Postius I visited Gabri, Giu and Cleoius

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When I first got my sim sorted out I sent a message off to Gabri, my first host mum, to let her know the number and also to work out a time when we could catch up. I didn't hear back straight away and my first few weeks in Italy slipped by in a new language and post exam haze of tiredness. Before long every email from my mum ended with 'when are you going to see Gabri?' i sent her another text and when I didn't hear back this time sent one with Facebook too.

She was super excited to hear from me, we still don't know what happened to the messages but she was joking that she thought I'd died. With plans to spend 9 days at the mountains with Sara we weren't left with very much time to catch up =( after all the Christmas fuss calmed down I headed off for dinner with Gabri and Giu and to spend the night.

Walking in the door I got enveloped in giant hugs and when they were over almost knocked down by how hard Cleo was wagging her tail. It was just like coming home. They also live in a house, not an apartment, but it is much smaller and cosier than Sara's and despite the fact I was only there 2 months I'd say I'm more attached to that house than Sara's.

Everything was almost exactly as I remember, the coat rack was slightly closer to the wall, and they'd just got a new microwave (the old one still on the dining table). They'd upgraded the tv (and got Skye), the Christmas tree was out and Cleo's chin had gone a bit white but Giu still had the same key ring and the same tablecloth was out.

When we'd made plans Gabri said we'd have pizza so I didn't mention I couldn't eat things, figuring it would be easier to explain in person where I could order pizza without cheese or farinata, a Chickpea flour pancake. This was an oversight on my part. Having remembered how much I loved pasta she'd made pasta al forno (baked pasta, sort of like Lasagna but make with pasta instead of sheets) topped with fresh mozzarella. I ate it very happily for it was absolutely delicious. I had gluten enzymes in my bag so wasn't worried about the pasta and had been good regarding cheese altering being rather ill a few days before Christmas.

I cannot stress how delicious it was, I've been eating gluten free pasta for years and while it's passable I had forgot just how much better proper pasta was. I declined to finish my meal with more cheese, not wanting to tempt fate too much, but it wasn't one of my favourites anyway. Not only was my weight loss (back to my normal) commented on, but also how much better my skin was doing. When I stayed with Gabri and Giu, and in fact for most of my stay in Italy I had terrible skin, I thought at the time from the gluten. I have now though changed my mind, believing that it's actually from eggs; when I first arrived we found some delicious GF biscuits but they were 9% egg. Thinking it wouldn't kill me too much so long as I only ate them for a little while I had them for breakfast most days. About ⅔ through the packet my body decide that was enough, my skin was super oily and there was barely 2cm between pimples. Once I started baking my own biscuits and finished the backed of store bought ones my skin cleared up pretty quickly.

I explained to Gabri that I was allergic to eggs so we think that was mainly why, but it also happens if I eat too much milk, which also allowed me to explain why I had brought soy milk for breakfast.

After dinner we all plunked down in front of the tv and alternated between watching it and talking. I was super proud that I did the whole thing completely in Italian. I didn't have any other choice, Gabri knows only a few words of English and Giu has forgotten most of hers since she finished school. There was much hand waving and pausing as I tried to think of the right word or conjugation. I know that my grammar was very poor, most of what I was trying to say required several different forms of past tense and I've only ever learnt the two most basic. I stuck with just using them or swapping back to present simple when quoting someone.

Gabri was super impressed with my italian, even going so far as to say it was better then hers (which is an obvious and extreme lie, but appreciated all the same). When I stayed with them for my exchange I was basically mute. I could understand very little italian and speak even less. When I got home from school I would retreat to my room to sleep, read or play around with my computer, anything really on my own, in silence and away from Italian. At the time I used to listen to music while I went to sleep but was complete unable to for several months, falling into bed each night completely exhausted and with my mind in absolute overdrive. I might not have been speaking italian I sure was trying my absolute best to pick up and follow what I could. The only real time I would spend around the house with other people would be after dinner. I'd make an effort to sit on the couch and try and follow some TV, or play around on my computer there.

Gabri revealed that she'd been really worried about me, always being shut up in my room and sleeping all the time. I spent a while trying to explain it to her but she still couldn't understand why I had been so tired when I never did anything with my time. I finally pointed out it was my brain that was tired from trying to follow conversations where I knew so little, trying to puzzle out what on earth was being talked about. When we got to this point it seemed to click into place for them just how difficult those first few months had been.

