Play Play Play (and Visit to the Beach at Livorno)

What do children do but play, watch TV, forage for food in the pantry and play some more?

Call me Cinderella

I should make them do some homework and work the brains, but am busy with the unpacking, besides we're not in Singapore and need not join the rat race so early, so I'm letting them make the most of their childhood - while they can.

And me Cowboy-Knight cannot decide

The movers complained that I had too many toys and just dumped half of the boxes unopened in the playroom, the other half they just emptied en masse on the floor. What a mess, God was I frustrated. It took me at least a week to put things to order and finally 2 days ago, I assembled the last toy in the playroom - the Kaufladen.

The Grocer in her Kaufladen

Shopping Trolley
Close-up of some of the groceries

I've still a few toys meant for outside to assemble, but it's so hot here (averaging 36-40ºC daily) nobody wants to play outside.We'll have to look into setting up a small pool, which would have to wait since we'll be driving back to Paris in 2 weeks and having a pool will need some studying of maintenance : chlorine, anti-insects etc.

Pour more water over me, please!

I honestly see no interest in having so much heat. You can't do anything outside or you'll wilt, the garden is dry and the trees dying, insects abound and all you want to do is stay in and drink.

On Sunday we had the great idea to drive a few hours to the beach to escape said heat. It was our 3rd trip to Livorno and we wanted to go there for the pretty decent seafood restaurant at its port. But whatever beach it has sucks. I think that we'll have to go to another beach the next time.

First of all there is almost no beach to speak of. And it has little sand. But loads of people. Hubby's recurring comment throughout the day was, "My, this beach is popular (as in classe populaire)..." We certainly sound snobbish, but well, with the amount of taxes we pay nowadays, you can imagine that we've lost a little touch with the reality of the working classes. I avoid the expensive beach clubs like the plague, but rubbing shoulders with your average factory worker (and watching them read magazines filled only with photos versus your Economist and Le Monde) was a little surreal.

I think that what worries me about them is not material, but intellectual. It's about mentality. Mom has always told us not to envy our neighbours and likes to recite the story of our maternal grandmother who was very poor all her short life, but who insisted that when one is poor, one need not have to look it. Apparently the dear lady would always dress herself cleanly and correctly and carry herself with dignity even as she was selling mussles in the wet market. And she had also instilled in her children a thirst for learning. Mom has had no chance to be educated, but she seizes new knowledge greedily, whether it was trying to follow us through our homework (until she could really no longer catch up), or learning Mandarin through the radio at home or at the Community Centre in her 50s. I've always told Hubby that if she hangs around more often, she'll be speaking French in no time.

OK, so I get carried away just thinking of those picture magazines and the 2 women next to me spending their whole afternoon on their handphones.

Our tent, of course it had to be different from everyone else's :-)

We were lucky to still get to eat Gelati before we headed home. Because Hubby as usual did his are-we-ready-to-go act at the door and left without taking his wallet, driving license or even his precious phone. I've to get everyone ready, do I have to prepare the guy too?

I managed to pay for lunch with my Bancomat card (that usually only works once in a while), leaving me with 2 50-euro notes for petrol and ice cream. At the 1st petrol station, the 1st 50-euro note was swallowed by the machine with no petrol being offered in return. The 2nd note was used at the 2nd station leaving us with no cash for ice cream. Luckily I still have coins somewhere in the bag that had managed to escape liquidation by Hubby at some point in the near past. He likes to complain that my coin purse is too heavy and would help me use up my coins - leaving me in a mad rage when I needed coins for the supermarket trolley and could no longer find any, for example.

On the way back, he said, "Should we take away a few burgers at McDonald's for the kids?"

"And what do you intend to pay for them with?" I retorted.

So we reached home at 9:30pm and ate a watermelon and some ham for dinner.