Best Free Guide for Italian Food in London

 

Ciao! This guide features my top picks of Italian restaurants, bakeries, and street food spots that I absolutely love to visit in London.

Food guide https://docs.google.com/document/d/10jZzUZ_xoF9pIBRzxfmB1FoviiC_kAzYUzdnhUUntys/edit?usp=sharing

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/10jZzUZ_xoF9pIBRzxfmB1FoviiC_kAzYUzdnhUUntys/edit?usp=sharing

Carpe diem

The maxim "Carpe diem" has currently risen to a different meaning from the original Horace's lyric poet of the Carmina.

As a matter of fact Horace's dialogue to the young Leuconoe is not an invitation to enjoy blindly the life, but is better a call to live the possible happyness that the incertainty of our life can offer to us (carpe diem: quam minimum credula postero).

In this point of view "carpe diem" accords with the right meaning contained in Saint Mathew's Gospel (Chapter 6, 25-31) with which Jesus invites us to live today without the ambush for tomorrow.

So we can say, with Novalis,  that the great latin poet  Horace,  was the real priest-poet. 

7 Holiday Traditions to Start with Your Family

Some families have holiday traditions that go back generations.  Other families don’t really have any traditions at all.  Regardless of which camp you fall into, why not create a few new holiday traditions this Christmas season?  Traditions give everyone something special to look forward to year after year.  If you are at a loss as to what kind of things you can do to start a tradition, check out this list.

1. Look at the lights.  Magical twinkling lights are all around in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  Pick a night to take the whole family on a drive around the neighborhood or a drive through one of those huge displays that you pay by the car load.  You might want to bring along some popcorn and hot chocolate to enjoy during your drive.
2. Serve dinner at a soup kitchen.  Check with your local shelters to find out when they serve dinners and look into if you and your family can take part in helping those less fortunate.  Check early, because sometimes shelters take the first 50 people to help and then turn other volunteers away.  Christmastime is a popular time to help serve at the soup kitchen, and a lot of places will take reservations for volunteers.
3. Go Christmas caroling.  It doesn’t matter if you can carry a tune or not.  Dress warmly and print out the lyrics of some popular Christmas songs, then take a stroll around the neighborhood singing to folks.  This doesn’t happen as regularly as it once did, and people will surely be thrilled to hear a holiday song.  Ask some of your friends to come along if you are shy about your abilities.  There is strength in numbers.
4. Watch a tree lighting.  Most cities have a central square or other location where they have a big Christmas tree lighting ceremony.  Sometimes it’s tied to other winter activities that you might join in on as well.  Check with your city or online to see where the different tree lightings are in your area.
5. Go on a sleigh ride.  If you live in an area where there is no snow then you can look for a carriage ride and go on one of those with your family.  Check the yellow pages in your area and see where you can find a sleigh ride or carriage ride this holiday season.  It’s magical listening to the sleigh bells ring.
6. Invite friends over for Christmas Eve.  Get together with some friends on Christmas Eve and play games or watch a Christmas movie with some popcorn and candy.  Make it a potluck or order Chinese food for something completely different than what everyone will be eating on Christmas day.
7. Bake cookies for the neighbors.  If you love to bake why don’t you and the kids make up a bunch of cookies, candies and bars to take to the neighbors?  People usually like homemade food and will be excited to see someone from the neighborhood bringing them goodies.  You never know, the way to a cranky neighbor’s heart might be through their stomach!

Anything can become a tradition if you make it a point to do it every year.  Bake cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning or mix up a batch of homemade fudge.  You will be amazed how much fun it will be to anticipate these traditions year after year.

 P.S. This post was  proposed to me for publication by Sandra McAubre.  I'm therefore publishing it by her invitation and under her permission. See also the link below fore more information:

http://www.hireananny.org/blog/7-holiday-traditions-to-start-with-your-family/ 

How to Create Your Own Photo Backdrop for Your Next Party

Having candid pictures when you’re throwing a party is essential to capturing friends and family having fun and immortalizing the day, however, it’s not always easy to snag a snapshot of everyone in attendance, especially when you’re running around playing host or hostess as well.  Creating a photo backdrop for your party adds a fun activity for attendees, allows your guests to stage interesting or hilarious pictures with each other, and typically results in a bunch of cute photos of everyone attending.
Creating a photo backdrop can be as easy or as complicated as you make it, but you do need to cover a few facets to make it successful.  Start by asking yourself these questions.

• What is my theme?
• Will my guests be inside or outside?
• Do I have room inside to create this backdrop?

Having a Sweet 16 party? Create a wooden frame that is 7 feet tall by 8 feet wide.  Use wood to create a tripod structure on each side to allow the frame to stand on its own.  Take wooden letters and paint them colors that match the theme and spell out “Happy Sweet 16.” Hang the letters with wire from the top of the frame.  Drape some pretty fabric in the theme colors over and around the frame to soften the look.  Place a bench beneath the frame and bring in a box of props, hats, scarves, feather boas, giant sunglasses, alien antennae headbands, and anything else that can serve as a silly or unique prop.  Your photo backdrop is complete.  Now just put someone in charge of taking photos and you’re done.
Having a Fall Harvest party? Arrange some large bales of hay into a semi-circle.  Stack a few extra bales to double up the height in the center back of the semi-circle.  Take some tall painted signs and stick them in the ground behind and beside the bales of hay.  Bring in a bunch of pumpkins and gourds and place them on the hay and in front of the hay.  Include a scarecrow in the center that people can pose with.  For props you can offer some straw hats with wide brims, rakes, and pitch forks.
Hosting a Black & White Baby’s First Birthday?  Find a corner inside where you can hang black fabric from about 8 feet high down to the floor on both sides of the corner.  Duct tape usually holds up the fabric well.  Include an empty picture frame that people can hold up in front of them.  Offer old fashioned hats for men and women, long beaded necklaces, and gloves.  The pictures will be printed in black and white so it doesn’t matter what color everyone is wearing.  Drag in a big old chair or settee if you have one.  Everyone can gather around the chair.  Signs can also be added for people to hold.  Another fun element would be mustaches on sticks that can be held up in front of a person.  Offer different kinds of mustaches and include the old fashioned handlebar mustaches.
If you’re interested in having an easy photo backdrop there are companies who offer peel and stick backdrops.  You can have a brick wall, a barn door, a tufted wall, or many others.
An easy backdrop for any birthday party is to take balloons and blow them up and stick them on the wall with tape.  Create a row of red, a row of orange, a row of yellow and so on through the rainbow.  Hang curling ribbon from the ceiling to the floor.  Have a bucket of colorful paper confetti and get ready to snap some awesome pictures.
If people are having fun with each other and the props, the pictures will reflect that joy, and you’ll end up with a bunch of memorable pictures.  Hire someone to stand and take pictures all evening if you have that in your budget.  You don’t want to be tied to the photo booth all night.  Or leave the camera there and as people want to take pictures someone can grab the camera and take them.  There’s usually at least one shutterbug in the crowd.
 P.S. This post was  proposed to me for publication by Patricia Salway.  I'm therefore publishing it by her invitation and under her permission. See also her own blog, liveoutnanny, on  the link below, for more information:
http://www.liveoutnanny.com/blog/how-to-create-your-own-photo-backdrop-for-your-next-party/