Half way through the night Gabri declared how nice it was to actually get to see the real me, who could communicate and was boisterously waving her arms, and how different it was to how I'd been before. It was a really great night the three of us an Cleo all sprawled on the couch, discussing something when it came to mind and settling in to watch TV in between.

We did presents after dinner and there was much sighing and exclaiming over the fact that i shouldn't have brought so many things (a present each and novelty ice cube tray). For Gabri i had bought a blue glass necklace that she insisted on putting on straight away and was wearing again the next morning with her pyjamas. I was pleasantly surprised that when Giu opened her present she excitedly asked if it was a room perfumer and pointed out she was in fact in need of one, I shouldn't have been stressed at all.

From Gabri and Giu i got a beautiful new scarf and a scalda mani (a small instantaneous reusable heat pack). Throughout the night Gabri also gave me a blue glass eye bead from Greece for luck and a pair of cuffie (earmuffs) for the mountains. The earmuffs were hers but she was very insistent in gifting them to me, with little use for them in Australia I will probably return them when I visit again when I'm back from the mountains.

January 6th is Befana, the day when a good 'witch' come around and gives coal to bad children and a you/caramelle to good children. It's the day we're heading home from the mountains so I've promised to go back and visit again that night or the next.

Postius two biscuits in one nightius

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A week or so ago now I decided if there was more choice of biscuit it would take longer for all the ones wanted to eat to disappear so I set out to make two differnt types in one afternoon. The day previously in a small window of time I had at home to myself I blended up some fresh almond butter in the Bimby. Probably I stopped before it was quite runny enough for one of the recipes but I added some extra coconut oil to make it up.

Sara was visiting Corrado at Venice for the weekend so we had cousin Bianca and her mum, Jose, staying with us. The time with them made me very thankful for how quickly and how well Sara worked me out. Neither would really take the time to modify their Italian so I could follow (and I honestly had no interest in it either) and if ever I was content eating in silence Bianca would decide I was apparently just waiting for someone to talk to me in english. The trouble is when I'm putting effort into listening to italian the change back to English isn't the easiest. And 'Breanna speak in english' isn't really the best conversation starter.

Over lunch one day I managed to pick out some words that indicated someone was going out in the afternoon but since no one had told me about it I assumed it didn't effect me, I though Bianca had basketball practice. A few hours later when Jose walks up to me and Tan and asks if we're ready to leave or need to do anything before we go she seemed rather affronted when I said I didn't want to go. Later when they were all heading out the door she asked me again if I was sure I didn't want to come and maybe I'd changed my mind. I was a bit frustrated by that point, I still had no idea where they were going and I had explained I needed some time on my own, Bianca is 16 and seems to take great joy in making ridiculous amounts of noise when playing stupid games with Tancredi. I cannot stand people who think that being an introvert is a bad thing, no, I do not /want/ to be an extrovert, I want some time to my self. 

I compensated by going to the gym and then making the almond butter. The next afternoon Tancredi and I set about making the biscuits together. Both were almond based, one sort of like jammy dodgers and the other just a nondescript biscuit. The jam ones are super delicious and a great texture also. The other ones though ate quite plain and I would probably blend the almonds longer next time to have a finer meal and i would press them a litter thinner although. They do however make a great excuse for eating Nutella at breakfast.

During this baking session I managed to finish off the 250ml bottle of maple syrup I'd opened the week before, but don't tell anyone!

Postius about Christmasius

So December 8th is some sort of religious public holiday that most people use to put up Christmas decorations. Tancredi and I constructed the tree while hassling Selene to help is decorate it. We had a few issues with light distribution but eventually gave up with them spend unevenly. Most of the decorations were glass based but there were also the occasional plastic one made by Tancre when he was little and a few fabric ones that look to me. More like decorations for around the house. But Sara insisted we put them on also.

Next came the nativity set. It turns out that my experience of nativities was far from the normal here. The one I am used to is my Nanna's and consists just of a stable, a few animals and all the other usual players. The one Tancredi and I constructed takes up the entire top of a chest of draws. And that's incredibly crowded too.

There are three different bridges and a well, all of which have to line up and then we used alfoil to create a river between it all. There is a sheep enclosure the size my Nanna's entire set, and so many people there's little space for them all. Mostly we disregarded perspective and just put people where they fitted although we did manage to get one lady washing her clothes in the river.

I managed to convince Tancredi to give the snow a miss this year and he in turn scolded me for putting jesus in his crib before the Christmas. Also the wise men aren't allowed to be there yet.

