Cefalu from La Rocca

We are still on holiday this week.

The news from home has confirmed that we are now officially squirrel free!

One of our two expert squirrel catchers has chased down the last of the current batch. When you think we had fifteen of the little buggers running around in spring, they have been busy. Ok – so many of the squirrels have already sought pastures new, but the residual community has now left the garden, for now.

Swordfish Special

Last week I left you when we were holidaying in Sicily.We had made our way to Palermo and then onwards to Cefalu, a beautiful town by the sea.

Once we left the business of Cefalu behind and headed further east, we started to see more of the natural Sicily.

We have rented a villa on the outskirts of Giardini Naxos where the agriculture stops just short of the bay of Naxos. We always like to find somewhere on a holiday to cook for ourselves, using the best of the local ingredients.  The quality of the local produce is fantastic and the facilities provided in the villa have allowed us to concoct a range dishes from huge sea bream baked in the oven, to chicken baked with potatoes, and aubergine and bean stew. We just don’t get these quality of ingredients in the UK, wherever one shops.

The picture below showcases the aubergines and tomatoes and a particularly special piece of swordfish. Yes – that really was my lunch!

Villa Pool

The villa also came with a pool. A great idea when we booked it, but late September is cooler than summer and so is the water in the pool. It is not often that I feel less than enthusiastic to jump in, but this pool has rather defeated me in the last couple of days. It is probably the coldest pool I have ever swam in. It is also a salt water pool, so you need to wash off well afterwards.

I managed the first two days when the sun was out, but now that the rains have come and the breeze is cooler I have chickened out. My better half managed to do 6 lengths on one day and then left rapidly, never to return. Although as I write this blog she is currently sitting with her feet in the water building up the confidence to give it another try. The sun is currently shrouded behind a cloud and she is waiting for it to appear before she will entertain subjecting more of her body to the cold water.

Being in the middle of the countryside the pool also attracts half the insect population of Sicily. The novelty of spending 30 minutes clearing the pool before a swim soon wore off. A swim could quickly look like an episode of ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’, with lots of varied flying critters, but without the half-starved celebrities.  There is no danger of us being half-starved or celebrities in this place!

The pool does look rather inviting though as the picture shows opposite.

Taormina

From our country retreat we have made several trips out to local points of interest.

The first of which was a visit to Taormina. Taormina is the location of a Greco Romano Amphitheatre on top of a cliff overlooking the sea.  I believe Greco Romano is what they call something when they can’t decide whether it is really Greek or Roman. Whoever built it, what a place to site a theatre!

Watching someone performing the dramatic arts up there must have been a real spectacle. The place was much grander than it is now with more surrounding columns and brick-work but you certainly get the idea. It is quite magnificent.

The town of Taormina is located down the side of a cliff, providing beach life at the bottom and culture and restaurants at the top. Helpfully, they have built a cable car to transport you from one to the other. You can then wander down through the winding streets and through the public gardens to the base at the bottom. A real pleasure on a nice day.

Taormina is relatively close to the Italian mainland and you can see the shore on the other side across the strait in the distance.

Moon Landscape of Etna - Click to View Full Size

Before we left the UK, I had some last minute car trouble.

I drove home from Northampton on the weekend before we left and suddenly a light lit-up upon my dashboard. It was not a light I recognised and a message appeared on the screen saying – “STOP – check engine”.

I stopped and phoned the RAC. A helpful man listened to my woes and advised me that if a light is an amber light it means you can continue but you must make your way to the nearest workshop. 

I felt no change in the car except for the amber glow in front of me, so I continued on home.

The next morning, I drove to the workshop. On the way there, the light went out and then did not come on again all weekend. This was just as well as the workshop was closed when I got there.

What to do next? - I pretended I had never seen it and carried on.

However, as we set off for the airport to fly to Sicily, the light appeared again. "Now it will come back to haunt me", I thought. We made it to the airport and I left it here. A problem to face after the holiday, along with the slow puncture that I also became aware of in the last week before we left. 

Now we were in Italy – the catalytic converter problem seemed a million miles away – or so I thought.

As we set-off to drive up Mount Etna in our Fiat 500L that had only 4,300 km on the clock a familiar light appeared on the dashboard, followed by a message – “STOP – check engine”.

This was followed by a message of "START / STOP not working" and the tyre pressure problem symbol.

What to do next?

“I can’t drive up Mount Etna if the car is going to fail”. We phoned the car rental company who advised us to travel 30 minutes to the nearest outlet. Sadly, this was exactly in the opposite direction to where we were going.

We did as we were instructed.

Arriving at the outlet a man nipped out and checked the car over.

