Category: Italy

saying hello from Sardinia!

On By mouseytongIn Italy, Misc..., Mousey's Travel2 Comments
From Our Balcony

This photo is from the 1st day. We left Genoa last Thursday on an overnight ferry for Olbia in our WV van. MIL, Milo and I with M at the drivers seat in the van. My FIL on his scooter behind us and our mechanic with another van right behind him. It was the best start to the journey but we managed. We were delayed leaving Genoa by 1 and half hours but surprisingly we made up time and arrived as scheduled. Tirrenea the ferry company redeemed a few points in my eyes. It is usually the worst among the lot that services the Genoa-Olbia route.

After disembarking, we made our way slowly toward Porto Cervo. Taking in the lushes green hillsides and the bluest seas ever! Even my MIL was impressed. She wasn’t in the best of moods as she was feeling a little unwell in the ferry and the whole time leading up to this summer holiday, she was complaining about the heat in Genoa, thinking it would be just as bad here. She also said that she would rather go down south and so on. I reassured her that she would find the apartment we found here in Sardinia would be to her taste and she would enjoy the balcony immensely as she likes to sit out in the open and have a smoke. Even if the beach is not near. We are after all at a port. We prefer to have a place near to our shop since weΒ  are opened till 1 or 2 am. After a long evening we want to just walk home and crash.

True enough, that was the best part of the apartment for her! Apart from the fact that the apartment was spotless and lack nothing. It had everything! Being used to the southern version of rental units, she was pleasantly surprised. We lugged half a home with us. We even brought along an ironing board and and iron. That is how much faith we have in the rental units here. But the north and more commercialised areas have a better grasp of the market. They have thought of everything to make your stay comfortable so that you would keep coming back. I can’t say the same for the south though. Unless they are an international chain of hotels or managed by a foreigner. Like an absolute jewel of a hotel on Ortigia in Sicily run by an English woman. It had everything, great breakfast and free wifi and most importantly air-conditioning! Something sorely lacking elsewhere.

The heat here is just as bad but we have been having some very windy days that make for a very great working environment so far. It is so hot that I can’t bring myself to go for a run. Though I did about 3.5km yesterday when the wind has been so strong itΒ  didn’t feel like it was 42 degrees at all! πŸ™‚ I was a little “chau ta” in the face though. The sun sneaks up on you when the wind is so strong. It is deceptive. But, at least I got a run in for this week. We found a gym nearby. We are still in negotiations for a better price for the usage of the gym. It is currently too high to for just 10 entries. At Euro 200!! We are at Porto Cervo, after all. Can you see all the yachts that are berthed at the port in picture? There has been more since Sunday.

This is our reason to be here on the island of Sardinia. To sell our vespas!

Got to go! The shop filling up with clients. Hopefully we sell ALL of our vespas! πŸ™‚

Toodeloos for now fro, Sardinia!! ❀

Our shop

 

Christ of the Abyss in San Fruttuoso

On By mouseytongIn Italy, Misc..., Mousey's Travel8 Comments
Christ of the Abyss – photo from Wikipedia

I am banned from going to the gym today. Ever heard of it? M says that I am overdoing it. Is there such a thing? I rested on Saturday and Sunday. Well sort of. My body was aching all over in a good ache kind of way so I rested Saturday. But Sunday we went out to sea. My first time out since summer started. I am a little tanned. Ko, if you are reading this, it so freaking hot now, you escaped it by 2 weeks. A week later, and both Sha and you would have fried in the heat. It was about 38Λ™C with 86% humidity. If I wasn’t out at sea, you would need a crowbar to pry me out of the house. We went out on our jetski and since M was driving, I didn’t want to, being lazy ass and all, I had to hold on to him as we were going like 60 knots. Crazy fast! Which ended with me having sore muscle, tan and a great day! In the end, I actually didn’t rest much. πŸ˜›

So, since I am banned from going to the gym or exercise, I am blogging. Yay! My prolific moments shall continue. As expected, I had to break this post to have dinner with the family but now I am back.

I have been living here on the Italian Riviera for years and have heard of this statue of Christ of the Abyss off of San Fruttuoso but I have never seen it in person. You can read more about it here. What’s more, I pass it all the time whenever we are out at sea on our way to Portofino or Sestri Levante. You can only reach San Fruttuoso either by foot from either Camogli or Portofino and from what I have read and heard, it takes about 2-3 hours to get there and the same to get back. Quite a hike. The easiest way would be by boat. There are more information about getting there from here, here and here.

So last Sunday, I decided that it was time I see it for myself. Told M lets go there for a swim since we didn’t want to go all the way to Portofino. On our way into the bay, the place was littered with jellyfish which made me a little nervous swimming there. But as we got closer to the beach it was clearer and free of jellyfish. What a relief! The water was cold at first dip but refreshing.

I set out to look for the statue and heard that it is further out and about 15m down. Water is very clear so I was hoping to be able to photograph it since I had my camera with me. I swam around till I caught sight of the hands of Christ. I tried to dive down closer to it to take a photo. I had on ill fitting goggles that kept letting water in. I possibly managed a paltry 3 metres and kept getting my vision blurred by water entering my mask. In the end, as they say, I anyhow snapped a picture. This is what I managed. You could just about see the outline of the outstretched arms on the left of the picture.

What I managed to take

After a few failed attempts, I swam back to the jetski and urged M to dive down and take a better picture for me. πŸ˜› He being the sweet man that he is obliged me. This is what he managed. He took a much better picture but still blur.

what M took….

