dreaming of sugarplums

Just a few photos of Christmas Eve in the Torino.  We took a walk to see the lights before coming home to Grace's preferred dinner of Mac and Cheese with cheddar brought over from the UK.   Yesterday we had the morning at home, exchanging presents and eating chocolate for breakfast, then Christmas lunch with MIL and her cousin and daughter from across the landing.  We typically ate too much and spent all evening on the sofa complaining about it.  Grace gave me a wonderful gift.  Two tickets to see Sam Smith at the Arena in Verona in May.  There are so many good components to this!  First I love Sam Smith.  He has the voice of an angel.  Then, it is at the Arena which is a mini Colosseum, an open amphitheater built by the Romans.  It's gorgeous.  Verona is lovely.  It's in May which SHOULD be warm and dry.  I'm so excited! 

Grace is heading back to London on Thursday evening.  Weather permitting, GP and I will hop in the car and drive to Southwestern France for the New Year.


Here is praying that 2018 brings us all peace and good health and tranquility.  xxoo me

I haven't been writing lately because either I've felt there has been nothing interesting to say or I've been overwhelmed with political vitriol and have intentionally stopped myself from spewing it.  So....

A sparkly Merry Christmas to everyone!

It has been a particularly cold December here.  Days in the high 20's, low 30's and nites in the teens. Very Maine like.  I'm ready for the cold to end.  My room at school gets no morning sun and is flippin' freezing in the early AM.  Have been greeting my morning classes in coat and scarf.  Italians are very bad at handling the cold.  In fact our little gas water heater/heating system, no bigger than a breadbox, is overwrought and keeps going into "block" which leaves me halfway through a shower with cold water and a bad attitude.  So much for Global F@#$ing Warming!  This fall has been completely uneventful.  Work, diet, a book at 9 pm in bed.  Sad but true.  Blowing diet big time now that the holidays are here of course.  School dinner, get together with friends and a retirement party for a gal that worked 32 years with our school all in the last week.  WHO works in the same place for 32 years!  I haven't done anything for 32 years apart from live!  And GP....  Wow.  The Grace comes home tomorrow but is only staying a week.  Seems she would rather be in London than here with her parents over the break.  Are you kidding me?  So we have decided we'll show HER!  GP and I are off to the Southwest of France for the new year.  Languedoc and the Camargue.  Oysters and Champagne!  Snooty folk and bad bathrooms!  Anywho that is the plan.  MIL is expecting us for Christmas dinner.  We'll be joined by equally ancient cousin from across the hall and her daughter, our age, Paola.  It will be a battle to see who is permitted to do the dishes. See!  I've avoided politics!  I haven't said the T word!  Wishing us all a better 2018.  xx oo Moi

Baaaaad week.  The new headmaster and his honchos are proving to be major pains in the backside.  They are making my life difficult and I have only 1.5 years left!  I had hoped to cruise through to the end.  But NO!  Unfortunately for them however, they are shooting themselves in the foot by combining anglo business logic with a primarily Italian work force.  Everyone at lunch is talking about their contracts and a union meeting has been called for Wednesday.  A strike might be in the works!  Italy has been very lefty leaning since WWII and the laws are certainly skewered in the favor of employees rights.  That's why strikes are so common here.  They are legal, cannot be used against an employee, and the judges are all commies.  How exciting!  I've never been in a strike!  Maybe I can be a SCAB!  Nah.  Who in hell wants to be a scab?  I wonder if we'll carry signs and march around in front of the gates?  Gotta plan my outfit in case we're on the news!  I'll update next week!

In other news, I have to renew my driver's license.  This'll be fun.

ooxx me

While in Istanbul, we took a one-day (a very loooong day) side trip to Cappadocia.  Cappadocia is the coolest place.  Absolutely other worldly.  It's an area in southern Turkey that was created by two huge volcanic eruptions, some millions of years ago, and erosion that followed that left behind formations called Fairy Chimneys.  Ancient cultures dug into them and built homes, towns and even cities.  Early Christians used them as hide-outs during their persecution by Rome in the 400's. 

We bought a day package and were picked up at our hotel at 4:30ish.  From there we went to the airport, had an hour and a half flight, another transport of an hour to Cappadocia's nearest town where we were dropped off at a travel/tourist office.  This place is remote.  Our guide picked us up in a mini bus with a dozen other tourists, all Turkish, and off we went.  We spent the day going from site to site, getting half Turkish half English descriptions of the areas.  Lunch was in a little town built partially into these formations.  Hotels and private home and apartment "buildings" are half modern, half ancient.

