Tomorrow we fly off to London.  Poor Grace is bored silly.  All of her friends are off at school already.  She is probably counting down the seconds to go and I'm dreading every passing day!  Last night I booked a parent's weekend for GP and me to go to London.  My excuse is that he will not yet have seen Grace's university.  In reality I don't want to wait til Christmas before seeing her.  We're going 3rd weekend in November.

It has been so damned hot.  Last weekend we tried to escape the heat, 96 degrees, and get outside so Grace and I went to a royal hunting lodge called Racconigi, (check it out at: http://www.ilcastellodiracconigi.it/eng/) with enormous woodsy grounds.  Alas even in the shade it was an oven and it's not the humidity as I thought, which is actually lower than ours in Maine, but the complete lack of air.  There is not a breath of breeze, not a leaf shimmies, not a cloud blows across the sky.  Nada, niente, zilch!  The trees were all dusty and dry with late summer and the only movement we saw were the lizards skittering all over.   Off to cool, drizzly London!  * Let me rephrase that.  Just checked the weather in the UK and it will be 90 degrees tomorrow.  Really?  xxoo me

Holy Mother Of God I always forget the humidity!  My first day back was my first day at work, lugging books and shelving to my new room and sweating bullets.  Gone are my ocean breezes and mudflat smells.  Here I have pig shit and wood smoke and 90% humidity.  I awoke to a train whistle and the neighbors arguing instead of seagulls.  Ah, well.  I won't be shoveling snow in April. AND, I have my month off from mid September to mid October in Maine.  Yippee!  There is another good thing.  I have spent 36 hours without the mention of Trump.  This weekend will be unpacking and such and school officially starts on Monday.  There are a couple new teachers this year and they're Americans married to or "with" Italians so more folks to commiserate with.....  Will write more late.  Dinner and bed!  xxoo me