A tale of three continents

Un sacco di foto che documentano il nostro percorso dall'India verso il Canada a fine giugno.

...

I have some cute photos from our last days in India and then our stay in Brussels and Torino on the way to Canada. All of this happened about three months ago, but "better late than never" should be the official title of this blog.

But first, a disclaimer:

It might appear that Rajiv is always wearing the same clothes in these photos. In fact, he is. He has strong opinions about what looks good on him and purple or stripes are his favorite. However, we do wash his clothes, occasionally, if he allows it.

Here we go:

June 19th 2010 - dinner at Kuttamama's house













June 20th 2010 - Rohan's birthday party at Vanilla Place (these were mostly taken by Anu)











June 23rd - Brussels, Emiliano's home after a long long trip







June 24th 2010 - at the playground near my place in torino







September 30th - very early morning in Torino getting ready to catch our flight



June 30th - in Brussels with Emiliano again - some people very tired, some people not so much




And then the day after we left Europe and finally reached home here in Waterloo.




The end.

Goodbye

Bisnonna Angiolina - my father's mother - died today. This is the most recent photo I have, from the last family gathering on Easter 2008.

Facciamo l'appello

Come i miei lettori italiani - mamma, ci sei? - avranno notato, sto scrivendo sempre meno in lingua italiana. Me ne dispiaccio, ma ha volte con il poco tempo che riesco a dedicare al blog scrivere in due lingue mi sembra un'impresa impossibile e cosi' mi limito a scrivere in inglese, che e' la lingua parlata, o almeno capita, dalla maggior parte dei miei - tre? - lettori.

Detto questo, non attendo che una scusa per scrivere nella mia lingua madre. Quindi, italiani che leggete il blog - e non siete la mia mamma - per favore battete un colpo! O almeno lasciate un commento :)

Week eleven

We are in India! It is hot hot hot, but not as Hot as I remember it to be when we came here with newborn Appu in June 2007. So far so good...

I skipped the week ten update, sorry about that, but it has been a busy couple of weeks. We have traveled a lot and met friends and family, and we have only had the benefit of a slow and expensive internet connection during our stay in Italy.

Highlights of the trip:

• Appu was looking forward to seeing his nonna again and he was delighted to be reminded that she lives with three feline friends ("Nonna! Gatti!")
  
• Nonno was good company too and tried to impress Appu with his famous magic tricks, like the disappearance and reappearance of the ashtray.
• There is a nice playground next to our place in Torino. It used to be a bit too advanced for little Appu, but not anymore, now Appu can climb like a little monkey!
• We met Emiliano's father and his family, who as usual showered us with gifts and treated us to a delicious dinner too. Their dog Babette was interesting but a bit scary for our little hero. She has a few rubber toys in animal shapes and Appu would try and rescue them from her teeth, saying "stay there!" or "do that gaguga!" (meaning 'don't do that to the turtle (tartaruga in Italian)').
• We met Emiliano in Brussels and it was still love between him and Appu. I really wish we could live nearby, we will have to convince "Miano" to take a job in Chennai :) .
  
• In India we were welcomed by Achamma, who is now a favorite of Appu and Rohan had lots of smiles for her too. Appu also got to spend some time with Achachan, who is now known as "Chacha" or "UV" (from the alphabet song, I am guessing).
• Our first dinner in Chennai was at Fortune, for excellent Chinese food. I really wanted to go there, because last time we went I was expecting Rohan and I was feeling to sick to even try anything. Appu cheered "nunels! nunels!" for a while and when they finally came it was complete happiness. Go Singapore Noodles!

Throughout all this we have been missing our friends in Canada. S. says Appu is like a Bollywood hero going around the house and chanting the name of his loved one. "Koena, Koena...". We sent her a postcard from Torino and he scribbled something very sweet looking on it. It was also hard to say byebye to the people in Italy, but we are looking forward to some steadiness now, after we move to a new flat that is.