Sun 30th Jan Mike's folks arrive.
Morning spend getting up slowly and then doing
a extra special tidy on flat for Baba and Safta's arrival. Mike
goes for them and the kids are very good waiting indoors as the weather
has gotten wet and cold. He arrives fairly late after droping some
stuff to their room. The kids are delighted and of course gifts arrive
for all. Sammy recieves a very impressive dragon! We are all thrilled
with lots of new reading material books, papers and magasines. The
guys settle in to listen to a few read by Safta. R&V manage to
stay awake very well and have some soup and local fair, mozerella, olive
oil, olives, tomatoes and so on before going to there room in the old
town.
Mon 31st Jan
R&V have their breakfast in Toni's while we get Eli and Rosa out to
school. Lorella invites us for a cuppa so we wonder over there and
enjoy R&V reaction to their apartment. She has costumes to lend the
kids. Sammy is thrilled with a spiderman suit! We have a nice chat and tea
before walking to collect the kids. We have a light lunch and play
together and chat until its time to meet up with Toni and Chantelle who
are showing us the way to a friends restaurant for diner. It is
just outside Giovinazzo and is very large but has gas patio heaters
everywhere. We are the only ones there at first and so we huddle up to
several and feel quite cozy as it is windy and freezing outside. The
kids are pleased as there is a telly on in the corner and later after
they have had their pizza Sammy is over the moon when Spiderman the
movie comes on. He sits there in his spiderman suit glued.
We have a succession of dishes brought by the host fish, cheese, spicy
breads and then our pasta dishes followed by more fish or steak and last
ice-cream for the kids. It is great and R&V really enjoy it all.
We carry tired kids out to the van and all are asleep before piazza
porto.
Tues 1st February
Rosa and Eli are too tired for school so we give them the day off.
We all have a quiet morning after our late night just playing chatting
and walking to get the kids. Vivian and I have a look around the shops
with Rosa and find some nice baby shops for Vivian to return to. Then we go to get ready for the Carneval party in Bari Dominico
and Emilia have invited the kids to. Sammy is happy as spiderman, I make
wings for Rosa which she wears with her outfit from the christmas show
and Finn has a Donald duck outfit, but Eli changes his mind about the
Robin hood one Lorella gave him. I decide to bring him over to
Chantelles as she has told me that she has got her make up from when she
was a make up artist down from home. Eli wants to be a wounded
knight. Chantelle gives him an excellent scar on his head and a
black eye as well as a pail face and beard. Content we run home
and get going. With one wrong turn around a huge stadium we make
it to Dominico in time and I stay in the parish hall with loud music and
screaming dressed up kids playing roudy games. Our have a great time
once they are ready to join in. They provide pizza and foccacia as
well as tonns of dolci (sweet stuff). Sammy is in his element bringing
me and Finn plate fulls. It gets even wilder and I am feeling very
fried by the time Mike and the other return from the drive round Bari
they have been having. We then have several meltdowns from overwraught
children while we find parts of costums and leave piles of streamers
they accumulated. Sammy is almost unconsolable at one point as he
is so wound up from all the noise and sugar. Mike and I exchange
looks and think of the school Halloween party at home we are always
trying to get the kids to give a miss to. We go back to Dominico
and Emilias apartment where I try to persuade her to not give the kids
further sugar but gulp down several cups of tea that I was gasping for.
We don't manage to get away until late but the kids are asleep before
home and don't need diner.
Wed 2nd Feb
The big kids are enjoying the new routine of running over to Toni's to
see if Baba and Safta are there before school for a chat and a chance of
a sweet breakfast. It has been hit or miss and the little guys are
the ones who get it today. Lots of yummy chocolate!! We get
organised early today and pack a picnic for the journey to
Matera. We head there immediately after we collect Eli and Rosa. The
weather is sunny but cold and changeable. We eat on our drive and
make it there in good time. I've arranged for Judith (the English woman
I met at the high school when I was giving my lecture to students goin
to Ireland) to meet us for a tour of the Sassi. She and her husband and
boy live in a restored house there. We arranged to meet at three
and park right on time. I phone to finialize a meeting place and the
phone is acting strange I keep trying and we check other numbers but I
cannot get through to hers. I decide to leave everyone in the van
and go to the Sassi to see if I can use Italy style finding methods.
