Reawakening

Hello, friends who may still be kicking around after my long absence. School and music have distracted me greatly lately.

And I so badly wanted to write something new for you, with lots of pictures and interesting stories, but fate has a way of screwing with you. Days before finals started, my computer decided it didn't want to work right anymore. So now that exams are over with, my computer is being looked at. With any luck (of which I seem to have very little) I will have it back soon to write the fourth chapter in my Europe series, among other things. (With the luck I actually seem to have, I will have to save up and buy a new computer. Hopefully it won't come to that.)

Bear with me, friends! I will be back to you soon, I hope.

a song for penny

This week, Canada stopped producing the penny. In honour to the little copper things (and as a first recording of his RPM challenge attempt), Liam wrote a song called 1800 Coins. It's a neat tune, and I figured I'd share it with you all.

It's basically about this one time we found a bunch of change and his apartment, rolled it all up, and paid for a pizza between us and his roommate with it.

It was pretty awesome.

(p.s. I'm attempting the RPM challenge as well, but I have no recordings as of yet, so I have nothing to share with you. Eventually, perhaps.)

and the snow may devour us all

I know it seems to be a little mundane to write about the weather.

But I have to be honest. Year after year, the snow that collects where I live tends to blow me away a little.

About a week ago, a friend of mine from England posted a picture of a snowfall they had, which made national news there. And I know that England is not used to having snow, so for them it was a big deal. But to me, it looked like someone had sifted a bit of icing sugar over their trees and cars.

This was especially the case since the picture came just after Newfoundland had a two day long snowstorm resulting in somewhere around 90 cms of snow.

To give you an idea of what we had, here are some pictures:

The first night

My back porch, still the first night.

The same porch, before bed a couple of hours later.

When the storm had passed.

Less than a week later, we had another 20 or so cms fall.

And that's just the beginning of our season.

Last year, our last snowfall was the first week of June. By the time the last snowfall comes, I won't be able to see out of my living room window.

Because the snow plow will keep building that pile.

And that's another thing. Plow as they may (in the middle of the night, thrusting 90% of the snow on to our lawn and the one across the street), somehow the side roads and cul-de-sacs like mine will perpetually look like this:

We haven't had substantial snowfalls in days!

Snow is beautiful, and fun. But when it collects to the point where it consumes my home, I start to understand why bears hibernate.

that time I went to Europe: part three - Florence

As my friend Mark suggested a little while back, I am going to start a series of write-ups on my trip to Europe. Really it's an excuse to share a bunch of my pictures, more than anything. You can find part one here, and part two here.

Florence
The morning after Monte Carlo was an early rise. The boat was docking at 6 am, and we had to be ready to go. But really, it was a wonder I could sleep at all.

Being half Italian, I have spent my life dreaming of the moment I would first step foot into Italy, and how amazing it would be. For that reason, it's a wonder I slept at all.

My alarm went off around 4:45 am and I groggily began to get ready with Jennifer and my Aunt. We made our way to the breakfast buffet, then back to room to grab our things. I wanted to be at the railings of the boat when we docked, and soak in the view of Italy, like a ray of sunshine.

As we docked in Livorno, this was my first view of Italy:

A small lighthouse with the waning fog behind it. It was perfect.

Then I turned to the actual dock. The city was beautiful, but there was some little thing detracting from it.

I wonder what it could have been...

Once you looked past Bugs and the gang though, it was a beautiful sight to behold.

From Livorno, we had to take a train to Florence. The train ride was a solid hour, and we all tried to take in the countryside as our eyes drooped with the rocking of the train. Some of us were not so successful. I won't post pictures though, so as not to incur wrath from family members.

I didn't get to see much of the famed Tuscan countryside, and what I managed to capture in pictures was blurred by the speed of the train. But Florence made up for this mishap.

I should preface this section of my story by saying that I had a very specific plan for Florence. It is the backdrop for one of my absolute favourite novels: The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant. The night before arriving, I combed through her book and made a list of the places I needed to see, and their significance in the Renaissance or the novel. I used that list like my bible on that day in Florence; perhaps even to the point where every family member ended up hating me a little. Sorry guys.

First on my list was the Santa Maria Novella. In this church Dunant first saw the painting that inspired the book's protagonist, Allesandra. There are no pictures allowed in the Santa Maria Novella. But this is what it looks like on the outside:

 

Next on my list of must-sees was Il Duomo. Though it didn't really need to be on my list, because you couldn't not see this church. Officially called Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower, this church is the third largest in the world. There is no one picture I have to show you the entirety of this place, so I'll just throw a couple out there and let you piece it together for yourselves.

