I left for Florence with a deep sense of unease. Lisa Ray’s dad called me, poring over the recipe I emailed for the Fatet Djaj (chicken, rice and houmus) that I had cooked for her. He couldn’t find the Middle Eastern spice mix we left for him.
‘Can I use garam masala instead?’
“NOOO!’ I screamed, but luckily, only in my head. “Maybe’ I replied politely.
‘And I have a lot of limes,’ Mr Ray mentioned. ‘I was going to use them instead of lemons’. My inner Nigella wept. This wasn’t Palestinian chicken any more, it was chicken vindaloo in a fajita. I am the kind of person who panics when I can’t time a boiled egg with a stopwatch, and no-one can make me breakfast because I am so anal about the toast being hot and the tea being drinking temperature all at the same time. So this news about limes and masala weighed heavily on me until Hanan asked me politely to get a grip. There was no time to waste because we were boarding a flight to Florence.
You know that T shirt – Italians Do It Better? Ok, it is a bit 1980s but then the Vatican is more on top of popular culture than I am. Anyway, it’s true, about Italians. OK, perhaps they’re not better at organisation particularly, or timings, as Hanan found when we got to the fabulous old theatre and she cornered a random festival person against a coffee machine.
‘When is our movie playing?’ she asked.
‘Midnight. Or maybe 10.15. Or it might be 9. We’re not sure.’
But you know, timing isn’t everything. I considered this as I inhaled my third plate of pasta while regarding Italian people skimming past the window, the men gorgeous and full of attitude, the women gorgeous and full of style. While I was just gorging and full of food.
My sister happened to be in Italy at the same time so came to the ‘I Can’t Think Straight’ screening with her boyfriend. I was afraid it would be him, her and 300 lesbians, but there were a high percentage of men, quite unusual during gay and lesbian festivals, and great to see. The response was ecstatic and the Q&A was in Italian! The long-lashed Fabrizio, organiser of the festival, made a fantastic translator, transforming even my most clumsy replies into a cascade of sexy Italian philosophy. And, as has lately become tradition, I met a FB fan, and she looked just like her photo, which is always reassuring. The lovely Sabrina drove from Rome to see both films, a trip of 300km which we so much appreciated.
Back home, Luca is fully recovered from swine flu just in time to play an Icicle in the school Christmas play. It’s funny how you can find a child in white tights, tinsel and a ton of make up cute, but that all too brief moment was not enough to sustain Hanan through another hour of three-year old dancing reindeers, so she started scribbling me a (new) To-Do List and coming up with new and brilliant ideas to fill my spare time over Christmas. On the other hand, I am determined to feel the spirit of Christmas (and I don’t mean lots of alcohol) so we took the boys to buy a tree this morning. The smell of the pines, the rustle of leaves, it was all fabulous. Not so fabulous is decorating the tree. It’s an annual, subtle battle between the parents (one colour baubles, delicate lights, tasteful) and the kids (As many clashing colours as possible and enough flashing lights to cause an epileptic fit). I’ll let you know who won next time. For now, I have to go and pick the tinsel out of my hair.
And one final thing – we just spoke to Lisa to let her know that Enlightenment Productions raised $5000 for myeloma research from the percentage of sales from the end of September to November. You’ve all been amazing in ordering, re-ordering and spreading the word. Lisa is touched beyond words, and so are we. What can I say, except ‘grazie mille’ to the best fans in the world.
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