little miss sunshine...

I am a big fan of flowers. Receiving them that is, not growing them. Both my mum and my grandad have green fingers, but I am yet to develop mine. I absolutely love being in possession of a nice big bunch of flowers though, and although it doesn't happen very often, I'm over the moon when I can fill a nice big vase full of the things.

This month I have been particularly lucky, because my boyfriend gave me some beautiful flowers for my birthday, and my boss rewarded us all with a lovely meal and nice big bunch each. But what flowers were they? I hear you ask. No, not carnations or roses or even lilies, but sunflowers. Big, beautiful sunflowers. Aren't they gorgeous?

There's something about sunflowers that make me very happy. Maybe it's because they are so bold and beautiful, and yellow happens to be my favourite colour. They also remind me of summer which, based on the gorgeous June we are having, seems to have well and truly arrived!

One of my favourite Italian singers, Giorgia, also has a lovely song, entitled 'Girasole' (sunflower), which I also happen to love! Have a listen:

Giorgia- Girasole

The 'grigliata'....

We all know that Italians have a passion for food. Food is a major part of any social engagement, and it is of great importance that any guests you may be expecting are feed well. To the point of being unable to move in some cases.

This week I had the pleasure of hosting my best friend from London. In need of a bit of r&r, she arrived at Bari on Tuesday evening and spent a lovely few days with me in my little southern Italian town. Two other friends who had been in Croatia also popped over by boat for a little visit. I do believe that we doubled the native English speaking population here very quickly!

This week was filled with food (yes, more so than normal!) We ate very well, to the point of bursting on some occasions! I made sure my friend had a typically sweet Italian breakfast:

Unfortunately there wasn't quite enough chocolate in these, so we had to add a bit more, in the form of this tasty find from lidl. Very similar to Nutella, but half the price....

Then some nice pasta for lunch, followed by a whole load of carbs, in the form of bruschetta, chips and pizza. Oh, and pizza with chips ON it. Filling, but oh so good...

a typical chip pizza

But I think the highlight was definitely our Italian BBQ experience, or what they like to call a 'grigliata'. At one of these barbecues, you are usually offered bruschetta, followed by meat, more meat, a bit more meat, and extra meat if you are still hungry. My friends were brave and tried the torcinelli, which are made of different parts of lamb, such as the liver, stomach and brain. They are definitely a delicacy here, and people seem to go mad for them. Much to the Italians' delight, the general consensus was that they weren't too bad at all! At least, there wasn't a lot of grimacing going on mid-chew, which is always a good sign!

We drank beer and wine, and generally enjoyed socialising with a lovely big group of friendly Italians. I would definitely recommend attending one of these grigliatas if you ever get the chance, even if you do have to be rolled home after gorging on too much meat....

football fever...?

So, it's football time again. I can't avoid it. As hard as I try not to get involved, I always end up shouting at the TV screen. God knows what I'm shouting about because I really don't understand football. But if it seems like the players are making some kind of error, I just go with it. NOOOOO YOU'RE DOING IT ALL WRONG! I yell, looking around to see if my comment seemed appropriate.

Before it began, I was curious about how the Italians would act throughout the competition. Would they become all hooligan-ish? Rampaging through the streets, banners painted on faces, chugging beer? Or would they be calm and rational about it all, watching quietly at home? Well, so far I've seen or heard of neither. Italians are very social creatures, and so sitting at home alone watching a game is out of the question. And charging through the streets? At least not yet. Let's see how far Italy gets before I can comment too much on that...

From what I have witnessed in my little town, social viewing is essential. And a nice beer is also important. But getting blind drunk then stumbling about after is not. I watched the first Italy match with a group of friends (men and women). We drank a little, and of course, we ate a little. It is Italy. Smoking took place during half time. And when the match finished, it was briefly discussed, before everyone dispersed. Sounds a little boring? Well, it wasn't. During the game, I have never heard so many 'VAFFANCULO!!!!!'s in my life. There was wild gesticulating taking place. There may have been a little bit of dancing when the goal was scored. The small place in which we were watching literally erupted with joy when the ball hit the back of the net.

Will the football viewing remain calm and sociable?

Or will Italian football hooligans rear their ugly heads?

 So, are the southern Italians big drinkers? Perhaps not. Hooligans? It doesn't appear so (yet). But passionate? Hell yes. It seems that Italians really are passionate about three things: Food, Football and, well, Passion. 

FORZA ITALIA!!(and England of course...I knew I'd forgotten something...!)

Happy (summer) feet!

Now that the hot weather has well and truly arrived, it's time to get the feet out and give them some air! This also means of course, slipping on a pair of lovely sandals or wedges. I'm all about comfort (even though I have seen lots of gorgeous heels about recently!) so I love a nice pair of flats. Here are some of the styles I will be showing my feet off in, and whats more, they were all complete bargains:

The beading detail is gorgeous, and they were only about €12 (AND made it Italy!)

Primark. About £6, and they go with everything!

But you can't get your feet out without doing some maintenance first. Summer feet need to look good! The Irish one likes moisturising her feet then popping them into cling film (don't ask, but apparently it really works!). I have used pumice stone in the past to get rid of nasty dry bits, and of course, a good nail polish is a must! I have been wearing orange and yellow recently, but have a look at these other lovely colours, all by Pupa:

 I also love using the Pupa Miss Milkie stuff, not only for feet but for your whole body .The body moisturiser and scrub are my favourites, and smell amazing!

And of course, summer feet can get just a little bit sweaty, so don't forget a deodorant spray! I use this Scholl one, and it works really well.

