Fun and frustration

 It's been a good holiday weekend, but frustrating, too. I normally enjoy the long easter break as it's a chance to get my hair and makeup on ... but not this time because all my neighbours, who are usually here only occasionally, all turned up. I mean, it's nice to be sociable and say hi, but I would've preferred the outdoor girl time I'd planned. All our homes overlook each other and the partitions between them are glass so there's no real privacy outdoors (see my photo below, taken around Christmas).

 

Oh well, gardening in my usual slacks it was, then. 

 

Foodie 

I am just shy of the half way point in my slimming drive. A bit more off and I should be in the healthy weight range again after 15 years of being too large. But I decided to pause the slimming and have a foodie weekend.

So on Saturday I enjoyed a trip into nearby Sanremo and was pleased to see my favourite stallholder at the market back in his usual position after a period in hospital. Ditto my favourite restaurateur who'd been doubled up with appendicitis last time I went. 

Everything here can be haggled a bit, whether at the market or at the restaurant. The lady who runs the fabulous if expensive spice shop opposite was eating there, too, so maybe after our pleasant chat she'll give me a bit off next time. This Domestic Goddess likes to save money in exchange for a smile! 

Sunday I took time over making lunch at home, not something that normally happens. And Easter Monday is traditionally barbecue day in Italy so everyone was out, grilling away! ...Mmm, sausages! 

 

Sanremo Pride

The Pride season here in Italy kicks off with Sanremo Pride, which is next Saturday, and this year the parade starts at the newly remodelled main square, rather then being slightly sidelined. It's even received some funding from the council. 

I really want to go but, as in the past, there's a clear risk of my outing myself in my neighbourhood. This is always a frustration, as I pointed out just last week in relation to Trans Day of Visibility. I've looked into going to Nice Pride in July instead but the cost of hotels in that chic resort in high summer is ludicrous. 

Let's see what I can resolve. But I shall be seeing trans friends in London soon so I will be getting my Outdoor Girl Time this spring whatever happens.

 

Barbecalculus

In that outstanding comedic work, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the science of flipping spacecraft across the mind-bendingly vast gulfs of space is explored in increasingly ludicrous ways, culminating in Bistromathics, which applies the contorted unpredictability of groups booking, arriving, ordering, being served and paying in a typical restaurant to the complexities of intergalactic travel. 

I'd like to point out to physicists, as they loop a craft around the moon or devise ever more murderous missiles, that the complex torsions of barbecue smoke could indicate new mathematics. No matter the direction of the actual wind, or the angle, height, power or chimney availability of the barbecuing device, or the inherent smokiness of the food or fuel, my smoke will move around me to envelop my neighbours and theirs will make similarly contorted flight to envelop me. You can imagine that with several barbecues going simultaneously, these mutually avoidant palls of aromatic smoke create very complex trajectories as they home in on their targets with no apparent reference to normal outside forces. This might be the breakthrough into hyperspace physics that has so far been only a dream. 

I shall call this new science Barbecalculus and universities are invited to apply to Sue's Science Foundation for supplies of uneaten sausages, onions and broken charcoal to help them in their experiments. 

Sue x