Appearances!

Here’s a photo of a church in Dobcross village, not far from where we live. This church always looks vaguely out of place around here; it looks as though it belongs in Italy somewhere. And today we even had the blue sky to go with it. Splendid! 
  
Over the last few days we’ve had quite a lot of blue sky. I took advantage of the weather on Saturday to take a long walk around Dovestone Reservoir, one of our local beauty spots. You have to grasp these opportunities. Tomorrow, according to the weather forecast, the rain will be back. 

Getting back to things Italian, we watched the first of a new series of “Italy Unpacked” the other evening. Italian cook Giorgio Locatelli and art expert Andrew Graham-Dixon are in Liguria and will be making their way down the west coast of Italy during the series, talking about food and at as they go. They have clearly had tremendous fun making the programmes. It could just as easily be called “Two get a little bit drunk occasionally and show off a lot in Italy”. This does not stop it being very good television, of which there is precious little these days. 

One of the food items the good Giorgio introduced us to was “farinata”, a kind of flatbread or huge pancake made with chickpea flour and baked in a woodfired oven. It reminded us of “socca” which we ate in the old quarter in Nice on a visit a few years ago. So we did a little research and, lo and behold, it’s exactly the same thing. The name simply changes as you cross the border. Very tasty street food! 



Another gem the programme gave us was the information that a certain Cristofero Colombo, the adventurous chap who reputedly discovered America, came from Genoa. I thought I should mention this as we know people who are convinced that his name was Cristobal Colón and that he came from Poio in Pontevedra, Galicia. As there was no mention of a museum dedicated to him in Genoa and I know that there is such a place in Poio, maybe the Pontevedrans have a slightly stronger claim than the Genovese. This is, of course, a debate that will run and run. We won’t get the truth of it until someone invents time travel. 

I have been told by a young friend of mine that today is “kiss a ginger” day. Here is a link to an article about it. How odd that they feel a need to make a special day for it. It was never the case when I was a young ginger. Surely the reputation of ginger people has not fallen so low that we now need a special day if we want to be kissed!! 

In addition to this, I am reliably informed that today is also “No Pants Day”, when quite a lot of crazy folk choose to travel without their trousers on underground trains all over the world. According to Wikipedia this is an event celebrated on two different occasions per year, one held in January, the other on first Friday of May each year. The origin goes back to 10 January 1986, when a New York City resident forgot accidentally to wear his pants and boarded a New York subway pantless. He was embarrassed, but at the same time was thrilled with the grins and giggles wherever he went. The following year, he was joined by tens of other pantless friends and this has snowballed into an international event held on January and May of each year. Here are a couple of pictures. 

 
Well, I’ve been outside today and I don’t think I would fancy going anywhere pantless, thank you very much.