Yasemin's corner of tips, recommendations and reviews

The world of a multi-processing mom: Carnival costume: Pippi Longstocking

2011-03-09T11:10:00.000+01:00

The world of a multi-processing mom: Carnival costume: Pippi Longstocking: "Yesterday, fat Tuesday, the kids were supposed to go to school in costumes to celebrate the carnival together. This year I didn't want to bu..."

Barnes & Noble limited time offers for your holiday gift shopping

2010-12-08T23:36:00.002+01:00

Here you find a few limited time offers from Barnes & Noble online shop. I hope you find one that fits your needs and helps you keep most of your money in your pocket while you are getting a gift for your loved ones.

1/2 Priced Books: Buy 1 get 2nd 50% off from our Holiday Gift Guide Collection NB: Offer expires on Dec. 15!!
Get FREE MEMBER Express Shipping on qualifying items! NB: Offer valid from Dec. 6 until Dec.17!
12 Deals of Christmas: Visit BN.com everyday thru 12.18.10 for Big Savings!
Wristlet Offer: Buy any Vera Bradley item and get Vera Bradley Wristlet for just $9.95! Check out the Vera Bradley items in BN. Tote bags, wristlets, pen & pencil sets, cases for eyeglasses, organizers, photo albums, pencil cases, organizers, book covers.. All colorful designs..
Childrens Holiday Books: Save up to 45% on bestsellers! Offer valid until Dec. 25.
Save up to 45% off our Holiday Gift Guide! Thousands of deals and gift ideas..
Holiday Cook Book Sale: Buy 1 Get 2nd 50% off! Offer Expires 12/31/10 I am sure you know at least one person who would need a good cook book ;-)

Handmade gifts

2010-10-18T14:41:00.001+02:00

We still have about 2 months before Christmas and it is enough time for those of us that are able, to prepare some handmade and/or homemade gifts for our loved ones. It is always nicer to receive a gift that has been made for us, carefully worked on, instead of a hastily bought and wrapped thing.

For those of you that need to get a gift for a little girl, be it your daughter, granddaughter, niece or just the little girl next door, I have got some ideas. What about a skirt for which you don't even need to buy any materials but use whatever you have at home? Look at the skirt above that I had prepared for my (then) little girl about 3 years ago. This little skirt is entirely Designed & Made by Yasemin. It is an ecological/recycling product. The main material was left over from a dress that my mother had made. The flowers are cut from some material left from a skirt of mine. The beads used were from some toys of Iris. And the ribbon on the rim was on a gift package that we had received ;-) At the house of someone who loves sewing there is always some material that is left over from a former project. The material that I used for this skirt was quite rough/thick, so I had to introduce some folds at the waist to fit it better. If your material is soft, you can even go for an easier model and place an elastic at the waist instead. Then use your imagination and creativity to make the skirt prettier. I have cut out three flowers and placed them somewhere near the rim as you can see in the photo above. Take a closer look at the finishing of these flowers below.

The flowers are fixed on the skirt by hand. Notice that the thread used to stitch each flower to the skirt has the color of the beads that are put in the center of the flower. The colors of the butterflies also follow the colors of the threads used in stitching... :-) The beads that I used in this composition were from a bead set for girls that was given to my daughter at her birthday. Hey, if you don't know how to sew, you can always buy one of these bead sets for girls and make that little girl happy anyway ;-)

Here is another project for you: a summery dress. You need to find some lace, better if it is handmade, even better if it is old, or recovered from an old dress/night gown. You will use the lace for the upper body. Then you should buy/find at home some flowery material that needs to be fitted under the lace. To cover the stitch that you make to connect the two parts get some nice ribbon. Do not forget to buy more than you need, because whatever is left of the ribbon can be used next year when the little girl grows and you need to make the skirt of the dress longer by opening the rim. You can place the ribbon on the line the older rim would leave after it is opened.

What about knitting? Are you good at that? A hand-knit scarf, a hat, warm & soft mittens, a beautiful pullover... These all can be Christmas gifts. Even a new beginner can make a scarf. All you need is some colorful yarn and a knitting magazine/book full of interesting ideas, instructions and patterns. Check the knitting search results on Amazon. I am sure you will find something ;-) And do not forget the tranquilizing effect of knitting on you during these hectic months right before the holiday season.. It is a lovely pass-time.. (You might consider a subscription to a knitting magazine maybe?)

If you don't think that you will ever manage to learn how to knit, or simply you don't have the time for that, why not buying stuff that are hand-knit? You can find these items online as well. Check out etsy.com. On etsy you will not only find knit/sewn items and patterns to make your own, but also all kinds of accessories, quilts, bags, clothing and gift articles.

Give him/her health

2010-09-29T00:19:00.005+02:00

I believe that the most important thing we have in life is our health. Without good health we cannot enjoy all the other things we have. Hence, I would like to begin the list of my Xmas gift recommendations with some technological and sports apparel that would contribute to a healthier body.

