Blog Award Time

The lovely Fabi tagged me for this award and the rules are that I tell you 10 facts about myself and pass it along. I'm no good at nominating people, so I nominate ALL the bloggers who follow this. I tag you all with this lovely award and challenge you to tell the world 10 facts about YOU :D

1. I am the youngest of 3 daughters, the eldest is 13 years older than me, the middle one is 10 years older than me. I am technically the product of irresponsibility and incorrect medical advice. My dad used to say I was their love child, but it took me many years to understand what that meant.
2. I have three tattoos. A star on my wrist, an Ankh on my inner left forearm and a fantastic gecko on my back. Each of them holds a special meaning for me and I don't regret any of them. Although I do wish I'd placed the ones on my arms in less conspicious places.
3. I have a fear of falling. I can't stand walking over grating or glass panels and I get really dizzy walking down 'new' stairs. Oh and escalators. I irrationally believe I'm going to fall through/down with every step. But I'm working on conquering that fear.... slowly but surely.
4. I used to have recurring nightmares that the Terminator was trying to kill me and my family. They would always end in my mum's house where I'd stupidly run into a bedroom with no way out. I would always wake up just as he got to the bedroom door.
5. I spent an amazing 3 weeks in Africa in 2008. We took a tour of Namibia and spent 3 days in Botswana. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life so far. I will never forget seeing the milky way in all it's glory like a belt across the sky, nor the 15 minutes we spent following a leopard through the bush in the cold mist of the morning. In fact there are a thousand different memories (and over 1,000 photos) I want to share with you... maybe another time?
6. When I was in my teens I was dead set against marriage, but wanted 4 children. Now I'm ok with the idea of marriage, but not sure if I want children anymore...
7. I am half Hungarian and am in love with Budapest. If you ever have the chance to go, please do. It's a beautiful, enchanting city. Unfortunately it's become much more 'mainstream' and western since the early 90's, but there are still wonders to be found. Especially the Christmas and Easter market in Vörösmarty tér. And the view from the top of Gellert hill is magnificent. Oh and go and have a soak in one of the many thermal baths. One day I will own a flat there and spent my weekends relaxing in the water from hot springs and eating too much sour cream on my stuffed cabbage, hehe
8. Just before I went into hospital many years ago a friend wrote to me and said that if the lit end of your cigarette becomes pointy, it means someone is thinking of you (...and that would be her), it's one of the myths that I still hold to my heart, even now. Sometimes I hope that it's her thinking of me. We lost touch some years ago... (And yes, I smoke :\)
9. I tend to have very deep, intense, but short lived friendships. I have lost so many friends along the way that it makes me terribly sad inside to think of them. I am determined not to lose anymore, so forgive me if I seem distant sometimes, it is because I am trying to stop our friendship from burning out too quickly.
10. My favourite alcoholic drink is Mead. If I get married I am taking a month off work and ordering several barrels of mead to keep the tradition of the honeymoon. A month of mead, that's my kind of holiday ;)

I hope you've enjoyed my little snippets. I'll really enjoy reading yours, so please, join in! :)

...

Ok, it looks like there won't be an outgoing mail post today :( BOOOO!!!!

I have to go back to Milano to pick up my translated degree, then we are going to Torino tonight to pick up one of the rent receipts because the idiot landlord is claiming we still owe him a month's rent which is complete rubbish.

Ugh.


So I have a bus, a wait, a train, a tram, another tram, another wait, another train, another bus then tidying up at home and getting some food together because we won't have time for dinner before we have a bus, a wait, a train, a walk to the flat, a walk back to the station, another wait, antoher train and finally a 20Euro taxi home. If we're lucky we'll make it home by 10:30, if not then it will be 11:30.

I'm not looking forward to this... :(

Also, my mum has been in hospital because she fell and badly broke her arm. I wanted to call yesterday but they kept her in for another night, so I'll have to make do with a phonecall from the train this evening. Assuming they let her go home. I hope we manage to get decent trains. With air conditioning, clean seats and empty carriages.

Wish me luck!

Incoming

On the one day that I actually have to leave the flat and not just to make the short trip to the supermarket either, it's raining like crazy. I have to cycle up to my bf's workplace to pick up some emails he's kindly printing for me (because we haven't moved all of our things yet) and I have to go into Milan in a few hours to go to my workplace and later meet with a sworn translator to get my degree translated.

