We've done it... On Thursday afternoon Barry and I went into Varese and signed the rental contract on our home for the next four years. The house is in Varese itself, on the southern side of the city and the north eastern end of the lake, Lago Varese. Our address for 7 August will be Via Zanelle 20, Varese; postcode to follow.
The house is the one we refer to as the 'vault house'. It is an architecturally designed place about 7 years old with a 7 tonne bank safe imbedded in the centre! Alan is thrilled at having somewhere to keep 'important' things such as his (still to be purchased) air soft gun and also his x-box when we go on holiday. The owners currently store their art and treasures in their when away from the house for more than a day. They have STUNNING art!
The landlord is planning on leaving much of the furniture for us, which is great as it is really lovely. This includes the kitchen (yes - the kitchen - many houses come without!), fridge, awesome modern aga style oven about 1.5-1.8m wide, leather settee, beds, drawers, sideboards, cffee tables etc. Wednesday of next week I go to Varese to compile an inventory with the landlord of exactly what stays. This will let me know what we will need to purchase.
We have done a trip to Ikea and got a catalogue to browse. It was only when we got home and I translated the title that I discovered the catalogues are only for use in the store - ooops - not for taking home. Oh welllll. Caitlin has identified the bed and desk she wants. We need to visit a few more shops for other things though.
We are hoping to move in earlier than 7 August. It all depends on when the landlord can move his family to their new home. He had wanted the move day to be 10 August but I explained that my mother is arriving on 8 August for six weeks - so he immediately offered to make it the 7th. He will try to make it a few days earlier still if he can. This would really help us as we are all going stir crazy in the hotel.
Will post photos of the house after the inventory visit!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Internet dependence - going cold turkey
I know I'm not an addict but being away from the computer for a week has been really hard going. The only access here in the hotel is still the computer in the lobby. This periodically loses the internet! Far too frequently for Alan's liking and usually when he is connected...
I keep wanting to go and look up some information about things to see and places to visit and lessons for the kids and support material for their learning and... and I can't. Even just catching up with the news from home on Stuff or my email or playing a game or... Okay I'm an addict. I NEED the internet!
The hotel has just changed from cabled internet to wireless in the lobby and started to charge; 4 euros an hour or 8 euros for a 24 hour period. Horribly expensive and rarely operational. We are back to a solid connection to get anything at all and we still have to pay.
We investigated getting a card for the laptops that would allow us access to the internet in our rooms (via vodafone) at 19euro a month. The only catch is that you have to sign on for 24 months. Definitely out of the price range that!
The other option is access via our mobile phones. I think I can post to the blog from my phone so will try to set that up now and then attempt to post later today.
I keep wanting to go and look up some information about things to see and places to visit and lessons for the kids and support material for their learning and... and I can't. Even just catching up with the news from home on Stuff or my email or playing a game or... Okay I'm an addict. I NEED the internet!
The hotel has just changed from cabled internet to wireless in the lobby and started to charge; 4 euros an hour or 8 euros for a 24 hour period. Horribly expensive and rarely operational. We are back to a solid connection to get anything at all and we still have to pay.
We investigated getting a card for the laptops that would allow us access to the internet in our rooms (via vodafone) at 19euro a month. The only catch is that you have to sign on for 24 months. Definitely out of the price range that!
The other option is access via our mobile phones. I think I can post to the blog from my phone so will try to set that up now and then attempt to post later today.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
House hunting in Italy
We've begun the hunt for a home in Italy. So far we have had two days out looking at a total of seven houses. Two were possibles. We are out to look at more tomorrow, Friday, and will probably make a decision then.
Housing in Italy would be hard to judge from what we have seen to date. Most that we have been shown are fairly modern, less than 10 years old and really don't provide the 'Italina experience' we were hoping for. Also, security concious is an understatement. Even here in the hotel our door is about 10cm thick with bolts that extend into the frame on both sides when locked. Some of the houses have bars on the windows, all have security fencing and require gate latches to be released from the house before visitors can enter. One house even has a seven tonne safe. The house was built around it. one wonder's about the owners business interests...
