July

Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker

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Bruno, Chief of Police – everyone wants him around

Earlier this year, we watched a television program about the Dordogne region in France. A few days later I walked into a secondhand bookstore in Bern, and, for some reason, the spine of this book caught my attention. I was completely shocked to read the word Dordogne on the front cover, so I bought it, thinking it must be a sign.

Bruno, Chief of Police by former journalist Martin Walker, from 2008, is the first in the Bruno series, which currently stands at nine. Definitely in the same vein as Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano books, Benoît Courrèges, or Bruno, is the suave but unpretentious 40-something policeman in rural St Denis, where everyone knows everyone (and their business).

As a former soldier, he prefers his new quiet life, cooking with local produce (there are many references to the delights from the Perigord region), pottering in his renovated cottage with his dog and making wine from his small vineyard. The scene is set for something ‘not quite right’ happening in this sleepy town.

When the father of the local school teacher (and grandfather of the local rugby hero) is murdered in his own home, the big guns from Paris are sent to help investigate. Bruno’s first murder case isn’t all that it seems. The twist in the storyline took me by surprise – is everyone really who they say they are?

Bruno, Chief of Police had all the right ingredients for an enjoyable holiday read (I was lying under a beach umbrella in Taormina, Sicily) – a little bit of mystery, intrigue, romance, village politics, historical references and culinary teasers. It’s very well researched and tells a part of French history I had no idea about.

Overall, I really enjoyed the various characters who contributed to this being a memorable book with a very satisfactory ending. Sometimes secrets are best kept so.

July 31: More sunshine

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Here’s last night, today and tonight in picture form.

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Italy’s behind those palms, just a few kilometers across the sea

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Taormina at night, with Mt Etna

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One of the main squares in Taormina

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Leo being a merman

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Me being silly and not wanting to open my eyes underwater

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Chilling under the umbrella

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Lovely dinner on a restaurant balcony under the full moon

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Leo getting a haircut at 11pm

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 30: Taormina

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My view for the whole day

What more can I say about today? Lots of swimming in the beautiful clear water, book reading and Relaxing. We’ve been craving quality beach time for ages – Leo more so than me, because he didn’t come to Australia last year. I’m not so happy about his sunburn though! Why do men think they’re bigger than sunscreen?!

The Internet connection is stronger today, so I uploaded the photos to yesterday’s post if you fancy having a look at a few more.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 26-29: Sicily!

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Haven’t had the internet until today! It’s been quite nice being internet-less but here’s an update of the trip so far …

Sunday: Flight was great, took photos of Mt Etna out the plane window, were met by Leo’s Dad and Bossy at the airport, picked up our Fiat 500 and drove to their house in Passopisciaro, had a fabulous lunch in a nearby village, met Leo’s Aunty Elvira and had an early night.

Leo, Bossy and Tony with our hire car :)

Leo, Bossy and Tony with our hire car 🙂

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Looking around the grounds at our lunch venue

Monday: Went to the beach at Fiumefreddo for the entire day, lazing under an umbrella on lounge chairs at a private lido (beach area) with Tony and Bossy. Had pizza in Linguaglossa village at Leo’s second cousin’s restaurant with members of Leo’s dad’s family.

Spent our first full day under an umbrella at the beach

Spent our first full day under an umbrella at the beach

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The original version of our Fiat!

Tuesday: Went to Mt Etna in the morning but didn’t go to the highest point – too expensive! Will do that next trip maybe. Cruisy afternoon driving around the region.

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Driving towards the southern viewing point

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Walking around a crater

Today: Left Tony and Bossy for Gole Alcantara, a natural ravine with a cold river, and then drove on to Taormina. Had a swim and a fantastic seafood dinner. Despite the stony beaches, it’s beautiful here!

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Cold water river

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The view from our hotel room in Taormina

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 25: Meet me in St Louis

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We’re in St Louis! Not the famous American version, but a small French town a few minutes north of Basel. Our overnight stop before the early flight to Catania tomorrow has thrown up some lovely surprises.

A free music festival! Love a good festival. We couldn’t be in Byron Bay for the current Splendour in the Grass festival, so this was a close second … except all the songs were in French. We think they must be quite popular bands because there’s a good turnout in this small village – the town slogan is ‘village of the future’. A pretty sign near the train station said it was more than 16,600km to Sydney.

It was quite cool when we left Bern today, so I threw on my denim shirt as an extra layer and it turned out to be an inspired choice for tonight, as the town square created wind tunnels in the side streets. We stopped for a beer then watched a trio who were so French. I don’t know how to explain it other than ‘so French’.

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Our first holiday beer!

