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! è 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.

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)

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!

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!

New Toy

Meet my new toy, the Ipod Touch.


I got it as a birthday present and it's FAB! Not only can it be used as a music/video player and for connecting to the internet, but if you turn it around it's a mirror too! So you can listen to your favourite music whilst on the move and check that you're presentable at the same time. No more spinach in the teeth moments. Genius.


I'm trying to find entertaining clips from You Tube so that I can load it up with stuff to watch on an upcoming trip. Any suggestions??? Key words to help my search, specific clips, etc. So far I've got a few music vids and quite a lot of Friends clips - some are about 9 mins long, so they're nice to watch.

Look at this one - It's very short.

Let's talk about shopping again.

This evening I went to Ikea in order to avoid the nightmare that is the weekend Ikea experience. Look at these photos:




No one in there! Woo hoo! Ikea without people is just great. We needed to buy light bulbs as the kitchen one has completely gone whilst the bedroom light was too dull - in OH's opinion. He likes football stadium lighting/hospital lighting, whereas I like a more subdued ambiance. We made a compromise of floodlighting in the kitchen, slightly dimmer in the bedroom and even softer lighting in the living room. It's all about compromise.

I also picked some Christmas tree baubles up. It's hard to remember what I've got in the way of Christmas decorations until I get them down but I thought I'd buy a few new bits anyway. I love the run up to Christmas. It's funny how Christmas starts at different times in different countries. In England they're fully into the swing of Christmas shopping, shops are decorated, the street lights have been turned on, etc. Whereas here we're just starting to festive up. People are just beginning to think about Christmas shopping whilst I know people boasting about having already finished it in the UK. Mum has even ordered the turkey!

More shopping woes

I went out to buy a foundation cream yesterday as my current one has nearly run out. The only place that sells it near me is a pharmacy about a ten minute walk away. This pharmacy has a corner of creams and makeups which is separate to the rest of the normal pharmacy bit. You have to queue and ask for everything you want. The two assistants behind the counter have a long drawn out discussion with every client whilst I wait. Finally it's my turn, I ask to see the darker shade of the foundation, what with me thinking that after a full summer here I might be a shade darker, but no, lady stares at my skin for what seems like an eternity then tells me I'm still very "chiara" and sensitive skinned. She still smears my hand with the darker version just to prove her point. She's right I guess. Thinking since I'm at the front of the queue and I'm not coming back anytime soon, I get everything off my chest and ask also to see a face cream in the window which caught my eye. Liking what I see I ask how much it costs "16 euro normally, but 12 with a discount card" she replies. Me: "I haven't got a discount card", assistant: "oh never mind, it's still 12euro" Right. I ask myself "so what's the point signing up for a discount card?", but realise I've just "saved" myself 4 euro (or have I?) so decide to shut up.

How I miss places where you can browse the various lotions and potions at times like these. Thinking Boots/Superdrug (UK). AFAIK the only products they have behind the counter in these stores are medicines which require a pharmacist to sell.