16 June 2006 Email sent to friends and family
Hello world
I’m flying in for an email visit in an attempt to maintain contact. My ability to email you all individually is curtailed by one simple factor. Money! I have the time to email even the Prime Minister of my good nation. But, having moved into our own personal urban cave for two, we have struck trouble getting a phone line fed into the apartment, so the promised internet connection has been grounded before take off; a bit like some of NASA’s space shuttles.
And without my own personal connection to the internet I have to leave the house (yep, scary but true), walk thirty steps to the Internet Point and pay by the minute. So, that’s where I ‘come a cropper’. You know I’m not a working girl anymore and have submitted to being a kept woman and at the moment the keeping is a bit slim so I don’t get much pocket money. Thus, I’m resorting to a mass email, not as bad as a group orgy, certainly not as messy, but I hope you appreciate the effort just the same.
That said I have been posting news, stories and photos to our Blog. Some of you might not have been introduced to our blog. What’s a blog? It’s our own personal internet page. I write it and post it up on the internet for your pleasure. So if you are getting emails you can certainly go to the blog. Find it at www.jennygi.blogspot.com .It’s easy. Check it every week or so (not every day like some of my sad friends who are keen armchair travellers and cry foul when I fail to get online as regularly as they make their cups of coffee or take lunch). You can also send me comments, at the bottom of each story, news of yourself or feedback about how boring the story was maybe.
So, now let’s get to news of us. Forgive me for those that have heard it all before.
We made it to Italy, and after two nightmare months living with my in laws (lots of complaining on the blog in March and April) we moved into a micro apartment in the very heart of Naples historical centre (visual tour on the blog in May). Gi has started working at a clinic three minutes walk away called New Form Care. It seems to be going well. It’s a lovely set up and the women he works with (why is it always women??) are great. Asked me the usual ‘why don’t you have children?’ question and didn’t flinch when I gave them the honest answer. I like them for that alone. He is also in negotiations with an association to do a day / week through them with the view to teach from September. I think he’s also considering approaching another clinic as well that is within walking distance. It’s been a difficult process finding the right sort of places (the city is awash with beauty centres, where solariums are the main business as evidenced by the orange people walking around outside) but it seems to be coming together now. He is a little concerned about the seasonal fluctuations but I’m confident that as summer passes he’ll have an established client base and reputation much the same way as he did in Brisbane.
I’m writing, each day, for several hours and really enjoying it. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since choosing accounting over journalism at the end of high school. I was a little afraid that it would be a teenager ambition that should have faded. However, it feels like I’m getting better, using the blog to practice but also saving work that I’m hoping will feed into a book. In the meantime I’ve approached a few local English schools for work but don’t expect anything to come of it until the new school year starts in September.
We are both enjoying being in Naples. Last time we came to Italy in 1999 we spent a month here getting over some mad culture shock, then two months in Sardinia. The next three months were back in Naples and then Gi was ready to run away, so we did, to London. But this time, he’s enjoying his city. Being in his mid thirties brings with it a certain level of respect that he hasn’t experienced before. Just because he has tattoos, people don’t automatically dismiss him as a punk anymore. He’s also developed a different level of tolerance for all the things that should be better in Naples. Me, well, I’m being a bit lazy with the language but it’s slowly getting better. Although yesterday, to my horror, I found myself speaking a combination of Thai and Italian language (in the same sentence) to the guy at the stationery shop. He answered, like it was completely normal. Bless him.
Naples has changed a bit. I read yesterday that in 1995 the historical centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The restoration work that is going on around the city centre is proof that the administration has finally recognised the value in preserving and beautifying what is truly one of the world’s prize cities. The historical significance, culture, dialect, food (produce and cuisine), art, museums, natural beauty of the bay and the volcano and Neapolitan lifestyle etc all add to the flavour of the place. And just down the road is the Amalfi coast, Greek temples, more ancient ruins, hot springs, mountains, beaches, islands, orchards…no wonder there are six million people living in Naples and the periphery.
A typical day starts slowly, we rise late morning, head down to the local markets where we pick up fruit and vegies from our favoured street vendor, fresh mozzarella, warm bread from Gi’s preferred bakery before heading home to cook a late lunch of pasta. Gi heads to work at the clinic at about 2:30pm and I often spend the afternoon writing on my laptop. It’s spring now and twilight lasts until about 9:30pm, but I try to buck the local custom and prefer to have finished dinner by then. After dinner we usually take a stroll, either through the historical centre and its piazzas, statues and alleyways, or down Via Duomo to the 24 hour video outlet. We still don’t have TV so videos are the late night substitute for my television addiction. We are still enjoying the ordinary, quietness of this routine, but as the summer approaches and we have more visitors I expect that we’ll be out and about exploring, and playing tourist more often.