So, I have a dirty, wet bike ride to look forward to, being splashed by cars and trucks alike, then after getting home, showering and drying off I have to go to Milan and spend time walking and waiting around in the rain. Such a pain!

Anyway, onto better and brighter things. I've had some lovely post days recently, but due to my terrible habit of letting my camera batteries die down to nothing, I haven't gotten round to showing you all. Here goes :)

Incoming

Artsy postcard swap, received on Saturday

A first and suprise letter from Kendra, received on Monday

Another first and suprise letter from Elle, received on Tuesday (ie yesterday)

I've spent an age replying to everyone and setting up swap packages, so tomorrow will be my posting day. I hope you're looking forward to seeing all the pretties (and hope I can pull my finger out and share the pics with you on time ;)

Giveaway!! :D

I promised to set up my giveaway when I got back to Italia and I’ve been here for long enough now that I’ve settled back in, unpacked everything and tidied up, so no excuses. It’s Monday and what better way to start the week than with a giveaway?

Here are the goodies you could win…

A selection of postcards (9 to be precise)

6 sheets of labels and stickers. 4 French inspired and 2 from the Dutch Door Press.

4 letter sets (made up of 1 envie and 2 sheets per set).

3 envies recycled from clothing factory waste fabric & 1 uber cute kawaii card & 1 Fabriano Milano map bookmark.

(Sorry for the poor quality pics… you can click to enlarge :)

Giveaway rules:

You must be a follower of this or my personal blog (because all of you matter to me) to enter.

To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite quote and credit appropriately (I've started to collect them :)

For an extra entry, blog about the giveaway and leave a comment here linking to your post

Please remember to leave a link to your blog or leave your email address so I can get in touch with you if you win.

The giveaway will end on Friday 30th July and the winning entry will be picked on Saturday 31st of July. Remember I’m in Italy, so my time zone is GMT+1.

This is international, so everyone is welcome :D

Outgoing/Incoming

I hastily posted some letters yesterday morning as I bought some more Euros and topped up my oyster card before going to the Airport. I did take pictures of them, but ok my mum's camera as mine was packed and I ran out of time and didn't manage to upload them. Which is typical, because my flight was delayed by two hours, so I needn't have rushed :/ I'll have to get my mum or someone to forward them to me at a later date... Instead, here's a boring list of what I posted: A reply to Muriah in Canada, a reply to Candi in Australia and a suprise letter to someone in Italy. I also posted mundane things, a letter of great importance to the student loans company, my mum's credit card payment and I returned by very last love film disc

Incoming

Letters from Zoe and Caiti

A lovely postcard and letter from Audrey

And 3 swap items... just draw, a stationery swap and the taboo subject letter

I've also been flying high because I spend a little too much money on stationery while in London.
You probably don't remember, but when I compiled this stationery wishlist, I said the next time I was in London I would treat myself to this notebook. Well, when I was faced with it, I had to decide whether I would rather have the London book or the Someday Diary by design doma. In the end I went with the someday diary and I'm writing a little in it every day to keep track of my first year in Italy. It's a splendid little book full of dreamy photos to keep me happy and inspired. Or happily inspired ;)

I hope that you all have wonderful things planned for your weekends. I'm going to Turin, where the forecast is said to be somewhat cooler than the 36 degrees expected for Milan tomorrow. This heat is really getting to me :(

Buon weekend ragazzi!

3 Letters

1NA

1 AU

Getting to know you swap

I've been lucky enough to have been made an officer for the Kawaii Europe group on Swap-Bot.

To celebrate I'm hosting my very first swap which is a getting to know you introduction letter type swap for the group members. If you're based in Europe, love kawaii, love swaps and love letters, please stop by to join the group and the swap :)

For any members of the group stopping by, feel free to post any questions or comments here, you can also email me or leave your questions on the swap page.

Happy Swapping!

Outgoing

Well, I'm posting on time for a change ;)

Outgoing

Two cards for an 'Artsy Postcard Swap'

3 packages, all for swaps, two for stationery swaps and one for a scavenger hunt swap.

The Scavenger hunt swap detail

All the little bits. Something ephemera, something travel inspired and something I think she'd like :)

2 Postcards

3 Packages

1 EU

3 NA

1 SA