Swinging Sicily

In summary, if you're going to Sicily my advice would be to spend more time in the smaller seaside villages rather than in the capital, Palermo. Palermo is a weird city - it's not very welcoming or friendly as a place, and although it is on the coast it is quite industrial so there is no waterfront area or beach. There's a working port, a marina and then a concrete pathway along the water. No restaurants or anything. I guess it's just not a town that is set up for tourism.

However, they know how to rip tourists off! The cab driver from the airport charged us 60 euros!! Even though, seconds beforehand, the metre had read 34.50. AND he drove around and around in circles, pretending he didn't know where he was going. So actually the metre should have read 28 euros. Mofo. Ben also got pick-pocketed by three men on the same bus! A crowd of people got on, pushing and shoving, and Ben felt 2 men put their hands in his pockets and I saw another. Thankfully he didn't actually have anything in there, so they achieved nothing. Then a Sicilian woman started to yell at one of the men (who acted very innocent, but she wasn't fooled) and all three of them got off after one stop.

Having said all that, the place we stayed in was amazing. A 14th Century converted paper factory that this old couple now lives in. High ceilings, slate floors. Admittedly the house was pretty cold! Sicily is not set up for winter, many of the cafes only offer al fresco dining and when it's pissing with rain and 14-15C that's not how one feels like eating!

Outside of Palermo we went to Cefalu, which I would definitely recommend. A small coastal town that features a great sea-front walk around the old city wall, a 12th Century Cathedral and a huge rock/hill (La Rocca) which provides not only great views of the terracotta-rooved houses, sea and surrounding mountains, but also has an Ancient Greek temple and numerous 6th-9th Century Byzantine forts. So something for everyone!

Ben also made us trudge up to Alistair Crowley's house, which is run down and overgrown and tourists are discouraged from going to visit. I suppose that's because they expect lots of occultists to go there and conduct rituals and have sex. But if there's one thing that's going to add to the mystique of a place to occultists, surely it's banning it! They probably wouldn't go if it was glossy and done up and pristine! Anyway, Ben felt brave and snuck in and took some photos. I sat nearby and kept a look out.

That'll probably do for now. We saw heaps of other churches (as you can imagine) and so on our trip up north to Scotland tomorrow I might make Ben go and see the Brontes' house as payback! So many churches. Some pretty amazing mosaics though, I must admit. Just don't tell him that.

Will upload some pics shortly.

And congratulations to my friend Johanna, who has had a baby girl named Sylvia!

London on Ice

This is a new level of cold for me. I've never experienced anything like it. Apparently temperatures are 10C below what they usually are at this time of year. Yikes. It's face-hurting, ear-burning, lip-numbing, foot-stamping cold! The Bacon reckons it will be -10 in Feb, I'm hoping she's wrong! She has no meteorological expertise as far as I'm aware.

We're going to Sicily on Fri - hooray! Working 2 jobs over Xmas/NY I'm quite ready for my holiday now. Although there is so much that Ben wants to see in Sicily - I hope we get to sleep in some days! I just want a little bit of sunshine and some nice food. You can get good food in London, but you have to pay for it and it's harder to find than in Melbourne. Think I've always taken it for granted. My REAL beef with London food (as it were! Although of course I don't eat beef!) is that the tomatoes are tasteless! I eat tomatoes with almost every meal but over here they're just not as good. I have discovered how to cook curry with paneer though and that's yummy.

We are also hiring a car to visit my aunty in Yorkshire. She is house-sitting somewhere in the moors, a town called Settrington.

Then we're up to Dundee (Scotland) to see Ben's cousin... which I'm assuming will allow me the pleasure of discovering a whole new level of cold!!

S&M Drama

I should point out that S&M is a chain of restaurants, not what you might be thinking. Gourmet sausage and mash (really yummy! Good vege sausages!)