Of course there were the prerequisite sellers of tourist trinkets and all that jazz but the experience was definitely unique.

xxoo me

Istanbul has hundreds of stray dogs and cats and I imagine they are not all like the ones we observed on our travels.  Usually strays are skittish, mangy and terribly thin.  These guys were certainly dusty and dirty but they were also fat and content.  Some time ago, cities in Turkey had a terrible problem with strays but as the population was against mass euthanasia, the government had to come up with another plan.  They decided to gather up the dogs, one neighborhood at a time, (not sure about the cats but they are certainly well fed and friendly), vaccinate, neuter and tag them, then put them back again.  In fact we only saw two puppies and they were living with a pack in a National Park in Cappadocia.  (Had we been closer to home and with a vehicle I'd probs be on the road to divorce right now with two scrappy adorable puppies in tow).  But back to the city and their big, some enormous, lazy street dogs.  They seem to have their territories and spend their days sleeping and being fed by locals and tourist alike.  There are pans of water around everywhere.  If it's a "cat area", (usually separate form a "dog area"), there will be dishes of cat food.  In residential areas we saw dog houses on the side walks for cold nights and once passed a large lab-like dog sleeping on a cushioned restaurant bench who'd been covered up to his tagged ear with a wool blanket.  Stray animals usually make me sad.  Who knew visiting Istanbul would leave me with happy memories of a big moose of a dog sleeping in the sun of Sultanhamet Square, too big to fit completely under the park bench he was aiming for, a half eaten kebap an inch from the end of his nose.  Whether he had fallen asleep partway through his meal or whether someone had left him their uneaten lunch I'll never know.  But the fact that he hadn't felt the need to wake up and scoff it down like any dog I've ever known made me very happy indeedy.  More later xxoo me

Sultanhamet Square - many lazy dogs snoozing in the grassy areas to the right

What an amazing, fascinating, dual-personality city is Istanbul.  Parts are very beautiful, the mosques, the nighttime views over the water, the islands.  Other parts are drab and rundown or simply brand new and soulless.  But it's all interesting and it's definitely worth a visit. 

The view from our balcony

The city has a population of about 15 million.  A ferryboat ride along the coast of over two hours only gave us a view of half the skyline.  It is immense.   We stayed in the old city, walking distance to most of the most famous landmarks.  We were just around the corner from the Sultan Ahmed or Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, a Greek Orthodox basilica turned mosque now museum.  We walked to the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market, the Cisterns and Topkapi Palace.  Everyday we ate simits (bagel like bread covered in sesame seeds and sold on every corner) and drank nar (freshly squeezed pomegranate juice - heavenly).

View of Hagia Sophia from the breakfast room of the hotel.

               

We took a boat trip out to the Prince islands, weekend and summer escape locales for city dwellers and a place we want to return to when the weather is warmer.  And we walked and we walked and we walked.

Fishermen at sunset near the Galata bridge.

Lovely waterfront section in upscale neighborhood

Yours truly at the Archeological Museum

View of the Prince islands from the ferry

Much more to write about later but still trying to catch up on my sleep.  The Muezzins woke us at 6:30 every morning for chrissakes!  Considering we were surrounded my mosques it was difficult to roll over and ignore.  xxoo me

It's like the flipping dust bowl out there today.  It still hasn't rained and there are two inches of dry powder anywhere it's not paved.  A foehn wind has come down from the mountains and is blowing the powdery dirt all over.  We need the wind, though not as much as rain, because the pollution level has become critical.  Traffic in the center is closed, people in the city are being warned to keep their windows closed.  GP and I drove up to the Aosta valley to see a flower and plant fair at Masino Castle.  It was wonderful and had I felt at all inspired by my garden here I would have loaded the car up.  But the already terrible clay soil has turned to cement and no amount of watering seems to help.  Nothing has ever been particularly successful here apart from ivy and some damned grass-like weed that has the deepest friggin' roots I've ever seen.  After this past hot, dry summer half my plants are dead and others are hanging on by a thread.

