tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913893837145671282024-03-07T07:47:39.880-08:00The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in ItalyThe Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.comBlogger160125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-66762196702356263302016-02-10T08:15:00.000-08:002016-02-10T08:15:08.989-08:00Adieu, Mon Doux Rivage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It is time for us to part. Hence, this heartbreaking title. Which is an aria written by the largely-not-remembered composer Meyerbeer, who once moaned about Chopin. In a very catty way.<br />
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It is also the title of one of my short stories, hopefully in a new book coming out at some point in time. A stolen title, that suits the story very well. Hopefully it works.<br />
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But now it is time for me to move away from this neglected blog and move to a proper author website, details of which I will post here very soon. In the hope that you might wish to read a little further, not so much of Marilyn or even my own antics in Italy, but more about writing and the creative effort. And gardening and shoe sales and philosophy and hiking and all of the rude things that pin us to this life...<br />
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Thank you for reading this far, and apologies if I have hopped off the blogging bus for so long. It was a great ride. I've made genuine friends of some of you - with some of you (you know your names) turning up in Venice for long rowdy wandering staggering train-missing days. Which were great. Talking with writers helps so much. Talking with readers helps so much. Thinking for a second longer about the things surrounding us - are they connected? are we responsible? what must we do? - has always been at the centre of this blog, as much as indulgent wailing about favourite books and lovers and holidays. I think a good time has been had. My foray into 'intelligent' erotica and Italian divorcehood was a lot of fun.<br />
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But now it's time to get serious. Ahh yes. This writer is on a new mission now.<br />
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And of Marilyn? Our Divorced Lady Living in Italy? I can only tell you that I see her sometimes when she breezes in from Rome or Milan, with or without her lover Arnaud. She speaks the language now - with a Roman twang that can't be helped- and has grown Monica Bellucci-beautiful.<br />
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I wouldn't worry about Marilyn being marooned here, or helpless, or in decline. She has truly found herself. As I hope you all do.The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-59688414728147551892015-08-20T05:41:00.000-07:002015-08-20T05:41:38.946-07:00Hopping About<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This summer has been the wildest one so far. I never knew I could move around so much without going slightly mad. Time zones. Seasons. Languages. Wardrobes. Prior to the great Sydney expedition I took part in the second edition of the London Short Story Festival, four days saturated with short story wonders. I did a workshop with Ben Okri, and heard several of my favourite short story writers read including the original May-Lan Tan (<a href="http://www.cbeditions.com/tan.html">Things to Make and Break</a>, CB Editions - buy a copy and you won't lend it to anyone!), Canadian D.W. Wilson and the award-winning Kevin Barry. More about the festival delights on my <a href="http://peltandotherstories.blogspot.com/">Pelt</a> blog this week. If you have a penchant for short stories as I have, you'll understand.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXy6kBDZ_pyme9-DBEA0uiMjqwxYP93yOjVmeHN4qWADN4S01cyii-Uk0BX6xeU7z82xq52uoVHkkPt1cPSqhdYhwDKt-LR_xUExSH6YaYXsSujTYybUIykU5IHlQ-XB1SKCsrJH2qVrHD/s1600/FullSizeRender%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXy6kBDZ_pyme9-DBEA0uiMjqwxYP93yOjVmeHN4qWADN4S01cyii-Uk0BX6xeU7z82xq52uoVHkkPt1cPSqhdYhwDKt-LR_xUExSH6YaYXsSujTYybUIykU5IHlQ-XB1SKCsrJH2qVrHD/s200/FullSizeRender%25283%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a>Then of course I spent nearly month in Sydney, mouth open, marvelling. At the beauty, at the rush of the city, at the harbour and her classic icons that fail to look jaded to this ex-Sydneysider. Gosh I will miss those days!<br />
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Another plane. Another airport. (I'm starting to feel like Nicole Kidman!) Abu Dhabi-Venice. Followed by an all-important wax before my impending beach holiday. A taste of heatwave northern Italy before boarding a plane the next morning for London, for the Bloomsbury launch of <a href="http://www.thesiren.co.uk/product/fugue-vol-ii/">Fugue Vol. II, The Siren Press</a>, and a reading from my kinky contribution 'Three Days in Hong Kong'. I can't believe I wasn't keeling over from jet lag and here I'll share a traveller's secret: melatonin. Take it if you have cross time zones!<br />
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A great evening and I was quite emotional at the idea this was my first book launch in Bloomsbury, at a swish place, with my pointy shoes and quiet voice and many other writers to admire and chat with. The Siren Press publisher Lucy Carroll has brought together a dark, quirky lot. Again, a full introduction to this volume is on my Pelt blog.<br />
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Of course to keep things simmering I had a second reading at Soho's Society Club. This time from my story 'The Book of Bruises', generously introduced by <a href="http://structomagazine.co.uk/">Structo</a> editor, Euan Monaghan, an evening that involved fabulous cocktails and captivating readings. I was truly happy to be there! More coverage of that on my Pelt blog next week.<br />
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After surviving these two sessions I flew back to Venice for the grand finale, a week hiking and swimming and eating and dancing on a hippie island in Greece. This writer didn't want that week to end. Ever.<br />
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I hope your summer (or winter) moments were just a marvellous!<br />
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Now back to peddling stories which isn't so bad after all..<br />
<br />The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-82076265830999218472015-07-06T00:55:00.002-07:002015-07-06T01:22:05.125-07:00Homecoming Queen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's been a long while. Unspeakably long. And while I have been catching cheap flights to London pretending to be a writer and swanning up and down the Dolomites in a corduroy skirt, my home city has been growing more and more balmy and glamorous. And glamour is the word that comes to mind when you catch the old bus you used to catch from university to the city. Glamour is the word that forms when you wander around the wintry water's edge watching a freezing Chinese bride on a photo shoot, while on your way to Marina Abramovic's warehouse installation on the revitalised wooden pier.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> An unexpected collective energy experience</td></tr>
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All of Sydney seems to be about breathing life into old colonial buildings and primping palms along the waterfront. I haven't really wandered around much, but it feels so vivid and bustling and well-nourished and a little dizzying. A friend has already said she's heard Sydney is like a blonde with big tits, but she likes to add a <i>clever</i> blonde with big tits. Her words, not mine!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A chilly day at the ladies' rock pool at Coogee</td></tr>
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And then there's the light that has an unhewn, vivid quality, and the sky such a limitless raw blue palette. And have I forgotten the vehement southern trees - all spiky and blue-green? And the cawing birds screeching across the skies? And the water, the intoxicating water of the bay down there, with its clanking moored sailing boats and those glassy villas clutched around every inlet. Such a busy colossal city with its traffic of birds and overhead jets in descent and river ferries cutting the water!<br />
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You can tell I've been perving at this city non-stop.<br />
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I confess that in all these years I have only written a few stories set in Australia, even though I spent twenty years growing up here. And an age reading and returning to Australian authors, who so often explore the themes of exile and displacement that are dear to me. Take Patrick White, Nobel Prize winner in 1973, whose opus I read almost entirely in my twenties, whose challenging Voss I read a few years back to see how it would play upon my older sentiments. And Christina Stead, whose For Love Alone probably set me off on my journey in the first place. Then there is Shirley Hazzard whose The Transit of Venus I must reread, and Elizabeth Harrower, only just discovered last year, who in The Watch Tower also captured the breezy salty pulse of this harbour.<br />
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As I sit here you should hear the birds! Wild things my countrymen will never tame. Last time I remember my mother mentioned a murder that took place in the garage of a building site on the point, and that tale became the Pushcart-nominated story Magaly Park. And this time I have walked more than once past this garage and through the park and around the sandstone point, entering the hyper-reality of the story world I made up; a really strange sensation. I half-expected my two characters - ex-swimming champion Grant and his teasing virgin girlfriend Tai to come slouching along the path. We writers are such scavengers: beware of what you tell us.<br />
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Alas! I have just over two more weeks of birdsong and ferries and the smell of eucalypts.The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-19311437009043139852015-03-06T00:59:00.001-08:002015-03-12T11:05:49.724-07:00A Winter Love AffairAnyone who knows me knows where my heart now lies in winter. Yes, there has been a slight displacement. I used to spend winter drooling over boots in shop windows and waiting for prices to come crashing down. I always used to find a good and solid reason to invest in just another pair of shoes. I mean, I<i> needed</i> them, I couldn't leave them. I was <i>certain</i> I didn't have a pair like this.<br />
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A dozen years have slipped by in this country. Children have been raised. Pets have been born and buried. Homework has been chewed by dogs (I'm serious: try telling superstar Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'go that the dog has chewed the copy of <b>The Devil on the Cross</b> that your son wants him to sign). Walls have been painted a half dozen colours; pipes have burst, cars have broken down and been driven into the ground (in fact, you raised your kids on Jimi Hendrix and Chopin on the tangenziale di Mestre). Cherries have been eaten and roses pruned and - last week! - the house finally has a heating system that works so that means nearly fifteen degrees in the kitchen!!<br />
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A long, good haul.<br />
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I'm not trying to be difficult or precious by saying I never wanted to live in Italy. When I was a young student with an Italian boyfriend living in snooty Paris, I couldn't help looking at Italy as a Fellini set, with all characters striving to look like Dolce e Gabbana models. The gesticulation drove me nuts. I mean, just <i>say</i> it! Without waving your hands! Without looking to see if everyone is checking you out. Stop talking over people and <i>listen<i></i></i>!<br />
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But one subsides, I guess; one becomes less hard-edged. One accepts. One - gulp! - probably even begins to behave like that.<br />
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The thing is that while there is a lot of social conformity in this country, there are great differences in region and terrain, which translates to mentality and attitude. In twelve years I have learnt to decipher a little of this, and in doing so I feel as though I have invented <i>my<i></i></i> Italy. An Italy that is far from clichéd (wine, pasta, monuments), and brings out the best in this France-loving Sydneysider ex-West African dweller.<br />
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Any idea what is coming next? You guessed it: the <b>Dolomites</b>. <br />
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Winter has become <b>The Ski Season<b></b></b>. It's when we abandon all ties to city life and friends and go barmy for snow, watching the weather, waiting for fresh snow, seeing if we can afford a new pair of skis, hanging out with a fantastic mountain crew. And while global warming will continue to shorten the season, as long as it's on, count me in. There is something so gutsy, so non-cerebral, so mind-blowing about falling in love with sunset or sunrise on a mountain summit, with a sweaty trek up to the slopes and a freezing ride in the chairlift, with filling your lungs with that giddy oxygen. While I can't really write about city life in Italy, I find the mountains inspiring, shocking, laden with tales to be told.<br />
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So I'm signing off. Now you know where to find me on these last winter weekends. Doing telemark curves on my favourite slope. Reading on the couch in an exhausted stupor. Drinking <i>grappa al carrugo<i></i></i> in some bar. Or just watching snow floating down out the window.<br />
