It's Friday!

The good news today is that the week is almost over. I'm glad that the weekend is approaching. I'll have to work tomorrow but on Sunday we're going to visit a friend and his family who live in a (VERY) small  place near Crema. He is not just a friend, G. is one of my best friend. We've know each other for more than 10 years and he is really special. He lives in an area where there is literally nothing but he is not a city man and he is quite happy there. They live all together: G, his brother & parents and still do things that my grandma used to do, like home made pasta and lasagna, like going to the church every Sunday (this is R., G's mum), like speaking dialect. I love them. There's always a warm atmosphere at their house, an ancient taste of typical Italian family. I can't wait to see them all.

It's a sunny day here, a bit chilly but a beautiful day indeed. Today I'll have lunch with someone I haven't seen in ages and I'm eager to catch up with her. I'm glad I'll meet L. as without M. (who moved to Australia a few weeks ago), I feel a bit sad at work. I also need to take a break from Orlando, to be honest. Yesterday he drove me crazy. It was very windy and he wanted to stay in the garden all the time and wanted me to stay outside with him! So today he'll stay wit grandma as mum needs a day off!

I wish you a lovely weekend, my friends.

Ps. I can't put it down! Thanks, Andy :-) 

And thank you to Silvia for this. Jerusalem is a great cookbook. My homemade hummus was pretty good!

I am back #2

I've just realized that I need to plan carefully all the things that need to be done in the following months otherwise I'll end up being overwhelmed pretty soon. 

It's getting difficult to work at home as Orlando needs lots of attention & exercise. This morning, after  a 30-minute run in the garden, he slept for like an hour and then he was ready for another "running session". However, he can't stay in the garden alone. Even if he has improved, he still chews and swallows things he shouldn't eat so someone has to stay outside with him which is not ideal. He has high level of energies which is both good and bad. It is good because he is funny and extremely vital, it's bad because I mainly work at home and I obviously need to focus. Sometimes I just can't as it's like having a hyperactive child who runs around and wants to play all the time. Luckily, we can rely on my mum and  my uncle but sometimes I wonder what we would do if they fell seriously ill. 

On a more positive note, I'm looking forward to a couple of trips: one to Brussels and the second to Prague. In Brussels I'll reconnect with friends I haven't seen for a long time and Prague is a wonderful city so I'm thrilled to go with G. 

To be honest, I do have bad memories of Brussels but I'll be pretty busy so they won't haunting me. I hope I won't bump into someone I am not keen to meet who lives in Brussels though. If I bump into this person, I promise I'll share the whole story here. 

I am also organizing an important event in Milan. It's for my job and I'm charge of it... I'm nervous about it but I'm sure things will work out ok. The event is scheduled for April and everything has to be almost "perfect"... I have my fingers crossed.

I am back

I've been sick (while on holiday... lucky me) for a while and I'm still recovering. Nothing serious, just a bad cold that doesn't go away. I am still suffering from nasal congestion and I feel a lack of energy, especially today that I'm back at work! Anyway, we've all been ill except for G.  

This short post is just to let you know that I have only 1 big resolution for this new year: 

write more!

This entails writing more here and reading and writing more for my job (part of my job involves writing  papers and articles). I'm also thinking of writing a book but it has to be written in English so I'm carefully pondering the idea. It's a lot of work and at the moment I don't have enough time. I'll be working non-stop until my birthday (early April) when I'll take a break and go to Prague with G. for a few days. After this trip life is going to be like hell (again) until, I guess, end of July. Unless I want to spend August working, the book needs to be postponed. 

So, I'll write more and I also want to catch up with your blogs. 

I hope you had a lovely break.