Pechino

Last Friday we flew to Beijing to meet 'la nonna' and 'la zia Lara' who came to visit from Italy. From the airport we took two taxis (we couldn't fit all the luggage in one taxi) to the old part of the city, where we had reserved two rooms in a very nice courtyard hotel. A courtyard hotel is a traditional style hotel, consisting of a compound of houses around a square courtyard. It wasn't just nice to stay in a Chinese style place, but it turned out to be a great choice for traveling with Auro too. When it was time for his nap, he could sleep in the room while we were sitting outside in the courtyard in front of the room without disturbing him. For the next three days we visited some places, did some shopping, had good food in nice restaurants and relaxed a loooot! Here are some pictures of our weekend in Beijing.

La nonna, Remo and zia Lara on the way to the Lama Temple.

Remo feeding Auro his breakfast in the courtyard of the hotel.

La nonna and Auro, who is sitting on his brandnew 'vasino' (=potty) which was made in Sierra Leone and brought from there by zia Lara.





Showing another present from Sierra Leone: a piece of fabric used by the women to carry their babies. Please note that Auro did not object to being carried like this at all!!








And last, but not least: Auro napping in his stroller while holding on to his pacifier so no Chinese lady can take it away from him while he is sleeping!!

Finally sailing!

As Caroline mentioned in some posts of her I was in Japan for about ten days. I had to go there for some university related stuff but the fun came, as usual, from being able to go to the harbor and working on Jan Haring. The idea, for this time of the year, was to go sailing 2 or 3 days but the events stopped me from doing it. Indeed, the day I had decided to check the boat out, I sailed out of the marina to find out that the maximum speed, with engine on, was about 3 knots. For people not familiar with boat it is like to have a car not capable of passing 30km/h. You can just not go anywhere! So, a sudden change of plans made me decide for hauling the boat out and clean its hull. Indeed the problem was exactly it: after one and half year of sitting still in the water the old anti-fouling had lost all its characteristics and a forest had grown below the waterline. So I decided to move Jan Haring to another marina (Shin-Nishinomya) where they were able to haul it out as soon as I had arrived. For four days I worked on the hull but finally, with also the precious help of some friends (Simon, Tom and Crip) the work was done. The evening before the day when I was supposed to leave Japan I had the boat put back in the water. That was the moment of the truth, in fact I had to check the speed of the boat (and I had also to sail back to my marina!!!). Luckily the gps gave about 6 knots without engine! What a relief! Definetely, the 400kg of "stuff" we removed from the hull were the reason of Jan Haring slow speed. That night I sailed back to Dejima with Tom and Prabhat (first time for him on a boat) and it was such a pleasure! Now the boat is there waiting to be taken for sailing as soon as possible. Well, July is not that far, is it?

Bed

Remo is back from Japan (bearing the necessary gifts to make up for the 10 days he wasn't here) and today the temperature exceeded 30 degrees: all is well in the land of rice and dragons!

On Friday, the three of us are flying to Beijing to meet "la nonna" (Remo's mother) and "la zia Lara" (Remo's sister) who will be arriving from Italy. We will stay in Beijing for the weekend and come back by night train on Monday. After that, our guests will stay with us for about a month. So, today, Auro and I mopped the floor of the spare room and made up the bed (=inflatable matress) with brandnew sheets. Auro then tested the bed and found it most comfortable. Hopefully 'la nonna' and 'la zia' will like it too...

Sock

After our dinner guests had left, Auro relaxed and was all smiles again. Later, when I was changing him into his pajamas and I pulled off one of his socks and playfully hit his belly with it, he actually burst out laughing!

Shy

Today, Auro and I had guests. Four ladies from Remo's college and the two year old son of one of them visited us this afternoon.
Auro was still sleeping when they arrived, but as soon as he woke up, he was greeted heartily by all of them. Auro was a bit overwhelmed by our guests' eagerness to greet him, touch him and hold him, so for the first minutes he just stared at them while holding on firmly to my shirt and pushing his head against my chest. Auro usually likes attention, but 5 pairs of eyes on him made him a shy little boy. So cute!!!
After his initial shyness had passed and I wanted to start preparing the risotto in the kitchen, I handed him to the girls. As you know, Auro is not used to being held by strangers, so naturally he did his bit of crying when he was passed from person to person, but all in all, I think he did pretty well. As a mother, I am, of course, flattered by the fact that I am the only one who can hold him without crying, but I do hope he will overcome this shyness and become as sociable as the two year old boy who who was trying so hard to make friends with 'didi Auro' (弟弟Auro, younger brother Auro)!