For completitude (and that's a technical term)

Here's my Rome email...

I wrote most of this sitting on the bus taking us to the airport after 5 days in Rome. So I arrived at the airport cross eyed (I wrote it on Simon's blackberry) and feeling pretty seedy. Excuse the typos - blackbizzle in the dark on a bus ain't easy you know.

Here you go...
So, Rome. Observations:
Smelly when it rains
Pretty filthy really
Amazing.

I was most struck by the last of these over the time we were here. The place is incredible. I love it here. Everywhere you walk there are the most beautiful little back streets with cobblestones and terracotta and yellow buildings with wooden shutters on the windows, buildings that hve been here centuries and others that have been here seemingly since civilization began. The main attractions of the city for tourists for once fulfilled all my expectations - the colosseum, Roman forum, vatican museums, trevi fountain, I've seen so much in the last few days I don't really know where to begin. I'm not going to go through it all because let's face it, we've all read those accounts and been bored silly. So, let me just say that I was filed with awe every single day. I mean how the hell did people build these things with manpower alone? The domes on the churches, the columns, the huge blocksd of stone... Did some poor bast ar ds once lay all the cobbles? Anyway, it's a beautiful place. Every morning (well those that I hadn't set the alarm for an hour after I was supposed to in order to get to the vatican museums early enough to not have to queue for more than an hour) we would get up and stop at the local coffee bar and order coffees and cornettos (croissants) and various hot pizzas or whatever was on offer and sand at the bar to consume them. Yum, all my coffee dreams come true where anywhere we went the coffee was fantastic and cool enough drink straight away. We had lunch in little pizzarias after sightseeing all morning and dinners at the local trattorias where the pastas and pizzas were delicious, the vino rosso del casa always good and the tiramisu to die for. I think I have found my spiritual home! I wish we had a few weeks to travel around italy, but will have to settle for planning our next destination. This time I will book accomodation well in advance so we don't end up staying in some little sh it box next to the station with drunk homeless people fighting and passing out on the street outside.

We went to the Circo massimo (where they used to race their chariots). Simon had been bugging me for days about going, and we eventually got there, but unfortunately it was a huge disappointment for him. Its pretty overgrown, full of homeless people, and guys playing social soccer (with a designated referee with a whistle - what's with that!)

We did lots of shopping (but not much buying). It was so cool going into all the gucci, prada, etc etc stores and seeing all the things I can't afford to buy and being snubbed by the store attendants, who, when it all comes down to it are just store attendants and shouldn't be snobbing anyone!

Next time I will try and find the most comfortabe shoes in the world because my little pumas, while they look really cute on, are the most uncomfortable things I've ever had on my feet (apart from the huge mastake - on so many levels - a friend and I once made of buying platform jandals in bali that gave us both the most horrendous jandal-shaped blisters on the tops of our feet to go with our motorbike exhaust burns on out legs), anyway, my feet are broken. Seriously. I have blisters on both feet, which I put blister plasters on and then promptly got blisters below where the plasters finished, my toenails (whi are short I'm telling you) have now progressively each cut into the next toe up in toe pecking order. So my toes are literally bleeding and my heels and balls of my feet feel like I'm walking on glass. I hate to think how much permanent damage I've done! Ok I'm now at the airport, feel sick and have to put weight on my poor feet so I'll finish this tomorrow...


We had an horrific bus ride home from the airport. The mental driver took offence to people asking him to turn down his loud (not entirely pleasant) music - it was after all 1am, refused to turn it down, and then started punishing everyone for asking by driving on the raised lane markings constantly along the motorway (it's not easy to keep a bus on them and lots of swerving was involved), speeding, braking erratically and for no reason while in the fast lane, and then speeding through the small streets of london. There were people putting on their seatbelts and I sure was glad to get out alive!

where did the boring go

This photo was taken while I was sitting the baby at Squeak's house. He didn't even make a peep. He's getting so big now!

Thought I would show y'all what my new hair is like. I miss the hair. I'm such a loser - I cut it and then instantly want it back again, but while it's there it's boring. I want the boring back.

Global Rome-ing

we head out to Rome tonight (the taxi is picking us up at 3.30am - yikes). I was going to try and plan a bit of an itinerary, but time has snuck past and now I really should pack and get to bed so i get SOME sleep.

I'm thinking Colosseum and Roman Forum on Thursday, Vatican museums Friday and St Peter's Basilica on Saturday with various fountains, piazzas etc in between.

See how we go...

'nice'

Everything in that last post was 'nice'. how wet of me.

quiet weekend

Last night we went to 'dinner and a show' in Covent Garden. We saw "Avenue Q" which was funny (not quite the 'hysterical' that it was recommended to me as) and it was nice to get out on a Friday night for once (sad old married couple that we are)...

I have just had a nice haircut - it's not quite a lot shorter but still 'long'. I lost about 4in on the whole I think. I like it though, I'm gearing up for a bob I think. Not my grumpy asshole of a grandfather - a hair one. It's so nice having your own hairdresser in london! he came round to our house and cut both our hair over a beer and a chat, it was nice!

Now we're going out to see friends for dinner.

Niceness

It was a beautiful evening last night when I was walking home from the tube. It was dusk and the sky was a clear deep blue. I was walking along the south bank of the river and the Tower of London and Tower Bridge were all lit up and the fairy lights along the river bank were on and it was a nice temperature. I was walking along thinking about how cool it is to be here in London.

However, that may all be about to change. Day by day the temperature gets lower and it has been raining an awful lot lately. The mornings and evenings are getting much darker - it used to be light when I woke up in the mornings at 6.30 (I was jetlagged) and now it's quite dim at 7.30 (I'm lazy). I am not looking forward to the approaching winter months.

We had the lad's birthday dinner with the other group of friends over the weekend. It was a really nice evening - good friends, good food, good times. It's nice to have a network of people here with us. I think we would not be coping so well if we didn't!

I am enjoying working - I would be enjoying it more if there was stuff for me to do, but being eased back into the whole 'going to work' business is probably not a bad thing! I really miss spending lots of time with squeak and squeaklet, but still get to see them over the weekends. In fact we spent some time in Hyde Park last weekend. It was a stunning day so we had a picnic, sat on the grass, squeaklet held his first leaves, it was so nice. I really like that about London - the parks. They're not just little ones surrounded by traffic noise, like albert park and victoria park back home, but decent-sized parks that take a while to walk round and you can run in and walk the dog.