Brimham Rocks

Brimham Rocks is one of my favourite places to visit. It's so much fun, I love climbing and it is a pro not being held back by harnesses and stuff it feels a lot more dangerous and like you're really accomplishing something by being one step away from an accident.

some of the rocks

Though since the last time I was there I think I've lost most of my ability to scale the rock piles, it was just about impossible for me to get up most of the rocks, no more squeezing into the little spaces and hoisting myself up. I did manage to get to the top of one though and the view was fantastic. It reminded me of Roseberry Topping in the Yorkshire Moors, when you are up at the top you can just see everything all the way around and its so quiet and calm. The countryside really is a beautiful place.

We (everyone except Mum, William and Joel) went with another family the McKennas who we are friends with. The weather was glorious and it was a fun day out together. Everyone I think suffered a little sunburn by the end of the day though, none of us realised how hot it actually was. Red faces and arms the next day!

Picnic Panorama

Thanks dad for the photos, I left my phone in the car so I could go climbing without fear of smashing it but as a consequence couldn't take any of my own.

Chatting

James on top

It was fun going around it, we stopped for a picnic lunch and then made another round afterwards. We stopped for ice creams at the gift shop and then as we were finishing and about to move on got distracted by a yellow helicopter seeming to be looking as if it was going to land so we hung around to see what had happened.

As it turns out a girl had fallen of some rocks and bounced down them, they had to call in the air ambulance (yellow helicopter), a regular ambulance and a responder unit. She looked alive as they brought her out so hopefully they managed to help her and she will be okay now. I wasn't so keen on climbing particularly high after that.

I think we must have hung around for about an hour watching all the proceedings, it was interesting but I did feel a twinge of guilt for having spent so long watching what would be to the girl's family a horrifying experience.

I tried looking to see if the incident had been published anywhere, I couldn't find an article for this occasion but it seems to happen fairly regularly there are lot of video clips and photos around of other times it has happened.

It was really nice seeing everybody again and catching up with them. Then we had more catch ups to make when we got home.

We got some new missionaries in our ward and one of them was here before about a year ago so it was nice to see him and laugh about things! Of course we asked him about his drivers license (his old one had a funny picture on it) he told us he had lost it. So everyone was a bit disappointed, Louisa did tell him though that we like it because he looks like the kid Russell from UP on it which I'm not sure he found as funny as we did.

But he is here until the end of his mission now he only has five weeks left so plenty of time to find the lost license.

Week 7: Tuscany

Sunday:

Beach day! We arrived at the beach at around 10.30 then Alessandra Stefano and Bea went grocery shopping whilst me and Fede stayed on the beach. They got back around 12.30 and we had a picnic. The sea is wonderful, not clear but warm and the waves are huge and powerful it's great fun to swim in. We stayed until 4.30pm and then went to see a friend of theirs who they had met in the supermarket. 

The beach

Cucumber for the sun burn!

Monday:

Another day on the beach. By this point I have rather bad sunburn on my shoulders and back, despite wearing factor 50 sun cream. The sea is nice huge waves to jump over and when it is calm it is great to swim in. 

Tuesday:

It threw it down with rain so we went to visit some mines. Il Parco archeominerario di San Silvestro. It was good fun. We got a guides walk through tour through one mine and then on a train through the second. It was very interesting. We also went to look round the village of Bolgheri and found an olive tree planted in 1720. 

The mine train

Inside the mine

The guide

The olive tree

Wednesday:

Still raining. We stayed in the house all morning it rained so much and then in the afternoon went round Marina Castagneto. Took ice creams and ate them inside the restaurant because it began raining heavily again. Went to the beach on the evening to watch the sun set. 

Thursday:

Went to an archaeological park in Baratti on the gulf. It was very interesting all roman remains of temples and streets and Etruscan houses. We also went to Necropolis to see some burial tombs of the Etruscan tribes (pre roman) that were dug up. Then we spent the afternoon on the beach. 