Literally the best picture I managed to get of the dome.

Here's another head's up for you: being the amaaaaazing point-and-shoot-illiterate photographer that I am, pretty much every picture taken inside a church came out blurry. That's just something we all have to deal with. When I go to Italy again one day, I promise I will get Liam to help me take better pictures and share them with you as compensation for the ones I have for you today (and for the rest of the series). So let's just grit our teeth and get through these quickly:

The cool thing that you can kind of see in the middle picture is a 24 hour clock that runs on "Italian time," which means 00:00 is at sunset. See? It was kind of worth the blurry pictures, because we all learned something.

Next on the Amanda's Crazy Person tour was the Basilica of Santa Croce, aka where all the cool Italians either are buried, or have tributes to them.

Note Dante Allegheri in the corner!

Now, luckily for all of us, some of my pictures of the monuments came out kind of alright.

Marconi, who is important to Newfoundland as well

Galileo Galilei

Michaelangelo

Nicolo Machiavelli

If you're curious who else was there, and ended up too blurry to be seen on my camera, check out the list here.

Next up was Piazza Della Signoria. These days, you can see the Fountain of Neptune, complete with a statue of Poseidon.

Once upon a time, it was where Savonarola's bonfire of the vanities took place.

Not far from Poseidon was a copy of the David. Neat.

We then made a quick stop for some genuine Italian gelato, and made our way to Ponte Vecchio. There was less picture taking, and more souvenier shopping here, but I managed to snap this pretty shot of a bridge over the Arno.

After that, it was time to catch the train back to Livorno, board the ship again, and make our way to the next port: Rome.

my Christmas in pictures

So we're almost there; Old Christmas Day, signaling the end of the season and the time to bring everything back to normal. This makes me sad, because I love the decorations and the music and the specials (though the shoppers not so much) and I hate to pack it all away for another year.

But before I do, I figured I'd share my Christmas with you. I've already shared putting up my tree with Liam, and I sadly got no pictures of my Christmas baking. (Though you can take my word when I say that it was delicious!)

On Christmas eve, my family each opens one gift before bed. I got a new point-and-shoot camera, seeing as my old one was years old and nearly completely broken. My first picture was of our beautiful Christmas tree.

I then snapped a picture of what I felt was a very successful wrapping job.

By 8:10 on Christmas morning, my sister was in my room throwing Ferrero Rochers at my head. I talked her into waiting until 9, at which point she bounded into my parents' room, and we all headed downstairs.

As is tradition, my dad handed out our gifts to us, occasionally stopping to open one of his own when we pressed him to. I got some wonderful things this year. The favourites among them being

and...

(It's a KichenAid mixer pasta press attachment)

Even though this is his seventh Christmas, Mac can't seem to get a grasp on what's happening (much like Halloween).

Once we finish opening gifts, we have a big breakfast, get ready, and drive an hour to my grandparents' house for Christmas. The entire family does it, and when we're all together there are at least 40 people from ages 5 to 80 all in the one place. It's a blast, if you're used to it.

I have nothing even close to a group shot.

Once we have our turkey dinner (often called Jiggs Dinner here) and the myriad of desserts have been delved into, we retire to Nan and Pop's living room for a second round of gift opening.

This year was a good laugh, with the evidence of what 60 years of marriage brings you to. My grandparents bought one Christmas card, and signed it "To Eliza, To Henry." You read that right, they "gave" each other the same card. One card.

By the time Mom handed Pop's gift to Nan...

"I wonder what it is!" "A chamber pot?"

we were all in tears from laughing so hard.

Liam likes to spend the evening with my family, so there are always gifts under the tree for him. This year, he claims, I won Christmas.

The jersey he always said he wanted: Gary Roberts circa 2003

Once things calmed down at Nan and Pops, Liam took me to Port-De-Grave to see the boats, which are always done up with Christmas lights.

I haven't mastered pictures of pretty things in the dark with my point and shoot just yet, but this picture will give you a better idea:

Source: Steve Sheppard Photography

After a lovely drive, I got ready to settle into my makeshift bed at Nan and Pop's, pausing only to take a picture of their beautiful tree.

I had a fairly perfect Christmas day. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well.