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A very tasty amber

A very funky food van

A very funky food van

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An arty snap of the action

The locals had a laugh watching me lick my ice cream straight off the cone, onto my handbag and then the ground – luckily not in my shoes! Leo was laughing too much to snap evidence. I trod back to the ice cream van and the man looked at me as if to say, “What’s happened? You were just here!” I theatre-sported the whole schemozzle and he wanted to replace it for free. I did my best French-accented, “Ohhhh no, no, no, no, no” and he happily took the cash.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 24: What a crazy day!

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Funny how best laid plans can go awry … the day was definitely not what I expected.

I expected to be at work! I arrived just before 10am, but no one else was there. Door locked. No chance. So I waited for half an hour and still no one, so I thought I’d waste a bit of time in the city until midday training (I work in the office at a karate centre which also does other kinds of fitness training too).

Wandering around town was ok, because I had time to finally find a red t-shirt. It’s been on my wishlist for a while, and at 20 Francs, I’m very happy. It goes perfectly with everything I’m taking on holiday (floral pants, shorts and skirt).

So I’m adding it into the holiday list. Totally throws out the three things in each category concept, but I can live with that! No joy finding another oatmeal coloured t-shirt to replace the cowl neck one I love, which has truly seen better days.

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Finally found what I was looking for!

In front of Parliament House, there were plenty of kids and barking dogs cooling down.

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The water feature provided welcome relief on another hot day

I went back to the office just after midday, and it was still locked. So I jumped on Bruce the Töffli and came home. Almost immediately, Rene asked when we were going on holiday. I told him tomorrow and he said he wanted to mow again. What? Mow hay? But what Rene wants, Rene gets, so I mowed the extremely dry grass at the front and covered myself in dust. And after it was all done, you couldn’t see one scrap of difference! Just a film of crud covering the pool, tent, table and chairs. Crazy! I drew the line at mowing behind the main house because it would have spat dust all over Hertha and Lene, who were sitting in the shade outside.

A quick shower then jumping in the pool was a welcome relief. The Usual Suspects joined us and we enjoyed the last of the sunshine and prepared the barbecue. It was sort of our bon voyage gathering, which was lovely. Just as the steaks and racks of lamb were put on the grill, the rain came belting down, which was also lovely! Wow, was it warm.

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The calm before the storm …

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Boy enjoying the shade on a very warm afternoon

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Then the clouds started rolling in …

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Moody blues

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Remember the beautiful magenta coloured plant I bought recently (behind the lavender)? Fried!

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Beautiful rain. I can say that because we haven’t had much this summer!

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Liliane taking her mum Hertha out of the cool weather

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Leo in holiday mode!

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Fritz and Lotti

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Paul, Eve and Lene

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We’re going on a summer holiday!

After dinner, we adjourned to the pergola (small wooden shack designed to be used for group dinners) and played cards. It’s now 11pm and it’s time for bed!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 23: Getting excited … and new hair!

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Rode Bruce the Töffli to the hairdresser and I have new (helmet!) hair! Not exactly what I was hoping for, but it’s ok. There’s a bit of a language barrier problem, as she speaks a lot of Bern-Deutsch, so I occasionally nod like an idiot, completely lost.

Like today. I thought she was using two different shades of blonde as streaks, but she only used the lightest shade. So I have very streaky hair now – platinum blonde with my natural ash blonde. Here’s to the Sicilian sun melding it all together a bit better.

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Shorter and blonder and wavier

Leo said “You can’t use that photo – you look about 50 years older than normal” so I figured I should use this photo. It’s funny posting photos of myself, as I can only imagine what people who don’t know me think when they see the pictures. “Doesn’t smile much”, “Big teeth”, “Look at that zit!”, “Rudolph”, “Boring” come to mind. Funny how we always think strange things (c’mon, I know it’s not just me!) but it’s human nature, don’t you think?!

I think I explained my hair-washing experiment quite well to the hairdresser, but could tell she wasn’t impressed, so my hair has been washed and primped with hairdressing products to be ‘clean’. What really made me laugh was the stickiness of the curling cream she used, to make the waviness a bit more exaggerated, is very close to how my hair was feeling using the Dr Bronner liquid soap! Touche!

Tonight we finished season two of Broadchurch, a BBC series about a murder investigation in a small coastal town. We enjoyed season one, the start of season two was heavy going and a bit too much melodrama, but the ending was very satisfying. I gave myself a pedicure and manicure while watching and now my hands are also primped (or should that be pimped?!) for the holiday. I’m getting ex-CI–TED. Not looking forward to the plane, though, I just do. not. like. being in small flying sardine tins.

Today, thanks to the paris-to-go.com website, I did some further reading about the pH balance (I almost wrote pHD) of our hair and scalp. Ariana linked to Sonya’s website, which had some very interesting articles about making your own shampoo, like rye flour or coconut milk and aloe vera (which are balanced for our pH 4.5-5.0 skin), after the author ruined her hair using baking soda. I also tried baking soda and worked out very quickly (quicker than using Dr Bronner!) that it was not going to work on my hair. I found Sonya’s experiments very interesting, and nice to see some scientific analysis of the whole shebang.