Less than a year and a half ago we were at a shop choosing new bikes for our kids. The shop had, placed next to all sizes of bikes, also some treadmills. Since we never manage to go to a gym and exercise a bit, we decided to buy one for our house and chose a model that is in the upper middle price range so that it neither looks like a toy nor is extremely professional. I admit, I was against the idea of buying one, thinking it would occupy a lot of space and after the initial period we would forget about it as we did with the indoor cycling bike. Luckily, I was wrong. I discovered that walking and running on the treadmill can be a lot of fun and a leaner body comes as a free gift.

Do you know someone who could use some exercise? Is there someone around you that loves jogging and you want to make him/her a gift? Do you like running/walking with a good pace, but think it is dull and need to make it more fun? Then read on! I will tell you all about my apparel and gadgets that made the treadmill fun for me.

It is true, treadmill is a very monotonous thing. But here is how you can enjoy working on it (or make your loved one enjoy it):

colorful

Nike's specialty clothing for running

must

running site

Nike Lunarglide

Music

To start running of course you do not need a treadmill. If you have the possibility right outside your house, put on your shoes & suitable running clothes, start the music on your MP3 player and there you go. The world is your gym :-) Hence, if your loved one does not have a treadmill in his/her house, you can always convince him/her to run by presenting him/her some attractive apparel. If that person is tech-savvy and appreciates technological gadgets I have more recommendations.

I am not only a Nike fan, but also a big Apple products fan. If the person whom you would like to buy a gift for, has one of the new generations of iPod nano, iPod touch or iPhone, then you should introduce him to the world of Nike+. These are the products which you should consider buying:

shoe pouch

You don't want to run with music? Then get the Nike+ SportBand, wear it around your wrist, and go! You can see your pace, the distance covered, time and calories burned.

✔ If (s)he has an iPod nano, the gadget to get is the Nike+ iPod sport kit which includes not only the Nike+ sensor but also a wireless receiver for iPod nano.

✔ Lately Nike announced that the Polar Wearlink+ heart rate strap communicates with your Nike+ Sportband and iPod nano so that you can follow your beats per minute.
For me, the nicest thing about Nike+ is that it gives you the possibility to follow your progress in time on the Nike+ site. You become a member of the Nike+ community. Each time you synchronize your iPod/iPhone, iTunes automatically sends your latest training results to Nike+. When you log in to your account, you can choose to share your Nike+ activity with your friends broadcasting on Facebook and/or Twitter. You can set goals, make training plans and take part in challenges in Nike+ community. Using the Nike+ software on your iPod/iPhone, you can decide whether you want to run for a fixed time, fixed distance or fixed amount of calories burned for that training instance.

My last recommendation for training today will be the DVD 30 Day Shred of Jillian Michaels. You must have heard of Jillian Michaels. Well, I had not. But thanks to a dear friend in USA I got introduced to her 30 Day Shred program and I am a witness that it works! All you need is a mat, a pair of dumbbells of about 1 kg each (or two 1/2 liter bottles of water), a DVD player (or your computer) and 20 minutes per day!

Happy training everyone! Do not forget to check my Nike+ Mini here ;-)

What is next?

2010-09-23T22:33:00.000+02:00

As some of you might have noticed I am doing some changes on my blog. It was in limbo for over 2 years and I decided that it was high time to revive it. I started with the design first and it is still under construction (the artist of the picture behind the title is my daughter Iris and, of course, she drew me in front of my laptop). I also wanted to make a change in content. I will not be writing here as if I am writing a diary any more. I will only write about my recommendations for places to see, things to do, books to read, recipes to try etc.

✂✂✂✂✂

Whether we like it or not, soon we will all begin to think about Xmas gifts for our loved ones (and non). I am one of those lazy people that leave the gift shopping to the last weeks and get in panic. This year I plan to act rather early. It is advantageous to begin thinking about gifts now because you can spread the shopping in 2-3 months instead of concentrating all the expenses in a couple of weeks. With these in mind I decided to start with a series of recommendations for gifts.

Come back again soon to read my 1st post on gift ideas! And, hey, if you do not like my recommendations, you can always:

Need a job?

2010-09-20T11:04:00.001+02:00

If you are on the look out for your next job, I am sure you are familiar with many web sites that allow you to register your CV and/or search for jobs. Most of these sites let you apply immediately on line as well.

For people that are computer scientists like me, or are more into engineering, research & development, academical jobs, here is a short list of sites that I myself keep visiting on regular basis. Some of the sites are specialized whereas some are more general job search sites. If you know of other sites that could be useful for me, do leave a comment about it. Thanks :-)

academics.com I found this site recently. It is a German site, however there are job offers from Austria, Switzerland, Sweden as well. The jobs are mostly of academical type, but some private companies advertise, too. Once you register and create a job filter they email the results to your address.

monster.com I think everybody has heard about monster.com.

jobserve I am registered to this site and everyday I receive emails of jobs in UK and USA. This site has jobs from all over the world.

