Ok so Xmas!

Gina was here for Xmas ...

by the arrival at the airport she knew anybody that was on the flight, she had 4 phone numbers, somebody holding her coat, somebody watching her luggage.. And.... she smuggled 35 kg of sicilian delicatessen

38 meatythings skewers

25 sicilian sausages

1    kg of mince meat

2   falsi magro ( rolled up meat with egg ham and mince)

3   massive piece of meat for broth ( in case Filippo doesn't mould the tortellini!!)

10 salami

5  kgs of parmesan

chilli jam ( very nice) 

5 jars of pistacchio powder and pesto ( the new frenzy! she has one every year- this year, pistacchio pesto, pistacchio powder to bake potatoes  etc etc etc 

anyway she was in top form

Obviously Mamma Mia ( the musical) was shit and the movie was better, at least the wonderful Streep was dancing ( despite, surely wasn't her!) 

ice skating... no... she could have broke a leg... 

and the usual... more kids presents to buy more attempt to buy carpet, to buy piece of furniture for the kitchen and blablabla

Xmas was spent with the Obers, wine was flowing, cigars were lit and food was no stop. 

Mike was nicknamed the kitty fairy, Gina wore wings and various other outfits 

but Xmas will be remembered for the horrible necklace she brought over for me

the black Santa I received as a gift, the fake snow machine inside the church at the Xmas mass ( attended for her joy by everybody) 

but least and not last the super present... from the usual friend... it's impressive... she loved it so much, she bought it in Milan, brought it to Sicily, gave it to Gina, which took it to London

and here it is.... The useful.... tool for the ultimate traveller ( apparently) 

it even says eXtra Large on the side

and you all know how tall Molly is!

Merry Xmas happy new year welcome Obama etc etc

Elo, apologies for lack of posting, but life as well as financial times can be hard on you.
I still got a job, which is impressive considering the decimation which happened in the last few days and months... and I don't even want to get into how hypocritical, false and absurd it all is... apart from obviously unfair.
I think I can summarise it with the following event. Our ex-Ceo, fired yesterday after 3 months on the job ( heavenly paid 40m$).. Fine, he "saved" us from collapse.. but he also spent 1.2m $ to refurbish his office, 80k only on a persian carpet.... and people paid less than that for a year, got fired today, young smart people, the cheapest, the future, while the idiots useless old farts are all there.
End of work- start of the weekend.
I thought I'll join the rest of the world in blogging about Obama. This is my tribute:



M is here I gonna hop.. promise I'll continue soon
I'll just leave you with a snippet of what's to come

Gina ......fly.......ing

Gina home alone

Errrrrrrrrrr.

11.10 : Hello... Anna... lights blew up. There is no light in 1/4 of the house.. including the fridge.. the braciolettine will defrost, what will I do with the meat?

11.12 Mum... I have been living in the house for nearly 3 years and that has never happened to me. Also... just 1/4 of the house? How is that possible? 

Let's rewind.. Where did you clean? What did you open? 

11.15 Nothing nothing nothing

well to make a story short, she manages to short circuit a part of the house while attempting to charge her mobile phone. How that's possible... not sure really!

Thanks to John ( the caretaker of the building, which loves me due to my slitty eyes connection and because when he used to have the keys of my flat used to perve on M's seminaked pictures from the photoshoot )

Anyhow.. Gina made him coffee, he switched the light back on. Bless him

15:00  ring ring  .... I found the brush ( that's to clean the carpet) how do you say flour in english? 

19:00 back home- 

there are objects on the shelves as they looked empty and M's scarf is properly ironed and packaged in a little plastic sleeve - because you know, Gina lives in that world in which in the morning, before wearing a scarf you remove it from the plastic unfold it and wear it, at night time you fold it and replace it in the bag

Come come... look what I bought? beautiful, useful... ( it's a brush to clean the floor on the balcony) I wonder how I lived without one till now

Gina bought Heinz tomato soup instead of chopped tomatoes, flour  ( which I already had) 

the nevermissable crisps ( the crunchy ones... ) 

I really don't know if my mum is like I'll be as an old woman, or as the creature I will put in the world. I think after this experience, I really learnt that no I haven't got the patience for it. 

