Super Sunday

We are truly melting. Sixth week on the rown with 30 degrees plus. Phew. All I want is a cloudy day, some rain or a breeze so I can duccle up on the sofa under one of my super soft Swedish blankets with a cup of tea. And light some candles. Just once. Instead, we are getting toasted outside every day now. It is even too hot to go to the pool.

Had to go to the doc this morning - yep, the paeditrician is open 7 days a week and we had another check up this morning. We had the first available appointment at 9 am, still we had to wait an hour to see the doc. She wasn´t even in the office when we arrived. Sigh. Got another diagnose. We have moved on from croup cough to broncholities and now ear infection. $ 300 in medicin within a few days. Sigh.

                    This is how impatient Emily was after waiting for the doctor for nearly one hour.

Luckily she is no longer contagious and we could go to Zac's birthday party this afternoon. Fun in the park!

Dinner tonight: beef enchiladas! Bought some fresh salsa at the new Whole Foods in Newport Beach. I really love Whole Foods but this branch was a bit of a pain. What were they thinking? Such a stupid design of the shop which made it difficult to move around, it felt really narrow and crowded.

Now the real super Sunday starts and we are not talking football here - series series series.
Good wife starting its fourth season, Homeland starting its second season, Revenge starting its second seasom, Hells on Wheels still going strong and there is a new series kicking off - the much hyped 666 Park Avenue. And of course, Being Liverpool is on too. All getting recorded so we have something to watch during the week. Currently the favourite is Sons of Anarchy. Wow, the last season has started strongly, last episode was so brilliant it took us a few minutes to get back to reality. Phew!

Healthcare

A big topic here in the US is healthcare. Whether or not health insurance should be mandatory and the cost of it. My two cent? Well, anyone should be able to get coverage, and yes, it should be affordable and the way to affordable healthcare is most likely by making it mandatory. Sometimes I hear people complain about the cost, saying they pay $ 200 a month for their insurance. Well sweethearts, I paid around 600 euro for mine in Germany. A month. That was not the private option but the general, mandatory one. So as you might understand, my sympathy is prettylow. Of course, I did not have to co pay anything, only certain things at the dentist such as cleaning etc, medicin (but we are talking German prices here!) were excluded. Generally that gave me a good coverage.  The crazy thing here is the prices. OMG. We pay in advance sometimes and then claim it back from the insurance company and oh boy, do they do know how to charge here. $ 250 for a filling at the dentist, $ 1200 for a crown, $ 20 000 for giving birth.  $ 250 for a scan (I paid $ 100 at the OB GYN in Germany). It is a little kime the wild west. Bargain bargain bargain. If you pay cash, ask for the cash price and the amount will drop significantly. Nuts nuts nuts. Of course, this side of healthcare is outrageous. Did you know that before Obamacare, in some states such as CA the insurance companies could deny you coverage if you had had an addiction in the past? Crazy! Another good thing with Obamacare is that now food chains with at least 50 restaurants have to show the amount of calories on their menu. Do you know how many times I did not pick the salad after checking the calories? Wholy guacamole, most typical American salads contain at least 1000 calories!!!

Yesterday I went to the chemist's to pick up some medicin for Emily, she has a bit of a cold. Total cost? $ 240. Now I could dedicate a whole post solely about chemists here. My experience from Germany is as following: you hand your prescription in, you get your precribed tablets in the box. Original box. Done deal within 2 minutes. Sometimes it needs to be ordered, but then you can pick it up within the hour. The assistant at the chemist will give you some facts about the product and the box will contain any information you need such as side affects etc. Now to the US version: you have to wait until they fill up a little plastic container with your pills. Average time? Depends how buys they are and where you go. But the container doesn't come with much detailed information. Nor does the clerk in 99% of the cases (my experience) know anything about side affects etc. Now, yesterday I picked up some medicin for Emily, when I got home, I realised the top of the bottle had not been put on properly so most of its content had leaked into the plastic bag I luckily had wrapped around it. I phoned the chemist up and complained and drove back down there. 30 min drive, one direction. I did not get one apology, nor did they refill the bottle.  "It was enough for what the doctor had prescribed". You're joking right? I pay full price and receive a tenth of it? So next time she needs it, I can go ahead and fork out the $ 20 again. Consumer rights anyone?

