Late Summer 08

Its all going at a pace... Steedley got a 'job'. She and Daddy had a day in Milan where she did a photo shoot for Giorgio Armani. With any luck the fee will cover the train fares. At least she has started a c.v.

The camps went much better than last year. The obligatory crisis happened just as they started and we ended up without help in the garden and at home, but the teachers and helpers at the camp were wonderful and the children had lots of fun. Note for next year: Buy a sound system for the final show. Kids can't compete with an Italian audience (who always chat) and a railway alongside the stage!

We had Vivvi helping us for July. She arrived the same day as Granny Seaside and they both quickly got into days at the beach with the children. Granny made picnic lunches and used the wonderful picnic rucksack she gave us a couple of years ago. Granny was here a week. Vivvi waded through a chunk of an English course we got for the kids for their English Summer Work. We gave up when they were onto paragraphs and journalistic stories. Maybe we go back to it in late Autumn.

We have been to the beach so often the children beg for a day at home. They have nearly finished their Italian homework - weights and measures, centimetres and metres, kilograms and decalitres, celsius and cents.

I had my 50th actually on the 12th. Of the 60 people who accepted only 100 turned up! Luckily we have learnt from experience so we ask people to bring a dish instead of presents. It was a good excuse to load up on wine and we got through 25 litres of local organic Chardonnay and Rosso Piceno. I went for the good stuff so had to fork out €1.40 a litre. Well it was worth a splurge. It seems it was a fun evening, though Gina and I worked like dogs the whole night and finished putting the mountain of leftovers away sometime around 1 a.m. The cleaning waited for a day or so!

We had fun 2 days ago when there was a big fire in our neighbours wood. We ended up having the helicopter swooping over the house as it carried huge buckets of water to stop the fire spreading. Maybe I can get that on You Tube and post a link.

Steedley, George and Hamish have their birthday party tomorrow (Saturday). They have all decided on different cakes and Gina is busy baking. Daddy made that task harder by leaving the door open this morning, so the dogs got to George's cake. Luckily it was not yet iced (though I nearly was!).

Gina is getting big into Facebook. I found 30 people called Tim Wills on there, so formed a Tim Wills Group. What a strange bunch we are!