Archives for: January 2009
PAOLA FORNARI C.V.
Writer, EFL teacher, trainer, and translator, I was born in Tanzania, have lived in a dozen countries over three continents, and describe myself as an ‘expatriate sin patria’. Wherever I go I make it my business to learn the language, get to know the local people and customs, and discover the country’s remotest corners. I became interested in writing in mid-2006, did a short Open University creative writing course and a Writers’ Bureau course, and began getting articles published in 2007.
Poetry Competition
Poetry Competition begins February 1, 2009
This looks like fun:
THE STIRRED POeT competition will run for six rounds, beginning February 1. There is a $50 CDN (£30 or $50 US) prize for the poet who receives the most votes over six weeks. In the case of a tie, winners will split the prize money.
Moby Click Reincarnated, or Willabelle, locks, phones, and fashion
My new bike, Willabelle, is actively participating in my cholesterol reduction regime. I've decided that she, rather than the car, should accompany me for small errands. Our first outing was two days ago, and it was too embarrassing to relate. Oh well, if you insist...
Chausiku's Cholesterol Challenge (2)
So far so good. This is a cholesterol-reducing rather than a weight-reducing challenge, however, I'd better mention that my starting weight (two days ago) was 59.5 kilos, two and a half over that ideal jockey weight...
Vegetable cous cous
Chausiku's Cholesterol Challenge
The reading for the bad stuff was 274. It was meant to be 190. I was so horrified I didn’t even take in the other numbers. So last night I started a low cholesterol diet which will last a month, after which we’ll measure again, and if the level is down, great, if not, pills. I thought I’d share my diet with you (perhaps not daily!) as an extra motivator. So here goes.
Dinner: Chilli sin Carne (vegetarian chili): see http://www.writelink.co.uk/blogs/chausiku/2007/07/14/p543#more543 for the recipe – it’s quite delicious – served with plain rice. A glass of wine. Dessert: two clementines and an orange.
Getting Old Gracelessly (or Disgracefully?)
When did I start feeling old? Perhaps it was when a twelve-year-old boy who had a crush on me gave me two Enid Blyton books for my eleventh birthday. But that was a smug ‘Enid-Blyton-at-eleven-duh-what-do-you-take-me-for’ sort of feeling. I bristled, but thanked him politely, looked down my nose at him, and it was over between us. For ever.
Robin in Spa
Willabelle
I set off this morning for a meeting, after which I got a bit carried away at the sales (who can resist -70% in an excellent shop?), and then on impulse decided to go and see if my bike was ready to be collected (I’d been told they’d call me after 15 January – these are very good bikes that the shops rents out for a year then sells off relatively cheaply). Indeed, the bike was there and ready, but there I was in my posh meeting clothes with no helmet…and it was pelting with rain.
Arrival in Abbateggio: Teta's Letter Home
Some of you have been following my family history: my father has uncovered some amazing documents which I would like to share with you. You may remember he arrived in Abbateggio in 1947 with his younger sister Teta (see http://www.writelink.co.uk/blogs/chausiku/2008/11/25/p5711#more5711 ). I have translated the only remaining letter from her to the family back in Rome, written on their second day there. I find the tone delightful, and the details fascinating. Here it is:
Abbateggio, October 31, 1947
Dear family,
We’re coming to the end of our second day in this famous district. All well. There has been so much work, and so many people coming to meet ‘’u ‘gnor dottò’ [Mr Doctor Sir], that we haven’t had a moment to look around. Poor Ugo! He must have examined and treated twenty people, between those in the village and those outside. Now he’s removing an upper molar of a man who’s sitting in the middle of the empty room;
A Family History (8): Musoma
So the young family returned to Italy on leave. Imagine the changes in the three years since the young couple had left Abruzzo. The island had a new hospital, which functioned well. Ugo had encountered diseases he had never met in his previous posting. Through his experience, being the sole doctor for a population of 100,000, he had become a specialist in every field: gynaecology, surgery, tropical diseases. The whole family had been exposed to Swahili and English. Maria had undergone major surgery. And, almost miraculously, considering the cysts which had invaded her ovaries, she had a new baby.
Strangely, no-one remembers much about that first six-month family holiday,
Yahoo Widgets
Do any of you have the five-day weather forecast for your home town from Yahoo Widgets on your desktop?
Brussels Buddies
Six weeks ago I crossed Brussels to collect my new car from the garage. I had bought it two months earlier, but red tape here is long and tangly, and it took a while for the right authority to send me the required number-plate. It was a stressful journey: I got off the train at the wrong stop, took forever to find a connecting bus, and when an hour and a half after leaving home I reached my destination, I realized I’d left the number-plate in my hallway. I was debating whether to start a new three-hour round trip or take an expensive taxi when the sales lady, seeing my sorry state, took pity on me.
‘We’ll make you a temporary false one,’ she said. ‘Just change it once you get home.’
Great, but where was home?