Mo, I'm sorry that I haven't written in so long - how can you ever forgive me?
Cycled home this evening in the dark, with some light rain. Flashes in the sky told me that a lightning storm is on it's way. Dawn talked of there being big skies here, I thought she was being silly, but I know what she means now - when there is lightning the whole sky lights up and yesterday evening (left work early - well 5:30, and went for a run in the sun) I saw Mount Amiata for the first time in the distance from our house.
So, yes, I cycled in today - it's only 20 minutes but absolutely exhausting and frustrating with the huge hills here. Within three minutes of leaving the house I am out of my seat in the lowest gear and dying with the hills, then seconds later I am flying down a hugely scary hill. So the 21 minute cycle to work, is 10 minutes of painful extreme uphill exercise and 10 minutes of scary downhill, so not much use exercise wise. And since I have risen to a ridiculous weight, have put on 10 kg since I accepted the job offer - I need to get back into a decent exercise regimen. Today I cycled in and then did 30 min beach weights, this evening I did 30 min running in the gym and then cycled home. Worked out quite well.
However, today I did clock up 45.7 mph on the way to work, terrifying!
This weekend we went to Cameri again. Dawn has found a nice horse riding school there - ideally, it would be closer to us - it's 450 km away! BUt it works out quite well - Dawn does horse riding and I do some cycling. I had a great weekend of cycling this weekend. On the Saturday I put in 30 miles and on Sunday I banged out a nice 60 miles. The roads have beautiful tarmac, very smooth, the roads are very flat, so its quite easy to put in 20 mph on the flat, and there are loads of cyclist out and about. On Saturday I tailed a couple of guys, very welcoming, although they didn't speak a word of English. The motorists are very respectful and give loads of room which is great. Despite my fatness, the engine is still strong and 60 miles was tough but comfortable - if that makes sense. I ended up at Stresa on lago maggiore - stunning location.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stresa
On Saturday at the horsey place they were having a Scottish festival with some caber tossing and whiskey and kilts, which was fun. We left before the evening meal, which was good because when we arrived back for horseying the next morning several of them had only had an hour or two of sleep after destroying a few bottles of whiskey. One of the guys on the farm is Scottish - hence the do. He has lived in Italy for 10 years - but he made everyone a fry up, amazing - the first time I have had one since I left. Baked beans, eggs, fresh dropped scones(!) and even something that looked like bacon - but actually turned out to be strips of pig fat - still damn fine though!
So, on the Saturday night we went back to the hotel to have a meal. The last time we were there we made friends with the owners and some friends of theirs. The friends are an older - he is 71 with a voice box that was partially removed so that he talks like he's out of the godfather, and he says that he is known in town as the Italian Richard Gere - so we call him Riccardo Gero. Nice bloke. Anyway - touchingly they had made the effort to join us for dinner again, along with the owners, and he had even brought some of his home made salami with him which we had for primi.
The hotel is odd, very odd. There never seems to be anyone there and they don't even make any food - we had pizza from the local takeaway (Beverley Hills!!). So, no one goes in, no one eats, so we have no idea how they make any money. Amusingly the hotel is called The Cutty Sark. This time, there were a couple of youngsters in, although a couple of them seemed to work there. Anyway, they are lovely people, but really don't speak a word of english - none at all. Slowly but surely we are picking up some Italian, but even so we need more to understand these people. Plus they have a strong accent "Cara" becomes "Hara". But we get along. It certainly is a strange little town - we have never seen a shop open on the Saturday - none at all, except the huge Coop. Lots of people cycle which is great, and bizarrely there's an enormous sports complex with huge swimming pool, sports stadium, and even some dodgem cars which was going in whilst I was there. So yes, strange but nice. Reminiscent of northern France. The people are short, quite ugly and have blue eyes - most Italians have dark eyes, so they are different. Maybe all the pretty people have gone to Milano?
It was hot at the weekend, 20C on Sunday, my arms got a little pink, and also a small patch on the back of my leg between my sock and my leggings!
On Sunday morning, Riccardo Gero bought us a coffee in the local coffee bar. Exactly how you'd imagine - only men, in a building with no windows, and most of them playing cards and drinking alcohol - at 10 am on Sunday morning! I had a tea - am still managing to keep my coffee abstinence going - nearly two years now! Interestingly in Planet Italia there are loads of coffee shops that sell "Orzo" - a sort of coffee substitute made from barley.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffé_d%27orzo
So, yes, Riccardo Gero had a glass of white wine, the others were drinking spirits, and we left him to his buddies and went to play horsies or ride bikes. Interestingly, the women were out and about all holding olive branches - maybe since it is holy week they had all been to church (on their bikes) and were celebrating something or other.
On the trip I stumbled across a huge monster rat thing, dead, on the side of the road - massive - see the picture. I asked at work and it turns out it is a nutria, or a coypu!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coypu
It was by the side of an air force base - I don't know if that had something to do with it.
Back at work, things are intense as ever. Busy busy, been working late a lot, which is facilitated by me cycling in, which means that we don't have to coordinate sharing the car to get home. Pulled some late nights, and am in at 8 am most days, a couple of 11 pm nights. We've had some interesting happenings in the office - it appears that someone has been trying to access our PCs by coming in late at night, so we are in the process of installing a sneaky surveillance camera disguised as a light switch, although, being Planet Italia, we have to tell the unions and HR have got their fingers in the pies!
Also, whilst we were horseying around, we were speaking to a guy who knew Siena as he had stayed at Villa Gori one time - that is the hotel which the company bought in which we now work - small world - he stayed in the hotel in which we now spend our time.
Easter holiday is short here for such a staunch catholic country we don't get Good Friday off, only Easter Monday - boo.
That's all for now folks!
