The Big Butte

Yesterday, Giorgio and I walked to the top of Mont Thabor, in France. We estimated it was about 30–35 kilometres and took us 8+ hours. It was fantastic! There is a wonderful mountain outcrop that looms above the valley where we started from (I named it the Big Butte), and we ended up seeing it from all sides. From the top of Thabor we were looking down on it, far off in the distance. Then we walked down the valley so that it was on our left. There is a kind of long, grey escarpment that was almost like something out of this world.



We started the morning with coffees and pastries at a bar, and another coffee in the rifugio at the start of the walk. Lunch was in a field beside the stream of ice melt after we'd done the hardest part of the descent. (Hard for me, because of the loose stones. Giorgio and Amy run down these sorts of slopes.) Giorgio brought a bottle of chardonnay, and we shared some filled rolls we'd bought earlier. Back at the rifugio, we had a glass of red wine and toasted our successful climb.



Dinner later with the family at the apartment in Sansicario. Amy had done a 30K run in the hills nearby, and Olivia had done "nothing," she said!

Another fantastic day. I really enjoy Giorgio's wit. We spend a lot of the time laughing.

The Life of Briancon

Briancon, a French ski resort town a half-hour's drive north of Cesana through the mountains, was pretty lively for a Monday evening. Giorgio, Amy, Olivia and I went shopping for new trekking boots for me and bits and pieces for Olivia and Amy. We then went to the old, walled town for a yummy dinner of crepes, creme brulee and cider. I'd spent the day working at a cafe. Today we're doing another big walk.

Getting high in Italy

Early on Saturday morning, Giorgio met me at my hotel and we did a 15K or so scenic run through the centre of Turin, across a bridge over the Po River built by Napoleon and up to a castle (or was it a monastery?) that overlooks the city. My month-long break from regular running doesn’t seem to have done me much harm.

Giorgio picked me up again an hour later and we drove up to Cesana via La Venaria Reale, the restored 17th-century Royal Palace museum and gardens on the outskirts of Turin that was built “to celebrate beauty, hunting and leisure”. It’s a fabulous complex of buildings and the museum aspect is really well done. We had a bite to eat there in a café in what had been the old kitchen area.



I’m staying at the Hotel Ginestra in Cesana, which lies at the foot of Mt Chaberton in the Italian/French Alps. Cesana is a resort town for skiers in winter and walkers/mountain bikers in summer. It looks gorgeous at the moment, with vividly bright flower boxes everywhere, cobbled streets, a fast-flowing icy stream running through the centre of the village, and quaint houses and shops with balconies and shutters. The block near me, right beside the stream, is closed to traffic, and people promenade and walk their dogs there. Yesterday a folk band was playing on the other bank of the river. The instruments were Alpine equivalents of what you might find in a zydeco band, and holidaymakers were doing folk dances. It was fun watching them while I ate my coconut, baci and stracciatelli gelato.

Giorgio and Amy have a holiday apartment in Sansicario, about 6K further up, that looks back across to Chaberton. Amy, who works as a freelance translator (Italian to English), keeps her horse nearby and does a lot of riding. She’s also a really talented runner, with a recent marathon PB of 3:15.

My first day here, Giorgio drove down to Cesana to pick me up for dinner with Amy and two of their three daughters, Jenny and Olivia. Valentina is away in Sardinia at the moment. The girls are gorgeous, and speak English as well as Italian. It was a delicious dinner (bruschetta, gnocchi with tomato and beans, chicken with prosciutto and salad, and berries). Giorgio and Amy are really into wines. I’ve noticed that a lot of Italian dishes are based around the colours of the Italian flag: white (pasta/bread/gnocchi/mozzarella and other cheeses), green (basil and other leaves/beans/peppers) and red (tomatoes/peppers)!

Olivia is really sweet and did my washing for me :-)

Giorgio is very funny. He’s also very knowledgeable and a total history nut, with an endless supply of stories that he shares in a really entertaining way. He cracks himself up all the time. He hosted the Dead Runners World Conference in Turin a few years ago. I gather everyone had a ball, and I can see why!

Yesterday, he and Amy came for a quick breakfast here at the Ginestra after dropping G’s car in a spot where we would end our walk to the summit of Mt Chaberton. Amy then drove us over to the start of the trail in France. G and I then walked for seven hours. The ascent is challenging, with fantastic views of the Alps from the top where there are ruins of a fortress that was destroyed in the Second World War (www.exploguide.com/site/mount-chaberton-fortress-briancon). I found the descent a bit precarious; it’s steep with loose stones and gravel. Giorgio and Amy know the woman who won the marathon here last weekend. G said she just spreads her arms out and flies down, barely touching the ground. Giorgio has run it himself, and I think yesterday was his 55th ascent.

