December

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ah here we are, big catch up there, we're finally upto December. Well what happened this month..

A lot of rain, the Tiber (Tevere) filled up all the way to the edge and almost brimmed over, and caused a lot chaos. One day I even gave up on getting Felix to school when the road there was simply flooded. (Normally he'd go by bus anyway but the weather at night had been so eventful not much sleep was had and the following morning didn't turn very efficient)

Before Christmas Momo and Barthold (my mum and her husband) came over and we took the train to Lucca once again. After the trip we left them in charge in Rome with the kids and Francisco and I escaped to Vienna for two nights. We saw Shantel and the Bucovina Club Orkestar at the WUK.. fantastic sweaty party. Rashad organized the lot for us. Rashad is Francisco's fellow austrian in fisheries at FAO. Francisco felt all at home in Vienna, I hadn't seen him quite so relaxed for a while.. I don't know, was it the gulash? The cleanish looking streets? The cars staying in one lane and indicating? (still smarting about the bad traffic situation)

And then back in Rome it was Christmas, we ate NZ lamb and even found some kumara to roast with it. Felix received a truckload of lego so our C was filled with eating lego building and lazing about reading books. Kika got a big cuddly dog that she baptized Boris after Momo and Bartholds dog that died last month.

Momo and B have now left and it looks like I'll be able to just finish this blog about our year in Rome on time before the end of the year. It's a bit haphazard and picture heavy, nothing too deep here.

Looking forward to celebrating Kika's 4th on Saturday the 3rd of January and then it's time to prepare leaving Rome in a few months time.. Sooner than I would have liked I'm packing up again, just as I feel a little bit more settled. On the other hand we knew that we wouldn't stay for long or ever and we all miss home in varying degrees. There were times here in Rome I felt I knew better where home was, but lately have been struggling trying to decide where I would really want to be. Nederland has come closer but living there would mean once again starting anew and I am a little bit tired after this process of slow acclimatisation and having to dig up our tiny newly made roots again. Somehow I know that I'll only be able to appreciate the experience of living here for a year once we've taken distance again. Losing my father in April made it a sad year as well, but living here actually meant I was present when he died and that means a lot to me.

And hopefully some of the wonderful people we met will somehow stay part of our life as well. (yes I know I'm dreadful at keeping in touch but I do think of you all a lot and I always look forward to meeting again)