I must say I am rather proud of my presents this year. And not just how fancy they look all wrapped up. Mum and I went to lots of markets my last few weekends in Australia (including two right before I left!) looking for gift, mostly for my families here, but I also had an eye out for others to. Of all the presents I bought there's only one that I'm not entirely happy with, but it was the best we saw. It's for Giu, we were stuck for so long an ended up getting her a carved pine cone wardrobe perfume thing.

The great thing about having exams in November is that internet shopping for Christmas presents fits nicely into breaks, so between that and the markets/craft fairs I had most of my shopping done before I left. I've been wrapping my presents in a pretty similar way for a few years now, initially I used brown paper and coloured ribbon but the perfect ribbon is hard to come by and so is the right type of brown paper.

I brought a roll of gold with me to Italy so I could show off my usual wrapping style, but i still had to find ribbon. I was thinking 1" fabric and colours but I spotted this silver in the house and it looked really nice. I have since bought myself 10m to bring home and last me the next few years!

Christmas in the Giovannini house works like this; tree and nativity go up Dec 6, Nonno Aldo does the outside lights around the same time, then, you continue to ignore the fact Christmas is approaching all the way up until the 24th (with the exception of accompanying Nonna Irma on frequent shopping trips), then on the 24th you start cooking for the big dinner that night. This only really starts after lunch though since Sara is at work. Then you set up tables for the ~20 friends+family who come over for dinner that night.

This seems to be a bit of a 'those who don't have other family' thing, but it's hard to say since the families of Tancredi's and Selene's best friends were there. This format works out well because it means that no one person has to do all the cooking. Fully prepared to survive on large portions of a few dishes that were Breanna compatible I was surprised that everyone had put the effort into making a dish I could eat. When their usual offering contained something that I couldn't eat most people had made an alternate dish or modified some so that I could have it too. I felt very well looked after.

The one course I knew it would be hard to work around, though, was dessert. There are only so many integral ingredients you can substitute before things start to go wrong. The week before when Sara and Selene had created the food list for the night I snuck 'Breanna's cake' onto the list, so that i'd have something to contribute also. I didn't admit until the 23rd when we were writing the shopping list that my cake needed 6 eggs and fresh cream (bonus points if you can guess what I was making).

Earlier in the week I'd quizzed Tancre on the Christmas proceedings and ascertained that presents happened at midnight. And while the thought of such a long day was discouraging it did mean it provided a convenient time to talk to my family in aus.

It turns out that everyone else was also discourage by the thought of having to wait until midnight so we did presents at 11 instead. Tancredi was super excited when he unwrapped Perth addition Monopoly and we were playing it within 15 minutes! From Tan, Sele and Sara i got a lovely blue jumper, it's super soft and super warm and I just want to wear it all the time! Nonna Irma gave me a new red handbag since my old one is wearing out, and the mum of Selene's friend found me a jar of gluten free, Dairy free hazelnut spread which was lovely of her(she also heartily embraced the concept of making food experiments I could eat for dinner).

We played monopoly for 2+ hours straight, only stopping because I had organised to talk with my family at 1am and everyone else used this as an excuse to go home to bed. Dad, it turns out was more interested in his ham on toast breakfast than having an extended chat to me, but it was nice to catch up with everyone for Christmas.

Christmas Day we headed off to an aunt's house near Pinerolo (~50min drive) for lunch. Sara has decided not to tell her about all the things I can't eat, knowing there'd be lots of food so I could just choose what I could eat. This was true but the aunt was serving all the food so I felt bad always having to say no to the delicious looking cheese filled things.

The aunt's son was a carpenter but when work stopped being easy to find he went and learnt how to make bread. He bakes using a wood fire over and also makes bread without yeast (so i assume sour dough). He has a lovely workshop, all of the pine furnishings he made by hand. I would have loved to take some photos but my phone was flat and no one told me the reason we were going outside was to look at it so I didn't have my big camera =(

He made all the bread that was on the table at lunch, there were three different kinds; white, uvetta, and whole grain (all were delicious) and lots of them too! For mains we had anatra alla arancia (duck with orange) and while some bits were delicious others were quite dry. The ducks where ones they had on their property and Tancre asked about them, apparently they were both silver and green, their third duck had apparently been eaten in a previous meal.

