Oh my, the excitement!  GP and I went to see Simple Minds on Friday night.  It was like going back in time.  Except with comfortable seating and less sweating.  The concert was great and the opening act was KT Tunstall who I love.  She has the most terrific voice.  Just like me in the shower!  However the lead up to the music was typically Italian.  If a situation can be made chaotic, Italians manage to make it so.  This was a concert for people "of a certain age".  (We are talking '80s music here).  The tickets were assigned seating in a concert hall that holds less than 1000.  Out tickets were for seats 1 and 2 in row 35.  Not great but not too bad.  When we were taken to be seated the usher told us that actually, the theater didn't have any row 35.  Or 34 or 33.  So, lucky us, we were put in row 11 which hadn't been filled up.  There were 5 seats available.  Unfortunately there were a lot more than 5 people who had tickets to rows 33 thru 35.  It was a complete fiasco that lasted till after the lights went down with the ushers putting people in and dragging them out of seats, asking time and again to see our tickets, trying to figure out who had f***ed up.  Fortunately we had arrived early so were never moved but we were asked to hand over our stubs at least 5 times.  In the end it worked out great for us because we were so close we could see the sweat pouring down these old relics faces.  Their voices are still as good as ever though and they are really pretty amazing as still writing, recording and touring after 40 years.

Yesterday we went hiking in a valley I'd never been to and found the most idyllic rifugio (hut for a better word but with housing and food service etc).  Most of these "huts " are owned by the national parks but are leased out and managed privately.  In the case of this one, it is family run and it's open all year as not too high up.  The family live there, taking their young son down the mountain to school daily by snow mobile or ATV.  It's a log chalet built in a clearing in a gorgeous pine forest.  In front of the chalet there is a "dry lake" which is actually a small river with islands and pools of crystal clear glacial water coming down from the peaks.  The larger portion of the river has been diverted to a hydroelectric plant down below where a small village sits beside a dam and the bluest lake I've ever seen.   We picnicked and slept in the sun on some rocks and watched the family take a walk.  Mom, dad, little boy, huge German Shepard and black cat all in a row.  Too cute.  We want to go back and do an overnight there in June.  Should be warm enough to swim!

The hills are alive... man look at the size of that ass!

the walk up

boy and cat

our camp site

the dammed lake

On our way home we took a side trip up to a place called Valmala that GP had heard mentioned but wasn't sure what it was.  Well now he does.  Valmala is a sanctuary dedicated to those killed and maimed in auto accidents.  Gruesome.  The outer walls are display cases for graphic photos, drawing and paintings of the accidents or victims, pictures of Mary and metal hearts of various sizes, from small donation worthy to larger donation worthy.  There is a huge church, housing for the pilgrims and restaurants, shops selling religious trinkets etc.  Basically it's a Catholic tourism hot spot.  It's a beautiful location but creepy and I find the whole religious tourism stuff a little off putting.  On the road to the sanctuary we counted more than 25 little shrines with the Virgin Mary and plastic flowers.  I wonder if this is where people were killed on the way up as the road is treacherously narrow and steep with no guardrails.  Would be a little ironic, no?

Today home, housework, yada, yada, yada.  xxoo me