stuff

IN SWISS COTTAGE

i am really tired. after a nice saturday spent at the sushi bar and cinema to watch a cleverly crafted thriller (tell no one), this week work has being crazy. meetings and business lunches are forcing me to be in my best behaviour 7 hours out of 7. thank god for the farmer market near my office where twice a week i get the best coffee in london, the best organic muffins, the cheapest freshly squeezed orange juice, the most delicious sushi, the freshest egyptian cous cous and the finest antique jewellery. i have never talked about helen here, the chatty lady at the antique stall i go and visit every friday. she is a bit forgetful - her head sits comfortably in the clouds, but this her charm, i believe. every time i stop by, she delights me with her stories. and she has got wonderful stuff. back in the 60s/70s she must have been a gorgeous and very fashionable woman (in her 60s she still is beautiful and stylish). her jewellery collection spans from art deco pieces to trifari and butler&wilson custome jewellery to vintage artworks from liberty or browns to unique items coming from bond street's antique jewellery shops, many of which jewellery used to belong to her. From her i bought a gold plated long chain with a magnifying lens framed by swaroski (Butler and Wilson), a snow flake brooch for steve's grandmother (trifari) and recently a magic fairy pendant/brooch holiding a precious opal. it is lovely indeed. helen is always very sincere in telling you the nature of a stone or a metal. if it is glass, she would say so, if it is silver she would direct your attention on the mark and weight. she also knows the history behind her objects and is always happy to share it with you.

BODY AND SOUL
i keep running (with steve) and doing yoga (without steve). i have seriously considered starting the teacher training from september, then convinced myself to spend those money with an enlightening trip to india with a few close girlfriends. so my mind is now moving towards that route. when i start fantasising about travels, i do it so deeply that it stays in the back of my mind all the time, and i tend to reconduct all my experiences to it... weird(o)...

dreamy princess

ARTS
what's more? hmmm... oh yes. i booked my flight to italy in august, gwen stefani's concert in september and reserved 6 tickets to go and see all about my mother at the old vic for my birth-day. i know that someone may find re-adaptations from a platform/media to another annoying, but i am always intrigued by the infinite possibilities of art vehicles. plus, almodovar's master-film and his interest for meta-theatre lend itself very well to the stage transposition, leading us to the fundamental question of the art debate: theatre as metaphor of life or life as metaphor of theatre?

FAMILY AFFAIRS
saturday little cousin giacomo is arriving for his summer course. i have a few boysh/adolescential activities in mind to entertain him but i am really struggling in finding many ideas. last time he was here i mostly took him in places he did not really appreciate. in one particular occasion he made me feel really naughty. we were in brick lane on a saturday night, surrounded by drunken bastards: a person was going up and down the street in a trolly with a bottle of vodka in his hand, other people had literally collapsed on the floor, etc. giacomo looked at me and candidly asked: "what kind of places do you take me to?" gulp! this time it will be better - i repeat to myself: he is a year older and more eager to *experiment*...

NEW BOKS, NEW FRIENDS
yesterday i attended my first book club, ever. a bunch of lovely girls meets up every month or so to recommend readings, swap books and chit-chat. i brought along the time traveller's wife and came back with two books: down under by bill bryson (for future reference) and ignorance by milan kundera, whose other (more famous) novel i read in german in my other life. as soon as i saw it, i decided i wanted that because it ticked three of my reading requirements: it is quite thin, with a charming cover and by one of the most reflective authors of our time. his books, in fact, go beyond fiction to embrace Literature at its highest level, and aurelie's description of its content seemed to fit perfectly our status of volunteer exile.

ELECTRICITY OR CANDLES?
on other news, we need to rebulb the whole house if we do not want end up living by candlelight...