The day started gray but cleared up by afternoon

I want this guy

afternoon nap

We are still on our diets and there has been success but it hasn't been easy!  This weekend we took a break.  Yesterday we had a BBQ Italian style at friend Bepe's property in the country.  Like many families here, Bepe's family has various practically unused properties that were either inherited or bought as investment years ago and have never been updated.  Their living quarters in this old farm were last decorated circa 1970.  Imagine the Brady Bunch does Italy.  Lots of psychedelic prints and Swedish influence and tinted glass.  I don't think anyone ever goes there unless it's for an occasion like this as has a old wood paneled party room with a fireplace that his father put in 50 years ago.  We ate, we drank, we drank, we ate!  Life is good.

GP playing with fire

Bizarre home made BBQ

This one looks like Gaudi

Anyhow...  So, back to diet and work tomorrow.  Praying for rain and world peace and all that stuff.  xxoo me

Another beautiful warm day.  Which is good for me sitting out on our balcony enjoying the sun but not so good for the farmers as we are going into our 5th month of drought.  It is powder dry.  Yesterday I took advantage of the weather and went to the sea with two old friends.  And they are VERY old.  MUCH older than me!  I've known K since I first came here in '84.  She was leaving her position just as I was starting mine teaching at a language academy in the city.  We ended up with mutual friends and that was that.  C and her family moved into one of the condos the same year we did, 1990.  She's half English and so we were bound to meet.  I introduced the two of them that year and they've been fast friends since.  We drove down to Noli, a little town 15 minutes west of Savona.  It sits in it's own bay surrounded by high hills so seems far away from the larger more populated towns in Liguria, (the Italian "Riviera").  The hills are tight in on the sea and the train bypasses it, going inland at that point, so Noli remains small and quaint.  Summers are still untouchable as there isn't a square inch of sand to be seen on this coast in July and August.  But once the majority of the vacationers leave, it's a lovely place to visit.  GP's parents used to bring him here as a child and it's the first place on the coast that he brought me to.  Awwwwwwww.  So yesterday we sat on the beach, had pasta with pesto and white wine for lunch, and walked around the old center.  

Looking towards the ruins of the castle on the hill

Beach babes

Tonight we are having MIL for dinner.  I'm sure she'll be quite tasty.  xxoo me

To do any sort of organized sport or exercise program one needs a health certificate to show that you won't drop dead in the middle of a crunch.  To get said certificate you can't go to just any old doctor.  Oh noooooo!  You must go to a qualified to hand out health certificate doctor.  AND you have to have an electrocardiogram.  To get that you have to get a referral from your regular doctor.  So in order to continue with my exercise classes at school I have to go to my doctor, get a referral for an ECG, get a referral for a sports doctor, get the ECG at the hospital or clinic and take it to the sports doctor, which is three different appointments in different locations for a cost of about 45 euro.  OR I can go to a cardiologist that we know of and get it all done with one appointment and 35 euro under the table.  That's Italy.  The certificate lasts a year so I should have done this every fall before starting classes but my past instructors never insisted on one.  This new guys does.  He's South African.  He's tough.  I'm in constant pain.

I took a whirlwind trip to London to see Grace's apartment last weekend.  I flew out Friday evening and left London at the break of dawn.  By flying those hours with a low cost airline I can go back and forth for the cost of a tank of gas for my car.  Her apartment is cute, her roommates are lovely and we had a great Thai dinner.  Of course it rained.

Now I'm off to bed to rest my aching glutes.  xxoo me

So way back in our first autumn here, I shared the traumatic experience we had of putting together an IKEA "wardrobe", (also know as piece of s*** cardboard box).   Well I got the bright idea the other day to repaint Grace's room which unfortunately entails moving said wardrobe.  We had forgotten that we'd screwed it into the wall to keep the crappy thing upright.  The next time it's moved it will go out the window and into the trash.  GP was able to patch the hole...

Our diets are going well in that we've lost weight.  But I had my annual blood tests done this past week and after almost a month of bread and water I expected everything to come back marked E for excellent.  Nooooo.  My flipping cholesterol has gone up even higher!  I don't even remember what cheese tastes like for crying out loud!  Depression set in.  I drank 2 glasses of forbidden wine.  Guilt set in.  I went to bed.

So now on top of dieting I'm increasing my exercise.  I'll be doing Cross Fit twice a week at school and Yoga once.  I had my first Cross Fit class today.  I do not like it.  It is painful and difficult and I am at least 15 years older than everyone else in the class.  Plus the instructor is just too damned skinny.  I don't trust people with so little body fat.  I miss Pilates.....