                                                                      

The chemist located in the same building as the paediatrician sells a lot of other things than just drugs.....

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we went to Orange County zoo and  by coincidence, there was a also a pumpkin patch going on. Being a complete alien to these things, I assume it means, "pimpkin festival or event"? Either way, I decided to buy my very first pumpkin. Not too big, and I did ask the lady selling them if I could buy one already carved. You know the answer, right. No. At least I tried! I was told to wait until some days before Halloween, so patiently I will. Any ideas how to carve a pumpkin?

                                                                      My cute little pumkin

                                                                    Guess the weight?

              I tried to point which size of pumpkin I wanted but oh no, I had to go and pick one myself.

Happy Tuesday everyone! I think it is finally cooling down a little. Wish me a little rain so I can have some tea, biscuits, light some candles and cuddle up under me blanket on the couch!

Bella Italia - Shopping

While I may not be the biggest fan of Italian food - even if we had some delicious stuff last week, it is a little too much dough for me - I LOVED the shopping. Such an elegance, the bags, the shoes.wowowow.
I wasn´t too impressed by Florence, too many tourists and the shops were mainly Louis Vitton, Guess etc. but a visit to the outlet malls nearby made  huge impression. We first drove to Barberino, about 20 minutes north of Florence. It is like a Tanger Outlet in the US, mainstream. But what a difference. The shops were like the shops in any normal mall, they even had my favourite Coccinelle. So much better than the shop I used to visit in Cologne! Whereas clothes in the US often can be a little baggy, they were perhaps a little petite here at times but ahh. Ladies, if you need some handbags, shoes, or business attire, this is the place.

The following day we went to The Mall, about 20 minutes south of Florence. This is where you find all the big brands. Roberto Cavelli, Prada, Gucci...I went to a similar outlet in Palm Springs and I didn´t find it so much cheaper, nor did I find a lot of stuff, but here I could have spent a lot of money! And so could all the Japanese and Chinese, had it been possible to spend more than 2000 euro a week in one shop. What a luxury problem!

Finally we went to the Prada Factory Outlet, they only allow 100 people in each time so you hve to take a number and see if you are within the current "number range". It felt like a mini Macy's with just Prada. Not so fond of their clothing, but ladies, the shoes, THE SHOES.

                                                                        I want some too!

Not the best photos since it was forbidden to take pics inside and I had to take them with my iphone.

Have to admit, both me and hubby did some shopping. I am now a proud owner to my very first Prada shoes.

Bella Italia - Wedding

The reason why we went to Tuscany was of course Bea and Enzo´s wedding. It took place at Castello di Fugliano where we also spent our last three nights. A very cute little castle not far from the villa we stayed the previous nights. The advantage of the castello was that we had a small apartment instead of a hotel room. Mental note for the future when travelling with a baby; always book an apartment. SO much easier. Especially when you have a fussy babs who only eats home cooked food.

 One if the advantages of having a wedding where everyone has to travel is that the guests will spend a couple of days at the venue and this really felt like a three day wedding. Above the meat for the BBQ the noght before the wedding.

                                                                BBQ the night before the wedding

                                                                        Bride & groom

                              

                                                                 Castello di Fugliano - the venue

                                                                           Our cutiepie!

                                                           Just married and singing of joy, haha!

                                                                           Ready to mingle!

                                                                       Mingle by the pool

                                                             

 

Surprised no one fell into the pool. given that there were wuite a few kids running around

 Our first Italian wedding. There were so many courses (primi and second piatti - two of each!) we lost count, very yummy!! The wedding was a mixture of Italian and Swedish tradition, though perhaps more Swedish with lots of singing and speeches. I think I counted 10 different nationalities among the guests, this factor definitely contributed to the ease among the guests, so easy to mingle and chat to everyine.

Bella Italia - S.G & Certaldo

After the two nights in Florence we drove down to San Gimignano where we had booked ourselves into a small hotel for 4 nights. We hadn´t had time to do any research about the area and were very pleased to find out that this was a little gem. San Gimignano is an old medieval town and there is so much history surrounding it you can nearly smell it. A couple of miles east we found another little town, at first glance quite dull but then we discovered the historic centre at the top of the hill.

