Well hello there ravid readers!
I’m so terribly sorry this has taken me so long, but the only way I have of taking photographs in a way Muggles won’t suspect is the NON digital way, so I’m afraid it has ended up taking me a lot longer than I had planned to get this post sorted!
anyway… here it is, The Weasley Twins’ Italian Holiday Diary!!
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Day One ~ “The Voyage Out”
Well, that was interesting! Trying to get Fred and George Weasley to travel abroad muggle style is NOT easy! Especially considering neither of them had been to an airport before, never mind on a plane! Customs… And myself for that matter, were… Somewhat bemused at Fred’s “back-up plan” broomstick that he had shrunk and shoved into his hand luggage just in case the “muggle contraption” wasn’t up to the job! “For emergencies”… Apparently! -.- (<= that is an un-impressed face btw)
I reckon they thought he was a terrorist or something, but I put a spell on him and gave him an accent that sounded vaguely Lebanese and I think we just about got away with it!
Once on the flight, things only got more… Err… Interesting! Turns out… George is actually scared of flying! As soon as we got on the plane he was twitchy, but bless him, he totally flipped out when we really began to take off! The words “YOU MUGGLES ARE (insert four lettered profanity here) INSANE!!”
Yeah…
Day Two ~ “Sunburn”
Fred and George’s new sun cream DOES NOT WORK. Sunburn on BOTH arms and I was stupid enough to trust them, meaning I didn’t pack any after sun cream! What an idiot!
My Sunburnt Arm
The debate as to whether or not this
was the Hibiscus plant was quickly settled when we discovered that this
Hibiscus
was Hibiscus, meaning our original flower was none other than “Aphrodite’s Mantle”; a highly protected plant, regularly kept in Muggle cities for protection against wizardry usage.
The juice from this plant is the key ingredient for Fred and George’s “Midsummer Lovin’” potion based on the work of muggle (Ha! Yeah… right) playwright and poet, William Shakespeare. Essentially the potion works just the same as the potion mentioned in Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. You put a little of the serum on your sleeping victim’s eyes, and the first living thing they see when they wake, they fall instantly in love with! It boasts to be quite an exciting potion, but considering I’ll be staying at the Weasleys house around the time they plan to test the potion, I am… Just a little concerned at the potential potency of the thing!
Just a short entry for today… Simply because there isn’t really that much else to say!
Day Three ~ “Just Chillin’”
Well today we did very little. We skulked about the place we were staying most of the day, I think we were all beginning to struggle in the heat. 35° C was a little intense, especially as hot for England is about 25! Anyway… Here’s a quick photo of the place we were staying… Just so you guys can get an idea of what the Wizarding world of Italy is like!
Because today was a ‘free’ day, we decided that now was the time to use up some of our Muggle Euros. We decided to sit in the cool air-conditioned hotel bar, trying out a whole load of cocktails from the menu. The barman was amazing and had a special menu of cocktails he had created, so I tried one of his first. It was called a “Rock ‘n’ Roll” and was made with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a generous shot of Smirnoff and a very generous shot of liquorice liqueur. Delicious!
Happy Days!
HOWEVER, as time went on, we began to realise we had actually got quite a bit of money left, so more and more drinks were ordered… Yes, I think you can see where this is going!
My Mojito On The Bar
As if pushing me in the pool wasn’t enough, they decided to get me tipsy then, when I was too merry to notice… Out came the doubles! I was legless by the end of the evening! AGH! TWINS!!!
Our Pina Colada Doubles!
Day Four ~ “Baroque City The Home Of Inspiration”
There was a Ministry Of Magic Council meeting today, so it was back to the grind from the fun and frolics more’s the pity! Very boring indeed, especially as I was still feeling a little delicate from the previous night’s cocktails! Just a load of ramblings about the staff party but mostly it was all Italian affairs, so I really don’t see why I had to be there, none of it really concerned me! For security reasons I can only show you the outside of the building, but you get the idea!
The Meeting Hall
Me Before The Meeting
This is the view of the courtyard opposite with a group of tourists… If you look where the arrow is pointing you should just about be able to see Fred and George!! I zoomed the photo in and put a red box round them so you can see them better!
The Courtyard At The Piazza Ducale
Fred and George
The architecture in this place is beautiful and I think has inspired the lads in their packaging designs! I know they have one or two things up their sleeves so as soon as I get my usual sneak preview, I’ll pass it on!! XD They are probably going to be the most elaborate designs yet! I, for one, can’t wait to see the finished items!
Day Five ~ “Village Visits”
We visited a beautiful Wizarding town today. It was about forty five minutes away from the town we were staying in. It was full of these old round houses with pointy roofs as you see behind me in this photo!
Me In The Italian Diagon Alley
While we wandered around this amazing town, which is known in the Wizarding world as the Italian Diagon Alley. Whilst we were there we decided to sample some local delicacies. The red wine, both dry and sweet, was absolutely to die for, and the locals made these little circular biscuits from flour, salt, egg and olive oil, which, although they may sound plain, were utterly delicious. As we left the shop (needless to say with a bottle of dry red and a pack of the biscuits) George had an idea for a whole new product, again for the Halloween collection!
“Screaming Spectre Fortune Cookies” will work like your average fortune cookie… With a twist! Break them open to find your (alarmingly accurate) fortune, and when you do, out pops your very own mini spectre, which will be a mascot all night and do any bidding you wish before disappearing into the cosmos after 6 hours! Absolutely fabulous, but these are still in the planning stages, so that’s all I can really tell you so far!
Fred pushed me in the pool today too… Not impressed!