Went there on NYE for brunch with sis (to hear gossip about her boy that she has been on a few dates with - it seems to be going well! Oooooo!) and I somehow managed to get some of my mushroom omlette stuck in my throat. Tried to wash it down with Ben's OJ but it just seemed to swell up more. I jumped up to get some water, but sipping the water made it worse - I don't think the OJ or the water could get past the omlette so it all started to back up and I basically had to run through the restaurant towards the bathroom choking and starting to spew up a delicious egg/OJ combination. Thankfully I got past most of the customers before it happened and made it to the toilet before most of the damage was done.

The waitress asked my sister if I was OK and she said "I think Charlotte is choking on something", at which the manager's ears pricked up and he started to stress out that I would sue them! Not sure I can really claim compensation for choking on an omlette. Who does that?? Omlettes are soft!

Anyway, terribly embarrassing. I've got to learn to eat more slowly.

Then working at the Barbican from 1:30pm - 9:30pm, which was fine. No real dramas. Ben came and we went to the Thames to watch the fireworks. We stood out on a bridge in the freezing cold (coldest NYE in London for 12 years!) but we couldn't even see the damn fireworks because the Tate Modern was in the way! Bloody art. Always interfering. Using my tax dollars...!

So that was my eventful NYE. Now on to 2009, which I'm a little apprehensive about. Especially because I won't see Ben for the majority of it! If we can get through this year though things will be great.

See all youse Melbourne people in March.

xxx

Cold snaps

Those shark attacks made it into the news here. I'm telling you, sharks and crocs, they're the only kinds of stories that the British media are interested in about Aus!

It is seriously cold here now. We went to the football yesterday (finally broke the curse - Arsenal actually won! They still didn't play that well but at least their fans got some relief) and despite wearing socks and thick stockings under jeans my feet were going numb. I think the max yesterday was 2 or 3C, dropping to -3C overnight. I still haven't seen snow though. So ripped off.

We saw a really weird film on Sat - Far North. With Sean Bean and Michelle Yeoh. One of the strangest films I've ever seen. It was all shot in Finland or somewhere - the landscape is all ice and snow - it looks incredible. But the story? So Michelle has an adopted daughter and they live in a tent/igloo thing in the middle of nowhere and she rescues Sean Bean who is alone in the snow. A love triangle forms. So far, so good (although a bit slow). But then... 

TURN AWAY IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE FILM. Spoiler ahead. I personally do not recommend it.

Michelle Yeoh's daughter tells her she and Sean are running off together. So Michelle turns into a scary witch and strangles her daughter with her own hair before cutting her face off and sewing it onto her own! Then she has sex with Sean Bean who realises something weird is happening and runs out into the tundra naked.

So bizarre. On the plus side, I never saw it coming!!

We saw the film at the Barbican after I'd been working at a concern which is my idea of hell - a selection of the cheesiest numbers from various musicals. Oh God it was awful. I Don't Know How to Love Him, a Sound of Music medley, There's No Business Like Show Business, I Feel Pretty, a medley from Mamma Mia... on and on it went. My ears were bleeding. And the singers were trying way too hard. Ugh.

Gotta take the good with the (oh so) bad I guess.

Another one down

Who needs parents? We had a great Christmas yesterday, for all 3 of us (Ben, sis, me) our first away from home. Our menu: roast potatoes (with garlic, rosemary), sweet potato, baked field mushrooms with goat cheese, yorkshire puddings (Fliss and I ate 17 each!! They were smaller than usual, but that's still a good effort!), beans and mini zucchini with pesto and gravy. Yeah. Total awesomeness. Plus a few glasses of wine and some Baileys. Oh, and mixed berries with clotted cream for dessert. No-one was missing the turkey.

Basically we watched DVDs all day. TV (Extras, Gavin & Stacey) and classic movies (Errol Flynn's Robin Hood and Casablanca). A perfect Xmas. Sis went to bed at 10pm because she was so full. Then today (Boxing Day) she has gone to visit a friend in Norwich. I can't take Norwich seriously as a place, thanks to Alan Partridge. There are a few locations in Britain that suffer from that problem in my mind, they've been mentioned in some famous sketch or comedy show and now that's all I associate them with!

Working NYE, so no exciting plans there. But I should be finished in time to go and see the fireworks on the Thames.

Hope you all had a great (hot) Xmas and are enjoying your holidays.

xxx