Some of the houses we have viewed have been stunning but embarassing in there size. The most incredible was in a small town called Caidate. The house has been in the hands of the same tennant for 26 years. They are moving to a new home of 900 square metres! This place is their home and workshop. They make 'clavichords' (brand Bizzi) and their show room , which is attached to the house, is extraordinary. The really interesting part of this house was walking through a little door from the show room, and almost immediately through another little door, then out into a courtyard surrounded by animal stalls. The courtyard had a huge arched entrance to our right and as we stepped through we realised what the the agent meant when she said the house was 'behind the castle' - oh that castle!
The two homes we like so far are quite different. One is very architectural and the owners are happy to leave much of the furniture. This would be helpful for us. The issue with it is the lack of space for the kids. The living area is all open plan so there is no separate space for them, except a large 'playroom' which only has external access form the house. Of course that may not be a bad thing. However, I'd like to have the place as a workroom and studio.
The second house we like is also a newer home with good living areas but very small bedrooms. The lovely thing about the house is the outdoor living room in the corner of the section. This little open air room has it's own kitchen for summer living. I loved it! The property also has a para pool in poor condition. It may or may not warrant the effort required to clean it up and get it running.
I wonder what we'll be visiting tomorrow with the next agent?
Housing in Italy would be hard to judge from what we have seen to date. Most that we have been shown are fairly modern, less than 10 years old and really don't provide the 'Italina experience' we were hoping for. Also, security concious is an understatement. Even here in the hotel our door is about 10cm thick with bolts that extend into the frame on both sides when locked. Some of the houses have bars on the windows, all have security fencing and require gate latches to be released from the house before visitors can enter. One house even has a seven tonne safe. The house was built around it. one wonder's about the owners business interests...
Some of the houses we have viewed have been stunning but embarassing in there size. The most incredible was in a small town called Caidate. The house has been in the hands of the same tennant for 26 years. They are moving to a new home of 900 square metres! This place is their home and workshop. They make 'clavichords' (brand Bizzi) and their show room , which is attached to the house, is extraordinary. The really interesting part of this house was walking through a little door from the show room, and almost immediately through another little door, then out into a courtyard surrounded by animal stalls. The courtyard had a huge arched entrance to our right and as we stepped through we realised what the the agent meant when she said the house was 'behind the castle' - oh that castle!
The two homes we like so far are quite different. One is very architectural and the owners are happy to leave much of the furniture. This would be helpful for us. The issue with it is the lack of space for the kids. The living area is all open plan so there is no separate space for them, except a large 'playroom' which only has external access form the house. Of course that may not be a bad thing. However, I'd like to have the place as a workroom and studio.
The second house we like is also a newer home with good living areas but very small bedrooms. The lovely thing about the house is the outdoor living room in the corner of the section. This little open air room has it's own kitchen for summer living. I loved it! The property also has a para pool in poor condition. It may or may not warrant the effort required to clean it up and get it running.
I wonder what we'll be visiting tomorrow with the next agent?
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Now for some observations on Italy...
Okay - so we have survived a few more days here in Italia... and we are trying to think more Italian ... the issue is that things are a little different ... so here are some observations to date ...
Also apologies to those I text to advise (about my new number) at 5.30pm local time. I forgot it was 3.30am NZ time. I'll let the rest of you know my number at a more civilised hour.
- We are NOT europeans. We are nothing like Europeans - in looks, style, or manners. We would never stare at someone whilst insulting them behind their backs. No we are NOT americans even though we speak english with a strange accent. An apology would be nice!
- NZ is far more advanced than we ever thought. In NZ you can buy groceries any day of the week - even any hour of the day. NOT SO in Italy. Here EVERYTHING closes on Sunday - all the way through to 2pm on Monday. OMG!!!!!! This would not have been an issue had we known about it and had we not been trying to buy groceries for the other two families arriving at 6.30am Monday morning.
- Switzerland is also closed on Sunday. We rang to check. At least they answered the phone.
- Hotel rooms come with furniture - and towels. That's all. No plates, kettle, pots, cutlery ...
