Thinking of my old friend Nick Evans today when I made soft-boiled egg and anchovy on toast for breakfast – so yummy. And so stuffed with yummy breakfast that it was a couple of hours before I felt like doing Chi Kung (I normally do it BEFORE eating anything). Fortunately (?) there was a couple of hours worth of dish washing, tidying and organising of children needing to be done so I made myself useful – though at a very relaxed pace as it was even hotter today. Level 2 Chi Kung (hands definitely on floor – fingers though, rather than palms). Lunch at the restaurant with the fabulous gelato: Parma ham and perfectly ripe melon – a dish I could happily eat every day. Too hot to eat much, though (sadly for waistline) just the right temperature for gelato – mint choc – utterly, indescribably wonderful. Took Katie swimming in the hotel pool – I would have preferred the sea but she had already been to the beach with Nick while I did Chi Kung and she was, for some reason, determined that I should ‘try’ the pool. Parents will no doubt recognise the boredom of supervising young children in swimming pools for long periods. I entertained myself by carrying out the only aqua-aerobics exercise I can recall from a single class with Susan Laborde and some very toned-looking septuagenarian French ladies in Salies, many, many years ago – a manoeuvre involving walking backwards in the water with flat feet and clenched cheeks. I recall that, the day after the class, I ached in places in which I hadn’t previously been aware that there were muscles. Watch this space…
Local mozzarella and tomatoes with a glass of prosecco for supper, followed by a lemoncello baba (like a rum baba but with … you get the picture) Nick had brought home from a famous bakery. Nice long walk in the evening.