Magical days...

- It is that time of the year again.... We have to be creative! Creative in gift ideas, creative in decorating the tree, creative in finding the right food to prepare... I have a love-and-hate relationship with Christmas. I love to see all the streets with beautiful lights, the shops full of red and green stuff, people walking hastily from shop to shop trying to find that special gift for a loved one.. But I hate that I should sit and be 'creative' again in finding the right gifts for everybody. Tell me, what shall I buy for my in-laws??? What can you buy for people that have everything and that really don't have a special need or a hobby?? My father-in-law likes hunting, cooking and gardening.. Some instruments for gardening: bought, cooking utensils and books: bought, special clothes for hunting: bought already. What is left there to buy? My mother-in-law does not have any hobbies at all, also due to some problems she has she cannot knit or do other handcrafts either. She doesn't cook, it is the father who usually does the cooking. She has only her gym hours, that's all. We have bought things for a nice and comfortable bath, pullovers, candle holders, electronic photo frame (I know, not personal enough the last two). And this year?? I am really out of ideas. Oh, I shouldn't forget that I have also a brother-in-law and his wife to think about... nightmare.... What do you buy for people that you see less than five times a year??

It is very easy to choose for the kids, on the other hand. My daughter has already written her letter to Santa Claus with a loooong list of toys&co. that she would like to receive. My son is too little to even think about gifts but he is crazy for toy cars, so that is easy...

When it comes to my mother, sister and other close relatives from 'my side', I have already found the right gifts, packed them and placed them in my mother's luggage to be taken to Istanbul.

- My daughter told me a few days ago that some kids in her class don't believe in Santa Claus. They have told her that it is the parents that buy all those gifts for their children. She asked me: "But is there really a Santa Claus?". I asked back: "Do you believe in him?". She said: "Yes". "Then Santa Claus really exists", I said. "But then why do those children say that he doesn't exist??". I said: "It must be because they don't believe in magic, but you do, so Santa Claus exists".

- Yesterday morning my daughter lost another tooth. This morning, in the little tooth box that she had put her tooth in and placed under her pillow, she found two 2-euro coins! "It must be because I lost two teeth recently", she said :-) In fact, one of them was from her grandmother and only one was from the little mouse a.k.a. mother ;-) She was so worried that she would lose it on the Christmas night, because what if Santa Claus and the little mouse arrived at the same second and one was afraid of the other and ran away without leaving gifts/money??? :-) Luckily it didn't happen, she was relieved :-)

A fairy-tale from the blog world

Once upon a time in a country far far away there was this 50 year old child. He was bragging about being a communications and public relations expert, but was full of bull. He had this blog where he claimed to be doing a 'service' for the big country that he was living in (which was not his own) because he was bringing people with different views on issues related to that country. He was preaching that freedom of speech was the most important thing on earth, and that country did not give that right to his people. That he was open to different ideas.... Bull, bull, and even more bull... One day one of his co-authors, the one who was always not only cleaning up the mess of his blog and his English, but also editing his articles for online dailies, did the mistake of criticizing him. Oh my God! What a mistake it was! His highness preached about freedom of speech but not everybody was entitled to have that freedom! How could a co-author criticize him??? He was the infallible, the one who was always right, the one who knew everything, the ultimate one. He could easily point out when some person was writing sensational posts in his blog, but when his co-author said the same thing about him he just couldn't take it. He got very pissed off. Began insulting the co-author. Sent threatening short messages to her mobile phone. Left threatening voice-messages claiming that she had blocked him from his own blog!! He was so ignorant that he didn't know that a co-author has no administrative rights on a blog other than posting. In the mean time the co-author did not even respond to his rootless claims and threats. She just canceled her authorship from the blog of that arrogant child and left. The threats lasted two days. After some time the arrogant blog-owner who could not tolerate to be criticized and therefore was spreading nonsense rumors about his co-author, sent a message of apology to the mobile phone of the co-author saying that he was wrong in thinking that she had blocked him from his own blog. She did not respond to that message either. Some weeks passed after these episodes until someone on his blog has asked him what happened to the co-author, why she is not posting any more. And the shameless arrogant child who claimed to be an expert in communications answered, lying: "She could not handle some critics and as a co administrator, before she left, she took all my administrator features away. So I can not change one thing on this blog." Lie no.1: It was not she who couldn't handle critics but him. Lie no. 2: She was not a co-admin but a co-author of that blog. The x-co-author had no idea how the arrogant communications expert had lost his admin privileges on his own blog, all she could do was guess. He was either too high or too drunk to remember what he had done that day and did something wrong while he was playing with the settings of his blog.. She could not believe the ease the 50 year old child was lying about things and spreading lies about someone who had done nothing but helped him in the past (which she regretted dearly). The x-co-author had a clean conscience knowing that her only mistake was having helped someone she did not know well. All she wanted was that her name and e-mail address were removed from the blog of the arrogant 50 year old child....

