Heads, shoulders, knees and toes

Did I tell you that I’m working again?  Only a few hours a week at the moment teaching but at least it's in Trani.  I have a group of kids once a week and for last Thursday’s lesson I decided to start teaching them parts of the body using the

Another new arrival

Has it really been 2 weeks since I last wrote?  Wow, how quickly time has gone even though at the moment it seems there aren’t enough hours in the day what with doing everything necessary for Melissa!  Felice turned the ripe old age of 39 on

That never ending saga again

You’ll never guess what!  It turns out that after all this waiting, the misplacement of my documents and then the finding of them with regards to my maternity pay has led to a big fat nothing.  It seems that I haven’t paid enough tax contributions

A little holiday

We’ve just got back from a week spent at a holiday village the other side of Bari.  We had a nice relaxing time (well in between washing Melissa’s things that is!) although the village wasn’t as big or exciting as we thought it might be.  Still

A sort of bonny baptism

Over a week has passed since Melissa’s christening.  We had sort of an okay day although because she’d had her first injections on the Friday, she was a little grizzly for the service and wouldn’t you guess that in the exact moment she was being

Maternity saga part 3

What can I say, the saga of my maternity pay continues would you believe. Here’s the latest. My application form has been “misplaced”.  Oh yes, it would have to be mine that the lady at the government agency can’t find which means it’s looking more

Little time for anything!

Here I am again then.  I actually feel that I haven’t got much time for anything at the moment.  It’s a round of non-stop looking after Melissa and being with my parents (yes they’re here again but they wouldn’t miss Milly’s christening on Sunday

How to be a good catholic if you're that way inclined

As Melissa’s baptism is fast approaching we have to attend a course at the local church on how to be a good catholic!  We have to go every evening this week for about an hour and listen to a married couple talk about Jesus and the 10 commandments

A forthcoming baptism

Feli and I have booked Melissa’s baptism for 24th August which also happens to be my birthday.  Anyway we’ve been having difficulty choosing Godparents for Milly.  None of my family can act as Godparents because they’re not catholic and apparently

My continuing maternity pay saga

Yes we’re now heading towards the end of July and guess what, I still haven’t had my maternity pay and apparently I’ll be lucky if I get it in September.  Yes it’s ridiculous but there’s not a thing I can do about it and I expect I’ll be back working

Everyone knows best

We often have strangers look at Melissa and say how lovely she is.  Sometimes they even have to give their opinion on something or other.  Take the other evening.  We were by the port not aware that at any moment there would be fireworks

More baby talk

Well I’m pleased to say that Milly is fine.  She had her first visit with her very nice paediatrician this morning, who happens to be my American doctor’s sister, so that makes it easier for me if I don’t understand anything in Italian.  Milly

The much awaited arrival

After a long break I’m back again.  I finally gave birth to Melissa at 4.30 pm on 20th June.  I can’t tell you what a relief it was to see her after the seemingly never-ending wait.  I had to stay in hospital until the Monday and since

A little more patience

Well I was hoping that this would be the blog when I would tell you about the birth of my little one.  But unfortunately not!  My due date is tomorrow and she’s still hanging around, not showing any signs of wanting to come out just yet which

Life according to a 10 year old

I had a chat on Sunday evening with the 10 year old niece of a friend.  Rosanna came to sit next to me on the wall down by the port and commented on my Betty Boo Baby on Board T-shirt (that I can get away with wearing here as no one pays much attention