Day 1 - 40 basic squats following the 7 types of Squats You Need to try. This from the woman who is completely uncoordinated, the one who was always going the wrong way, facing the wrong direction in any from of exercise class. Time will tell if I can progress to type 2 - the Body-Weight Jump Squat, without damaging some body part. Surprisingly, even this little bit of exercise after so long made me feel more awake and more lively. Walking came next. On an unusually cold and blustery day for this part of Southern Italy I set out for a walk on the coastal path alongside the Adriatic. Last year I was walking this route, and much further than today, covering 10km in about 80 minutes, until injury stopped play. I was amazed how hard it was to cover less than half of my tried and tested route even allowing for the head winds! 4 km in just over 40 minutes; shameful, must try harder.
Speaking of the weather - we Brits, even those living abroad, always find something to say about the weather - it has been unusually cold over the last week or so, with heavy snow in many parts of Puglia. Just north and to the west of us in the San Vito di Nomanni, Martina Franca and Ceglie Messapica areas there has up to 10 inches of snow and heavy drifting. We of course saw only a light dusting ... for a few hours. This unusual weather front puts me in mind of our first winter in Puglia, the winter of 2005. We arrived here on December 2nd full of good intentions; we would not need central heating, we would manage the first winter and decide what heating, if any, would be needed and go for the best ecological and economical solution. Ha! Puglia, Southern Italy, almost as far south on the mainland of Italy that you can go .... trust me, it gets cold. Sometimes very cold. Yes, we have warm sunny days when it is still possible to be outside in t-shirts, shorts if you are really brave. However you don't need a watch to know when it is 4pm ... even if it has been a beautiful warm day, the sun disappears and it is cold. The other thing that we did not factor in was that the house we had bought, like most ex-pats, was an Italian summer home. Built for summer living, no insulation, gaps between the window frames and the walls etc.etc.
The first month here .... we were so cold, calor gas fires where the first addition. Going out on that first New Year's Eve we were horrified to see the temperature register at -5C. Eventually we managed to get the chimney sorted out and were able to have an open wood fire burning in the living room. It wasn't terribly effective but certainly looked cheerful. Needless to say we caved in pretty quickly and we had gas central heating installed by the end of January 2006, with a big calor gas tank buried in the garden. Only to find, to our horror, that the gas meter was running around like a hamster that had gone berserk and we were using almost 200 euros a week of gas. Not affordable! So the gas went on for an hour in the morning, an hour in the evening and we piled on the warm clothes.
Over time we made changes, the open fireplace became an enclosed wood-burning termo-camino which runs the central heating and provides hot water. The gas is still there as a back up, and this year for probably only the second time in 10 winters, we have had to use it. New double glazed windows and window frames, closing up the gaps between windows and walls, helped a lot. This last week is exceptionally cold, we have only seen these temperatures and very light snow once or twice before since we arrived. Now, Spring is around the corner, Summer not too far off, and the reality is we do actually like the change in seasons from very hot summers, beach and pool days, to curling up in front of a roaring fire on cold nights.
If you are thinking of moving to warmer climes, I'd recommend that you spend a winter in your chosen location, before moving if at all possible. All may not be as you think!
Happy New Year to all.
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