- Houses have at least as many bathrooms as they have bedrooms. There is a bidet in every bathroom. The cleaners must think us very grubby as ours is never used.
- Traffic lights, road signs and driving laws are simply for guidance.
- The shortest period in time is the gap between the lights turning green and the first horn sounding.
- The country is very beautiful. It is very green and many of the towns are filled with trees lining the streets.
- There are as many friendly people as not - especially once they realise we are from Nuova Zelanda. They all go "Ahhh" and smile.
- Driving on the right hand side of the road is easy once you get used to "easy left (turn), hard right (turn)" in order to keep to the correct side of the road.
- The wine is cheap. VERY cheap. €3 for 5 litres - for cooking.
- Bubbly wine sealed with a cork and a string needs a corkscrew to open it. No amount of shaking the bottle will free the cork! Some day I may post the video!!
Also apologies to those I text to advise (about my new number) at 5.30pm local time. I forgot it was 3.30am NZ time. I'll let the rest of you know my number at a more civilised hour.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Two days in Italy - all the rumours are true!
We have surived our first few days in Italy really well, and we have discovered that all the rumours about Italy are true.
This morning Barry has gone off on his own to his office. Manuela, our relocations agent, will pick us up this afternoon to start looking for houses. She is trying to get us some SIM cards so we can use our mobiles here. (Vodafone disconnected my ability to roam so I cannot make or recieve calls or texts on my NZ number)
Must away - can't hold up the computer any longer. Ciao per adesso. (Cheers for now!)
- The country is truly beautiful. Avenues of trees lead to our hotel and, in the light breeze yesterday, leaves drifted across our path from the trees either side.
- The people are mostly very friendly, (and forgiving) especially when we try to speak the language.
- Image is very important! Clothing is worn VERY tight - even when it really shouldn't be - and/or very elegantly.
- Driving is linked to virility. Cars are small but driven like you were on the track at Monza.
- Red tape is incredible. It took a total of around 10 visits to about 6 different offices over 3 or 4 hours to get the dogs from the airport.
- Italians love dogs. You should have seen all these men in overalls fussing over the dogs when we finally got them out of the travel cage.
- The food is divine - fresh, tasty, varied. YUM.
- The wine is CHEAP. In the local supermarket you can buy wine in five litre bottles for about €3-4. A good bottle of local Italian bubbly is €7-8.
- The modern electronic world hasn't entirely arrived. There is one internet connection in our hotel. It is in the reception area and it is a 56k connection... nothing at all in the rooms.
This morning Barry has gone off on his own to his office. Manuela, our relocations agent, will pick us up this afternoon to start looking for houses. She is trying to get us some SIM cards so we can use our mobiles here. (Vodafone disconnected my ability to roam so I cannot make or recieve calls or texts on my NZ number)
Must away - can't hold up the computer any longer. Ciao per adesso. (Cheers for now!)
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Last day in Singapore - Italy here we come
We've had a lovely quiet day today. Some simple holiday down time was needed; so was time to repack! We eventually ventured out about 1pm for lunch at a well known local eatery.
'1036' is famous for its seafood although I found I couldn't order anything I had just been introduced to. Poor Caitlin was thoroughly enjoying her 'fou yung egg' until she discovered the shrimp.
http://www.edirectory.sg/articles/article-118.html
After lunch Caitlin and I decided to return to the house and rest. Barry and Alan headed off for more adventures. They returned around 5pm and Alan was buzzing. He'd had a ball with attack helicopters flying overhead, a visit to the military museum and managing to capture a squirrel on video!
Our plan for the rest of the day is to shower and change before heading to the airport about 8pm. That way we can explore the famous Changi airport before flying out around midnight. The idea is to sleep for 8 hours or so at the beginning of the flight (12.45 hours) and then awake and be ready for arrival at 6.45am local time, Milan.
'1036' is famous for its seafood although I found I couldn't order anything I had just been introduced to. Poor Caitlin was thoroughly enjoying her 'fou yung egg' until she discovered the shrimp.
http://www.edirectory.sg/articles/article-118.html
After lunch Caitlin and I decided to return to the house and rest. Barry and Alan headed off for more adventures. They returned around 5pm and Alan was buzzing. He'd had a ball with attack helicopters flying overhead, a visit to the military museum and managing to capture a squirrel on video!