My new trekking shoes are too small, which caused me some grief on the descent. I switched to my running shoes when we stopped for lunch at a very rickety picnic table down in the foothills. Giorgio had brought baguettes with prosciutto, chocolate with hazelnuts, and a bottle of a light red wine, which he opened with his Swiss Army knife. It was good fun.

Back in Cesana we had an espresso with grappa at a little restaurant/bar to toast our successful climb. Giorgio and Amy came back down from Sansicario for dinner at the hotel. I had onion soup, trout, some of Amy’s salad, and crème caramel: delicious. Amy had spent the day riding her horse.

I’m totally blown away by Giorgio and Amy’s kindness to me at a time when they have great sadness in their own lives. (Amy’s sister died recently after a horse-riding accident in the States.)

Today, Monday, I’m going to knuckle down to work at the bibliotèque, which is just up the road. But first, breakfast at a café…

Mambo Italiano...

OMG, I wish I'd been born an Italian!

But to backtrack a little...

My last day in Hong Kong was spent seeing the mind-boggling film "Inception" with Cath, and having dinner at the FCC with Polly Waffle, Mary and Ian (who I'd run into at Cheung Sha Beach on Sunday). I had a great time during my five weeks there.

On Wednesday I flew to Kuala Lumpur, where I stayed at a very unusual guesthouse called Sekeping Tenggiri, in the Bangsar area. My room, the Glass Room, was perched at tree level. The bathroom was partly open to the sky, and I could step out of the room on to the wire mesh roof overlooking the small pool. The bed, on a wire mesh base, was on a raised platform. I thought it was a bit hazardous. You wouldn't want to stay there if you had a tendency to go walkies in the night...

I managed to have two runs, which I hope will get me back on track with my training. The first was with Jess ("Jess Do It"), who I met, with her husband Stephen, in Sarawak on the Headhunters Trail. We ran circuits of a park in Petaling Jaya, across the state border from KL (for Albury friends, Wodonga would be the equivalent), then had dinner at a noodle place. They gave me a ride back to the guesthouse and came in for a look. They both work in the interior design/drafting field. It was great to see them.

On Thursday morning I took a long taxi ride to the Petronas Twin Towers so that I could run in the park at their base. I ran here in 2007 in the lead-up to the Hong Kong half marathon. I just love these towers. I ran part of the way with an Australian woman who is based in KL with Oz Immigration. I took the Metro to Bangsar and had some laksa for breakfast, then made my way back to the guesthouse by a circuitous route. (In other words, I got lost.) I spent the rest of the day working by the pool while a thunderstorm raged.

Unfortunately, my Islamic Financial Services Board friends got caught up with an Islamic Finance forum and weren't able to make dinner this time.

A great flight to Rome. I was wedged between two blokes in the centre aisle (I hate that), but I took half a Xanax and slept for about six hours on and off (I love that). Transited in Rome to Torino (Turin). A fabulous flight: clear blue skies, very smooth flying, and views of the island of Elba (where Napoleon was imprisoned) and then of the towns from Genova inland to Milan. I was sitting next to a very dapper chap who turned out to be the ambassador to Italy from Belize (where my friend Sue F is hoping to move from Portugal) and was formerly ambassador to Cuba (where I'm hoping to spend December 2011). He gave me his card and said if there was anything he could do... (No, I wasn't in first class; there was only the one!)

My friend from the Dead Runners Society, Giorgio, met me and drove us back to Torino (home of the Shroud of Turin), where I'm staying at the Art Hotel Boston, a very funky little establishment. I only said "Shit!" once as G sped down the highway in his souped-up mobile office. I'm dubbing him "the Alfa male".



We had a fabulous pizza for lunch at a place in Turin, then I worked on a new book back at the hotel for a few hours. G picked me up at 6.30 to go and see his parents at the house where he lived as a child. His mum just broke her leg and is back home recovering. We then took a walk around the old city, which was quite heavily bombed during the war. It's just beautiful. There are towers and walls dating back to Roman times, and some fabulous grand buildings. Torino was home to the first king of a united Italy. There are lots of public squares, and colonnaded boulevards, and narrow cobblestone lanes overlooked by uniform stone apartment buildings with little balconies and wooden shutters. Giorgio told me that the buildings would have been occupied in the past by all members of society, with the rich folk on the lower levels, the petit bourgeoisie on the middle levels, and the artists and the poor in the garrets at the top. We saw where Nietzsche ("What doesn't kill us makes us stronger") and Puccinni (La Boheme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly...) lived.

Dinner was fabulous: a degustation menu of about six courses with a delicious local wine. Ah, Italy!

This morning we're doing a long scenic run. Then we're driving up to Sansicario, in the mountains bordering France, where I'll meet Giorgio's family and we'll walk up a mountain or two.

