Great morning

After waking at 5 am (mosquito alert) and taking an ibuprofen for this horrendous toothache, I find this is the first mornin g  I have not  had excruciating pain  and I feel like  a real person again. Also VERY cheered up by text from my friend Val to say Mitt Romney conceded to Obama at 6am, so he has been reelected.  Our access to news  in the apartment is very limited - there are hundreds of channels mostly devoted to quizshows (with huge supporting casts of scantily clad young people) plus on Discovery Channel showing How It's Made (juke boxes, Canadian ice-hockey helmets, glass bottles and  sparking plugs). We cand find no news channels or weather  info.  There is one rather nice radio channel playing  classical music, each item topped and  tailed with a sober announcement of what the music is and  who the performers are.  Very  nice.

Thinking of sounds - the streets here are filled with the clamour of sirens almost constantly. Occasionally  you get peals of church bells too. But this obession with sirens is extraordinary. Here's another one - ee-ah, ee-ah. ee-ah, ee-ah.....  And then another one, a loud droning waaaaaahhhhhhh with accompanying nee-nee, nee-nee, nee-nee...    It's deafening.

They have another malice. Apparently to make it easier for wheelchair users to get  along, they've created numerous ramps on the kerbsides but these are very narrow and surrounded by uplifted slopes and crevices, so that to line up properly requires everyone else nearby to move away, and then a huge manoeuvring up and down for the poor wheelchair-pusher.  Not  good design.

Talking of which, just before I left, I did a free numerology  test online and it was surprisingly accurate,  including saying I would be fascinated by design all my life - which I am.  Not what I expected at all.  Hmmn.

Yesterday, after a second visit to the nice dentist to pick up a prescription for antibiotics, we went  to that  part of Rome called Trastevere - 'the other side of the Tiber' and wandered around... it's a bit  Soho-ey, or arty. Very gentle  day. Lunch provided a little extra treat - a local cod speciality - salted, soaked for 3 days, then coated in a very light batter and deep fried. Delicious.   later in the  Campo dei Fiori I had a mocha chocolate - divine.  But the Farnese Palace was closed.   We went home early, because I was feeling so bloody washed out.  I went to bed and shivered, and then we had  another of our  home-made suppers - packet soup and a Ryvita - poor me, poor me.  I have been feeling so nauseous I can't face any more than that.     We have not seen 'puttanesca' sauce anywhere in Rome, maybe the restauranteurs fear censorious churchy people - anyway, I can tell  you, it's not  promoted anywhere.

So - this report is a bit  flat - as we had  such a quiet day  yesterday....   Today more walking and  a cheery heart  due to Mr Obama's victory.