Most days are warm, lending to hot now, the sky bright blue. The crazy rains of spring seem to have almost finished. Gi is not looking forward to summer, Naples gets stiflingly hot I believe, the heat trapped between the buildings and under the pollution, absorbed into the black pavements and cobblestone roads laid down some Roman centuries ago. I’m yet to experience it, but reckon if I can handle Bangkok and Qld I’ll be right. Anyway, our micro apartment has all the mod cons, including air conditioning.
Gi’s enjoying being closer to his family and we usually have Sunday night dinner with them, as is the custom here. The World Cup 2006 has just started and after watching my first ever soccer game on Sunday night I’m expecting to see a lot more of the game over the next month or so. Most of Naples probably assumes that I support the Polish team, as I generally get mistaken for a Polish, Ukraine or Russian immigrant. Not much I can do about it, they all seem to have dyed red hair and dour expressions, much like me!
We spent a week up north near Udine with Gi’s aunt and family in March. I’ve been there before but came away with the impression that the weather, food and place were all grey. This, of course, is not true. We will be spending four nights up there with my parents during their three week visit to Italy in August. Mum and Dad began their four month tour of Europe about a month ago, and are currently on a cruise ship. They fly into Naples in August, and then after a few days of local sites we hit the road for two weeks. It’s exciting to finally be able to show Mum and Dad a bit of Gi’s world.
Other than that we spent a night away for my birthday at Paestum, the site of the Greek temples south of Naples, and another UNESCO world heritage site. For anyone who has done the usual tourist trail in Italy – Vatican, Pompeii, Capri, Venice, Florence – I would recommend it as a must see. The temples and ruins are just spectacular. And the local Battipaglia region makes the most delicious fresh mozzarella cheese I’ve ever had, the buffalo wandering around in the nearby paddock.
At the end of May we spent a week in London visiting friends and breathing in the Britishness of it all. Gi’s friend, Fulvio, was moving house so we went up to Oxford to help and met the delightful Sophie. Unfortunately, on the way back, I managed to crush my right hand as I got off the coach and after nearly three weeks it’s still not 100%. But it’s only when I do domestic things like mop the floor, hold a heavy saucepan, open a bottle or tighten the coffee pot that it really hurts! At least now I can wash my hair and lie in bed without the pain bringing me to tears. I’m a pretty bad patient at the best of times but wanting to avoid foreign X-ray machines and medical systems only made me worse.
News at home: my two sisters are manic trying to get everything in order for the opening of Kim’s child care centre on 3 July. They’ve both been studying, overseeing the construction of the centre, playing entrepreneur and dealing with their respective two children. Tania’s Katy and Sarah are now of an age where you can talk to them on the phone and cute as a pair of cream cakes. Kim has Joshua who is a real little boy now, and Lachlan who was born in February the week before we left Australia. He has the most amazing eyes now I’m told. I’m counting on those eyes staying the same so I can see them for myself on my next visit home.
We are quietly thinking about organising to meet friends based in London and elsewhere across the continent in mutually inconvenient destinations like Prague. London has earned its reputation as one of the most expensive cities in the world, and we might as well explore other parts of (cheaper) Europe while we are so close. If anyone reading this is interested, let us know. I can’t believe it but all of August is already booked up with Mum and Dad, followed by our AFS daughter Lucie coming for a visit. September will largely be spent recuperating, financially and emotionally, but come October and onwards I expect we’ll be itching to do some travelling.
Well I think that’s enough. Gi misses Brisbane and Australia more than I do at this stage which is just fine with me. When the homesickness hits me, it gets messy. I don’t miss my work as an accountant at all. But I do miss my network of family, friends, and my AFS volunteering, pretty badly. It takes ages to make new friends in this city, I’m so obviously an outsider, and when everyone makes the assumption that I’m from Eastern Europe here to steal a job it makes it worse. But it will happen. Gi on the other hand is making heaps of connections through work and slowly finding the old friends that he left behind who are still here, or happen to be back.
Would love to hear from all and sundry. Please accept my apologies for sending the same news to everyone. Also, apologies to those that have received personal information they would rather have not known. Rest assured, we are happy, getting more settled each week and finding our place in this ancient city. (Mind you, the locals can’t quite believe that we’ve left our lives in Australia – the flavour of the year here – to move back here. They just don’t get it.) We have beds for two, please come and visit, it’s a first in first served basis, but you are all welcome. There is a B&B about thirty steps away if the Mirto residence is already full. A great pizzeria, café, pastry shop and post office are about the same distance from our front door. What more could you ask for?
