I'm baaaaaaaaack!  Was unmotivated for a long time but have decided that semi-retirement is the time to get back to it.  So here I am, snuggled under my covers at 9:22 in the morning on a grey autumn day.  I'm liking this.  Unfortunately I'm not the only one home.  Loony lady upstairs was laid off, (Don't be sad for her. In Italy you get 2 year's salary when dismissed.) and she starts with the vacuuming as soon as the kid leaves for school.  She's happily going at it now over my head.  Moving furniture, clattering around in her heels.  Anyhow enough about her.  I left the US mid October and flew to London to spend some time with the child.  It rained of course but there were glimpses of sun and I took advantage of them, walking all around Regent's Park and Primrose Hill which are not far from her new place.

Regent's Park

Being October, we went to see The Woman in Black at the theater and were appropriately spooked.  We sat in the second row, (It was a very small theater) and could reach over and touch the stage.  At one big scare a gal behind us jumped and spilled wine all down G's back.  She spent the rest of the evening smelling like a souse.  I also took a 1 night side trip to visit friends who moved to Oxfordshire over the summer.  They live very close to the village where the village scenes of Downton Abbey were filmed.  We did the Downton walk and had tea and scones in a cafe and I felt very British.

The church used in wedding and funeral scenes

I've been back here a couple weeks now and am setting up my new life.  I'll be tutoring at the school 3 afternoons a week for a family of 4 kids who have just come from The States where they went to a Waldorf school.  Don't get me going on Waldorf schools.  Let's just say they all need some catching up.  I've also signed on to teach SAT prep courses with a friend who started a business for that purpose.  I'll be spending the next four Saturdays in Milan helping students navigate the Reading and Writing parts of the exam.  They pay a lot of money for this course so I hope I know what I'm doing.  We'll do this a few times a year in various locations.  I have no idea where I'm going.  It means getting up before dawn to catch a train to Milan, take the subway and find the damned school which is located right across the road from the church that has The Last Supper.   I'll find it.... 

I've also signed up for some exercise classes to work off the poundage I put on this summer.  Beer and ice cream are the culprits. 

All of this leaves me with a lot of free time in the mornings to deal with my aging body.  I've already had x-rays for a bone spur in my heel, a check-up for old ladies, blood tests are tomorrow, a hearing test next week, and eye test coming up somewhere.  But it all gets me out of the house which is a good thing because GP and I are not accustomed to spending too much time together.  It's unnatural. 

MIL is fine though is worrying us in the quantity of food she is buying.  It seems impossible that one person, rotund though she may be, can eat all she purchases.  She does squirrel away a lot, a generational thing left over from hungry war times, but the multiple, huge slabs of cheese she buys every week can't be stored for long.  Boredom has led her to chase after discounts she finds in the various supermarket fliers she gets in the mail and she has GP drive her all over town and back at least 3 times a week, surely wasting much more in gas money than she saves in coupons.  Her "cantina", (basement isn't the right word because it is a place people store food and wine), is brimming with boxes of bread sticks and cookies, canned and jarred and packaged stuff on every shelf.  Really if there IS another war, we are all set.  There's enough for everybody.  I'll send out the address, just bring your own cutlery. 

Ok.  I have to get out of bed.  It's 10:05!!!!  Ohhh, ain't retirement grand?

xxoo me

Happy Belated Easter!  We had a quiet day with Grace and MIL.  I do miss our larger family gatherings at home.  Sigh.  Last Friday I went to a spa for the day with a friend.  We got a deal on Groupon to try out it's 10 step plan.  Sauna, cold shower, hot rock, steam room, salt scrub, cold shower, shoulder massage, gongs, dry sauna and hot tub.  I'm assuming the cold showers were included in the 10.  Quite nice and relaxing but both the winner and loser was the location.  It's a fabulous castle, built for/by a bishop in 1011 and completed in 1080.  This thing is OLD!  It's gone thru many transformations over the years and is now run as a hotel, spa, events location.  Unfortunately the spa has a lot of competition as seems they are popping up all over the place and it need some serious renovations.  The furnishings, equipment and pools etc were outdated and not terribly clean.  It was like stepping back to the future.  Sort of 1970 futuristic.  Thus the Groupon offers. 

Castello Montaldo

On Thursday I'm returning to London with Grace to have it out with her landlord.  A jerk who gets his kicks by verbally abusing and threatening with eviction a bunch of young girls who don't know that the law is on their side.   He's angry because they are all moving on at the end of the lease and re realizes that he timed the dates badly and it will be difficult for him to get students in after August.  So he wants Grace and roomies out a month early.  It's gonna cost him.  GP has been combing their lease and British tenant law for the past week.  He is biting at the bit to go himself (loves this stuff, gets all righteous) but can't so sending me in his stead.  I have a script.  Must not be too nice.  No giggling and funny remarks.  Damn.

Oh.  And I have shingles!  AGAIN!  Had them 20 plus years ago when living in MA.  They're baaaaaack!  Uncomfortable but not as painful as first time around.  Haven't gone to the doctor yet as is Easter holiday and Italy is closed.  Last week the lines at his office were hours long as everyone knows that Italy is closed this week so they were getting their complaints out of the way beforehand.

Anywho...off to the market.  xxoo me

I'm Kevin Costner!  I'm going to be dancing with wolves!  I've been asked to chaperone the 4th grade classes on a two day field trip to a wolf sanctuary in the maritime Alps.  The trip isn't until May but I'm very excited.  Wolves were practically extinct in Italy until they were given protected status in the '70s.   Oh boy!!

On another note, GP and I had a lovely evening last Saturday.  We went with his hiking group to an area not too far away but WAY up high.  It's a semi-abandoned ski resort that was popular in the 70's but then, for whatever reason, fell out of fashion.  The village is called Montoso and still has a few inhabitants though most of the buildings are empty.  The resort itself is up past the tree line and the huge 60's style buildings that were once hotel and apartments, shops and restaurants, are now deserted.  The only tenants are the caretakers.  The area is also famous for stone and there are enormous quarries all along the road up and that can be looked down on from the top.  With no snow all you see is rock.  It's weird and a little creepy.  Very other worldly.  So we drove up for a sunset hike up to a ridge above the resort that has an incredible 365 degree view of the surrounding mountains.  Once at the top we were wined and dined by a catering team who does just that.  They drive a food and drink laden truck up to the ridge, build a fire, set out tables, and feed people.  It was great.  The meal was casual but yummy, the wine was excellent and the view couldn't be beat.  We hiked back down an hour or so after sunset and stopped at the bar these guy own at the base for an after dinner drinkie. 

the sun going down as we start out

looking back at the ski resort

setting up the tables

our torch

xxoo me