Fully into the holiday spirit now. Took Dash and Katie for a swim first thing – the beach was, if not deserted, then certainly much less crowded. By the time we left around 1030 it was packed. Most of the other bathers seem to be Italian. At one point, a man bumped into Katie, patted her on the head and then looked around to check for a parent. I wasn’t particularly close by – I was in the water with Dash, she was playing in the sand – there were at least 20 adults closer, so I was slightly surprised when he spotted me immediately. Then I looked around and realised that Kate, Dash and I were the only three people on the beach with pale skin and blond-ish hair! When I think that, of my children’s great grandmothers, one was part-Maori and another Anglo-Indian, it is astonishing how very white they are. Those Viking genes have obviously run roughshod over the rest.
Level 2 Chi Kung – and today my hands did actually touch the ground – a significant achievement given that I have unusually short arms and very long legs! Nick said that he glanced into the room at one point and was slightly startled to see that my bottom was the highest point of my body! Microcosmic orbit. I can report that Italian chi tastes the same as Greek chi and London chi (a surprise- I would have expected more Parmesan) but looks different: beautiful dark blue. Hey Robyn Banks, are you still keeping up the level 2 practice? I would be interested to know if anyone else, on getting to the parts where ones’ hands come close together but don’t quite touch, hear’s Harold Ramis yelling ‘DON’T CROSS THE STREAMS’. Or is that just me?
A nice wander around Maiori in the (relative!) cool of the evening, a glass of prosecco and some take away pizza.