We have a big posh Ministry dinner tonight to… I’ll take a photo of my outfit… Madame Malkin is a GENIUS!
Posh
Day Six ~ “Lazy Days”
Fun and frolics continued today with me in my itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny-yellow-black-and-pink-bikini (Haha! See what I did there!?) being photographed Then briskly grabbed by my arms (thanks Fred) and my ankles (thanks George) and thrown into the pool! AGAIN!! Am I sensing a pattern developing here!?
Pre-Pool Chucking!
We didn’t really do much today, the heat here is killer! Today it has been 37 degrees Celsius, so… 96 Farenheight!!?? BAKING!! I think we’re all feeling it, George especially, he’s taken to having an afternoon siesta just after lunch until about four o’clock when it’s cooled down a bit.
We decided to sit in the shade of one of the trees by the pool, and while I swam some laps, Fred and George put their heads together and began developing their idea of “Cats Eyes Eye Drops”.
Tatyana Our Eye Model
“Cats Eyes Eye Drops” are another of Fred and George’s amazing ideas! The cat costume is a really popular one for the Halloween ball and this amazing potion will add a touch of that little extra something to your outfit! They work like regular eye drops, put two drops of the liquid into each eye, leave for 3 minutes and your eyes will be transformed into proper cat’s eyes! AND they look considerably better than wearing contact lenses!
So all in all, a surprisingly productive day!
Day Seven ~ “A Blast From The Past”
Well… Sort of. OK, I lie, so Durmstrang Ladies College wasn’t always in Italy! I’m not actually sure who moved it, but the building can actually be raised from it’s foundations and moved around if the need occurs! It was very weird being back at my old school, I haven’t visited it in a very long time, and back then it was still in it’s original setting, about five minutes walk away from the main building of Durmstrang Academy.
Durmstrang Ladies College
Unfortunately, it was the schools’ open day, so I didn’t get the chance to talk to as many of my old professors as I should have liked, but I did get to speak to my old headmistress, who was the one who pushed me to make my school move from the Ladies College to Hogwarts. Wonderful woman…
I think Fred and George enjoyed seeing my schooling origins, and the trip also inspired their “Cobweb Hair Serum” is one of the better ideas the twins have come up with for their Halloween collection. All you need to do is rub it into your hair, and soon, it’ll be filled with long, silvery cobwebs! Tipped to be a big hit for the Hogwarts Halloween Ball… So I’ll post an e-mail address for pre-orders once we have the packaging sorted! I’ll tell you now, this stuff is going to be HUGE!
Product Inspiration
Possible Packaging Shot
Well, that’s pretty much it for today! Not much news… I think I’ll go back to wallowing in Nostalgia for tonight, and besides… Dinner tonight will be with Ministry officials Vanessa Umbridge (Dolores’ slightly less screwed up sister) and Horace Prewett, Mrs Weasley’s cousin! And with the twins of-course!!
With Ministry Officials
Day Eight ~ “Renegade Tales Of The Weasley Kind”
Well, I am sitting here on the aeroplane right now, writing up this final holiday diary entry.Today we had to vacate the hotel by ten o’clock, so after breakfast we finished packing and went down to the hotel pool and spent the rest of the day talking, reading, working (alas) and mucking about!Unfortunately, as with many of Fred and George’s renegade escapades we did not escape lightly.
George has always been the more reserved of the twins, and while he decided to cool off by doing a few circles of the pool, Fred thought how hilarious it’d be to steal his towel and take to the hills. He snatched it up and ran like the wind.
“LIZZY! STOP HIM!” commanded George (Using my undercover muggle name) from the pool, knowing that he’d have to leg it back to the room dripping wet in nothing but his soaking wet and therefore slightly… Clingy… Swimming shorts!!
Although my job description for the trip includes only cup washing and bin emptying, I more or less took this as a promotion, although still await the pay rise…
In hot pursuit, I bolted after Fred, past a variety of offices and rooms in the hotel complex. Do you know how fast Fred Bloody Weasley can run!? It’s amazing! It’s almost as though there’s a recessive gazelle gene in there somewhere. I was having great difficulty in catching up with him (I must add here that I haven’t done any exercise since I left my Hogwarts house Quidditch team, so I was considerably less up to this task than Fred himself). He burst through swing door after swing door, huffing and puffing, the towel clutched victoriously to his chest.
But then my chance to gain on him opened (for want of a better word). Fred was reaching “The Blue Door”, the door that never fails to annoy the crap out of me as one always has to pause and press a button in order to pass through it.
“A-ha!” I thought. The seconds it would take him to get through that door were all I needed. But there was one problem…
When Fred reached the door, he didn’t slow down.
You see, he thought he’d reached another swing door. I couldn’t believe my never-before-injured-by-Weasley’s-Wizarding-Wheezes-invention eyes. He hit the door like a bird flying into a closed, plate glass window. I didn’t know what to do.
“Ummm …. Fred? You all right?” I nudged his inert frame tentatively with an extended toe. Where would I dispose of the body? “Fred?”
He began laughing, thankfully alerting me to the fact that he was (a) alive and (b) relatively unscathed. I, in the meantime, laughed my larynx up.
Needless to say I returned to the pool victorious and I did what any self-respecting assistant would do and provided Fred with a room temperature bottle of water to hold against his eye socket which was beginning to look a little bruised. Thankfully though Fred fans, he is perfectly well, and the majority of the injury was melodramatics!
- Posing MUCH!?
So there we are! That’s a general run down of the trip to Italy… Hope you enjoyed!
So ‘til next time… For Fred And George! STAY TUNED!