I stop four men outside a shop and give them all the information I know
I am trying to find an English woman who I recently met, she is called
Judith and her husband is a Greek although they have lived in Italy for
twenty years. They live in the Sassi in a fairly recently restored
house. They have two teenage boys. They confer and one of the men
knows who I mean. Another volunteers to drive with us to show the
way. We return to the others and we're off. It turns out the Sassi
is a lot bigger than Mike and I realised from our earlier looks. It
is huge and runs alot a massive gorge. I think that if I had
realised this I might have been more daunted expecting to find someone
who knows Judith. When we get to the part where she is supposed to live
the man and I get out and go up and down a sort of slope with houses on
it looking for the house. It takes us a while and one ring results in
the lady telling us she doesn't know of Judith but another door yields a
woman and a boy who comes out to show us the house. It is nearly
four o'clock and Judith is very surprised to hear my voice at her door.
I gather the gang and we go in to her house for a few minutes to warm up
before our tour. Judith is bemused by the phone problem as it
seemed fine but still doesn't ring. She lives in a place like a
mini castle with a huge wooden door, stairs up to a wide stone terrace
with views over the Sassi, inside there are vaulted stone rooms and
staircases down trapped doors with floors that look like there were made
by turning tiles on their sides and making patterns with them. The
house is also warm and filled with all mod cons including a beatiful
kitchen. We make a move as Judith has to pick up her sons at 5 pm
and we want to see things in daylight. We walk down one edge of
the ravine. It is covered in dwellings and we can see older cave used in
neolithic times on the other side. We are all disappointed to
discover that the rock churches with their frescos are all shut since
4p.m. We are over it very quickly as we stand by the edge of the
ravine feeling a bit of vertigo, we see a cloud coming up the valley
obliterating the sun. We think it is rain but soon realise it is
snow. It is really beatiful as the flakes sworl about rising out
of the ravine below enveloping us. The children erupt in
excitement and we all stand transported for a while by the whole scene.
Judith spots that a little museum is still open. We go in for
shelter and to see what houses were like at the turn of the century and
up until 1956 when the one we are visiting was forcably evacuated by a
government concerned about living conditions. The dwellings were
made by taking material from a cave and using it to build up the front
of the cave to double its size. The occupants were peasants who
farmed land a few miles away but who prefered to come back to the safety
of villages at night. There most treasured posession was a mule for
transporting everything including themselves. The little house was
very simple and this one housed 11 people. Our guild shows us were they
all slept, even the mule was indoors carefully looked after. It
was said that these people valued the ,mule over a child as you could
alway get another child. There are various chests and dressers, a
matromonial bed, two chairs at the table for father and eldest son,
mother stood, and a kitchen with an economy stove, one that was enclosed
in tile with small openings as a way of conserving fuel. There is
no water on the top of the ravine where the Sassi was built so the house
has a cistern carved our below it with a little well down into it inside
the house. They had lots of ingenious ways of colllecting rain water and
running it into the cistern. We part with Judith who has to
collect her sons and the kids play snow balls on the way back to the
car. We negociate our way out of Matera eventually and make good
time despite snow showers back to Giovinazzo. I text William, Jane,
and Alice Rose who join us after the kids are in bed for a pizza and
pasta diner. We have a fun evening with them recounting and
swaping travel and cultural experiences.
Thur 3rd Feb
We let Eli off school today as he isn't feeling too well but we go for a
walk to the fish market and park as the weather has warmed up a bit.
Vivian, and I go shopping and have fun buying presents before meeting
the others again. We go home for lunch I make an arrangement with Toni
for his mother to teach us how to make focaccia. I go to her house
with Chantelle and Vivian and Rosa and we have a great time watching
Maria bake. She has huge strong hands and it is easy to
underestimate the degree of kneading necessary for the recipe. While the
dough rises Vivian makes brownies for Toni's shop and Rosa is in her
element. Its a very pleasant afternoon for the girls. We go
home and I settle the wee guys and get everyone to bed as Chantelle has
offered to babysit to let us out with R&V. We go the creperie in the old
town and have a really nice relaxed and for once light meal together.
Frid 4th Feb
After the big guys both make it to school this morning we get ready to
go to the
market. We are a little late but have time to get gloves and more baby
gifts as well as fruit and mushrooms for lunch. R&V enjoy the atmosphere
and vendors and we see the speed at which stall holders dismantle and
clear the place. We have a quiet afternoon and as I am starting a
cold and because the logistics of bringing the kids to Bari are
daunting I decide to stay home when the others go to meet up with Sabino
for his tour. They have a great time and I text with Lorella who
is also sick in bed.
