The Sack of Rome

Ciao Roma, you crazy ass city.

2009-03-01T14:00:00.000-08:00

Our Roman adventure has ended...
Here are some pictures of our last day there and more precisely Kika's last day at her school Girogirotondo in the Pio Nonno school on Aventino. Her teachers Clorinda and Matteo were so lovely and we were all in tears as we came to pick her up from her last day there. The children made drawings and artwork with their hands on it for her. Sad to leave that place, it was actually really wonderful, with lots of theatre visits, art, music and great teachers..
That afternoon me and Kieks took a train from Termini up to Milano and then northwards to Holland. And that was it. Felix and Momo picked us up the next day in Zutphen and that was the end of it.. our year (and a bit) in Rome. : (

Snow!

2009-01-02T15:11:00.001-08:00

From Kristin & Daan's phone who took Felix to THE SNOW today!

December

2008-12-29T15:11:00.000-08:00

e

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)

November - bad traffic situation

2008-12-29T15:04:00.000-08:00

Just when I got all comfy in traffic and started driving like a Roman we had a little scratchy rubby situation when crossing viale Aventino. No, 4 weeks of intensive Italian wasn't enough to express myself there and then. Then I remembered that maybe the traffic wasn't giving me hyperventilation anymore (not since may), people still have complete disregard for white lines painted on the road and where i think there's 2 lanes in reality there are and always will be 3 lanes in Italy. ARGH.

November - visitors

2008-12-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

In November Murali came to Rome all the way from New Plymouth and took along his friend Sharat. We ran through the Centro Storico in the rain and had long lunches, did the Vittorio Emanuele Markets, saw some tango and had a great evening with friends George and Oona and kids.

At the end of November my cousin Erik and wife Berendien left their farm in Holland for a long weekend and came to stay with us with their three kids in rainy Rome. It was fantastic to have a house full of kids and see Rome again through fresh eyes. Finally I saw the colosseum from the inside as well!

November - Titignano

2008-12-27T12:13:00.000-08:00

Titignano,.. food heaven, endless lunch, good company. November started well with a lovely long weekend with Joachim and Britta and their daughters in Umbria.

more October

2008-12-26T15:37:00.000-08:00

Pompeji! A long time ago, probably 25 years orso, Jorien and I told each other we'd go to Pompeji one day together.. And we finally managed, even if we hadn't given Pompeji much thought in those years in between.

After Joor and I got back from Pompeji we got caught up in a large demonstration of the left against the sitting Berlusconi government. Felix even got to hold a flag..

October was lovely and sunny to start with, together with Kristin and Daan and their son Kasper we went to Ostia (yay! the sea!) and walked in the Castelli Romani with donkeys.

Finally Halloween made sense... In NZ it's spring time and it never really works that well I think, but we got a stormy Halloween and pumpkins are in season. Felix is of course a spider..

October - Lucca

2008-12-26T15:22:00.000-08:00

In October we spent a weekend in Tuscany and discovered a little pearl - Lucca, a town with intact city walls that are perfect for cycling and walking and running on. A big part of the town is also car free, which makes it more fun wandering and biking around with small children.

September - back in Rome, back to school

2008-12-26T10:00:00.001-08:00

Back in Rome, back to school, back in the swing of things. Finally I start really enjoying Rome I think. Felix starts back at school with ms. Nowak in grade 1 and also swimming lessons in the pool on via Marmorata. Kika goes back to Girogirotondo with her friend Alma and her Italian goes up another level. Francisco finally spends some substantial time at home with us.

July and August - Nederland

2008-12-26T07:08:00.001-08:00

We spent most of our time this summer in Barchem at Momo and Bartholds place. Felix has his own bike and cycled along with me when I went running so we really got the Dutch road cycling down this summer. M and B provided for excellent entertainment with bikes and a trampoline and a bolderkar. Kirsten C. was also in NL so we got to hang out a bit. Francisco was travelling or in Italy and came back to NL again at the end of August to drive back with us down to Italy. I did a web design course for a few days, I saw family, friends, aunties, cousins, lots of street theatre. Kika helped Momo in the garden and harvested the onions she planted in spring.
Our tomtom got stolen out of the dashboard of our Volvo in the Musis garage in Arnhem, the three Kirstens got together, we saw Meryle and Helmut in the harbour of Lochem on their european canal boat (normally they're based on Great Barrier Island with a catamaran) So a lovely lovely dutch summer with a bit of rain a bit of sun, lots of bikes and veel gezelligheid.

