La Tosca Gelateria, the scoop.

I have learned 2 things this week...one is a disappointment and the other a revelation which explains many things...

The learny one first. I now believe that mosquitoes have the natural ability to cross the barriers of time and space - in fact they seemingly have mastered inter-dimensional travel.

My undeniable evidence for this comes in many forms - number one is that when you lie in bed at night and they find their way into the room (through closed windows!!!), they do a fly-by and buzz less than 2mm from your ear....you immediately leap to switch the light on and spend 2 hours searching a 3 metre square room with no success.

Number 2 is that you can be going about your business quite normally - not feel a thing - and within a millisecond they arrive, sink their tiny proboscis into your ankle and vanish again. If enough get you on the ankle and you fall over - that's it, it's over. They are like a pack of hungry wolves once you're down.

Here's a thing to support number 2. However quickly I can move on an empty stomach...I am certain that if I drank 4 times my body weight in blood I doubt I could fall on the floor quickly - let alone fly to a safe part of the wall waving my nose in victorious sarcasm.

Number 3 is my most damning evidence. You see the stripy little bugger flying around - happy as Larry the sandboy...you bide your time...you swipe out and close your hand around the space she occupies...you see that nothing escapes your grip. You open your hand and - nothing.

The answer is clear - inter-dimensional travel.

Now you know.

The other thing I learned....a little sadder (if that were possible).

We went to a "Sagra" last weekend with some friends of ours, who can be read on... www.simplyputphotos.blogspot.com.

A Sagra is like a village festival with local food produce, locally cultivated wine, music and dance etc etc. This one, in Aquilea, was particularly varied. You could drink your sangria, eat you horse steak and win a full nativity scene in a tombola...

But it was the music and dance that was worthy of note. Initially our interest was taken by the wonderfully diverse playlist the dj had chosen...from the full "Happy Days" theme to the Italian "Simple Simon Says"...somewhat like a bad wedding but only somewhat.

any road up, to the point. He played YMCA.

Regardless of the fact that locally this would be called "Ypsillon, Emma, Chee, Ahh", the letters are remarkable similar in appearence, but not one person present knew how to dance to it.

Like Coca-Cola, I assumed that if you took it to a group of pygmys in the Amazon rain forest you would have bruised knees before the end of the first chorus...not much like coke but you get my drift.

But Italy - not a clue.

Ho-hum.