Sat 5th Feb
I am feeling okay this morning after my early night and we give the kids
a morning off as we want to go to Alberobello. We don't get away to
early but the drive is straight forward and in the latter stages very
pretty with quite different hills from the ones we know near Altamura
and Matera. The roll up and down more and have less olives and
look more mixed and green at present. There also seem to be more
houses near the outskirts of towns with gardens rather than the
appartments we have seen everywhere else. We pass through a long fertile
valley and feel we are back in Tuscany. The kids start spotting Trulli
in fields on the way and have fun looking for the next and the next.
Soon we reach Alberobello, seeing sign saying "Trulli capitol" and pull
in next to several tour buses in a car park. We see lots of Trulli
on the hills near us in the town but have a picnic before setting off to
explore. We read the explanation of Trulli in Italian using our
collective knowledge and get a reasonable sense of it. Apparently Trulli
round stone buildings with pointed roofs were build in the countryside
by peasants and were favoured by the local landowners because they had
to pay taxes on the number of tenents homes on their land. When
the tax collectors were due they simply pulled down the trulli and they
were relatively easy to build up again. We later learn from a shop
keeper that it too four men two months to build one. The same shop
keeper makes little Trulli to sell and has a model to demonstrate how
they were constructed with two layers of stone with a insulating layer
of small stones in the middle. The roof is a clever piece of
engineering with progressively overlapping slabs . There are
different tops on the Trulli as well as white symbols painted on the
roofs that signify either, primative, magical or christain meanings.
The kids are really taken with the town, as someone said it is a
bit like Hobbiton from 'Lord of the Ring's but without the grass.
The scale of the buildings are very 'Hobbit' or child friendly.
Alberobello was apparently an illegally constructed town and it
eventually received recognition in the 1700's. We enjoy exploring
the little streets but Mike and I are challenged to keep little hands
off or simply to move on from all the tourist shops up each street.
We head home and pass through Putinano where carneval is tomorrow and
were we hope to go. We have diner at home and an early night
Sun 6th
Feb
We get ready for an outing once again but Rosa isn't feeling the best.
When Richard arrives he too has decided to take it easy so stays with
Rosa, and this leaves rooms for us to bring Chantelle. We set off
just as sleet starts falling, but press on. We make good time and
start seeing snow close to Putelano. It is very pretty. We are guided to
parking and have only a short walk into the town. It is a great
atmosphere although we are taken aback by people not letting the kids
through to small gaps at the barriers. Eventually we get a spot and wait
a while. Carneval begins with a lively band followed by load of brilliant
enormous floats with dancers and confettii. The kids have fun until the
crowd and cold get a bit much for Eli. He uses my fold out chair back
from the front and Chantelle gets him a tea, he is much improved for the
remainder an Mike says the fun at the back with people running up and
down with streamers and confettii is good craic. We head home just
before the end but see several eleborately custumed groups dance by
first. We are fortified by bread and nutella on the way home.
When we get to Bari we decide to pull off the highway to get some
shopping at the Ipercoop. Just as we pull into the carpark newbie
suddenly make a huge noise. At first I think the exhaust has fallen off,
I pull in and Mike looks out but it hasn't, it seems to be the engine as
now we can't move so I quickly switch off the engine and we push herbie
into a parking spot. I think the engine is a gonner but feel lucky
that it didn't happen on the highway. We go inside for some hot
chocolate (which is as thick as chocolate pudding by the way) and chips
(which Finn accidently dips in his hot chocolate instead of the ketchup
and soon he and Sammy dip and eat the lot this way). Chantelle
phones Toni who comes to the rescue with his brother and we go home.
Mike gets on the phone to arrange a tow truck and the rest of us hang
out for a while. Later I take the boys to Chantelles for baths. She has
invited us to diner and everyone else joins us there. Mike gets a lift
from Toni's uncle to follow the tow truck to a garage in Giovinazzo and
when he gets to Chantelle's I take a welcome bath. We carry sleeping
kids all the way home.
Mon 7th Feb
I wake with a mind abuzz with sorting and coordinating so that we can
still go to Napoli. Jane (my sister) has been in Rome for the
weekend with her husband and friends and had been texting organizing us
to meet up. She decided to fly mum and her girls out too. So
now we are very motivated to get there to see everyone. After alot
of tooing and frowing and discussions with Richard, Toni and lorella.
Richards and Vivian take a bus to Napoli with a plan to meet us in
Pompeii and Lorella takes Mike to the airport to collect a hire car.