The lessons we get from this fairy-tale:
- Never help people that you do not very well, on internet.
- Stay away from people who claim to be communication experts. They can be experts in lying.
- Never believe in everything you read in a blog/comments of a blog without questioning the facts it claims to be giving. If these 'facts' are about 'people', ask those 'people' first before making judgments about them. There can be a totally different story behind the so-called facts that are offered to you.

Disclaimer: As the title says this is a fairy tale, told to give some lessons. Any resemblance to actual people or events are only coincidental.

In sickness and health

- I was sick yesterday. So sick that I didn't even get near my computer, think! :-) On Sunday we went out to see the fresh oil from the little producers around our area. There, around the stands, we ate something prepared over the grill. We think that we got poisoned by the things we ate. I spent the whole night between the bedroom and bathroom. Iris was also sick but she survived by not eating anything and my husband managed to go to work although he wasn't feeling well. Luckily my son and my mother didn't eat from the same thing and they were saved. I spent the whole day yesterday in bed. Today I am feeling fine again.

- I need urgent help. I should buy a present for a friend of ours who is celebrating her 40th birthday this weekend. I think that it should be a personal present, but I am having trouble deciding what could be the best thing to buy. Any ideas???

- I added a new link to the blogs that I follow, take a peek: talk turkey.

Halloween; the chocolate shop

Halloween is over. Iris was so excited about Halloween this year. She wanted a witch's outfit, but was content with only a hat & wig :-) For the first time we bought a pumpkin and carved it to put a candle inside and placed it out in our balcony. We did a trial of the outfit and the pumpkin the day before Halloween.



On 31st when we came home from school, she changed in her black clothes, put her wig and the hat, took the broom in her hand and was ready to knock on the door of our downstairs neighbor. Sander was dressed all in red; was the little devil :-) He cleaned the floor of the neighbor's kitchen with his sister's broom :-)



Yesterday I was in a dream shop for all chocolate lovers: Slitti Café, in Monsummano (Pistoia). You enter the shop and begin breathing in coffee and chocolate. They produce different types of chocolate and offer quality coffee. On the walls there were the clips of newspaper articles in different languages about Slitti products. They are world famous. I couldn't help taking a couple of pictures in the shop.



On their coffee stand there was a bag of very particular coffee beans: the kopi luwak, the most expensive coffee in the world. On the information leaflet it said that kopi luwak is the rarest coffee, which originates from the Sumatra island and is produced in very small quantities. It is nothing but coffee berries eaten and passed through the digestive system of a local animal called luwak. This animal goes during the night into the best coffee plantations and feeds on the sweetest and ripest berries selecting them one by one. The gastric juices that favor its digestion create a fermentation process that is absolutely unique for coffee, thus explaining its totally different and original taste. The beans, once swallowed and then expelled by this small marsupial, are collected from earth in these plantations and then disinfected, the coats containing the beans are broken and beans washed, dried and packed into 20 kg bags. The taste of the coffee from these beans is extremely thick, characterized by a flavor of cacao, aromatic herbs and bitter orange marmalade.

After reading this I took a last look at the bag containing the kopi luwak beans, with a price tag of over 600 Euros a kg. I don't think I will be able to taste that coffee, even if it is offered for free....