Another memorable birthday

This year, started my birthday with a hot yoga class. This time Michele Vennard decided to a science experiment to see if people sing happy birthday better.. at the end of the class when folks have their lungs fully open. It was a correct hypothesis. Have had a class full of yoga buddies sing me happy birthday so many times over the years, sometimes at the beginning of class, during balancing stick pose, triangle pose… now at the end of class. This was the loudest and most musical version! As always a heartfelt thanks to BYSJ for giving me a second chance at life and making it a second home!

After this moved on to my second favorite activity in recent times.. Singing. We had a smule singing meet with a bunch of local bay area singers. Have been doing this once a month for almost two plus years now. We have all become family friends, especially since every house has a singer and a critical spouse in the audience most of the time. There was an amazing potluck lunch. San made mysore pak for me to take to the potluck which was yummy!

After spending a fun afternoon, went to Palermo’s Italian in San Jose to have a nice birthday dinner with my birthday buddy and family. There was some fireworks involved! Given hiking had to be pushed out, San made sure that we did hike the very next morning, bright and early.

There were three avid hikers who went ahead. Ended up walking at my pace with San’s music teacher and we just walked as we discussed music. Didn’t feel the strain and we made it all the same. Missed my friend Prasad on this hike as we were discussing TNS. The two of us have a track record for getting lost in hikes while discussing TNS’s music. San’s music teacher gave this alarmed look when she realized that she may be dealing with not a fan but a TNS fanatic! Will write about the hike in a separate post.

We came home and got some rest. Then we lost internet for 8 hours. Spent a lot of time on the phone with Comcast but finally gave up and they had to send a technician out Monday morning. We realized that without the internet the house breaks.. doorbells to heaters to solar panels .. they all have issues. Need to start wiring some backups!

The little one and her bestie have been cooking a thanksgiving dinner for our two families every year. Sometimes it is early given travel plans. This was the 10th anniversary of this tradition they started. They come up with a menu, do everything from scratch and cook all afternoon. They both know of my allergies and always.. always have something for me to eat as well. This year, they took a chance and we figured out I am not allergic to Kale or celery. Not sure if this discovery is a good one given San will now add these two to everything. Next year, I might get Kale Mysore pak for my birthday.. who knows! This years dinner was just amazing!

The entire birthday weekend was awesome!

Video highlights reel…

Now there is a big birthday left to celebrate…

The Amalfi coast - Sorrento

The previous post in this series is here..

We reached Naples airport close to 8:30 PM. There was no public transport that would get us to Sorrento. It is an almost two hour drive along windy roads and lots of tunnels, with a lot of mopeds cutting in and out abruptly with no road rules applicable to them. Of course, I found out all this after driving. At the car rental place they asked us to take insurance as most cars get hit. They also told me to take enough pictures of the car in the freaking night to make sure we document all “existing scratches”. Was told that there would be. new ones by the time I return the car. Fortunately I got it back in two days with no additional scratches that I could see in “before vs. after” photos.

The family was proud of my effort to get them to the hotel. It was a large Volkswagen and I made a mental note that driving should be restricted only for the from and to airport. Again was wrong.

The hotel itself was cute. The staff friendly. There was no microwave or hot water but there was someone 24x7 downstairs who could get you that. He was like “I can make you a cappuccino now!” and I said “let me show you how to make Wagh Bakri instant chai with hot water”.. he watched me with an amused smile. The next two days he had hot water ready for me! He was reasonably sure there was something addictive in that chai packet. Once he was busy and he asked his daughter to get me hot water.. think the conversation in Italian was “why water? I can make him a Cappuccino!” and the response was something like “give him his damn water and see what he does with it”.. my broken Italian could only comprehend so much.

Where were we? Ah yes.. we settled into the room past 11 PM. So it was lights out. We had to get ready at 7 AM, have breakfast downstairs (which was really nice) and walk 20 minutes to Sorrento City center for a tour the kids had booked. It was Sorrento Food tours ! The kids took “namakku soru dhaan mukkiyam!” to a new level. We were met outside a local church by our guide Tamara. Turns out she was from the US but has spent the last 15 years there. Our group was the four of us, three folks from Irvine and a young couple from UK. We all made friends quickly thanks to Jr. talking about Irvine and me suddenly talking about Dorset and Blackpool. My family was eye rolling. . “who is this guy and how come we don’t know any of this?”. Tamara started the tour with some “good eats” she had got.. This was second breakfast. I also got a lecture on “if that couple from UK wants to have kids, they will. You don’t have to be the old uncle showing them how great it is to have kids by using this family as an example!” … Apparently I am advertising the value of a large family subliminally.. did not know that! All I asked was “how long have you guys been married? and “do you have any kids?”.

