Category: journal

491 Miles

[just discovered this unfinished, unposted entry intended for July…]

Sacre bleu, eet is now many weeks since we returned from the Isle of Wight
and, subsequently, Somerset and I ‘ave still yet to write anything about
it. Plus ça change…

Well, it was the 4th of July that I picked up the brand new Ford Fiesta
that would bear us on our tiny adventure — independence day, indeed. We
weren’t to leave until the next day but I wanted a little time to get
acclimatised to driving again after three years abstinence.

We left Crouch End around 7am on Thursday and were in Bonchurch by
lunchtime. Lola enjoyed the trip, having special fun on the ferry. We
were accompanied part of the way accross the Solent by a flight of
common tern. I saw the birds and was looking them up in my book when a
fellow passenger came accross to ask what they were. He mistook me for
an expert.

A quick and easy drive across the island had us at the chalet in time
for lunch, though lunch had to wait while we went through the checklist
and turned on the electricity, water, immersion heater, and generally
got the place ready for habitation. Lola had lots of fun playing on
the mattress and generally helping sort out the bedrooms.

That done, we decided to head off to Ventnor to grab some lunch (for us:
I guess we fed Lola before we went)

lovely setting/chalet; great for Lola to wander around

Thurs: rain and wind and waves; pub in ventnor;
Fri: yachts; steephill; secret place; windy; drive out to car park
Sat: local lazing; ventnor suze and jewelry; Somerfields again
Sun: trip to needles and yarmouth
Mon: off to Grandma and Grandpa
Tues: fun in somerset
Weds: homeward

Just back from two weeks in Italy visiting Nonna Ciccina and all the zii and cugini. And the cani and pulcini. And Luna (excitedly renamed by Lola to, “Luuuu!”) and Felix (with whom Lola had many a finger-wagging, impassioned yowl-style conversation).

We had great weather: two weeks of hot, blue-skied days. The only downside was the bloated population of flies and mosquitoes, the like of which hadn’t been seen for years. Both Isa and I were being bitten constantly by tiny flies and tiger mosquitoes which, unlike normal mosquitoes, give no whiny warning of their approach. Lola got a few bites, too, but didn’t appear to be bothered by them.

Lola ate constantly. She’s really started wolfing it down these days — a change which started a week or so before we went away. She learned to dunk her ‘fete biscottate’ into her milk after watching Mum dunk biscuits into her tea and coffee. Lola seemed to spend the whole holiday wandering around with something in her hand: a breadstick or a hunk of raisin bread or whatever. It became a running joke. As did Lola’s constant use of the word, “this” which she used, and still uses, to refer to everything.

We spent three days in a holiday apartment in Caorle which was lent to us by our friends the Grazias. A typical Adriatic-coast resort with hotel-lined beaches and rows of regimented loungers and umbrellas. The apartment block had its own outside pool and Lola and I went for a quick swim every in the afternoon heat. A quick swim as the pool was unheated and we didn’t want Lola to get too cold. She loved it and didn’t want to come out even when she was shivering.

Lola was a bit wary of Zio Renzo and Zio Claudio — Claudio especially was always trying to get Lola to come and see the dogs (which she loved to do) with him but she would refuse. “No, no,” she would say when asked, backing away from the offered finger. Perhaps it was his “vocone” which she found offputting; he is a big man, our Claudio. Perhaps, though, if Claudio had just scooped her up and taken her (as Zia Morena would) she would have quickly come round.

Today (a hot and sunny day), Lola had her first go in her paddling pool.
Well, the first go in it with it containing water rather than plastic
balls. (She loves playing with it inside when it is full of balls). She
had a great time splashing in 2 inches of water — Isa took a video,
which we should put up here sometime.

I turned up towards the end of her splash-fest; we played in the garden
for a while before dinner and Lola build her first block tower.

She’s walking really well these days — still a bit of a waddle but
she’s generally sure-footed and fast. She’s not quite there with
stepping down (eg, off the front door step).

She’ll go and get things for you (her shoes, her hat, her monkey, her
changing mat); or will take things you give her to the other parent. You
can ask her in English or Italian.

Recently she’s been mad on stickers (those in the middle of the Usbourne
“How to paint and draw $thing” series). The house is covered in them.
And she loves to open and close the doors; when she thinks it’s time to
go out, she’ll grab her hat, put it on and point up at where the keys
hang in the hall.

Isa has been counting in italian with Lola a lot today and Lola has been
repeating the words — a trick she’s fairly recently added. She babbles
and babbles these days, with an intonation and phrasing that leaves you
sure she’s actually saying something and if you just listened a *little*
bit harder you’d understand…

What else? Lots of laughter. Playing hide and chase around Isa’s legs.
Lots of games with monkey and her other toys. Sleeping well.

Oh — she sings: monkey man, that classical piece the duck sings. Row,
row, row your boat (which she’ll sing and want you to take her hands and
do the rowning action with her). And often walks around clicking her
tongue. Or sometimes trying things out under her breath.

Ciao-ciao. Bow wow wow. Nya-nya (mama). Mama. Mmmmuummmmm! (Yum)
Dadd-deeee! Na-na (sleep). Cheeees (cheers). G(r)azi. This. Nyo (no).
Papa.

