Ashbarty won. It was a good match, rather nervy, tears at the end. Lots of famous people were there. The camera got a good little shot for us of Navratilova, in the Royal Box, leaning forward to explain something to the Duchess of Cambridge.
I’ve finished the
ribbing, and made a start on the st st for the leg of that sock. The tennis
demanded sufficiently close attention that I didn’t get much done. Maybe
tomorrow. I can’t believe that match will be as close, although I will be more
passionately involved, cheering for Italy in preference to Djokovic.
The crowd,
yesterday, seemed to prefer the Italian’s opponent. Because of tomorrow’s
football?
I wrote a little
piece for my Italian tutor about Wimbledon – I must keep on writing. It’s very
valuable exercise. I mentioned the last serious Italian contender, many years ago, with
whom I was deeply in love: Adriano Panatta. And yesterday John McInroe (once a
famous player, now a commentator) mentioned him – McInroe’s mother, now
watching from the bar of Heaven, was also smitten. Yesterday was Adriano’s
birthday, he said – 71, a mere stripling.
I told my tutor this. Her grandmother was also keen on him, she said.
A British
journalist once called him “the supremely handsome man, if you like your ice
cream runny”. I put that into Italian for my little essay, rather successfully
I think. My tutor laughed, but then, as I feared, asked me to explain it. I
couldn’t, but I can tell you that the phrase doesn’t apply to tomorrow’s
finalist, Matteo Berrettini.
Scams
I had an alarming
one on Thursday, an email from “Amazon” acknowledging my purchase of a $2000 telefonino.
I have never had such a message by
email before. Phone calls on the land line, constantly. A couple of text
messages on my little-used telefonino recently. But never before email.
I forwarded it to Alexander, my financial advisor. He says he gets them all the
time. I also think I had one of those bank scams that same day – the phone
rang, my cleaner answered; when I got there she said something about a large
payment as she handed me the phone. But they had hung up before I could talk to
them (thus identifying themselves unmistakably as scammers, I would think). I
feel a bit beleaguered.
after reading this post, I googled Adriano Panatta. I can see why you had a crush on him; he was seriously handsome and he has aged quite well. He still has rather long hair. Having any hair at his age is an accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteI get scams all the time; mostly about my car's warranty. We no longer own a car! The worst was a woman claiming to be from the Social Security Administration, about someone hacking my account...they prey on older persons.
I get them occasionally, though lately I get the kind claiming that there's a gift card assigned to me from some company.
ReplyDeleteI take it the ice cream comment was supposed to hint that he's soft? I like soft.
Runny and soft are not the same to me. Maybe they were just plain jealous? Adriano in his early 70s still looks pretty good! Your mention of writing as part of language practice is so helpful, Jean! I will have to try that! Back in the 70's in Italy, some Italians I knew asked me the translation of that song "You're So Vain." My meagre Italian plus having no iPad at the time, I made up in my head the term "vanitoso" (which turned out to be correct - add extra vowels to almost any basic English word in Italy and you can go far). They could not get it. I put it down to the fact that maybe male pride in their appearance was so natural to Italians that a separate, somewhat pejorative term for it simply would never exist. Although it still puzzles me that I couldn't make myself understood. Chloe
ReplyDeleteHaving just googled the tennis player, I can agree that he was rather toothsome! And those little tight shorts they all wore back then . . . I could almost get enthusiastic about football if they still wore them, and showed off their neat little butts!
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