A bid for freedom, or just gymnastics?!

So my little ninja turtles (or, as my fellow blogger Sarah informed me, they are probably terrapins..but I do enjoy calling them ninja turtles so that may stick for the time being!!) seem to have settled in well. They are enjoying the nice amount of sunshine that has been coming in through the window recently, and are still having great fun playing hide and seek with the seashells. However, they have also decided to spend a LOT of time trying to build what can only be described as a turtle tower. Behold, the amazing, balancing, Tim and Jennifer!!!

I'm loving the posied, pointed foot...

Turtle jenga.

Now, what I want to know is this: Is this a normal activity? Are they using their turtle tower to try and escape?  Is it a competition to see who can get the most sun? Or are they just balancing buddies?!

time to get your bikini on!!

So, seeing as I am planning on spending the majority of my summer melting in the hot, southern Italian climate, I thought it necessary to invest in another bikini. Having just one is simply not acceptable, especially seeing as I intend to wear it EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. I bought a nice one from Golden Point (http://www.goldenpointonline.com/) last year, and thought I'd have a look at what they have this year. Unfortunately nothing stood out. So I looked to Calzedonia (which usually sells socks....but apparently stretches to beachwear come the summer months!) and they have some beautiful ones.

Who said a swimming costume wasn't fashionable? This one is just stunning.

Love the purple and the golden ties on this one.

However, I wanted to see if I could find something even cheaper, as I'm always on the lookout for a bargain. So I had a look in OVS (http://en.oviesse.com/woman/beachwear) and there was a lot of gorgeous swimwear, like this:

Love the flower prints

 In the end though, I decided on these lovelies:

Yes, before you ask, I AM quite keen on stripes...

And for only €28 for both, I had no complaints! (I intend to only wear the white one once tanned though...my pasty English skin can't pull it off otherwise....)

new additions...

What do people do at these town festivals that I keep going on about? Well, they mingle. A LOT. They listen to live concert music (sometimes good, sometimes terrible) and they marvel at the ridiculously dangerous fireworks. But that's not all. They also buy animals. Yes, the animal stall comes to town, and little kids can buy gerbils, fish and other small animals that they will end up neglecting and leaving mum to look after.

I decided to jump on this bandwagon, and get myself a pet. Well actually, two. May I introduce my two (ninja) turtles, Tim and Jennifer: (re: the names, don't even ask..)

swimming shot

well it seems that SOMEONE is playing hide and seek...

errm...

Their hobbies include darting around in the water, hiding in shells and sunbathing. They do love a bit of sun. When school has finished for the summer, my project is to attempt to build a much better home for them than the one they have now (so for all you turtle lovers out there, don't worry, they will be moving to a better house!)

I've done some research online about how to keep turtles in the best way possible. It's said that they need lots of light, regular water changes and occasionally some veggies in their diet. If anyone has any more tips, do let me know! :)

The little things...

Recently, myself and the other girls have been pretty busy at work. It's exam time, so this involves doing lots of preparation with the students and becoming increasingly more knackered! It's definitely taking it's toll a bit, and we are looking forward to the summer break! We have been drinking a fairly large amount of this:

and have been wanting go out and drink more of these:

But in the meantime, we are soldiering on! We are coming to the end of our class courses, so this gives us a good excuse for a little party, or at least some fun and games. For my adults, I'm going to make one of my nutella cakes, and for the little ones? A big bag of sweets to share around of course!! Every now and then, the students are very sweet and also like to 'reward' us with some little goodies. The other day, one of my younger students stormed into my classroom at the start of the lesson, carrying a small bunch of flowers for me, that I later found out he had picked from his grandma's garden. I actually got a little emotional at the sweetness and simplicity of the gesture. How lovely!!

A super sunny Saturday

Yesterday the weather was beautiful. Today, the weather is beautiful. And oh-so-hot. 33 degrees C at about 4pm to be precise. Flip flops are on, legs are out, sweating has definitely commenced (ick). The only thing one can do on a sunny Saturday is, of course, go to the beach.

So we packed our swimsuits, turned the car's air conditioning on full blast, and made our way to the sea. Oh how MARVELLOUS it was to have some much needed sea air! We picked up some bread, tomatoes and other bits on the way, and had a lovely lunch in between all the beach laziness.

Fig, anyone?

Beach. Deck chair. English magazine from my fantastic mum. Bliss.

The juiciest tomatoes I've had yet!

All of this tranquillity was disrupted a little by what can only be described as a DOG PILE ON. Minding my own business, I was accosted by three very sweet little dogs, looking for some attention...(they got it!)

There was a bit of biting going on...

This weekend is also a 'red' weekend, because of the town festival. So in the evening, we had some cocktails, and went for a bit of a jaunt around the town, to see what was what. To be honest, there wasn't much to see- only a few stalls selling various bits and bobs that nobody really needs. But there WERE some of the famous 'DON'T STAND TOO CLOSE TO THEM OR THEY'LL TAKE YOUR HEAD OFF' fireworks. Lots of loud bangs. Lots of flashing lights. A few more even louder bangs. And a very scared Amy.

All in all, a rather excellent Saturday.

A not-so-rude awakening!

This weekend we have our town festival- 3 days of incredibly dangerous fireworks, lots of stalls selling various things that no-one needs, and most importantly, a 3 day weekend. Wooohooo!

Like a lot of other people, I enjoy my lie-in on a Saturday. I don't like to be woken up at an early hour (especially by the annoying so and so next door who has been doing building work for about 6 months...). But this morning I didn't mind too much when I was awoken from my slumber by....a marching band! And in some very stylish pink shirts....