I pack up the last bits and we visit the garage were Newbie was towed
and arrange to talk on frid about what to do with him and then we are
off. The run in the modern car is very easy and the landscape very
pretty with green hill and autumnal looking trees followed by snowy
towns on the moutainsides. We make it in three hours. We think we
have a problem when we discover there are three stations in Pompeii but
mobile/cell phones solve it. Jane has gone onto Sorentto and found us a
hotel, so Richard and Vivian decide to squeeze in to our car rather than
wait for one of us to come back for them. It is a daft squeeze but
since the roads are busy and slow moving it is just as well as they
would have had a long wait. Our reunion with the girls followed by Mum
and Jane is rawcus and the kids can't calm down at all. Once we've
settled and sorted all the room arrangements, made a bit complicated by
the hotels strict rules and me being aware of our emergency funds
depleting, we satisfy everyone and head out to look for a place for
diner. We walk a good bit of the town but find a nice place and enjoy a
tasty diner. We are all shattered and welcome our return to the hotel
for sleep.
Tue 8th Feb
We attempt a reasonably early start after breakfast. My kids are
very thrilled with the self service all you can eat breakfast buffet,
especially the cereal as we have been limiting that to Saturdays in
Giovinazzo due to cost. We tear them away and make the discovey
that Jane's hire car has additional seats that can be folded out which
makes for a much more comfortable run to Pompeii. I get to have
some catch up with mum on the way. We find good parking in a nice
campsite near the excavation entrance. The weather is sunny nad
reasonable mild. I try not to think about how nice it would have
been for camping in Newbie aftera all we are enjoying the luxury of a
hotel, especially the long hot shower I was able to have this morning.
Pompeii is amazing. So much of the city remains intact and is in
many places so familar, either because Roman artiture and decoration
have be used over and over in modern art, architecture and film, or
because lots of Pompeii is built or added to in red brick making it very
modern in places. The street have shop fronts, even former fast
food snack bars, but the villas and ampitheatre, and oval collisum type
arena are pure history. We only see a few of the chilling plaster
casts of victums of the Vesuvious eruption but they are enough to give
an impression of what happened here that none of us put more than a few
words on. There aren't any that would describe it aptly enough.
The kids have a great day being outside with our small boys especially
is much more relaxing for Mike and I too so the weather is a real bonus.
We leave in the early afternoon as Richard and Vivian are keen to see a
place called Positrano on the Almafi coast further along than Sorento in
daylight. Jane lets me navigate to try to find a scenic mountain
route but I don't see the turn my map says should be there so we end up
going the coastal route. This turns out to be scenic but scarey
its a high cliff road with bends and twists like those from car chase
scenes in films. Dusk decends as we enter Positano but we do get
to see its dramatic setting at the bottom of a mountain that drops
steeply to the sea. We park and head down little streets towards
the only resurant in town that is open on the beach. As we go we pass
kids in carnival costums on their way up and when we get to the party on
the beach the teenagers have taken over and loud dance music is blaring
while lads dressed as angels and girls danced as devils bob and chase
each other about with spray cans of foam. We go into the resturant
called the three sisters, were the music is only slightly less but the
food is great and eventually the disco ends and we get to chat until our
waiter tells us our car park is closing. He gives us postcards and a
poster of the Tri Sorelli depicting the orginal sister three
generously sized women who started the place. We have tire kids
but the run home is actually easier in the dark as we are on the cliff
side of the road and it is dark, or maybe it is just that I consumed
enough wine etc..
Wed 9th Feb
We all get up to say goodbye to Richard and Vivian tough for everyone as
usual but they get good send off with a chorus of bye byes, and ciao
ciaos from all the children. We have a bit of a rest, pack, eat more
breakfast and have a hectic checking out. We have a quick walk to look
down over the harbour over a steep view point before heading to
Vesuvious. We have a few navigational errors and diversions
through run down alleys before finding our way up the volcano. The
route passes some very decaying, deschevaled hotels and resturants all
shut for the winter and winds further and further up. There are
some hikers, Germans, and a tour bus and one or two cars but the view of
Napoli reminds how close we are to the vast urban sprawl and also of
scenes from movies of the area surrounding L.A. We start crossing
the snow line and before long discover a park ranger parked just below a
digger clearing the road. He tells us we are still 3km from the
summit but can go no further today. We decide we will have to
content with playing in the snow on a volcano. The kids have fast
fun building a snow man and throwing snow balls before freezing and we
go back down deciding to try Ercolcano rubano as a place to stop. This
is another site like Pompeii, smaller with houses in different states of
repair slightly better preserved in places. We have a picnic and
look around. I have fun joining in the kids games a sort or spy witch
mixture using artitectural features as clues as we all look at them.
