Author: alex

Neve’s bum has become a famous local landmark as it is barely ever covered. She can hardly be blamed for disrobing at every opportunity: it’s often hitting 40 degrees and is generally over 75% humidity. Afa they call it here. Humans hate it; mosquitoes love it. Mosquitoes also love Lola, who is getting bitten terribly. She seems particularly reactive and has had quite a few go weepy and pussy.

It’s true. Though they are getting longer: it’s getting dark by nine now. Though when it’s light, it’s very very light. (Or “wewwy, wewwy light, as Neve might have said not so long ago.) Neve has done one of those growing-up spurts while here. I remember we noted the same in Lola before–there’s a lot of context change, a lot of new data to crunch. She’s doing a great job of trying out Italian and is always repeating and using phrases she hears.

Neve’s got over her timidity around i zii now — she’s quite happy to play with Claudio and Renzo. In fact, she greets everyone with great delight and excitement. She really is an incredible little girl, so like her own caricature with the great big brown eyes and that amazing grin. She continues to love to chat and tell stories and talk about what she’s going to do with her friends. While we’ve been here in Italy she keeps saying, “when we get back to our house I’m going to go with Otis to the swimming park”.

She’s been getting really into the two Barbie dolls which are here–she gets up in the morning and the first thing she wants is her Barbies. I say “her”, but that is, of course, the root of some litigation as Lola wants to share and expends a lot of effort trying to get them away from Neve and to be “fair” about sharing them. Fairness is currently the cause of quite some parental exasperation…

She still often runs to Isa or me for a big cuddle and a spontaneous, “I love you sooo much!”. Which is as lovely as ever.

After great anticipation on Lola’s part, her and Neve’s moment as flower girls finally arrived. Saturday was a hot day, but not blistering, and with the frequent but unrequited threat of rain. Preparations went pretty smoothly. Isa was, as ever, stuck doing everyone’s hair throughout the day and we (Lola, Neve, Dedi, Nonna and I) left her doing Giada’s hair when we set off for pre-wedding refreshments at Bruna’s house.

Isa turned up in time to join in for a while before we had to head off to the church for 5pm. We should really have left five minutes earlier because Selena, not one for adopting the role of fashionably late bride, beat us there and was waiting, chomping at the bit, outside the church while we struggled to get the kids unbelted and into position.

We all had no doubt the priest was right when he later said Selena was the most punctual bride he’d ever had. We managed to get the girls in front of the bride and her father just in time and Lola did a great job of walking the rings down to the altar. Neve, who is terribly timid these days, broke ranks and walked down the side with Isa, joining again at the end.

The service was an odd mix of formal liturgy and personal musings from the priest who revealed the reactionary nature of the Church when he spoke of Alvise’s needing sometimes to recognise his wife’s tiredness and offering to wash the dishes occasionally. And of how he had to make sure he showed his wedding ring to any pretty females he encountered so that they would be put off and, presumably, save him from his own temptation. All a bit wince-worthy. By the time they got to the mass, Lola had her arms folded and was staring heavenwards with a look that might have caused any deity to waive the rest of the show. It wound up pretty quickly after that, though, and the bride and groom retired into whatever the area behing the altar is called to have some pics taken. Lola was a bit put out that she wasn’t invited up there with them but we managed to get their attention and they were very happy to pose for a couple of pics with Lola and Neve. Lola was very chuffed.

So then it was time to line up outside the church and throw rice at the bride and groom — another moment of great excitement for the kids who, not happy with the brevity of it all, spent the next 15 minutes collecting fallen rice and re-throwing it Isa and me.

After the picture-taking, we all drove off to the reception which was in a restaurant about 30 minutes drive away called “I Sette Nani” (“The Seven Dwarves” — don’t ask me why, the staff looked pretty normal to me). We started outside with prosecco and sangria and pre-antipasti food: the sliced-to-order carpaccio of swordfish was my favourite, I think. But there were all sorts of things from battered whitebait and fishy pastries to fruit skewers. Once the bride and groom arrived, and a little more milling had been done, we all retired inside for the start of the meal proper.

Nine or so courses later we were all done. Amazingly, the girls managed to keep going to the end. Lola had a bit of a crisis around course six, but got a second wind and was dancing and playing chase at midnight. We left “early” — just as the coffee was being served at around 1am. The girls were asleep before we left the car park. Dedi didn’t know the way back and her own in-car navigator didn’t know the way home, so I fired up Google’s navigator app and that took us home without problem.

Isa had a haircut booked with Susi today, so Neve and I tagged along for the chance to wander round Treviso a bit. Lola, true to form, didn’t fancy shopping, or going to the coffee shop, and opted to stay with Zia Dedi and help her in the gelateria.

Neve was fantastic company: chatty and funny and interested in everything as she generally is these days. It was a blisteringly hot day so the first thing we did was to get an ice-cream each and sit on the steps of the duomo to eat them. We sat there for a while, licking and chatting and watching the world go by — a favourite hobby of Trevigiani. Then we browsed the bookshop at the top of the road and bought notebooks for Neve and Lola to use as diaries during their stay. (I always remember the diary Mum and Dad made me write when we spent that holiday near Etel. It means a lot to have such things to look back on.)

