IT'S A CONTRACT!...

and IT'S PERMANENT!!!!! Germana is happy today!:-)

Pumpkin fever!

Thanks to Miss Sarah who let me know this, I have been into a pumpkin fever in the last day.
Last week I bought a pumpkin ('zucca' in italian) to put in the vegetable soup I do from time to time...but this time I bought a bigger one... just in case my imagination would have needed it.
My imagination is not working properly lately so I rely on others to help me survive this period.
We don't cook a lot of zucca but I decided to give it a try and prepare great Pumpkin Ginger Nut Muffins Recipe. There is only one simple question I can't find an answer: what is for you American 'baking soda'? I use what I think is baking soda to wash the vegetables; into the refrigerator to absorb the bad odors... but I don't think we are talking about the same 'baking soda'. Moreover, is it possible to not use any leaven agents? The muffins where great but did not leaven enough.
So basically I did a zucca purée.. and today I used it to cook Pumpkin Soup with Smoked Paprika Recipe. I don't even know what a smoked paprika is... but I used regular paprika and it turned out a super-delicious-soup I enjoyed all by myself...since husband Andrea hates soups.
I warmly recommend you those 2 recipes... and if only I had the seeds I could have Toasted Pumpkin Seeds but unfortunately I bought half of a big zucca.
Thanks Sarah...

P.S. My Monocat is still sneezing and on friday I'll take him for a RX:-( hope there are no more bad news!

What's up?

Sick Monocolo!
Originally uploaded by margiana.

Well... lots of things happened in the last 2 weeks. After the great adventure of Ferrara that helped me to turn on my uni-neuron brain... other things are happening to shut it down or mess it up.
My friend Julie and her little baby moved back to Utah. Her husband is going too in November. She decided to go back home after a couple of years here in Bologna. I am happy for her because I know they're gonna be fine but goodbye sucks and I am not good with it. I boarded her and the little baby on the aircraft for which I was working... so I had the chance to give her a last hug moments before leaving. It was sad.
On the 14th my mom came to visit. I was a little stressed because I know how we do 'work' together... but it actually went better than thought. It has been good to find the lunch ready once back home from work or the house clean or the clothes ironed. We did a lot of gardening and shopping.
Andrea and I had to drive mom back to Rome and to spend the week end there but Monocolo is sick and and I didn't feel like living him at home. I feel powerless. We have been giving him antibiotics for almost 20 days with no results... it should be a virus... but the antibiotics was for the possible bacterial complication to the lungs. We stopped with those... and are now giving him only an ointment in his sick eye. I hope he's going to recover.
Yesterday it was a beautiful day. Andrea and I finished some gardening thing... he actually was working on the irrigation system and I did planted bulbs: tulips, narcissus, hyacinths, bluebells and crocus.
I turned on the heater since winter steps in the house...
At work I am totally obnoxious since my contract expires on the 31st. Nobody in the airport worked more than 11 season (It will be 5 years in february) but I am not confident I'll have a permanent contract this year. The economic and political crises in Italy is simply shutting down the hopes of the so-called young. I feel stucked and have a good quantity of rage in my heart.
I am not watching Tv but I can see around me how people gets poorer and poorer... day after day... and so do we.
I am worried for the future... :-)

I only wish I could fall asleep under my comforter and dream sweet dreams.

Internazionale a Ferrara

Last Friday was my day off and Andrea took a day off too to join me for an extra day in Ferrara.
Internazionale is a current affairs magazine that I read since probably 1994 or 95. I used to read it while at the university and later I became a subscriber when I left the Univ.
Then too much busy and could not read a whole magazine in a week while always working in travel agencies...
It's a couple of years now that I read it every week but did not got back into the subscribtion... now I think it is time again to join them on a weekly basis.

Internazionale is the only magazine of current affair with a lot of different topics...starting from politics and ending with comics and 'true stories' passing through technologies, science and 'Italy seen from the other countries'. I love it whole. There's a lot of humour in it even if it's one of the most serious publication I've ever read.
The peculiarity is that it is written by journalists of foreign countries so that I don't have to read about the Italian comedy or tragedy from italian 'slave'-journalists.

On Friday we had the chance to see and interact with Michael Braun (Die Tageszeitung), Jennifer Grego (Financial Times), Jeff Israely (Time), Eric Joszef (Libération). They usually write for a column called 'Italieni' where we can read what other countries write about Italy and our weird way of living or doing politics.
It has been very interesting to hear that my feeling of the fact that the press in Italy is not free at all and is indeed slave of the Government, no matter if from the left or from the right, is a common sharable feeling.
Later we attended a meeting about 'Latin America Lula and Chàvez: two faces of the latinamerican left' where Cristina Marcano (Venezuela- El Nacional), Mino Carta (director Carta Capital- Brasil) and Ugo Pipitone mexican economist confronted on those realities...
In the afternoon I finally had the pleasure to listen to what Amira Hass had to say about the Palestinian occupation. She's an Israeli journalist who lives in Ramallah and writes about how it is living in Palestina. I've been reading her forever... and it has been great to hear what she had to say.
On Saturday I worked in the morning but we drove to Ferrara in the afternoon to attend the meeting with writers I've read and wanted to read. The title of the meeting was 'Literature - a world of stories: fiction and journalism' with Arundhati Roy, Efraim Median Reyes, Elif Shafak and Laila Lalami.
I loved this meeting.
It may all sound boring and snobbish but I can tell you it has been everything so simple and familiar. The organization didn't expect all this crowd so we had to wait in lines and in crowded place... most of the people had to sit on the ground of the big cinema room but it was really worthy.

P.S. For those of you who speak Italian and want to listen to the meeting of Intenazionale a Ferrara go here. Some of the interviews are in english.

Again... I feel I am good in listening, reading and commenting but I am not doing anything to draw a different picture of the world. And feel often frustrated. I know I do a lot of small things but sometime I wish I could commit more to my believes.

Other than this... Monocolo is still sneezing around and today we had to give him another shot. I really hope he's gonna recover soon.

Hanging on...

Hanging on a dream
Originally uploaded by margiana.

After working 12 hours a day in the last 2 days, and not sleeping well at all, I am now back from work and will enjoy my bed for a couple of hours.
I am 'living' a little to quick lately, not having much time for me. I am also suffering of P.E.C.S. (Pre End of Contract Syndrome) which affects me every 6 months, and I can tell you that it is nothing pleasant! Trying to image what is going to come next... whether if I will work again in the airport and do the job I like or if I will work for some 6 more months (for the 12th short term contract) or if I will have a permanent contract! Well, I guess I have to wait until the 1st of Nov. I know I am annoying when it comes to work but I can't help!

Monocolo is not feeling well and sneezing all around: poor Monocat!

Next things to do after the nap:
- iron the legendary pile of clothes;
- finish to read a couple of book;
- organize my wednesday in Ferrara with Andrea to partecipate to Internazionale and meet some of my favourite journalists and writer who write for the best Magazine ever read!