The "START / STOP not working is the engine efficiency management system failing, so don’t worry about it", he said. "The other messages came on because the first one did and are caused by the same thing". I paused for a minute while I took in what he had said. "Why would the tyre pressure failure light come on because the engine failed?"

"Well it is their car", I thought – not really convinced by the new car that now seemed to be overwhelmed with warning lights. We climbed back in and set-off back to Mount Etna. We stopped to check our way more or less where we had initially had the “failures”. We had wasted two hours in total and the clouds were starting to appear, but at least we had checked it out.

As I started the car to make the climb up Etna, the lights all went out and the engine reported normally again. Two hours wasted for no reason, and now as if it had never happened.  

Thankfully until now, we have never seen those warning lights again.

We made it up to the top of Etna.

A car ride through lava fields, a cable car up to the top, and then a four-wheel drive bus up to the crater.

But it was worth it!

The views from the top were sporadic but when the clouds cleared long enough to see, the craters were fabulous. It is still very active on a regular basis and has thrown molten lava and bombs out within the past 15 years but nothing so exciting happened while we were up there. The odd bit of steam and lots of clouds.

As a UK citizen who travels abroad, I often marvel at the chaotic nature of the traffic that I encounter. The precise following of the rules that we observe in the UK seems to go out of the window elsewhere. I never thought I would find anywhere in Europe that has something in common with India, but Sicily has.

No one follows the driving rules just like driving in Bangalore. Whether it is lane sense, overtaking or pulling out in front of others – everything is up for grabs. If you just keep driving and don’t stop, it seems that everyone is happy. The main difference is one of speed. In Sicily the need to obey the speed limit is also secondary.

When we picked up the car and saw a large scratch down one side, I got the immediate impression that driving might be a challenge. But having been here for 10 days, it is not so much of a challenge as much as a free for all. So getting out into the countryside is a good move, away from most of the traffic.

Dyson

Each time we travel abroad and stay in a villa, we always seem to find ourselves a new friend.

This trip is no different. For some reason, we seem to have attracted a female dog, called Dyson (well it hover's up everything). At first it just turned up and hung around, running away every time we got too close. But then it slowly made its way towards the dinner table and looked at us dolefully, waiting for a tasty tit bit.

My better half started her on carpaccio of beef. Surprisingly this met with her approval. Well I say that, but I am not sure it tasted it at all because it swallowed it whole.

Not put off by giving our best starter to the dog, my better half then gave it tomorrow’s dinner – a decent sized steak. This too vanished in style.

But where do you go next when you have just fed your best food to the dog.

Slightly less than impressed by our generosity towards a dog we had never met before, the next day we made for the dog food counter in the supermarket. We also replaced the dinner we had advanced to the dog.

I have to say, it is a lovely dog, not the brightest, but very friendly. But then I suppose I would be pretty friendly if a stranger provided me with a decent steak when I had nothing to eat. My better half has fallen in love with it and is now plotting as to how she can transport it secretly back to the UK. She thinks I don't know of her schemes.

Tonight the owner of the villa came around and frightened it away. It is clearly not his dog.

While we have been in the villa I have taken the opportunity to try to seek out various local inhabitants for a quick photo session in the garden. With a semi-decent camera, it is surprising how many absolutely rubbish pictures you can take of everything that moves. However, one or two did turn out well enough to at least make out what they are. In years gone by I would have waited several weeks to find out just how rubbish they were, so at least that part of the game is instantly gratifying.

I bought a new lens for the occasion, a cheap one at the airport. I didn’t have anything for macro shots. I can now see why the lens was cheap, but it has served its purpose. Maybe a better lens will make me a better photographer – the standard conclusion from a poor practitioner.

Somewhere Godly!

As the founder of Playboy died today I thought a few bare naked ladies would be the order of the day. Please see the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmoDc3RwrMM

If that doesn’t do it for you then what about a special tune from Sicily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPskYVBqdNw

On a more serious note, it is 40 years since Steve Biko died as a casualty of the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa. It is amazing to think how the world has changed since that time with the current regime in Myanmar seemingly taking on the mantle of the current oppressor.

An amazing film was made of the events of the time – Cry Freedom.

At the funeral they played this song which has since become very famous. This tune always sends a shiver down my spine thinking of the struggle some people have had to realise true freedom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTtINHRja4k

Have a great weekend!

If you liked this post then please use the 'I like this page' button to give me feed-back. It only takes a second!

Why not register your email address to get notified of updates and get the answers to any questions that have appeared in this blog. Visit the Register for Updates page for instructions.

Alternatively, please make a comment (no names or locations please), but be aware that everyone will see it. Please do not write anything abusive if you don’t like this, just vote with your feet.