Getting Pooched

I’m writing this entry from the sky. I’m flying from Venice to London. It’s Sunday evening. Since I last wrote, we have seen two productions: The Glass Menagerie at Heidelberg’s Roadside Theater and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Soldiers Theater in Vicenza. After a couple of days on my own, I was reunited with my fellow adjudicators when we went to dinner on Saturday evening prior to the show in Heidelberg. We went to Taj Mahal, an Indian restaurant that is very popular. The décor takes itself seriously – everything to remind you or India. Again, it was nice to have a break from Italian or German food. We shared some Tandoori salmon, Mango Curry Chicken and Tikka Masala lamb, along with Nan and basmati rice. Excellent. Make a note to return here.

The show, as everyone knows, tells of narrator Tom’s (read Tennessee Williams) family memories -- specifically, his mother, Amanda and his sister Laura, who is crippled and painfully shy. It’s a touching play that doesn’t get done as often as you might think. Tom’s story of frustration at not being understood by his mother, who seems overbearing, but is clearly disappointed herself, by her “fall from grace” as a Southern belle, her husband’s abrupt departure and her children’s lack of ambition. Lyrically written, it can’t help make you think of your own memories and ponder what was really true and what is your own distorted perception looking back.

The next morning we embarked early for our second southward trip across the Alps to Italy. This time the weather was with us; for most of the day it was sunny and getting warmer, flirting with the mid 50’s (or teens, if you only read Celsius, like my colleagues.) I’m fortunate that Eva and Annette are Canadian and, as such, they have a new vernacular for me to learn. It is quite evocative. My favorite expression so far (this is from Eva) is “That’s flat as piss on a plate.” That gave me a huge laugh. Annette talks about getting “pooched” which means either “screwed” or “screwed up” depending upon the context. I’ll try to provide more of the most colorful expressions as we go on.

Penny (that’s our car/GPS system, if you recall) led us valiantly until we got fairly close to Vicenza. Then she got creative and had us leave the main road to take a picturesque smaller road through the mountains, full of hair pin turns where you could easily fall of the edge of a cliff. (Have you ever driven through the Rockies? It’s like that.) After going along for quite a while, we came to a sign that said, loosely translated, “The pass is closed.” We then had to go back the way we came, retracing our steps until we got back to the main highway. From there, it was easy to find Vicenza. The hotel on base, Ederle Inn, was easily the nicest of the ones we have stayed in.

I took the ladies into the old section of Vicenza to go to a special restaurant I had heard about that was supposed to be very special. After some missteps, we found it, but unfortunately, we couldn’t get a table. We ended up at a less spectacular place that was actually quite wonderful. A family place, it had no menus, just the waitress who told you what was on offer this evening. The pasta with duck breast was just great. Then I had a steak and a huge mixed salad. We managed to get through 2 bottles of a local red wine; we had been driving for ten hours; we deserved it! A nice ricotta cheesecake finished me off (or I, it.)

Today, we saw a matinee of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. That’s the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the bible story. It’s a slight piece, whose only real attraction is the opportunity to do each of the numbers as a tribute to a certain style of music, from French ballad to Spanish cha-cha to Elvis impersonation. For that, it is lots of fun and with a running time of barely 75 minutes, easy to take.

Annette and Jim drove me to the Venice airport. It was very nice of them; it takes about 45 minutes to get there from Vicenza. I arrived in plenty of time before my flight. Time enough to have a real Italian espresso one last time before I left Italy for England. Mmmmm.

Here are some more photos from the Alps; one with Eva and Annette in front of Penny, our Ford chariot.