under another sun

Barely heard Toby and Romy creeping off this morning at an eye-watering 4AM. I had a nightmare about a brother that disappeared, and woke up in a strangely Toby and Romy-less place. The rest of us got up early, finished packing, and all had a last dip in the incomparable pool. Tina arrived at around 9:45 as we were zooming around. I was ironing one of Lorraine's tops, and she took it from me and finished it. We all really liked Tina. Then final things squeezed into the car, and we set off for a last mooch about in Noto, where we had granita breakfasts, and looked at a few places. Another swelteringly hot day. As we were making our way back to the car to drive up to the airport, Lorraine got a message from EasyJet saying our flight had been cancelled until tomorrow. This all a bit horrible, and under some stress we managed to book a room in a hotel in Catania urgently for tonight using our phones. Trying to get everything else sorted was hard, and Beth and John were great at mak...

Lorraine and I woken by the flappy monster, a monster we have heard for the last few days. We have now worked out that it lands on the roof, and then seems to chisel persistently at the roof tiles like the worst kind of poltergeist. Up eventually, after coffee in bed, and I was surprised and delighted to find that my short story The Inheritor , set on Guernsey, has been accepted for publication in Supernatural Tales . Felt greatly boosted by this. The editor, David Longhorn, had a recent bereavement and I thought that the submission had melted away. Luckily not. The day spent in a lazy way by the pool, reading, sleeping and a wee bit of Euchre. Toby finishing off The Leopard by Lampedusa, set on Sicily, and Lorraine starting Montalbano novels also set here. In the evening we went out to Noto, parked in our usual place after an impromptu tour caused by a road being closed. Walked across town to find a pizza restaurant, recommended to us by Tina, in a sunken garden. It was cal...

The tranquility of the morning interrupted. The pool man came at the crack of dawn, and somehow blew all the electricity in the house. Romy called Tina who came by and went off to make phone calls. Obviously we were not able to open the fridge. The day was an extremely hot one. Then two maids came in to clean the place, and then Romy walked into a closed glass door, fortunately not hurting herself, but cracking the glass. Maids aghast, wanting to press ice on her head and phoning Tina who came back to check Romy was okay. Power restored, Lorraine wanted to stay at home, but Tobs, Romy and I drove off to Noto for a late breakfast. It was extremely hot, to the point of making me feel lethargic as we walked down the little streets and popped into the church with the expansive flight of stairs leading up to it.  We stopped at a cafe, and had coffee, and mineral water and I had an Italian variant of a cheese and ham toastie. Toby and Romy had a pistachio and mulberry granita res...

The alarm on Lorraine's phone got us up early this morning, and Lorraine volunteered to drive us to meet our guide for the guided tour of ancient and modern Noto. We were to meet him in Noto Antica, the remains of a hilltop walled town destroyed by devastating earthquake in 1693. Getting there proved an adventure, particularly for Lorraine. Guided by google, we were taken down a road that became narrower, and when we began driving across shallow rivers flowing across the road, alarm bells began to ring. We began climbing up the mountain in our little hired Renault Clio, on untracked roads of white rubble, some of which, to Lorraine's horror, had sheer drops on one side. At one point, as the track ahead proved almost impassable, we stopped. Romy ran off and found two women ahead, and discovered the road improved a little. With just Lorraine in the car, we got over the bad patch, and then progressed up to the top of the hill. We had reached the ancient ruined town by the donkey r...

Up at ten past three after a despicable night's sleep, and L and stumbled around getting dressed. Out into the heavy rain in Zombie mode and drove off to Gatwick airport's summer special car park. L handed over the key to the car, and correcting the number of our numberplate for their records. Then to the Easy Jet check in, mostly automated. We got to the automated check-in, and the computer said no. Wranging a check in staff member, who allowed us to check in, but said the aircraft that had been supplied was smaller than the original one, and there were too many passengers.This led to hellish scenes standing in queues for hours not sure if we would be able to fly, and then sitting on the plane for hours while they finally got the chosen ones on board, and took all the luggage out of the plane and sorted through it for the bits belonging to the losers. Lorraine and I were not sat next to one another either, and both in middles of rows. Flight a bit choppy but not too bad. I h...