Clearly.. as she hasn't talked all day... we have already touched the world domination the 100 rules of cleaning and the principles of cooking. 

She also said she hasn't stopped for one sec. Do you know what? I believe her. 

- I don't find these drawers suitable to keep cooking pans

- you should have allowed me to send you the sitting steps ( i.e. a small ladder which can be used as a seat) so she could reach the top shelves

- How do you clean the gas bits?? 

If I had a calculator to know how many carbon emissions she generated by using cleaning products I think will be more than a flight to NY. 

Tomorrow I'll hang a stepcount to her belt... let's see how many steps can she go through in a day in the house. I buy 10k 

Saturday: Wycombe - the caves and the trekking tour

Thanks to Diana for  the patience, the choice of trek and for spending a day with Gina and me. 

I must say it was wonderful. As you could see from previous post.. not enough to tire Gina but it was wonderful to see her happy and not complaining. She even said : You could not have chosen a better day! Bliss... what happened to that bliss only god knows.. 

As the original plan of walking 16km was "too easy" for her, she started the walk with a jog!

Sorry forgot the photographic evidence of today

When I say... it's like having a kid.. I'm not kidding

I also forgot ( not sure how... to recount the amazing day we had yesterday in the countryside...) but photos of that and full story to follow- yes.. yesterday was a wonderful day with Gina and Diana, but today everything got wiped out. I'm now certain that Gina suffers from ADD and that must be hereditary ( not sure that's an english word)  

It was the the first Soho pride in history with the sunshine and I missed it

I have been trying all day to say to myself, there are many Soho prides there is only one Gina. 

Still it was the only Soho pride with the sunshine since I seem to remember. 

Spending time with Gina is how I picture having my own kid, with the difference that a kid 

a) might find some other interest than nagging me

b) you can shout at the kid and tell him to shut up

c) kids sleep a couple of hours a day or stay quiet in front of the telly or a videogame

8 am : Gina could no longer stay in bed, hence she decided to get up and start going around the house, making noises and doing things

8:30 : I could no longer stay in bed, too much trotting around

9:00 : Mum please, it's morning, could you kindly stop asking questions till at least I have a coffee.. it really takes 10 minutes for me to have a coffee, can I read my emails and have a coffee and then we can talk

9:00:01 Ok then I tidy up the  drawers then.

9:00:02 Can I throw this away? 

MUMmmmmmmmmm

9:00:05  Can you check if this is expired?

9:00:07  Where shall I put this ? 

well in the flipping same drawer you took it from

9:00:10 Do you need this? 

9:00:20 Do you need all these stick things ( chopsticks!), you already have so many

9:00:30 blablablabla... 

i started smoking fags

9:01  you are not washing your hair again are you? It's going to fall off if you keep washing it

9:03 Can we go running?

 

Mum I really need to read some stuff, could you please, please be silent for 10 minutes

9:05 What is this for? 

9:06 and this? 

then she started hoovering.. and guess what.. the subject fell again on the infamous flipping carpet, the ugly horrible heavy extremely expensive white shit that she decided to deliver to my office on my birthday last year ( after months of discussions on the fact that I wanted a dark carpet) .. anyhow.. carpet now needs washing and she wants to attempt the flipping task with a toothbrush.. 

Can you not do something more useful? No... 

anyhow... 

I wasn't allowed to read, I ended up tidying the drawers and loading the washing machine

at 11.30 we eventually went out... destination : running trainers shop

Together with trainers, she must have tried 20 tops, for which I had to provide smaller bigger, smaller, let's try this again size. 2 hours later she's the owner of a new pair of running shoes ( still not convinced of why she can't use them to the gym too or why they can't be waterproof or why they don't make them black) 

It was painful, really painful beyond painful... including translating every single writing on every single t-shirt in the David and Goliah shop, trying every single tea in the tea shop and so on and so forth, like finding fridge magnets red phone shaped, finding a  present for a kid, find a pair of trekking trousers like mine, despite she doesn't ever go trekking.

