Dolls...

All the Christmas presents are almost ready. 'Almost', since all the various pieces (heads, legs, arms, hair...) are still traveling somewhere between Munchen and Ancona. It is not a horror trailer, just the components to be put together, of the new Waldorf Doll, the doll that will be this year the present for all the children of the family. Hand made during my 'spare'! time.  Hopefully they will be here in time!

The only one who missed the danger is here, Anna J.J., she just couldn't be in the hold of the aircraft!

With the images of Anna J.J I wish you a very nice, sweet Christmas, and happy new 2013.

Sinterklaas, San Nicolas, Zwarte Pieten and Babbo Natale...a very particular story

This morning from the dense fog of Rotterdam I have heard the same whistle I hear every Sunday morning. This morning it sounded different: every child would have recognized it, it was the whistle of the boat of Sinterklaas. I always forget about it!
Every year he comes in more or less in November, and his boat just comes downstairs, we can clearly see it form the balcony. The good news is that we can just put on the shoes and run down to welcome him.
While I am bringing a crying Anna to the "event"I ask myself why he is coming in so early in the year, what is his relation with Christmas....then the happy atmosphere takes over, Anna's tears dry up, and all the questioning goes away without answers.

Zwarte Pieten

Later on at home the doubt comes back and there is a need of obviousness.

Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands right in the middle of Novembre, he is on board of a big steam boat that waves the Spanish flag. He wears a beautifully elegant red dress and cap, he has a very long white beard. A white horse is bringing him to give candies and pepernoten to the children, and a big crowd of Zwarte Pieten will help him with this. Children will prepare a old shoe for the candies and an apple and a drawing for Sint and the horse. 

At this point of the story Anna asks: and Babbo Natale?

I knew we would have come to that question. The following sounded more or less like this:

Babbo Natale is wearing a red dress, he has a long white beard as well, he is sitting on sleigh pulled by reindeer. He lives in the North, where everything is mostly covered by snow, and before leaving to bring the presents he needs to read all the letters the children wrote to him, this is why he comes later, near Christmas. Since it is Christmas he put the presents under the beautifully lighted trees. 

Sinterklaas and Babbo Natale long time ago decided to help each other. The world was full of children and to rich everyone they had to share their duty. So since that time Sinterklaas brings presents to the " cold lands of North" ( as Anna calls them ) and Babbo Natale to the " warm lands of South".

I thought this would be a good "cultural" compromise for the luky ones who have double nationality.
The strange part of the story is that one leaves the south to bring presents to the Northern countryes, and the other one leaves  the north to bring presents to the South...I skept that issue, and I'll leave to you any further comments...

The old shoe for the candies and pepernoten, and the apple  Anna left for the horse.

Where is the Intruder?

Behind my Back

Where is the intruder? It looks pretty easy, but I guarantee: there is not  an intruder.

This image makes easy to picture my life after Anna (my daughter) was born: it is the essence of my choice to be a mother and an architect, off course with completely new rhythms and from home. 

This is going to be as well the unstudied content of this blog.

The image is a snatch of the wall behind the desk where I work. It is the corner of my house I like pretty much. The first drawing, elegant and with a frame (the only one!), is a present from my friend and professor Pippo Ciorra. I got it the same day I defended my PhD thesis, in Venice.  

It is a drawing made by playing, drawn directly on the paper-tablecloth of the restaurant, while we were talking about the future. For me it is an important memory of my university career  and of the people involved. 

The rest of the sketches are the very serious  drawings that Anna brings home from the nursery school.  

Playing and experiencing are the two common elements of these drawings, this is the reason why I love to hang and show them there. Now when I am on a skype call nobody looks at me any longer, they look at the wall! 

Playing and experiencing are as well  the common elements of my life now: to be a mother and an architect at the same time, obliges me to re-invent timetables, to re-schedule, to be flexible and ready to change, to play more or less seriously with everything, including with time.  

I can do my job, I know how to be an architect. But playing....I had completely forgotten that!

Luckily Anna, very patiently, guided me through this new discovery. Now when I really play with her, in her way, we share a deep empathy. I got to know her better and better; and myself as well.