Mice, mosquitos & woodworm

How could I get fed up with this view?

I'm currently on holiday at my flat in Calabria. Everytime I return I fall in love with the location and views all over again, whilst my stomach knots with fear and trepediation at the work (aka money) the flat needs. I joke it will be finished when the mortgage is paid off, but have a horrible feeling that's the truth.

This is my 3rd summer here, although only 2nd in the flat, and this year there is a plague of mosquitos. Managing to remain primarily unseen, they strike any millimetre of skin that the repellent missed. Along with the plague, my flat has an infestation of woodworm. When I arrved last week there were piles of sawdust on/under chairs, the table, window frames, the wardrobe, and even the bed frame. I've just arranged for the builder (roof is being started in September inshallah) to remove all old wood, eaten chairs, even firewood, whilst I've been spraying toxic stuff into thousands of holes in order to stop the spread. ugh

Finally, Saturday, returning from eating a proper Italian pizza (none of that Pizza Hut type immitation stuff here), I discovered a mouse in my bathroom. The poor thing was scared of me, whilst I was worried it would get into the main part of the flat. Retreating, I left it hiding behind the toilet, locked the door between us and turned on all lounge lights to discourage it entering. Thirty minutes later it had left. Where to, I don't know but hopefully out of the flat.

Gratitude Friday - it's Friday!

I've just popped over to Diana's blog, and realised it is Gratitude Friday time... oops forgot again.

Today I am grateful that it's Friday, as it means tomorrow I am flying down to see some good friends in Calabria, who I can't wait to see and catch up on the gossip news. I will also check on my flat and do a few odds and ends there. The other reason that I'm grateful is that TOMORROW brings SketchCrawl #26 and it's the perfect motivation and chance to draw all day. On top of that, I love seeing all the results from around the world, which are posted afterwards. Also, my ego likes receiving comments from kind people who see my results too. Tomorrow will be my 3rd SketchCrawl and my least structured as I have to work around the travel I am doing, so I foretell pics of buses, planes, people & landscapes. Please pop over to my other blog later in the week to see what I did.

Finally, I am thankful today is a beautiful sunny day here in Turin, but a little sad in that the auction did not raise any money for Xmas Torch, although I think it raised some awareness of it, which must be good.

Wandering to Calabria?

If you are wandering down to Calabria,  check out this post I guest wrote for my cyber-buddy Lisa over at Travel Dreams & Moonbeams. Her blog is worth bookmarking as it's full of great travel articles.

Adding airmiles.

Where does the time go? it's nearing 2 months since my last post. In my defence, I have been away for 3 weeks without my computer. Plus, to steal an idea from another blogger, I blame facebook as with regular status updates it's hard to remember what I've blogged and what I haven't.

Anyway what have I been up to???? Way back in June I had to do a visa run as my wonderful new college still hadn't organised my visa, so I day tripped to Dubai. As I was hoping to get a job back in Europe (I haven't yet), I thought I'd do some tourist things and take some photos. I went to Bur Dubai area and wandered around the old streets, nice car-free alleyways with old style buildings either side, visiting art galleries, the Dubai museum & the souq area. After several hours in the heat, I headed to the Dubai Mall to see the ski-slope in the desert, and to buy a suit. After the usual hassle with Barclaycard blocking my card for use in Dubai, despite them being told every time it's me using the card, I then caught a flight back to Muscat. My pics can viewed on flickr here.

A week later it was off on my holidays. I'd got a cheap flight to Italy via Amsterdam. I arrived there at 5am and headed off by train into Amsterdam for my first visit. With only a morning I aimed to wander around and take pics of the canals and bikes. On flickr Amsterdam's bikes and boats. I found it an interesting place, but apart from wishing to visit the galleries I will not hurry back. I took more photos on the return leg during an evening in Rome of L'arte romana. Not having a map or guidebook, and with the direct trains to Termini cancelled I hopped on a train, and got off where a fellow passenger said there was a tram stop. I was guided by this woman to purchase a tram ticket, and to get on the tram. She said the end was in the centre, and to get off with her, however... As I idly gazed out of the tram window watching the suburbs pass by I saw an interesting church, piazza, and old buildings and jumped off. I wonder if the woman noticed me missing from the tram? I later found out I was in an area called Trastevere, which is south of the river from the centre and unlike Amsterdam I certainly intend to return to. Unfortunately after a lovely evening meandering around, due to my cheap ticket I then joined the masses camped out at Rome airport waiting for a 4am checkin.

