So as I said in my previous blog post that I would include everything that happens here I am sticking to my promise and I am following on from the day after my last post. In the morning I woke up and had fresh mango juice that Erica had made and a piece of toast with peanut butter on, I was so happy that Erica let me choose whatever I wanted in the supermarket so that although I believe that when you're in a different country you should dedicate yourself to learning their culture and habits etc especially food...you cannot take away my beloved peanut butter. Then what was the first thing I had to do after that? Ah yes....change Riccardo's nappy....the first nappy I changed which he had shit in (I am sorry Nanna if you're reading this that actually says poo)... I genuinely believe that nappy was enough to put anyone off peanut butter for life. Gross. I could have screamed changing that nappy, it was EVERYWHERE. To make matters worse he would not stop wriggling around and every time he stayed still he would put his hands into the poo....yes into...and then rub them on his stomach...and on anything else. I wanted to launch him out the window (of course I am joking...) but seriously this baby has THE shortest attention span I have ever known a child to have, my god.
Then me and Erica walked into central Brescia and we had americanos at a cafe near to an office which deals with passport and IDs etc so Erica could arrange something. After we had coffee, Erica went to this office and I stayed sat with Riccardo and we skyped Anthy...I have never seen a child so fascinated by the front camera. He was a proper little showman. Then Erica came back and she showed me the Duomo Nuovo which means the new dome; it is a beautiful, huge building alike to a cathedral and it is situated next to the old dome which is also a really beautiful building but it was built centuries before. We walked around for a while and we went into a bakery and bought foccaccia and olive foccacia which was freshly baked. I love how going to the local fruit and veg shops and bakeries is the norm here rather than supermarkets.
We then had to go to the pharmacy because...as I counted last night I have 34 mosquito bites so far and they are literally the size of my head. They are so fucking itchy aswell I just want to tear my skin off!!! They gave me some cream to relieve the itching but I swear it doesn't work. After this we went to the veg shop and bought chillies, peppers, tomatoes etc and decided we would make sweet chilli sauce from scratch. We went home carrying 94 bags and we gave Riccardo his lunch and then got him to sleep, then we had scrambled eggs and asparagus for lunch with the focaccia we had bought from the bakery and then we started making the sweet chilli sauce. Erica told me that they had friends coming over for dinner and we were to cook for them...she persuaded me to cook instead, they were a couple... she later told me that the woman was a brazilian model....no pressure....so here I was cooking for five people...baring in mind in Italy they don't really plate up meals they just make different things and you take what you want. I cooked chicken breast in the sweet chilli sauce we had made, then mushrooms, red pepper, red onion, tomatoes, sundried tomatoes and garlic in sundried tomato philadelphia, then I cooked mushrooms, courgette, aubergine and pepper in parsley and olive oil and we also made some rice and Erica prepared mozzarella and tomato salad.
After we prepared the food I did a workout and then we gave Riccardo his dinner and bathed him in the sink (he absolutely LOVES water, he cries when he has to get out) and then I waited for her friends to arrive. I'm not even joking when I say the tallest woman in the world arrived. Not that it is their fault but the majority of the time when they talk to their friends they obviously speak in Italian and thats when I find myself getting bored or rather sad actually because I miss my friends and my boyfriend and the general chats we can have like this. I set out the dinner but Riccardo wouldn't settle so I wolfed down mine because I thought they would probably want time to spend with their friends and I got him to sleep, it was nice after listening to so much italian conversation to feel so wanted by the baby, he rested his head on my shoulder and was out like a light, it really does warm your heart to have a baby fall asleep on you, it's nice to know I'm comforting someone. I also really liked that when everyone had finished their meals they applauded my cooking..good to know I'm good at something! The Italians are so passionate about food....I might actually belong here haha!
After lots of chatter Erica brought out a box that the model had brought and it was individual fig cheesecakes in a tin alike to the tins used for cat food.. for dessert. It actually tasted amazing! Throughout their conversation I spent most of my time on Google trying to translate any words I could pick out so I could imagine what they might be saying. At one point I picked out fish and friends and all I could think of was "Fish are friends not food"....probably best I keep that one to myself.
