Italy and other stuff

People on trains can be so funny sometimes - I swear, people-watching is far more entertaining than TV. One evening a couple of weeks ago, there was a young lady in her early twenties on the phone to her best friend. She was talking normally, which meant of course, that the entire carriage could hear her. Not because she was loud - she wasn't - but neither was she quiet, and since no one ever talks to anyone else on the train, it was very audible.

But the amusing part of this conversation was her description of some person at some event. "He looked like Jack Nicholson."
"...?" replied best friend.
"Jack Nicholson. As in, like, the Cuckoo's Nest. Or the Shining. "
"...!"
"You know, that film we watched on Saturday night. The psycho."
"...?"
"No, the psycho. The one that broke the door down and said 'Here's...' "
"...?"
"Sigh. Yes, that's right, the creepy old geezer who needs to learn to act. You really need to get out more."
And so on. It made me smile and think that, on those days when feeling a bit tired, or a bit senile, or a bit stupid, I shall remember that conversation and be grateful that at least I wasn't born stupid.

The Australian GP was a bit moo. Both Mercedes drivers got taken out. At least I could bitch about that with outraged indignation. On the up side, Vitaly Petrov coming in third was so sweet - he announced that he was going to sleep with his trophy.

In Malaysia, the Mercedes drivers made mistakes, the car was pants and the strategy useless - all self-inflicted, so I'm sulking. Also, getting very bored with Vettel winning all the time. Last year I was really pleased for him. This year so far, meh. OTOH, it was a very good race, with lots of overtaking and aggressive driving. Well pleased that JB (Jensen Button) came in ahead of the Ferraris and Lewis (Lewis Hamilton). Also well pleased that Flippy (Felipe Massa) came in ahead of Teflonso.

I had my annual review with the boss at work. Now have halo and am very happy.

We were sent some promotional jelly beans at work, and a large box landed on my desk. You know Harry Potter's Bertie Bott's every flavour beans? Well these were just like those, except without the branding. I delved into the box without pause or hesitation and popped a jelly bean in my mouth. It was a little soapy and I had some difficulty working out what flavour it was. It was then I looked at the box and discovered that I chewing a baby wipe flavoured jelly bean. The next was coconut, then berry, then toothpaste, which were rather nice and civilised. However, the rotten egg and vomit flavours were really rather unpleasant. I finished on a chocolate pudding flavour and couldn't quite bring myslef to try centipede flavour. Somebody on the next table had the misfortune of getting a canned dog food flavour and couldn't get rid of the taste all afternoon.

With all the girls having very full diaries, we're doing Friday nights at TGIs instead of the full-on weekends at the moment, so we spent a very civilised Friday night the week before last drinking vast quantities of wine. The usual suspects were in attendance along with a surprise visit from the Aberdeen Rocket-girl, who it was wonderful see again after far too long.

Last Saturday Mel was passing through and stopped to visit for lunch. She was well, enjoying Surrey and looking forward to her wedding in the Autumn.

Sunday was Mother's Day and I went to visit the parentals for food (this time!), wine and dominoes. Much hilarity was had as it became apparent that brains were not entirely in residence when it came to playing Mexican Train.

And now, the part that some of you have been waiting for - Italy. I flew out to Bologna Wednesday and flew back Thursday, so it really was a whistle-stop tour. It's a one hour drive to Gatwick for me, but I left two hours to get there in to account for rush hour traffic and getting from the car park to the north terminal for 8.30am. I arrived at 8.25am.

Five out of six of us met up, the sixth was eventually located on the other side of customs and immigration having a fry-up. We joined him, before heading off for our Easyjet flight. I like Easyjet. Mostly because they always do better than the low expectations I go in with. And the legroom. The EJ flights I have been on actually have room for legs. Most charters in my experience, don't.

We stayed in a hotel in Gualtieri, and were visiting people in nearby Guastalla in the Po Valley (Motor Valley) - which really appealed to me as the Valley is home to Ferrari, Ducati, and Lamborghini, among others. The countryside was just stunning, quite French in someways with the vineyards, plus many asparagus farms, but the prevalence of Roman style architecture and a very laid back feel, distinguishes Italy as very different to its neighbours.


We had dinner at a very traditional restaurant with freshly made pasta, expensive real 'Parmesan' cheese, otherwise known as Parmigiano-Reggiano, and a refreshingly light and tasty real Lambrusco - which is nothing like the fizzy pop that carries the Lambrusco label in the supermarket. Half of the pasta was ravioli, and I had four pillows. Now, four pillows of your common tinned ravioli wouldn't feed a gnat. Four pillows of the traditional ravioli was a meal in its own right.
At the other end of the culinary scale, we had ham and cheese toasties on the return flight. Except that the cheese was on the outside - who does that?! Actually, the return flight was very nearly missed, because of protracted gossiping and two accidents on the motorway. We ran through the checks and straight onto the plane just before they shut the door.

On my return I was straight into press week and Friday I was shattered. It took all weekend to recover, but it was a totally fab trip - one of the best.