July - Denmark

2008-12-26T06:26:00.000-08:00

We visit Eva and Kewin in Denmark. Felix met their son Magnus in February at school in Rome and they were great friends but within six weeks Magnus already left Rome back to Denmark with his parents. But since I've always wanted to visit Denmark and we had decided we wanted to go to Legoland while in Europe we made a point of looking them up this summer. Eva and Kewin have a great place in a small village on Fyn, I love their cool old style farm house. The garden has a fantastic tree house as you can see.
Legoland was a blast and a dream come true (for Felix but maybe for me as well). Even if it rained, which was probably a blessing so we didn't have to wait for all the attractions all the time.

July - Germany

2008-12-25T12:21:00.001-08:00

We left HOT HOT Rome by car second weekend of July up north to Germany/Holland and Denmark. This is the opposite movement of most tourism at this time of year. It took us a day pretty much to get to the Italian/Austrian border and staid in Sterzing/Vipiteno (this is where our favourite yoghurt comes from) the night and the next day went on to Frankfurt to say Happy Birthday to my friend Karoline's daughter Tilly. We arrived in the middle of the birthday party and Felix got to build a little fire and we stayed two nights at Karoline and Marcus' place.
Kika got a pretty impressive fake tattoo on her back that she was very happy to show off.

June

2008-12-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

Felix last day at school with his beloved and very very very much appreciated teachers ms. Constance and ms. Lucy

The year that was..

2008-12-25T12:03:00.000-08:00

Halfway during the year I fell off my blogging habit. Largely due to facebook and a myriad of other reasons (I'm sure, I just can't think of them now) but especially my mum (Hi mum) seems to appreciate a bit of blogging effort. I don't think signing her up on facebook is a solution and somehow there's something that feels more permanent about making a blog post. It's christmas and Momo and Barthold are here in Rome. We just had an inside wintery christmas day with lots of lego building, eating Pandolce and swedish meatballs and watching Sissi on tv. Momo (my mother) and Barthold went to the local church of San Saba and Kika wanted to come along so she got to see the baby Jesus in the presepio and experience her first church service, which apparently she took very serious and she made M&B kneal too and be very quiet. A previously undiscovered religious instinct. Francisco and I staid home helping Felix build his new Star Wars Republic Attack Gunship.

Francisco and I came back from a tiny wee city trip to Vienna on Christmas Eve, we went to see Shantel and the Bucovina Club Orkestar at the WUK and it was brilliant, we jumped and sweated and danced with the rest of the sold out WUK. Gigs where the musicians throw vodka glasses in the audience and start filling glasses personally with vodka are rare as far as I know. Great great fun. We went with Rashad, a friend Francisco works with at the FAO, in whose appartment we got to stay the night.

I'll gather a pile of posts with fotos so there's a bit of an overview of the year.

Puglia

2008-06-25T06:22:00.001-07:00

1. Bike ride in Roma along the via appia antica, but after a big swim in the pool at a friends birthday Kika couldn't quite stay awake

2 and rest: Our trip to Puglia down south, we stayed in a lovely little Trullo, the typical houses of that part of Puglia.

June in Rome, some pics

2008-06-25T06:03:00.000-07:00

1. Felix and Kika in our street one evening walk (passegiata).

2. Frances Chan visiting!

3. Francisco.. in..a...suit... Protocol Aid for the Head of State of the Dominican Republic

4. Kika's end of year SPETTACOLO! with the kids art being auctioned off for charity.

5. Kika is the left leg of the turtle in the last picture, she was one of many circus acts..

Waiting for the bus

2008-05-19T07:50:00.001-07:00

Some more pictures

2008-05-17T11:54:00.001-07:00

Via Appia Antica, the Catacombs and Britta making some delectable swedish treat all on the first of May.

Felix is 6!

