Flooding disaster at Bangkok in the eyes of the world

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2011/10/20/ireporter-thailand-disaster-aid.cnn

Living with the flood (as 2nd-handed experience)

The most serious crisis at the moment in my native nation; that's Thailand, isn't only the economic one but also the continuos flooding in many provinces and today people in the capital is preparing themselves as water is arriving. In these years, we the Thai people have been through so many hard situations: the great earthquake that caused tsunami in 2004, outstanding political conflicts, the so-called red-shirts that set fire to the centre of Bangkok...and so on...and so on. Right in this moment, the nature is that cruel to send unceasing water that knocked out many provinces in the North. Disasters after disasters...what Thai people is saying right now is: "This too shall pass!" In my opinion, no other people in the world is as optimistic as the Thais. We've such a great capacity to face problems and to adapt ourselves in order to live with them. We're always able to smile in the dullest period. In the picture above (which was taken from a Thai on-line newspaper), an amount of residents in a hit area is helping each other to pass on bags of sand to be formed as a water block.

Yesterday, the flood was reaching Northern Bangkok. I called my mom and she said they're all fine. Water alrady entered my brother's house and he now has to sleep in the hospital where he works. (He's a medical doctor.) My parents' house was still safe, and so as my sister's one. They piled up the sand bags in front of the gates and stocked drinking water and food in case of necessity. My mom's words were: "The typhoons are crossing the ocean and they're directing to Europe, so just take care!" And Rome was flooded indeed!

Keeping in touch with my family and friends make me feel as if I was living the experience too. Nature is never kind to anyone. The big problems may be the incompetent gorvernment, the nature or what else, in this hard period my family and friends are trying to get relieved in some ways. Somebody bought a paddle boat, some take this occasion of staying home to read books or to watch movies as desired but never found time, others posted pictures commenting that they just had a luck to try life at Venice.

I, who is so far away from them, am sending much moral to everyone of them and certainly "This too shall pass!!!"

The essence of a special evening

After the last post which was dedicated to my only son's birthday, I wanna write about his small party with his best friends at home. We organised it 2 days after his birthday as he had been sick and just recovered in time, so yesterday was a better day as it was Saturday = a school-free day.

The kids are becoming big, they already have a-teenager-to-be look, however they're all kids and still love playing and ruunig up and down stairs. My boy was so happy, he did have a great time and lots of fun with 3 classmates and another friend. I just would like to remember all these simple but happy moments as they're very precious for my son's youth and for us, the parents, as well. Today, there're many places where you can organise a birthday party with the whole class. They're nice places that offer a large space with enormous inflatables and every kid loves them. Dylan had been many times to these parties and we once organised such a party for him a few years ago. The kids enjoyed it a lot. Those parties are funny but they're very confusing, you mostly hear yells and see some figures running here and there. I personally love more intimate and cosy atmosphere.

Yesterday was really a cosy birthday party for my boy. He was very happy to stay with his close friends. I've always been convinced that the "essence" of a great party is to be with the person you love and to do what makes you happy, that's all.

To finish this post, I leave you a picture of snacks I baked myself but I have to refer the food blog where I picked up the recipe. Thanx to "La mia cucina" of Gianni for the idea!!!

Today is special because...

วันนี้เป็นวันพิเศษที่สุดวันหนึ่งของเรา เนื่องจากเป็นวันครบรอบวันเกิดของลูกชาย ปีนี้อายุครบ 11 ปีแล้ว หนูกำลังโตเป็นหนุ่มขึ้นทุกทีๆ โพสต์นี้อยากเขียนทั้ง 3 ภาษา วันเกิดลูกเรารู้สึกว่ามันเป็นวันแม่สำหรับเรา วันที่ได้มีลูกอยู่ในอ้อมกอดเป็นครั้งแรก จับต้องลูก ให้นมลูก รักลูก ทำให้เราได้รู้จักความรักอันยิ่งใหญ่ที่สุดคือความรักของแม่ที่มีต่อลูก ในวันเกิดของลูก แม่คงจะไม่มีอะไรมากไปกว่าความรัก ความห่วงใย ที่มีต่อลูกเสมอมาและจะคงตลอดไป สุขสันต์วันเกิดนะครับลูกดีแลน

