July

Good riddance to July. Let’s put it into perspective because it wasn’t all bad.
Weather wise (the bad part):
We didn’t have a single drop of rain the entire month and we managed to hit a new record high of 49C (that’s 120F to you Americans) in Brindisi. This is the month that I officially gave up on most of the plants on my balcony. It seems that every time I turned around they were wilting away. So all I have left are plants that are “very hardy” and toothpicks. Hey, I’m on the 4th floor so nobody can really see my plants away. I’ll just get some plastic ones! The good thing about this weather is that I was at the beach more than any other July. You already know this because I’ve been posting those underwater photos all month. Now I won’t feel bad if I go someplace else in August because I’m already getting a little burned out on the beach.

Guest wise (the good part):
It was a great month. At the start of the month my sister was here with my brother in law (Lori and Kent). They always have a good time hanging out in Brindisi. Then the following week I had Juli and Sabine as guests. They had found my place through Couchsurfing.com and they needed a place at the end of their crazy whirlwind tour through Puglia. I say crazy because I really didn’t know when they would be here, until they were here. In the end they arrived on a Sunday afternoon and then they were gone by the very next night. But in that short time I had fun showing them around Brindisi, Ostuni, Polignano a Mare, and Bari. See what I mean about whirlwind. Crazy kids!

Other wise:
Work had some interesting moments for me. Naturally some things are slowing down and getting ready for the August shutdown of the plant but that’s when something unexpected usually happens. And it did, but we got through it. Enough said.
At home my downstairs neighbor started destroying their apartment in July. At 7:00 AM last Monday I woke up to a light banging sound that I found annoying to say the least. Then at 8:00 AM they got out the sledgehammers and really went to town. Then they added to this commotion with a third person shoveling up broken ceramic tiles and dumping them down a plastic slide on their balcony. The good news is that I think the “destruction phase” of redecorating is over as so far this week everything has been quiet.

So today starts August and things look better already. The most important event is that the plant in Brindisi is closing for 3 weeks starting Monday. So I have 3 weeks of vacation right, not exactly. Stay tuned…


Mia sorella throwing some parmigiano on spaghetti e cozze. A good action shot by Kent

Juli and Sabine, the Couchsurfers in Ostuni

Nello and I reading a book this month. Nello is such a showoff because he's reading it upside down.