The afternoon is soon over and its time to say out goodbyes. I
tell Jane and that they have all really topped us up from missing them,
of course like for Baba and Safta it is never enough, but we are
thrilled to have had the time. We part and we make great time back
to Giovinazzo, strange to feel like we have come home when we get there.
Thur 10th Feb
Eli & Rosa are back to school and I am back to tidying up and
getting shoping. Mike is off to Lorella's and the internet and then to
return car. Dominico wants him back to work. I go to
the park in sunshine until Mike is home and meet him in the big piazza.
I spend the afternoon with the kids doing a sort of all their art they
have done. I guess I am thinking of moving on and want to start some
organizing.
Frid 11th Feb
am mike in and out lorellas for internet messages re car, and to talk to
mechanic sister to come in pm who speaks english , get Eli and
Rosa and made trulli with guys while mike in and out with finn,
mike made zooks on puter then got pizza for shabbat, felt really great
all together and calm again after our fun but busy last few wees and
after newbie stress. toni's for ice-cream and nice to see chantel was
there could have a bit of relaxed crack!
Sat 12th Feb
Mike school run - up sorting stuff Dom to come at 8.30-9 but rings to
say later comes around 11.30, tiding til then clearing out stuff
we can't bring feels good, guys watch tv, mike collects laundry william
and jane both sick, Dom says lovely spring weather isn't to last north
pole weather on way bypassing north Italy, I shop with boys bread round
the corner stuff in doc. Lava beach until time to get Eli and Rosa
picnic in park home to make soup. We do home schooling and then
pop out to try to get credit on the phone and drop some soup to William
and Jane who are both sick. They are'nt in but I think they may
have had to teach so we leave the soup and some citrus fruits on their
door and drop by Toni's to say hi. He gets the big guys to help
him with his sign writing while I try to get phone credit. The first
shop I try has electronic slot machines that Finn and Sammy make such a
fuss over trying to climb up to see, that I go to another shop and then
realise my own phone no. is no longer in my phone so I can't get credit
anyway. We go home for soup which Eli and I eat but Rosa isn't too keen
on but get a nice text from William and Jane saying how much they
appreciated it on their return. I get everyone off to be and try
to catch up on Journalling Richard and Vivians trip as I did none when
they were here bar a few notes to jog my memory.
Sun 13th Feb
Strange to not have Mike here but I take a slow morning just letting the
kids hang out and play. When I go onto the balcony for some sun
later it is really warm and I actually get to hot sitting there with my
tea. I get the guys outside and we sit in the piazza and watch all
the kids that have come to hang out again in the warmth after mass and
before lunch. I have a chat with Mimo and Francesca and then take the
kids to the little beach where they have a great time and insist on
paddling and don't seem to get too cold. We go home for a late lunch and
everyone has a bath except Eli. I trimmed Finn's hair last night
so I do Sammy's today. Then we go for an ice cream in the still warm
afternoon at Toni's and say hi to Chantelle and Toni's mum who are
enjoying the sun too. I take the kids to the big piazza to run off the
sugar and they find big balloons to play with. Finally after a
text from Mike with my no. I get credit and we go inside. I do more
homeschooling before diner and Finn starts falling asleep on the
table after diner. Sammy says "awhh he's so cute" and Finn opens his
eyes just long enough to say "I not cute" before falling back asleep.
Mon 14th Feb
Mike still at farm so me on early morning wake up, but kids were great.
Eli was motivated by a promise to use the computer if he got ready
first. Everyone else did well too. After droping the kids I
popped in to say hi to Sammy's teacher Giovana and Lorella called by
too. Sammy had time for a short play with his school mates but wasn't a
bit interested in staying. Then I went to Lorellas to check email,
she was away to school. We had lunch followed by packages left by
Baba and safta for Valentine's Day, which I'm spending without my man,
but the kids were thrilled. Eli apparently recieved a present of a
pencil, pen and rubber delivered wrapped up by a bunch of female
admirers. Later got the guys and had a quiet afternoon painting
their trulli and just hanging out playing. They stayed helpful
throughout the day and Rosa read the bed-time stories to the wee guys
while Eli and I looked at house designs on the computer. We have been
having a spate of fantasing about the perfect home and drawing out all
our ideas.