Probably my favourite part of the whole meal was dessert. This is the course that is the most difficult for me to find something to eat so I was resigned to just stealing tastes from people. Until they bought out home made Panettone, in a traditional style that is much flatter than what we traditionally associate with Panettone. I stole a bit of Sara's and it was absolutely delicious. I decided that it's only Christmas once a year, and if there's one thing I eat that's wrong it may as well be home made Panettone. It was super delicious. As I commented to Sara, there is only one smell I have in my smell memory that smells like Panettone. That smell means Panettone and Christmas and it's great.

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Updateius I did yogaius

The gym in signed up at has two rooms where they run classes, most are things like fitbox, step and spinning (read high impact/cardio activities I hate) but they also have pilates, yoga and stretching. I bit intimidated by my inability to understand much italian I tried to timeda few of my visits so I could peek through the window and see if I'd be able to keep up. I only actually managed to do this with pilates but after researching the type of yoga they offered I figured I'd be able to remember enough of it from my years ago yoga classes to get through it. That and I could cheat and follow the people around me.

When I got there most people seemed like regulars, they had their own mats and were catching up. One of the ladies had a mat from the gym so I asked if I had to so anything special or just grab a mat. I was one of the new youngest in the class, there was another girl around my age and then the next youngest was a lady probably in her mod thirties. When the instructor arrived (a little late, for which he was jokingly chastised) he checked that it was my first time there. Despite not having pre organised a response I think I did an alright job of explaining I was from Australia but had done a bit of toga there. They wanted to know what I was doing here so we had a group chat about how I went on exchange and was back from Christmas. Everyone was jealous of my being from Australia, it seems to be idolised as a place everyone wishes to visit.

I got a little lost with the beginning poses but once we'd warmed up we moved into sun salutations and warrior poses, All ones I'd do w previously. The style was a little bit different to what I was used to, more dynamic and less about holding and breathing into a pose. That took a little whole to get used to but before long I was doing alright. I got corrected a bunch but mostly for things like where to have my elbows and how to point my toes, All things I hadn't understood properly.

The instructor was really nice and took time to help us into some of the weirder poses, like headstands and back bends, if we wanted to try them. He also came by and stretched me into a few of the poses that my hamstrings or QLs where making difficult.

I had a bit if a hard time getting into the right mind set, concentrating so much on the Italian and trying to remember the poses correctly kept distracting me but I still had a pretty good time. At the end one of the ladies farewelled me as a friend (with cheek kisses) and the instructor asked if I'd be back. The gym is closed for the next few sessions because of Christmas and befany so there's only one more before I head home. Only problem is its after my gym membership expires. We're away at the mountains for a little over a week after Christmas so i'm waiting until Monday when the nice lady works so see if I can swap that week for the four days after my card expires before I head home. Fingers crossed for that.

Postius finally some food no one will eatius

For whatever optimistic reason I decided to make gluten free shortbread. I cannot recall now why I thought it would be a good idea, shortbread contains a lot of butter, hence it being called short. Gluten free pastries are generally more fragile than those containing gluten, so too are those using a vegetable based butter replacement. When I look at it like that this recipe was set for disaster from the beginning.

The end product was not /catastrophic/, they're quite delicate but don't crumble when you look at them. However they're not the most delicious thing I've ever made. This is due mainly to the flavour of the margarine, I imagine that could be improved by using one with a more natural taste. They're also quite powery in taste and texture, in part this could be due to using inaccurate measure or because I substituted cornflour for the arrowroot the recipe asked for.

Over all they're edible, especially when dunked in nesquik at breakfast time, but not so delicious that they evaporate in 24 hours. There are infact around 10 left 4 days later!

Gluten free vegan shortbread was the only less than successful cooking experiment of the day. I'd decided to make some GF savoury crackers so that I could snack without dying from sugar overdose. The all purpose go flour I'd bought turned out to really fine (mostly rice I think) which meant I had to add significantly more water than the recipe called for to get it to come together. Next drama was I couldn't find a rolling pin. I knew there was one, I'd used it before, I even texted Selene, she said there was some but she had no clue where. I ended up using a bottle of wine. It worked well enough but it turned out I hadn't rolled the dough thin enough, edge pieces were deliciously crispy but the majority were 2.5mm thick and /very/ hard. I still managed to break my jaw through them all in a few days though.

And genius brain me, decided to make an eggplant relish to go with the crackers. I consulted with Liberty and we decided on a recipe. Possibly due to the small quantity or possibly due to my incompetence it didn't work so well. The Bimby wouldn't pick up the mix to blend it and in the end I had a small bowl of spongey eggplant and garlic chunks. I'm not going to give that one another go, instead today I bought some raw almonds and am going to try a Bimby recipe for carrot relish/dip.

