GLUM-GRUMP-GLOOM

I thought I'd warn you all in the title in case you can't stand it!

The main reason for my down mood today is the "silly season" that I have mentioned before, with everything but food stores closing for 2 weeks or even longer as we near the Ferragosto holiday of 15th August. OK, have the 15th August off; have the 16th as well, but a fortnight, a month ..... !! Even the Altro Posto [my favourite bar] is closed for a fortnight as of today, though they did give me this box of sweeties and frutta di Martorana in the form of a prickly pear as a consolation prize. At the perfumery yesterday the ladies were chatting about which 7 days to take off - at least it's only going to be a week there - but it beats me why they all have to have their holiday at the same time. Even Raffaele the hairdresser is closing from the 12th - 20th August, which already has me down in the dumps, so I didn't need the grand entrance of "the binbag lady" into the salon as well. I call her that not because she looks awful, but because she always looks absolutely wonderful and makes me want to hide in a binbag for the day whenever I see her. Her clothes , accessories, hair and make-up are just perfect and to add to the misery of other women she has a superb figure, even after 4 children: she has told me how long she spends in the gym to achieve this and her energy is awe-inspiring! It wouldn't be so bad if she was catty or unpleasant in any way but she has to go and be a very nice person as well. Sigh!

Yesterday I forgot to get make-up remover discs and tissues in the supermarket so today, not wanting to go back there, I popped into one of the smaller perfumeries along this street. The assistant pounced on me immediately instead of letting me look around, so that annoyed me for a start ; then she said she had the discs but no tissues. For goodness sake, if you stock cotton wool discs, why not stock tissues as well?

I need a baccello di vaniglia [vanilla pod] for a couple of recipes, one of them being Lord Nazh's steak recipe which he was kind enough to let me have in the comments a few weeks ago. Do you think I can find one anywhere? Not on your nonna's nelly. They usually have them at the deli along the road but they have been out of stock for a good 10 days now. This has me frustrated because they shouldn't be hard to find in the first place and all this going from supermarket to supermarket in the hope of finding one is not easy in a town where the bus service is badly planned. Oh, yes, nearly forgot - they are cutting out some sheduled bus journeys, too, to add to the joys of the season.

If you've followed the blog for a year or more you will know that this is the period in which we tend to have fun with the water supply. We had a delivery yesterday morning, the water lorry driver having decided to arrive at the crack of dawn [06.50] because the little street gets so congested with people parking for the post office - another thing that makes me shake my head in disbelief; fancy bringing your car to the post office when you know there is little or no room nearby!! Anyway, we'll see how long this refill of water lasts. [Some people here swear that the cisterns don't get properly filled up at this time of year. ] If it dries up, you can bet it will do so for the 15th August holiday!

Of course, it would be true to say that in many ways the Sicilians have their priorities right: refresh yourself at the sea or in the countryside for a fortnight during the worst of the heat, for if you are a business person that is where most of your clients will have gone off to anyway; spend quality time with your family, eat good food and forget about everything else; and why bother with the stress of travelling abroad when you have all that anyone could want right here? That's all very well but I fear the verdict of tourists is likely to be , "Nice place but everything was closed when we went there." The Sicilians have got to address this if they seriously want tourism - and I'm not sure that, in their heart of hearts, they do.