chrissyginger

Bullet List: Rome Style Decoded

Crop wide pant, crossbody bag

Put together with black leather jacket

Mom looking put together

What makes women in a particular city, say Paris, look so Parisian? Likewise, what makes women in Rome, look so Italian?! Here are some decoding bullets:

Jewelry (big, bold, and lots of it!)
Scarves
Trendy or beautiful shoes
Loose locks of hair
One really big statement piece
Clear style statements of confidence
Hosiery
Mani/pedis are a must
Fully styled professionals
Luxury denim is styled upscale
Lips and Mascara

Here are some other style helpers:

Umbrella
Helmet that coordinates with scooter
Leather (Italian) handbag
Leather (Italian) jacket

Here’s what I don’t see on the streets of Rome worn by Romans:

Pajamas
Flip flops
Wrinkled clothes
Bottom cleavage/muffin tops

So let me describe a few of the beautiful Italian women I have seen so far, but haven’t gotten photos of:

Woman #1: 60s/70s — Black hair — skinny skinny

Hosiery with large criss-cross design, flat black suede shoes
Black sheath dress trimmed with short fringe
Black leather jacket
Giant pearl and gold necklace, earrings, multiple rings

Woman #2: 40s/50s — brown hair — average build

Wide-legged, over-dyed, oversized denim cropped jeans in a melon color
Matching oversized straight cut car length jacket in same melon denim
Extra-long print scarf down to her knees in a print of melon/neon green/red
Ankle boots, mid-height heel, trendy in light tan (Italian leather, I would bet)

Woman #3: 60s — salt and pepper hair — athletic build

Cropped gabardine pants in dark green
Open-toed suede shoe in cognac with a chunky stacked heel (Italian leather)
Silk print blouse — three shades of green with some purple for good luck
Leather jacket in cognac (Italian leather)
Cream-colored helmet & matching cream and black scooter
Silk chiffon scarf in pale green
Leather brief portfolio in cognac (Matchy-matchy I love it!)

Each of these women had a certain striking air of confidence, and of assertiveness. I got the sense that they didn’t put too much focus on matters that didn’t directly involve them. I also sensed that they weren’t looking for style approval, but rather that style was their medium, under their control.

Historical Crosswalk: Arco di Tito

The Roman Forum is jam-packed with architectural finds, such as the Arch of Tito. Normally, I just associate these names with characters in movies and don’t really know why Tito is important enough to have his own arch. Tito, like the other guys who have an arch, conquered and looted, bringing wealth back to Rome.

What is interesting from a historical intersection is that Tito conquered Jerusalem. He is the one responsible for the destruction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. That’s why there is just a big wall. Tito proceeded to take all of the valuable stuff back up to Rome and had the Arco di Tito built to commemorate his power and wealth.

Best items to pack: All-star tools

One day before we boarded a plane for Rome, we found out that our apartment was not ready for us to move-in yet. We would be staying at a beautiful and conveniently located hotel for up to 6 weeks. A little bit of a surprise to which we couldn’t prepare since we were already staying in Washington, D.C. for the two weeks leading up to our departure. Meaning, we had already packed for a two-week trip, with about another two weeks in Rome, after which we expected to receive the first batch of our clothes and office equipment, with the second, larger batch coming in about a month after that — or so.

already packed

Anyway, that cut out the packing anxiety completely. We were already packed and committed. Fortunately, I have some on-the-road tools that have become my all-stars for road trips. NOTE: These all-stars must be in checked baggage. I realize that the trend is to take everything in a carry-on, but at my age, I rely on various comforts and for long-term trips, over two weeks, on an abundantly filled suitcase.

Here is my bullet list of All-Stars and how they have made our hotel living work:

Scissors: used to cut black electrical tape, stray threads, open pockets on hubby’s new blazers
Black electrical tape: used to cover all of the led lights in the room (TV, 10 light switches, thermostat)
Foldable sharp knife: open jammed suitcase, open packaging, slice lemon for sick hubby, slice olive focaccia bread, slice cheese
Cosmetics organizers: two hanging organizers, one train case, three clear plastic zippered bags (one shown)
Samples of Products: shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, lotion, serum, moisturizer, sunscreen (already don’t like the smell of the shower gel–I have an aversion to the smell of lavender, need special shampoo/conditioner, love expensive serums but hate having $100 of product leak out during flight, it’s nice when you can get your special products in travel size–but can’t always find travel size plus samples are usually free, etc.)

Light switches — Each switch has blue LED light shining throughout the night to ensure no sleep occurs.

Light from TV shines in eyes all night long.

Dumb light on Thermostat shines directly in eyes when sleeping. Absolutely must cover with black tape.

Best Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

In the same vein as a second semester home-ec class in 1977, here is a genuine muffin. Not cake batter in the shape of a muffin, but a not-too-sweet muffin with the coarser crumb that defines old school homemade muffins.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees-this is always the first step.

