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Castellina in Chianti

Castellini is a small village in Tuscany located between Florence and Sienna.  The first settlement in the area dates back to 800BC and the current village dates back to 1100s. Perched on the top of a hill and surrounded by olive trees and vineyards this is a quaint little town with great wine, cheese and olive oils which […]

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Back to Amsterdam

WOW, it’s been quite a while since we posed anything on here.  Having said that we are back on the road again travelling a bit.  Short break, nine days in total – destination Tuscany.  We did what all responsible parents would naturally do, leave the kids in school and in charge of the house and […]

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Deep Cove Park

Today we set off for a nice walk at Deep Cove Park with some old friends from Anna’s university years –  Damian and Allisa and their children.  The one hour leisurely hike up offers spectacular views of  the bay and a great vista of downtown Vancouver.  On the way down we stopped for some coffee and crêpes […]

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Christmas Concert

Strathcona band was preforming a Christmas Concert today at the church downtown.  We have been to the junior high Christmas concert, but the high school kids are in a league of their own.  They are more refined and mature and quite sophisticated in their sound.  They played one very modern piece which was our favourite. […]

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Where Big Kids Go

Yesterday was Halloween, today is a lazy Saturday morning.  While the kids were out shopping at WEM for some Christmas gifts, we made a quick stop at  Audio Ark.  For me going to Audio Ark is like going to a giant candy store – it is a happy place full of refined sophistication and decadence.  

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Liege Waffle

Today for breakfast we are trying the Liege Cakes once more time.  This time a bit different recipe which has a bit less butter but instead of yeast we are using live culture.  We essentially used the same recipe as last week but scaled down a bit on butter.  This should have been an entire […]

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The Great Pillage

Today is Halloween – it is great many things to many different people.  For ghosts and goblins and witches and monsters it is time to freely roam the streets. For little Vikings at heart it is time to get out and liberate the neighbourhood of some candies and for the dentists it is time to pick up […]

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Snow Snow Snow

It is snowing!  At around 5pm today the skies opened up and it started coming down like crazy.  Huge wet snow flakes everywhere.  Only Evelina was happy with this turn of events, we all just looked in disbelief!  I am sure this snow is not going to stick around around for long, but we all […]

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Viking and Dragons

There are many different things we all miss about being on the other side of the pond.  From the simple narrow and twisted cobble stone streets we walked in the old town Nuremberg to our friends  and our favourite coffee shops and stores, the amazing gelato and the atmosphere of the old city, the history and […]

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14 Pizza Dinner

You will have to take my word for it, even though the pictures don’t show it, there really were 14 pizza on the dinner menu tonight – each different than the last.  Twelve of them were consumed on site and two went home with us.  There was also bread pudding.  There was a lot of […]

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Cousins

Perhaps one of the things that Boris and Evelina missed the most about Edmonton was their cousins. The greatest thing in their minds is the fact that our family lives close to us.  On a beautiful fall day with the sun shining and leaves blowing in the wind they got on their bikes and went […]

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Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is great.  Three days off, three days of eating and relaxing.  It is great to be home for this one.  While Christmas has its own charm, Thanksgiving is special.  It is time to take pause and reflect, time to be thankful and appreciative.  Time to spend with family, time to relax and appreciate everyone […]

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Hello Hugo

To make a long story short – this is what our weekend is shaping up to be. We are going to be sampling four more bottles of Prosecco to see which one will be perfect to make just the right tasting Hugo. We are looking for volunteers to help us empty these four lovely bottles. […]

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Home Time

It is finally time to make the landing post and say goodbye to Iceland.  I have been home for a couple of weeks now buried in work.  Not the business work but house work.  There is a seemingly endless list of house chores that need doing, some due to what appears to be plain neglect, some […]

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Masters Class

Masters Class

I finally got around to getting these uploaded, converted and here they are for you to enjoy.  While at Villa Medici, this was the Masters of Piano graduating class, with formalities of the evening being done, everyone was a lot more relaxed and the music they got out of that wooden box with strings and […]

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This is Monza

Monza is an integral part of F1.  It is one of the first 7 tracks that  hosted the F1 championship in 1950.  Since then 64 F1 races were run in Italy and all but one were held at Monza.  Monza together with Monaco, Silverstone in England, and Spa in Belgium are four of the original tracks still used today […]

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Home Alone

It is 10:30pm.  The owner of the villa is staying in the private part of this complex behind a big iron gate, in a huge manicured private garden in a smaller private villa more suitable for a family.  Alexandro the caretaker and Fiona the lady who makes breakfast sleeps next to the kitchen which is […]

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Monza Walkabout

After last night it was slow going  this morning but a race day awaits.  Karen, Carlos and myself are going to carpool since they know where the good parking is but don’t feel like driving their little Lancia on the twisty Italian roads.  We were informed that to have a chance of finding decent parking we […]

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The Concert

After my day out at Monza, I got back to the Villa Medici for the piano concert which I was invited to by Maestro Kanno.  Together with a number of other guests and the owner of this fabulous place we watched 4 young musicians show off their polished skills after  a week of teaching and a […]

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House Of Music

Villa Medici has a different look and feel to it in a daylight.  Last night I just wanted to get to bed, today I had a chance to walk around this place, in its endless maze of hallways and rooms that lead to even more hallways and rooms.  This place is truly huge and on […]

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Villa Medici

So after circling around the building for about 25 min I managed to find the big brown door to get to where I am staying, Villa Medici. This is a 4000 sq m musical villa. There are over 60 pianos here in this house. I have a piano in my room too, it is bigger […]

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Finally Here

This is Villa Medici.  I stood and drove around this place for 25 min and parked at least on 3 of the 4 available corners trying to figure out how to get into this place.  Apparently there huge brown door had a large metal knocker that you bang, then the doors open and you are […]

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F1

After a lot of waiting, a lot of talking and a bit of planning this is finally happening.  I am going to Monza to see F1 race this coming weekend.  I am not sure what to expect, except for a lot of noise and testosterone around and a sea of red and yellow flags supporting […]

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