Saturday 30 September 2017

Touch of panic & snuffles



I’m beginning to panic a bit. Should I try to learn at least a few phrases in Italian?  I’m just feeling so tired I’m not sure I could be bothered. Most larger hotels, & we’re staying in a larger hotel, usually speak reasonable English, & there will be a rep there if we have any serious problems. However, it has to be admitted most non-hotel staff do usually react better if you can at least say a few words in their language, show some respect to their culture. It’s nice to be able to chat to some of the locals, the real locals.

The tiredness, sheer sense of exhaustion is almost overwhelming. Last night I started blowing, waking today with a very dry painful throat. I’m telling myself it’s just the tiredness telling.  Maybe it’s a minor dose of flu from the jab I had earlier in the week. Whatever it is, I’m still going to Italy. If necessary I can have a few quiet days there to recover. It can’t be worse than the cold I went down with in Fuschl when we went to Austria a couple of years ago.

I’m just hoping the Fox doesn’t start snuffling too. Though come to think of it, he did snuffle a bit earlier in the week & I put it down to overtiredness. It disappeared quickly. I’m hoping the same will happen with me.

Either way it’s a case of Italy here we come. It’s not long now. We're counting the days.

Wednesday 27 September 2017

Well travelled foxes



Yesterday we seem to have done a lot of travelling, that is travelling in our thoughts & memories.

I suppose it started with a trip to Chicago in 1928, the setting of my novel, “Dead Man Blues” by Ray Celestin. It sounds a dangerous city in those days on more than one grounds – gangsters such as Al Capone & Bugs Moran, pollution, drugs, both alcoholic & heroine based. As the city swelters I’m just glad I’d don’t live there, even if it did have the excitement of all that jazz.

Then I went off to Polperro, Cornwall, with my current jigsaw. I ended up spending more time there than anticipated as my home care failed to arrive & didn’t even bother to let me know. It wasn’t until I finally managed to get onto the office at lunchtime that I felt I could relax in the knowledge nobody was about to arrive.

In the afternoon we went up to the golf club after first having our flu jabs. The conversation seem to float around holidays of one sort or another. We dreamt of our holiday in Italy soon to come - I’ve never felt so desperately in need of a holiday & a break from all our worries. Our friends are due for a Caribbean cruise as winter arrives here. They ae wondering what changes are going to be made to their itinerary as a result of the devastation left by the recent hurricanes, especially when they are only too aware the hurricane season isn’t over yet so there may be more havoc to come. One of the barmaids has just come back from a holiday in Tenerife so we heard of her misadventures (husband taken ill, noisy neighbours). This took us all to memories of holidays, good & bad, we had all experienced.

The trips were concluded with a trip to Austria, and watching “Vienna: Empire, Dynasty and Dream” on BBC4 last night. I found it difficult to take in all that history in such a short programme. However, I did enjoy the pictures. I was whisked back to the Belvedere, the Hofburg Palace, the horse drawn carriages, the Stephansdom cathedral among others. Memories of our visit there a couple of years ago flooded in.

Oh, yes, yesterday we were well travelled foxes.

Monday 25 September 2017

Diamonds on a damp day



It’s a grey damp morning. But that’s not stopping the magpie scurrying across the lawn.

I’ve just been preparing for dinner. We’re having Little Bacon Flans today. All I’ve needed to do is peel some spuds for chips. I’ve also lined some Yorkshire pudding tins with pastry ready to fill this evening.

I went outside with the potato peelings for the compost bin. As I did so I was struck by an enormous web on the snowberry shrub. It was bejewelled with diamonds of moisture. It made the web quite magical enough to bring charm to, & to justify the dampness of the day.