EURAXESS Jobs This is the jobs page of the EURAXESS site, the official site of European Commission for the mobility of European researchers. Research positions and fellowship announcements all over Europe.

matchtech UK based site specialized in engineering, science and construction recruitment.

I will keep adding sites here...

Looking for a lovely home in Florence, Italy?

2010-09-17T10:44:00.006+02:00

Loft for rent

In a silent area, walking distance to European University Institute, cycling distance to the city-center, 2 mins to the bus-stop; loft/open-space apartment, 90msq, restored, big windows that allow a lot of light to come in, big living/dining area, kitchen fully equipped (oven, glass-ceramic cooking plates, microwave oven, refrigerator, dishwasher), storage/laundry room with washing machine, parquet floors, bathroom with marble floor, bedroom with big double bed and bedside tables, walk-in closet, study area; air-conditioned, autonomous heating, satellite antenna, cabling for surround sound system, safe, alarm system; available NOW preferably for long term rental (min. 1 year contract); suitable for single or couple (1 bedroom, 1 bathroom)

I'm mad as hell

2010-09-17T08:50:00.001+02:00

1 billion people live in chronic hunger in the world. Please sign the petition to put pressure on the politicians to end hunger.

Thanks!

Get Firefox 3! Help set a record!

2008-06-17T10:54:00.005+02:00

Have you ever taken part in something big, like setting a Guinness World Record? Would you like to do that now? Then come and click the logo above!

The aim of Download Day is to set a Guinness World Record for the most downloaded software in 24 hours. The date set is TODAY, June 17th, starting at 10AM SF time. All you have to do is to click the logo and pledge, NOW! Then download Firefox 3 during the right 24 hours. You will not only get a great piece of software, but also help set a record, with the tips of your fingers, clicking here and there. Simpler than this it cannot be.

Are you still waiting to click??

Check out here your local time when Firefox 3 will be available for download.

It is wonderful to live in "Chiantishire"

2008-04-27T22:37:00.004+02:00

April 25th is Liberation Day in Italy and is a public holiday. This Friday since we were all free from our obligations of work and school we decided to go out and do something different. We went to Panzano in Chianti, a fraction of Greve in Chianti, on the scenic road from Florence to Siena. It was the day of Festa Della Stagion Bona, the beginning of the "good season" with a procession in historical costumes of the Renaissance, a medieval play and plenty of stands with ready-cooked food. The weather was beautiful. We drove slowly on the road enjoying the magnificent green of Chianti stained by the blue/violet of the irises (one of the most beautiful examples can be seen in the middle of the second collection of photos below) and the red of the poppies, and the soothing music of Loreena McKennitt on our stereo.

In Panzano all the houses were ornamented with red and white flags on their windows, some with stripes, some with Florentine fleurs-de-lis. The narrow streets were full of people waiting for the procession. There were stands of the local artisans and many tables and benches placed in front of the food stands. The main road of the village was going slightly uphill and ending at the Church of Santa Maria (Santa Maria Assunta) (in the picture below). Before the procession the medieval play took place in front of this church and was broadcast through the loudspeakers placed in different places of the village (it was quite loud, actually). Then the procession of people in historical dresses followed by a band started in front of the church, went down to the village piazza and then up the road again to the church. We watched the show that took not more than 15-20 minutes, and after eating some panini and taking some photos, went back to our car.

On the way back to our house we decided to discover where the lake of Castel Ruggero was. It turned out that right behind our house we have an undiscovered (for us, at least) jewel. Walking between the trees you come down to a nice little lake. If we were alone, only me and my husband, we could easily walk down there from our house and pass several hours by the clear water just lying down and reading, or only dreaming...
Today we went for a long walk with our little ones. We went all the way through the forest, then the open fields down to the narrow road that leads to the lake, but had to turn back. Maybe another time we can go until the lake, too....

I wonder..

2008-04-23T15:55:00.004+02:00

... whether most of the Italians have 'bought' their driver's licenses from Coop. From the way they are driving, it seems most likely.
... at what time they get up, the mothers that are all 'made up' at 8:30 when they deliver their kids to school.
... why most of the people don't take their jobs seriously, or why they don't look for a job that they could be serious about instead of the one they are doing just for the sake of doing it.
... if a mentally ill person can ever become 'normal' again after a therapy. Someone that I know says that it is possible, and it did happen, but I have my doubts..
... when real spring is coming. I am fed up with rain.
... when my sweety is going to take me to Paris. I have waited long enough! Not that I cannot go alone, or with someone else, but I want to go with him for the first time. OK, we were at the Charles de Gaulle airport this Xmas, but that doesn't count, does it?
...

... why you are reading this post that makes no sense :-P

Can't foresee tomorrow from yesterday

2008-04-22T10:54:00.004+02:00

It has been over a month that I had last written something here. When I wanted to visit my blog today, I had to type all the address in the address bar of Firefox since it was so long ago I visited my own page the last time that the address didn't remain in the recently visited sites list..