Arguments of the day were 

once again the carpet, as tomorrow, while I'm at work, she'll attempt to lift it ( it weights 30 kgs) find a shop that washes it ( she doesn't speak a word of english and she gets lost) 

and... TATTOOs  the addition to the insults today was that clever people don't have tattoos... I really truly honestly don't understand how certain ideas radicate in her mind.

Anyway tattoos are for stupid and the only thing is acceptable is a small little flower on your  hand ( now that's a fucking idiot ).

After I managed to stir away from the "capricci della natura" akas gay people all day, on our way back we bumped into a group of trannies.

Gina : Where are they going dressed like that? 

me: today is soho pride

Gina : what's soho pride? 

me : it's a street party where people dress up, there is music all day and when gay people are proud to be gay

Gina: Does A ever dress like that? 

me : no mum he doesn't. 

Gina: can we buy a brush to clean the carpet?

I'm now home, I missed pride, I missed the sunshine, didn't buy any of the things I needed to, didn't read anything I was supposed to, I feel exhausted more than when i don't sleep for the entire weekend, I almost want to cry and to make it worse, the weekend is gone, tomorrow is work shit again.

Still can't switch on the telly because she doesn't understand it ( how on earth can you translate word by word the X factor???? ) and still I have to decide what to eat... I want a beer and a pizza but can't say that either.

I feel hopeless. I never ever have headache, today I have, I honestly feel drained. 

If I ever decide to have a kid, please friends, make sure I'm never allowed  to make him feel the same.

Gina

I just noticed how appropriate the picture is!

Well I wanted to post about the olympics, but can't really find pictures or I can't lie saying I watched them, however I'm very proud of the water polo  girls... ( more so because I used to play with one of them) and on this I could go on a tangent and start thinking what if I was there... But I must say I always wish I was somewhere else or doing something else, but I wouldn't switch my frustrating banking job for water polo olympics. Don't know why, but that's the way my brain works.. 

Let's switch onto the Gina subject. 

Gina landed Thursday, went to pick her up at the airport, despite with fever, she was there smiling and happy to see her little baby ( me ) with a sporty handbag, trainers and a 29 kg suitcase containing:

7 salami 

4 kg of parmesan

30 skewers of braciolettine messinesi

1 whole calf fillet

6 sausages 

and more...

and before you ask.. no no rabbit this time. 

The way I define my mum : she says I'm lazy and for those that know me, that makes them imagine a tasmanian devil little person which never stay stills.. 

Let's start from this morning. 

I took the day off, to spend time with her and it was Ferragosto in Italy, so work would have been dull anyway and as none of my clients were there, no damage could have been done by my colleagues. 

By 8.30, time at which I opened my eyes, Gina had already made the coffee, washed the floor, cleaned the windows...

9.00  G: did you have a shower? I thought we were going running! Me: errrrrr no!

9.45 the Zatorski guys arrive, including their little baby ... to deliver the 2m x 1m  lamb...

Despite the wife tells Gina that she speaks Italian and despite I tell her that they are the artists of the lamb. She said and repeated a couple of times " What's that? a dead animal? what do you have to do with a dead animal. that's not a painting... that's a picture of a dead animal. But is it really dead?? " the only thing Z+Z could reply was: "errrr.. there is also a bird in it.. and it's alive"

Anyhow... we couldn't hang the picture because as we discovered it weights 23 Kg and english walls, even my picture railings are not made to hold such a weight, hence the hanging is to be rescheduled. 

11.30 Gina and I leave the house : direction Borough market, where Gina tasted every possible thing and asked me about every individual food... as queuing doesn't exist in her vocabulary we couldn't eat in any of the places there, because people are just crazy that they queue to eat, so we bought some fresh mozzarella, some parma ham, begged the bread guy to cut a ciabatta for us and made a panino... this without .."ask the guys where he gets his mozzarella from, there is diossina in Italy".

however despite she didn't want to queue, she wanted to know what all these people were queuing for, so at every stall, we run to the front, she put her head almost in the pan and then left...the same for every shop... particular attention went to the fishmonger.. where she run to the front of the queue, asked me for every single name of every single fish to then scream : This fish looks very dead to me.. like more than a couple of days.. 

