Monday, June 29, 2009

Aaaahhhh .... what a life! What Friends! What a SECOND PARTY!!

Ok, so I have some craaaazy friends!! These girls decided to kidnapp blind fold and give me a second bachelorette par-tay!
TEAM FORMATION:

Maria Elena AKA Sue-Ellen

Nicoletta AKA Pick-Nikki
&
Natascia AKA The Maid of Honor

Julia AKA "Our Lawyer"
&
Elena AKA Our Mascot! (she's 7 months pregnate!!)

Here we go! Blindfold me!!!


I decided to give the blindfold some style! ;-)


Getting out of the car with Nikki's help...... please help me!

Ok, time to take it off!

-1-

-2-
...whaaa???

-3-
Oh My Gosh!!!
They took me to a Resort!!

Checking-in

Welcome drink!

Pool Time!






Elena and Alessandro ;-)

The view from our room at sunset


I love this picture!

Us girls ready for the evening

The sash they made me

At dinner

clams yum!

pasta! Yum!

She was my body guard for the evening

View of the pool from our table - beautiful reflections

Pool in motion


I'll post the club dancing pictures as soon as the girls give me a CD with them, I as the bride-to-be, was not allowed to bring the camera dancing!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Sushi Anyone??

We've tried some of the restraunts here that say they serve sushi. But it's nothing close to the real thing! So yesterday afternoon I was at the supermarket and I saw the most marvelous, fresh red tuna in the seafood section. My mouth started watering for maki sushi and wasabi. So I said what the heck! I'll make my own! I bought the tuna, wasabi, nori seaweed and ran home to prepare the rice (it takes over an hour to prepare proper sushi rice click HERE to see why!)

Take a look! It turned out perferct! I was so proud of myself for making makisushi, nigiri sushi and cutting proper sashimi!!!

Set table

Nigiri

Sashimi

Makisushi!

Table again!


Monday, June 22, 2009

Empire of The Sun

I've fallen in love with this song and it couldn't be more appropriate for the moment!!!



Empire of The Sun - Walking on a dream

How can I explain
Talking to myself
Will I see again

We are always running for the thrill of it thrill of it
Always pushing up the hill searching for the thrill of it
On and on and on we are calling out and out again
Never looking down I’m just in awe of what’s in front of me

Is it real now
When two people become one
I can feel it
When two people become one

Thought I’d never see
The love you found in me
Now it’s changing all the time
Living in a rhythm where the minutes working overtime

Catch me I’m falling down
Catch me I’m falling down

Don’t stop just keep going on
I’m your shoulder lean upon
So come on deliver from inside
All we got is tonight that is right till first light


Monday, June 15, 2009

Destination Unknown!

These 4 Girls...
...Decided to take me...
...to Baunei! A small town at elev. 1,500 ft

Time has literally stopped here,
people dress and still do things "the old way"
The terrace that overlooks the valley at 1.500ft

But it gets even better!
The whole time they wouldn't tell me EXACTLY where we were going...

... so we would stop and be silly on the the way, to where though???

I would make them pose ...


... and I tried out new functions on my camera...

...but still, where were we off to???

Mrs. Donkey, could you tell me where these CRAAAZY girls are taking me???

But wait! Could it be we're already here???
Hurrrrayyy! Yes! We're HERE!
I was laughing soo hard because I went to jump on the bed, but didn't notice that this one in the middle wasn't a bed with springs!!! So I jumped and it went CRACK!!!!
My crazy friends organized a camping and hiking trip for me, but the special thing was that we slept and ate in a "Pinnetta" which is a typical Shepheard's hut/house in this area of Sardinia called Ogliastra (Ollie-astra). The first night we stayed in a Pinnetta that was a little more organized than the original ones, since it is now a renound Restaurant too.

The outside of our Hut
The sunset on our way down to the restaurant

Restaurant lights in the distance

At the Restaurant


Us from left to right:
Valentina, Dani, Me, Paola and Caterina

The appetizers! Wild boar sausage, cured ham and cured bacon.Our yummy food! Dumplings filled with mashed potatoes and cheese!


The next day we woke up to a beautiful day and they organazied an off-road and hiking trip to an original shepheards house


Our hut the next morning

Hiking at 1.400ft
Spectacular! But it gets better, I swear!


We met more friends on the way to the next hut

Salvatore's Hut. He's a 5th generation shepheard,
and he and his family knows this area like the back of their hands.
Salvatore from the back and Paolo
The Hut
A pig around his hut just doing his thing....
A bench he created out of juniper

Inside his hut - The living/dining area where ate lunch
(I forgot to take pictures of lunch, but it was pretty
much the same as dinner but was much more tasty)

The Kitchen
Old Hunting pictures with his Father, grandfather and great-grandfather
hearding goats at the age of 9

His very rare dogs
The Pastore Fonnese is a rare Sardinian breed, believed to be descended from ancient war mastiffs of Roman consul Mark Pomponio Matone which were reportedly crossed with local bearded sheepdogs and hounds. Traditionally employed as livestock guardians and herders, the Fonnese Mastiffs were also used in war campaigns in Africa and for personal protection duties.

This breed has remained virtually unchanged for almost 2000 years, thanks to the relative isolation of its home region and the unwillingness of its breeders to sell their puppies to outsiders
The Pastore Fonnese is a rugged and powerful working dog, looking like a smaller South-Russian Ovcharka or a larger Bearded Collie, valued for its resilience and serious personality. This is an intelligent and intuitive dog, completely devoted to its owner, but very suspicious of strangers and aggressive towards other dogs. Because of its independent nature and overly protective attitude, the Fonnese Sheepdog is rarely seen in urban environments.

So you can see how special it was to actually see and touch these dogs as well.

A Pastore Fonnese Puppy


And now for the grand finally......

...we walked and climbed...


...and waited for the mist to go away...

... to overlook this magnificent peak at 1.500 ft
down on to the most turquoise sea I have ever seen!

(click on the pictures to enlarge, they are much more beautiful at full size)



Thanks Girls! I'll never forget this weekend!