Prendiamo un'Aranciata?

Aran Charter (aranciata) aka DJ Fizzy Orange

Since I started learning Italiano I have found myself not only thirsting for knowledge of how this beautiful language is constructed, but also for fizzy oranage!  I kept hearing this phrase Aran Charter, un'Aran Charter, de Aran Charter.  I quickly gathered it was some sort of beverage and not a person and tried to imagine what it was.  Maybe it was coffee with Irish Cream - MMMmmmm.  But no, Aran Charter - or the correct spelling aranciata is in fact fizzy orange, but wow!  I just keep on drinking the stuff now!

I've now read a quarter of the way through a great book called Essential Itatian Grammar from the Teach Yourself series and the Open University.  The thing I love about this book is it reminds you of what a noun is - a newspaper, a dog, a person (these are nouns) and the difference between a definite article (the) and an indefinite article (a or an).  I still find it a bit of a challenge matching up the masculine, feminine and singular, plural endings to the verbs and nouns etc.

The Earliest Sunset

The Earliest "Sunset" in the Northern Hemisphere

If you live in the northern hemisphere, this evening we saw the earliest sunset of the year!  From now on the evenings are going to start getting lighter.  The Shortest Day is still to come, but that's only because the mornings are still getting darker.  We still have to wait until 1st January for them to start getting lighter.
So be comforted to know, that tomorrow the sun will set the same time it did yesterday!

Diet Snow and Decorations

Some of the Diet Snow which fell this week

This week, most of Great Britain was covered in snow and some parts still are.  We saw some snow early in the week, but it was just a sprinking.  A mate commented that it was dandruff.  Another  refered to it as diet snow, which made us all laugh.  The next day, I heard someone comment about a pathetic Southern attempt at snow, which also made me laugh.  The snow did come eventually, but now it's nearly all gone.

This week, I helped put up some Christmas decorations.  Another person and I put up the snow.  I thought that was very appropriate.  Putting up decorations always gets me in the mood for Christmas.

K2 Snow