Everything is fine here. I have been on a business trip to a country that under normal circumstances I wouldn't travel to. It was a change. If it hadn't been for the blister on my foot I would have enjoyed it more ;-)

The weather got crazy in Florence. It is raining extremely much mostly during the night and there is sun during the day... Usually, that is. Otherwise it is dark and cloudy all the day like today.. I don't like this weather. It makes me gloomy.. Sometimes I cannot believe that I survived 10 years in Bergen, where rain was the default background of our days for months...

I got back in touch with many people from the past thanks to Facebook these last weeks. It is so strange.. There is one that I had no contact for nearly 30 years.. And now we are writing to each other as if it was only yesterday our roads have separated. There is so much to write about, so much to catch up. I don't even know why we never met again. We were living in the same city for 10 years before I left the country, but none of us made an effort to find the other one. Not that I didn't wonder what that person was doing all these years, I did. But never did anything significant to find its location. Now, reading all the mails that I receive, I find someone that I would have enjoyed to have by my side as a friend... Anyway, it is never too late. I was complaining that I cannot make new friends any more and all of a sudden I found one in a place where I didn't expect to find it.

I am happy

2008-03-19T13:41:00.000+01:00

- I love my new job! :-) Not only because I can do it from home via internet/phone, but also because I have to learn new things all the time, keep my brain working, never be far away from research and my favorite topic high performance computing. I just want to learn more about our products and begin contributing more. I couldn't be happier in another job.

- Otherwise, spring is nearly here. We have more and more daisies in our garden everyday.

- Soon I should buy some new clothes for my daughter since she has grown a lot during the winter.

- Today it is Fathers' Day in Italy. Yesterday Iris and I bought a present for my husband, something he can use in his new fancy clinic :-) Unfortunately tonight my little son is not with us to celebrate Fathers' Day. Since he is sick, he doesn't go to school and he is at his grandmother's house until Friday. But they gave me his presents for Fathers' Day and Easter that he had prepared himself at school.

- Finally we managed to have a party for Sander at home with some close friends, a lot of food and presents.

- The weather is getting warmer and sunny each day and we began going for a walk in the woods in the weekends.

If you were wondering why...

2008-03-03T10:06:00.005+01:00

I didn't manage to write much lately. And I am afraid I won't be writing for some time.

As of 1st of March I've got a job. Until I learn what I am supposed to do and get in the rhythm of working and managing my family life at the same time, I am afraid I will continue neglecting my blog.

Please pray that I find a maid soon, otherwise my house will suffer....

In the meantime, Sander celebrated his 2nd birthday on 28th of February at school with his friends. We will celebrate it again with grandparents and a couple of friends next Sunday at home.

Iris got her first evaluation card ever in her school life and she made us proud. She had excellent in all the subjects and her teacher has written in the comments area that she has special talent for mathematics. You can guess how happy and proud I was on reading this :-) I hope she continues like this all through her school life.

Last week..

2008-02-19T10:50:00.006+01:00

Thursday it was Valentine's Day and our daughter made us the following pictures :-)

This week..

2008-02-19T09:43:00.003+01:00

I am back from a week's vacation at La Villa, Bolzano. We had a wonderful week with sunny days, snowy mountains, good food and lots of relaxation.

I am reading The man who counted by Malba Tahan. Malba Tahan is the pseudo name used by the Brazilian mathematician and author Julio César de Mello e Souza. It is a collection of mathematical problems, puzzles and curiosities embedded in tales. I strongly recommend it to all lovers of mathematics and non, the ones who enjoy solving logical puzzles and stuff like sudoku. You can find more about the book in another blog post here. I intend to read other books of the same author afterwards and I would love to make my daughter read this book in a year or two.

I have to tidy my house and do a lot of ironing.

I noticed that spring is coming. The supermarket shelves are more colorful now with the first strawberries (God knows where they are imported from), and there are already the big bags of charcoal for the weekend BBQ. The first signs of spring for me, however, have always been the daisies in our garden and they are there since a couple of weeks now.

I am very excited about the job offer that I got, but I cannot fully believe it until I sign the contract :-)

Webkinz world

2008-02-06T10:08:00.000+01:00

This is Pinga, my daughter's Webkinz pet. Have you heard of Webkinz? If you don't have children, most probably you haven't, or if you live outside of northern America, again, it is most probable that you don't know anything about this virtual world of kids. I didn't know anything about it until we went to Canada. Our friends had bought a Webkinz pet for our daughter and that is how we entered the Webkinz world.

Webkinz pets are little plush pets that come with a secret code. You go to the Webkinz website, enter your code (entering the code means adopting a virtual pet) and your plush pet becomes a virtual friend. Your virtual friend is given a virtual room that you should decorate using virtual money, Kinzcash, which you should earn in the Webkinz world. There are different ways of earning money. You can go to the employment center and get a job, or you can play different types of games and make money. With your money you can buy furniture, clothes, food and extra room, even a garden for your pet. You are responsible from his health and cleanliness, too. You should give him his fruit and milk everyday to have a healthy pet. You should let him play with some toys so that he is happy. You should also enroll him at the academy and let him take some courses to give him a good education.

