Right I have a lot to write about concerning the holiday I just had in Italy so I'll be feeding it through the blog in bits interspersed with the normal stuff :D Today's entry concerns a curious phenomenon we noted in Senigallia.
Senigallia: Nature's vengeance
Ben throughout the buildup to the trip, constantly noted how much a fan of swimming in the sea he was and asked to make sure that we would each subscribe to this activity. We all agreed that it was a good idea and on the first day after our or arrival we were bound for the nearby beach. After scarcely a few minutes of tanning on the azzure ranks of deck-chairs we were asked again and again to go swimming, Richard and I consented and left our comfy baking trays to have a cool dip in the Adriatica. Ben took a few seconds to note that the water was not as clear as he would have liked before being summarily nipped in the toe by a passing crab. Realising that there would be far less competition for space further out the call was made for us to take on some deeper water. I was just trying to feebly repair my beach Sandles which had predictably fallen apart as soon as I arrived, when Ben let out a Sharp cry of pain and shouted "Something Stung me!" Naturally being men of iron constitution our reaction was a measured display of machismo and stoicism, manifest in the words "Change of Plan! Leggiiiiiiiit!!"
After a brilliant display of craven cowardice we recovered our breath enough to laugh about Ben's misfortune whereupon he was stung again With greater severity. It became plainly clear that Ben's malicious assailant was a jelly fish and we fled, as fast as was possible back to the umbrellas Screaming like girls. In a Matter of seconds a large cluster of red sores appeared over his arm and we began to ponder how to ease the pain. Well I say ponder but as any other avid watcher of friends knows the answer is disturbingly obvious; the correct prescription for the treatment of Jellyfish stings where no artificial medication is available is urea most commonly found in piss. One of us had to piss on Ben's arm and unsuprisingly he had made a miraculous recovery by the time I volunteered. We bought some cream Later on in the day and retired to the Hotel for some food.
In the evening all three of us shared one room in the hotel and were chatting for a while before tiredness claimed us and we drifted off into the twilight between waking and sleep. Suddenly Ben yelled out that something was on his back and from my view I saw him lob a large black beetle-like insect across the room towards the window. Truly nature seemed out to get Ben.
The final straw came the next night when Ben changed his bunk (the room had 2 normal beds which Richard and I slept in and a set of bunk beds) to sleep on the bottom bed. At almost exactly the same time as the night before a black beetle-like insect flew into the room and head right for where Ben would have been before, realizing his quarry wasn't there the little bugger zoomed out of the room again, presumably to report on Ben's location.
Suffice to say Ben didn't go into the sea, or anywhere which seemed vaguely feral for a good few days ;)
Duty Calls
Right I have a job to do today and it ain't my web-design gig. I'm supposed to go to London to house sit to make sure some packers can get through the door for my aunt who is moving from a ridiculously nice flat in Chelsea to what I presume must be a palatial property in Surrey. She's kindly paying not only for my ticket but is offering some remuneration for my services - Kaching! -
I'll be needing that to buy a new keyboard after having spent a week unable to fix mine without the proper tools (read: conductive paint). At the moment I'm using the other family keyboard. There were some rumours about a new apple keyboard in the offing (one which looks as cool as the G5's new enclosure) and I was looking forward to forking out the cash for one if it appeared at Macworld (now called CreativePro Expo) last week. However the new keyboard/mouse haven't so I'll be forking out for the standard keyboard which for some reason (when I looked last week) hasn't been discounted in the UK. The US store is shipping them out cheap but we UK dwellers have no such luck, even with my Higher Education Discount its still more expensive than the base rate US price now. I best check the store again because there's every chance that it has been updated in my week long absence.
later
John
Posted by John Swaine at July 24, 2003 12:40 PM