D hit the big 5-0 on Thursday, so I flew him off to Rome for a few days as a surprise. As ever, my timing was impeccable - Rome + Easter + new Pope = hundreds of thousands of people, all eager to see the new Papa Francesca. If they couldn't see him then they wanted to see just about anything that might be connected to him, the Vatican City or Rome - the queues for every attraction stretched for what seemed like miles.
Now I am not good in crowds - being unable to move forward or backwards and not being able to see an exit causes me to panic. The Sistine Chapel was stunningly beautiful, but absolutely jam packed with people, and seen at great speed since the security men waved everyone through, shouting alternately "Avanti" (which I took to mean "hurry along"), and "Ssssshhhh" (which didn't need translating). And in the Sistine Chapel, I panicked. Had to get out. And fast... We crawled under a rope to escape the crowd we were being carried along by and were halted by two more security guards who told us to get back in line. D took umbrage... a slight altercation ensued... they asked D if he had rules in his country... he replied yes, but not stupid ones... He mentioned that all they needed were HiViz jackets and their lives would be complete... they didn't understand... All a tad embarrassing, and watched by hundreds of tourists who were happy to stay in line...
We did manage to have a proper look inside the Pantheon having stumbled upon it quite literally on our first evening while looking for somewhere to eat (food always being uppermost on both our minds). That too was gorgeous and incredibly well preserved - a bit like you, I said to D...
Debbie x
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Now where did those 5 months go...?
I last posted on my blog 5 months ago - just three days before the building work started on our annexe... the building work that was due to be completed in 10 weeks, just in time for Christmas... the building work that still isn't finished...
I have to say though, despite the incredibly slow pace, the builders are doing a superb job. A beautiful butterfly of an office, guest room and bathroom is emerging from the grubby, dirty little chrysalis of an over-garage-annexe that was there when we bought our house a year ago. I am quite sure that once Phase III (the main house - this bit is Phase II) is completed, and the dust has had time to settle (and everything has at last been taken out of storage, and unpacked, and I've had the opportunity to buy gorgeous new sofas and rugs and other nice things), then the trials, tribulations and difficulties of camping out in our own home will all be forgotten. If the work carried out so far is anything to go by, we are very lucky in having stumbled across fab builders who genuinely care about their work and actually want to give us a perfect job (always at a price of course, but so be it!).
And in other news... is there any other news? I have been, it would seem consumed by the building work going on! However, the office mentioned above is to be MY office and I am so excited - my own personal space to furnish/decorate/have my stuff in! I am so full of plans for it, how I am going to use it, where I am going to sit to read my mags, how tidy it is going to be kept - but also full of plans for my NEW BUSINESS.
D keeps telling me that I should be producing a business plan for this. I do have lots and lots of plans, though none of them apparently a business plan - this seems to involve sitting down and writing all sorts of lists, and then conjuring up figures involving profits and other such things out of thin air. This is not one of my key skills. I keep telling myself (and him) that once I have the new office (and my new desk (actually old kitchen table) and super duper new whizzy round chair) that I will write said plan, but in the meantime am having such fun plotting (in my head, nothing in writing) the interesting stuff...
Debbie x
I have to say though, despite the incredibly slow pace, the builders are doing a superb job. A beautiful butterfly of an office, guest room and bathroom is emerging from the grubby, dirty little chrysalis of an over-garage-annexe that was there when we bought our house a year ago. I am quite sure that once Phase III (the main house - this bit is Phase II) is completed, and the dust has had time to settle (and everything has at last been taken out of storage, and unpacked, and I've had the opportunity to buy gorgeous new sofas and rugs and other nice things), then the trials, tribulations and difficulties of camping out in our own home will all be forgotten. If the work carried out so far is anything to go by, we are very lucky in having stumbled across fab builders who genuinely care about their work and actually want to give us a perfect job (always at a price of course, but so be it!).
And in other news... is there any other news? I have been, it would seem consumed by the building work going on! However, the office mentioned above is to be MY office and I am so excited - my own personal space to furnish/decorate/have my stuff in! I am so full of plans for it, how I am going to use it, where I am going to sit to read my mags, how tidy it is going to be kept - but also full of plans for my NEW BUSINESS.
D keeps telling me that I should be producing a business plan for this. I do have lots and lots of plans, though none of them apparently a business plan - this seems to involve sitting down and writing all sorts of lists, and then conjuring up figures involving profits and other such things out of thin air. This is not one of my key skills. I keep telling myself (and him) that once I have the new office (and my new desk (actually old kitchen table) and super duper new whizzy round chair) that I will write said plan, but in the meantime am having such fun plotting (in my head, nothing in writing) the interesting stuff...
Debbie x
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