Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Must sees around the area

If you ever tire of catching lizards and bugs in our back garden here are



10 favourite places of the Biddis family are ( in no particular order) as it comes to my mind really

1) our swimming pool, it's Olimpic sized, and open-air, and it's rather vast and beautiful, you are allowed to jump and generally have fun in it, like a bomb-diving 42 year old wouldn't be frowned upon for instance, it has got two types of lizards for children to catch in the grounds, if you are into it, and it is a pool Italians cross the border for and bring their families for a Sunday out to.



2) Val Verzasca with the Dam where they filmed something of James Bond and a Roman bridge, famous with topless jumping German ladies.

3) Bellinzona Castles three one on top of the other, on the slope of the same mountain with magnificent views (wonderful day out, as children can really let the steam out running around after a tasty pizza) and parents can have a leasurely walk around and absorb the view


4) Monte Tamaro where you go by the cable car , and find yourself in Adventureland

for the kids, roaming cows and a super picnic spot, just plonk yourself anywhere in the grass :)

5) walk through the Botanical Gardens just a few steps up from our back door to the "Horses place" Alpe Vicania , through the forest down to Morcote and our lake , and a visit to Parco Scherer

6) visit to Town of Lugano, especially during the street performances of the Estival (summer festival)

7) High altitude Lake Ritom with a four hour walk through the Alpine meadows and marmots, and a multitude of insects if you happen to like those, as you will see the flowers you might have never seen before

8) Locarno and Lago Maggiore

9) Parco Ciani and Lido (beach)

10) our village, actually, pedestrian old part of it at any rate

Can't hunt for more photos, as it's close to midnight and tomorrow is a work day for JB, ttfn, sweet dreams.

Monday, 28 June 2010

Manchester

And what do you do for holidays? We played tag-along kids with JB this time, he had to make a tutorial for other geeks in Manchester, so we went too, it being summer hols for kids, and it being held so close to home... and the timing so close to release of the new Twilight installment... Going to see Eclipse on Sunday ! Woo-hoo! as my special Birthday treat, slightly postponed... good things are worth waiting for, aren't they?! :)


So as for Manchester. You'd hear it's grey and mucky and wet... Not if you have a week of bright sunshine, and England is still (not for long but still) in with a chance for a world cup... No, in that case the sky is blue, people - smily, and to tell the truth, I was pleasantly surprised with people... very very friendly, very polite, happy and observant, ready to help, absolutely opposite of Londoners indeed. Scary looking and covered with tatoos youths, saying thank you and have a good day to a bus driver, pierced alll over and bubblegum pink-haired teens giving way to the elderly, and offering help to people with prams... I am in awe!


So thanks to these two factors: wonderful weather, and lovely people, the grey didn't look grey but sand coloured, or sun-kissed, and the life was beautiful and easy.


Manchester is really not boasting with green, trees are hard to come by and far apart, and parks are a bit scantily clad with grass...
This is the biggest green patch we found, called Piccadilly Gardens. And you can see the extent of its beauty... So for the second best we went to all the musea that were within our walking range, or walked among industrial landscape, and had generally a very good time.
Nice to have easily amused kids, here is the oldest enjoying a cord or two on the piano that we found by the ladies' bathroom at Frankie and Benny's one lunch time.

Friday, 4 June 2010

Our gecko's sad tale

This is a sad "tail" indeed, as our new-ish pets Edward and Bella had a surprise for us this morning. Edward's tail was missing. Not the whole tail luckily, just a segment of almost half its original length. The kids were upset, we were upset, and we were trying to figure out what was going on. If Edward and Bella were fighting, then we have to separate them immediately, if they weren't... "who dun it?" so to say.

this is our beautiful leopard gecko Edward, the last picture with the tail still there, taken yesterday, after a day at the pool...

This is the tiny lizard the kids caught at the pool. We figured it being so small and diurnal she'd be no trouble for our leos... with hind sight I wish we left her there and then.

I am glad we didn't get this dude, come to think of it... This one is locally known as a Ramarro, or a grass lizard



We came home, fed the geckos, and Edward wasn't hungry, or already intimidated by his in-mate...??? aka our beautiful Bella.
She is licking her chops, if she is the one, and the tail of her mate gone and eaten, brrr... I am shuddering to think it... But then they were co-habiting quite happily for two months or so... I don't want to believe it but neither do I want to find our sweet little Edward chewed up tomorrow. We have thrown out the little intruder, brought by the kids, and we hope that Edward will recover very very soon!
But for now it is a sad poor Edward... My poor dear Edward...

