and we all had a fantastic time. Poor OH wallet took a real beating!!

Long Time No See.....

I have done something that I sooooo did not want to do, which is leave it so long between posts. Having the children off from school has meant that I have not been able to get on the computer as much as I would have liked and of course my new found knitting hobby is taking up most of my free time!!

Olivia had a lovely time at camp and came back as brown as a berry. Unfortunately she was so busy having fun that she forgot to take very many photos. Oh well.

OH and I have been think lots about the house in Italy and have decided that it does not have enough immediate outside space, so have decided not to buy it once we have sold ours. One of the main reasons of moving was so that we would have lots of outside space so the kids have plenty of room to run and play and I want to be able to keep horses and a few chickens =-) If only we could move that house to another location.

The viewings on our house are slowly picking up now. It’s a difficult time of year as a lot of people are away on holiday. We had a viewing on Monday, which went well but she thought that the house could do with another room downstairs. You cannot please everybody! Anyway I was telling OH about it when he got home and found our eldest looking very sad on the backdoor step. She is a real thinker and can be sensitive. I knew before she said what was on her mind. She does not want to move. So OH and I decided that we had to tell her the truth as to why we are moving. She was over the moon. It was told in top secret and little sister especially is not to know. Just spoken to MIL and she has already told her!!!!

We had no plans this year to go away but OH suggested that a couple of nights away over here would be lovely. So to cut a long story short, we are off next week to spend four nights on a canal boat on the river Thames!!! I am sooooooo excited. I promise to take and post lots of pics. We are even taking the dog!

TTFN

Growing up......

I have been away from the computer a while with the last Harry Potter book and I have also taken up knitting!!! My poor family is going to have to suffer my knitting creations. The summer holidays are well under way, not that you could tell by the weather we have been having. I took my eldest down to The New Forest (a gorgeous part of the world) for her Badgers camping trip. Ooooooo my baby is growing up. She is away for a week, which is the longest she has ever been away from home without us. She has been really looking forward to it. A week away from the parents! Thankfully the weather is dry at the mo. My youngest Luca was calling her to come with us as we were leaving, which nearly reduced me to tears. He still sometimes calls for her, poor thing does not understand. Anyway we are off to Legoland tomorrow, fingers crossed for good weather.

A Touch Of Sadness

I had the estate agents round today to take pics of my house. It dawned on me while I was running round like a mad woman cleaning the place ready for the pics that I was going to be leaving the house that I love for a new life in Italy. As they say, the penny dropped. I know the next house will be as lovely, if not lovelier then this house but I did feel a little sad. I am sure that it will dawn on me again once the house is on the market and I am showing people round. It prob sounds silly as I have been planning this for months and have been to Italy to look at homes. It goes on the market on the 10th September, arghhhhhhhhh! The day the children go back to school. I thought that it would be bad enough have people traipsing round our home without screaming children as well.

The grand prix was a disaster but I will leave that story for another day. Makes mental note to try and update blog more often…

Back to the drawing board….

Our offer was rejected, ho hum. I am trying to be philosophical about it, if it is to be our house, it will be. We have done everything we can *sigh*. We are now just keeping everything crossed.

On a good note, Amber is over her chicken pops and should be ok to go to her last day at kindergarten on Friday.

I do not think that I have mentioned that OH sister brought us tickets for the British F1 GP on Sunday. I am soooo excited. I have never been to one before and I am sure it is going to be a good one. I will be cheering on Lewis Hamilton and OH will be cheering on Massa =-)

Slug Hopscotch

Oh how the British like to talk about the weather! It’s been raining quite a lot this week, so much so that there has been a lot of flooding up north. Anyway I was taking the dog out tonight and had to do hopscotch down the road to avoid the plague of slugs (ewwww!) that the rain had brought out.

On another note, I have been making mental notes of food provisions that I want to stock up on before the big move. I know, I know, it’s a long way off but simple things and all that ;-)

Close but no banana!

Well our offer on the house was declined, which to me was really was no surprise. However we now have two options-

Option 1 Make another offer now of about €15’000 more and if that is accepted we will have to sell our house (with the mortgage financial penalties). Spring/summer is the best time to sell. Not that you would know that it was summer with the way the weather has been recently.

Option 2 Wait for another couple of months (after summer) and put our house on the market with the view to completing in the New Year. With this option we have no penalties and it gives us a chance to save a little more. The only downside is that somebody else might buy the house.

I feel sooo torn. We have put in a second offer that will be put to the owners on Monday, so fingers crossed. Here is a pic of me (with my wonky smile!) in the village that we hope to be living in.

Chicken Pops!

Poor Amber has chicken pox or chicken pops as she calls it! Found them last night just before bed. She seems ok with them. OH told her to be careful otherwise she will start to lay eggs, poor kid! So this morning she went to go back to her room to check for eggs in her bed. I did explain that Dadda was tricking her. It's just me who is going mad being stuck in the house! I have managed to tackle some of my ironing mountain and other household chores. I was only thinking a moment ago that this time last week I was in gorgeous Italy looking at houses *sigh*.