Updateius the best way to shell a hazelnutius

With the rice crispy slice almost gone I decided it was time to bake something else. When I went on my initial quest for ingredients I had three recipes in mind; cookies, rice crispies and brownies. So most of the ingredients I already had. However the brownies used mostly almond flour, at 4€/100g I decided we'd check out actual almonds at the markets instead. Tancredi and I were being lazy on Saturday so I asked Sara to pick some up for me when she went. She came back with a half kilo bag of fresh flour, apparently it was cheaper than the while nuts. So now I'm all set for most of the things I could wish to cook. I've even started a little pantry of my own next to the microwave and behind the fruit bowl.

Yesterday afternoon I popped to the shops to pick up some chocolate and margine (also conditioner since I managed to get two shampoos the last time) and set out cooking. I started quite late, about 6.30 and anticipated having another stressful baking session once everyone else arrived home. Fortunately however it was just 10mins before baking was complete that everyone arrived. Perfect timing.

Now the original recipe called for crushed walnuts but Sara had a bowl of hazelnuts sitting around and they go just as well, I'd not better, with chocolate so I decided to use them instead I grabbed a couple handfuls and set about shelling them. The first few were catastrophic; completely smashed with bits if shell everywhere. I tried a couple applying less pressure but to the apex and base, it worked perfectly, the shell would split longitudinally, leaving the nut intact. After discovering this is was much quicker but still tedious work. I admire our ancestors for having the patience to acquire sustenance this way. I personally wouldn't want to crack nuts with my jaw, even if I /had/ wisdom teeth...

The rest went off without a hitch. Only problem with me baking delicious vegan things is that I get these stupid sugar/carb cravings and will happily eat the whole mix before its cooled! It's delicious though, raw and cooked. Selene even gave it her tick of approval. She still askes if my baking adventure is vegan but it's lost its sceptical tone. She seems to be content that things can be absolutely delicious and still with out eggs, butter, milk or flour. She even provides great feedback; the brownies are less crunchy and without the specific gooey layer you get in normal ones but over all more squishy. I'm glad to have converted her. It's great proof these things can be comparably delicious.

The recipe is once again from ohsheglows.com

Next up are GF vegan crackers and a thermomix dip relish to go with them. I'm having trouble finding many plausible thermomix recipes, most require fancy/strange/out of season ingredients, but I'll get there, I promise!

I promise I scraped more of this into the pan! I didn't eat it aaaaaaaaall

I've never made brownies in a round tin before; it makes and abundance of delectable pieces just asking to be snacked on!

Updateius Tancredi is my assistant cookius

With the cookies basically gone not even 24 hours after I made them I thought I'd top up the forlorn looking box with something else. I'd been hoarding most of the ingredients and was only missing a few substitute ingredients and rice bubbles, that I didn't by from the big supermarket and then couldn't find at the small one. Fortunately however, just as I was heading out the the gym (and afterwards to the mini shop to get a few substitutes) Sara was off to a different big shop to get some things in preparation for Tancredi's party tonight. His birthday is December 30 which obviously proves difficult party-wise because people go away for the holidays. So while Sara was off stocking up on party food I had her pick up some rice bubbles for me.

I gave Sara and her friend Angelina a hand preping food and then during an hour long pre party activity lul (a thing I have never experienced) i set to making rice crispies. Once Tancredi saw a picture of what I was making he was more than happy to give the mix a stir while I measured things out. He then refused to relinquish the wooden spoon to me again so we continued on together. He did eventually relinquish the spoon to me, I assume only because he viewed adding the rice bubbles as more fun!

When we were almost done and everything was looking delicious he called Sele over to check it out, much to my surprise she didn't say comment on its strangeness (as she has done with all things gluten/egg/dairy free). We fed her some of the unset mix and she thought it was delicious (i sharnt tell her it has evil rice milk in it).

With two people cooking things went faster than I expected and I forgot to take photos. However I imagine most of this batch will be gobbled up by Tancredi's friends meaning there'll be another batch soon that i can take action shots of.

With Tancredi's party in full swing (i do not recall ever having this much energy when I was 13!) and the slice in the freezer Sara is wondering if we'll survive and counting down the hours until everyone leaves...