All for now, xxoo me

A little chapel at a refuge that we passed

Last Sunday we took a beautiful and exhausting 3 plus hour up hike.  At a certain point I couldn't go any further so I threw myself down on the ground and refused to budge.  I had a dog that used to do that.  GP went the last bit on his own.  First time in the mountains in over two months combined with lack of energy from the stupid diet, (I get my strength from red wine and chocolate), and I was pooped.  I was also sitting in poop.  The cows had started their migration down from mountain pastures to the farms below, and I chose one of the Cow Rest Stops as a stopping point.  These are old buildings scattered all over the mountains where the cow herders spend their summers.  There are usually old bath tubs filled with water for the cows and often covered sheds for rainy nights.  It was literally carpeted in manure.  I had a damned hard time finding a clean spot to wait.  But wait I did.  And joy oh joy, I can now choose to drag my lazy ass outta bed and go hiking or not because GP has convinced a buddy that hiking is the next best thing and has joined an Alpine hiking club that goes weekly.  I'm free!  So this afternoon while they are off scaling heights I am going to stay home and do housework and read and maybe take a walk.  Tomorrow I'll go up with them but I'm taking a book.  That way when the heart gives out I can find a spot out of the wind and say, "Go on without me!  Save yourselves!"  Tee hee.  xxoo me

Cow rest stop

Bacchus has provided.  We'll be stomping any day now.  This plus our 2 lemons, our herbs, and a few figs from the neighbor's tree should keep us fed for the next week or so considering the diet GP has me on.  I hate dieting!  I hate it, I hate it!  xxoo me

Last night GP and I went out for dinner at a beautiful place in the country.  We were celebrating 25 years of wedded bliss.  Dinner was wonderful.  Especially after dieting all week.   I've lost my ability to drink wine.  Only half a bottle last night and this morning I have a mother of a headache.  What a wuss.  At the next table was a very young couple.  She was American and he was Italian.  I didn't know whether to be all sentimental or to warn her to "Run! Run for your life!"  Whether I'm here or he's there, someone has always gotta give up a lot in marriage to a foreigner. 

So yesterday there was another bombing in London.  The Mother God must have been looking down on me because Grace and her roomie were closed up in their apartment when the door lock broke and their landlord had to get them out.  It took some time so they couldn't go anywhere.  I was pleased.  Why is it children cannot stay safely tucked under our wings until they are 40 or so?  Is that so unreasonable? 

I'm off to eat a grape or something for breakfast.  Have to make up for last night.  Crap.  xxoo me

 

A week of cleaning and I have a garden back

Another year abroad has started.  We came back a week ago and am just getting time to write.  Flew in on Saturday and was at work bright and early Monday morning where someone had decided to use my Library as a depository of all things homeless.  I still haven't cleared everything out.  In fact school hasn't exactly started out on the best note.  I arrived 3 days late, (missed all of the workshop days), and was called to the principals office.  My excuse was that I messed up dates and my "Oh well" attitude didn't go over well.  This, by the way, is the first time I'd met him as he is our brand-spanking new Head Master.  I'm good at this first impression thing.  Oops.  Then, at the end of last year I agreed to take over as SAT Coordinator as the last guy was leaving.  I've been invigilating so know how it works and I thought the extra money would come in handy and that it wouldn't be that much of a big deal.  I just got the dates for this year's exams and I'll be in London for the first exam and Istanbul for the second!  F***!  So called the gal who invigilates with me and she'll cover, Bless her, but REALLY.  I should never have agreed to do it... I can't be trusted with people's futures!!!

The daughter flew back to London yesterday and has just moved into an apartment she will share with two friends.  She's very excited.  Parting was much less dramatic then last year as I am now used to her coming and going, (plus I just booked a flight for the first weekend in October-see above!).  

MIL is well though losing a bit of "clarity", shall we say.  GP says she going nuts but she's just getting old.  We should all be so lucky to be independent and in our own homes at 85.