That is not all. There is also an area where the Webkinz pet owners can meet and chat. It is a totally controlled chat environment where the kids can use only fixed phrases in their chats.

If you have bought a garden for your pet, you can also plant your own plants, take care of them everyday and harvest your produce when they are ready. You can give this produce raw to your pet or you can buy a grill and cook them!

The members have also a post system. If you know the user name of a fellow Webkinz pet-owner you can send him/her a post or even a gift.

As you see it is a virtual world for kids and my daughter is addicted to it now. The problem is, when she is at school it is me who has to give food to her pet, or take care of her garden, and even go to work or play games to earn some money! :-)

I like the fact that my daughter is using her English while playing in Webkinz world, but I am a bit scared that she is only 6 and already a net-addict. Not only her, the little boy also enjoys watching the pet and the games we play in Webkinz world...

Oh, well, we are a family of nerds.. Nothing to do about it...

Blinis

2008-02-01T12:02:00.001+01:00

Some weeks ago on Sunday I didn't have bread for lunch and it was too late to sit down and bake one. Hence, I decided to make something different that could substitute the bread and I tried a recipe that I found in a magazine: blinis. The name reminded me of the blinis that an Israeli Jewish friend of mine used to make for us in Norway, but the recipe he used was totally different. He used to make thin pancakes, smeared them with mashed potatoes or spinach, rolled them into tubes, placed on an oven tray, sprinkled with freshly grated cheese and baked until the cheese melted. They were very delicious. While surfing the net now, I found out that the recipe I tried is most like the traditional Russian version. You can find many different recipes on the net for blinis. The one I will share with you right now is a fast, and yet, delicious one that saves your day.
The ingredients for about 26 coaster-sized blinis are: 4 eggs, 160 grams of flour (I used wheat flour, however any type of flour should be fine), fresh yeast (I used a package of active dry yeast and it worked fine), 12 tablespoons of milk, some butter and salt. Sprinkle the yeast in warm milk and let it dissolve. Add the egg yolks, salt and the flour. Mix well and let it swell for about 20 minutes. In the mean time whisk the egg whites. When the batter has expanded add the egg whites carefully to the batter. It should be a very light fluffy batter. Heat a large frying pan and when it is very warm melt a piece of butter in it. Drop small spoons of batter in the pan to make small pancakes. Fry the cakes a couple of minutes, turn the other side and fry one more minute.

Blinis thus prepared can be served in different ways. You can smear them with sour cream, top with smoked salmon slices and dill. Or you can smear them again with sour cream and some jam. We ate our blinis opening them in two, filling with cheese and ham.

Nothing new here....

2008-01-24T14:43:00.001+01:00

- Last week it was my birthday. In fact, I had written my last post on my birthday. We celebrated it one day before though. The photo above is the photo of my birthday cake this year. Am I childish? Yes! Am I ashamed of it? Absolutely not.. If we lose the childishness in us and take everything seriously, what is left there to enjoy?? I love celebrating my birthdays with cakes and presents. Not only mine, also those of the others as well..
- Not much is happening here lately. Me and my husband are busy trying to finish my husband's new clinic, cleaning, mounting furniture etc. We will be working on it also this weekend.
- Next weekend there is a carnival party arranged by the kids' school. I need to find some costumes for me, my husband and the little one. My daughter already has a beautiful dress (he dress of one of Walt Disney figures,- I don't remember which one!- I bought the dress last year after the carnival period during the sales ;-) )
- I am fed up with people that are reading strange meanings in to my words. Hey, I am a person who says things straight out! If I wanted to say something mean, I wouldn't hide it in nicer words, I would say it out to your face. I don't understand why you are picking on my sentences... uffff... Some people have nothing to do, I guess... Or they are reading their minds in to other people's words. Whatever...

The Canadian adventure

2008-01-14T11:42:00.000+01:00

We came back from Canada on 3rd of January. After a week's sufferance of jet lag we are getting used to our daily life again...

We had wonderful time over there staying at friends' houses, eating good food, having nice chats, seeing beautiful places and relaxing a lot. There is so much to write about..
Before going to Toronto everybody that learned about our trip was saying "You will love it up there". Yes, I did love it, but to tell the truth I was expecting a more modern city, something more like New York or some other big city in USA. What we found was a huge city, widespread, not crowded (maybe it is because people circulate more 'under' the city than on the streets outside?) although the population is over 2,5 millions, with quite mixed architecture.. You pass through streets with two-storey buildings on both sides, then you turn a corner and you are on a street with skyscrapers. There are buildings in British style on the same street with modern style buildings. The whole city is like a construction site. They are building many new condos in the city center and lots and lots of town houses, twin houses and singles outside the center in the suburbs. You see also many new plazas (little shopping centers) being built near the new housing sites outside the city.