Tues 15th Feb
Had a bad wake up call this am with Sammy weting the bed beside me at
5.30ish. I forgot to get him to go before bed. Not a good start to
the morning. Eli and Rosa were great though having the computer as
motivator certainly gets Eli moving in the morning. After droping them
to school I go to Toni's to meet Maria Grazie for breakfast which is
nice. She is applying for jobs and is off to an interview in for work as
an activities leader with an Italian company in Egypt. Sounds fun.
She got to practice some English with us and play with the wee guys who
she loves. We part and I collect our laundry to bring to
Chantelle's, washing is enlarged by this mornings accident.
Getting it done is always a major part of my life. We have a cuppa
and an attempt at a chat but the boys are grumpy from lack of sleep but
hyper from sugar breakfast so we go to the park. The weather is
bright but cooler today but it is still pleasant at the playground.
I go for the guys and have a normal routine afternoon with them.
We expect Mike in the early evening and jump when the door goes twice.
The first time it is Frank with bread and biscotti and the second is
Chantelle with washing. Mike texts to say he hasn't been collected
yet so the guys have to go to bed. I wait up for him with Sammy who had
a nap and we have a nice reunion.
Wed 16th Feb
As
Mike is here I get a lie in reading our new magasines and later go out
alone and get a nice chat and
lunch with William and Jane I put off coming back until it is time to get
the kids to Lorellas for a prearranged bread making
lesson with Carla. They want to learn how to make brown bread. The
kids all dissapear into Lorella's house as usual to make use of tv, toys
and playstation and I have fun demonstrating brown soda bread and
scones. Mike come over and he and Lorrela spend ages trying to
sort something on the computer without success. We don't get away
until after Luigi is home for his diner about 9pm. and Sammy and Finn
are both asleep.
Thursday 17th Feb
Mike and I hang out after the big guys are sorted for school and try to
have a conversation about what should happen next with the van and how
to acomplish it. He goes off later in search of rope and things
with the small boys and I drop in on Shannon and have a nice time
playing with the baby and chatting. Her appartment looks over the main
Piazza and the view is great as I am checking it out Mike and the kids
come back from school and play by the big fountain and it is very funny
to spy on the incognito. Shannon and Nicol have invited me to
lunch so I don't wave. The give me a lovely fish tomato potato dish and
a glass of wine. It is lovely to have another adult chat and really
fills me up after my few days alone. I go back at 3ish as Mike
goes to Chantelles to help with a computer problem she and Toni have
been having. It turns out to need alot of work and as I'm feeling a bit
of a cold tickling I spend a quiet afternoon with the kids and get them
to bed early and follow soon after.
Friday 18th Feb
I am feeling okay when I wake but the weather is really bad outside,
lots of rain, so I stay in bed with the boys while Mike takes the big
umbrella and get the guys to school. We spend the whole day
indoors and after the big guys come home Mike goes to back to Chantelles
to try to finish sorthing computer problems and Eli goes too. The others
play really well so I stay lazy reading a novel for a bit longer. After
a shower I perk up enough to do chores and Mike brings back pizza for
shabbat. After the kids are asleep I head out for a drink to the London
pub with Chantelle and manage to get a glass of pretty decent dry cider.
We have a nice evening chatting at the bar and watching the barman put
together deserts for the rest of the clientele who are of course eating
as well as drinking.
Saturday 19th Feb
Despite my late night I am up early probably encouraged by the lovely
sunshine that is back. The sun hits the balcony earlier and for
longer each day and when the weather is nice it is really Spring like.
I go out for a walk with Sammy and we drop into Chantelle for our
washing and get it back to hang out early. Mike goes to William after
droping Eli and Rosa to school and they tow Newbie round to our Piazza
to let Mike get at the engine and see if he can confirm the diagnosis
before we order a new one. I take the boys to Lorella's for a
while and then get the guys. Mike is still under the car when we
get back. We have lunch. I go to the park with the kids so Mike
can get on with getting the engine out. While we are at the
playground I hear English being spoken with broad New York tones.
I get talking to the woman before we leave and discover she is from
Brooklyn but married an Italian man and has lived in Giovinazzo for 35
years. He husband has and ice cream booth called Toni's. (This
could get confusing.) She is called Abby and when I enquire as to
whether she is or Italy orgin I discover that she is Jewish. She
has to go but will be helping out in the booth later and tell me to drop
by. We go towards home and meet Lorella's child minder with Maria
Carla and she and Rosa take turns on her bike round the big piazza.
