C'era Una Volta..."Once Upon a Time" Does Not Mean "Happily Ever After", Right?

One week into my newly re-found Southern Italian life, I am already starting to notice the differences. Despite the sun, the good food, the relaxed attitude to life, the excitement of things to be and all that, I am beginning to being confronted with a new thing in a familiar place. The reality of being an adult and no longer the teen-ager who left home five years ago, it's truly starting to sink in. Last night I watched a repeat of my favourite television program from when I was in junior high, a political satire programme entitled, The Pippo Chennedy Show. When I was thirteen, it was iconic. We all watched it, the nation was in hysterics for its clever ridicule of the late 1990's society we were living in...with its faults and prides, idiosyncrasies and contradictions, common places and taboos. I used to laugh my little head off with my friends, or by my self. Last night I waited for the show with great anticipation: I sat there, sang along the opening tune (I was ever so surprised I could still remember the lyrics, one of those events that makes you giggle), listened to a few jokes (most of which were still, scarily, appropriate to the current government and political scene..) then got bored half way through. I was initially adman to resist all the way through the show, out of respect for what it once represented for my generation, then became sad at the thought of things that have passed, gone, belong to a time that is now past. Tonight I went to visit my younger sister at the youth camp she is attending this week. Loads of her friends were there (some of them are the younger siblings of my friends); many familiar places, many familiar faces..I even met this guy I used to have a major and I mean MAJOR crush on age 12!!! He had become fatter, shorter than I remembered him to be. As he came towards me I smiled (he must have thought I was nuts, but probably didn't have the faintest idea that what I was laughing about is the thought I ever even liked him!!!).
What I have realised is that you can't put new wine in an old bottle, clean clothes on sweaty arm-pits. You have gotta move on, and stay truthful to who you are.

Spot the Difference...

A taste of my "old life" - The view from my bedroom on Tuesday 17th July 2007 at 12.29 pm.

Saturday, 21st July 2007 12.29 pm...what was in front of my eyes just yesterday...38°c..sunshine...the beach...crystal clear waters...ahhh!

... can you spot the difference?

Public Service Announcement

I am currently out of office and unexpectedly surrounded by a myriad of cardboard boxes.Please leave a message after the tone - will be back as soon as I manage to surface again!!! - 4 days to the big day.

Adventurous

"If you tell life what it has to be, you limit it; but if you let it show you what it wants to be it will open doors you never knew existed."

Nice quote, isn't it? This is actually a line from a bit of a girlie movie called "Tortilla Soup". Back home we often say "never say never", which, when you are young and it is your grandmother telling you that you will end up marrying the spotty, greasy hair son of her next door neighbour, makes you wanna cringe, stump your feet and scream: "never, never, never"...Having said that, there are things in life that I have deliberately chosen to say 'never' to, like doing drugs, tolerate injustice, watch Titanic again..but then again, what makes those never so permanent. When I was in senior high, my classmates would have openly accused me of being retrograde, presumptuous and stuck-in-my-ways, brainwashed, even. I was an opinionated young girl; only problem is that I had no idea what my opinions were really based on. Now nearly 24 (two weeks yesterday to the final count-down) I am an opinionated young woman. The difference, however stands in the fact that I have rolled up my sleeves over the past five years, dug deep down, lived for real, sought to see from a 360 degrees angle, questioned everything I even believed in, dismantled it, shaped it, tried to make sense of it, built it up all over again - with sense, this time, from the foundations. Unwrapping life: some times like an eager child on Christmas day; others, more like an archaeologist carefully and painfully retrieving a precious treasure. "Don't tell life what it should be, let it show you what it wants". I have dismantled, reconstructed, settled. Now I am packing it all up. Figuratively and practically. The picture of the "treehouse" at the top of the page is one of my favourite. It reminds me of me. Isn't it wonderful to have intellectual freedom? The paradox of Free Will: we are free to choose; but we are truly free when we are in tune with the will of God which cries out for all mankind to be freed up from the bondage of slavery to death and sin. Paradoxical, but so liberating. I have dismantled, examined, explored, then built again. I believe: and I now know the reasons why.

"I Don't Care What the Weather Man Says When the Weather Man Says It's Raining"

Another lovely rainy day in Manchester.
Please don't ask me again why I am moving back to Italy, would you?
Here is your answer.

The Final Count Down!

Ok, maybe the last post on my imminent departure was a little bit to poetical and way too long for most of you to be bothered enough to read that I am going to return to live in ITALY in a mere five weeks time. On a purely informative level, it is my birthday on July 1st and I will be holding a big birthday/leaving do in Salford (if anyone is around, drop me an e-mail, I'll give ya all the details). Apologies for using this post as a personal information board, but it's so hard to keep everyone informed at once!!!! (Sudden lack of/decrease in posting to be expected)

Ok, forse il mio ultimo articolo sulla mia imminente dipartita era un po' troppo poetico e troppo lungo perche' voi altri vi curaste abbastanza da leggerlo, ma volevo annunciarvi che torno a vivere in Italia tra 5 settimane. Per motivi puramente informativi, il 1 luglio sara' il mio compleanno e daro' una grande festa a Salford (se siete nei dintorni, mandatemi un'e-mail, che vi do tutti i dettagli) Scusatemi per aver utilizzato questo articolo solo per scopi personali, ma e' difficilissimo tenere tutti informati allo stesso tempo!!!