Then we wandered off around Treviso, under the portici down to Piazza dei Signori, round the back and past Grazia’s old shop, and back up via Piaza Borsa. Or something like that; I’m not convinced my knowledge of Treviso is that accurate. We stopped for a coffee in that old bar with the lovely stained glass skylight. Well, I had a coffee and Neve had some water. She sat with me at the bar on a high stool and the ladies running the bar were delighted with her. As were many other people around Treviso who commented on how pretty she was in her Chinese dress.

After our tour, and after we’d popped into a supermarket to buy a bottle of plonk, we went back to Susi’s salon and waited for Isa to be finished. Time was running late by the time she was, and Susi kindly offered to drop us back at Dedi’s. Which meant we had to pop to Susi’s place first to pick up Sole and Duccio. By chance, Marino was there, too, so a spot af chat ensued before we all (except Marino) piled into the car and went to the gelateria where Lola was delighted by the surprise visit.

For the first time, we are visiting Italy in July, despite dire warnings not to due to the suffocating heat and humidity. Not that we had any choice — that’s where Selena plonked her wedding. She’s obviously a sadist. Still, I’m a bit of a fan of suffocating heat and humidity, particularly after being exposed to the persistently wet and chilly weather we’ve had in England for the last few months.

What I’m not so keen on is the possibility of further shocks following the 5.8 magnitude earthquake the hit Bologna in May. Residents here were recently treated to a “what to do in the event of an earthquake” meeting courtesy of their local council. Very reassuring. According to Nonna, “they” expect a larger quake to round off the series.

It’s only 32 degrees here today and there’s a fresh little breeze. We arrived yesterday morning and did the traditional stepping off the plane into a wall of heat thing. We spent a sticky day around the house getting reaquainted with all the family; and the girls re-found their bikes and toys.

We took the girls down to London to see the English National Ballet’s special children’s production of Sleeping Beauty. I took the day off work and we went down on the train, which made it a proper adventure. We had an easy trip down getting a block of seats with table and snacking and chatting the way down. Lola was very excited about getting the tube, which we did down to Holburn, Lola picking up a lovely compliment on her attire from a fellow passenger (she had a dress on and her Railway Children coat over).

We got to Holburn early enough to grab some lunch; we went to an Eat, I think. Hard to distiguish among the rash of franchises that line the main road. Had some hearty chilli thing which was ok but I should have saved the money as I finished off both kids’ toasties. Then we strolled over the road to the Peacock Theatre where Natalie and Louis were waiting for us. We had no trouble finding the place: we just had to follow the flow of tiny girls with furry pink wands back upstream — they were obviously exiting the previous performance. I have to say, the merchandising, and particularly those nasty plastic wands (and *why* were they furry?), seemed a grabbing, cynical ploy that marred an otherwise excellent show.

Anyway, the performance itself was really good: great narration by the nurse character, great costumes and dancing. Good length, too. Maybe an hour and a half including interval.

After the show we we all walked together up to St Giles Circus (being en route to John Lewis, where Isa and wanted to pop in) for a spot of dinner. A very enjoyable walk up Longacre with the kids playing chase games with their new . . . pink . . . wands. We stopped at a Croc shop and got a pair for Neve. And then at another place where we got something similar for Lola.

Then we got St Giles and the huge new building that Dodge is managing, part of which is a big Zizi’s where we installed ouselves and ate pizza and pasta and antipasti and stuff. Amazingly, after all that we still had the stamina to head off to John Lewis. Luckily, we saw a bus as soon as we hit Oxford St an jumped on that, which was great fun for th kids and speeded things up. It turned out John Lewis didn’t have what we looking for but we didn,t mind to much. Got a tube back to kx and onto a train home. Must have been gone ten by the time we got back but Lola and Neve were still in good spirits.

Of brain, that is. Should get to bed earlier.

This weekend was Neve’s third birthday party. Arlo came, with Nat and Loius; then Seth, Chriselia, Otis, Dave. A nice relaxed event with minimal gaming (musical statues being about it) and much playing in the garden and trampoline. It was a lovely day. The first since that week in March, and we spent the whole party outside.

Neve continues to be utterly adorable. I’m sorry that I’ve not being blogging about her more. She is bright and funny with a love of wordplay and of putting on funny voices. Currently, she and Lola spend a lot of time being Hex Girls (rock chicks from a Scooby Doo film). “I’m a Hex Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrlll,” sings Neve, with a wonderful wandering melody in that long “girl”. Then she points and her eyes take on the steely/scary character of her subject. “And I’m going to put a spell on you!”

Neve has a hard time with pooing and sometimes goes days between. Sometimes she has to push and she goes red and makes straining noises. More amusingly, when things are not hard, she makes a parody of straining noises and you can hear her from anywhere in the house going, “EEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeee!”
Neve is reliably good humoured and very loving. She is forever coming up for a cuddle. For a month or two, one of her catchphrases when talking to me or Isa was, “I love you toooooooo much!”  Which is quite disarming.

Disarming is one of her core skills. If reprimanded she will quickly say sorry and follow up with a cheeky smile, or a quick comment to produce a laugh. If that’s not enough, a flurry of kisses and cuddles will follow.