Proper tyred 14th gennaio 2012
Today I had to take the car to the garage, well - tyre shop, to change to winter tyres. In Italy it is law, that between certain months of the year, you cannot go on a motorway without having either: winter tyres, tyre snow chains, or tyre snow covers. There are spot checks by the Polizia where you enter the motorways to check that you are compliant. Today I had the fitting of the tyres, that I ordered a couple of weeks ago. OK, the car is low profile tyres on huge wheels, but it has taken two weeks for the tyres to come through which is shocking. I'm not really sure what the drill is - the tyres are made of a softer compound, and are actually cheaper than usual tyres. I think the garage holds the normal tyres until winter is over. It's not something that we've done before whilst we've been here, but we want to do a lot of skiing this year so we need to make sure we are compliant to avoid any nasty surprises.
Mind you, the Polizia tend to avoid foreigners. The last time I stopped, which I think was the first time that either of us has been stopped, I put on my best English accent and said "choorno" (instead of buongiorno). He took a reaction and spoke in broken English, asking if I was English, I said yes, and he wished me a good holiday and told me to drive on. Naturally I didn't offer to speak any Italian or mention that I lived here, and made sure I spoke in a bad Italian accent.
Today there has been a bad crash of a cruise ship off the coast of Tuscany. It appears that a cruise ship with 4000 people on board ran aground close to the island of Giglio which is a few miles off the coast of Tuscany, near to Monte Argentario, a few miles south of Elba. It appears that the ship ran aground, most of the people (3000 passengers and 1000 staff) were evacuated but at this point 3 have been confirmed as being dead. Many escaped in lifeboats and others escaped by swimming. About 70 people are still missing.
The accounts are harrowing:
"Everybody was trying to get on the boats at the same time. When people had to get on the lifeboats they were pushing each other. It was a bit chaotic. We were trying to keep passengers calm but it was just impossible. Nobody knew what was going on."
He said children and women were given priority when it came to allocating places on lifeboats, but the system proved to be difficult to implement because many men "weren't accepting this" because they wanted to remain together as a family, prompting "huge confusion".
Some people decided it was too difficult to get on to a lifeboat and chose to swim, with a number safely reaching the nearby island of Giglio.
"We were on the same level as the water so some people started to swim because they weren't able to get on the lifeboats," said Mr Costa.
He said he saw some people jumping but could not get a sense of just how many people did so.
Elizabeth Nanni, of Isola del Giglio Tourist Information, said those who arrived on the island were survivors in a state of shock, ''desperate people looking for each other'' and people suffering from hypothermia after jumping into the sea.
So, that's one crash in Europe, meanwhile, the Euro is looking perilously close to crashing also. Yesterday, France's credit rating was downgraded from AAA to AA, and now people are talking more and more about Greece and Italy leaving the Euro. Italy has some problems yes, but it actually has a huge amount of strengths that are not shared in the rest of Europe.
To quote that article:
Presently, Italy’s economy is the fourth biggest in Europe, according to the International Monetary fund. Italy sits behind Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
Really, Italy should be the biggest economy in Europe, and should be able to overtake Japan too which would make Italy the third biggest economy in the whole world.
To be honest, with its reputedly stagnant economy, Italy is not doing all that badly to be in fourth place in Europe and in eighth place in the world.
I really don't know what will happen, but it will certainly be a fun ride.
Meanwhile the weather is as strange as ever. This morning when I went to get the tyres it was freezy monkeys, then when I went to do a brick session after noon, it was cold, but in the sun it was glorious. In fact, there were people sitting and eating in the field in the sun. It tends to be freezing overnight and then gets up to as high as 18C in the sun during the day - it's nothing short of marvellous.
One way that I keep in touch with the world is by listening to podcasts, English language ones of course, this helps keep me in touch with the world. I used to love the Collings and Herrin podcast, but they had a falling out and no longer do it. Currently I am loving the following podcasts:
Fighting Talk
Answer Me This
The Complete Guide To Everything
Desert Island Discs
Friday Night Comedy
Eye On Italy
NPR Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
Today whilst listening to Brian Cox on Desert Island Discs I found out that he was in the 90s band D:Ream who sang "Things can only get better" - WTF? How did I miss that one??
Meanwhile, my Ironman training is carrying on - which is making me proper tyred, especially when running alongside a very hectic job. I have hit all the targets so far, and have not yet drowned in the swimming pool. However, for the first time today I did ask "why am I doing this?" which is worrying to happen so early on! Mind you, on the ride today I was not happy with my bike - the front wheel feels off and the tyres don't feel grippy. At one point I went into a big skid that I struggled to control, whilst on a long descent I was very very cold and felt unsafe, in fact, I think I only did 26 mph. This afternoon, post ride, I changed the tyres and replaced my carbon wheel with a basic one to see if that helps.
Rock on, to the break of dawn - that's the sort of thing that Jermaine would say.