This morning I woke up and walked into the kitchen to find the cleaner, now she is already Russian so her italian apparently reflects her accent a lot but she had a full on conversation with me and I literally have no idea what she said until she said caffe- coffee whilst pointing to the nespresso machine so I could make myself a coffee. I ate biscotti with my coffee for breakfast because apparently that is a thing here....biscuits....coffee...for breakfast...oh my god. I only had two though so if my personal trainer is reading this....back off! I got dressed and me and Erica took Riccardo out in his pram, we went to the shops to buy food and to buy more cleaning stuff for her cleaner. We got back and we managed to get Riccardo to sleep for twenty minutes....that child has barely slept all day...I was falling asleep all day and I hadn't woke up in the night four times like him. Children are so strange. I changed his nappy and thank god it wasn't poo again my stomach couldn't deal with it again! I fed him and played with him for a while...he finds it hilarious if I put him in his play pen and creep up to it and he screams and I run off..it's a good game I've developed with him so he can communicate with me and it makes him laugh so it's good fun. He also loves bubbles and playing on a push toy bike thing outside he gets the biggest smile on his face, it's the best. Whilst I fed him his lunch Erica was with her personal trainer and I tried to get Riccardo to sleep in his pram outside so I could listen to the personal trainer counting to Erica in Italian so I could pick up on the numbers! Today I have finally learnt one to ten! :)
After he left we had salad for lunch and then we went further into Brescia, we looked in lots of different clothes shops and I found my beloved h&m! I wanted to cry when I walked inside it felt so strange....I'm such a mess I know! But it was something that felt normal to me. We then went for iced baileys coffee at a cafe and then we realised Riccardo had done his deed again and as there was no changing facilities available we went to one of Michele's offices in Brescia- him and his father own a company that makes alluminum or something like that and this is why they are so damn rich. We went into one of the board rooms and it was all so bloody fancy I had to act cool but I was so shocked! Then one of the secretaries told Erica that Michele's mom was in the apartment in the door across from the office....yes aswell as the mansion they have an apartment....act cool.... we went to see her and I'm not even joking this apartment was double the size of my student house. Maybe even triple. Oh how the other half live!
As Grandmas are good at obsessing over their grandchildren me and Erica left her with Riccardo and wandered round the shops again buying new coffee pods for the nespresso machine and some clothes for Erica. I really enjoy spending time with Erica I think we connect really well and she is teaching me so much Italian and I am helping her with her English and sometimes the language barrier has us in stitches. After we picked up Riccardo we walked home in the rain and Erica fussed over me asking if I was alright with it raining....I live in Manchester....come on now. At home I usually want to throw myself off a building when it rains because it's cold and the wind blows my umbrella inside out and my hair gets in my face and it's a nightmare. Here the rain was refreshing in the heat, no kidding.
When we got home I checked the pedometer on my phone and we had walked 10646 steps-8.46km! My feet were burning. We got home and I fed Riccardo and then I did a workout in my room which I tried toning workouts instead of cardio this time so I didn't sweat so much in the humidity.
Michele came home and we had a dinner of tomatoes stuffed with tuna and capers, a salad of cannelini beans, olives and carrot, sundried tomatoes, this small healthy version of breadsticks, sundried tomato philadelphia and mozzarella balls.. the food here is amazing. The food alone is enough to make anyone fall in love with Italy.
After dinner I chatted to Erica and Michele and I tried teaching Erica the 'if' clause in English which makes me so glad I studied English language at A level. Then I showed her an episode of Shameless trying to explain how the Manchester accent can be really strong and I think I almost died when having to explain what they meant by the term 'muff-diving', we laughed till our bellies hurt and it really made my trip so far. I have found that my english is going very strange because I am trying to make everything quite basic whilst speaking to the italians so they understand me.
Although it is so much fun here...again I have to say it is past midnight here now so... only 78 days till I see my baby. Yes I can be soppy when I am a gazillion miles away from him.
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