In the middle of the traveling, I drove to my flat in Calabria. It is really a pretty area of Italy, as my parents found out when they joined me a few days later. Together we did some tourist stuff, a few beach days, got caught out by a strike by petrol attendants (I was running the hire car on fumes so had a stop in a nice B&B Cirelli in Scalea), but mainly we ate HUGE Italian meals. A highlight for me was

Rifugio Montano escursioni Parco Nazionale del Pollino Orsomarso

which is down the valley from my flat. We went there via a waterfall in the park with 2 friends who live in the area year-round and we all had a great day & meal. Unfortunately during the whole holiday, being the only driver I didn't get to drink to much Prosecco, but have brought a bottle back with me to be opened soon. In fact the time has come to sign off and maybe visit the fridge :D Sx

Cavorting at carnival, admiring art, & fabulous food.

Wow I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted. Most of the time has been spent in Europe (UK and Italy), and has been a time of mainly highs.

In UK, I finally went to Nottinghill carnival after years of it being on the "to-do" list. What a mad day, whistles, sound stages, friendly/helpful police, food stalls, thousands of people, processions... everything and far more that I had expected and a great day.

On another day in London, it was fantastic to watch J's reactions as he came face-to-face with old masters in the National Gallery, which previously he'd only seen bad reproductions of. His face was a mix of shock, wonder and amazement, especially at the Monets and Van Goghs. It was not only old masters that he liked, as we saw an exhibition in the new wing and there was a modern Spanish painting of a bull in a field that we both kept returning to look at.

We saw more art in Italy, when we went to the Vatican city, Rome. My 1st visit had been back in 2000. Although I remembered the Sistine Chapel and the Raphaels and it being a long walk, I hadn't remembered there being so many other works of art, including modern pieces. I was very surprised to see a Dali amongst the collection and some great sculptures. The afternoon before, J & I had revisited the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain & Spanish Steps etc. all on foot, though we caught metro back to hotel. Of course, we had many breaks for cakes, ice-cream, drinks and dinner.

I think we spent the whole time in Europe eating great food with fantastic wines, whether in expensive restaurants, roadside stalls, or riverside pubs. In UK alone, I had 3 lots of mussels, each time in a different sauce - the cider version at The Oyster Bar in West Mersea was one of my favourites. It was a restaurant I went to twice, once after walking the dog along the beach, when we sat outside overlooking the estuary to eat fish chowder then amazing dressed crab. Then, the second time almost a month later, we sat inside for mum's birthday lunch - mussels followed by Lemon Sole yum. Whilst in Italy, I experienced the spectrum of Italian cooking ranging from a typical Calabrian dinner, which came in many courses including TWO pasta dishes, to 3euro wood-oven pizzas. My mouth is watering just thinking about it all and I'm sure I'd get giggly if I wrote about Prosecco hic.

Finally, whilst in Italy J & I explored some lovely areas. We spent a lovely day walking along and picnicking by a river in the region of the Pollino National Park, which surrounds the village where I'm (hopefully) buying a flat. It really is quite beautiful and very tranquil. Although, as the flat sale still hasn't gone through, due to problems with the sellers, who knows if we will return. We also drove up the coast to Maratea, which is gorgeous, with it's picture-postcard port and its mountainous old town, and down to Diamante, which is a town covered in murals, fascinating.

Needless to say I did not want to return to Oman last Friday. However as it's Ramadan, which for us ex-pats that means a time of lots of house-parties and socialising, I'm quickly liking it again. More news soon.

Future home

I've just been looking through some blogs and found this link to The Independent and this article on Calabria - my future home, and where J & I'll be end of August for the local festa in Scalea. I love this quote:

"Calabria, with its 600 miles of Mediterranean coastline and a hilly, lush interior, still has a profound respect for a slower way of doing things. In its small, often tumble-down towns and villages, the four-hour lunch break is rigorously enforced. The hours between 12.30pm and 4.30pm are strictly reserved for sitting down for a glass of peppery wine and a plate of Calabria's hearty "national dish", pasta alla Norma – aubergines in tomato sauce with grated boiled egg, basil and ricotta cheese."

Sounds just perfect to me!