Death is stalking me.
Out for a Sunday morning stroll in March and a marathon runner keels over in front of me.
Last Sunday I’d just slathered the kids with factor 40 when a helicopter drops out of the sky and lands on the beach.
A 47-year-old man had had a heart attack. A doctor and two
Continue reading With all the will in the world
A magnificent Roman monument, although you probably won’t find it in any guidebooks to Rome. It’s part of the abandoned gas works in the Ostiense neighbourhood near where I live. Other strange towers spiral up from the undergrowth and rusting gantries jut out over the sleepy green Tiber.
The whole area contains a number of relics from
Continue reading Another Colosseo
There’s an ad campaign in Italy at the moment for endermology treatment that looks as if you iron away your cellulite.
I like the picture because I can imagine it embodies a doubly erotic fantasy for many men.I love the levitating table, but close up, the endermologicky machine looks
Continue reading Girl-on-girl housework
The polls closed half an hour ago. Read here on what Italians were (not) voting about.
It’s sad to think that such important questions were dependent on the weather – if it had rained, then more people may have voted rather than gone to the beach, just as they do every single Sunday for four months every
Continue reading Culture of death, whatever
I used to think the lyric from Massive Attack’s Karmacoma was
D’ye make it in Roma?
That seemed right when we were planning on moving to Rome three years ago.
Looking at online lyrics doesn’t clear up the confusion, e.g.
Jamaica an’ Roma
Given Tricky’s trippy texts, I’d go for
Jamaican aroma
However, since Mr B’s been offered jobs both here and in
Continue reading Karmacoma
can you also confirm that someone who looks a lot like Mr B, also known as ‘estee’ will be walking on that beach pretty soon????
liked reading your stuff…..
estee….
Don’t want to worry you, but people do say that these things come in threes…!
ghouls… deffo ghouls
Regards to you Riet Spek and of course also to Mr. B and the kids.
Guess who
Ria Bacon, I heard that there was an extremely nice set of Dutch grandparents on that beach as well.
Can you confirm this rumour?
Riet Spek will neither confirm nor deny the aforementioned comments, but looks forward to seeing schoon zus #3 very soon …