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In fact, until April, this author has snow for brains.The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-1830256590002623892015-02-06T03:39:00.002-08:002015-02-07T08:03:14.239-08:00How Fragile We Are<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgro9R9HNZu-nRK_R7yUTHP9lQNyk3JVPy7suWEZ-m8AoiycNNCtrfi4eVMls8bJeKNA7YcugiUPQeYY_C4GFjVEitfFSu70oh0HJe0ZJBVhh4wnVrmdqaLjoQRpn_QUQfuuwXBwnA-nAq/s1600/paris+14_bubbles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgro9R9HNZu-nRK_R7yUTHP9lQNyk3JVPy7suWEZ-m8AoiycNNCtrfi4eVMls8bJeKNA7YcugiUPQeYY_C4GFjVEitfFSu70oh0HJe0ZJBVhh4wnVrmdqaLjoQRpn_QUQfuuwXBwnA-nAq/s320/paris+14_bubbles.jpg" /></a></div>I was going to write a sombre-toned post-Charlie-Hebdo blog post about this winter's work mission to fashion week in Paris. You know, grey rooftops and the Eiffel Tower glittering in spite of all that horror. A jitteriness in the air that we may well have been imagining, jittery ourselves. And this contrasted with the wild and rewarding disco night we enjoyed, crowned with countless glasses of champagne. For Paris - she has lived revolution, siege and warfare - is licking her wounds.<br />
<br />
But no. I came home from the tragic city to a small-scale family emergency. A child of mine in an ambulance. Everything thankfully resolved hours later in a local hospital. Then a day of follow-up in the wards of the massive hospital in town. Hours of standing, waiting, wishing for food, praying no one would jump the queue, finishing my book and nagging said child, as one does. A long day through which it all came home, how fragile we are. How we think we are steering our destinies but, in the grand arc of our lives, we are not. How we can try so hard to be healthy, to keep our dear ones healthy - and fail. <br />
<br />
Like most of us I view hospitals as locations of dread. Awful nights of agony or the agony of a loved one - which you wish you could bear yourself. Mostly, these are relatively minor things which provide stonking stories afterwards: the time that guy crashed into your son and he was carried down the slopes on a stretcher; the time you put on snow chains halfway up the pass coming back from Agordo with your daughter's cracked arm in plaster and sling. But then there are the traumatic moments of fear, tests.. trying to read the doctor's face. The waiting. The knowledge that apart from childbirth or routine checkups, you are never going to be here for an innocent reason. It will always be because something it's wrong or if it isn't now, it will be one day.<br />
<br />
Australian Tim Winton grew up <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/09/tim-winton-by-the-time-i-was-five-i-knew-hospital-was-trouble">'In the Shadow of the Hospital'</a> and wrote this stirring piece for Granta. 'No wonder so many great novels have been set in hospitals.. Hospitals make rich fictional settings because from the inside they are such chillingly plausible worlds themselves. They have their own surreal logic, their own absurd governance, their own uncanny weather, and the impotence and boredom they induce is hard to match anywhere by prison or the military.' <br />
<br />
Once I finish reading my book I spend numerous hours looking at everybody around. There's a real cast of characters. Old creaky folk on stretchers, a pregnant African lady I can see is in pain, a labourer with blood running down under his cap, listless babies wrapped in scarves. Everyone is exposed, at some extremity of emotion. As Tim Winton says: '..in the lee of the hospital social camouflage slips away.. Where else do people bear their narratives so openly? Body language is heightened, almost balletic..'<br />
<br />
Eight hours later when we go outside to the car park it is dark and colder. My son can walk now. We are both starving and glad of our release into the real world. But is it the real world? Or just a reprieve? Still more people pour over the bridge to the main entrance, an endless stream. Hard faces, each of them; fast paces, big coats. Nobody wanders into a hospital.<br />
<br />
That night I remember dancing half-drunk in Paris just days ago, and the long drive home through France and up into the mountains, rain thrashing the windscreen, trucks passing outside the Psycho Hotel where myself and my colleagues hardly slept a wink. <br />
<br />
I am grateful.The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-56564317940397133022015-01-12T13:05:00.002-08:002015-01-12T13:23:19.080-08:00Heritage and HipstersThis weekend, in a rather masochistic mood, I decided to clean out. I mean, The Big Clean, the one I promised myself I would attempt over the summer. These are the things that slip behind while what we call 'life' goes on, right? <br />
<br />
You may not know this but in my house I have many wooden trunks. I used to collect them. You may also not know that I moved around quite a lot in the early years (I was even going to say 'self-defining years', but when does one ever finish defining Self; we are all works-in-progress). So, in these many wooden trunks I have been stashing letters, photographs, kids' drawings, unwanted jewellery, beads, more photographs, beady-eyed sculptures, torn diaries, for years and years. <br />
<br />
I need a drink before I can open them. <br />
<br />
As I began I remembered something that a friend once wrote to me - in a handwritten letter!- that stuck. She spoke about the moment that she was putting out the rubbish and she looked back to the lights of her house, where her family (since split up, re-partnered, split up) had just finished dinner. She said that in that moment, she saw her life, and she realised she was content.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigFgNRjBDBAy0sVqSToHU7cW-VYzu9-FXP1g76eQOYYcFxuVmaNI3sZswg1_xeDdASLTTqXTlMR847oH9-Vj_3EbWkJL9nt8vC5ba7r9tBjv08TWdKx1nYue3bSM12-OrIcbdsLuizEex3/s1600/georgia_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigFgNRjBDBAy0sVqSToHU7cW-VYzu9-FXP1g76eQOYYcFxuVmaNI3sZswg1_xeDdASLTTqXTlMR847oH9-Vj_3EbWkJL9nt8vC5ba7r9tBjv08TWdKx1nYue3bSM12-OrIcbdsLuizEex3/s320/georgia_web.jpg" /></a></div>This thought crystallised as I started to open envelope after envelope of images. Just-born babies, kids in trucks, first-day-at-school shots, art shots, nudes, road trip reports, ceremonies, a friend who told me he would kill himself, (and did); more breastfeeding shots, a new baby, a tableful of family, bedraggled kids on a beach, sandcastles, my hero Youssou N'Dour..<br />
<br />
And then, at the bottom of the trunk, face down, I saw love. Oh geez. That knocked me for six. You remember it. You wanted it so hard, you fought for it so hard.<br />
<br />
And you lost, by the way.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_kR2_fgte8S_0GZx54PUZgVb5_aQtZ2vfZU7jbZS3cQdgwWFh24Nha1B8WEkJClqRfJ0VRGKSBFKtFmVHppR1p3uypB8IWDtEXVeYzbzyZNOSZZEiDmv_m25XIDYhj-CkJyBMg71-rcO/s1600/those+weren't+de+days+accra+99_cropped_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_kR2_fgte8S_0GZx54PUZgVb5_aQtZ2vfZU7jbZS3cQdgwWFh24Nha1B8WEkJClqRfJ0VRGKSBFKtFmVHppR1p3uypB8IWDtEXVeYzbzyZNOSZZEiDmv_m25XIDYhj-CkJyBMg71-rcO/s320/those+weren't+de+days+accra+99_cropped_web.jpg" /></a></div>Initially your kids are such unknowing and generous beings, prepared to love you unconditionally as you do them, but if they knew. If they knew how messy it all was then, all the high drama, would they have traded you in or begged to be adopted out?<br />
<br />
I wonder. And yet, looking at these innumerable photos, you see moments where it worked, where there was harmony, deep and fundamental harmony or snatches of it.<br />
<br />
Years ago, when my kids were young and we had come to live in this house, I used to go outside in the dark with a cup of tea and look up at the bedroom lights glowing. Even then I knew I was holding onto it, that these moments were vast and finite. Now, most of my kids have moved out to study and I rather enjoy walking up to the main road with the rubbish, along the unsealed drive between the vineyard and the green winter wheat, with the dark villa on the rise looking like Arnold Böcklin's Island of the Dead. It isn't a long walk, but it's enough to allow a few thoughts to wriggle loose. On the way down the hill - always - I see the house lit up, less than in years passed, and I think Yes, this is happening now, this is what it is.<br />
<br />
Not a bad thought.<br />
<br />
* <br />
In other wild and alluring news from the ranch I spotted a pair of hipsters at my local country supermarket. I began a sneaky pursuit. Were they real hipsters who had moved here to grow cherries? Were they on a visit to some confounded farmer - a family relative? I followed the girl's blue hair and the guy's cropped beard and tattooed neck and rolled-up jeans until they cottoned on to my crooked trolley full of dog food.<br />
<br />
It remains a mystery.The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-50760628440067862492015-01-02T06:01:00.000-08:002015-01-02T06:01:13.720-08:00The Divorced Author's Guide to New Year's Resolutions1. Don't bother about saying you are giving up coffee. You never will.<br />
2. Don't bother dressing up for work.<br />
3. When in doubt about your current project, go for a drive listening to Rachmaninov. You will realise the smallness of your concerns.<br />
4. Try and food shop for your offspring<br />
5. Do not buy another Moleskin for your writing notes. It will join the fifteen empty ones in your drawer.<br />
6. When depressed, try cleaning the house. Remember it makes you feel useful.<br />
7. When doubly depressed, swim a hundred laps and watch Law & Order eating a huge spinach omelette. You will feel strong and righteous.<br />
8. Decide what you're going to do about the mouse in the attic.<br />
9. Who cares about the story order in your new unpublished story collection?<br />
10. DO NOT talk to non-writers about the order of the stories in your new collection.<br />
11. DO NOT ask your adult son to read new short stories with embarrassing sex scenes.<br />
12. Accept that impoverished writers do not require countless pairs of gorgeous leather boots and Dolce e Gabbana stilettos. Yet.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzOH86lkqmUOYA9UATZZE1mj4NZE-HhNC9cNs1YR8aRm9p_tW-2vnw93S9ciUMCr2YEdbJu2rVVmxFVib38Mm-wJEfefpZLxdQTSHq3JD5kv3X5qN-LBF7RDIbEUcDJ4gDHmBAAubZZhx/s1600/fifty+shades+of+red_heels6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzOH86lkqmUOYA9UATZZE1mj4NZE-HhNC9cNs1YR8aRm9p_tW-2vnw93S9ciUMCr2YEdbJu2rVVmxFVib38Mm-wJEfefpZLxdQTSHq3JD5kv3X5qN-LBF7RDIbEUcDJ4gDHmBAAubZZhx/s320/fifty+shades+of+red_heels6.jpg" /></a></div>13. Fill the damned fridge!<br />
14. Don't bark at your offspring when they hungrily ask for an Italian lunch. At 4pm.<br />
15. Stop screaming at hunters in the fields just because they are killing doddery pheasants and you think they are cruel beings. Remember they might take a potshot at the wild foreign woman dressed like a Sherpa.<br />
16. Get off Facebook. Try and understand Twitter.<br />
17. Don't eat ALL the Pierre Marcolini chocolates in three days.<br />
18. Try and remember one good joke.<br />
19. Blog regularly, eat regularly, sleep regularly.<br />
20. Feed the cats.<br />
<br />
Good luck and a marvellous 2015 to all you divorced authors and more balanced people as well!The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-90591981811240788752014-11-05T08:46:00.001-08:002014-11-05T08:46:10.822-08:00The End of Love: What if Anais Nin and Henry Miller had Skyped?<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">I had a thought. Young Diva Daughter (who doesn’t
read this) spends much time with her Beloved on Skype. They are bewitched.
Captivated. If not Skyping, they are furiously typing on whatsapp. Everything is short and furious and oh-so-immediate. No chafing at
the postbox and ripping open envelopes with foreign stamps. No scribbled-on
sheets of paper to clutch to the heart.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It makes me think of love letters. I mean <i>Love Letters</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Did you ever write reams and scrolls and reams to
your Beloved? Hell yeah. (And I didn’t pick up any of them online either.) Ahh,
it’s going to sound very old-fashioned to say this, but Weren't Those The Days…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I honestly remember twenty-page intercontinental letters (the girl
was verbose; and I couldn’t blog!) and I’m talking about twice a week. I
remember notes scribbled after making love, when another Beloved had fallen asleep. The first thing he would read when he got up to go to work! Written with – yes! – a biro on paper. Bits of poems copied out
(not copied and pasted). Queasy declarations in bad French or Italian. Collages
of dumb photos.. metro tickets.. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But mostly words words <i>words</i>. Written words where you had to get a flow going and edit
yourself as you flew along (no auto-correct or spell-check or any form of
self-editing). These words were raw and full of flight, they were scrawled high
or crinkled in the corner, cramped along the sides of the page.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Do you remember? Do you remember word love?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX78MIZTOyFvy7qsQQWNG1c7io4zlA3LzJCuBxlTYMIZ2mKiF6O4KmMRqhiSYsW5q3P0mxcu-wunZI6xlXcptXpv8pNh1S_arP6ZR3rnYbGLGOATaLyou8BbUCiaT93GoRKXOYaXMpWhVp/s1600/miller-nin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX78MIZTOyFvy7qsQQWNG1c7io4zlA3LzJCuBxlTYMIZ2mKiF6O4KmMRqhiSYsW5q3P0mxcu-wunZI6xlXcptXpv8pNh1S_arP6ZR3rnYbGLGOATaLyou8BbUCiaT93GoRKXOYaXMpWhVp/s1600/miller-nin.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And now imagine this. Some of last century’s great
lovers (or the most show-offy ones, probably) have just spent an amorous
afternoon together. The man – the sexy/sleazy Henry Miller – rushes home to his
poor digs and he logs on, and here is Henry looking worse for wear filling up Anais’
screen with his crooked bookshelves on the wall behind. Would we ever have been handed down