Monday, 17 May 2010

С днем Рождения, Баба Марина!

Дорогая баба Марина,

Если ты сегодня чувствуешь себя без нас немножечко вот так


или вот так,


а может быть так?!!

то это нам совсем не пойдет!

Мы хотели бы приподнять твое настроение вот так:

или перевернуть его вверх тормашками вот так

или хотя бы повеселить тебя немного вот так...

*****************************************************************

Если бы только была чуть-чуточку поближе, мы бы приготовили тебе завтрак
вот так....
отжали бы свежий апельсиновый "носочек"!!!
вот такой...,

мы бы даже дали тебе облизать ложку
вот так
**********************************************************
Мы собрали бы тебе свежий букетик
вот такой....
или даже целую икебану
вот такую...

Да мы подарили бы тебе весь куст
вот так!!!!

Мы бы сыграли тебе новую песню,
вот так...
прочитали бы тебе новую книгу
вот так...
отвели бы тебя на прогулку
вот так....
обняли бы тебя крепко-крепко
вот так!!!!
приготовили бы тебе "тортик-мортик-скортик"
вот такой!!!

и даже дали бы тебе порулить и побибикать

вот так....

Как ты думаешь, сработало бы?????


******************************************************
Мы правда старались... приблизиться к тебе хотя бы самую капельку...
вот так... Хотели, чтобы ты улыбнулась ...вот так...

повеселела
вот так...
запела бы
вот так
и даже, может быть, запрыгала...

вот так!!!
Но теперь о серьезном! Мы по тебе скучаем! Мы желаем тебе хорошего настроения в твой день Рождения!!!
И хотим только одного! Поскорее увидеться!!!

А посему...



Целуем, твои Биддискомбы и Биддискомбчики!

Monday, 21 December 2009

More calendars, more freebies


Finally finished this year's calendar for my family. I have done it in 24 pages, you know the top with the photos, and the bottom page with the calendar itself. I then saved the bottom parts as transparent png stamps, and made them in two languages English and Italian, so you can benefit from those, they are made to fit snuggly onto an A4 page horizontally, but I have made them smaller when using for my purposes. See preview. What you are getting is either the calendar grids (12) in English, or in Italian, or both if you download both. Have fun, let me know if you use them. Just click on your preferred language above.

Finalmente ho finito il calendario di quest'anno, per la mia famiglia. L'ho fatto in 24 pagine, si conosce: la parte superiore con le foto, e la parte inferiore della pagina con il proprio calendario. Poi ho salvato la parte inferiore come PNG trasparenti, e li fece in due lingue italiano opure inglese, cosi potete beneficiare dal mio lavoro. Sono fatti per adattarsi proprio bene su una pagina A4 in orizzontale, ma ho fatto più piccoli quando si utilizza per il mio calendario. Vedete in anteprima. Cosa trovate è le griglie di calendario (12) in Inglese, O in Italiano, O tutte e due, se si scarica entrambi. Buon divertimento, fatemi sapere se li usate. Basta cliccare su vostra lingua preferita di cui sopra.

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

2010 calendar grids in Italian, calendari in italiano


I have tried to make a few at-a-glance calendars for a friend of mine, but found it impossible to get a calendar grid in Italian. So I had to make them from scratch just for this project. You can benefit from it, if you have an Italian speaking friend, and make an Italian calendar for them, too. I hope you like them. Click preview to take you to 4shared where you can download your free calendar grids (remember there are only Italian versions). I will love to read your comments, too. It would be fun to know if this helped anyone at all...

Ho provato a fare qualche regalo calendario tutto anno a colpo d'occhio per una mia amica, ma si è trovata nell'impossibilità di ottenere una griglia di calendario in italiano. Così ho dovuto crearle da zero solo per questo progetto. Si può beneficiarne, se avete degli amici italiani, e fare un calendario italiano anche per loro. Spero che vi piacciono. Clicca l'anteprima per prendervi a 4shared dove è possibile scaricare le griglie gratuito (ricordo che ci sono solo le versioni italiane). Mi piace leggere i vostri commenti, anche. Sarebbe divertente sapere se questo ha aiutato a qualcuno altro...