The letter "S" is a very useful one but unfortunately on this keyboard it does not work so I am going to have a go at writing about our holiday in Sicily without using that particular letter. It will be a challenging exercise I am sure...
Today after a hearty br... morning meal, we met up with our holiday rep to book a day trip to Mount Etna and Taormina. That will happen on the day before Friday. A full day out but the high ticket price will not include lunch.
The night before today found my wife and I at the hotel eatery. What an amazing variety of food on offer and all of great quality too. Wine and beer were both free to people who dined. Arenella Hotel occupancy chiefly Italian - maybe 95% of current hotel population. I rather like that fact.
After eating and drinking we watched family entertainment in the "Teatro" - all very Italian - but we enjoyed it. Quite bizzare - including a huge cuddly giraffe much loved by all the children - like a replacement for God.
Today we caught the land train down to Arenella Beach and there we lay down under a big umbrella - once in a while dipping in the clear blue Mediterranean water. Very good to be in ocean water again propelling with arm and leg. Beautiful.
After a five hour period we packed up and headed back to the hotel area to find another place to lounge under a big umbrella near a pool. I am reading a book titled "H i. for Hawk" by Helen McDonald. Very engaging and carefully worded and I am enjoying it. Reading a book on holiday can often be a fulfilling experience without typical interference.
Tonight - another fine meal at the eating place with a big jug of Italian beer and another of local white wine. We cannot complain.
This will be one of these trips that you look back on as the expectations were met.
ReplyDeleteGawd no. If you complain about this wonderful vacay, you would be condemned roundly.
ReplyDeleteLooks and sounds like a wonderful stay. You are gifted to write this post without many esses. I am realizing how many I just used!
ReplyDeleteWell done. However, I did notice an error - you wrote Sicily when .icily would have taken your lack of an . into account.
ReplyDeleteFive hour. in the .un would have fini.hed me off!
Well done at avoiding the letter s.
ReplyDeleteMoving from one umbrella to another sounds like my partner's idea of a great holiday.
I suppose in Italy one should expect nothing but delicious food.
It all sounds very relaxing, just what you need after the hard work first after Simon‘s death and then on your house. And you have managed to find s-less alternatives to many words!
ReplyDeleteOh, well done! Not a single S :)
ReplyDeleteDipping into the blue Mediterranean sounds so wonderful.
How can you type the word Sicily without an 'S'?
ReplyDeleteConceivably pasted it. Control-V would be an obvious solution generally but then we wouldn't have had our homage to Perec.
DeleteMmm...how come the S worked perfectly in the first paragraph! Yes, I know what you're trying to do - which letter will be the next one you lose?
ReplyDeleteGlad you're having a fabulous time, nice of you to take us along.
All I can say is- sigh. How very, very lovely.
ReplyDeleteI read through with no problem, even with the lack of S! I guess the brain knows to recognize the words even when they're missing a letter. Sounds like you're enjoying yourself!
ReplyDeleteTrinacria is the older name for Xicily.
ReplyDeleteErnest Vincent Wright wrote a novel titled Gadsby, a novel without an E.
Georges Perec had done it before Wright in his E-less novel La Disparition.
Perec's book was translated into English and titled A Void.
If you enjoy Perec read The Penguin Book of Oulipo.
You will be inebriated drinking a jug of white wine and a jug of Italian beer every round YP.
ReplyDeleteFricatives and Lateral Lisps ...
ReplyDelete1) Are there languages without an /S/ sound ? Reddit.
2) John Wells's phonetic blog. S-lessness.
Spaniards do not pronounce S as the English do or the late Sean Connery.
The original people of Australia have a language with none of our fricatives.