words such as these to savour if Nin and Miller <i>had skyped</i>??<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Don’t expect me
to be sane any more. Don’t let’s be sensible. It was a marriage at Louveciennes
– you can’t dispute it. I came away with pieces of you sticking to me; I am
walking about, swimming, in an ocean of blood, your Andalusian blood, distilled
and poisonous… You became a woman with me. I was almost terrified by it. You
are not just thirty years old – you are a thousand years old… I read the paper
about suicides and murders and I understand it all thoroughly. I feel
murderous, suicidal. I feel somehow that it is a disgrace to do nothing, to
just bide one’s time, to take it philosophically, to be sensible..<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Quelle fever!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now do yourself – and the Beloved – a favour. Get
out your pen. Find some beautiful paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And write a Love
Letter</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-35859083794150263082014-09-28T00:54:00.000-07:002014-09-28T01:12:29.866-07:00Women and RageThere is a lot of sh** in the air lately. I mean that seriously. The farmers in our area are fertilising vacant and weedy fields before ploughing and sowing their winter crop. Up and down the poplar-lined roads you smell the cowshit they spray over these fields. Close all windows please. Do not inhale.<br />
<br />
You know, the problem with smartphones and the whole system of texting and whatsapping that has been become our staple, is this: we just can't shut up. Screen diarrhoea, I would say. There is always a text to send, or one to reply to, add to, copy to another friend. When your loved ones are far away, it's wonderful to send or receive a warm thought, isn't it? But when it comes to the big emotions - Love, Anger, Sadness, Throbbing Good News - don't you think that texting is the most unreliable way to convey important stuff?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wsyPjCrZ7yD2KJFcBvsucDXlGvpc-J6V2cOyvGCixDfM_UyCFH65VzrjXoiRSZOPdvHb8Y0E6kpXpZ7LMTyU0cMfIuVjTcOMxCuga_t1Dmgy9msHMnZLaw-zcrBfPrCdN9FXsR0zIDfC/s1600/A+good+woman_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wsyPjCrZ7yD2KJFcBvsucDXlGvpc-J6V2cOyvGCixDfM_UyCFH65VzrjXoiRSZOPdvHb8Y0E6kpXpZ7LMTyU0cMfIuVjTcOMxCuga_t1Dmgy9msHMnZLaw-zcrBfPrCdN9FXsR0zIDfC/s320/A+good+woman_web.jpg" /></a></div>
Let's take Anger. Now. Anger is best delivered in the heat of the moment, face to face, hopefully without plates thrown. No? And then once the angry party expels his or her sentiments, the other party responds/justifies/or just yells back. Doors might be slammed. There could be some rash declarations. If all goes well there might be a cooling off period and perhaps - in time - an apology and renewed understanding.<br />
<br />
Agreed? Now let's think about what happens when the angry party uses a smartphone message to convey his or her sentiments. What might have been yelled in the heat of the moment is now recorded within a little machine (I realise that sounds a little Fred Flintstone), before it flies out to another little machine, and it texted out further like a virus to the insulted party's friends.<br />
<br />
It exists forever, just about.<br />
<br />
Over the past few weeks (yes finally I am getting to my point) I have had a couple of seriously angry text messages out of the blue from a couple of seriously angry ladies. At first you think: oh gawd, hormones! (Truly, you could have knocked me down with a feather.) How nasty! How silly! How petty! <i>What Was She Thinking?</i> The thing is, you realise that people who vent their anger in this way usually have other darker issues they can't address, and you end up feeling sorry for their plight. And worst of all, unlike words cast into the air whose edge will fade, these words are able to be reread, shown to others, even laughed at. Out of context, anger becomes pitiable, and an angry faceless message must be the pinnacle of weakness. (Cheeky grin: story material!!!)<br />
<br />
Sigh. Get nastiness out of your life. Please. Bad energy is not a trifling thing and it will send colonies all through your body and your life. Ladies, by all means express your anger, spit it out on the plate.<br />
<br />
But don't be silly enough to write it down. Or if you do, send it to a trusted friend who squeezes your hand and makes you cancel it!The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-82973094990322078902014-09-19T13:50:00.001-07:002014-09-19T16:03:02.639-07:00Love Song with Cello<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FPmgGLvGL0nIjSLd77ncXaiDnGO5JtE9VhE91IoGPIjHZCfLrFsiAIQ_3viOQdprVFPxP-1eNH9Q6PVV3ZgxtTwOLtRy8r2qryPBpstKTayhjOj1QocbLpVtPYFu_R-YxzeNWvoRuhPQ/s1600/marais+girl.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FPmgGLvGL0nIjSLd77ncXaiDnGO5JtE9VhE91IoGPIjHZCfLrFsiAIQ_3viOQdprVFPxP-1eNH9Q6PVV3ZgxtTwOLtRy8r2qryPBpstKTayhjOj1QocbLpVtPYFu_R-YxzeNWvoRuhPQ/s1600/marais+girl.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Faces in places: Marais girl, Paris</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I caught a plane home the other day. Just a short, cheap flight. Which means a long wait and a long, unruly queue. As I stuffed and restuffed and pounded and squeezed my bag closed, I realised that my book (Alison MacLeod's 'Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction' which will give you a jolt and a buzz) was deep in the bottomless depths and I would just have to sit down and people-watch. Which I did. <br />
<br />
But departures are never as dramatic as the great, stirring fanfare of lovers reunited, or families made whole; young children clinging to fathers or women wrapped in lovers' arms with shaky smitten smiles. The departure lounge is different. Emotions are low-key. People are tired and anxious to be at home. There will always be a chatty Italian who will soon have a crowd of listeners with flying hands. Or kids sticking their heads under tired Dad's T-shirt; African grandmothers who wished they hadn't even come. Or the Hell's Angel guy staring at you. Or the ancient twins from Greece with Nefertiti eyeliner. Or the young things baring just about all as though the airport were an extension of yet another beach party at the ratty end of summer..<br />
<br />
I call myself a writer. Many of us do. And as writers supposedly we look for stories everywhere. We see an interesting face and imagine an entire life.We imagine love stories and stories of loss and gain and hope and voyage. (Do we? Hmmm. Well, I must be the laziest writer about because I rarely do this. I mean, I am looking and borrowing - even stealing - but goodness knows where my stories come from!) And then just when I had spent several hours deciding that the whole of Europe (including myself) was hooked on phone screens and iPads and there was not an interesting face or couple or family among them, what do I see?<br />
<br />
I saw the most touching scene I think I have seen in ages, maybe years.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbRvSuszPKSWOD06aExkQo7T9YVTOv4V1FFy3LcvpKoqWXshvsBgdPq12KIkOrWrph_DNRN8YLUnPCds6li0EHQmZgTaetk-tjbnRiZ06B3PVJBiW_EV-AfO_oHr3iT7cEuGEfgVgHcjR5/s1600/paris+july+13+074.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbRvSuszPKSWOD06aExkQo7T9YVTOv4V1FFy3LcvpKoqWXshvsBgdPq12KIkOrWrph_DNRN8YLUnPCds6li0EHQmZgTaetk-tjbnRiZ06B3PVJBiW_EV-AfO_oHr3iT7cEuGEfgVgHcjR5/s1600/paris+july+13+074.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sweet chords and rabbits</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Two wheelchairs. Two old folk. One cello in a case. They are taken to the head of the queue by two young men with ID tags who chat above them, these guys are wearing twin navy sweaters.<br />
<br />
The old lady's face is gentle. Her lips are full and she has a wide round face and eyes that are deep brown and placed wide apart on her head. She has rings on her fingers that dig into the flesh. A cello rests against her legs and it is clear this shape is a part of her life, her body, her sound, her dreams. It is the oldest part of her. She is still strong, she bears a flashing life force, she has shared this with others; she is generous, when she is alone she is never alone.<br />
<br />
Next to her is the man I imagine is her partner, the man she has loved for decades. Perhaps he stood tall once, without the kink in his neck that makes his head droop low, makes his eyelids seem half-open, makes him seem beaten, overcome. He is a large stable man, though he looks around like a small boy; he has an expression of vacant happiness. His eyes are small and rubbed with emotion. <br />
<br />
There are two things that I notice. Two things that I take home with me on that cheap flight.<br />
<br />
1) The old man's hair has been cropped recently. There is an unwavering line of hair above his ear. He has a pretty good head of hair and somebody has made sure that line was straight. <br />
<br />
2) The old lady leans across her hand which is thick with rings and she grasps his yellowy, finer fingers within hers. He doesn't look at her, he is a bit doddery. But still this lady looks across at him with so much smooth and binding love that I am warmed and astounded.<br />
<br />
Travel safe. The voyage is neverending.<br />
<br />
* * * *<br />
My short story 'Enfolded' is a shortlisted finalist in the Love on the Road Short Story Competition and will appear in next year's anthology, coming out with feisty independent Malinki Press of Dublin.<br />
<br />
<br />The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-65034763481835922342014-08-29T13:57:00.000-07:002014-08-29T13:57:50.875-07:00I don't wanna go home<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
It happens every time I go away. Not just away like for work even if it is in a cool place. It's not that. It happens each time I go on my annual camping trip to Corsica. You see, once I get into the rhythm of it, <i>I really don't want to go home</i>. I want to stay on there in my shorts and bikini with my bag of books and my beer bottle. I don't care about writing about work about the house, about school about the rest of my summer plans I just don't care.<br />
<br />
It's not even an easy thing to explain. I mean, the place is nothing really that special. There are other more glamorous islands in the Mediterranean, and we stay in an <i>extremely</i> non-sophisticated camping ground which can be crowded and noisy. Plus it's a long haul across Italy, on the car ferry then across the top of Corsica. So what is it then?<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT56kA9ZwRsDJbSbrEfrJ139NunzIsXXGWvsUnSMpBqTKyiExbu0s-ljUwjr7qgV8SCGU3O6-J0u4HIPgH_I8ggpmW35jQVtg9ul71mWe-bSCAgcM9nHXYpaAXttzAZom6XTLCCb4f8nDd/s1600/corsica14+030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT56kA9ZwRsDJbSbrEfrJ139NunzIsXXGWvsUnSMpBqTKyiExbu0s-ljUwjr7qgV8SCGU3O6-J0u4HIPgH_I8ggpmW35jQVtg9ul71mWe-bSCAgcM9nHXYpaAXttzAZom6XTLCCb4f8nDd/s1600/corsica14+030.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a>Could it be the early morning swims out to the last buoy when the small beach is empty?<br />
<br />
Could it be making a strong coffee after said swim on your camp stove?<br />
<br />
Could it be wearing the same thing every day, feeling so sandy and salty in your bare feet?<br />
<br />
Or drinking local chestnut beer in the wooden shed bar on the beach?<br />
<br />
Or wandering along the rocky coast and finding a spot your umbrella, having a few nude dips?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgYj7iFvmam3j1ixfBlXALIz9taVyVA4gzsBlA2adP4X8M1KL6Jfa1CohB05oGbrtPTzsG9IGwyoBdZAYOIKv688wOZ6Fp_nHG4E-XHClvpKmtF3mSA0ntAGrUp2wuDLpDq83QEOtskhJh/s1600/corsica14+072.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgYj7iFvmam3j1ixfBlXALIz9taVyVA4gzsBlA2adP4X8M1KL6Jfa1CohB05oGbrtPTzsG9IGwyoBdZAYOIKv688wOZ6Fp_nHG4E-XHClvpKmtF3mSA0ntAGrUp2wuDLpDq83QEOtskhJh/s1600/corsica14+072.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
Could it reading for hours each afternoon, book after blessed book, salty swim after salty swim?<br />
<br />
Could it be the endless pebbles and crashing waves of Nonza beach? <br />
<br />
Could it the computer-ipad-screenlessness of your days?<br />
<br />
Could it be the smells of summer as you hike through villages inland?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_Hpvde6PXj0Ylt0M_clAU9Iw98qUOb_ok-0aXLJytQxMBi0qset7jLh_LGEODCap-tDnd1D2-LZIRpG08pZ0xIfWuVulpfLkuDfbtoBBrzt52pSr9nPI7E9oJKomuuHaEd2qhnCrEJYz/s1600/corsica14+089.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_Hpvde6PXj0Ylt0M_clAU9Iw98qUOb_ok-0aXLJytQxMBi0qset7jLh_LGEODCap-tDnd1D2-LZIRpG08pZ0xIfWuVulpfLkuDfbtoBBrzt52pSr9nPI7E9oJKomuuHaEd2qhnCrEJYz/s1600/corsica14+089.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></div>
<br />
Could it be drinking Pastis in bars along the coast?<br />
<br />
Could it be the sultry, star-fringed nights and not knowing what day it was?<br />
<br />
<br />
I dunno, I'm clueless. What do you think? <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* * * * * <br />
<br />
Now back on the ranch I received an intriguing Twitter feed email inviting me to follow Pope (Papa) Francesco. It seems that Papa Francesco has a gazillion followers but how many people does the Pope follow? How many would <i>you</i> say?<br />
<br />
Well, it's just 8.<br />
<br />