When we arrived, we first went to stay at an orthodontist friend of my husband, who is of Italian origin. They have a lovely old house in the city at Rosedale, that they have bought and restored a year ago. On all the streets around their house you see big stylish houses very well taken care of, all with Xmas lights and decorations. It was like being in a fairy-tale city walking on those streets with the beautiful houses under the snow.
We spent Xmas day and Boxing day with our friend's Italian family. The grandmother made the food for Xmas dinner, after the dinner the kids and the rest of the family opened their gifts. It was so nice and cozy. On Xmas morning there were different types of special Xmas cakes and cookies on the table. After a long and late breakfast, we first went for a walk in the neighborhood, and then our friend took us for a drive in the city. We saw the University of Toronto campus, Chinatown (which was in its usual hustle since the Chinese do not celebrate Xmas, all the shops were open), little Italy (which, our friend says, is not how it was before, now becoming more and more a mixed neighborhood), the center business district of Toronto (mostly Bay street, kind of the 'Wall street' of the city), Casa Loma (a little Spanish castle on a hill in the city; pity that it was closed and we couldn't see inside; we did take some photos outside though), Forest Hill (one of the most prominent areas of Toronto where our friend has his practice by the way). Our tour ended at a Starbuck's cafe at Forest Hill sipping warm cider and coffee.

On Boxing day we did the mistake of going downtown for shopping. All the shops had the 'Boxing day sales' signs and we just couldn't stop ourselves, but it was a big mistake! We went to Eaton center, the largest shopping mall in eastern Canada. It was so crowded that we couldn't move, literally! The funny thing was, about 90% of the people in the crowd were Chinese. You heard more Chinese than any other language. The mall was so big, and so crowded that after a few hours we got fed up and went back home to our friends. We took the subway, got off at the right stop and walked the rest of the way home without getting lost in the dark. Good for us ;-)

The next day after a lazy morning we went downtown and visited the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), the biggest Museum of Canada, and the fifth biggest in northern America. Unfortunately we had very limited time and saw only the natural history galleries and the newly opened James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs and Gallery of the Age of Mammals, where it is possible to observe many examples of dinosaur and mammal skeletons, birds and reptiles as well as marine animals from the Jurassic to Cretaceous period. This museum deserves definitely another visit.
In the afternoon we said goodbye to our hosts and passed over to the house of some other orthodontist friend of my husband who lives in Richmond Hill. This friend and her family are of Persian origin. Needless to say, we ate lots of great Persian food during our stay in their beautiful house ;-)

On Friday, the 28th of December we went downtown again, this time to visit the CN Tower. CN Tower was the world's tallest building until September 12, 2007 when it was surpassed in height by the (still under construction) Burj Dubai. Because of my phobias I did not have the courage to go up, and preferred to stay downstairs with my friend and my sister (whom I saw for the first time in three years during our stay in Toronto). We were not very lucky with the weather that day, my husband said that it was not possible to see anything on the top of the tower. Hence, I didn't lose anything by remaining downstairs ;-)

Before going home that evening we drove to a house in Thornhill, the Lindsay house, to watch the Lindsay light show. Do click the link and watch the video, it is worth to be seen live though. This family prepares a light show every Xmas since 2000. At fixed hours you can tune in to a frequency on the radio, and watch the light show listening to the music on your car radio. Our friends said that there are queues of cars all around the neighborhood waiting in line to watch the show in the evenings during the holidays.

For the weekend we drove down to Niagara Falls. On our way we paid a short visit to Oakville and I had the chance of meeting Fulya and her lovely daughter. At Niagara Falls our friends had reserved rooms at a hotel facing directly the falls and we had magnificent view. Pity that the weather was not very well, quite cloudy and dark. After a delicious dinner and a drive around town admiring the Xmas lighting we returned to our rooms to watch the fireworks at 21.00. Later me and my husband paid a short visit to a big casino just to see how people were throwing away their money. I feel bad when I enter a casino, seeing all those miserable people attached to a machine pressing button after button, watching the silly lights and figures on the screens, hoping to hear the jingle of money running down the machine, or, as it was in the casino that we visited, the siren and a red light flushing over the machine to announce a winner. Just a quick walk among the crowds of slot machines, roulette tables and a strange gathering of people from all layers of the society we got out in the cold. It was nicer to walk in the freezing night than being inside that casino.
The next day after a good breakfast at our hotel we checked out and went to a nearby town called Niagara-on-the-lake (NOTL). NOTL is a charming historical town whereas Niagara Falls (as can be seen in the pictures above) is a town which seems to be created to earn money from the tourists visiting the falls. At Niagara Falls I got the feeling of being in a huge open-air studio with grand hotels, casinos, attraction sites, movie theaters etc. However, NOTL is very charming with its stylish well-kept houses, horse carriages, parks and little shops. It is supposed to be the loveliest town in Canada. The town is full of B&Bs, and most of the population is composed of old people in retirement (who are turning their houses into B&Bs). NOTL is a major viticultural region of Canada. If you get the chance, you should visit one of the many wineries nearby and taste the world famous ice wine, lip-licking-delicious! :-)
We enjoyed a half-an-hour long horse carriage ride together with our friends and listened to the carriage rider's stories about the town while we admired the beauty around us. The town is supposedly more crowded and lively when there is the Shaw Festival, the only festival of theater that specializes on the works of Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries and plays about his era, but it was very beautiful under the snow as well.