Now it tuns out we forgot to mix the chocolate chips in so I sprinkles them on top and then pressed them in. This recipe is supposed to use peanut butter but a) I'm not a huge fan and b) it's rather difficult to find in Italy, so instead we used Nutella, meaning that the whole thing ended up sweeter, stickier and less structurally sounds than anticipated but it's still rather delicious. More work is required though before is the scrumptious slice from the original recipe.

Updateius I made cookiesius

One of my walks the other day was to our local supermarket, carrefour. Have have a carrefour express that is only 5mins walk from the house but it's only tiny. The bigger one is about a half hour walk away but is a cross between a super iga, and target. I rugged up and set off at about 5.30 (i'm the dark). I was after a bunch of different flours, and some other strange things for gluten free vegan cooking. 50 mins and three complete pass overs of the shop I had most of what I was looking for, with in reason since I had to carry it all with me home again. The thing I had the most trouble with was flax seeds, I'm hind site it was probably the easiest thing to find (i'm an organic food section) but I had almost given but hope by the time I stumbled upon it.

I didn't manage to find brown rice syrup or almond meal but the first  can be replaced with honey and the second lead to my discovery of Sara's Bimby as a thermomix (also I found farina di mandorle at the carrefour express). I decided that if I couldn't find almond flour I'd just have to make some myself, Google searching for instructions on how to make it with Sara's Bimby I found a recipe but didn't understand it fully so chucked it through google translate. Much to my surprise it spat out 'thermomix' where ever 'Bimby' had been! A quick google image search confirmed it did just have a different name in Italy and I quickly shot off emails of excitement to my mum and sister. A thermomix is one of those great things you hear everyone raving about as being fantastic, but never really get to try out/see in action. With a price tag around 2000aud it's not surprising that I only know of who people who own one, and both are friends of my parents. What amazes me more is that Sara has one and doesn't use it all the time. From what I gather they are a completly magical machine that you just /have/ to use multiple times a day and never /ever/ make anything without it. Okay so that's a bit if am exaggeration but still, I've only seen a couple things made in it the whole 8 months I was here last time.

So, the Bimby/thermomix and I are going to be great friends. It also explains why Sara doesn't have a a hand mixer, it can do basically everything.

My first little foray into the land of the Bimby was using to make cookies last night. Since the recipe wasn't thermomix specific I only used it to cream butter and sugar, then decanted the mix to fold in the flour by hand. But still, Sara was making jokes about our new found friendship. I had initially planned to make the cookies while everyone was still out but I had a couple of things to get from carrefour express. I forgot to bring money when I went to the gym (halfway between home and the shops) and then i decided it was cutting it a bit close to siesta to had off. I generally end up walking around for ages looking at everything until I find what I'm after.

So by the time I got into cooking mode Selene and her friend were I want the kitchen, Tancre got home from school and started harnessing them and Sara and Corrado where piping in and out with a couple of friends. I'm pretty sure 6 people in my kitchen quarrelling in a foreign language while I try to cook a new recipe on unknown equipment without measuring spoons/cups is my own personal type of he'll. But, i survived. Selene was sceptical the whole time, convinced that the biscuits would be weird, even when she tried the dough that tasted like basically any other type of cookie dough ever.

In the end I probably over cooked them slightly because the flour I was using don't brown and I was dubious of the recipe that said to hoik them after 10mins. I was also unsure of the consistency of the mix so added more flour despite it saying it's normal quite runny. In the end they came out a bit thicker and a bit harder than I was expecting but everyone who's tried them reckons they're delicious and can't tell how on earth they're vegan and gluten free.

They haven't lasted long either, there are only two little ones left 24 hours later...

Updateius I'm went to the gymius

In Australia I've been trying to get the the gym two or three times a week to do strength training exercises (since we all know that I don't weight enough). And despite that fa t Mt visits got rather infrequent as the semester wore on i didnt wasn't to go 6 ½ weeks eating pasta and sitting on the couch, since last time I put in 10kgs of fat doing that. So early last week I ad Selene accompany me to her old gym (she's currently back doing gymnastics so has changed gyms) and help me sign up. It's pretty expensive (65€ for a month) but hopefully that can be some incentive to go everyday. Before they let you start you need a medical certificate saying you're not going to drop dead and try to sue the (another 20€) so Tuesday last week saw me back at the gym on my own for the medical assessment.

