Month: May 2015

Certainly my life goes from one extreme to the other. One minute I’m very laid back and the next minute life is full-on. Today was busy and my exercise has gone completely out the window..it is always the first thing to go replaced by eating and drinking in a flash!!

Off to school in the morning. We’re now doing past imperfect tense…what the fuck??? I don’t even know what that is in English!!! Anyway just before my brain exploded they called an early day for the anniversary of Luigi Boccherini’s death in whose honour there was a cello concert at the church. Now I know you will all know who Luigi Boccherini is so I won’t bother explaining!! Then Carolina and I went for lunch and sat in the sun for a while. I went home then and did a bit of writing up of today’s lesson before I had to go back to school for a concert of Italian music being put on by the school. That was really very nice. After the concert I timed up with 3 women from school for a bit of bar hopping for Aperativo’s. During the bar hopping I went back to the apartment to meet up with Susana who had just arrived back. I found her and she joined us for more aperativo’s, so there5 of us and we all went off to have pizza and wine for tea. That was nice but then we parted company. Susana is staying here for the next 3-4 days which is nice, she is lovely company….she is bright, adventurous and no trouble at all. So the next few days will be fun.

Time for bed to retire my brain before having to tackle past imperfect again in the morning.

Two more days of school under the belt and having trouble keeping up with a lot to do!! A new woman has joined our class from Sweden. She is lovely and also a ‘my age’ type of woman.

The weird woman, Alicia, remains weird but I’m getting used to her!! I think her life must be tough. I’m sure she has been anorexic and seems to struggle with all types of food. A vegan, no sugar, no gluten, no milk etc etc. She ‘can’t’ eat out ! Her husband is a professional athlete i.e. Triathlon/ Ironman and he is Number 3 in the world! So he trains all day at these training camps in Austria and here outside Lucca. He is part of a professional cycling squad. We had a discussion about the fact that she makes her own ‘milk’ by soaking cashew nuts in water and then grinding it into a milk substance. Today she brought this into class for us all to try. Which we did, including Ele, our teacher, and we all refused to drink any more after the first sip…it was cacky and poor Alicia was so disappointed in us. Class is getting harder and harder but we’re all struggling with the same things.

After class yesterday I had a quick lunch again with Carolina then I came home to get my school work written up. Then I took off for my ride around the wall then back for tea and the final episode of Downton Abbey 🙁

Today was school, shopping, home to quickly get the house ready for Susana to arrive tomorrow and then soon I have to go back to school for one of the ‘activities’. Today we’re learning about ‘non- verbal Italian’ i.e. what the hand gestures mean. It promises (so I’m told) to be fun. Then home. Tomorrow there is a musical afternoon at school with Italian songs etc and Sally (English woman in my class) and a couple of other people and I are going to go out to dinner after it. I have to meet up with, and fit in, Susana in all this which could prove challenging!!

School started again today and the frantic pace starts again. I only have 2 others in my class….and I think I’m the best!! i.e. it’s a bit of a dummies class but not the beginners!

One classmate is a lovely woman from London who is my age. I think it will be nice to have her for the week (she leaves next week). But the other woman in her 30s is the weirdest one yet. She is a vegan who meditates morning and night. She is from Florida and she is rather overbearing in class and quite annoying. She is living outside the walls with her husband and they are total fitness freaks. He won the Melbourne ironman last year (is that the one Skip competed in??). They are from Florida and honestly she is so far outside the world I inhabit it is stunning!! The teacher is the same one I had in the last week I was there, Eleonora (Ele) and I love her, she is just a delight…she keeps asking me if I’m OK in this class …she is also amused by the Florida eccentric!!

But good to be back at school. I met Carolina for lunch after school. She has just been in Venice with Susana so I caught up on their adventures. Susana comes back to Lucca on Thursday and will be staying with me until Sunday when she goes to Rome again.

Anyway after lunch I came home to write up todays lesson and then I decided I should do my walk, so around the wall I went, came home and finished writing up my lesson. I watched a couple of episodes of Downton Abbey and now I should get off to bed to get my beauty sleep ready for another day of school.

Chris is coming up for a few days in a couple of weeks. I may try and fit another 2 weeks of school in before I leave Lucca…not sure yet!

Another weekend gone at just about the same pace as the previous week…cruising pace!

Saturday just couldn’t seem to make up its mind what it was going to do weather-wise. With this in mind I decided to get my ride in early to try and dodge the rain. It was a latish start because I chatted to Rose for a while before setting out. But eventually off I went and got my 3.5 “giros” in. I then dropped the bike off , talked to Ham for a while and then went out for a bit of a walk. It kept spitting but not making much impact. I had my Italian lessons from 2 weeks ago to write up so I spent some time on that in the afternoon. Went and wandered around a bit then bunkered down to tea.

Then I realised it was Eurovision night and being in Europe I decided I should watch it particularly as Italy was a contender for the first time in many years…not to mention Australia but I hate Guy Sebastian so much I could even get excited. I’m absolutely sure that Eurovision is much more fun if you’re watching it with other people. Watching it by yourself does mitigate against the excitement a bit. Nonetheless I enjoyed it when Italy was doing well for a brief moment!!! All this made for a very late night for an elderly citizen.

Today I got up and going with a mission to the Laundromat. At least this one was manageable i.e. I didn’t need a truck to carry the laundry bag. I coffee’d in-between washing and drying and got the washing home. I latched on to the fact that it was Open Garden day in Lucca which was a great focus. I loved it. I didn’t go near the wall all day but walked around Lucca seeing all the gardens that are usually locked behind closed doors and high walls. And they are truly gorgeous some of them. All walled and full of roses in full bloom, statues, hydrangeas, azaleas…I was in heaven. Normally you don’t even know they are there so it was a wonderful opportunity.