It was Giorgio who put me in touch with Italian Dead Runner Cristiano, my Merchant of Venice, when I contacted DRS Italia in 2007 to ask if anyone would like to do a scenic run with me there.

Ciao for now!

Oh, islands in the sun

Yesterday I had lunch at a beachside South African restaurant on Lantau Island and dinner at a seafood place at Sok Kwu Wan on Lamma Island. I walked with the hiking group I’ve joined, swam in the sea, got a bit sunburned, collected some shells for Michele, ate lobster, crab, scallops, prawns and calamari, drank white wine, met some old friends and made some new ones, rode on some ferries, and was introduced to a dog named Fugly. A perfect weekend in alternative Hong Kong.

Laidback Lamma

How easy is it to pick up where you left off with an old pal after 17 years with no contact? Very easy, when that pal is Nicola N.

We’re friends from the early days of the Women in Publishing Society in Hong Kong. Nicola is an editor/journalist. She’s now living back on Lamma Island after a three-year stint in London. She and Enid, a financial journalist, live with their two cats in a fabulous pad in the tiny village of Pak Kok Tsuen, a half-hour's walk from Yung Shue Wan, where I arrived on the ferry.

There are no cars on Lamma, which is criss-crossed by narrow paths. It’s a great getaway from Hong Kong. Today was hot and sunny, so there were lots of daytrippers about.

Coming back, I took a smaller ferry from Pak Kok Tsuen to Aberdeen. Where I was sitting in the back, there were eight or so people and five dogs, who looked like they’d enjoyed their excursion to laidback Lamma.

On Thursday I had my appointment at the bank to set up a business account for my newly registered Hong Kong business. I got back to the Helena May right on time for the book group lunch I’d been invited to by Cath’s friend Melinda. This is the first time I’ve finished reading the assigned book before a book group meeting. I really enjoyed it: Elizabeth Strout’s novel, “Olive Kitteridge”. Others there were Lydia, Bren and Liz, who was back visiting Hong Kong from London and is running the New York Marathon this year. We’re going to try and catch up afterwards.

Yesterday, Polly and I had lunch at the FCC with Maggie and Karen from a company here whose monthly newsletter we produce. It was fun. From there I went to Causeway Bay to see an exhibition at Times Square that Polly had seen and thought I would like. I just loved the work by the Korean sculptor Hwan Kwon Yi.



Back to the FCC last night for drinks and dinner with Cath, Polly and her friend Betty. Charlie arrived from Macau with my camera charger that I’d left behind. Cath and I then went on to the Skylark Lounge to see Brendan’s band, Bank Job, play. Cath’s Rebecca joined us there. I thought the second band, Balu and The Jungle, were fantastic.

Confucius's descendant says, 'Don't throw family pet out with baby's bathwater.'

Polly and I had lunch with our accountant, Millie, on Monday. We did a bit of reminiscing about the old days, and looked at my options for the future.

When I spent three months in the US last year, my house was looked after by Gary and Sue C, whose daughter Megan designed my name card. I've now met another member of that family. Megan's brother Brendan works in legal publishing in Hong Kong, and we caught up for drinks and a great chat at the FCC on Monday.

Yesterday I met up again with a new pal from Saturday's hike. Lucy, a financial planner, is Australian, but born in Beijing. She's been here four months and is loving it. We had a couple of drinks at the Dog House bar in Wanchai. I went from there to dinner at a nearby Peking restaurant with Polly, Jenny E and Rehana S from Women in Publishing (WIPS), and Angela S from Saturday's hike. A really fun dinner. I met Rehana at a WIPS function here some years ago. She's writing a Pakistani cookbook. I’ve rearranged my weekend so that I can do Angela’s Sunday hike on Lantau.

Cathy H-F, who has been a WIPS president, took me to lunch today at the Quartermaster Deck, where I had dinner last week with Cathy, Brenda and Melinda after the book fair. Cathy is the sort of person you want on your team: she’s a changemaker. She’s also a marathon runner and marathon trail walker, dog rescuer, chairman of the SPCA in Hong Kong, and a volunteer extraordinaire. She’s also good fun.

Cathy invited me to go with her to the SPCA offices this afternoon for the opening of their ‘Caring Family, Happy Pet’ program. The ‘faces’ of the campaign are a cat whose name I didn’t catch, La Fleur (a Shih-tzu x Maltese with a fabulous overbite who I spent some time with), and the ‘famous celebrity’ Susan Tse Suet-Sum and her daughter Ka-Wing. A former Chinese opera singer and actress, Susan is also, according to Wikipedia, the 76th-generation descendant of Confucius.

Cathy also introduced me to Sandy and Wendy, executive director and customer services, respectively.

A lot of pets are surrendered or abandoned in Hong Kong when families are expecting a baby. The traditional thinking is that it’s bad for the baby to be around dogs and cats. The aim of this campaign is to try and change this thinking.