22 December 2007

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Wishing you and your close ones a very merry Christmas.

Step back in time and take a look at this classic. Pay special attention to the haircuts.

9 December 2007

Balcony Entertainment: The Challenge

Every Saturday morning a man comes round with his Ape three wheeled van complete with speakers on top broadcasting "I cipolle vai, i cipolle vai! รจ patane pe' fa' i gnocc' vai!" I only ever understood the first bit "Go onions! Go onions!!", until OH explained that the second part of his spiel is "Potatoes for making gnocchi! Go!"

A somewhat limited range of products - potatoes and onions, but I notice he does have quite a few customers who understandably want potatoes delivered to their door instead of having to carry them themselves. Looking at the photo he seems to sell tomatoes too - he keeps quiet about these though. Perhaps they're only for his special customers who already know about them.


Anyway, yesterday, with it being the 8th, not only was the potato/onion seller doing the rounds, but also the singing Santas were out. My very first post was about these a year ago, so like the potato seller, top marks for consistency.

It turned into something of a freestyle sfida. Potato/onion seller against the musical Santas. Picture the scene (if you've seen the film "8 Mile" it will help) "I cipolle vai, i cipolle vai!" Counteracted with: "Jingle bells, jingle jingle bells" getting louder and louder.


I'm sure these things don't happen in many places.

7 December 2007

Happy Belated Blog Birthday

I've just realised that I missed my own blog birthday. I knew it was coming up, so I just checked only to see it came and went. One year and three days young. The fun/moaning/drivel kicked off on December the 4th, 2006.

Happy blog birthday to you, happy blog birthday to yoooou, happy blog birthday Delinissimaaaaa, happy blog birthday to you! (applause)

5 December 2007

What have I done?


Today I cracked open my first Panettone of the season (see above). It was a gift. This means the start of the stuffing-my-face-with-cake season. Once you pop you just can't stop - or something like that.

Then in January they go to half price just to top it all off. Aiuto!

2 December 2007

Room at the Inn

Realising that we're into December now, so not too many more shopping days left until Christmas, I headed out to make a start on the Christmas shopping yesterday. Of course, I should have known that a Saturday afternoon in December, in Naples is complete chaos and it was. It was packed! So we just did a little giro then headed back, putting off the Christmas shopping until a quieter time. Hopefully I'll be able to take a day off during the week when it's less busy. Or even better, I'll be able to do it all online, but that only really works for gifts that are going to England. Posta Italiana, dodgy porter and all that.

What we did manage to buy yesterday were the little figures to put in our new presepe. The presepe is a nativity scene which many homes in Naples have at Christmas. Some people really go to town on them with water falls inside, lights etc. For our first presepe we opted for the smallest one so yesterday when looking at the figures to put in it, we went straight for the smallest figures. However, when we got home we realised that Mary and Joseph were going to be dwarfed in the stable. We should have gone for the bigger figures. It's not finished yet, I still need to buy a star to guide the 3 kings, hmmm, but they're already in there. I also want to buy a pig and maybe a hen or something like that. We already got the donkey and cow. OH says they warmed baby Jesus with their breath. Is that true?! I might put a soppalco in there too with all that room. It's like having a doll's house all over again!