2008-05-16T23:20:00.000-07:00

So May is month of birthdays in our family, mine is coming up and last week we celebrated Felix 6th!
My mum came over from Holland and that day Felix also had the 'dance festival' at school. So he's wearing black in the picture as he had to do his dance all dressed in black, his class did a chinese ribbon dance which looked beautiful.
As you can see, we're still waiting for those two front teeth. Felix is honing is lego skills and missed his teachers at school very much while we were away in Holland, so we're enjoying one last month of school before holidays start in earnest.In the picture you see him with Nikos, who's mum is actually from paraguay and dad is greek american.

april

2008-05-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

What can I say about April, it wasn't a very happy month, my dad passed away.

I spent half the month in Holland, Francisco was away most of the time.

Here are some pictures anyway: A little bird crashed against our window on the balcony and didn't survive it so it got a burial in the garden, which was a kind of omen and education about death in one go as a week later we were at pap's funeral.

The next picture is a day in the park with Paul, long lost friend from NZ via Berlin who showed up unexpectedly on our doorstep.

that's better

2008-03-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon in the city, some illustrations of our adventures. We originally set out to visit the MACRO (Museo Arte Contemporana ROma) in the ex mattatoio (ex slaughterhouse) building in nearby Testaccio but it was closed.. on a sunday. Everything is actually closed on a Sunday here EXCEPT for flower stalls.

Every other shop/institute/cafe/bar restaurant is shut on sunday and every single afternoon during the week but being able to bring flowers to your host or making up with your wife/mother is the only absolute inalienable 24/7 right in Rome.

In the playground a prime example of the pattern of Rome brought to you by 'the naughty boys' as Kika and Felix call them, then our lunch spot, a cheese horsey in the window of Volpetti, legendary delicatessen and Kika not feeling so terrific hiding behind her pink shades. she's on the sofa with the flu right now.

Pioggia in Roma

2008-03-27T07:06:00.000-07:00

So ok what happened with Felix wrist.. he fell of his IKEA bunkbed while climbing down the stairs facing outward at when the kids were getting ready for bed. A big bang ensued, we all came running and every limb seemed to be in place still so we were quite relieved but it just kept on hurting and hurting. He could move all his fingers but was holding his hand and after a big cuddle and a discussion we decided to try and make it through the night to see if the pain would go. Felix however woke a few times with the same pain and in the morning, after taking Kika to kindergarten Felix and me skipped school (as i'm doing a four week italian course at the moment) to get it checked out by a doctor. A german/argentinian orthopedist sent us to the local catholic clinic for an xray and yes.. there it was, an apparently called 'green stick' fracture in his wrist. His bones hadn't snapped but had been bent like a young twig of a tree and ripped internally and he did after all need a plaster. It has to stay on for three weeks.

Bummer!
all this after a very rainy and stormy easter weekend that brought Francisco on the verge of depression as we decided to go for a drive to check out the 'surf' but the coast immediate south of Rome didn't really cheer us up. The state of the weather meant a picknick in the car and easter egg hunt in the car.
So we missed Waiheke Island a lot actually (the surf may not be that happening but the beaches do look a whole lot more appealing).
Here's Kika with the colomba, the traditional easter bread here in Italy, in the shape of a dove. (like pan dulce actually) We had a nice Pasqueta (easter monday), Britta and Joacim came over with their two girls and another friend and we didn't leave the house, which was a good thing as it snowed/hailed/trees fell on cars etc. outside.

Milestones

2008-03-26T08:25:00.001-07:00

So much has happened...
but this is of course pretty significant. Losing your top front teeth (both) and breaking your wrist in the same week..

meanwhile.. in Pakistan

2008-03-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

From:

Sent: Thu 3/13/2008 8:14 AM
To: Blaha, Francisco (FIIU);

Subject: Security Advisory for 13th March 208

Dear All

Please Find below the Security Advisory for 13th March 2008

Several Motorcyclists have been ran over by a Bus at PNS Karsaz Shahrah e Faisal.
In reaction angry mobs burnt that bus which caused traffic Jam and panic in
the area. Staff advised to avoid general area.

Blessings

2008-03-12T05:02:00.001-07:00

What I found on our frontgate today. Our house will be blessed for easter.

Our house 2

2008-03-12T04:47:00.001-07:00

We have a golden door!