                                        Salami and cheese to die for. Oh cheese, how I have missed you

                                                                    San Gimignano

                                                                     Certaldo at night

                                                              Vineyards & olive trees. Fantastic views.

  

Lots of vino!

 

So quaint. Certaldo. 

                                             One of the many little restaurants we visisted-

Bella Italia - Florence

We flew from LAX via Munich to Florence, the journey went very smooth and Florence airport is so small that is was no problem finding the driver from the hotel, who picked us up. We decided to pick up the rental car on the Monday instead of the Saturday when we landed since you don´t really need a car when staying in the city.

Florence is of course know for its cathedral and it such a nice contrast to where we currently are living. Buildings are old and carry so much history. This of course means streets are often narrow and small pavements.I didn´t quite expect so many tourists in mid September, but it was very very crowded - Swedes, Germans, Brits, Americans - all over the place. It was actually a little too touristy for us, and also it was difficult to move about with the pram with all the crowds around us, especially since Florence wasn´t child friendly whatsoever.

I was quite surprised to see all the jewlery stores lined up next to each other, just like a mini version of the gold souk in Dubai but with MUCH higher prices.

Luckily, I bought the dress for the wedding before leaving OC, because here I would not have found anything Not only mini sizes, but not so many shops (apart from Gucci, Louis Vitton..Zara and H&M) around as I had hoped for.

All in all we spent 2 nights in Florence before oicking the rental car up and driving south. Talking about rental cars..whatever you do, do not rent a car with Hertz in Florence or Italy. We had to queue for 2 hours before actually getting the key to the car and then having to fiddle around trying to fit the child seat in the car. 2 HOURS folks! Everything was manual in their system, the clerk had to go to the garage and check the car before giving it to us and so on. They even had one of these old machines for the credit card, you know, where they push this metal thing across the card and it copis the details on to the paper.

Back!

Back in SoCal, and this time the jet lag hit us hard, both ways. It it Emily the hardest, she has turned nights into days and did the same in Italy. So of course we are super tired too. Understatement.

I will show all the pics once I have uploaded them but here are some reflections over the past week

• People smoke a lot in Italy. Yikes. We are so spoiled here. I do not like smoke.

• FOOD, OMG, I loved the food culture. Long dinners, with starters, main course, afters..SPARKLING water, glasses with no straw, NO soda. No burgers. Pane, Pizza and Pasta. Miss it already. (Not a "dough" fan, but this was a nice change".

• Italy is not child friendly. People are, but not the infrastructure. No changing tables, high chairs, lots of steps and stairs. Small restaurants..We are spoilt here.

• SO NICE to walk a lot. We ate a lot of food, A LOT, but seem to have walked it off. Yay!

• Too many tourists in Tuscany. Swedes, Brits, Germans..EVERYWHERE.

• Mosquitos, had forgotten about them. Ouch!

• Beautiful wedding. The Italian women looked like they were on the catwalk! We had a great time at the wedding. All weddings should last for 3 days.

• Style, from now on, all shows and bags should get bought in Italia. Elegance and style! 

Unfortunately we had a small welcome army waiting for us at home. Ants! Everywhere!! NOT fun. Had to empty the food cupboard first thing after arriving at home. No more heat waves please. Though now we are well prepared. 

We´re Off!

Looks like we are flying tonight! Super stressed day though. Didn´t get home until 11.20 pm last night, WAY AFTER my bed time. It was the Swedish school´s board meeting (I am now the treasurer) and it lasted till 11 pm. Unfortunatelyt Emily woke up when we went to bed so I had to sit around with a awake babs till 1-ish. NOT fun since I wasn´t tired anymore once she was asleep. Then up at 4 am, and then at 7.30. SIGH. Dunno what´s going on but it need to stop. SO TIRED.

Drove to the Brow boutique to have my lashes and brows down. I keep telling myself there must be just as good places nearby, but oh no. I keep trying alternatives, and keep getting annoyed so, here I was again, driving 35 minutes to South Laguna and paying $ 75. Pretty crazy though you can run a business just based on lashes and brows. Only in California!

                                                         Regular customer at this place again

Something we yet are to learn is to pack light. We are terrible travellers, always bring more than needed. Still, I like to have a choice. Just in case you know. So currently there is CHAOS at the clarkes'.

