MORE REGALI, ANOTHER WAIT AND AN ARRIVAL

The book on Lombardian cookery [ in the foreground on the left] arrived from a friend in Milan this morning. I really like this series on regional and city cooking and, as you see, have the Sicilian, Tuscan and Milanese volumes. Each recipe is given in Italian, dialect and English. I bought the Sicilian tome during my first visit here in 1992 and have more or less cooked my way through it. I am going to have a great time working through the Lombardy volume. My Christmas present to myself, La Cucina del Sole also arrived today and it promises to be an excellent read as well as containing some glorious recipes. I want to thank Sicily Guide for recommending it. Amazon only had one copy in stock when I ordered so I am very pleased to have it. At lunchtime I received this small panettone as a gift from the Altro Posto. [I am collecting the figurines from these.] Such gestures do warm your heart and make you want to go back.

Today's Post Office fiasco: Silly me, I thought that the queue didn't look too bad when Simi and I walked past this morning, so a little later in marched your intrepid blogger, with just a card for the USA, a small one for Canada and a package for Milan to post. The holder of postal ticket number 66 was being served when I entered, so when ticket number 74 popped out of the machine for me I didn't think I'd be there for more than a few minutes...... Half an hour later my number came up and I could have screamed when the clerk declared, "The card for Canada is too small, signora. You'll have to put it in a bigger envelope and come back". Reader, I lost my pazienza again. "Signora, " said I, "I have already waited half an hour and I do not have time to come back. I could understand it if you said an item was too big but how can it be too small? I don't care if I have to pay extra because it's an irregular size but there must be a way of posting it now." "I'll check", she replied. "Still prioritaria?" "Yes", I confirmed [why should I want to post it any other way?] and lo and behold, the computer came up with a price. You shouldn't have to argue to get them to check postal methods! I was all smiles and "Merry Xmas" after that so we parted on good terms. But how, I ask myself again, can there be only one postal counter open 5 days before Christmas? And how can the manager, who is always prancing about smilingly, watch all this chaos and not open another? I wanted to collar him this morning and yell, "Look! You can't possibly be satisfied with this!" The lady clerks, though, become quite human once they leave the place, as Simi and I often encounter them on their way home whilst we are on our evening walk. They pet her, talk to her and, if it's cold, ask where her coat is. "She's got a red one for the rain and a blue one, hasn't she?" observed one of the ladies on Tuesday. They were amused to learn that Simi has more coats than her Mum!

211 clandestini [would-be illegal immigrants] were intercepted off the Isole Pelagie yesterday. They were travelling in a 16-metre fishing vessel. They have had medical checks and are now at the Lampedusa "welcome" centre awaiting a decision on their next destination. I wonder what sort of Christmas these disperati will have?