Golf 1.4

I test drove a Golf 1.4, and like it, and its price.

Barbecue and gliding

Friends from a local gliding club (localish) have invited us to a barbecue in August. It will be nice to see them again as it's some years since we last went. They sent us a link to some of their pictures on another club's site, here, in Scotland. They have some wonderful videos of gliding flights. And they put up photos by other well remembered names, one of whom works with a neighbour. Small world.

Anyhow, I've asked for three tickets as husband and perhaps son will come too. I may need more tickets as we will have Austrian visitors in August again, and daughter is coming home to help look after them. Hurray!

OU fortieth

The Open Unlimited photos are on their flickr page here. If you look very carefully, you will see me in some of them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40682471@N05/

Lost in England; found in Italy

Eighteen months ago, I lost an earring, a large hoop amethyst earring. I'd tossed it a yard across the room, with its partner, aiming at the pile in or next to my suitcase when packing to go to India. It disappeared. I couldn't find it anywhere, and it was too big to just disappear, or to go up the vacuum cleaner without noticing it. I couldn't understand how I'd lost it.

I found it in Italy!

I was packing to come home from holiday, flicked one the internal straps over, walked away to pick something up, came back and there was the earring in the empty suitcase.

What is it with earrings? I did this once before when I dropped a small earring in an office, when working abroad in Denmark. Weeks later at home, I found it again, in the washing machine.

May be Mary Norton's borrowers travel between countries, borrowing from me in this country and letting me have my things back in another country.

Ceiling fell in

The roof fell in. We go away for a few days leaving a visitor in the house and our roof falls in. My mother always used to complain about my father, who wouldn't wake up when the children cried "He wouldn't wake up if the roof fell in", she used to complain. And then one night the roof did fall in. Well, it wasn't the roof; like our house it was the ceiling fell down, all over the set breakfast table. The plaster fell and my father heard and went to investigate while my mother slept.

Our hall ceiling fell down. We knew there was a crack in the plaster, but it would have to fall when we were away. I hadn't warned our visitor, who was naturally a bit upset. Our wonderful son-in-law came and cleared up and found a prop to keep the remaining plaster in place. The floor and my beautiful new expensive stair carpet are dusty. The glass shade on the Perseus lamp is broken, the banister a bit scratched, but not my grandmother's hall stand, because I'd left some spare carpet on it.

We've called in a plasterer.

Buskers

Bascherdeis means busker festival. In Vernasca, they have this festival with twenty or thirty street artists performing over two days. Like Afro Jungle Jeegs.

Watch some of my videos of the performers.
One man band
2. Ready for the acrobats

3. Afro jumbo jeegs
but this is the end of the show, which was 20 minutes, so too long to put on youtube until I've edited it.

4. Jugglers

Parma parking

We went to Parma - it was far too hot, but parking was impressive - yes sad, I know, I'm supposed to admire the cultural treasures. But at the car park entry barrier, the sign told us how many parking spaces were free on the floor we were entering. As we drove round, we realised that each bay had a red light above the car that occupied it. If we looked for a green light, hanging from the ceiling, we could see from twenty cars away where there was a free space. And there was calming music (Greensleeves) to soothe stressed drivers - not a bad experience considering it was only a boring functional place.

We did also go and see the cathedral and the baptistery.

The paintings in the cathedral were wonderful. See the videos too.


and this video

Italian holiday

We've spent a week on holiday in Italy at an agritourismo here called Cergallina with family. Lovely.

"We" is husband and his son and family, so I got the chance to know them better. Their two little girls are five and nearly three, so interested in everything and interesting, but needing a lot of time and attention. Their mother seems a tad tired, having two pre-school children, when nearly all her time is devoted to them. I think a mother needs the friends and family who share that time with her because for a couple of years there's hardly any time for an adult life.

Husband and I stayed for a week. Son and family stay two weeks.

"Here" is a hamlet, where it's quiet except for the buzzing of flies off the cows, chirping crickets the shouting workers watering the vegetable patch, and occasional braying donkey. But it's not an isolated place. From the bench under the fruit trees I can see a village in the valley. At night I can see lights in various different directions, like Vernasca to the north on the other side of the hill ridge. This page shows you where. But it's quiet enough for son and family to have visited her at least three times. His wife's sister-in-law comes from a village twenty minutes walk away. The quiet pleases them, and the animals and swimming pool please the children. The animals include at least two cats, a cow and her calf, two mules, a donkey, some horses, geese, hens and ducks. Granddaughter tells me that last year she rode on the horses, and I have a video of her riding them this year.

Italy - food

On holiday in Cergallina, we had some lovely meals, simple and delicious. And we didn't have to plan, shop, serve or wash up, let alone cook.

Yum - simple pasta with a tomato sauce one day. Another day we had a sort of ratatouille mainly of peppers fried up with garlic and onions, not bioled, with "zapped" potatoes. The potatios are not cooked; they're "zapped" in the mixer (whatever that means!). But the potatoes add a kind of thickness to the stew of vegetables. Findally Juidth adds aubergines, but they are peeled so you don't notice their purple skins, not salted, just added last. Yum.

Then there's the beef made from last year's cow, named Valeria. She made lovely meals.

See their ideas for food here.