What's that?

ostrich 

blaaaaaaaww che schifo

( have you seen how many guys died in Italy with drugs.. you know london is at the first place do they take  pills or they sniff! - Ludovica said she never smoked a joint ) 

Sorry that's what she's saying while I sit here typing. 

Borough market bored her, so we walked a bit, then it was sunny so i decided to sit in the sun, where it was wonderful ( being  off work, relaxed on a sunny day it was wonderful and I was happy to be with Gina too ) .. she basically took the piss out of every single individual passing in front of us- the executive summary was that Italians have more piercing than Anglosaxons.. 

You know they showed this woman in italy with 3000 piercings and another one with nails long till her feet

Left the bench, after I manage to swig a beer and we went to the Tate,  from there onto the Millennium Bridge, St Paul's, the outdoor shop where she wanted to buy those amazingly comfortable chairs, then Bond street, Oxford street  ( at night time window glasses look very clean... how do you clean on top of the wardrobe? ) 

While I was queuing for my new Iphone.. yes couldn't resist to get the 3g 16g .. Gina, obviously not made to wait, went in and out of the shop searching every single shop around... she even managed to go to Body Shop ( her favourite place and convinced the woman behind the till to hold her stuff till my arrival).

then selfridges... because Gina likes 3 things in life... dried fruit ( of which we bought a massive selection of in borough market) Louis Vitton bags ( for which is absurd she has to queue) and body creams ( I think we stayed about 40 minute at la praire place, and she even managed to get samples out of the woman) 

9.20 cab home

10.30 dinner

Dinner discussion:

Would you sleep with a man if you knew he went with a gay guy? Those guys are just ill.. like the ones that sleep with kids

you know f and a don't look gay when they walk, does f not have a boyfriend? why not? does it not sleep with anybody?  does it not tell you guys?? 

Mum ... maybe the married men that go with gay men, have always been gay but maybe they were constrained by parents like you not to show it and marry a woman.. 

No.. they are ill

Ok mum

Can you pass me the parmesan

Gina is now walking naked around the flat, to go and weight herself... 23.14  she might be tired and maybe go to bed. ( i'm sure she'll call over in a sec to ask something) 

Shhhhhhhhhhh Gina is asleep...Ops.. no! It's cream time... 

Cockoo- Gina babau

I assume these pictures require an explanation.
so... flew to Rome to go to wedding, after fight with taxi driver to take me from the airport to the hotel I joined Gina, which was happy wining and dining.
It's understandable that sharing a hotel room with one's mother can be problematic... make the one's mother Gina then it all becomes a bit more complicated.
Being woken up at 8 am on a Saturday, for no other reason apart from:
Sorry couldn't sleep, can we go for a run? there is a nice park around here.
Mum it's 8 am... Saturday... let me sleep.
I gave up about 10 min later, lift the cover, slip out of bed, put feet on the carpet...
screaming started... Are you not wearing sleepers? Come on.. you putting your feet where everybody else's walks.. oh... don't don't it's bad, there are germs...
God... this was going to be a long day, made longer by the fact that Gina thinking was 11.30 decided we should go to the hairdresser.
We had to run back as we needed to be ready by 3. and the 11.30 were 1.30 and she needed to put the 25 creams + make up before going to the wedding.
The wedding must have been one of the most boring experience ever and considering that one of the witness managed to totally colour match and material match both the gold coloured cloth on the altar and the tableclothes of the ceremony, it could have been worse..
Despite the crowd was a very young one compared to Italian standards, it all ended at 12.oo
Oh well... Gina woke me up the morning after, this time after the running as she couldn't work out the door key!
she brought me a coffee...
One of the famous quote was:
Let's buy a ring, as I understood that you won't either get married or give me a grandchild, might as well buy you a ring...
It makes perfect sense doesn't it...
As Gina doesn't like to queue Colosseum was soon removed from the list, well after she stood there looking at the american families taking pictys with the fake Gladiators..
When she said I could stay here for hours.. Let's go now.. But look, is she holding a slice of pizza? hahahah look at the guy is pretending to kill the Gladiator..
Anyway after stop to buy some crisps- her lunch... Because she likes crunchy things and after feeding my sandwich to the pigeons until at the 100th pigeon landing around me I started screaming.. What Gina could say in her defence: look look how they come, they must be calling eachother.
Then it was times to meet my friends:
1st victim - Cri & Max
Max:
nice to meet you
Gina:
Oh! you two will have wonderful kids.. look at your eyes..
Then she obliged them to go through every shop as she was looking for a LV bag ( not even to mention--the only sold out) and a pair of shoes ( which like usual she found but not in her size- 34 that is... (about size 2.5 in UK- included in the kids' tax waiver bracket)
We visited the Parliament as it was open door & we trotted around town for a bit..
2nd victim: Pod & oats
it didn't help that pod mentioned the hysteric pregnancy of maude. It's better to have a kid, dogs require the same amount of attention... ( if only she knew)
Encounter with Oats it's documented here
Is she normal? another famous quote
But the big question I think you have is

