At least we have a roof over our head...

Our house, is a very very very old house (1886)... well, ok, not that old. Not Tower of London old (1080 ish) or even William Shakespeare old (1560 ish), but definitely older than Oklahoma City (1890). Turn's out even a house built in the late 19th century needs a new roof every now and then. So, even though we were a little concerned that it was rather late in the season to begin roof work, we were reassured by our neighbors and (more importantly) 'Jose the roof guy' that it would be ok.

As we have quite a lot of roof, we focused on the part that needed the most attention - the bit over the spare bedroom that actually leaks in heavy weather. It so happens that this section of roof has also become a home to what seems to be a rather large colony of rather fearless pigeons. Pigeons which strangely also appear to enjoy tap dancing.

We started (well, actually he started) monday last week - the end of November. The first part of the process went swimmingly. Jose and his assistant removed the old 'tegole' (terra cotta roof tiles) one by one, exposing a further layer of handmade smooth 'cotto' tiles beneath. This was the basic weatherproofing. The piles of the two types of tiles are shown in the first picture. We have one which is marked 22 Marzo '33 (March 1933), which means this is the 'new' roof put on when what is now our kitchen was previously converted from an animal stall and hayloft nearly 75 years ago.

Once these were removed, the superstructure of the roof is exposed. This is basically a lattice of larger and smaller wooden pieces between 2x2 inch and 4x6 inch in thickness. Apparently, this lattice is largely held together by dancing pigeon excrement.

In the next picture you can see the tremendous beams that run lengthwise down the house and basically keep everything from falling down, domino style I imagine. I say this as a naive and dangerously inexpert house restoring type. At this juncture, I would like to point out the beautiful clear, blue skies. Perfect roofing weather.

So, you can imagine our joyful surprise when we awoke the following morning to find....


















So, needless to say we took immediate action:


to be continued...

Valencia - Food, Architecture and Sport

We had the opportunity to visit Valencia a couple of weeks ago. The city has received tremendous investments in recent years, with a number of new and very exotic modern buildings, such as the Imax theatre above, and the opera house below. Both of these are set among a large complex of pools giving a very high-tech appearance. Awesome.




Although yours truly was there for a conference and therefore had to work a lot, the hosts made sure that everyone had a fantastic time. They arranged for all visitors to have 'shadows' who were undergraduate seniors who impressed us with their mature but fun and relaxed attitudes and whose language skills were enviable. Our young guides and translators did a really nice job of showing us around and helping us learn about all Valencia has to offer.

This is a place where there is great food, dancing, beautiful beaches, and sports - F1 Grand Prix arrives on the streets of Valencia in August, and the city hosted the most recent America's cup. I think the biggest surprise for us was the food. If you choose, or are lucky enough to be taken to, the right place, there are some very innovative and complex dishes to be had such as the fig, and ice-cream (made from olive oil) salad.

We're hoping to head ack in a couple of weeks for the F1 GP. Enough said.

Lladro Porcelain Factory

We are visiting the Lladro Porcelain factory this morning. The work they do here is amazing (and not inexpensive!) Here are some pictures. We will post more later.
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Scary times

Scary times here in Valencia. Our hosts have been absolutely wonderful, generous and kind. However, our first 'event' after arriving was to attend the bull fight. I will spare you the details. Here are some pictures. Now we can say, been there, done that, I don't recommend.

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Eat your greens...

Here's an update from our garden team (Heather). Looks like the Zucchini are ready. This may sound daft, but this is our first vegetable garden, so we are both pretty excited about growing stuff.



Personally, I am even more excited to eat it - especially when it looks like this. This is Zucchini Bread from the kitchen team (yes, Heather) - who knew you could make bread out of Zucchini? It tastes a little like carrot cake.

A study in contrasts

Where would you rather be!

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Dreaming of boats

One day we will get one of these...

A lovely day at the beach today. Just about to have a mexican dinner (!!) And then we ride home. It doesn't get any better.
Love
James
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TGIF

Sitting in a crowded commuter train (at least it's cheap and has great a.c.), I find myself in a weird timewarp. Twenty years ago I left my old employer - NatWest Bank - and set out for new horizons.

At the time, commuting into London (later living there), I said I wanted to leave the rat race, go be an academic, and never succumb to the life of a commuter drone (apologies to those who resemble that remark). However, you would have the last laugh if you were here today...

But wait! Now it is friday. After a week of grading exams, evading office politics, being editorial, working with reluctant grad students, and occassionally even writing something for myself, it is time to head to my favorite bar (see photo) and get a nice cold gin and tonic.

