nacken

This is a very nice thing Julius’ school did … they have been taking pictures and video over the last year and put it out on a DVD …

Here are some of the pictures .. and I will go through the video stuff in a bit …

It is amazing to see all the stuff they do .. especially the extra messy things .. i cannot imagine how much time it takes to clean up those kids after they played with some kind of foam which they turned blue.

Back in december I starred again as St. Nikolaus at Julius school … and a mere 8 months later I am getting a DVD with assorted school stuff, including my semi-Santa performance … you can also see Julius yawning away and trying to figure out if he knows this red clad guy.

Click here

Early wake up and getting ready to hop over the border again to Italy. It took us about 90 mins to drive to Finale Ligure, where we had been in April.

This time we had nicer weather, actually a bit too nice .. it was already 30C at 9:30 AM. Parking was close to impossible and what we found in the end was more than a kilometer away .. and Julius started getting cranky and showed signs that he was ‘beached out’ .. but eventually we made it to ‘Bagni Vittoria‘ .. which was a bit different from the place in Menton … The beach here is in general wider .. so they can cram way more seats in there … but then the mass of people is standing around the shore line .. wherever you look, tons of people.

There was only a very limited food / drink source on the premise, each unit you rent has a beach chair, a lounger and an umbrella, so we had to get 2 units for all of us. (46€ total, a bit cheaper than Menton, since this is full day price)

We were a bit far from the beach, which made taking pictures a bit tricky .. since bringing back the camera to safety involved dragging Julius along. They also have a nice playground on the other side with a trampoline, which Julius tried for about 1 minute and then he was not interested anymore.

His main focus was again building sandcastles and splashing in the water.

But in the end .. it was just too hot (36C at noon) and too crowded and I feared that I would have to carry Julius and all our stuff back to the car … so we decided to wrap things up while it is still fun and we also had the added bonus of having the autostrada pretty much to ourselves.

We started fairly early to drive the 2:45 h to Menton, but even with this head start we ended up in a mean traffic jam just before Savonna, so we ended up arriving at our hotel at noon (after a quick pit stop at a french supermarket to get some baguette and sunscreen) where we met our friends. Julius had been very excited about meeting Lucca again.

After a quick check in we headed straight for the beach, 300 meters down the road.

It was a bit confusing at first … it looked like a long row of restaurants is blocking the access to the beach, we kept walking looking for some door or entrance, but then we figured out that each of these restaurants owns and manages their little part of the beach … so, we checked out a very nice place that had some interesting tier system: basic, better and VIP .. but it turned out that they had to kids diversion options, so they sent us to the adjacent place (Napoleon Lounge) which has a nice sandbox and I was very happy with this place.

The beach loungers have a nice thick mat on them, though we only had 3 loungers we had access to 2 umbrellas. They have a service button on each so you can easily call a waiter. Later when it got really hot they came around with a water spray thingie and sprayed everyone who wanted … a bit later they came around with slices of melon .. all part of the package .. which for 13€ (half day special) is not bad at all.

Julius had tons of fun in the sandbox, where he made friends with a very cute french girl, and he also enjoyed the water a lot. His friend Lucca was a bit shy and clingy and they did not play as much together as I thought they would. But overall everything was tons of fun.

He did not take a nap, though I saw him once getting comfy in the sandbox and his eyes nearly closing .. but he stayed through this and I started to worry about dinner plans.

We left around 6:30 PM and headed back to the hotel where we immediately took a bath to get all the sand and salt off. I tried to convince Julius to take a brief nap … but no, he was not interested. So we all went out for dinner together at the closest possible restaurant “L’o de la Bouche” or something like that.

The boys had some nice meat with fries, while Chris and I enjoyed some very fresh oysters and then all 3 grown ups had the mixed grill fish platter, which was great.

Of course Julius had to sleep at some point, and it happened very fast .. I have a picture from 8:15 where he is still awake, 2 minutes later he is already sleeping in my arms … try to eat oysters or peel a large shrimp with one hand .. not easy

Enjoy the pics below:

The workshop is finally over yesterday and I went to Samarkand, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Uzbekistan, with my Nepalese colleague today. My friend Kyoko, who works here in Tashkent, offered her car and driver to go there. So, we left the hotel at 7am. The drive was very smooth and by 10:30am, we arrived in Samarkand.