Our plan for the rest of the day is to shower and change before heading to the airport about 8pm. That way we can explore the famous Changi airport before flying out around midnight. The idea is to sleep for 8 hours or so at the beginning of the flight (12.45 hours) and then awake and be ready for arrival at 6.45am local time, Milan.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Two days in Singapore - too many experiences!
What an amazing couple of days we have had here in Singapore. This is such a fascinating place with 4.6 million people all fitted into an area roughly the size of Lake Taupo. They plan to increase the population to 6 million over the next few years.
The contrast in housing is extraordinary. Most people live in 'HDBs' - high density building (I think). They build these sets of towering apartments, twenty at a time. Each set of towers gets a set of shops and a set of schools. Once complete they just move another 100,000 people into them. Instant city.
Each set of the housing towers is decorated with fishing poles, extending diagonally out from every window ledge, covered in drying laundry. Drying is a term I use loosely. The humidity is so high that after 24 hours the washing on our outside line was wetter than when it came out of the spin cycle.
The house we are staying in is one of the 'black and whites' built in the Sambawang area in the 1930s. The NZDF used them to house officers when NZ had a whole battalion up here. Now many of the houses are leased out to the Australians and Americans. This particular house is used for personnel in transit. Friends, Gillian and Steve, are based up here and invited us around to have dinner with them last night. Their home was once the 'top house' here and was taken over by the Japanese commander after Singapore surrendered during World War II. Steve's son had recently done a research project into the histroy of the house and was able to share some of its fascinating history.
Steve also took us for a drive to a local park at the beach and showed us just how close Malaysia and Singapore really are. Spitting distance. You can almost see the faces of the people in the barge-based bar across the strait. So strange for us Kiwis to see another country from the shoreline.
Today we all headed into town and began our adventures with Sinapore Slings in the Long Bar at Raffle's hotel. Caitlin and I then went off to explore the 'delights' of Orchard Road. What a contrast to the sites of the previous day. We did make some purchases but, even with the famous sales being on bargains were few and far between. We headed back to Sambawang to meet up withe Barry and Alan who had been off doing there own exploring. After picking up a few groceries for our last breakfast here we made for home.
Dinner was a difficult decision to reach so in order to appease everyone we drove to the 'Terror Club'; the local American navy club. Another culture shock. The food was everything one would expect in a military club; crumbed and deep fried with soggy salad. Having to over hear the 'gentleman' at the next table trying three times to arrange an assignation with a 'lady' added to the evening. What finally finished it for us though was the truly corny country and western music.
It's been a challenging few days on many levels; the move, the jet lag, the food, sights, smells and sounds, being blatantly in the minority. Exciting and tiring probably sum it up.
Happy 18th wedding anniversary to us!
The contrast in housing is extraordinary. Most people live in 'HDBs' - high density building (I think). They build these sets of towering apartments, twenty at a time. Each set of towers gets a set of shops and a set of schools. Once complete they just move another 100,000 people into them. Instant city.
Each set of the housing towers is decorated with fishing poles, extending diagonally out from every window ledge, covered in drying laundry. Drying is a term I use loosely. The humidity is so high that after 24 hours the washing on our outside line was wetter than when it came out of the spin cycle.
The house we are staying in is one of the 'black and whites' built in the Sambawang area in the 1930s. The NZDF used them to house officers when NZ had a whole battalion up here. Now many of the houses are leased out to the Australians and Americans. This particular house is used for personnel in transit. Friends, Gillian and Steve, are based up here and invited us around to have dinner with them last night. Their home was once the 'top house' here and was taken over by the Japanese commander after Singapore surrendered during World War II. Steve's son had recently done a research project into the histroy of the house and was able to share some of its fascinating history.
Steve also took us for a drive to a local park at the beach and showed us just how close Malaysia and Singapore really are. Spitting distance. You can almost see the faces of the people in the barge-based bar across the strait. So strange for us Kiwis to see another country from the shoreline.