Tomorrow, we head south to Liguria once more, this time by moto. We are visiting our favorite spot - Camogli, and in particular, a little corner called San Frutuoso. This is an amazing little monastery in a small cove, with a little cafe by the shore. It is particularly cool, because you can only reach it by boat, or by a very tough hike. This keeps most of the ne'erdowells away. So.. adieu, farewell, and I will probably post next from the beach.

Ciao from the commuter train (By the way - it IS definitely worth it!)
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So how's the house going?

So a few of you have asked over the last few weeks/months, 'how's the house' - send some pictures! Well the house is going quite well. The first shot below, is more of a 'before'.

In fact, most of the house is actually still in a 'before' state. However, we have managed to make a few changes - mostly in the garden. Here is the view into the garden from the road.

Heather has done a lot of work on the flowers, herbs and window boxes. Here she is posing next to the tomatoes that she grew from seed this spring. In this picture you can also see the new mosquito screens that we have had installed on the windows and doors. A necessary addition in this part of the world. We also bought a 'mosquito magnet' which is a great device for attracting and trapping mosquitos - definitely recommended.

So, inside is another matter. Actually, the picture below is of the inside of one of the stalls. Eventually, we will fix this up and knock it through into the kitchen. It should make a nice dining room, with that domed brick ceiling. In the meanwhile, we allow the spiders to live there. They seem to like it...

The kitchen is taking shape though. Here is the wooden work bench that we have turned into a kitchen island. We got this from the antiques market at Casale Monferrato the first month we moved in. The market there is fantastic and always has cool things to be found, bought and put to new uses...

The wine rack became necessary after we started driving to Asti and surrounding area and buying wines by the case. Nizza Monferrato, Alba, Casale, and many other towns in the area have wonderful Cantine where you can sample and buy wine by the bottle or in larger quantities. Next step for us will be bottling our own!

Here is our fabulous new fridge from Smeg, alongside a 19th century cabinet, also from the market at Casale.

Here is Heather demonstrating the size of the 'grounds' by riding my new folding bike around the garden. Yes, its true. I am now commuting to work by bike/train/bike and loving it! I do get some strange looks, but that's not really anything new.

More later! ciao da Milano
James

Cherry Picking

You know how they use the term 'cherry picking' when you are doing
something easy - like competing against those less experienced - just
to win a trophy. Well, I am here to tell you, cherry picking is hard
work! We took about 5 kilos from our cherry tree - and lost probably
as much again due to mold (very wet year this year in Italy). Oh
well... this should be enough for some cherry pies...

Next up, apricots, peaches, pears, apples, figs, grapes, kiwi... anyone fancy lending a hand, just drop me a note!

Rio Maggiore

Lunch today at a nice corner in Rio Maggiore, the first (or last) of the five coastal towns in Liguria known collectively as Cinque Terre.

The cool thing about a day here is that you can buy a pass for 19 euro that gets you on the boat, train, and walking trails all day. Unfortunately for us, today the sea is too rough for the boats to pull into port. So we had to rely on the trains. As you can see from the picture, we are suffering through this setback...

Custom Moto Guzzis

I love Moto Guzzi. Not many people realize that this marque, born shortly after WW1 is the longest lived, continuously operating, motorcycle manufacturer in the world - behind only Harley Davidson in terms of longevity. These two have a lot in common, especially the fact that they both build only aircooled twins, with pushrod operated cams (at least until recently).

In fact, it is said that before their own revival, in the mid 1980s, HD visited MG to learn how to make their own v-twin handle properly (apparently they didn't acquire that particular secret).

Anyway, Guzzi's, like HD's are popular targets for customization. This particular bike (once an 850T I believe) has been 'improved' with a cruiser style seat, sporty exhaust, billet bar controls, and luxurious Hagon shocks. Quite an eyeful.

If anyone sees an original, unmolested 1970's era bike (750 sport) for sale, please advise. I promise not to do this to it...

Rainy afternoon in Cinque Terre

It does not want to stop raining here in Northern Italy. Still, we are spending the weekend in Cinque Terre. First stop, Levanto for beer and focacce for lunch.

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Bisybackson

The story of business in Italy. Any wonder why the economy is in the crapper?
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tales from the road

Hi, so here is a new blog where I will correspond from the field. That may be on a motorcycle trip, on a bicycle, or on vacation. As (one of) my (many) obsession(s) is bicycles and cycling, there will pro'lly be quite a lot of that... also motorcycles, also food... also... who knows. let's see shall we?!
love James