Happy reading if you fancy … and wishing you a wonderful day!

July 22: Glory-ious Days

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This afternoon, I raced home from work on Bruce in order to miss a big thunderstorm – didn’t take any photos of it approaching, but snapped a few shots after it had passed.

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Sunset on the Alps, taken from the front yard

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The brown, brown grass of home

It’s raining again now, 10.30pm, and boy do we need it. (That cool breeze will also make sleep easier tonight!)

Yesterday afternoon, after I wrote the post about what I’ve packed for our holiday, I met Claudia at the Marzili (public pool area) and finally snapped a few decent shots of the Aare – what bedlam it is on a hot day! This was Tuesday afternoon around 2pm (admittedly it is summer holidays).

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The steady stream of people walking back to the camping place to jump into the river again

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One of several places at the Marzili where you get out of the water. The rubber boats have to go down further to a dock area

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Have a paddle or a swim

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People put their clothes etc in waterproof bags, which also provide some buoyancy as you float or swim along

I’d like to buy a waterproof phone case so I can make a little film of the journey. Won’t be swimming for a while though, as all this rain will make the water murky and dangerous.

And last but not least in this photo-fest, proof that Dr Bronner’s liquid soap is not good as a shampoo for me. I’m getting my haircut tomorrow, and I think I’ll just let her wash out the weeks of … ??? whatever it is – soap scum? – and start again in Sicily, maybe with a bar of Savon de Marseille?

My friend SJ likes the home-made shampoo soap bars she can buy in her town. Do you use a soap bar for your hair too? Any suggestions? Because there’s got to be something better than this below! Maybe I should try the Ariana-method, from Paris-to-Go, and just use water combined with a good scalp massage?

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My greasy-feeling but clean head of hair

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 21: What I’m taking to Sicily

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In the vein of Project333, I’ve decided to take three of the main things each on this holiday to Sicily. This isn’t the normal approach for Project333, but the founder, Courtney Carver, says you can bend the rules to suit whenever you want, so I’m altering them a little for this two-week trip.

We leave on Saturday, staying the night in Basel so we can be at the airport in time for our early flight on Sunday morning. I love packing, so everything’s prepared already!

Leo came home yesterday with a new carry-on suitcase for me, which was a lovely gesture. At 2.75 kilos, it’s probably heavier than something I would have chosen for myself, but I’m sure I’m going to love it.

Originally, I’d planned to take a 22-litre backpack, but it would have been a bit snug, and maybe, just maybe, I might buy something new while I’m there 🙂 (Update: I bought three small bars of soap. That’s it! And if you’d like to see what I packed for a five-day trip to London, click here.)

So, here we go!

I’m really sorry about the quality of the dress-up photos. The only mirror we have is attached to the back of a door which faces directly towards the window, so the light from behind makes everything dark.

For my toiletries and make-up, I’ll be taking something very similar to this previous post for our walk in May. Instead of the small liquid foundation, I’ll pack a compact face powder and some tinted sunscreen.

I know I have too much (I could get away with one dress I’m sure), but there’s still plenty of space in the suitcase, so much so that I’m taking that third pair of shoes! I never normally travel with heels, as they make me taller than Leo. Choosing the best shoes can be a real pain. Luckily mine are lightweight and hopefully fashionable enough for the Sicilian nightlife.

I won’t be the smartest dressed there, but hopefully what I’ve packed will be suitable. Comfort and practicality always take precedence over fashion for me!

Wonder if I’ll take anything out or add anything in between now and Saturday. Can you see anything missing?

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 20: A truly grand design

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Photo credit: houzz.com. The London Water Tour converted on Grand Designs' 100th episode

Photo credit: houzz.com.
The London Water Tour converted on Grand Designs’ 100th episode

Tonight, I had the pleasure of watching the 100th episode of a television series I’ve enjoyed over many years, Grand Designs.

The host, Kevin McCloud, has a lovely manner and a way with words. Sometimes he doesn’t mince them either, as he scrutinizes potential ideas and plans for lavish homes/properties. Here’s a funny Guardian article about why people love Kevin (but do we really know him?) and an overview of the 100th episode.

The Kennington water tower conversion, completed in eight months in 2012, was an incredible undertaking. About a year after this London property was finished, it went up for sale. (That link has quite a few photos or you can google ‘grand designs 100th episode’ and click on images.) Here is the blurb about the build from the architects. And here’s another extensive photo gallery from a magazine spread.

Would you like to live in a vertical tower with incredible views? I think it would be fine for a year, with that amazing outlook making up for any inconveniences.

The owners did say living there was sometimes a hassle – especially forgetting something below when you’re up top and having eight double flights of stairs to deal with. But wow, what a view! You’d be fitfor15in15 fit in no time.

I wonder how much it eventually sold for?

Wishing you a wonderful day.