Pirate ship in the gulf

Foundations of temple A had a secret underground passage 

Remains of the baths

On the Roman road

Me and Fede on too of an Etruscan but

The castle

Etruscan burial tomb

Sarcophagi

Friday:

Last full day in Tuscany so we spent it on the beach. We stayed for the morning then spent the noon hours back at the house because the sun gets too hot and then went back for the afternoon. We made friends with the adjacent people who have a cute little dog called Pino! Went our for dinner at a pizzeria. 

Saturday: 

Packed up to come back to Rovescala. Went home via a terracotta shop - Tuscany is known for making terracotta. They bought a sundial and Fede chose a beware the cat sign. I picked up some little starfish. Hopefully they will make it back in one piece. As soon as we got home it started raining. Also thunder and lightning. 

Day 15: Bibliotecha

The sun was certainly shining on us today. It was not a promising start with the overcast greyness present this morning, but it soon brightened up.

After waking up and getting ready for the day I took myself and Federico to Elga's house where I spent two hours tutoring her two children. First I tutored Alessandro, we spent half the lesson doing some exercises in his English book, and then the other part of the lesson, we looked at practising pronouncing the words we identifed last week and then read some more of Snow White (Biancanieve). His pronunciation is getting better although he often pronounces the english letters with italian sounds. It gets confusing because Italian E is said Ay and Italian I is pronounced Ee. 

After Alessandro, I tutored Francesco. We did the same pattern. Exercises in his book and then practicing the words and then reading aloud. He has also improved in pronunciation.

When we finished, Alessandra came and all of us went to the park. Both Elga and Alessandra had planned to go to see a friend of theirs who might be moving to Saudi Arabia but she wasn't there. The boys (Alessandro, Francesco and Federico) played basketball. On an afternoon and evening the basketball court and football pitch all full of the older lads, but on a morning it's empty so they could have the run of it.

I had brought  Alessandra's Italian copy of Pride and Prejudice with me so I sat reading it whilst they chatted. It's lucky I have read it so much in English and know the first chapter pretty much by heart so I could translate the meaning of all the words. Alessandra also got me to read aloud to Elga and her to practice my pronunciation.

We had carbonara for lunch and after that Alessandra took Bea to her piano lesson. Interestingly in Italian the piano is the piano forte and the english piano forte is the piano fortissimo. While they were out Fede continued writing a story about motorcross, I then had to persuade him to do some guitar practice. Point of difference in Spanish toca is you play, in Italian it is you touch. So I accidently told Fede to touch his guitar for fifteen minutes instead of play it! He did however correct me and I will not be making that mistake again.

After guitar practice we played on the wii unlocked some new levels and then played scarabeo. By the time we finished scarabeo Alessandra came back. Bea had gone to see a friend who had just come back off holiday. Me Alessandra and Fede then went out to the library, we returned the DVDs from last week and took out some new ones: Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda, Mirror Mirror and Aladdin King of Thieves as well as some Naples comedy thing that Fede wanted to see. I also got out some English books, Jane Eyre, 1984 and Mirror Mirror.

We tried to watch Kung Fu Panda when we got back but the disc was so scratched it wouldn't play so we swapped to Puss in Boots instead. This time we watched it in Italian with English subtitles but the next movie we will watch will be English with Italian subtitles.

Thanks to everyone who is reading this it's gratifying to know my life is somewhat interesting! I have had sniggers directed to me about my poor spelling and grammar despite the fact I have just completed two a levels in English Literature and English Language. My apologies! However let me explain why:

1. I am writing from an Italian computer where the keys are in different places
2. Also spell check is in Italian and every word is underlined and I do not have the time or patience to check them
3. The punctuation keys are deceptive. It says it's an apostrophe but it's actually a an: à the apostrophe is actually located on the dash key.

So please please please read it with a little lenience for my poor brain clouded with Italian that I don't understand!

Buonanotte!