Doesn't that make you crawl in your seat wondering who those eight people might be? His cousin in Argentina? Obama? Shirley Bassey? Who??The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-48609518168586053342014-07-12T09:53:00.000-07:002014-07-12T09:53:34.369-07:00The Best Things in Life<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5AnvHtsMBHNbAwh-B65wv5FH5TSH5VeIMw_q1x0CA0l2z3MjDfY16RQfxjrfqIwBzAvdMYdu33sJP5Bs6SF-t3rTxGtlGbUI19_4gROa3XJkY1XGgq5u_xfrSmuQJFm7YLyitJQ5QNvll/s1600/paris_jul14whosnext+046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5AnvHtsMBHNbAwh-B65wv5FH5TSH5VeIMw_q1x0CA0l2z3MjDfY16RQfxjrfqIwBzAvdMYdu33sJP5Bs6SF-t3rTxGtlGbUI19_4gROa3XJkY1XGgq5u_xfrSmuQJFm7YLyitJQ5QNvll/s1600/paris_jul14whosnext+046.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spot the cat!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After a van breakdown on the perilous A4, a twelve-hour driving stretch including burrowing under the scary Mont Blanc tunnel and charging through central France, your bed-and-breakfast falling through, a night-time unloading of an entire summer collection and staggering about with boxes/racks/hats, the discovery that your hotel is like a tiny pre-fab caravan and the downstairs McDonalds - you are too tired to take <i>one step further</i> - closes its doors in your face and you go to bed foodless...well... that's when you tend to look at the good things around you.<br />
<br />
YOU ARE IN PARIS, something that excites you every time.<br />
There is free champagne for exhibitors for four days.<br />
There is a great Turkish thing going on outside on the main strip.<br />
You get to wear great clothes and shoes for four days.<br />
You eat wonderful food after work and tear across central Paris in a taxi yawning after midnight.<br />
<br />
Bliss. Even that rainy walk to work every morning. Such a change from story submissions and revisions and disappointments piling up. And trying to keep the wisteria in check which is more fruitful than your imagination.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngraUjqC_ioji5YPwGi6voMOfkOt8OaPlZF6aH2aKmur_JgXtAEPGiW0jCjClPwcnvPzxS0QfaSSoUy_n9SeMvtZcJRLKoZjgrfSiQp2r-uuuKWZ3jo52B1i3DKf5kOvVuaLrzXm34gqW/s1600/paris_jul14whosnext+026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngraUjqC_ioji5YPwGi6voMOfkOt8OaPlZF6aH2aKmur_JgXtAEPGiW0jCjClPwcnvPzxS0QfaSSoUy_n9SeMvtZcJRLKoZjgrfSiQp2r-uuuKWZ3jo52B1i3DKf5kOvVuaLrzXm34gqW/s1600/paris_jul14whosnext+026.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue Mosque - polaroid-style</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
You all know I work at fashion week in Paris twice a year and it is a blast. Not that I see a single clothes shop or museum or view of the Seine or trendy nightclub... We go to bed like tired chickens each night, fighting off the alarm and dragging ourselves to the shower. Matchsticks keeping apart eyelids at breakfast.<br />
<br />
<i>What do I wear today??</i><br />
I don't care! Wear anything!<br />
<i>Whose idea was it to drink five glasses of champagne?? </i><br />
Yours!<br />
<i>Yours! </i><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm7wjK4Pys5Kg7pFIjwaCAqCTDXPf0Ja2-LuI5MuOV7bY002nJdBuMfMOhrFSqwJUp-DJQ7mgczba3zt9frdO0vtBlTElYlnm-2u0xT-QuWCEnEbnPgmQAANiIYFktyosLzeHhXsNXPald/s1600/paris_jul14whosnext+011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm7wjK4Pys5Kg7pFIjwaCAqCTDXPf0Ja2-LuI5MuOV7bY002nJdBuMfMOhrFSqwJUp-DJQ7mgczba3zt9frdO0vtBlTElYlnm-2u0xT-QuWCEnEbnPgmQAANiIYFktyosLzeHhXsNXPald/s1600/paris_jul14whosnext+011.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turkish tea bags</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWbFJOfrhO8Edm2Xf3UxYljRZJ77YZi_6nbGszptFjVVncfuxSur1p69eJsTHHnbw-fthgWL3rGSgBiit2bZ83k7bSp8LCeRDNq1NVwWNsm-99nwrAKRFpUdZSHSTNJfUHBY4RfBJX1Jdr/s1600/paris_jul14whosnext+030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWbFJOfrhO8Edm2Xf3UxYljRZJ77YZi_6nbGszptFjVVncfuxSur1p69eJsTHHnbw-fthgWL3rGSgBiit2bZ83k7bSp8LCeRDNq1NVwWNsm-99nwrAKRFpUdZSHSTNJfUHBY4RfBJX1Jdr/s1600/paris_jul14whosnext+030.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bubble Card!!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And the next day in between taking orders you are back again, an addict queueing up, sticking out your pink bubble card, listening to conversations behind and in front of you, watching an old French perv chat up a sweet young thing with glorious eyes, watching the super-tanned gay guy selling ripped dresses in his Ray Bans and bandana, watching the Indians eating food from home and the Japanese in sharp clusters, watching the giraffe-like models glide about in flowing gowns leaving men and women gobsmacked in their wake.<br />
<br />
<i>Fashion</i>, baby. I'll take six glasses..The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-45496618362125738182014-06-17T01:34:00.001-07:002014-06-17T01:34:22.959-07:00The Constant Gardener<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqb1Hy1AMiWgBD3RDGyrdE_dNF0fQm5V9_y4PILwgqeEe67HTWJrSFbWYZoO9S-4rhIlaR84n1GXtMhHK7izjDYoZhS0XbyutyeLQTs3A28fcs4FFN8oFw5-WJKP7n52W8q8RvgN6Dp4Ll/s1600/summer+14+017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqb1Hy1AMiWgBD3RDGyrdE_dNF0fQm5V9_y4PILwgqeEe67HTWJrSFbWYZoO9S-4rhIlaR84n1GXtMhHK7izjDYoZhS0XbyutyeLQTs3A28fcs4FFN8oFw5-WJKP7n52W8q8RvgN6Dp4Ll/s1600/summer+14+017.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Photos : Mariarosaria Valente</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">There are two constants in the summertime here.
Shoe sales and gardening. Now that might appear to make for a very brainless
summer but let me inform you that this writer is heading off to two short story
conferences this summer - with barely an inch of time to work on her tan or
check out the shoe sales. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Just joking. Tanning is the last thing that
happens in my life. By chance it might occur when I am mowing in a big hat and
my bikini. Or on the famous Corsican camping holiday when I swim out to the
buoys at 8am.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the meantime there is gardening, drinks
under the willow and walnut trees, summer parties, pruning roses, reading in
the hammock, good friends and concerts. To tell the truth I have just ordered
<b>The Constant Gardener</b>, having seen Fernando Meirelles’ brilliant film several
times (one of my favourites) without having read the book. Summer is a huge
endless part of the year in Italy. After months of fog and heating problems and
beanies and frozen hands, the temperature is in the high aching twenties and
the sky is still haze-free and the sun is blazing. I was at the market
yesterday looking at my cheap clothes stand and the ladies were saying, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But this would look good with a tan, Oh but
think of this once I get my tan!</i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Of course for an Australian with pre-skin
cancers being cut out of her back and shoulders on a regular basis, I’ll be
buying long-sleeved floaty kaftan tops thanks very much. Or my beloved heels..</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">On Sunday I was driving along the Riviera
Brenta which is where the Venetians built lovely airy Palladian villas to escape
the stifling heat of the lagoon. They used to retire there for the summer
surrounded by sumptuous gardens with roses and labyrinths and secret paths and
the cool breezes after summer storms over the surrounding fields. The villas
are startling, one beauty after another, topped with writhing naked sculptures
in stone. Of course the son I was picking up had done an all-nighter at one of
these. I entered to find Signor and Signora of the manor working a floor shiner
on the terrazzo floor, and a bunch of bleary-eyed boys about to roll out the Persian
mats. The garden swept down to the river where on the next bend was the
massive palace – Villa Pisani – built for the Venetian Doge Alvise Pisani
elected in 1735, once owned by Napoleon I, and used by Benito Mussolini and Adolf
Hitler in 1934 for their first uncomfortable meeting (supposedly Adolf
raved on and on about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mein Kampf</i>,
Benito whose German was crap grew bored. Gawd, if someone had taken them both
to the bottom of the river that day…) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">All too much history for this weary mother on a
Sunday morning. On the way home I spotted another site I know I’m coming back
to scout. It was the <b>Fratelli Rossi Space</b>. You’ve got me – the best heels
there are to be had.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And here are some more shots taken by an
enthusiastic friend around this humble pile and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jardin</i>..
No treaties signed here. Perhaps a plate thrown in my old pre-divorcée days…</span></div>
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<br />
Get out your ladder girl, and get some Cherry Belly.<br />
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Nature is really <i>stupendissima</i>. We are given these gifts every spring, year after year, despite doing not a thing. No pesticides, no pruning. And they stand so helplessly bare all winter, bereft. The fog is so thick here that you can just make out the one furthest from the house in a blur of cotton wool. Then, come March, you have blossoms. Beautiful white blossoms shimmering in the air. And in May, in time for your spring appetite, these red treasures. <br />
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Living in the country is hard work - yes! Try getting teens to push a lawnmower or help prune the pines. Or clear the side fence of grapevines scooting every which way. But isn't it good for a child to see a tree grow, to know the journey of a tiny piece of fruit? I remember an American teacher of friend of mine taught horticulture to rich American kids sejouring in Florence. She asked them, Where does lettuce come from? They looked at her blankly. <i>They did not know. </i><br />
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Ahh I love my cherry trees. I've become such a cherry snob I look at cherries at the fruit stand and wrinkle my nose. Bah! Old wares! Give me something I can sink my teeth into and swivel around in my mouth. Let me choose between the top branches with dark burgundy fruit, or the lower ones with red rich cherries - still a little tart but give them a few days... Then let's do jam for breakfast, jam for cherry summer flans, cherry vodka, cherry grappa for when next winter rolls around.<br />
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Does anyone else have a cherry fixation?<br />
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<br />
In other local news two different men on bicycles tried to pick up this jogging writer who was actually THINKING UP HER NEW STORY LINE AS SHE JOGGED. How could they not see I was still 'working'? Why oh why did I throw on a pair of shorty-shorts instead of my baggy cut-offs that were in the wash?<br />
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<i>Salve Signorina, You have a good pace going there. You know you are fast.</i><br />
<i>Yes the supermarket is about to close.</i><br />
<i>Will you be here again tomorrow night? I live just by here.</i><br />
<i>Yes. With my three sons !</i><br />
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Next time I will be jogging in a tent.The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-52394286507497664782014-05-19T10:32:00.001-07:002014-05-19T10:32:37.167-07:00Lemon Loving in Italy<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
have a weakness for lemons. Perhaps it is because we never had a lemon tree,
but used to pinch them from the neighbour's tree. While I adore lemons in pots
and look after mine like children (wrapped in scarves in the old chicken shed
through winter), lemon trees in the ground send me into ecstasy. Imagine my
daily thrill when I recently went to southern Italy, south of Sorrento in fact,
and walked through lemon orchards to the sea, saw them bobbing over every
fence, fraying delicately in every garden. Bliss for moi.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
took the night train down from Verona, cruised through Rome at dawn, and
arrived in boisterous Naples mid-morning. Not my first time. As a young au pair
I was dragged off by a rich Milanese family to their holiday home on
Stromboli.. just as the story goes in <a href="http://peltandotherstories.blogspot.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Peltand Other Stories</b></a>. Before catching the ferry I slept in the station with my cropped hair
and knapsack: the NZ guy next to me had his wallet sliced out of his jeans. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsl30LffwrOJEJ2033-oG40E7rQZOk4-qYQm7osnrbr4EaWKoiahlsze_uRxGsn61aMAqCbJEjtc_-26QMl3j_WAlQT3ALorjI3lTVEStuNJHqd-HenIaSJz73ds68q-Fo6MraNxK6wQz/s1600/sorrento+029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsl30LffwrOJEJ2033-oG40E7rQZOk4-qYQm7osnrbr4EaWKoiahlsze_uRxGsn61aMAqCbJEjtc_-26QMl3j_WAlQT3ALorjI3lTVEStuNJHqd-HenIaSJz73ds68q-Fo6MraNxK6wQz/s1600/sorrento+029.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
last month I was heading out of Naples towards Sorrento, then up to a village
high above the coastline with the swish island of Capri plonked in front. Seafood
was enjoyed, everybody’s favourite bitter green <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cima di rapa</i> was devoured, the coffee was divine, much wine was
thrown back and the company was very, very good. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Funny,
it seemed that everything we ate or were offered was to be washed down with the
local drop <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">limoncello</i>, which you may
or may not have tried. Imagine a smooth lemon juice going down like a sweet
sunkissed syrup. It perks you up quick smart. I can’t believe I gave my bottles
away and will face the hot summer without them! It seemed there was a lemony
idea for every moment of the day: fresh
lemon juice for breakfast, tangy lemon biscuits; and lemon drizzled over your squid, your octopus
and your grilled fish thanks. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And of course <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">limoncello</i> at any
hour... </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Every
morning skeins of cloud would fade away to reveal Capri on her silver platter of
sea. Most of the time I was dumbfounded. I confess I didn’t manage to go there,
preferring a lazy day on the beach and not so keen to mingle with the tourists.