When we were signing up Selene had explained that I was from Australia and when I went back for the medical assessment some of the same people where there and obviously have the doc the heads up. I was a bit worried about being able to communicate sufficiently without someone else there to help (my real is very, very slow, or non existent) but he was super good, spoke slowly in simple sentence and would try a different way if i didnt understand things the first time. He was doing pretty simple things, blood pressure, heart rate breath and heart sounds, so that helped quite a bit. When I had to lay down for the heart sounds he didn't try a complicated thing first, just started straight off saying with my stomach up. It's pretty rare to have someone so good as explaining things so I can understand them, makes me think maybe he has travelled abroad.

The next day I went back for my first session at the gym. I'd had a pretty crappy day and would have much preferred to stay at home curled up on the couch with Jace but decided if i managed to drag myself to the gym the day wouldn't be a total write of. Walking into the place was like walk g into a sauna, sweaty people and heating are not the best combination. The lady on the desk was the same as the day before and she took my card and showed me to the change rooms.

The gym was pretty much packed and I don't really enjoy crowds of people at the best of times so I jumped on a treadmill to give me something to do while I sussed everything out. Actually getting the treadmill to start was a bit of a challenge but one of the gym dudes came over and gave me a hand, he seemed to know to speak slowly and simply as well. He also came up to me later and corrected my It's form on a piece of equipment. It's really nice that they take the time to make sure I'm doing alright, I can just imagine in their staff meeting explain that the skinny girl with bright red hair is Australian.

After a warm up on the treadmill I braved the scary machines to atleast put in a little bit of effort. In Perth I go to Jetts which is a chain of gyms so no matter which one I go to or in which state the equipment is basically the same. This is super useful for the times when I have and hour and a half to kill in Melbourne before my flight home but not so useful well I suddenly end up somewhere with different equipment. My time on the ground treadmill allowed me to workout what exercise people where doing on each machine but working out the weights was another challenge in it's self. Basically I start on the lowest or second lowest and give it a shot, change the weights until I think it's close. I did a pretty light session that first time just to get in the swing of things and prove to myself that it wasn't so scary. I did however decide I was not going to go back again in the evening unless it was unavoidable, too many sweaty dudes and not enough free equipment.

This Tuesday I got up and for myself to the gym around 10 (later than I was aiming for) thinking most people would still be at work. This was true, however the local senior citz had obviously worked this out too. All the treadmills were full so I went in only lightly warmed up from the few minute walk over. I'm hind sight this was a poor decision, I woke up yesterday incredibly stiff. Some of it I had expected, not having been to the gym for a couple of weeks, but I didn't think I'd be wincing every time I moved. I brought one of mum's spiky balls with me so spent a while working out muscles as much as I could. I still decided to skip the gym though, instead opting for a couple of long walks to stretch out.

These walks where also duel purposed; finding strange flour and vegan baking staples. I will prove that gluten, egg and dairy free biscuits can be delicious. I feel that the discovery that Sara's Bimby is actually a Thermomix will assist me greatly in this endeavour.

Today I am back at the gym again, still a little sore but for the most part it's the good sore. I managed to time it perfectly this time so that I arrived just as the older ladies were stripping for the showers, but you know; win some, lose some. The nice gym guy said hi when he spotted me and I managed to watch a bit of a yoga/stretching class that i might eventually build up the courage to join. Today I am off to find the last few ingredients to cook with (and maybe even a trip to Eataly, a very awesome very dangerous slow food shop) and hopefully soon there will be a post of delicious Breanna compatible creations.

-Breanna

Updateius I'm not sure if I still have toes

Today is the 50tth wedding anniversary of Nonna Irma and Nonno Aldo so we had a party. Friday evening Sara, Selene, Sele's friend Alice (Ali-che, not Alis) and I went shopping for supplies, for almost three hours... While we were there we bought 13 bottles of wine, a bunch of different cheeses (boo, not cheese for meee) gluten free biscuits, soydrink (soy milk by with sugar, unfortunately all I've found so far) and a whole lot of other things.

Cooking started late morning Saturday, commencing with Selene getting the quarters through making tiramisù the whole realising she'd forgotten the mascarpone. While she mixed that in to the remaining mix I started pulling off the top layer of biscuits and scraping into the bowl most of the mix we'd already put down. Both Sara and Sele were apparently quite surprised at my going this. When I pointed out that otherwise it would be wrong, they said they knew that but wouldn't have been bothered fixing it. I like to think I ensured it was delicious, even if I couldn't try it.

I helped as much as I could with the cooking whilst also translating for Tancredi what he had to do in one of the mmorpgs (massive multiplayer online roll playing game) I'd brought with me. One of Sara's friends was over helping us and she bought me from Sara for €5 to help make fruit salad.