It should actually look like this when taken from a better position with all the right scuba gear.

Well at least I have seen it in person though not as clearly as I would have liked. Maybe I can rent some scuba gear the next time to see it better or buy better fitting goggles and train my lungs better to withstand the dive down to not only see it but to maybe photograph it better.

I have another post about my Sunday (when I get round to it :P)Β  but this was one of the highlights of that day! πŸ™‚

There are 2 more of these statues in the world. 1 a gift from Genoa to St. George’s, Grenadaand another was presented to the Underwater Society of America in New York and was later placed off Key Largo, Florida. Hopefully some day I can visit them both.

Virgin Active Genoa

On By mouseytongIn Exercise, Italy2 Comments
Photo taken from the web

So, I signed up for Virgin Active Genoa gym about 3 years ago. Well, maybe 4. I have not been consistent in going there as I was a lazy ass. Oh, wait…I still am. Which makes my trip back there today monumental. I am going to list what I like about the place and what I dislike about it.

Like

1. It has 2 pools, one indoor and another on the roof equipped with deck chairs for summer,

2. football pitch,

3. children’s nursery for mum who want to work-out

4. bar area for smoothies, coffee, lunch, dinner, fruit salads or just drinks

5. Spa onsite

6. Sauna and tanning area

all this besides the normal gym equipment. And all on 3 floors!

The best part is that it is very near my office and home. Which makes it inexcusable for me to NOT go to the gym.

Dislike

1. Even after going there for years, you are still required to get a medical certification every year or they will deny you access but you continue to pay. You have to go to their doctor too before. Now we go for our own. This adds costs on top of our monthly subs.

2. They don’t provide towels, so I have to bring 2 with me all the time which makes me go through all my towels so fast and the amount of laundry just for towels if I go there 3 times a week is 6 towels just for gym days.

3. No toiletries provided. So on top of the towels, I have to bring my own shampoo, soap, conditioner, cream,Β  make up remover, cotton pads, tissues…everything! Which weighs down the bag and makes things so difficult. There are already so many things to bring. They can even provide the minimum?? Fitness First provides both towels and basic amenities, ie. shampoo, soap, cream, cotton balls/pads even slippers for the shower stalls.

4. They don’t have that many classes to take. Limited timings too. It could be because they are the ONLY Virgin Active in Genoa which doesn’t have enough members maybe for more classes. That could be because on average their subscriptions are really expensive relatively to someone’s pay here.

5. The toilet in the changing rooms are really dirty looking most of the time. I think the Italians are really bad at keeping it clean. The gym looks beautiful inside and out except for their toilets. I blame the people using them. Can’t they throw their tissue papers properly? Today, the papers were all over the floor in all 3 stalls. The sink area was all wet everywhere. Not just around the sinks but on the floor. Not just drops but puddles. So so strange. Such bad etiquette.

Actually these are really big reasons that outweigh most of the good things. Because it really weighs one down having to carry all of these.

But, I could be so picky because I am comparing it to other gyms. I am a Fitness First member as well in Malaysia and was a California Fitness member in Thailand. Though these other gyms did not have swimming pools, spa, bar area and sauna they had everything else which made things easier for me. I don’t have to lug so many things around with me. I could pare down my bag to just the exercise attire and shoes. It was most helpful when I was in Bangkok because I had to take public transport to get to the gym. A small bag would do.

Now here it is like taking everything from home just to go for a run. In the end it is better to just run around the office, go to the mini gym in the office and then straight to the showers which already has all the necessary items. Which leads to me becoming too lazy to get to the gym.

What has changed? I tried to cancel my subscription more than a year ago but the contract was already renewed and I couldn’t cancel till mid March this year before the new contract starts again in April. So we decided to suspend it for 6 months. Now, after that 6 months have past they started to charge me again for the suspended 6 months and then the contracts end. Since I am active now, I decided to make the most of it by attending some classes.

Today, I tried a strange class. Something In never heard of before. Nike Fusion. I wanted to go for a V-mat Pilates class but we had someone who came to show us some bikes that we were thinking of buying. I made it just in time for this Nike Fusion class. Interesting and strange at the same time. It says it is a amalgamation of different workouts. It uses a step board and some weights. It started of almost like a step aerobics class, then there was a lot of jumping, skipping all over the room with all the participant’s step boards all lines up. It felt like my athletics training. Running from end to end touching the boards, burpees, hopscotch up and down boards moving along the row of boards. There was also some capoeira moves. I was sweating and my heart rate was up throughout the 45 min class. All very confusing but very interesting. I will just have to wait for tomorrow to see if I touched any muscle that I have not used for a long time. I think it will hurt tomorrow. πŸ˜›

I want to lose weight. Something I struggle with since I came to Italy. You will see me blog about this occasionally. On top of that, in tandem with my paradigm shift in my mindset, I have decided I want to have “un corpo strepitoso” for this summer. A swimsuit worthy (not a six pack but maybe just a slimmer toned body) body by the 2nd of August 2012. Then continue to exercise and reach my goal of 10kgs off by end of the year.

I am using self realisation and envisioning myself in that ideal body that I have in mind for myself. Every toned body I see on TV, commercials, posters or even around me, I remind myself that that is what I want. So get my lazy ass off the couch and work at it!

Time for bed! And for my body recover. To feel the prepare myself for the pain tomorrow. πŸ™‚

Goose night to all!

Toodeloos!