Last month - Nederland

2008-03-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

Last month me and the kids went to Nederland for a few days. (This is when we all got sick!..so a lot of time was spent lying low watching german childrens tv, the name of the channel is KIKA)
I got to see my friends Titia and Stefan and their new baby, Hiske (and big brother Jillis of course). Stefan is a musician and Kika and Felix love the piano in their house.
I went to see my dad a few times. He's sinking slowly further into FTD (fronto temporal dementia), now needs a wheelchair, which is sad to see. He doesn't seem to be suffering, which is a blessing I suppose
Here are some pics of the kids at Titia and Stefans house, which is actually in Germany not far from the airport we used (Niederrhein), just a teeny step across the border from Holland. Direct flights leave from Ciampino Airport (the other airport here in Rome).

Our house 1

2008-03-05T12:07:00.001-08:00

spring from the kitchen window

2008-03-05T12:03:00.000-08:00

Rouja and Gareth in Roma

2008-03-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

With Kika at the Fori Imperiali.

Just another day at the colosseum

2008-03-03T03:52:00.000-08:00

Felix is back!
We celebrated our one month anniversary in Europe with a family wide flu epidemic that got all out of hand and had Felix home from school for a full week and me in bed with the flu for two days as well.
Kika had a snotty day at home here and there but she's just turned out to be a natural at Italian kindergarten (I heard her dream in Italian this morning, not kidding.. she yelled out: cocodrillo! and went back to sleep) I think her kindergarten is fantastic, instead of the walls being covered in words in five languages, there's great big fingerpaintings and fantastic art by the kids everywhere and the teachers are 50/50 male/female, how cool is that.
anyway, just a short post for a sign of life. Our love affair with things scandinavian has now stretched to the purchase of a volvo. We also have a tomtom, so now i just need to work up the nerve to actually drive it.. preferably before Francisco goes to Pakistan coming thursday.
Also will post some pics of our appartment, which we love and if you need my postal address please get in touch. I've been emailing people from my ihug account but it's still dodgy and not everything arrives, so sometimes i'm not sure if you've received my email or not, so pls acknowledge in that case.
First tentative rays of spring sunshine there outside i see..

gelato gelato gelato schools gelato ikea ikea gelato ikea

2008-02-13T12:27:00.000-08:00

pizza pasta gelato ikea metro bus gelato caprese coloseo gelato cioccolato gelato fragola gelato ikea malm tobe tjusig lillberg norden massun lova kura pasta smalland macchiato gelato bus metro fao bus coloseo pizza gelato gelato

haaaaaaaah

I have to admit we're all very tired after a day here in the big city. it's 9 30pm and everyone is asleep except me! It's all very well not having a car and getting to know the city by public transport, which is great for getting familiar with Rome but i seem to end up carrying Kika around for half the day, and shopping and bags etc.

I kind of wouldn't mind having a car now.. as long as it's entirely encased in plastic or rubber bumpers of course which surely is the way to go in a place like this where people practice a certain vaseline type of driving, you just squash yourself up against everyone else and push.

So the news.. my digital camera is not going very well anymore.. so the last picture i can show you of Felix' school is that gate.

We like the school so far, got good support with Felix first adventures on the schoolbus and he loves the sports and music classes with specialist teachers, the adventure playground, the cooked lunch. Felix exlaimed today very decidedly that he likes Waiheke better then Rome. Rome is too busy.

However he likes this school better than the one on Waiheke, and the teacher is 'not so bossy' (i tend to agree).

Kika is going to kindergarten tomorrow! It's in a different place from Felix's, close to our (new) house so i can walk her there between 8 and 9 in the morning. It's inside a very stately looking catholic lyceum but it has a really nice leafy play garden (nothing compared to what we're used to in NZ though.. but at least it's not a tiled courtyard) and lots of teachers and workshops (african drumming??capoeira??! archeological digs!!! djeez! i wish i could go!). It's very catholic and italian and she's very excited about the prospect of Painting With Her Fingers with a BIG Teeshirt on over the top of her clothes (i have to donate one of my tees for her). It will be Kika's first real foray into a kindy and it will be in Italian (although there's a scotsman there who teaches english everyday apparently). But the children are a very international group, as lots of FAO kids are there (also close) including the daughters of Britta, a swedish colleague of Francisco, whose house we're taking over this coming weekend and our children are obviously the same age so it's been nice to hang out a few times.