What was Gina doing in the wardrobe?

See.. she's quite short, so she can't reach the top of the wardrobe and "those stupid things to put the hanger on- why don't they have normal hangers? " so people don't steal them wasn't a good explanation so she stepped into the wardrobe to have a closer look.
She also wanted me to take a picture of it, because it was a very clever piece of furniture and I should have one built like that....

Fontana dei Trevi was obviously too crowded and all those cobble stones and beautiful buildings amazed her but also made her angry so much to shout in the middle of the street : SEE... humanity has always been cruel, wonder how many slaves died to build them and put those little stones one next to the other. let's go shopping.

One other thing that fascinates Gina is how people understand which way to go in the tube... she also pretends that the people that ride the tube with her ( i.e. me) know exactly which side the door is going to open so she can prepare herself for the exit.

Took Gina to Gigietto as she wanted artichokes and then to pamper her I booked a face massage the only thing she could say was. Na cagata, I bet I still have make up on.

Then she managed to get a chair and sit in front of the sauna door and started staring at me from the outside, I was trying to relax... Then... don't complain I'm difficult!!!

We also went to see la basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli, where the meridian was built.

Pope Clement XI ordered Francesco Bianchini to build a Meridian Line. He chose the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli because of the stability of its roman walls and foundations and its suitable dimension.

Pope Clement XI inaugurated the Great Sundial on October 6, 1702 , the annual Feast of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order, whose statue is in the entrance of the Church.

Locations are expressed in Centesimae Partes of the pinhole's height, and are indicated on the line from 33 to 220. Each of those numbers are related to the zenithal distance z of the Sun at the meridian by the formula CP=100·tan(z). z is also written in degrees on the west side of the Line: 78=100·tan(38°). Stability of the site over centuries is a requirement for high precision astrometry such as the inclination of the Earth axis over its orbit plan. The exact durations of a lunar month and a tropical year were other scientific tasks of this Meridian Line, motivated also by civil and religious exigencies. The parameters introduced by the Gregorian reformation (1582) of the Calendar have been tested with this instrument in the first years of work. Daily solar transits gave the exact time for Angelus prayer at noon ; the instant of vernal equinox, to which Easter is linked was also computable with this Line. Using the Northern Gnomon, Bianchini determined the apparent elevation of the Celestial Pole within 1” different from the true latitude, but they were discovered only three decades later.

Pina & the tow truck

Well... airport arrivals to Catania were a bit weird this time round.. How couldn't they be when G&P are involved...
Bea, Pina's daughter trotted along to Catania and the car was waiting outside for her...
The car being



a tow truck....
As Pina accidentally forgot to replace the oil, the engine blew up on the way to the airport, so she decided to grab a lift to the airport.. from towcar man.
I assume after so many years we got used to our mums ( not!)

