Chucking it down (and chucking codfish about)

 What's washed away today? 

The weather's been very wet lately and every time it rains hard, we get a new hole scoured into the street, someone's garden wall crumbles, the beach washes away or a tree falls down. The land in Italy is dynamic, never resting, always pushing up, collapsing and being remoulded by nature. You'll probably have seen the distressing pictures from Niscemi in Sicily as a 4km long landslip pulls the town apart. Here in the Alps a dainty stream can turn into raging flood overnight and whole mountainsides can come crashing down. In fact, one road through the mountains here has a gigantic rock on it right now. The melting of the permafrost that binds the rocks together in the high Alps isn't helping either and several mountain tops have collapsed in the last few years. But you don't live here without accepting this reality. 

I have my clothes drying indoors today. Because of the rain, obviously, but I'm partly glad of that because the little boy next door keeps looking under the partition between our properties and must be wondering who the strange lady is. No-one, dearie, just your local TGirl hanging out her smalls. Except kids blab to their parents about things that are not as expected. Little ICE-agents in the making, every one of them! What a pest!

 

Slimmer 

Anyway, the other thing that's coming down is my weight. In January I lost over 5 kilos (that's 11 pounds) so I've got rid of the Christmas excess, and more. Having no wine throughout January helped most and, although it's deemed quite antisocial here not to have a glass with a meal, I have been firm about it with neighbours and waiters. Thankfully, the much harsher drink-driving laws they've recently introduced here have seen more people drinking soft drinks, which is not necessarily better health-wise but it means there's less pressure to have booze. Added to that, my food delivery van brings me loads of ready prepared vegetables and soup mixes that really help. If eating out, I tend to stick to seafood because it contains so little fat. And it's very fresh here so that's a double win.

My weight loss campaign that's threaded its way into my blog throughout its history is in a new phase now, at last, because I start each year with a bit less weight than the previous year, but now I see that my ideal, healthy weight is more clearly in sight than ever before and those cutesy little dresses I've stored carefully might well be able to make an appearance again in a few months. 

Now if that isn't an incentive then I don't know what is!

 

Putting up

It's never dull here and locally they are setting up the annual Lemon Festival in Menton, Nice is readying for its carnival and Sanremo is preparing for the national Music Festival. There are the Winter Olympics further up the Alps, of course. It's all good fun but you can't do anything normal with city centres blocked off for a fortnight and businesses charging too much. As in previous years, I'm going to go away at the height of the chaos!

However, I'm sure you'll agree with me that far more culturally significant than all this big-city razzmatazz is the annual Stockfish Race in the village of Cantalupo, west of Genoa. Each team of two gets a 1 kilo piece of stockfish, i.e. dried cod, and they have to throw it through or onto targets dotted around the village. Every target needs a different skillset: underarm toss, overarm bowling, boomeranging the codfish around corners ... And if you miss, you have to collect your stray fish from ravines, rooftops and so on. I'm not sure what the rules are if your fish disintegrates!

If that's too fast-paced for you, don't worry: Cantalupo has an annual Snail Festival every autumn.

Part 2 of my trip to Genoa next posting, including the all-important subject of local food. Part 1 here: Moby Dick & the Holy Grail (with cake).

 

Fountain representing Sanremo as "city of flowers" and "city of music".

Sue x