At the end of going to all the open gardens I plucked up the courage to go to a bar (the one we went to, Rose, near the apartment where we sat outside) and have a glass of wine by myself. But a person I knew from school walked past and she stopped and had a sit and a drink with me. It was nice to have some company for a while.

Now I’m home, getting some dinner and getting ready to go back to school in the morning. An episode or 2 of Downton Abbey and then bed to prepare for the anxiety of starting school again with all new people!!

Two more days have disappeared and both look exactly like the other except one day I ride for my exercise and the next I walk. The weather is constantly trying to work out whether to rain or to roast you so depending on which way it goes I get out and about or I am inside. I bought Downton Abbey on iTunes as a precaution against stir craziness. I had a hair cut and they decided I needed to go shorter but straighter (as it were). It looks OK…it’s always such a trauma to work out which hairdresser to walk into and being inadequate in the language means there’s an awful lot of trust involved. I shopped for my food for the next few days, I found the Wind shop to top up my phone. It’s outside the walls so took a bit of finding. I window shop and have a list of things I want to buy myself before I leave…leather bags are high on this list. I have coffee, I wander aimlessly and the week has gone. A weekend ahead and then back to school for 2 weeks. Then Chris is coming up from Rome for a few days, then I’m going to London for a few days, then Norjie arrives for more than a few days, then I leave Lucca…it all just goes so fast really….even Rose is another year older already!!

I’ve got to stop this, you can see that things have definitely slowed down!!

Rain took me a bit by surprise today. I conquered the mozzies with my spray assault so that was a good start. I went and had my coffee. I was supposed to be meeting a friend from school for lunch today so I could get some photos from her. It was very wet so bicicletto stayed in its house and I decided I’d walk the wall. It wasn’t raining when I left so I went off without an umbrella and with just a T-Shirt on. Now that turned out not to have been one of my best decisions. It bucketed down and I was well and truly between shelters. In 2 seconds flat I was completely drenched to the bone. Totally, totally wet through, I might as well have been for a swim fully clothed. What to do?? I just had to keep going until I found shelter and then I stopped and waited…and waited and waited!! The long and the short of it is that I actually finished getting myself all the way around but got back home still shedding sheets of water. I had to completely change before heading off to meet my friend.

But that didn’t work out well either, she was sick and lunch just didn’t seem like a good idea. So I farewelled her (she is going off to meet Susana in Venice for the weekend) and came back home with the USB to organise my photos. I then spent the afternoon at home. Sadly it looks like rainy days ahead for quite some time. This doesn’t suit me at all!! Fortunately I had my book to finish today and I was absolutely loving it so I did a lot of reading. Cried my way to the end as is my way.

Thinking of you today Rosa…wondering what you are doing for your birthday. Obviously I’ll ring in the morning. I always feel so sadly far, far away at times of celebration.

My first night back in my own bed was a big disappointment due to a concerted dive bombing mission by Lucca’s mosquito squad. Shamala and Alan had slept with the windows open so not sure how they fared??

Anyway, I had to get up and going this morning, sleep or no sleep, so I could get the rubbish down by 9am. So, off to have my coffee with eyelids propped open. Off to buy mosquito spray straight away. Then I decided best to go for my ride first thing, so 3.5 times around I went. Poor, poor bum!!

At the end of that I sat for a while and had a read of my book. I just need to stop there for a minute and say that this is a book I’m loving. It has become my ‘friend’. It is ‘All the Light we cannot see’ by Anthony Doerr. One of you will have recommended it and I just love it so enjoy stopping for reads.

I came home for lunch and then went out again for coffee, a walk around and a read stop in my lovely walled garden. Then home…a very quiet day but I can do quiet for a week.

Yesterday Shamala and Alan went off to Firenze. They spent the day there going on an organised tour of The Academy and The Uffizzi. This started a saga where I made a complete fool of myself. When they left they locked the door from the outside. I tried to get out and couldn’t unlock it from the inside. Now here’s where I made a fool of myself. I had to ring Cristina (landlady) she was in Pisa so had to ring the lovely Simon (her ex husband) who had to come around to rescue me and unlock the door. So he lets me out and fiddles around with it, initially agreeing that you couldn’t do it. However when he turned the key upside down he could unlock it from the inside. I was SO embarrassed and felt like such a complete idiot. Anyway back to the day which then commenced late!! I spent the day doing my usual Lucca ‘thing’. I had my coffee in the morning then went for a ride around the wall 3.5 times again. Then I came home for a while, had some leftovers for lunch and then decided to walk around the wall. There was a massive vintage car rally with all these vintage cars from all over europe going around the wall and everyone in Lucca was out to cheer them on. It was nice but the walk around the wall was exhausting after the long ride. S&A got home late so I bought myself some dinner and had a relaxed evening.

Today they left early and went to Pisa for the morning. So I cruised around on my bike for a bit, had my coffee and cornetto, read my book in the sun and wasn’t too energetic given that the heat is back with a vengeance and I felt like a lazy Sunday. I’ve got a cold…nothing too dramatic but all added to the incentive to do little. I stopped and had lunch and a glass of wine on the way back and Shamala and Alan arrived back soon after. We are going out for dinner tonight as it is their last night so that will be nice. Then they depart in the morning. Tomorrow will be a big laundromat day for me as I reassemble all the sheets on the beds.

Have just had a lovely meal at restaurant Giglio…it is such great food there. Now its time for bed and tomorrow its getting Shamala and Alan to the train station at 10am.