After the car incident Pina was on foot, so she decided to borrow her father's 23 years old jewel to reunite to Gina in Milazzo. The 40 minutes journey took 8 hours but G&P were reunited again and to celebrate, sword fish braciolette and 4 fish were cooked for the event.

Will Gina get married by the end of the year?

Gina: hello... ah I forgot to tell you I'm getting married
me: errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr who with? how? when? Pina?? ( thinking oh... great eventually somebody to relieve her pressure on me).
Gina:somebody I met, you don't know him
me: who? when?
Gina: by the end of the year
me: come on tell me more, I book holidays... oh that's so wonderful
Gina: well it's not true, but at the last wedding I went, the bride threw the bouquet and I caught it... and as the old say goes when that happens you get married by the end of the year. Oh I felt so sorry for all those tall beautiful girls waiting to get it and little me secured the price...

We shall see folks... if that happens you are all invited

Did you know that golf is a sport for patient people?

Ehm yes.. still embarked in the experiment.
Trotted along the golf course ( well driving range to start with) and who do I meet?
My old friend Vikram, which said: Hi... you know right that golf is a sport for patient people, therefore not you?
Oh well.. yes I know..



I had good teachers and it was fun, especially the drinking aftewards.
Vikram however reminded me of another Gina & Pina's story.


For Xmas I invited Vikram over for dinner, so he could taste the delicious cooking of Pina and so that Gina could be amused by the man with the turban.. I warned Vikram.. darling be prepared because Gina is outrageous, she's beyond nonpc, in her world, the concept is unknown.. He said: don't worry, have been to Sicily many times and I'm used to the stupor in their faces.
Mum please behave. Gina: What's wrong with asking question? ( eh che ci fa? quanto sei esagerata? What's the matter with that, don't exaggerate!)
So..
Vikram is Sikh, hence he wears a turban, hence for religious belief has never cut his hair.
Gina: Is that attached to your head ?
Me: No mum, he wraps it up every morning, it's about 2 meters of material
Gina: Glad I don't have to wear that, otherwise I will be always late
Gina: Does he sleep with it?
Me: No mum he takes it off
Gina: Does he really have long hair
Me: Yes mum, he has never cut them
Gina: Oh they must arrive to the floor
Me: Yes they do
Gina: And how does he have sex?
Pina: Gina.. you are obsessed with sex
Gina: No I want to know.. I mean, imagine to sleep with somebody with long hair, they must be really fine. Does he really have sex?
Me: Yes mum he has sex, like anybody else.
Gina: But how.. Really he never cut his hair?
Pina: Gina that is his religion,
Gina: See... really the world is strange. I wonder if there is only one God.

The morning after..
Oh what a beautiful nice boy, so nice, his skin so nice, so sleek, very well dressed..
See.. but I just couldn't sleep last night. I was thinking how does he have sex? Imagine the women that have to sleep with him and his hair..
To date, she still asks me...

Seatbelts

Obviously everybody needs to wear one. In the Italian legislation, likely the European one, there a couple of exceptions. Police, fire brigades, passengers and users of emergency vehicles, cars, taxi drivers and people which have peculiar pathologies. And guess what? Gina & Pina have got an exemption.
Gina declaring that she's too small hence the belt cuts her throat and
Pina saying that cars are too small and the belt limits her movements.
Then I leave to your imagination, what happens when the police stops them to fine them for not wearing a belt.
They do a little act, they show the documents, duly signed and regular and there you go, they hit the road again for the next bunch of flowers or for next restaurant to try. The latest had a chocolate theme. Chickpeas soup and chocolate???

L'esenzione, inoltre, riguarda: gli appartenenti alle Forze di Polizia e ai corpi di Polizia Municipale e Provinciale nell'espletamento di un servizio d'emergenza, nonché le Forze Armatenell'espletamento di attività istituzionali in situazioni di emergenza; i conducenti e gli addetti dei veicoli del servizio antincendio e sanitario in caso di intervento di emergenza; le persone che risultino affette da patologie particolari; le donne in stato di gravidanza ed i passeggeri degli autobus in cui è previsto il trasporto anche di passeggeri in piedi, quando tali veicoli sono adibiti al trasporto locale.

