The miss-you nights...

I haven't had to teach the last three Friday evenings so I've been making the most of my 'freedom' by going into Milan, meeting some friends and having aperitivo. Aperitivo is the delightful custom whereby you go into a bar, drink cocktails and eat the free food provided - I may have mentioned this before. Of course, the type of free food varies from bar to bar but it's always cheap and filling (and, this being Italy, of good quality). For me the important thing is the meeting of friends (and potential friends) along with the inconsequential chat about nothing important. Apart from these times I do not speak to anyone in this country who is a native English speaker - in fact the only people I speak to are my students, my company contacts and my friend Ch, none of whom are native speakers (although Ch is as near as dammit).

These meetings must now come to an end as from this coming Friday I will be teaching again in the evening. I will miss the inconsequential chatter. I will miss the aperitivo. I will miss the mojitos made with a generous measure of rum.