I get home and do some baking for tonight, Flapjacks, and drop over to
Shannon to borrow her Bohran in case that is the kind of music on offer
later. The kids are all really tired and are asleep before
Chantelle arrives. We head out and find Carla's place in the old
city very easily. It is completely different than Lorellas but
equally stuning. We enter up a long stone stairs lit tonight by candles
and came into to good sizes rooms which were joined by doorways. They
are the sitting room and kitchen come dining room. We have a great
night. I meet Ellen who Mike had met on the night out with Sabino. She
is an Irish woman who has been living here for 15years from Dublin so we
have a nice chat and Carla providesd the most amazing spread of food
including brown soda bread which she made after our lesson and it turned
out better than mine had. Ellen is thrilled with it and has it with
smoked salmon. Late in the evening Lorella arrives she had been
supervising a teenybob disco at her house. She couldn't get over the
kids dansing ablities. She is in time for the music here but I
have to run home and settle Sammy back to sleep but am able to go back
as its so close. The men are singing to the accompanyment of a friend on
key board. They sing Napolitan love song that are familiar to everyone
and it is gas to watch them especially their facial expressions it is
almost like charachtures for us. It winds up quicker than an Irish
session would and we are home by 1.30.
Sunday 20th Feb
Despite our late night Mike is up early and under the car. He
takes the engine apart and finds the problem a valve broke off and
smashed into the cylinder head, but I'll leave him to tell the details.
It was good fun watching and several of our male neighbours hung out and
gave their comments. We had a snack and Mike put it all away again and
we went for a nice long walk with all except Eli and then came home for
lunch. We didn't do much else as we were pretty tired and I had an
early night. Mike went to finish Chantelles computer stuff and
send a post to our VW friends for consultation about what is next.
I'm for a new engine but it might be possible to replace heads and
cylinders.
Mon 21st Feb
I determined to walk often and get fit before we get to France for
woofing as I
am hoping to be more active in the work there. Rosa and I went out
for a walk together and brought laundry to William and Jane we
went in for a cosy chat and tea. The rest of the day was routine
stuff playing with guys inside and usual house chores.
Tues 22nd Feb
Routine morning Rosa went back to school for a new project her class is
doing on book writing. I went to Lorella's for a cuppa while she
was there. I brought Rosa to meet Shannon and her baby in
the evening. My social rounds remind me of when I gave up work when
pregnant with Rosa and was free to have cuppa's and little else.
It is very different from my busy life at home, running kids around to
their activities and doing all my work and volunteer stuff being
involved in loads. I like it but its very lazy making. I can always get
more done the busier I am.
Wed 23 rd Feb
I'm really enjoying getting out for a walk and the weather is reasonable
this morning. I drop in to Lorella's and Mike comes later with the
boys Lorella and I head off to Molfetta on a secret mission for the morning. We get back
in time to get the big guys and collect Mike and the wee guys and go to picnic in the harbour as it's
so nice and
sunny although the breeze isn't welcome. Mike has found out that
there are no engines in stock in Europe the guy in Milan is going to
check the U.K. so we are in limbo not knowing how long it is all going
to take. In the later afternoon when shops are open again I go out with Eli and Finn.
I haven't done much shopping in the smaller shops for a while and it is
nice to drop into the mozzarella guy and a new discovery a wine shop
that sells wine from taps into plastic bottles for a euro a litre! After
we have diner and get kids to be we go out to the pub in shifts with William, Jane and Alice
Rose. Mike goes first and I get the last shift. Its fun to be out
and we walk Alice Rose home as I want to prolong the evening.
Thurs 24th Feb
In the morning its back to Molfetta to complete our covert operation but
is reveled to all in the afternoon. Lorella and I have gotten taboos.
Well it is my mid-life crisis year so I have to do a few more mad
things. It went well but was pretty painful. You'll have to wait
til you see me for a verdict. The guys and Mike all like it anyway.
We are home for lunch and an ordinary pm. (The guys play, do art,
work on the computer - well we all try to get time on it, ot do home
school work or diaries.) I am bit worried about
Cal. She is off form and I am wondering about some rotten fish she
ate in the harbour last week which she vomited that evening. She had
been fine since but has now vomited again on two more evenings.