Samarkand is the 3rd largest city in Uzbekistan with a lot of historical monuments. We met with our guide and visited the Registan (medieval Samarkand’s commercial centre and the plaza), Gri Amir Mousoleum, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, Shah-i-zinda and Ulugbek’s Observatory and had lunch in between visiting these sites. The sights are all very impressive with beautiful blue mosaics.

It was a very packed day and I wish we had more time to really stroll around the city and relax, but nevertheless, it was a great experience!

Now that he has figured out how to blow balloons, the next logical step for him was to try the same thing with water!

Ritsu is out on business again and gets to sample local Uzbek and other interesting food (e.g. Korean and Moroccan)

This thing that looks like a rice dish with a flat pebble in it (actually a piece of meat) is called ‘plov’ and belongs to the pilaf family. According to wikipedia: “Uzbek “plov” is often considered to be one of the oldest preparations of rice which has Persian roots due to the non-existence of Turkic tribes in Central Asia at the time.“. I want to try that sometime

Oh, and her suitcase showed up today. What happened was that the boarding agent in Turin told Ritsu that the luggage is checked through all the way to Tashkent, and obviously she was in error. Ritsu was supposed to pick it up in Paris and check back in … if only someone had told her.

Today is a holiday so Julius’ school was closed. And we were checking out what there is to do … e.g. I kinda read on this website that there is some free boat ride on the river Po, so we went to check it out, but it was more like a free trial lesson in canoeing and kids had to be 8 years or older to participate … so we just watched.

We had to get back to the other side of the river as they would close our bridge at noon for their preparations of tonight’s big firework. So next we hit the gelato joint (where I upgraded Julius from cone to cup, less of a mess) and then to the playground.

Let’s see if we can go to see the fireworks tonight, but they are late .. 10:30 PM .. by that time kiddo should be in bed.

[update] We went for a second walk to check out the festivities and actually ran into David M. at Salsamentario

But bedtime was getting near and after sweating all day it was time for a bath .. and then bed …

So .. he was in bed by 21:00 … but when I checked on him at 21:45 , he was still wide awake (but at least he had tried, which still baffles me) … and when I offered to go out again, he was all for it … so we went .. I was surprised to see so many kids his age (and even younger) still being up … the fireworks were super fun to watch !!! Julius had a great time ..

but wait until we see fireworks in Japan!

Finally summer is here! And it is getting hot.

Gladly we got this nice chrome-y fan from David M. when he left Turin. It works well and Julius has lots of fun letting his drawings fly in the wind.

.. how can you tell ?

The afternoon was quite exciting, as they had closed down our neighborhood for a downhill soap box race … well, those engineless vehicles do not deserve the name soap box … this business has obviously been taken over by the car manufacturers here (I saw Ferrari as a big presence) … so .. 13 vehicles competed and it was fun to watch them come down.

When finally I had found a great viewing spot with Julius, I noticed that everyone else was wearing VIP tags … as it turned out we had breached the VIP area and no one felt like getting us out … in the end, some nice American(?) lady even got us our own VIP tag. She said there would be some free drink involved, but it was just too hot and after we had inspected all the cars we went back home were it still is cooler than outside. I might post some video later online, but there might be more stuff already on youtube .. the official website for the Turin Dream Race seems to be here.

I am aware that Kraft’s ‘Macaroni & Cheese’ might not the best lunch in terms of nutritional value, but it is a perfect meal to show a pre-schooler how to cook and survive.

He had lots of fun mixing the pasta with water, stirring around, waiting for the ‘ping’ of the microwave, then stirring in the instant cheese sauce. And then the grand finale: eating it!

And what fun the boys had :

It has been a while since we have been out to our friends ‘out in the country’ (They are just a 20 minute ride behind our hills) and finally the weather is also better, it got actually quite warm.

The big boys had a blast (while baby Jonathan was sleeping most of the time) and enjoyed the outdoors.

For lunch I was delighted to use the outdoor gas grill to put a new spin of my beloved jerk chicken .. now the only way of improvement I can think of is using a charcoal grill. Sarah had made a splendid fruit salad and thus we had a great lunch feast under a canopy in the sun.

Ritsu is off for yet another business trip and we steamed through Friday afternoon rush hour to bring her to the airport on time.

Check-In was easy, while saying bye bye was a bit harder this time, Julius cried, but eventually remembered that his still has papa and that mama always comes back.

