My daughter's first birthday I think that becoming a parent is a wonderful experience, an experience that changes every day. The daughter's first birthday is for a father a day in which one can run with mind againg through the varied moments of past year. I firstly remind the exciting moment of the birth, and then the first time I took her to home, her first smiles, her overnight weepings, her first tooth, her first spoken words, her whims and many other things. So her first birthday was for me an important day to celebrate in the best way. I organized a party with my relatives and my friends.It was a sort of picnic in a park nearby my house. There was the sunshine, it was perfect for the children to play in the park. My daughter doesen't walk yet, but she can crawling so other children played with her and gave her many gifts. She also spent a good time, and this is the most important result. I took many photos and helped my wife to prepare food and beverages for the guests and games for the children. I had also the opportunity to meet my brother again after a lot of time, because he lives in another city. He brought a beautiful and delicious cake with the words 'happy birthday'. It can be look like a very normal party, but it was very special for me! I can't wait for the next birthday!

The perfect Sicilian Meal If there is something that makes me feel at home it is Sicilian food. For last Sunday lunch I planned for me and my wife what I can say to be my perfect Sicilian Meal. The meal began with starters. Usually in Sicily they are cold and could be manly made of fish, vegetables and cheese. In my case we ate marinated anchovies and fried mullets. These last one are my favourite kind of fish and I like a lot them with lemon juice. For the first course we had a very traditional Sicilian dish: spaghetti with sardines. It’s rather complicate to fix, so it is something that Sicilian people cook only for special occasions, or on Sundays, not every day. The second course was grilled swordfish with breadcrumbs. It’s another classical dish of Sicilian cooking and I find its taste outstanding. I like it cooked very simply and seasoned with parsley and garlic. I thing that is not easy to find a good swordfish at the markets, even in Sicily. The side we had with fish is another typical Sicilian food: ‘caponata’. It is a sort of salad made of fried eggs, tomato sauce, boiled olives and capers, pine nuts and raisins. I think it not perfectly couples with fish, but I like it a lot and I can turn a blind eye over it. Obviously white wine can’t lack for a meal as like this. My choice was ‘Etna Bianco’, a great wine made from the wineyards on the Etna Volcano. It pairs perfectly with swordfish. For dessert we had ‘cannoli siciliani’. They are the most famous Sicilian dessert and have a very ancient history. The ancient Roman lawyer Cicero knew them. They have a tube shape. The tube is made of a sort fried pastry and it is stuffed with a fresh cheese, called ‘ricotta’, mixed with sugar. I can assure everyone that it is worth to try!

tablets vs books For the last birthday of my wife I made a present, I gave her a tablet for gift. She was very happy even though it is possible that she thought I would had a personal interest to do this kind of present. In fact she knows I like a lot electronic devices. Actually I borrow the table very often and I use it for many purposes. I like reading e-books and I find it’s better than reading real books. According to me there are many advantages with tablets. First of all they allow to bring everywhere a huge amount of books. It’s impossible to do that with real books. Real books take a lot of space and are some times very heavy. Secondly reading on a tablet allows to look any word up on the bundled dictionary immediately. It’s very helpful especially if you are reading something in a different language. With a tablet it’s possible to change the shape of the font and the space between the rows in order to make the reading easier. Moreover it’s possible share the contents with other devices and, by the internet, retrieve them everywhere with any device can be connected to the internet. Speaking of disadvantages of tablets we may say that they more easily makes the eyes tired than real books, probably because of the backlit, but the last models are opaque or have a better display. I think the only real disadvantage is the absence of the contact with the paper, that is the pleasure of touching what you are reading and the physical contact with it. For the more romantic readers this can be very important!

The Good Friday in Sicily In my origin town, in Sicily, the Good Friday is the most solemn holiday of the year, despite it is a mournful recurrence. All the town stops his activities to celebrate and cry the Jesus' death. It could seem strange in other cultures that in a sad day al like that we have the most important celebrations of the year, but this fact probably reflects the deep respect of sicilian people for dead. This is certainly a legacy of anciet people who lived in the isle. The celebrations for the Good Friday starts on the Thursday night, after the commemoration of the Last Supper. Over all nighttime some women, called 'catholic women', pray togheter in the chapel of Lady of Sorrows singing a traditional rosary in the local dialect. At midnight a man with a trumpet starts to go all arround the town, he stops on every crossroad and plays 'the silence'. Most of people are sleeping, but many of them can hear this music and pray. At dawn it starts the first big celebration: the procession of the Lord of the Morning. A sculpture of dead Jesus Christ within his coffin, laying on a bed covered with camellia's petals, is brought by six men in traditional customes along the roads of the town, followed by hundreds of silent people. The procession goes also along a beautiful promenade, at that time the sun reflects on the sea. Those are moments of suggestion and pray. The second big moment takes place in the afternoon. It is called 'The fall from the Cross'. It is almost the sunset and a prayer, or a monk, stands aside a big Cross with a real sized sculpture of Jesus put in a square at the top of a rock on the sea. There are so much people. Six men stay at the foot of the Cross and have to remove the nails from the Jesus' hands and the feet. At every nail the orator delivers a statement, usually about the God's forgiveness. When all the nails are removed Jesus Christ is put on an opened coffin with a bed covered with camellia's petals. So it starts the third big event: the procession of the Lord of the Evening. At the same time starts the procession of the Lady of Sorrows from another place in the town. After few hundreds meters the Lady meet Jesus Christ on a crossroad where a huge crowd is gathered. Henceforth they go on togheter all along the main roads of the Town for about four hours. The celebrations end with the speech that the same prayer (or monk) of the Fall holds before the departure of Jesus from the Lady. It is the last solemn event. Then we wait for the Easter.

