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Mona, Ron, Rory & Jack

Interview with Jack - Age 3

Disclaimer : You may only really understand this if you have actually lived with a 3 year old boy. If you are having trouble deciphering the words - call Rory - she is great at interpreting for us!

On location at Starbucks, around 7:30am, before he got loaded on a blueberry muffin and carrot juice.

Name: Jack Wise

Age: Thwee (holding up 4 fingers)

School?
Maaawwwm! I'n goin to pwecool in Thepthemmer. (not exactly sitting still)

Fav. Food
Daddy is the bess Chef in the hoe worl. I eat everything Daddy cook. When I'm big, I will cook like Daddy. (are we grasping the theme here?)

Fav. passtime
I like going to 'feelgruppe' (spielgruppe - play group) an I like goin with Daddy to the Badi (area of lake where kids can swim). An Maawm, I love my scooter too.

Who do you love?
Rwowe, Daddy, Mona, Granny, Unlce Thane, Sylvia, Keewa, Waemonn, Tom, Twaywee, Sami, Gabi and the kids, grandpa Terry, But Granny Lu and Grandad are dead in the gwound but I thill wuv them. Oh, an I wuv ice cream an gummi bears.

Who would you most like to meet and why?
Jesus. ? Cause he is everywhere, in France, in Thwiterland, in Ithaly, an Granny said he is in Irewand too. (See former blog to explain his obsession with Jesus)


Why so many scratches over your right eye?
Well, first I fell when Daddy took me ice scaking, essept we neva skated, just had the skates on an I fell on the gwound. Then I had to get the 6 stitches. Then, in Ithlay I fall outta bed and have a black eye, and then at home when I jumped fwom the black couch to the red couch I fell on the gwound and gotta a scwatch on my same eye. Next time I move my head to the other eye.

Anything you would like your fans to know?
Yeth. I can speak my wods muth better now. I can talk dust like Wroree now :-)

Viva Italia (Final)

Well, although I said I was spreading out the blog on Italy to 3 parts - I decided that the Italians themselves deserved a bit of due diligence.
As we have been living in Switzerland for almost a year now and the best word I can come up with describe the people here is 'sterile'. It is the cleanest, safest place we have ever been and most likely ever will be. The people just do not have a social bone in their body. There is no passion in the food and no laughter in their souls.

When we took this little jaunt to Italy, Ron and I were feeling like a change was imminent. We have not made any friends since we moved here (not from the want of trying) and we felt like perhaps we had lost our touch. We started to question the friendships we had back in the US and wondered if that was ever 'real'. I still hear the echoing laughter of Mary Sue sitting at the bar in Rondo's................I know it was real. I think for a short time, Ron and I have forgotten who we were and how we like to be with people. It was this lovely trip to Italy that jolted us back to reality and made us realise that perhaps we are just in the wrong town.

The first few days in Piemonte, I noticed that the Italian men were behaving a little strange towards the children. Keep in mind, Jack is still having his way with both male and female. All he has to do is climb up on someones lap and they are putty in his hands. But, what I noticed was that these men, wanted to interact with the kids. Play with them, give them toys, tease them feed them, hug them, love them. At first I freaked out (in my own head - not out loud) thinking 'get your hands of my kids slime ball' but it was the most genuine affection I have ever witnessed. This happened everywhere we went. As soon as you went to a grocery store, they would hold the kids hands, giving them sweets or fruit or bread or just attention. They never made preference over one or the other - just loved them. The cooks in the restaurants came to our tables to feed them their dinners and play with them afterwards so we had some moments of peace to enjoy our food. This still amazes me. As we were leaving Italy we stopped at a gas station and the 'full service' guy that ran this place raced into his store and got them some candy - he (for a man this is amazing) must have noticed my look of 'shit, more sugar to make the ride home more fun' and came back a few minutes later with 'sugarless suckers' for them.
As we bundled the kids into the car and headed back home we heard a tearful little Jack state those words that have now changed our world ' Mom, Thwitherland doth not make me berry happy'.....................I cried for most of the 4 hour ride home.

Stay tuned, the winds of change are here,

Signing off for today,

WiseMona

Summer Reading - Imagine I have the time to read!

Let's start with this one. My dear friend Carmen gave me this book last year before we took flight to Switzerland and as she handed it over (after she had first read it) she gave me a look that said, this is you! Read this one Mona, you need to read it. Oh Carmen - How I wish I had read that book a year ago. It truly was a great story. I got sucked in from the start and did not want to put it down until finished. I was highly suspicious about the 'pray' chapters as I am just not all that religious, but this was done well and gave me the spiritual pick me up I needed. (trust Carmen to know this was what I needed).
I do not think that she wrote very well when it comes to the food. She seems like she is a foodie when you read the book, but she did not describe the food as I would have. Elizabeth Gilbert has a very nice style of writing. Just very 'here is exactly what is on my mind today and what happens etc' - not a heavy read. perfect for a summer holiday tote bag and of course the nice glass of wine close by. I can mail my copy to you if you want to read it.
Yes - I read this book. OK. so a little heavier than the first one, this too was a gift from my Canadian food friend Christine Elizabeth Smart. She gave me this 2 years ago when I went to visit her in paradise - otherwise known as Victoria, BC. I promised her I would read it and even though it took me a little bit longer than expected, I am glad I swam through it. It is a story about the Great American Food Revolution. I loved David Kamps sense of humor and believe it or not, this book made me 'hungry' so that can only mean his food writing skills are pretty good. He had some really interesting footnotes too for those that need 'learning, or facts' in a good read. All in all, I enjoyed it, but I cannot say I would have called it a page turner and I am pretty sure there was more napping and wine drinking to distract me with this one.
C'est la vie............
And, of course we must finish with the heaviest read. Edward Behr is a favorite of both Ron and mines and were were only too happy to pack this in our holiday bags. Ron is finishing up the book as we speak and I have read most of it. It is a revised edition of his 1992 book and addresses the raw materials of good food, salt and pepper to salmon, ham, mustard, beef, apples, vanilla, cream, coffee. It is a heavy read and although Ron has sailed through it swimmingly I will happily tell you I had to dig out my food thesaurus several times as it gets quite wordy. However, it is written so well and filled with such interesting facts - I would almost call it a page turner.
Happy reading food lovers,

Signing off for today,

WiseMona