Glynis Carrodeguas and the flight to Catania

Who is Glynis Carrodeguas you ask?  She was the charming stewardess aboard my British Air flight from London's Gatwick Airport to Catania.  First, she was the winner of the recent "Great Britain Molly Slavin Look-a-Like Contest".  Molly was one of the absolute best booster club Moms in the history of North American high school football!  Glynis is a dead ringer for Molly and unfortunately the picture I took of her to prove my point didn't turn out well as a shaft of sunlight through the porthole window behind her ruined the shot, DAMN!  In talking to her I found out that she, like most of the Europeans I met last year, was not a George Bush fan.  The only way I could make sense of her viewpoint on Mr. Bush was that her ancestors must have worked in the Tower of London in the Glory Years under King Henry VIII.

Check-in at Gatwick was smooth taking a total of maybe five minutes from baggage drop off to security screening.  The flight it self was smooth as well but we only had 37 customers on board with only about 20% of the seats being filled.  I had a seat on the aisle in the exit row and was the only person in any of this row's six seats.

Good British Air news, they did not lose my bags on either of my two flights this week!!!

Elephants at Catania's Fontanarossa Airport

They came out to greet me, our new American DB, Larry Atkinson is next to me and a lot of the new faces are players who have joined us from last year's Palermo teams.  It was great to see and meet  everyone.

Arancini Ball at Etoile D'Or

The first stop was obvious, REAL SICILIAN FOOD.  An arancini ball is deep fried rice with an infusion of cheese and meat with rich ragu sauce!

Squisita Pizza at Jonica's Pizzeria

This is a Sicilian individual pizza at one of our favorite haunts in Aci Castello.  This particular one has ham, mushrooms, pistacchio, Swiss cheese and panna which is sour cream.  DELICIOUS!!!

The Guys outside Jonica's

We went to Jonica's for my first night in Catania just like last year.  Good food but the renewal of friendships was better!

Chiara, always funny and animated, was the first Pink Elephant I saw this year.

I woke up this Sunday morning to this view out my window at Malibu of the Ionian Sea.

It is still VERY brisk here because of winds that we did not experience last year.

Two of the Savia Bakery's Pistacchio Cannoli

At 11:30 a.m. my doorbell rang with a home delivery of these two beauties!  Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang again with another delivery, a warm chocolate tartufone hidden under the Savia napkins.

Let the diet begin... on Monday!

Roberta attempting to take a taste of the cannoli.

Roberta and Claudio were the deliverers of the cannoli while Gustavo brought the tartufone.

It was fun to see them and share some breakfast pasteries.

The first of many I'm sure!

Today is "International Jet-Lag Day" in Italy so I had to honor the cultural folkways of my host country.  This called for almost an entire day in bed getting up only for another slice of tartufone, the cannoli were long gone by the time my guests had left.

"I'm feeling better!"