Lots of big pebbles and a long walk. It
wasn’t even warm, but this Australian decided to have her first
Mediterranean swim of the season. Picture this skinny writer in a borrowed
costume working up her strokes out to the moored boats – and half-dying of
hypothermia afterwards. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Limoncello</i>
required. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonJZ95yZ-Pv7aHpQD6eu8ZRmfsO8RTtJf2oZSfzxBRkuNIqiL4lpowjODarcotNfmxwZXHCIbASuAC9Q7PjK5uv5h57eui3Eo_w47Zudk4ZcITTFYCsPYAVm5IBR5_QFFVgBxowJ9BHxc/s1600/sorrento+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonJZ95yZ-Pv7aHpQD6eu8ZRmfsO8RTtJf2oZSfzxBRkuNIqiL4lpowjODarcotNfmxwZXHCIbASuAC9Q7PjK5uv5h57eui3Eo_w47Zudk4ZcITTFYCsPYAVm5IBR5_QFFVgBxowJ9BHxc/s1600/sorrento+001.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I wanna go back!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
also savoured Sorrento from her most marvellous vantage point. The bar on the
jetty under the cliff. Far away from the tourist throng. Close to the lapping
of the water. Seafood to die for. An afternoon I didn’t want to end. I would
do almost anything to be back there..</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Lastly, for all you lemon-lovers out there,
this is from Pablo Neruda's A Lemon. It is sublime.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">So, while the hand</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">holds the cut of the lemon,</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">half a world</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">on a trencher,</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">the gold of the universe</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">wells </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">to your touch:</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">a cup yellow</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">with miracles,</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">a breast and a nipple</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">perfuming the earth;</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">a flashing made fruitage,</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">the diminutive fire of a planet.</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-80015292354541727192014-05-13T10:45:00.002-07:002014-05-13T10:45:50.090-07:00Am I Real Enough?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">After an involuntarily blog hiatus caused by internet inexistence, computer downfall, travel escape and cherry-picking, I am back with you. It has been a long long break. But still every so often a reader crops up or writes to say they have enjoyed reading DLC and I am thrilled to the back teeth, to my back bone and to the very weedy end of my back yard. In the meantime I have escaped to Sorrento and London and will do the appropriate rambling in due course. Other blog posts will follow concerning my recent experiences with Pink Floyd, Simon and Garfunkel and Rod Stewart - in cosy Mediterranean Italy! But first, a reflection about author truths and lies following an article written by cleverchops Tim Parks, fellow latino expat who takes the cake. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Tim has written a thoughtful piece called <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/may/01/stupid-questions/">'Stupid Questions'</a> in the
New York<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Review of Books that had me chuckling. The
savvy writer laments the stupid questions people ask at the end of author presentations at book festivals. Ever been to one and timidly raised your hand?</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIJP5OwhpBU6dBuvPLVHXAmjnqJwbHobUX4ldBz-2fdpp3eKFdTznFMai_rFvutvR-SRcSeynjSXIt4Kniq2b_Vnfm05PApTUzqtXRJ-TD9NcPSXwbzrVJ6XOip7BGZz-NIsXf9jxjGUK-/s1600/tim+parks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIJP5OwhpBU6dBuvPLVHXAmjnqJwbHobUX4ldBz-2fdpp3eKFdTznFMai_rFvutvR-SRcSeynjSXIt4Kniq2b_Vnfm05PApTUzqtXRJ-TD9NcPSXwbzrVJ6XOip7BGZz-NIsXf9jxjGUK-/s1600/tim+parks.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim Parks = cool writer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">He writes: <i>One arrives in a tent with a hundred-odd seats, of which half are occupied. a presenter who many or may not have really read your book offers a potted version of your life that mainly amounts to age, bibliography, and accolades. The novel you are presenting is sketched out: a few items of plot, the suggestion of some kind of theme or message. Listening to this you are overwhelmed by the enormous gap between the density and complexity, the sheer volume of what you have written and this drastic reduction...Meantime, among the audience, a small group have already read the book, so anything they hear about it is infinitely less than what they already know. Another group have never read anything you've written, so they are hardly the wiser from these few formulaic crumbs...</i> </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">It reminded me of the time I spoke about DLC in Italian the Women's Festival in Matera. The journo approached me twenty minutes before we were on, told me she hadn't read the book, suggested we speak about the <i>'stallone italiano'</i> (the Italian stud) and <i>'la crisi economica'</i> (the economic crisis) to grab the audience's attention. As it happens there <i>is</i> an Italian lover in Marilyn's story - in the form of crazy Federico, lapsed agronomist and lapsed lover of Marilyn's cheeky Australian friend Fiona. Not exactly Stud Material. And as for the economic crisis that has hit Italy so hard.. our gal Marilyn stole away her husband's credit card, found a part-time job modelling erotica and taught English! So, err, she was still able to buy her designer clothes.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">That interview was a tussle really, with me trying to be entertaining, raise a laugh out of a very serious audience, leap through language hoops, and catch the tail-end of the journo's ten-minute-long questions.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Parks has a point. Those in attendance don't really want to hear about the way you sit down in your pyjamas and ugg boots and do a deal with the devil not to check your post. They don't want to hear about how you took a trip to the moon between chapters 11 and 12, or that your goldfish died and made you think up that weird part, or you saw this cute guy in the bus, or that you were actually taken to a club where a man was led around on a dog leash. Or perhaps only smidgens of this. Yes, they do want to hear smidgens.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-tEcGL7XXvf8QULYJQ21pxaumyd2kcXxjA516QAUt75mK2KfP0e6MBFJVmJKIx6zQnYOJR6HRPaMYkdH-Xn8zIDsurmvgLOyLysJElrSvz7rSzTnPaFFqao0IhAKj6Vxk8W5LmcSGLii1/s1600/tim+parks_an_italian_education-183x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-tEcGL7XXvf8QULYJQ21pxaumyd2kcXxjA516QAUt75mK2KfP0e6MBFJVmJKIx6zQnYOJR6HRPaMYkdH-Xn8zIDsurmvgLOyLysJElrSvz7rSzTnPaFFqao0IhAKj6Vxk8W5LmcSGLii1/s1600/tim+parks_an_italian_education-183x300.jpg" /></a></div>
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">For your part you know
perfectly well that there is an absolute continuity between this book
and your life. You will talk about the book as if your were in control
of its creation, and perhaps you are to a degree, but behind and before
that is a vast hinterland of experience and events over which you had no
control. Only you could have written this particular book, not because
you are better or more imaginative than anyone else, but because you are
you.. Who could it come from but you?</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">'Do you think your move to Italy altered the way you think and write?'</span></i><br />
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">'Does your wife read your books and if so what does she think of them?'</span></i><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Parks goes nuts over the 'shots in the dark' of the audience's questions and he has a point. The gulf between creation and its intention, and the sunhats and rows of plastic chairs under a tent, must be rather disorienting, even trying. I remember seeing Ngugi wa Thion'go speak in Mantova - whose breakthrough book was written in a prison cell on loo paper! My son and I sat in hallowed silence as the great man spoke, and were almost ashamed to have him sign our dog-chewed copy. Or the time that Toni Morrison spoke there too. Before she had finished her eloquent reflections that were a joy to hear - the autograph seekers were already forming a queue up to her chair!</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Been to any cracking litfests lately? Or are you planning to this summer/winter? What would you ask the author of your favourite recent read? </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">And - go on then - what would you ask <i>this </i>crazy author about DLC??</span><br />
<br />
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"></span></i><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><i>.. They are groping for some kind of connection between the figure on the stage and the particular atmosphere of the novels they have read.. Yet even as you try and inevitably fail to answer their questions you are probably telling them more, in your perplexity and frustration, or your wryiness and charm, than you ever could have by explaining your book.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><i>* * *</i></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Tim Parks' books <i>Italian Neighbours</i> and <i>An Italian Education</i> are as close to the bone as you will get to living in contemporary Italy. </span>The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-32679855094479868922014-04-07T08:58:00.000-07:002014-04-07T10:16:42.514-07:00Please Turn Off the MusicAt the risk of sounding like an old fuddy-duddy instead of a refined ex-disco queen, I think it's time to Turn Off the Music.<br />
<br />
I mean, take today. I turn up at the pool for a quick lunchtime swim. Nothing too punishing, just forty minutes of lap time in between everything else. Are you with me? Picture Catherine in her nun's training swimmers. Yes I went to a convent high school and like everyone else did years of swimming carnivals and laps in the pool and my swimming attire has never been very hip. In fact, if Proust's first sophisticated and very chic first memory is of 'une madeleine', well, mine is of chlorine up the back of my nose. <br />
<br />
You see, it's so very different when you go to the pool in Italy. Especially for the guys. I mean, where in Sydney I've seen blokes hop out of their cars shirtless, shoeless, and lumber down to the North Sydney Pool as though they have just rolled out of bed, in Vicenza once I swear I saw a well-trained hippo in Matching Yellow Bathing Cap and Matching Yellow Teeny Swimmers - every lap completed with a self-satisfied preening as all the old ladies rocked in his wake.<br />
<br />
Let us rewind. I'm in my daggy cozzie, needing a wax (next week!) starting to pick up speed, and I see a guy in flippers, fancy goggles, very sleek cap, odious goatie and a set of freakin' ear plugs for music! Hello? And oh gawd he thinks I'm checking him out. And then - I looked over a few lanes - and there was another set of ear phones on another guy's head! Excuse me?<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7EWaNOKmuXsAd-vuOuG0f9Xu8BJwAm8ROfXr7rk3qAf7OJ4aNrC3OJbQc-GkFxKi6bZ7hpQNmTeLOxt3kwv3DhTj0r1W-pLMDspP1xhaUO1zIf6r3Y6Ki_h-HPX1Vu4bfNDeFguUPWUnk/s1600/water_lake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7EWaNOKmuXsAd-vuOuG0f9Xu8BJwAm8ROfXr7rk3qAf7OJ4aNrC3OJbQc-GkFxKi6bZ7hpQNmTeLOxt3kwv3DhTj0r1W-pLMDspP1xhaUO1zIf6r3Y6Ki_h-HPX1Vu4bfNDeFguUPWUnk/s1600/water_lake.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>Whatever happened to the sound of water thrumming past your ears, or soft splashing as you cut your hand in the water for backstroke, or listening to your own lungs emptying as your freestyle carves along? Why would you want to miss out on that?<br />
<br />
It's something I don't understand, having music broadcast directly into your brain. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE loud music when I drive (though not always, I do like to think) and I spent years under speakers ten times the size of me at concerts when I was young and less deaf, and I do love to dance and party and be surrounded even pummelled by sound. But I feel a little put-off when I see so many people (my offspring included) who are being drip-fed a soundtrack, whose lives are cool movies with not much of a plot. <br />
<br />
Whatever happened to daydreaming? Looking out of a train window at the skyline? Catching the tail of an idea unexpectedly? Or the delight of listening in on somebody's conversation?<br />
<br />
Have a look about. Isn't it astounding? People sitting on trains and buses are more remote than ever before, each on planet MusicBuzz. Or you hear a wanker yelling into his or her phone for half an hour. That's no fun. Even on the ski slopes I am amazed to see how many people are plugged into sound, with the unplugged sounds of the landscape - and the universe - ignored. How will we ever plumb our secret thoughts and notions or begin to compose our lives if we are always plugged into sound? How will the eddies of our mysterious subconscious ever spill into our thoughts as a shivering surprise?<br />
<br />
I seriously wonder if this generation - old and young alike - are stepping away from the <i>Self</i>. If we are becoming more and more of a collective instead of a society of independent lively minds. Think of how many people - young 'uns especially - who have now spent years without ever listening to the dialogue that all of us have within our many selves. Weighing up the day, uncovering our deepest thoughts. How can this happen between Track One and Track Nineteen or a little Random?<br />
<br />
Please guys. Please. Just turn off the music. Let's unplug our beautiful brains.The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-78286746708661422142014-03-28T02:08:00.000-07:002014-03-28T02:11:27.899-07:00Heel Porn<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-VszbteDEdWEAO9gm8xPS5XTEaC_trGd3hQLhwtwqaV1q2DndX_WyNIpO9yeZENdWPNmS5b9Sl9kaTbpE5AILKq2vVFK1o9iC6pP9rQkAp9PV9MMcimQQ6xPW8hE9NfGkocxX_RK-UR6/s1600/129_n_Style+1_Sparkle+red+and+rose+gold+sandal+360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-VszbteDEdWEAO9gm8xPS5XTEaC_trGd3hQLhwtwqaV1q2DndX_WyNIpO9yeZENdWPNmS5b9Sl9kaTbpE5AILKq2vVFK1o9iC6pP9rQkAp9PV9MMcimQQ6xPW8hE9NfGkocxX_RK-UR6/s1600/129_n_Style+1_Sparkle+red+and+rose+gold+sandal+360.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gianvito Rossi - electrify!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Have you fallen in love recently? </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have. They cost XXXeuro !! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I swear I’m trying my best to move on to
the next guy. I mean pair of heels. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is what I CANNOT STAND ABOUT LIVING
IN ITALY. And what’s worse is when an expert internet shopper friend (grazie
mille Susi!) joins you for an afternoon of dedicated heel browsing. I
surrender! So much more alluring than a dating site. Oh, geez, a thousand times
over.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Since when did shopping become so
sinful? At first it was just a crazy afternoon thang, or being tossed about
between sale seasons, or a guilty shopping bag under your coat when you crept
in the door after dark. And the new heels worn only after a couple of weeks so as
not to arouse suspicion. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What?
These old things? Had them for years..</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But these days internet shopping is
hardcore. It’s two steps away from porn. You should have heard the ooohhhs and
aaaahhhhs from the kitchen table the other afternoon. The photos favourited and whatsapped.
