ombra di claudia sull'erba

Claudia's

last update 3rd December 2005

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Lazy (yes, lazy!) and incostant (if I'm doing one thing it occurs to me that I may do a hundred more) in my life I have replaced quality with quantity!!! So, besides work and music, how do I spend my time?

I love working with my hands. When I have time or I am inspired, I love cross-stiching and making earrings or necklaces, mostly to give away.

The following are some of the sites I have visited when looking for new ideas on cross-stitching:
Cross Stitching - Welcome from The Mining Company;
DMC Creative World .

christmas cake 1999I'm also quite good at cooking, especially cakes. Although I have loads of recipes at home I generally adapt them to the ingredients I have or invent them altoghether; but I must say the results are usually passable....In the picture, my Christmas cake, 1999.

I went to a gym about three times a week for nearly six years, but I gave up....too lazy and too little time off work..... Physical exercise for me consists in some walking or cycling, usually around town or around where I now live... And of course dancing, when I can!

I took a couple of Spanish courses and I promise I'll try to study some more of it... sooner or later.

I read a lot, especially before going to sleep, though lately I fall asleep really easily..... I generally read in English, sometimes in French and less often in Italian; I also try Spanish at times, though only short stories, so as not to get completely lost. I like modern and historical novels, thriller books, language and lingustics books, popular essays. My favourite writers are the English novelist David Lodge (though he hasn't written anything for too long!) and the neuro-psychiatrist Oliver Sacks.

Here are some of the books I've read in the past few years:

Nick Hornby "About a Boy" and "High Fidelity", Edward Rutherford "London" and "The Forest" , Louis de Bernières "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" (a masterpiece!!), S.K. Pennman "Here be Dragons", Bill Bryson "Notes from a Big Country", various (all...) by Oliver Sacks and David Lodge, Thomas Cahill "How the Irish Saved Civilisation", Henriette Walter "L'Aventure de la Langue en Occident", Claude Hagége "Le Souffle de la Langue", Steven Pinker, "The Language Instinct", Jostein Gaarder "Sophie's World", "The Calendar" by D.E. Duncan, "Il piacere dell'Italiano" by Paolo Granzotto, "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason" by Helen Fielding (my bible for the summer 2001), "Doce Cuenots Peregrinos" by García Márquez, "London Transports", "Circle of Friends" and "This Year Will Be Different" by Maeve Binchy (moving women's stories...), "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon, "Cod" by Mark Kurlansky (strange that a book on cod fishing should be so interesting!), "Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps " by A. and B. Pearse and "Così giovane e già Ebreo" by Moni Ovadia...and many more I won't mention.

More news on the above books can be found on the Amazon sites, both British and American.

Other web-sites on languages and linguistics are:

I also enjoy losing myself in sounds and pictures; since I had a satellite dish installed a few years ago I have been watching quite a lot of television: movies, TV series, documentaries, news, mostly in the original language: a great exercise! I am now addicted to BBC Prime. I also sometimes go to the cinema, though not that often.

A wish for the future? A 48-hour day.....