Last bit of news is that I'm on a diet which makes me very grumpy.  GP had the B'Jesus scared out of him by our new doctor back in June who convinced him he'd soon be on death's door if he didn't drop 30 pounds and get his cholesterol and blood pressure down.  He started dieting and exercising the next day and has lost 15 pounds and has the other two down to healthy levels.  So now I've joined him to lose the other 15.  This is not altruistic.  I can't get in any of my pants.  I'm in Italy.  On a diet.  This stinks.

xxoo me

 

It has been outrageously hot.  Way above normal.  The past week it's hit 90's and yesterday and today 100.  Yesterday was so damned hot that when we made plans to have dinner with friends we headed for the hills hoping for a breeze.  And we got one.  Had a lovely evening put on by a winery we frequent.  They were doing an event that raised money for the Red Cross.  Local establishments in the tiny hilltop town of  Cinzano (to the north east of the city), provided wonderful food and the winery provided the wine.  This is the highest hill in the Torinese hills and there was in fact a light breeze and it was only about 84 degrees.  Though anyone who knows me knows that I love the sun and heat, this is ridiculous.  Normally this is weather for August but it has been getting warmer, earlier and earlier every year.  Good thing that global warming stuff is all a hoax made up by the Chinese!

This weekend we are home as I do final cleaning and packing before final work week.  Monday have an after school art lesson with a friend.  Tuesday, my birthday dinner with MIL. (yay me!) Wednesday, Brazilian night-out with the Pilates crew as our Rosy is leaving us!  Thursday home and Friday I fly out.  Oh my.  Can't wait to get home.  Maine's sea breezes and good friends and family call. xxoo me

I never sent this!  I fly out tomorrow after another suffocating week.  Italy is suffering from a dangerous heat wave and drought.  Actually much of Europe is.  It's been in the nineties in Germany and the UK.  In June!  I had all of my goodbye dinners and have wrapped up most everything at work, hauling boxes of books around in the suffocating heat because naturally the air-conditioning doesn't work.  (The school prefers to spend it's money on fetes for the wealthy parents and board members.  School moms show up dressed to the nines, skin tight designer dresses and the hooker heels.  They can barely walk but they look great.)  Anywho.  Good bye Italy, see you in September!

Oh!  And got Don Bosco's brain back.  Guy tried to sell it online.  Uh huh.  xxoo me

way above tree line

last Sundays hike along French border

5 frickin' hours up and down

in and out of France 3 times

remains of WW2 barbed wire fencing along border with France

90 degrees in city, still had snow up here

still frozen lake

xxoo me

Oh so much to recount!  But first...10 days til I fly home!  Yay!!

Now I have to go back a bit.  A few weeks ago I went to have my arteries checked for blockage and clogging and all that stuff.  Where you may ask?  Well, in a Heart Van which is actually a converted camper.  Italy, which is all about preventative medicine as a way to keep costs down, has things like this all the time.  This was a two week period where one could go to the HV, conveniently parked at different locations around the city, and have a thorough screening for blockage with a sort of ultrasound machine.  All very high tech and profession packed into a Winnebago.  I was early for my appointment so sat out on a park bench under the Linden trees (that smell great) with a couple of other folks shooting the breeze.  The cost?  Nada, niente, nichts.  Gotta love it. (I'm clog free by the way).

Heart Van

This past weekend GP and I played tourists.  Saturday, Torino hosted Open House Worldwide, an annual event that takes place in cities all around the globe that permits free entrance into all sorts of architectural gems from palaces and noble homes to new construction.  Unfortunately it was only for 1 weekend.  There were so many places I would have loved to see but they were spread out across the city and burbs and the lines were terrible in some places.  We only got into 3 places on our "wish list".  The first was a gorgeous old villa built in the 1600's and owned for the past 3 generations by one family.  They live in a large part of it but rent the functions rooms and the garden out.  Then we saw the inside of one of the thousands of administrative buildings in the city.  It's from the Baroque period and it's "salas"are incredible.  Lastly we went to a newly renovated 17th century building that is now a NH hotel and it's VERY nice.  The views from the rooftop terrace are incredible.

Villa D'Aglie'

NH Hotel

Courtyard of Torino admin building

View from the rooftop terrace of NH Hotel

That same evening we drove to Castello Masino near the Aosta Valley for a looksie.  They have sunset evenings with actors in costume and period music.  The actors stay in character and wander the grounds.  They start conversations with the visitors and flirt and argue.  The musicians were young guys from Torino's conservatory.  They played chamber music on original instruments. It was wonderful. 

Actors in the tower

the castle village

the great hall (thinking of painting my ceilings like that)

sunset over the mountains

the entertainment

Something that grabbed me was this family crest from the 1700's.

You can just make out the name on the upper right hand side.  Trotti!!  What are the chances our Trott family spent time in Northern Italy??  Those Brits did get around...


More on last Sunday later.  xxoo me