Love and smiles
Jenny, and Gigi. (Remember to check www.jennygi.blogspot.com regularly)
Hello world
I’m flying in for an email visit in an attempt to maintain contact. My ability to email you all individually is curtailed by one simple factor. Money! I have the time to email even the Prime Minister of my good nation. But, having moved into our own personal urban cave for two, we have struck trouble getting a phone line fed into the apartment, so the promised internet connection has been grounded before take off; a bit like some of NASA’s space shuttles.
And without my own personal connection to the internet I have to leave the house (yep, scary but true), walk thirty steps to the Internet Point and pay by the minute. So, that’s where I ‘come a cropper’. You know I’m not a working girl anymore and have submitted to being a kept woman and at the moment the keeping is a bit slim so I don’t get much pocket money. Thus, I’m resorting to a mass email, not as bad as a group orgy, certainly not as messy, but I hope you appreciate the effort just the same.
That said I have been posting news, stories and photos to our Blog. Some of you might not have been introduced to our blog. What’s a blog? It’s our own personal internet page. I write it and post it up on the internet for your pleasure. So if you are getting emails you can certainly go to the blog. Find it at www.jennygi.blogspot.com .It’s easy. Check it every week or so (not every day like some of my sad friends who are keen armchair travellers and cry foul when I fail to get online as regularly as they make their cups of coffee or take lunch). You can also send me comments, at the bottom of each story, news of yourself or feedback about how boring the story was maybe.
So, now let’s get to news of us. Forgive me for those that have heard it all before.
We made it to Italy, and after two nightmare months living with my in laws (lots of complaining on the blog in March and April) we moved into a micro apartment in the very heart of Naples historical centre (visual tour on the blog in May). Gi has started working at a clinic three minutes walk away called New Form Care. It seems to be going well. It’s a lovely set up and the women he works with (why is it always women??) are great. Asked me the usual ‘why don’t you have children?’ question and didn’t flinch when I gave them the honest answer. I like them for that alone. He is also in negotiations with an association to do a day / week through them with the view to teach from September. I think he’s also considering approaching another clinic as well that is within walking distance. It’s been a difficult process finding the right sort of places (the city is awash with beauty centres, where solariums are the main business as evidenced by the orange people walking around outside) but it seems to be coming together now. He is a little concerned about the seasonal fluctuations but I’m confident that as summer passes he’ll have an established client base and reputation much the same way as he did in Brisbane.
I’m writing, each day, for several hours and really enjoying it. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since choosing accounting over journalism at the end of high school. I was a little afraid that it would be a teenager ambition that should have faded. However, it feels like I’m getting better, using the blog to practice but also saving work that I’m hoping will feed into a book. In the meantime I’ve approached a few local English schools for work but don’t expect anything to come of it until the new school year starts in September.
We are both enjoying being in Naples. Last time we came to Italy in 1999 we spent a month here getting over some mad culture shock, then two months in Sardinia. The next three months were back in Naples and then Gi was ready to run away, so we did, to London. But this time, he’s enjoying his city. Being in his mid thirties brings with it a certain level of respect that he hasn’t experienced before. Just because he has tattoos, people don’t automatically dismiss him as a punk anymore. He’s also developed a different level of tolerance for all the things that should be better in Naples. Me, well, I’m being a bit lazy with the language but it’s slowly getting better. Although yesterday, to my horror, I found myself speaking a combination of Thai and Italian language (in the same sentence) to the guy at the stationery shop. He answered, like it was completely normal. Bless him.
Naples has changed a bit. I read yesterday that in 1995 the historical centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The restoration work that is going on around the city centre is proof that the administration has finally recognised the value in preserving and beautifying what is truly one of the world’s prize cities. The historical significance, culture, dialect, food (produce and cuisine), art, museums, natural beauty of the bay and the volcano and Neapolitan lifestyle etc all add to the flavour of the place. And just down the road is the Amalfi coast, Greek temples, more ancient ruins, hot springs, mountains, beaches, islands, orchards…no wonder there are six million people living in Naples and the periphery.
A typical day starts slowly, we rise late morning, head down to the local markets where we pick up fruit and vegies from our favoured street vendor, fresh mozzarella, warm bread from Gi’s preferred bakery before heading home to cook a late lunch of pasta. Gi heads to work at the clinic at about 2:30pm and I often spend the afternoon writing on my laptop. It’s spring now and twilight lasts until about 9:30pm, but I try to buck the local custom and prefer to have finished dinner by then. After dinner we usually take a stroll, either through the historical centre and its piazzas, statues and alleyways, or down Via Duomo to the 24 hour video outlet. We still don’t have TV so videos are the late night substitute for my television addiction. We are still enjoying the ordinary, quietness of this routine, but as the summer approaches and we have more visitors I expect that we’ll be out and about exploring, and playing tourist more often.