We've spent an inordinate amount of time at IKEA lately. Some things are going to take a while to arrive however so after living in great comparative luxury for three weeks next to Willem Dafoe we'll now have to camp on the floor in our new appartment from sunday onwards. NO internet (since we don't have id cards yet) no phone, no tv no beds nothing much in the house, (hopefully we can arrange the mattresses to be there on sunday night) I've decided to go to Holland for a few days to see my dad and friends and family with Kika and Felix. My mother isn't home as she's with my brother in Melbourne where I should be for his 40th! But Felix already has a week school holiday (this is the fabled SKI break) so i figured now was the time.

Titia will be able to pick me up hurray so i can see her new baby and just do some hanging out with a friend!

By the way is it just me or is the air in Rome incredibly incredibly dry? Is it the cold?? Me and the kids have constantly cracked lips and dry static hair, they're losing their curls oh no! Kika's hair is going from blond curls to her mummy's straight brown stuff. I think we're suffering from dehydration due to extreme difference in air humidity! Maybe it's the gelato.. mm i wonder.

guess what.. my friend Therese from Cote d'ivoire has asked me if i wanted to come tomorrow to the valentines day breakfast of the united nations womens guilt. MWAHAHAAAAAAAA> it's got to be done. We're wearing red (yes.. sigh..it's ..) and listening to one of those daft colour consultants. But Therese is lovely and a girl's gotto start somewhere, if not for the 'anthropological' experience.

oh dear i didn't write yet about my job interview last week.. never mind, didn't get the job because i obviously DON'T speak Italian

yet...

but that was probably for the best

xx v.

hanging out

2008-02-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

Today we're hanging out.. Went for a long walk in the neighbourhood, a play in the playground and a pizza for lunch.. then it started raining. so rain in Rome...
Yesterday we had lunch with Jogeir and Therese and their two kids at their place ten minutes south by train. Jogeir is Norwegian and Therese from Cote d'ivoire. Felix mastered riding a bike properly! (so far he was always on his running bike without pedals) He gloriously crashed into the back of a parked van, but said he wasn't hurt at all...

finding our feet and somewhere to live

2008-02-03T01:40:00.000-08:00

This week we've been walking around, looking at appartments, and organizing more admin type stuff.
Here you see Felix on top of the fAO building, where we have lunch at the caffeteria with Francisco.
Then there's a pic of the building in which we're staying at the moment, we have another week to go here.
On our hunt for appartments you come across some interesting decorations in the courtyards (felix in front of fountain)
Anyway it looks like we've found something and if all goes well we can move in after next weekend. I'll write more about it once we're there.
The costs of all of this are a bit scary and we're still waiting for our subsidies and advances from Frano's work, so far we've had to somehow foot the bill, including our tickets and hotels. For our appartment we've got to pay 3 months AHEAD and 3 months bond..which is soooo sooo sooo much money at once! and don't get me started on Felix school fees (he really would like to go, as he's hanging out for some friends). So right now we're waiting for money and hoping it all comes this week, so we can secure the place we want to live in and don't end up in the street.

more Felix and Kika in Rome

2008-01-30T11:48:00.000-08:00

See Felix and Kika's signature Thunderbirds pose in front of the Thunderbirds building. (the Fao..Francisco says i don't have to redact that)

Felix and Kika's first few days in Roma

2008-01-30T11:43:00.000-08:00

Arrivata

2008-01-30T02:43:00.000-08:00

We're here!

The first few days we've wandered zombie-like through the streets of Rome, pinching ourselves.. we're really here. We stayed in a lovely hotel in Aventino (which had a plaque on the entry stating 'one of the most romantic hotels in the world'. We didn't get up to much romance and they didn't have room service either, which made having 3 meals a day tricky since the kids would fall asleep at 4 30 in the afternoon due to jetlag and the restaurants don't open until 7 pm. Then they'd wake up around 3 or 4 am and would be particularaly bouncy which meant that we had to try and keep them quietish for 3 hours since the rest of the hotel was probably trying to sleep after all that romance.

Ten days in those settings wouldn't be benificial to our stresslevels (and nutrition) so we left the hotel sooner than planned. Now we're staying in a small, rather flash 2 bedroom appartment near the Colosseum. It's heinously expensive but has all the essentials and a lot of glass table tops and Ikea utensils. It has a washing machine (but no dryer), lots of cupboards and drawers, internet access, 'autonomous' heating (does it's own thing). We have a view of some BC ruins, St. Peter in the distance, and the best bakery in Rome around the corner.

