I've lost 20 pounds (or 9 kg) since November 1st, so I have 30 to go to target. I'm almost back where I was two years ago before the distress of the Ukraine war and its refugees took my mind off slimming.
I hope to be at 28 pounds (2 stone, or 12.7 kg) loss by the end of this month, although I appreciate that that's quite a challenge. But I think I should set the bar quite high, otherwise it's easy to lose focus. I'm fed up with being overweight, literally!
Doing "Dry January" really helped. I think I might try to give up alcoholic drinks altogether except for big social occasions. On February 1st, as I'd been so good with my slimming in January, I thought I'd treat myself to lunch out in my favourite restaurant and I even ordered a glass of white wine as a reward for having had none the previous month. (It's very hard not to have wine here in Italy. They think you're weird if you don't.) The rest of the afternoon I felt sluggish even after just one glass so really it's better to do without it. Like so many 'bad' things, like coffee, sugar, tobacco, watching TV... it's just a habit as much as anything.
Anyway, I enjoyed my lunch out very much! You can get tired of your own cooking!
I took the train to Nice a couple of days later just to enjoy a change of scene. They were preparing for the two week long Carnival later this month. I enjoyed a bit of shopping, a museum (the Palais Lascaris with its beautiful interiors) and the book fair in one of the squares where they were virtually giving away antiquarian books. I selected one, an 1862 leatherbound volume in reasonable condition for just two euros!
This week we have the Sanremo Music Festival on, which is the biggest annual national event in Italy. Covid stopped the Olympics but it didn't stop this! Nevertheless, this is the first festival unaffected by Covid since 2019 and they are making a HUGE thing of what is already huge. Last night I watched the fabulous firework display over Sanremo harbour from my home up the hill. Did you know they now have fireworks that burst in the shape of hearts, smiley emojis and musical notation? I didn't, but they do. Offshore, a huge ship for celebs to party in was all illuminated and had a laser show to match that in main square.
Anyway, the festival, which is a national song contest now in its 74th iteration, provides five hours a night of top TV for the next week. You don't venture into the town centre without a ticket and the "City of Music" is full of TV presenters, fey popstrels, dazed rockers blinking in the daylight and drooling drummers in chains with their minders. Apparently, John Travolta will be co-hosting on Wednesday. Here are some pictures of the preparations and the Green Carpet (Sanremo is not just the City of Music but also the City of Flowers, so the red carpet is green!)
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| The Ariston Theatre, a huge building that takes up much of a city block, is the main venue. |
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| The main square, normally an empty, open space |
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| The Green Carpet |
In 2021 the Festival played on despite the raging pandemic and Måneskin, a genderfluid group, won, which really boosted LGBT morale here. I wrote about that here. They then went on to win the Eurovision song contest.
I'm not sufficiently keen on contemporary pop music to join the crush in Sanremo but I plan to walk the beautiful coast road this month. It'll get me fresh air and help me lose even more weight.
Later, as the spring emerges from winter we will have the Milan-Sanremo cycle race, local carnivals, the Flower Parade and other events. I feel glad I moved here from Britain. Between New Year and Easter, the UK has no festivities or public holidays at all in the darkest, coldest period of the year. Here they realise that people need fun and festivity precisely because the season brings little joy in itself. I'm looking forward to the forthcoming events, including Pride in April.
Brianna Ghey judgment
I will comment on this in a more serious post, but I tuned in live to the sentencing hearing and my feeling is that the sentence is correct.
Sue x
Well done on the continued weight loss, I will be having a dryer February for sure. Too much temptation for me to do a dry month, but I am cutting down :)
ReplyDeleteMusic festival sounds fab, I would love a house by the sea - although more likely to be Blackpool for me :)
Izzy x
Thanks, Izzy.
DeleteThe music festival is heavily mediatised and commercialised and I'm not actually sure that real music fans get that much of a look in, to be honest. It's not like the sort of festivals you get in the UK with thousands standing in a muddy field, which is less glam but more authentic.
A house by the sea never used to appeal to me but now I'm older things have changed. Besides, the sea here is very pretty.
Sue x
Congratulations on your health gains. Fingers crossed that continues.
ReplyDelete"....festivities or public holidays at all in the darkest, coldest period of the year."
Back to work peasants! 😉 As much as an extra holiday or event would be rather nice, I think it would need to be after payday. January is a very long month!
The green carpet seems a wonderful idea and Måneskin seem to have gone from strength to strength. Great to see that.
Thanks, Lynn.
DeletePublic events don't cost anything here, or not much. Forking out money to have fun is, again, quite a British notion. People here tend to work to live, not work because the UK/US protestant work ethic requires it and the economy would apparently tank if people didn't put in lots of hours for little pay. I'm coming round to the local way of doing things here, including the three-hour lunch break!
Sue x
20 pounds is good. I'm at 11 pounds for January, but that's just the first month. Another 9 pounds over the next two months seems more of a struggle. Let's keep going though :)
ReplyDeleteWell done, Jonathan. Yes, it gets slower as we go down but we've focused for one month so it's a question of not losing that focus in future. I set mini targets along the way and allow myself treats from time to time. Sue x
DeleteHello Sue, it´s great that you loose your weight again and again. But don´t stop enjoying a drink sometimes or something else you like. Your soul needs rewards. Nice that you travelled to ....spelling the same Nice, and had a good time.
ReplyDeleteSanRemo Festival is and has been always a great spectacular. Every winner has made a career I suppose. And as I like italian music it is always a pleasure to hear them on ESC later in the year. And it was a bit surprising that Maneskin won the contest, but I think that was fair, because the other songs were some kind of boring. Have a good time and thanks for visiting my blog once again.
Violetta
Thanks very much, Violetta. I do plan to have a few treats but I was really trying to concentrate hard in January.
DeleteMost of the singers who participate in the Sanremo contest make a career, not just the winners. And a lot of the singers go back to the contest year after year. In fact, this year Loredana Bertè, who is now 73, is back for the 12th time!
Sue x