Frid 25th Feb
Mike and the wee guys and I walk out to the
Market. We hadn't been for a while and get some bargain spiderman jeans
for the guys and lots and lots of fruit and vegetables. I struggle
to find a place in some of the queues we have notices that our normally
friendly Italians have a tendency towards aggressive queue jumping. Mike
goes to Lorella's. I drop in on way to get kids so that we can
check each others tattoos. Mike and I go to leave and are dismayed
to realize we each thought the other had the keys to the apartment. We
borrow a ladder hoping to get in via the balcony but when we get back
surprisingly the big outer door has been accidently left open and we are
able to get in our inner door. Since I hadn't thought I had the key I
hadn't closed the deadbolt and it is banged open rather too easily.
We make a mental note to lock it properally every time and check the
outer door but it is a stroke of luck for ourselves. Cal isn't improving
and we think she has stopped going to the loo and may have a blockage.
Mike takes her to the vet in the p.m. while Eli and I go Maria's (Toni's
mum) with Chantelle to keep her company while she makes muffins for the
shop. We pick up pizza for
Shabbat on the way home and go out later for ice cream. The vet
gave Cal and enema but told Mike if there is no result to phone another
vet for an Xray. Nothing has moved so I ask Lorella about a lift
and she tries to call the other vet. It isn't the right number so I have
to go back to the pet shop where Mike got the first vets number, lucky
the guy there speaks English and was very helpful (hsi daughters in
Rosa's class) because he has to phone the first vet to get the right
number for the second vet who turns out to be finishing for the night.
We make an appointment for the morning. I go back to tell Lorella and
have a cuppa. I drop in to tell Toni, (everyone is worried about Cal) I meet Chantelle
who wants to drop in on Shannon which we do briefly. By the time I get
home the guys are nearly done with their Shabbat movie. I text William
and Jane about a lift as Lorella can't go in the morning, now they are
worrying about her.
Sat 26th Feb
We let the kids have a Saturday off school and I go off early to the vet
its about ten mile away near Bari. William and Jane sit in the
waiting room and watch puppies and other dogs big and small go in for a
wash and blow dry in a room across the hall. I go in for the Xray
with the nice young vet. (He's a U2 fan) and discover that she doesn't
appear to have a blockage but it isn't conclusive and as she has pain he
want's her to have an ultra sound but it turns out the person is sick.
He says she is relatively well so we have time to try treatment so he
gives her an antibiotic and me a lesson in administrating the rest of it
by injections over the weekend as he doesn't want her to vomit it,
The weather has rotten with wind and rain so we
all stay in. Mike has a nap and later I manage to book in for some computer time,
it is getting harder since Sammy now wants his slot along with the
others. Even Finn says I want my desk top! Chantelle drops over
for a chat and we have early night after she goes.
Sun 27th Feb
Lazy Sunday am, We are list making time again for our departure once engine arrives. Cal seems to be improving
in form and her appetite is better but still no movement. We get organized
eventually for a big tidy up as the weather is nice again, cool but
sunny. We go out to the busy piazza and I wash all the olive soil off
the
camper cushions. Mike works at finishing de-rusting and touching up camper and
roof rack. Newbie looks better when he is finished, pity he has no
engine. I go for a walk with Rosa when I am done hoping to warm up
in land as the breeze is cold. We bump into William and Jane who
are waiting for Alice Rose. We all go to the playground and it is much
warmer there. The girls all play! William and I chat about
his book which is at agents and he printed for us to read. Its
great and I really hope he finds someone to publish it. We
head home and I play play dough with
the little guys. Chantelle drop in again around diner and afterwards I
get on the Computer, but not for long as Chantelle calls from Shannon's.
She has discovered it is her birthday and she is alone until Nicole gets
in later. I bring her an Irish CD and Chantelle has brought apple
pie and candles and we have a mini birthday party.
Mon 28th Feb
I take
Cal for a walk hoping for a result but neinte. I text the
vet who makes an appointment with the ultrasound person for tonight. I
go for a longer walk with Chantelle until it starts to rain. I
stay home with the boys while Mike go to
do internet stuff at Lorella's. I'm able to have my first shower
after the Tattoo and I do tai chi afterwards. Exercise is so hard
to keep up regularly with kids but it really makes a difference. Mike
brings kids home for lunch, and we spend another afternoon at home. Mike
and I start looking at route options and our Croatia book. We are
excited and nervous about leaving Italy and heading off again. I
go out to a o travel agent to try to find out about ferries they try but
are not much help but I get a list
of campsites and the phone number of the local ferry office. I get home
for a quick diner and Lorella takes Cal and I to the vet. After an expensive ultra sound Cal gets all clear.
We just have to wait longer. In total we have spent 135 euro but
what can you do?