I finally found some eggs in the Crai minimarket! The shop is quite small, but the shelves are really tall and there seems little rhyme or reason to product location. Nevertheless, we enjoy egg bread for breakfast. No nutmeg or cinnamon, mind you, so mixed Italian herbs has to substitute.
I need to go over and check something with the Danes. Yesterday we had been out and talking about Bicycle Repair Man and this morning it sounds like they say the same thing (or it could have been some Danish which just sounded similar). Sure enough, they had been talking Monty Python.
This started a brief spell of Monty Python quotes and phrases shouted between the tents.
"He's not the Messiah - he's a very naughty boy!" etc. Benjamin loved it, but Eva complained that they will not shut up all day now.
T thinks his knee is better so we head up to Pila again. Back up at Pila I write using my Space Pen again which makes the journal look a bit spidery - I much prefer my handwriting with the Lamy. Both boys head up on the Chamole chairlift.
I head off to the Bar Seggovia for a Cafe Americano (by now the barista knows my order) and I sit and write with Swiss Jazz Radio playing over the loudspeakers. I narrowly avoid an immensely Ricky Gervais-esque moment when I spot a child sized bike waiting to go up on the lift, but realise it is being used by a man with dwarfism to hit the trails. Well done Sir!
The boys return excited because there are a couple of Team Lorries in the upper car park at Pila arriving early for the European Cup event next weekend.
The boys then enjoy a second run and are thrilled because, for part of the course, they are diverted onto the infamous World Cup trail due to continued preparations for the weekend. On the way back to the campsite we too are diverted by a policelady, and in the absence of further signage, end up going back through Aosta again, so we stop at a different shop, Conad City, for beer and sweets.
At the site it is wonderful with sunshine and shade, so I spread out a beach towel and enjoy a doze. T ish reading, finishing his Jeeves and Wooster book (again) and E is listening to music (again). I go on to make Spag Bol for supper and we have snaffled two big bottles of Budwar in the site fridge so they are properly cold. I download some Goons off iTunes (we had been saying things like "ah look, he's fallen in the water" for a couple of days since the Crazy Golf incident).
We also check online for high altitude ink pen advice. The answer is, of course, obvious. The problem is when there is air and ink in the cartridge because as you get higher the air in the cartridge will expand and push any ink out of the nib. The ideal is to have the pen either completely full or totally empty, but failing that to have the pen held nib upwards (so the air is at the top of the cartridge and can escape without ejecting much ink in the process). We will bear this in mind when we tackle the Mont Blanc tunnel in two days time.
More Dutch folk are arriving and one feels the need to go over and explain the set up and establish a pecking order. I imagine it rather felt like this at Colditz. We don't want any newcomers upsetting the guards!
After supper we sit outside and talk about films before I head off for a shower and the boys wash up. I love hearing Dutch being spoken, they have such a wonderful lilt. Marco, next dorr, is chatting to his new neighbours on the other side. They all seem to like sitting out after dark with candles and lamps and enjoying the warmth - I guess that gives the kids in the tents chance to go off. With 4 sets of Church bells every hour through the night I have not slept that brilliantly since arriving at Arvier, but popping the iPod on or reading on the iPad at 2am is so peaceful.
Miles today - 40.
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