Think I have been packing all week. ALL WEEK FOLKS. Clearly not done yet. One more hour to go. Making sure iphones and ipads are charged. Enough nappies. Camera packed. Formula. Baby food. Porridge. Shoes. Dresses. You know the drill, LONG LIST. Phew.

Might upload some random pics from Italy but blogging from the phone is no hit so SO LONG, bella Italia, here we come!

Bel Bambini - Shopping Heaven

Needed to buy babs a dress for the wedding next week so I headed down to Bel Bambini in Newport Beach yesterday morning. What a shop! Why hadn't I discovered it earlier?

 The y have some really nice contemporary stuff, none of that tacky disney stuff they sell at Babies r us, lots of light colours and lots and lots of accessoires. Its location is kind of unfortunate, there is nothing notably around so I have been driving past it since it opened having no reason to stop but thought I'd start the dress hunting there and yaay was I right. Bit of a shame that all contemporary looking American stuff has to be so expensive but come on folks, refuse brown.

                                                                 WOWOWOWOW

Customer service was pretty crap, I didn't see any shop assistans during the 30 minutes I spent in the shop. Great place for cribs etc, clothes are a little pricey (you can find some of the stuff a little cheaper in the other kids/ boutiques I have discovered) but hey, how many childrens' stores have dior right? Heaven!

Popped in next door to have some breakie. Think we will visit East Chow again! Nice breakfast choices but a big minues for not having cranberry juice. For someone who doesn't drink coffee nor tea (very often) cranberry juice is a MUST. LOL

Target

This happens when you forget to bring your own bags here..chaos! And for some reason people like to pack one item in each bag...more or less. NOT great. And such a waste.

Mid Week Stress!

The normally such organised me is failing at the moment. I ordered some formula from diapers.com the other day, 6 containers since it was an offer, only to discover (when opening the HUGE box) that I had ordered the wrong one. SIGH. Instead of saving time I now have to return the damn thing AND go shopping.

Second stress factor, Lufthansa is on strike. The Germans are usually so reliable, (I always avoid flying with Spanish or French airlines, haha) but now they have decided to go on strike. This week. When we are travelling. It would be a disaster if the flight got cancelled. Not only because of the delays but the long stay car park at LAX is booked. hotel in Florence, connecting flight from Munich, transfer from Florence airport to hotel and so on...so, knock on wood, hopefully they will either get their pay rise or back down. Either way, we really do want to fly Friday night.

A totallt different subject - I am back at Barry's! Went Saturday morning and had a very near death experience, sort of seeing stars after 10 minutes on the tread mill. Horribly out of shape, with other words. After nursing myself on Sunday I decided to give it another shot on Monday and whoops, I am back in the routine and enjoying it. Phew. Never, never, never ever take a four week break again.

I am also very happy to annouce that Emily's first words are in Swedish (Sweden 1, England 0). She syas "titta" (look) several times a day, and claps her hands when we say "klappa händerna". Way to go babe!

Labour Day Weekend

Monday night and the end of a nice long weekend. Don´t you just love when you realize on a Sunday night that there is one more day of the weekend. Yay!

We have had a very relaxing weekend. Some bbqs with friends, sweating doing nothing in the hot weather ( I love love love the SoCal weather!!). Today we were going to the OC Zoo in Irvine Regional Park but once we got there, the entrance was closed because there was no more parking spaces available! How disappointing, but as usual we had a back up plan; dim sum at Irvine Spectrum. I had seen the restaurant plenty of times walking past it and it really looked like a typical Chinese dim sum restaurant. I used to hate these places when travelling to Shanghai but now, not having had any Chinese food (and I mean Chinese Chinese food) for over a year, I actually looked forward to it. Big plus was of course I knew there was not going to be anything "disgusting" on the menu.  Turned out to be nice, even if the food was somewhat Americanized. Pretty sure I never had edamame or egg rolls in China. But hey, better than chicken feet!

                                            Bought some yummy dips at Bristol Farm´s

                                  Bar area at the dim sum restaurant, just in time for the happy hour

Also managed to rent a real crappy movie tonight, Battleship, even hubby thought it was bad so you can imagine how poor it was.