The small fortune we handed over for the privilege to stay here doesn't guarantee continuous electricity, about 3 times a day we have to take the elevator down and two sets of stairs to flick the power switch back up again.

Our days so far this week revolve around figuring things out and getting the right forms and papers. We've already clocked many a mile around the [redacted] Thunderbirds building which houses more people than live on Waiheke Island. It's a maze of buildings and lifts and staircases (the staircases unrelated to the lifts). When you've finally found the person in the office you've been looking for (this is after passing through security and receiving the correct security pass in exchange for your passport), it's unlikely they are there because they may be having coffee (at 10 30) lunch (at 12 30) or won't be back until 2 30 (for reasons that nobody is in their office until 2 30) or in Budapest (the entire personnel administration is about to move to Budapest). Felix and Kika have already had quite enough of visiting 'THE OFFICE'.

We have had some success though. We've been here less than a week and so far we managed to get a Codice Fiscale, a building pass for both mr. Blaha and mrs Kirsten Blaha (although i don't know who that woman in the picture is), a simcard for francisco's phone, almost a bank account (i think), a school for Felix (but it's definetely going to be too expensive for Kika in september as the thunderbirds don't subsides her until she's five so we're going to have to find an italian kinder for her!) and this afternoon our first appointment to look at a permanent place to live.

Apart from all this traipsing around for the right forms, signatures, codes and permissions, the setting is of course quite impressive. From 'the office' there's a view of the Circus Maximus and the ruins of the Forum Romanum. To get there from our appartment we cross a park and then walk past the Colosseum (or take the bus). In the weekend we went for a bike-ride in the Villa Borghese and hung out at some lovely Piazzas. It's been cold but really lovely sunny dry weather so the colours and the light are just perfect. We've had some amazing coffees (macchiato my choice of brew). Our first visit to the neighbourhood supermarket nearly reduced me to tears for all the amazing food. I just didn't know where to start! It's artichoke season and Romans like to buy seasonal and local so artichokes everywhere. And mandarins everywhere as well.. literally.. on the trees.

ok time to cook pasta for the kids. I'll post some pics.

Oh and one last observation: Rome's favourite car must be the Smart. You can park it sideways like a motorbike!

Next Stop Hong Kong

2008-01-30T01:50:00.000-08:00

Next Stop was Hong Kong Disneyworld. We went straight from the Airport Hotel by train to Disneyworld, with the Disney Train (on special request from Felix)

We met Snowwhite, climbed Tarzan's treehouse, went on all the rides, saw 3d shows, ate noodles, met the chinese god of Fortune, and more. Of note: Vibeke went with Felix on the Space Mountain rollercoaster ride. I don't like rollercoasters AT ALL, but Francisco officially didn't fit and they had to stop the ride for him. So then i had to do it with Felix and i squeezed him so hard he couldn't breathe he told me afterwards!

So long NZ

2008-01-30T00:39:00.001-08:00

So long NZ
Originally uploaded by Zoet

Raul took us to the airport in the Bongo van on tuesday the 22nd of January.
Because the Italians don't allow you to import surfboards as a resident into Italy we couldn't pack it with all our other stuff with the shipment.
So we had to travel with Frano's Pope Bi-sect longboard. Although we got questioned about it by a Marlon Brando look a like customs officer on arrival at Fiumicino Airport, we're happy to report that we did in fact manage to take the Pope to Rome.
This moment was the conclusion of a long week/month of goodbyes to all our beloved friends, whanau and places on Waiheke Island. All that 'leaving behind' leaves you feeling a little drained, so i'm kind of happy to move onto the next phase, which is diving into the unknown. But we'll miss you guys!
Here's to believing that in the end, this will all make us 'richer' in experiences and knowledge and understanding... And i'm looking forward to spending some time with my Europe-based family and friends.

arrivederci waiheke island

2008-01-29T22:05:00.001-08:00

sad to leave the island
Originally uploaded by Zoet

that's it.. we're off. In the middle of a hot summer month, Waiheke Island suitably put on some rain and choppy seas to send us off. Who knows when we're back? We love the island, but we also love adventure and we thought living in Rome for a few years would be pretty special.