Most days are warm, lending to hot now, the sky bright blue. The crazy rains of spring seem to have almost finished. Gi is not looking forward to summer, Naples gets stiflingly hot I believe, the heat trapped between the buildings and under the pollution, absorbed into the black pavements and cobblestone roads laid down some Roman centuries ago. I’m yet to experience it, but reckon if I can handle Bangkok and Qld I’ll be right. Anyway, our micro apartment has all the mod cons, including air conditioning.
Gi’s enjoying being closer to his family and we usually have Sunday night dinner with them, as is the custom here. The World Cup 2006 has just started and after watching my first ever soccer game on Sunday night I’m expecting to see a lot more of the game over the next month or so. Most of Naples probably assumes that I support the Polish team, as I generally get mistaken for a Polish, Ukraine or Russian immigrant. Not much I can do about it, they all seem to have dyed red hair and dour expressions, much like me!
We spent a week up north near Udine with Gi’s aunt and family in March. I’ve been there before but came away with the impression that the weather, food and place were all grey. This, of course, is not true. We will be spending four nights up there with my parents during their three week visit to Italy in August. Mum and Dad began their four month tour of Europe about a month ago, and are currently on a cruise ship. They fly into Naples in August, and then after a few days of local sites we hit the road for two weeks. It’s exciting to finally be able to show Mum and Dad a bit of Gi’s world.
Other than that we spent a night away for my birthday at Paestum, the site of the Greek temples south of Naples, and another UNESCO world heritage site. For anyone who has done the usual tourist trail in Italy – Vatican, Pompeii, Capri, Venice, Florence – I would recommend it as a must see. The temples and ruins are just spectacular. And the local Battipaglia region makes the most delicious fresh mozzarella cheese I’ve ever had, the buffalo wandering around in the nearby paddock.
At the end of May we spent a week in London visiting friends and breathing in the Britishness of it all. Gi’s friend, Fulvio, was moving house so we went up to Oxford to help and met the delightful Sophie. Unfortunately, on the way back, I managed to crush my right hand as I got off the coach and after nearly three weeks it’s still not 100%. But it’s only when I do domestic things like mop the floor, hold a heavy saucepan, open a bottle or tighten the coffee pot that it really hurts! At least now I can wash my hair and lie in bed without the pain bringing me to tears. I’m a pretty bad patient at the best of times but wanting to avoid foreign X-ray machines and medical systems only made me worse.
News at home: my two sisters are manic trying to get everything in order for the opening of Kim’s child care centre on 3 July. They’ve both been studying, overseeing the construction of the centre, playing entrepreneur and dealing with their respective two children. Tania’s Katy and Sarah are now of an age where you can talk to them on the phone and cute as a pair of cream cakes. Kim has Joshua who is a real little boy now, and Lachlan who was born in February the week before we left Australia. He has the most amazing eyes now I’m told. I’m counting on those eyes staying the same so I can see them for myself on my next visit home.
We are quietly thinking about organising to meet friends based in London and elsewhere across the continent in mutually inconvenient destinations like Prague. London has earned its reputation as one of the most expensive cities in the world, and we might as well explore other parts of (cheaper) Europe while we are so close. If anyone reading this is interested, let us know. I can’t believe it but all of August is already booked up with Mum and Dad, followed by our AFS daughter Lucie coming for a visit. September will largely be spent recuperating, financially and emotionally, but come October and onwards I expect we’ll be itching to do some travelling.
Well I think that’s enough. Gi misses Brisbane and Australia more than I do at this stage which is just fine with me. When the homesickness hits me, it gets messy. I don’t miss my work as an accountant at all. But I do miss my network of family, friends, and my AFS volunteering, pretty badly. It takes ages to make new friends in this city, I’m so obviously an outsider, and when everyone makes the assumption that I’m from Eastern Europe here to steal a job it makes it worse. But it will happen. Gi on the other hand is making heaps of connections through work and slowly finding the old friends that he left behind who are still here, or happen to be back.
Would love to hear from all and sundry. Please accept my apologies for sending the same news to everyone. Also, apologies to those that have received personal information they would rather have not known. Rest assured, we are happy, getting more settled each week and finding our place in this ancient city. (Mind you, the locals can’t quite believe that we’ve left our lives in Australia – the flavour of the year here – to move back here. They just don’t get it.) We have beds for two, please come and visit, it’s a first in first served basis, but you are all welcome. There is a B&B about thirty steps away if the Mirto residence is already full. A great pizzeria, café, pastry shop and post office are about the same distance from our front door. What more could you ask for?
Love and smiles
Jenny, and Gigi. (Remember to check www.jennygi.blogspot.com regularly)
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