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Thursday 14.11.02 | Just spent the day in Italy. Rah. Also soaked to the bloody marrow (no complaints about UK weather at the moment please, because believe me it's worse here than it possibly could be north of the channel) but very happy. Anna needed to spend a day working on her project and I fancied a day out from Nice so dragged Alicia along with me and we went to Vintimiglia (or Vintimille depending on which country you're in - all rather confusing) - only about 40 minutes on the train. Was refreshingly strange to not be able to understand a single word (rather than being able to understand most but not all which is deeply frustrating) and feel like a complete tourist. We almost didn't get into the country as Alicia had forgotten her passport and the police were checking them. We shat ourselves but we were just waved through, thank God. Vintimiglia's a weird place, as I expect all border-towns are - mix of French and Italian, and no real sense of national identity somehow. All the buildings could be French or Italian, lots of bilingual signs, that sort of thing. But was cool to be in a different country anyway. Weather was shitty all day to the point of comedy; we reached that stage where we just couldn't get any wetter and just started laughing. Lunch in a nice small restaurant, and a polite nose around the shops before another round of terror with the police (this time they got on the train and started checking people's papers - must stricter than in France) but we were ignored again and so all was good. Monday 18.11.02 Whew, quite a weekend. Meant to come in and update last night but forgot due to tiredness and general feeling that I had been used to mop the floor, as I generally get when I have been out on the razz the night before. My gay-as-the-hills colleague from work took me clubbing on Saturday night after a grim do for someone's birthday in the store, and it was certainly an experience. Better than last time, certainly, was a laugh, and I might even go again at some point. Sunday started VERY slowly with a coffee and Socca (local speciality, very hard to describe - looks like a pancake but made of some vegetable or other; not the best thing for first thing in the morning but it's very simple and was the only thing I thought I could stomach) in the Flower-Market-Square and in the sunshine too, which was marvellous. After regaining my humanity walked down to and along the beach for a bit, gawking at all the wobbly kids with stabiliser-bikes and those really annoying little metal scooter things which businessmen in London look really silly on, and then came back to the flat to have a shower and meet Alicia for a panini in the Old Town. Went for a walk and stopped chez Khaled on the way back before crashing in and doing very little around the flat. Rah. And it seems to have stopped raining (finally!) too, which is good news. To conclude today, I have to report that the French for 'I could do it with one hand behind my back' is 'I could do with with my fingers up my nose.' Delightful. Anyone whoever tells me from now on that French is a beautiful language will get a verbal bashing - it sounds alright, but the vile things they use it for...
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