List of ingredients-get them gathered with the proper cooking utensils second.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 TBS powdered buttermilk

2 TBS Poppy seeds

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

1 lemon

1/4 cup powdered sugar plus more for glaze

All purpose flour — 2 cups all-purpose flour

Granulated sugar — About 1 cup granulated sugar (adjust to how sweet you want the muffins to be)

Powdered buttermilk — 2-1/2 Tablespoons powdered buttermilk.

Baking powder — 2 teaspoons baking powder.

Baking soda — 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (to activate the buttermilk).

Poppy seeds — 2 Tablespoons poppy seeds.

Wet ingredients — 1/2 cup oil in a 2 cup measuring cup (this is canola oil).

Lemon peel — Microplane the entire lemon zest into the dry or wet ingredients (this time into the dry, with a quick stir).

Remove seeds from the juice. Reserve the juices lemon halves. Add juice to wet ingredients.

Mix wet into dry — Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Gently fold and stir just until all dry ingredients are incorporated.

Muffin pan — Spray muffin pan with oil. Make sure your oven is preheated to 400 degrees.

Muffin cups — Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.

Glaze — Stir up the lemon glaze, start with 1/4 cup powdered sugar.

Add milk — Add a little milk. The glazers is adjusted by adding a little powdered sugar and a little milk or fresh lemon juice and lemon pulp and lemon zest left on the microplane until it looks right.

Oven — Remove from the oven. They should be deep golden brown and spring back when touched. Don’t burn your fingers!

Break open. — According to my home economics teacher, never use a knife on muffins. Just pull open gently and place a pat of butter inside.

Easy & Tasty Broccoli and Carrots

Fresh broccoli and carrots — Clean and prep

Pan, oil, salt — Good olive oil, kosher salt and a pan

Carrots — In addition to trimming and rinsing carrots, a good scrub is good

Peeler — Or you might feel like peeling the dirty looking spots

Broccoli — Cut down to about the same size as the carrots

Put in the pan — Be sure everything is coated in oil

Turn them over — Half way through the cooking time, turn them over

Then check every 10 minutes until done.

Fresh Beet Greens

There’s a simple technique that is used for fresh beet greens, kale, and broccolini. Here’s the template:

Clean and prep
Blanche
Ice water bath
Saute

Here’s what it looks like with fresh beet greens from the farmer’s market.

Rinse at least 3 times — Must be cleaned and all icky leaves discarded

Salted water — Bring to a boil with plenty of salt!

Ice water bath — Cool blanched greens quickly

Into the bath — Use a slotted spoon to remove from the water

Season with spring onions and garlic — Season with fresh garlic and spring onions

Heat pan — Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat

Saute onions and garlic — Saute for a minute or two

Add chopped blanched beet greens — Saute together and season with S&P

How to Use the ICE train

When I first moved to Frankfurt, Germany, I wanted to see everything in Europe on a budget! The best way to travel is by train. There are the local trams, the Regional trains, and the ICE or Inter City Express high-speed trains. Each train has a very well-organized process and it helps to have it quickly explained. For instance, once you purchase your ICE ticket, how do you know where to get on the train to find your seat?

This short video below shows you how to quickly find out!

Muffins Template: #2 Wet Add-ins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup to 3/4 cup sugar

1 TBS Baking Powder

1 teaspoon salt (optional)

up to 1 teaspoon of additional spice to complement add-in (orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, etc.)

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup to 1 cup wet add-in (cranberry sauce, pumpkin, finely shredded zucchini, banana [2], yogurt, applesauce, or whichever ingredient you are planning to use)

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray muffin pan with plenty of oil. Mix dry ingredients first in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients–I do this in a 4-cup measure to save dirty bowls (I’m thrifty, not lazy LOL). Gently add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, folding just until mixed. Fill muffin cups to 3/4 full. If you have leftover, put into an oven save custard dish (sprayed first) and cook for half the time. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from pan within first 2 minutes to keep from “sweating” and store on a plate with a clean dishtowel covering.

Traveling While Sick: Tips & Observations

The morning of my flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Frankfurt, Germany I started an earnest sinus infection/summer cold. Here’s what I did right and what I would change if I had to do it all over again…

This is what worked well:

Scheduled 24-hour layover in new hotel
Hall’s cough drops in a carry-on bag
Advil in a carry-on bag
Z-pack antibiotics (proactively prescribed from fantastic nurse practitioner)
Giant bottle of water to take on the plane
Best carry-on bag design
Cash
Shopping in airport
Very-close-to-airport hotel

What I would change:

Type of hotel
Should have been located near some restaurants

So, I stayed at a sister brand hotel– it was really new, and really cute. Hip. Trendy. Lower cost. Here’s why:

No in-room coffee
No executive lounge
No room service
No restaurant
No wi-fi in room

I learned on this trip just how spoiled I am with a full-service hotel, meaning the big, full service with a restaurant, a snack room, an executive lounge, room service, coffee-at-will in my room. In these big hotels, I can work in the room, in the lounge, in the lobby, but in these trendy scaled down hotels, it is designed for a different crowd. Folks who have kids, don’t work from their room, are not spending any time in their room except to shower and to sleep.

