14th January 2007
It’s been a hell of a week. We moved out of our urban cave a week ago, and have been lucky enough to stay in friend Dana’s room as she is still away. Sunday and Monday were spent on the phone, taking appointments and going to look at potential apartments. Tuesday we both worked a long day, resuming the process of running around the city on public transport viewing and calling on Wednesday. Thursday I taught all day. Friday was a nightmare as we had an appointment in the morning, then we went to collect Gi’s mother’s car. Then we had another appointment. Then we had to go and move all the furniture and personal belongings we had temporarily stored at the centre, take it to Gi’s mothers place and return the car to her office – on the other side of the city – by 3pm so she could attend a funeral.
By 3pm Friday, after looking at dumps, climbing stairs in buildings built before the invention of the elevator and recognising that we are in an increasingly difficult spot of bother I was passed frustrated and tired. I was in tears.
The solution? Sleep. Naples is not a city where I can operate on overdrive for very long. Gi’s stress levels are through the roof, and while he’s doing his best to find us a new place that is comfortable, affordable and in a reasonable location it seems that we are looking at a hole in the market.
We need two rooms, a kitchen that has some living space, a bathroom and furnishings, close to good public transport links and in an area that is safe to walk around at night. Everything we look at is either just under our budget and inappropriately configured, or up six flights of stairs, or a dump. Or it is just out of our budget and still not really in the right area, badly arranged (many apartments are one long corridor so you have to walk through one bedroom to get to the kitchen to get to the other bedroom) or unfurnished (including the kitchen).
Saturday I was at an all day training session for teaching presentation techniques. And today, Sunday we have looked at two places this morning and are having a second look at something we saw a week ago. We are both resigned, again, just like we were in May, to the fact that on our budget, in the areas we want to live, we are going to make compromises on the size of the place we rent.
Don’t ask me where I am sleeping this coming week. Dana was due home on Saturday but is yet to be seen, or heard from. How can someone with a mobile phone for Italy, one for the UK and one for the USA not be answering any of them?
In the meantime, Gi has enamoured himself to Dana’s Italian flatmates, so hopefully they will be happy for us to bunk there…or I’ll be checking into the Holiday Inn.
It’s been a hell of a week. We moved out of our urban cave a week ago, and have been lucky enough to stay in friend Dana’s room as she is still away. Sunday and Monday were spent on the phone, taking appointments and going to look at potential apartments. Tuesday we both worked a long day, resuming the process of running around the city on public transport viewing and calling on Wednesday. Thursday I taught all day. Friday was a nightmare as we had an appointment in the morning, then we went to collect Gi’s mother’s car. Then we had another appointment. Then we had to go and move all the furniture and personal belongings we had temporarily stored at the centre, take it to Gi’s mothers place and return the car to her office – on the other side of the city – by 3pm so she could attend a funeral.
By 3pm Friday, after looking at dumps, climbing stairs in buildings built before the invention of the elevator and recognising that we are in an increasingly difficult spot of bother I was passed frustrated and tired. I was in tears.
The solution? Sleep. Naples is not a city where I can operate on overdrive for very long. Gi’s stress levels are through the roof, and while he’s doing his best to find us a new place that is comfortable, affordable and in a reasonable location it seems that we are looking at a hole in the market.
We need two rooms, a kitchen that has some living space, a bathroom and furnishings, close to good public transport links and in an area that is safe to walk around at night. Everything we look at is either just under our budget and inappropriately configured, or up six flights of stairs, or a dump. Or it is just out of our budget and still not really in the right area, badly arranged (many apartments are one long corridor so you have to walk through one bedroom to get to the kitchen to get to the other bedroom) or unfurnished (including the kitchen).
Saturday I was at an all day training session for teaching presentation techniques. And today, Sunday we have looked at two places this morning and are having a second look at something we saw a week ago. We are both resigned, again, just like we were in May, to the fact that on our budget, in the areas we want to live, we are going to make compromises on the size of the place we rent.
Don’t ask me where I am sleeping this coming week. Dana was due home on Saturday but is yet to be seen, or heard from. How can someone with a mobile phone for Italy, one for the UK and one for the USA not be answering any of them?
In the meantime, Gi has enamoured himself to Dana’s Italian flatmates, so hopefully they will be happy for us to bunk there…or I’ll be checking into the Holiday Inn.
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