She took us through different restaurants, gave us a lesson on citrus, we had breakfast of sorts (again) at Franco’s. They made us a vegetarian sandwich with their special cheese (it had the Italian equivalent of ISI muththirai). In all my life I have not tasted a cheese sandwich that good ! The kids got 11/10 for this.

There was a good 45 minutes spent at a citrus garden and a private garden and limoncello making place. We got a factory tour.

Then we walked some more and came to a shopping district and the old square. There were chocolate fountains, candy stores. One store had lemon candy which I got hooked to. They checked to make sure that this was the only candy I could eat in that entire store. The manager took allergies seriously. Got myself a large bag of the lemon candy which has a small pocket of lemon juice at its core. Still enjoying it. Then it was time for lunch where they gave us pasta and a local cheese made from buffalo milk that was watery. It was interesting texture wise but very tasty. Then we stopped at Raki, a gelato place. Really good gelato! After this it was a walk to an overlook point and we all went our separate ways. We had gotten a good overview of Sorrento history, food, and the layout of the place.

While we were at lunch San kept getting calls from a local number.. We found out later that she had accidentally booked a kayaking tour same time as the food tour. She begged them to move it by a day and they did, but to the last group of the day.. (more on that later).

We walked by ourselves to see both the local church and cathedral. Then realized our legs were tired and our stomachs were too full. So we waited at a bus stop and took the bus to the stop closest to our hotel. They do have a fantastic public transport system. If you have the time and patience to use it. When you are a tourist, every minute counts!

The people and their pace is all laid back in Sorrento. They act like everyone is going to live past a 100 and there is 48 hours in a day. That somehow goes out the window the minute anyone gets behind a wheel.

Here is the morning and early afternoon in pictures. . .

and more photos.. of narrow streets and churches! Here is a quick lesson as we transition from landscape to portrait format photos.. when you do this food tour, DO NOT have breakfast in the hotel. You will be eating plenty and non stop over the next five hours. Also at Tamara’s request, her brochure is in the pictures below.

While adding the pictures I realized that a few things were missed. If you want to walk down from the top of city center, do it later in the evening. The sunset is just glorious here!

A video highlight reel of the food tour..

We also got a discount coupon for leather goods from our guide at some shops. Weren’t planning on it but on the way out of the shopping area the ladies jumped into a store. The owner was nice and he gave us the discount anyways even though it was not the store we were supposed to go to. Turns out all the leather goods came from Turkey which is considered “authentic” in Sorrento. It was a facepalm moment. We usually don’t buy leather goods. Think they got fake leather. It is time for me to stop questioning choices that are not mine.

There is this funny business of an extra tax that you get back at the airport when you show your passport. That assumes you have time in Naples airport to return the car, run to gate and stop at this counter which has long lines to get back money. So if you shop in Italy, give it time. The procedure to get this back after you have exit the country is painful.

There is one pano shot included in this. Italians were not as amused as Turkish folks when I did a backbend to take that photo in the church. The people who stared at me could definitely use yoga. I was not trying to show off. Wasn’t even wearing my challenge shirt yet.

After all the food and the bus ride and walk back to the hotel, we had time to spend. This was the kids part of the trip. So they wanted to go just “chill” and have a nice dinner locally. It was 3PM.

to be continued..

From waterfalls to beaches

The previous post on this series is here..

We moved on from Buenos Aires to Rio. We got scammed right outside the airport where a fake Uber showed up to pick us up... after some tense moments once in the car, we did get out close to where we needed and after the local Airbnb lady negotiated in Portugese we got out. 

Brazil is a sharp contrast to Argentina. You cannot trust folks on the road. Scammers everywhere. Everything is expensive and the locals are not exactly the welcoming type.

The Airbnb itself was very good. A walking distance from the Ipanema beach and close enough to grocery stores. 

The kids had had enough and decided to stay in after doing groceries. San and me decided to go to the beach for a short time to see the sunset. There was so much fog that we didn't really get orange hues that day and it just started drizzling when we made it back to cook dinner!

We called it a night.. there were a lot of interesting art books in the Airbnb and we just decided to crash early after watching Rebel moon on Netflix!

The next day was going to be spent touring Rio!

We already got a glimpse of the Redeemer statue on the way from the airport. The plan was to see him up close the next day!