Our last days passed leisurely around Richmond Hill, going around shopping or sitting at home sipping our tea, everyone with his/her laptop benefiting from the speedy wi-fi network that our friends had in their home (we are nerds, don't forget, we travel everywhere with our laptops!).

On new year's eve our hosts held a party and we got the chance to meet their relatives and friends. They were all very educated beautiful people, the kids were all well-mannered.. We had lots to eat and cheered to a new year together.

Our Canadian adventure was a very successful one. We are lucky to have such good friends that welcomed us to their homes and spent their holidays with us. We hope to have them as our guests, too, one day. And we will definitely go back to Canada; this time with our kids and in the summer, so that we can also enjoy the Canadian summer, go and visit the Toronto islands, maybe drive up to Ottawa, or down to New York, and give our kids the chance to speak some English.
If you ask me what I liked the most in Canada, I would name two things:
1- the squirrels that are everywhere (the one above was in NOTL, next to our horse carriage, looking for food, not afraid of humans at all!);
2- and the fact that everybody around me was speaking English. Coming from Italy, it felt like paradise in Canada :-)

In between....

2008-01-11T11:11:00.000+01:00

Just a short note to tell those who wonder about me: I am back from Canada, everything is fine, kids are back to school (well, Sander is sick and at home today), husband is working hard as usual, and I am putting the house in order after the vacations. I began writing about our vacation in Canada but it takes time to finish it. I will post as soon as I can.

Hope all of you had some relaxing days during the holidays.

Bye for now!

To give or not to give... a gift

2007-12-14T15:23:00.000+01:00

When I was little, I remember that every year around new year, the national day of teachers and mothers' day the parents' representative of our class was gathering money from our parents to buy gifts to our teacher(s). I remember how irritated our parents were every time they were asked for money. Since we are two sisters, of course, my parents had to pay twice for each occasion. I thought this was something done only in Turkey. God, how wrong I was.. When our daughter began attending daycare, I learned that the same tradition existed also here in Italy. The amount that was asked increased when we changed schools and my daughter began the kindergarten. This year she is in elementary school and we pay even more! I wonder where this thing will lead us to... And you should hear about the presents the parents' representative has got for two of the teachers (thank God that she bought gifts only for two teachers and not all the others). This year the primary teacher is getting a Gucci foulard, and her assistant will get a Gucci silver bracelet. I have never bought any Gucci stuff for myself... Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Gucci, or Prada, or all the other designer stuff. The thing that disturbs me is the extravagance in the gifts. What happened to the good old modesty?

Oh, my son is in daycare by the way, and we never had a parents-teachers meeting for his class, so we do not have a class representative there. Yet, someone has taken the initiative (as always is the case) and has sent out notes to us parents, asking for money to buy gifts for the teachers :-) We have already left the asked amount at the school's secretary since we have no idea who the initiative taker is, and what kind of presents she has in mind....

Do you buy gifts to the teachers of your child? Do you think it is necessary? For me, they are doing their jobs, and are getting paid for that (in our case, getting well paid I presume, since it is a little private school). I do not see why I am forced (not literally, but, hey, the pressure is there; if every other parent has paid, you are also expected to pay) to give/contribute to a present if I really don't feel like it....

Xmas objects everywhere in the living-room

2007-12-11T13:47:00.000+01:00

We are ready for Xmas in our house. Last Saturday, December 8th, Iris and I decorated our tree as we do every year exactly on December 8th. It is a holiday here in Italy and it seems to be the right day to begin decorating the house and mounting the tree. I said 'mounting' the tree because some years ago we decided to be environment-friendly and bought a plastic tree which looks quite good in fact. Of course the smell and the real green of a little pine tree is more beautiful but it is a pity to throw it away after the holidays are over. We have tried to plant our trees after the holidays in the past, but none of them survived, so we gave up.

In addition to the tree we have other objects that we take out only at Xmas time. This is our electrical '7-candles light' that we have bought in Norway in 1998. I saw on hedikliev that the same light exists also in Sweden. In Norway they usually place this light in their windows and that was what we used to do in our other house. Unfortunately, in this house we don't have a proper place in the windows so we place it over one of the furniture in our living room.

Over the fireplace and on our coffee table we place different candle holders. The Santa-figured candle holder was a gift from our gasoline station a few years ago. The Santa-hat on the coffee table belongs to Iris.

