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Wednesday 31 August 2011

Downloads, Chillies and Stalking

Saturday 27 August 2011 – Morrissey is singing ‘Shame Is The Name’ as my breakfast is cooking- a full English – The sun is belting out more of its hotter than hell rays, will this heat-wave ever break?

I spend the morning getting the downstairs apartment ready for a family that are arriving on Monday. To be honest I’m not really into the domestic side of things, having already done it once before, it cemented my belief that I’d hate to run or work in a hotel.

I spend the remainder of the morning searching for and downloading music, I run into quite a few demo tracks and feature recordings of ex Sugababe Mutya Buena, these are added to my collection as is The Sound of Camden and Linea 77. So my iPod now has 19,055 songs.

Early afternoon, it’s so hot that there’s nothing for it but to have IMG_1410another cold shower. The heat is so intense that I have to keep doors and windows closed, there’s no breeze so it creeps inside the house. Everything is warm, my shirts in the wardrobe feel like they’ve just come out of a tumble dryer, and tepid pillows make taking a siesta a no no. Still this baking sunshine is good for my sundried chillies, that are as hot as the Italian countryside at the moment. (I think I’ll make little packages up for Christmas gifts).

I read for a little, shave, then head up to Casoli for beers with my friend Christine. Now there’s something you should know about Christine; it’s not that’s she’s a real life Eastender, or even that she can be seen in a Pathe newsreel as a young schoolgirl. The shocking revelation is that she has a stalker, a silver haired gentleman that shuffles around town with an air of old fashioned eccentricity.

I use the term stalker loosely, as the chap has never made contact, he’s not so much as posted a pair of his unwashed pants through Christine’s door, and to the best of my knowledge he doesn’t have a room plastered from floor to ceiling with photographs of her. In fact his only crime is that wherever she goes, he always appears. She can be sat in the bar, and he’ll saunter past. A trip to the post office and she turns the leave and he’s the next person in line behind her. And heaven forbid she takes a stroll through the market on Friday morning, because you can guarantee, as she rifles through the €3 clothes stall and picks up a lilac halter-neck, there’d be another hand on the hem, – the silver stalker.

Tuesday 30 August 2011

I’m Back and it’s all Ya Ya

Friday 26 August 2011 – Okay so I’ve had a brief break from blogging due to work commitments and also sheer laziness. So what have I been up to in the hiatus – well mostly sweating and showering.

It’s been blisteringly hot in Italy, some locals have said hotter than it’s been in many years. One day plant life looks vibrant, the next day it looks withered and wilting, the next its lush and leafy. I just hope one day I’ll adapt to this climate, as most days I’ve been more the withered and wilting variety.

August is festival season here, so I’ve enjoyed bands, street parties and watched locals dancing in the street, not to mention a few beers at my favourite watering hole – Bar il Borgo in Casoli.

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Workwise, I’ve been catching up on writing assignments for my course, and even had some work published, with other articles due for publication next month. Here’s the link to an article I wrote about the writer/actress Rachael Halliwell and her splendid one woman show, Deirdre and Me. Deirdre and Me Press

http://www.differentscene.co.uk/?p=3076

Lunch today was arosticini as Jim Gilstrap sang the classic ‘Swing Your Daddy,dishes washed up and I pop downstairs into the cool of the apartment, it was my intention to do some writing however I spot a DVD with a name that intrigues me.

I end up lost in the film called Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. it’s got a great cast and the story albeit more chic-flick is very good, and for an hour or so it took my mind off the soaring temperature outside.

There’ll be more to come, so keep coming back for details about Christine’s silver stalker, the pizza sucking lady and my impending marriage to Maria the orange peril of Casoli.

Ciao x