Today we all headed into town and began our adventures with Sinapore Slings in the Long Bar at Raffle's hotel. Caitlin and I then went off to explore the 'delights' of Orchard Road. What a contrast to the sites of the previous day. We did make some purchases but, even with the famous sales being on bargains were few and far between. We headed back to Sambawang to meet up withe Barry and Alan who had been off doing there own exploring. After picking up a few groceries for our last breakfast here we made for home.
Dinner was a difficult decision to reach so in order to appease everyone we drove to the 'Terror Club'; the local American navy club. Another culture shock. The food was everything one would expect in a military club; crumbed and deep fried with soggy salad. Having to over hear the 'gentleman' at the next table trying three times to arrange an assignation with a 'lady' added to the evening. What finally finished it for us though was the truly corny country and western music.
It's been a challenging few days on many levels; the move, the jet lag, the food, sights, smells and sounds, being blatantly in the minority. Exciting and tiring probably sum it up.
Happy 18th wedding anniversary to us!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Arrived in Singapore
We've made it this far! Almost half way to Milan and we still have our sanity - although it has been tested a little in the last two weeks. Being without internet for the last six days has definitely challenged my sanity! However, here in the transit housing in Singapore there is a guest computer with internet access and almost the entire island has wireless access. Kids will be in heaven once they wake up.
Caitlin has already got online to chat with friends and to let know we had arrived this far safely. Well done her. I could barely keep my eyes open at that point and even looking at email was nearly impossible. It's now 6.32am local time and still dark so I'm huddled over the keyboard using the light from tyhe screen to illuminate the keys ... the bulb in the overhead light doesn't work. Still it's a connection with the world - so I'll huddle on.
Farewells at the airport were deeply appreciated and very difficult to face. It was wonderful to have so many friends there to see us off. More than a few tears were shed and so many hugs I'll stay held for a long time to come. It was especially lovely to see so many of the kids' friends there. What a great bunch of stunning young people.
The flights were great. We arrived into Auckland in time to walk accross to the international terminal and straight onboard Singaopore Air (SIA) - as last boarding call was being made. Not even time for a passing glance at a shop - can you believe it?! SIA have an excellent reputation in the air and it is well earned. We were very well looked after; food, drinks, comfort, entertainment - ahhhh :)
We have three days here in Singapore and hope to do some relaxing time at the American "Terror Club" today, just being on hoilday and doing (and thinking) nothing. Monday and Tuesday we want to see Orchard Road, and Sentosa Island, as well as taking time to visit all the places Patch used to go when up here on deployment. We've been lent a car with a GPS system and Patch has had the 'dual' on how to use it - so tourism here we come.
Caitlin has already got online to chat with friends and to let know we had arrived this far safely. Well done her. I could barely keep my eyes open at that point and even looking at email was nearly impossible. It's now 6.32am local time and still dark so I'm huddled over the keyboard using the light from tyhe screen to illuminate the keys ... the bulb in the overhead light doesn't work. Still it's a connection with the world - so I'll huddle on.
Farewells at the airport were deeply appreciated and very difficult to face. It was wonderful to have so many friends there to see us off. More than a few tears were shed and so many hugs I'll stay held for a long time to come. It was especially lovely to see so many of the kids' friends there. What a great bunch of stunning young people.
The flights were great. We arrived into Auckland in time to walk accross to the international terminal and straight onboard Singaopore Air (SIA) - as last boarding call was being made. Not even time for a passing glance at a shop - can you believe it?! SIA have an excellent reputation in the air and it is well earned. We were very well looked after; food, drinks, comfort, entertainment - ahhhh :)
We have three days here in Singapore and hope to do some relaxing time at the American "Terror Club" today, just being on hoilday and doing (and thinking) nothing. Monday and Tuesday we want to see Orchard Road, and Sentosa Island, as well as taking time to visit all the places Patch used to go when up here on deployment. We've been lent a car with a GPS system and Patch has had the 'dual' on how to use it - so tourism here we come.
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