Friday, 21 February, 2020
Before getting into the happenings of this evening's rugby match, I have a few random thoughts from my first 41 days this season living in Varese . . .
First, in the early morning light,
the old walls of the greater
Villa Skorpion II complex have
a rich patina that I like
Laurie started her Italian I class today at the Conejo Valley Adult School facility in Thousand Oaks, California.
As luck would have it, our neighbor Santa Barbara sent me three photos of t-shirts from a shop in Luino near where she works.
I think every Italian teacher should wear these style t-shirts to class to help their students master Italian body language as well as the spoken word.
This one looks easy enough
Be sure to bob your hand
up and down when using this one
Be careful with this one,
too much hand motion could
land you into a lot of trouble
Especially in Italy!
Italians have a somewhat annoying habit of simply stopping what they are doing to talk or do something, anything in the middle of an aisle or a sidewalk with no regard for others who are trying to pass them.
Thus today, while shopping at the Esselunga Supermarket, I entered an aisle that had a cart parked on each side facing in opposite directions. No problem, there was still a lane between them giving ample room for me to pass.
Until it happened.
An older lady entered her cart into the gap and just left it there while she perused the items on the nearby shelf thus assuring that "none shall pass!"
After about a minute, she finally reopened the dam that she had created only to create another one an aisle or two over I'm sure.
The weather in Lombardia has been extremely dry this Winter. You may have noticed clouds of dust in last night's photos from our practice.
Skorpion Field has no sprinkler system for its irrigation, relying on the usual Alpine foothill Winter weather that features lots of rain and some snow to nourish the sod.
So far this year, it has only rained three days since my arrival and even on those occasions they were mere spritzes that lasted no more than ten minutes. We have had no snow in Varese this year.
The Sun has been shining every day I've been here with daytime temperatures in the low 60°F range but it does get chilly in the evening. Last night, as we left practice at about 11:15 p.m., the temperature at Skorpion Field did register in our car as being only -3°C or 27°F.
It's almost as if the globe were warming . . .
Not that the fashion conscious locals care about the outside temperatures. The calendar says that it is Winter so, by goodness, I will wear my parka and a scarf during the day regardless of the heat!
The Big Deal of the Day was a trip to watch a Guinness Pro 14 International Rugby match in nearby Legnano's Stadio Giovanni Mari.
Tonight it was a Men's match between
Parma's Zebre Rugby Club and
Ireland's Munster Rugby Club
I love the 8:35 p.m. starting time.
On Sunday night, the same Estadio will host a Women's rugby match between Italian and Scottish National teams.
I arrived a bit early at the Stadio in order to buy my ticket for a mere €10 and enjoy the offerings of the assembled food trucks.
Food from Sardinia
Mexican and Venezuelan food
was attracting few patrons
Now that's more my style
Five meat skewers per favore!
Five skewers for €5 or 12 skewers for only €10. I had my petite figure to consider.
Cool logo for the Italian team
from Parma
Birra is Italian for beer
Of course rugby has its own beer label.
It was time to get to my seat.
How can you get violent . . .
. . . with such a fun looking Zebra mascot?
The rooster mascot in the background is a whole other story.
Interesting warm-up lateraling drill
The inbounds pass is the one
play in rugby that I love to see,
even in warm-ups
During a moment of silence for
a fallen rugby comrade
The Zebres are on the left in black shirts while the Munster players wore red jerseys.
A little violence is a good thing
Some game action
Scrum Lords
I left at half time with
Munster leading 7-0
The first half lasted 57 minutes due to a series of injuries and TV review stoppages. It was getting colder and the game was a rather dull one, so I opted to head home early and get home at a decent hour.
I had already agreed to call Laurie at 11:00 p.m. tonight while she was visiting my Mother in her home. It would give me a chance to speak "face-to-face" with my Mother on FaceTime using Laurie's phone. My Mother's phone does not have this advanced technology.
I did steal some nice Second Half photos from the game's website.
Munster on the move
INBOUND PLAY!
The Munster player in red may
have a bit of a problem
sticking his landing
Things picked up in the Second Half
for the Irish squad
It was good to get out in the evening for once for a non-Skorpion related event.
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