The number of times we came back to our dirty favourites. And how we pored and
pored. And pored. Left side view, from the back, oh the lovely shot from the
front dyou like these ones??</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I swear. Is this what guys do over big
boobs and wild positions?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And it truly does feel so sinful. As you
go deeper and deeper down the page it is a descent into fiery, credit-card
melting depths. To get this far you have to toss your soul out the window or
better, sell her to the shoe devil that has overtaken your mind... Jimmy Choo,
Dior, YSL, Charlotte Olympia.. Oh the shiver! And these thrills are not cheap I
tell you.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And of course the WORST thing you can do
is internet shop when there’s a bottle of vodka in the freezer. Right? When you
have a couple of hours to kill before a dinner party and the time is just-right. Don’t
go there ladies. Don’t open that bottle. Don’t get out those shot glasses.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It will hurt.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ahh but sinning feels so good, doesn’t
it? The shock of the new. The burst of the new season. The touch of new,
groomed leather against your skin.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Okay. Deep breath. A bit of yoga or
saintly mediation? Nahhh… I promise I didn’t buy a pair. <i>Yet.</i> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s, err, not as if my, um, shoe
cupboard is empty.</span></div>
The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-50051091801814314062014-03-18T13:06:00.001-07:002014-03-18T13:29:37.824-07:00The Wild Beasts of the Earth Will Adore HimI've been busy. Nooo, not writing another blockbuster, but very much entangled in words. In fact I've been going nuts with words.<br />
<br />
Ever walked into an Italian church which is just dripping with marble and angels and columns and symbols and layer upon layer of history you know you should understand? And how about being asked to <i>translate</i> a text about this from Italian to English. A text with bits in Latin, funeral inscriptions, a shift in architectural styles according to the evolution in fashion and technical prowess, and tastes of a myriad of pushy nuns at the helm of a convent complex?<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6jthyphenhyphenPUdtu5yXavv2sDkydF8lz_JxHtsADQdnwzAoZswmdysQtwtnPlfiAxvjIvssxBfxfxqkwfKl-9T4OqD3hmIfwiQEA1gaXwIVSq4tVxwIOiOO2_oyA2y6v6SLucspdnectuWF_9w/s1600/cumaean-sibyl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6jthyphenhyphenPUdtu5yXavv2sDkydF8lz_JxHtsADQdnwzAoZswmdysQtwtnPlfiAxvjIvssxBfxfxqkwfKl-9T4OqD3hmIfwiQEA1gaXwIVSq4tVxwIOiOO2_oyA2y6v6SLucspdnectuWF_9w/s1600/cumaean-sibyl.jpg" height="320" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sibyl Cumana in Raphael's Sistine Chapel</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It was deep. But I think I will remember my favourite bits for a long time. The four sibyls - Samia, Tiburtina, Frigia and Cumana. Don't you just love those names? I could have four more daughters just to use them.<br />
<br />
<i>According to legend the Sibyls were prophetesses of the ancient world, who pronounced oracles in a state of ecstasy. These prophetesses lived in remote caves and nearby springs and were sometimes described as the priestesses of Apollo, or his favourites. It is said that when Apollo asked the Sibyl Cumana to choose a gift, she asked to live as many years as the grains of sand she held in her hand. However, she failed to asked for continued youth and became a shrivelled, old woman. When children asked 'Sibyl, what do you want?' she used to answer, 'I want to die.'</i><br />
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<br />
Creepy.. Oh and I also just found out that Sibyl is a UK-based confidential Christian spirituality group for transgender people. Gosh! The endless tail-chasing that goes on once you hop online...<br />
<br />
And what about this:<br />
<br />
<i>VIVITE VICTVRE MONEO. MORS OMNIBVS INSTAT </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>LIVE, YOU WHO STILL HAVE THE FORTUNE TO LIVE. DEATH DESCENDS UPON US ALL.</i><br />
<br />
In 1550, these words were inscribed on the tombstone of Camillo Pigafetta, Knight of Jerusalem, husband of Margherita, father of 14 children. And there is an even longer inscription on that of his illustrious nephew Filippo Pigafetta, whose achievements included performing in the inaugural production of Sophocles' Oedipus in Palladio's Teatro Olimpico, circumnavigating the globe (in a bucket!), taking part in both naval and land battles from Hungary to Persia, being Pope Innocent IX's secret messenger... The list of Pigafetta's achievements nearly fills a page and makes me wonder about how soft and cerebral our lives are today. Can you imagine setting off to Jerusalem and Mount Sinai on a horse? A boat? Another horse? Delivering the Pope's scrolls up and down the continent?<br />
<br />
You know, when I translate historical stuff I always try to imagine these people, living with them for a stretch, just like you live with the characters in your novel or short story. Sometimes I swear I can see them - tinier men and women with folksy clothes and caps and greasy hair, talking crazy dialect. I even saw that Caterina used to be Chatelina. <i>Chattel? Moi?</i><br />
<br />
Then I imagine I can see the unpopulated hills about our town, the dirt roads and wagons pulling into theatrical porticos with columns and manservants in Duran Duran shirts. Everything is smaller except the massive entranceways and church facades which must have been all the more belittling. Horses plop in the street. There are bonnets. It's so tangible, the way the centuries can roll away in a small Italian town and you are standing there, amongst the underwear and ice cream shops, the unsightly McDonalds, imagining this. <br />
<br />
The ever-present past and here we are all clutching our mobile phones to our cheeks.The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-77844665480482099602014-02-18T04:33:00.000-08:002014-02-18T06:23:05.588-08:00Blog Her Award - Shoes, Stones and Triumph<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2LGMRMvJTUmOEB15ma5pxbtrtCBhNsfbxdQjrNikxkQbQVuyzfJO5xgvcbBEewXJQnV4_Xbh3FxegdASPYVASWB4mk2HpmmViSbEzZQJxRDeKmaiTomChlunwuLpgJjK3KsF-eCi5sI6j/s1600/liebster1+blog+award+from+Teresa+Stenson.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2LGMRMvJTUmOEB15ma5pxbtrtCBhNsfbxdQjrNikxkQbQVuyzfJO5xgvcbBEewXJQnV4_Xbh3FxegdASPYVASWB4mk2HpmmViSbEzZQJxRDeKmaiTomChlunwuLpgJjK3KsF-eCi5sI6j/s1600/liebster1+blog+award+from+Teresa+Stenson.png" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thanks very much, <a href="http://snowlikethought.blogspot.it/2014/02/blog-her-award.html">Rachel Fenton</a>, for
presenting me with this blog award ! Some of you will remember that I met up with Short Fiction prizewinner Rachel Fenton in Soho last November for a brilliant Wagamama lunch where we both motor-mouthed for hours. Oh and we also read our stories at the <a href="http://thedivorcedladyscompaniontoitaly.blogspot.it/2013/11/a-reading-visit-to-queens-front-yard.html">Short Fiction launch</a> at the Plymouth Book Festival. A great time was had. Thanks Rachel!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- Where do you usually write/create?</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In my music room/library downstairs
which is full of bookshelves and African sculptures and a big gilded mirror and
a black piano. It’s my favourite place and I don’t even like people coming in
here.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- Describe your ideal writing/making
day.</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I drop off my son at the bus stop at
6.30am and make a big cup of green tea and shut myself off to the world. I’ll
stay there as long as I can.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- What are you really enjoying
working on at the moment?</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m halfway through my second short
story collection and things are heating up! I love writing stories, for me it’s
a druggie thing. I need to do it. I’ve just had my first piece from the new
collection accepted by a review so I’m pushing ahead.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- What, if anything, stops you from
writing?</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">People, family, worry, work, bills to pay.
Just like everybody. Sometimes the house is a tip and I really have to wade my
way through, or the fridge has been empty for a week. Or I need to recharge and
I run away to the Dolomites for a ski or to Venice for a rainy walk.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Blogging is time-consuming but must be done. Also book promotion falls into my hands. A writer's work is never done.. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- If you could choose a writer to be
your mentor (share work with, chat about the process) who would it be? </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Gosh. George Saunders. I think he
would be a great teacher. Or Nam Le. Sarah Hall. Cate Kennedy. I’d probably be
too daunted to say a word though.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- Do you believe in writer's block?
If you get it, how do you overcome it?</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Somebody once told me a story was a
wheel or a merry-go-around and you just have to hop on at the right place. I
think this is true for me. Sometimes I have to wait to think up the right place
to begin. It can be a waiting game. But I just go away or do something else, or
work on a list of other themes for stories. Beginnings are so important.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- Tell us a good thing that happened
to you today.</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A lovely man sent me a beautiful
song.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- What's the first thing you do in
the morning?</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Like everybody, I check my email.
Then I let the dogs out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- What's your most listened to song?</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mmmm. Overall, it might be ‘By the Time
I Get to Phoenix’ but Isaac Hayes or ‘All Along the Watchtower’ by Jimi Hendrix.
Lately I’ve been listening to Patti Smith’s <i>Horses</i> in the car to empty my head. I’ve also been
listening to Haydn’s piano Sonata no. 53 because I am studying it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpwW7eYVt-lBWWY_q1587-qNeTWN04m-qzKUcgrLFZbSl91x_jKbVGrlRn6qoPqeDsETidRJP_wTxIOW6nHmJIvpw3NPqC8VCTjxDtxMbp-hv0MRE4y-Pnqk9pOLXhr5iq69dUVJpOY_9u/s1600/isabelle+huppert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpwW7eYVt-lBWWY_q1587-qNeTWN04m-qzKUcgrLFZbSl91x_jKbVGrlRn6qoPqeDsETidRJP_wTxIOW6nHmJIvpw3NPqC8VCTjxDtxMbp-hv0MRE4y-Pnqk9pOLXhr5iq69dUVJpOY_9u/s1600/isabelle+huppert.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- Who would play you in the movie of
your life? </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Isabelle Huppert. She is my queen!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- What would the title of your
autobiography be?</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I haven’t a clue. This needs some
thought.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Apparently I have to pass this on,
and the five nominees I've chosen are:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sylvia Petter - <a href="http://mercsworld.blogspot.com/">Merc's World</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://kimberlysullivan.wordpress.com/">Kimberly Sullivan</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.alisonlock.com/">Alison Lock</a> </span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jane Telford – <a href="http://www.indulgedivulge.com/">Indulge Divulge</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Downith –<a href="http://writeitdownith.wordpress.com/">Write it downith</a></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lisa Chiodo - <a href="http://www.renovatingitaly.com/">Renovating Italy</a> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yvonne - <a href="http://primerascanciones.blogspot.it/">primerascanciones</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Ingrid Christensen <a href="http://www.dreamlifeofmine.com/">dreamlifeofmine</a><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nominees - if you choose to accept
the award, here's what you need to do:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Thank the person who nominated you, and post
a link to their blog on your blog.</i></span></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or
displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do
this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog
post.)</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the
person who nominated you.( I only wrote six.)</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Provide 11 random facts about yourself. (Again, I only wrote six. I don't want to bore you!)</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less
than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since
not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once
you have written and published it, you then have to:</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated
for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they
can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)</i><br />
<br />
These are my answers to Rachel Fenton’s questions and my random facts/new questions follow
below:<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Who or what motivates you?</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Words, a deep love of words</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you weren’t doing what you do,
what would you do?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A gardener. A set designer. A
pianist.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You’re on a desert island, what
have you taken with you?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A man! A big hat and lots of sun
cream.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Describe in one sentence your work
area.</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My office is my nest, my warren, my
theatre, my angst, my (shaky) triumph.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What are the barriers to your
creativity?</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Money. Time.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What’s your definition of success?</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Good reviews. Okay sales. A lasting
connection with others of this crazy writing tribe.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAqNIMoUo-On_GnRZg0yBNP2ScH5BVQkdjBgilXCJloE4Qe5k50pXhyFNHBogCZmeRZcdlvr_PJaeO2h_g6TfGb6gOWTyRNDYyOZ4S9y74ZHVfw81Xp5tW0tC_-8pQLxui9MEMwyIGghEq/s1600/Corsican+stones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAqNIMoUo-On_GnRZg0yBNP2ScH5BVQkdjBgilXCJloE4Qe5k50pXhyFNHBogCZmeRZcdlvr_PJaeO2h_g6TfGb6gOWTyRNDYyOZ4S9y74ZHVfw81Xp5tW0tC_-8pQLxui9MEMwyIGghEq/s1600/Corsican+stones.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here are six lightweight random facts about this skinny writer. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1. I live in the middle of vineyards.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2. I once fell in love with a man because of <i>one</i> word he said. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3. I love to dance.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4. My first published story was called 'Elton John's Mother'</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">5. My shoe collection is sublime.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">6. I collect stones from Corsica. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And here are my six (slightly more serious) questions for the next set of Liebster nominees:</span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Do you think blogging helps or
hinders your writing/creative efforts?</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Do you ever regret choosing to
write?</span></i></div>
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</i><br />
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*What had been your biggest creative
triumph so far?</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Your biggest disappointment?</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Are you working hard enough?</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Who do you share you work with?</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hop to it!</span><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i></div>
The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-26385186420210170632014-02-11T04:58:00.002-08:002014-02-11T07:58:16.420-08:00When I grow up I'm gonna be a cowgirl<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXpyJN6KDqcNFBC0OoVK5Sh1tTB1p0qZc4-1493BPu79sTYcrosfQbFx3aVETNnUytnEXNg19g5EArNsmX9l0zH1JylBrEgwpf1P6dZaV8ZyI0Tu6cYKmbsbQQ5S-VsInlQr1RtZcJ2NC/s1600/Female_animal_trainer_and_leopard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXpyJN6KDqcNFBC0OoVK5Sh1tTB1p0qZc4-1493BPu79sTYcrosfQbFx3aVETNnUytnEXNg19g5EArNsmX9l0zH1JylBrEgwpf1P6dZaV8ZyI0Tu6cYKmbsbQQ5S-VsInlQr1RtZcJ2NC/s1600/Female_animal_trainer_and_leopard.jpg" height="248" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I know it's a leopard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
What did you want to be when you were an impressionable innocent young thing? A lion tamer like me? Impressionable and Wild Kingdom-lovin' young Cat decided she wanted to be nothing less than a lion tamer after going to see the Moscow Circus somewhere in central Sydney in the 70s. Why that idea flew into her head and blossomed, I'll never know. I think she watched <b>Wild Kingdom</b> too much, which if anyone remembers had an old dude talking about lions and so forth in Africa. Having lived on the continente for quite a few years and even having gone on a safari in Kenya where we saw nothing but Karen Blixen's house, I now realise that there was not a single African person in that television show. I don't remember park rangers. I don't remember villagers. Trips to collect water. Shanty towns. I don't remember Africa being portrayed as anything but a great big lion park, where I wanted to go to buddy up with lions.<br />
<br />
Anybody remember <b>Born Free</b>? Elsa and her cubs? The Adamsons in Kenya? <br />
<i>Born free, as free as the wind blows</i><br />
<i>As free as the grass grows</i><br />
<i>Born free to follow your heart..</i><br />
Later I learnt that both Joy and George were both murdered by locals in different circumstances and Elsa died of a tick bite(!)<br />
<br />
<br />
Despite my love for lions I never had a cat and instead had a crazy cocker spaniel who for some reason made me want to become a vet. This desire dwindled when the hot Australian summers aggravated poor Cindy's (yes I watched the Brady Brunch) continuous ear infections, which meant endless cleaning out of poor Cindy's floppy painful ears. End of veterinary career.<br />
<br />
And then? It becomes even more silly. After reading the entire set of Trixie Belden mysteries, over two dozen Agatha Christie books, Seven Little Australians, Charlotte's Web and various other little girl books, I decided that I, too, wanted to write. I remember I even began producing a book at twelve - it was a convict story! I think I was as interested in the drawings and cover and layout as I was in the story itself. And I do believe there was a whiff of sex suggested somewhere. The earliest blogger out there, with a <i>twist</i>.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLf1zPHkGH-prT2a6_o3bI0_C6jTs-kKXjM8lDidor9QRh2MyJ_FH_35vaMgVA79SpT60_FMP0uBFk-mzBEHRj1SO0GKr7m4u9fTZxwMyRxZozikmOnXGDpWjwcyHKOBeSaqYvYH6ssuZJ/s1600/marguerite+duras.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLf1zPHkGH-prT2a6_o3bI0_C6jTs-kKXjM8lDidor9QRh2MyJ_FH_35vaMgVA79SpT60_FMP0uBFk-mzBEHRj1SO0GKr7m4u9fTZxwMyRxZozikmOnXGDpWjwcyHKOBeSaqYvYH6ssuZJ/s1600/marguerite+duras.jpg" height="320" width="254" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marguerite Duras, L'Amant, India Song</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
During university this desire really kicked in and I remember declaring that I was going to Paris to write books. I had pored over Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Duras, Jean-Paul Sartre, a bit of Hemingway and Henry Miller and Anais Nin, and I wasn't going to miss out. <i>Sometimes I think of Paris not as a city but as a home. Enclosed,
curtained, sheltered, intimate. The sound of rain outside the window,
the spirit and the body turned towards intimacy, to friendships and
loves. One more enclosed and intimate day of friendship and love, an
alcove. Paris intimate like a room. Everything designed for intimacy.