So, I dragged myself around the coffee bar/check-in a few times during the day, looking so pathetic, the guest manager/clerk helped me microwave my soup, find the spoons, and made me coffee. I ended up sleeping throughout the day and night, recovering from the crud that had ushered me out of Africa.

Moxy Hotel, Frankfurt, Germany — Welcome to the 2nd Floor!

Note: I have found incredible hospitality at the hotels that I have stayed at — caring people, ready to help. Because I have been a road warrior, I have had several instances of being quite ill during my stays throughout the United States and Europe. Here’s a shout out to every room service person who helped me with hot water and lemon, disinfecting the bathroom [don’t ask], the folks in the restaurant who prescribed lime juice with salt for my throat so I could deliver training to a crowd, and proceeded to procure it for me from the kitchen, and I could go on…Everyone at these places deserves to be treated kindly and with respect. I love you all in the hospitality industry!!!!

Shout out to the room decor designers! This is what I was waking up to when I was so sick in Frankfurt, Germany at the Moxy Hotel.

Travel: Broken Foot Edition

Ace bandage helps! — Waiting on picnic bench while Hubby tours the mine.

One of the annoying little things that can happen on any given expedition out of your front door is an accident. There are all kinds of accidents that happen every day, you get stung by a wasp–swelling up, you eat something that makes you sick, or you step one wrong way, causing some weird injury that impacts your ability to do what you want to do.

This happens while traveling, although usually not to me.

You see I am a bit of a “being safe” nut — full of helpful anxiety about germs, street food, and neighborhoods that are off the beaten track. I walk tall, don’t drink much alcohol (if at all), and am inside of my hotel room at a reasonable hour. I avoid public demonstrations, threatening people (both them threatening me and me threatening them LOL!), and going out without a scarf, a sweater, and a cross-body bag. I pack bandaids, acetaminophen, diarrhea medicine, vitamin C, and sunscreen. All of this so that when I travel I can walk all over the city fearlessly and fun-loving!

But accidents do happen. And one happened to me on Monday of Week 3 of my 5-week vacation. I was at a wild animal park/sanctuary, and I stepped down from a tall step onto some cardboard that had been placed, I had imagined at the time, over a former mud puddle. The dirt was dry, there was no mud, I didn’t even stop to think about taking this large step. My weight landed on my right foot, which then slid over the hidden large rock, and proceeded to hyper-extend, popping as I landed with a thump. My phone flew out of my hand; I managed to land on my knee, then my well padded hind end; shaken up, to say the least. I am not in the habit of falling, tripping, nor stumbling. I think of myself as being quite spry, although not at all athletic.

As you can see below, this did not stop me from petting the baby cheetahs!

3 Cheetah kittens sunning at Rhino and Lion Safari Park, South Africa — Sweet kitty kitty cheetah cheetahs.

I am so grateful that I didn’t know at the time that I had broken a bone in my foot since I have extreme anxiety about visiting hospitals, especially hospitals in Africa. Now, I say this since the local hospital that was pointed out to me in Zimbabwe was built from cinder blocks back in the 1950s–I would guess. (Realize that I do believe in contributing to any and all aid organizations that help third-world countries get medical supplies and other assistance.) We have resistant strains of bacteria and viruses in the U.S. and I am certain that it is no different over here in Africa.

So, grateful. No trip to the doctor [until 6 weeks later when it became apparent that it was more than a bad bruise]. But….with swelling, bruising, and pain that continues every step that I make a full two weeks later, I now have a new understanding of making the most of a trip. [And now, 9 months later, I realize how important it is to avoid injury!]

—–

It is now a full month later and I still have pain in my foot and rely heavily on my hiking shoes — no other shoe feels comfortable. I have a bruise on the bottom of my foot, another one on the side, and the worst bruising on the top of my foot. You know what this means…Dr. Podiatrist here I come!

Also another P.S. regarding healthcare and Africa: Thank you to my nurse practitioner J.S. for not only prescribing medicine to prevent malaria, but also having the foresight to prescribe a Z-Pack — as it happened, the morning of my 10-hour flight from Johannesburg to Frankfurt, I woke up with a sore throat, coughing, –some sort of bronchial sinus cold that I am prone to–the meds are saving my butt. I am in Frankfurt, showered, napped, and on day 2 of the Z-pack and can function. Even if the flight was rough, thank you Halls Extra strength by the way. I will cover being sick in a foreign city in a hotel layover room in a future post!

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