Yesterday was a day by the pool. Although the kiddies dominate even they have to go and have lunch and there are times when I can hop into the pool with no-one around and it is heavenly. Then to lie on the terrace and read with the sun pouring down is absolutely heaven. Ariane concocted a delicious lunch again and the day went by lazily. Apart from the kids we have at least one very strange neighbour. A (very) hard drinking Russian man and his very coquettish woman. He drinks all day long and came up to us in the pool to introduce himself. ‘I am Alexander, where you from? Ah, Australia, Kangaroo!! Putin very, very good! Obama not good!’….OK??!! Then he comes out drinking something he identifies as gin and beckons us in to drink with him!!…no thank you!! Weird!
In the evening we went into the small town nearby Brucoli which has some nice restaurants (or so it looked when we cruised through there the other day in the pouring rain). We were early so we booked a table at Sud Cafe and went down to their bar by the water for a drink. The setting was superb and we sat out on the rocks sipping Spritz, Mohitos etc…you know the routine. It was really lovely but it went sour when we went to pay and it was 43Eu!! We added up our drinks and it came to 32Eu, so I (delegated spokesperson) went up to ‘clarify’ and ask to see the bill. Which they couldn’t supply and what then ensued was an argument in which I took their calculator and added it all up. Then they said 10% service charge…OK said I fair enough, that’s another 3 Eu and brings us to 35Eu…still not 43. Then they rattled on about a Tourist menu…I told them they were the most expensive bar in Italy and we wouldn’t be back….but I couldn’t do more!
We then had to go to the restaurant run by the same people…it was very posh so we kept our ordering to a minimum but it was fairly ordinary anyway. When we were loving it we were going to bring Ang and Kirst here tonight but not any more!!
Today is Sunday and Ham is working away. At lunch time Ariane and I will go into Catania to pick up Angus and Kirst…exciting!!