She's only a broken down Angel, she's only a bird that's lost a wing

In the five weeks we have been away we have had a number of items break already.  This seems worringly early for our equipment to fail, but we have managed to locate Italian shops to replace our outdoor chairs (this serves us right for bringing ones that only cost £5!), the mains lead for the MP3 player speakers and the lead between these and the MP3 and a new T Shirt for Anthony, after one shrunk in a drier it shouldn’t have been in and we have bought screws to mend the outside table.  However, we reassured ourselves that not everything in life is as reliable as a VolksWagen, until this week when a new light appeared on the dashboard.  Consultation with the handbook revealed this was something to do with the exhaust and we should visit a VW garage.  We managed to locate a garage and to communicate the problem and we now have to wait until Thursday for the part to arrive.

 This is not all bad, as we are camping in a maritime pine forest, next to a white sandy beach.  We are now on the southern coast of Calabria and in the morning the sun shines through the pine trees in stripes and they provide plenty of shade during the day.  At 10 pm at night we can sit outside watching the lights twinkling across the bay, listening to the Scop Owls singing along to Echoes by Pink Floyd as they flutter overhead and the Little Owls occasionally try to compete.

 The campsite staff are busy preparing for the summer rush, still seven weeks away:  Sand landscaping is obsessive and a large digger has spent many hours tidying up the sand on the beach in front of the site; another time-consuming activity is watering the forest.