superstar na!

well i've been back in the uk for over a week now - sigh - and only just got time to update the blog. I had the BEST holiday with shadowsandclouds witch, mr m and padma. Here are some highlights in no particular order:

1. Jam: na' makes the best jam ever, especially elderberry jam which she pointed out has crunchy little bits in the middle of the elderberries which are like little bits of biscuit!! makes it even more exciting when you realise this! so we breakfasted every day on homemade jam on homemade bread. YUM

2. Padma cat: cute as a button, and I love that she like to play tag with you by smacking your leg then running away! I also loved her lying on top of the high green kitchen cupboard (which, like all the furniture at na's house, I want to steal!) like princess looking down on her pink-monkey subjects

3. Old friends: two boys, P and N, I hadn't seen for ages, P not for 10 years! While I prefer to see and be in contact with friends all the time it's great to know there are people you can meet up with again, and it's like no time has passed - you slot back into the conversation, jokes and sauciness as easily as you ever did ;)

4. FABRIC: my god we had some fun buying fabric. The first day we went the shop wasn't even open, but the door was ajar. na' being a superstar asked the lady if we could still come in and look round. She said yes, and by the time we had finished there were about 15 people in this "closed" shop!!! we went back many times...the story of our aprons is a joy to behold on http://shadowsandclouds.blogspot.com/2008/03/aprons-and-my-first-curved-lines.html I can't tell it any better tho not sure if it emphasises the extent of wine drinking and biscuit eating and hysterical laughing ;)

5. Saying Yes: I spent more time this hols than I can remember saying YES to things I might have felt shy about before. So I did folk dancing and went to talk to my friend P's colleagues about my work and had my hair cut in the full knowledge that the lady would be scary!!!! This resulted in lots of fun and enthusiasm and laughs so will be saying yes more often!!

6. Na' and Mr M's cooking: fab. was gorgeous and all home produced, or sourced locally, and seasonal. they are an inspirational pair! I had forgotten the importance of bread, oil and wine to really make a meal!

7. Baking: with local wholemeal flour and more laughs and resulting famous aniseed biscuits and nonna's ginger biscuits. Excitingly I have found a local producer of wholemeal flour here so can try to emulate the biscuits made in Italy :)))) Na' is a fab teacher too and rekindled my love of baking (the choc cake she taught me to make elicited a marriage proposal..will have to make more..maybe send to morten harket hmmmmmm)

8. Helping Na' in her English conversation class: this was fun and helped me with my Italian while being another English speaker in Na's lesson! Na' is a great teacher and her students were lovely, and it was a nice relaxed atmosphere in her class.

9. Picnic at fortezza: this again was so like old times. a great suggestion from Mr M and spent in the sunshine eating bread, cheese, artichokes and olives. Na and I remembered doing the same thing 10 years ago with friends, some of which we've lost touch with (for no reason other than life sometimes gets in the way), others who are still there and as fab as always. We used to spit out olive stones then and wonder if they would grow into olive trees...

10. Mr M: I can't tell you how welcome he made me feel, how nice it was to talk about our work (and find out students are the same the world over), the fab suggestions for things to do including the picnic, and that he came to find me when i got lost after a night out with N!!! (I hadn't even drunk that much wine!!!!) I'm so glad he is Na's Mr M!!!!

11. Na' (and being mad with her!): Na' is truly a superstar. We've been such good friends for over 10 years now, and she has supported me so much always but especially recently, giving incredibly sensible advice, listening to me cry my eyes out and then making sure by the end of the conversation I am laughing. There are not words to describe how grateful I am for that. Not just that but we always have so much fun together and laugh so much and do mad things and talk and talk..it was amazing to spend that week together and I can't wait to go back!!

I would love to be as good at writing in this blog as na' is, as she writes and expresses herself so beautifully, however these are good enough prompts for me to remember having such a great week and such fun times :)