[update] Ritsu has arrived safely in Uzbekistan and is fine, but her luggage is missing, which is a big bummer .. imagine sitting in a 33C place with the same clothes you wore 24 h ago! I just hope her stuff shows up sometime soon.

Yep .. we got married 6 years ago .. incredible …

To celebrate this I had made a very early booking at Mare Nostrum, our favorite seafood place in Turin, but I got a call yesterday from them, that they would keep the restaurant closed! [gasp]

They said that while every other evening of the week they are totally booked, for this night they only have one reservation, ours! The reason for this was most likely the soccer match Italy - France. I can’t believe that soccer was about to ruin our anniversary dinner !!!

So, I called around and got a reservation at a place called ‘Al Gatto Nero’, but even better, one of Ritsu’s colleagues got us a reservation at ‘Conti di Saluzzo’, another great seafood place, recommended by Ritsu’s gourmet boss.

But surprises did not end there, Ritsu got caught in the pouring rain while shopping for a gift for me and no taxi was to be found, so I had to load Julius into the car and go rescue her. Thanks to the down pour it took us until 8 PM to get home, Ritsu still soaken wet. I had our babysitter Alice call the restaurant that we come later and all was good and finally at 9 PM we arrived for a very nice dinner.

Indeed, we were the only guests this evening. Everybody else (including waiters) were watching the soccer game, which we could hear in the back. So what I believe to be the owner lady was serving us.

This place has a very good concept that I have not really seen anywhere else before, the menu clearly says ‘If 2 of you order the same thing, its less work for us, so we make it cheaper for you’ … i.e. the single version pasta is 12€, but if 2 order it, its 18€ .. something like that .. don’t recall details. Oh, and they even have menus in English, which is very convenient. (Though by now we pretty much know our menu-Italian.)

We had raw tuna slices under a very fragrant sauce of fresh tomatoes, onions, very acid-y .. yum! Then we ate paste with anchovy sauce (equally yum!) and we had kept some space for a main dish, for which we ordered the ‘grigliata della casa’, a mixed, grilled seafood platter ..

and boy was that good .. everything very fresh and just fantastic and the biggest surprise, while the menu only mentions some kind of shrimp … we got a whole lobster instead (and that was before we told them it was our anniversary).

Everything was just perfect and we felt bad when we saw the dessert tray. We had no more room left and they had prepared so much (and they had no other guests that night, I wonder even if they cut out that one piece of cake to make the whole thing not look too untouched). Instead Ritsu just had coffee and I had a ’small’ grappa (she poured me about 2.5 times as one gets in other places)

All this with a wonderful bottle of Roero Arneis was 105€, which is really not bad, considering a) the quality of food and b) at Mare Nostrum we usually have 120€ to 150€ damage.

We were very happy and very full and since the rain had stopped we walked all the way back (about 3 km), observing the road side parties (since Italy had won and thus can continue in the current European Cup) .

I am sure we will go there again, I can highly recommend this place. I wonder how it looks with other patrons in it

While we were a bit late checking out the neighborhood market / fest (it was much bigger than the usual monthly antique market, but still not impressive at all, they need some better / more interesting food stalls) and the weather was gloomy, we had some fun, especially after Julius scored some balloons, finally figured out to blow them up .. and then found out what happened if you just let them go …

Julius had only met David K. 3 weeks ago in New Hampshire, but they have become best buddies and now David visited us and Julius was all over him again.

We had some apperitivo and wine at our place and then proceeded to our close by neighborhood restaurant for some nice Italian home cooking.

And since we were all still very awake (including the little one) we headed down to Murazzi for some after dinner drinks.

We are already talking about a return visit to the woods of New Hampshire, possibly meeting all those little people from 3 weeks ago again.

Yep .. it rained again … but we went out for some gelato and to revisit our wine bar which we have not been to in a long while … and it was overcrowded with people watching the current soccer game.

What to do when it is raining … how about a silly game of goofball … Julius is laughing his cute butt off.

(and this is not even an IKEA shelf*)

neither boy nor shelf got hurt

(* this is actually the shelf I carried 10 blocks from E 86th to E 76th street in Manhattan to my home, painted myself and since then it has been dragged around the globe)

In preparation for his big school summer party, Julius helped me making banana bread.

He enjoyed the stirring (for safety reasons of the freshly mopped floor) and he even put the pan in the oven …

.. and this is how he got his first baker’s battle scar … (but he poured cold water over his hand as instructed right away and besides being obvious and red, it seems that it does not hurt)