Planning a journey Dear friends, Since a while I'm planning to visit the United Kingdom as I've never gone there. I'm planning to have a journay of about eight days, but I'm not sure how spend them. My wife wants to go in London, but stopping over there would require at least four of five days. Instead I'd like travel around the Midlands, so I think have not so much time to do both. I guess the London visit is inevitable, beacuse as husband I can't avoid to accomplish my wife's request (you know how do the women do ...). So, in order to save both ways, I think we'll stop in London for three days, then we will rent a car and will start to travel to the North. I don't know what towns are better to get, maybe Cambridge, Birmingham, York, Leeds and Newcastle. If you have any advice for my journey, I'de be glade if you told me. Thank you!

Mr Berlusconi is coming back! Dear Friends, sit down and take fasten belts, now I'm going to write about italian politics. For years the face of Italy in the world was been only one: the beautiful face of Mr. Berlusconi. Some Italians (I think not the most of them, because of our voting system) have love him probably because of his power and richness, because of his career and successful personal history, because of his promises and his dream-seller ability. Now many italians, and I also, have been thinking that after many years of bad laws, bad choices, sexual scandles, diplomatic incidents we can finally forget a government like Berlusconi's one. I don't like Mr. Monti, the new Prime Minister, but he has given a worth face of Italy in the world, despite now the slump is deeper than ever (at least in the last 60 years). Suddenly in Dicember newspaper's headlines hit our serenity by telling us that Berlusconi was come back and He wanted to compete at next elections. I thank: it's unbelivable, this man has no limits and we, italians, can't allow that! My friend Dario, living in London, told me his shame when he knew this event by watching Tv. But I was sure: Italians have learnt the lesson, they never will vote hime again! Now, dear friends, the polls say that Berlusconi has almost 30% of voting intentions and I am astonished. If you are studying something about Italian culture I ask you for stop it immediatly and start to study this phoenomenon, then tell me your conclusions. I need it. Thank You!

come back to work Dear Friends, After only 1 week of holidays I came back to work. The first 48 hours has been a little tough and I'm resting just a moment only now. On Monday I was on the shift for the Emergency Room and I stayed there from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. working hardly throughout the day. In this time many people come to the hospital because of winter sport injuries, but not only. Some people can need medical assistence for trauma due to a fallen on the iced pavement, some other for accidents and so forth. After 8 p.m. I was available on call until 8 a.m. of Tuesday. Luckily the night was gone better, but at the six o'clok I woke up by a call from the Hospital and I had to go at the Emergency Room for a patient with hip arthroplasty dislocation and for another one with hip fracture. So I was working again until 8 o'clok. It isn't all. Because of my normal shift I had to stay in the theatre at 2 o'clok in the afternoon. It was another day full of work and I could leave the Hospital only at 9.30 p.m. At home I seated on the couch and immediatly slept. This morning I came back in the ward at 6.40 and only now I can have some rest. I'm a little tired and surely this post will be full of mistakes, but I must learn to write (and speak) correctly also in moments like this. Thank you for your patience. See you soon.

Travels of end-year In Xmas time many people want to meet the relatives, but in Italy this thing has now a big impact. Specially this impact is big for my sanity. As many italians coming from the South, I work and live in the North, but my relatives still live in Sicily (the place where I was born). That's not all. My wife, as the italians above, comes from Puglia, another region of the south Italy, far away at least 700 km from Sicily. She also wants to meet her relatives during Xmas time. In this time many italians travel from the North to the South, so it's hard to travel to this direction with any kind of transport, such as the trains, the airlines and the highways. As many other times I chose the car, but I'm not sure it was the best choice. Yesterday we left my home to go in Puglia (about 800 km). The day after tomorrow we'll take off again to go in Sicily (I just said, about 700 km). In one week we'll start to return at home. You can calculate: about 3000 km of busy roads in ten days. You are thinking I'm foolish and also I think so. In my defense I can say that I tried other transports in past years with others but similar difficulties. Maybe every year I have to do some efforts for a grat reward: looking at my father eyes watching my daughter!