Strega

While on one of those insane exchange of messages while a work, subject fell on sicilian food and obviously various liqueurs. Maraschino was mentioned, which is nice with Pinapple. That reminded me of:

Gina comes from Pietralcina, where Santo Pio was born.
Pietralcina, near Benevento ( which has nothing to do with Sicily or Puglia)
Benevento, used to be called Maleventum, i.e. bad winds, bad luck.

According to an old legend, Benevento is the place where witches from all over the world meet.
Here since 1860, the family Alberti has guarded a secret, an old recipe, passed on from father to son.
And it is here in Benevento that is produced the most ancient and best- known liqueur in the world. A liqueur whose unique colour and incomparable flavour have gave it the principle role for each encounter ever since.
BEWITCHED BY STREGA

As an old ad used to go

Il primo sorso affascina,
Il secondo strega
The first sip charmes you,
The second one betwitches you.

And then there was Easter

Oh yes..
Sicily = Saturday to Saturday.
I won't bore you with the numerous phone calls, dinners, lunches and visits to friends. The biggest issue is that everybody wants their personal space with me. My plan of booking a table for 20 and answer the marriage and kid questions all at once wasn't accepted as a polite thing to do.

Gina was more hyperactive than usual, then I wonder why I never sleep.
Hence she wakes up at 5 and goes for a run, all the police cars, the rubbish bin collectors and grocery shops of the area know her, most of all, as the nutter that runs in the early hours of the morning, some of them as the little lady that jumps the queue because she's always in a hurry.
Well yes, you need to know that if Gina enters a shop and she doesn't get immediate attention, she will just leave. If patience has never been my virtue, then Gina's never made an appearance in the course of her life, well or since I know her.

I went running with her, one afternoon, in the middle of the woods with wild rabbits crossing the paths and angry dogs following us. Street dogs have always concerned me and it amazes me that Sicily must be the only region in the civilised world, to still have such a huge number trotting around.
She runs with a stone in her hand, just in case they attack..
In one of these episodes Gina took Pina for a run in the woods.
While Gina was comfortably dressed, Pina was just over from a meeting hence with tight skirt, jacket and summery high heeled shoes.
Ater about one hour, they were tired so they decided to take a shortcut. There was a very steep hill, Pina rolled her skirt up but still wasn't enough and her shoes were slipping, hence Gina said I push you. And there you go, Pina with hands on the wall and Gina pushing her ass up.
I have been searching the web to find a cartoon or a picty to depict it, but I didn't succeed.. Hope you can visualise that. In case refer to prefer Gina & Pina's episodes.

I forgot to tell you, Gina loves flowers and fruit. Especially stealing them.
I stopped her from stopping the car in the emergency lane on the motorway, to climb up the wall and "collect" some flowers. But nothing I could to avoid her climbing in somebody' s garden to get a huge bunch of flowers with which she just kept walking on the street.
The dog almost attacked me ( on the street, still waiting for Gina) and her ( head to toes in the garden pulling away- with the owners just inside the overlooking house)
I asked.. Mum, what if they came out ? what would you have said?
Gina: Well... that as I saw many flowers in the garden and I assumed they didn't like to collect them, and you can't just leave those beautiful flowers there. Can you?
I'm glad they didn't ask.
These flowers are so beautiful that when you get married I'll fill the church of them. errr...



I also saw pollo & polla ... as they were going to an outrageous wedding ( with tons of roses and a photo service comparable to a film set).
Ah yes and I also bought a pair of roller blades, so if you want to join me for a stroll, feel welcome.
And Pina rescued me from the diet with swordfish kebabs ( braciolettine di pescespada) with bay leaves bbqued on the spot.

Remember Federica?
These are her latest creations.

Still day 3

Oh well.. and as Pina put it, we watched the movie of the holy festivity.
While other families might have watched Jesus Christ Superstar, or the miracle of Lourdes, well, my Xmas family watched Salo' ( the 120 days of Sodoma).. and guess what, wasn't even mine the choice.