yesterday was dramatic, today is more than ok...

summeries

i was reading the book high fidelity on holiday, so now i’m making lists of everything. today, the top 10 holiday moments (mostly eating/drinking…):

1.  eating pigs head (and tail) at gianfranco’s house

2. walking around the steaming (and warm) crater of mount etna

3. eating at e turre agriturismo (4 times!). whatever we ordered, the bill was always 15e per head… bizarre.

4. snorkeling in the ridiculously clear water at capo vaticano with lots of little fish

5. sitting in the cappello house dining room being offered more beer, bread, meat, whatever, every five minutes!

6. bus trip with the village, with everyone singing songs LOUDLY at 7am.

7. beers at bar saggitarius  at the friendly price off 70c! and beer o’clock at hang loose beach

8. morning coffee/campari con nano at caffe del corso as there were always familiar faces around.

9. gelato at cantagallo…

10. most importantly, seeing all my platanesi friends and introducing my english/finnish friends to platania and the platanesi. as always it was overwhelming how warmly we were welcomed in platania. i feel very privileged to have such good friends both in platania and elsewhere, thank you all.

i always post blue skies and nice scenery, so today I’m posting some slightly more low-brow pics.

click on jimmy below to see some slightly lower-than-usual quality pictures…

aaaargh.

double aaargh.

1. i’m not on holiday anymore. i want to be.

2. tumblr is playing up and i can’t post pictures at the moment.

lots of updates in the coming days from the calabria/sicily adventure.

for now, have a look at some pictures on my flickr. thought i’d try something different so i’ve written a bit about every picture as well. the pics can also be viewed as a slideshow.

more soon…

english summer rain

i went to the football tonight, a fairly insignificant game between fulham and some lithuanians. it was raining constantly during the match and on the way home- the much talked about hot summer never really arrived here. so it’s a good thing i’m finally about to get a chance to see the sun… :)

going to the algarve this weekend to catch up with rita and her family. then finally calabria for 16 days!

i love my job but you do get to  point when you question the point of going to work every day when you could be in platania playing cards and drinking coffee. i don’t think i have ever had so few days off in one year - a stark contrast to last year! hence it will be all the sweeter to have time off and finally see everyone again. so much looking forward to walking up and down the corso, seeing all the familiar faces…

a piece of calabria...on holloway road!

we were driving down holloway road in north london last weekend and suddenly rita spots a lamezia sign. i couldn’t quite believe it but there it was, the lamezia cafe/deli!

naturally, we had to go in for a coffee. it turns out the lady owner and her daughter who worked there were from nicastro, just down the road from platania!

i explained about the house in platania and they thought it was some kind of joke, i think. they only believed me when i showed them that i spoke a bit of calabrese! i knew that would come in handy one day…

they had guglielmo coffee and other calabrian delicacies so it is very comforting to have a piece of calabria here in london too.

corked

not sure why we went to cork. was an odd destination perhaps but as is often the case there were ulterior motives involving concerts. seeing bands in different countries adds a dynamic; what will the crowd be like, will the bands perform differently, do they also serve red stripe beer? was a grreat gig made better by the nice cocktail of people- jim, andrea & sam and virva. it was just a quick weekend getaway but we’re getting quite good at those although i’m not sure i’m always the best person to travel with.

to the detriment of my fellow travelling friends, low-cost air travel has become a finely tuned artform for me. i have strategies in place for all parts of the journey to ensure we spend the minimum possible time in the airport. i’d rather sit on a beach than in the car rental queue but rushing is an unfortunate bi-product of this. i think it’s a genetic thing - you either rush to relax or you don’t.

i take the same approach to house building- try to finish it and then enjoy the house. that hasn’t quite worked and just like the air travel and as i get older i’m starting to realise that taking it slow may not be such a bad thing - nobody understands this better than the calabrese!