Disappointment - no ice-cream

We went to Castell'Arquato, a village, a short drive from here in Cergallina. LIke many Italian villages it is on a hill with the church at the top. We parked in a low car park, promised the little girls gelati (ice-creams) and walked into the town, through the narrow streets, but past the first cafe. The next one too had a big sign "GELATI" but we walked past that too. Their parents revealed their intention to walk all the way to the top of the village to get the ciecreams from the cafe opposite the church, at the very top of the village. So we walked, marched and sang:

"One rainy day at the battle of Waterloo,
the brigade made a glorious charge to see what they could do."

You can find the words here. Granddaughter was pretty plucky, and kept going for at least three full renderings of this, but marching up a hill, encouraging a five-year old and singing too, I was flagging by the time we arrived at six flights of eight steps and needed her daddy to encourage.

We arrived, sat at a table, ordered coffees and ice-creams.
No ice-creams!

What a disappointment. The girls were great and settle for biscuits.

Italy - azienda agrituristica

An azienda agrituristica is an Italian holiday place to stay where it's agricultural. It's like a farm holiday. We're staying at Cergallina, which you won't find on your GPS because it's not been uploaded on the database. In fact, Judith, the proprietor tells us, Cergallina is a name that she made up. Then the authorities told her that she lived on Via Cergallina, which she didn't like, so she asked how to register Cergallina as a locality. the town hall said she could change it to a locality because Via Cergallina was the name that post office held, so she toodled along to the PO and told them that they'd got it, wrong, that it wasn't Via locality, but the locality locality. Then the people at the PO said sorry for getting it wrong, changed their records, and Judith could go back to the town hall, who now agreed, because the PO said so, that locality was a locality.

You couldn't do that in England!

Break for a week

Family calls. I must away.

Mystery garden

I just loved the light and shade as I went down the garden this morning.

Test drive Golf

I've tried a Volvo C30, a Skoda Fabia, a Toyota Yaris and this Golf TSE something, which is way beyond my price range, so in around 10 days I'm going to try a Golf 1.4 80bhp.

Lost lots

I've lost things this week:

• mobile phone - I switched it off when I came home, and put it down,... somewhere
• end of my in-car mp3 player so it can't connect. I'll have to get a new one like it if I want to listen to my radio podcasts when I'm driving to work
  
• grey cap - left it at my brother & sister in-law's house

It's been a week for losing things. Bother.

Long holiday

Son's gone to the USA for five weeks, with friends, to visit California, and Las Vegas and Yosemite amongst others. He should have a memorable time.

Tae kwon do grading

I got my next belt this evening after Sunday's grading. The easy bit was the Korean. You have to know some Korean terminology for this grade, like makgi (block), chagi (kick). It's easy to say you're a student (jeja) in the dojang (training hall), wearing a dobok(suit) and talking to the subum (teacher). The hard bit is accelerating in the moves, and getting the detail of the stances perfect. Despite freezing half way through a pattern and having start again, thus finishing ten moves after everyone else, and being extra noticeable, somehow I got through and caught up with my daughter. Hurray.

This kup (grade) is red tag, meaning blue with a red strip. The next belt is red, and red is for danger, so perhaps I'm now a little bit dangerous. However, red also indicates someone who is in control, and that means someone is dangerous enough to hit when they want, but in control enough to miss by a fraction of an inch when practising, and I'm not sure I'm that much in control, so perhaps I'm dangerous that way - I might hit someone accidently.

But it's fun. And this evening we did some padwork, some throws, and then practised breaking bricks with our elbows and feet.

Son's surprise birthday party

I like my son's friends. His friends from school turned up this week with a birthday cake for his 21st birthday, to celebrate as a surprise now in the holiday because they couldn't do it in April when they were all at university.

Visitors here

For the first time in ages, we've got some visitors for Saturday supper. Hurray!

Borat

Have you seen the new film? The trailers for it here are hilarious.

Test drive Toyota Yaris

Test drove one of these today. It's all right. The gears are a bit close together so I keep getting them mixed up, but the display is clear and readable, although not right in front of you like a dial is. I could get used it to it. You get used to any car if you drive it long enough, I guess.

The only thing I want extra is a place to plug in my mp3 player so I can listen to radio 4 podcasts. Now it's really easy: plug into cigarette lighter socket, my player is tuned to one of the radio frequencies, press the button and it goes. Apparently in the Yaris, and in the Skoda too, I have to have wire as well. That's an extra thing to plug in, not something you can do as you drive along, but fiddly, and there'd be a wire stretching several inches in the Yaris.

I don't think I really want a new car.

Test drive Skoda

Husband and I went out in a Skoda Fabia 2. I drove it around. It's all right. Salesman was pointing out the wonderful boot to put all your shopping in. I don't use my car for shopping though because I get the vegetables delivered, and buy meat from the farmers' market, and husband does the supermarket shop for heavy things like cat food because he likes the cat. So I don't need a boot like the Skoda's.

Test drive

I've driven a Volvo estate for decades, but I don't need an estate now. I used to have to trail a glider trailer, and then in the last few years for moving teenage children to university, and still have to do that another few years, but husband can do that. So I might take advantage of the government scrappage scheme and get a new car.

I test drove a Volvo C30 today. It feels comfortable, but then I suppose it would being as it's just another Volvo. I've booked a test drive in a Toyota.

Daughter moves

Daughter moved from university hall to shared flat today. She's got a lease on it for a year starting 1st July. Son and husband went to help her move. Apparently she now has so much stuff that they had to make two trips, and I had thought she was the less acquisitive of my children. But she was minding suitcases and boxes for her friends who'd left uni for the vacation and hadn't been able to move their stuff to the flat.