Five to seven was the magic hour of the lovers’ rendezvous. </i>(Anais Nin, Diaries Vol 3, 1939-44)<i><br /></i><br />
<br />
I even remember my first story written in my au pair's garret, 'The Camel Hoop Earrings'. Never published. Better that way.<br />
<br />
So lion tamer or writer? I also had a stretch of studying graphic design, languages and history, and wrote freelance newspaper articles for a Sydney newspaper, but my heart was in the novel. The short story. Katherine Mansfield. Christina Stead. Patrick White. Stendhal. Tolstoy. Turgenev... Man, the girl was thinking big.<br />
<br />
I've stuck to my (much smaller) guns and - foolishly! - am still doing it. But I swear there are many days when I wish I would throw my writing aspirations out the window, along with the computer. And I think I should have been something more simpler, more remunerative, less soul-bashing. A dental nurse who leans over and smiles and has facial piercings and black dyed hair and lots of tattoos. A back-up singer with big frizzy hair who has all the moves and a gravelly voice. Why me? Why do I have to be a writer? How pretentious is that?<br />
<br />
And what of you? Have you realised your childish dreams? And what about your kids? Have you had any wild ideas appear in the house? What would you say if you child wanted to be a cowgirl? An opera singer? A ski instructor? A <i>writer</i>???<br />
<br />
<br />
* * * *<br />
It's - <i>ho-hum!</i> - Valentine's Day, I've heard. As a BIG TREAT <b>The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italy is a Kindle Countdown Deal</b> for the next few days.<br />
10-12th Feb <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D341689031&field-keywords=the+divorced+lady%27s+Companioin+to+living+in+italy">99p on Amazon.co.uk</a> & <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Divorced-Ladys-Companion-Living-Italy-ebook/dp/B008R35HPK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1392115376&sr=1-1&keywords=divorced+lady%27s+companion+to+living+in+italy">$0.99 on Amazon.com</a><br />
13-16th Feb £1.99 on Amazon.co.uk & $3.99 on Amazon.com<br />
(offer ends 8am 16th Feb GMT)<br />
<br />
<i>A gift copy for your divorced cousin/sister-in-law/BFF/mother/daughter who needs an Italian escape hatch??</i><br />
<br />The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-69355763106720708192014-02-07T13:31:00.000-08:002014-02-07T13:31:16.543-08:00How did I get here? (This is not my beautiful wife)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC_9ZUpfzOhFNS4bXcNhirkvBbDJcJl1amT6TpHQmSHt6AHIEIFniGnOWxDAKip82civTsZsg5TCdCkmth_ySQBJzi4KGXtyn6OijKoCjEP0KP07AC5o-GtfZQ35Qh4-JpHNktGxCqWBDL/s1600/GertrudeSteinby+picasso.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC_9ZUpfzOhFNS4bXcNhirkvBbDJcJl1amT6TpHQmSHt6AHIEIFniGnOWxDAKip82civTsZsg5TCdCkmth_ySQBJzi4KGXtyn6OijKoCjEP0KP07AC5o-GtfZQ35Qh4-JpHNktGxCqWBDL/s1600/GertrudeSteinby+picasso.JPG" height="320" width="261" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gertrude Stein by Pablo Picasso</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I've always been attracted to the author in exile. The 'other' or outsider. Gertrude Stein in Paris, James Joyce in Trieste, David Malouf in Italy. I've always thought that from far away, you can write closer to the essence. Your sense of place will be crystalline because it will not suffer gusts of unrefined normality, your dialogue will not be tampered with by things you overhear, your mission will be clarified and seamless from the outset.<br />
<br />
Oh, really ?<br />
<br />
Yeah. But what happens when you move country seven times in nineteen years? When each home is a part of you, and a part of you is dissolved in another culture each time. Sure, there is home. There is infancy and childhood and language and the wonderful cradle of family, but when you spend most of your adulthood in another mindset and language your grasp on your original writing material gradually slides. You realise there are disconnected decades where you don't know what was happening in your birth country - what bands were big, who was Prime Minister, which authors were must-read. You knew more about Mitterand than Paul Keating. You knew more about Siad Barre and Jerry Rawlings than John Howard. These days, you know more about Silvio Berlusconi than Tony Abbott.<br />
<br />
You've spent years adapting, learning languages, getting the twang out of your accent, being misunderstood... eventually not giving a stuff and dressing like a chic hippie anyway. You accept that you will always be an outsider. Probably that is what you felt in the first place, and are now putting it into practice, living it through and through. Year after year, getting on with it.<br />
<br />
In fact, you are so far down the exile road (I hate the word expat, makes me think of fetes and bazaars), that you don't know where to point your telescopic lens and train your exacting vision. Where is home? Where was home? What on earth do I talk about? <i>How did I get here?</i><br />
<br />
You can't write about Australia (although you set short stories there
when they come), because it feels a like you are pretending a bit.
You can't write about Somalia because the place has overturned since you were living there and it is so dreadfully far from the city you used to walk through with a friend at night. You've written stuff set in Brussels, and Berlin, because stories came into your head from there. But there's a limit to the amount of stuff you can write set in Ghana because you are no longer living there and, well, there are plenty of Ghanaian writers who can take care of that.<br />
<br />
<i>The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italy</i> was the book I wrote when I put aside another novel (set in Ghana!). I never felt equipped to write anything set in Italy, and in this book the main character is also an outsider. In <i>Pelt and Other Stories</i> I tackled much more challenging subject matter and put myself into the hearts of a diverse set of characters, hoping that I could pull it off. Gay blokes from Sydney, a pregnant Ghanaian mistress, a medical student in Brussels... I worried that strings and pulleys might have been visible sometimes, or that I had drifted into places that were over my head.<br />
<br />
It is so hard to let go, assume the role, trust your material, scatter doubts, pull through to the end of the story. I'm working on it. Sometimes I feel I will forever be borrowing sets or places, peopling them with dingbats who come into my head, but then I remember the striking words of the great writer Patrick White, who said he always felt like a magpie, snatching up glints here and there, stashing away material. A thief like me (I wish). <br />
<br />
This week I am reading Flannery O'Connor whose material is steeped with local characters and sizzling colloquial talk. Apart from pure envy at her language, characters and endings, I wish I had the right to use straight-talkin' vocab like this: <i>'See theter notice,' Enoch said in a church whisper..He's done murdered somebody, Enoch thought.. </i>(from 'The Heart of the Park, Complete Stories)<br />
<br />
But I can't. I'm not Flannery O'Connor and I don't live in the Deep South in the 1950s. I'm a chic wandering hippie with a writing fixation who is going to have to find her own way to knit together truths and words and places, who probably wanted it this way in the first place.<br />
<br />
In fact, I <i>know</i> how I got here.<br />
<br />
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Take it away David. <br />
<br />
<i>And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack</i><br />
<i>And you may find yourself in another part of the world</i><br />
<i>And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile</i><br />
<i>And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife</i><br />
<i>And you may ask yourself</i><br />
<i>Well - How did I get here?</i><br />
<br />
<i>(Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads) </i>The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-53660994829963819582014-01-30T08:36:00.000-08:002014-01-30T08:36:00.442-08:00The Paris HatThis writer wears many hats. Shoe devotee, novelist, classical pianist (who doesn't practise enough), gardener, cook, cleaner, short story writer, taxi driver, lover, mother, pet owner, swimmer, translator, English teacher... We all do, don't we? But one of my favorite hats is the Paris hat. Twice a year a fashion designer friend transports me from these soggy Veneto plains to the grey rooftops and tiled metro tunnels and exotic foods of one of my favourite cities in the world. Oh forget cranky Parisians and stiff monuments, this is buzzing mercurial Paris of colours and styles and energy fusions. All big cities have it and this country scribbler has had a giddy few days.<br />
<br />
Anyone who scans ahead may be forgiven for thinking Catherine has been living it up in Paris at a four-day long rave. That's one way of looking at it. But these shots don't really show the difficulties in dragging racks of clothing up several levels of escalators, trying to write down orders in Italian while being spoken to in French and half-thinking in English, standing in heels all day (a personal and masochistic choice), living on peanuts apart from lavish Asian meals at night, staying in French Psycho Motels along the A6, drinking horrific French coffee and driving a van over the alps (in light snow) with windscreen wipers like oversized flippers.<br />
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<br />
They do, however, indicate some of the things that happened this week. For example:<br />
<br />
Spending time with unexpected new friends (met up with some old ones too) <br />
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<br />
Being silly<br />
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<br />
<br />
Watching wild dancing from sparkling youth until there were tears in my eyes<br />
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<br />
Meeting entrancing people with weird talents (Yes this is the <a href="http://www.princessetchasketch.com/">Etch-A-Sketch Princess</a> who reminded me of Emily Dickinson in a way)<br />
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<br />
<br />
Oh and fashion, ho-hum, I didn't photograph any of that. Having had so many sneaky people sliding past trying to take surreptitious shots of Ale's clothes, I wasn't going to prowl the joint snapping people's work!<br />
<br />
And here is the golden key, btw Downith, the famous BUBBLE CARD that made the three of us glow, giggle and trip sometimes.<br />
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BUBBLE CARD = ENDLESS GLASSES OF CHAMPAGNE<br />
<br />
<br />
And now - shock! horror! - I'm back at the farm. Another hat. A big woollen beanie. It's raining miles and the heating is bung. And Paris is where she is. Noble, dirty, full of poverty and power, bright kids and snappy ladies. <i>Paris, je t'aime toujours</i>. <br />
<br />
<br />The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-21925466935879964312014-01-23T01:27:00.002-08:002014-01-23T01:27:41.936-08:00Divorce in Top Gear<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4CFeTc1nyTkQQq125WKiBiOOhJqZLGwKp-ViFR2VpzNoDr8AhMbo04ch5X6IbPzn44YvVVCIxbs08CaMai7EtHiOydao3sUOKZcKCORipyT6BUL4kjacTZB2__jDFcJ9GvvqvqbdtYvtM/s1600/starsky+and+hutch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4CFeTc1nyTkQQq125WKiBiOOhJqZLGwKp-ViFR2VpzNoDr8AhMbo04ch5X6IbPzn44YvVVCIxbs08CaMai7EtHiOydao3sUOKZcKCORipyT6BUL4kjacTZB2__jDFcJ9GvvqvqbdtYvtM/s1600/starsky+and+hutch.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How do you roll? What are your wheels
like? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Do you think cars are for guys?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Well, just because I love heels doesn’t
mean I can’t have a <i>thang</i> for cars. I was brought up that way. My Dad is a
petrolhead and we always had a dashing family car. Anybody for some Starsky and
Hutch? I thought our car was a copy of their flared 70s set of wheels. I am a
freak for the 70s and never was this gal prouder than when her cool daughter
confessed, <i>Gosh Mum you’re sooo lucky to have grown up in the seventies</i> (That was