จากแม่

Oggi è un giorno molto speciale per me. E' il compleanno di mio figlio che compie 11 anni. Il mio bambino sta diventanto grande. Avevo voglia di scrivere in tutte e tre lingue che conosco. Per me la festa della mamma è oggi, cioè quando è nato mio figlio. L'ho tenuto in braccio per la prima volta, l'ho potuto accarezzare, allattare, amare...ho conosciuto l'amore più grande: l'amore di una mamma. In occasione del suo compleanno, non avrei niente di più speciale del mio amore per lui. Buon Compleanno Dylan!

dalla mamma

Today is the most special day for me. It's my son's birthday! He's 11 years old now. He's going to be a teenager soon. I wanted to write this post in all 3 languages that I know. For me, my boy's birthday is also my "Mother's Day" because the day he was born was the day I could embrace him for the first time, I could caress him, breastfeed him, love him...I could perceive how was the love of a mom like. It's the greatest love. Today, his birthday, I don't have anything that is more special than my love for him. Happy Birthday Dylan!

from mommy

Welcoming autumn with my blooming sunflowers

Summer's gone, I almost lost my hope to see the sunflowers I planted about 2 months ago. There were two plants, given by one of my friends. One died after some weeks but another survived. Its growth has been very slow, but it seemed to resist. It worked out several buds but they didn't develop much. Around the end of summer, I thought they would hardly bloom...but finally they worked out so well! My friend said it was a particular type of sunflowers. Look at the pictures! Their petals are very tiny and they look like round soft pon-pon.

I just wanna offer these beautiful creatures as a virtual gift for everybody ◕‿◕

                                           ✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟ ̈ﾟ✎･ ✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟ ̈ﾟ✎･✿.｡.:

                                            ✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟ ̈ﾟ✎･ ✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟ ̈ﾟ✎･✿.｡.:

                                            ✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟ ̈ﾟ✎･ ✿.｡.:* *.:｡✿*ﾟ ̈ﾟ✎･✿.｡.:

                            Wishing you all a great A U T U M N !!!

25 modi per indossare una sciarpa / 25 ways to wear a scarf

Ho visto un video clip molto carino e lo trovo interessante e simpatico. Perciò vorrei condividerlo con voi lettori. Da sempre vado matta per le sciarpe! Lo siete anche voi?

I've recently seen a nice video clip on youtube. I like it a lot and I think it would be useful for my female followers ;-) Usually I go crazy for scarves. Let's try!

What I eat

I'm back, after a long absence! In summer you feel like doing any other things than writing your blog, don't you? This morning, it was very cloudy and finally it rained! We did need some fresh air. I've a lot of thoughts to share but I'm still keeping them in my mind. I hardly find enough time to write as I'm not the only person who uses the computer. Well, the time will come.

Today, I just thought to show some of my simple but deliciuos dishes. In Italy, where I live, you rarely find a "real" Chinese menu in Chinese restaurants, as for in Thai ones. I suppose they modify the tastes, the ingredients and the way of cooking to make the dishes more similar to those of the local ones, for the reason that customers would accept them more easily. (Let me say that Italian people generally are very traditionalists.)  Yet, I personally think that both China and Thailand have much more various kinds of food to offer and it's really a pity not to demonstrate our stunning tastes and scents. The first time that my husband tried Thai food at Bangkok, I chose the dishes that worth trying, he was crying and blowing the nose while eating because of the intensely spicy tastes, but he loved them a lot and he was so satisfied. When our Italian friends wanted to try Thai dishes, I invited them and cooked the dishes the way they have to be and.....everyone of them loved the food a lot (even though they had some tear drops at the edge of their eyes when eating!!). One of my husband's friends turned back several times to have a Thai spicy soup.

Here is a combined picture of some Chinese and Thai dishes that we serve on the table in our families. I've cooked them at home.  They're all common ones.

The left row from top: Som-tum (Thai famous salad of raw papaya, I replaced papaya by carrots); Sweet and sour mixed vegetables and pork; Tom-yum-kung (thai well-known spicy soup with shrimps and mushrooms)
The right row: Steamed rice and egged pumpkins; Steamed rice and Chinese red spiced pork