The holiday is over!

I'm not very good at individual communication at the moment due to the difficulty of getting onto the internet (have to come into the city to an internet point) and the limited time when I do (always rushing off to do other boring bureaucratic stuff when we are in the city). But rest assured that we are thinking about you (because if you are reading this blog then you are one of the lucky, invited few) and thank you for the emails, comments and updates.

Your emails remind me that life goes on, and it's a funny thing because when you are away from home it seems that the universe circles around you and your problems are the biggest and most important thing happening...when in fact most of the crap we have to overcome here is nothing in comparison to some of the problems facing friends and family. But to a happier thought I'm reminded that life goes on because friends are having babies, people are changing work, children are growing up and I believe my sister's childcare centre is even under construction.

We've just returned from an 'interesting' week up north where everything we hate about Naples gave us reason to come back to the city in the south. Decided to set up base here so this week starting to look at apartments (initially looking to share with mum and sister in law but not sure about that yet as his mum smokes and 24 yo sister is unemployed, sleeps til noon and is obsessed with cleaning...drives me nuts), buying a car and getting Gi working. He finally bought a massage table on the internet from Germany, it's a beautiful thing and I've tested it out.

What else? My italian language is improviing, so is my sex life, I've lost weight, and I'm not thinking about SDS at all until I get an email from Jennie (my replacement) asking for help about stuff I've already forgotten about (poor thing).

At the risk of insulting Gi's family who live up north, I intend to write a separate blog off line about the differences between the north and the south. The greyness up there is not only in the sky, it's on your plate and on peoples faces...but more of that later. It was however an astounding delight to become reacquainted with Gi's cousins who are now fully grown, real people with their own style, tastes and opinions....and they all love Australia and want to move to the land of Oz immediately if not sooner.

It seems that most of Italy has an crush on Australia actually because it's constantly coming up in conversations Gi has with complete strangers (yes, he and my mother are both Acquarians) even though they don't know we both hold Aussie passports. In fact when he then mentions his Australian wife we sometimes get the question "Is she really, really Australian?"....most people think I'm from Poland or Eastern Europe.

Anyway it seems that the holiday is over. We have decided to settle in Naples, so this week sees the start of the search for an apartment, car and work for Gigi. As I mentioned above. I mention it again because I'm remembering that in Brisbane we'd accomplish all of this within 2 weeks with a bit of head down and bum up, but Naples is a completely different story. So, that will no doubt provide me with plenty of fodder for further complaining over the coming weeks.

If you are sick of reading about it, just come back in 6 months when it's all settled down, and I'm pregnant and fully conversant in local dialect (just joking Mum).

Hugs and kisses to the children....love and smiles to all and sundry.
J & G