after a full indoctrination with Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, Jimi Hendrix,
Earth Wind Fire – usually to drown them out when I was driving.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Australia we learn to drive early. I
still remember walking up the front driveway on frosty mornings in my school
tunic, to my driving instructor called Greg in an orange Datsun. We drove up
and down the suburban streets. Greg put his hand on my thigh. I was very
shy and just looked at it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I failed my first driving test when I
drove straight into a massive intersection bringing a big semi-trailer to a
screeching halt. The examiner turned white.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1z-sPG4GGWy9acrojJt8fNHd4aTLnELjuyML0aEJKR7Wj68dmTYkv0UMn03PEgxmjn7GymtOMibszQFjy07m5KOviW3UVOKXDO6upYdwYu0COAoGZBLcKovAwEEFyhoggVibRh85BQyyA/s1600/citroen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1z-sPG4GGWy9acrojJt8fNHd4aTLnELjuyML0aEJKR7Wj68dmTYkv0UMn03PEgxmjn7GymtOMibszQFjy07m5KOviW3UVOKXDO6upYdwYu0COAoGZBLcKovAwEEFyhoggVibRh85BQyyA/s1600/citroen.jpg" height="173" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">my blue citroen and a crazy property choice</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now that I’ve been driving for decades
I’ve clocked up a few miles and much
more confidence. At twenty-one I hired a car in Paris and was swept around the
Arc de Triomphe not having a clue what was going on. I drove south in the
spring and ate strawberries in fields and stopped at towns with cathedral
facades rising above the rooftops. Vézélay, Poitiers, Tours, Carcassone, Albi. I had little money and slept cramped in the
back seat – I’d drive till the late dusk then put up a towel in the window and
curl up. Is anyone else thinking I was nuts? One night a tinkering started in my
dream and it was a guy trying to break into the car. I sat up in shock and the poor
thief ran for his life!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I lost all of my photos of that trip in
Mogadishu, where we left everything. I wonder what Somali soldiers might have
thought of photos of cows and cathedrals, markets and my pale feet and shins in laced-up
espadrilles.. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmX9Mc7fBRoWA88P1ln8igWTQz0YVay1bDPCloXNCQvqTpP74xJ2Rn7UVrWPu4I66tRvJL95WN0kRnW0KYzzL3FA5Gk4eJAQ_ghg4JI_77H33QwOdAV4PtrVhMkCMZSVDLkuTAyuGLLUcA/s1600/lorries+somalia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmX9Mc7fBRoWA88P1ln8igWTQz0YVay1bDPCloXNCQvqTpP74xJ2Rn7UVrWPu4I66tRvJL95WN0kRnW0KYzzL3FA5Gk4eJAQ_ghg4JI_77H33QwOdAV4PtrVhMkCMZSVDLkuTAyuGLLUcA/s1600/lorries+somalia.jpg" height="222" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the open road in east Africa</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Later I drove in Africa – a lot. From
our first trips outside Mogadishu to my long voyages from Accra to Ouagadougou
and Bamako. Once I took a wrong turn at Ouaga and drove over sixty kilometres
of sand. At the border we came upon a Swiss couple on a tricycle - my view of
the Swiss swivelled at that point. We drove over the moonlit Dogan highland in
Mali and the long stretchy roads to the Niger. We had a beaten Nissan Patrol
with holes everywhere – after the desert we were all covered in fine red dust
and belonged to a new race. Red eyelashes, red hair, red noses.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Mogadishu my ex had his sunglasses
snatched from his face when he was caught in traffic. A policeman friend was
paid and the prescription glasses were retrieved from the market.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Brussels a woman sneezed and ploughed
into the back of our old Citroen when I was nine months pregnant. I had my baby Omar the next morning. (Beware of Belgian drivers!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the Dolomites I learned to put on
snow chains on my long slithering Merc station wagon in less than five shivering minutes - in a T-shirt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Don’t we spend so much of our lives
driving? I’ve gone through half a dozen cars, none of them Top Gear material,
and these days my long drives are where I’ll think over my stories in silence, unless
of course a teen has headphones plugged in and I have to listen to the fuzz of
rap music.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zfi8Wg-IlOn7PXT4KXdEAbczmd5k1GJVpI-r5XrVaFiJRTHAjojJONGfDxeofGXZj1SEDQVRuZBjEJ3_x4XuKrCV_rNon6j7kWctHD55iQr2kUk_50vmAlUl0IF8-TvgfnwU1_2RfMQ-/s1600/moosecat_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zfi8Wg-IlOn7PXT4KXdEAbczmd5k1GJVpI-r5XrVaFiJRTHAjojJONGfDxeofGXZj1SEDQVRuZBjEJ3_x4XuKrCV_rNon6j7kWctHD55iQr2kUk_50vmAlUl0IF8-TvgfnwU1_2RfMQ-/s1600/moosecat_web.jpg" height="200" width="159" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">moosecat</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And have I spoken about driving in Italy
yet? Do I really need to? You of course know that big cars take precedence, pedestrians
are disregarded and cars can veer across the road when a driver is sending a
message. And here in the country the old men wear hats driving and must be dodged. And if you lose control at the rulebreakers and put up the finger beware of a big Audi breathing down your neck.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And I’m also a veteran of the car
breakdown. I’ve had gazillions of breakdowns. To the ex I once said, <i>You know
that this crappy car is going to lead us to divorce.</i> He didn’t believe me. That
year I was driving a made-in-Nigeria Peugeot with the air-con fitted in Ghana.
I broke down out of town on a hillside and limped home. I broke down on the way to the doctor’s
with a very sick kid. It was endless. Reliable cars can help marriages.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This month I’ve finally managed to bring
a new, safe reliable car into this household. It’s already mud-splattered and
the cats go pattering across the hood. For us, it’s a new chapter. I can listen
to Jimi Hendrix with two speakers. I’m no longer terrified the engine will pike
out in a winding mountain tunnel. I’m now no longer spending more money on fuel
than food! It will take me an age to pay it off, but this divorced writer is sailing
along in Top Gear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Any wheels stories ladies? </span>The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-291389383714567128.post-89328169232232588862014-01-07T01:54:00.000-08:002014-01-07T02:47:23.099-08:00Trouble in Paradise or the First Fight of the Year<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF1w6bxpC9-D6N0jPWtOpSAUzWdnscGXXCG2oNSkBco-lGbdCadi7uPV6v2GsAhB2bkOUHKhtJWtqJpjRJX0-18IGB0UBExPPJ4nmqTHo4HAFImy76t4usvPGJcfHajx4kryxLNnv8jF5j/s1600/mareson+rooves.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF1w6bxpC9-D6N0jPWtOpSAUzWdnscGXXCG2oNSkBco-lGbdCadi7uPV6v2GsAhB2bkOUHKhtJWtqJpjRJX0-18IGB0UBExPPJ4nmqTHo4HAFImy76t4usvPGJcfHajx4kryxLNnv8jF5j/s1600/mareson+rooves.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB">New Year is full of resolutions that last about five minutes. I stopped making
them years and years ago when I realised it's not <i>years</i> that are important, but
<i>days</i>. Every day should contain a seed of better behaviour, clearer objectives,
less swearing and more piano practice. Big sweeping declarations are for the
theatre. Makeup, stage lights and surges of clapping. Bullsheet. None of us
have any idea what we will be thinking in September. <br />
<br />
One of my longterm resolutions, almost a twin sister of mine, has been to cut</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">out the freak-out. I mean, <i>Don't lose your cool, Catherine.</i> I mean, try to look
through to the other end of the moment and see how frantic and uncontrolled you
appear from the other side. Don't lose it.</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">But I do lose it. I've just lost it now. <br />
<br />
You wonder whether in disassembling a moment that has passed whether there is
any lesson to be learned. When you see the jagged spot where you should have
bitten your tongue and not lashed out. When you drive back along the glittery
snowy road now devoid of holidaymakers. When you sit there in the silent car
thinking, is it my fault that I have raised an ungrateful, demanding teen? Or
am I just caved in, playing the victim, as was said?</span></span> </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDS_0C_Fl7T9HRjYSk4x81Pc1H4QLe5IHzLoSChIDbEHYi-daIQIyFHeLiknU9TqL4EhjSVA1RlSfxB3Sehm4YiIil0WulbN8gxQ_yrmSLl24vKjxRyFkaaQgutPIrhzvORcn-zoKA16-Z/s1600/snow+trees+jan+14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDS_0C_Fl7T9HRjYSk4x81Pc1H4QLe5IHzLoSChIDbEHYi-daIQIyFHeLiknU9TqL4EhjSVA1RlSfxB3Sehm4YiIil0WulbN8gxQ_yrmSLl24vKjxRyFkaaQgutPIrhzvORcn-zoKA16-Z/s1600/snow+trees+jan+14.jpg" height="220" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"><br />
<span id="goog_106707594"></span><span id="goog_106707595"></span><span id="goog_106707604"></span><span id="goog_106707605"></span>As mothers we are always juggling plates and often - for me - at least one
drops. You are thinking about the jammed road all the way home down the
mountain, the rent to pay, bills galore, your crappy work status, the homework
to nag about, the dog on heat, the house now a male hovel to clean, the extra 150kms driving tomorrow to resettle Ungrateful Diva... and how the hell do we
get to the end of the month.<br />
<br /><span id="goog_106707596"></span><span id="goog_106707597"></span><span id="goog_106707598"></span><span id="goog_106707599"></span>And then to be pushed off a shelf.
Told that, <i>Why should you be any more tired of driving than anybody else? </i>When you freak out at the bl***y long queue of public holiday skiers and tell a certain lazy teen
to get out and walk the short walk to the ski slope. (And this after 650+kms
driving lately, including midnight forays into the -10 night to heat up an
ailing engine.) <br />
<br />
Sorry doll but this was a red flag to this stomping steaming bull. <br />
<br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwNbDT_aJhoLDx0_lRW3ORoEfEfVb3VcTJo1A8-ujfSli9o06UJVxPA8uZJG0rkx8Dom7eVghezH_7CgkdJi_iA7smDy76fuUYZ2IW5UwATG4nt4LFLCU99LzjMcYPfIXvgbI1nPQ3swTl/s1600/jan+14+sun+burst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwNbDT_aJhoLDx0_lRW3ORoEfEfVb3VcTJo1A8-ujfSli9o06UJVxPA8uZJG0rkx8Dom7eVghezH_7CgkdJi_iA7smDy76fuUYZ2IW5UwATG4nt4LFLCU99LzjMcYPfIXvgbI1nPQ3swTl/s1600/jan+14+sun+burst.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB">We all know that suicides and domestic violence surge when families spend too
much time together over Christmas. Too much alcohol, sluggish digestion of rich
foods, cramped kitchens and rubbish to be taken out, bright lights in
supermarkets and the empty fridge. I was fine through all of this. I've had
wonderfully helpful family members here on holiday, it's just my own damned
kids. <br />
<br />
But I could have a saviour. My hit-of-last-year writer Simon van Booy has
written a philosophy book called <b>Why We Fight</b>. This book will be the first
book I order this year. <br />
<br />
How about you? Did anybody make you lose it over the silly season?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">***</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Read a great writer interview and review of <a href="http://peltandotherstories.blogspot.com/"><i>Pelt and Other Stories</i></a> on <a href="http://whisperinggums.com/2014/01/03/catherine-mcnamara-pelt-and-other-stories-review/">www.whisperinggums.com </a><br /><span id="goog_106707600"></span><span id="goog_106707601"><span id="goog_106707606"></span><span id="goog_106707607"><span id="goog_106707608"></span><span id="goog_106707609"><span id="goog_106707610"></span><span id="goog_106707611"><span id="goog_106707612"></span><span id="goog_106707613"><span id="goog_106707614"></span><span id="goog_106707615"><span id="goog_106707616"></span><span id="goog_106707617"><span id="goog_106707618"></span><span id="goog_106707619"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15202093107784073194noreply@blogger.com35