Corrado arrived from Venice for the weekend and explained he was worried he'd break me if he hugged me. My weight I generally the first topic of conversation when I see someone I knew last time. In the 10 months I was here I gained 9.5kg and that being around 1/5 my weight it is kind of obvious now I've lost it again. I generally follow that conversation up with the fact I'm allergic to eggs and dairy and don't eat much gluten. The fact that i 'can't eat anything' seems to placate them about my weight.

In preparation for the party I had an afternoon nap. Tancredi reminds me daily that I have forgotten most of my italian (he's making me a homework schedule to cover 3 years of primary school in the 6weeks I'm here) and I'm finding that by mid afternoon I'm mentally exhausted. The two situations I have the most trouble with in understating this is when there's lots of people and when it's noisy, both of which I knew would be the case, so I napped for a bit.

For a couple of hours during the day it snowed (!). It was very light and mostly really small flakes but at one point they were huge so I rugged up and went and stood in them for a few minutes. Tancre and Sele thought it was weird but I guess they see it all the time. In the first 15 minutes it was snowing I told Tancre approximately 10 times that it was.

The party went pretty well, although I had a bunch of people tell me I lost too much weight and I had a super hard time understand people. Eventually I gave up and sat in the 'kids corner' with Tancredi and some of his friends, which actually turned our be a good thing because that was where the music was and thus I got to watch people dance stupidly. The funniest thing was when 'I will survive' started playing, Manu (Tancredi's friend) turned around and put his hand behind Tancre's neck in a tango-esk way. We all burst out laughing

Selene and Tancredi's cousin (who I've never met) Greta was in Turin just the one night for the party and so she Sele and Alice convinced me to go out with them. On the promise that since it was cold and we were all tired it wouldn't be for long. And hence why i'm not sure if i still have toes... I was 0deg C while we were out, sitting outside a bar for 30+mins...
I think I need new shoes.

-Breanna

Updateius I'm here againius

Two years almost to the day since I left Italy I was back at Perth international airport and on my way back again. To provide a bit of back story I had initially planned to return for Christmas 2012 but that seemed a bit unlikely with the money I was making so I put it off for another year.

It got to August this year and I found myself looking at flights over for Christmas. Imagine my surprise when after playing around with dates for a while I found flights under $1800 that also took less than 24 hours, quite a feat at the best of times, let alone 3 months before you intend to fly!

So after a stressful week of 4 exams in 4 days I had three days to hurriedly find a few remaining Christmas presents and get all packed. Heading off to the airport 20mins later than planned (and with still drying hair to boot) check in went smoothly and I was already to go.

Flying Singapore Airlines and with a 3 hour stop over in Changi I made it to Italy at 5.36am, the first flight to land after the end of the airports curfew. Although it did mean I got my baggage nice and quickly it also meant I ended up in a mostly un opened airport and with a 2.5h wait for the first bust to Turin. I worked out where to buy a ticket from (after fighting the website for two days and getting rejected on three cards) and planned out my whole conversation, only to find out that the person whom I had to get the ticket from wasn't in yet.

When arriving at the airport we were informed it was 2deg C outside and the elderly Asian couple next to me were concerned about my lack of jumper. Even once I'd excited to the airport proper I still didn't see the need for the warm coats everyone seemed to be wearing. But as i settled into my wait and as the airport became more busy I found myself digging into my bag for the coat mum and I had left at the top. I guess pulling around a 22kg bag with ~6kg hand luggage on top  was enough cardio to keep me warm for that first bit.

After an accidental snooze (and being woke up by a kid playing candy crush on full volume) on the bus Jace and I arrived in Turin where we were met by Selene (who had skipped uni) and her boyfriend who drive me home, marking the end of my 28 hours of travel. After some morning tea and unpacking my bag (the work of but a few minutes given half of it was full of Christmas gifts) we planned to head over to Tancredi's school to see him.

He spotted us from inside the gates and came out beaming. I only just got a 'ciao Tancre' in before getting hugged. He's now taller than me, but not yet by much! As per tradition there were a few more 'ciao Bre's in the car ad we dropped him off at his grandma's for the afternoon.

When Sara came home from work in time for lunch two of the first three conversations we had were about how I'd lost weight (the other being what I was doing at uni). The rest of the afternoon has been filled with my trying to stay warm and awake. Soon we're off to pick up Tancre and buy me a sim. Somewhere in there I think we're going to visit Nonna Irma too.