What a difference a day (or two!) makes…..

Packing took two minutes, which was a real novelty. I usually take about a week to pack for the five of us! Going through the airport without the kids was also a real novelty, bliss. Apart from sitting on the runway for about half an hour because we had missed out slot, the flight out was pretty uneventful. We invested in the Italian map for our sat nav a few months ago and used it for the first time. So finding our way was a piece of cake.

We were meant to be viewing three properties on the Saturday but unfortunately one of them was under offer. Having said that, the one that I really wanted to see was still available. The road that the villages are on is single track twisting up the hills, which is about 8km long. Not great for my travel sickness!! The first property was beautiful with loads of original features, which I loved. The second property, which is the one that I really wanted to see, is what I imagined it would be like and more. The views from the property are breathtaking.



It has four bedrooms upstairs, which by UK standards are good sizes. The lounge, dining room and kitchen/diner are all big. The only thing that is small is the bathroom. You cannot have it all! From the front of the property it looks like a normal house but as it sits on the hillside, it goes down another two levels that you cannot see from the front.


The first level below the house has its own (run down) kitchen, enough space to convert two bedrooms and also enough space to have a good-sized bathroom. Perfect for visiting relatives. According to the agent we will have them crawling out of the woodwork wanting to visit us once we have moved!! It has a nice sized terraced garden, plenty of room for my chickens! It also has about 5 hectares of land around the village, which we were unable to see because the owner is not entirely sure of where it is!!!! Lastly it also comes with a stone building at the beginning of the village that might be able to be converted into a little dwelling, perhaps for mother-in-law!! The keys were left with a neighbour so we were able to have a second visit on our own, so we went back the same evening and took lots of pics.

On Sunday we got up, had breakfast and headed to Lucca for the day. We hired a couple of bikes and went for the obligatory ride around the wall! Lucca was also full of antiques markets, which was lovely. So we spent the morning cycling and browsing. We then stopped for a gorgeous lunch before heading to the airport to check-in. After a few wrong turns (the air was blue in the car and the sat nav nearly ended up out of the window!!) we finally found it in time. We boarded our plane in time but to be told that we needed to hurry because the airport is closing in five minutes for two hours because of an air display! Pisa airport is shared with the Italian military. Surprise, surprise, we did not make it and had to be unloaded and wait in the airport. I really felt for the families who had children with them.

So after much deliberation, we made an offer on the house on Monday evening. We are just waiting now to hear if the offer has been accepted or not. Fingers crossed!

Disaster

OH called me this morning having spoken to his Dad, as his Mum has managed to fracture a bone in her shoulder (ouch!). Poor thing spent most of the night in A&E. She was clearing up the bbq that we had at her house earlier in the day and she tripped on the step while going into the house. She is not very good at being immobile. She is determined that we will still go away at the weekend. I just hope she feels better before the weekend. She has said that she will be delegating all the lifting duties to Grandad. I am keeping everything crossed!

Potato & Spoon Race

My middle daughter Amber had her last sports day at Kindergarten on Friday (sniff). I managed to stay for two races before Luca caused trouble and I was forced to leave with one screaming and crying toddler under my arm. When questioned after school, Amber said that she won all her races even the one that she fell over in! The picture is of her and her good friend Edward before the potato and spoon race!?! What happened to the good old-fashioned egg? Anyway she is not sure if she is going to marry Edward or Ben. Decisions, decisions!

I finally told big sister that we have plans to move to Italy and she was not surprised at all and really hopes that it works for us. What a relief. I was not sure how she was going to take it, so all that worrying for nothing. We exchange shoeboxes of gifts by post occasionally and I think the thought of a box of lovely Italian goodies might have swung it!

10 Days & Counting!

Woooooo, hooooooo! OH and I are off to Italy in 10 days time to view three properties. I am sooooo excited that I could burst. It helps that the in-laws are staying at our house to look after the kids and creatures. We have never been away without the kids and I cannot wait (of course I say that in the nicest possible way!). We never had a honeymoon so this is sort of it I suppose.

We are staying in a hotel in Bagni di Lucca and all the properties look to be fairly close by in Motrone, San Romano, cannot remember the last! I will take lots of pics and will post some here. We fly out on the Friday, view the properties on the Saturday and have Sunday to ourselves, bliss...

My first and certainly not my last…..

Finally I have got round to doing my own blog. Have admired others for some time but thought that I might not have enough to say. Will have to wait and see on that one! I am a complete computer numpty, so I have a lot to learn.

My story so far is that I live in semi rural Hampshire with my gorgeous family (husband, two daughters, one son, one smelly dog, one mad Main Coon cat, two goldfish and four very well loved pekin bantam chickens) and we are seeking a new life in Tuscany Italy.