Junefinnigan's Weblog

Benvenuto to all my lovely loyal and new followers,

Last Wednesday our legna (firewood) was delivered by our local man in his Ape (pronounced Apay), my man bought some rods and a brush and he swept the chimney on Thursday morning.  My man enjoys this kind of thing, but the brush was too large for the last quarter of the chimney and a very red-faced, puffing ex-commando, uncharacteristically admitted defeat.  “Virtually nothing has come down, so I’ll dash to Certaldo and get a smaller brush” he announced.  However, it was 12.35 when he left on his ten minute journey and yes, you guessed right, the ferramenta had closed at 12.30 for pranzo (lunch).  So we agreed that a three-quarter clean was probably good enough and lit the fire that day.  Thank god we were right and what a pleasure it was to have a roaring fire, on that dark cold evening.

Alessandro and his hand-made Samurai Armour.
Photo J Finnigan

On Friday we collected my black leather handbag from ‘La Rapida 2’ in central Certaldo, where it was being mended.  I must introduce you to the handsome Alessandro Barozzini, who not only mends shoes, boots and other leather things, he makes the most amazing things in leather and metal.  Alessandro is a dashing thirty-six year old with a history of fighting in ‘Medieval Costume reenactments’ and most of his creations are linked to battle dress.  He is also writing a book, very slowly, about the history of fighting.  Of course my man is also an expert on such things and the conversation became quite involved and lengthy.

Autumn ‘flowers’, at the end of November, on the Bougainvillea.
Photo J Finnigan

Despite the cold damp weather, the climbing Bougainvillea in the garden seems to think it is early autumn and is still full of bright pink blooms.  Also, the pepper plants are still fruiting in abundance.  However, tomorrow we will have to cover a number of potted plants as the temperature is dropping fast.  There is also snow on the distant mountains.

Last week the world remembered the assassination of JFK and the following day the UK celebrated fifty years of Radio One.  I can tell you that on both these days, fifty years ago, I was tuning in my new transistor radio (then called a tranny, until the word was pinched by a certain section of the human race) on my bedroom windowsill in Devon, England.  Despite being only twelve, I can remember the shock of JFK’s death as he was hugely popular then.  However, the launch of Radio One by Tony Blackburn was so exciting that the JFK thing was made a little less awful.  Prior to this, I used to sit on top of my mother’s upright piano and glue myself to the old wireless there, which picked up Radio Luxemburg and the pirate ship Radio Caroline.   Radio One was to be a huge influence on the 1960’s and we used to tune in every weekend for Alan (pop-pickers) Freeman’s top twenty hits.  A little later, Top of the Pops was launched on TV and the  radio Disc Jockies all took their turns in presenting the latest bands and pop singers.  Ultimately, the DJ’s became celebrities too.

Silvio addresses new young recruits to his party Forza Italia.
Photo AP/Mauro Scrobogna, Lapresse.

And so to the dashing, Silvio Berlusconi.  SB addressed a group of new young members to his party Forza Italia , yesterday, telling them that the vote to remove him from parliament is tantamount to a government coup and was based on “an incredible verdict, absolutely unfounded, used to lay the groundwork of the political murder of the centre-right leader.”  The charismatic seventy-seven year old, said he would not ask for a pardon, but that President Giorgio Napolitano should concede him one on his own volition and called the sentence, reduced by an amnesty to one year performing social service, “a humiliation”.   Now let’s read that again.  Did he not  just ask for a pardon, if indirectly, or I am a imagining things?  And just a footnote, we hear that SB and his new ‘wife’ are sleeping in separate beds!  Life is tough being a billionaire.

Well, we are off to ‘C’era una Volta’ for lunch today.  Good Tuscan cooking and popular with the locals.  Visit http://www.ristorante-ceraunavolta.com

‘My Father, The Assassin’
By June Finnigan

Have a great week and don’t forget to check out my current thriller, ‘My Father, the Assassin’,  on http://www.amazon.co.uk (eu or com),  http://www.goodreads.com or http://www.firstchapters.net

Amore June x

PS I am hard at work on the sequel, ‘The Bolivian Connection’ which should be published in the spring.

Read Full Post »