KEEPING YOU ABREAST..

.. of the trivia of my day to day life in Sicily:

Still feeling melancholy and not really knowing why, I strolled down the street in my white linen dress [for the weather is beautiful now] and red accessories this morning. "Signora, you are pretty like a daisy", said the elderly gentleman who sits outside the greengrocer's in his wheelchair; at least, he does now that they have reopened. I don't know where they have been all summer and I've been quite worried about the elderly gentleman, wondering if perhaps he'd died and I wouldn't have known. Death notices are displayed on a special board outside the church and, as I don't know his name, if one regarding him had been among them, it would have meant nothing to me. I was cheered by the compliment but even more cheered, not to say relieved, to see him again. Later a wink from Raffaele the hairdresser and I was set up for the day.

This afternoon panic set in as I thought I had lost my "Sicily" pendant. This was given to me by two friends here twelve years ago, so that I would "always have Sicily close to my heart". And so I do, only it ended up a bit lower down today! Coming back with Simi from our walk, I suddenly "felt" that I didn't have it on any more, and, placing my hand on my neck, realised I was right. There was no sign of it as we retraced our steps, so a frantic search of jewellery box, dressing table, sides of sofa and chairs ensued. Then I "felt" something again. I looked down and there it was, inside my bra! This is not the first time something like this has happened to me: some years ago I was travelling back to the UK from Sicily and, during the flight, realised I no longer had on a locket which my mother had given me for my twenty-second birthday. Another frantic search took place as soon as I got home but it was not until I was getting ready for bed that I found it; yes, there it was again! I must have travelled all the way from Catania to Cardiff thus. Sometimes there is something to be said for not being skinny! By the way, that's bubble-wrap I've stuffed in there for the photo!