Greta Thunberg was in Torino this last week.  She was greeted by a group of Gretini (a play on the word "cretini" or cretins), young Italians who are her avid followers.  Poor kid came on a day of pouring rain and public transportation strikes.  They had her dressed in a much too big yellow rain jacket under a much too big umbrella addressing a minuscule crowd, as not even environmentalists wanted to brave the deluge on foot.  Oh well, she got to meet the mayor; a woman whose platform included turning Torino into Italy's first vegan city.  Ha.  This is the land of salami and prosciutto.  I think not.

Speaking of weather, we had 10 minutes of snow the other day, during which time I had the chance to take a photo of our little garden and send it out with Christmas greetings.  It's all gone now and we are back to grey and drizzle.  It has not been a pleasant fall. 

And speaking of vegans, the daughter has decided to go vegetarian which is fine, (we've been trying to cut back ourselves - cholesterol problems), except that we are coming up on the holidays in Piemonte, the most carnivorous of times.   Our traditional Christmas lunch starts with salami and plates of hams and other thinly sliced pieces of pig.  This is followed by salami cotto, a big fatty boiled sausage cooked with lentils.  The pasta dish is agnolotti, tiny ravioli stuffed with meat and cabbage topped with ragu, ie: meat sauce. All of this comes before the main dish, some sort of huge roast.  See the problem?  As I have taken over the role of hostess I have some flexibility so have spent the past few days devising a menu and reviewing it with all involved. I'm going for a lot of appetizers and two pasta dishes and skipping the roast all together.  Figure if I stuff MIL with enough cheese early on she won't miss the meat later.  Wish me luck.

AND speaking of meat...GP has been craving lamb recently and it's very difficult to find in these parts as it is not part of the traditional diet apart from at Easter.  Yesterday we were at the great market in the city and after searching high and low through the butcher's section, still couldn't find any.  Suddenly I spotted a woman in a head scarf (don't judge me) and we followed her.  She led us right to a Halal butcher with all sorts of lamb!  The huge numbers of immigrants to our parts have brought in all sorts of goodies not previously offered.  There are stands manned by Africans selling vegetables and fruits I can't even identify.  Enormous tuberous things, spiky things and some really smelly things.  There are women making and selling flat breads and mini stands piled up with mint and cilantro, the latter impossible to find here not many years ago.  Much to their chagrin, Italy is becoming multi-cultural.

I've settled into a lazy pattern with this semi-retirement thing.  I wake late-ish, drink coffee and check the news online.  I play housekeeper for a couple hours, sorta cleaning, cooking, or ironing.  I have private tutoring in the afternoon for an hour or two and go to yoga or exercise classes four times a week. Then I come home and sorta do things again until I can reasonably throw myself on the sofa with a glass of wine and watch my newest addiction:  Garden Rescue!  I am a slug.  I'm hoping to become motivated to do some of the many creative things I've been saying I'll do when I finally have time.  Maybe it will be my New Year's resolution.  xxoo me

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