Well, that’s a bit of an update. I will get round to telling of the Isle
of Wight and stuff. Probably.

Currently, Lola likes to eat:

– sardines, mashed with rosemary, a little gherkin, oil, vinegar,
pepper
– rice (brown basmati) with spinach, feta, pesto, and grated cheese
Рrag̼ with baby pasta or grown up pasta
– chicken chowder
– fish cakes (see recipe passim)
– french toast
– boiled broccoli
– bread

For puds, she likes raspberries, blueberries, any other kind of berries
she can get. Oh — and bananas. She LOVES bananas.

For brekky, she is partial to cornflakes in warm (whole, cow’s) milk.

At any time she’ll go bonkers for a tube of organic goo.

Lola walks!

I mean, she’s been making little 3-, 4-, 5-step forays for a few weeks
now but, for the last couple of days, she’s been walking almost as much
as crawling. And not just a few steps but halfway across the room. With
the help of my sky-hook finger, she walked all the way home from the
library last night.

I was giving her her lunch just know — haddock baked with orange juice
and cornflakes (no, really) — and said to her, “it’s fish”. At which,
she pointed at the sticker of a flower on the table and made the classic
opening-and-closing-of-the-mouth fish imitation, as previously
demonstrated by her loving parents. The sticker of the flower, I should
point out, is *next* to the one of the fish.

Mmmmumm! Says Lola when she’s enjoying her food — or wanting to indicate
she wants to be enjoying food. I asked her if she was hungry this
morning and she pointed towards the kitchen and said, “Mmmumm!”. So that
was a yes, then.

She loves to go out and will indicate her desire to do so by pointing at
the keys and then pointing at the door; perhaps first pointing at her
shoes.

Kittens are very, very funny…

They are also an extremely serious matter.

That is all.

Lola is often unbearably cute in the mornings these days. This morning
was typical: she came into our bed at 7am for a feed and spent a good 10
mins suckling while we dozed. Then she stops and lies her head on the
pillow and has a little rest, staying still for a dozen seconds or so
before sitting up and having a look around the room, or at us, before
repeating the procedure. After a bit she gets up and moves around the
bed about, chattering to herself, maybe standing up and pulling the
curtain back to see outside. Then she has a nice game of throwing
herself backwards over one of her parents, in which she kneels up,
checks there’s a nice, soft, duvet-covered bit of parent behind her and
lets herself collapse backwards over said cushioned lump. Then she
giggles, with her head thrown back. She’ll do it falling forwards, too,
but it’s not quite as exciting. She kept herself entertained like that
until about 8am this morning. Bless.

—
| |_ (_)_ __ _ __ ___
| ‘ \| | ‘_ \ ‘_ (_-

Oh my — I’m certainly not getting any better at this. I blame the
general uber-hecticness of life these last four or five weeks. Let’s
see, in brief: mid-May was super-busy workwise with the move of our
hosting solution to a new DR-enabled setup and that ate into evenings
and weekends; straight after that, we went to visit la Nonna et al in
Italy — a trip slightly tainted by air-traffic-control strikes and a
nasty tummy bug; the weekend after we returned, Lola got a fever of 40
degrees and Isa caught the tummy bug; a few days later, Lola added a
rash to her symptoms and the doctor diagnosed measles. That rash faded
after a couple of days, though, so either it was very mild or it wasn’t,
in fact, measles.

And now things are returning to a more normal pace…

Last night we finished the invitations for Lola’s first birthday party.
They are fairy nice.

Bleh. More later. Maybe.

—
Alex

Fish Cake:

– boil and mash potatoes; put aside
– cook whiting fillets in milk with onion, bay,
parsley stalk (carrots, celery)
– fry a clutch of chopped spring onions till soft

Spend ages going through cooked fish with fingers, looking for
bones; remove any found. Mix fish with mash (prob quite a bit more
mash than fish), adding some/all of the cooking liquor; mix in the
onion and lots of fresh, chopped parsley. Pat into cakes. Fry. Attempt
to feed to infant child.

Lentil Thing:
– saute a few approp veg (onion, carrot, red pepper). Add red lentils
(as for a dal). Add chicken or veg stock. Perhaps a dash of
cumin/corriander. Liquidise.

—
Alex

Blogging at bedtime — not sensible. But it’s that or no blog at all and
I just wanted to note the sunny weekend just gone during which we took
Lola to the Kentish Town city farm (just near Gospel Oak BR).

And yesterday (Monday), Isa and Lola came in to town and I met them
at the British Museum for lunch. Something we plan to do every week or
two for a while.

Can’t bring much of Saturday to mind… Oh yes — Heather came round for
a haircut/colour, which we preceded with a walk down to Stationer’s park
where we lazed in the sun bird- and tree-watching. Well, I did. Mostly
starlings, thrushes and tits. Couple of interesting trees which may be
swamp cypresses.

Oh, yes; and on the way to the park we went to the library; and there
was shopping for meat and veg; and scrambled egg with watercress for
lunch. And shandy later. And rugú-making later. Ah, yes, it all comes
dribbling back…