bits and pieces

Not sure what it is about me but yet again at Tullamarine airport I was checked for explosives before being allowed to leave the country!   I had a conversation about this with the man yielding the magic wand and he reassured me that all such searches were done on a random basis!!!  Do I believe that? Is there a quota..1 female, 1 older female, 1 child, 3 men etc… or do they chose the least likely…which begs the question…AM I a “least likely”?!)….Hmmm.

Food…. At the table the day before yesterday after I stared at the offering and asked…what is it..meaning what animal did it come from I was asked if I liked Italian food…to which I replied yes except for Pizza.  It was then that I recalled last year’s “Basta pasta” (enough pasta already) and since that was my first meal in Italy and we’d already had 2 courses  of pasta, I may well end up repeating that mantra!

I always lose weight in Italy..part of the reason being that I don’t like the way they make bread here, so there’s no temptation to fill up on sandwiches etc. Today  with no milk in the apartment for my muesli and all shops closed until 0830 except for  cafés and the bread shops, I bought a nice looking bread roll for brekky…however…..If I keep buying fresh air, I’ll definitely be losing more weight!

I have added Sunday to the days when I should try to avoid driving long distances with a tight time line.  Yet again I spent rather a lot of time crawling along at a very slow pace…it’s no wonder European cars have a switch off when idling feature, although initially last year I did find it very disconcerting when it dies…got used to it now.

Sadly this language school in Feltre is about to close its doors..this is the last year of its existence although it’s sister school in Treviso is going great guns. Interesting that the features which attracted me to it…close to the mountains, non-tourist area  etc are the very things that has caused it’s downfall.  It was the first language school in Veneto but now there are 50 others to compete with and all much closer to or indeed situated in well know tourist cities.

The bike and bits have arrived unscathed and I've had 2 rides...the first epic was sadly erased from my Garmin...another lesson finally learned...dont try to download to a partly charged portable device...the power drain deletes all data from the Garmin.

Jet lag..minimal, although I have yet to wake up at a sensible hour. I’m in the same apartment as last year which is great, although getting my car through the very narrow tunnel is once again a challenge, even with the wing mirrors folded in..  This year’s model of Renault Megane has got those alarms to tell you when you are close to anything and the  tunnel sends them into a frenzy..left and right ..beep beep beep beeeeeeeeep.

Weather..so far perfect.  26-30 degrees…..