The candle holder on the left is one of my favorites. It was a gift from a friend of ours some years ago. The snow ball shaped tea-light holder is from Norway, we bought it in 1998. The other tea-light holder below is Swedish and it was a gift from a friend who visited us in 2003. I love these Scandinavian design objects.

As is the tradition Iris has written her wish-list for Santa and placed it over the fireplace. She began writing it in early October and every week one or two new things are added to the list :-) This year she wants objects of Winx Club, different games of Winx, computer of Winx etc. There is a Winx mania in Italy among little girls, and of course, my little one is also a part of it :-) There are some electronic toys, dolls and few innocent stuff like colored pens, a new pencil holder on the list as well. My favorite on the list is: computer come quello della mamma, a computer like my mother's :-) Eh, I know that also the father would love to get a computer like mine (a MacBook Pro), but my little one, I guess you should wait some more years before you can get that wish granted ;-)

Iris likes Xmas and Xmas decorations a lot. She also likes making drawings of the Xmas tree. For now, we have only two drawings in the living room: one over the fireplace and one on the Xmas tree itself :-)

The decorations on our tree increase every year with the edition of new pieces. The two pieces in the photos above were Xmas presents from one of my husband's assistants a couple of years ago.

These two were products of the tiny hands of my Iris. The first one she made in kindergarten, the second one even before, when she was still in daycare.

I think that this is one of the most beautiful decorations we have. It was a gift from my Norwegian professor Trond. He sent it with his Xmas card in 2004, saying that the minute he saw it he thought about Iris :-) The little girl sitting under the tree with black braided hair does look quite much like Iris :-)

These five figures above are my traditional Norwegian Santa Claus, 'nisse' (click the link and read the story of nisse in Wikipedia, really nice), that protect our tree :-) I bought them in 2003 in Bergen at the Christmas Shop, Julehuset, an all-year open traditional Xmas decorations shop, along with some other decorations. One of them was broken, but I didn't have the heart to throw it away, so it has been glued (as can be seen in the photo).

The last important Xmas item in our living-room is the tree mat. When we bought this plastic tree I also looked for a nice tree mat to put under it, but didn't like the items in the market. Hence, I went to a shop that sold beautiful cloths with traditional Xmas figures and bought two different textiles and made my own tree mat using one textile as the border and one as the center piece. I even used an old bed sheet as lining under the mat ;-) I am very happy with the result.

I got tagged

2007-12-10T09:01:00.000+01:00

I was tagged by müzi some time ago, only now I have the time to write..

When I was little (ben küçükken) I was a good and silent child, I think :-) I was rather shy, didn't talk much, was mostly interested in my books and school work. When I was in elementary school whenever I had some problem with the kids in my class I called my (younger) sister and asked her to 'fix' the problem. I remember her beating up a couple of kids that were disturbing me :-) I liked being the brain behind the scenes, if you know what I mean ;-) I had a nice name among teachers that I didn't want to destroy ;-)

I am in fact (ben aslinda) still a little bit shy. I thought that I had overcome the shyness during my years in Norway, but every now and then it takes over me, like two days ago, when we were at a Lions Club dinner with my husband, the speaker was bullshitting about the school system in Tuscany, about the rights of the kids, about the number of foreign kids in schools etc and I just didn't have the guts to stand up and say exactly what I mean. Ufff... In fact I am quite good in giving public speeches, making presentations and stuff (so they say), but maybe I was afraid that my Italian was not 'good enough' (my horrible perfectionism!)? I don't know...

The first time I cheated in an exam (ilk kopyam) must be in a history exam in high school. I cannot remember well. I didn't cheat usually. I was the one who was helping others in exams. But in high school I began thinking that memorizing the exact dates of wars and treaties was a waste of time. I preferred solving a few extra maths or physics problems instead. (God, do I sound boring?)

My cellular phone (cep telefonum) is not an elongation of my body, but I do feel a bit irritated when I forget it at home, worrying that they might call from the school of the kids, or my mother may call and I cannot answer back. I do miss the time before any cell phones existed.

My most stupid characteristic (en saçma huyum) must be my perfectionism. I do not only try to do my best in anything and everything I do (from cleaning the house to writing a thesis), but I expect the same attitude also from others! This is wrong. I only disturb myself and nobody else gives a damn.

Love (ask) cannot be explained by words. If you can answer the question "why do you love him/her?", that is not real love, because for loving someone you do not need a reason, you just love. It is love when a smile appears on your face only on hearing his/her name. It is love if you feel a sudden flush of heat in your body on seeing him/her. It is love if you get goose bumps only by a little touch of his/her hands. Although I define myself as a realistic person with feet firmly placed on earth, when it comes to love I think I am an incurable romantic :-)

The blogs that I like the most (en sevdigim bloglar) are the ones that I try to follow and sometimes leave a comment.

I want to tag metin, fulya and alp&ege'nin annesi. If you were tagged before, sorry, I haven't been following the blogs very much lately...

Magical days...

2007-11-30T08:20:00.000+01:00

- 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 :-)