Ah, Alessandro!

I blame Matt entirely.
One of our current dark-of-winter entertainments is following the Vendee Globe, a round the world solo sailboat race which began November 10. In the beginning I chose Samantha Davies as my favorite, the only woman competitor. But early on she was dismasted (but thankfully not injured) so I cast around for another favorite. Matt tried to draw my attention to some guy who was dead last, but I ignored him and fixated on the Laughing Cow boat. (Who can resist a boat with the Laughing Cow of cheese plastered bigger than life on the mainsail? I couldn't.) But soon that boat had a mix up with a trawler and was also out of the race, or 'retired' as they say.
Once again Matt brought up this Alessandro guy who was still in last place. "But he's having fun!" Matt said, and made me watch a video of a French-Italian guy talking animatedly about the sprouts he was growing in the cabin of his sailboat. Other videos followed: images of porpoises playing off the bow, the birds that came to visit Alessandro's boat at sea, Alessandro making pan fried bread and adding jam (I'm a big pan fried bread fan too), Alessandro hanging out in Speedos, Alessandro in his wacky get-up for the equatorial crossing,  and Alessandro in action in the cockpit grinding away at his winch, which is not nearly as naughty as it sounds. All of this he does with a twinkle in his eye. Not knowing French (or Italian) I cannot understand a word he says, except for 'voila', 'soleil', and 'ciao ciao'. But what I can understand is that he really is having fun, and has tremendous joy for being exactly where he is at.
So yes, I blame Matt for the big crush I've developed on Alessandro, but both of us welcome the lively distraction from the cold and dark that looms outside our own cabin on these long winter evenings.

If you want to see what the fuss is about, check out Alessandro di Benedetto's Team Plastique site, and the Vendee Globe page.